Interesting that a global slowdown is occurring right when the planet actually needs it to happen.
Of course, to economists this is BAD news. And rapid slowdown is actually very bad news, with banks likely to force all and sundry onto the street if they don’t get paid.
“Certainly there is a new message there that we are in a new ‘normal’ environment — getting used to lower rates of growth than we have been used to historically,” says Yetsenga.”
Watch this space. Blame for the effects of the global slowdown slowing down NZ will get thrown at the Coalition. Winston warned us of this pre-election.
Nothing wrong with slowing down. We could keep economic activity relatively busy on retrofitting to a more sustainable economy. No real pain required.
Except those poor rich folks, the free ride still being free and easy, but losing some impetus.
Brian Easton looks into the Health Care in NZ compared with the top 11 countries.
Health: “What has happened to healthcare is nicely illustrated by an international analysis of healthcare systems by the prestigious (American) Commonwealth Fund. It compares 11 countries (it always finds the US has the worst system). In 2017 it found New Zealand’s ranking was 8th (out of 11) on the equity dimension, ahead of France, Canada and the US. We were behind Britain, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Germany and Australia.”
And Education: “In contrast, the schooling system claims to be directly funded to offset inequity. However only 3 percent of the total resourcing (operational and staffing) provided to our schools is allocated on the basis of disadvantage. Comparable international jurisdictions allocate around 6 percent.”
Agrigeneration – putting solar generation onto the same land that’s used for agriculture can even increase the agricultural productivity of the land in hot dry regions. The shade can help reduce evaporation, and it seems if the plant growth is limited by other resources then getting too much sunlight reduces plant growth.
Putting wind turbines on farms happens pretty much all the time already. But I can’t see any major downsides to putting solar and wind generation and agriculture all on the same bit of land for even more productivity.
During the drought this summer it really troubled the girls and myself that many farms didn’t have shade for their stock. We would see animals sweltering in 30+ degree heat without a single tree casting shadow in the paddocks. It was upsetting to see.
Meanwhile at home the only green grass was under the trampoline.
Solar panels with cows would be a fantastic solution, providing shade and green grass for feed, power and food/dairy/meat. It’s like companion planting with different elements.
I’m trying to remember to transfer most of this #4 thread to How to get there tomorrow as it talks about the problem and ideas and anecdotes relating. Good thinking. I will miss stuff and if anyone else sees things that we should archive copying it over for the Sunday post would be good, checking that it isn’t already there. The Sunday post gets archived and Open Mike doesn’t. I hope that people will go fishing through past How to get theres when looking for ideas. It is something lasting that we have achieved from this dynamic blog.
Right lprent. I mis-spoke. What I am thinking is that the items that the How to get there post has will I hope be relevant for people looking for future-thinking ideas. Whereas in Open Mike they will be scattered and hard to find by keywords which would bring up individual items if the looker was lucky. Whereas accessing archived How to get theres will bring up a bumper bunch of informative ideas and topics in one place.
Gday wags, at what point can the word cruelty enter the conversation in regards to stock and shelter?
Not looking to wind you up, I am genuinely interested in yr response.
I feel at a basic level, it’s an animals ‘right’ to shelter. Even more so when commerce is involved.
As an abstract, planting of stock shelter belts could be a great way of helping meet the 1 billion trees target.
Subsidised by the state.
Imagine cockies potentially voting for Labour…..
Any cattle that have no shelter from the hot summer sun would be appriaching cruelty imo. They did a study in the hawkesbay a few years ago and the temps on a black beasts back approach 60degrees in the worst heat .
Spread trees would be my preference as shelter belts tend to bring mud . And mud means bugs especially in lactating animals .
Most councils help with pole planting costs but i believe scattered trees are not recognized for carbon capture i believe?
I don’t doubt most stock owners care for their animals but there seems to be a blind spot in regards shelter.
As mentioned up thread there is an increase in productivity with shelter, but… less pasture… mud around shelter belts… the neighbours don’t do it…
The mud effect from shelter belts would be less on dairy farms due to them really being in the same paddock twice in a row. There’s a plant called miscanthus? That is supposed to be very quick growng and the big rotorainers can brush over it .
Im pro famrimg but im no apologist for the madness that has gone on in Canterbury and down south .
I live rurally in the Manawatu, surrounded by dairy farms.
I am not anti farming.
I do not like a lot of common farming practices e.g.: the urea phosphate addiction, shelterless paddocks, stock in waterways, round-up between crop cycles.
To me it comes down to the $.
What are usually decent people, have a wilful blind spot when it comes to their ways.
As we all know it takes a lot of courage to step outside the flock and change a habit.
I would love to see the primary producers return to their rightful place of the food supply chain.
In my lifetime the tables have turned against them.
I’ve been off at school all day or I’d have chipped in earlier. Production losses come from heat stress – and wind chill. Shelter can make a big difference for temperature extremes at both ends of the scale. Scattered trees are difficult where stock may take them out, and fencing each tree could be considered a PITA. But I believe it’s worth it. Also, if your stock have access to mineral licks they’ll typically leave trees alone (cept the tasty leaves).
As weather patterns continue to deteriorate Farmers main defense against drought and subsequent bankruptcy is trees. Trees that double as fodder, and triple as nitrogen fixers.
We live in interesting times, where change, adapting and questioning what we have always done is imperative.
I have a mate who works for a company selling fertilizer.
They get soil samples from different parts of the property and mix a fertilizer containing the minerals that are deficient.
The idea is soil health is paramount. As opposed to going for the crack pipe habit of phosphate/urea.
Farmers are conservative (keen on status quo), but these other theories (organic/permaculture) are slowly becoming more popular.
Heaven forbid, they may become mainstream in our lifetime.
Of course with plant-based diets we wouldn’t have to shade animals Cinny because we wouldn’t be farming them. Animal agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and degrades our environment in other ways and needs to end.
Better for the animals and better for us, especially as it moving to plant-based diets increases the chances of humans actually surviving.
Not sure that is true Grey Area. Animals are an integral part of ecosystems and always have been. We could lower stocking rates, but eliminating stock is highly problematic. In NZ we had ridiculous numbers of birds that brought oceanic resources to land. On the land some moa species ‘took the place’ of cows grazing/browsing ground covers. These were then laid low, able to be composted through winters season adding nutrients for the next spring flush. Fungi too, have many species designed to work with both dung and plant matter.
Natures systems are not vegan, vegetarian, or even lactose intolerant.
The ability to find shade is absolutely necessary for the basic comforts of the animals as well. I’ve been increasingly dismayed by the removal of windbreaks in favour of vast irrigation networks. Could it be pasture growth is quantifiable, animal well-being is not?
Detention camps run by the military. I think there’s a name for those.
NEW: Trump advisers discussed this week whether the US military could build and run migrant detention camps, according to 3 US officials familiar with the conversations. https://t.co/lBj0R4MaLH – @ckubeNBC / @JuliaEAinsley
About the killing of the ‘mocking bird Julian Assange;’
This is a history of sad repute by our leading ‘peace makers’.
It was shown that ‘the dirty tricks campaign’ had gone out to deliberately repeatedly “discredit” the whistle blowers again now beginning with Julian Assange.
Now on sex charges, so what else will they throw at him?
They will lock him up for life as Daniel Ellsberg On Assange Arrest: The Beginning of the End For Press Freedom video attest to; – a powerful video expression by Daniel.
Thank you for you and Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning for standing up for our freedom of expression.
The only cheering is TRP, Mcflock etc who think that abandonment of due process, extradition to the States and solitary confinement for life, for something that isn’t a crime, is appropriate.
The rest of us are capable of separating the public good, from wikileaks, from the fact that Sweden should have followed due process, and punished him only, for his actions that are a crime. If found guilty.
lol pretty much everything about your two main paragraphs was incorrect or probably incorrect.
Due process is being followed.
The sentence for the crimes which the yanks are trying to extradite him for isn’t life.
Hacking is a crime (albeit one he is probably innocent of).
The Swedes did and are following due process.
And I, for one, don’t think that the incorrect scenario you outlined would be appropriate.
Between you, who I thought was better than that, TRP, and a few other “black and white” non thinkers, who cannot comprehend that no one is all good, or all bad, are making this site a cesspit.
Making any reasoned discussion, uncomfortable.
Francesca, who you would justifiably expect to be tough on a rapist, has put forward reasoned points.
The replies have been an unthinking witch hunt.
I am disappointed at the low level of intelligent discussion displayed here.
If you actually really think that this has even the slightest thing to do with rape, then all I can say is that you must be a very naive person indeed.
I’m just glad that he looks like he might get to face the rape charges. Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views.
This Video is about the recent history of Russia……
” Yeltsin went into the election campaign with a rating hovering between 3%-5%, reflecting what must be the single most disastrous presidency of the 20th century: Under Yeltsin, Russia’s economy collapsed some 60%, the male life expectancy plummeted from 68 years to 56, millions were reduced to living on subsistence farming for the first time since Stalin as wages went unpaid for years at a time. Russia was on its way to going extinct—but about 3-5% of the population (plus or minus 3%) was making out like bandits. Probably because they actually were bandits. “https://pando.com/2015/05/17/neocons-2-0-the-problem-with-peter-pomerantsev/
The music starts about 6 mins 48 secs
The Wolf and bears ….. 11 mins 55 secs
Iwould describe it as …. 2 minutes to midnight rock ……
You seem to making a habit of writing disparaging comments about other regular commenters here on TS as your single focus. Yesterday, you were targeting Wayne on OM @ 2 and now you are having a go at James. By doing so, you are setting a tone and creating an environment in which others find it o.k. to join your posse and chime in. I don’t think this is conducive to healthy debate or making others feel welcome, do you?
I have no posse Incognito ….. unless your talking a posse against me quite often.
Anyway ,,, surprise , surprise …. you missed the point of my post …. which I’ll repeat ….. as having a one eyed, opportunistic, inconsistent, rape apologist troll like james, ….. trying to scare people off and shut down the argument is worse than my being a bit rude to such types ….
james ….
….Who used sleazy rape culture posts to diminish the woman involved in the waikato cheifs sexual assault controversy.
….Who uses and advocates for the lawless rapey company ‘uber’.
….who advocated for public toilet sex … he did this when defending some other over-sexed rugby player.
….who thought it fair enough Oxfam should lose funding ……… for two sacked workers who allegedly used prostitutes
….He who who called right wing Brazilian leader and rape celebrator Jair Bolsonaro “charismatic”
James ….Who ran around with glee …. trying to smear Labour as ‘rape apologists’ …. over a drunk committing assults at a Labour youth event …
And has run around the Assange thread.. trying to label everyone ‘rape apologists’…
Same with Wayne Mapp … who should be shamed and reviled … until prompted into doing something good …. Like a apology and donation to his victims ….. the dead and maimed ones.
“We’ve heard the tragic tales of our murdered Christchurch Muslims bravely trying to protect their children / their wife / their husband — their mother / their father and their community ……
……The same brave sacrifices obviously took place multiple times …… in our SAS revenge raid on the Afghanistan village,,,,, under Wayne Mapp and John Key……
But we never heard of these brave people …… who we killed ,,,, and who were then dissapeared from existence.
Even though I feel they were more human than Wayne Mapp / Key are ….”
The problem is incognito ….. How do you propose to shame the blatantly reprehensible among us ….. without being blunt ??.
My politics is I want the truth …. and less wars.
Sorry if that offends you ——– I extend you my plausible sincerity
The problem is incognito ….. How do you propose to shame the blatantly reprehensible among us ….. without being blunt ??.
Is that what you’re trying to do here, shaming the blatantly (!) reprehensible? If I understand you correctly, your targets are reprehensible because, in your opinion, they have reprehensible opinions that you clearly object to. If so, you feel justified to play the man instead of the ball?
My politics is I want the truth …. and less wars.
Not sure what you mean by that. Is wanting “the truth” politics? And “less wars” [sic]? How do you envisage your shaming strategy here on TS leads to “the truth” and “less wars”? Do you expect “the blatantly reprehensible among us” to go through some cathartic shaming ritual and become more like you, for example?
Or do you simply want them to shut up and go away?
Or do you want to punish them?
I’m honestly at a loss as to what you’re thinking and what you’re trying to achieve here. In any case, I don’t think it is working, do you?
Also Incog …James has smeared multitude people here at TS …. in multi threads ….
I’m quite specific to where my criticism is directed … and I try to make an informative point while doing it.
And Here’s a thing we both missed about James …. to quote the troll … ” Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views”
How is it political to want democratic OPEN govt Incognito ?? ….Or is it political in the sense of Authoritarian versus open democratic ???
You’ll find I argue like a sticky gummy-bear … I use snipey posts at me to expand my argument ….
Also Incog …James has smeared multitude people here at TS …. in multi threads ….
So, for you it is personal, some kind of vendetta?
And Here’s a thing we both missed about James …. to quote the troll … ” Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views”
Uhhhmmm, what exactly did we miss there? What blatantly reprehensive act was hiding in plain view?
How is it political to want democratic OPEN govt Incognito ?? ….Or is it political in the sense of Authoritarian versus open democratic ???
Is this “the truth” that you were referring to or have you moved the goal posts? Anyway, how does your shaming of so-called trolls here on TS pave a path to “democratic OPEN govt”?
You’ll find I argue like a sticky gummy-bear … I use snipey posts at me to expand my argument ….
You sound a tad defensive and you are quite evasive. Do you object to being queried about your motivations and conduct here on TS?
If you cannot argue a point in your own words, a video won’t help much either. People who cannot stand on their own two feet often use them as crutches …
Sorry incognito ….. when I meant sticky gummy-bear,,, in this instance I meant using your post to expand the case and Argument ,,,, that Julian Assange is hunted and persecuted for reasons that have nothing to do …. nothing to do with the smears james has been running around this site with.
He has not answered whether he Would use the gutter label and call ‘Amy goodman , Naiomei Shaei, Ranata Viella , Gleen Greenwald, edward snowden,’ and all the other people featured in the democracy now news item … ” rape apologists” ???
And how come the Democracy Now news item had a totally different weighting of content and information …. compared to james posts … which are pretty much 100% rape apologist finger pointing or other shit smeary accusations on this topic….
How come Amy Goodmans reporting and Denocracy now …. carry such a different story ,,, than those being spread by many TS posters… and others joining in with the James campaigns ???.
Neither smeary James or others speak of the best step forward if it truly were about two women … like take their views into consideration at a formal tribunal or something ….
And we could recognize Julian Assange has children and they are victims too…. of what has been quite a long sentence so far …
You and many others here on TS seem to have major problems separating the issue from the commenter. In fact, I think it’s lazy and possibly even deliberate because it suits you. In any case, it does not make for good discussion or debate. That is my point, which you have not addressed in a satisfactory way.
New Zealand World
‘Islam is peace’: Pakistani city shows support for victims of the Christchurch mosque terror attacks
9:08 am today
More than 20,000 people in a Pakistani city have created a striking visual tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
More than 20,000 people in Shorkot, Pakistan created a striking visual tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
Dressed in white, they stood in formation in front of a shrine to create a huge living image of the Al Noor Mosque in Deans Avenue, 13,000 kilometres away.
