FFS, just because somebody grows a blob in a Petri dish doesn’t mean anything. Climate change, OTOH, is a reason to think about the future of farming. IIRC, some report was released just recently about something to do with the weather.
Outrage and more moralistic arm-waving about why people should read a report about 'the weather' is simply a really poor indicator of changing consumer behaviour.
Actually putting the R&D effort into consumer alternatives is the actual work required.
Exactly – it may not suit the anti-capitalist left's ideas – but it will be profit-seeking capitalists who wind up doing much of the real world work to mitigate climate change.
Capitalism is remarkably resilient – and with state power used to clear the field of any alternatives, it is likely to put huge effort into profiting from climate change amelioration. It will achieve remarkable things no doubt – but exactly who gets to be 'saved' by this effort is yet to be determined. We can be pretty sure though, that it won't be everybody.
it will be profit-seeking capitalists who wind up doing much of the real world work to mitigate climate change
That's only fair, don't you think? Hope you're right, and wonder about the targetting of those 'mitigation' measures/gestures.
Does the number of (capitalist) businesses that file for bankruptcy give you any cause for concern? Might 'pursuit of profit' behaviours be blinding (some) capitalists to the problems of survival? Of course, "profit-seeking capitalists" know that if they fail, they can simply start over – cause for concern, imho.
Change the Rules of the Global Market
The global market system is designed to maximize profit while meeting people’s needs. It’s had some success. As economic historian Deirdre McCloskey noted, Western Europe’s embrace of the profit motive was the catalyst for what she dubs the “Great Enrichment” of the last two centuries. In this period, the world experienced unprecedented improvement in living standards and enhanced individual freedoms. But these benefits have come with a heavy and growing price.
Today, the market is the single-most environmentally destructive force on the planet. It’s the hungry elephant in the Garden of Eden. It profits at the expense of the environment and ultimately society. And by 2050, it will likely be more than twice as big as it was in 2016.
People looking at falling stars in the night sky standing on a volcano about to erupt lack perspective and sense of reality because of their tunnel vision and narrow focus, literally.
Who’s doing “moralistic arm-waving” telling others to read the report from the CCC that is open for public consultation until 14 March? It’s bigger than the RMA, but who bloody cares except a few pesky CC Crusaders?
I’m sure NZ farmers are talking to their Ozzie banks as we speak and quacking in their boots because they’ll have to change their way of living & earning because of the Aleph Group in Israel. Even when (not if) exports drop, it won’t make one iota of difference.
I mean, the holy grail would be if someone discovers how to do something like make superstrong concrete with air-harvested CO2 as an ingredient. Building skyscrapers and bridges becomes carbon-negative.
The best intervention is always something that people already do every day, but with a painless and unnoticed tweak. Fluoride in water, folate in bread, a slightly wider cycle lane.
I am aware of businesses who are pushing for roading surfaces with 5% toner cartridges, 2% soft plastics, and 5% crumbed tyres in the mix.
Local government is currently more responsive than NZTA to such innovation. They are particularly conservative due to trying other versions in the last 2 years and they failed.
The full resurface of Queenstown Airport with this kind of mix was a good signal that it can be done with a pretty high wear and tear level.
The trick is developing something that's cheaper if it replaced what's currently in use, and then to get it up to those levels of use so that it's cheaper in practise.
I recall saying in one of the interminable vegan debates that if something genuinely indistinguishable from (in this case ribeye) steak was available for cheaper than actual moo-flesh, end of problem. This looks pretty close, dunno about the price-point though. But industrially, it should save on land use and most of the slaughterhouse process.
fuck. Leather might go up in price. There goes another hobby…
Along with the McCarthy sausages, I'm more than willing to pay more if the product markets itself as super-premium. For my household, price bracket is one signal of trust. Low price is the kind of commodity I wouldn't touch.
That image reminds me of an Annual Camp I was on as a young cook. In an incorrect pen stroke, we had 8 kilos of luncheon sausage arriving every day.
This led to a competition between shifts to serve said meat in as many differing ways as possible. Highlights were: sweet and sour, fritters and a tasty fried rice.
This is a very interesting recent interview on this topic – the timelines given here are astounding, it is entirely likely that within 15 years all our fast food will be created by cellular agriculture/cultured meat.
Absolutely it's the only poor people will be able to afford meat as we destock to more sustainable levels, with the added bonus that blob meat and petri dish gloop is how well move to mars and beyond.
They spread lies about Eco Maori and my Offspring.
They break into our whare at will and steal our smokes and food they vandalised our vehicle they interfair in our job they tell our potential employers any the bullshit they can get them to swallow.
They are on a string that is pulled by trump and the Kiwi dick that worked for him they use marked cop cars to intimadate me. O I can't tell the cops what to do YEA RIGHT.
My understanding is that rules of the house of representatives are set by a Committee of the House – a Standing Orders Committee? – chaired by the Speaker. The Speakers job is to uphold the Rules, but sometimes they will require interpretation in the light of circumstances of the time – they become Speakers Rulings (does that require ratification from the Committee?), but which certainly apply for that sitting of parliament.
Dress has occupied the minds of that Committee a number of times in the past – and recently the Speaker raised the issue of ties with the Committee and it seems a wider group of MPs – there was not support for a change. Standing Orders were amended 4 August 2020, with effect from 7 September 2020
Then we have the recent incident with a Hei Tiki instead of a normal tie – perhaps prompted by the recent informal decision not to change the rules; nobody seems to have asked the MP whether that affected his decision as to what to wear – and the Speaker had no option but to make a ruling to support the current Standing Orders.
The Committee consisting of Jan Logie (Green), Trevor Mallard (Labour) and Brooke van Velden (ACT) met and agreed to change Standing Orders to effectively leave the decision as to what constitutes "business attire" to individual membrs.
It is not clear whether the amended rule needs to be ratified by the House, but it was announced by Mallard with immediate effect as a decision of the Committee. Presumably the Committee believe that such a decision will be supported by the House. Certainly National do not appear to have objected.
NZ Media are now reporting that the decision was made by Mallard, rather than the Standing Orders Committee. This is sloppy, but does not detract from the reality that Mallard has consistently applied the rules as they stand, even when he personally believed that a tie should not be needed.
There are still uncertainties as to the exact definition of what is allowable; previous speakers have for example ruled against the wearing of hats, but that seemed to have gone. On Waitangi Day there were a lot of people wearing traditional Maori dress – if a Maori Party MP decided that was "business attire", would he be allowed to wear it?
I suspect the incident will not impress Maori generally – it was a stunt by the MP, possibly on the back of attacks on Mallard by the National Party on a different issue – yet again the media are deliberately twisting the truth to attack an MP – this time Mallard. No MP is perfect; opposition parties at times twist reality to make a point, but we do deserve accurate reporting from our media.
