And neither did a suggestion yesterday to widen our legislative framework for violence crimes. You know… to shake the tree and deal with its widespread rot. In fact some here couldn’t even stomach looking at the tree https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11-12-2017/#comment-1424699
Nope.
Bill’s right.
The tree is the problem.
And nobody wants to deal with it.
[1 week ban for blatantly lying about my moderation and views and for not responding to moderation when requested. For future reference, if you want to comment on gender I suggest you start being direct and clear about what you think and stop making shit up about other people’s views. This includes backing up your arguments in the ways outlined in that moderation. – weka]
[ban extended to 1 month for abusing an author via comments in the back end. If you want to talk about gender on TS, the boundaries are now clearly set. – weka]
You want he tree uprooted because shaking won’t fix the fundamental problems don’t you? That was my reading of the post and subsequent comments. Thus shaking the bad apples out is ultimately no point because it doesn’t deal with the problem causing the bad apples.
Something about the comments in that post, that I’ll comment on here since you bring it up, is that the analogy was NZFemme’s. And links were provided back to the context (to show consistency – ie, that I wasn’t taking it out of context)
And it’s an analogy that’s certainly set some people off. But here’s the odd thing. In all of the comments, not one questions NZFemme’s thinking or reasoning behind it. Not one.
But anyway. Systems of oppression recreate themselves. That’s hardly contentious. Simply bringing people to account isn’t pointless – it’s limited, and as Rebecca Solnit points out, problematic.
No-one directed any comment on the analogy at NZFemme – neither directly nor indirectly. I don’t quite know what to make of that. For now, I’ll settle for simply saying “odd”.
What do you even care Pat? You just want to “tend the forest”…maintain the status quo and protect your fucking privilege and social standing in lieu of tackling the underlying and structural contributory factors to women being variously and continually put upon, harassed, assaulted and raped.
That thread, depressing as fuck though many of the comments are, did at least serve to reveal the true colours of a few people.
You made this comment at 8:07am this morning, which I thought I’d responded to an hour or so ago, but it wasn’t there when I just checked so I responded again on the assumption that I’d forgotten to press “submit” (happens occasionally).
But the second one didn’t come up, either. But other comments by me have.
Did you do anything in the backend so I couldn’t respond to the question you asked, or is there something finicky going on on my machine? I apologise if this is not the case, I genuinely don’t know.
I get that experience sometimes too. Then I’ll have a good look at what I’m trying to say and change any words or links that might be triggering some kind of automated rules, and then they go through fine.
there aren’t any keywords sending comments to moderation at the moment, and they wouldn’t go straight to Trash. I think it’s a random bug, it happened a while back too.
IIRC the last time it happened I was using a nickname for the SCROTUS that would have been particularly offensive in the US, not so much in NZ (sorry I don’t remember what it was but it seemed a good one at the time). So I figured maybe WordPress has some filters as well as what’s done locally here.
I’ve just this second checked “trash” and there are two comments from you sitting there.
Both it seems were intended for the “Shaking the Tree” post.
One from 11:40 and another from 10:09.
edit – I don’t have the wherewithal to shift them from there to the post. I can shift them to Open Mike, I can cut/paste and email them to you, you can rewrite along similar lines and try again, or you can know that I’ve read them.
Comment hits trash, then unless it’s a really outstanding comment, it ain’t going to be retrieved by me working my way through those all those bobs and whistles 🙂
a suggestion yesterday to widen our legislative framework for violence crimes
The problem with that suggestion is that you can’t actually say what it is or why it isn’t already covered by existing sections of the Crimes, Summary Offences, or other acts.
When invited to do so you start throwing your toys and accusing other people of being “afraid”.
Are you afraid to suggest which crimes should be added, or which sections of the Crimes Act should be amended? If not, then why can’t you actually just say what you mean?
Many thanks to Ross Taylor for his great achievement and for being a excellent role model for all our mokos. My second youngest granddaughter well I call her hurricane she going through her terrible 2s just going on 3 she would have Santa running out the door many thanks to Our sevens team for there great win Ka pai.
Everyone got big smiles I no I’m human and will tell anyone that at least I can admit to my faults unlike you bullshit bull you would lie and say you don’t do that human think. As for the books I know you cooked you neo liberals can’t help your self but to cheat. Your idea of justice is you imposs it on us poor and give impunity to the wealthy yes poor people of the World don’t be shocked when your justice systems serve you up injustices as THIS IS THE WAY OF OUR WORLD. I will be spending all my Christmas money at The Ware House because they have been good to my family
And have a lot of brown kiwi staff and try and employ the youth. My wife has surgical mesh I was sceptical this shows that big business is in humane and worship there profit over humanity and mother nature this is going to change when we get more Lady’s up the top run on there ladders of life. I wonder if those people are going to carry on passing in the wind Kia kaha
Bullshit bull has cooked the books. That’s why he knows there is no money. I don’t mind not having a tax cut of $20 a week I spend that in my sleep I would rather see our valuerable people have a more humane life. Unlike bull he see the poor as a necessity so business can get there profits and see us as un human Ana to kai
I am solidly with Eco Maori on this one, Bullshit Bill is nothoing but a slmeball lyiong toad, as bad as his boss Shonkey is.
Have no doubt National has set up Labour for a big fall!!!
So Labour; – we need to see what National have left us with.
The deficet National has left the Government purse with must be very large and wider than anyone of us will know at present.
I have no doubt they borrowed more money against future “promised sales of any other assets” they were preparing us all for as they were always acting with secrecy.
Yep they are still pissing in the wind eco says thanks for the Mana and I won’t back down. You no when I said that I tried to dispute those fines well thats not all that story. I tried to make a complaint against the officer he would not give me his name or badge number. I went to there website and it stated that you can get one from the local station you can print a form off the site for ones complaint how many people have axcess to those resources I went to the local station and go the there are no forms we don’t no were they are you don’t need to make a complaint I can print one for you I new I was pissing in the wind so this is how accountable they are under the shonky key bullshit rule for nine years and the 75 years old ass holes running our justice system
No one can make a complaint so there farcical image is perramount PS I try to print it but No could not get the form. Ana to kai
They must sit together all the time to plan there bullshit It would go hay dopey shall we let some fire works of tonight and that will make eco confess to being a savage idiot Maori thief as we no but he have everyone under a spell no snezie we will get that girl to ask him to leave some grass clippings and we can tell everyone that eco is a idiot nar dip shit we will bait one of his relations arrest them and pay them $5000 to sing us a song that will give us the evidence to arrested that evil theif eco Maori the 7 clowns Ana to kai
If they’re going to have child poverty reduction targets, the Government has to show how they’re actually going to achieve them. Otherwise you’re just fooling people.
“There is no indication they’ve got a plan at all. So putting legislation targets will look a bit cynical when there’s actually no plan.”
But he’s not ruling out backing the Government.
“We would come on board if there are some genuine plans to reduce child poverty.
So long as Bill English supports booting state housing tenants from their homes, and running down HNZ’s stock, I do not belive he has any desire to reduce poverty of any kind.
I’m confident they’re opportunistic enough to take a good idea from the Nats, run with it, and claim it as their own. If the Nats had any good ideas, that is. After all, the Nats showed how to do that plenty of times over the last few years.
‘Dairy farming could pollute the water drunk by our grandchildren in years to come as scientists have found waste from intensive North Canterbury agriculture is likely to contaminate aquifers.’
‘Freshwater ecologist Mike Joy has a story for all those cities and towns beset by troubled drinking water standards; the list of which now appears to include Mosgiel.
It’s a story about New York, a city that in the popular imagination doesn’t sleep, but where you can drink the water, day and night.
“They were running out of water and the water quality was poor and so they had two ways forward,” Dr Joy says of the Big Apple’s water headache of 20 years ago.
“They could upgrade the treatment and spend millions and millions of dollars every year on treating stuff or they could go up to the catchment and protect it.”
They chose the latter, bought out livestock farmers, despite a “hue and cry” from some of said pastoralists who proclaimed it the end of the world. Instead of disaster, what has happened is that water quality in the city is now top notch, and within no time at all alternative land uses have sprung up in the catchment, fruit and nuts trees were planted, land values went up as people wanted to live there. And all this from the one-off cost of buying out the livestock farmers.’
About a week ago it was reported that someone sought data from ECan regarding the allocation of water rights, but ECan replied that there was no such record.
Does anyone know who/what/where that response can be found?
(That is appalling if true. They were put there to allocate water rights but don’t have data nearly a decade later???)
Having a look at what was available on google for Canterbury water I found the links below but allocation is tricky, because it is felt that often what is consented is not being drawn on! Sort of difficult and murky this water business.
For the google search Canterbury water statistics I got this (note that google has noted lack of statistics). Water | Environment Canterbury https://www.ecan.govt.nz/your-region/your-environment/water/
We help ensure we have enough good quality water in Canterbury for what we want to do today and in the future.
Missing: statistics
Our Water, Our Vote – News https://www.ourwaterourvote.org.nz/information/
The Selwyn River is “a really raw” example of our mismanagement of water, an Envrionment Canterbury (ECan) councillor told a public meeting … CWMS and ECan in charge = Water pollution out of control in Canterbury …. MAF statistics show farms will remain very profitable by paying 1/100th of a cent per litre of water. Nov 8, 2015
Dairy irrigators CPW gain $8M loan from council despite dairy farmers making a loss
The Selwyn Disdtrict Council (SDC) have used ratepayers money to give CPW an unsecured $8Million loan which will contribute to Canterbury’s freshwater pollution
I seem to remember (probably about a year ago now) something on RNZ (NinetoNoon maybe) about the issue. It also identified ‘problems’ with the actual monitoring of irrigation water use. Something along the lines that new tech meters were still being put in place/remote monitoring et al – in order to get an accurate picture.
Nothing to do with ECan would surprise me.
Thanks Grey and Tim. I think it was about relationships between the level of available water against the rights allocated since ECan came in. Surely there would have to have been a quantity known before allocation, against that which was actually allocated or , as we suspect, over-allocation would happen. ECan were not able to provide evidence one way or the other which is criminal.
Mike Joy is our premier water scientist; – and is the one person the Labour Coalition must place him on their team of specialists to use to sort our worsening water quality crisis.
Here are some facts to help quantify the benefits of using rail as one way to reduce our pollution of our water systems.
An Ernst and Young report for the NZ Transport Agency in 2016 — The Value of Rail in New Zealand — put that value at $1.5 billion. The report was not made public until recently.
A B-train (truck with two trailers) wears out the road 20,000 times more than a car, and we know that the local roading authorities are struggling to keep up with the maintenance on the road. I travel the Gisborne to Napier route often and am fed up with the constant wheel alignments necessary from the potholes and sunken bridges.
Then there are the externalities — the consequences of an economic activity experienced by unrelated third parties: the social and environmental cost of increasing heavy trucks and reducing rail use.
The Ministry of Transport has put the social cost of each road death at $4.5 million, and a crash involving serious injuries at $473,600.
Living near a busy road increases the risk of premature death by 7 percent, increasing the risk of cancer, heart attack, stroke, dementia, childhood diabetes, asthma, allergies etc.
A diesel truck pollutes up to 1000 times more than a car.