They lined up behind a large banner saying ‘Solidarity with Martyrs of Christchurch, from Pakistan’, and hundreds more formed the message ‘Islam Is Peace’ in English.
Spokesperson Asif Tanveer Awan says the event in the city of Shorkot was organised by a think-tank, the Muslim Institute, in order to send a strong message to the world that Muslims want peace and cooperation.
Two women telling how they have survived seeing their countries change in front of their eyes and being dislocated. And they have learned to adapt but are aware of the goodness they have in life but also I think both do not believe in getting too attached to institutions, and the need to be thinking about things, wary of change.
Which I think is a mindset we have to adopt.
It seems to me that we have come to a stop in our minds at the end of last century, and are slow to see how we have to change for the 21st century. Also have we appreciated what was good and valuable, and how we were, in the 20th century and carried our bundles of goodness to preserve them and share, in this century.
That will elp us to keep being potentially wonderful humans living in harmony yet individuality with each other and the planet, and not allow ourselves to be turned into machine and efficiency pawns, human resources being pushed around by powerful, mindless and soulless others – people and corporate conglomerates.
Yesterday was the saddest day I have ever witnessed on The Standard, one after another people came on to say that they were actually glad Assange had been arrested, I of course have always known that The Standard harbors a lot of reactionaries, but I honestly didn’t realize that it harbored so many stupid, short sighted reactionaries who are so easily sucked in by establishment propaganda…I was shocked, am shocked at the depth of stupidity that has been so proudly displayed by so many here..history will of course, and rightly, judge them cruelly.
The Standard via Te Reo Putake yesterday finally converged seamlessly with Mike Hosking…if that doesn’t give you pause to think..
There is much disdain for Assange from people who wouldn’t be prepared to expose themselves for a mass moral purpose as he did. A lot of people are guided in their direction by their own individual concerns or that of the general group they form part of.
An outlier like Assange acting for the principle of transparency of dark doings against the mass of u. He has used means that have been made illegal by the very people carrying out or enabling the dark doings. It is a rare and significant protest on the behalf of those who care that such machinations should be exposed. Thanks for that Julian, it takes determination, vision and inner strength to do such things which few have.
I wholeheartedly agree Adrian.
The display of cognitive dissonance is disturbing.
We all know that the facts are:
Julian Assange was not charged with rape or any other crime by the Swedish authorities.
Julian Assange has published information that has never been refuted that has caused considerable embarrassment to many.
Those feasting on the downfall of Juilan Assange seem to have little introspection, display even less logic and no empathy
What many seem not to appreciate is that the false accusation of rape is an extremely evil crime.
I passed comment yesty along those lines, but more from a fascination angle.
I am sure those who disappointed you, would see themselves as progressive.
My hunch is the sexual allegations is what tarnished most of their opinions.
Akin to trying to separate the art from the artist, eg Picasso, in time Assange will be seen separate to the deeds/allegations.
I find it frustrating that the ‘left’ saves the worst for its closest allies.
There was an enquiry some years ago about a plane taking off in conditions that were marginal and late in the day because there had been bad weather for some time.
I wonder how often that will happen in this area enclosed by high mountains as seen in the media image. The more planes, the more risk and the more unhappy stranded tourists who expect their bucks to buy them entry, quality experience, and exit as and when required.
Queenstown airport has been effectively running at over 100% for a couple of years and it’s only a matter of time before something breaks. Yesterday’s oops has been on the cards for a while with minimal atc staff cover combined with a town where people get sick a lot for the first 10 years they live here because there’s a new bug on every bus and plane. This affects every employer to varying degrees, but staff critical positions like atc, teaching and police are hard hit.
We are also getting very close to airspace limits with little space if aircraft have to go around, which happens a lot due to a very difficult airport. On Wednesday afternoon most flights (8 I think, can’t get back that far in flightradar) were diverted because of cloud to ground level with the front, which would have cost the airlines a packet. On a day with tricky cross winds there will be jets on hold all over the southern South Island waiting to get an approach slot.
Queenstown airport has also become the de-facto regional airport for the southern South Island. Passengers come from Southland, most of Otago outside Dunedin and South Westland to travel to Auckland, Wellington and Australia. There’s 26 jet aircraft going through ZQN today and 3 ATRs, that’s a typical day.
There’s a fairly solid consensus around the district that the airport’s at it’s limits and needs to move as the current location is beyond it’s capacity, but beyond that it gets tricky. Where does it go to do a better job? A new regional airport will need to be easily connected to it’s main markets, Queenstown and Wanaka, and not have noise or airspace issues.
Three options have been bandied around. First is a dual airport idea with expansion of the existing Wanaka airport which hasn’t gone down well with the good burghers of Wanaka, to say the least. Then there’s two options a new regional airport, Five Rivers, near Lumsden, and Tarras near Wanaka. Tarras is easier to connect with but has noise and airspace constraints, Five Rivers is an excellent site but expensive to connect to existing tourist infrastructure as it’s 100 km south Queenstown. Both would probably need a quick rail connection to avoid bus mayhem, and then you’d have high speed rail to Christchurch sneaking into the mix as well.
So a huge can of worms, vested interests with several airport companies and big operators trying to protect their turf, and locals who’ve had enough of the noise and congestion, but want their city connectivity, and local councils who want it in their patch.
This one’s going to need very strong leadership from Government, and very soon.
Yep, although in this case the airport is 75.1% local council (QLDC) and 24.9% AIA so local interests still have control. Where it gets bogged down is all the other “interested” parties trying to steer the ship in their direction.
A lot of the growth we’ve seen has been due to the demise of Christchurch as a visitor destination post earthquakes, that market space has been displaced to Wellington and Queenstown. There’s over twice the capacity ZQN – WLG than ZQN – CHC now and that won’t change back.
Bt any solution is going to need to be led by central government, not possible at a local level.
ANZ are starting direct flights NV – AA in August I think, which will very slightly reduce the load on Queenstown. Southlanders won’t need drive there to get to Auckland or further afield.
There will never be another airfield built. The aircraft numbers would have to be high to justify a completely new development. And Lumsden has too many fog days in winter anyway.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the NV-AA thing goes, hope it works for Invercargill’s sake, but don’t think it’ll make much difference to Queenstown. Just hope it doesn’t bugger the frequency of flights to Christchurch.
The weather issues are equal for all the options, and the airlines want the airport to be able to take wide body aircraft and be at least CAT II, preferably CAT III, so instrument landing. This wouldn’t be a problem at Five Rivers.
Biggest problem with Five Rivers is the 100 km to Queenstown. And that it may threaten the viability of Christchurch.
There will have to be another airport built, Queenstown is getting too difficult to sustain and sooner or later it’s going to break. Whatever the solution it’s going to be hard and expensive. Doing nothing and sticking with the existing airport is in category too.
Ok there will be a critical number of arrivals/departures that determines the financial viability of any new airport. Government funding would be required for such a large investment and I just can’t see it happening. I can’t see Queenstown interests funding it either. But I’m often wrong about things.
If the NV-AA Airbus link succeeds there will probably be one less ATR going out from NV first thing in the mornings.
Why build in Lumsden when NV is already large enough for big jets, slightly less than an hour further away less affected by fog/low cloud. Much less investment to bring up to standard, I’ll get Tim onto right away….
Newshub’s politica editor Tova O’Brien reports: The war between Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross has gone up a notch. Credits: Newshub.
The war between Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross has gone up a notch with yet more explosive allegations from the former National MP.
Ross has implied Bridges was told by intelligence agencies that a National MP was a Chinese spy.
Our top spies were asked about it at Parliament in their first outing since the Christchurch terror attack.
GCSB boss Andrew Hampton warns against local election online voting
Jami-Lee Ross brings more allegations against National’s Simon Bridges
GCSB, NZSIS concerned about foreign interference in New Zealand election
The leaders of New Zealand’s spy agencies are normally secretive when out in the great wide open.
“We’re really happy to talk to you after the hearing,” Rebecca Kitteridge, director-general of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS), told Newshub outside Parliament on Thursday morning when she arrived.
Both Kitteridge’s agency and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) – of which Andrew Hampton is director-general – are being investigated as part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the March 15 attack.
When asked why the alleged gunman wasn’t on NZSIS’s radar, Kitteridge told Newshub: “Well, I guess that’s what the [Royal Commission of Inquiry] will look into.”
The head of the GCSB said the agency needs a red flag before it can act, and there wasn’t one.
“Lots of people travel to Pakistan, lots of people have gun licences, unfortunately lots of people post not very nice stuff on dodgy websites,” he said.
The spy bosses at Parliament were there to warn MPs about foreign government interference in New Zealand politics. They said they’re not just using cash, but putting pressure on expat communities and even MPs.
When asked if she’s concerned a state might have tried to exert influence over New Zealand MPs, Kitteridge responded: “Yes.”
Tough article with some very hard lessons. It is hard work emotionally killing. I’ve worked on a farm and seen the calves die and/or be killed. I’ve seen the cows go down and the gun come out. We’ve got to reduce the pressure on people and reducing herd size and areas herds can be would really help. But of course this is about m.bovis and the havoc it has wrought.
Henk Smit could handle the bullet in the mail and the death threats.
It was when the dairy farmer had to shoot his newborn calves that the impact of Mycoplasma bovis finally hit him…
… “I think was a really bad call,” he says at his quiet Maungatautari property. “On the other farm, we had a contract milker and that sent him over the edge, killing the calves, and he tried to commit suicide in spring…
…Calving was always the highlight on the farming calender for Smit because he saw the next generation of his herd being born.
“Now I had to shoot them on a daily basis for weeks on end and I think the impact of that has definitely been underestimated, not only for me, but plenty of other farmers too.”
He staggered the culling to reduce the financial and emotional impact. He said the the final portion of his herd left the farm just three weeks ago.
How sad – poor young man committed suicide. I suppose he couldn’t get out of his contract which he entered innocently never thinking of such a situation. And as Smit noted it was awful work when he had to do it himself. If farmers actually worked at their own businesses, and were not encouraged by easy credit to buy numerous farms (think Crafar*) there would be less of this sort of result. The bad spongy brain spread of disease in Britain was exacerbated by industrial farming methods.
* In 2009 they owned 22 farms, 18 of which are dairy, and 20,000 cows,[3] making them New Zealand’s largest family owned dairy business.[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CraFarms
These are the consequences when you try to engineer your way to maximum profit and growth with scant regard for good practice.
It is to be hoped that this will be a lesson to others in this industry and other industries. They need to ask themselves whether profit and growth at any cost is worth the inherent risk.
First point, this salt reactor actually is capable of using the waste (spent fuel) from other nukes as fuel, thereby helping to deal with the problem of waste built up from existing reactors.
Second, it’s in the right power range for large ships. It’s also a pretty useful size for remote installations that are unsuitable for solar.
But yeah, for mainstream grid supply, wind and solar have got so cheap it’s hard to see any new nukes making the grade.
“First point, this salt reactor actually is capable of using the waste (spent fuel) from other nukes as fuel, thereby helping to deal with the problem of waste built up from existing reactors.”
It’s an example of the broader class of “fast neutron reactors”. Most of which can be configured to use as fuel the waste from most of today’s reactors.
While the ability to burn other reactor’s waste is attractive, there’s also downsides. The biggest being that burning the uranium238 (that’s a large part of the waste from more common reactors) requires turning most of it into plutonium239 along the way. There’s obvious concerns about military proliferation there.
Personally I’m more interested in thorium based reactors. Because the intermediate steps of the thorium reaction chain are much harder to turn into weapons (though not impossible). But probably just as attractive to terrorists wanting to build dirty bombs.
Agreed, although the thorium story and MSR’s while technically separate, are in reality very closely aligned. It’s pretty much the same people interested in both at this time.
It’s a good question; I’m a big fan of CSP power, it looks very cool and comes with built-in energy storage. Of all the renewable technologies it’s the one which I suspect has the brightest future.
But it’s important not to underestimate the scale of the challenge and the enormous amount of land and resources that will be consumed to make a serious contribution to the total global need.
These MSR reactors are nothing like your grandfather’s Pressurised Water Reactors. Some typical features:
1. All the safety engineering is ‘walk away’ passive. If something goes wrong the correct thing to do is nothing. The machine will stop and cool itself with no external power or intervention.
2. All the dangerous nucleides, cesium, strontium and iodine are stable compounds within the salt. Even if the plant was bombed, all that would happen is the released molten salt would solidify quickly, the nuclear reaction would stop and no gases would be released.
3. The internal operating pressures are very low, barely 2 -4 atmospheres. The engineering is far easier.
4. They are incredibly flexible with what fuel they use; and will cheerfully burn the waste from existing reactors. All current MSR designs are intended to have zero waste stream. Uranium, thorium, plutonium … gobble, munch, munch.
5. The manufacturing model will be similar to ship building or aircraft manufacture; everything is built and shipped from a single global site, and the sealed reactor units are shipped to wherever needed. Site assembly and certification is hugely reduced and they require almost no maintenance. No back up power, no emergency systems, no super complex control systems, no containment vessel, etc.
6. The cores are intended to have an operating life of about 5 – 10 years, after which the operator swaps to a new unit, shuts down the old one and lets it cool for 3 -5 years. Then ships the spent and empty unit back to the manufacturing site for refurbishment.
These things are just way easier to do, once you have the salt chemistry and fuel cycle sorted. The safety case is hugely less onerous and operating them is relatively simple. Homer Simpson might have trouble fecking with one.
The expectation is the costs will be about half that of new coal plant. These can be rolled out fast and located without huge infrastructure demands. All up I see these as being a faster and more certain route to de-carbonising than renewables on their own.
This could be the missing link in energy budgets to transform to a more resilient economy. We’ve not got the oil resources to do it without mucking up the planet.
Just yesterday I was daydreaming in class about how we might set up a block of renewable energy (using oil energy) and start from there to use less oil and more renewables as we ‘expand out’ to encompass more of industry/market/the globe.
Energy stuff is not my forte, but I do think we might progressively retrofit without too much pain if we work in a methodical manner always reducing consumable energy as we increase sustainable energy.
The issue is that large infrastructure projects require tremendous energy inputs. I’m trying to get my head around how we transition the transition period – if that makes any sense…
I also think they can test these reactors NIMBY. Heard too many false claims from companies posing as saviors. Swap some out for older more dangerous reactors maybe, as in those situations it might be seen as progress.
I’d vehemently oppose anyone testing any form of nuclear reactor here.
I would cheerfully have one in my backyard, indeed I’d love to have a crack at working in one. While the nuclear aspect would be pretty tame, there is real potential for innovative thermochemical downstream processing, the efficient production of bulk hydrogen for instance, that would be really interesting.
MSR’s are nothing like the massive nuclear plants we’re all accustomed to; they’re a fraction of the size. They have more in common with building a large ship than a massive plant.
ORNL successfully ran the first one in the 60’s for five years with no incidents of any kind.
