[Just to point out that putting a pile of links in a comment will mean the comment hits moderation and it’ll just sit there if no mods are around. Best avoided if possible] – Bill
You missed the Brazil drought that’s just coming to an end now….
Was listening to something about superdroughts and their predicted prevalence – prevalence expected to increase.
On the same piece there was something touched on that I’d heard of before to do with the jet stream. Essentially, with the arctic warming, the ‘atmosphere’ becomes thicker (higher), meaning the gradient between the poles and the equator lessens and the jet-stream then tends to ‘slow’ and meander more than flow.
As weather fronts are tucked in behind the traversing jet stream, and that traverse slows up, weather gets ‘stuck’, meaning more prolonged periods of the same weather. Not good.
Many of those countries are experiencing drought because they are fucking with the catchment and groundwater in order to make money. Humans have lived in very dry climates for a long long time, and they do so by working with nature not exploiting it.
I’m not saying climate change isn’t creating serious problems with regards to water. But those problems aren’t visible in the places where humans are fucking with the catchment and dealing with the human-made problems is a prerequisite to learning how to adapt to the CC ones (leaving aside they’re all human made).
If we look at Canterbury for instance, the droughts being talked about there are a direct result of deforestation, draining wetlands, overgrazing, rabbits, and more recently stealing water from the aquifers, and industrial dairying. All those things exist independently of climate change, and climate change is making them more impactful because instead of happening every 20 years they’re happening multiple years in a row (we can pretty much assume drought is a constant on the east coast of the SI now). If we stopped doing all that shit, climate change effects in Canterbury would look completely different, even with the issue of glacier retreat.
As it is, we can’t even begin to see how to respond to something as serious as glacier retreat and what it will mean, because we still think the problem is how are we going to keep irrigating dairy farms? Oh, yeah, let’s put in some big catchment dams, or pipe water over from the West Coast ffs. Meanwhile, we keep doing the same things that are creating the droughts in the first place.
Another way to understand this is to look at to what extent climate change is affecting intact native ecosystems. Hard to do in Canterbury, because they hardly have any left, and those that are there are isolated unit rather than being part of the support from wider catchment protection, but if the droughts were mainly due to CC we’d be seeing native forests dying.
The places I am most familiar with are NZ, the US and Australia. But I’m guessing that there are similar issues in less developped countries because they’re being forced to do things like cash crop, and/or they’re prevented from doing sustainable landcare because of war, poverty, colonisation etc. The point I am making is that we could also be putting effort into supporting those countries to return to traditional landcare systems, because that will give them the best chance. Needless to say alongside the West powering down and doing everything it can to prevent the shit storm from being any worse than it already is.
There are, no doubt, some traditional land care systems that have something to offer, but those traditional land care systems worked when applied to a set of climatic conditions we’re in the process of leaving behind. There are areas (I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess at the percentage) where all the cards are going to be off the table because of changed conditions.
What worked in Israel (say) won’t necessarily work in (say) California, because aside from rainfall or snow fall, there are the impacts or effects of topography and geology.
There are, no doubt, some traditional land care systems that have something to offer, but those traditional land care systems worked when applied to a set of climatic conditions we’re in the process of leaving behind. There are areas (I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess at the percentage) where all the cards are going to be off the table because of changed conditions.
Are you talking about the future? Because I’m responding to the idea that we are currently having all these droughts due to climate change. Of course CC, but hugely significant is the man-made aspects of those droughts, and big scarey stories about CC (read nature) causing drought are actually misleading. What we are experiencing now is because of our own stupidity in land management and economics.
As for the future, I don’t know what you mean by all cards off the table. Do you mean people won’t be able to live there? Have a look at the Jordan, which is the driest place on earth per head of population. People have lived there for a very long time.
What worked in Israel (say) won’t necessarily work in (say) California, because aside from rainfall or snow fall, there are the impacts or effects of topography and geology.
Of course. Sustainable land management designs around the local land base, which includes the geography, climate, people etc. That’s the point, we need to be taking our cues from nature not economics.
I didn’t say it was an intact eco system. I said it’s relatively intact.
I don’t think you’ll find any scientific study slating the 2005 drought back to local human activity. It was a consequence of remote human activity – climate change.
Are there water shortages caused by water mismanagement? Yes.
Would better water management avert water shortages? Not necessarily – and I mean that in terms of the here and now as well as the future. Climate driven drought events (such as the Amazon one) can render water management systems irrelevant. The western Amazon had no significant human pressure on its water table and tanked.
California can have all the water management it wants, but if/when the snow pack disappears (arguably, California is on the cusp of not having a snow pack now), so is the water that might otherwise have been managed.
It’s simply not true (carbon emissions aside) that “What we are experiencing now is because of our own stupidity in land management and economics.” I mean, there is that, but there is also climate change. And I can’t see how it’s misleading to say that climate change is causing drought…and yes, some of the effects of some of those droughts might have been mitigated with better water management regimes.
I don’t think you’ll find any scientific study slating the 2005 drought back to local human activity. It was a consequence of remote human activity – climate change.
Just as well I didn’t say that either. I think you are missing my point. I took the first hit from your google search and there was no way to tell what was going on. So when a news article claims that x about CC induced drought, we aren’t getting the full picture. Same with when media in NZ talk about the droughts in NZ being caused by weather events. Droughts in NZ for the most part of due to land management. That doesn’t preclude CC effects as well, but it means that native ecosystems are still resilient and so are many organic farms compared to conventional.
Would better water management avert water shortages? Not necessarily – and I mean that in terms of the here and now as well as the future. Climate driven drought events (such as the Amazon one) can render water management systems irrelevant. The western Amazon had no significant human pressure on its water table and tanked.
Ok, so let’s leave the Amazon out of it, let’s assume it is predominantly CC. Let’s look at the other ones. Texas, California, Canterbury. All those catchments have drought due to mismanagement and all of those will avert the worst of water shortages if they reverted to sustainable land management.
California can have all the water management it wants, but if/when the snow pack disappears (arguably, California is on the cusp of not having a snow pack now), so is the water that might otherwise have been managed.
Like I said, people have lived with far less water. We know how to do this. This isn’t to say that snow pack and glacier issues aren’t serious. It’s to say that there is a massive (as in all the difference in the world) difference between having reduced inflow into a catchment that is otherwise sound compared to one that is still being fucked over.
It’s simply not true (carbon emissions aside) that “What we are experiencing now is because of our own stupidity in land management and economics.” I mean, there is that, but there is also climate change. And I can’t see how it’s misleading to say that climate change is causing drought…and yes, some of the effects of some of those droughts might have been mitigated with better water management regimes.
Ok, let’s look really close to home, because this is easy to see and understand. When you deforest, the water table drops. The land dries out, and then the soil is less able to hold water in it. Intact systems hold a huge amount of water in the land itself, it’s not all in the glaciers or rivers or lakes. When you remove the land’s ability to hold water, you get drought. Yes rainfall is an issue too, and so is river flow, but the land drying out was already happening before the rainfall lowered. This is what I mean by farmer-induced drought. You can add CC on top of that, but the baseline is that the land is being made dry by us here on the ground.
Once that happens, it becomes very hard for a catchment to recover. In NZ overgrazing is an issue, sheep, cattle, rabbits were doing this long before diarying. On top of the dry land you now have no chance of natural systems of plant succession, which are the things that build soil fertility. And soil fertility is critical to holding water in the land. This is all cyclical. Now we have a lot of land in the SI that is like this and the only way you can farm it is to irrigate, or have very low stock levels that nevertheless continue the degradation.
Once you get to this point, you are dependent on artificial fertiliser and irrigation. The land is no longer fertile. This is why some CC and PO people freak out about us not being able to feed ourselves, because they perceive us as having no way of growing food without fossil fuels. It’s not true, but without fossil fuels you have to have intact ecosystems.
(all the catchments in NZ are recoverable btw, it’s not too late)
Then you have the water table itself. I don’t know what is happening in NZ, but we know that in the US they’ve taken so much out that rivers no longer reach the sea. So on top of all the things I’ve just described, the water table is disappearing too.
The phenomena you are talking about come after all of that. Glaciers, snow melt, rainfall will all recharge the aquifers or not due to CC. But if the land itself is already dried out and beyond recovery, then the lack of recharge becomes somewhat of a moot point. If we think that a river running dry is an issue because of low rainfall, and this matters because we can no longer irrigate the land to grow food for the supply chain, we are decades behind the ball. The water shortage started when the land itself could no longer hold water.
Back to Paul’s list. Dropping a big list of scarey we’re going to run out of water links is a strategy for scaring people into reducing emissions. I don’t think it’s our smartest move. People will change when they can see a way out. Regenerative agriculture is one of those key ways out. If we don’t see the underlying farmer-induced drought and change that as well, it probably won’t matter if the glaciers melt.
Let me put all this another way. We have two droughts going on, each as serious as the other.
We have two droughts going on, each as serious as the other.
The terminology’s the crux of the ‘talking past’ that’s going on I think.
I’d rephrase your comment as we have droughts and we also have avoidable water shortages caused by water mismanagement of one type or another.
As far as my thinking goes, drought is entirely weather or climate related.
Water shortages through mis-management aren’t drought or drought inducing…they just mean that not enough water is available from the land because (insert human fuck up option of your choice).
Good water management might mean that when a drought hits, its effects could be mitigated.
Bad water management might mean that not enough water is available regardless of whether drought conditions are prevalent or not.
edit. As for Pauls list. I have no idea about farming or water strategies in the places mentioned. But if the monsoons don’t come on time, or if there’s been no rain for months or years…then it doesn’t really matter what peasant farmers do or what water systems they have. And yes, I’m picking that many being hit are peasant farmers who work very much in tune with seasons and expected resources.
I think it depends on where you are talking about. Feeding New York city with traditional landcare, probably not possible. A village in India that was feeding itself up until the last 50 or hundred years when it was forced into cash cropping? yes they can probably feed themselves using what they have if the greedy people go out of the way. NZ is never going to go back to being hunter/gatherers, but we have a low enough population to use a hybrid of traditional and modern sustainable practice.
Permaculture, which is one of the foremost tools we have for sustainable land management, comes directly from traditional practices. It’s been adapted for the modern world and the Western mind, and put into a system that can be applied across many different places.
I think it depends on where you are talking about.
To some degree. NZ is probably capable of supporting our own population sustainably. But it’s a little bit iffy to say that India is. India isn’t just a small little village. It’s over a billion people with advanced cities and industry all existing in a limited physical space. The probability is that traditional farming won’t make them any more sustainable than what they are now.
+1 Weka,
I believe it could be quite practical to divert water from the Landsborough into Lake Ohau and thus supplement the existing Mackenzie Basin Hydro complex.
Of course it would cost money but once completed would supply water for years to come.
Interesting that we have had no problem drilling not one but two tunnels for the Manapouri scheme and most of that power is used to supply the Tiwai Point smelter.
The other means of utilising the West Coast rainfall is to develop a series of small remote controlled hydro stations from one end of the coast to the other. This is what happens in France, for example, a nation that has to depend on Nuclear Power for it;s main source but gains a very useful percentage of their energy from these small and often remote hydro stations. in the order of 25GW
France also understands that hydro sourced energy reserves can be saved by offering it at reduced rates in off peak times to domestic users, so that clothes washing and water heating are programmed for overnight not at peak times.