One truck tyre sheds 10 times the amount of one car tyre.
Each truck tyre sheds 0.21 g/km of tyre compound (butadiene styrene); that is 5.46 g/km for a 26-wheel vehicle.
Road run-off accounts for 40-50 percent of urban metal contamination to aquatic ecosystems.
It’s not a matter of being anti trucks, it’s about sharing the load. Even the Road Transport Forum chief executive Ken Shirley, as well as local transport operators, are saying they can’t cope with the increasing freight task and may have to turn work away.
Did anyone go to this talk?
Would be interested to hear about it.
By the way, please notice how the Otago Daily Times frames Mike Joy as ‘outspoken.’
This is how the corporate media frame a debate.
‘Outspoken scientist Dr Mike Joy will share his thoughts on the future of food at an open lecture in Dunedin today.
Dr Joy, a senior lecturer in ecology and environmental science at Massey University is speaking in the St David Lecture Theatre from 5.30pm, sponsored by the Centre for Sustainability and Ag@Otago.
Earlier this year, he received the Universities New Zealand inaugural Critic and Conscience of Society Award for drawing attention to water quality in New Zealand’s rivers, lakes and drinking water — and the impact of intensive agriculture.
He intended looking at what he called New Zealand’s nitrogen and fossil fuel ‘‘addiction’’ and covering various topics including disruptions from the likes of artificial and plant-based milk and synthetic meat.’
‘The inaugural Critic and Conscience of Society Award winner and environmental crusader Dr Mike Joy says Wanaka needs to reduce its cow numbers and put a stop to the intensification of the dairy industry if it is to save its waterways.
Dr Joy said a Wanaka vet told him there used to be three cows in Wanaka and he knew them each by name, now there were upwards of 30,000 cows in the area.
“That is the kind of change we’ve had, that is the reality of it, and a lot of Southland cows are being wintered here and they don’t really count in the statistics properly but their s… sure does.”
Dr Joy said the cows were being wintered in Upper Clutha because of the drier climate but the soils around Wanaka were very porous, which allowed pathogens and contaminants to move quickly through the soil and into the waterways. The Massey University academic spoke in Wanaka this week at the invitation of the Lake Wanaka Trust, delivering a public lecture on “The Future of food; our deadly nitrogen and fossil fuel addiction”. In an interview, he said artificial nitrogen made from fossil fuels had allowed cow numbers to double in the past 20 years and quadrupled milk production, but the farmers were not making any more money and the nitrogen was ruining rivers and lowland lakes.’
Mike Joy is ‘outspoken’ and stands out because so many academics are muzzled in some way.
And we are not a modern literate society incorporating a high level of expertise and informed and advanced decision making and implementation. Preventing that is the simple message over the gateway ‘This is where the biggest bucks are made’. And so we keep following what we did before until the above proves incorrect. Mike Joy has to be outspoken because no-one wants to hear until the ‘big bucks’ premise proves on the financial schedules to be wrong.
In an interview, he said artificial nitrogen made from fossil fuels had allowed cow numbers to double in the past 20 years and quadrupled milk production, but the farmers were not making any more money and the nitrogen was ruining rivers and lowland lakes.’
My exemplar for being ignored and prevented from ethical action by the established organisation to the point of being killed is Semmelweis. He found by experiment that he could prevent deaths of new mothers, and drastically cut deaths in one area of the hospital. But he was not allowed to change a system that had always been followed. It ended with him being held in an asylum, and dying after a fight with a guard, probably fairly brutal. The establishment then, (and all establishments have the same tendencies), would go that far so as not to rock their personal boats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
….fails to provide a link to this document but does reference where it has been mentioned. A couple of references link to The Standard…occasions where I have cited this document. I am pretty sure I would have included the hyperlink…but they are not there anymore.
Neither the Mystery of Health or ACC websites have this document in their archives. I did message ‘Darryl’ the IT helpelf on the ACC website.
This is the second time a document that I reference fairly regularly has disappeared from the interweb.
I have the pdf file on my geriatric hard drive and I do backups fairly regularly and I have a hard copy…but it would be really, really useful to be able to link when I am referencing this very significant piece of work.
That is the Action Plan, which references the Situation Analysis Paper.
The Action Plan is the usual happy clappy ‘we’re all over this shit’ glossy publication so loved by the Misery of Health. I guess it makes it look like they’re doing enough to justify their high salaries.
The Situation Analysis Paper, on the other hand, is 88 pages of solid information gathered by UMR and presented in such a format that ACC and the Miserly could only produce a similarly solid Action Plan…oh, that’s right…
Thanks weka…see reply to Carolyn_nth above re the Action Plan.
Did you try downloading the SitAnal (my shorthand from now on… 😉 ) from docplayer?
I did a couple of clicks, then this scary American voice erupted from the screen so I aborted.
I’ll repeat..this is a very significant piece of work, paid for by us, that very accurately describes, well, the Situation for those with spinal cord impairment in New Zealand.
I started the download process and then backed away slowly 😉
For the exact title in quotation marks I only got 3 hits, which makes me wonder if the title isn’t quite right. Presumably when it was originally published online it would have been linked to so there should still be links to it turning up in google even if they are now broken.
Do you have the original URL where you got your old electronic copy from? If so*, try putting it into this,
Okay…in words of no more that three syllables…can someone explain the what and why of this ‘wayback’ thing….?
This is not an old document and it is referenced in the most recent SCI Action Plan (for its many sins)..so how come it has gone from the acc and moh sites and been consigned to what looks like cyberia?
The Internet Archive, aka The Wayback Machine, trawls the internet and archives every webpage it can find. It will archive multiple versions of a webpage over time.
So if someone removes a page from their website, often (although not always) one can find a copy in the archive if one has the original URL.
Some websites prevent the Internet Archive from trawling them, and so they don’t get archived.
It looks to me like ACC have removed the PDF from their website entirely. That’s nothing to do with the Internet Archive, who would have made copies before it was removed.
I also did a google advanced by site search of acc.co.nz using various keywords from the title and URL and go nothing, so it looks to me like it’s been completely removed from ACC’s website (not just a broken link). If you can bring yourself to do it, might be worth phoning the relevant department within ACC and pointing out its importance. Or emailing them and CCing in the new Minister.
Hah! I did just that with the other document that disappeared when the National Advisory Council for the Employment of Women’s archive was transferred from the defunct Department of Labour to the new Ministry of Women. The young lassie on the phone spoke like the documents were loaded onto trolleys for the Big Move and that one…just that one mind, blew away in the Welly wind.
I sent them a copy of the pdf…I should go check if its still there….
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has backed the Government’s refusal to release a 33-page coalition document, saying in a provisional ruling he is satisfied it has not played a role in policy decisions.
…
He said he would consider any comments on the provisional opinion before forming a final opinion. Newsroom has made further submissions to the Ombudsman, arguing for the document’s release.
A spokeswoman for Ardern said she could not comment until Boshier’s final opinion was released.
Hi folks. Can anyone hep me out with a technical issue? I can’t find a way to embed links when I’m commenting. I use Google Chrome as my browser. The only advice I can find is out of date, referring to a “wrench” icon and a function that doesn’t appear in any obvious way for the newer icon – the stack of 3 vertical dots – that replaced it.
There is no short cut for those of us who are not authors as far as I know.
I do it manually as described here
Once you get the hang of it, it’s not so hard.
I use Safari Firefox and Chrome at different times as I feel the need and they are basically all the same from a commenting point of view – at least on mac OS
I never knew there was a short and easy way to do it from Chrome. Unless I’m signed in (when I have access to some short-cuts) I’m reduced to the following from FAQ.
So, if I want to link to the Colin James article in the ODT today about politician of the year I do this?
Can I just feed back to the site managers that this didn’t work when I followed the advice from TS (which said to use single quote marks), but did when I followed Carolyn_Nth’s advice and used double quote marks? Thanks C_N.
I try using the HTML Tags helpfully supplied…but no joy.
I have no problems over on Public Address…and produce some tidy cooments and the odd post.
I am using an old Compaq Pressario, running on Vista and also google chrome…although the header tells me otherwise….I suspect this is the cause of my problem.
Having said that…I am not exactly technosavvy…
I am still awestruck, occasionally, when stuff actually works.
BM, the Nat’s have increased their party preference by 3%, Labour by 6% (comparing election outcome to the latest CB). Not a huge bounce, but certainly nothing to be dejected about.
With the Ombudsman backing the Prime Minister, all those crap stories about secrecy vanish … like tears in the rain.
Boshier was a good judge, and was quite clear in the RNZ interview last week that he is nobody’s fool. Both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister were right.
Do you think Peters was having a senior moment when he said
“a document of precision in various areas of policy commitment and development.
These are directives to ministers with accountability and media strategies to ensure that the coalition works
I think he was misspeaking, yes. Look at the whole statement, he says the goal is to make sure the coalition works – it’s a working document, setting out issues for the two parties to develop and work on. Put another way, it’s notes from a developing discussion, held over a period of time. That’s quite different from a coalition agreement or a formal policy document (which records decisions made and agreements arrived at).
I await with interest any comments from people who complained about John Key using the line that he did some things as Leader of the National Party rather than as PM.
Now that Jacinda Ardern has used the same defence I can only assume that they will.
1) Apologise to Mr Key
or
2) Complain about Ms Ardern’s actions.
Otherwise the people concerned will be shown up as hypocrites.
I wonder who will be first?
Really?
Then why did the chief Ombudsman end up saying, about the material you are referring to, that
“On this point the Ombudsmen have accepted the view of the Prime Minister’s Office with Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier’s view that the threshold for him to check the communications in question has not been met.”
In other words he had exactly the same opinion then as now
Felix Marwick didn’t take it at all kindly. He claimed then that obviously Key had something to hide.
“The other thing you can deduce from a three year battle over access to correspondence is that the most senior politician in the land probably had something to hide. ”
I expect him to say that Ardern must have something to hide also.
Either that or apologise to Key and I don’t think he will do that. http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/opinion/felix-marwick-no-sunlight-no-disinfectant-political-machinations-remain-behind-the-veil/
Should you be apologising to Mr Key or did you not complain about the episode that now seems to get you excited?
Why? When did Key ever get the Ombudsman’s clearance for his prevarications, one of which Ardern has cunningly mimicked in getting formal exoneration?
(And by the way, if you can quote such a case, you open yourself up to the “But National did it too!” argument, a tactic hugely overused and abused by the previous Govt who screamed ‘Labour did it too!’ no matter how incongruous the events had been.)
Seems like all these National trollls believe anything their leaders tell them without question, so we will never see “their coalition negotiation papers” as dv asked for eh?
If you can make a reasonable argument that notes on coalition agreements made before either party leader became prime minister were in fact noted as part of the role of Prime Minister, feel free.
Maybe the same argument could be made that Ardern’s essays for school cert were written in her capacity of being Prime Minister, if that’s how job descriptions take effect in the parallel toryverse you are communicating from.
