Television journo speed-readers would've been thrilled, given two hours to digest the package. Say there were four thousand pages, that's getting through a thousand in 30 minutes, around 333 pages per minute, about 5 pages per second.
Jacinda probably felt that Tova O'Brien needed a bit of a rev-up as she's been so zealous in pointing out deficiencies of govt performance in recent days.
"Newshub, meanwhile, reports that a leaked internal memo told government ministers not to talk to reporters about the documents, and that any written statements were to be signed off on by the prime minister."
That's because of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_lips_sink_ships . The ship of state must cruise smoothly this year so people get the idea that a Labour-led govt can be taken seriously & voted for. Of course this sets the bar way too high for some Labour ministers: "Aw, why can't we just be typical Labour ministers?" Jacinda: because I say so! You must demonstrate competence!"
I'm on her side of this divide. She's been walking her talk, along with some of her colleagues. Others, not so much. Then there's David Clark – in a category of his own having pushed Twyford off the dunce's stool, jammed the pointy cap firmly on his head and fixed his steely gaze on the join between the two walls in front of him, before writing the first of his thousand lines of "I am not really above everyone else."
heh – a docdump with no spin? Payback for stupid questions asked five times.
Wouldn't it be a laugh if there were no real needles in that haystack. Hour after hour of stale bureaucratese just to find some memo that suggests David Clark probably wasn't wise to go to a bike trail. Scoop of the month, award time!
As somebody pointed out on Twitter, in a so-called "document dump" by officials, all the material is helpfully categorised by subject, date and number.
Journos using the term "dump" conjure up an image of paper scattered randomly on the floor and our heroes having to hunt for the hidden treasure of truth. In reality, it is handed to them on a plate.
Sadly the insular Welli bubble means media people develop more loyalty to one another's viewpoints than to the public or audiences they supposedly serve.
They could like take the weekend to read it properly and prepare something intelligent to say on Monday. Are they also crying because there were no ready to use headlines?
Even the word "leak" is loaded, journos claiming there's a document leak that Adern has told all mps to get statements signed off by her. Under Key this was called discipline, the Nats were cheered for it. I still find it funny they used to hassle Adern for being too week, now she's too bossy.
James Shaw on tv3's Nation even made it sound more like instruction to comms officials in Ministers' offices and departments, which makes perfect sense. Too many agendas muddying the waters otherwise.
I assume we won’t have another Budgetgate this year. The Government is tightly controlling the communication and narrative, which is understandable with such a big week coming up. Scrutiny and accountability can wait a week or three days at least.
I like how they sneaked in the word “dismiss” in the so-called leaked memo; could be a dog whistle to ill-disciplined and loose-lipped Ministers.
In a 20 March document, top health officials recommended New Zealand move to alert level 2, and remain there for up to 30 days. But just three days later, the government moved to level 3, and in another two days went to level 4.
National Party health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse said the government lacked confidence. "There are clear contradictions between what the government saw about their response and what they were telling the New Zealand public," he said.
"They need to explain why because the costs of that lockdown, both from an economic perspective and also from the number of people with health issues that aren't related to [Covid-19] is growing by the day."
The original Level 2 that we started out with didn’t permit inter-regional travel as far as I can recall. It was one of the changes the govt made to the Level 2 at the behest of the tourism operators that we’ll be going into next week
2) Officials – and later, opposition – point out that this is too low, and will leave many without help.
3) Cap abolished. Subsidy available to all.
4) Complaints in media and from opposition that subsidy is going to those who don't need it, various examples cited. Because … er, it's available to all!
More generally … that one issue illustrates the entire Covid-19 saga in NZ. On everything from border closures to lockdowns there have been demands from opposition and (some) media for "Action Now! No time to worry about the consequences! Take Charge! Just Do It!".
to McFlock at 3: that Atlantic article makes me mourn once again about man's inhumanity to man….so blatant ……so callous. I admire that brave publication.
I wouldn't say across the political spectrum. The pockets where it has found appeal are just points of evidence in support of horseshoe theory. Or illustrated in slightly different form:
I suspect there's probably some BAU types elsewhere on the spectrum who aren't unhappy with the just keep going as we are (on fossil fuels) message though.
Maybe next time when you lift that 300lb arse of yours looking for that lost popcorn, would you point it else where "please,tied of you picking fights and demeaning follow members here.
But apparently utterly devoid of anything useful pointing to a way forward.
Yeah that was my primary reaction as I watched it. The left is at it's best when it's exploring new paths and proposing ways to test them out, this doco didn't even try.
[I’m getting tired of people disagreeing with RedLogix and thinking this gives them a licence for personal attacks without debating his comments. Do you want to be the first to be furloughed? – Incognito]
So what? You're suggesting (the DeSmog piece is) that because pro-fossil actors are putting a spin on a documentary that had the following simple message –
global warming + green tech =/= we're saved.
that the documentary is pro-fossil? And anyone who understands the basic premise of the documentary is also pro-fossil?
No serious person (scientist or otherwise) believes we can build our way out of this predicament we're created for ourselves. Even ignoring the resources required for any such project – ie, imagining various sustainable or green sources of energy can be made from thin air – the numbers are simple and the numbers don't stack up.
We have 'x' amount of time to have all of our energy needs come from zero carbon sources if we are to avoid devastating levels of climate change. And it's simply not within the realms of physical possibility to roll out the required amount of energy generation in time 'x'.
It differs across different countries, but without a sustained yearly drop in carbon related energy of between 15 and 20%, we sail through the 2 degrees guardrail at speed.
No serious person (scientist or otherwise) believes we can build our way out of this predicament we're created for ourselves.
Any proof of that assertion?
I have repeatedly outlined a path that would enable us to build our way out of this, yet it's largely ignored. It essentially involves hyper-energisation and closed loop resource industrialisation. Both concepts have obvious challenges, but neither are unreasonable goals.
You on the other hand loudly insist that there is no hope, that collapse and mass die-off is inevitable.
You on the other hand loudly insist that there is no hope, that collapse and mass die-off is inevitable.
Erm. You keep missing the bit about slashing energy consumption and how that might result in us dodging catastrophe?
It seems to me you're not facing reality Red. Your ideas about hyper-energisation and closed loop resource industrialisation (whatever those things may mean or look like in reality) would take how long to develop and roll out on a global scale? We have a mere handful of years before even the longest shot of avoiding two degrees of warming is gone.
As for wanting proof of an opinion that stems from an understanding of simple logistics…k – a person who is otherwise quite seriously minded, obviously isn't being serious (is deluded) if they believe that building global infrastructure can happen in a jiffy.
You keep missing the bit about slashing energy consumption and how that might result in us dodging catastrophe?
It doesn't avoid catastrophe, it ensures one. The reasoning is quite simple; lets assume there are, or soon will be, around 8b people, of whom 1b in the developed world are consuming energy at 5 times the rate the other 7b are. (Crude assumptions for the purpose of argument.)
If we reduce that top 1b back to the same average level of the other 7b, this at most reduces total human energy consumption by about two thirds. Nowhere near enough to stop climate change.
Worse still it means we can no longer support the complex industrial systems that enable cities to work at modern scale. Of that 8b roughly 4b are now urbanised and depend on energy to provide food and services. That means roughly half the world's population would need to reverse 200 yrs of urbanisation and return to subsistence farming as prior to the industrial revolution.
Solar and wind renewables do not exist in isolation, they require all of the complex industrial networks of materials and processes for their manufacture, install and operation. We are nowhere near the point where we could bootstrap sufficient industrialisation off the back of existing renewables to sustain their future growth. Or even keep the existing base going for long.
Strict decarbonising implies we return almost completely to the photosynthesis only civilisations prior to 1700AD. I accept this is a simplification, we may sustain some skills and artifacts of the industrial era, and the decay may be fast or slow, but the end point would be inevitably much the same. Except for one thing; having already consumed so many of the easily accessible metal resources, and with climate change impacting the biological ones, we'd be very much on the back foot.
After roughly 10,000 yrs of progress, our human ancestors (who I must emphasise were every bit as smart as us, and in many ways much tougher) never managed to get the total human population much over several hundred million. With the tech available to them the human carrying capacity of the planet was certainly less than 1b.
And that is the best population we could expect to survive if we 'slashed energy consumption' to the extent we could avoid irreversible climate change. It is a strategy that might work, but in the long run it would almost certainly come at the cost of around 7b lives … at least. Kind of like 'herd immunity', a blunt tool that knowingly front loads the death of millions.
Well, for a start you might want to look at the estimates of who consumes what. It's 10% of us consume 50% of energy. That 10% are (generally speaking) the richest of us.
I can't quite remember the exact formulation (came from Kevin Anderson) – it was something along the lines of bringing the richest US citizens down to energy consumption levels that are the European average and we get a 30% reduction in global energy use off the bat. (Note – that's assigning energy consumption to end user, and not on a national basis)
In terms of total energy consumption, my understanding is that Puerto Rico sits in a "goldilocks" zone, whereby they have achieved the maximum human well being to energy consumption ratio. Beyond Puerto Rico's levels of consumption, the improvements to human welfare that come from energy use tail off.
So. Rather than pull people up to "our" level of energy consumption, or dash back to some Hobbesian idea of the medieval that you appear to imagine, if we aimed for a level around what a citizen of Puerto Rico would consume, then we lose nothing very much in human well being and extend the time before our two degrees carbon budget is well and truly shot to pieces.
Would that give us time to possibly lay in reasonable amounts of sensible infrastructure? I dunno.
Regardless, it seems we've set our course for a fossil future of ever increasing energy use and a world beyond two degrees.
If we can get off the carbon hobby horse for a moment, there are multiple crises and extinction events caused by human activity unfolding right now.
Pollution, overpopulation and environmental destruction haven't gone away. CC has had the best marketing, but multiple ecosystem collapses and crop failures are just as likely to destroy civilisation as we know it. Or we can speed it up even further with war.
Perhaps a prepper mentality and Fortress Aotearoa are the way forward.
If we can get off the carbon hobby horse for a moment, there are multiple crises and extinction events caused by human activity unfolding right now.