Curiously the generation of electricity in France is the responsibility of EDF yep that’s right Electricity of France and the distribution is by a subsidiary ERDF yep and again you are right it is a state organisation although there are a few small private suppliers.
Some Standardistas will be able to remember when the same was the case in New Zealand, NZED.
Too many links mate. I’ve been guilty of it myself while staring at a screen – but your argument is better served with something short, simple, and to the point .. backed up by a link to other sources, eg. deeperweb.com
Out of space on the 120GB root SSD drive. Explains why the comments weren’t saving and the posts weren’t posting yesterday morning and this morning. The hourly backups were running out of room overnight.
Shuffled some files off to the 8TB raid system. Root is now 75% full. I will have a look to see what kind of crap is accumulating there between the court dates dealing with the arseholes attacking the site.
I have a ‘live’ complaint to OMSA (Online Media Standards Authority) about recent posts made about me by Cameron Slater on his WhaleOil blog which are currently going through their ‘due process’.
I have been informed by OSMA that I should expect an outcome next week.
Lazy, yeah sure. Your happy to undermine Penny any way you can, and if your hard right mates stalk her, you are happy with that. What a nice guy you are.
Not really, I just found her extremely long winded posts boring as she’d virtually never come back and answer questions (from left posters I might add) and the way she treated this site like it was her own personal soapbox is just rude (I don’t tell admin how to run this site because its their site to do with as they please)
When are you going to do the simple math sums I’ve posted up for you to do Puckish ………….. my little golem clown.
2.2 billion dollars ( fraud by johns john on behalf Aussie banks )
divided by 22 million ( total welfare fraud ) = how many years .
Puckish wont answer though because a 2.2 billion dollar fraud against New Zealand by John Keys self appointed judge is a no no subject for round mouth Puck .
Stalking a woman on the internet who has embarrassed John Key ( northland election trouncing & well done Penny 🙂 ) is our creepy golem clown Puckish’s mission at the moment.
The clowns an embarrassment to himself …………… Wayne mapp thinks he’s great though, and uses veet to show his appreciation ……. plus Puck told him it makes him look ‘bigger’.
I made the mistake of reading your post reason. Please post reference to the “$2.2 billion fraud by Johns John?? and how this relates to John Key…by that I mean a real reference from a court or similar.
And further how has Penny embarrassed anyone other than her self?
Chuck you made the mistake of making an idiotic post to me ……
John Shewan tried to screw New Zealand out of 2.2 billion dollars in a tax fraud he designed on behalf of the Aussie banks …..
“Westpac has lost its $918m tax battle with Inland Revenue.”
“Evidence in the seven-week case showed Westpac’s tax adviser, John Shewan (now chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers), advised not paying a rate below 15 per cent but in the end the amount he advised was 6.5 per cent. ”
“The IRD introduced evidence in the Westpac case quoting PricewaterhouseCoopers chairman John Shewan advising the bank earlier this decade that it should try to declare a tax rate close to that of its competitors, and that actual tax paid should be at least 6 per cent, compared to the corporate tax rate of 30 per cent.”
So john john has been found guilty ( or his clients were ), in a court of law.
Which leads back to my question chuck ….. or is it chump?.
Johns john had an attempted theft of 2.2 Billion from New Zealand.
This one piece of rich white trash temporarily succeeded in his fraud against NZ.
So the question is …. Again:
2.2 billion theft by johns john versus 22 million Total benefit theft in the year 2010./
How many years of benefit fraud would it take to reach the total that John Shewan attempted to steal ??????.
John key shoulder tapped Shewan to be the judge of nationals tax haven rules/setup .
Is John Key going to shoulder tap Clint Rickards to investigate claims of sexual abuse by the police ….
Or mike sabin to look at low conviction rates for some crimes ….
No chucky ……………… there was a 2.2 Billion dollar FINE in a court of law with a High court judge and everything …………. you can call that la la land if you want …… but thats just you avoiding the issue and refusing to do the math sum I have set ….,,.
‘tax haven/ theft by the rich’ supporting trolls, like yourself, do not want the simple fact of how much the rich are stealing to become common knowledge.
I’ve distilled it down ‘Hooten’ style but unlike him I’m not peddling lies ……………. I’m showing a simple truth.
2.2 Billion attempted theft/fraud by Johns john ( Shewan )
22 million dollars total welfare fraud in 2010
How many years of welfare fraud to equal the amount Johns john attempted to steal//// ………… it’ all effects the governments ‘budget’ in exactly the same way ………… but on a vastly different scale.
And if you cant do maths, perhaps your opinion on whether a man behind such a HUGE theft from New Zealand Government revenue should be the judge on New Zealands tax haven legalization.
johns john attempted to steal a lot hip operations, cancer drugs, money from police budgets and all the other ‘socialist’ things our government spends our tax money on …………
The fact that when a court of law stopped this Shewan crime and made them pay, putting the budget into surplus that year is not la la land stuff either ……….
p.s I’d reply to chuck but that option does not show on the webpage I see, and which is why I’m replying to myself
Yesterday or the day before Penny Bright brought up the fact after making a complaint about Whale oil, goons from that web site had been stalking her. Puckish Rouges response was she had broken the law so she basically deserved it.
Penny was stalked and you acted superior, and when I pulled you up on it, you acted like a glib juvenile.
Now you’ are doing indignation. Man engage with real people. It’s never acceptable to be casual about violence to women. It’s never acceptable, just because we are on a different divide politically to be casual about stalking.
If I offended you, then good. Learn something from this.
“It seems that Cameron Slater has ‘sources’ who are, in my view, effectively stalking me, snooping around my property, taking photos and apparently then lying about what they are seeing.”
Thats what Penny wrote from the link, theres no proof of stalking at all but there is a lot of opinion stated as fact
If she feels she is being stalked then I’d suggest she go to the police and/or lawyer and get some legal advice
But her saying it doesn’t make it so, as I said before its a very bad thing to go around accusing people of something adam, it makes it harder for people to be believed when they do need to report something
You are a bag of (foul) wind PR (look up PR in health terms while you are at it). Winding people up is not a skill, just a sign you don’t have enough in your life.
Labour received almost $280,000 and the Green Party just over $400,000.
ACT took in just over $162,000 and New Zealand First almost $80,000.
The Maori Party received just over $28,000 and United Future did not get any donations last year.
The donations returns are for the 2015 calendar year.
The donations are miniscule to what the parties received during the 2014 election year. In that year, National received almost $4 million, Labour $940,000 and the Greens received $970,000.”
Labour took in nearly $280 000 and the Greens just over $400 000…no wonder labour are in the crapper, let me guess there’ll be calls for parliamentary funded campaigns to, you know level the playing fields
well, you know. Nothing better then money form the one that owns you and your ministers. 🙂
Quote:
” A Chinese-owned milk powder company reprimanded by Prime Minister John Key for using his photo without permission in its advertising in 2012 has donated $25,400 to the National Party.
Donation returns released yesterday show National’s total of $1.4 million included $25,338 in five separate donations from GMP Dairy, a Chinese-owned milk powder company based in Auckland.
In 2012, GMP Dairy subsidiary Cowala used a photo of Mr Key posing with its products in advertising in China after Mr Key opened its Auckland factory that year. That prompted Mr Key to write to the company to complain. A spokeswoman said it “implies the company’s product has an endorsement from the Prime Minister which it does not.”
At the time the company’s chief executive Karl Ye said the advert was created by one store and it had been asked to remove it. The 2012 incident has clearly been forgiven: National Ministers Steven Joyce and Bill English have both attended subsequent product launches for the company, as well as Party President Peter Goodfellow.
GMP Dairy also paid for National MPs Jami-Lee Ross and Stuart Smith to travel to China earlier this year.”
I think the people in charge of Labour should sit down a take a serious look at themselves and ask how it is that the Greens can raise a considerable amount of money more and what can Labour do to emulate it
But we are in that sort of debate. I call you a habitual liar, whose latest claim to infamy is to justify the stalking of women, and even in normal conversation can’t see they spin everything.
Always with the fake concern, and lets not forget the default pity party you fall into, when someone calls you on you spin and lies.
Oh and the not trying, just the repeating of sad lines over and over to make yourself feel good, that you support this countries most divisive government in history. Who’s mad lust for power, has meant they will use any weapon at their disposal to hold onto power. Which I must say you prove to me, and I’m sure many others, each and every day when you comment here.
I’ll say this for you, you have a very high opinion of yourself (which is good of course) but, like a lot of the left on here, you fall prey to hyperbole
“this countries most divisive government in history”
I’m sure the fourth Labour government (you remember Rogernomics and all that), the second National government (before my time but I’ve heard the Vietnam War brought out a few protestors) or how about the third National government (Springbok tour and all that) but no this government is the most divisive
I am wondering if the donations for the Greens includes their MP tithing. I believe they all pay 10% of their parliamentary salary to the party as a donation, and I don’t think Labour does that.
But perhaps Labour should, even if it were 5% that would make a big difference to the party coffers.
If that’s the case it appears to be working well for the Greens and it could be argued that as an MP you benefit greatly from the party (more so as a list mp) so paying the party some money isn’t a bad idea
Well ok I agree with you on that but I meant more that rather then pay for the office you’re holding you’re repaying what the party has done for you but I get your point
ISTR an impression that it was because the Greens saw the parliamentary paycheques and decided they should practise what they preached when it came to tax rates for those on higher incomes.
Maybe Labour should consider tithing. Get away from neoliberal “this is my money to do as I please salary as MP for the party’ and instead think I will chip in a donation per week to try to get my party over the line.
The Natz just give out tenders, contracts and awards for donations, which is why they got 1.4m. In most countries this is called corruption. Still waiting for the enquiry about 7.5m Scenic Hotels corporate welfare ‘aid’ after their $101,000 donation to the National party.
Labour has some sort of ethics on the donations and won’t take from Sky City and dodgy Chinese money. So maybe low donations also mean they are honest.
The Green Party are rather like New Zealand First. They have a compulsory levy on all the MPs. I say “rather like” because Winnie excludes himself from the rule. Got to pay for his fags and booze after all.
They will probably call it voluntary of course. I’m sure they call it a “donation”. If you don’t volunteer you go to position 73 on the list.
I’m actually surprised that it is legal. Most countries have laws that mean you can’t insist on people having to pay a levy in order to get a paid position in any Government organisation. Sounds very close to extortion doesn’t it?
What Labour do of course is smear anyone who donates to National.
Remember back in 2005 when an person who emigrated to New Zealand from India, and was at the time living in the tax haven of Monaco and hadn’t lived in New Zealand for about 40 years gave $500,000 to the Labour Party?
That was just peachy of course. They even gave him an award in the ONZ for his generosity.
was that the guy who expected to be able to bribe Labour, and when he didn’t get his monaco bauble then promised to spend 100mil for poor kids provided NZ elected national?
And a few years later the nats gave him a bigger ONZ award than Labour did lol
I believe the Monaco bauble attempt was after he paid Winnies legal expenses.
Expecting anything out of Winston after doing him a very expensive favour is dreaming.
Actually expecting gratitude out of any politician is just wishful thinking. Their attitude doesn’t include gratitude. It is only “What are you going to do for me today?”
Your own viewpoint seems to be rather jaundiced.
It was you, after all, who is claiming that Glenn’s gift to the Labour Party was offering a bribe. I think he really did think at the time that Clark was a good PM.