As for ministerial services employees acting as partisan activists – in that case someone’s fucked up somewhere and should have been kicked to the kerb. Didn’t a MS employee find other employment shortly after the book was published?
one fruit of the rotten tree that we dare not talk about
spoils of war
or maybe the banality of accepted rape to assuage men who are driven by bloodlust and ‘maybe watched some of theirs die’ and now must find a relieve valve or other some assorted bullshit so that we don’t need to be honest as to what is done to women in war
just three examples from this year. This is how common, how accepted, how permitted rape is in order to subjugate, dominate, and defeat a people/race/religion etc etc.
And this is what rape is in general. No waxing lyrically about how it must be a psychosis, a mental illness, a disease, a sin from satan, and not simply the fact that some will use it as a tool to subjugate others into obedience until they cower in fear and do as they are told to.
A tiny step in the right direction. Last year a Congolese warlord was found guilty of war crimes in the ICC holding him accountable for rapes committed by his troops.
At last some realistic discussion around (one) implication of CC…let us hope Newsroom’s article will start widespread coverage of an effect that may force some public demand for reducing carbon emissions.
Horrible rich pricks think they can do anything and get away with it.
The world watches in fascinated horror every day as the zomboid version of Richie Rich creates havoc in the White House and beyond.
But stupid rich men out of control is not a phenomenon limited to that beleaguered republic. Yesterday New Zealanders became aware of the massive sense of entitlement by one unfeasibly wealthy git who wants to be able to fly his helicopter AT ANY TIME in a city neighbourhood. He’s not some surgeon on call, or anything useful like that; he wants to fly himself and his rich “friends” to golf games, not drive or bus there like the rest of us oiks.
Ten years ago, another rich prick with a similar sub-zero level of awareness walked around Porirua, attempting to curry favour with the locals. That was an unwise move on his part….
He’s been a good friend of mine for going on 30 years… no matter how pissed off he would have been with JK/Nats, he’s respectful enough to not stoop to doing stupid stuff like that.
If we could all have discussions in that manner, we’d all be in a much better place.
* i’m as guilty as anyone sometimes, at doing stupid stuff 🙂
“A man who saw red when he discovered a text between a friend and his wife, declaring their undying love for each other, has been discharged without conviction on charges of assaulting the man, the defendant’s wife, and one of his children in Queenstown this year.
In the Queenstown District Court yesterday Judge John Brandts-Giesen said it was a “nasty assault”, but had to be seen in context.
“Really, this is a situation that does your wife no credit and does the [male] no
credit.”
Judge Brandts-Giesen said the man assaulted the friend and a struggle ensued. When the defendant’s daughter tried to separate the pair, the defendant grabbed her by the throat, pushed her down and held her there.
When the defendant’s wife intervened, he kicked her in the ribs, causing her to fall backwards.
The male complainant suffered scratches, and the defendant’s daughter’s neck was bruised.
Judge Brandts-Giesen said the 58-year-old, who did not recollect hurting his wife and daughter, had never been before the court.
“There would be many people who would have done exactly what you did, even though it may be against the law to do so.
“I consider that the consequences of a conviction are out of all proportion to what happened on this occasion.””
if it bleeds its a women no matter the age – maybe a disclaimer is added ‘young women’ cause responsibility for women and their actions starts when they can get pregnant but men? Oh my, so many excuses…….boys will be boys, or as in this particular case a ‘crime of passion’
“Otago Lakes Central Area Commander Inspector Olaf Jensen could not comment specifically on the case.
However, he confirmed that police were looking closely at the sentencing decision.
“We are reviewing the decision, but at this stage aren’t in a position to comment further,” he said.
Auckland barrister and spokeswoman for the Auckland Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children Catriona MacLennan said called for Judge Brandts-Giesen to step down from his role.
“”It is inappropriate for Judge Brandts-Giesen to continue sitting on the bench,” she told the Herald.
“His reported comments and the sentence imposed display a complete lack of understanding of domestic violence.
“He victim blames and minimises assaults on three people.””
Meat tax ‘inevitable’ to beat climate and health crises, says report
‘“Sin taxes” on meat to reduce its huge impact on climate change and human health look inevitable, according to analysts for investors managing more than $4tn of assets.
The global livestock industry causes 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and meat consumption is rising around the world, but dangerous climate change cannot be avoided unless this is radically curbed. Furthermore, many people already eat far too much meat, seriously damaging their health and incurring huge costs. Livestock also drive other problems, such as water pollution and antibiotic resistance.
A new analysis from the investor network Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (Fairr) Initiative argues that meat is therefore now following the same path as tobacco, carbon emissions and sugar towards a sin tax, a levy on harmful products to cut consumption. Meat taxes have already been discussed in parliaments in Germany, Denmark and Sweden, the analysis points out, and China’s government has cut its recommended maximum meat consumption by 45% in 2016.
“If policymakers are to cover the true cost of human epidemics like obesity, diabetes and cancer, and livestock epidemics like avian flu, while also tackling the twin challenges of climate change and antibiotic resistance, then a shift from subsidisation to taxation of the meat industry looks inevitable,” said Jeremy Coller, the founder of Fairr and the chief investment officer at the private equity firm Coller Capital. “Far-sighted investors should plan ahead for this day.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders addresses allegations of sexual conduct against President Trump:"The American people knew this and voted for the president, and we feel like we're ready to move forward" pic.twitter.com/Oj7NHOcV9o— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) December 11, 2017
Either the Dems and the media and the entire feminist enterprise against sexual harrassment was beaten just as Hillary Clinton was (if the Dems lose), …
…Or…
… the Dems win and a great turning point has been reached which vindicates the media classes hunting sexual predators and feminism stands to fight another day in America, and Breitbart and the rest of patriarchy is sorely wounded.
1. Citizen suits aimed at potential voting machine tampering have preceded some major Dem election victories, including Obama 08 & 2012. The most recent aims at defendant Alabama SOS's plan 2 destroy the ballot images that can detect hacking. The plaintiffs just won a TRO! Thread— Jennifer Cohn (@jennycohn1) December 11, 2017
Preliminary injunction ordering all #Alabama counties to save "ALL PROCESSED IMAGES in order to preserve all digital ballot images" scanned by vote counting machines. Full hearing set for Dec 21. #AlabamaSenateRacepic.twitter.com/6PJGsyULMv— Greg Palast (@Greg_Palast) December 11, 2017
No, “redneck” would NOT be a better title for a bigot.
“Redneck” is the contemptuous term for working people used by Democratic Party mandarins in the 1970s to condemn the working people who voted for Nixon. It’s been thoughtlessly recycled over the years, and was enthusiastically used by Clintonistas and Hopey-Changey cultists to besmirch white working people who they believed should vote for them by divine right.
Think about who the most bigoted, racist, outrageous hatemongers in this country are: Don Brash, Jamie “Lock Up His Sisters” Whyte, Mike Hosking, Leighton Smith, Cameron “Whalefat” Slater, John Ansell, Garth “The Knife” McVicar. Only the last-named qualifies as a redneck, as he has actually done some physical work in his life.
My grandfathers and my uncles all worked hard on farms and in factories, and they often got sunburned, including on their necks. They were and are rednecks, just like the hardworking men and women in the United States are. But I’ve never, ever heard any of them utter the brutal and heartless and ignorant rhetoric that we are inflicted with every day from comfortable, sedentary, white-collared, white-necked people like Brash and co.
Disagree. Meanings of words change over time, and Morrisey’s nostalgia for the original meaning is now misplaced. Most people know quite well what most of us mean by Redneck, and while I sympathise a bit with Morrisey wanting to stick to the original meaning, I think it is far too late. That original meaning is now archaic.
“Historical Scottish Covenanter usage
In Scotland in the 1640s, the Covenanters rejected rule by bishops, often signing manifestos using their own blood. Some wore red cloth around their neck to signify their position, and were called rednecks by the Scottish ruling class to denote that they were the rebels in what came to be known as The Bishop’s War that preceded the rise of Cromwell.[25][26] Eventually, the term began to mean simply “Presbyterian”, especially in communities along the Scottish border. Because of the large number of Scottish immigrants in the pre-revolutionary American South, some historians have suggested that this may be the origin of the term in the United States.[27]
Dictionaries document the earliest American citation of the term’s use for Presbyterians in 1830, as “a name bestowed upon the Presbyterians of Fayetteville [North Carolina]”.[14][26]
Roman Catholics
In Northern England in the 19th and 20th centuries, Roman Catholics were also known as rednecks.[28]
South Africa
The exact Afrikaans equivalent, rooinek, is used as a disparaging term for English people and South Africans of English descent, in reference to their supposed naïveté as later arrivals in the region in failing to protect themselves from the sun.[29]”
I guess i am a redneck, being roman catholic and all 🙂
Bitcoin is in the “mania” phase, with some people even borrowing money to get in on the action, securities regulator Joseph Borg told CNBC on Monday.
“We’ve seen mortgages being taken out to buy bitcoin. … People do credit cards, equity lines,” said Borg, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association, a voluntary organization devoted to investor protection. Borg is also director of the Alabama Securities Commission.
As a commentator has since written on facebook, it is bad enough they take our water now they flout the laws of the land, the next step they taking our country completely from us
‘It’s just so dangerous’: Squalid conditions reported at water bottling plant.
‘One of the plants, owned by China-based Cloud Ocean Water, is being built in what used to be the Kaputone Wool Scour, which closed in 2015.
The company is associated with the Ling Hai Group, which has winery interests in New Zealand and links to a Chinese sugar giant.
Cloud Ocean Water director Feng Liang said he was “unable to comment” on the investigations. When asked to respond to specific allegations about the alleged workplace practices, he again declined to comment.
The site’s resource consent allows it to take 4.3 million litres a day, the equivalent daily usage of around 12,000 people.
Some 46 consecutive dry days in Christchurch have beaten a record set in 1954. The city council has urged residents to conserve water, recommending residents do not water their lawns.
Cloud Ocean Water Limited was registered on 21 Mar 2017 and issued an NZBN of 9429046014665. The registered LTD company has been run by 2 directors: Feng Liang – an active director whose contract began on 21 Mar 2017,
Zongren Ling – an active director whose contract began on 21 Mar 2017.
A total of 10000 shares are allotted to 2 groups (2 shareholders in total). As far as the first group is concerned, 2300 shares are held by 1 entity, namely:
Hairong Ling (an individual) located at Lin Yi.
The second group consists of 1 shareholder, holds 77% shares (exactly 7700 shares) and includes Ling Hai Group Limited. Cloud Ocean Water Limited is categorised as “Mineral water manufacturing” (business classification C121140).
Marlborough’s Castlebrae farm has been sold by longtime owners the Marfell family to a Chinese-owned company.
A decision, published by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) yesterday, said the Ling Hai Group, a company owned by Zongren Ling and family from China, had been approved to buy 100 per cent of the Castlebrae farm.
The farm, about 741 hectares of land at Renners and Castles roads in the Awatere Valley, running down to the sea, was owned by brothers Geoff and David Marfell and Castlebrae Vineyards.
The sale price was withheld for commercial sensitivity reasons.
The OIO decision said Ling Hai Group intended to my textacquire the land as part of its long-term investment in the New Zealand wine and tourism industry.
Ling Hai Group is based at a residential address in Glenfield in Auckland. Its owner, Zongren Ling, lives in China.
