Welcome back to ‘The Standard’ we missed you yesterday after about 1’30pm when the site was cut, but now now up again thanks to the folks at The Standard.
Must have been some “house cleaning” that was gong on?
cleangreen
I read recently how in late WW2 the Allies were not sorry that Hitler was not killed in the attempted assassination by bomb. They knew him, understood his paranoia and obsessions, and were sure they could match any of his maneouvres, outthink him and eventually win over Germany. They didn’t want someone else with a clear head and new approach taking over and changing the style. Don’t wish Bridges gone,
He is the very model of a modern right-wing national
his intellect is vegetable, integrity ephemeral,
His caucus not dependable, their loyalties transferrable
and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
their internecine fighting has been eminently recordable
their crises management is far from being laudable
their efforts to deflect reporters now become most laughable
and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
Excellent McFlock – now write the rest of the soapy opera and you will have a hit. You will be as good as a rock star. It may produce a sellout from the Right, or not but one could hope.
I’m tempted to suggest that it was a test of what the Standard would look like if we ever instituted a paywall model, but I understand it was actually something to do with flies in the server and Lprent had to get out the RAID.
National should get radical and come out as a “champion strong advocate on climate change” .
They can easily argue and suggest that we must restore our rail system as another ‘Land transport option’ for freight and passenger with a” low emission carbon footprint safer transport service”. Last night on Newhub there was a senoir well respected scientist stating that ‘air passenger service’ is the highest carbon footprint service with every single passenger.
Figures shown by University of Wellington Professor James Renwick were showing that a single air passenger trip from Auckland to Wellington showed each passenger uses 145 kgs of carbon, where by rail it was 17kgs, and electric car was 11kgs, and by bus was 22kgs from memory,
Maybe we should each have a shrinking annual allocation of air miles. If you choose not to use them yourself you can sell them to someone else. If you don’t want anyone to use them you can sell them to the government who cancels them. Administrative nightmare of course. But a side benefit would be outraging the likes of wee Mikey Hoskie.
Also people too poor to travel get an extra income stream.
Good on ya, ankerawshark. I think it’s safe to say that the efforts of the team behind TS would mean nothing if we didn’t have contributors like yourself adding comments of real substance to the site. He aha te mea nui o te ao, he tangata he tangata he tangata!
Basically he is dropping the wrong half. Light rail to the west makes a lot of sense. It would be far better to do heavy rail to the airport. The whole Dominion Rd thing looks fraught.
The main problem NZ really has when it comes to transport issues, future proofing public, private and commercial transport is simply the total lack of guts and imagination.
Thus no glory. But for what its worth, non so gutless then National. In nine years in government your boys and girls in parliament have managed to get nothing done. And that is quite something.
A long time ago i watched a debate on TV between John Key – National, Helen Clark – Labour, Jeanette Fitzsimmons – Green. John Key waffled on how he was gonna bring NZ wages to parity with OZ and tax cuts, Helen Clark was protecting her last nine years, and Jeanette Fitzsimmons spoke about how we needed investment in public transport, needed trains, trams and buses to get us everywhere in this country, and the rest is history.
so the last ones to complain about any party doing anything about public transport is National. They have had nine years and literally only have a housing crisis, homelessness and record public debt to show for.
This from the linked NZHerald item: The Government may have to scale back its $6 billion light rail programme for Auckland by scrapping a line from the city centre to west Auckland, says Transport Minister Phil Twyford.
The MP for Te Atatu said it was his strong preference to see light rail built from the city centre to the west and to the airport, but if it is not possible to fund and finance both lines, then light rail to the airport will get priority.
National Party people would have been the ones preventing expenditure on public transport since the year dot. The year dot is when it was being officially talked about. The number of human bodies on the local bodies that could think further than their own pockets, and their next term in power was greater than the co-efficient of whatever. Simple mathematics and a long-term viewpoint were incompatible and me-first maths won.
Now it is important to get something signed up and started now. If National manage to weasel their way in to power we will get more and more simple mathematics. And never get close to coping with our complex problems which can never be actually solved, just understood and ameliorated.
Don’t forget the rundown public services, infrastructure shortages, privatization of assets (THEFT with 300 000 opposing signatures and public opinion polls ignored).
The bashing of poor people, dark people, green people through public media (They’re all wreckers and haters), through police, banks, spy services (who also turned out to be relatively f’n useless).
Don’t forget the war trajectory and you personally and your team dishing out Islamophobia.
Now you reckon you know about trains. You lot sell trains Wayne, you don’t build them so let’s get real.
If there’s no heavy rail to airport on the table right now (and there is not), the sensible move would indeed be to service the airport with already underway light rail first.
Wanye;
I have stated on 2.1 that National needs to show ‘environmental leadership’ on all rail services both freight and passenger services.
2.1 “National should get radical and come out as a “champion strong advocate on climate change” .
They can easily argue and suggest that we must restore our rail system as another ‘Land transport option’ for freight and passenger with a” low emission carbon footprint safer transport service”.
I didn’t talk about Cict rail link did I?
Auckland City is not NZ unless you are an Aucklander.
National were dragged reluctantly into the project what? something like a year later. I’d have to look it up.
Almost certainly because the transport projects that National funded (Roads of significance to National) had appalling business cases. They were so poor that National stopped showing them in public. At the same time the CRL was showing good returns.
Personally I think that the ONLY reason that the Key government approved it was because the hypocrisy levels were getting too high for even Nationals donors as Auckland traffic kept getting worse as National built empty highways.
The motorway projects have way better BCR’s than any public transport project.
It is possible to make any project look good if you don’t bother to include economic costs in the BCR.
For instance that is what appears to have happened with East-West Link, and as far as I can tell it was the case with almost all of the RoNS.
Of course if you over-estimate the economic costs as happened in the CRL assessments by NZLTA, then you get whatever number if deemed to be relevant. Of course it helps if you don’t provide the workings so that they can be criticized by others. There was a rather wide range between the ACC economic assessments and those from NZLTA.
It is possible to make any project look good if you over-estimate the changes in traffic. That appears to be the case with almost all of the RoNS projects that I looked at. For that matter if you look at the extensions to the SH1 motorways
Conversely, if you massively under-estimate the take up of a public transport system you can make public transport look extremely bad. NZLTA BCRs routinely do that.
It has happened with very NZLTA assessment in Auckland that subsequently got built. Including the Northern busway ( right the way through to not requiring a bridge replacement), double tracking and electrification of the Auckland heavy rail and the massive increases in use of PT (and the reduced need to try to increase capacity on our in-city motorways), changes in bus routes, etc…
Basically, unless the NZLTA starts to do public estimates with funding for some public checks on their analysis, I’d say that they’re just a tool of the roading construction companies. Because that is what they look like to me.
Forced on a very reluctant National after their favored business case from NZLTA proved to be completely flawed and after the BCRs for RoNS were lacerated by expert scrutiny.
In May 2011 the Government noted that after reviewing an initial business case for the project, it was unconvinced of the economic benefits of the tunnel. However, Minister of Transport Steven Joyce noted that he would not stand in the way of Auckland continuing planning and route designation work – if Auckland paid for it.[5] In June 2011 Auckland Council voted to approve $2 million for planning and route protection for the tunnel, with Auckland Transport, rather than KiwiRail, undertaking the process.[32]
In March 2012, Auckland Council decided to bring forward spending from the 2012–2013 budget, in order to continue progress protecting the eventual route. $6.3 million was spent on work including geotechnical surveys, utility and building assessments, contaminated site reports and rail operations modelling and $1.7m towards providing a revised business case, requested by the government.[33][34]
“the 1972 Rapid Transit Plan for Auckland. The history of this plan is eerily similar to our current situation in many ways. It was a revolutionary scheme championed by the charismatic mayor of Auckland Dove Myer Robinson (leading to the nickname ‘Robbie’s Rapid Rail’), despite the mayoralty and council not having the means to actually fund the thing independently. They began working on alternate funding solutions such as a targeted land tax but found them impossible to implement without support from Wellington. In the end by the Labour government reluctantly offered an election pledge to fund the proposal, but failed to deliver on that pledge. A wholly unsupportive National government were voted into power in 1975 and in 1976 the plan was cancelled completely.”
In the interim we got Britomart. Then we tried to connect stuff up…
“Further input was provided by Auckland Transport, which commissioned the study after the Government and the council had arrived at very different conclusions about the rail loop’s return on every dollar invested. Given all that, this study should be the definitive research, not yet another document destined to gather dust. Mr Brown’s task now is to convince Aucklanders that the study is robust and its conclusions are right. If he can, the Government should stand to one side.”
“On 27 January 2016, Prime Minister John Key announced in his state of the nation address that central government funding for main works construction of the CRL had been confirmed and this would allow Auckland Council to start to construct the main works from 2018, with central funds guaranteed to flow from 2020. Commentary at the time reflected an opinion that this was a belated agreement to central government funding of the project by the ruling National Party, while the main opposition parliamentary parties (Labour Party, Greens and NZ First) had all been promising immediate construction timetables which were more closely aligned to the plans of the council.”
Stalling, mucking about, fudging, and dragged kicking and screaming after a myriad of others plans were rejected outright, many of them good plans, that was what National did. Also tried to force the entire bill on Auckland as if transport was not in their portfolio.
Roads of National (party) significance, that was your thing.
i have lived for 20 years now here in NZ, so started under shipley. At that time you had to throw yourself in front of a bus – when one came, never on time – to get it too stop.