Indeed. I agree that for the purposes of argument we tend to use energy as a proxy for all of them.
One of my very broad presuppositions is that if we solve the energy crisis we will also go a long way down the road toward solving all the others. I accept that is open to challenge.
One of the core ideas I am using to justify this is the observation that humans save nature when we stop using it. For example we nearly hunted whales to extinction for their oil, until ironically enough petrochemical oil came along to replace it. Now their populations are quietly (if patchily) recovering.
But yes I'd acknowledge this is a complex discussion in it's own right and we aren't doing it justice here.
There isn't of course a hard boundary between the top 10% and the other 90%.
But lets use that number you give. To keep the argument simple, imagine the top 10% vanish from the face of the earth. Total consumption is now exactly 50% of what it was before. Now lets be generous and allow that top 10% to live, but consuming now at the same rate as everyone else. That adds on another 10% to the 50% and brings up the total consumption to about 55% of what it was before we started on our experiment.
Not enough reduction to make the difference needed in the necessary time frame. Worse still … as you acknowledge …. all this does is delay the inevitable plunge off the cliff of energy extinction anyhow. Whether we get there fast or slow is something I'll leave for you to decide.
Small nations like Puerto Rico (and Cuba was another example I recall being used) do not exist in isolation. Critical components of their standard of living, are still imported and dependent on a wider global world. As such they make interesting studies, but a weak proof of concept.
There isn't of course a hard boundary between the top 10% and the other 90%.
True. 10% consume 50% of energy and the top 20% consume 70% of energy.
In your comment with its rough and ready calculation, we get to double the timescale before us. Given that 20/70 split, (I'm shite with calculations) I guess the time frame is quite a bit more than the doubling you suggest.
That's no little thing, given it's the time frame we have to lay in the zero carbon infrastructure for energy and clatter land use emissions (I think in theory land use emissions can be slightly negative with changed farming practices, diet changes, and regeneration of land etc).
edit – avoiding two degrees isn’t about delaying the inevitable plunge off the cliff of energy extinction anyhow btw
OK so we slash energy and decarbonise even harder back to the level of the bottom 70% (which is a big drop), again the same rough calculation says we are now consuming at around 36% of current. So we've more or less tripled the time frame.
Now we could start to quibble exactly what that time frame might be, and if as a base case assuming we did nothing we have maybe a decade, then tripling it to three decades doesn’t feel like a big win.
Conserving a fixed resource base is a plausible strategy if you're on a life boat and there is a reasonable expectation that if you just hold out long enough that eventually rescue will arrive or you'll bump into some land. That's not the case for human existence on this planet, there are no aliens coming to rescue us and no other planet full of untouched resources for us to bump into.
The only strategy that fits is for us to innovate and build our way out of this mess, we have to take the tools and resources we have and drive them to the next level. The sad part is that we already have most of the plans needed, but too many people seem fearful of the attempt.
The project proposes to use renewable electricity produced from solar PV to convert water into hydrogen using an anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyser. The hydrogen would then be converted into methane through a process that combines the hydrogen with carbon dioxide drawn from the atmosphere.
The methane output would have similar characteristics to that of conventional natural gas.
“Renewable methane is in effect indistinguishable from the methane that currently fills our natural gas pipelines. The gas network is expected to play a key role in supporting the decarbonisation of Australia’s energy system,” ARENA CEO Darren Miller said.
“This project will demonstrate the viability of producing renewable methane from solar power. Through a new and innovative approach, the project will capture moisture in the air to produce renewable hydrogen as a precursor to renewable methane.”
Essentially it's using solar PV and atmospheric CO2 and H2O to produce methane which is standard fuel and petrochemical feedstock. As long as your pipe network doesn't leak too much it's a really cool decarbonisation scheme.
Works especially well in Australia where there is stacks of land ideal for solar. The nice thing is that because quite a lot of gas is stored in the pipeline, it solves the solar intermittency issue.
Then there are Nuclear reactor designs, like the ones using molten salt, which fail into a safer mode and new designs which burn nuclear waste.
But also your scepticism, and that in Moore's film, about solar and wind is not justified. Already there are many places which they work better than fossil fuel plants, for less real costs. Reducing greenhouse gases by orders of magnitude over their life cycle, compared with fossil fuelled, plants. PO
But. Technology cannot solve the issues on it’s own. More efficient use of energy, and maintaining carbon sinks such as forests and oceans, are also part of the many faceted solutions, required.
I've been very careful to be quite clear what my position is on solar and wind. They are useful, essential in the short-term, but have some fundamental physics limits that mean we should not be relying on them to take us into a fully developed, fully sustainable future.
And while both Australia and New Zealand are fortunate that we both have excellent solar and/or wind potential, the same is not true for most of the world. We just need far more energy than they can provide in the long run.
Not correct. In reality solar is practically limitless, within the requirements of humans. But we need to use energy more efficiently, rather than just generating more. A lot of that technology is already in existence, also.
While some countries, central Europe, for one, are not exactly well endowed with either, that is changing with more efficient generation.
However, I expect they will continue to develop nuclear power.
Not correct. In reality solar is practically limitless, within the requirements of humans.
The limitation is not the amount of solar irradiation, but how much land is required to capture it. This is a fundamental constraint that technology will not have a workaround for. David MacKay's very level headed first principles analysis explains this very well.
And yes there is absolutely no objection to being more efficient and less wasteful. This is a tech driven trend that has been progressing for decades already.
Price is not the problem, we could make PV panels absolutely free, but if we had to cover 25% of the country to get just to meet our present needs, I doubt this is an ideal outcome.
The solar panels I use now, are a tenth the size for the same output, of the first ones I owned.
Indeed the first generations of panels were barely 5 – 8% efficient. This is the number that determines panel size for a given output. Most current silicon based panels are now running 20 – 22% efficient, which means they are indeed 4 – 5 times smaller than the first generations.
But there is an upper theoretical limit to how far we can push this with the present technology. It's called the Shockely-Queisser limit and it's understood to be around 32%. That means at best we might push our current cells to be maybe two thirds their current size.
There are some methods being worked on to get past this limit, but at best even these don't go past 45%. All up there isn't all that much potential to go much further than we already do with solar PV.
Again David MacKay's presentation covers this off quite well. Even if we got to double present efficiencies, it really doesn't change his overall conclusions all that much.
I've been very careful to repeatedly point out that both Australia and New Zealand are among a relatively fortunate few countries that can probably make the carbon transition on renewables only.
I just don't see a nuclear power plant in New Zealand in any foreseeable future. (As much as I would enjoy being wrong on that point.)
But there are not a lot of 'similar countries'. In most highly populated regions the solar and/or wind potential is nowhere near as good as we like to think. Places like Germany get around this by overbuilding installed renewables, but this does come not come for free. Not only does this double or triple the land area covered, but also pushes up the costs for all the grid infrastructure to handle the variability.
However you cut it, a number of voices have been saying that renewables have real limits, and we need to be clear eyed about the constraints these will imply. If we want to get to a hyper-energised society that can do closed loop resource recycling, and move to high tech materials replacing carbon lousy concrete and steel, we will inevitably need to go well beyond our current per capita energy consumption … for the whole of humanity.
RL, if NZ is, as you say @7:23 pm, "among a relatively fortunate few countries that can probably make the carbon transition on renewables only", why on Earth would you enjoy being wrong about not seeing "a nuclear power plant in New Zealand in any foreseeable future"?
Surely your vision of a hyper-energised global society has enough nuclear power plants to keep you happy without pushing one on NZ.
Are you’re concerned that NZ not signing up to nuclear power generation could be interpreted a ‘virtue signalling‘?
The techie in me would take pleasure in seeing NZ get a nuke plant in my lifetime, but I'm quite realistic enough to know that on our current trajectory we are unlikely to need one. On the other hand the future is hard to predict, and I can imagine scenarios where nuclear may become necessary in NZ.
And I'm not entirely disrespectful of the 'popularity' problem that nuclear power has. It would be counterproductive and arrogant to charge into installing one in NZ without doing the work necessary to win the majority of people over to the idea.
Millennials and younger think driving a gas guzzler is gross. The demand for alternatives like electric or hydrogen fuel cells continues to grow, and there are some promising developments in battery technology and fusion reactors.
The limitation is not the amount of solar irradiation, but how much land is required to capture it. This is a fundamental constraint that technology will not have a workaround for.
Perhaps with ever-increasing solar panel efficiency — with innovations like a multi-junction cell that can push efficiency as high as 47% — land constraints would not affect much.
Hi Redlogix, could you recommend some books (or other resources) about hyper-energisation and closed loop industrialisation. That sounds quite interesting.
Also these guys Breakthrough Institute produce earnest if sometimes waffly material on a regular basis.
On Molten Salt Reactors you have to start with Gordon McDowell's YT channel a young guy who has just made it his mission to capture any material he can find on the topic.
As an idea I fully acknowledge it is a bold, maybe even extreme idea. There is absolutely no assurance it will work, although the basic ideas all seem reasonable and achievable within the scope of technologies we already know about.
I'm aware that as an idea it has it's informed critics. Still on the whole I see it as the only non-depressing option we have. It fundamentally entails us taking a long shot between the constraining walls of CO2 and environmental limits on one side of the path, and the cliff of energy extinction on the other.
It's not even obvious there is a safe route between them; each year we waste narrows the chances.
There is a silver lining, because under this government those newly unemployed youths, who left school and went straight into work, now have the option of free tertiary education.
I have just heard on RNZ, Florian Scheider, founding member of Kraftwerk, passed away.
Man Machine was the first piece of vinyl as a young teen that I bought. Those sounds, so simple, so high tech. Many hours spent hunched over the album sleeve, headphones on, lost in the music.
A profoundly influential band, who's music travelled way beyond their Dusseldorf studio.
It's interesting that some nations very close to China (geographically) have handled this the best. And this doesn't reflect well on the much wealthier nations that have grossly mishandled the pandemic.
… As a result, Vietnamese generally haven’t viewed Covid-19 as just another seasonal flu, but as a serious illness as menacing as the 2003 SARS outbreak. The public’s experience with SARS, as well as with the swine and avian flus, has helped to shape perceptions of Covid-19 and likely influenced people’s readiness to respond.