Ling Hai lawyer Andrew Petersen, of law firm Bell Gully, was not available for comment yesterday. Geoff and David Marfell did not return calls either.
More…..
Here is detail of the purchase of the water bottling plant.
‘Cloud Ocean Water, which is registered to manufacture mineral water, is majority-owned by the China-based Ling Hai Group.
The Canterbury Regional Council said the consent, which was transferred to Cloud Ocean Water earlier this month, did allow for bottling.
Councillor Rod Cullinane said it was concerning the water could be exported for profit – yet the company would face no charges for the consent, other than covering the council’s monitoring costs.
The Kaputone Wool Scour was granted the water consent for its site on Station Road in 1997.
Mr Cullinane said it had little power to stop the water now being used for an entirely different purpose, because the consent had already been granted.
If you want to track how much of New Zealand and its assets have been sold to foreign interests, I recommend this as a starting point.
For example, here are June 2017’s decisions.
Global investors buy up half of 2Degrees
Suncorp/Vero buys up rest of Tower Insurance
Bathurst buys forest land to mine more coal
Caltex Australia buys Gull NZ
Goodman Properties (Australia) buys industrial estate in Henderson US apple orchardists expand in South Canterbury
T&G ( Germany, China)buys land for apples in Havelock North US apple orchardists expand in South Canterbury Chinese buy Bowron tannery, Christchurch; Japanese buy more forestry land in Northland
Latifundium (Liechtenstein, Germany? ) buys Wairarapa forests Swiss capital moves to the East Coast Australian restructures Whatatutu farmland, Gisborne; Mangakino heifer farm restructures
‘Oxford dairy farm sold to overseas interests for $18.2m
The overseas-owned company, Craigmore Dairy II LP, is part of the wider Craigmore Farming Group, founded by farm financier Forbes Elworthy, son of the late Sir Peter Elworthy.
‘Elworthy also obtained an MBA from Harvard University and became involved in financing.
He and partner Mark Cox set up a series of farm owning companies under the name Craigmore and promoted them to investors in New Zealand and overseas.
They include dairy, grazing and horticultural farms spread over 15,000 hectares, with a similar number of cows, and some of the largest recent dairy conversions in South Canterbury.’
This adds to the farms Carigmore bought in 2014
‘The three farms west of Oamaru – Arnmore (328 hectares), Windsor (428ha) and Waiareka (403ha) – have been bought by Craigmore Sustainables, which acts as a fund manager for the Craigmore Farming Partnership and the Craigmore Forestry Fund.’ http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/9637560/Craigmore-buys-three-farms
Elworthy family fronts foreign investors buying kiwifruit orchards
South Canterbury’s Elworthy family heads a multi-national syndicate which has bought 17.5 hectares of kiwifruit orchards in Te Puke.
Craigmore Permanent Crop Limited Partnership is a mini-United Nations of German, Hong Kong, Swiss, British, Finnish, American and New Zealand investors which has been given the green light by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) to buy the Hayward and kiwiberry orchards.
The parent company is Craigmore Sustainables, established in 2008 by businessmen and farmers, Forbes Elworthy and Mark Cox, and which has investments in dairy farms, apples, wine, and forestry.
Elworthy and his wife Bridget divide their time between the family property Craigmore in South Canterbury, and Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire. The couple were valued at $55 million on the latest Rich List; he is the son of Sir Peter Elworthy, a former Federated Farmers president.
Outfits called Pareora Dairy Limited and Somerset Dairy Limited sold 500ha at Pareora River Road to a partnership consisting of the UK, Irish, continental European and Scandinavian public (74 per cent).
The other deal is the sale of a 306ha beef and sheep farm at Rakaia Terrace Road, Hororata, owned by the Inch family trust.
The buyer is Southern Pastures Limited Partnership which is owned by interests from Sweden (58%), Luxembourg (22%), New Zealand (2.5%) and various (17.5%)
The ‘Truckometer’
(RNZ Bizzniss News at 17:30 on Checkpoint)
Sounds like something ANZ’s former? Chief ‘economist’ (Someone Buggery) dreamed up.
I wonder if it includes the trucking ‘fundamentals’ going forward. Or merely traffic volumes without the full range of costs.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
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Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Bill wants to shake the tree which is rotten and keeps producing bad apples .. https://thestandard.org.nz/shaking-the-tree/
Suggestions elsewhere that the tree has rot didn’t seem to be viewed favourably https://thestandard.org.nz/people-of-the-year/#comment-1423681 It appears the view here is that the bad apples are the fault of the apples and not the tree
And neither did a suggestion yesterday to widen our legislative framework for violence crimes. You know… to shake the tree and deal with its widespread rot. In fact some here couldn’t even stomach looking at the tree https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11-12-2017/#comment-1424699
Nope.
Bill’s right.
The tree is the problem.
And nobody wants to deal with it.
[1 week ban for blatantly lying about my moderation and views and for not responding to moderation when requested. For future reference, if you want to comment on gender I suggest you start being direct and clear about what you think and stop making shit up about other people’s views. This includes backing up your arguments in the ways outlined in that moderation. – weka]
[ban extended to 1 month for abusing an author via comments in the back end. If you want to talk about gender on TS, the boundaries are now clearly set. – weka]
Except if you read Bill’s post you will understand that he believes ‘shaking the tree’ is pointless…may pay to read it again.
“We had to destroy Ben Tre in order to save it”
http://www.nhe.net/BenTreVietnam/
or if you wish to stick with forest analogies, shall we fire up the chainsaws to rid ourselves of Phytophthora Agathidicida?
http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/saving-our-environment/threats-and-impacts-/kauri-dieback-disease-help-protect-the-kings-our-forest
Maybe you should re-read it yourself Pat. Limited and/or problematic is not the same as pointless.
You want he tree uprooted because shaking won’t fix the fundamental problems don’t you? That was my reading of the post and subsequent comments. Thus shaking the bad apples out is ultimately no point because it doesn’t deal with the problem causing the bad apples.
Something about the comments in that post, that I’ll comment on here since you bring it up, is that the analogy was NZFemme’s. And links were provided back to the context (to show consistency – ie, that I wasn’t taking it out of context)
And it’s an analogy that’s certainly set some people off. But here’s the odd thing. In all of the comments, not one questions NZFemme’s thinking or reasoning behind it. Not one.
But anyway. Systems of oppression recreate themselves. That’s hardly contentious. Simply bringing people to account isn’t pointless – it’s limited, and as Rebecca Solnit points out, problematic.
It seemed a few people wondered about uprooting the tree to me but I may have it wrong I spose.
No-one directed any comment on the analogy at NZFemme – neither directly nor indirectly. I don’t quite know what to make of that. For now, I’ll settle for simply saying “odd”.
“Nothing of substance or note is ever meant to change. And nothing of substance or note will change.”
https://thestandard.org.nz/shaking-the-tree/
You didnt intend to imply pointlessness?….,my mistake.
What do you even care Pat? You just want to “tend the forest”…maintain the status quo and protect your fucking privilege and social standing in lieu of tackling the underlying and structural contributory factors to women being variously and continually put upon, harassed, assaulted and raped.
That thread, depressing as fuck though many of the comments are, did at least serve to reveal the true colours of a few people.
Thanks Bill…and you’re welcome
Pretty harsh analysis there bill imo
Serious question, Bill:
You made this comment at 8:07am this morning, which I thought I’d responded to an hour or so ago, but it wasn’t there when I just checked so I responded again on the assumption that I’d forgotten to press “submit” (happens occasionally).
But the second one didn’t come up, either. But other comments by me have.
Did you do anything in the backend so I couldn’t respond to the question you asked, or is there something finicky going on on my machine? I apologise if this is not the case, I genuinely don’t know.
I get that experience sometimes too. Then I’ll have a good look at what I’m trying to say and change any words or links that might be triggering some kind of automated rules, and then they go through fine.
there aren’t any keywords sending comments to moderation at the moment, and they wouldn’t go straight to Trash. I think it’s a random bug, it happened a while back too.
IIRC the last time it happened I was using a nickname for the SCROTUS that would have been particularly offensive in the US, not so much in NZ (sorry I don’t remember what it was but it seemed a good one at the time). So I figured maybe WordPress has some filters as well as what’s done locally here.
I haven’t touched any of your comments McFlock.
I’ve just this second checked “trash” and there are two comments from you sitting there.
Both it seems were intended for the “Shaking the Tree” post.
One from 11:40 and another from 10:09.
edit – I don’t have the wherewithal to shift them from there to the post. I can shift them to Open Mike, I can cut/paste and email them to you, you can rewrite along similar lines and try again, or you can know that I’ve read them.
I found a way of putting it back in the right place (will make a note of how in the back end).
McFlock, you should see them both there shortly.
That would be being a fucking palaver that would!
Comment hits trash, then unless it’s a really outstanding comment, it ain’t going to be retrieved by me working my way through those all those bobs and whistles 🙂
But yeah. Good to know.
I completely agree!
Thanks for the great effort, bill and weka, in all you two are doing front and back.
Cheers for that, Bill and Weka.
Weird. Apparently I found out how to break things in a new and interesting way. It was before my coffee, though 🙂
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12-12-2017/#comment-1425237
a suggestion yesterday to widen our legislative framework for violence crimes
The problem with that suggestion is that you can’t actually say what it is or why it isn’t already covered by existing sections of the Crimes, Summary Offences, or other acts.
When invited to do so you start throwing your toys and accusing other people of being “afraid”.
Are you afraid to suggest which crimes should be added, or which sections of the Crimes Act should be amended? If not, then why can’t you actually just say what you mean?
some here couldn’t even stomach looking
That is a blatantly false assertion.
I note that the Dunedin study’s sample group is 1003, and Professor Fergusson’s caveat on that basis.
Yes, your very own source – the study’s author – undermines your conclusion.
Many thanks to Ross Taylor for his great achievement and for being a excellent role model for all our mokos. My second youngest granddaughter well I call her hurricane she going through her terrible 2s just going on 3 she would have Santa running out the door many thanks to Our sevens team for there great win Ka pai.
Everyone got big smiles I no I’m human and will tell anyone that at least I can admit to my faults unlike you bullshit bull you would lie and say you don’t do that human think. As for the books I know you cooked you neo liberals can’t help your self but to cheat. Your idea of justice is you imposs it on us poor and give impunity to the wealthy yes poor people of the World don’t be shocked when your justice systems serve you up injustices as THIS IS THE WAY OF OUR WORLD. I will be spending all my Christmas money at The Ware House because they have been good to my family
And have a lot of brown kiwi staff and try and employ the youth. My wife has surgical mesh I was sceptical this shows that big business is in humane and worship there profit over humanity and mother nature this is going to change when we get more Lady’s up the top run on there ladders of life. I wonder if those people are going to carry on passing in the wind Kia kaha
Ross Taylor has been the only player in the NZ Cricket Team to actually pull his weight.
Well I will say that most big businesses act under humanly just like OUR justice systems Ana to kai
Bullshit bull has cooked the books. That’s why he knows there is no money. I don’t mind not having a tax cut of $20 a week I spend that in my sleep I would rather see our valuerable people have a more humane life. Unlike bull he see the poor as a necessity so business can get there profits and see us as un human Ana to kai
I am solidly with Eco Maori on this one, Bullshit Bill is nothoing but a slmeball lyiong toad, as bad as his boss Shonkey is.