Claiming a tunnel being build as their own, while it was done under labour, also Nationals thing.
Auckland is at shambles because your Party did nothing. Absolutely nothing other then build roads that are clogged 24 hours.
Your rammed thousands of people in this city, and gave not one thought to the infrastructure. Cause that is hard work, and your lot is not known for working and certainly not hard work.
National, a Party as usefull as its leader Simon “NO Bridges for Northland’ Bridges.
And believe me, if National would have actually achieved just something of value to the public – and not business interest – we would know by now 🙂
Light Rail down Dominion Rd across the Mangere Bridge to the Airport will be an absolute shambles during the construction phase ?
The roads are already chock a block to the Airport from 6.00am to 6.00pm with 35,000 people currently working at the Airport projected to 55,000 in 5 years time ?
Light Rail down Dominion Rd across the Mangere Bridge to the Airport will be an absolute shambles during the construction phase ?
The roads are already chock a block to the Airport from 6.00am to 6.00pm with 35,000 people currently working at the Airport projected to 55,000 in 5 years time ?
Have a look to the french City of Nice.
Very similar to AKL, one side mountains, other side water, and a large and sprawling city wedged in.
Within three years the whole city got the Tram – light rail, dedicated bus lanes, (train already existed), and the cost of using public transport was initially 1 euro irrespective where you went in the Department Alpes Maritimes – Monaco to Marseille and up the mountains. Now the cost is at 1.50$ per ride.
A lot of people stopped driving the car.
but nice had a choice to make, either die in traffic and of smog or put up with some inconvenience and move to the future.
Really cool were the new archeological finds near la place Massena, the old part of Nice and at the old fish market. they were put under glass during construction and were made open to the public.
It can be done, a bit of guts, a bit of good will, above all political will and it can be done.
The question is has NZ got guts, good will and political good will, or is it just another thing that ‘we can’t do’ cause…………..?
It is hardly comparable with Auckland.
The population is about 340,000 or only about one fifth of Auckland.
It is even smaller than Wellington or Christchurch.
Absolute bollocks Wayne.
Light rail to the west is a total waste of money considering there already is a line to Whangarei via Helensville currrently used by the odd freight train.
A $50,000 fire suppression system fitted for use through the Waitakere tunnel, is all that’s required.
You obviously have no idea Wayne what the people of West Auckland need or want.
From the Trains to Huapai facebook page
“Residents of West Auckland have been calling out for commuter train shuttles to run from Swanson station through the currently unused Waitakere station to Huapai for a number of years. It is the number one most wanted public transport issue commented on in numerous Auckland Transport surveys and consultations. Yet prospects of Trains to Huapai to meet the needs of accelerating housing development now, have been stymied by the government’s unproven long term focus on light rail trams to Kumeu.”
“We are pleased the Government through NZTA is funding twice daily commuter trains from Hamilton to Papakura for around $60 million. However, for less than $4 million the people of Nor-West Auckland could have hourly rail shuttles operating seven days a week from Huapai and Waitakere to Swanson station”
“Twyford admits the promised light rail trams to Kumeu look like not happening for decades.
So why not get the Trains To Huapai? Fact is Phil Twyford (Labour) and Genter(Greens) listen to a self appointed group calling themselves “Greater Auckland” who designed the light rail trams for everywhere map. This small group successfully sold their dream to the Minister of Transport and Mayor Phil Goff.
We are frustrated that a small group of light rail enthusiasts with connections to the light rail industry have robbed Nor West Auckland of commuter trains.
Trams to Kumeu 2049?
Trains to Huapai can be delivered 2019 if there’s political will.”
That’s really interesting. If the figure of $4M is true it’s a pittance for what it would achieve. But surely that doesn’t include the engines, rolling stock, staff…
Is there a business case the group could take to the business communities in these areas? With them on-side the group might have more clout, and maybe match some of the funds?
Great for business. More foot traffic. Better access to greater Auckland and for greater Auckland to get to them. Eases congestion for freight in/out and tradies.
Around $45 subsidy per passenger, 43 passengers per day, that’s nearly $2k a day subsidy. $700k a year subsidy. That was before electrification, there’s be a bit of a headache integrating services between the electrified and non-electrified bits.
They identified some of the issues in that trial (rail in disrepair, no broader connectivity to broader network), wonder if they’ve worked on how to fix them.
I guess as we get a network where population is dense first hopefully providing a feasible base, we have a chance of then hooking up more satellite services. And then that might do what one would hope transport spending does – better access to and from wider Auckland, and easing congestion.
The planet is of course a nice plug for rail too, but only if it is actually pulling vehicles off roads.
Their trial rail service served no one. That’s why is was not patronised. After only a year it was deemed a failure.
Of course it was designed exactly for that result.
The rail service from Helensville to Auckland that ran up until the early 70s was well patronised. I know, I used it. Why, when the population has quadrupled, should public rail transport be not viable in the west.
A perfectly satisfactory line exits FFS! Why should it not be used.
Oddly enough, if that 43 users per day is accurate, then I’m personally acquainted with nearly 5% of the total patronage. Wealthy lifestyle block types, both of them.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it was made to fail. Way back when Dad was an engineer they bought rolling stock that could only run half the pace of the engines to claim trucks were superior for freight.
Kind of as a ‘just as an aside’, I’m picking the whole thing is, and will be another example of short-medium term ‘thinkery’ with various lobbyists pushing their various, and differing barrows.
So far, I bet there are factions with a vushun of light rail options based on their partikyala oseas experiences, and other with opposing views.
ALL peshnit about what they do.
And as things stand, I’ll bet some of the options are already at the stage where they’ve ‘invisiged solutions [going forward’] and, come what may – that is all.
I’d also put money on their ‘solutions [going forward]’ come with minor little details such as their light rail coming with a different line gauge, such that things like train-trams can’t easily be implemented.
Quote; “If you fly the 496km between Auckland and Wellington, you emit around 150kg of carbon dioxide equivalent.
A medium-sized car making the same journey emits about a third less, while a bus, train and electric car all have significantly lower emissions – just under 55kg between all three of them.
This is a must watch for Government MP’s flying from Auckland today for parliament tomorrow in Wellington.
Hear this Phil Twyford, – ‘take a train passenger service to Wellington with Jacinda and lower your carbon footprint’s too.’.
A bloody good start in reducing the amount of flying our MPs do would be to require all the List MPs to move to Wellington when they get elected. Then we wouldn’t need to pay for them to have accommodation provided in Wellington either, or to have to move their families backward and forward at tax-payer expense.
This would not apply of course to the Electorate MPs. They actually need to travel to and from their electorates as they actually have work to do there.
Having the Green Party leader drop out of his position as the biggest single user of overseas travel would be nice as well.
Then he might have time to spend on the fiasco that is his Statistics Department.
As if child poverty and the growing working poor aren’t bad enough, NZ Capitalism Ltd is now delivering growing pensioner poverty. Given the falling rates of home ownership pensioner poverty is like to expand over the coming generation.
Labour are shackled by the -bean counters and the right wing roger douglas brigade side of their caucus sadly.
These right wingers will hold onto our public purse so very tightly even though they promised so much and never have delivered now.
So the clock countdown now begins to the election, – as they have less than half their term left now.
Transport minister is in hiding and needs to come out in the budget to explain why our rail has not been revived yet around all our provinces. The road toll is worse than when he took over so he needs to provide a safe regional rail freight and passenger service to save lives, and our health and wellbeing.
Labour are basically ideologically driven, getting the doing part going is the hard part, they talk a big game but do not have the skills to get things done as most of them have very little real world practical experience, National are not much better IMHO ?
It is all about getting re-elected most politican’s in all the Political Parties would not have a clue, as they have no real world experience, it is all about celebrity politics and who MSM want elected. There is very little difference between Labour & National ?
Instead of JAQing off, how about you do the research yourself.
But there’s one thing I’m confident you won’t find: outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations. To get outbreaks like the measles outbreaks bursting out all over the place at the moment, you need significant portions of the population to be unvaccinated.
If those outbreaks only affected the fuckwits that choose to refuse vaccinations for themselves, I’d take a Darwinian view of it. Sadly, the ones that bear the brunt of the outbreaks are those that shouldn’t be vaccinated for genuine medical reasons (such as the immunocompromised), the too young, those unfortunate few for whom the vaccination is ineffective … and the really really unfortunate ones whose fuckwit parents refused the vaccine and didn’t tell them.
Bring on the lawsuits to hold accountable those who refuse vaccines without genuine medical reason, that then go on to get sick and infect others.
Since there’s no actual content in all of that, it’s kinda hard to respond to.
But I gotta know; a while back you called me the very worst commenter on The Standard. Am I still number 1? If not, who do I hafta take down to get my crown back?
Ha not do fast young sir. I know I irritate the old one two a lot and often he is left in a quivering, slobbering, impotent rage after one of my comments. He can’t even reply coherently such is his distress just a mumble of words as if spilt from a very large soup bowl of alphabet soup. They appear to be words but, well, who can tell.
Andre, in a number of ways you are one of the ‘worst’…name calling, uninformed in the extreme…especially on this subject…
Yet, in other ways and on some subject matter, your comments are informative and knowledgeable…as you are aware…I appreciate that…as I let you know recently…
I do hold back on this particular subject and do not seek to reignite the discussion…but will always respond if it is started up…
There is a casm of misunderstanding on your part…there is also a plethora of scholarly articles readily available with a simple search regarding outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations…
By the way . Outbreak = 3 according to CDC…
Not just failing and waning measles (MMR) vaccine…but many others…in fact almost all vaccines…they fail..have failed and are failing…
Branch out..I’m certain you’re capable…perhaps you’re fearful of what you’ll find….