Mallard has followed the rules he is sworn to uphold.
In view of the fuss, the Committee met, and decided to change the rule
I think the bigger issue and the reason this one got so much blowback is Mallards inconsistent interpretation and lack of cultural sensitivity. Neck tie okay. Bow tie okay. Mexican Bola for goodness sake okay. Traditional Maori Hei Tiki and you have to leave the House.
Mallard was entitled to his interpretation if that is part of the job.
The focus on Mallard deciding was partisan, shit stirring and desperation. He gave the opportunity of consulting, went with the majority and was attacked. If he'd simply made a unilateral decision to stay with or get rid of ties he'd have been crucified.
The relevant big issue is to do with 65-33-10-2. Yes, Labour has 65 seats.
Yes, Mallard is entitled to his opinion. That alone does mean he is right or consistent with his previous decisions. I suspect the subsequent ground swell against him confirms this.
Mallard asked Waititi to put his case in writing before Christmas. Waititi presented this in Parliament. It was a very compelling case. Mallard had complete disregard for the arguments presented then, simply saying “I disagree”. The cultural issues at play required a response from the Speaker appropriate to 2021, not 1921.
Yes Mallard is entitled to his opinion, and within the limits of the rules he is entitled to make decisions consistent with those rules. He did not make the original rule. He consulted regarding the rules and found significant views resisting a change. He did not have the power to change the rule himself. The groundswell of opinion was that the rule was wrong – but the Committee have now made a change. See the difference?
The Speaker will still have to interpret the new rule – should he accept an MP in 'business' swimwear? "Business" singlet and jandals? "Business" jeans and running shoes? "Business" MAGA hat?
Previous speakers have faced similar challenges, and politics being what it is, doubtless there will be more challenges, but to attack a Speaker for doing his job is not really very fair.
At the level of casual political interest, the whole tie drama has reassured the public that their interests are served by a pack of clowns so egregious they can't even agree on dress rules. They have brought no mana on the house.
That industry has had dumptrucks of direct subsidy last year through MBIE, and whole landfills full of indirect subsidy through CO2 production and environmental effects.
Nash has done the right thing.
At near 5% unemployed – and less than 5% in the south of the South Island – this is the right time to pivot the economy.
at near 5% unemployed……never mind hte women for whom unemployment is over 5% and who are in many cases employed by the tourism industry.
Unemployment:
For men, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, down from 4.8 percent last quarter. For women, the unemployment rate was 5.4 percent, down from 5.8 percent.
Underutilisation
For men, the underutilisation rate fell to 9.7 percent, down from 10.5 percent.
For women, the underutilisation rate fell to 14.3 percent, down from 16.1 percent.
and lets not even mentioned Northland or Bay of Plenty. But yeah, go feel good about a very meaningless employment statistic from the last quater.
never mind regional unemployment in the bay of plenty area or Northland and fuck all those that used to find seasonal employment in the tourism industry.
"fuck all those that used to find seasonal employment in the tourism industry."
That's no better reason to subsidise this industry than it is a reason to subsidise Rio Tinto
The government would be better employed creating new industries, that in the case of tourism don't rely on opening our borders or handouts for only certain sectors of the economy.
The government can either subsidize jobs – be that in tourism or health, or education, or building etc, or they can pay unemployment benefits.
Consider that any unemployment benefits or any other benefit for that matter is so low that people on benefits actually are living below the poverty line in the hardest cases.
So what shall the government do with the tax money we give it? Should it pay to little to live in form of a benefit with all the resulting stress on the community/society or shall it subsidize jobs.
What other jobs can we just stop subsidizing? Farming? Infrastructure? Health Care?
This is a serious question that should be asked. Tourism is just a small part of it. And yes, women have a current unemployment rate of 5.4% (0.9 higher then that national average) and a much higher under utilisation rate (also above the national average), and tourism is one of the businesses in the bay of plenty area and in northland that offers seasonal employment for women, be that front of house, back office, or a room maid in one of the many motels/hotels/b&b etc. Like it or not, these min waged jobs are still miles better then what the government has to offer via its social wellfare office.
So what should it be? Subsidizing jobs or paying out hardship grants, special needs grants and a few hundred bucks a month unemployment. I take the jobs.
All subsidies come to an end. If you are in a low-value tourism job at the moment you have been given the strongest signal possible that you need to get out.
Women in particular need to re-train and get into construction which is where they are needed. Follow the money, and get the job.
To assist with this transition, the Government has just put out an extension to the FlexiWage programme.
yeah, the same businesses that can't exit their leases lest they declare themselves bankrupt, (see comment below) will hire someone because the government is helping to pay not quite two month worth of a full time salary and the rest of the year you are on your own. Lol. Lol. Lol. like, bwhahahahaha lol.
I can see MacDo take that offer tho and a few others.
As for re-training, and get into construction. Right, any women who worked in retail, back office, front office, airplance crews, cooks, cleaners, and so on and so forth, please present at the next training session for constructions jobs – and while yer at it, please go pick that pesky fruit. Why did they not think about that themselves the dears. Oh boy.
Sometimes really i ask myself if you really believe that and would you be capable of doing that exact same thing should the government decide next time that your job ain't worth subsidizing.
If you are aware of the criteria from the tourism transition fund, go right ahead and explain its exclusion of lease payments.
Alone of all your sex you feel women can't do construction. Maybe you're from the 1950s. Either way your mind is tired. Our company is from 2021. Move out of the way.
Most days the tiresome, chippy, weak, sexist childish fools like yourself can never see how to help themselves, and actively get in the way of others seeking to help.
You're no longer capable of helping. Unless you can prove otherwise.
Hi Sabine I do agree that the subsidizing of any business that cannot sustain themselves has to end. At the same time though, a special criteria should be included with the recipients of the unemployment benefit for people who have lost their job in a tourism business. Perhaps something similar like the topped up benefit that ended last October. There also needs assistance available for relocation costs if people find a job elsewhere. So essentially, the employee who lost the job ought to get additional assistance for a period of time, i.e. 6 months (?) not the business.
You say you take the jobs, they wont be there no matter what as the taxpayer will not pay even more billions for something they suffer through themselves for years to come. Looking at major cities like Wellington – rent is up to over $ 600, people don't even earn that much. The rates are expected to increase by a whooping 17-18%. It becomes utterly unaffordable as it is, without the knowing that we have to pay up for businesses that by its very nature is a risky undertaking. There will be a lot of resistance out there.