Have no doubt National has set up Labour for a big fall!!!
So Labour; – we need to see what National have left us with.
The deficet National has left the Government purse with must be very large and wider than anyone of us will know at present.
I have no doubt they borrowed more money against future “promised sales of any other assets” they were preparing us all for as they were always acting with secrecy.
Yep they are still pissing in the wind eco says thanks for the Mana and I won’t back down. You no when I said that I tried to dispute those fines well thats not all that story. I tried to make a complaint against the officer he would not give me his name or badge number. I went to there website and it stated that you can get one from the local station you can print a form off the site for ones complaint how many people have axcess to those resources I went to the local station and go the there are no forms we don’t no were they are you don’t need to make a complaint I can print one for you I new I was pissing in the wind so this is how accountable they are under the shonky key bullshit rule for nine years and the 75 years old ass holes running our justice system
No one can make a complaint so there farcical image is perramount PS I try to print it but No could not get the form. Ana to kai
Well they didn’t like that last post I’m in the mount and sirens going off idiots LOL Ana to kai
They must sit together all the time to plan there bullshit It would go hay dopey shall we let some fire works of tonight and that will make eco confess to being a savage idiot Maori thief as we no but he have everyone under a spell no snezie we will get that girl to ask him to leave some grass clippings and we can tell everyone that eco is a idiot nar dip shit we will bait one of his relations arrest them and pay them $5000 to sing us a song that will give us the evidence to arrested that evil theif eco Maori the 7 clowns Ana to kai
Petty party politics from Bill English beats helping solve child poverty.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/12/national-won-t-join-child-poverty-conversation-unless-govt-shows-it-s-serious-bill-english.html
Not really, from the article
If they’re going to have child poverty reduction targets, the Government has to show how they’re actually going to achieve them. Otherwise you’re just fooling people.
“There is no indication they’ve got a plan at all. So putting legislation targets will look a bit cynical when there’s actually no plan.”
But he’s not ruling out backing the Government.
“We would come on board if there are some genuine plans to reduce child poverty.
Ball’s in Arderns court.
Now there’s a leader in the making, hashtag Honest Bill.
So long as Bill English supports booting state housing tenants from their homes, and running down HNZ’s stock, I do not belive he has any desire to reduce poverty of any kind.
Why doesn’t he share Stephen Joyce’s plan to lift 100k kids out of poverty? He must have had a plan when he announced that target.
I thought Labour had all the answers.
I’m confident they’re opportunistic enough to take a good idea from the Nats, run with it, and claim it as their own. If the Nats had any good ideas, that is. After all, the Nats showed how to do that plenty of times over the last few years.
‘Dairy farming could pollute the water drunk by our grandchildren in years to come as scientists have found waste from intensive North Canterbury agriculture is likely to contaminate aquifers.’
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/north-canterbury/99535131/nitrates-in-christchurch-drinking-water-at-safe-but-increasing-levels-modelling-shows
Meanwhile the perpetrators of this crime against our environment continue to peddle their lies.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/99724683/fonterra-dairy-farm-open-day-part-of-cooperatives-charm-offensive
Great we have journalists like Rachel Stewart
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11921404
And scientists like Mike Joy.
‘Freshwater ecologist Mike Joy has a story for all those cities and towns beset by troubled drinking water standards; the list of which now appears to include Mosgiel.
It’s a story about New York, a city that in the popular imagination doesn’t sleep, but where you can drink the water, day and night.
“They were running out of water and the water quality was poor and so they had two ways forward,” Dr Joy says of the Big Apple’s water headache of 20 years ago.
“They could upgrade the treatment and spend millions and millions of dollars every year on treating stuff or they could go up to the catchment and protect it.”
They chose the latter, bought out livestock farmers, despite a “hue and cry” from some of said pastoralists who proclaimed it the end of the world. Instead of disaster, what has happened is that water quality in the city is now top notch, and within no time at all alternative land uses have sprung up in the catchment, fruit and nuts trees were planted, land values went up as people wanted to live there. And all this from the one-off cost of buying out the livestock farmers.’
https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/bridging-troubled-waters
About a week ago it was reported that someone sought data from ECan regarding the allocation of water rights, but ECan replied that there was no such record.
Does anyone know who/what/where that response can be found?
(That is appalling if true. They were put there to allocate water rights but don’t have data nearly a decade later???)
Having a look at what was available on google for Canterbury water I found the links below but allocation is tricky, because it is felt that often what is consented is not being drawn on! Sort of difficult and murky this water business.
For the google search Canterbury water statistics I got this (note that google has noted lack of statistics).
Water | Environment Canterbury
https://www.ecan.govt.nz/your-region/your-environment/water/
We help ensure we have enough good quality water in Canterbury for what we want to do today and in the future.
Missing: statistics
Some good links in here –
http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/north-canterbury/water
See EC stats – https://www.ecan.govt.nz/technical-reports/
NZ data on water usage:
http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/rma-fresh-water/update-water-allocation-data-and-estimate-actual-water-use-consented-7
Some interesting stats: Of all irrigated uses 76% is for pasture.
The majority of the consented irrigated area is in Canterbury (63%) and Otago (16%).
https://sciblogs.co.nz/waiology/2012/10/29/canterbury-does-not-have-70-of-new-zealands-freshwater-it-has-12/
http://www.h2whoa.co.nz/stats/
Our Water, Our Vote – News
https://www.ourwaterourvote.org.nz/information/
The Selwyn River is “a really raw” example of our mismanagement of water, an Envrionment Canterbury (ECan) councillor told a public meeting … CWMS and ECan in charge = Water pollution out of control in Canterbury …. MAF statistics show farms will remain very profitable by paying 1/100th of a cent per litre of water.
Nov 8, 2015
Dairy irrigators CPW gain $8M loan from council despite dairy farmers making a loss
The Selwyn Disdtrict Council (SDC) have used ratepayers money to give CPW an unsecured $8Million loan which will contribute to Canterbury’s freshwater pollution
Some gratuitous pleasure of a view of a faulty Minister being modelled in the pose which demonstrates his attitude to his area of inexpertise.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/96461304/statue-of-environment-minister-with-his-pants-down-delivered-to-canterbury-regional-council
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/96422627/ecan-rejects-offensive-statue-of-environment-minister-nick-smith-squatting
I seem to remember (probably about a year ago now) something on RNZ (NinetoNoon maybe) about the issue. It also identified ‘problems’ with the actual monitoring of irrigation water use. Something along the lines that new tech meters were still being put in place/remote monitoring et al – in order to get an accurate picture.
Nothing to do with ECan would surprise me.
Thanks Grey and Tim. I think it was about relationships between the level of available water against the rights allocated since ECan came in. Surely there would have to have been a quantity known before allocation, against that which was actually allocated or , as we suspect, over-allocation would happen. ECan were not able to provide evidence one way or the other which is criminal.
Excellent post Ed;
Mike Joy is our premier water scientist; – and is the one person the Labour Coalition must place him on their team of specialists to use to sort our worsening water quality crisis.
Here are some facts to help quantify the benefits of using rail as one way to reduce our pollution of our water systems.
An Ernst and Young report for the NZ Transport Agency in 2016 — The Value of Rail in New Zealand — put that value at $1.5 billion. The report was not made public until recently.
A B-train (truck with two trailers) wears out the road 20,000 times more than a car, and we know that the local roading authorities are struggling to keep up with the maintenance on the road. I travel the Gisborne to Napier route often and am fed up with the constant wheel alignments necessary from the potholes and sunken bridges.
Then there are the externalities — the consequences of an economic activity experienced by unrelated third parties: the social and environmental cost of increasing heavy trucks and reducing rail use.
The Ministry of Transport has put the social cost of each road death at $4.5 million, and a crash involving serious injuries at $473,600.
Living near a busy road increases the risk of premature death by 7 percent, increasing the risk of cancer, heart attack, stroke, dementia, childhood diabetes, asthma, allergies etc.
A diesel truck pollutes up to 1000 times more than a car.
One truck tyre sheds 10 times the amount of one car tyre.
Each truck tyre sheds 0.21 g/km of tyre compound (butadiene styrene); that is 5.46 g/km for a 26-wheel vehicle.
Road run-off accounts for 40-50 percent of urban metal contamination to aquatic ecosystems.
It’s not a matter of being anti trucks, it’s about sharing the load. Even the Road Transport Forum chief executive Ken Shirley, as well as local transport operators, are saying they can’t cope with the increasing freight task and may have to turn work away.
Did anyone go to this talk?
Would be interested to hear about it.
By the way, please notice how the Otago Daily Times frames Mike Joy as ‘outspoken.’
This is how the corporate media frame a debate.
‘Outspoken scientist Dr Mike Joy will share his thoughts on the future of food at an open lecture in Dunedin today.
Dr Joy, a senior lecturer in ecology and environmental science at Massey University is speaking in the St David Lecture Theatre from 5.30pm, sponsored by the Centre for Sustainability and Ag@Otago.
Earlier this year, he received the Universities New Zealand inaugural Critic and Conscience of Society Award for drawing attention to water quality in New Zealand’s rivers, lakes and drinking water — and the impact of intensive agriculture.
He intended looking at what he called New Zealand’s nitrogen and fossil fuel ‘‘addiction’’ and covering various topics including disruptions from the likes of artificial and plant-based milk and synthetic meat.’
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/future-food-be-topic-joy-lecture
‘The inaugural Critic and Conscience of Society Award winner and environmental crusader Dr Mike Joy says Wanaka needs to reduce its cow numbers and put a stop to the intensification of the dairy industry if it is to save its waterways.
Dr Joy said a Wanaka vet told him there used to be three cows in Wanaka and he knew them each by name, now there were upwards of 30,000 cows in the area.
“That is the kind of change we’ve had, that is the reality of it, and a lot of Southland cows are being wintered here and they don’t really count in the statistics properly but their s… sure does.”
Dr Joy said the cows were being wintered in Upper Clutha because of the drier climate but the soils around Wanaka were very porous, which allowed pathogens and contaminants to move quickly through the soil and into the waterways. The Massey University academic spoke in Wanaka this week at the invitation of the Lake Wanaka Trust, delivering a public lecture on “The Future of food; our deadly nitrogen and fossil fuel addiction”. In an interview, he said artificial nitrogen made from fossil fuels had allowed cow numbers to double in the past 20 years and quadrupled milk production, but the farmers were not making any more money and the nitrogen was ruining rivers and lowland lakes.’
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/wanaka/dairy-intensification-effects-questioned
Mike Joy is ‘outspoken’ and stands out because so many academics are muzzled in some way.
And we are not a modern literate society incorporating a high level of expertise and informed and advanced decision making and implementation. Preventing that is the simple message over the gateway ‘This is where the biggest bucks are made’. And so we keep following what we did before until the above proves incorrect. Mike Joy has to be outspoken because no-one wants to hear until the ‘big bucks’ premise proves on the financial schedules to be wrong.