Start with the question I posed…it is root cause…starting point…
Everything which follows, stemming from and including pre-licensure…is a fraud..
As I’ve said before, I regard you as a supercilious spouter of arcane claptrap with an inflated sense of your own ability and I regard your woo-beliefs on vaccination as a malignant threat to public health.
I’ve been following the videos and life of a talented young Czechoslovakian man Adam Celadine …. he’s a world record holder and world champion in some aspects of knife throwing ….
in a large part thanks to his tutorial videos, I’ve taken up a new hobby.
Anyway this young man was struck down and made seriously ill with metastasizing cancer …. I know a little bit about cancer and was very concerned for him.
The good news is he has now tested clear …. and he has some good advice in his short Video announcing his path back to good health
Hell that looks dangerous and reminds me of a Roald Dahl story about being to light a ligher in 20 consecutive attempts …. or lose your finger … yikes ! :O
This young lady knows how to chuck a knife …. and she has good safety tips …. like wearing safety glasses etc .
The wind flutter in the video disappears shortly into it …..
lol at one job I could goof off and practise throwing a work knife (wrong knife for it – short, handle heavy lock knife). All good fun until the ricochet comes flying back at me point first lol. Good for one’s reflexes 🙂
Free speech “purists” say that we should let these racists be racist loudly and publicly, and then laugh or ridicule their ideas. Those people who say that are often white and male. Not always, but often. And they have the privilege to laugh and ridicule those ideas because they are usually ideas that don’t threaten their existence. However if you’re from an often oppressed group – Māori, Muslim, Rainbow, Jewish, or even female – those words that we’re told to laugh at and ridicule aren’t funny. They’re words that make your life uncomfortable and unpleasant to live through. They’re words that frighten and degrade you. They are words of hate.
And just as nice @ MM, the latest ‘Listening Post’ special on Aljazeera – especially when they cover all those ‘reality TV’ type “Border Force” programmes …. almost like the poor man’s pornography.
We’ll reserve a cameo spot for James Casson in the next series (as if he hasn’t already got his jollies from being a party to it all already).
it was 1-2 with a different avatar. Didn’t think much of it until my comment ended up at the bottom as a whole number, and the fool was back to the usual avatar.
A Mysterious Infection, Spanning the Globe in a Climate of Secrecy
The rise of Candida auris embodies a serious and growing public health threat: drug-resistant germs.
Pro tip for plonkers: if you want to reply to someone, hit the reply button in the box around the comment you want to reply to, not the next comment.
Why is there no vaccine against candida auris? Dunno, could be lots of reasons.
Might be because it’s a kind of organism that’s very difficult to develop a vaccine against. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any yeast diseases we actually do have a vaccine against. Most successful vaccines are against viral diseases. Organisms that are more complex are generally harder to develop vaccines against. Hence no effective vaccines against malaria or giardia or guinea worm or gonorrhea or syphilis or ….
Might be because it hasn’t been a big enough threat (and market) to get the attention of vaccine developers.
Might be because its emergence has been recent enough there just hasn’t been enough time.
Might be any combo or all of the above or other factors I haven’t mentioned. Asking why there isn’t a specific vaccine reminds of the CEO who once asked why we couldn’t develop something to spray on the outside of golf club shafts to tune the flex characteristics. I had to tell him the only unobtainium mine in the world had shut down cause there was an explosion. (Shortly thereafter I was seeking alternative employment)
Yeah, if I was only trying to respond to cleangreen I probably would have left it there. Or probably not bothered at all, the question was so self-evidently ridiculous. I’m well aware that many commenters here are neither persuadable nor educable.
But when I respond to nutters, it’s usually because there may be something in that topic of interest to a broader audience of silent but interested readers so a fuller answer might be worthwhile. Or sometimes I’ll respond just for the lolz.
I manually input my credentials into the name and email fields, as a simple security measure to not have sign in data cached on devices…
At times, due to the email address, which you can’t see , a character becomes inverted…leading to the creation of a new avatar…
At least two possibly three avatars are in the system…
Nothing in it, McFlock…keep throwing your childish comments …
What’s the failure rate of the flu shot you like to talk about getting?
Edit:
Were you able to understand the earlier question…if you read all available vaccine package inserts (FDA site) you can get the answer to the question…
lol okay, whatevs. You screwed up your ID because you’re paranoid that people will really give a crap about who you are.
You’re not that much of a threat to the system, neo.
As for vaccines, the proof is in the pudding. Maybe they guessed wrong this year, meaning the models were off and its the wrong strains in the shot. But frankly a sore arm with one in a million odds of a serious adverse reaction… hell, I’d take a 90% failure rate. No harm, no foul. But I seem to recall flu vaccines tend to be a few times that – nowhere near 90% like with some other conditions, but good enough to completely protect a lot of people and lessen the symptoms in others. It’s biggest advantage is to lower the burden on the health system from avoidable illness. I.e. fewer people plonked in ED hallways.
But I can’t be bothered doing your homework for you. Besides, I’d be surprised if they measured efficacy against placebo outright each and every time – the ethics of denying someone healthcare like that, even with consent, are long and debatable. They probably just compare with previous strains (and you might be able to follow that testing chain back to the original placebo trials), and do after-market evaluation of cases, prevalence, immunisation status, and of course any adverse events.
Yep weeze and poos has finally lost it. Really when analysed they had very little to add or offer anyway save insults puffed by rhetoric. Ah well onwards and upwards lol
Hang on, that’s very interesting. For it to appear and then get deleated (for my reply to end up on the floor), the comment must have had a wrong email, gone into moderation, and been released inside ten minutes, for onetwo to be able to then delete it and rewrite it with the correct email.
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Firstly, it’s important you know that I am not paid by fossil fuel companies, nor do I have any association with them at all, and in fact I’m not a fan of any industry that doesn’t do it’s best to ...
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...
Why do so many people mistrust the police? Because they pull shit like this:The police are flouting the rules on breath testing, carrying out tests in people's homes to catch them out sometimes up to two hours after they were ...
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...
The Herald reports that the housing shortage / bubble has hit a new level:New Zealand is short of 130,000 homes, the tally having risen lately by 30,000, two economists say. Jarrod Kerr and Jeremy Couchman, Kiwibank economists said: "This time ...
Milk producer Fonterra is one of New Zealand's biggest coal-users, using it to power all its South Island (and a few of its North Island) dairy factories. They'd previously "committed" to not building any new coal boilers after 2030. Now, ...
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...
Yesterday the government released its discussion document on action on agricultural emissions. As sadly usual, it proposed enormous subsidies for farm emissions, including for nitrogen-based fertiliser. This is a huge mistake. In addition to being one of the chief drivers ...
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act (this replaced their previous plans to hold a secret consultation with handpicked people). 285 people submitted on ...
Always Playing Catch-Up: Throughout the 1970s, the purchasing power of the ordinary worker’s pay packet – the only meaningful measure of his or her wealth – was being eaten away every passing year by seemingly inexorable rises in the cost-of-living. ...
The Interim Climate Change Committee's report on Action on agricultural emissions: Evidence, analysis and recommendations was finally released today, and as you might guess from the title, it is recommending that we actually act, rather than let farmers keep ...
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...
Agriculture is our biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for 48% of the total. It follows that meeting any credible emissions reduction target requires cutting agricultural emissions, most likely by having fewer cows. But National thinks people shouldn't be ...
How scummy is the UK Home Office? This scummy:The Home Office lied to EU member states to remove victims of human trafficking and modern slavery in breach of European law, according to whistleblowers. Legal experts have said the practice is ...
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...
“We wuz robbed!” is the classic cry of the disappointed losers of a closely contested sporting contest – it is very much to the credit of the Black Caps that we heard no such sentiment from them following the stunning ...
The Youth Parliament is being held this week, and some of the youth MPs are campaigning for a lower voting age:Molly Doyle, 17, is one Youth MP who wants this to change. She is part of a non-partisan campaign run ...
Up till now, Australia has made its living by digging up coal and exporting it to other countries, destroying the global climate in the process. But now they have a new option: exporting solar power:The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep ...
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...
Last month I talked about the no-fly movement: people who refuse to fly or limit it to absolute necessity to avoid destroying the climate. Now, that movement has a somewhat surprising new member: Dutch airline KLM:Dutch airline KLM has launched ...
In the 1960's, humanity faced a terrible threat: global thermonuclear war. Nuclear weapons were uniquely destructive and dangerous, and if more countries got them, the logic of MAD and the pre-emptive strike would put us on a hair-trigger to destruction. ...
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...
Matariki has been and gone, but this year we saw a couple of op-eds arguing that it should be a public holiday, replacing the foreign monarch's fake birthday. And now, New Zealand Republic - a group which campaigns for an ...
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
Northern Ireland is the Alabama of the UK: a backwards region where women and gay people are denied fundamental rights. But Westminster has just decided to fix that:MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to ...
There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
Tuesday, July 23: The Greenpeace climbers who are scaling the outside of the tallest building in Wellington have reached OMV’s offices on the 20th floor and announced a public protest to evict the Austrian oil giant. ...
The New Zealand Deerstalkers Association says it will take an active role in the debate on proposed firearm law changes to ensure any future legislation is fair, reasonable and meets the needs of both firearm owners and the general public. ...