It’s not a case of one company promising miracles. At present there are 6 -10 different private companies working towards a licensed design, and the Chinese have an impressive $500m program; leading the way on work being done in 10 different countries. MSR’s are not completely without technical challenges, but most of them appear to be a matter of funding and time, rather than needing to invent wheels. The biggest hurdles are going to be regulatory, and overcoming negative public sentiment toward anything nuclear.
It’s strongly arguable that if the Nixon administration had not shut the original ORNL program down in 1973 for purely political reasons, MSR’s would have likely become the dominant energy source by now … and global warming would never have become an issue.
Looking ahead to when transport is fully electrified, it’s not hard to imagine service stations wanting to have on-site generation in the range of tens of MW. That’s in the same range as what large ships need. It’s not hard to see substantial demand for mass-produced small reactors.
NZ probably won’t ever get there, but much of the rest of the world might. Personally I’d have no concerns about those being nukes, particularly if they were thorium. For military proliferation and terrorism reasons, not any kind of Chernobyl style fears.
Checkout the specs! They aren’t quite the holy grail as their energy density is about 2/3 standard Lithium chemistries, but for applications where weight doesn’t matter too much, like buses, boats, solar storage, etc they’re definitely the next leap forward. Full recharge is possible in 10 minutes!
Down the road a year or two we should see the next gen of solid state Lithiums. If they live up to the promise, then fully electric personal transport will happen very quickly. A huge amount of R&D is going on, but Tesla’s buyout of these guys recently shows concrete progress:
Professional. I’m using them to eliminate the travelling harness on a high speed shuttle. It recharges when parked for piece change-out, and allows easy 2D freedom of movement with no trailing power cables for the automation. All control data is via RF.
The 20,000+ cycle life is pretty attractive too. Cells like this were either not cost effective or unavailable 12 months ago.
even the tripe media ( 2nd behind finance as the biggest benefit industry on NZ economy) shouldn’t be reporting or broadcasting the contents of threats made to public figures
Peter Dutton has apologised for appalling comments he made about his Labor opponent (who happens to be an amputee) in his seat of Dickson. But not before 2 Labor heavyweights, Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek and Senator Kristina Keneally went to town on him and PM Morrison over the issue.
Keneally did not mince words – cut him right down. Called him a thug, and the ‘worst’ of the liberals. Which must have been a difficult decision to make because it’s a crowded field.
Plibersek was pretty much on message too, accusing Dutton of trying to ditch Dickson for a more glamorous seat closer to his mansion in the Gold Coast.
As late as Friday evening Dutton was doubling down on the accusations, by Saturday arvo he’d apologised. The optics were terrible and the overnight polling must have been diabolical for the Liberals.
This is bad and sad. My relatives have been teachers, and I have heard that principals can be more concerned about smooth running and meeting Board
requirements than actually fulfilling the requirements of looking after the pastoral care of students as well as the important keeping up on the league table of passes and success as expected.
Has anyone encountered a successful all-school effort to reduce bullying by discussing it and its detrimental effects on the pupil, the bully, and the school as model of a social group within the larger group of society? I wondered about an all-school meeting to discuss the problems and how they affect individuals and show lack of social abilities which are needed in a healthy society. Of course studies in philosophy, different cultures and how they handle the common human
condition should be mandatory but our society has never had deep enough thought to ask for this.
Kia ora R&R.
THE plastic waste should be legerslated so that the manufacturer and retailers pay a percentage to give the waste a valuation to make it profitable to recycle it.
I agree all the chemicals that leach out of our WASTE can and is causing bad side effects on our wildlife and US.
The plastic waste /WASTE problems is not to big to cured its a problem that has to be cured we just need smart simple laws a process to FIX this Problem. Ka kite ano
Eco Maori exzact thoughts the powerfull people don’t want the truth to get out THE TRUTH IS POWER trump is using all the dirty tricks in his puppets book to control OUR media he has use the power of the USA goverments power to suppress the biggest problem human kind is about to face CLIMATE CHANGE . With the sexual assult charges does one think that Julian would have made such a STUPID move knowing the USA goverment was after his ASS KNOW that acusation is the easyest set up they could come up with pay a girl $10 of thousands to stand up in court and lie I have seen the sandflys trying this move on ECO MAORI WTF.
The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is so disliked in journalism and political circles that many reporters and liberal politicians were publicly cheering on Thursday when the Trump administration released an indictment of Assange, which was related to his interactions with the whistleblower Chelsea Manning in the months leading up to the publication of Pentagon and state department cables in 2010.
The Assange prosecution threatens modern journalism
Please do not fall for this trap. It is exactly what the Trump administration is hoping for, as the Department of Justice (DoJ) moves forward with its next dangerous step in its war on journalism and press freedom.
The larger context surrounding this case is almost as important as the Assange indictment itself. Donald Trump has been furious with leakers and the news organizations that publish them ever since he took office. He complains about it constantly in his Twitter tirades. He has repeatedly directed the justice department to stop leaks, and he even asked former FBI director James Comey if he can put journalists in jail.
The justice department has responded by launching a record number of leak cases and have weighed changing the rules to make it easier to subpoena journalists
Ka kite ano links below P.S Julian let the Papatuanuku know that goverments are CHEATS.
I know Julian Assange is a wonderful friend of the Trolls on here. Through him they have discovered some nasty bits of what happens in War. As if that was ever an unknown.
They seem entirely unaware that Assange released what he called “timely information” (true or false) to obliterate Hilary Clinton’s chances of Presidency.
He is after all Mr Big. He did not try and destroy the Wealthy, of course. Just the needy. And of course Obama Care is a hanging offence in the Wealthy Troll households.
The most savage Wikileak thing to Date, is the release of Millions of pieces of personal Information belonging to Turkish Women. Home Address, Banking, Phone, and so on.
Neither ugly Wikileaks or Assange, has apologised to all those Women. Many of whom are now victims of Turkey Red Necks, former mongrel husbands, and Murder.
Like New Zealand, Turkey males do not value the women who bring them into the World.
The Internet, thanks to mongrels like Assange, is not worth a dime. It’s a dump, fit for dumpsters.
Eco Maori Agrees strongly with these comments we are PART OF THE ENVIROMENT we need to care for OUR enviroment like its our grandparents as Papatuanuku actually is OUR GRANDPARENT FOOLs
We need to coexist with the ecosystem because we’re part of it, and so are birds
Susan Elbin
Though the studies bear sad news about the effects cities have on birds, conservationists see them as opportunities to target their activism.
“Every time new scientific literature comes out, we learn more about the problem, and … we can pinpoint the best solutions using the science,” said Kaitlyn Parkins, a conservation biologist at NYC Audubon.
Turning out the lights in buildings at night for a few weeks during peak migration is a simple first step and would make a big difference, Parkins said. The National Audubon Society runs Lights Out, a coordinated effort with local chapters to advocate reducing light during migration. States such as New York and Minnesota have participated in the program, turning out lights in state-operated buildings during migration.
Conservationists also advocate that buildings adopt more “bird-friendly” designs, for example using patterned glass and dimmer lighting. San Francisco and Toronto have already adopted some bird-friendly guidelines, while city council members in New York and Chicago have introduced legislation to adopt similar measures. A bipartisan bill in Congress introduced in January, called the “Bird-Safe Building Act”, would require new federal buildings to adopt designs that keep migrating birds in mind.
“We need to coexist with the ecosystem because we’re part of it, and so are birds,” Elbin said. “What’s good for birds is good for people.”
This article was amended on 8 April 2019 to clarify the relative dangers different types of buildings pose for birds. Ka kite ano links below
Kia kaha you go and fight for your futures climate the neanderthals are to dumb to get the big picture
“The power that we have in numbers and the power that we have in coming together and taking action as a collective was something people were really keen to get back into.”
The plan was for other groups around the country to hold their own meetings in the coming weeks and months. Sophie said inclusivity was central to the movement, and they wanted everyone who had been involved in the strike so far to have their say in the next steps.
In Auckland, 17-year-old strike organiser Luke Wijohn said while things slowed down slightly, lots of new people have joined the movement in the weeks since March 15.
Sophie said the students wanted to make it clear the strike wasn’t a one-off and they were committed to holding the government to account.
The group was developing a national strategy and planned to create a youth climate action network. Campaigning to make climate change education a compulsory part of the curriculum was one of the aims on the cards.
Another global school climate strike was planned for September 27. Ka kite ano links below
Kia ora Newshub.
Condolences to Evet whanau.
Its cool that Our government is going to sort out the problems with the construction sector it needs sorting out as it been left in a Mess.
I see some puppet trying ride on ECO MAORI Coat Tails once again I stand by my Tau toko of Julian.
I Back Nagti Kuri call for a Tangaroa sanatorium we have to save Tangaroa for our MOKOPUNA.
Its a good idea that more people at school learn CPR for heart attack victims revival.
You no how it is they will never apologise for the atrocities that were carried out in India or to other indigenous cultures that’s the European way.
Its a good idea going around and getting knowledge from the kaumatua before they pass but studying war is a waste of time in my view someone has to record the indigenous cultures knowledge before our tangata whenua O Atoearoa kaumatua pass. Ka kite ano P.S Some are trying every dirty trick in their book to try stop the Eco Maori effect. YEA RIGHT
Kia ora The AM Show.
Ryan a capital gains tax is needed to stop all NZ capital flowing out to nation with no tax keep the capital in NZ for the Mokopuna allso it takes the burden off the paye tax payer’s.No simon the tax needs to be aimed at the people who pay next to KNOW TAX
The Australian Unicon sheep looks hard case mite be a new breed that will get the deniers to see reality with a little prodding.
I still see a lot of EGGS around if eggs get to expensive people will be able to grow their own with very little money and work.
Mark ther you go making statements that have to be retracted
That billion dollar hole was joice pridicting the extra cost that the government service industry has to spend to clean up the MESS HE MADE.
Bush you are frowning have you heard OF the TRUTH that I have been say about your organisation its the TRUTH.
A good free range egg is bright orange very good.
I think the way the government has aproched the construction industry is WIZE asking what needs to be done to fix some of the problems in the industry I can remember 28 years ago I got a house built the section price would have just payed for the prosess of council permits now days GO FIGURE why we have a housing shortage now.
My literacy is OK for someone’s who actually only learnt at school to the age of 9 after that Eco Maori is self taught my spelling is bad but I READ very well.
Now is the time to put heaps of effort into conserving OUR indanger WILD life like the Maui Dolphin Ka pai.
Ka kite ano P.S congratulations on the new jacket someone has given me a birthday present all ready Mike the leftys need to harden up and let everyone know as the ightys cheat when ever they can and the left let them hide their cheating ways if someone goes public they get what they deserve
The 21st century comunacation device was is a device that gets the TRUTH out to the masses of tangata. Social Media is the best way to inform the people that the RULEING CLASS are RIPPING the common tangata of they use there MONEY to try and hide the facts change the facts.
One exzample is salt and sugar one we need in OUR diet the other we don’t one can be obtained from tangaroa the other is controled by big busness.
Salt has heaps of infomation published about the negitive effects I say most of that is crap.
Sugar causes DIABETES obesity rotts teeth stuff you liver and many other bad side effects from sugar and up till a few months ago every story on sugar had the words would or could cause these bad side effects when the links between sugar and the bad health affects are clear to see you see this is just a small part of the story of the eelite CHEATING the 99.99 % out of the truth here are just a few on the topics that they are cheating tangata ABOUT.
Sugar
salt
we don’t know why the native poupulation’s are doing so bad /no discrimanation here don’t LOOK and you won’t see it.
Carbon is not causing climate change
nitrogin is not causeing our water ways/ AWA to die.
The trickle down effect when its clear the captialst system is being massaged to make the money flow to the TOP and stop any trickleing down to the poor people/COUNTRYS.
the justice systems being fair
The ruling class are hounest YEA RIGHT when do they admite lierability not even if there hand’s are caught in the cookie jar they will lies and say they were just cleaning the jar and take the lie to the highest COURT in the land to obmit liability the poor person could not even get it to a COURT but ha the justice system is fair YEA RIGHT .
This is why I back social media 100 % AS now we get to sift throught the information and find the FACT.s with social media Ka kite ano Links below P.S the ruling class laught to themselves that the common person is hounest.
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Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On Friday 22nd of November a curfew came into effect and troops were deployed on the streets, here in Bogota. It was the first time since September 1977 that a curfew had been imposed on the city. The decision was a cynical pre-planned ...
Meanwhile, while the government is planning to restore voting rights to prisoners, National is promising to turn our prisons into US-style slave-labour camps:The Opposition is proposing compulsory education, training or employment for prisoners who are serving sentences of two years or more. [...] On Sunday, National Party Leader Simon Bridges ...
Excerpts from Being and Being Bought, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman Spinifex Press, 2013. Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book. This is the second part of a synopsis and brief commentary of the book by Daphna ...
Dalmeet Singh ChawlaIn 2008, psychologists proposed that when humans are shown an unfamiliar face, they judge it on two main dimensions: trustworthiness and physical strength. These form the basis of first impressions, which may help people make important social decisions, from who to vote for to how long a ...
Claas Kirchhelle, University of Oxford; Adam Roberts, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and Andrew Singer, Centre for Ecology & HydrologyAntibiotics are among the most important medicines known to humankind, but we are running out of this crucial resource. Decisive action is needed if we are to retain access to ...
Things That Make You Go - Hmmmm: “All right. Let me come at this another way. I’m guessing that what you’ve got in that box contains names, dates, bank account numbers – all the details you need to put Winston Peters and Jacinda Ardern squarely in the cross-hairs. So, the first ...
Coasters Turn Out In Droves: It’s precisely the widening gulf between those with actual experience of things like guns, chainsaws and drilling machines, and those who regulate their use, that accounts for the angry crowd at Greymouth’s Messenger Park on Sunday, 17 November 2019. In the rarefied atmosphere where decisions ...
There are perennial arguments about the circumstances of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, and in particular whether more than one shooter is required by the evidence (such as the Zapruder film). Those who know little about physics frequently claim that the sharp backwards motion of JFK’s head as ...
Apparently, some people enjoy washing their cars. Each to his or her own, I suppose. I mean, some people like duck shooting, some people follow Coronation Street, and some people’s idea of a good day out is to sit on a grass bank at Seddon Park and watch cricket all ...
Last week we learned that New Zealand First had apparently tried to enrich itself from public office, with a dodgy forestry company linked to a number of NZ First figures sticking its hand out repeatedly for government money. Today in Question Time Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had his ...
Finally, governments seem slowly to be beginning to act on climate change. But its not enough. While they're publicly signing up to targets, they're planning to destroy the world by continuing fossil fuel extraction:The world’s nations are on track to produce more than twice as much coal, oil and gas ...
Stuff has begun interviewing NZ First's secret donors, and it turns out that its as bad as we expected. They start with racing industry figure Garry Chittick, who is predictably grumpy about NZ First's coalition choices. Meanwhile, I'm looking at the list of pork NZ First has effectively given its ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, has called for awareness to be raised and more stringent biosecurity checks to be put in place for African Swine Fever (ASF), a widespread virus that is uncontrolled in most of Asia and a serious ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Human Rights A critical step has been taken to end gender based violence against women and girls in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Human Rights Jenny Marcroft MP has welcomed the passing of the first reading of the Crimes (Definition of Female ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says it's time to recognise market forces haven't led to the expected reduction in Māori smoking rates and try a new approach. The Party had recently invoked the agree to disagree clause in their Coalition Agreement with the Labour Party, and will not support ...