In an interview, he said artificial nitrogen made from fossil fuels had allowed cow numbers to double in the past 20 years and quadrupled milk production, but the farmers were not making any more money and the nitrogen was ruining rivers and lowland lakes.’
My exemplar for being ignored and prevented from ethical action by the established organisation to the point of being killed is Semmelweis. He found by experiment that he could prevent deaths of new mothers, and drastically cut deaths in one area of the hospital. But he was not allowed to change a system that had always been followed. It ended with him being held in an asylum, and dying after a fight with a guard, probably fairly brutal. The establishment then, (and all establishments have the same tendencies), would go that far so as not to rock their personal boats.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
Good morning, good folk of The Standard!
I have a wee problem that the cybersavvy who frequent this space might be able to help me with.
This document…. Joint ACC and Health
Spinal Cord Impairment Initiative & Implementation Plan
Situation Analysis Paper
24th February 2013
is no longer available on the interweb.
A google search….https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Joint+ACC+and+Health+Spinal+Cord+Impairment+Initiative+%26+Implementation+Plan+Situation+Analysis+Paper+24th+February+2013&cr=countryNZ&rlz=1C1OPRB_enNZ513NZ516&tbs=ctr:countryNZ&ei=heEuWsGrCcW20ASY64qwDw&start=0&sa=N&filter=0&biw=1280&bih=666
….fails to provide a link to this document but does reference where it has been mentioned. A couple of references link to The Standard…occasions where I have cited this document. I am pretty sure I would have included the hyperlink…but they are not there anymore.
Neither the Mystery of Health or ACC websites have this document in their archives. I did message ‘Darryl’ the IT helpelf on the ACC website.
This is the second time a document that I reference fairly regularly has disappeared from the interweb.
I have the pdf file on my geriatric hard drive and I do backups fairly regularly and I have a hard copy…but it would be really, really useful to be able to link when I am referencing this very significant piece of work.
It was yesterday that I last tried to link to this document in a quick email to this guy…http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018624936/legal-research-award-to-examine-extending-acc
…because the above named document has an extremely useful section that compares ACC and MOH supports for those with spinal impairment.
Thanks in advance for any help.
That google search, threw up a link for me to this:
https://disability.acc.co.nz/assets/Uploads/Spinal-cord/Spinal-Cord-Impairment-Action-Plan-2014-2019.pdf
That is the Action Plan, which references the Situation Analysis Paper.
The Action Plan is the usual happy clappy ‘we’re all over this shit’ glossy publication so loved by the Misery of Health. I guess it makes it look like they’re doing enough to justify their high salaries.
The Situation Analysis Paper, on the other hand, is 88 pages of solid information gathered by UMR and presented in such a format that ACC and the Miserly could only produce a similarly solid Action Plan…oh, that’s right…
Have they replaced it with a newer version? e.g.
https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/new-zealand-spinal-cord-impairment-action-plan-jun14.docx
Is this the 2013 one?
http://docplayer.net/15494661-Joint-acc-and-health-spinal-cord-impairment-initiative-implementation-plan-situation-analysis-paper-24-th-february-2013.html
Thanks weka…see reply to Carolyn_nth above re the Action Plan.
Did you try downloading the SitAnal (my shorthand from now on… 😉 ) from docplayer?
I did a couple of clicks, then this scary American voice erupted from the screen so I aborted.
I’ll repeat..this is a very significant piece of work, paid for by us, that very accurately describes, well, the Situation for those with spinal cord impairment in New Zealand.
It should be there.
I started the download process and then backed away slowly 😉
For the exact title in quotation marks I only got 3 hits, which makes me wonder if the title isn’t quite right. Presumably when it was originally published online it would have been linked to so there should still be links to it turning up in google even if they are now broken.
Do you have the original URL where you got your old electronic copy from? If so*, try putting it into this,
https://archive.org/
*it’s probably embedded in the doc somewhere.
“…which makes me wonder if the title isn’t quite right. ”
Valid point…but that is a copy and paste from the front page of the doc…
the only info I left out is….
“Prepared by
Christine Howard‐Brown and Jo Esplin”
try the wayback machine, or the google cache of the address. Nothing dissapears as it’s all archived, somewhere..
I had a look in the wayback machine and got nothing from the title. Don’t have the original URL to search with.
Ask, weka, and ye shall receive…
http://www.acc.co.nz/PRD_EXT_CSMP/groups/external_providers/documents/project/wpc119428.pdf
Sweet. This looks like it. If you want to link to it in future use this URL,
https://web.archive.org/web/20170411233714/https://www.acc.co.nz/PRD_EXT_CSMP/groups/external_providers/documents/project/wpc119428.pdf
Okay…in words of no more that three syllables…can someone explain the what and why of this ‘wayback’ thing….?
This is not an old document and it is referenced in the most recent SCI Action Plan (for its many sins)..so how come it has gone from the acc and moh sites and been consigned to what looks like cyberia?
It is still more than relevant.
Thanks all for the help btw… 🙂
The Internet Archive, aka The Wayback Machine, trawls the internet and archives every webpage it can find. It will archive multiple versions of a webpage over time.
So if someone removes a page from their website, often (although not always) one can find a copy in the archive if one has the original URL.
Some websites prevent the Internet Archive from trawling them, and so they don’t get archived.
It looks to me like ACC have removed the PDF from their website entirely. That’s nothing to do with the Internet Archive, who would have made copies before it was removed.
I also did a google advanced by site search of acc.co.nz using various keywords from the title and URL and go nothing, so it looks to me like it’s been completely removed from ACC’s website (not just a broken link). If you can bring yourself to do it, might be worth phoning the relevant department within ACC and pointing out its importance. Or emailing them and CCing in the new Minister.
Hah! I did just that with the other document that disappeared when the National Advisory Council for the Employment of Women’s archive was transferred from the defunct Department of Labour to the new Ministry of Women. The young lassie on the phone spoke like the documents were loaded onto trolleys for the Big Move and that one…just that one mind, blew away in the Welly wind.
I sent them a copy of the pdf…I should go check if its still there….
http://women.govt.nz/sites/public_files/NACEW-Financial-support-for-family-carers-2008.pdf
There it is… 🙂 🙂
Nice one! So good to hear stories where talking to the bureaucracy has a good ending.
hiya grumpy…the url is below.
I’m normally quite competent with searches…but this has me stumped…and a tad suspicious.
Cyber choc fish to anyone who can sort this…
There’s just a wee bit of an enthusiasm gap between Dems and Repugs for new candidates wanting to run in 2018 …
https://www.vox.com/2017/12/11/16748716/chart-democrats-2018-midterms-elections
So far the Ombudsman says that the 33 page of notes on coalition talks as mentioned by Winston Peters, does not need to be released.
Newsroom reports it, but disagrees with the interim decision.
Oh dear!!
Nats and RW Trolls have been in agony over this! How could he rule such a thing??
SO SAD!
Hi folks. Can anyone hep me out with a technical issue? I can’t find a way to embed links when I’m commenting. I use Google Chrome as my browser. The only advice I can find is out of date, referring to a “wrench” icon and a function that doesn’t appear in any obvious way for the newer icon – the stack of 3 vertical dots – that replaced it.
Any advice gratefully received.
Have you tried putting the tags in manually? Do you see the Show Tags button at the bottom of the comment box next to Submit Comment?
There is no short cut for those of us who are not authors as far as I know.
I do it manually as described here
Once you get the hang of it, it’s not so hard.
I use Safari Firefox and Chrome at different times as I feel the need and they are basically all the same from a commenting point of view – at least on mac OS
I never knew there was a short and easy way to do it from Chrome. Unless I’m signed in (when I have access to some short-cuts) I’m reduced to the following from FAQ.
https://thestandard.org.nz/faq/comment-formatting/#linking
There’s no auto way in Safari either (although authors can access the tag buttons when logged in via the Edit).
Yup. That’s what I do. Submit comment when signed in and then ‘edit in’ the links.
I’m wondering if people with logins who aren’t authors can also do that?
Type the words you want the link embedded in:
This is an article about….
Then around those words type this:
[a href=”add_link_url”]This is an article about…[/a]
But where I’ve put [ type
As here:
http://shell.cas.usf.edu/mccook/uwy/hyperlinks.html
So, if I want to link to the Colin James article in the ODT today about politician of the year I do this?
Can I just feed back to the site managers that this didn’t work when I followed the advice from TS (which said to use single quote marks), but did when I followed Carolyn_Nth’s advice and used double quote marks? Thanks C_N.
Got it.
edit. Fixed. I think.
It looks to me like it’s fixed. Thanks for following up, Bill.
red-blooded…I too have this problem here on TS.
I try using the HTML Tags helpfully supplied…but no joy.
I have no problems over on Public Address…and produce some tidy cooments and the odd post.
I am using an old Compaq Pressario, running on Vista and also google chrome…although the header tells me otherwise….I suspect this is the cause of my problem.
Having said that…I am not exactly technosavvy…
I am still awestruck, occasionally, when stuff actually works.
The epitome of uselessness, or: Why
nobody trusts or respects the Democrats
mealy-mouthed (adj.) afraid to speak frankly or straightforwardly.
Jim Mora has repeatedly asserted that this fool is “the greatest orator of our generation.” ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPqOotT_ta8
JA wearing her Labour Party hat at time of coalition document.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11957945
Buuuuurrrrrn!
All seems rather dodgy, no wonder there’s no honeymoon and Nationals still well ahead of Labour.
Ardern doing her best to sink the COL. and return Labour to Andrew Little levels of popularity.
“Nationals still well ahead of Labour.”
Lol, we’ve had MMP for 25 years.
JA is ahead of English in terms of preferred PM. Wtf are you on about?
You shouldn’t have the opposition party rising in support during the honeymoon period.
Ardern has completely fucked it up, watch the polls take another hit when the sheeple realize they’re missing out on an extra grand next year.
“You shouldn’t have the opposition party rising in support during the honeymoon period.”
why not?
“Ardern has completely fucked it up, watch the polls take another hit when the sheeple realize they’re missing out on an extra grand next year.”
Your fantasies aren’t reality BM. This just looks like wishful thinking on your part.
BM, the Nat’s have increased their party preference by 3%, Labour by 6% (comparing election outcome to the latest CB). Not a huge bounce, but certainly nothing to be dejected about.
Mate that is a massive win for labour and a downtrow for the gnats lol god the gnats are a rabble
Ah, the old “hats” trick – as pioneered by dear ex-leader JPK.
With the Ombudsman backing the Prime Minister, all those crap stories about secrecy vanish … like tears in the rain.
Boshier was a good judge, and was quite clear in the RNZ interview last week that he is nobody’s fool. Both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister were right.
Do you think Peters was having a senior moment when he said
“a document of precision in various areas of policy commitment and development.
These are directives to ministers with accountability and media strategies to ensure that the coalition works
I think he was misspeaking, yes. Look at the whole statement, he says the goal is to make sure the coalition works – it’s a working document, setting out issues for the two parties to develop and work on. Put another way, it’s notes from a developing discussion, held over a period of time. That’s quite different from a coalition agreement or a formal policy document (which records decisions made and agreements arrived at).
BM can you link to the coalition discussion doc from the natz and their support party(s).
I await with interest any comments from people who complained about John Key using the line that he did some things as Leader of the National Party rather than as PM.
