“A reminder: from 1939 (and before), the Nazi threat was front-page news in every viewspaper, every day, for years. The threat of near-term climate collapse is an incomparably greater threat. That gives an idea of the awesome bias of corporate media in downplaying this threat.”
“UN Says Climate Genocide Is Coming. It’s Actually Worse Than That.
Just two years ago, amid global fanfare, the Paris climate accords were signed — initiating what seemed, for a brief moment, like the beginning of a planet-saving movement. But almost immediately, the international goal it established of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius began to seem, to many of the world’s most vulnerable, dramatically inadequate; the Marshall Islands’ representative gave it a blunter name, calling two degrees of warming “genocide.”
The alarming new report you may have read about this week from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — which examines just how much better 1.5 degrees of warming would be than 2 — echoes the charge. “Amplifies” may be the better term. Hundreds of millions of lives are at stake, the report declares, should the world warm more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, which it will do as soon as 2040, if current trends continue. Nearly all coral reefs would die out, wildfires and heat waves would sweep across the planet annually, and the interplay between drought and flooding and temperature would mean that the world’s food supply would become dramatically less secure. Avoiding that scale of suffering, the report says, requires such a thorough transformation of the world’s economy, agriculture, and culture that “there is no documented historical precedent.” The New York Times declared that the report showed a “strong risk” of climate crisis in the coming decades; in Grist, Eric Holthaus wrote that “civilization is at stake.”
If you are alarmed by those sentences, you should be — they are horrifying. But it is, actually, worse than that — considerably worse. That is because the new report’s worst-case scenario is, actually, a best case. In fact, it is a beyond-best-case scenario. What has been called a genocidal level of warming is already our inevitable future. The question is how much worse than that it will get.”
In NZ – government cut benefits in 1991 but introduced grants which could be applied for of about $300 each year, okay for dentists etc.
Now the RW have just turned bennies into a profit centre for loans at high interest – which is appropriate for a business approach.
But people need to have grants available to them from government again. Give the help where it is needed, assist the people that government has impoverished through cutting tariffs so forcing local business to close, and then enforcing a low wage regime and bringing about working poverty.
Aiming too low their Greywarshark, if you wanted millions/billions for a stadium, marina, free or cheap public land and millions of dollars in hand outs to solve some big problem, the government would only be too happy to supply you with the cash.
Try either getting super rich so you can have lobbyists and be feted by government for being a ‘winner’ or set up your own charitable trust for the moneys to be deposited into.
Any ‘charity’ with “affordable” housing, kids, poverty, political or big item infrastructure is popular now. Expect to spend a considerable amount of the money you collect on actually lobbying, marketing and advertising to get the money, then pay your costs of administration, lawyers and accountants, ensure their is enough to cover wages costs of the above (millions is generally required) and anything left can be distributed with a lot of publicity, photo shots etc and a desperate cry, we need more money for this desperate need…
What we need to do is up the basic benefit to a liveable level and get rid of most if not all of the supplementary grants. The housing one for instance has turned out to be a grant for landlords. Respect beneficiaries and encourage rather than punish.
@TFG – Reinvent beneficiaries into professional sports lobbyists who need infrastructure for international events for the .01%, or developers and you will get more attention for your cause.
Look how many councils seem more interested in stadiums than council housing… they also seem happy to take away kids, amateurs and semi professional locals sports fields in the process…
But do agree, it would be easier to have set benefit rather than a complicated smorgasbord of add ons to benefits… but then making it simple and easy would probably make it easier for vulnerable people to get it, and that is not the purpose of welfare these days, it’s to make sure that the least needy get it, and the rest goes to those handy with the paperwork, and government friendly lobby groups to redistribute the rest.
Did you ever tried to get one of those grants greywarshark.?
Its not easy, generally they prefer to wait till your mouth is a seething pit of pain and infection before you can get the grant. Even though that means a more expensive potentially less successful trip to the dentist.
I agree in theory with the idea of government loans, but the application process needs to be handled very carefully, with the cost of NOT giving the loan being taken into account.
And definitely not done through the staff at work and income.
There needs to be a professional setup, maybe through kiwibank, where the applicants are treated like customers not scam artists and bludgers. Where staff are encouraged to give loans, not incentivised to turn people away.
I don’t have the link but popped into my feed the other day, some rich fucks will build a stadium sunk into the Auckland waterfront (with climate change around the corner, so we know that is the wrong location already, something that the IYI class probably did not bother to explore in their million dollar personal study for Phil Goff) and then Auckland council gives them billions in free land in one of the most expensive suburbs from the ratepayers/taxpayers so they can profit off housing…
What a winner – it’s free land for the right deals/people around Auckland these days. And sounds like ChCH is similar.
Phil REALLY wants that stadium.
I’m all for it as long as those involved go to prison for stupidity and fraud for their actions of stealing and misappropriating land from the public.
Why does this pathetic stadium idea keep coming up? We already have one on the Shore and Eden Park, multiple other facilities around Auckland, and rampant poverty and homelessness. Perhaps we could spend this money solving those problems before building a vanity trophy building directly in the path of rising sea levels?
Helen wants Eden Park shut down. It disturbs her beauty sleep on the occasional nights she spends there. Look at her moaning about the possibility of having a concert there.
And, as that song in the musical Damn Yankees says:
“Whatever Helen wants, Helen gets ……”
‘No jerks allowed’: the egalitarianism behind Norway’s winter wonderland
Norway have powered to the top of the Olympics medal table on a budget a 10th of Britain’s thanks to an inclusive approach based on camaraderie and grassroots participation
““Our vision is sport for all,” Tvedt says. “Before you are 12 you should have fun with sport. So we don’t focus on who the winner is before then. Instead we are very focused on getting children into our 11,000 local sports clubs. And we have 93% of children and young people regularly playing sport in these organisations.””
Sound like opposite to NZ neoliberal sports approach then, which is to sell off the schools lands and other public land, make it harder at grass roots level, make families shell out big bucks for uniforms and fees to be on special squads and drive their kids all over the show to play at dwindling sports areas adding to congestion… and winning and being good at sports being a big driver now into sports rather than inclusion (even for the bad kids at sports) and fun…
Nice to go back to sports actually at the schools during the curiculum, no driving around, uniforms or professionalism until they hit 14 years at least…
For a lot of kids sport as part of the school curriculum is a complete waste of time and often counter-productive in that it puts them off exercise, which should actually be fun.
SaveNZ @ 3.1.1.1:”“Before you are 12 you should have fun with sport. So we don’t focus on who the winner is before then.”
Hear. Hear.
Kids who are good at their sport love to rub it in.
Parents who love to win push their kids to win.
Parents and coaches who love to win make their team members feel bad.
Schools use winning as a mark of success.
Coaches who love to win use the best kids to win.
Meanwhile the bulk of “others” loose interest in sport and avoid participation.