Live from the Whanganui Opera House, on the final day of the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Jacinda Ardern announced the largest investment in school property in 25 years. ...
The Coalition Government will be banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, ahead of next year’s general elections. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament and passed under urgency – emphasising the need for such restrictions to safeguard our democracy. The bill introduces a new requirement that party secretaries and ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones opened Taipā's $19 million bridge recently, improving transport infrastructure in the Northland region. The two-lane bridge is 107m long with a 2.5m-wide shared walking and cycling path, and will reduce the congestion that the old one-lane bridge was notorious for. The project had also included ...
The Overseas Investment Office have rejected the application of Mercury Agriculture LP, which is 92 per cent controlled by Canadian interests, to purchase more than 2000 hectares of South Canterbury and Otago land. Mercury wanted to buy 2000ha at Rangitata, 1494ha near Ashburton, 816ha near Cromwell and 212ha near Temuka. ...
This weekend was Labour's 103rd Party Conference! We welcomed over 500 of our Labour whānau in red to Whanganui, where we reflected on the last two years in Government, and looked ahead to 2020 and beyond. We know the long-term challenges facing New Zealand won't be tackled overnight, but we're making ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced that the Provincial Growth Fund will invest $9.6 million to seal the final unsealed section of State Highway 43 from Stratford to Taumarunui. The Minister said sealing the 12-kilometre gravel section of the highway – also called the “Forgotten World Highway” - through ...
Former Finance Minister and former chair of the Tax Working Group, Sir Michael Cullen, has voiced his support for New Zealand First’s decision to oppose the planned increase in tobacco excise tax. In an interview with The Weekend Collective, he said that increasing the price was no longer effective in ...
Māori are natural storytellers. On the marae we use stories to tell our history, to teach the next generation life lessons and to let people know, in our most creative of ways, who we are and where we have come from. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First has invoked the ‘Agree to Disagree’ provisions of the Coalition Agreement because it cannot support the announced 11.46 percent increase in the tobacco excise from 1 January 2020. “Studies show that the automatic tobacco excise increases are having less effect ...
Taupō-based company Geo40 has made a breakthrough in extracting near battery-grade lithium from geothermal fluid which its says could be a gamechanger. Its chief executive John Worth said the earth mineral was highly prized, with battery-grade lithium selling for US$10,000 (NZ$15,600) a tonne. Geo40 was founded in 2010 to find ...
Crown research institute AgResearch Ltd, as part of its Future Footprint plan, had intended to relocate top scientists and support staff — particularly those focused on sheep genetics and genomics — from Invermay to Lincoln. However, those plans seem to have been shelved at the request of the Coalition Government. ...
Ten engineering firms in Southland are receiving a total of $2.13 million in Provincial Growth Fund funding to lift productivity and create new jobs. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced in Invercargill that the 10 engineering and manufacturing firms would receive funding to assist them with buying equipment that ...
The number of new residents to New Zealand is the lowest it has been in nearly two decades and it has earned the ire of the immigration industry. The industry alleges that 'Trump-style extreme vetting' is being put in place aimed at keeping a lid on immigration numbers. June Ranson, ...
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is one step closer to modernising its fleet after the United States State Department recently approved the sale of five new C-130J Hercules aircraft to New Zealand. Arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the aircraft, but as a "foreign military ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones wants to create a log barging facility at Hicks Bay and turn the area into a Special Economic Zone. The move would be part of protecting New Zealand's forests from being depleted by India and China, he said. It follows his announcement last week to strengthen ...
New Zealand First supports the changes recommended by the Winter Grazing Taskforce to improve animal welfare outcomes through the winter months, and the establishment of a pan-sector action group to implement them. New Zealand First Primary Industries Spokesperson Mark Patterson says the report highlights areas of concern about the animal ...
Former prime ministers Helen Clark and Sir John Key, formerly from the Labour and National parties respectively, have joined forces in support of New Zealand First’s plan to relocate Auckland's port to Whangārei. While Ms Clark and Sir John spent their political careers on opposite sides of the political divide, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Japan for the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the G20 grouping of countries as one of nine "invited" countries. He has used the opportunity to cast a spotlight on the plight of Pacific countries, calling out countries which still offered subsidies or Government assistance to ...
It's been a great week of progress: we've celebrated Children's Day, we've made communities safer with 1800 new police, and we've seen almost 90% of eligible schools take up Government funding to scrap school donations - taking pressure off the families of more than 416,000 students. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The Government will further strengthen New Zealand’s wood processing sector as part of our focus on ‘value over volume’ in our forestry industry, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Minister Jones will today meet with forestry representatives in Northland to signal new measures to help the ...
New Zealand First are celebrating the announcement of an investment of $3.5 million into five new trapping devices. These are a range of bait and trap devices, all designed to be left unattended for long periods of time. NZ First conservation spokesperson Jenny Marcroft says that this latest development will ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Police New Zealand First is proud to have delivered on a key Coalition Agreement commitment to adding 1800 new frontline police, with the graduation of Recruit Wing 332 in Porirua today. Law and Order Spokesperson Darroch Ball says increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Conservation New Zealand First is proud to announce the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) has allocated $3.5 million to develop innovative predator control approaches which will reduce the need for repeated 1080 use. $19.5 million of PGF funding was announced for Predator Free 2050 Limited in February ...
Clayton Mitchell, Spokesperson for Consumer Affairs The ‘wheel clamping’ Bill that will cap clamper fees to $100 passed its third readinginParliament today. New Zealand First welcomes The Land Transport (Wheel Clamping) Amendment Bill to combat predatory wheel clamping behaviour in what is currently a largely unregulated business. Cowboy clampers are: gouging ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its first reading in Parliament. “Today’s progress takes serious action on the mental health and addiction crisis the country is facing,” says New Zealand First Health Spokesperson Jenny Marcroft. “The re-establishment ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries Today the Government announced the delivery of the promise to protect New Zealand interests by applying a new National Interest Test to the sales of our most sensitive and high risk assets to overseas buyers. This further strengthening of the Overseas Investment Act will ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced further support as the Government of Samoa responds to a serious measles outbreak. “New Zealand will deploy a further 18 vaccination nurses, bringing the total to 30 working in Samoa over the next ...
The Coalition Government is delivering on its promise to protect New Zealanders’ interests by applying a new national interest test to the sales of our most sensitive and high-risk assets to overseas buyers. Under current Overseas Investment Act (OIA) rules, assets such as ports and airports, telecommunications infrastructure, electricity and ...
Rt Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Allegations raised this morning by Stuff Limited / Fairfax concern a party matter but I am confident that New Zealand First has operated within electoral laws, now and for the last 27 years. Declarable donations were declared to the Electoral Commission. Our ...
The chairman of the Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy (UNISCS) working group, Wayne Brown, has hit back at critics of his group’s recommendations to relocate the Ports of Auckland cargo operations to Whangarei’s deepwater port of Northport. The working group's recommendation to close Auckland waterfront to all but cruise ...
International education continues to thrive as the Government focuses on quality over quantity, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. The tuition revenue from international education increased to $1.16 billion last year with the average tuition fee per student increasing by $960. The total number of international students enrolled in New Zealand ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new appointments to DHBs represent a significant changing of the guard, with 13 new chairs including four Māori chairs. Today 76 appointments have been announced to complement elected board members, as well as eight elected members appointed as either chair or deputy chair. Four ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Fletcher Tabuteau, is travelling to Germany, Poland, Austria, and Spain next week to bolster New Zealand’s political and trade relationships in Europe. While in Spain, Mr Tabuteau will represent New Zealand at the 14th Asia-Europe (ASEM) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Madrid. “New Zealand strongly supports ...
“I’ve spoken to Minister Faafoi, who has apologised for his poor handling of this issue,” Jacinda Ardern said. “I have confidence in Kris as a hardworking and effective Minister, but this should have been dealt with in a much clearer manner, and I’ve made my views on that very clear ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters met with Tongan Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa in Wellington today. The pair signed a Statement of Partnership setting out joint priorities for cooperation out to 2023. “We welcomed Prime Minister Tu'i'onetoa on his first visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister. Tonga ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash says his sympathies are with the family of a man who died after being shot by Police in Kurow. “Initial reports are that Police were called by a family member to help the man who was threatening to harm himself,” Mr Nash says. “However ...
Healthier waterways, better productivity and farmer wellbeing are front and centre in a new project involving more than 1000 Southland farmers and growers. Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor today announced that the Thriving Southland Change and Innovation Project is the first region-wide extension programme supported by the $229 million Sustainable ...
Work to look after nature and restore freshwater quality in Te Hoiere/Pelorus River catchment is getting a significant boost, thanks to new Government funding support Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage announced in Canvastown today. “Every New Zealander should be able to swim in their local river without getting sick, and ...
Eight Queen’s Counsel have been appointed under a process that includes the new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. “The new criterion was included this year. It emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community ...
Onslow College in Wellington will get 20 new classrooms for more than 400 students, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The much-needed investment will relieve growth pressure the school has been experiencing for some time. Seven existing classrooms which have deteriorated over time will also be replaced, bringing the total ...
More than 250 young New Zealanders will add international experience to their education, thanks to the latest Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia (PMSA) and Latin America (PMSLA), Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This round of scholarships supports 252 recent graduates or current students to undertake study, research or internships ...
Consumers will benefit from a more competitive, transparent retail fuel market as a result of changes the Government will be making in response to the findings of the Commerce Commission’s study of the fuel sector. “We accept the Commission’s findings and, as the Prime Minister has said, we’re ready to ...
Five new cancer medicines have now been funded this year, meaning thousands of people have more treatment options PHARMAC has today announced that it has approved two new medicines for funding – fulvestrant for breast cancer and olaparib for ovarian cancer. This follows earlier decisions on advanced lung cancer treatment alectinib, ...
The Minister of Local Government, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says the Government will consider making changes to local electoral legislation before the 2022 elections to fix the problems that have arisen where elections are settled by a coin toss. The Minister says the recount process in the Murupara- Galatea ward at ...
New Zealand will sign up to new international maritime regulations to reduce ship emissions and lift air quality around ports and harbours, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter announced today. Subject to completion of the Parliamentary treaty examination process, New Zealand will sign up to Annex VI of MARPOL, an ...
New legislation to transform our urban areas and create sustainable, inclusive and thriving communities will tomorrow be introduced to Parliament, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford said. “The Urban Development Bill gives Kāinga Ora-Homes and Communities the tools it needs to partner with councils, communities, mana whenua and private developers to ...
Today’s launch of He taonga te Tamaiti: Every child a taonga: The Early Learning Action Plan 2019-2029 provides the foundation for long-lasting changes to early learning, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. “Early learning will be one of the Government’s top education priorities going into 2020,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
Major decisions made by the Government will now be considered under a climate change lens, Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. “Cabinet routinely considers the effects of its decisions on human rights, the Treaty of Waitangi, rural communities, the disability community, and gender – now climate change will ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced the appointment of Māori education specialist Dr Wayne Ngata and Business NZ head Kirk Hope to the Board of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). Dr Alastair MacCormick has been reappointed for another term. “Wayne Ngata, Kirk Hope and Alastair MacCormick bring a great deal ...
The next phase of the Pike River Re-entry project is underway, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little says. “Fresh air will be pumped into the Pike River Mine drift this week, following acceptance of the plan for re-entry beyond the 170m barrier by New Zealand’s independent health and ...
New Zealand consumers will have greater certainty about their insurance cover when they need to make claims as a result of proposed government changes. “Insurance is vitally important in supporting consumers and businesses to be financially resilient when unexpected events happen,” Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kris Faafoi said. ...
The Crown is providing an opportunity for the hapu of Ngāpuhi to rebuild its framework from the ground up for collective negotiations to deal with its historical Treaty claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little and Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The Crown is also ...
A Bill enabling referendums to be held with the 2020 General Election has passed its third reading. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the Act is important for upholding the integrity of New Zealand’s electoral process. “The Government has committed to holding a referendum on legalising recreational cannabis at the next ...
The first release of public information on the two referendums to be held at next year’s General Election was made today with an informative new Government website going live. Additionally, the draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill has been released, showing the strict controls on cannabis that will apply if ...
The Government is taking action to protect New Zealand from foreign interference in our elections by banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament this afternoon and passed under urgency. “There’s no need for anyone other than New ...
Governments and tech companies are holding a two-day workshop, hosted by YouTube/Google in Wellington, to test the Christchurch Call Shared Crisis Response Protocol. The workshop aims to refine and strengthen the response in the event of a terrorist attack with online implications. Companies, governments, civil society experts and NGOs will ...
The new independent Cancer Control Agency has formally opened today, delivering on the Government’s plan to improve cancer care in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister of Health David Clark marked the occasion by announcing the membership of the Advisory Council that will be supporting ...
Small businesses who deal with government departments are set to be paid faster and have improved cash flow as a result, under a new strategy released today. The Government is backing recommendations from the Small Business Council (SBC) and has agreed to implement three initiatives immediately to support business and ...
The Education and Training Bill 2019, introduced in Parliament today, proposes the biggest education changes in decades and is an important step towards improving success for all our learners, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “The Bill’s rewrite of education legislation is long overdue. Indeed one Education Act, parts of which ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio will travel to Bali to represent New Zealand at the 12th Bali Democracy Forum that will be held on the 5-6 December. “The Forum is a valuable opportunity for Asia-Pacific countries to share experiences and best practice in building home-grown democracy and fostering ...
A package of new and expanded technology and other tools will encourage responsible camping and help communities and local councils better manage freedom camping this summer, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. “Our Government has been investing to improve the freedom camping experience for everyone because we want to support ...
The government is laying the groundwork to understanding our genes – work that can help us tackle some of our biggest health challenges, like heart disease and diabetes, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. $4.7 million has been invested in the Genomics Aotearoa Rakeiora programme. The programme will ...
Nearly every state schools will receive a capital injection next year valued at $693 per student to bring forward urgent school property improvements, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The one-off cash injection is the first project to be announced from the Government’s infrastructure package ...
The Government has decided to bring forward major investments in New Zealand’s infrastructure to future proof the economy. “Cabinet has agreed to a significant boost to infrastructure investment. I have directed the Treasury to help bring together a package of projects that can be brought into the Government’s short and ...
It is a great pleasure to be with you today in Whanganui. Like the Prime Minister I grew up with the TV clip of Selwyn Toogood booming “What do you say Whanganui, the money or the bag?” to an unsuspecting ‘It’s in the Bag’ audience. For those under the age ...