Now that Jacinda Ardern has used the same defence I can only assume that they will.
1) Apologise to Mr Key
or
2) Complain about Ms Ardern’s actions.
Otherwise the people concerned will be shown up as hypocrites.
I wonder who will be first?
Some of the ctiticism of Key and “hats” was that his “hats” defense against OIA some OIA requests indicated that government staffers employed by Ministerial Services were being used for party work. A bit of a no-no, if indeed that was the hat he was wearing while texting the dirty politics crew.
This does not seem to have been the case at all in the recent coalition negotiations.
Really?
Then why did the chief Ombudsman end up saying, about the material you are referring to, that
“On this point the Ombudsmen have accepted the view of the Prime Minister’s Office with Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier’s view that the threshold for him to check the communications in question has not been met.”
In other words he had exactly the same opinion then as now
Felix Marwick didn’t take it at all kindly. He claimed then that obviously Key had something to hide.
“The other thing you can deduce from a three year battle over access to correspondence is that the most senior politician in the land probably had something to hide. ”
I expect him to say that Ardern must have something to hide also.
Either that or apologise to Key and I don’t think he will do that.
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/opinion/felix-marwick-no-sunlight-no-disinfectant-political-machinations-remain-behind-the-veil/
Should you be apologising to Mr Key or did you not complain about the episode that now seems to get you excited?
Why? When did Key ever get the Ombudsman’s clearance for his prevarications, one of which Ardern has cunningly mimicked in getting formal exoneration?
(And by the way, if you can quote such a case, you open yourself up to the “But National did it too!” argument, a tactic hugely overused and abused by the previous Govt who screamed ‘Labour did it too!’ no matter how incongruous the events had been.)
We’re going to be the most transparent government ever 🙄
BM can you point to where the natz released their coalition negotiation papers?
Brilliant riposte.
Yes Ed,
Seems like all these National trollls believe anything their leaders tell them without question, so we will never see “their coalition negotiation papers” as dv asked for eh?
They lack substance & honesty.
If you can make a reasonable argument that notes on coalition agreements made before either party leader became prime minister were in fact noted as part of the role of Prime Minister, feel free.
Maybe the same argument could be made that Ardern’s essays for school cert were written in her capacity of being Prime Minister, if that’s how job descriptions take effect in the parallel toryverse you are communicating from.
As for ministerial services employees acting as partisan activists – in that case someone’s fucked up somewhere and should have been kicked to the kerb. Didn’t a MS employee find other employment shortly after the book was published?
one fruit of the rotten tree that we dare not talk about
spoils of war
or maybe the banality of accepted rape to assuage men who are driven by bloodlust and ‘maybe watched some of theirs die’ and now must find a relieve valve or other some assorted bullshit so that we don’t need to be honest as to what is done to women in war
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/world/asia/myanmar-rohingya-rapes.html
full report here https://apnews.com/5e4a1351468f4755a6f861e39ec782c9
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/world/middleeast/isis-yazidi-women-rape-iraq-mosul-slavery.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/19/africa/denis-mukwege-congo-doctor-rape/index.html
just three examples from this year. This is how common, how accepted, how permitted rape is in order to subjugate, dominate, and defeat a people/race/religion etc etc.
And this is what rape is in general. No waxing lyrically about how it must be a psychosis, a mental illness, a disease, a sin from satan, and not simply the fact that some will use it as a tool to subjugate others into obedience until they cower in fear and do as they are told to.
A tiny step in the right direction. Last year a Congolese warlord was found guilty of war crimes in the ICC holding him accountable for rapes committed by his troops.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/21/icc-finds-ex-congolese-vice-president-jean-pierre-bemba-guilty-of-war-crimes
At last some realistic discussion around (one) implication of CC…let us hope Newsroom’s article will start widespread coverage of an effect that may force some public demand for reducing carbon emissions.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/12/11/67374/drowning-dreams-billions-at-stake-as-govt-mulls-sea-level-rules
There’s a post up now.
Horrible rich pricks think they can do anything and get away with it.
The world watches in fascinated horror every day as the zomboid version of Richie Rich creates havoc in the White House and beyond.
But stupid rich men out of control is not a phenomenon limited to that beleaguered republic. Yesterday New Zealanders became aware of the massive sense of entitlement by one unfeasibly wealthy git who wants to be able to fly his helicopter AT ANY TIME in a city neighbourhood. He’s not some surgeon on call, or anything useful like that; he wants to fly himself and his rich “friends” to golf games, not drive or bus there like the rest of us oiks.
Ten years ago, another rich prick with a similar sub-zero level of awareness walked around Porirua, attempting to curry favour with the locals. That was an unwise move on his part….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTzfTq88XYc
That worker…what a hero.
I love the gesticulations.
A pity that he did not accidentally hit the bottom of that coffee cup…
He’s been a good friend of mine for going on 30 years… no matter how pissed off he would have been with JK/Nats, he’s respectful enough to not stoop to doing stupid stuff like that.
If we could all have discussions in that manner, we’d all be in a much better place.
* i’m as guilty as anyone sometimes, at doing stupid stuff 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiL6oKzkQQY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQFXTp9c3B4
Here’s some more cool tough behaviour from the Antipodes, this time in the Auckland Public Library….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzSxCOsKDNs
And more from the horrible pricks file…this…http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11957908
“A man who saw red when he discovered a text between a friend and his wife, declaring their undying love for each other, has been discharged without conviction on charges of assaulting the man, the defendant’s wife, and one of his children in Queenstown this year.
In the Queenstown District Court yesterday Judge John Brandts-Giesen said it was a “nasty assault”, but had to be seen in context.
“Really, this is a situation that does your wife no credit and does the [male] no
credit.”
Judge Brandts-Giesen said the man assaulted the friend and a struggle ensued. When the defendant’s daughter tried to separate the pair, the defendant grabbed her by the throat, pushed her down and held her there.
When the defendant’s wife intervened, he kicked her in the ribs, causing her to fall backwards.
The male complainant suffered scratches, and the defendant’s daughter’s neck was bruised.
Judge Brandts-Giesen said the 58-year-old, who did not recollect hurting his wife and daughter, had never been before the court.
“There would be many people who would have done exactly what you did, even though it may be against the law to do so.
“I consider that the consequences of a conviction are out of all proportion to what happened on this occasion.””
Well…justice is served, I guess.
file this under
Boys will be boys.
Boys will be boys…indeed.
This boy is 58 years old…and unless he’s taking supplements, he can hardly blame testosterone overload.
SSDD.
Same as it ever was…
the old adage,
if it bleeds its a women no matter the age – maybe a disclaimer is added ‘young women’ cause responsibility for women and their actions starts when they can get pregnant but men? Oh my, so many excuses…….boys will be boys, or as in this particular case a ‘crime of passion’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_of_passion
also crime of passion does not appear to be a mitigating circumstance for women. 🙂
Looky looky…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11958625
“Otago Lakes Central Area Commander Inspector Olaf Jensen could not comment specifically on the case.
However, he confirmed that police were looking closely at the sentencing decision.
“We are reviewing the decision, but at this stage aren’t in a position to comment further,” he said.
Auckland barrister and spokeswoman for the Auckland Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children Catriona MacLennan said called for Judge Brandts-Giesen to step down from his role.
“”It is inappropriate for Judge Brandts-Giesen to continue sitting on the bench,” she told the Herald.
“His reported comments and the sentence imposed display a complete lack of understanding of domestic violence.
“He victim blames and minimises assaults on three people.””
too little too late.
innit?
Give the bloke a sports radio chat show.
Meat tax ‘inevitable’ to beat climate and health crises, says report
‘“Sin taxes” on meat to reduce its huge impact on climate change and human health look inevitable, according to analysts for investors managing more than $4tn of assets.
The global livestock industry causes 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and meat consumption is rising around the world, but dangerous climate change cannot be avoided unless this is radically curbed. Furthermore, many people already eat far too much meat, seriously damaging their health and incurring huge costs. Livestock also drive other problems, such as water pollution and antibiotic resistance.
A new analysis from the investor network Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (Fairr) Initiative argues that meat is therefore now following the same path as tobacco, carbon emissions and sugar towards a sin tax, a levy on harmful products to cut consumption. Meat taxes have already been discussed in parliaments in Germany, Denmark and Sweden, the analysis points out, and China’s government has cut its recommended maximum meat consumption by 45% in 2016.
“If policymakers are to cover the true cost of human epidemics like obesity, diabetes and cancer, and livestock epidemics like avian flu, while also tackling the twin challenges of climate change and antibiotic resistance, then a shift from subsidisation to taxation of the meat industry looks inevitable,” said Jeremy Coller, the founder of Fairr and the chief investment officer at the private equity firm Coller Capital. “Far-sighted investors should plan ahead for this day.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/11/meat-tax-inevitable-to-beat-climate-and-health-crises-says-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Maybe as part of our education, we should be made aware of this.
Then I would imagine meat eating would rapidly decline.
“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpDJlEQsDoA
There is no bottom.
https://www.mediaite.com/online/roy-moore-campaign-decides-its-a-good-idea-to-have-a-12-year-old-girl-interview-him/
Oh boy….
https://thinkprogress.org/speaker-at-moore-event-says-he-accidentally-went-with-moore-to-a-brothel-with-child-prostitutes-65c9819f8a1e/
The upcoming Alabama Senate election is going to be one almighty media test:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-hell-is-happening-with-these-alabama-polls/
Either the Dems and the media and the entire feminist enterprise against sexual harrassment was beaten just as Hillary Clinton was (if the Dems lose), …
…Or…
… the Dems win and a great turning point has been reached which vindicates the media classes hunting sexual predators and feminism stands to fight another day in America, and Breitbart and the rest of patriarchy is sorely wounded.
A fair bit to play for.
Anticipating ballot jiggery pokery, too.
(1/14)
https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/940285311942135809
https://twitter.com/Greg_Palast/status/940282889530499073
New Zealand is a horrible place to live for many.
‘Christmas a step too far’ for struggling families says Auckland City Mission as hundreds line up outside
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11958065
[deleted/on permanent ban]
Very very dull.
Redneck would be a better title.
[deleted/on permanent ban]
Statistics must be wrong because your anecdote.
No wonder you have to set up “think” tanks: peer review isn’t your strong point.
No, “redneck” would NOT be a better title for a bigot.
“Redneck” is the contemptuous term for working people used by Democratic Party mandarins in the 1970s to condemn the working people who voted for Nixon. It’s been thoughtlessly recycled over the years, and was enthusiastically used by Clintonistas and Hopey-Changey cultists to besmirch white working people who they believed should vote for them by divine right.
Think about who the most bigoted, racist, outrageous hatemongers in this country are: Don Brash, Jamie “Lock Up His Sisters” Whyte, Mike Hosking, Leighton Smith, Cameron “Whalefat” Slater, John Ansell, Garth “The Knife” McVicar. Only the last-named qualifies as a redneck, as he has actually done some physical work in his life.
My grandfathers and my uncles all worked hard on farms and in factories, and they often got sunburned, including on their necks. They were and are rednecks, just like the hardworking men and women in the United States are. But I’ve never, ever heard any of them utter the brutal and heartless and ignorant rhetoric that we are inflicted with every day from comfortable, sedentary, white-collared, white-necked people like Brash and co.