@Alwyn – Since Aunty Helen was not that keen on a Macc’ers next to her house, not sure she wants listening high rises with massive price tags (and a few ‘affordable houses’ for the spin doctors to spin) ‘ in a dwindling historic area of Auckland..
Oh but wait rest of Auckland has to pay for that travel and congestion from those houses too… and the waster water, and the pollution… etc etc
It’s win win to be a developer these days when you get the poor to subsidise your luxury offerings and profits.
5 years to get the money together,
3 to get the land and consents,
2 to build it, and
at least a year to demolish Eden Park.
Then a further 3 to redevelop Eden Park.
That group would need either Chinese capital or a sovereign wealth fund to go through that kind of long haul.
Looking abroad, Germany’s largest opposition party, the AfD, calls for the denunciation of teachers who express political views, and Germany’s bourgeois left party, the SPD, traditional voting home of centre-left voters since WWII, falls to 15% in one poll, behind both the populist, right-wing AfD and the Greens. The Liberals and the actual (if very broad-based) left-wing party, “Die Linke”, both sit on 10% (too lazy to find a credible link for that one in English).
Beto O’Rourke gets a full hour on CNN as Cruz pulls out. There’s got to be some luck for a good Democrat who has forsworn all Superpac money and could just maybe take Texas. One day, LBJ, one day.
They call 100,000 phone numbers to get 1000 responses. A lot of people arent registered voters and because its mid terms even less bother to vote than the main election time
Wouldn’t it be Seymour’s Assisted Dying Legislation which was referred to a Select Committee in a Conscience vote back in January?
It might not have reached the third reading but it is certainly underway as a conscience matter.
Bradley Tuhi had monthly power bills of more than $1000, but there was no obvious reason why.
Genesis Energy has admitted a faulty power meter is to blame for a Christchurch man receiving exorbitant electricity bills for 12 months.
Bradley Tuhi’s monthly power bill peaked at $1105 in July, yet at the time Genesis Energy failed to accept it could be at fault.
Tuhi spent months trying to convince Genesis Energy it was not possible for him, his wife and step son to consume that much electricity at their fully-insulated, double-glazed, 10-year-old Governors Bay home that was heated using gas.
I dunno – 1-2 seems to have moved on from Baby’s First Cartesian Doubt (man-in-the-sky bless whoever came up with that line) and have now flicked through Cold-Reading for Dummies.
I reckon they are just incredibly stupid, but are so stupid they think they’re really smart. The sort of person who gets put forward as an example of Dunning-Kreuger and everybody assumes they’re just an extreme hypothetical rather than an actual case study.
I met someone like that in real life – incredibly stupid, but the mouth never stopped. We had about a dozen FB friends in common. There was one memorable party where they said something like “actually, I’m pretty smart”, and the room just stopped dead.
I discovered a few weeks back that I was still FB friends with them. We had no friends in common, even though I was still friends with the others in that crowd. A bit sad, really.
I think they are great. I can go to the website anytime and check a bar graph of how much power i have used each day and how much my bill will be based on an average of what i am using. Really easy to see the cost when i run an electric heater.
I thnk there are different types of meter. It is hard to get an understanding on what you find solkta and what power companies do when the system isn’t working to the best interests of the user.l
Can understand how that would be useful, we don’t use electric heaters, luckily the fire and heat transfer is enough to warm the house and heat the water.
Clothes drier seems to be the major power sucker at ours in the winter.
That poor man being stung by $1k monthly bills.
However it’s encouraging to know that our government is not going to sit on it’s hands while big corp monopolies are ripping off consumers.
I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy for the guy. He says that he had a few power bills of $5-600 but didn’t start complaining till he got one of $750. Surely a prudent consumer would complain a lot earlier and change supplier if not resolved promptly long before they had paid more than $4300 too much!?
One of the useful spinoffs of having solar power is that I can read my power consumption, as well as production, in 15 minute increments if necessary. A daily report on a graph shows when the power is being used.
It was a digital meter., discs dont spin anymore
By pushing the button it can scroll through the voltage, the amps and the current kW being drawn
A hot water cylinder on draws 3 kW. or test with a bar heater that uses 1kW or 2kW depending on switch.
Out of curiosity what is the economic lifetime of a solar generation system?
Consumer New Zealand had a look at solar power in Auckland, Wellington and Hawkes Bay a little while ago. They seemed to think it was worth it in Hawkes Bay but not in Auckland or Christchurch.
The results will be on consumer.org.nz I don’t know whether they are free to access if you aren’t a subscriber.
Alwyn, the 25 years I’m quoting is what I understand to be the estimated useful life, conservatively assessed. The panels degrade over time.
A factor I did not mention is the increasing cost as electricity inevitably rises in price which will tilt the payback my way.
Funnily enough with the talk of costs, it was not the biggest factor by far. We are making some contribution to conserving power and fossil fuel, as some of the generated power goes into an EV.
“What Is the Lifespan of a Solar Panel? Photovoltaic (PV) modules typically come with 20 year warranties that guarantee that the panels will produce at least 80% of the rated power after 20 years of use. The general rule of thumb is that panels will degrade by about 1% each year.”
Googled from search for ‘ roof panels electricity longevity’.
Factoring that in, after 25 years I would have paid off the installation, recouped any interest I had forgone if I had made a straight investment at 4%, and made a profit of $4000 since I sell some 10% of my annual 2010 kw/hr (the first year’s total production) back to my provider at only 7c per kw/h.
So, it makes a little money, the installation continues to generate after 25 years and hopefully is still worth something at the time of house sale.
Meanwhile at the other end !! a computer is recording how many times you go to the toilet how many loads of washing you do weather you have three pieces of toast or two what time you get up an what time you go to bed how long you watch tv how many computers are switched on at any given time etc etc etc thats the bonus of having a smart meter all the information you can get for free paid for by the guy you did out of a job …in no time !!!
I work for one of the companies that has the contract to install and maintain the smart meters and…
1) There is a lot of trouble with them. We are forever having to get called out for faults such as part power, no hot water, etc. The technicians are put under pressure to install a certain amount of meters each day, and get minimal training, as such, they tend to incorrectly install them.
2) It is not cumpolsory to get the meters installed. You can refuse. They will tell you that they need to be installed by law, but there is no such law.
3) There are many different types of smart meters, some use the Vodafone network, communicating every half hour (they have a regular sim card installed), others have are connected to a mesh network, ie in a valley there may be 5-10 houses in a network and one of then sends the reads to the central server.
4) The old analogue meters lasted 50-60 years. And a lot of them are in pretty good condition. The smart meters are only designed to last 15-25 years and then are replaced. They are also unpredictable, easy to turn off remotely, but when it comes to reconnecting, it doesn’t always work.
We had a problem with our hot water after they installed a smart meter.
It was entirely a fault with the installation.
They were meant to connect it so that we had hot water available 24 hours/day. In fact they connected it through a meter that was intended only for a night store heater and that only heated the water for a limited number of hours/day. We still got charged through the main meter though.