Very badly mistaken though, wasn’t he? Do you remember when he was at a function to celebrate his giving money to establish a Business School. Helen Clark was also present. If Glenn looked like getting anywhere near her so that she might have to greet him Trevor Mallard would intercept him and keep him away from her.
Poor Owen. As I say, he discovered that politicians have no lasting gratitude
Oh, sorry, I assumed that your “They even gave him an award in the ONZ for his generosity” was suggesting that the award was linked to his donation to the Labour party, hence terming it a “bribe”.
At least he got a better gong from national, in gratitude for the promise to pay 100million if national got elected.
Owen Glenn paid for Winston’s legal fees, in turn Winston was going to put in a good word with the Labour government of the day for the Monaco position.
However it all turned to custard when Winston held up his now famous “NO” sign and the resulting investigation.
Interesting side note…Winston used his “lawyer and trust account” so to keep a Chinese wall between the $100k from Glenn, and Winston ability to deny any knowledge of the “gift”.
“Most countries have laws that mean you can’t insist on people having to pay a levy in order to get a paid position in any Government organisation. ”
You don’t seem to have a very clear idea about what a political party is, and how they are governed, do you?
Parties have constitutions that set up their rules and regulations. if the constitution requires tithing, then if you don’t do it, you’re in breach and the disciplinary provisions kick in, which would almost certainly have an expulsion clause that can be used when necessary.
I’m sure they do, have rules that is.
As a matter of fact of course they could only kick an MP who refused to pay up out of their caucus (and the list next election). They certainly couldn’t kick them out of Parliament could they?
However the rules of a political party, in spite of what Cunliffe claimed about his secret trust to support his leadership campaign, cannot override the law of the land.
You can be an MP but it’ll cost you doesn’t have a good ring to it.
And yes I know that they all do it. Calling it a “donation” is just trying to cover it up.
“You can be an MP but it’ll cost you doesn’t have a good ring to it.”
No, it’s “if you want to be a member of this club, it’ll cost you”. Just like people pay memberships for all sorts of clubs.
The greens only levie the charge against people who have attained a certain position within their club (MP) – a position that itself comes with a pretty decent salary package, and also a hell of a lot of hard work.
” Just like people pay memberships for all sorts of clubs.”
As I said, they just word it so it sounds better.
You wouldn’t be the fund raiser for a political party would you?
You can certainly word these things in an innocent way.
Another predictably tedious response from the Permanent Resident troll. I take it Puke-ish, that you approve of Jamie-Lee’s latest endeavours. Wake up and smell the odour. Meantime, spare us your apologist nonsense.
Work it out for yourself – “Bribery – the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other person in charge of a public or legal duty” Black’s Law Dictionary.
Labour need to work out if their ‘broad church’, non committal and convaluted policy approach is working. I personally want Labour to succeed but Kiwi’s need more than Nat Lite policy but a vision – like Savage to transform NZ.
In order to do that they must address 21 century challenges like globalism, neoliberalism, inequality and environmental degradation. Personally was heartened they had the UBI that showed they were prepared to think about new ideas and have put Cunliffe onto the panama papers, so maybe they are turning a corner.
But if Winston can do so well with only $80k in donations it means that money does not buy votes in this country for everyone, policy does and political astutness.
If we liken it to commerce then its obvious, from the amount of money coming in, that one party on the left is doing a better job of convincing people that its message is worth putting your hands into your pockets
and yeah money does help but its not the only thing, if it was Colin Craig would be in parliament (got close), Act would have more than one or two MPs and well the less said about KDC the better
But in regards to Labour and the Greens then Labour should be looking closely at what the Greens are doing (like that hasn’t been said on here in one way or another) and try to emulate them
Like staying on the same basic message, standing for something etc etc
Labour this, and Labour that, and half of the people commenting here are essentially only saying I wont give to Labour because (insert past grievance of the 80’s or something like tht ), and they won’t vote for Labour because (insert past grievance of the 80″s or something like that), and then they complain that a. not enough voters are voting for Labour and b. that they don’t rake in cash, but that they would vote for Labour or give to Labour if Labour would just do what they want them to do, never mind that they will never really do what you want them to do, cause purity and such.
Seriously, go find a party you can be happy with, and than at least you guys could stop whinging about all the things Labour does wrong.
Go find a party that does what you want, if that party does not exist, join one that comes close, and fund that fucking party, or create your own party, fundraise for it and find members and voters for it.
The system is called MMP, Labour does not need to best fucking anyone, they need to be able to work with the other parties, and that would be the best thing we could hope for. People in Parliament that work together instead of that current rent a parliament crowd that literally is funded by China and any other country or corporation that would like to buy something of them.
“Go find a party that does what you want, if that party does not exist, join one that comes close, and fund that fucking party, or create your own party, fundraise for it and find members and voters for it.
The system is called MMP, Labour does not need to best fucking anyone, they need to be able to work with the other parties, and that would be the best thing we could hope for. People in Parliament that work together instead of that current rent a parliament crowd that literally is funded by China and any other country or corporation that would like to buy something of them.”
The latest brain wave from the Government to allow electric cars to clog up the busways doesn’t make sense. In Auckland the Northern Busway is very successful so it should be left alone. Why doesn’t the Government just half the cost of the Registration instead, or find another incentive for purchasers of electric cars. I was of the opinion that the Government ran the main transit routes and the council funded and built the local roads, what about all the bus lanes on these local roads, doesn’t the council have any say in this. The Northern Busway was a fantastic initiative to ease the gridlock for the Northern Motorway – why on earth now go and clog it up with cars – just doesn’t make sense to me. I am all for electric cars, the more we have the better but I just think this is an ingenious way to encourage the purchase of these cars.
more pissing away money to those that don’t need it.
a. who could afford an electric car tomorrow?
b. about 5% of the population?
but they would then get to use the buslane, not pay road user charges and so on and so on and so on.
while we increase fees for people that drive old cars – again, we must make up for the money that we just gave away to those that are in the needy 5 % highest income group. Cause they never have enough money for that Moet and Ferrari.
you have just totally rubbished the New Zealand Green Party policy.
You’re either purposefully misrepresenting what the Green Party said or you’re stupid.
“Offering access to bus lanes, and announcing a series of reviews, investigations and ‘coordinated activities’, isn’t going to move New Zealand to a low-carbon economy.
Seems fairly bloody obvious what was meant. So obvious even a stupid person would get it.
I hope he takes his case up with the Green acolytes in Wellington. They want to retain all the trolley buses and then replace all the other buses with electric ones.
Here (in Wellington) cyclists are allowed to use the bus lanes. He will obviously be opposed to this as the buses are quiet and will also bump off all the people on their bikes.
The trolley buses actually are dangerous. Pedestrians don’t hear them and are much more likely to step in front of one than they are to do it with a diesel bus. Any time you read about a pedestrian being hit by a bus in the city it turns out to be a trolley bus rather than a diesel.
Get rid of the trolley buses I say. Save the lives of pedestrians and cyclists.
I call on the “caring” Greens to push my campaign and get rid of the trolley bus dinosaurs.
That is the current proposal.
It is, however NOT what the Green Party want.
Have a look at what the Trekkie Hughes wants. https://home.greens.org.nz/takeaction/submissionguides/wellington-trolley-buses
Have a look at what is going to happen to the trolley buses. They are still going to be there. They are still going to be silent, and just a deadly.
They are just going to stop using overhead wires.
The trolley buses are dangerous because they are silent. The converted ones are going to be just as bad.
Perhaps you should visit Wellington. I live here.
I have on the other hand been knocked down twice by cyclists at Oriental Bay. They are also silent, and dangerous. They ride, often at high speed, on the footpath. It is legal there but not safe.
They come up behind you on the footpath, pass very close to the pedestrian and would never consider ringing, or even having, a bell to give a warning. Most Wellington cyclists are bloody idiots.
Well Sabine, since (if Pareto’s rule holds) about 5 or 10% of New Zealanders (the wealthiest) are responsible for about 50% of NZ emissions, I’d say give them the fucking cars. In the future they can whine about the show wondering whatever happened to their glorious me, me society.
Yes, nothing like giving one rich old git in a Prius the same access as a bus with 50 or 60 people in it to demonstrate your contempt for public transport.
Not sure that Prius qualify – we are talking Leaf and Tesla. You can buy a reasonable late model Prius for around $10,000. Ok that is way more than many people can afford for a car I know – but it is not in the $30,000+ range for an EV of similar age.
Prius while substantially reducing emissions for a similar sized car (around 4.4L/100km) is a hybrid. It runs a petrol engine at a low speed when needed to charge a much smaller battery than a pure EV.
I agree however with your sentiments wrt to bus lanes. The Govt needs to place far more emphasis on developing public transport providing better, more, and faster services so that cars become unnecessary and undesirable for the majority of personal travel. The current congested state of Aucklands roads is now a case in point. People are forced to use cars because the public transport is so poor, and expensive.
Why doesn’t the Government just half the cost of the Registration instead, or find another incentive for purchasers of electric cars.
Because they’re trying to stop people using buses and other public transport. There’s nowhere near as much profit to be made from people using public transport.
Its because they live in Wellington most of the year and haven’t a bloody clue how clogged up our motorways are here in Auckland – the buslanes help people to keep off the roads and the Gov. has to be as thick as bat s…. encouraging even more cars – Sabine is correct, how many people can afford electric cars anyway – we seriously need a good network of trains, light rail and buslanes – it will not be that many years before AK will be totally gridlocked and how will commerce bring in the tax dollars for the gov. then when it’s at a stand still – as I said thick as bat s….. and wilfully wrecking the environment for future generations to boot.
I wish the government would keep its sticky beak out of AK – the council is trying to encourage public transport and at least is trying to see ahead for the future – this gov. is absolutely bloody useless in everything it does.
Yeah Auckland is near gridlock now – I live in Thames after living in Auckland for 25 years. Last week I had to travel up to Auckland. It took as much time to travel from Pt Chev to Manakau along the southern motorway around 2pm as it did to travel the rest of the journey.
yeah Its pretty much gridlocked already – took an hour or more to travel from western springs to Manakau down the Southern Motorway the other day around 2pm! Bumper to bumper – stop start the whole way.
this gov. is absolutely bloody useless in everything it does.
No, this government is achieving what it set out to do which is more profits for rich people. This invariably costs everyone else more. In context of transport that’s more in cars, more in fuel, more road taxes, more death due to the increased pollution and more time due to the grid lock.
Thing is, that grid lock also increases profits for the rich because of more car and fuel sales. Cars are the perfect example of why the profit drive produces the worst possible outcomes for society.
What sort of a proficient, professional company/association/Government only works successfully for the 1% of people/clients – in the private sector every one practicing these sort of work efficiencies would go broke. I stand by my words, the Government are bloody useless. They are killing off the golden egg – Auckland which gives the largest tax take – companies will end up at a stand still and still this Government cannot see it. Ever see trucks trying to get through to the port or to go south/north on the motorways, they waste more time sitting in their cabs frustrated as hell. Useless, incompetent, visionless idiots, the whole lot of the cabinet.
What sort of a proficient, professional company/association/Government only works successfully for the 1% of people/clients – in the private sector every one practicing these sort of work efficiencies would go broke.
They do go broke and then their bought and paid for governments come along and bail them out.
They are killing off the golden egg
Yes but they don’t see it that way. All they see is rich people getting richer and thus the economy must be booming. They don’t see the poverty that they create nor the inefficiency as they give jobs to their mates that they then massively over pay.