The trouble is with things like travel is that there isn't a lot of sympathy ( as opposed to empathy for the workers) for the industry as a whole. Those that could afford to travel regularly aren't the bulk of people (not to mention it was the more well-off people travelling that initially spread COVID-19.) Locals having to pay tourist prices have put many things beyond the reach of the ordinary person – think something like making people pay in recent years to go to Happy Valley which has always been free, the selling off of holiday camps where the ordinary person went, the rise of peoples spare houses being used for Airbnb, the demise of freedom camping for NZers as high volumes of tourists came in, the exploitation of workers in the industry and the payments under the table, the backhanders paid to get the tourist buses to stop at your attraction/restaurant, and so on.
The damage done with the Douglas reforms where the well-off got big tax cuts while the working class lost their jobs or were forced into faux-self employment (courier drivers, cleaners, sub-contractors, etc) and got user pays and lower wages and salaries.
This continues with the wealth accumulation of the well-off and the imposition of high rents as the working class and the unemployed further line the pockets of the well-off so they can hop on a fucking plane and travel.
I like how the well off like to think they are the "ordinary" person. You know an ordinary person who needs a travel agent or a real estate agent (oh that's right poor people do now cause most real agents are parasitic landlords or rental companies who when a decent landlord gets them to manage their properties immediately put the rent up to "market" rates which like CE salaries are designed to simply enrich the well-off.
Homeownership is the lowest it has been since the 50's and 56% of young people now rent. I don't remember a lot of sympathy for those who were laid off from the railways and post office in their 50's and never got another job again – not through lack of applying either or who had to commute to Auckland during the week to work away from their families to do so. I don't remember a lot of sympathy for those laid off from the car manufacturing jobs in Porirua and so on.
I don't see any sympathy right now from landlords who just keep putting rents up and up and up beyond affordability (nor was there any post Christchurch earthquake which set the foundation for profiteering and high rents). I do see obnoxious behaviour like being a rental company owner who is opposing state housing in a local community where there is a major shortage of housing.
Maybe just maybe when the ordinary person in my communities have a job again, get paid a decent wage, can own their own home or pay reasonable rent only then will travel and tourism be a given – cause lets face it the ordinary person doesn't have a shitshow of mitigating the effects of COVID-19 and supporting that industry.
You are in the same boat as the horticulture industry which has shat on New Zealanders for the last 30 years – instead of building local community based work forces first used illegal labour and then RSE while at the same time actively telling New Zealanders how useless they are – and continue to still say that now. You are not going to get a local workforce by telling people they are useless. You're supposed to be captains of commerce and industry – how do you not get that?
There needs to be some rethinking going on by a whole lot of people.
It is funny how people assume that one must be in an industry or another when one argues for 'subsidies'. For the record the only 'subsidy' i received was the initial wage subsidy that my business received for my staff and myself. And that was that. Also, i don't have staff anymore, i work on my own, exactly like i did when i started out. O guess i don't actually have to worry what will happen to Rotorua, after all i am fine, right?
Secondly, while I now live in a tourist region, i used to live in AKL up to four years ago. Funnily enough, while i lived in AKL arguing that people deserved houses, i was told to move to the regions cause living was cheaper there, even tho i was not one who was homeless in AKL.
So really, one arguing for something does not mean one needs it or wants it.
Last but least, i did not argue for subsidies for the 'tourism industry that shat on NZ' via the jobs they provided, via the taxes they paid, and all the other stuff that comes with living and working in NZ for the most part as good as one can.
I argue that the government has a choice to make, subsidies for businesses or subsidies for people. I was from the onset against using businesses as a medium to pass benefits on to people. I was not for the wage subsidy, i wanted the government to send 'stimulus', or 'wage replacement' or 'a check' directly to people during the Lockdown period, and then argued for something like, a higher benefit for people who are unemployed, with out less strings and humiliation attached to it. I argued and still do that i would like the government to provide a legal frame work for business stuck in leases to get out of said leases before they have to declare bankruptcy so that these same people may be able to start something up that is better suited to these brave new times. Subsidies do not have to be only monetary.
But if anyone here thinks that the collapse of the tourism industry is going to change anything for homeless people in NZ or poor people in NZ should really ask why? IF anything it will make it worse first for the unemployed and the homeless and then for anyone else.
Keep in mind that currently in Rotorua houses have crept up to a million +, median rent is 460 NZD per week, and the next summer season begins in December 2021. Its 10 month till then, and like this year it will last 6 weeks – and what ever season it will be then, will depend on the money people will then have to spend.
So how much will the government pay for rent assistance, hardship assistance, special needs assistance, unemployment benefits, social welfare etc, and how many more people will end up unhoused/homeless because they can't keep up, and last but least where would you like these homeless, jobless people on a few hundred NZD per week government largess to move too?
It has been almost one year now, anyone not wearing blinders would know what is going to happen in 2021 and beyond already when we went into lockdown, and here we are pretending that the people that live in certain parts of NZ had it coming, deserve nothing more, and besides by virtue of living in a certain area they 'shat' on the country. And the tourism industry, the bad players as well as the good players and everyone in between are just the first stone to fall.
You are right, there needs to be some rethinking going on by a whole lot of people.
"So how much will the government pay for rent assistance, hardship assistance, special needs assistance, unemployment benefits, social welfare etc"
Sadly not as much as they pay to assist working people and employers. The two tier welfare system that developed post-COVID clearly delineated deserving and underserving poor like nothing else did in recent times. As long as we treat certain people differently then nothing will be done for the poor will it?
Helping out tourism as a special case will continue to reinforce the difference. A generally low paid, full of corruption industry that has seen paying under the table, backhanders, avoiding tax, etc as a normal part of doing business.
Government can borrow money, it (strictly, it is not Government) can print money, it can pay subsidies and it can pay (for) benefits all at the same time. It might go against certain economic orthodoxies and/or against certain political ideologies, but it can be done if the will and courage is there.
But the economy is going very well according to Robertson, and there is only 4.9% unemployment and debt is far lower than anticipated so we are coming through this thing very well.
Speaking of naked self interest has anyone with a Granny sub read the hosk's rant about the govt lack of covid vision.
Oz having a plan and strategy !!!…..look like it's state V federal over there with Victoria's latest budget sticking 2 fingers at scomo by addressing areas of federal responsibility.
We’re a small owner operator tourism business, currently we’re trading at about 10% of 2019. According to Paymark we were 65% domestic. Up until Sept it wasn’t too bad, October on has been beyond dead. The domestic recovery has been all over the place with destinations fall in and out if favour really quickly.
Nash is on the right track. The industry has to adjust to a very different world. While there’s some hope of international travel from 2022 it will take a very long time, if ever, before we see anything like 2019 numbers. A lot of businesses have to go. We could easily be one of them.
One area government could help this transition is around exit from leases. Most businesses lease premises and are stuck for the duration of the lease. Right now buying your way out of a lease would mean paying every cent due for the rest if the lease because the landlord has no show of getting another tenant. Our landlord’s option was a temporary rent reduction but a much longer term.