We didn’t realise we had a major problem until we went away on holiday for a couple of weeks. When we got back the water didn’t heat up. It was only doing so in the middle of the night. We had our electrician in because we thought we had a problem with the hot water cylinder.
He told us it was wired wrongly. We had a terrible job getting the lines company to come back and fix it. They claimed that what was happening was impossible. They also said we would have to pay for them to come and look at it.
Finally they came, blushed, fixed it and paid the electricians bill.
Hi Millsy, I recently had a notice from Genesis that they would be installing a smart metre. I don’t want one, but when I read the fine print of the contract, it was specified that I must, under the terms of the contract, have one. Is that legal?
Sorry, there is no government mandate for smart meters as in other countries. You are still bound to have one as per the contract with your retailer. But you can have one without the modem so it is still manually read.
I think it’s high time some scrutiny was applied to the gang of old geezers who make up PTUA and Transport 2050. And why the hell Mike Lee (whom I’ve always respected as a great voice for Auckland) is having anything to do with them.
There is a studied benefit for the people of Onehunga, and along Dominion Road, and they quite rightly state that it is more than a benefit than for airport travellers.
However, those PT travellers already have existing PT, and we should also be looking those who live in parts of Auckland who have abysmal PT, and see whether the social value of investing in that instead of improving existing services would be better served by delivering the HR option in this case.
Greater Auckland collates information that leads to certain outcomes, and does not consider the wider demographics (despite the name) of all Auckland residents.
The high cost of the delivery of LR, when so many of the less financially robust Aucklanders are being hit with higher transport costs because there is no reliable affordable public transport in their areas is a discussion point that is often missed at GA.
fine. but don’t roll a turd in glitter, polish it, then present some sort of botched add on a-la-EA & ubisoft as a PT solution from the CBD to the airport.
Either get trucks off the road round the aiport, get more people PT in more deprived areas so they don’t have to drive to the airport or do a proper job of fast PT from the airport to CBD.
Boosting capacity along Dominion Rd is for the many thousands of extra people who will move there over the next couple of decades. There is no more room in the city centre for buses to go to, let alone cars.
property porn. The best size for suburban apartments is up to 6 stories max not 15 . That would be repeating the failed ‘towers’ for low income residents.
I had this discussion with a Korean friend back in the day. It’s a function of land price. The more expensive the ground, the more sense it makes to build upward.
That said, smaller apartment buildings tended to be four stories over there – achievable on the private means of a family that built to provide retirement income.
In principle I agree with you Dof. Even further the great Jane Jacobs argued persuasively in Death and Life of Great American Cities that 2 storey terrace housing could easily house the same number of people as the post war tower blocks with the added advantage of giving everyone a front door onto their street and the resulting sense of ownership of their neighbourhood.
However some locations in a city suit high rise housing models, the CBD for example and I would argue that the transit park and ride areas mentioned in the article would be suitable areas for that sort of development too.
It started when Mr. Farrar (praise Him!) made the bizarrely untruthful claim that the “Sensible Sentencing” Trust provides “a network of support to families of victims.”
Sadly your dear old mother dropped me a note Moz – what you’ve put her through is quite unacceptable….and I quote.
‘I do apologise for our Morrissey’s behaviour. He really is an utter cunt. Takes after his father unfortunately.
Morrissey’s never been the sharpest tool in the shed. He’s always been what you would call a “problem child” very rude and disobedient from a very young age with a very strange obsession with disabled toilets. He’s never sparkled in the love department either having only one boyfriend as far as I can remember. That was a disaster as well. I remember the first time he brought Benjamin Longhair home and they went straight to Morrissey’s room. I could over hear their love talk quite clearly. Benjamin said “ooh Moz, I want you to show me something 8″ long, rock hard and full of spunk !
So Morrissey pulled a sock out from under his bed. It had been there for fucking months, I should know, its me what has to change his soiled sheets every week.’
I particularly like the part where Louise still thinks National increased benefits for the first time in 40 years. I’ve just fired her off an email (first time in my life I’ve ever knowingly engaged with the enemy) to politely enquire where mine is because I’m still waiting for it. I don’t anticipate a reply but had fun writing and sending it 🙂 Do Nats understand sarcasm?
The survey shows that more than 50% of households that get the Accommodation Supplement pay more than 5O% of their income in housing costs. I don’t see how people are better off?
The accommodation supplement does not increase rents. You could successfully argue it is a Govt funded top-up for employers (paying their employees) but you also need to take into account it is paid out to people on benefits who are not in a state provided house.
Rents are directly linked to supply and demand.
If (and it will not happen due to the political fallout) the accommodation supplement was stopped, then employers would need to step in and make-up at least some if not all of the difference.
The demand for housing will still be there, I see little room for rent reductions with or without the accommodation supplement.
If there were no AC in the 1st place, there would not be the mountain of money available $1.2b+ to fuel increases for rent. As those seeking private accomodation would not have the same ability to pay current prices, tempering rents and reducing the ability to fuel house price increases, as ROI’s wouldn’t be what they currently are.
Once implemented we are now faced with the continuation of AC as it would be impossible to remove this
I may be wrong BUT was not the AC implemented by Nats in the 90’s to allow for tenants to be no worse off should they rent a state house or private rental ?
“The Accommodation Supplement was introduced in July 1993 as a part of radical change in welfare policies announced by then Finance Minister Ruth Richardson in 1991 in her so-called ‘mother of all budgets’.”
“In 2001 the Labour Government reintroduced income related rent subsidies”
“It is sometimes argued that the Accommodation Supplement is a landlords’ subsidy and that as such any increase in the value of the Supplement will simply leak out to landlords in the form of higher rents. Remarkably there has been little analysis undertaken of either the income or price effects of the Accommodation Supplement and the two published studies appear to have been written to order to suit the argument that the payment is not a landlord subsidy17.”
Way to go Simon. Populist action?
“”National has launched a petition to repeal the Government’s new fuel taxes to “relieve some of the financial pressure” on Kiwis, the party’s leader Simon Bridges has said.”
Well I see Russell McVeagh are doing the right thing. http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=113094
When are the Labour Party going to insist on a resignation by Meka Whaitiri?
Or is it OK to bash your staff if you are a Labour Party member?
Its a nonsense. Its not a fine , as its a civil case.
Unenforceable in NZ, mainly as no NZ – Isreal treaty on reciprocal court cases and no NZ court would allow this sort of thing where there is no loss even if there was a treaty
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/in-depth/368436/universities-face-a-crisis-of-the-humanities …when the university senate [University of Otago] met on 26 September and decided to axe Otago’s art history programme from 2020.
There wasn’t much of a programme left to cut. Through a process of attrition, the department had been whittled down, since 2014, to 19 full-time students, three undergraduate papers and a single full-time lecturer….