It’s all about the profits and it causes massive inefficiency and over use of resources just so that a few people can have more money and power.
It’s not incompetence. They’re achieving what they want to achieve. Sure, it will eventually destroy the society and will kill a lot of people but a few people got richer and that’s all that matters to them.
The treatment of Willie was bloody disgraceful. If you are a social democrat a question for you – after watching this do you still think that privilege will give up an inch of power? Because the contempt I saw on display here for Maori, is the same contempt I see from this lot towards working stiffs, mums, the young, Pacific, and anyone else who is not a part of there club. And power folks is something privilege enjoy more than you realise.
The same conflict of interest exists when a person is director of two or more companies. Engaging in such conflicts of interest is simply corruption and we need to be getting rid of corruption and not supporting it.
And it’s not about being communist but about supporting ethical behaviour.
Robinson helicopters in NZ. How long have we heard reports about them not being used according to manufacturers instructions?
Decades? Now reports are official. The head of the firm is coming to NZ to see what our flyboys are doing to the reputation of his firm’s product. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/303171/nz-used-choppers-raise-crash-questions
Of course nothing to worry about officially. We don’t need regulations and bothersome checks, they just get in the way of doing business. (Like having OIA investigations instead of fast tracking the purchase of tracts of our land, 10 farms in Northland for $42 million, Lachlan? station for $82 million?)
We are slaphappy about everything these days, preferring to paper over the cracks, fill them with silly putty, say that makes me uncomfortable to families of dead workers, deny compensation to the injured, and generally make people afraid of eating bananas in case someone slips on a skin. At the end of the day, problems can be smoothed away with money or derision, and then it’s back to BAU.
A Canterbury man who flew a drone over a forest fire has been found guilty of breaching new Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) rules surrounding drone operation.
A new study offers more confirmation that the so-called bailout packages the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delivered to Greece primarily served European banks rather than the Greek people.
Contrary to widely held beliefs,” ESMT states, of the €215.9 billion (roughly $246 billion), less than 5 percent went to the Greek fiscal budget. The other 95 percent of the funds “disbursed to Greece since the start of the financial crisis as loans from the bailout mechanism has been directed toward saving the European banks,” Ekathimerini reports.
All of the bailouts since the start of the GFC have been to protect the rich from their own actions. Quite simply, the worlds wealthy should have become destitute back in 2008. Instead, the poor were taxed to prop up their failures.
Those failures continue today and the poor are still propping them up.
And a bloody good thing too.
They have a lock up before these announcements, and the budget as well, so that the media outlets can get a pre-release look at what is going to be announced. The purpose is to allow them time to understand what is going on so that they can comment accurately on what is being announced. No communication with anyone outside is allowed. Mediaworks ignored it, posted a draft article back to the office and the people there happily disseminated it.
That could have been an enormously valuable piece of news as they had early knowledge of an unexpected cut in the OCR.
I would kick them out of the pre-budget lock up as well. Stuff them.
But their a private company and SStephen Joyce has shares in it.
Everything in the business side is always better than public broadcasting.
Weldon was in charge he was the best boss ever a creative mind he sacked all the high paid journalists and put check out operators day labourers into the newsroom alwhynger,
I thought you would be right up their with Glucina.
“SStephen Joyce has shares in it”.
That is completely false. Why do you feel the need to lie about things like this?
For your education, although I do not expect you to remember, here is a bit of history.
Stephen Joyce founded Radio Works.
Radio Works was bought out completely with the new owner taking over 72% in May 2000 and the remaining 28% in January 2001. I believe it was a hostile takeover.
He has had no financial interest since that date. Clear?
The group of companies now called MediaWorks has gone through various restructurings, changes of ownership and receiverships but none of them have had anything to do with him.
To repeat. Why do you feel the need to lie about him?
David Cameron is holding an anti-corruption summit in London next week, aimed at “step[ping] up global action to expose, punish and drive out corruption in all walks of life”. New Zealand’s representative to this summit? Apparently its Judith Collins:
Surely not. Judith Collins picked to be NZ’s rep at David Cameron’s anti-corruption summit in London on 12 May? #Oravida
— David Shearer (@DavidShearerMP) April 23, 2016
This would be the same Judith Collins dubbed the “Minister of Corruption” over her dodgy Oravida dealings. Is John Key taking the piss, or did he take the title literally as an endorsement rather than a disqualification? Or did they just view the summit as an opportunity for someone to get a free taxpayer-funded holiday to London, and it was Collins’ turn at the trough? Either way, its a perfect sign of just how little National cares about corruption, tax evasion and international money-laundering, and how unlikely we are to see any real progress on tax cheating from them.
Labour were first replaced as party of the left in Scotland by SNP.
Now they are being replaced as party of the unionist right by Tories.
— Irvine Welsh (@IrvineWelsh) May 6, 2016
Corbyn has nailed it here, talking about the media obsession (driven by Crosby Textor manipulation no doubt) with his leadership over the “grotesque inequality” we have to tolerate whilst the 1% continue to take from the rest of us, good man:
We are lucky enough someone out there has exposed the corruption in the “Panama Papers” and Key’s response is to spend more millions on trying to prevent exposure of corruption, calling it “cyber crime” ……WHAT? who are you trying to kid Mr.Key? you do realise Planet Key is only pretend don’t you? We live on the same planet, and you do not need such wealth at our expense.
Prime Minister John Key said donations to National should not prevent the party’s MPs from being engaged.
“It’s quite possible that an individual company that gives a donation is also the sort of situation where an MP goes and has some involvement, does something in a business or looks at something because of the varied nature of the varied trips that they do.
“But it doesn’t stop someone, you don’t have a conflict of interest by nature because of that.”
A situation that has the potential to undermine the impartiality of a person because of the possibility of a clash between the person’s self-interest and professional interest or public interest.
Accepting donations from a Company and then accepting their free air travel and accommodation to go and pimp for them over and above similar NZ products is not a conflict of interest as an MP for NZ???
A Mexican construction tycoon dubbed the ‘Duke of Influence’ joined a rush of foreign money into tax-free New Zealand trusts.
Juan Armando Hinojosa Cantu, who built his fortune from billions of dollars in Mexican government contracts, was investigated for lavish housing deals with Mexican political figures.
On July 1 last year, Cantu’s Miami lawyer said his client had “circa $US100 million” to put into three New Zealand trusts
Maltese investors who had been turned away from nine banks in the Caribbean, Miami and Panama eventually found a home for their money in New Zealand trusts.
Demand for New Zealand trusts went into overdrive late last year with Mossack Fonseca staff in Panama urging New Zealand staff to “chase the money”.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
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http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/303158/mps-were-'salespeople'-for-dairy-co-labour
Blurred lines.
Focus on JLR is advised, he is a script monkey easily caught out so how about it opposition ?
A concert in Palmyra ..
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/russian-orchestra-holds-concert-liberated-palmyra/
Obama calls for democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia
https://southfront.org/obama-demands-democratic-reforms-for-saudi-arabia/
The planet’s climate has changed.
When will the corporate media in New Zealand explain the weather by saying the words climate change?
As well as the droughts in India and Cambodia,
There is drought in Vietnam
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/vietnam-drought-economic-slowdown-2016-4?r=US&IR=T
and Thailand
http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2016-04-11/forget-the-drought-thailands-national-water-fight-is-on
and Ethiopia
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/may/02/ethiopia-famine-drought-land-restoration
and Malawi and Zimbabwe
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/apr/21/drought-southern-africa-heavy-toll-students-fainting-malawi-zimbabwe
and Venezuela
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/22/475250605/venezuela-announces-daily-4-hour-power-cuts-amid-drought
and North Korea
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-27/north-korea-s-food-supply-imperiled-by-water-shortages-un-says
and Zambia
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/world/africa/zambia-drought-climate-change-economy.html?_r=0
and Haiti
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2016/04/15/3769857/haiti-farmers/
and Canada
http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/04/23/alberta-farmers-pray-for-rain-as-dry-conditions-stoke-drought-fears
and the U.S.
http://theprowersjournal.com/2016/04/april-2016-colorado-drought-update-from-cwcb/
and Indonesia
http://www.indonesia-investments.com/news/todays-headlines/indonesian-research-firm-2016-palm-oil-output-curbed-by-drought-haze/item6737
and Micronesia
https://www.google.co.nz/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=drought+2016&tbm=nws&start=100
and Australia
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-01/farming-death-row-south-australia's-forgotten-drought/7309470
[Just to point out that putting a pile of links in a comment will mean the comment hits moderation and it’ll just sit there if no mods are around. Best avoided if possible] – Bill
You missed the Brazil drought that’s just coming to an end now….
Was listening to something about superdroughts and their predicted prevalence – prevalence expected to increase.
On the same piece there was something touched on that I’d heard of before to do with the jet stream. Essentially, with the arctic warming, the ‘atmosphere’ becomes thicker (higher), meaning the gradient between the poles and the equator lessens and the jet-stream then tends to ‘slow’ and meander more than flow.
As weather fronts are tucked in behind the traversing jet stream, and that traverse slows up, weather gets ‘stuck’, meaning more prolonged periods of the same weather. Not good.
Many of those countries are experiencing drought because they are fucking with the catchment and groundwater in order to make money. Humans have lived in very dry climates for a long long time, and they do so by working with nature not exploiting it.
I’m not saying climate change isn’t creating serious problems with regards to water. But those problems aren’t visible in the places where humans are fucking with the catchment and dealing with the human-made problems is a prerequisite to learning how to adapt to the CC ones (leaving aside they’re all human made).
If we look at Canterbury for instance, the droughts being talked about there are a direct result of deforestation, draining wetlands, overgrazing, rabbits, and more recently stealing water from the aquifers, and industrial dairying. All those things exist independently of climate change, and climate change is making them more impactful because instead of happening every 20 years they’re happening multiple years in a row (we can pretty much assume drought is a constant on the east coast of the SI now). If we stopped doing all that shit, climate change effects in Canterbury would look completely different, even with the issue of glacier retreat.
As it is, we can’t even begin to see how to respond to something as serious as glacier retreat and what it will mean, because we still think the problem is how are we going to keep irrigating dairy farms? Oh, yeah, let’s put in some big catchment dams, or pipe water over from the West Coast ffs. Meanwhile, we keep doing the same things that are creating the droughts in the first place.
Another way to understand this is to look at to what extent climate change is affecting intact native ecosystems. Hard to do in Canterbury, because they hardly have any left, and those that are there are isolated unit rather than being part of the support from wider catchment protection, but if the droughts were mainly due to CC we’d be seeing native forests dying.
The places I am most familiar with are NZ, the US and Australia. But I’m guessing that there are similar issues in less developped countries because they’re being forced to do things like cash crop, and/or they’re prevented from doing sustainable landcare because of war, poverty, colonisation etc. The point I am making is that we could also be putting effort into supporting those countries to return to traditional landcare systems, because that will give them the best chance. Needless to say alongside the West powering down and doing everything it can to prevent the shit storm from being any worse than it already is.
chasing… 😉
I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but here’s an example with regards, more or less, intact native eco-systems – the Amazon. It’s fucked.
https://www.google.co.nz/webhp?hl=en#hl=en&q=amazon+drought+2016
There are, no doubt, some traditional land care systems that have something to offer, but those traditional land care systems worked when applied to a set of climatic conditions we’re in the process of leaving behind. There are areas (I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess at the percentage) where all the cards are going to be off the table because of changed conditions.
