Stop importing pork or any other food we can produce ourselves – and make it compulsory for country of origin to be CLEARLY visible on all food products.
What does conventional farming actually entail? The regenerative movement sees significant differences between what they do and what those who don't label themselves "regenerative", do. It would pay to ask them for the details.
Can we consume pke without messing up tropical forests elsewhere?
Is continuing the use of sow crates fair to kiwi pigs?
The fertiliser thing is the bastard offspring of failing to set limits for nitrates in streams and ground water. You set nitrate levels at 5ppm if you want to contain cancer deaths and allow freshwater species to flourish.
Then, according to nitrate levels, you set local policies for nitrate use. South Canterbury has a long way to go before nitrate use would be sensible, for instance.
But if a farmer or horticulturist, in an area where the groundwater is in good shape, wants to use a bit of nitrate fertiliser, there is no reason why they shouldn't.
Yes, you'd need a regular testing public authority. But surely the lesson from Havelock North is that water must be regularly monitored. With clear limits in place, and a regular testing regime, councils will encounter much less opposition enforcing district regulations consequent upon water quality.
But perhaps the government is waiting for a few nitrate linked infant deaths to force their hand.
That's nonsense, imo and believing that plays into the hands of those who know how to obfuscate endlessly to slow-down or prevent change that doesn't suit.
it's not that measuring isn't needed, it's that land can in fact be managed without it. The reason why measuring is so important at this time is because so many people just don't know how to manage land regeneratively.
They're not reckons though. Experienced gardeners know things that can't be measured. Measuring is a great tool but if civilisation collapsed tomorrow we'd still be able to grow food regeneratively.
Experienced gardeners know things that can't be measured.
No they don't.
What they know has been measured but they haven't written it down making it difficult, if not impossible, to pass on.
Measuring is a great tool but if civilisation collapsed tomorrow we'd still be able to grow food regeneratively.
It's not going to collapse tomorrow and
no we couldn't as there simply isn't the knowledge base needed to roll it out across the country
Time and time again I've heard stories of people saying how they got advice from someone and, after following there advice, it didn't work. This happens so much, in fact, that researchers looked into it.
The research showed that the people passing on their advice were missing a vital piece of information, something that they were doing that was so ingrained in them that they didn't even realise that they were doing it nor, more importantly, that it was a necessary part of what they were doing.
This is why we measure, to find out what actually works and how so that the information can be reliably passed on.
And I've linked before to the fallibility of human memory.
DTB Times are going to be tough in the future without reacting angrily and jailing the recalcitrants. Perhaps put them in stocks where we can all see them and people can come along and heckle them. The Chinese called it re-education. Somehow the responsibles have to check the irresponsibles, there is just so much fluff floating around obscuring the important issues and the methods of improvement.
"Nonsense" was a bit harsh. It's a ploy used by people who immediately recognise that the requirement to measure before acting can be gamed; challenge the measuring methods, the measuring devices, the measures themselves, muddy the waters with other measurements made by industry, cite the changing standards, the results from overseas measurements, the ideologies and methodologies and you can delay action for ever and ever. Amen.
Indeed, who would argue with Science being a way to the understanding the World? If only we didn’t have to rely on those pesky humans with their fallible brains and fragile little egos.
Maybe you’re too rational to have a useful conversation with about Science? Maybe you don’t recognise sarcasm when the tag isn’t there for your convenience? Science is a human endeavour, by humans, for humans. There’s no ‘special magic’ despite the aura that some claim to see there – we have moved on from Alchemy but not that much. For many scientists, it is just another fucking job.
I do think that our punishment of white-collar crime is far below what it needs to be. A murderer only kills people, white-collar crime destroys civilisation.
While your “destroys civilisation” is a little…Errr… overstating things I do agree white collar fraud is something that should be prosecuted a little harder.
But not all of it. Some amounts to simple theft, others – like Enron, is out and out fraud
Its pretty much a slippery slope (which I hate) but the longer we leave it in place the more damage that it does and it escalates. We fail to prosecute the small corruption (such as cash jobs where taxes are avoided) and so those who commit those small corruptions commit bigger (Its just the same as the other action, right?). And eventually the people committing this fraud is too big to adequately prosecute.