New Zealand’s newest Great Walk, the Paparoa Track, was officially opened in Blackball today by the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage alongside the family members of the Pike 29 and Ngāti Waewae. Local mayors and MP for the West Coast Hon Damien O’Connor were also in attendance. “Paparoa National Park ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark turned the first sod of earth on the infrastructure works for the new P-8A Poseidon fleet at RNZAF Base Ohakea today. “The Coalition Government’s investment in Ohakea will ensure the Royal New Zealand Air Force can manage, maintain and task the new fleet efficiently ahead ...
Civil Defence Minister Hon Peeni Henare today announced the establishment of the new National Emergency Management Agency from 1 December 2019. The National Emergency Management Agency will replace the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. It will be an autonomous departmental agency, hosted by the Department of the Prime ...
New Zealand tertiary students with top grades and a passion for space will once again be offered the opportunity to work with the world’s best and brightest at NASA, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Recipients of the New Zealand Space Scholarship are nominated by the Ministry of Business, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further support to Samoa in the wake of an ongoing measles outbreak in the country. Additional medical supplies and personnel, including a third rotation of New Zealand’s emergency medical assistance team (NZMAT), further nurse vaccinators, intensive care (ICU) specialists and Samoan-speaking medical professionals, will ...
In light of increasing public concern over the harmful effects of plastic pollution, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Professor Juliet Gerrard, is presenting the Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand report to the Prime Minister on Sunday ...
The government will start phasing out polystyrene packaging and beverage containers in response to a major new report calling for a nationwide rethink on plastics in New Zealand, PM Jacinda Ardern announced today. Here’s what you need to know about the announcement, and the Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa report.For much ...
The Absolute Book is one of our picks of the year and you should buy it for someone you love for Christmas. A story that sticks like a biddi-bid, Elizabeth Knox said on Twitter the other day. Here, she writes about the books that stuck in her own psyche – ...
The government would argue it’s on track to reduce child poverty significantly by the next reporting round, and culture change is well underway at Work and Income. But change at WINZ is a slow-moving process. Pip Colgan is an advocate at Auckland Action Against Poverty (AAAP), which means she spends a ...
Frozen 2 is out, but more importantly the soundtrack is available for your kids to play on repeat. Sam Brooks ranks the songs by how likely it is that they’ll sing them into your face for the foreseeable future.Parents and caregivers, get your loins girded because Frozen 2 is here. The film ...
Five New Zealanders from across culturalspaces explain what it is they love about basketball.Historically, basketball has always held a relatively small but special in Aotearoa’s sporting landscape. The NBL was established in 1981, giving provinces the chance to duke it out for national supremacy. In 2002 the Tall Blacks ...
After 40 years at the frontline, the University of Otago's Professor Marie Crowe discusses her research on treatments beyond medicine to alleviate symptoms of mood disorders like bipolar and depression. ...
Everything you need to know about the suspension of buses in Auckland and the industrial action standoff that it springs from.What’s going on?Yesterday saw the cancellation of thousands of bus trips and a lot of people standing around at Auckland bus stops looking puzzled after services operated by NZ Bus ...
ASMS message to DHB Chairs and appointees The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) welcomes the District Health Board Chairs and board appointees announced by Health Minister David Clark. ...
Eight Queen’s Counsel have been appointed under a process that includes the new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice, Attorney-General David Parker announced this week. The new criterion, he explained, ” … emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community ...
“CEAC – University of Auckland asks ‘Can democracy survive’? Subject; Can democracy survive? https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2019/12/03/can-democracy-survive-.html Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre Incorporated (CEAC) Press release 8th December ...
The Minister of Health’s announcement to appoint a new chair to the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board has come as a surprise and with some disappointment, especially given he had personally asked me to stand again with his confidence to continue in ...
Hell’s bells it’s Gone By Lunchtime, with Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire shooting the breeze on Kris Faafoi, Jason Kerrison, Winston Peters, NZ First donations, a cannabis referendum, and the year to come.Just when you thought politics was tucking under the duvet for Christmas, along comes the guy ...
Tis the season for hangovers, so we convinced some of New Zealand’s most experienced consumers of food and/or drink (OK, Spinoff staff and a bunch of chefs/hospo people) to share their tried-and-true culinary remedies.A hangover is a very individual thing. For some, it manifests as a splitting headache and extreme ...
Before Britain’s Got Talent: Champions hits our screens tonight, let’s take a fond look back at some of the show’s weirdest and most wonderful acts.Place your hands on your Golden Buzzer, because Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions kicks off this weekend. Champions is BGT bigger and better than it’s been before, ...
Following the raging success of the 2018 non-goat ethical Christmas gift guide, here for you today – responsibly wrapped in reusable gift wrap – is the 2019 list of ethical, sustainable, socially conscious, or charitable gift ideas to satisfy all kinds of family members and budgets.Budget Category: ‘Can we pay ...
Lime brought e-scooters to Auckland and changed the way we travel in less than a year. Now, the council is replacing it and Wave with three new contenders. Josie Adams goes to the Lime warehouse to say goodbye to the original scooters.In a warehouse in Eden Terrace, almost a thousand ...
Analysis - The government's first crack at cannabis legislation runs into trouble, a foreign donations bill is rammed through Parliament and a select committee refuses to listen to former NZ First officeholders. ...
Dr Ben Jansen is Oceania's leading prescriber of cannabis medicines, and a co-founder of the Hemp Foundation.org.nz “I’d like to thank the Labour Party and Chris Woodney. Thanks to his policy remit at Labours national conference, and Labours full support, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Soong, Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education Practice, School of Education, University of South Australia Australian 15 year olds were around three and a half years behind their counterparts in China in maths, according to the OECD’s latest results for education systems ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitri Perrin, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology More than a year ago, the world was shocked by Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui’s attempt to use CRISPR technology to modify human embryos and make them resistant to HIV, which led to the birth ...
Cabinet minister Kris Faafoi has apologised to the Prime Minister for his messages to Jason Kerrison regarding an immigration case, but will not lose his job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Flinders University The decision to merge the Department of Communications and the Arts with Transport, Infrastructure and Regional development (dropping the “Arts” entirely) ends a year in which Australian politics has been deeply confused over its ...
A historic referendum on independence has been completed in Bougainville. Johnny Blades of RNZ was there. People in the autonomous Papua New Guinea region of Bougainville have voted in an historic independence referendum. The long-anticipated referendum is the ultimate provision of 2001’s Bougainville Peace Agreement, which followed a brutal, protracted ...
Dairy farmers had some Xmas cheer this week, as dairy giant Fonterra told them the forecast payout would be the fourth-highest-ever, at the mid-point of its farmgate milk price range. The $7.30kg/ms means the cash payout for the season will reach $11.2bn, a rise of about $400m from the earlier forecast. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland When you find dinosaur skeletons, how can you tell how old the dinosaur was? Like, if the skeleton is from a child dinosaur or an adult dinosaur? – Henry, aged 8. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) has had to clarify the law with Police and receive their reassurance that while the amnesty for ammunition was not extended to 20 December, Police will act as if it has been. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 We Are Here: An Atlas of Aotearoa by Chris McDowall & Tim Denee (Massey University Press, $70)Superlative ...
This week a petition with more than 15,000 signatures was presented at parliament to Nicola Willis, MP and opposition spokesperson for Early Childhood Education. Also attending were Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick and Hon Nikki Kaye. ...
It’s that time of year again when, for the third year running, a new A Christmas Prince movie is released. Sam Brooks was in front of a TV screen for the latest instalment’s debut on Netflix last night, and here catalogues the many stupid, wild, and wildly stupid things he ...
One of the most highly rated members of Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet is under pressure over assurances given in relation to an immigration case. How bad could it get, asks Toby Manhire.There has never been a New Zealand prime minister more engaged with contemporary homegrown music than Jacinda Ardern. She’s forever ...
Kris Faafoi, Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media; Minister ofCommerce and Consumer Affairs;Minister of Government Digital Services; Associate Minister forHousing; MP for Mana.The latest allegations of a corruption scandal involving a Cabinet minister suggests this government is far too loose when it comes to providing access to power ...
The National Party cannot credibly critique the Government’s hikes to fuel tax while it refuses to commit to reversing these hikes, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “Simon Bridges has lambasted ...
Newspaper staff were among those to express dismay and fury during the frenzy of denunciations that followed publication of an ill-considered cartoon about Samoa and the measles epidemic. The Spinoffrecorded their reactions under the heading ODT cartoonist infuriates his colleagues with Sāmoa measles epidemic ‘joke’. It also reproduced the ...
New Zealand Police Association condemns comments made by People Against Prisons Aotearoa following the fatal police shooting of an armed man who had made threats of suicide. ...
A new poem by Harry Ricketts. The Writing Life You want to write.You want to be published.You want to be read. You want to be a cult figure.You want to be reviewed.You want to write. You want to win prizes.You want to be anthologised.You want to be read. You want to be taught in schools ...
As Christmas is near, it’s time to set the record straight on some of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of employment law that apply to the festive season. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Kris Faafoi immigration case Fiona Connor and Tova O’Brien (Newshub): ‘I’m on it bro’: Messages show Kris Faafoi offering help to ...
The Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta has announced changes to prevent Māori wards being voted down by referendums are off the table, saying she believes such a change is not possible within the coalition. ...
It’s officially the festive season, and what does that mean? An office Secret Santa with a budget of $20 and you’ve picked your boss. Instead of settling for a bottle of average wine and a ribbon, follow our essential guide on what to get those unique workmates.At last year’s Secret ...
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A woman who went on a Tinder date with the man who murdered Grace Millane tells her story, and issues a warning to other women to trust their instincts when something doesn’t feel right.First published on Newshub.co.nzI went on a date with Grace Millane’s killer while her body lay in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gottfried Lechner, Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Telecommunications Research, University of South Australia, University of South Australia Satellites are becoming increasingly important in our lives, as they help us meet a demand for more data, exchanged at higher speeds. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results are bad news for Australian students, parents, employers and policymakers. Pretty much everyone. Australian 15-year-olds are now below the OECD average in mathematics, and our results in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Clode, Senior Research Fellow in Creative Writing, Flinders University It is only mid-November but we have to walk early to avoid the heat. A northerly wind picks up clouds of dust and pollen, sending dirty billows across the paddocks. The long ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Changes coming to fuel market, anti-vaxxer arrested in Samoa, and banks told to hold more capital.New recommendations to increase competition in the fuel market have been made by the Commerce Commission, reports the NZ Herald. Their conclusion is that it isn’t competitive ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias. ...
An alliance of top researchers is trying to keep New Zealand ahead of complex health challenges from overuse of antibiotics, threats to freshwater quality and emerging infectious diseases. ...
The birthplace of the Labour Party is once again at the forefront of a new movement, this time harnessing the power of the collective to step away from coal towards a low carbon future.Blackball is a small place with a huge history. This week the town, 29 kilometres from Greymouth, ...
Life expectancy is increasing all the time, and now actuaries and retirement experts say young people need far more information on what they’ll need to do with their money if they live to 100. Don’t worry, we’re here to help. The message from the Retirement Income Interest Group of the New ...
German politician Joschka Fischer has had a remarkable career. From street violence and helping to set up the Green party, he matured into the foreign minister and vice-chancellor of a united Germany, serving until 2005. His understanding of power politics led him to support the use of force in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison said it with a straight face, and repetition for emphasis. “I’m very pleased, very pleased, with the performance of all of my ministers,” he declared on Thursday. This ringing if unconvincing universal endorsement ...
PARENTS AROUND THE WORLD PLEA FOR URGENT CLIMATE ACTION 222 parents groups from 27 countries have released a heartfelt joint plea calling on negotiators at this year’s UN climate summit – COP25 – in Madrid to push for ambitious and urgent ...
Open mike 13/04/2019 
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Interesting that a global slowdown is occurring right when the planet actually needs it to happen.
Of course, to economists this is BAD news. And rapid slowdown is actually very bad news, with banks likely to force all and sundry onto the street if they don’t get paid.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12221891
But right now it’s gradual.
“Certainly there is a new message there that we are in a new ‘normal’ environment — getting used to lower rates of growth than we have been used to historically,” says Yetsenga.”
Watch this space. Blame for the effects of the global slowdown slowing down NZ will get thrown at the Coalition. Winston warned us of this pre-election.
Nothing wrong with slowing down. We could keep economic activity relatively busy on retrofitting to a more sustainable economy. No real pain required.
Except those poor rich folks, the free ride still being free and easy, but losing some impetus.
Full agreement with you wethebleople.
Begs the question; “How much is enough”?
You are so right cleangreen. Some people have never sorted a need from a want, so they want everything.
I’m not sure if we have this in NZ yet, but with homelessness and foodbank patronage still pretty high it would not go amiss.
https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/korean/en/audiotrack/korean-migrant-volunteers-feeding-25000-homeless-people-year?fbclid=IwAR3iOTzWPTK2-Y1b5jm2L78TkHyoC9JZ4L6DaAGdTo6FN_cA25bqF6iqAZk
Equity in an “Egalitarian” society?
Brian Easton looks into the Health Care in NZ compared with the top 11 countries.
Health: “What has happened to healthcare is nicely illustrated by an international analysis of healthcare systems by the prestigious (American) Commonwealth Fund. It compares 11 countries (it always finds the US has the worst system). In 2017 it found New Zealand’s ranking was 8th (out of 11) on the equity dimension, ahead of France, Canada and the US. We were behind Britain, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Germany and Australia.”
And Education: “In contrast, the schooling system claims to be directly funded to offset inequity. However only 3 percent of the total resourcing (operational and staffing) provided to our schools is allocated on the basis of disadvantage. Comparable international jurisdictions allocate around 6 percent.”
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/have-we-abandoned-the-egalitarian-society
Take a bow team national, health and education plundered for ideological and political means.
Zero concern for the impacts on NZ as a whole as long as their backers are happy with team national.
Lest NZ forget at the next few general elections and local council ones which are full of national aligned stooges.
That’s team neoliberal, spanning both major parties since 1984.
1000% Sacha.
@Sacha +1, you can dress Labour up all you want with Ardern, but that dosn’t alter the fact that they are neoliberal.
Agrigeneration – putting solar generation onto the same land that’s used for agriculture can even increase the agricultural productivity of the land in hot dry regions. The shade can help reduce evaporation, and it seems if the plant growth is limited by other resources then getting too much sunlight reduces plant growth.
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/12/fraunhofer-reports-combining-farming-with-solar-186-more-efficient-in-summer-of-2018/
Putting wind turbines on farms happens pretty much all the time already. But I can’t see any major downsides to putting solar and wind generation and agriculture all on the same bit of land for even more productivity.
Andre, that’s really cool, what a great idea.
During the drought this summer it really troubled the girls and myself that many farms didn’t have shade for their stock. We would see animals sweltering in 30+ degree heat without a single tree casting shadow in the paddocks. It was upsetting to see.
Meanwhile at home the only green grass was under the trampoline.
Solar panels with cows would be a fantastic solution, providing shade and green grass for feed, power and food/dairy/meat. It’s like companion planting with different elements.
Thanks for sharing Andre.
Andre and Cinny,
I opened up our ‘stock pen’ as it had a roof over the top with open sides and our sheep always camped there i n the hottest days.