Government needs to be more involved in the hard discussions to enable people to move on, rather than screwed over.
Currently doing 2 – 3x online what we’re doing over the counter. Lost a good sale yesterday because shipping to USA was $600 for a 6kg item that was only a bit more retail
Winston's point about sanctity of contract is still valid. It's pretty draconian for government to come in and over-ride contracts and would be a very bad place to go. Although Little's bluff / threat of subsidised arbitration brought a lot of parties together with the lockdown rent rebates.
Probably the way to go would be a real program of heavily subsidised, compulsory arbitration, with a set of guidelines / expectations, and maybe a bit of cash, to force agreements between tenants and landlords so people can get out of some pretty shitty situations without having to loose everything. That agreement could be anything from exit through to a re-negotiated lease.
There's businesses in tourist areas that aren't even close to paying their operating costs (power, insurance telecoms etc) let alone rent. Motels with 10 – 20% occupancy, and having to discount heavily to get even that. Sooner or later that's going to end badly and the business owner isn't the only one getting hurt.
That situation was around the lockdown, where most commercial leases had a clause requiring a 'fair' reduction of rent for the closed period. Some leases didn't, and some parties had diverging ideas on what constituted 'fair'. So Government proposed a range of interventions, with some guidelines. Little's proposal of compulsory, pretty much free, arbitration focused a some intransigent minds and agreements happened pdq. Peters played his part and Government got the result without having to interfere in contracts.
The current situation is where lease arrangements, and property values, relate to business levels that were many times what they are now. Tenants are pretty much stuck there until the lease ends as there's no mechanism in the leases to terminate in these circumstances. Landlords are also in the crap as their rental income will disappear if they loose their tenant, with equally catastrophic consequences in most cases, so are naturally standing by the letter of the lease.
This could get quite messy, and quite quickly, once places start getting boarded up.
So I recall, however I also seem to remember further statements (Robertson?) that the issue was being worked on and they expected to have a proposal to address the issue of commercial leases 'soon'…..apparently not.
It was all a bluff, and in most cases it worked. There wasn’t much that could have been done with intervention in leases without creating bigger problems and the threat of effectively free compulsory arbitration focused minds.
Pretty sure that was still around the lockdown issues, and from what I’ve seen, common sense and goodwill prevailed, eventually.
Nash’s statements this week indicate further work is happening, but he said that the government won’t be supporting businesses that have no prospects of viability in the foreseeable.
Hopefully cool heads will prevail and good re-structuring plan is developed to create a viable tourism industry, both economically and environmentally
Maori wards ensuring representation by the vital group that considers that the planet is vital for humans and animals and vice versa of course, has submissions closing –
Submissions close TODAY. Before 5 pm this afternoon, Thursday 11 February 2021.
Let's just get robust and start moving forward instead of being shrinking violets from the progressive decisions. This would be the first for many people at a time when there need to be a lot of thinking followed by timely action, about new ways for the future. Start now, get into practise – make New Zealand vital again!
This bill seeks to amend the Local Electoral Act 2001 to improve Māori representation in local government. It aims to do this by removing provisions in the Act that allow for the use of binding polls in the decision to establish Māori wards or constituencies. More details about the bill are available on the New Zealand Parliament website.
Make a submission on the bill by 5.00pm on Thursday 11 February, 2021.
Vote for Maori wards and we can capitalise on their energy reserve just waiting to go with new ideas, ready for discussion, argument and reasoned agreement and action. These will turn Maori, pakeha and new tauiwi around to face forwards, while still towing the past with us for reference and useful experience when needed.
Wow scary stuff. So what did cloud seeding experiments result in? Would activating rain in one needy area change the 'sky rivers' bringing weather dumping? https://climate.ncsu.edu/edu/CloudSeeding
Cloud seeding first began in the mid 1940s when Dr. Vincent J. Schaefer was studying cloud formation for General Electric. Cloud seeding has been subsequently used to enhance precipitation, dissipate fog, modify hurricanes, and decrease lightning and hail in thunderstorms.
Jump to History — History · 1947–1952: CSIRO scientists dropped dry ice into the tops of cumulus clouds. · 1953–1956: CSIRO carried out similar trials in …
As General Electric held back from cloud-seeding, other commercial enterprises leapt into the breach. New York City’s leaders commissioned one to make rain over their reservoir. They got a flood and 169 lawsuits for damages. They hastily commissioned a survey to show that cloud-seeding did not work, so avoided paying damages, but were placed under a permanent injunction not to try cloud-seeding again.
India is faced with great need. I wonder if they sell off water for bottling. The commerical imperative often wins over reason and responsibility amongst country leaders.
I’ve heard on the rumour mill, Pacific Aerospace (PAC) which is NZ’s sole remaining Aircraft construction company is being liquidated by its Chinese owners. This Company was allow to be brought by the Chinese under the last National Government under the guise from the NZG & the Foreign Investment Office that the Chinese promise of keeping all Aircraft design & construction it in NZ.
So much so, for the National wanting to invest NZ STEM Training as they promise during the last general election, when let/ approve this sort’ve crap, closing down Hillside Workshops and forcing AirNZ to off load it’s two of its so-called “Non Core Assets” TAE & Safe Air which btw used to do about 90-95% of AirNZ’s Military Contracts both local & overseas.
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 ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
The Aleph Group of Israel have started manufacturing a cell-grown ribeye steak.
NZBeef and Lamb should buy a big chunk of their shares now.
When even Burger King is going vegetarian, its time for our meat farmers to roll out their conversion plans.
FFS, just because somebody grows a blob in a Petri dish doesn’t mean anything. Climate change, OTOH, is a reason to think about the future of farming. IIRC, some report was released just recently about something to do with the weather.
Outrage and more moralistic arm-waving about why people should read a report about 'the weather' is simply a really poor indicator of changing consumer behaviour.
Actually putting the R&D effort into consumer alternatives is the actual work required.
I think Ad's nailed it. The industry can't claim to be blind-sided: their own advisors have been warning them of this for some time now.
Exactly – it may not suit the anti-capitalist left's ideas – but it will be profit-seeking capitalists who wind up doing much of the real world work to mitigate climate change.
Capitalism is remarkably resilient – and with state power used to clear the field of any alternatives, it is likely to put huge effort into profiting from climate change amelioration. It will achieve remarkable things no doubt – but exactly who gets to be 'saved' by this effort is yet to be determined. We can be pretty sure though, that it won't be everybody.
That's only fair, don't you think? Hope you're right, and wonder about the targetting of those 'mitigation' measures/gestures.
Does the number of (capitalist) businesses that file for bankruptcy give you any cause for concern? Might 'pursuit of profit' behaviours be blinding (some) capitalists to the problems of survival? Of course, "profit-seeking capitalists" know that if they fail, they can simply start over – cause for concern, imho.