Across 25 BA majors that RNZ classified as unambiguously part of the humanities, the number of degree and post-graduate level students actually rose during the global financial crisis, mirroring university enrolment patterns in other countries. From 2010, however, the numbers began to drop away again. There were 1000 fewer humanities students enrolled in 2017 than in 2008, despite an increase of almost 40,000 students across all degrees and subjects….
The current Tertiary Education Strategy, released in 2014, states this in bald terms: “This strategy focuses in particular on the economic benefits that result from tertiary education, and therefore on employment, higher incomes and better access to skilled employees for business as critical outcomes of tertiary education.”
NZ might be thinking of limiting organic growing methods in Sri Lanka, when we should be copying them, and instead demonstrating better systems for handling the vegetables.
There is talk about the need to grow more food for the world, but we don’t want to regard that as concern, it is talking about markets and money making. When business steps into a people-run economy, it is likely that traditional dealers will be swept aside in the shadow of mechanisation and export of crops for greater return that would normally have been bought by locals paying the local affordable prices.
I am concerned by this upbeat item from Radio nz. We don’t want to export our bizarre culture of destruction of ordinary people’s livelihoods and ability to manage their basic needs, in favour of higher education that produces nothing, with the obvious disconnect in access to a standard of living that is adequate for people living simply.
Most of what was grown in Sri Lanka was largely organic, with apparently minimal use of fertiliser.
“We did ask those questions around sprays, and didn’t see any evidence of it, at all.
“We understand fertiliser is used in rice production, and that’s one of the major crops for the 21 million people, but when the rice is harvested those paddocks are used to grow vegetables.”
Mr Chapman said portions of the fields were hand-tilled for vegetable growing.
He said there were similarities in that a lot of New Zealand growers were also inter-generational, so they’ve been very focused on sustainability of the land.
“As with New Zealand there is also a reducing number of people willing to work in the fields especially, where the work is largely done by hand.”
Mr Chapman said while Sri Lanka could be classed as Third World, it had made incredible advances in education, which was free through to university level, and the literacy rate was now second to Japan among Asian countries.
“We asked for food but you gave us a stone with a certificate of higher learning on it” – that might be the way the land lies in future.
So the protestors broke the law to lie about 1080. If 1080 really killed so gazillions of birds, why couldn’t the protestors at least present actual 1080 victims? Seems legit lol.
You can see the red hands behind that evil spectre John Kerry early in this clip (from the 0:50 mark). There should also have been a whole lot of blood-red hands waving behind the awful BBC woman at about the 8:30 mark…
Can’t buy sex, hang out in bars or afford flowers.
Teeth not the best, clothes from The Warehouse or knock-offs.
No outlook of comfortable security, jewelry or sports cars.
Poor people are the most naturally charming, seductive and sexually satisfying people in the world because we have to be.
There was a reason every Elvis movie started with our hero sporting a skinny wallet. Check them out, even with his awful thesping, Broken arse Elvis is much sexier at the start of his movies than the rich Makegood at the end. If Elvis movies were true to life the final scene would end with the Starlet saying “Frankly, you’ve become a bit boring.”
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Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
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 The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
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Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
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The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
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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, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Media Lens is spot on.
“A reminder: from 1939 (and before), the Nazi threat was front-page news in every viewspaper, every day, for years. The threat of near-term climate collapse is an incomparably greater threat. That gives an idea of the awesome bias of corporate media in downplaying this threat.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/medialens
“UN Says Climate Genocide Is Coming. It’s Actually Worse Than That.
Just two years ago, amid global fanfare, the Paris climate accords were signed — initiating what seemed, for a brief moment, like the beginning of a planet-saving movement. But almost immediately, the international goal it established of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius began to seem, to many of the world’s most vulnerable, dramatically inadequate; the Marshall Islands’ representative gave it a blunter name, calling two degrees of warming “genocide.”
The alarming new report you may have read about this week from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — which examines just how much better 1.5 degrees of warming would be than 2 — echoes the charge. “Amplifies” may be the better term. Hundreds of millions of lives are at stake, the report declares, should the world warm more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, which it will do as soon as 2040, if current trends continue. Nearly all coral reefs would die out, wildfires and heat waves would sweep across the planet annually, and the interplay between drought and flooding and temperature would mean that the world’s food supply would become dramatically less secure. Avoiding that scale of suffering, the report says, requires such a thorough transformation of the world’s economy, agriculture, and culture that “there is no documented historical precedent.” The New York Times declared that the report showed a “strong risk” of climate crisis in the coming decades; in Grist, Eric Holthaus wrote that “civilization is at stake.”
If you are alarmed by those sentences, you should be — they are horrifying. But it is, actually, worse than that — considerably worse. That is because the new report’s worst-case scenario is, actually, a best case. In fact, it is a beyond-best-case scenario. What has been called a genocidal level of warming is already our inevitable future. The question is how much worse than that it will get.”
Read the whole article here
https://t.co/KF98AlJgt9?amp=1
In NZ – government cut benefits in 1991 but introduced grants which could be applied for of about $300 each year, okay for dentists etc.
Now the RW have just turned bennies into a profit centre for loans at high interest – which is appropriate for a business approach.
But people need to have grants available to them from government again. Give the help where it is needed, assist the people that government has impoverished through cutting tariffs so forcing local business to close, and then enforcing a low wage regime and bringing about working poverty.
Aiming too low their Greywarshark, if you wanted millions/billions for a stadium, marina, free or cheap public land and millions of dollars in hand outs to solve some big problem, the government would only be too happy to supply you with the cash.
Try either getting super rich so you can have lobbyists and be feted by government for being a ‘winner’ or set up your own charitable trust for the moneys to be deposited into.
Any ‘charity’ with “affordable” housing, kids, poverty, political or big item infrastructure is popular now. Expect to spend a considerable amount of the money you collect on actually lobbying, marketing and advertising to get the money, then pay your costs of administration, lawyers and accountants, ensure their is enough to cover wages costs of the above (millions is generally required) and anything left can be distributed with a lot of publicity, photo shots etc and a desperate cry, we need more money for this desperate need…
What we need to do is up the basic benefit to a liveable level and get rid of most if not all of the supplementary grants. The housing one for instance has turned out to be a grant for landlords. Respect beneficiaries and encourage rather than punish.
@TFG – Reinvent beneficiaries into professional sports lobbyists who need infrastructure for international events for the .01%, or developers and you will get more attention for your cause.
Look how many councils seem more interested in stadiums than council housing… they also seem happy to take away kids, amateurs and semi professional locals sports fields in the process…
But do agree, it would be easier to have set benefit rather than a complicated smorgasbord of add ons to benefits… but then making it simple and easy would probably make it easier for vulnerable people to get it, and that is not the purpose of welfare these days, it’s to make sure that the least needy get it, and the rest goes to those handy with the paperwork, and government friendly lobby groups to redistribute the rest.
Godmother
+100
Did you ever tried to get one of those grants greywarshark.?