I had to keep the water troughs filled every two days as well.
For every other year since 2005 I never had to do this, so climate change is now with us for sure.
I’m trying to remember to transfer most of this #4 thread to How to get there tomorrow as it talks about the problem and ideas and anecdotes relating. Good thinking. I will miss stuff and if anyone else sees things that we should archive copying it over for the Sunday post would be good, checking that it isn’t already there. The Sunday post gets archived and Open Mike doesn’t. I hope that people will go fishing through past How to get theres when looking for ideas. It is something lasting that we have achieved from this dynamic blog.
?? They all get archived.
Right lprent. I mis-spoke. What I am thinking is that the items that the How to get there post has will I hope be relevant for people looking for future-thinking ideas. Whereas in Open Mike they will be scattered and hard to find by keywords which would bring up individual items if the looker was lucky. Whereas accessing archived How to get theres will bring up a bumper bunch of informative ideas and topics in one place.
Shade for cattle is a no brainer . Its been proven they produce more plus its a good thing to do .
Gday wags, at what point can the word cruelty enter the conversation in regards to stock and shelter?
Not looking to wind you up, I am genuinely interested in yr response.
I feel at a basic level, it’s an animals ‘right’ to shelter. Even more so when commerce is involved.
As an abstract, planting of stock shelter belts could be a great way of helping meet the 1 billion trees target.
Subsidised by the state.
Imagine cockies potentially voting for Labour…..
Any cattle that have no shelter from the hot summer sun would be appriaching cruelty imo. They did a study in the hawkesbay a few years ago and the temps on a black beasts back approach 60degrees in the worst heat .
Spread trees would be my preference as shelter belts tend to bring mud . And mud means bugs especially in lactating animals .
Most councils help with pole planting costs but i believe scattered trees are not recognized for carbon capture i believe?
Thanks mate I appreciate that.
I don’t doubt most stock owners care for their animals but there seems to be a blind spot in regards shelter.
As mentioned up thread there is an increase in productivity with shelter, but… less pasture… mud around shelter belts… the neighbours don’t do it…
The mud effect from shelter belts would be less on dairy farms due to them really being in the same paddock twice in a row. There’s a plant called miscanthus? That is supposed to be very quick growng and the big rotorainers can brush over it .
Im pro famrimg but im no apologist for the madness that has gone on in Canterbury and down south .
I live rurally in the Manawatu, surrounded by dairy farms.
I am not anti farming.
I do not like a lot of common farming practices e.g.: the urea phosphate addiction, shelterless paddocks, stock in waterways, round-up between crop cycles.
To me it comes down to the $.
What are usually decent people, have a wilful blind spot when it comes to their ways.
As we all know it takes a lot of courage to step outside the flock and change a habit.
I would love to see the primary producers return to their rightful place of the food supply chain.
In my lifetime the tables have turned against them.
I’ve been off at school all day or I’d have chipped in earlier. Production losses come from heat stress – and wind chill. Shelter can make a big difference for temperature extremes at both ends of the scale. Scattered trees are difficult where stock may take them out, and fencing each tree could be considered a PITA. But I believe it’s worth it. Also, if your stock have access to mineral licks they’ll typically leave trees alone (cept the tasty leaves).
As weather patterns continue to deteriorate Farmers main defense against drought and subsequent bankruptcy is trees. Trees that double as fodder, and triple as nitrogen fixers.
Shelter belts that grow fence posts, nuts, fruit, stock food, honey…
The limits are imagination.
Thanks WTB, it all makes sense.
We live in interesting times, where change, adapting and questioning what we have always done is imperative.
I have a mate who works for a company selling fertilizer.
They get soil samples from different parts of the property and mix a fertilizer containing the minerals that are deficient.
The idea is soil health is paramount. As opposed to going for the crack pipe habit of phosphate/urea.
Farmers are conservative (keen on status quo), but these other theories (organic/permaculture) are slowly becoming more popular.
Heaven forbid, they may become mainstream in our lifetime.
Of course with plant-based diets we wouldn’t have to shade animals Cinny because we wouldn’t be farming them. Animal agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gases and degrades our environment in other ways and needs to end.
Better for the animals and better for us, especially as it moving to plant-based diets increases the chances of humans actually surviving.
Not sure that is true Grey Area. Animals are an integral part of ecosystems and always have been. We could lower stocking rates, but eliminating stock is highly problematic. In NZ we had ridiculous numbers of birds that brought oceanic resources to land. On the land some moa species ‘took the place’ of cows grazing/browsing ground covers. These were then laid low, able to be composted through winters season adding nutrients for the next spring flush. Fungi too, have many species designed to work with both dung and plant matter.
Natures systems are not vegan, vegetarian, or even lactose intolerant.
I guess we’ll see. Or maybe we won’t.
Nature’s systems look nothing like the horror show we’ve created.
The ability to find shade is absolutely necessary for the basic comforts of the animals as well. I’ve been increasingly dismayed by the removal of windbreaks in favour of vast irrigation networks. Could it be pasture growth is quantifiable, animal well-being is not?
Detention camps run by the military. I think there’s a name for those.
Looking even closer!
https://talk.whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/uploads/default/original/2X/e/e1bcb3f7d50528c3204d2620230eb6a5f605766d.jpeg
A chinese gentleman showed me an image today of old style chinese charcoal burners. All the holes look like the photo of the black hole.
Can’t find it on the local web yet but chinese social media is full of it.
About the killing of the ‘mocking bird Julian Assange;’
This is a history of sad repute by our leading ‘peace makers’.
It was shown that ‘the dirty tricks campaign’ had gone out to deliberately repeatedly “discredit” the whistle blowers again now beginning with Julian Assange.
Now on sex charges, so what else will they throw at him?
They will lock him up for life as Daniel Ellsberg On Assange Arrest: The Beginning of the End For Press Freedom video attest to; – a powerful video expression by Daniel.
Thank you for you and Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning for standing up for our freedom of expression.
Hero’s you all are to us.
Will you still be cheering him if he’s found guilty on the rape charges ????
Who is cheering him on?
The only cheering is TRP, Mcflock etc who think that abandonment of due process, extradition to the States and solitary confinement for life, for something that isn’t a crime, is appropriate.
The rest of us are capable of separating the public good, from wikileaks, from the fact that Sweden should have followed due process, and punished him only, for his actions that are a crime. If found guilty.
lol pretty much everything about your two main paragraphs was incorrect or probably incorrect.
Due process is being followed.
The sentence for the crimes which the yanks are trying to extradite him for isn’t life.
Hacking is a crime (albeit one he is probably innocent of).
The Swedes did and are following due process.
And I, for one, don’t think that the incorrect scenario you outlined would be appropriate.
Between you, who I thought was better than that, TRP, and a few other “black and white” non thinkers, who cannot comprehend that no one is all good, or all bad, are making this site a cesspit.
Making any reasoned discussion, uncomfortable.
Francesca, who you would justifiably expect to be tough on a rapist, has put forward reasoned points.
The replies have been an unthinking witch hunt.
I am disappointed at the low level of intelligent discussion displayed here.
OK, so let’s start from item 1:
How is due process being “abandoned”?
If you actually really think that this has even the slightest thing to do with rape, then all I can say is that you must be a very naive person indeed.
+100
Describing James as naive is very kind Adrian.
I’m just glad that he looks like he might get to face the rape charges. Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views.
If it wasn’t for his political embarrassment of war criminals, the rape charges would have been sorted long ago.
And James. I know you don’t give a flying fuck, about women being kept in poverty, or disadvantaged.
So. What’s with all the holier than thou?
This post is for Wild Katipo …. who noted James was like a shitty wolf …. who didn’t give a shit
She nailed him ….. as he is a one eyed, opportunistic, inconsistent, rape apologist troll
james ….
….Who used sleazy rape culture posts to diminish the woman involved in the waikato cheifs sexual assault controversy.
….Who uses and advocates for the lawless rapey company ‘uber’.
….who advocated for public toilet sex … he did this when defending some other over-sexed rugby player.
….who thought it fair enough Oxfam should lose funding ……… for two sacked workers who allegedly used prostitutes
….He who who called right wing Brazilian leader and rape celebrator Jair Bolsonaro “charismatic”
James ….Who ran around with glee …. trying to smear Labour as ‘rape apologists’ …. over a drunk committing assults at a Labour youth event …
And has run around the Assange thread.. trying to label everyone ‘rape apologists’…
In reality James is a troll and if Assange played for the NZ allblacks he’d be defending him.
**************************************************
This Video is about the recent history of Russia……
” Yeltsin went into the election campaign with a rating hovering between 3%-5%, reflecting what must be the single most disastrous presidency of the 20th century: Under Yeltsin, Russia’s economy collapsed some 60%, the male life expectancy plummeted from 68 years to 56, millions were reduced to living on subsistence farming for the first time since Stalin as wages went unpaid for years at a time. Russia was on its way to going extinct—but about 3-5% of the population (plus or minus 3%) was making out like bandits. Probably because they actually were bandits. “https://pando.com/2015/05/17/neocons-2-0-the-problem-with-peter-pomerantsev/
The music starts about 6 mins 48 secs
The Wolf and bears ….. 11 mins 55 secs
Iwould describe it as …. 2 minutes to midnight rock ……
the link I posted incorrectly
https://pando.com/2015/05/17/neocons-2-0-the-problem-with-peter-pomerantsev/
You seem to making a habit of writing disparaging comments about other regular commenters here on TS as your single focus. Yesterday, you were targeting Wayne on OM @ 2 and now you are having a go at James. By doing so, you are setting a tone and creating an environment in which others find it o.k. to join your posse and chime in. I don’t think this is conducive to healthy debate or making others feel welcome, do you?
I have no posse Incognito ….. unless your talking a posse against me quite often.
Anyway ,,, surprise , surprise …. you missed the point of my post …. which I’ll repeat ….. as having a one eyed, opportunistic, inconsistent, rape apologist troll like james, ….. trying to scare people off and shut down the argument is worse than my being a bit rude to such types ….
james ….
….Who used sleazy rape culture posts to diminish the woman involved in the waikato cheifs sexual assault controversy.
….Who uses and advocates for the lawless rapey company ‘uber’.
….who advocated for public toilet sex … he did this when defending some other over-sexed rugby player.
….who thought it fair enough Oxfam should lose funding ……… for two sacked workers who allegedly used prostitutes
….He who who called right wing Brazilian leader and rape celebrator Jair Bolsonaro “charismatic”
James ….Who ran around with glee …. trying to smear Labour as ‘rape apologists’ …. over a drunk committing assults at a Labour youth event …
And has run around the Assange thread.. trying to label everyone ‘rape apologists’…
Same with Wayne Mapp … who should be shamed and reviled … until prompted into doing something good …. Like a apology and donation to his victims ….. the dead and maimed ones.
“We’ve heard the tragic tales of our murdered Christchurch Muslims bravely trying to protect their children / their wife / their husband — their mother / their father and their community ……
……The same brave sacrifices obviously took place multiple times …… in our SAS revenge raid on the Afghanistan village,,,,, under Wayne Mapp and John Key……
But we never heard of these brave people …… who we killed ,,,, and who were then dissapeared from existence.
Even though I feel they were more human than Wayne Mapp / Key are ….”
The problem is incognito ….. How do you propose to shame the blatantly reprehensible among us ….. without being blunt ??.
My politics is I want the truth …. and less wars.
Sorry if that offends you ——– I extend you my plausible sincerity
enjoy another video ….
https://www.bitchute.com/video/hUaWa8L9YPXL/
Is that what you’re trying to do here, shaming the blatantly (!) reprehensible? If I understand you correctly, your targets are reprehensible because, in your opinion, they have reprehensible opinions that you clearly object to. If so, you feel justified to play the man instead of the ball?
Not sure what you mean by that. Is wanting “the truth” politics? And “less wars” [sic]? How do you envisage your shaming strategy here on TS leads to “the truth” and “less wars”? Do you expect “the blatantly reprehensible among us” to go through some cathartic shaming ritual and become more like you, for example?
Or do you simply want them to shut up and go away?
Or do you want to punish them?
I’m honestly at a loss as to what you’re thinking and what you’re trying to achieve here. In any case, I don’t think it is working, do you?
Also Incog …James has smeared multitude people here at TS …. in multi threads ….
I’m quite specific to where my criticism is directed … and I try to make an informative point while doing it.
And Here’s a thing we both missed about James …. to quote the troll … ” Sad to see so many on here able to overlook that simply because of his political views”
How is it political to want democratic OPEN govt Incognito ?? ….Or is it political in the sense of Authoritarian versus open democratic ???
You’ll find I argue like a sticky gummy-bear … I use snipey posts at me to expand my argument ….
Like this
So, for you it is personal, some kind of vendetta?
Uhhhmmm, what exactly did we miss there? What blatantly reprehensive act was hiding in plain view?
Is this “the truth” that you were referring to or have you moved the goal posts? Anyway, how does your shaming of so-called trolls here on TS pave a path to “democratic OPEN govt”?
You sound a tad defensive and you are quite evasive. Do you object to being queried about your motivations and conduct here on TS?
If you cannot argue a point in your own words, a video won’t help much either. People who cannot stand on their own two feet often use them as crutches …
Sorry incognito ….. when I meant sticky gummy-bear,,, in this instance I meant using your post to expand the case and Argument ,,,, that Julian Assange is hunted and persecuted for reasons that have nothing to do …. nothing to do with the smears james has been running around this site with.
He has not answered whether he Would use the gutter label and call ‘Amy goodman , Naiomei Shaei, Ranata Viella , Gleen Greenwald, edward snowden,’ and all the other people featured in the democracy now news item … ” rape apologists” ???
And how come the Democracy Now news item had a totally different weighting of content and information …. compared to james posts … which are pretty much 100% rape apologist finger pointing or other shit smeary accusations on this topic….
How come Amy Goodmans reporting and Denocracy now …. carry such a different story ,,, than those being spread by many TS posters… and others joining in with the James campaigns ???.
Neither smeary James or others speak of the best step forward if it truly were about two women … like take their views into consideration at a formal tribunal or something ….
And we could recognize Julian Assange has children and they are victims too…. of what has been quite a long sentence so far …
You and many others here on TS seem to have major problems separating the issue from the commenter. In fact, I think it’s lazy and possibly even deliberate because it suits you. In any case, it does not make for good discussion or debate. That is my point, which you have not addressed in a satisfactory way.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/386984/islam-is-peace-pakistani-city-shows-support-for-victims-of-the-christchurch-mosque-terror-attacks
New Zealand World
‘Islam is peace’: Pakistani city shows support for victims of the Christchurch mosque terror attacks
9:08 am today
More than 20,000 people in a Pakistani city have created a striking visual tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
More than 20,000 people in Shorkot, Pakistan created a striking visual tribute to the victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre.
Dressed in white, they stood in formation in front of a shrine to create a huge living image of the Al Noor Mosque in Deans Avenue, 13,000 kilometres away.
They lined up behind a large banner saying ‘Solidarity with Martyrs of Christchurch, from Pakistan’, and hundreds more formed the message ‘Islam Is Peace’ in English.