The latest Safety of Children in Care report reveals the scale of the challenge facing social workers as they act to better protect children / tamariki and young people / rangatahi in Oranga Tamariki in the system. While the statistics ...
The next round of proposed Arms Act Amendments will further alienate law abiding firearms licence holders from the Government, according to the NZ Outdoors Party. ...
The current law for dividing property on separation is out of date and in need of reform, the Law Commission concludes in its report, Review of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 – Te Arotake i te Property (Relationships) Act 1976 ...
First National Real Estate Chief Executive Bob Brereton is predicting that homes currently being built as part of a KiwiBuild development, in Te Kauwhata, will not sell and that the Government will be left with 175 homes and few, if ...
A short time ago, kaumatua and kuia representing mana whenua from Te Kawerau ā Maki, Te Ākitai Waiohua, and Tainui, walked onto the land that Fletcher Building owns at Ōruarangi Road, known as Ihumātao, and asked protestors to leave. ...
The Greenpeace climb of the Majestic Tower in Wellington is ignorant grandstanding says the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ). ...
Tuesday, July 23: The two Greenpeace climbers who are scaling the outside of the tallest building in Wellington have unfurled the first of a series of banners. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer's decision to fire three warning shots to stop a fleeing driver from reversing towards him was not justified. ...
Government figures out today are consistent with what working people have told the Council of Trade Unions in our own survey, that a significant group of working Kiwis are unhappy and dissatisfied at work. Now the Government must act to ...
Deputy State Services Commissioner John Ombler has today announced the outcome of an examination of what led Inland Revenue to commission a public poll that included a question about the political leanings of taxpayers. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Tracey Martin for wasting money on a meaningless “translation” of a written press statement into a sign language video, when the vast majority of any deaf or hard-of-hearing persons are perfectly capable of reading ...
Te Mana o Ngāti Rangitihi Trust (Te Mana) and Tūhourangi Tribal Authority (TTA) have announced that they will jointly negotiate with the Crown for the return of the lands at Waimangu and Otūkapuarangi. These lands have been at the centre ...
Government documents reveal the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) approved a shipment of cattle last month, despite the Government announcing a review into live export five days earlier. ...
“The Government’s second round of firearms reforms has hunters concerned that they will be burdened with onerous and unnecessary compliance and costs,” says Game Animal Council Chair Don Hammond. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) are concerned at the statements by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Police Minister Stuart Nash at the Post-Cabinet Press Conference this afternoon stating that firearm ownership and licences should ...
National’s Climate Change spokesperson Todd Muller told Q+A he has “total confidence” that technology will be developed to mitigate the effects of climate change. “To simply take the New Zealand agriculture sector which is the most emissions efficient ...
PM can’t say whether the Government will meet its KiwiBuild goals. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern couldn’t say whether the Government would meet its goal of building 16-thousand KiwiBuild homes by the end of its first term. She was interviewed on ...
Greenpeace climbers are scaling the outside of the Majestic Centre, the tallest building in Wellington, to reach the headquarters of Austrian oil giant, OMV. ...
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...
Announcement today by the Prime Minister of further gun law reform is being shrouded by fear, so that scrutiny of the law is seen as an affront to the victims of the horror attack in March. The Prime Minister acknowledged ...
Misgivings about the practicality and cost of a firearms register is likely to dominate feedback from rural areas on the second round of proposed Arms Act amendments, Federated Farmers says. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ organisers Sophie Handford and Raven Maeder delivered a clear message to over 600 local government mayors, chairs, chief executives and councillors at the recent LGNZ conference : make climate change a priority. ...
The Police Association, Te Aka Hāpai backs the government’s emphasis on public safety as the driver of its second tranche of amendments to New Zealand’s firearms law, announced today. ...
The growing housing shortage crisis about more than supply and demand- it is about inequity. Recently released analysis by Kiwibank shows that last year’s “severe” shortage of housing has worsened, with the shortfall growing from 100,000 to 130,0000 ...
One of the country’s largest district health boards has a severe shortage of hospital specialists, says the senior doctors’ union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is joining opposition to possible regulations on the strength of nicotine vaping liquid. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The Government would certainly benefit from regulations on the strength ...
The Meat Industry Association (MIA) is calling for significant changes to the Zero Carbon Bill with a new analysis using the Government’s preferred modelling indicating that the proposed methane targets are excessive if all other gases go to net zero. ...
Victoria University Feminist Organisation and ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa, in conjunction with the VUW Feminist Law Students, Organise Aotearoa, Fem Force, and with the support of VUW Student Association announced they are sponsoring a march ...
With the Government's firearm buyback scheme starting to draw over 30,000 police man hours away from fighting crime, the safety of law abiding citizens is being compromised. ...
Social Credit Party leader Chris Leitch is calling on the sale of Westland Milk to Chinese company Yili to be put on hold pending an approach to the Government by Westland Milk for funding assistance. ...
Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa seems intent on ensuring the Government’s vaping legislation will heavily target flavours and nicotine levels – a move that would be completely counterproductive to helping Kiwis quit smoking and achieving ...
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...
Hundreds of whanau and Maori leaders gathered at a hui in Mangere last weekend where they voted unanimously for an inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. The historic meeting called for a child welfare framework to be developed by Maori, for Maori. ...
The Head of the New Zealand Maori Council has called for the Government to hold an immediate investigation into the global cosmetics company Sephora after they were caught dumping waste hundreds and thousands of waste paper products embedded with ...
Simon Shepherd: The government says its agreement with farmers, that they should pay for agricultural emissions, is historic. But there's no agreement on how. One proposal says farmers should pay a 5 per cent emissions tax. Another suggests farmers ...
The O’Brien Institute for Public Health at Calgary University has just released their report on fluoridation. This institute has, up to now, been staunchly in favour of fluoridation. However, yesterday, with regards to fluoride’s effect on the brain, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Roderick, Professor, Research School of Earth Sciences and Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, Australian National University The federal parliament has voted to funnel A$200 million ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Tax break for oil rigs raises subsidy questions, crackdown by police against Ihumātao occupation, and Boris Johnson set to become UK PM.A story about tax breaks for oil rigs has ...
The 700-page Thomas Piketty economic treatise Capital in the 21st Century was a surprise blockbuster five years ago. Now it’s been made into a documentary film, directed and produced by New Zealanders. The message is out there, Danyl Mclauchlan writes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison on Tuesday had a firm message for his troops in the Coalition party room. Don’t go freelancing in public. Discipline is important in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Tormey, Professor of Politics, University of Sydney To no-one’s great surprise, Boris Johnson has been elected by the members of the Conservative Party to be the new leader, and by extension ...
Funny, charismatic, erudite – what could possibly go wrong? The votes are in and the people have decided – correction: the Conservative Party membership has decided – that the new prime minister of the United Kingdom shall be Alexander Boris ...
Opinion - The gun buyback scheme is working to remove firearms from society and enforcement laws are strong, but creating a meaningful gun registry is also essential, writes Lew Stoddart. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therese Keane, Associate Professor, Deputy Chair Department of Education, Swinburne University of Technology A cute human-like robot taught students in a small, rural school how to code while also helping them learn ...
After months of protest, the last occupants were moved off Ihumātao in south Auckland by police this afternoon. Don Rowe reports. Most of the occupants of Ihumātao had been moved on. The police, numbering at least 30, had finally made good ...
Hundreds of people marched to Parliament today calling for reform of New Zealand's abortion laws, as Cabinet prepares to consider a bill that would remove abortion from the Crimes Act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The two Centre Alliance senators, Stirling Griff and Rex Patrick will often be pivotal to the fate of government legislation. The smaller non-Green Senate crossbench ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chongyi Feng, Associate Professor in China Studies, University of Technology Sydney Australian authorities have been told to stop interfering in the case of the Chinese-Australian writer Dr Yang Hengjun who has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tess Newton Cain, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Political Science & International Studies, The University of Queensland Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape is visiting Australia this week, his first overseas ...
The Greens may have achieved their sought-after mainstream credibility, and scored some wins in government, but commentators warn this will not necessarily result in more votes. On the contrary – it might even result in a loss of enthusiasm from ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsThe supposed end of the 20-year standoff between environmentalists and farmers was announced last week, with the release of the Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on “Action on agricultural emissions”. It was celebrated as an “historic consensus” ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentGovernment Joseph Nunweek (Spinoff): Jacinda Ardern and bringing the ...
The 2019 budget put aside $300m for venture capital for small to medium-sized startups with the hope it will allow businesses to grow locally and stay in New Zealand for longer. In a small rural town on the east coast ...
To give the Pacific a fighting chance Australia and NZ need to take a stand, writes a Fijian litigator and activist.Climate change is now an everyday reality for the Pacific. Its impact on our countries is undeniable. To remain within ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Grové, Educational Psychologist and Lecturer, Monash University Curious Kids is a series for children. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au You might ...
Questions about political leanings in surveys by Inland Revenue, DOC and Stats NZ were inappropriate and had the potential to undermine political neutrality, a report has found. ...
Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little says he cannot understand why the previous government ever accepted Ngāpuhi's problematic Tūhoronuku mandate. ...
The Electricity Authority’s latest take on transmission prices has softened the expected hike in power prices for Aucklanders from $176 per year to $21 a year. ...
New Zealanders are as parochial about charity as they are about sport, with only a fraction of the money we donate leaving our shores or even going outside our local areas.Less than 9% of private donations in New Zealand go ...
Infrastructure investor Infratil is looking for potential buyers of a group of mature investments across Australia and NZ's health, education and prison sectors,according to the AFR. ...