What worked in Israel (say) won’t necessarily work in (say) California, because aside from rainfall or snow fall, there are the impacts or effects of topography and geology.
There are significant parts of the Amazon that have been modified. I took the first hit from your link and saw this photo. Not an intact ecosystem.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/10/25/01/2DBD291E00000578-3288144-image-a-54_1445731932027.jpg
There are, no doubt, some traditional land care systems that have something to offer, but those traditional land care systems worked when applied to a set of climatic conditions we’re in the process of leaving behind. There are areas (I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess at the percentage) where all the cards are going to be off the table because of changed conditions.
Are you talking about the future? Because I’m responding to the idea that we are currently having all these droughts due to climate change. Of course CC, but hugely significant is the man-made aspects of those droughts, and big scarey stories about CC (read nature) causing drought are actually misleading. What we are experiencing now is because of our own stupidity in land management and economics.
As for the future, I don’t know what you mean by all cards off the table. Do you mean people won’t be able to live there? Have a look at the Jordan, which is the driest place on earth per head of population. People have lived there for a very long time.
What worked in Israel (say) won’t necessarily work in (say) California, because aside from rainfall or snow fall, there are the impacts or effects of topography and geology.
Of course. Sustainable land management designs around the local land base, which includes the geography, climate, people etc. That’s the point, we need to be taking our cues from nature not economics.
I didn’t say it was an intact eco system. I said it’s relatively intact.
I don’t think you’ll find any scientific study slating the 2005 drought back to local human activity. It was a consequence of remote human activity – climate change.
Are there water shortages caused by water mismanagement? Yes.
Would better water management avert water shortages? Not necessarily – and I mean that in terms of the here and now as well as the future. Climate driven drought events (such as the Amazon one) can render water management systems irrelevant. The western Amazon had no significant human pressure on its water table and tanked.
California can have all the water management it wants, but if/when the snow pack disappears (arguably, California is on the cusp of not having a snow pack now), so is the water that might otherwise have been managed.
It’s simply not true (carbon emissions aside) that “What we are experiencing now is because of our own stupidity in land management and economics.” I mean, there is that, but there is also climate change. And I can’t see how it’s misleading to say that climate change is causing drought…and yes, some of the effects of some of those droughts might have been mitigated with better water management regimes.
I don’t think you’ll find any scientific study slating the 2005 drought back to local human activity. It was a consequence of remote human activity – climate change.
Just as well I didn’t say that either. I think you are missing my point. I took the first hit from your google search and there was no way to tell what was going on. So when a news article claims that x about CC induced drought, we aren’t getting the full picture. Same with when media in NZ talk about the droughts in NZ being caused by weather events. Droughts in NZ for the most part of due to land management. That doesn’t preclude CC effects as well, but it means that native ecosystems are still resilient and so are many organic farms compared to conventional.
Would better water management avert water shortages? Not necessarily – and I mean that in terms of the here and now as well as the future. Climate driven drought events (such as the Amazon one) can render water management systems irrelevant. The western Amazon had no significant human pressure on its water table and tanked.
Ok, so let’s leave the Amazon out of it, let’s assume it is predominantly CC. Let’s look at the other ones. Texas, California, Canterbury. All those catchments have drought due to mismanagement and all of those will avert the worst of water shortages if they reverted to sustainable land management.
California can have all the water management it wants, but if/when the snow pack disappears (arguably, California is on the cusp of not having a snow pack now), so is the water that might otherwise have been managed.
Like I said, people have lived with far less water. We know how to do this. This isn’t to say that snow pack and glacier issues aren’t serious. It’s to say that there is a massive (as in all the difference in the world) difference between having reduced inflow into a catchment that is otherwise sound compared to one that is still being fucked over.
It’s simply not true (carbon emissions aside) that “What we are experiencing now is because of our own stupidity in land management and economics.” I mean, there is that, but there is also climate change. And I can’t see how it’s misleading to say that climate change is causing drought…and yes, some of the effects of some of those droughts might have been mitigated with better water management regimes.
Ok, let’s look really close to home, because this is easy to see and understand. When you deforest, the water table drops. The land dries out, and then the soil is less able to hold water in it. Intact systems hold a huge amount of water in the land itself, it’s not all in the glaciers or rivers or lakes. When you remove the land’s ability to hold water, you get drought. Yes rainfall is an issue too, and so is river flow, but the land drying out was already happening before the rainfall lowered. This is what I mean by farmer-induced drought. You can add CC on top of that, but the baseline is that the land is being made dry by us here on the ground.
Once that happens, it becomes very hard for a catchment to recover. In NZ overgrazing is an issue, sheep, cattle, rabbits were doing this long before diarying. On top of the dry land you now have no chance of natural systems of plant succession, which are the things that build soil fertility. And soil fertility is critical to holding water in the land. This is all cyclical. Now we have a lot of land in the SI that is like this and the only way you can farm it is to irrigate, or have very low stock levels that nevertheless continue the degradation.
Once you get to this point, you are dependent on artificial fertiliser and irrigation. The land is no longer fertile. This is why some CC and PO people freak out about us not being able to feed ourselves, because they perceive us as having no way of growing food without fossil fuels. It’s not true, but without fossil fuels you have to have intact ecosystems.
(all the catchments in NZ are recoverable btw, it’s not too late)
Then you have the water table itself. I don’t know what is happening in NZ, but we know that in the US they’ve taken so much out that rivers no longer reach the sea. So on top of all the things I’ve just described, the water table is disappearing too.
The phenomena you are talking about come after all of that. Glaciers, snow melt, rainfall will all recharge the aquifers or not due to CC. But if the land itself is already dried out and beyond recovery, then the lack of recharge becomes somewhat of a moot point. If we think that a river running dry is an issue because of low rainfall, and this matters because we can no longer irrigate the land to grow food for the supply chain, we are decades behind the ball. The water shortage started when the land itself could no longer hold water.
Back to Paul’s list. Dropping a big list of scarey we’re going to run out of water links is a strategy for scaring people into reducing emissions. I don’t think it’s our smartest move. People will change when they can see a way out. Regenerative agriculture is one of those key ways out. If we don’t see the underlying farmer-induced drought and change that as well, it probably won’t matter if the glaciers melt.
Let me put all this another way. We have two droughts going on, each as serious as the other.
We have two droughts going on, each as serious as the other.
The terminology’s the crux of the ‘talking past’ that’s going on I think.
I’d rephrase your comment as we have droughts and we also have avoidable water shortages caused by water mismanagement of one type or another.
As far as my thinking goes, drought is entirely weather or climate related.
Water shortages through mis-management aren’t drought or drought inducing…they just mean that not enough water is available from the land because (insert human fuck up option of your choice).
Good water management might mean that when a drought hits, its effects could be mitigated.
Bad water management might mean that not enough water is available regardless of whether drought conditions are prevalent or not.
edit. As for Pauls list. I have no idea about farming or water strategies in the places mentioned. But if the monsoons don’t come on time, or if there’s been no rain for months or years…then it doesn’t really matter what peasant farmers do or what water systems they have. And yes, I’m picking that many being hit are peasant farmers who work very much in tune with seasons and expected resources.
+1
Except for this bit:
Traditional land care systems aren’t actually sustainable with the level of population that we have today.
I think it depends on where you are talking about. Feeding New York city with traditional landcare, probably not possible. A village in India that was feeding itself up until the last 50 or hundred years when it was forced into cash cropping? yes they can probably feed themselves using what they have if the greedy people go out of the way. NZ is never going to go back to being hunter/gatherers, but we have a low enough population to use a hybrid of traditional and modern sustainable practice.
Permaculture, which is one of the foremost tools we have for sustainable land management, comes directly from traditional practices. It’s been adapted for the modern world and the Western mind, and put into a system that can be applied across many different places.
To some degree. NZ is probably capable of supporting our own population sustainably. But it’s a little bit iffy to say that India is. India isn’t just a small little village. It’s over a billion people with advanced cities and industry all existing in a limited physical space. The probability is that traditional farming won’t make them any more sustainable than what they are now.
+1 Weka,
I believe it could be quite practical to divert water from the Landsborough into Lake Ohau and thus supplement the existing Mackenzie Basin Hydro complex.
Of course it would cost money but once completed would supply water for years to come.
Interesting that we have had no problem drilling not one but two tunnels for the Manapouri scheme and most of that power is used to supply the Tiwai Point smelter.
The other means of utilising the West Coast rainfall is to develop a series of small remote controlled hydro stations from one end of the coast to the other. This is what happens in France, for example, a nation that has to depend on Nuclear Power for it;s main source but gains a very useful percentage of their energy from these small and often remote hydro stations. in the order of 25GW
France also understands that hydro sourced energy reserves can be saved by offering it at reduced rates in off peak times to domestic users, so that clothes washing and water heating are programmed for overnight not at peak times.
Curiously the generation of electricity in France is the responsibility of EDF yep that’s right Electricity of France and the distribution is by a subsidiary ERDF yep and again you are right it is a state organisation although there are a few small private suppliers.
Some Standardistas will be able to remember when the same was the case in New Zealand, NZED.
Too many links mate. I’ve been guilty of it myself while staring at a screen – but your argument is better served with something short, simple, and to the point .. backed up by a link to other sources, eg. deeperweb.com
@Paul – no wonder tourism’s up. you can buy 25 years waters rights for $500 p/a here if you have the right connections…
Out of space on the 120GB root SSD drive. Explains why the comments weren’t saving and the posts weren’t posting yesterday morning and this morning. The hourly backups were running out of room overnight.
Shuffled some files off to the 8TB raid system. Root is now 75% full. I will have a look to see what kind of crap is accumulating there between the court dates dealing with the arseholes attacking the site.
Commiserations. My / is 78% full but it has nowhere near your load and keeps trucking on regardless .. for the moment. Are you using LVM ?
Nope. These partitions are OLD. They just keep getting shifted to new hardware
Good Job and good luck Lynn.
Thanks Lynn, always much appreciated.
When are the court dates Lyn? Us pensioners would love the show!
Usually under name suppression, so details in public get very limited.
It’s what you neeeeed
Ok, fine, so probably not need 😈
Genius from Toby Manhire….because, I don’t know about you guys, I could do with a laugh.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11634239
“Toby Manhire: Dancing with the Cops and other reality TV ideas
The Koru Hour, or Nobody Puts Johnny in the Corner
Rare, Medium and Weldon
New Zealand’s Next Top Fraudster
Squeal of Fortune
Dancing with the Cops”
Go on…have a giggle…
I have a ‘live’ complaint to OMSA (Online Media Standards Authority) about recent posts made about me by Cameron Slater on his WhaleOil blog which are currently going through their ‘due process’.
I have been informed by OSMA that I should expect an outcome next week.
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
When/if it goes against you will you post the details here?
Wow, just wow – the stalking does not stop with you does it Puckish Rouge.
I freely admit that I have never stalked Penny Bright however if you’re going to post on here then I feel its an open invitation for questions
But you supported those that did.
You can do better then that, that was just plain lazy. Try again please.
Lazy, yeah sure. Your happy to undermine Penny any way you can, and if your hard right mates stalk her, you are happy with that. What a nice guy you are.