That's a key point from the article. Nations in the southeast asia region have been on the front-line of dealing with emerging diseases for decades now. They have already had the learning experience and had systems in place. Plus the confidence in experts and in the public to respond early and quickly with the systems they had ready to go.
Given that the chinese response included welding people into their apartments, plus the ongoing doubt about the reliability of chinese numbers, makes me uninterested in trying to play a comparison game that includes the chinese response as one of the comparison points. But there's no doubt the situation in the US has been made much worse by the Dotard of Doltistan and his nepotistic kakistocracy.
Personally I'm just very relieved to be in the data segment that will be used to illustrate how something as serious as COVID can in fact be contained and eliminated by a capable state working together with a population that is willing to accept the need to change behaviour for a while and just do it. Without needing to resort to draconian enforcement of removing reasonable civil rights. Along with Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia and South Korea as other examples.
The response from Vietnam (and some others) makes it clear that the Chinese were open enough about the issue to allow them to make rational decisions on tackling the virus with success. All countries had access to the same data, so it begs the question why some didn't. Donald McNeil goes to the crux of the difficulty of assessing the characteristics of Covid-19 early on in this 20 minute interview
"In early March fellow journalists were bemused by Donald McNeil's glove wearing and surface-sanitising ways.The New York Times' health and science reporter saw the pandemic coming and took personal action early.
He's now looking towards to the next big challenge for the US – how the country will navigate its way out of the lockdown.His reporting's building up a picture of a dark and somewhat dystopian future, with economic opportunities for the immune leading to people deliberately exposing themselves to the virus"
It was pretty obvious to me in mid January that this was a likely to be a epidemic and possiblee pandemic disease – and I was looking at the WHO bulletins from the 5th of Jan. I was bloody glad that I got back from UK before xmas.
Just looking at the reported level of lock down that the Chinese put into Wuhan and 5 other provincial towns at the 23rd Jan made it completely clear that the novel corona virus was spreading to Vietnam and Singapore – both of which started to do suppression and containment at the same time.
It was much the same world wide. Some countries acted responsibly, and reduced the problem like NZ did. Some like the Italy, UK and the US has dysfunctional governance and got the outcomes consist with being unthinking fuckwits.
Part of the difference is crappy governance, but also NZ culture in general is outward looking, we like to know what's happening in the world. Brexit Britain and Border wall USA prefer game shows and propaganda to keep inconvenient facts out of the news cycle.
The National Party, ACT and many in business still are preaching the mantra that Australia was much less restrictive in flattening it's curve.
But in the last two days the Morrison Govt has introduced a 3-step plan to re-open their economy.
From that article, Step one of three, I've highlighted some points that show many states have had restrictions close to us, perhaps not with our strongly communicated movement restrictions under Level 4 – the well articulated advice to 'stay local'
Step one will see us connecting with more friends and family, and see businesses, educational campuses and sporting facilities start to reopen.
Restrictions on gatherings will be relaxed, allowing for:
Non-work gatherings of up to 10 people in public
Up to five visitors to your home
Up to 10 guests at a wedding, in addition to the couple and the celebrant
Up to 20 mourners allowed at a funeral if indoors, and 30 if outdoors
Religious gatherings with up to 10 attendees
Employees should continue to work from home if it is suitable for them and their employer, though all businesses should develop a Covid-safe plan to prepare for staff returning to the workplace.
Step one will see a number of businesses reopen their doors.
Retail stores will reopen, and auctions and open homes proceed with up to 10 people. Cafes and restaurants will be allowed to seat 10 patrons at a time, as long as they follow the four square metres per person rule. Hairdressers and barber shops can also open, but must record customers’ contact details, presumably enable contact tracing if necessary.
Food courts will stay closed for any seated patrons. Also to remain closed: gyms, indoor movie theatres, stadiums, galleries, museums, zoos, pubs, clubs, gaming venues, strip clubs and brothels, as well as beauty therapy and massage therapy venues, saunas and tattoo parlours.
Step one will also see children back in classrooms and in playgrounds in their communities, and universities and technical colleges increasing face-to-face teaching where possible.
Some sporting facilities will be made available once again. Indoor gyms will stay closed, but up to 10 people at a time will be able to:
Use community centres, outdoor gyms, playgrounds, and skate parks
Take part in outdoor organised sport, like golf and boot camps.
While interstate borders will most likely remain closed to tourists, intrastate travel to regional areas for recreation should start back up. Hostels and hotels will be open for accommodation, but caravan parks and camping grounds could remain closed to tourists in some states and territories.
Queensland has announced it will move to stage 1 on 15 May, and Tasmania will do so on 18 May, subject to public health advice. Other states have yet to specify the date.
Finally, when you look at the unemployment and government assistance stats it's clear that they too have suffered a massive hit on their economy.
Can you please not post so much bold – around here it is mainly used for moderator comments or by people not confident others will read what they are posting otherwise.
Kim Hill is interviewing someone decent this morning
RNZ National, Saturday 9 May 2020
A welcome change from guests like Jonathan Freedland, Luke Harding, A.A. Gill and Alex Gibney….
09:05 Chesa Boudin – progressive DA and 'de-carceration' advocate
San Francisco's recently elected district attorney Chesa Boudin has a unique perspective on the legal system: his 75-year-old father David Gilbert (a former member of the radical left wing group the Weather Underground) is in prison serving a life sentence for murder.
Boudin is a lawyer, writer, and lecturer specializing in the U.S. criminal justice system and Latin American policy.
His mission is to reform the American criminal justice system and reduce incarceration rates. His policies include challenging California's controversial 'three strikes' law.
He's also concerned about the impact of Covid-19 on prisoners.
Ah, sentenced when life actually meant life, eh? I wonder if some journo has interviewed him – would be interesting (if he hasn't lost his marbles).
"Newly released FBI documents show that in the spring of 1969, Washington ordered its civilian informants in Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to support the “National Office” faction (that is, Weatherman) against other factions in the organization. At that time, the FBI believed—wrongly—that Weatherman, because it was countercultural and anarchic, was the least dangerous group in SDS. When the 600-strong Weatherman faction walked out at the SDS national convention in June 1969 and formed the “true” SDS, among those 600 people were dozens of FBI civilian informants." https://time.com/4549409/the-weather-underground-bad-moon-rising/
"Yet the fact is that FBI never permanently caught a single major Weatherman figure." Which implies that the DA's father was a minor figure! So on what basis did he get life? Murder?
And "the Weatherman bombing policy had not won support even on the extreme Left. Even the Berkeley Tribe, the most radical underground newspaper in the country, publicly warned that lethal bombings would discredit Weatherman". I was watching this all go down in black & white tv pics from our state broadcaster thinking `goddam leftists – what part of non-violence don't they get??'
"And of course, the jobless numbers don't count those who have had their pay cut, their working hours cut (or both), or are in the casual, gig economy (survey data for these workers is difficult). All up it is an epic economic disaster and one that will probably be repeated in May, despite the desperate attempt there to restart their economy. You just cannot take the purchasing power of that many people out of the giant American economy and not have long-term global economic implications. The hurt will spread to New Zealand and our export markets."
Under-employment has a been a big part of the story for people under 30 in our economy for some time and it will only get worse. What does it matter that you have a 'job' if you still can't afford to live?
And of course, the jobless numbers don't count those who have had their pay cut, their working hours cut (or both), or are in the casual, gig economy (survey data for these workers is difficult).
NZ has its own version of that already, regardless of other impacts on our economy from outside.
Call me strange but the met service has just outlined the barometer plunging, a massive storm system forming on a scale not seen in living memory and the discussion point from the forecast is we should double peg our washing on the line…..wtf?
When you only quote a paragraph with a link, it may seem self-explanatory to you but without any guiding commentary from you, that assumption might be challenged 😉
In any case, this is a debating chamber rather than an echo chamber. So, make your point(s), and make them well, and expect counter-points, some of which better than others.
It is designed to function as a debating chamber but when you remove all the furniture on the right, there can be a slight echo depending on where you stand and what kind of noise you make.
I find it helps to initiate and catalyse “some thought and discussion”.
You are most welcome to choose whatever option you fancy or you think best, of course.
If your point is that the economic shock is huge and unavoidable, well yes, that's clear and obvious. There's limited mitigation available of this, and while tourism is going to be a lot smaller, we are lucky that major export $ comes from primary industries which will continue on.
My thinking is along the lines of a sack of bastards thrown into deep water who are all clamouring at one another thinking that if they hang on to the right person they won't go down. They're all going down.
It seems NZ is aligning itself with the US (some shit about suggesting Taiwan be allowed into the WHO and a trading bloc that includes the US?). It doesn't make much sense to me, given that it's likely China and other Asian countries that are going to be on their feet first – however briefly.
Then there's that huge power grab going on in the US – the $US 4+ Trillion that's being gifted to US corporations alongside nothing being done for workers or small businesses.
I'm guessing the idea is to force workers back into the workforce and pandemic be damned. (The UK is also looking at ending its wage subsidy scheme) I wonder if they've thought through the possibility of workers tooling up (how many guns in the US?) but not to go to work?
and Trump encouraging those 'tooled up' to 'liberate' all….hes making China look like a better option every day (when we are forced to choose and surely we must sometime soon)
22.5 mln extra people jobless in just one month. We want to try and put that into perspective.. That is like saying everyone in the workforce in New Zealand (2.8 mln), Australia (13.0 mln), Singapore (3.8 mln), and Hong Kong (3.9 mln) all lost their jobs in one four week period.
But it is worse than that. The US data is based on a survey taken on April 12, and things got substantially worse after that.
"USA: Richest nation in history", only if you ignore half the population and the victims of its sordid past.
It has only just begun and given the US is by some measures quarter of world economic output we can cry out for 'restarting' our economy and 'saving ' our businesses because 'shutdown' you know but the damage is not to any great extent controlled by our actions…especially in a globalised economy.
Even our Reserve Banks actions are largely determined by what the major players do.