A nightmarish and near-fatal high-speed pursuit of a New Zealand Chinese family concluded with a judge rejecting the prosecution’s request for hate crime sentencing. Tze Ming Mok discusses why New Zealand’s approach to hate crime is utterly useless.I don’t like ...
The Māori midwives on the frontline of whānau care and Oranga Tamariki scrutiny say their voices are going unheard and their wisdom unheeded.*All names have been changed to protect the privacy of those involvedNewsroom’s powerful investigation into Oranga Tamariki’s attempt ...
From fine art school graduates to hobbyists, magazine-making talent from all over the city is showcased in Auckland Zinefest. Lucy Zee went along to check out the zines and meet some makers.Aucklanders love a festival. If it’s not food, wine ...
Ngāpuhi and Te Rarawa artist Nikau Hindin has recently been taught by ancestors in Hawai’i the skills of beating tapa or barkcloth, reviving as contemporary form a Māori art largely lost after the extinction of the aute plant in Aotearoa. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has stopped short of committing to a declaration of climate emergency in Parliament, despite again saying she supports such a move. ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the Australian authorities to drop all charges against four French TV journalists who – in what RSF called an “unacceptable attack on investigative journalism” – were arrested yesterday ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Neville Nicholls, Professor emeritus, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University This month the world has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon. But this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Giancaspro, Lecturer in Law, University of Adelaide Viral photo app FaceApp has taken the world by storm. Launched in 2017, the app has recently enjoyed mass popularity due largely to Hollywood ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Greg Barton, Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University A key element in the success of countering terrorism in Australia has been a series of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Around one-quarter of the world’s population menstruate. That’s more than 1.9 billion people in the world who will bleed, on average, for 65 days ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therese Keane, Associate Professor, Deputy Chair Department of Education, Swinburne University of Technology A cute human-like robot taught students in a small, rural school how to code while also helping them learn ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University There is a case for not proceeding with, or at least further deferring, the legislated increase in employers’ compulsory superannuation contributions from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Ostling, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University Review: Margaret Olley: A Generous Life, and Quilty, QAGOMA Margaret Olley’s exhibition at QAGOMA is titled A Generous Life, referring to ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Second round of gun law changes announced, hundreds with conditions like Down syndrome get early Kiwisaver, and a major refusal to participate in March 15 inquiry.The second major phase of ...
Open mike 08/04/2019 
The person responsible for the ad has been sent to their bedroom for further scapegoating. The Green Party is standing by its views that 16-year-olds should be eligible to vote, even as they acknowledge that they shouldn’t have let them ...11 hours ago
My idealistic position on the role of MPs was articulated by Edmund Burke: ‘Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.’read more ...13 hours ago
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled on the pillage of swamp kauri, stating clearly that export was forbidden unless it had been clearly turned into a finished product. But less than a month later, MPI was again approving minimally carved ...17 hours ago
Having spent the last 3 months in these countries and getting some appreciation of their dependence on fossil fuels – oil, gas, coal – one realises how loopy is the idea popular in societies like New Zealand that have negligible ...21 hours ago
I have been unimpressed with Western corporate media coverage of the tensions involving Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. They repeat the line that Iran is the source of current tensions, that it is a major sponsor of terrorism, that ...3 days ago
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Much like Tuvalu, the manmade climate change Cult love to tell people the Maldives is almost totally underwater. In fact the dishonest Maldives Govt d on the same bandwagon, believing they would receive billions of dollars aid from other Countries ...3 days ago
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...4 days ago
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...4 days ago
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...5 days ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...5 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...7 days ago
7 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...1 week ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...1 week ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
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The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...2 days ago
Tuesday, July 23: The Greenpeace climbers who are scaling the outside of the tallest building in Wellington have reached OMV’s offices on the 20th floor and announced a public protest to evict the Austrian oil giant. ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Roderick, Professor, Research School of Earth Sciences and Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, Australian National University The federal parliament has voted to funnel A$200 million ...27 mins ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Tax break for oil rigs raises subsidy questions, crackdown by police against Ihumātao occupation, and Boris Johnson set to become UK PM.A story about tax breaks for oil rigs has ...1 hour ago
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Welcome back to ‘The Standard’ we missed you yesterday after about 1’30pm when the site was cut, but now now up again thanks to the folks at The Standard.
Must have been some “house cleaning” that was gong on?
Over on “the AM show’ I see that the last death throws coming from ‘dead man walking’ – ‘Simon Bridges’
As he is beating his gums on the AM show today, complaining about the ‘Statistician not releasing the latest stats on our ‘happiness’.
If he retired from politics we all perhaps then be far more full of ‘happiness’.
cleangreen
I read recently how in late WW2 the Allies were not sorry that Hitler was not killed in the attempted assassination by bomb. They knew him, understood his paranoia and obsessions, and were sure they could match any of his maneouvres, outthink him and eventually win over Germany. They didn’t want someone else with a clear head and new approach taking over and changing the style. Don’t wish Bridges gone,
greywarshark.
Good call there,
Best keep Bridges in front of National as the ‘village idiot’ eh?
Pardon me! He is not an idiot – he is a perfect example of a modern Right Wing Major-National.
Ha ha.
He is the very model of a modern right-wing national
his intellect is vegetable, integrity ephemeral,
His caucus not dependable, their loyalties transferrable
and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
their internecine fighting has been eminently recordable
their crises management is far from being laudable
their efforts to deflect reporters now become most laughable
and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
[and prone to many scandals that are publicly relational]
Excellent McFlock – now write the rest of the soapy opera and you will have a hit. You will be as good as a rock star. It may produce a sellout from the Right, or not but one could hope.
I’m tempted to suggest that it was a test of what the Standard would look like if we ever instituted a paywall model, but I understand it was actually something to do with flies in the server and Lprent had to get out the RAID.
It wasn’t that naughty black cat pushing the red button then?
Nope.
However I must post a photo of the cat proofing protection that the servers now have.
Perhaps we could enlarge the system, design it to control for rats instead, and put it round the Labour Coalition.
Bridges is a bit like a lost sheep these days, or a dog barking at car tyres, I am not sure which ?
The Natzi’s appear to be vision less these days especially after the resignation of their fearless leader Hone Shonkey ?
National should get radical and come out as a “champion strong advocate on climate change” .
They can easily argue and suggest that we must restore our rail system as another ‘Land transport option’ for freight and passenger with a” low emission carbon footprint safer transport service”. Last night on Newhub there was a senoir well respected scientist stating that ‘air passenger service’ is the highest carbon footprint service with every single passenger.
Figures shown by University of Wellington Professor James Renwick were showing that a single air passenger trip from Auckland to Wellington showed each passenger uses 145 kgs of carbon, where by rail it was 17kgs, and electric car was 11kgs, and by bus was 22kgs from memory,
Staggering result that was.
https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/CarbonOffset/Pages/default.aspx
Maybe we should each have a shrinking annual allocation of air miles. If you choose not to use them yourself you can sell them to someone else. If you don’t want anyone to use them you can sell them to the government who cancels them. Administrative nightmare of course. But a side benefit would be outraging the likes of wee Mikey Hoskie.
Also people too poor to travel get an extra income stream.
I’ve just spotted that TS has posted 1.5 million approved comments.
Congrats and a digital chocolate fish to …. drum roll … ankerawshark, who crossed the line here
Shit.. That came around fast.
mmm Looks like the last half million comments averaged 399.36 comments per day
or
Te Reo Putake! Being the 1.5 millionth person to post gave me a real thrill! Wow.
Thanks to you, Iprent and all who make it possible!
Good on ya, ankerawshark. I think it’s safe to say that the efforts of the team behind TS would mean nothing if we didn’t have contributors like yourself adding comments of real substance to the site. He aha te mea nui o te ao, he tangata he tangata he tangata!
Talibangelicals say the darnedest things.
Reich wing christianity.
just call them Christo Fascist or American Taliban. That way you don’t have to try to make a German English hybrid that does not mean anything.
just my inner germans two cents.
Evungelicals?
Americans must be so used to the normalising of killing by drone that this would pass with little concern.
“Thou shalt not kill!”
I believe someone important said that once, but I can’t for the life of me remember who…
I suspect Pat’s memory has degraded over time too, along with his morals and sanity.
“I’m old enough to remember when this guy was the craziest guy on earth. Now he’s not even in the top 100.”
Twyford’s first start at a tourniquet of the massively injured Auckland light rail project: dump the whole western Auckland half of it:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12220122
Basically he is dropping the wrong half. Light rail to the west makes a lot of sense. It would be far better to do heavy rail to the airport. The whole Dominion Rd thing looks fraught.
The main problem NZ really has when it comes to transport issues, future proofing public, private and commercial transport is simply the total lack of guts and imagination.
Thus no glory. But for what its worth, non so gutless then National. In nine years in government your boys and girls in parliament have managed to get nothing done. And that is quite something.
A long time ago i watched a debate on TV between John Key – National, Helen Clark – Labour, Jeanette Fitzsimmons – Green. John Key waffled on how he was gonna bring NZ wages to parity with OZ and tax cuts, Helen Clark was protecting her last nine years, and Jeanette Fitzsimmons spoke about how we needed investment in public transport, needed trains, trams and buses to get us everywhere in this country, and the rest is history.
so the last ones to complain about any party doing anything about public transport is National. They have had nine years and literally only have a housing crisis, homelessness and record public debt to show for.
So true Sabine.
This from the linked NZHerald item:
The Government may have to scale back its $6 billion light rail programme for Auckland by scrapping a line from the city centre to west Auckland, says Transport Minister Phil Twyford.