Whether it is nonsense or not really depends upon what level of management you're referring to. You can and I'm sure do manage your forest garden in a way that is not damaging to the environment, without recourse to testing.
Councils and central governments however, need some kinds of objective measures of the degree to which agricultural interests are complying with their responsibilities. This is in no small part because not all operators will act in good faith to contain their nitrate and or silt or organic particulate leaching. Those who act in bad faith and fail to contain pollutants need to be charged, and objective evidence will greatly assist the councils if they contest council findings.
If the levels are centrally set as a health policy as they should have been, at the level advised by the WHO for example, then councils can be required to set policy to try to achieve target levels. In areas with significant nitrification that might include a ban on nitrate fertilisers and or requirements to bioremediate or destock.
For farmers to be contesting the levels, as seems to have been the practice during David Parker's roadshow is an impropriety. The safe and appropriate level for nitrates is a matter of fact, not a ball for opinion or financial interest to kick around.
That at least accounts for their legendary economic acumen – their virtues being so advanced in that field that neither universities nor the Nobel committee can even perceive them.
Is banning sow crates fair to kiwi farmers if imported pork comes from sow crate garnering. ?
This is a really good example of why the rules and regulations governing different economies need to be the same. If they're not the same then the one that doesn't have as strict a rules as the other is going to undercut the other. The difference in pricing results in a misallocation of resources away from the more expensive regulations.
The answer is not to dump the regulations (as National/ACT want) but to dump trading with nations that don't have equivalent regulations and enforcement.
Again, we're faced with the fact that free-trade won't bring about equitable or economic results. There only thing that will is well regulated trade.
What does regenerative farming actually entail?
Hopefully, they'll get round to making an official definition that both makes sense but isn't too restrictive on process. All other legislation has such definitions.
When Parliament returns, these careerists will return to business as usual. Politics is the only business that doesn’t suffer in a recession. It’s a system built for failure: failure to deliver results in the public interest and failure to foster policy innovation. Worse still, doesn’t demand accountability for failure to fix these problems. The current Labour Government is the starkest example of this stagnation.
I've been there, done that, and sympathise. Don't vote, it only encourages them! That's been a popular notion for yonks. The worst thing about democracy is the delusional effect on younger generations, who get suckered en masse.
Then there's the other side of the coin. Being proactive is good. Progress comes via convergence on common ground. Consensus politics can be made to work well, if you apply skill to the process. The power of positive thinking.
Having spent most of my life exploring that side, while recalling the alienation phase of my younger self, I reckon muddle through the middle is better than defeatism.
My answer to "don't vote it only encourages them" is to point out that the people who do vote get the political advantage that they know comes from voting- the power, the policies, the control.
Who benefits from saying 'don't vote, it only encourages them?" What is in it for them? Will I be one of the beneficiaries of allowing others to decide, by voting, who is in charge?
And voting is like renewing your registration on your car, sort of.
It says this is my country, and I support it when I vote, I register my ideas as a citizen to be counted along with my fellows. And I will vote along with fellow citizens who I consider are choosing good ways to direct the country. These are the ones trying to guide behaviour and reasonable controls over the country so that we advance together and solve problems and make future plans, in responsible ways for our and the country's mutual good.
That's why I vote, that's what is in my mind, and if any journalist or campaigner, or any of the entitled or sourly cynical are prepared to deny what advantages they have received from the country, and deny that it is a country and system of any worth, then they are feckless, mindless, untrustworthy, and should be watched with suspicion.
I think she forfeits any right to be paid to comment on politics publicly if she can't bring herself to behave like a responsible adult, and worse, encourages others to behave likewise
Democracy would be fine – if we actually had a democracy rather than an elected dictatorship that can, and usually does, ignore the will of the people.