Autonomy of act and outcome are an illusion being grasped like drowning men clutching at straws
"Richest nation" etc, yet only a few percent own more than half of all wealth? Amazing how many Americans think they live in the "bestest country in the world".
Stuart Smith (a National MP nobody has heard of) reminds us why Simon Bridges is still their leader. Not learning from mistakes is not the exception in that caucus – it's the rule:
He claims not to have read the full tweet. Thus disqualifying himself from ever being in government. I mean, some of those papers Ministers have to read are pages long. With no pictures!
SATIRE: The National Party has announced that it will approach Taika Waititi to write and direct its response to the next global crisis.
The move comes as National’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic opened to mixed-to-negative reviews and was lambasted by many die-hard fans.
…
National fans fondly recall what many consider to be the highwater mark of the franchise – 2008’s A New Hopeful, in which a simple but likeable Merrill Lynch funds trader frees a thankful nation from the tyrannical grip of Helen Clark’s energy-efficient-lightbulb-wielding regime.
This is an excellent read. It shows how they are able to track the covid movement by analysis of the genome. The detail is well! detailed!!!
'That same process of analysing genomic data, however, can tell us more than just where the virus came from. It can tell us where the virus has been, too.
Then, finally, a mistake slipped through the cracks. Some time between December 22 and January 12, the guanine nucleotide 11,083 letters into the RNA code swapped to a uracil. The G changed to a U.
Nah. Not going to click on a link like that. Unless it's from a really trusted source, and randoms on TS aren't that. Who knows where the fuck it might link to?
Back in the 90’s I opened a questionable email attachment, that took over my PC and announced to my coworkers with huge flashing letters "I'M GAY!!" with siren sound effects
Although this kind of stuff is semi interesting.. much more important is finding out exactly where this virus came from. I get the feeling a lot of effort is being put into defending where it didn't come from – science, and basically glossing over the origin. hmm….
Ok then, let me help you by highlighting a few salient points that also a layperson should be able to appreciate.
Why does this matter? It's a crucial tool in tracing how the virus moves and where it may be coming from.
In China, for example, new cases that bear the hallmarks of European or American strains can be classified as linked to overseas travel and not indicative of undetected spread. [emphasis added]
New Zealand could also benefit.
"When new cases are being announced, often it says they are still under investigation. Often that means that people are still being interviewed and that they are still trying to establish links to known clusters," …
But in some cases, it's just difficult to make that link, either because it's some time ago that the person had the symptoms or just because the virus can spread so easily that you might not always make the connection. In some of those cases, we can use the genome of the virus to identify a cluster that it is associated to."
This has happened on at least one occasion, de Ligt said.
"In comparison to other RNA viruses, it's a little bit more stable because it has a way of correcting some of the errors that it makes while it replicates," Geoghegan said.
"The stability is actually a good thing. It doesn't necessarily mutate as quickly as some other viruses do and it's quite encouraging news, for example, for the hope of creating a long-lasting vaccine."
While the mutations may not make the virus more deadly or more transmissible, understanding where in the virus these mutations occur could help with efforts to create an antiviral medication.
The parts with few mutations are more brittle. Mutations in those parts may destroy the coronavirus by causing catastrophic changes to its proteins. Those essential regions may be especially good targets for attacking the virus with antiviral drugs," the New York Times reported in April.
That's part of why New Zealand scientists are seeking to sequence the genome of all 1138 of our confirmed cases. This could help with vaccine research and the quest for an effective antiviral.
In addition to all of this, it is likely that more uses for genome mapping will be produced in the coming months, alongside more revelations about how the virus mutates and spreads.
"The 2.4 ha property they bought in 2009 is an escape from their busy jobs at Waikato Hospital. Robinson, an anaesthetist and Chang, a respiratory specialist at Waikato Hospital, are on the frontline of Waikato District Health Board's response to the Covid-19 pandemic."
"Robinson and Chang have been offered $1 by the council for a portion of their land big enough to be a lifestyle block on its own and, despite the land's potential worth of half a million dollars on the open market. The case is so unusual that Sage has instructed officials to review the law that applies to compulsory acquisition next time the Public Works Act is renewed."
Eugenie Sage seems to have been advised that the council is legally able to perform the rort via coercion. "Council strategic development manager Andrew Parsons says the council has worked with expert planners and lawyers to ensure the Public Works Act, 1981 has been followed. The Act provides for the payment of compensation for losses arising from the acquisition of land by the Crown and its authorities."
From his grave, Muldoon's got a long reach, huh? An "independent valuation has determined the owners will receive an increase in their asset value of $282,500 due to the works done by the council, regardless of what they choose to do in the future. It is this value that has been used to assess betterment."
So the council doesn't have to pay current market value for land taken for subdivisions. It can pay market value in some hypothetical future chosen by their pet valuer. Public policy based on one individual's personal hallucination, I reckon!
How is this for an example of what we Do Not want the government central or local, doing about real estate.
This is not appropriate in a country under the rule of law. If more land is needed because demand is outrunning judicious supply, reduce demand.That’s the economists reply to the problem surely.
Which means less people coming here, no more outright purchases to new incomers, but long leases 5×5 say to fill up present gaps, and of course CGT and other little bites such as stamp duty, estate duty, and let's clap people who do well, and the government and country that has been their mainstay, can be in on the sharing at the time of death or dissolution of the entity.
New moves on the RMA and how different are they to National's De
Anyone who wants the Ministry of Works to be a super-agency should read that article very carefully. NZTA is already a brutal machine and deploys it with unrelenting legal muscle.
The section on "injurious affection" is well due for a reboot.
Wow – for my sins just tuned into Kiwiblog to read his opinion on the Waikato river restriction. Won't repeat it because it's flat-out racist, in the most repugnant of manners.
I'm not experienced in such stuff but I believe he needs to be called out for this publicly if those who mod this site felt as such.
Kiwiblog doesn't need the airtime. But, as an open sewer, it's a useful barometer of how one eyed Nactoids are feeling, and they've had a shitty time lately.
If you come across racism on The Standard, you should flag this, ideally to the Moderators of this site. The Moderators cannot be everywhere all the time and sometimes there is a delay between the posting of the offence and appropriate educational and/or corrective action, e.g. a Moderator note or warning, a deletion or part-deletion of the offending text/material, and in some cases an instant ban, sometimes a permanent one, depending on the severity of the offence and the (history of the) perpetrator. Luckily, the commentariat of this site is generally very good at spotting dodgy comments that may need the attention from Moderators. Everybody who posts here must read and adhere to this site’s Policy (https://thestandard.org.nz/policy/) as well as the About section (https://thestandard.org.nz/about/); the policy is clear and the rules are lenient. When in doubt, please ask first or risk being moderated, which is usually a kind explanation and instruction, but not always! Ignorance is not an excuse.
FYI, the Moderators of The Standard have absolutely no responsibility whatsoever, moral or otherwise, for what happens elsewhere and on other blog sites. Their job is to keep this place, i.e. The Standard, clean and tidy and enable fair and robust debate on this site only. It is an offence and a breach of this site’s Policy and rules to tell Authors and Moderators what to do or not to do here, let alone somewhere else; it goes against the spirit of the Policy to suggest even such a thing, IMO. I assume you meant well, but I felt it necessary to give you my thoughts on the matter to avoid these suggestions from happening again in future.
NB This comment is not personal but directed at all commenters here, as a reminder.
All good – am sure you understood this, but just to reaffirm that it was about what I read on Kiwiblog not here, – and interested if it deserved comment on the standard.
It the Nats go hell for leather as they are, encouraging everybody of their weird persuasion to do whatever they want whenever they want – While Covid -19 keeps rolling on.
2. Feb 3 WHO tells off those who closed their borders to travellers from China – calling for evidence based policy (China had already locked down Wuhan from the rest of China and thus they were to contain their outbreak and save many lives) and calling for the continuance of travel and trade.
3. May 8 WHO supports the continuance of live animal markets as an important part of the economy and says the risk will just have to be managed.
4. Only a swine flu epidemic ended Chinese pig meat exports – farmed by giving them anti-biotics – enabling the development of anti-biotic resistant bacteria.
He said reducing the risk of disease transmission from animals to humans in these often overcrowded markets could be addressed in many cases by improving hygiene and food safety standards, including separating live animals from humans.
He added that it is still unclear whether the market in Wuhan linked to the first several dozens of coronavirus cases in China was the actual source of the virus or merely played a role in spreading the disease further.
Yup – he supports them continuing to operate. You could quote the part where he says the risk of future outbreaks from live markets is something that will just have to be managed – like the spread of a virus by those who travel …
"The number of infections could grow as health workers are scrambling to trace contacts of club goers. Park said health workers have been attempting to contact some 1,940 people who were listed as visitors to the three Itaewon clubs and other venues nearby, but they have so far been able to reach only 637 of them."
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Spinoff yesterday: "3.50pm: Big government document dump"… "The government released thousands of pages of documents relating to their decision-making around Covid-19". Scooping Scoop, who didn't announce it till 4.41pm. https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/08-05-2020/covid-19-live-updates-may-8-china-taiwan-and-nz/
Television journo speed-readers would've been thrilled, given two hours to digest the package. Say there were four thousand pages, that's getting through a thousand in 30 minutes, around 333 pages per minute, about 5 pages per second.
Jacinda probably felt that Tova O'Brien needed a bit of a rev-up as she's been so zealous in pointing out deficiencies of govt performance in recent days.
"Newshub, meanwhile, reports that a leaked internal memo told government ministers not to talk to reporters about the documents, and that any written statements were to be signed off on by the prime minister."
That's because of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_lips_sink_ships . The ship of state must cruise smoothly this year so people get the idea that a Labour-led govt can be taken seriously & voted for. Of course this sets the bar way too high for some Labour ministers: "Aw, why can't we just be typical Labour ministers?" Jacinda: because I say so! You must demonstrate competence!"
I'm on her side of this divide. She's been walking her talk, along with some of her colleagues. Others, not so much. Then there's David Clark – in a category of his own having pushed Twyford off the dunce's stool, jammed the pointy cap firmly on his head and fixed his steely gaze on the join between the two walls in front of him, before writing the first of his thousand lines of "I am not really above everyone else."
heh – a docdump with no spin? Payback for stupid questions asked five times.