Spokesperson Asif Tanveer Awan says the event in the city of Shorkot was organised by a think-tank, the Muslim Institute, in order to send a strong message to the world that Muslims want peace and cooperation.
Two women telling how they have survived seeing their countries change in front of their eyes and being dislocated. And they have learned to adapt but are aware of the goodness they have in life but also I think both do not believe in getting too attached to institutions, and the need to be thinking about things, wary of change.
Which I think is a mindset we have to adopt.
It seems to me that we have come to a stop in our minds at the end of last century, and are slow to see how we have to change for the 21st century. Also have we appreciated what was good and valuable, and how we were, in the 20th century and carried our bundles of goodness to preserve them and share, in this century.
That will elp us to keep being potentially wonderful humans living in harmony yet individuality with each other and the planet, and not allow ourselves to be turned into machine and efficiency pawns, human resources being pushed around by powerful, mindless and soulless others – people and corporate conglomerates.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018690860/go-went-gone-the-asylum-seeker-experience-in-germany
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018690863/ella-al-shamahi-neanderthals
Yesterday was the saddest day I have ever witnessed on The Standard, one after another people came on to say that they were actually glad Assange had been arrested, I of course have always known that The Standard harbors a lot of reactionaries, but I honestly didn’t realize that it harbored so many stupid, short sighted reactionaries who are so easily sucked in by establishment propaganda…I was shocked, am shocked at the depth of stupidity that has been so proudly displayed by so many here..history will of course, and rightly, judge them cruelly.
The Standard via Te Reo Putake yesterday finally converged seamlessly with Mike Hosking…if that doesn’t give you pause to think..
A very dark day for the progressive Left.
There is much disdain for Assange from people who wouldn’t be prepared to expose themselves for a mass moral purpose as he did. A lot of people are guided in their direction by their own individual concerns or that of the general group they form part of.
An outlier like Assange acting for the principle of transparency of dark doings against the mass of u. He has used means that have been made illegal by the very people carrying out or enabling the dark doings. It is a rare and significant protest on the behalf of those who care that such machinations should be exposed. Thanks for that Julian, it takes determination, vision and inner strength to do such things which few have.
Well put, thanks.
I wholeheartedly agree Adrian.
The display of cognitive dissonance is disturbing.
We all know that the facts are:
Julian Assange was not charged with rape or any other crime by the Swedish authorities.
Julian Assange has published information that has never been refuted that has caused considerable embarrassment to many.
Those feasting on the downfall of Juilan Assange seem to have little introspection, display even less logic and no empathy
What many seem not to appreciate is that the false accusation of rape is an extremely evil crime.
The great news is now he isn’t hiding like a coward they can conclude their investigation and charge him with rape if they think so.
Nice to see that statue of limitations hasn’t come in.
I passed comment yesty along those lines, but more from a fascination angle.
I am sure those who disappointed you, would see themselves as progressive.
My hunch is the sexual allegations is what tarnished most of their opinions.
Akin to trying to separate the art from the artist, eg Picasso, in time Assange will be seen separate to the deeds/allegations.
I find it frustrating that the ‘left’ saves the worst for its closest allies.
I think it’s sader that people would not want him to see justice for crimes committed.
Apart from the Swedish sexual complaints what are the other crimes you see him culpable of James?
What else would you honestly have expected…
Queenstown is wanting to expand its tourism, yet there is so much reliance on air traffic that it may have reached capacity. The idea that where there is money to be made, something to sell, and that capital is invested until the collapse of the resource is the uppermost attitude of business and the uncaring NZ money accreters.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/386994/queenstown-flight-cancellations-due-to-sick-air-traffic-control-staff
There was an enquiry some years ago about a plane taking off in conditions that were marginal and late in the day because there had been bad weather for some time.
I wonder how often that will happen in this area enclosed by high mountains as seen in the media image. The more planes, the more risk and the more unhappy stranded tourists who expect their bucks to buy them entry, quality experience, and exit as and when required.
Queenstown airport has been effectively running at over 100% for a couple of years and it’s only a matter of time before something breaks. Yesterday’s oops has been on the cards for a while with minimal atc staff cover combined with a town where people get sick a lot for the first 10 years they live here because there’s a new bug on every bus and plane. This affects every employer to varying degrees, but staff critical positions like atc, teaching and police are hard hit.
We are also getting very close to airspace limits with little space if aircraft have to go around, which happens a lot due to a very difficult airport. On Wednesday afternoon most flights (8 I think, can’t get back that far in flightradar) were diverted because of cloud to ground level with the front, which would have cost the airlines a packet. On a day with tricky cross winds there will be jets on hold all over the southern South Island waiting to get an approach slot.
Queenstown airport has also become the de-facto regional airport for the southern South Island. Passengers come from Southland, most of Otago outside Dunedin and South Westland to travel to Auckland, Wellington and Australia. There’s 26 jet aircraft going through ZQN today and 3 ATRs, that’s a typical day.
There’s a fairly solid consensus around the district that the airport’s at it’s limits and needs to move as the current location is beyond it’s capacity, but beyond that it gets tricky. Where does it go to do a better job? A new regional airport will need to be easily connected to it’s main markets, Queenstown and Wanaka, and not have noise or airspace issues.
Three options have been bandied around. First is a dual airport idea with expansion of the existing Wanaka airport which hasn’t gone down well with the good burghers of Wanaka, to say the least. Then there’s two options a new regional airport, Five Rivers, near Lumsden, and Tarras near Wanaka. Tarras is easier to connect with but has noise and airspace constraints, Five Rivers is an excellent site but expensive to connect to existing tourist infrastructure as it’s 100 km south Queenstown. Both would probably need a quick rail connection to avoid bus mayhem, and then you’d have high speed rail to Christchurch sneaking into the mix as well.
So a huge can of worms, vested interests with several airport companies and big operators trying to protect their turf, and locals who’ve had enough of the noise and congestion, but want their city connectivity, and local councils who want it in their patch.
This one’s going to need very strong leadership from Government, and very soon.
We have been told for the last 30 years that the market will sort these things out ….
market failure again
privatise the airports they said
useless
Yep, although in this case the airport is 75.1% local council (QLDC) and 24.9% AIA so local interests still have control. Where it gets bogged down is all the other “interested” parties trying to steer the ship in their direction.
A lot of the growth we’ve seen has been due to the demise of Christchurch as a visitor destination post earthquakes, that market space has been displaced to Wellington and Queenstown. There’s over twice the capacity ZQN – WLG than ZQN – CHC now and that won’t change back.
Bt any solution is going to need to be led by central government, not possible at a local level.
ANZ are starting direct flights NV – AA in August I think, which will very slightly reduce the load on Queenstown. Southlanders won’t need drive there to get to Auckland or further afield.
There will never be another airfield built. The aircraft numbers would have to be high to justify a completely new development. And Lumsden has too many fog days in winter anyway.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the NV-AA thing goes, hope it works for Invercargill’s sake, but don’t think it’ll make much difference to Queenstown. Just hope it doesn’t bugger the frequency of flights to Christchurch.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/380920/direct-invercargill-auckland-flights-set-to-launch
The weather issues are equal for all the options, and the airlines want the airport to be able to take wide body aircraft and be at least CAT II, preferably CAT III, so instrument landing. This wouldn’t be a problem at Five Rivers.
Biggest problem with Five Rivers is the 100 km to Queenstown. And that it may threaten the viability of Christchurch.
There will have to be another airport built, Queenstown is getting too difficult to sustain and sooner or later it’s going to break. Whatever the solution it’s going to be hard and expensive. Doing nothing and sticking with the existing airport is in category too.
Ok there will be a critical number of arrivals/departures that determines the financial viability of any new airport. Government funding would be required for such a large investment and I just can’t see it happening. I can’t see Queenstown interests funding it either. But I’m often wrong about things.
If the NV-AA Airbus link succeeds there will probably be one less ATR going out from NV first thing in the mornings.
Why build in Lumsden when NV is already large enough for big jets, slightly less than an hour further away less affected by fog/low cloud. Much less investment to bring up to standard, I’ll get Tim onto right away….
Well here we go again.
Spy bosses dragged into Jami-Lee Ross-Simon Bridges saga
11/04/2019
Tova O’Brien
Newshub’s politica editor Tova O’Brien reports: The war between Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross has gone up a notch. Credits: Newshub.
The war between Simon Bridges and Jami-Lee Ross has gone up a notch with yet more explosive allegations from the former National MP.
Ross has implied Bridges was told by intelligence agencies that a National MP was a Chinese spy.
Our top spies were asked about it at Parliament in their first outing since the Christchurch terror attack.
GCSB boss Andrew Hampton warns against local election online voting
Jami-Lee Ross brings more allegations against National’s Simon Bridges
GCSB, NZSIS concerned about foreign interference in New Zealand election
The leaders of New Zealand’s spy agencies are normally secretive when out in the great wide open.
“We’re really happy to talk to you after the hearing,” Rebecca Kitteridge, director-general of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS), told Newshub outside Parliament on Thursday morning when she arrived.
Both Kitteridge’s agency and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) – of which Andrew Hampton is director-general – are being investigated as part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the March 15 attack.
When asked why the alleged gunman wasn’t on NZSIS’s radar, Kitteridge told Newshub: “Well, I guess that’s what the [Royal Commission of Inquiry] will look into.”
The head of the GCSB said the agency needs a red flag before it can act, and there wasn’t one.
“Lots of people travel to Pakistan, lots of people have gun licences, unfortunately lots of people post not very nice stuff on dodgy websites,” he said.
The spy bosses at Parliament were there to warn MPs about foreign government interference in New Zealand politics. They said they’re not just using cash, but putting pressure on expat communities and even MPs.
When asked if she’s concerned a state might have tried to exert influence over New Zealand MPs, Kitteridge responded: “Yes.”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/04/spy-bosses-dragged-into-jami-lee-ross-simon-bridges-saga.html?ref=ves-nextauto
Meanwhile down on the farm…
Tough article with some very hard lessons. It is hard work emotionally killing. I’ve worked on a farm and seen the calves die and/or be killed. I’ve seen the cows go down and the gun come out. We’ve got to reduce the pressure on people and reducing herd size and areas herds can be would really help. But of course this is about m.bovis and the havoc it has wrought.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/111871137/owner-of-m-bovisinfected-farm-who-had-to-shoot-newborn-calves-you-just-learn-to-grit-your-teeth-and-do-it
How sad – poor young man committed suicide. I suppose he couldn’t get out of his contract which he entered innocently never thinking of such a situation. And as Smit noted it was awful work when he had to do it himself. If farmers actually worked at their own businesses, and were not encouraged by easy credit to buy numerous farms (think Crafar*) there would be less of this sort of result. The bad spongy brain spread of disease in Britain was exacerbated by industrial farming methods.
* In 2009 they owned 22 farms, 18 of which are dairy, and 20,000 cows,[3] making them New Zealand’s largest family owned dairy business.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CraFarms
Poor bastards. That’d break my heart too.
These are the consequences when you try to engineer your way to maximum profit and growth with scant regard for good practice.
It is to be hoped that this will be a lesson to others in this industry and other industries. They need to ask themselves whether profit and growth at any cost is worth the inherent risk.
I doubt they will heed that lesson.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/04/climate-change-risks-to-be-assessed-as-new-zealand-s-emissions-labelled-disturbing.html
Climate change is here.
The greens are in government why again?
to be able to say
‘we have been telling you guys for long long time’?
Molten Salt Reactors. If I was at the start of my career this is where I would head right now. Here is one variation:
very interesting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stable_salt_reactor
We can’t handle our plastic waste responsibly. Maybe this might be better than thousands of nuclear power plants.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16012018/csp-concentrated-solar-molten-salt-storage-24-hour-renewable-energy-crescent-dunes-nevada
First point, this salt reactor actually is capable of using the waste (spent fuel) from other nukes as fuel, thereby helping to deal with the problem of waste built up from existing reactors.
Second, it’s in the right power range for large ships. It’s also a pretty useful size for remote installations that are unsuitable for solar.
But yeah, for mainstream grid supply, wind and solar have got so cheap it’s hard to see any new nukes making the grade.
“First point, this salt reactor actually is capable of using the waste (spent fuel) from other nukes as fuel, thereby helping to deal with the problem of waste built up from existing reactors.”
You have my attention now.
It’s an example of the broader class of “fast neutron reactors”. Most of which can be configured to use as fuel the waste from most of today’s reactors.
While the ability to burn other reactor’s waste is attractive, there’s also downsides. The biggest being that burning the uranium238 (that’s a large part of the waste from more common reactors) requires turning most of it into plutonium239 along the way. There’s obvious concerns about military proliferation there.
Personally I’m more interested in thorium based reactors. Because the intermediate steps of the thorium reaction chain are much harder to turn into weapons (though not impossible). But probably just as attractive to terrorists wanting to build dirty bombs.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/fast-neutron-reactors.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power
Agreed, although the thorium story and MSR’s while technically separate, are in reality very closely aligned. It’s pretty much the same people interested in both at this time.
It’s a good question; I’m a big fan of CSP power, it looks very cool and comes with built-in energy storage. Of all the renewable technologies it’s the one which I suspect has the brightest future.
But it’s important not to underestimate the scale of the challenge and the enormous amount of land and resources that will be consumed to make a serious contribution to the total global need.
These MSR reactors are nothing like your grandfather’s Pressurised Water Reactors. Some typical features:
1. All the safety engineering is ‘walk away’ passive. If something goes wrong the correct thing to do is nothing. The machine will stop and cool itself with no external power or intervention.
2. All the dangerous nucleides, cesium, strontium and iodine are stable compounds within the salt. Even if the plant was bombed, all that would happen is the released molten salt would solidify quickly, the nuclear reaction would stop and no gases would be released.
3. The internal operating pressures are very low, barely 2 -4 atmospheres. The engineering is far easier.
4. They are incredibly flexible with what fuel they use; and will cheerfully burn the waste from existing reactors. All current MSR designs are intended to have zero waste stream. Uranium, thorium, plutonium … gobble, munch, munch.
5. The manufacturing model will be similar to ship building or aircraft manufacture; everything is built and shipped from a single global site, and the sealed reactor units are shipped to wherever needed. Site assembly and certification is hugely reduced and they require almost no maintenance. No back up power, no emergency systems, no super complex control systems, no containment vessel, etc.
6. The cores are intended to have an operating life of about 5 – 10 years, after which the operator swaps to a new unit, shuts down the old one and lets it cool for 3 -5 years. Then ships the spent and empty unit back to the manufacturing site for refurbishment.
These things are just way easier to do, once you have the salt chemistry and fuel cycle sorted. The safety case is hugely less onerous and operating them is relatively simple. Homer Simpson might have trouble fecking with one.
The expectation is the costs will be about half that of new coal plant. These can be rolled out fast and located without huge infrastructure demands. All up I see these as being a faster and more certain route to de-carbonising than renewables on their own.
This could be the missing link in energy budgets to transform to a more resilient economy. We’ve not got the oil resources to do it without mucking up the planet.