The MP for Te Atatu said it was his strong preference to see light rail built from the city centre to the west and to the airport, but if it is not possible to fund and finance both lines, then light rail to the airport will get priority.
National Party people would have been the ones preventing expenditure on public transport since the year dot. The year dot is when it was being officially talked about. The number of human bodies on the local bodies that could think further than their own pockets, and their next term in power was greater than the co-efficient of whatever. Simple mathematics and a long-term viewpoint were incompatible and me-first maths won.
Now it is important to get something signed up and started now. If National manage to weasel their way in to power we will get more and more simple mathematics. And never get close to coping with our complex problems which can never be actually solved, just understood and ameliorated.
Accurately well said Sabine.
Don’t forget the rundown public services, infrastructure shortages, privatization of assets (THEFT with 300 000 opposing signatures and public opinion polls ignored).
The bashing of poor people, dark people, green people through public media (They’re all wreckers and haters), through police, banks, spy services (who also turned out to be relatively f’n useless).
Don’t forget the war trajectory and you personally and your team dishing out Islamophobia.
Now you reckon you know about trains. You lot sell trains Wayne, you don’t build them so let’s get real.
If there’s no heavy rail to airport on the table right now (and there is not), the sensible move would indeed be to service the airport with already underway light rail first.
But if your job is to:
Do nothing AND whinge about what others do
Job well done. Carry on.
WTB
Yes I would agree with that too.
Sabine, cleangreen and greywarshark,
You all seem to have completely forgotten that the largest single construction project in New Zealand, the CRL, was started by National.
Wanye;
I have stated on 2.1 that National needs to show ‘environmental leadership’ on all rail services both freight and passenger services.
2.1 “National should get radical and come out as a “champion strong advocate on climate change” .
They can easily argue and suggest that we must restore our rail system as another ‘Land transport option’ for freight and passenger with a” low emission carbon footprint safer transport service”.
I didn’t talk about Cict rail link did I?
Auckland City is not NZ unless you are an Aucklander.
https://www.cityraillink.co.nz/
Bullshit.
Started by Auckland Council.
National were dragged reluctantly into the project what? something like a year later. I’d have to look it up.
Almost certainly because the transport projects that National funded (Roads of significance to National) had appalling business cases. They were so poor that National stopped showing them in public. At the same time the CRL was showing good returns.
Personally I think that the ONLY reason that the Key government approved it was because the hypocrisy levels were getting too high for even Nationals donors as Auckland traffic kept getting worse as National built empty highways.
Well, you would say that, but you would also be wrong. The motorway projects have way better BCR’s than any public transport project.
Just to remind you (yet again), the CRL is almost twice as large as any motorway project. Not started by Labour, started by National in 2014.
If you want the government wants to pay a bigger share to the Council, then the government can. Labour/Green are after all the government.
It is possible to make any project look good if you don’t bother to include economic costs in the BCR.
For instance that is what appears to have happened with East-West Link, and as far as I can tell it was the case with almost all of the RoNS.
Of course if you over-estimate the economic costs as happened in the CRL assessments by NZLTA, then you get whatever number if deemed to be relevant. Of course it helps if you don’t provide the workings so that they can be criticized by others. There was a rather wide range between the ACC economic assessments and those from NZLTA.
It is possible to make any project look good if you over-estimate the changes in traffic. That appears to be the case with almost all of the RoNS projects that I looked at. For that matter if you look at the extensions to the SH1 motorways
Conversely, if you massively under-estimate the take up of a public transport system you can make public transport look extremely bad. NZLTA BCRs routinely do that.
It has happened with very NZLTA assessment in Auckland that subsequently got built. Including the Northern busway ( right the way through to not requiring a bridge replacement), double tracking and electrification of the Auckland heavy rail and the massive increases in use of PT (and the reduced need to try to increase capacity on our in-city motorways), changes in bus routes, etc…
Basically, unless the NZLTA starts to do public estimates with funding for some public checks on their analysis, I’d say that they’re just a tool of the roading construction companies. Because that is what they look like to me.
FFS: Not started by National. Started by the Auckland council.
Forced on a very reluctant National after their favored business case from NZLTA proved to be completely flawed and after the BCRs for RoNS were lacerated by expert scrutiny.
Lprent yes thanks for that.
So National didnt even plan for the CRL at all, – but tried too take the credit for it;$%^&OP{}|!!!!!
Well isn’t that just like National making false claims again.
National = have no credibility.
Some origin story:
“the 1972 Rapid Transit Plan for Auckland. The history of this plan is eerily similar to our current situation in many ways. It was a revolutionary scheme championed by the charismatic mayor of Auckland Dove Myer Robinson (leading to the nickname ‘Robbie’s Rapid Rail’), despite the mayoralty and council not having the means to actually fund the thing independently. They began working on alternate funding solutions such as a targeted land tax but found them impossible to implement without support from Wellington. In the end by the Labour government reluctantly offered an election pledge to fund the proposal, but failed to deliver on that pledge. A wholly unsupportive National government were voted into power in 1975 and in 1976 the plan was cancelled completely.”
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2011/12/02/an-auckland-that-could-have-been-the-1972-auckland-rapid-rail-transit-plan/
In the interim we got Britomart. Then we tried to connect stuff up…
“Further input was provided by Auckland Transport, which commissioned the study after the Government and the council had arrived at very different conclusions about the rail loop’s return on every dollar invested. Given all that, this study should be the definitive research, not yet another document destined to gather dust. Mr Brown’s task now is to convince Aucklanders that the study is robust and its conclusions are right. If he can, the Government should stand to one side.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10855434
“On 27 January 2016, Prime Minister John Key announced in his state of the nation address that central government funding for main works construction of the CRL had been confirmed and this would allow Auckland Council to start to construct the main works from 2018, with central funds guaranteed to flow from 2020. Commentary at the time reflected an opinion that this was a belated agreement to central government funding of the project by the ruling National Party, while the main opposition parliamentary parties (Labour Party, Greens and NZ First) had all been promising immediate construction timetables which were more closely aligned to the plans of the council.”
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech-auckland-chamber-commerce-0
Stalling, mucking about, fudging, and dragged kicking and screaming after a myriad of others plans were rejected outright, many of them good plans, that was what National did. Also tried to force the entire bill on Auckland as if transport was not in their portfolio.
Roads of National (party) significance, that was your thing.
i have lived for 20 years now here in NZ, so started under shipley. At that time you had to throw yourself in front of a bus – when one came, never on time – to get it too stop.
Claiming a tunnel being build as their own, while it was done under labour, also Nationals thing.
Auckland is at shambles because your Party did nothing. Absolutely nothing other then build roads that are clogged 24 hours.
Your rammed thousands of people in this city, and gave not one thought to the infrastructure. Cause that is hard work, and your lot is not known for working and certainly not hard work.
National, a Party as usefull as its leader Simon “NO Bridges for Northland’ Bridges.
And believe me, if National would have actually achieved just something of value to the public – and not business interest – we would know by now 🙂
National was as reluctant to start this project as a teenage boy responding to a Paternity Order after he gets his teenage girlfriend pregnant.
Light Rail down Dominion Rd across the Mangere Bridge to the Airport will be an absolute shambles during the construction phase ?
The roads are already chock a block to the Airport from 6.00am to 6.00pm with 35,000 people currently working at the Airport projected to 55,000 in 5 years time ?
This will be a Monumental F%#K UP IMHO ?
Shit here’s me agreeing with Wayne Mapp.
Better go and wash my mouth out with carbolic soap.
All rail should be ‘multi-purpose for passenger and freight and that means heavy rail.
‘ Light rail’ is dumb, -and is just throwing ‘good money after bad’.
Light Rail down Dominion Rd across the Mangere Bridge to the Airport will be an absolute shambles during the construction phase ?
The roads are already chock a block to the Airport from 6.00am to 6.00pm with 35,000 people currently working at the Airport projected to 55,000 in 5 years time ?
This will be a Monumental F%#K UP IMHO ?
Have a look to the french City of Nice.
Very similar to AKL, one side mountains, other side water, and a large and sprawling city wedged in.
Within three years the whole city got the Tram – light rail, dedicated bus lanes, (train already existed), and the cost of using public transport was initially 1 euro irrespective where you went in the Department Alpes Maritimes – Monaco to Marseille and up the mountains. Now the cost is at 1.50$ per ride.
A lot of people stopped driving the car.
but nice had a choice to make, either die in traffic and of smog or put up with some inconvenience and move to the future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice_tramway
Really cool were the new archeological finds near la place Massena, the old part of Nice and at the old fish market. they were put under glass during construction and were made open to the public.
It can be done, a bit of guts, a bit of good will, above all political will and it can be done.
The question is has NZ got guts, good will and political good will, or is it just another thing that ‘we can’t do’ cause…………..?
It is hardly comparable with Auckland.
The population is about 340,000 or only about one fifth of Auckland.
It is even smaller than Wellington or Christchurch.
Absolute bollocks Wayne.
Light rail to the west is a total waste of money considering there already is a line to Whangarei via Helensville currrently used by the odd freight train.
A $50,000 fire suppression system fitted for use through the Waitakere tunnel, is all that’s required.
You obviously have no idea Wayne what the people of West Auckland need or want.