They'd do it quicker if they were penalised for the damage they'd already caused.
People looking at falling stars in the night sky standing on a volcano about to erupt lack perspective and sense of reality because of their tunnel vision and narrow focus, literally.
Who’s doing “moralistic arm-waving” telling others to read the report from the CCC that is open for public consultation until 14 March? It’s bigger than the RMA, but who bloody cares except a few pesky CC Crusaders?
I’m sure NZ farmers are talking to their Ozzie banks as we speak and quacking in their boots because they’ll have to change their way of living & earning because of the Aleph Group in Israel. Even when (not if) exports drop, it won’t make one iota of difference.
No one gives a damn about submitting to any report. Check out those marches on the streets.
The world will be won one hamburger at a time.
I mean, the holy grail would be if someone discovers how to do something like make superstrong concrete with air-harvested CO2 as an ingredient. Building skyscrapers and bridges becomes carbon-negative.
The best intervention is always something that people already do every day, but with a painless and unnoticed tweak. Fluoride in water, folate in bread, a slightly wider cycle lane.
I am aware of businesses who are pushing for roading surfaces with 5% toner cartridges, 2% soft plastics, and 5% crumbed tyres in the mix.
Local government is currently more responsive than NZTA to such innovation. They are particularly conservative due to trying other versions in the last 2 years and they failed.
The full resurface of Queenstown Airport with this kind of mix was a good signal that it can be done with a pretty high wear and tear level.
The trick is developing something that's cheaper if it replaced what's currently in use, and then to get it up to those levels of use so that it's cheaper in practise.
I recall saying in one of the interminable vegan debates that if something genuinely indistinguishable from (in this case ribeye) steak was available for cheaper than actual moo-flesh, end of problem. This looks pretty close, dunno about the price-point though. But industrially, it should save on land use and most of the slaughterhouse process.
fuck. Leather might go up in price. There goes another hobby…
Along with the McCarthy sausages, I'm more than willing to pay more if the product markets itself as super-premium. For my household, price bracket is one signal of trust. Low price is the kind of commodity I wouldn't touch.
To a degree, but $8.50 a kilo vs $9 for stuff I can't tell the difference apart in the pack, I'd give $8.50 a try. And if it works it works.
But $9 vs $12 for something that seems to be identical and claims to be as good as the cheaper stalwart? I probably won't try the change.
Great…road resurfacing frequency (and cost) is going to increase again.
To Hell with the democratic political process; barricades, banners, badges and megaphones will solve all our problems!
I prefer Frankfurters but sliced Berliner is quite nice on a sandwich.
You slice up your filled doughnuts and put them in a sandwich?
Okaaaay … it's not my place to judge.
https://www.german-butchery.com.au/products/cold-cuts/lyoner
That image reminds me of an Annual Camp I was on as a young cook. In an incorrect pen stroke, we had 8 kilos of luncheon sausage arriving every day.
This led to a competition between shifts to serve said meat in as many differing ways as possible. Highlights were: sweet and sour, fritters and a tasty fried rice.
This is a very interesting recent interview on this topic – the timelines given here are astounding, it is entirely likely that within 15 years all our fast food will be created by cellular agriculture/cultured meat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGF5MLuBau4&ab_channel=NovaraMedia
Absolutely it's the only poor people will be able to afford meat as we destock to more sustainable levels, with the added bonus that blob meat and petri dish gloop is how well move to mars and beyond.
I'm sick of these Wanker Muppet sandflys.
They spread lies about Eco Maori and my Offspring.
They break into our whare at will and steal our smokes and food they vandalised our vehicle they interfair in our job they tell our potential employers any the bullshit they can get them to swallow.
They are on a string that is pulled by trump and the Kiwi dick that worked for him they use marked cop cars to intimadate me. O I can't tell the cops what to do YEA RIGHT.
These people are making a fool of you.
Ka kite Ano
The Tie Issue
My understanding is that rules of the house of representatives are set by a Committee of the House – a Standing Orders Committee? – chaired by the Speaker. The Speakers job is to uphold the Rules, but sometimes they will require interpretation in the light of circumstances of the time – they become Speakers Rulings (does that require ratification from the Committee?), but which certainly apply for that sitting of parliament.
Dress has occupied the minds of that Committee a number of times in the past – and recently the Speaker raised the issue of ties with the Committee and it seems a wider group of MPs – there was not support for a change. Standing Orders were amended 4 August 2020, with effect from 7 September 2020
Then we have the recent incident with a Hei Tiki instead of a normal tie – perhaps prompted by the recent informal decision not to change the rules; nobody seems to have asked the MP whether that affected his decision as to what to wear – and the Speaker had no option but to make a ruling to support the current Standing Orders.
The Committee consisting of Jan Logie (Green), Trevor Mallard (Labour) and Brooke van Velden (ACT) met and agreed to change Standing Orders to effectively leave the decision as to what constitutes "business attire" to individual membrs.
It is not clear whether the amended rule needs to be ratified by the House, but it was announced by Mallard with immediate effect as a decision of the Committee. Presumably the Committee believe that such a decision will be supported by the House. Certainly National do not appear to have objected.
NZ Media are now reporting that the decision was made by Mallard, rather than the Standing Orders Committee. This is sloppy, but does not detract from the reality that Mallard has consistently applied the rules as they stand, even when he personally believed that a tie should not be needed.
There are still uncertainties as to the exact definition of what is allowable; previous speakers have for example ruled against the wearing of hats, but that seemed to have gone. On Waitangi Day there were a lot of people wearing traditional Maori dress – if a Maori Party MP decided that was "business attire", would he be allowed to wear it?
I suspect the incident will not impress Maori generally – it was a stunt by the MP, possibly on the back of attacks on Mallard by the National Party on a different issue – yet again the media are deliberately twisting the truth to attack an MP – this time Mallard. No MP is perfect; opposition parties at times twist reality to make a point, but we do deserve accurate reporting from our media.
Mallard has followed the rules he is sworn to uphold.
In view of the fuss, the Committee met, and decided to change the rule
I think the bigger issue and the reason this one got so much blowback is Mallards inconsistent interpretation and lack of cultural sensitivity. Neck tie okay. Bow tie okay. Mexican Bola for goodness sake okay. Traditional Maori Hei Tiki and you have to leave the House.
Mallard was entitled to his interpretation if that is part of the job.
The focus on Mallard deciding was partisan, shit stirring and desperation. He gave the opportunity of consulting, went with the majority and was attacked. If he'd simply made a unilateral decision to stay with or get rid of ties he'd have been crucified.
The relevant big issue is to do with 65-33-10-2. Yes, Labour has 65 seats.
Yes, Mallard is entitled to his opinion. That alone does mean he is right or consistent with his previous decisions. I suspect the subsequent ground swell against him confirms this.