Not really, I just found her extremely long winded posts boring as she’d virtually never come back and answer questions (from left posters I might add) and the way she treated this site like it was her own personal soapbox is just rude (I don’t tell admin how to run this site because its their site to do with as they please)
You have a scroll mouse. Do what most of us do, scroll past. She has been pulled up a few times by Iprent and other
You have a scroll mouse. Do what most of us do to the likes of International Rescue or Alwyn, scroll past.
She has been pulled up a few times by Iprent and other moderators. And has changed how she posts, which is way more readable.
You should have stomped on the stalking though, we can agree on that?
I’m not a stalker, I’ve never stalked anyone so I have no idea what you’re on about.
When are you going to do the simple math sums I’ve posted up for you to do Puckish ………….. my little golem clown.
2.2 billion dollars ( fraud by johns john on behalf Aussie banks )
divided by 22 million ( total welfare fraud ) = how many years .
Puckish wont answer though because a 2.2 billion dollar fraud against New Zealand by John Keys self appointed judge is a no no subject for round mouth Puck .
Stalking a woman on the internet who has embarrassed John Key ( northland election trouncing & well done Penny 🙂 ) is our creepy golem clown Puckish’s mission at the moment.
The clowns an embarrassment to himself …………… Wayne mapp thinks he’s great though, and uses veet to show his appreciation ……. plus Puck told him it makes him look ‘bigger’.
I made the mistake of reading your post reason. Please post reference to the “$2.2 billion fraud by Johns John?? and how this relates to John Key…by that I mean a real reference from a court or similar.
And further how has Penny embarrassed anyone other than her self?
Chuck you made the mistake of making an idiotic post to me ……
John Shewan tried to screw New Zealand out of 2.2 billion dollars in a tax fraud he designed on behalf of the Aussie banks …..
“Westpac has lost its $918m tax battle with Inland Revenue.”
“Evidence in the seven-week case showed Westpac’s tax adviser, John Shewan (now chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers), advised not paying a rate below 15 per cent but in the end the amount he advised was 6.5 per cent. ”
“The IRD introduced evidence in the Westpac case quoting PricewaterhouseCoopers chairman John Shewan advising the bank earlier this decade that it should try to declare a tax rate close to that of its competitors, and that actual tax paid should be at least 6 per cent, compared to the corporate tax rate of 30 per cent.”
So john john has been found guilty ( or his clients were ), in a court of law.
Which leads back to my question chuck ….. or is it chump?.
Johns john had an attempted theft of 2.2 Billion from New Zealand.
This one piece of rich white trash temporarily succeeded in his fraud against NZ.
So the question is …. Again:
2.2 billion theft by johns john versus 22 million Total benefit theft in the year 2010./
How many years of benefit fraud would it take to reach the total that John Shewan attempted to steal ??????.
John key shoulder tapped Shewan to be the judge of nationals tax haven rules/setup .
Is John Key going to shoulder tap Clint Rickards to investigate claims of sexual abuse by the police ….
Or mike sabin to look at low conviction rates for some crimes ….
Because thats the standards I’m seeing.
Glad to explain for you 🙂
You had me confused by the Johns John reference…but I can now see your humor in it.
Basically, reason, you have gone off on some la la land tangent.
The words you have used “fraud” “steal” “theft” imply this was a criminal investigation / court case. Nothing can be further from the truth.
No chucky ……………… there was a 2.2 Billion dollar FINE in a court of law with a High court judge and everything …………. you can call that la la land if you want …… but thats just you avoiding the issue and refusing to do the math sum I have set ….,,.
‘tax haven/ theft by the rich’ supporting trolls, like yourself, do not want the simple fact of how much the rich are stealing to become common knowledge.
I’ve distilled it down ‘Hooten’ style but unlike him I’m not peddling lies ……………. I’m showing a simple truth.
2.2 Billion attempted theft/fraud by Johns john ( Shewan )
22 million dollars total welfare fraud in 2010
How many years of welfare fraud to equal the amount Johns john attempted to steal//// ………… it’ all effects the governments ‘budget’ in exactly the same way ………… but on a vastly different scale.
And if you cant do maths, perhaps your opinion on whether a man behind such a HUGE theft from New Zealand Government revenue should be the judge on New Zealands tax haven legalization.
johns john attempted to steal a lot hip operations, cancer drugs, money from police budgets and all the other ‘socialist’ things our government spends our tax money on …………
The fact that when a court of law stopped this Shewan crime and made them pay, putting the budget into surplus that year is not la la land stuff either ……….
p.s I’d reply to chuck but that option does not show on the webpage I see, and which is why I’m replying to myself
“But you supported those that did.”
Can you please explain? Stalking is a serious accusation.
Don’t bother wasting your time, he either won’t explain or he’ll go off on a tangent and then claim some sort of victory
Poor Puckish can’t even remember when he is being a sexist git.
Yesterday or the day before Penny Bright brought up the fact after making a complaint about Whale oil, goons from that web site had been stalking her. Puckish Rouges response was she had broken the law so she basically deserved it.
Leaving that aside, what exactly have done to be labelled a stalker? Ask a question and post a youtube clip that she was on…
Have a look at this and see if you learn anything:
And still you won’t say stalking women is evil and wrong. It gets worse, you won’t even condemn your stalker mates.
Instead you carry on with the personal attacks on me. What a winner you are.
Theres a lot things I think are evil and wrong but I don’t proclaim it because I don’t need to (stalking is bad m’kay)
However something I also find evil and wrong is falsely accusing someone
Penny was stalked and you acted superior, and when I pulled you up on it, you acted like a glib juvenile.
Now you’ are doing indignation. Man engage with real people. It’s never acceptable to be casual about violence to women. It’s never acceptable, just because we are on a different divide politically to be casual about stalking.
If I offended you, then good. Learn something from this.
“It seems that Cameron Slater has ‘sources’ who are, in my view, effectively stalking me, snooping around my property, taking photos and apparently then lying about what they are seeing.”
Thats what Penny wrote from the link, theres no proof of stalking at all but there is a lot of opinion stated as fact
If she feels she is being stalked then I’d suggest she go to the police and/or lawyer and get some legal advice
But her saying it doesn’t make it so, as I said before its a very bad thing to go around accusing people of something adam, it makes it harder for people to be believed when they do need to report something
That’s nice dear 🙂
It feels pointless with you sometimes, every time I think you may not be a complete cretin, you prove me wrong.
You are a bag of (foul) wind PR (look up PR in health terms while you are at it). Winding people up is not a skill, just a sign you don’t have enough in your life.
Thanks Adam, do you have a link?
Here http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04052016/#comment-1168100
The Case Against Hilary Clinton
http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=ffdc278104b5964bb04b4251e&id=fc585d4fe3&e=f36be083ee
This left wing comedian is a bit of a laugh
https://youtu.be/nv2W3LaGfDA?t=1h7m26s
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/303137/national-on-top-for-party-donations
“National on top for party donations
Labour received almost $280,000 and the Green Party just over $400,000.
ACT took in just over $162,000 and New Zealand First almost $80,000.
The Maori Party received just over $28,000 and United Future did not get any donations last year.
The donations returns are for the 2015 calendar year.
The donations are miniscule to what the parties received during the 2014 election year. In that year, National received almost $4 million, Labour $940,000 and the Greens received $970,000.”
Labour took in nearly $280 000 and the Greens just over $400 000…no wonder labour are in the crapper, let me guess there’ll be calls for parliamentary funded campaigns to, you know level the playing fields
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11633960
well, you know. Nothing better then money form the one that owns you and your ministers. 🙂
Quote:
” A Chinese-owned milk powder company reprimanded by Prime Minister John Key for using his photo without permission in its advertising in 2012 has donated $25,400 to the National Party.
Donation returns released yesterday show National’s total of $1.4 million included $25,338 in five separate donations from GMP Dairy, a Chinese-owned milk powder company based in Auckland.
In 2012, GMP Dairy subsidiary Cowala used a photo of Mr Key posing with its products in advertising in China after Mr Key opened its Auckland factory that year. That prompted Mr Key to write to the company to complain. A spokeswoman said it “implies the company’s product has an endorsement from the Prime Minister which it does not.”
At the time the company’s chief executive Karl Ye said the advert was created by one store and it had been asked to remove it. The 2012 incident has clearly been forgiven: National Ministers Steven Joyce and Bill English have both attended subsequent product launches for the company, as well as Party President Peter Goodfellow.
GMP Dairy also paid for National MPs Jami-Lee Ross and Stuart Smith to travel to China earlier this year.”
or as the old saying goes…… who’s your Daddy?
I think the people in charge of Labour should sit down a take a serious look at themselves and ask how it is that the Greens can raise a considerable amount of money more and what can Labour do to emulate it
You are scared, you went straight for concern trolling.
I’m scared because National took in 1.4 million and the next largest party took in 280 000, behind the Greens?
I’m sure there’s some sort of logic to your reasoning but I can’t work it out
Scared much, straight for the ad hominem.
But we are in that sort of debate. I call you a habitual liar, whose latest claim to infamy is to justify the stalking of women, and even in normal conversation can’t see they spin everything.
Always with the fake concern, and lets not forget the default pity party you fall into, when someone calls you on you spin and lies.
Oh and the not trying, just the repeating of sad lines over and over to make yourself feel good, that you support this countries most divisive government in history. Who’s mad lust for power, has meant they will use any weapon at their disposal to hold onto power. Which I must say you prove to me, and I’m sure many others, each and every day when you comment here.
I’ll say this for you, you have a very high opinion of yourself (which is good of course) but, like a lot of the left on here, you fall prey to hyperbole
“this countries most divisive government in history”
I’m sure the fourth Labour government (you remember Rogernomics and all that), the second National government (before my time but I’ve heard the Vietnam War brought out a few protestors) or how about the third National government (Springbok tour and all that) but no this government is the most divisive
Thanks for proving my point.
Anyway to hold on to power, with any spin possible.
Your point being that you’re melodramatic or your point being you say I’m scared but you never actually say what I’m scared of?
Poor Puckish, spinning so hard.
Do me a favour adam, save this thread so you can repost it after the 2017 election
I am wondering if the donations for the Greens includes their MP tithing. I believe they all pay 10% of their parliamentary salary to the party as a donation, and I don’t think Labour does that.
But perhaps Labour should, even if it were 5% that would make a big difference to the party coffers.
If that’s the case it appears to be working well for the Greens and it could be argued that as an MP you benefit greatly from the party (more so as a list mp) so paying the party some money isn’t a bad idea
lol
somehow I’m not sure that the Greens do it because they believe in user-pays for public office.
Well ok I agree with you on that but I meant more that rather then pay for the office you’re holding you’re repaying what the party has done for you but I get your point
ISTR an impression that it was because the Greens saw the parliamentary paycheques and decided they should practise what they preached when it came to tax rates for those on higher incomes.
Correct.
Maybe Labour should consider tithing. Get away from neoliberal “this is my money to do as I please salary as MP for the party’ and instead think I will chip in a donation per week to try to get my party over the line.
The Natz just give out tenders, contracts and awards for donations, which is why they got 1.4m. In most countries this is called corruption. Still waiting for the enquiry about 7.5m Scenic Hotels corporate welfare ‘aid’ after their $101,000 donation to the National party.
Labour has some sort of ethics on the donations and won’t take from Sky City and dodgy Chinese money. So maybe low donations also mean they are honest.