Wouldn't it be a laugh if there were no real needles in that haystack. Hour after hour of stale bureaucratese just to find some memo that suggests David Clark probably wasn't wise to go to a bike trail. Scoop of the month, award time!
As somebody pointed out on Twitter, in a so-called "document dump" by officials, all the material is helpfully categorised by subject, date and number.
Journos using the term "dump" conjure up an image of paper scattered randomly on the floor and our heroes having to hunt for the hidden treasure of truth. In reality, it is handed to them on a plate.
I was surprised by the tone taken by RNZ journos talking about this last night.
'Dump', Friday afternoon, the amount of data released. There was an adversarial attitude in the reaction to the release of information.
Almost as if the journos are afraid to take a different angle to the rest of the press corp.
Sadly the insular Welli bubble means media people develop more loyalty to one another's viewpoints than to the public or audiences they supposedly serve.
They could like take the weekend to read it properly and prepare something intelligent to say on Monday. Are they also crying because there were no ready to use headlines?
OMG! It is more than 280 characters to read!!
The proposed rules for Level 2 give the Health Minister a more prominent role. Joy.
Even the word "leak" is loaded, journos claiming there's a document leak that Adern has told all mps to get statements signed off by her. Under Key this was called discipline, the Nats were cheered for it. I still find it funny they used to hassle Adern for being too week, now she's too bossy.
James Shaw on tv3's Nation even made it sound more like instruction to comms officials in Ministers' offices and departments, which makes perfect sense. Too many agendas muddying the waters otherwise.
I assume we won’t have another Budgetgate this year. The Government is tightly controlling the communication and narrative, which is understandable with such a big week coming up. Scrutiny and accountability can wait a week or three days at least.
I like how they sneaked in the word “dismiss” in the so-called leaked memo; could be a dog whistle to ill-disciplined and loose-lipped Ministers.
RNZ summarises the govt's document release: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/416190/covid-19-government-releases-hundreds-of-documents-on-its-response
'But the economy!' Opposition not happy that govt went against advice in released document proposing a month in Level 2 before going to L3 and L4. Imagine the carnage. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/416216/covid-19-government-need-to-explain-response-after-documents-released-national
Re the suggestion to be at L2 for the first month
Level 2 allows travel thru NZ.
Thus would allow the infection to travel more 'freely' for a month
The number of infections would have been much larger,
AND then much more difficult to contain after the mth at L2
On balance the quick movement was appropriate and justified.
The original Level 2 that we started out with didn’t permit inter-regional travel as far as I can recall. It was one of the changes the govt made to the Level 2 at the behest of the tourism operators that we’ll be going into next week
Thanks Scott
Here's the original Level 2 outline
https://twitter.com/AotearoanJames/status/1257119300105596934?s=20
The wage subsidy debate, in summary:
1) Initial cap of $150,000.
2) Officials – and later, opposition – point out that this is too low, and will leave many without help.
3) Cap abolished. Subsidy available to all.
4) Complaints in media and from opposition that subsidy is going to those who don't need it, various examples cited. Because … er, it's available to all!
More generally … that one issue illustrates the entire Covid-19 saga in NZ. On everything from border closures to lockdowns there have been demands from opposition and (some) media for "Action Now! No time to worry about the consequences! Take Charge! Just Do It!".
Then there are consequences.
Atlantic article "COVID-19 Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying". Definitely a full-on piece.
Gutsy impressive article, thanks for posting. It's an honest and disturbing read.
to McFlock at 3: that Atlantic article makes me mourn once again about man's inhumanity to man….so blatant ……so callous. I admire that brave publication.
Praise for POTH from oil industry & assorted climate denial outfits:
Fossil Fuel-Backed Climate Deniers Rush to Promote Michael Moore Documentary 'Planet of The Humans'
Certainly popular with the folks over at Breitbart & the Heartland Institute…
Seems to be giving anarcho-primitivists little woodies, too. But apparently utterly devoid of anything useful pointing to a way forward.
The whole may as well just keep burning fossil fuels cause renewables are worse message is pointing the way forward for the oil industry…
It's been interesting seeing who has uncritically swallowed it, bizarrely seems to have found appeal across the political spectrum.
I wouldn't say across the political spectrum. The pockets where it has found appeal are just points of evidence in support of horseshoe theory. Or illustrated in slightly different form:
https://pics.me.me/moonbat-wingnut-convergence-moonbats-wingnuts-lef-wingthe-circle-of-derright-wing-democrats-republicans-39977242.png
Point taken, more at both ends.
I suspect there's probably some BAU types elsewhere on the spectrum who aren't unhappy with the just keep going as we are (on fossil fuels) message though.
@Andre, 4.1.1.1
Maybe next time when you lift that 300lb arse of yours looking for that lost popcorn, would you point it else where "please,tied of you picking fights and demeaning follow members here.
That teaches me for being a smart arse,still debating about "yours", but fellow it should have read.
But apparently utterly devoid of anything useful pointing to a way forward.
Yeah that was my primary reaction as I watched it. The left is at it's best when it's exploring new paths and proposing ways to test them out, this doco didn't even try.
Whaddya mean the left? Is this just more patronising damn with faint praise bullshit from you? Who isn't at his/her best doing those things?
Feel free to provide a shining example.
Well you, obviously. Who could doubt it.
[I’m getting tired of people disagreeing with RedLogix and thinking this gives them a licence for personal attacks without debating his comments. Do you want to be the first to be furloughed? – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 11:59 PM.
So what? You're suggesting (the DeSmog piece is) that because pro-fossil actors are putting a spin on a documentary that had the following simple message –
global warming + green tech =/= we're saved.
that the documentary is pro-fossil? And anyone who understands the basic premise of the documentary is also pro-fossil?
No serious person (scientist or otherwise) believes we can build our way out of this predicament we're created for ourselves. Even ignoring the resources required for any such project – ie, imagining various sustainable or green sources of energy can be made from thin air – the numbers are simple and the numbers don't stack up.
We have 'x' amount of time to have all of our energy needs come from zero carbon sources if we are to avoid devastating levels of climate change. And it's simply not within the realms of physical possibility to roll out the required amount of energy generation in time 'x'.
It differs across different countries, but without a sustained yearly drop in carbon related energy of between 15 and 20%, we sail through the 2 degrees guardrail at speed.
No serious person (scientist or otherwise) believes we can build our way out of this predicament we're created for ourselves.
Any proof of that assertion?
I have repeatedly outlined a path that would enable us to build our way out of this, yet it's largely ignored. It essentially involves hyper-energisation and closed loop resource industrialisation. Both concepts have obvious challenges, but neither are unreasonable goals.
You on the other hand loudly insist that there is no hope, that collapse and mass die-off is inevitable.
Spot the difference.
You on the other hand loudly insist that there is no hope, that collapse and mass die-off is inevitable.
Erm. You keep missing the bit about slashing energy consumption and how that might result in us dodging catastrophe?
It seems to me you're not facing reality Red. Your ideas about hyper-energisation and closed loop resource industrialisation (whatever those things may mean or look like in reality) would take how long to develop and roll out on a global scale? We have a mere handful of years before even the longest shot of avoiding two degrees of warming is gone.
As for wanting proof of an opinion that stems from an understanding of simple logistics…k – a person who is otherwise quite seriously minded, obviously isn't being serious (is deluded) if they believe that building global infrastructure can happen in a jiffy.
You keep missing the bit about slashing energy consumption and how that might result in us dodging catastrophe?
It doesn't avoid catastrophe, it ensures one. The reasoning is quite simple; lets assume there are, or soon will be, around 8b people, of whom 1b in the developed world are consuming energy at 5 times the rate the other 7b are. (Crude assumptions for the purpose of argument.)
If we reduce that top 1b back to the same average level of the other 7b, this at most reduces total human energy consumption by about two thirds. Nowhere near enough to stop climate change.
Worse still it means we can no longer support the complex industrial systems that enable cities to work at modern scale. Of that 8b roughly 4b are now urbanised and depend on energy to provide food and services. That means roughly half the world's population would need to reverse 200 yrs of urbanisation and return to subsistence farming as prior to the industrial revolution.
Solar and wind renewables do not exist in isolation, they require all of the complex industrial networks of materials and processes for their manufacture, install and operation. We are nowhere near the point where we could bootstrap sufficient industrialisation off the back of existing renewables to sustain their future growth. Or even keep the existing base going for long.
Strict decarbonising implies we return almost completely to the photosynthesis only civilisations prior to 1700AD. I accept this is a simplification, we may sustain some skills and artifacts of the industrial era, and the decay may be fast or slow, but the end point would be inevitably much the same. Except for one thing; having already consumed so many of the easily accessible metal resources, and with climate change impacting the biological ones, we'd be very much on the back foot.
After roughly 10,000 yrs of progress, our human ancestors (who I must emphasise were every bit as smart as us, and in many ways much tougher) never managed to get the total human population much over several hundred million. With the tech available to them the human carrying capacity of the planet was certainly less than 1b.
And that is the best population we could expect to survive if we 'slashed energy consumption' to the extent we could avoid irreversible climate change. It is a strategy that might work, but in the long run it would almost certainly come at the cost of around 7b lives … at least. Kind of like 'herd immunity', a blunt tool that knowingly front loads the death of millions.
And you accuse me of not facing reality.
Well, for a start you might want to look at the estimates of who consumes what. It's 10% of us consume 50% of energy. That 10% are (generally speaking) the richest of us.
I can't quite remember the exact formulation (came from Kevin Anderson) – it was something along the lines of bringing the richest US citizens down to energy consumption levels that are the European average and we get a 30% reduction in global energy use off the bat. (Note – that's assigning energy consumption to end user, and not on a national basis)
In terms of total energy consumption, my understanding is that Puerto Rico sits in a "goldilocks" zone, whereby they have achieved the maximum human well being to energy consumption ratio. Beyond Puerto Rico's levels of consumption, the improvements to human welfare that come from energy use tail off.