Mallard asked Waititi to put his case in writing before Christmas. Waititi presented this in Parliament. It was a very compelling case. Mallard had complete disregard for the arguments presented then, simply saying “I disagree”. The cultural issues at play required a response from the Speaker appropriate to 2021, not 1921.
Yes Mallard is entitled to his opinion, and within the limits of the rules he is entitled to make decisions consistent with those rules. He did not make the original rule. He consulted regarding the rules and found significant views resisting a change. He did not have the power to change the rule himself. The groundswell of opinion was that the rule was wrong – but the Committee have now made a change. See the difference?
The Speaker will still have to interpret the new rule – should he accept an MP in 'business' swimwear? "Business" singlet and jandals? "Business" jeans and running shoes? "Business" MAGA hat?
Previous speakers have faced similar challenges, and politics being what it is, doubtless there will be more challenges, but to attack a Speaker for doing his job is not really very fair.
At the level of casual political interest, the whole tie drama has reassured the public that their interests are served by a pack of clowns so egregious they can't even agree on dress rules. They have brought no mana on the house.
You make a very valid point Stuart. Hard to disagree with you.
Why doesn't Nash just fuck off to the national party?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/300227138/youre-going-to-have-to-have-some-very-hard-conversations-tourism-minister-says-bleeding-tourism-businesses-shouldnt-expect-more-government-support
That industry has had dumptrucks of direct subsidy last year through MBIE, and whole landfills full of indirect subsidy through CO2 production and environmental effects.
Nash has done the right thing.
At near 5% unemployed – and less than 5% in the south of the South Island – this is the right time to pivot the economy.
at near 5% unemployed……never mind hte women for whom unemployment is over 5% and who are in many cases employed by the tourism industry.
Unemployment:
For men, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, down from 4.8 percent last quarter. For women, the unemployment rate was 5.4 percent, down from 5.8 percent.
Underutilisation
and lets not even mentioned Northland or Bay of Plenty. But yeah, go feel good about a very meaningless employment statistic from the last quater.
never mind regional unemployment in the bay of plenty area or Northland and fuck all those that used to find seasonal employment in the tourism industry.
"fuck all those that used to find seasonal employment in the tourism industry."
That's no better reason to subsidise this industry than it is a reason to subsidise Rio Tinto
The government would be better employed creating new industries, that in the case of tourism don't rely on opening our borders or handouts for only certain sectors of the economy.
The government can either subsidize jobs – be that in tourism or health, or education, or building etc, or they can pay unemployment benefits.
Consider that any unemployment benefits or any other benefit for that matter is so low that people on benefits actually are living below the poverty line in the hardest cases.
So what shall the government do with the tax money we give it? Should it pay to little to live in form of a benefit with all the resulting stress on the community/society or shall it subsidize jobs.
What other jobs can we just stop subsidizing? Farming? Infrastructure? Health Care?
This is a serious question that should be asked. Tourism is just a small part of it. And yes, women have a current unemployment rate of 5.4% (0.9 higher then that national average) and a much higher under utilisation rate (also above the national average), and tourism is one of the businesses in the bay of plenty area and in northland that offers seasonal employment for women, be that front of house, back office, or a room maid in one of the many motels/hotels/b&b etc. Like it or not, these min waged jobs are still miles better then what the government has to offer via its social wellfare office.
So what should it be? Subsidizing jobs or paying out hardship grants, special needs grants and a few hundred bucks a month unemployment. I take the jobs.
So what should it be?
All subsidies come to an end. If you are in a low-value tourism job at the moment you have been given the strongest signal possible that you need to get out.
Women in particular need to re-train and get into construction which is where they are needed. Follow the money, and get the job.
To assist with this transition, the Government has just put out an extension to the FlexiWage programme.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-on-expanding-flexi-wage-scheme/GCLVHAWNVT44P66ZFX2EN2J7GI/
yeah, the same businesses that can't exit their leases lest they declare themselves bankrupt, (see comment below) will hire someone because the government is helping to pay not quite two month worth of a full time salary and the rest of the year you are on your own. Lol. Lol. Lol. like, bwhahahahaha lol.
I can see MacDo take that offer tho and a few others.
As for re-training, and get into construction. Right, any women who worked in retail, back office, front office, airplance crews, cooks, cleaners, and so on and so forth, please present at the next training session for constructions jobs – and while yer at it, please go pick that pesky fruit. Why did they not think about that themselves the dears. Oh boy.
Sometimes really i ask myself if you really believe that and would you be capable of doing that exact same thing should the government decide next time that your job ain't worth subsidizing.
If you are aware of the criteria from the tourism transition fund, go right ahead and explain its exclusion of lease payments.
Alone of all your sex you feel women can't do construction. Maybe you're from the 1950s. Either way your mind is tired. Our company is from 2021. Move out of the way.
Most days the tiresome, chippy, weak, sexist childish fools like yourself can never see how to help themselves, and actively get in the way of others seeking to help.
You're no longer capable of helping. Unless you can prove otherwise.
Hi Sabine I do agree that the subsidizing of any business that cannot sustain themselves has to end. At the same time though, a special criteria should be included with the recipients of the unemployment benefit for people who have lost their job in a tourism business. Perhaps something similar like the topped up benefit that ended last October. There also needs assistance available for relocation costs if people find a job elsewhere. So essentially, the employee who lost the job ought to get additional assistance for a period of time, i.e. 6 months (?) not the business.
You say you take the jobs, they wont be there no matter what as the taxpayer will not pay even more billions for something they suffer through themselves for years to come. Looking at major cities like Wellington – rent is up to over $ 600, people don't even earn that much. The rates are expected to increase by a whooping 17-18%. It becomes utterly unaffordable as it is, without the knowing that we have to pay up for businesses that by its very nature is a risky undertaking. There will be a lot of resistance out there.
The trouble is with things like travel is that there isn't a lot of sympathy ( as opposed to empathy for the workers) for the industry as a whole. Those that could afford to travel regularly aren't the bulk of people (not to mention it was the more well-off people travelling that initially spread COVID-19.) Locals having to pay tourist prices have put many things beyond the reach of the ordinary person – think something like making people pay in recent years to go to Happy Valley which has always been free, the selling off of holiday camps where the ordinary person went, the rise of peoples spare houses being used for Airbnb, the demise of freedom camping for NZers as high volumes of tourists came in, the exploitation of workers in the industry and the payments under the table, the backhanders paid to get the tourist buses to stop at your attraction/restaurant, and so on.
The damage done with the Douglas reforms where the well-off got big tax cuts while the working class lost their jobs or were forced into faux-self employment (courier drivers, cleaners, sub-contractors, etc) and got user pays and lower wages and salaries.