Its not easy, generally they prefer to wait till your mouth is a seething pit of pain and infection before you can get the grant. Even though that means a more expensive potentially less successful trip to the dentist.
I agree in theory with the idea of government loans, but the application process needs to be handled very carefully, with the cost of NOT giving the loan being taken into account.
And definitely not done through the staff at work and income.
There needs to be a professional setup, maybe through kiwibank, where the applicants are treated like customers not scam artists and bludgers. Where staff are encouraged to give loans, not incentivised to turn people away.
I don’t have the link but popped into my feed the other day, some rich fucks will build a stadium sunk into the Auckland waterfront (with climate change around the corner, so we know that is the wrong location already, something that the IYI class probably did not bother to explore in their million dollar personal study for Phil Goff) and then Auckland council gives them billions in free land in one of the most expensive suburbs from the ratepayers/taxpayers so they can profit off housing…
What a winner – it’s free land for the right deals/people around Auckland these days. And sounds like ChCH is similar.
Phil REALLY wants that stadium.
I’m all for it as long as those involved go to prison for stupidity and fraud for their actions of stealing and misappropriating land from the public.
Why does this pathetic stadium idea keep coming up? We already have one on the Shore and Eden Park, multiple other facilities around Auckland, and rampant poverty and homelessness. Perhaps we could spend this money solving those problems before building a vanity trophy building directly in the path of rising sea levels?
Helen wants Eden Park shut down. It disturbs her beauty sleep on the occasional nights she spends there. Look at her moaning about the possibility of having a concert there.
And, as that song in the musical Damn Yankees says:
“Whatever Helen wants, Helen gets ……”
‘No jerks allowed’: the egalitarianism behind Norway’s winter wonderland
Norway have powered to the top of the Olympics medal table on a budget a 10th of Britain’s thanks to an inclusive approach based on camaraderie and grassroots participation
““Our vision is sport for all,” Tvedt says. “Before you are 12 you should have fun with sport. So we don’t focus on who the winner is before then. Instead we are very focused on getting children into our 11,000 local sports clubs. And we have 93% of children and young people regularly playing sport in these organisations.””
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/22/norway-winter-olympics-success
Sound like opposite to NZ neoliberal sports approach then, which is to sell off the schools lands and other public land, make it harder at grass roots level, make families shell out big bucks for uniforms and fees to be on special squads and drive their kids all over the show to play at dwindling sports areas adding to congestion… and winning and being good at sports being a big driver now into sports rather than inclusion (even for the bad kids at sports) and fun…
Nice to go back to sports actually at the schools during the curiculum, no driving around, uniforms or professionalism until they hit 14 years at least…
For a lot of kids sport as part of the school curriculum is a complete waste of time and often counter-productive in that it puts them off exercise, which should actually be fun.
SaveNZ @ 3.1.1.1:”“Before you are 12 you should have fun with sport. So we don’t focus on who the winner is before then.”
Hear. Hear.
Kids who are good at their sport love to rub it in.
Parents who love to win push their kids to win.
Parents and coaches who love to win make their team members feel bad.
Schools use winning as a mark of success.
Coaches who love to win use the best kids to win.
Meanwhile the bulk of “others” loose interest in sport and avoid participation.
‘No jerks allowed’
????
What about….us?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2018/09/max-key-launches-instagram-account-documenting-john-key-s-personal-life.html
@Alwyn – Since Aunty Helen was not that keen on a Macc’ers next to her house, not sure she wants listening high rises with massive price tags (and a few ‘affordable houses’ for the spin doctors to spin) ‘ in a dwindling historic area of Auckland..
Oh but wait rest of Auckland has to pay for that travel and congestion from those houses too… and the waster water, and the pollution… etc etc
It’s win win to be a developer these days when you get the poor to subsidise your luxury offerings and profits.
You lie through your teeth which are false you little worm alwyn.
Are you incapable of accepting people making accurate statements about your favourite goddess?
It is you who are lying. My statement was accurate.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/07/former-prime-minister-helen-clark-opposes-eden-park-charity-concert.html
ps. I did not choose the photo of Ms Clark in the article.
That is a lovely photo of Ms Clark.
Here’s a lovely photo of Mrs Shipley.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/107619078/dame-jenny-shipley-prepares-to-give-evidence-in-mainzeal-high-court-trial
It would take:
5 years to get the money together,
3 to get the land and consents,
2 to build it, and
at least a year to demolish Eden Park.
Then a further 3 to redevelop Eden Park.
That group would need either Chinese capital or a sovereign wealth fund to go through that kind of long haul.
But Save NZ climate change is NOT around the corner … IT IS HERE !
Read again from Eds post above :
https://t.co/KF98AlJgt9?amp=1
Looking abroad, Germany’s largest opposition party, the AfD, calls for the denunciation of teachers who express political views, and Germany’s bourgeois left party, the SPD, traditional voting home of centre-left voters since WWII, falls to 15% in one poll, behind both the populist, right-wing AfD and the Greens. The Liberals and the actual (if very broad-based) left-wing party, “Die Linke”, both sit on 10% (too lazy to find a credible link for that one in English).
Beto O’Rourke gets a full hour on CNN as Cruz pulls out. There’s got to be some luck for a good Democrat who has forsworn all Superpac money and could just maybe take Texas. One day, LBJ, one day.
NYTimes is currently polling that Texas Senate race and in that poll at least, Cruz looks comfortable.
Fivethirtyeight tracks a solid 5-8 poll margin.
Aye well, one day……
They call 100,000 phone numbers to get 1000 responses. A lot of people arent registered voters and because its mid terms even less bother to vote than the main election time
I’m sure someone will have posted this before, but Chris Trotter nails it here in regard to why we need the “Waka Jumping” Bill.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-political-amnesia-of-winston-peters.html
I’m a Green voter and have never understood why the Greens can’t get it that this Bill is needed-at least in the end they voted for it.
Thats right . MPs have had to toe the party line …since for ever.
When was the last conscience vote ? The Marrriage equality one ?
Wouldn’t it be Seymour’s Assisted Dying Legislation which was referred to a Select Committee in a Conscience vote back in January?
It might not have reached the third reading but it is certainly underway as a conscience matter.
Yeah but that’s not a confidence and supply issue-should be a free vote.
A Conscience vote on Confidence and Supply?
I really don’t think I am going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.
Maybe our own electricity meters are being hacked too?
Bloody disgusting this is!!!!!!
Electricity Authority heads should now roll over this!!!!!!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/107733440/faulty-smart-meter-to-blame-for-1100-power-bill
Bradley Tuhi had monthly power bills of more than $1000, but there was no obvious reason why.
Genesis Energy has admitted a faulty power meter is to blame for a Christchurch man receiving exorbitant electricity bills for 12 months.
Bradley Tuhi’s monthly power bill peaked at $1105 in July, yet at the time Genesis Energy failed to accept it could be at fault.