So. Rather than pull people up to "our" level of energy consumption, or dash back to some Hobbesian idea of the medieval that you appear to imagine, if we aimed for a level around what a citizen of Puerto Rico would consume, then we lose nothing very much in human well being and extend the time before our two degrees carbon budget is well and truly shot to pieces.
Would that give us time to possibly lay in reasonable amounts of sensible infrastructure? I dunno.
Regardless, it seems we've set our course for a fossil future of ever increasing energy use and a world beyond two degrees.
If we can get off the carbon hobby horse for a moment, there are multiple crises and extinction events caused by human activity unfolding right now.
Pollution, overpopulation and environmental destruction haven't gone away. CC has had the best marketing, but multiple ecosystem collapses and crop failures are just as likely to destroy civilisation as we know it. Or we can speed it up even further with war.
Perhaps a prepper mentality and Fortress Aotearoa are the way forward.
If we can get off the carbon hobby horse for a moment, there are multiple crises and extinction events caused by human activity unfolding right now.
Indeed. I agree that for the purposes of argument we tend to use energy as a proxy for all of them.
One of my very broad presuppositions is that if we solve the energy crisis we will also go a long way down the road toward solving all the others. I accept that is open to challenge.
One of the core ideas I am using to justify this is the observation that humans save nature when we stop using it. For example we nearly hunted whales to extinction for their oil, until ironically enough petrochemical oil came along to replace it. Now their populations are quietly (if patchily) recovering.
But yes I'd acknowledge this is a complex discussion in it's own right and we aren't doing it justice here.
It's 10% of us consume 50% of energy.
There isn't of course a hard boundary between the top 10% and the other 90%.
But lets use that number you give. To keep the argument simple, imagine the top 10% vanish from the face of the earth. Total consumption is now exactly 50% of what it was before. Now lets be generous and allow that top 10% to live, but consuming now at the same rate as everyone else. That adds on another 10% to the 50% and brings up the total consumption to about 55% of what it was before we started on our experiment.
Not enough reduction to make the difference needed in the necessary time frame. Worse still … as you acknowledge …. all this does is delay the inevitable plunge off the cliff of energy extinction anyhow. Whether we get there fast or slow is something I'll leave for you to decide.
Small nations like Puerto Rico (and Cuba was another example I recall being used) do not exist in isolation. Critical components of their standard of living, are still imported and dependent on a wider global world. As such they make interesting studies, but a weak proof of concept.
There isn't of course a hard boundary between the top 10% and the other 90%.
True. 10% consume 50% of energy and the top 20% consume 70% of energy.
In your comment with its rough and ready calculation, we get to double the timescale before us. Given that 20/70 split, (I'm shite with calculations) I guess the time frame is quite a bit more than the doubling you suggest.
That's no little thing, given it's the time frame we have to lay in the zero carbon infrastructure for energy and clatter land use emissions (I think in theory land use emissions can be slightly negative with changed farming practices, diet changes, and regeneration of land etc).
edit – avoiding two degrees isn’t about delaying the inevitable plunge off the cliff of energy extinction anyhow btw
OK so we slash energy and decarbonise even harder back to the level of the bottom 70% (which is a big drop), again the same rough calculation says we are now consuming at around 36% of current. So we've more or less tripled the time frame.
Now we could start to quibble exactly what that time frame might be, and if as a base case assuming we did nothing we have maybe a decade, then tripling it to three decades doesn’t feel like a big win.
Conserving a fixed resource base is a plausible strategy if you're on a life boat and there is a reasonable expectation that if you just hold out long enough that eventually rescue will arrive or you'll bump into some land. That's not the case for human existence on this planet, there are no aliens coming to rescue us and no other planet full of untouched resources for us to bump into.
The only strategy that fits is for us to innovate and build our way out of this mess, we have to take the tools and resources we have and drive them to the next level. The sad part is that we already have most of the plans needed, but too many people seem fearful of the attempt.
Just to put some flesh on all this theory, here is an example of what can be done:
Essentially it's using solar PV and atmospheric CO2 and H2O to produce methane which is standard fuel and petrochemical feedstock. As long as your pipe network doesn't leak too much it's a really cool decarbonisation scheme.
Works especially well in Australia where there is stacks of land ideal for solar. The nice thing is that because quite a lot of gas is stored in the pipeline, it solves the solar intermittency issue.
Then there are Nuclear reactor designs, like the ones using molten salt, which fail into a safer mode and new designs which burn nuclear waste.
But also your scepticism, and that in Moore's film, about solar and wind is not justified. Already there are many places which they work better than fossil fuel plants, for less real costs. Reducing greenhouse gases by orders of magnitude over their life cycle, compared with fossil fuelled, plants. PO
But. Technology cannot solve the issues on it’s own. More efficient use of energy, and maintaining carbon sinks such as forests and oceans, are also part of the many faceted solutions, required.
I've been very careful to be quite clear what my position is on solar and wind. They are useful, essential in the short-term, but have some fundamental physics limits that mean we should not be relying on them to take us into a fully developed, fully sustainable future.
And while both Australia and New Zealand are fortunate that we both have excellent solar and/or wind potential, the same is not true for most of the world. We just need far more energy than they can provide in the long run.
Not correct. In reality solar is practically limitless, within the requirements of humans. But we need to use energy more efficiently, rather than just generating more. A lot of that technology is already in existence, also.
While some countries, central Europe, for one, are not exactly well endowed with either, that is changing with more efficient generation.
However, I expect they will continue to develop nuclear power.
Not correct. In reality solar is practically limitless, within the requirements of humans.
The limitation is not the amount of solar irradiation, but how much land is required to capture it. This is a fundamental constraint that technology will not have a workaround for. David MacKay's very level headed first principles analysis explains this very well.
And yes there is absolutely no objection to being more efficient and less wasteful. This is a tech driven trend that has been progressing for decades already.
Price limitations are already broken.
https://cleantechnica.com/2016/12/25/cost-of-solar-power-vs-cost-of-wind-power-coal-nuclear-natural-gas/
Space limitations have been overstated.
And are getting better. The solar panels I use now, are a tenth the size for the same output, of the first ones I owned.
As for wind power…
But. Why do we have to replace current energy use. It is not just power sources, that are getting more efficient.
Price is not the problem, we could make PV panels absolutely free, but if we had to cover 25% of the country to get just to meet our present needs, I doubt this is an ideal outcome.
The solar panels I use now, are a tenth the size for the same output, of the first ones I owned.
Indeed the first generations of panels were barely 5 – 8% efficient. This is the number that determines panel size for a given output. Most current silicon based panels are now running 20 – 22% efficient, which means they are indeed 4 – 5 times smaller than the first generations.
But there is an upper theoretical limit to how far we can push this with the present technology. It's called the Shockely-Queisser limit and it's understood to be around 32%. That means at best we might push our current cells to be maybe two thirds their current size.
There are some methods being worked on to get past this limit, but at best even these don't go past 45%. All up there isn't all that much potential to go much further than we already do with solar PV.
Again David MacKay's presentation covers this off quite well. Even if we got to double present efficiencies, it really doesn't change his overall conclusions all that much.
We don't have to.
Already have enough hydro generation for present stationary power needs.
For transport needs. Much is already used at Tiwai point.
The remainder can be done with wind, solar and other sources.
Many countries are similar.
Assuming all or nothing, may seem superficially plausible, but gives a false result.
I've been very careful to repeatedly point out that both Australia and New Zealand are among a relatively fortunate few countries that can probably make the carbon transition on renewables only.
I just don't see a nuclear power plant in New Zealand in any foreseeable future. (As much as I would enjoy being wrong on that point.)
But there are not a lot of 'similar countries'. In most highly populated regions the solar and/or wind potential is nowhere near as good as we like to think. Places like Germany get around this by overbuilding installed renewables, but this does come not come for free. Not only does this double or triple the land area covered, but also pushes up the costs for all the grid infrastructure to handle the variability.
However you cut it, a number of voices have been saying that renewables have real limits, and we need to be clear eyed about the constraints these will imply. If we want to get to a hyper-energised society that can do closed loop resource recycling, and move to high tech materials replacing carbon lousy concrete and steel, we will inevitably need to go well beyond our current per capita energy consumption … for the whole of humanity.
RL, if NZ is, as you say @7:23 pm, "among a relatively fortunate few countries that can probably make the carbon transition on renewables only", why on Earth would you enjoy being wrong about not seeing "a nuclear power plant in New Zealand in any foreseeable future"?
Surely your vision of a hyper-energised global society has enough nuclear power plants to keep you happy without pushing one on NZ.
Are you’re concerned that NZ not signing up to nuclear power generation could be interpreted a ‘virtue signalling‘?
@DMK
The techie in me would take pleasure in seeing NZ get a nuke plant in my lifetime, but I'm quite realistic enough to know that on our current trajectory we are unlikely to need one. On the other hand the future is hard to predict, and I can imagine scenarios where nuclear may become necessary in NZ.
And I'm not entirely disrespectful of the 'popularity' problem that nuclear power has. It would be counterproductive and arrogant to charge into installing one in NZ without doing the work necessary to win the majority of people over to the idea.
Millennials and younger think driving a gas guzzler is gross. The demand for alternatives like electric or hydrogen fuel cells continues to grow, and there are some promising developments in battery technology and fusion reactors.
(If we survive to implement these alternatives.)
Perhaps with ever-increasing solar panel efficiency — with innovations like a multi-junction cell that can push efficiency as high as 47% — land constraints would not affect much.
Thanks RL (@8:42 pm)
Hi Redlogix, could you recommend some books (or other resources) about hyper-energisation and closed loop industrialisation. That sounds quite interesting.
Thanks
The core idea was formalised under the name eco-modernism about five or six years back.
Michael Shellenberger is a good spokesperson.
Also these guys Breakthrough Institute produce earnest if sometimes waffly material on a regular basis.
On Molten Salt Reactors you have to start with Gordon McDowell's YT channel a young guy who has just made it his mission to capture any material he can find on the topic.
As an idea I fully acknowledge it is a bold, maybe even extreme idea. There is absolutely no assurance it will work, although the basic ideas all seem reasonable and achievable within the scope of technologies we already know about.