This continues with the wealth accumulation of the well-off and the imposition of high rents as the working class and the unemployed further line the pockets of the well-off so they can hop on a fucking plane and travel.
I like how the well off like to think they are the "ordinary" person. You know an ordinary person who needs a travel agent or a real estate agent (oh that's right poor people do now cause most real agents are parasitic landlords or rental companies who when a decent landlord gets them to manage their properties immediately put the rent up to "market" rates which like CE salaries are designed to simply enrich the well-off.
Homeownership is the lowest it has been since the 50's and 56% of young people now rent. I don't remember a lot of sympathy for those who were laid off from the railways and post office in their 50's and never got another job again – not through lack of applying either or who had to commute to Auckland during the week to work away from their families to do so. I don't remember a lot of sympathy for those laid off from the car manufacturing jobs in Porirua and so on.
I don't see any sympathy right now from landlords who just keep putting rents up and up and up beyond affordability (nor was there any post Christchurch earthquake which set the foundation for profiteering and high rents). I do see obnoxious behaviour like being a rental company owner who is opposing state housing in a local community where there is a major shortage of housing.
Maybe just maybe when the ordinary person in my communities have a job again, get paid a decent wage, can own their own home or pay reasonable rent only then will travel and tourism be a given – cause lets face it the ordinary person doesn't have a shitshow of mitigating the effects of COVID-19 and supporting that industry.
You are in the same boat as the horticulture industry which has shat on New Zealanders for the last 30 years – instead of building local community based work forces first used illegal labour and then RSE while at the same time actively telling New Zealanders how useless they are – and continue to still say that now. You are not going to get a local workforce by telling people they are useless. You're supposed to be captains of commerce and industry – how do you not get that?
There needs to be some rethinking going on by a whole lot of people.
It is funny how people assume that one must be in an industry or another when one argues for 'subsidies'. For the record the only 'subsidy' i received was the initial wage subsidy that my business received for my staff and myself. And that was that. Also, i don't have staff anymore, i work on my own, exactly like i did when i started out. O guess i don't actually have to worry what will happen to Rotorua, after all i am fine, right?
Secondly, while I now live in a tourist region, i used to live in AKL up to four years ago. Funnily enough, while i lived in AKL arguing that people deserved houses, i was told to move to the regions cause living was cheaper there, even tho i was not one who was homeless in AKL.
So really, one arguing for something does not mean one needs it or wants it.
Last but least, i did not argue for subsidies for the 'tourism industry that shat on NZ' via the jobs they provided, via the taxes they paid, and all the other stuff that comes with living and working in NZ for the most part as good as one can.
I argue that the government has a choice to make, subsidies for businesses or subsidies for people. I was from the onset against using businesses as a medium to pass benefits on to people. I was not for the wage subsidy, i wanted the government to send 'stimulus', or 'wage replacement' or 'a check' directly to people during the Lockdown period, and then argued for something like, a higher benefit for people who are unemployed, with out less strings and humiliation attached to it. I argued and still do that i would like the government to provide a legal frame work for business stuck in leases to get out of said leases before they have to declare bankruptcy so that these same people may be able to start something up that is better suited to these brave new times. Subsidies do not have to be only monetary.
But if anyone here thinks that the collapse of the tourism industry is going to change anything for homeless people in NZ or poor people in NZ should really ask why? IF anything it will make it worse first for the unemployed and the homeless and then for anyone else.
Keep in mind that currently in Rotorua houses have crept up to a million +, median rent is 460 NZD per week, and the next summer season begins in December 2021. Its 10 month till then, and like this year it will last 6 weeks – and what ever season it will be then, will depend on the money people will then have to spend.
So how much will the government pay for rent assistance, hardship assistance, special needs assistance, unemployment benefits, social welfare etc, and how many more people will end up unhoused/homeless because they can't keep up, and last but least where would you like these homeless, jobless people on a few hundred NZD per week government largess to move too?
It has been almost one year now, anyone not wearing blinders would know what is going to happen in 2021 and beyond already when we went into lockdown, and here we are pretending that the people that live in certain parts of NZ had it coming, deserve nothing more, and besides by virtue of living in a certain area they 'shat' on the country. And the tourism industry, the bad players as well as the good players and everyone in between are just the first stone to fall.
You are right, there needs to be some rethinking going on by a whole lot of people.
The you was generic rather than specific.
"So how much will the government pay for rent assistance, hardship assistance, special needs assistance, unemployment benefits, social welfare etc"
Sadly not as much as they pay to assist working people and employers. The two tier welfare system that developed post-COVID clearly delineated deserving and underserving poor like nothing else did in recent times. As long as we treat certain people differently then nothing will be done for the poor will it?
Helping out tourism as a special case will continue to reinforce the difference. A generally low paid, full of corruption industry that has seen paying under the table, backhanders, avoiding tax, etc as a normal part of doing business.
Government can borrow money, it (strictly, it is not Government) can print money, it can pay subsidies and it can pay (for) benefits all at the same time. It might go against certain economic orthodoxies and/or against certain political ideologies, but it can be done if the will and courage is there.
Government does not subsidise Rio Tinto.
But the economy is going very well according to Robertson, and there is only 4.9% unemployment and debt is far lower than anticipated so we are coming through this thing very well.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Speaking of naked self interest has anyone with a Granny sub read the hosk's rant about the govt lack of covid vision.
Oz having a plan and strategy !!!…..look like it's state V federal over there with Victoria's latest budget sticking 2 fingers at scomo by addressing areas of federal responsibility.
We’re a small owner operator tourism business, currently we’re trading at about 10% of 2019. According to Paymark we were 65% domestic. Up until Sept it wasn’t too bad, October on has been beyond dead. The domestic recovery has been all over the place with destinations fall in and out if favour really quickly.
Nash is on the right track. The industry has to adjust to a very different world. While there’s some hope of international travel from 2022 it will take a very long time, if ever, before we see anything like 2019 numbers. A lot of businesses have to go. We could easily be one of them.
One area government could help this transition is around exit from leases. Most businesses lease premises and are stuck for the duration of the lease. Right now buying your way out of a lease would mean paying every cent due for the rest if the lease because the landlord has no show of getting another tenant. Our landlord’s option was a temporary rent reduction but a much longer term.
Government needs to be more involved in the hard discussions to enable people to move on, rather than screwed over.
Is bankruptcy the only other alternative out of the lease?
Even Art and Object have started to figure out how to get online better.
Just gently inquiring what scope you would have for your kind of art on line.
Personal guarantee. Screwed.
Currently doing 2 – 3x online what we’re doing over the counter. Lost a good sale yesterday because shipping to USA was $600 for a 6kg item that was only a bit more retail
Yes, helping tenants to get out of leases would be a big help for those that want to get out now.