They are not rednecks, they are bigots.
[deleted/on permanent ban]
Good on you, Red.
And greetings to you, too, my good friend and highly esteemed colleague Ed.
https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/500x/54081723/you-guys-i-love-you-guys.jpg
Disagree. Meanings of words change over time, and Morrisey’s nostalgia for the original meaning is now misplaced. Most people know quite well what most of us mean by Redneck, and while I sympathise a bit with Morrisey wanting to stick to the original meaning, I think it is far too late. That original meaning is now archaic.
Labels are still discriminatory though. Take it from me: I employ them often enough 😈
Next, you’ll be defending WASPs because they aren’t striped.
Yes: by definition, labels are discriminatory.
Indeed, it was and is mostly contemptuous, wealthy, entitled WASPs in the Democratic Party who use such terms as “rednecks” and “deplorables”.
Thankyou for illustrating my point so promptly.
Just you because why not
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redneck
i especially like the usage here 🙂
“Historical Scottish Covenanter usage
In Scotland in the 1640s, the Covenanters rejected rule by bishops, often signing manifestos using their own blood. Some wore red cloth around their neck to signify their position, and were called rednecks by the Scottish ruling class to denote that they were the rebels in what came to be known as The Bishop’s War that preceded the rise of Cromwell.[25][26] Eventually, the term began to mean simply “Presbyterian”, especially in communities along the Scottish border. Because of the large number of Scottish immigrants in the pre-revolutionary American South, some historians have suggested that this may be the origin of the term in the United States.[27]
Dictionaries document the earliest American citation of the term’s use for Presbyterians in 1830, as “a name bestowed upon the Presbyterians of Fayetteville [North Carolina]”.[14][26]
Roman Catholics
In Northern England in the 19th and 20th centuries, Roman Catholics were also known as rednecks.[28]
South Africa
The exact Afrikaans equivalent, rooinek, is used as a disparaging term for English people and South Africans of English descent, in reference to their supposed naïveté as later arrivals in the region in failing to protect themselves from the sun.[29]”
I guess i am a redneck, being roman catholic and all 🙂
How interesting. Didn’t know the Scottish version before.
I’ve never liked the term redneck, and tend not to use it.
But, having had a bit of a Presbyterian upbringing, I guess I’m a redneck, too.
Never knew the source.
Thank you, Morrissey
Legacy of Music: Talking Heads (video)
My moneys on tulips.
Bitcoin is in the “mania” phase, with some people even borrowing money to get in on the action, securities regulator Joseph Borg told CNBC on Monday.
“We’ve seen mortgages being taken out to buy bitcoin. … People do credit cards, equity lines,” said Borg, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association, a voluntary organization devoted to investor protection. Borg is also director of the Alabama Securities Commission.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/11/people-are-taking-out-mortgages-to-buy-bitcoin-says-joseph-borg.html?
As a commentator has since written on facebook, it is bad enough they take our water now they flout the laws of the land, the next step they taking our country completely from us
‘It’s just so dangerous’: Squalid conditions reported at water bottling plant.
‘One of the plants, owned by China-based Cloud Ocean Water, is being built in what used to be the Kaputone Wool Scour, which closed in 2015.
The company is associated with the Ling Hai Group, which has winery interests in New Zealand and links to a Chinese sugar giant.
Cloud Ocean Water director Feng Liang said he was “unable to comment” on the investigations. When asked to respond to specific allegations about the alleged workplace practices, he again declined to comment.
The site’s resource consent allows it to take 4.3 million litres a day, the equivalent daily usage of around 12,000 people.
Some 46 consecutive dry days in Christchurch have beaten a record set in 1954. The city council has urged residents to conserve water, recommending residents do not water their lawns.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/99726885/its-just-so-dangerous-squalid-conditions-reported-at-water-bottling-plant
Some detail on the companies
Cloud Ocean Water Limited was registered on 21 Mar 2017 and issued an NZBN of 9429046014665. The registered LTD company has been run by 2 directors: Feng Liang – an active director whose contract began on 21 Mar 2017,
Zongren Ling – an active director whose contract began on 21 Mar 2017.
A total of 10000 shares are allotted to 2 groups (2 shareholders in total). As far as the first group is concerned, 2300 shares are held by 1 entity, namely:
Hairong Ling (an individual) located at Lin Yi.
The second group consists of 1 shareholder, holds 77% shares (exactly 7700 shares) and includes Ling Hai Group Limited. Cloud Ocean Water Limited is categorised as “Mineral water manufacturing” (business classification C121140).
http://www.bizdb.co.nz/company/9429046014665/
Feng Liang is also a director of Ling Hai Hotel Limited
http://www.bizdb.co.nz/company/9429042545132/
More research on the Ling Hai Group.
Marlborough’s Castlebrae farm has been sold by longtime owners the Marfell family to a Chinese-owned company.
A decision, published by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) yesterday, said the Ling Hai Group, a company owned by Zongren Ling and family from China, had been approved to buy 100 per cent of the Castlebrae farm.
The farm, about 741 hectares of land at Renners and Castles roads in the Awatere Valley, running down to the sea, was owned by brothers Geoff and David Marfell and Castlebrae Vineyards.
The sale price was withheld for commercial sensitivity reasons.
The OIO decision said Ling Hai Group intended to my textacquire the land as part of its long-term investment in the New Zealand wine and tourism industry.
Ling Hai Group is based at a residential address in Glenfield in Auckland. Its owner, Zongren Ling, lives in China.
Ling Hai lawyer Andrew Petersen, of law firm Bell Gully, was not available for comment yesterday. Geoff and David Marfell did not return calls either.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/9891008/Chinese-buy-741-hectare-Marlborough-farm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11229773
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/63293695/farm-buyer-eyes-chinese-wine-market
https://www.linz.govt.nz/regulatory/overseas-investment/decision-summaries-statistics/2014-02/201320056
More on Zongren Ling…..
Zongren Ling is Chairman at Rizhao Lingyunhai Sugar Group Co Ltd.
http://canterbury.cyberplace.org.nz/community/CAFCA/cafca14/fi-2014-02.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/profiles/people/17170044-zongren-ling
More…..
Here is detail of the purchase of the water bottling plant.
‘Cloud Ocean Water, which is registered to manufacture mineral water, is majority-owned by the China-based Ling Hai Group.
The Canterbury Regional Council said the consent, which was transferred to Cloud Ocean Water earlier this month, did allow for bottling.
Councillor Rod Cullinane said it was concerning the water could be exported for profit – yet the company would face no charges for the consent, other than covering the council’s monitoring costs.
The Kaputone Wool Scour was granted the water consent for its site on Station Road in 1997.
Mr Cullinane said it had little power to stop the water now being used for an entirely different purpose, because the consent had already been granted.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/331482/water-consent-at-former-plant-bought-by-chinese-investors
Here is their website.
New Zealand mineral water, wine and honey is for sale.
Water at $52 for a box of 24 bottles.
How much did the people of New Zealand (whose water it is) get for that?
http://www.lingyunhai.com/
http://www.lingyunhai.com/Product/ProductInfo?id=7
If you want to track how much of New Zealand and its assets have been sold to foreign interests, I recommend this as a starting point.
For example, here are June 2017’s decisions.
Global investors buy up half of 2Degrees
Suncorp/Vero buys up rest of Tower Insurance
Bathurst buys forest land to mine more coal
Caltex Australia buys Gull NZ
Goodman Properties (Australia) buys industrial estate in Henderson
US apple orchardists expand in South Canterbury
T&G ( Germany, China)buys land for apples in Havelock North
US apple orchardists expand in South Canterbury
Chinese buy Bowron tannery, Christchurch;
Japanese buy more forestry land in Northland
Latifundium (Liechtenstein, Germany? ) buys Wairarapa forests
Swiss capital moves to the East Coast
Australian restructures Whatatutu farmland, Gisborne; Mangakino heifer farm restructures
http://canterbury.cyberplace.org.nz/community/CAFCA/cafca17/fi-2017.html
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/308468/tgg-ownership-change-likely-to-fuel-takeover-speculation
July 2017
‘Oxford dairy farm sold to overseas interests for $18.2m
The overseas-owned company, Craigmore Dairy II LP, is part of the wider Craigmore Farming Group, founded by farm financier Forbes Elworthy, son of the late Sir Peter Elworthy.
‘Elworthy also obtained an MBA from Harvard University and became involved in financing.
He and partner Mark Cox set up a series of farm owning companies under the name Craigmore and promoted them to investors in New Zealand and overseas.
They include dairy, grazing and horticultural farms spread over 15,000 hectares, with a similar number of cows, and some of the largest recent dairy conversions in South Canterbury.’
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/94279420/oxford-dairy-farm-sold-to-overseas-interests-for-182m
This adds to the farms Carigmore bought in 2014
‘The three farms west of Oamaru – Arnmore (328 hectares), Windsor (428ha) and Waiareka (403ha) – have been bought by Craigmore Sustainables, which acts as a fund manager for the Craigmore Farming Partnership and the Craigmore Forestry Fund.’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/9637560/Craigmore-buys-three-farms
Elworthy family fronts foreign investors buying kiwifruit orchards
South Canterbury’s Elworthy family heads a multi-national syndicate which has bought 17.5 hectares of kiwifruit orchards in Te Puke.
Craigmore Permanent Crop Limited Partnership is a mini-United Nations of German, Hong Kong, Swiss, British, Finnish, American and New Zealand investors which has been given the green light by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) to buy the Hayward and kiwiberry orchards.
The parent company is Craigmore Sustainables, established in 2008 by businessmen and farmers, Forbes Elworthy and Mark Cox, and which has investments in dairy farms, apples, wine, and forestry.
Elworthy and his wife Bridget divide their time between the family property Craigmore in South Canterbury, and Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire. The couple were valued at $55 million on the latest Rich List; he is the son of Sir Peter Elworthy, a former Federated Farmers president.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/98865980/elworthy-family-fronts-foreign-investors-buying-kiwifruit-orchards
And there is more.
2015
Outfits called Pareora Dairy Limited and Somerset Dairy Limited sold 500ha at Pareora River Road to a partnership consisting of the UK, Irish, continental European and Scandinavian public (74 per cent).
The other deal is the sale of a 306ha beef and sheep farm at Rakaia Terrace Road, Hororata, owned by the Inch family trust.
The buyer is Southern Pastures Limited Partnership which is owned by interests from Sweden (58%), Luxembourg (22%), New Zealand (2.5%) and various (17.5%)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/71703049/______uniques_exceeded__
La Première Dame du Football
http://www.redsrugby.com.au/News/NewsArticles/tabid/581/ArticleID/18098/Rugby-Australia-appoints-Raelene-Castle-as-Chief-Executive-Officer.aspx
The ‘Truckometer’
(RNZ Bizzniss News at 17:30 on Checkpoint)
Sounds like something ANZ’s former? Chief ‘economist’ (Someone Buggery) dreamed up.
I wonder if it includes the trucking ‘fundamentals’ going forward. Or merely traffic volumes without the full range of costs.