Just yesterday I was daydreaming in class about how we might set up a block of renewable energy (using oil energy) and start from there to use less oil and more renewables as we ‘expand out’ to encompass more of industry/market/the globe.
Energy stuff is not my forte, but I do think we might progressively retrofit without too much pain if we work in a methodical manner always reducing consumable energy as we increase sustainable energy.
The issue is that large infrastructure projects require tremendous energy inputs. I’m trying to get my head around how we transition the transition period – if that makes any sense…
I also think they can test these reactors NIMBY. Heard too many false claims from companies posing as saviors. Swap some out for older more dangerous reactors maybe, as in those situations it might be seen as progress.
I’d vehemently oppose anyone testing any form of nuclear reactor here.
I would cheerfully have one in my backyard, indeed I’d love to have a crack at working in one. While the nuclear aspect would be pretty tame, there is real potential for innovative thermochemical downstream processing, the efficient production of bulk hydrogen for instance, that would be really interesting.
MSR’s are nothing like the massive nuclear plants we’re all accustomed to; they’re a fraction of the size. They have more in common with building a large ship than a massive plant.
ORNL successfully ran the first one in the 60’s for five years with no incidents of any kind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment
It’s not a case of one company promising miracles. At present there are 6 -10 different private companies working towards a licensed design, and the Chinese have an impressive $500m program; leading the way on work being done in 10 different countries. MSR’s are not completely without technical challenges, but most of them appear to be a matter of funding and time, rather than needing to invent wheels. The biggest hurdles are going to be regulatory, and overcoming negative public sentiment toward anything nuclear.
It’s strongly arguable that if the Nixon administration had not shut the original ORNL program down in 1973 for purely political reasons, MSR’s would have likely become the dominant energy source by now … and global warming would never have become an issue.
Looking ahead to when transport is fully electrified, it’s not hard to imagine service stations wanting to have on-site generation in the range of tens of MW. That’s in the same range as what large ships need. It’s not hard to see substantial demand for mass-produced small reactors.
NZ probably won’t ever get there, but much of the rest of the world might. Personally I’d have no concerns about those being nukes, particularly if they were thorium. For military proliferation and terrorism reasons, not any kind of Chernobyl style fears.
Incidentally I’ve just gotten my hands on a bunch of these:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2-3v40Ah-66160-LTO-Lithium-titanate_60842282887.html
Checkout the specs! They aren’t quite the holy grail as their energy density is about 2/3 standard Lithium chemistries, but for applications where weight doesn’t matter too much, like buses, boats, solar storage, etc they’re definitely the next leap forward. Full recharge is possible in 10 minutes!
Down the road a year or two we should see the next gen of solid state Lithiums. If they live up to the promise, then fully electric personal transport will happen very quickly. A huge amount of R&D is going on, but Tesla’s buyout of these guys recently shows concrete progress:
https://www.maxwell.com/
Fun stuff. Professional project or homer?
Professional. I’m using them to eliminate the travelling harness on a high speed shuttle. It recharges when parked for piece change-out, and allows easy 2D freedom of movement with no trailing power cables for the automation. All control data is via RF.
The 20,000+ cycle life is pretty attractive too. Cells like this were either not cost effective or unavailable 12 months ago.
Cool. I fukn hate cables running around the place. That 10C charge rate really does open up a whole lot of opportunities.
even the tripe media ( 2nd behind finance as the biggest benefit industry on NZ economy) shouldn’t be reporting or broadcasting the contents of threats made to public figures
Peter Dutton has apologised for appalling comments he made about his Labor opponent (who happens to be an amputee) in his seat of Dickson. But not before 2 Labor heavyweights, Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek and Senator Kristina Keneally went to town on him and PM Morrison over the issue.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-13/peter-dutton-apologises-to-dickson-rival-ali-france/11000532
Has either of these two “Labor heavyweights” spoken out for their fellow Australian Julian Assange?
And if not, why not?
Keneally did not mince words – cut him right down. Called him a thug, and the ‘worst’ of the liberals. Which must have been a difficult decision to make because it’s a crowded field.
Jesus. We’re lucky we only have Collins and Bennett who are capable of that kind of evil.
Plibersek was pretty much on message too, accusing Dutton of trying to ditch Dickson for a more glamorous seat closer to his mansion in the Gold Coast.
As late as Friday evening Dutton was doubling down on the accusations, by Saturday arvo he’d apologised. The optics were terrible and the overnight polling must have been diabolical for the Liberals.
Called him a thug, and the ‘worst’ of the liberals.
That ugly fuck and his party are “liberal” to the same extent that I’m “conservative,” ie not even when hung over.
STOP THE PRESS!!!!!
In breaking news:
Labour uses Facebook ‘thumbs up’ logo on website !!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/111975909/labour-uses-facebook-thumbs-up-logo-on-website
A Lee Kenny exclusive no doubt.
Need to sort some support for this Muslim family who’s son is receiving threats and being beaten at school. Grrrr
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12219785
This is bad and sad. My relatives have been teachers, and I have heard that principals can be more concerned about smooth running and meeting Board
requirements than actually fulfilling the requirements of looking after the pastoral care of students as well as the important keeping up on the league table of passes and success as expected.
Has anyone encountered a successful all-school effort to reduce bullying by discussing it and its detrimental effects on the pupil, the bully, and the school as model of a social group within the larger group of society? I wondered about an all-school meeting to discuss the problems and how they affect individuals and show lack of social abilities which are needed in a healthy society. Of course studies in philosophy, different cultures and how they handle the common human
condition should be mandatory but our society has never had deep enough thought to ask for this.
Kia ora R&R.
THE plastic waste should be legerslated so that the manufacturer and retailers pay a percentage to give the waste a valuation to make it profitable to recycle it.
I agree all the chemicals that leach out of our WASTE can and is causing bad side effects on our wildlife and US.
The plastic waste /WASTE problems is not to big to cured its a problem that has to be cured we just need smart simple laws a process to FIX this Problem. Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Eco Maori exzact thoughts the powerfull people don’t want the truth to get out THE TRUTH IS POWER trump is using all the dirty tricks in his puppets book to control OUR media he has use the power of the USA goverments power to suppress the biggest problem human kind is about to face CLIMATE CHANGE . With the sexual assult charges does one think that Julian would have made such a STUPID move knowing the USA goverment was after his ASS KNOW that acusation is the easyest set up they could come up with pay a girl $10 of thousands to stand up in court and lie I have seen the sandflys trying this move on ECO MAORI WTF.
The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is so disliked in journalism and political circles that many reporters and liberal politicians were publicly cheering on Thursday when the Trump administration released an indictment of Assange, which was related to his interactions with the whistleblower Chelsea Manning in the months leading up to the publication of Pentagon and state department cables in 2010.
The Assange prosecution threatens modern journalism
Please do not fall for this trap. It is exactly what the Trump administration is hoping for, as the Department of Justice (DoJ) moves forward with its next dangerous step in its war on journalism and press freedom.
The larger context surrounding this case is almost as important as the Assange indictment itself. Donald Trump has been furious with leakers and the news organizations that publish them ever since he took office. He complains about it constantly in his Twitter tirades. He has repeatedly directed the justice department to stop leaks, and he even asked former FBI director James Comey if he can put journalists in jail.
The justice department has responded by launching a record number of leak cases and have weighed changing the rules to make it easier to subpoena journalists
Ka kite ano links below P.S Julian let the Papatuanuku know that goverments are CHEATS.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/13/julian-assange-indictment-wikileaks-trump-administration-war-on-press-freedom
Some Eco Maori musci for the minute.
Heart Throb
I know Julian Assange is a wonderful friend of the Trolls on here. Through him they have discovered some nasty bits of what happens in War. As if that was ever an unknown.
They seem entirely unaware that Assange released what he called “timely information” (true or false) to obliterate Hilary Clinton’s chances of Presidency.
He is after all Mr Big. He did not try and destroy the Wealthy, of course. Just the needy. And of course Obama Care is a hanging offence in the Wealthy Troll households.
The most savage Wikileak thing to Date, is the release of Millions of pieces of personal Information belonging to Turkish Women. Home Address, Banking, Phone, and so on.
Neither ugly Wikileaks or Assange, has apologised to all those Women. Many of whom are now victims of Turkey Red Necks, former mongrel husbands, and Murder.
Like New Zealand, Turkey males do not value the women who bring them into the World.
The Internet, thanks to mongrels like Assange, is not worth a dime. It’s a dump, fit for dumpsters.
Thanks for nothing Heart Throbs.
Eco Maori Agrees strongly with these comments we are PART OF THE ENVIROMENT we need to care for OUR enviroment like its our grandparents as Papatuanuku actually is OUR GRANDPARENT FOOLs
We need to coexist with the ecosystem because we’re part of it, and so are birds
Susan Elbin
Though the studies bear sad news about the effects cities have on birds, conservationists see them as opportunities to target their activism.
“Every time new scientific literature comes out, we learn more about the problem, and … we can pinpoint the best solutions using the science,” said Kaitlyn Parkins, a conservation biologist at NYC Audubon.
Turning out the lights in buildings at night for a few weeks during peak migration is a simple first step and would make a big difference, Parkins said. The National Audubon Society runs Lights Out, a coordinated effort with local chapters to advocate reducing light during migration. States such as New York and Minnesota have participated in the program, turning out lights in state-operated buildings during migration.
Conservationists also advocate that buildings adopt more “bird-friendly” designs, for example using patterned glass and dimmer lighting. San Francisco and Toronto have already adopted some bird-friendly guidelines, while city council members in New York and Chicago have introduced legislation to adopt similar measures. A bipartisan bill in Congress introduced in January, called the “Bird-Safe Building Act”, would require new federal buildings to adopt designs that keep migrating birds in mind.
“We need to coexist with the ecosystem because we’re part of it, and so are birds,” Elbin said. “What’s good for birds is good for people.”
This article was amended on 8 April 2019 to clarify the relative dangers different types of buildings pose for birds. Ka kite ano links below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/07/how-many-birds-killed-by-skyscrapers-american-cities-report
Kia kaha you go and fight for your futures climate the neanderthals are to dumb to get the big picture
“The power that we have in numbers and the power that we have in coming together and taking action as a collective was something people were really keen to get back into.”
The plan was for other groups around the country to hold their own meetings in the coming weeks and months. Sophie said inclusivity was central to the movement, and they wanted everyone who had been involved in the strike so far to have their say in the next steps.
In Auckland, 17-year-old strike organiser Luke Wijohn said while things slowed down slightly, lots of new people have joined the movement in the weeks since March 15.
Sophie said the students wanted to make it clear the strike wasn’t a one-off and they were committed to holding the government to account.
The group was developing a national strategy and planned to create a youth climate action network. Campaigning to make climate change education a compulsory part of the curriculum was one of the aims on the cards.
Another global school climate strike was planned for September 27. Ka kite ano links below
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/111942869/school-climate-strikers-grieving-after-christchurch-shootings-but-planning-for-future
P.S The neanderthals are stuffing with my devices
Kia ora Newshub.
Condolences to Evet whanau.
Its cool that Our government is going to sort out the problems with the construction sector it needs sorting out as it been left in a Mess.
I see some puppet trying ride on ECO MAORI Coat Tails once again I stand by my Tau toko of Julian.
I Back Nagti Kuri call for a Tangaroa sanatorium we have to save Tangaroa for our MOKOPUNA.
Its a good idea that more people at school learn CPR for heart attack victims revival.
You no how it is they will never apologise for the atrocities that were carried out in India or to other indigenous cultures that’s the European way.
Its a good idea going around and getting knowledge from the kaumatua before they pass but studying war is a waste of time in my view someone has to record the indigenous cultures knowledge before our tangata whenua O Atoearoa kaumatua pass. Ka kite ano P.S Some are trying every dirty trick in their book to try stop the Eco Maori effect. YEA RIGHT
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Kia ora The AM Show.
Ryan a capital gains tax is needed to stop all NZ capital flowing out to nation with no tax keep the capital in NZ for the Mokopuna allso it takes the burden off the paye tax payer’s.No simon the tax needs to be aimed at the people who pay next to KNOW TAX
The Australian Unicon sheep looks hard case mite be a new breed that will get the deniers to see reality with a little prodding.
I still see a lot of EGGS around if eggs get to expensive people will be able to grow their own with very little money and work.
Mark ther you go making statements that have to be retracted
That billion dollar hole was joice pridicting the extra cost that the government service industry has to spend to clean up the MESS HE MADE.
Bush you are frowning have you heard OF the TRUTH that I have been say about your organisation its the TRUTH.
A good free range egg is bright orange very good.
I think the way the government has aproched the construction industry is WIZE asking what needs to be done to fix some of the problems in the industry I can remember 28 years ago I got a house built the section price would have just payed for the prosess of council permits now days GO FIGURE why we have a housing shortage now.
My literacy is OK for someone’s who actually only learnt at school to the age of 9 after that Eco Maori is self taught my spelling is bad but I READ very well.
Now is the time to put heaps of effort into conserving OUR indanger WILD life like the Maui Dolphin Ka pai.
Ka kite ano P.S congratulations on the new jacket someone has given me a birthday present all ready Mike the leftys need to harden up and let everyone know as the ightys cheat when ever they can and the left let them hide their cheating ways if someone goes public they get what they deserve
The 21st century comunacation device was is a device that gets the TRUTH out to the masses of tangata. Social Media is the best way to inform the people that the RULEING CLASS are RIPPING the common tangata of they use there MONEY to try and hide the facts change the facts.
One exzample is salt and sugar one we need in OUR diet the other we don’t one can be obtained from tangaroa the other is controled by big busness.
Salt has heaps of infomation published about the negitive effects I say most of that is crap.
Sugar causes DIABETES obesity rotts teeth stuff you liver and many other bad side effects from sugar and up till a few months ago every story on sugar had the words would or could cause these bad side effects when the links between sugar and the bad health affects are clear to see you see this is just a small part of the story of the eelite CHEATING the 99.99 % out of the truth here are just a few on the topics that they are cheating tangata ABOUT.
Sugar
salt
we don’t know why the native poupulation’s are doing so bad /no discrimanation here don’t LOOK and you won’t see it.
Carbon is not causing climate change
nitrogin is not causeing our water ways/ AWA to die.
The trickle down effect when its clear the captialst system is being massaged to make the money flow to the TOP and stop any trickleing down to the poor people/COUNTRYS.
the justice systems being fair
The ruling class are hounest YEA RIGHT when do they admite lierability not even if there hand’s are caught in the cookie jar they will lies and say they were just cleaning the jar and take the lie to the highest COURT in the land to obmit liability the poor person could not even get it to a COURT but ha the justice system is fair YEA RIGHT .
This is why I back social media 100 % AS now we get to sift throught the information and find the FACT.s with social media Ka kite ano Links below P.S the ruling class laught to themselves that the common person is hounest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Eco Maori know that I am going to bring these cheating lieing rednecks sandflys to heal .Then everyone will know of my mana maui
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
I see the sandflys are trying to pin more bullshit on Eco Maori