From the Trains to Huapai facebook page
“Residents of West Auckland have been calling out for commuter train shuttles to run from Swanson station through the currently unused Waitakere station to Huapai for a number of years. It is the number one most wanted public transport issue commented on in numerous Auckland Transport surveys and consultations. Yet prospects of Trains to Huapai to meet the needs of accelerating housing development now, have been stymied by the government’s unproven long term focus on light rail trams to Kumeu.”
“We are pleased the Government through NZTA is funding twice daily commuter trains from Hamilton to Papakura for around $60 million. However, for less than $4 million the people of Nor-West Auckland could have hourly rail shuttles operating seven days a week from Huapai and Waitakere to Swanson station”
“Twyford admits the promised light rail trams to Kumeu look like not happening for decades.
So why not get the Trains To Huapai? Fact is Phil Twyford (Labour) and Genter(Greens) listen to a self appointed group calling themselves “Greater Auckland” who designed the light rail trams for everywhere map. This small group successfully sold their dream to the Minister of Transport and Mayor Phil Goff.
We are frustrated that a small group of light rail enthusiasts with connections to the light rail industry have robbed Nor West Auckland of commuter trains.
Trams to Kumeu 2049?
Trains to Huapai can be delivered 2019 if there’s political will.”
Twitford needs to start engaging his brain IMHO ?
That’s really interesting. If the figure of $4M is true it’s a pittance for what it would achieve. But surely that doesn’t include the engines, rolling stock, staff…
Is there a business case the group could take to the business communities in these areas? With them on-side the group might have more clout, and maybe match some of the funds?
Great for business. More foot traffic. Better access to greater Auckland and for greater Auckland to get to them. Eases congestion for freight in/out and tradies.
They trialled a Helensville service in 08 -09. It was discontinued end of December 09.
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2009/11/10/goodbye-helensville-train-service/
Around $45 subsidy per passenger, 43 passengers per day, that’s nearly $2k a day subsidy. $700k a year subsidy. That was before electrification, there’s be a bit of a headache integrating services between the electrified and non-electrified bits.
Thanks.
They identified some of the issues in that trial (rail in disrepair, no broader connectivity to broader network), wonder if they’ve worked on how to fix them.
I guess as we get a network where population is dense first hopefully providing a feasible base, we have a chance of then hooking up more satellite services. And then that might do what one would hope transport spending does – better access to and from wider Auckland, and easing congestion.
The planet is of course a nice plug for rail too, but only if it is actually pulling vehicles off roads.
Their trial rail service served no one. That’s why is was not patronised. After only a year it was deemed a failure.
Of course it was designed exactly for that result.
The rail service from Helensville to Auckland that ran up until the early 70s was well patronised. I know, I used it. Why, when the population has quadrupled, should public rail transport be not viable in the west.
A perfectly satisfactory line exits FFS! Why should it not be used.
Oddly enough, if that 43 users per day is accurate, then I’m personally acquainted with nearly 5% of the total patronage. Wealthy lifestyle block types, both of them.
And?
Just a random observation.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it was made to fail. Way back when Dad was an engineer they bought rolling stock that could only run half the pace of the engines to claim trucks were superior for freight.
If they’re on the oil teat, lies will arise.
Like + 100%
Fixing the Rail to Kumeu is a No Brainer and must be done immediately it is commonsense IMHO, can someone suggest it to Twitford perhaps ?
Ah
I do believe it has been suggested to Twyford numerous times, via every media imaginable, perhaps even in multiple languages.
Kind of as a ‘just as an aside’, I’m picking the whole thing is, and will be another example of short-medium term ‘thinkery’ with various lobbyists pushing their various, and differing barrows.
So far, I bet there are factions with a vushun of light rail options based on their partikyala oseas experiences, and other with opposing views.
ALL peshnit about what they do.
And as things stand, I’ll bet some of the options are already at the stage where they’ve ‘invisiged solutions [going forward’] and, come what may – that is all.
I’d also put money on their ‘solutions [going forward]’ come with minor little details such as their light rail coming with a different line gauge, such that things like train-trams can’t easily be implemented.
Lower carbon footprint Labour please.
Auckland professor says Kiwis should quit air travel to protect the environment
07/04/2019
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/travel/2019/04/auckland-professor-says-kiwis-should-quit-air-travel-to-protect-the-environment.html
Quote; “If you fly the 496km between Auckland and Wellington, you emit around 150kg of carbon dioxide equivalent.
A medium-sized car making the same journey emits about a third less, while a bus, train and electric car all have significantly lower emissions – just under 55kg between all three of them.
This is a must watch for Government MP’s flying from Auckland today for parliament tomorrow in Wellington.
Hear this Phil Twyford, – ‘take a train passenger service to Wellington with Jacinda and lower your carbon footprint’s too.’.
A bloody good start in reducing the amount of flying our MPs do would be to require all the List MPs to move to Wellington when they get elected. Then we wouldn’t need to pay for them to have accommodation provided in Wellington either, or to have to move their families backward and forward at tax-payer expense.
This would not apply of course to the Electorate MPs. They actually need to travel to and from their electorates as they actually have work to do there.
Having the Green Party leader drop out of his position as the biggest single user of overseas travel would be nice as well.
Then he might have time to spend on the fiasco that is his Statistics Department.
As if child poverty and the growing working poor aren’t bad enough, NZ Capitalism Ltd is now delivering growing pensioner poverty. Given the falling rates of home ownership pensioner poverty is like to expand over the coming generation.
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/04/04/pensioner-poverty/
Phillip.
Labour are shackled by the -bean counters and the right wing roger douglas brigade side of their caucus sadly.
These right wingers will hold onto our public purse so very tightly even though they promised so much and never have delivered now.
So the clock countdown now begins to the election, – as they have less than half their term left now.
Transport minister is in hiding and needs to come out in the budget to explain why our rail has not been revived yet around all our provinces. The road toll is worse than when he took over so he needs to provide a safe regional rail freight and passenger service to save lives, and our health and wellbeing.
“The proof is in the pudding” Mr Twyford!!!!!
Labour are basically ideologically driven, getting the doing part going is the hard part, they talk a big game but do not have the skills to get things done as most of them have very little real world practical experience, National are not much better IMHO ?
The moral instincts of conservatives tell them that people with insufficient money aren’t proper humans.
AB I think most politicians have low moral compass or fortitude.
Serried complex = One rotten apple in a barrel makes all apples rotten, dad told me often in the 1950’s.
It is all about getting re-elected most politican’s in all the Political Parties would not have a clue, as they have no real world experience, it is all about celebrity politics and who MSM want elected. There is very little difference between Labour & National ?
I now have to grudgingly agree with you now Skunk Weed.
Not much to cling onto believing that we are having a “transformative” government here sadly.
This piece from ThinkProgress has the best graphical illustration I’ve ever seen of just how astonishingly effective vaccinations are.
https://thinkprogress.org/measles-outbreaks-vaccines-exemptions-6dce41092040/
What about the graph of outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations, Andre…
You should stick to what you know about…like engineering…
This subject is not for you…the links you post illustrate it unequivocally…
So while you’re looking to start this up…again…try hang around longer than J90 did…he ran off…after a single response I made…simple question…Joe ran…
Edit. Simple question for you..
How many FDA approved and currently scheduled (CDC) vaccines, were tested against an inert placebo control in pre licensure testing?
Instead of JAQing off, how about you do the research yourself.
But there’s one thing I’m confident you won’t find: outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations. To get outbreaks like the measles outbreaks bursting out all over the place at the moment, you need significant portions of the population to be unvaccinated.
If those outbreaks only affected the fuckwits that choose to refuse vaccinations for themselves, I’d take a Darwinian view of it. Sadly, the ones that bear the brunt of the outbreaks are those that shouldn’t be vaccinated for genuine medical reasons (such as the immunocompromised), the too young, those unfortunate few for whom the vaccination is ineffective … and the really really unfortunate ones whose fuckwit parents refused the vaccine and didn’t tell them.
Bring on the lawsuits to hold accountable those who refuse vaccines without genuine medical reason, that then go on to get sick and infect others.
Andre, your comment is top to bottom logical fallacies, and an unbelievable low understanding of’vaccines’…
I responded to you because I already knew what your response was going to be…
That you have used the word ‘confident’ to describe your position, surrounded that with highly misinformed commentary…is unsurprising…
You, Andre…need to do some more reading…not at sources you link or comment from…
In repeat posting such uninformed and misinformed commentary on this subject…it is actually you who is j*ing off…
But you don’t understand…your commemts say you don’t…and you should stop now…
Since there’s no actual content in all of that, it’s kinda hard to respond to.
But I gotta know; a while back you called me the very worst commenter on The Standard. Am I still number 1? If not, who do I hafta take down to get my crown back?
Ha not do fast young sir. I know I irritate the old one two a lot and often he is left in a quivering, slobbering, impotent rage after one of my comments. He can’t even reply coherently such is his distress just a mumble of words as if spilt from a very large soup bowl of alphabet soup. They appear to be words but, well, who can tell.
Andre, in a number of ways you are one of the ‘worst’…name calling, uninformed in the extreme…especially on this subject…
Yet, in other ways and on some subject matter, your comments are informative and knowledgeable…as you are aware…I appreciate that…as I let you know recently…
I do hold back on this particular subject and do not seek to reignite the discussion…but will always respond if it is started up…
There is a casm of misunderstanding on your part…there is also a plethora of scholarly articles readily available with a simple search regarding outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations…
By the way . Outbreak = 3 according to CDC…
Not just failing and waning measles (MMR) vaccine…but many others…in fact almost all vaccines…they fail..have failed and are failing…
Branch out..I’m certain you’re capable…perhaps you’re fearful of what you’ll find….