Labour has some sort of ethics on the donations and won’t take from Sky City and dodgy Chinese money.
– Probably has more to do with the Labour party sh**ing on them from a great height recently
So maybe low donations also mean they are honest
– Now that genuinely did make me snort out loud 🙂
The Green Party are rather like New Zealand First. They have a compulsory levy on all the MPs. I say “rather like” because Winnie excludes himself from the rule. Got to pay for his fags and booze after all.
They will probably call it voluntary of course. I’m sure they call it a “donation”. If you don’t volunteer you go to position 73 on the list.
I’m actually surprised that it is legal. Most countries have laws that mean you can’t insist on people having to pay a levy in order to get a paid position in any Government organisation. Sounds very close to extortion doesn’t it?
What Labour do of course is smear anyone who donates to National.
Remember back in 2005 when an person who emigrated to New Zealand from India, and was at the time living in the tax haven of Monaco and hadn’t lived in New Zealand for about 40 years gave $500,000 to the Labour Party?
That was just peachy of course. They even gave him an award in the ONZ for his generosity.
was that the guy who expected to be able to bribe Labour, and when he didn’t get his monaco bauble then promised to spend 100mil for poor kids provided NZ elected national?
And a few years later the nats gave him a bigger ONZ award than Labour did lol
I believe the Monaco bauble attempt was after he paid Winnies legal expenses.
Expecting anything out of Winston after doing him a very expensive favour is dreaming.
Actually expecting gratitude out of any politician is just wishful thinking. Their attitude doesn’t include gratitude. It is only “What are you going to do for me today?”
It must be depressing to have your opinion of humanity.
And, indeed, to have a moral compass that seems to equate “bribing someone” with “earning their gratitude”.
Your own viewpoint seems to be rather jaundiced.
It was you, after all, who is claiming that Glenn’s gift to the Labour Party was offering a bribe. I think he really did think at the time that Clark was a good PM.
Very badly mistaken though, wasn’t he? Do you remember when he was at a function to celebrate his giving money to establish a Business School. Helen Clark was also present. If Glenn looked like getting anywhere near her so that she might have to greet him Trevor Mallard would intercept him and keep him away from her.
Poor Owen. As I say, he discovered that politicians have no lasting gratitude
Oh, sorry, I assumed that your “They even gave him an award in the ONZ for his generosity” was suggesting that the award was linked to his donation to the Labour party, hence terming it a “bribe”.
At least he got a better gong from national, in gratitude for the promise to pay 100million if national got elected.
Owen Glenn paid for Winston’s legal fees, in turn Winston was going to put in a good word with the Labour government of the day for the Monaco position.
However it all turned to custard when Winston held up his now famous “NO” sign and the resulting investigation.
Interesting side note…Winston used his “lawyer and trust account” so to keep a Chinese wall between the $100k from Glenn, and Winston ability to deny any knowledge of the “gift”.
“Most countries have laws that mean you can’t insist on people having to pay a levy in order to get a paid position in any Government organisation. ”
You don’t seem to have a very clear idea about what a political party is, and how they are governed, do you?
Parties have constitutions that set up their rules and regulations. if the constitution requires tithing, then if you don’t do it, you’re in breach and the disciplinary provisions kick in, which would almost certainly have an expulsion clause that can be used when necessary.
I’m sure they do, have rules that is.
As a matter of fact of course they could only kick an MP who refused to pay up out of their caucus (and the list next election). They certainly couldn’t kick them out of Parliament could they?
However the rules of a political party, in spite of what Cunliffe claimed about his secret trust to support his leadership campaign, cannot override the law of the land.
You can be an MP but it’ll cost you doesn’t have a good ring to it.
And yes I know that they all do it. Calling it a “donation” is just trying to cover it up.
“You can be an MP but it’ll cost you doesn’t have a good ring to it.”
No, it’s “if you want to be a member of this club, it’ll cost you”. Just like people pay memberships for all sorts of clubs.
The greens only levie the charge against people who have attained a certain position within their club (MP) – a position that itself comes with a pretty decent salary package, and also a hell of a lot of hard work.
” Just like people pay memberships for all sorts of clubs.”
As I said, they just word it so it sounds better.
You wouldn’t be the fund raiser for a political party would you?
You can certainly word these things in an innocent way.
Another predictably tedious response from the Permanent Resident troll. I take it Puke-ish, that you approve of Jamie-Lee’s latest endeavours. Wake up and smell the odour. Meantime, spare us your apologist nonsense.
Have they broken any laws? If they have slam them if they haven’t then its not important
Work it out for yourself – “Bribery – the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other person in charge of a public or legal duty” Black’s Law Dictionary.
Should be pretty easy to bring a case against them, its not like there hasn’t been precedent before
Really?
You don’t care what anyone does, as long as it doesn’t break any laws?
More or less, I mean not going to go into a case by case scenario of every possible incident that could happen
For once i agree with you there Punkish Rogue.
What the F?
Labour need to work out if their ‘broad church’, non committal and convaluted policy approach is working. I personally want Labour to succeed but Kiwi’s need more than Nat Lite policy but a vision – like Savage to transform NZ.
In order to do that they must address 21 century challenges like globalism, neoliberalism, inequality and environmental degradation. Personally was heartened they had the UBI that showed they were prepared to think about new ideas and have put Cunliffe onto the panama papers, so maybe they are turning a corner.
But if Winston can do so well with only $80k in donations it means that money does not buy votes in this country for everyone, policy does and political astutness.
If we liken it to commerce then its obvious, from the amount of money coming in, that one party on the left is doing a better job of convincing people that its message is worth putting your hands into your pockets
and yeah money does help but its not the only thing, if it was Colin Craig would be in parliament (got close), Act would have more than one or two MPs and well the less said about KDC the better
But in regards to Labour and the Greens then Labour should be looking closely at what the Greens are doing (like that hasn’t been said on here in one way or another) and try to emulate them
Like staying on the same basic message, standing for something etc etc
fuck it really this is getting tedious.
Labour this, and Labour that, and half of the people commenting here are essentially only saying I wont give to Labour because (insert past grievance of the 80’s or something like tht ), and they won’t vote for Labour because (insert past grievance of the 80″s or something like that), and then they complain that a. not enough voters are voting for Labour and b. that they don’t rake in cash, but that they would vote for Labour or give to Labour if Labour would just do what they want them to do, never mind that they will never really do what you want them to do, cause purity and such.
Seriously, go find a party you can be happy with, and than at least you guys could stop whinging about all the things Labour does wrong.
Go find a party that does what you want, if that party does not exist, join one that comes close, and fund that fucking party, or create your own party, fundraise for it and find members and voters for it.
The system is called MMP, Labour does not need to best fucking anyone, they need to be able to work with the other parties, and that would be the best thing we could hope for. People in Parliament that work together instead of that current rent a parliament crowd that literally is funded by China and any other country or corporation that would like to buy something of them.
Yeah mf ers what she said.
Beautiful, thankyou Sabine:
“Go find a party that does what you want, if that party does not exist, join one that comes close, and fund that fucking party, or create your own party, fundraise for it and find members and voters for it.
The system is called MMP, Labour does not need to best fucking anyone, they need to be able to work with the other parties, and that would be the best thing we could hope for. People in Parliament that work together instead of that current rent a parliament crowd that literally is funded by China and any other country or corporation that would like to buy something of them.”
Labour need to entice back Mike Williams to fill the donation coffers again.
The latest brain wave from the Government to allow electric cars to clog up the busways doesn’t make sense. In Auckland the Northern Busway is very successful so it should be left alone. Why doesn’t the Government just half the cost of the Registration instead, or find another incentive for purchasers of electric cars. I was of the opinion that the Government ran the main transit routes and the council funded and built the local roads, what about all the bus lanes on these local roads, doesn’t the council have any say in this. The Northern Busway was a fantastic initiative to ease the gridlock for the Northern Motorway – why on earth now go and clog it up with cars – just doesn’t make sense to me. I am all for electric cars, the more we have the better but I just think this is an ingenious way to encourage the purchase of these cars.
more pissing away money to those that don’t need it.
a. who could afford an electric car tomorrow?
b. about 5% of the population?
but they would then get to use the buslane, not pay road user charges and so on and so on and so on.
while we increase fees for people that drive old cars – again, we must make up for the money that we just gave away to those that are in the needy 5 % highest income group. Cause they never have enough money for that Moet and Ferrari.
Don’t you feel special now?
But Sabine, you have just totally rubbished the New Zealand Green Party policy.
The only thing that is not being offered by the Government is a subsidy on electric cars, and a promise that the Government buy lots and lots of them.
https://www.greens.org.nz/news/press-release/govt-keeps-handbrake-electric-vehicles
The Greens were also proposing to provide taxpayer funded charging stations.
And to give electric vehicles free use of the roads.
https://www.greens.org.nz/policy/smarter-economy/business-tax-breaks-clean-transport-options
Lovely big subsidies.
You’re either purposefully misrepresenting what the Green Party said or you’re stupid.
Seems fairly bloody obvious what was meant. So obvious even a stupid person would get it.
I see someone from a pressure group “Generation Zero” is attacking the Government for possibly allowing electric vehicles into the bus lanes.
His argument is that they are quiet, cyclists won’t realise they are there and the cyclists will therefore get killed
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/electric-cars-in-bus-lanes-silent-killers-2016050608#axzz47qvHZyGS
I hope he takes his case up with the Green acolytes in Wellington. They want to retain all the trolley buses and then replace all the other buses with electric ones.
Here (in Wellington) cyclists are allowed to use the bus lanes. He will obviously be opposed to this as the buses are quiet and will also bump off all the people on their bikes.
The trolley buses actually are dangerous. Pedestrians don’t hear them and are much more likely to step in front of one than they are to do it with a diesel bus. Any time you read about a pedestrian being hit by a bus in the city it turns out to be a trolley bus rather than a diesel.
Get rid of the trolley buses I say. Save the lives of pedestrians and cyclists.
I call on the “caring” Greens to push my campaign and get rid of the trolley bus dinosaurs.
Alwhynger your out of Date.
The trolley buses are to be retired replaced with electric buses hopefully you will be visiting Wellington soon.
That is the current proposal.
It is, however NOT what the Green Party want.
Have a look at what the Trekkie Hughes wants.
https://home.greens.org.nz/takeaction/submissionguides/wellington-trolley-buses
Have a look at what is going to happen to the trolley buses. They are still going to be there. They are still going to be silent, and just a deadly.
They are just going to stop using overhead wires.
The trolley buses are dangerous because they are silent. The converted ones are going to be just as bad.
Perhaps you should visit Wellington. I live here.
Been run down often Alwyn?
No, but I know someone who was. Survived luckily.
I have on the other hand been knocked down twice by cyclists at Oriental Bay. They are also silent, and dangerous. They ride, often at high speed, on the footpath. It is legal there but not safe.
They come up behind you on the footpath, pass very close to the pedestrian and would never consider ringing, or even having, a bell to give a warning. Most Wellington cyclists are bloody idiots.
In Tokyo the electric cars I have seen/heard have a ‘rattle’ built in so you can hear them
The cyclists in Tokyo ride on the footpath, and they have and use a bell and also are considerate.
Well Sabine, since (if Pareto’s rule holds) about 5 or 10% of New Zealanders (the wealthiest) are responsible for about 50% of NZ emissions, I’d say give them the fucking cars. In the future they can whine about the show wondering whatever happened to their glorious me, me society.