Tuhi spent months trying to convince Genesis Energy it was not possible for him, his wife and step son to consume that much electricity at their fully-insulated, double-glazed, 10-year-old Governors Bay home that was heated using gas.
Always been a bit suss on the smart meter, do most households have them now?
We ended up writing on the meter box, ‘if you attempt to install a smart meter you will be prosecuted by the home owner’.
Good on you Cinny. Wise.
That must of had them shivering in their boots.
Got a hug from the meter reader, does that count?
When’s your 49th birthday James ?
what that got to do with the subject in hand?
About as much as your comment to Cinny..
You could be turning 50 this year…
Are you turning 50?
I think you have some mental health issues.
I dunno – 1-2 seems to have moved on from Baby’s First Cartesian Doubt (man-in-the-sky bless whoever came up with that line) and have now flicked through Cold-Reading for Dummies.
I reckon they are just incredibly stupid, but are so stupid they think they’re really smart. The sort of person who gets put forward as an example of Dunning-Kreuger and everybody assumes they’re just an extreme hypothetical rather than an actual case study.
I met someone like that in real life – incredibly stupid, but the mouth never stopped. We had about a dozen FB friends in common. There was one memorable party where they said something like “actually, I’m pretty smart”, and the room just stopped dead.
I discovered a few weeks back that I was still FB friends with them. We had no friends in common, even though I was still friends with the others in that crowd. A bit sad, really.
I think they are great. I can go to the website anytime and check a bar graph of how much power i have used each day and how much my bill will be based on an average of what i am using. Really easy to see the cost when i run an electric heater.
I thnk there are different types of meter. It is hard to get an understanding on what you find solkta and what power companies do when the system isn’t working to the best interests of the user.l
Can understand how that would be useful, we don’t use electric heaters, luckily the fire and heat transfer is enough to warm the house and heat the water.
Clothes drier seems to be the major power sucker at ours in the winter.
That poor man being stung by $1k monthly bills.
However it’s encouraging to know that our government is not going to sit on it’s hands while big corp monopolies are ripping off consumers.
I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy for the guy. He says that he had a few power bills of $5-600 but didn’t start complaining till he got one of $750. Surely a prudent consumer would complain a lot earlier and change supplier if not resolved promptly long before they had paid more than $4300 too much!?
My nephew’s power bill for 4 winter months was $1900. And he has gas water heating and gas stove. He seems to be unconcerned.
Wow, that’s enormous.
You could do that simply by looking at the little disc in your meter. If it was spinning too fast then you were using too much power
Yes if someone really wanted to they could read their analogue meter every day and make their own graphs and estimates.
One of the useful spinoffs of having solar power is that I can read my power consumption, as well as production, in 15 minute increments if necessary. A daily report on a graph shows when the power is being used.
It was a digital meter., discs dont spin anymore
By pushing the button it can scroll through the voltage, the amps and the current kW being drawn
A hot water cylinder on draws 3 kW. or test with a bar heater that uses 1kW or 2kW depending on switch.
So many benefits to solar, hopefully we can afford it one day, that would be awesome.
Dont do it. The cost will outweigh any ‘free power’ . Most of your power drawdown is evening and night when sun doesnt shine ( or low in sky)
Dukeofurl,
I still generate over 2000 kw off a 1.4kw array per year. That’s $600 p.a. The array cost $5500.
I use 90% in my home and sell 10% back to my supplier. That is 1800kw at 30c kw/h or $540 plus 200 kw/h at 7c is $14. Per annum income of $540.
I will recuperate my outlay in ten years.
$5500 at 4% is $220 pa. Over ten years $2200 income. That would take another five years to recuperate.
I will recuperate my money in 15 years.
Ten years free power at least saving $6000.
Out of curiosity what is the economic lifetime of a solar generation system?
Consumer New Zealand had a look at solar power in Auckland, Wellington and Hawkes Bay a little while ago. They seemed to think it was worth it in Hawkes Bay but not in Auckland or Christchurch.
The results will be on consumer.org.nz I don’t know whether they are free to access if you aren’t a subscriber.
Alwyn, the 25 years I’m quoting is what I understand to be the estimated useful life, conservatively assessed. The panels degrade over time.
A factor I did not mention is the increasing cost as electricity inevitably rises in price which will tilt the payback my way.
Funnily enough with the talk of costs, it was not the biggest factor by far. We are making some contribution to conserving power and fossil fuel, as some of the generated power goes into an EV.
I hope that all makes sense.
@mac1.
Thank you. I didn’t realize that the panels lasted that long.
“What Is the Lifespan of a Solar Panel? Photovoltaic (PV) modules typically come with 20 year warranties that guarantee that the panels will produce at least 80% of the rated power after 20 years of use. The general rule of thumb is that panels will degrade by about 1% each year.”
Googled from search for ‘ roof panels electricity longevity’.
Factoring that in, after 25 years I would have paid off the installation, recouped any interest I had forgone if I had made a straight investment at 4%, and made a profit of $4000 since I sell some 10% of my annual 2010 kw/hr (the first year’s total production) back to my provider at only 7c per kw/h.
So, it makes a little money, the installation continues to generate after 25 years and hopefully is still worth something at the time of house sale.
Meanwhile at the other end !! a computer is recording how many times you go to the toilet how many loads of washing you do weather you have three pieces of toast or two what time you get up an what time you go to bed how long you watch tv how many computers are switched on at any given time etc etc etc thats the bonus of having a smart meter all the information you can get for free paid for by the guy you did out of a job …in no time !!!
What complete and utter bollocks. All it does is measure the amount of power coming in.
I work for one of the companies that has the contract to install and maintain the smart meters and…
1) There is a lot of trouble with them. We are forever having to get called out for faults such as part power, no hot water, etc. The technicians are put under pressure to install a certain amount of meters each day, and get minimal training, as such, they tend to incorrectly install them.
2) It is not cumpolsory to get the meters installed. You can refuse. They will tell you that they need to be installed by law, but there is no such law.
3) There are many different types of smart meters, some use the Vodafone network, communicating every half hour (they have a regular sim card installed), others have are connected to a mesh network, ie in a valley there may be 5-10 houses in a network and one of then sends the reads to the central server.
4) The old analogue meters lasted 50-60 years. And a lot of them are in pretty good condition. The smart meters are only designed to last 15-25 years and then are replaced. They are also unpredictable, easy to turn off remotely, but when it comes to reconnecting, it doesn’t always work.
Thanks millsy useful to know, good to have facts re the general use.
No hot water isnt a meter fault. Normally its fault with the water heater itself. You know this Millsy
It can either be an issue with the meter or water heater.
We had a problem with our hot water after they installed a smart meter.
It was entirely a fault with the installation.
They were meant to connect it so that we had hot water available 24 hours/day. In fact they connected it through a meter that was intended only for a night store heater and that only heated the water for a limited number of hours/day. We still got charged through the main meter though.