I'm aware that as an idea it has it's informed critics. Still on the whole I see it as the only non-depressing option we have. It fundamentally entails us taking a long shot between the constraining walls of CO2 and environmental limits on one side of the path, and the cliff of energy extinction on the other.
It's not even obvious there is a safe route between them; each year we waste narrows the chances.
Much appreciated, will dig into these resources over the next few weeks.
Unemployment rate for young New Zealanders skyrocketing, worse to come: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/121442995/coronavirus-50pc-more-youth-on-unemployment-benefit-more-job-losses-predicted
There is a silver lining, because under this government those newly unemployed youths, who left school and went straight into work, now have the option of free tertiary education.
And the direction that the training is focused on is crucial. What industries and jobs will be needed?
there are so many for whom that scenario does not apply. And the next wave of unemployed will be older.
I hope that the government has a plan in place for the many whom will have no job for a long time to go back to, specially for the women.
I have just heard on RNZ, Florian Scheider, founding member of Kraftwerk, passed away.
Man Machine was the first piece of vinyl as a young teen that I bought. Those sounds, so simple, so high tech. Many hours spent hunched over the album sleeve, headphones on, lost in the music.
A profoundly influential band, who's music travelled way beyond their Dusseldorf studio.
This is an obituary from Rolling Stone.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kraftwerk-florian-schneider-dead-994735/
sounds of my childhood. It was fun to discover that outside of Germany they were actually quite famous.
Always good music.
Brilliant interactive graphing of NZ's response over time: https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2020/05/coronavirus-covid-19-data-new-zealand/
That's so cool, how the graph moves to match the text examples as you scroll to read. Those who put it together have done a fantastic job. Awesome.
Impressive, eh. Though they have left out Vietnam as an example of a great response.
It's interesting that some nations very close to China (geographically) have handled this the best. And this doesn't reflect well on the much wealthier nations that have grossly mishandled the pandemic.
Interesting article on Vietnam's experience – Vietnam’s low-cost Covid-19 strategy
That's a key point from the article. Nations in the southeast asia region have been on the front-line of dealing with emerging diseases for decades now. They have already had the learning experience and had systems in place. Plus the confidence in experts and in the public to respond early and quickly with the systems they had ready to go.
The Washington post, a few weeks ago, rabbiting on about how a "free" society, Taiwan dealt with the pandemic, so much better than China.
Is farcical in the light of the subsequent US, failure.
Given that the chinese response included welding people into their apartments, plus the ongoing doubt about the reliability of chinese numbers, makes me uninterested in trying to play a comparison game that includes the chinese response as one of the comparison points. But there's no doubt the situation in the US has been made much worse by the Dotard of Doltistan and his nepotistic kakistocracy.
Personally I'm just very relieved to be in the data segment that will be used to illustrate how something as serious as COVID can in fact be contained and eliminated by a capable state working together with a population that is willing to accept the need to change behaviour for a while and just do it. Without needing to resort to draconian enforcement of removing reasonable civil rights. Along with Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia and South Korea as other examples.
Just pointing out the irony.
And self delusion of the US, media.
Though, it seems ours isn’t much better.
The response from Vietnam (and some others) makes it clear that the Chinese were open enough about the issue to allow them to make rational decisions on tackling the virus with success. All countries had access to the same data, so it begs the question why some didn't. Donald McNeil goes to the crux of the difficulty of assessing the characteristics of Covid-19 early on in this 20 minute interview
8am this morning, RNZ
It was pretty obvious to me in mid January that this was a likely to be a epidemic and possiblee pandemic disease – and I was looking at the WHO bulletins from the 5th of Jan. I was bloody glad that I got back from UK before xmas.
Just looking at the reported level of lock down that the Chinese put into Wuhan and 5 other provincial towns at the 23rd Jan made it completely clear that the novel corona virus was spreading to Vietnam and Singapore – both of which started to do suppression and containment at the same time.
Anyone with more than half a brain, something that obviously isn’t the case with Trump, should have been watching what the WHO was saying. Some of the white house staff were. But getting https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/donald-trump-coronavirus-memos-warning-peter-navarroast the monumental ego to th peanut that Trump uses for a brain was evidently too hard.
It was much the same world wide. Some countries acted responsibly, and reduced the problem like NZ did. Some like the Italy, UK and the US has dysfunctional governance and got the outcomes consist with being unthinking fuckwits.
What was interesting to me was how closely NZ was following it – for instance with the Wuhan mercy flight on the 29th of Jan.
Part of the difference is crappy governance, but also NZ culture in general is outward looking, we like to know what's happening in the world. Brexit Britain and Border wall USA prefer game shows and propaganda to keep inconvenient facts out of the news cycle.
Some people in New Zealand view level 3 and 4 as removing reasonable rights. (I wasn't one of them)
Wow! Haven't the technology moved far since a simple bar graph. Amazing!
Such a good way of telling the story, eh.
The National Party, ACT and many in business still are preaching the mantra that Australia was much less restrictive in flattening it's curve.
But in the last two days the Morrison Govt has introduced a 3-step plan to re-open their economy.
From that article, Step one of three, I've highlighted some points that show many states have had restrictions close to us, perhaps not with our strongly communicated movement restrictions under Level 4 – the well articulated advice to 'stay local'
Finally, when you look at the unemployment and government assistance stats it's clear that they too have suffered a massive hit on their economy.
Can you please not post so much bold – around here it is mainly used for moderator comments or by people not confident others will read what they are posting otherwise.
Sorry.
Cheers
Kim Hill is interviewing someone decent this morning
RNZ National, Saturday 9 May 2020
A welcome change from guests like Jonathan Freedland, Luke Harding, A.A. Gill and Alex Gibney….
Ah, sentenced when life actually meant life, eh? I wonder if some journo has interviewed him – would be interesting (if he hasn't lost his marbles).
"Newly released FBI documents show that in the spring of 1969, Washington ordered its civilian informants in Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) to support the “National Office” faction (that is, Weatherman) against other factions in the organization. At that time, the FBI believed—wrongly—that Weatherman, because it was countercultural and anarchic, was the least dangerous group in SDS. When the 600-strong Weatherman faction walked out at the SDS national convention in June 1969 and formed the “true” SDS, among those 600 people were dozens of FBI civilian informants." https://time.com/4549409/the-weather-underground-bad-moon-rising/
"Yet the fact is that FBI never permanently caught a single major Weatherman figure." Which implies that the DA's father was a minor figure! So on what basis did he get life? Murder?
And "the Weatherman bombing policy had not won support even on the extreme Left. Even the Berkeley Tribe, the most radical underground newspaper in the country, publicly warned that lethal bombings would discredit Weatherman". I was watching this all go down in black & white tv pics from our state broadcaster thinking `goddam leftists – what part of non-violence don't they get??'
I was thinking, goddam Generalissimo, what part of extremist doesn't the knuckfuckle get?
"And of course, the jobless numbers don't count those who have had their pay cut, their working hours cut (or both), or are in the casual, gig economy (survey data for these workers is difficult). All up it is an epic economic disaster and one that will probably be repeated in May, despite the desperate attempt there to restart their economy. You just cannot take the purchasing power of that many people out of the giant American economy and not have long-term global economic implications. The hurt will spread to New Zealand and our export markets."
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/104927/monster-american-job-losses-canada-too-us-govt-deficit-explodes-global-production
Under-employment has a been a big part of the story for people under 30 in our economy for some time and it will only get worse. What does it matter that you have a 'job' if you still can't afford to live?
I'm guessing you didnt read the link
Aren't I agreeing with it?
NZ has its own version of that already, regardless of other impacts on our economy from outside.
You are highlighting the previous existence of one of the lesser points in the article so I suppose in a roundabout way that could be so.
Underutilisation measures that to an extent.
and so it continues
We are not all going to focus on the point you wanted.
which was?
Something else, apparently 🙂
Call me strange but the met service has just outlined the barometer plunging, a massive storm system forming on a scale not seen in living memory and the discussion point from the forecast is we should double peg our washing on the line…..wtf?
When you only quote a paragraph with a link, it may seem self-explanatory to you but without any guiding commentary from you, that assumption might be challenged 😉
In any case, this is a debating chamber rather than an echo chamber. So, make your point(s), and make them well, and expect counter-points, some of which better than others.
"In any case, this is a debating chamber rather than an echo chamber."
Or neither of those things.
I could 'tell' someone what (i think) that collection of facts may mean…
I could dismiss some or all of those facts….
I could make an outrageous claim attached to those facts….
Or I could present the information as of relevance and importance to provoke some thought and discussion about how it may impact our lives.
I chose the last option
It is designed to function as a debating chamber but when you remove all the furniture on the right, there can be a slight echo depending on where you stand and what kind of noise you make.
I find it helps to initiate and catalyse “some thought and discussion”.
You are most welcome to choose whatever option you fancy or you think best, of course.
If your point is that the economic shock is huge and unavoidable, well yes, that's clear and obvious. There's limited mitigation available of this, and while tourism is going to be a lot smaller, we are lucky that major export $ comes from primary industries which will continue on.
My thinking is along the lines of a sack of bastards thrown into deep water who are all clamouring at one another thinking that if they hang on to the right person they won't go down. They're all going down.
It seems NZ is aligning itself with the US (some shit about suggesting Taiwan be allowed into the WHO and a trading bloc that includes the US?). It doesn't make much sense to me, given that it's likely China and other Asian countries that are going to be on their feet first – however briefly.
Then there's that huge power grab going on in the US – the $US 4+ Trillion that's being gifted to US corporations alongside nothing being done for workers or small businesses.
I'm guessing the idea is to force workers back into the workforce and pandemic be damned. (The UK is also looking at ending its wage subsidy scheme) I wonder if they've thought through the possibility of workers tooling up (how many guns in the US?) but not to go to work?
If I liked popcorn more than I did….
and Trump encouraging those 'tooled up' to 'liberate' all….hes making China look like a better option every day (when we are forced to choose and surely we must sometime soon)
World goes mad (again)
With Bitch McTurtle wanting to ensure that employers aren't liable for any resulting deaths, of course.