Start with the question I posed…it is root cause…starting point…
Everything which follows, stemming from and including pre-licensure…is a fraud..
As I’ve said before, I regard you as a supercilious spouter of arcane claptrap with an inflated sense of your own ability and I regard your woo-beliefs on vaccination as a malignant threat to public health.
I am not concerned how you regard my comments Joe..if you had half a clue you might understand them…
So…answer the question I asked you about ‘scum’… Joe…
And while you’re at it..
How many FDA approved and currently scheduled (CDC) vaccines, were tested against an inert placebo control in pre licensure testing?
Then see if you can figure out the ramifications regarding claimed figures of efficacy and safety…
Go on…don’t run…
Poor Joe must be feeling absolutely crushed that a comments-thread blowhard has such a low opinion of him.
Death by a thousand dots …
lols
RCT of vaccinated vs placebo vs “homeopathic nosodes”.
And the winner is…
Vaccines work, placebos don’t, and homeopathy is as ineffective as a placebo.
This will revolutionise immunology lol
No, McFlock…
You’ve not even understood the question…
Can you read?
I don’t care about your question.
How about you answer it yourself and provide a source? And then everyone with a brain can laugh at you some more.
A good news story …..
I’ve been following the videos and life of a talented young Czechoslovakian man Adam Celadine …. he’s a world record holder and world champion in some aspects of knife throwing ….
in a large part thanks to his tutorial videos, I’ve taken up a new hobby.
Anyway this young man was struck down and made seriously ill with metastasizing cancer …. I know a little bit about cancer and was very concerned for him.
The good news is he has now tested clear …. and he has some good advice in his short Video announcing his path back to good health
🙂 🙂 🙂
That should have been Celadin ….. Adam Celadin
When is the mine re-entry going to happen??????
May third?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1903/S00079/pike-river-families-spokesperson-quits-group.htm
The minister responsible for Pike River re-entry, Andrew Little, announced earlier this week the re-entry is scheduled for 3 May.
Knife tricks, huh..
@thesamurider
Hell that looks dangerous and reminds me of a Roald Dahl story about being to light a ligher in 20 consecutive attempts …. or lose your finger … yikes ! :O
This young lady knows how to chuck a knife …. and she has good safety tips …. like wearing safety glasses etc .
The wind flutter in the video disappears shortly into it …..
lol at one job I could goof off and practise throwing a work knife (wrong knife for it – short, handle heavy lock knife). All good fun until the ricochet comes flying back at me point first lol. Good for one’s reflexes 🙂
As your replying to me cleangreen …. are you suggesting we throw knives at Peter Whittall or something 😉
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/21-08-2018/some-things-pike-rivers-peter-whittall-could-feel-guilt-over/
Obviously I’m just kidding …. and this video is for the sword enthusiasts who were posting here the other day
Easy peasy everyone seems to be able to do that. Even a child of five could do it? – Send for a child of five. (Groucho Marx)
I’m an engineer – give me technology any day.
Ha ha ‘reason.
Thanks for the laugh; – I needed that on this gloomy dark sky day.
Whittle wasn’t worth consideration there,
Whittle should be sent down a mineshaft to live and shovel safety for the rest of his days now, as he needs to be made an example of.
Nice article
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12220366
And just as nice @ MM, the latest ‘Listening Post’ special on Aljazeera – especially when they cover all those ‘reality TV’ type “Border Force” programmes …. almost like the poor man’s pornography.
We’ll reserve a cameo spot for James Casson in the next series (as if he hasn’t already got his jollies from being a party to it all already).
lol comment this replied to got deleted because fool got his sockpuppet accounts confused.
You’re such a tease.
it was 1-2 with a different avatar. Didn’t think much of it until my comment ended up at the bottom as a whole number, and the fool was back to the usual avatar.
Bit of a laugh, really.
Andre; Hey where’s the ‘miracle’ vaccine for the new global disease known as ‘incurable’ Auris candida??????
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/health/drug-resistant-candida-auris.html?module=inline
DEADLY GERMS, LOST CURES
A Mysterious Infection, Spanning the Globe in a Climate of Secrecy
The rise of Candida auris embodies a serious and growing public health threat: drug-resistant germs.
I’m not andre, fool.
Where’s the “alternative therapy” for it?
Pro tip for plonkers: if you want to reply to someone, hit the reply button in the box around the comment you want to reply to, not the next comment.
Why is there no vaccine against candida auris? Dunno, could be lots of reasons.
Might be because it’s a kind of organism that’s very difficult to develop a vaccine against. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any yeast diseases we actually do have a vaccine against. Most successful vaccines are against viral diseases. Organisms that are more complex are generally harder to develop vaccines against. Hence no effective vaccines against malaria or giardia or guinea worm or gonorrhea or syphilis or ….
Might be because it hasn’t been a big enough threat (and market) to get the attention of vaccine developers.
Might be because its emergence has been recent enough there just hasn’t been enough time.
Might be any combo or all of the above or other factors I haven’t mentioned. Asking why there isn’t a specific vaccine reminds of the CEO who once asked why we couldn’t develop something to spray on the outside of golf club shafts to tune the flex characteristics. I had to tell him the only unobtainium mine in the world had shut down cause there was an explosion. (Shortly thereafter I was seeking alternative employment)
Most successful vaccines are against viral diseases.
That alone was enough to answer Cleangreen’s ridiculous question, which was on a par with “If you’re so smart, how come you haven’t cured cancer yet?”
Yeah, if I was only trying to respond to cleangreen I probably would have left it there. Or probably not bothered at all, the question was so self-evidently ridiculous. I’m well aware that many commenters here are neither persuadable nor educable.
But when I respond to nutters, it’s usually because there may be something in that topic of interest to a broader audience of silent but interested readers so a fuller answer might be worthwhile. Or sometimes I’ll respond just for the lolz.
1. It’s not incurable.
2. To the best of my knowledge no vaccines have been developed against fungal infections.
I manually input my credentials into the name and email fields, as a simple security measure to not have sign in data cached on devices…
At times, due to the email address, which you can’t see , a character becomes inverted…leading to the creation of a new avatar…
At least two possibly three avatars are in the system…
Nothing in it, McFlock…keep throwing your childish comments …
What’s the failure rate of the flu shot you like to talk about getting?
Edit:
Were you able to understand the earlier question…if you read all available vaccine package inserts (FDA site) you can get the answer to the question…
lol okay, whatevs. You screwed up your ID because you’re paranoid that people will really give a crap about who you are.
You’re not that much of a threat to the system, neo.
As for vaccines, the proof is in the pudding. Maybe they guessed wrong this year, meaning the models were off and its the wrong strains in the shot. But frankly a sore arm with one in a million odds of a serious adverse reaction… hell, I’d take a 90% failure rate. No harm, no foul. But I seem to recall flu vaccines tend to be a few times that – nowhere near 90% like with some other conditions, but good enough to completely protect a lot of people and lessen the symptoms in others. It’s biggest advantage is to lower the burden on the health system from avoidable illness. I.e. fewer people plonked in ED hallways.
But I can’t be bothered doing your homework for you. Besides, I’d be surprised if they measured efficacy against placebo outright each and every time – the ethics of denying someone healthcare like that, even with consent, are long and debatable. They probably just compare with previous strains (and you might be able to follow that testing chain back to the original placebo trials), and do after-market evaluation of cases, prevalence, immunisation status, and of course any adverse events.
You screwed up your ID because you’re paranoid that people will really give a crap about who you are
How would inverting email field characters give away who I am ?
You saw the handle name..no change…
And if you reckon I use an identifiable email address…well you don’t understand digital security…or vaccines…eh
Edit.
Keep replying and I’ll break down your uninformed comments one at a time…
Or run off…like Joe and Andre…
We live in your head, dude.
Yep weeze and poos has finally lost it. Really when analysed they had very little to add or offer anyway save insults puffed by rhetoric. Ah well onwards and upwards lol
Post the certs of your kids vaccinations…
Or just admit you were mouthing off…
You still are…
Got caught sockpuppeting but so useless can’t even front up – so surprising lol
Front up…for what, marty?
Explain how I am using sock puppet accounts…under thr same handle…
And admit that you’re full of shit…or post the certs…
Go on…
Wouldn’t an incorrectly entered email address result in the post going to moderation?
Correct…and that did happen the first time…and was released…I’d guess because the mods see the inverted characters..
So now if the same email field characters are inverted when I manually enter it…the other avatar appears…
Fair enough it seems like a mistake rather than deliberate. Sorry if you were offended by my comment.
Hang on, that’s very interesting. For it to appear and then get deleated (for my reply to end up on the floor), the comment must have had a wrong email, gone into moderation, and been released inside ten minutes, for onetwo to be able to then delete it and rewrite it with the correct email.
Gosh, how efficient the mods were that time.
Joe…you’re really lost…I’ll explain for you..
You ran away… I repeat that statement that you ran away…and you reply..again..
3rd time at least…avoiding the question…still..
I’m in your head…that’s why you keep coming back…
Such and angry and unhealthy little group…you guys are…
Thank you One Two.
Why are you worried about digital security at TS? Anyone tracking you IRL already knows you’re a fucking nutbar.
Digital security is not limited to a single instance or web-site…broaden your view …bro…
Lashing out as you do is base level, sandpit behaviour…childish really…
All highly toxic…abusive, innefective…failing…
Just like vaccines…eh!
“Just like vaccines” lols
you base that on what, el paranoico