I discussed that very idea with the labor contender here in Vegas, ………but nothing much came of it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300070014/andrew-little-proposes-fund-for-businesses-after-nz-first-pulls-support-for-rent-law
NZ First is no longer a factor and havnt been for 4 months?????
Winston's point about sanctity of contract is still valid. It's pretty draconian for government to come in and over-ride contracts and would be a very bad place to go. Although Little's bluff / threat of subsidised arbitration brought a lot of parties together with the lockdown rent rebates.
Probably the way to go would be a real program of heavily subsidised, compulsory arbitration, with a set of guidelines / expectations, and maybe a bit of cash, to force agreements between tenants and landlords so people can get out of some pretty shitty situations without having to loose everything. That agreement could be anything from exit through to a re-negotiated lease.
There's businesses in tourist areas that aren't even close to paying their operating costs (power, insurance telecoms etc) let alone rent. Motels with 10 – 20% occupancy, and having to discount heavily to get even that. Sooner or later that's going to end badly and the business owner isn't the only one getting hurt.
The question is, if it was important enough to be addressed 7 months ago (but stymied by Winston) why have they made no move post his departure?
Maybe Winston was not the only reason?
That situation was around the lockdown, where most commercial leases had a clause requiring a 'fair' reduction of rent for the closed period. Some leases didn't, and some parties had diverging ideas on what constituted 'fair'. So Government proposed a range of interventions, with some guidelines. Little's proposal of compulsory, pretty much free, arbitration focused a some intransigent minds and agreements happened pdq. Peters played his part and Government got the result without having to interfere in contracts.
The current situation is where lease arrangements, and property values, relate to business levels that were many times what they are now. Tenants are pretty much stuck there until the lease ends as there's no mechanism in the leases to terminate in these circumstances. Landlords are also in the crap as their rental income will disappear if they loose their tenant, with equally catastrophic consequences in most cases, so are naturally standing by the letter of the lease.
This could get quite messy, and quite quickly, once places start getting boarded up.
So I recall, however I also seem to remember further statements (Robertson?) that the issue was being worked on and they expected to have a proposal to address the issue of commercial leases 'soon'…..apparently not.
Looks Government washed its hands off it.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/12/grant-robertson-rules-out-revisiting-commercial-rent-relief-as-business-owner-pleads-for-help.html
One half-hearted ‘experiment’ appears to have failed and is due to finish at the end of next month.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123951180/dismal-uptake-of-governments-40m-covid-commercial-rents-dispute-service
The whole issue appears to have been swept under the carpet and/or swallowed up by the huge mushroom cloud of the housing market.
Thanks for that….certainly appears they have washed their hands of it
It was all a bluff, and in most cases it worked. There wasn’t much that could have been done with intervention in leases without creating bigger problems and the threat of effectively free compulsory arbitration focused minds.
Pretty sure that was still around the lockdown issues, and from what I’ve seen, common sense and goodwill prevailed, eventually.
Nash’s statements this week indicate further work is happening, but he said that the government won’t be supporting businesses that have no prospects of viability in the foreseeable.
Hopefully cool heads will prevail and good re-structuring plan is developed to create a viable tourism industry, both economically and environmentally
Chris, I'd appreciate your take on why Minister Nash should do as you ask? What is your beef with Nash?
Good to see they have captured this bastard who left this lady badly injured. Also good that there is no name suppression for him.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/taita-hit-and-run-accused-appears-in-hutt-valley-district-court/XC4GPAAB47AOPMTBSXQLFCMLOM/
Maori wards ensuring representation by the vital group that considers that the planet is vital for humans and animals and vice versa of course, has submissions closing –
Let's just get robust and start moving forward instead of being shrinking violets from the progressive decisions. This would be the first for many people at a time when there need to be a lot of thinking followed by timely action, about new ways for the future. Start now, get into practise – make New Zealand vital again!
This bill seeks to amend the Local Electoral Act 2001 to improve Māori representation in local government. It aims to do this by removing provisions in the Act that allow for the use of binding polls in the decision to establish Māori wards or constituencies. More details about the bill are available on the New Zealand Parliament website.
Make a submission on the bill by 5.00pm on Thursday 11 February, 2021.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2102/S00082/have-your-say-on-the-local-electoral-maori-wards-and-maori-constituencies-amendment-bill.htm
Vote for Maori wards and we can capitalise on their energy reserve just waiting to go with new ideas, ready for discussion, argument and reasoned agreement and action. These will turn Maori, pakeha and new tauiwi around to face forwards, while still towing the past with us for reference and useful experience when needed.
Lighter and five to seven times stronger than concrete.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbZKP4UAtL8&feature=youtu.be
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/02/nzambi-matee-plastic-bricks/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/436232/study-links-climate-change-to-severe-rainfall
Wow scary stuff. So what did cloud seeding experiments result in? Would activating rain in one needy area change the 'sky rivers' bringing weather dumping? https://climate.ncsu.edu/edu/CloudSeeding
Cloud seeding first began in the mid 1940s when Dr. Vincent J. Schaefer was studying cloud formation for General Electric. Cloud seeding has been subsequently used to enhance precipitation, dissipate fog, modify hurricanes, and decrease lightning and hail in thunderstorms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding
and Australia? – Cloud seeding – New World Encyclopedia http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org › entry › Cloud_seedi…
Jump to History — History · 1947–1952: CSIRO scientists dropped dry ice into the tops of cumulus clouds. · 1953–1956: CSIRO carried out similar trials in …
Stepping carefully. NZ Geographic brings some interesting facts to light. https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-rainmakers/
As General Electric held back from cloud-seeding, other commercial enterprises leapt into the breach. New York City’s leaders commissioned one to make rain over their reservoir. They got a flood and 169 lawsuits for damages. They hastily commissioned a survey to show that cloud-seeding did not work, so avoided paying damages, but were placed under a permanent injunction not to try cloud-seeding again.
India is faced with great need. I wonder if they sell off water for bottling. The commerical imperative often wins over reason and responsibility amongst country leaders.
https://india.mongabay.com/2019/07/as-cloud-seeding-catches-on-in-times-of-climate-change-more-research-holds-the-key/
I’ve heard on the rumour mill, Pacific Aerospace (PAC) which is NZ’s sole remaining Aircraft construction company is being liquidated by its Chinese owners. This Company was allow to be brought by the Chinese under the last National Government under the guise from the NZG & the Foreign Investment Office that the Chinese promise of keeping all Aircraft design & construction it in NZ.
So much so, for the National wanting to invest NZ STEM Training as they promise during the last general election, when let/ approve this sort’ve crap, closing down Hillside Workshops and forcing AirNZ to off load it’s two of its so-called “Non Core Assets” TAE & Safe Air which btw used to do about 90-95% of AirNZ’s Military Contracts both local & overseas.