Yes, nothing like giving one rich old git in a Prius the same access as a bus with 50 or 60 people in it to demonstrate your contempt for public transport.
Not sure that Prius qualify – we are talking Leaf and Tesla. You can buy a reasonable late model Prius for around $10,000. Ok that is way more than many people can afford for a car I know – but it is not in the $30,000+ range for an EV of similar age.
Prius while substantially reducing emissions for a similar sized car (around 4.4L/100km) is a hybrid. It runs a petrol engine at a low speed when needed to charge a much smaller battery than a pure EV.
I agree however with your sentiments wrt to bus lanes. The Govt needs to place far more emphasis on developing public transport providing better, more, and faster services so that cars become unnecessary and undesirable for the majority of personal travel. The current congested state of Aucklands roads is now a case in point. People are forced to use cars because the public transport is so poor, and expensive.
Because they’re trying to stop people using buses and other public transport. There’s nowhere near as much profit to be made from people using public transport.
Its because they live in Wellington most of the year and haven’t a bloody clue how clogged up our motorways are here in Auckland – the buslanes help people to keep off the roads and the Gov. has to be as thick as bat s…. encouraging even more cars – Sabine is correct, how many people can afford electric cars anyway – we seriously need a good network of trains, light rail and buslanes – it will not be that many years before AK will be totally gridlocked and how will commerce bring in the tax dollars for the gov. then when it’s at a stand still – as I said thick as bat s….. and wilfully wrecking the environment for future generations to boot.
I wish the government would keep its sticky beak out of AK – the council is trying to encourage public transport and at least is trying to see ahead for the future – this gov. is absolutely bloody useless in everything it does.
Yeah Auckland is near gridlock now – I live in Thames after living in Auckland for 25 years. Last week I had to travel up to Auckland. It took as much time to travel from Pt Chev to Manakau along the southern motorway around 2pm as it did to travel the rest of the journey.
yeah Its pretty much gridlocked already – took an hour or more to travel from western springs to Manakau down the Southern Motorway the other day around 2pm! Bumper to bumper – stop start the whole way.
No, this government is achieving what it set out to do which is more profits for rich people. This invariably costs everyone else more. In context of transport that’s more in cars, more in fuel, more road taxes, more death due to the increased pollution and more time due to the grid lock.
Thing is, that grid lock also increases profits for the rich because of more car and fuel sales. Cars are the perfect example of why the profit drive produces the worst possible outcomes for society.
What sort of a proficient, professional company/association/Government only works successfully for the 1% of people/clients – in the private sector every one practicing these sort of work efficiencies would go broke. I stand by my words, the Government are bloody useless. They are killing off the golden egg – Auckland which gives the largest tax take – companies will end up at a stand still and still this Government cannot see it. Ever see trucks trying to get through to the port or to go south/north on the motorways, they waste more time sitting in their cabs frustrated as hell. Useless, incompetent, visionless idiots, the whole lot of the cabinet.
They do go broke and then their bought and paid for governments come along and bail them out.
Yes but they don’t see it that way. All they see is rich people getting richer and thus the economy must be booming. They don’t see the poverty that they create nor the inefficiency as they give jobs to their mates that they then massively over pay.
It’s all about the profits and it causes massive inefficiency and over use of resources just so that a few people can have more money and power.
It’s not incompetence. They’re achieving what they want to achieve. Sure, it will eventually destroy the society and will kill a lot of people but a few people got richer and that’s all that matters to them.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e1/0c/a6/e10ca6d5961489a16252a0f2561cecdb.jpg
The treatment of Willie was bloody disgraceful. If you are a social democrat a question for you – after watching this do you still think that privilege will give up an inch of power? Because the contempt I saw on display here for Maori, is the same contempt I see from this lot towards working stiffs, mums, the young, Pacific, and anyone else who is not a part of there club. And power folks is something privilege enjoy more than you realise.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/05/06/waatea-5th-estate-who-owns-the-water/#comment-335742
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11634218
– Well heres something I’m sure we can all agree is long overdue
Yep, I’d probably agree with that decision. When are they going to apply it to company directors?
No need to, private companies can make their own decisions because we, fortunately, do not live in a communist country
The same conflict of interest exists when a person is director of two or more companies. Engaging in such conflicts of interest is simply corruption and we need to be getting rid of corruption and not supporting it.
And it’s not about being communist but about supporting ethical behaviour.
Be honest Draco you’d prefer to see NZ become a communist country
WTF has that got to do with the discussion of the ongoing corruption of our business community?
Robinson helicopters in NZ. How long have we heard reports about them not being used according to manufacturers instructions?
Decades? Now reports are official. The head of the firm is coming to NZ to see what our flyboys are doing to the reputation of his firm’s product.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/303171/nz-used-choppers-raise-crash-questions
Of course nothing to worry about officially. We don’t need regulations and bothersome checks, they just get in the way of doing business. (Like having OIA investigations instead of fast tracking the purchase of tracts of our land, 10 farms in Northland for $42 million, Lachlan? station for $82 million?)
We are slaphappy about everything these days, preferring to paper over the cracks, fill them with silly putty, say that makes me uncomfortable to families of dead workers, deny compensation to the injured, and generally make people afraid of eating bananas in case someone slips on a skin. At the end of the day, problems can be smoothed away with money or derision, and then it’s back to BAU.
Well, not everything. Beneficiaries are obviously all criminals and need to be made to pay.
/sarc
It is time we got back to the old slogan “Make love, not war.”
If having extra marital affairs was the worst thing that anyone did, life wouldn’t be so saddening. And with luck, no-one wiould be dead at the end.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/303179/priest-stood-down-over-25-year-old-affairs
I had to shake my head at this stupidity…
And the traditional churches wonder why their attendances are declining.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2015/06/guantanamo-child-omar-khadr-150531111517474.html
13 years in the US American Gulag.
C’mon all yer senators and wanna be’s
let’s make US America Great Again.
A Canterbury man who flew a drone over a forest fire has been found guilty of breaching new Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) rules surrounding drone operation.
Good.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/303198/man-found-guilty-on-drone-charges
Looks like John Key may have to chose between Whitney and Obama!!! 🙂
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/may/06/panama-papers-us-launches-crackdown-on-international-tax-evasion
He’ll side with the tax dodgers while making noises about clamping down on tax dodging.
And, of course, Obama hasn’t said anything about clamping down on internal tax evasion.
The Bailouts Were for the Banks: Study Confirms Rescue Loans Didn’t Serve Greeks
All of the bailouts since the start of the GFC have been to protect the rich from their own actions. Quite simply, the worlds wealthy should have become destitute back in 2008. Instead, the poor were taxed to prop up their failures.
Those failures continue today and the poor are still propping them up.
Crikey, Mediaworks being punished ??? or I am just being reactionary now?http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/303203/reserve-bank-bans-mediaworks-from-press-conferences
And a bloody good thing too.
They have a lock up before these announcements, and the budget as well, so that the media outlets can get a pre-release look at what is going to be announced. The purpose is to allow them time to understand what is going on so that they can comment accurately on what is being announced. No communication with anyone outside is allowed. Mediaworks ignored it, posted a draft article back to the office and the people there happily disseminated it.
That could have been an enormously valuable piece of news as they had early knowledge of an unexpected cut in the OCR.
I would kick them out of the pre-budget lock up as well. Stuff them.
But their a private company and SStephen Joyce has shares in it.
Everything in the business side is always better than public broadcasting.
Weldon was in charge he was the best boss ever a creative mind he sacked all the high paid journalists and put check out operators day labourers into the newsroom alwhynger,
I thought you would be right up their with Glucina.
“SStephen Joyce has shares in it”.
That is completely false. Why do you feel the need to lie about things like this?
For your education, although I do not expect you to remember, here is a bit of history.
Stephen Joyce founded Radio Works.
Radio Works was bought out completely with the new owner taking over 72% in May 2000 and the remaining 28% in January 2001. I believe it was a hostile takeover.
He has had no financial interest since that date. Clear?
The group of companies now called MediaWorks has gone through various restructurings, changes of ownership and receiverships but none of them have had anything to do with him.
To repeat. Why do you feel the need to lie about him?
From No right turn… What a joke!
A poor choice
David Cameron is holding an anti-corruption summit in London next week, aimed at “step[ping] up global action to expose, punish and drive out corruption in all walks of life”. New Zealand’s representative to this summit? Apparently its Judith Collins:
Surely not. Judith Collins picked to be NZ’s rep at David Cameron’s anti-corruption summit in London on 12 May? #Oravida
— David Shearer (@DavidShearerMP) April 23, 2016
This would be the same Judith Collins dubbed the “Minister of Corruption” over her dodgy Oravida dealings. Is John Key taking the piss, or did he take the title literally as an endorsement rather than a disqualification? Or did they just view the summit as an opportunity for someone to get a free taxpayer-funded holiday to London, and it was Collins’ turn at the trough? Either way, its a perfect sign of just how little National cares about corruption, tax evasion and international money-laundering, and how unlikely we are to see any real progress on tax cheating from them.
I think Irvine Welsh has kiind of nailed it.
4:01am
Labour were first replaced as party of the left in Scotland by SNP.
Now they are being replaced as party of the unionist right by Tories.
— Irvine Welsh (@IrvineWelsh) May 6, 2016
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14474674.Live__Scottish_election_2016/
At the time of posting this, Labour have held one seat in Scotland and lost 4. (They’ll pick up more from the list seats)
The Tories have won two, which is double what they had.
Less than 1% separates Labour and the Tories with just under half of the vote in – 22.1 and 22.8% (if I’m reading things right).
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2016/may/05/uk-election-results-tracker-2016
Corbyn has nailed it here, talking about the media obsession (driven by Crosby Textor manipulation no doubt) with his leadership over the “grotesque inequality” we have to tolerate whilst the 1% continue to take from the rest of us, good man:
https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjuzsz8usTMAhUDoZQKHdOqATYQqQIIGzAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2Fvideo%2F2016%2Fmay%2F03%2Fjeremy-corbyn-media-are-obsessed-with-my-leadership-video&usg=AFQjCNFkt6g_PlBOm6UBOIKfE9wXzDnpsw&sig2=2d1cQ_LmHAUNIhcrd2Hbcw
We are lucky enough someone out there has exposed the corruption in the “Panama Papers” and Key’s response is to spend more millions on trying to prevent exposure of corruption, calling it “cyber crime” ……WHAT? who are you trying to kid Mr.Key? you do realise Planet Key is only pretend don’t you? We live on the same planet, and you do not need such wealth at our expense.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/79700027/auckland-beggars-breach-bylaws-up-to-900-times-a-month
So that’s 900 times some shopkeeper decides they don’t like the look of someone outside their shop?
FFS!
He wouldn’t know what a conflict of interest was if he fell over it!
Accepting donations from a Company and then accepting their free air travel and accommodation to go and pimp for them over and above similar NZ products is not a conflict of interest as an MP for NZ???
Whitney letter shows up in Panama Papers http://www.afr.com/news/politics/world/the-panama-papers-behind-mossack-fonsecas-secret-new-zealand-deals-20160506-gonstp
Looks like this shit is real now:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79714914/the-panama-papers-new-zealand-link-revealed
Veteran cartoonist fired for pro-farmer, anti-Big Ag piece
https://www.rt.com/viral/341805-monsanto-veteran-cartoonist-fired/