We didn’t realise we had a major problem until we went away on holiday for a couple of weeks. When we got back the water didn’t heat up. It was only doing so in the middle of the night. We had our electrician in because we thought we had a problem with the hot water cylinder.
He told us it was wired wrongly. We had a terrible job getting the lines company to come back and fix it. They claimed that what was happening was impossible. They also said we would have to pay for them to come and look at it.
Finally they came, blushed, fixed it and paid the electricians bill.
Hi Millsy, I recently had a notice from Genesis that they would be installing a smart metre. I don’t want one, but when I read the fine print of the contract, it was specified that I must, under the terms of the contract, have one. Is that legal?
Sorry, there is no government mandate for smart meters as in other countries. You are still bound to have one as per the contract with your retailer. But you can have one without the modem so it is still manually read.
For those advocating for a HR link from Auckland Airport to Puhunui…
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2018/10/12/over-estimating-the-importance-of-city-airport-trips/
I think it’s high time some scrutiny was applied to the gang of old geezers who make up PTUA and Transport 2050. And why the hell Mike Lee (whom I’ve always respected as a great voice for Auckland) is having anything to do with them.
There is a studied benefit for the people of Onehunga, and along Dominion Road, and they quite rightly state that it is more than a benefit than for airport travellers.
However, those PT travellers already have existing PT, and we should also be looking those who live in parts of Auckland who have abysmal PT, and see whether the social value of investing in that instead of improving existing services would be better served by delivering the HR option in this case.
Greater Auckland collates information that leads to certain outcomes, and does not consider the wider demographics (despite the name) of all Auckland residents.
The high cost of the delivery of LR, when so many of the less financially robust Aucklanders are being hit with higher transport costs because there is no reliable affordable public transport in their areas is a discussion point that is often missed at GA.
fine. but don’t roll a turd in glitter, polish it, then present some sort of botched add on a-la-EA & ubisoft as a PT solution from the CBD to the airport.
Either get trucks off the road round the aiport, get more people PT in more deprived areas so they don’t have to drive to the airport or do a proper job of fast PT from the airport to CBD.
Light rail to the airport. lol.
“those PT travellers already have existing PT”
Boosting capacity along Dominion Rd is for the many thousands of extra people who will move there over the next couple of decades. There is no more room in the city centre for buses to go to, let alone cars.
15 storey apartment buildings. This will send the nimbyists into a frenzy
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/107775894/auckland-park-and-rides-the-1-billion-deal
property porn. The best size for suburban apartments is up to 6 stories max not 15 . That would be repeating the failed ‘towers’ for low income residents.
I had this discussion with a Korean friend back in the day. It’s a function of land price. The more expensive the ground, the more sense it makes to build upward.
That said, smaller apartment buildings tended to be four stories over there – achievable on the private means of a family that built to provide retirement income.
In principle I agree with you Dof. Even further the great Jane Jacobs argued persuasively in Death and Life of Great American Cities that 2 storey terrace housing could easily house the same number of people as the post war tower blocks with the added advantage of giving everyone a front door onto their street and the resulting sense of ownership of their neighbourhood.
However some locations in a city suit high rise housing models, the CBD for example and I would argue that the transit park and ride areas mentioned in the article would be suitable areas for that sort of development too.
dukeofurl
+1000
Major storm brewing up on Kiwiblog
It started when Mr. Farrar (praise Him!) made the bizarrely untruthful claim that the “Sensible Sentencing” Trust provides “a network of support to families of victims.”
Let the fireworks begin….
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2018/10/lovely_libby.html/comment-page-1#comment-2331165
Crikey!
Speaking of fireworks, William Shatner and Jacinda are about to open Rocket Labs new factory.
Any Trekkies on the kb?
Link for livestream, which starts soon apparently.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12141427
The only storm brewing up is the one between your ears Morrissey.
You do know the difference between the SST and SSGT?
SST – PO Box 701 Napier
SSTG – PO Box 701 Napier both at 32 Hastings St Napier, a small office bloc.
Who knew that they are using ‘catfishing’ techniques
What storm?
A storm of abuse, Jimmy.
http://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/10/absurd-ss-supporting-victims-families.html
What a pathetic trolling little creep you are Moz.
My friend, could you please expand on that interesting observation?
Sadly your dear old mother dropped me a note Moz – what you’ve put her through is quite unacceptable….and I quote.
‘I do apologise for our Morrissey’s behaviour. He really is an utter cunt. Takes after his father unfortunately.
Morrissey’s never been the sharpest tool in the shed. He’s always been what you would call a “problem child” very rude and disobedient from a very young age with a very strange obsession with disabled toilets. He’s never sparkled in the love department either having only one boyfriend as far as I can remember. That was a disaster as well. I remember the first time he brought Benjamin Longhair home and they went straight to Morrissey’s room. I could over hear their love talk quite clearly. Benjamin said “ooh Moz, I want you to show me something 8″ long, rock hard and full of spunk !
So Morrissey pulled a sock out from under his bed. It had been there for fucking months, I should know, its me what has to change his soiled sheets every week.’
Oooooohhh, Mullet, you are AWFUL.
But I like you!
Let’s be frank Moz, you have an EQ/IQ which would worry a moron.
Sad, pathetic and forever alone, poor Moz is doomed and destined to forever inhabit the disabled toilet of his tortured and diseased mind. Arse.
Let’s be frank Moz, you have an EQ/IQ which would worry a moron.
Do morons worry about such things? Maybe they have a dim apprehension there’s something wrong, but…. Anyway, it’s an interesting point you make.
Sad, pathetic and forever alone, poor Moz is doomed and destined to forever inhabit the disabled toilet of his tortured and diseased mind.
Yes, I guess I’m kind of an Aaron Smith in some ways.
Arse.
Indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e9Y023-mnc
Still delusional.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1810/S00105/kiwis-better-off-under-the-national-government.htm
I particularly like the part where Louise still thinks National increased benefits for the first time in 40 years. I’ve just fired her off an email (first time in my life I’ve ever knowingly engaged with the enemy) to politely enquire where mine is because I’m still waiting for it. I don’t anticipate a reply but had fun writing and sending it 🙂 Do Nats understand sarcasm?
The survey shows that more than 50% of households that get the Accommodation Supplement pay more than 5O% of their income in housing costs. I don’t see how people are better off?
The accomodation supplement has fast become a means to increase rents, with a hefty subsidy by the tax payer. The calculation is like watching a cat chase it’s tail.
The supplement is increased to cover past rent increases only to fuel current and future increases.
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/57062/accommodation-supplement-landlord-subsidy-punching-big-hole-govt-books-due
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei attacked the Accommodation Supplement in Parliament last year, saying it was merely a subsidy for landlords
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/331777/govt-pulled-u-turn-on-accommodation-supplement
Millsy, landlords are ok 👌
The accommodation supplement does not increase rents. You could successfully argue it is a Govt funded top-up for employers (paying their employees) but you also need to take into account it is paid out to people on benefits who are not in a state provided house.