Further from the Interest.co.nz article (h/t Pat):
"USA: Richest nation in history", only if you ignore half the population and the victims of its sordid past.
Ideed
It has only just begun and given the US is by some measures quarter of world economic output we can cry out for 'restarting' our economy and 'saving ' our businesses because 'shutdown' you know but the damage is not to any great extent controlled by our actions…especially in a globalised economy.
Even our Reserve Banks actions are largely determined by what the major players do.
Autonomy of act and outcome are an illusion being grasped like drowning men clutching at straws
"Richest nation" etc, yet only a few percent own more than half of all wealth? Amazing how many Americans think they live in the "bestest country in the world".
Stuart Smith (a National MP nobody has heard of) reminds us why Simon Bridges is still their leader. Not learning from mistakes is not the exception in that caucus – it's the rule:
https://twitter.com/BexGraham/status/1258652020363243520
He claims not to have read the full tweet. Thus disqualifying himself from ever being in government. I mean, some of those papers Ministers have to read are pages long. With no pictures!
I look forward to the National Party's bloodletting after this year's election. Should be most entertaining.
Can even Star Wars save them?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/300008046/national-hires-big-name-to-reboot-ailing-franchise
Yes, I enjoyed that one. Here’s another one from the Feeds on the RH side: https://imperatorfish.com/2020/05/09/the-tyrants-plan/
Diabolical!
It’s a cunning plan!
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/05/08/1158204/the-new-zealand-strains-how-the-coronavirus-got-here
This is an excellent read. It shows how they are able to track the covid movement by analysis of the genome. The detail is well! detailed!!!
'That same process of analysing genomic data, however, can tell us more than just where the virus came from. It can tell us where the virus has been, too.
Then, finally, a mistake slipped through the cracks. Some time between December 22 and January 12, the guanine nucleotide 11,083 letters into the RNA code swapped to a uracil. The G changed to a U.
Fascinating stuff. By the way, anything from a '?' onwards in a link can be cut off before pasting it here: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/05/08/1158204/the-new-zealand-strains-how-the-coronavirus-got-here
Thanks Sasha, for the ? advice. Didn’t know that.
Welcome. Works everywhere too.
Yup
Cause all info after the ? relates to marketing parameters used to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTM_parameters.
Use shorter links, by the power of Unicode! https://9m.no/𒇐췩
Nah. Not going to click on a link like that. Unless it's from a really trusted source, and randoms on TS aren't that. Who knows where the fuck it might link to?
Agree. End up poisoning the mind on some rabid rantings from KB, or the like.
Had a coworker once send me a link like that that opened to live-action bestiality. But your suggestion is prob'ly scarier.
Back in the 90’s I opened a questionable email attachment, that took over my PC and announced to my coworkers with huge flashing letters "I'M GAY!!" with siren sound effects
Would you click on this link? this is a trustworthy website
https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/1258086770027225088/photo/1
I had to put some effort into that one
I tidied it up a bit.
Although this kind of stuff is semi interesting.. much more important is finding out exactly where this virus came from. I get the feeling a lot of effort is being put into defending where it didn't come from – science, and basically glossing over the origin. hmm….
Ok then, let me help you by highlighting a few salient points that also a layperson should be able to appreciate.
This moronic coup organizer reminds me of a certain NZ politician….
At the 43:10 mark, we learn that the ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau was investigated in 2013 for allegedly defrauding the army of housing stipends.
Ignorance of the law or saying NO too make it it as draconian as possible so you can't access support ?
https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-national/work-and-income-unlawfully-delaying-benefits
For those interested in compulsory acquisitions of real estate by local councils, here's a saga from the Herald reporter based in Hamilton. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12325537
"The 2.4 ha property they bought in 2009 is an escape from their busy jobs at Waikato Hospital. Robinson, an anaesthetist and Chang, a respiratory specialist at Waikato Hospital, are on the frontline of Waikato District Health Board's response to the Covid-19 pandemic."
"Robinson and Chang have been offered $1 by the council for a portion of their land big enough to be a lifestyle block on its own and, despite the land's potential worth of half a million dollars on the open market. The case is so unusual that Sage has instructed officials to review the law that applies to compulsory acquisition next time the Public Works Act is renewed."
Eugenie Sage seems to have been advised that the council is legally able to perform the rort via coercion. "Council strategic development manager Andrew Parsons says the council has worked with expert planners and lawyers to ensure the Public Works Act, 1981 has been followed. The Act provides for the payment of compensation for losses arising from the acquisition of land by the Crown and its authorities."
From his grave, Muldoon's got a long reach, huh? An "independent valuation has determined the owners will receive an increase in their asset value of $282,500 due to the works done by the council, regardless of what they choose to do in the future. It is this value that has been used to assess betterment."
So the council doesn't have to pay current market value for land taken for subdivisions. It can pay market value in some hypothetical future chosen by their pet valuer. Public policy based on one individual's personal hallucination, I reckon!
How is this for an example of what we Do Not want the government central or local, doing about real estate.
This is not appropriate in a country under the rule of law. If more land is needed because demand is outrunning judicious supply, reduce demand.That’s the economists reply to the problem surely.
Which means less people coming here, no more outright purchases to new incomers, but long leases 5×5 say to fill up present gaps, and of course CGT and other little bites such as stamp duty, estate duty, and let's clap people who do well, and the government and country that has been their mainstay, can be in on the sharing at the time of death or dissolution of the entity.
New moves on the RMA and how different are they to National's De
May.4/20 https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/415728/greens-raise-concerns-about-planned-law-to-fast-track-resource-consents
May.3/20 https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/415689/cabinet-approves-fast-tracking-of-shovel-ready-projects
Feb.14/20 https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/409512/kainga-ora-rubs-up-against-councils-in-housing-consents
Dec.16/19 https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/405590/national-proposes-scrapping-of-kiwibuild-and-rma-if-elected-in-2020
Funny how often councils do things that enrich property developers and land bankers, but people who actually work for a living end up worse off
Anyone who wants the Ministry of Works to be a super-agency should read that article very carefully. NZTA is already a brutal machine and deploys it with unrelenting legal muscle.
The section on "injurious affection" is well due for a reboot.
Andrew Parsons should probably plan on not getting sick, ever.
Wow – for my sins just tuned into Kiwiblog to read his opinion on the Waikato river restriction. Won't repeat it because it's flat-out racist, in the most repugnant of manners.
I'm not experienced in such stuff but I believe he needs to be called out for this publicly if those who mod this site felt as such.
Kiwiblog doesn't need the airtime. But, as an open sewer, it's a useful barometer of how one eyed Nactoids are feeling, and they've had a shitty time lately.
Thanks for helping me climb down.
Yes, you're right.
I check it out to see how off the wall they are and what's behind their thinking
Wouldn't mind him having to justify these comments in the open public though.
But I would know it would never happen.
The racism is strong in that one and ultimately the mainstream media too, who just wouldn't care for it
What can I do about offensive comments made online?
https://www.hrc.co.nz/enquiries-and-complaints/faqs/racially-offensive-comments/
If you come across racism on The Standard, you should flag this, ideally to the Moderators of this site. The Moderators cannot be everywhere all the time and sometimes there is a delay between the posting of the offence and appropriate educational and/or corrective action, e.g. a Moderator note or warning, a deletion or part-deletion of the offending text/material, and in some cases an instant ban, sometimes a permanent one, depending on the severity of the offence and the (history of the) perpetrator. Luckily, the commentariat of this site is generally very good at spotting dodgy comments that may need the attention from Moderators. Everybody who posts here must read and adhere to this site’s Policy (https://thestandard.org.nz/policy/) as well as the About section (https://thestandard.org.nz/about/); the policy is clear and the rules are lenient. When in doubt, please ask first or risk being moderated, which is usually a kind explanation and instruction, but not always! Ignorance is not an excuse.
FYI, the Moderators of The Standard have absolutely no responsibility whatsoever, moral or otherwise, for what happens elsewhere and on other blog sites. Their job is to keep this place, i.e. The Standard, clean and tidy and enable fair and robust debate on this site only. It is an offence and a breach of this site’s Policy and rules to tell Authors and Moderators what to do or not to do here, let alone somewhere else; it goes against the spirit of the Policy to suggest even such a thing, IMO. I assume you meant well, but I felt it necessary to give you my thoughts on the matter to avoid these suggestions from happening again in future.
NB This comment is not personal but directed at all commenters here, as a reminder.
All good – am sure you understood this, but just to reaffirm that it was about what I read on Kiwiblog not here, – and interested if it deserved comment on the standard.
Cheers
Ii would be a pity,
It the Nats go hell for leather as they are, encouraging everybody of their weird persuasion to do whatever they want whenever they want – While Covid -19 keeps rolling on.
Truthfully, Simon and Paula are seriously mad
China appears to have completely eradicated an entire desert.
It took 60 years of focused and organised effort. Just shows the good people can do for the planet when they put their mind to it:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/major-desert-vanishes-off-map-northwest-china?auto=6154311084001
No, just ended its spread and reclaimed a small part of it.
Pandemic Timeline
1. Jan 30 WHO declares a World Alert
2. Feb 3 WHO tells off those who closed their borders to travellers from China – calling for evidence based policy (China had already locked down Wuhan from the rest of China and thus they were to contain their outbreak and save many lives) and calling for the continuance of travel and trade.
3. May 8 WHO supports the continuance of live animal markets as an important part of the economy and says the risk will just have to be managed.
4. Only a swine flu epidemic ended Chinese pig meat exports – farmed by giving them anti-biotics – enabling the development of anti-biotic resistant bacteria.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12330730
Yup – he supports them continuing to operate. You could quote the part where he says the risk of future outbreaks from live markets is something that will just have to be managed – like the spread of a virus by those who travel …
"The number of infections could grow as health workers are scrambling to trace contacts of club goers. Park said health workers have been attempting to contact some 1,940 people who were listed as visitors to the three Itaewon clubs and other venues nearby, but they have so far been able to reach only 637 of them."
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/asia-today-korea-counts-18-cases-club-visits-70592093
3 days ago South Korea was touted as one of the covid success stories and had barely a week ago relaxed restrictions.