Rents are directly linked to supply and demand.
If (and it will not happen due to the political fallout) the accommodation supplement was stopped, then employers would need to step in and make-up at least some if not all of the difference.
The demand for housing will still be there, I see little room for rent reductions with or without the accommodation supplement.
If there were no AC in the 1st place, there would not be the mountain of money available $1.2b+ to fuel increases for rent. As those seeking private accomodation would not have the same ability to pay current prices, tempering rents and reducing the ability to fuel house price increases, as ROI’s wouldn’t be what they currently are.
Once implemented we are now faced with the continuation of AC as it would be impossible to remove this
I may be wrong BUT was not the AC implemented by Nats in the 90’s to allow for tenants to be no worse off should they rent a state house or private rental ?
“The Accommodation Supplement was introduced in July 1993 as a part of radical change in welfare policies announced by then Finance Minister Ruth Richardson in 1991 in her so-called ‘mother of all budgets’.”
“In 2001 the Labour Government reintroduced income related rent subsidies”
“It is sometimes argued that the Accommodation Supplement is a landlords’ subsidy and that as such any increase in the value of the Supplement will simply leak out to landlords in the form of higher rents. Remarkably there has been little analysis undertaken of either the income or price effects of the Accommodation Supplement and the two published studies appear to have been written to order to suit the argument that the payment is not a landlord subsidy17.”
https://www.cpag.org.nz/assets/A%20Policy%20of%20Cynical%20Neglect%20-%20%28Final%29.pdf
I guess the jury is out Herodotus…I concede there may be some correlation but not to any significant degree.
Way to go Simon. Populist action?
“”National has launched a petition to repeal the Government’s new fuel taxes to “relieve some of the financial pressure” on Kiwis, the party’s leader Simon Bridges has said.”
Well I see Russell McVeagh are doing the right thing.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=113094
When are the Labour Party going to insist on a resignation by Meka Whaitiri?
Or is it OK to bash your staff if you are a Labour Party member?
Liar ! You get booted off for such falsehoods you know.
She grabbed her by the arm as she came from behind her.
By your standard grabbing a ponytail from behind is ‘bashing’
It’s ok to lie if you’re a nat. They do it all the time.
When’s wally going to let that teat go?
New Zealand
12:46 pm today
NZ activists fined nearly $19k by Israeli court over Lorde’s concert cancellation
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/349388/nz-activists-sued-over-lorde-concert-cancellations
Its a nonsense. Its not a fine , as its a civil case.
Unenforceable in NZ, mainly as no NZ – Isreal treaty on reciprocal court cases and no NZ court would allow this sort of thing where there is no loss even if there was a treaty
Geddes pulls it all apart and throws it in the bin.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/12-10-2018/can-an-israeli-court-really-make-nzers-pay-19000-for-an-open-letter-to-lorde/
well she cant sing!
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/in-depth/368436/universities-face-a-crisis-of-the-humanities
…when the university senate [University of Otago] met on 26 September and decided to axe Otago’s art history programme from 2020.
There wasn’t much of a programme left to cut. Through a process of attrition, the department had been whittled down, since 2014, to 19 full-time students, three undergraduate papers and a single full-time lecturer….
Across 25 BA majors that RNZ classified as unambiguously part of the humanities, the number of degree and post-graduate level students actually rose during the global financial crisis, mirroring university enrolment patterns in other countries. From 2010, however, the numbers began to drop away again. There were 1000 fewer humanities students enrolled in 2017 than in 2008, despite an increase of almost 40,000 students across all degrees and subjects….
The current Tertiary Education Strategy, released in 2014, states this in bald terms: “This strategy focuses in particular on the economic benefits that result from tertiary education, and therefore on employment, higher incomes and better access to skilled employees for business as critical outcomes of tertiary education.”
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/in-depth/365540/why-being-made-redundant-in-nz-is-so-tough
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/in-depth/366084/the-reality-of-life-on-the-minimum-wage-in-nz
NZ might be thinking of limiting organic growing methods in Sri Lanka, when we should be copying them, and instead demonstrating better systems for handling the vegetables.
There is talk about the need to grow more food for the world, but we don’t want to regard that as concern, it is talking about markets and money making. When business steps into a people-run economy, it is likely that traditional dealers will be swept aside in the shadow of mechanisation and export of crops for greater return that would normally have been bought by locals paying the local affordable prices.
I am concerned by this upbeat item from Radio nz. We don’t want to export our bizarre culture of destruction of ordinary people’s livelihoods and ability to manage their basic needs, in favour of higher education that produces nothing, with the obvious disconnect in access to a standard of living that is adequate for people living simply.
Most of what was grown in Sri Lanka was largely organic, with apparently minimal use of fertiliser.
“We did ask those questions around sprays, and didn’t see any evidence of it, at all.
“We understand fertiliser is used in rice production, and that’s one of the major crops for the 21 million people, but when the rice is harvested those paddocks are used to grow vegetables.”
Mr Chapman said portions of the fields were hand-tilled for vegetable growing.
He said there were similarities in that a lot of New Zealand growers were also inter-generational, so they’ve been very focused on sustainability of the land.
“As with New Zealand there is also a reducing number of people willing to work in the fields especially, where the work is largely done by hand.”
Mr Chapman said while Sri Lanka could be classed as Third World, it had made incredible advances in education, which was free through to university level, and the literacy rate was now second to Japan among Asian countries.
“We asked for food but you gave us a stone with a certificate of higher learning on it” – that might be the way the land lies in future.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/country/368530/sri-lanka-an-example-for-plant-based-diet-horticulture-nz
Protected birds left at parliament by anti-1080 protestors were completely unrelated to 1080.
So the protestors broke the law to lie about 1080. If 1080 really killed so gazillions of birds, why couldn’t the protestors at least present actual 1080 victims? Seems legit lol.
A powerful symbolic protest:
Red hands wave behind blood-stained U.S. Secretary of State
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-crisis-redhands/red-stained-hands-wave-in-protest-at-u-s-hearing-on-syria-idUSBRE98319L20130904
You can see the red hands behind that evil spectre John Kerry early in this clip (from the 0:50 mark). There should also have been a whole lot of blood-red hands waving behind the awful BBC woman at about the 8:30 mark…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pwXfHyTlCo
Poor people are naturally sexy.
Can’t buy sex, hang out in bars or afford flowers.
Teeth not the best, clothes from The Warehouse or knock-offs.
No outlook of comfortable security, jewelry or sports cars.
Poor people are the most naturally charming, seductive and sexually satisfying people in the world because we have to be.
There was a reason every Elvis movie started with our hero sporting a skinny wallet. Check them out, even with his awful thesping, Broken arse Elvis is much sexier at the start of his movies than the rich Makegood at the end. If Elvis movies were true to life the final scene would end with the Starlet saying “Frankly, you’ve become a bit boring.”