That is what I have felt time and time again in recent years. Too often the will of the people has been deliberately ignored. I would like to see the Swiss system where there are regular referendum – three or four times a year – usually putting up 3 or 4 questions for the public to vote on. The results are binding and must be implemented within 2 years. I would like to have had the opportunity to vote on such things as 1/ course fees and student loans 2/allowing large numbers of overseas students into our schools and universities ( It was supposed to have improved our education system Haha ) 3/ The escalation of immigration 4/ scrapping of the superannuation fund and more….
Perhaps somebody can explain how binding referendums are supposedly instruments or conduits of and for ‘the will of the people’. Aren’t they just a variation on the theme of ‘the majority wins’? In other words, 51% of the people get what they want and ‘the will of the losers’ is basically ignored?
The lowest bar is 51% and demands for expediency and efficiency result in this low bar becoming the aim to strive for (target or threshold). Compromise is a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘need to have’ when trying to reach the bar. These are the pragmatic considerations of the system as it is and I cannot see how binding referendums make a meaningful difference. That is not ‘the will of the people’ but of a self-selecting group of people. This only gets worse when more people disengage from the process altogether. Opinion pieces by Andrea Vance and Luke Malpass today don’t help one bit.
I’ll paraphrase your Q.: Why should the 51% be ignored in favour of the 49%.
I think I have made it clear enough to understand that this question is the wrong one and a mirror of the Q. that I posed, but neither is framing the issue in a way that leads to a meaningful solution. Referendums per se are not the solution and you have only managed to confirm my view, so far. How is compulsory voting changing the bar of 50%?
Sometimes these discussions remind me of a first-year ethics class.
Firstly, if you want referenda to reflect compromises that make 80% of voters happy, make the threshold for adoption 80%, not 50%.
Secondly, even then you have what tories love to call "the tyranny of the majority". Most of the time they're referring to hardships that most people would love to have (like a high marginal tax rate on millionaires, when the median income is ~$50k), but some issues might arise where they have a point. Compulsory euthenasia, maybe? So obviously there would have to be strict constitutional constraints upon governments and the power of a referendum.
Thirdly, there's the question of whether it's even a good way to run a government. Not because the voters are stupid, but because it's chaotic and slow. Small inputs can have significant pseudo-random effects. What about contradictory referenda? UBI referendum followed by a tax cut referendum? Removal of enforcement powers from one body, with another referendum introducing new regulations that need to be enforced?
Fourth, a lot of policy shouldn't be controlled by demagogues. Elected representatives can tweak and change things as they go, based on available information from experts. Binding referenda need to be followed, regardless of whether the available information changes or whether big bucks were spent on targeted advertising for three weeks.
Thirdly, there's the question of whether it's even a good way to run a government.
It's not about running the administration like that but in running the country. A rather important difference.
Not because the voters are stupid, but because it's chaotic and slow.
Slow I would agree with but not chaotic if the right processes are put in place.
Fourth, a lot of policy shouldn't be controlled by demagogues.
That's pretty much what we have now.
Elected representatives can tweak and change things as they go, based on available information from experts.
They can but they don't. If they did then personal cars would have been dropped years ago.
Binding referenda need to be followed, regardless of whether the available information changes or whether big bucks were spent on targeted advertising for three weeks.
Then make it so that:
If new information that comes to light changes then it can be put back to referenda to be changed
Don't allow lies or misinformation in advertising.
Don't allow big money to advertise one way or another for a referenda.
So obviously there would have to be strict constitutional constraints upon governments and the power of a referendum.
Yes but I happen to think that we need that anyway and that constitution needs to be written by the people.
It is the radically participatory nature of the Icelandic process that makes it interesting to anarchists like us. For anarchists, constitutionalising is not about finding one way to manage all social orders but of finding ways to ensure that people can propose radical change that does not lead to the domination of others. This demands active participation in making the rules by which we would like to be governed.
Constitutionalising does not stop after a certain point, but ought to continue as a fundamental part of social and political activity. The problem with the nation state, potentially with the exception of Iceland, is that it has become ossified. So what might an alternative look like?
Referenda are generally over a single issue. They are less susceptible to the kinds of capture that occurs with other parts of the political system. Looking back over the many tragic instances of misgovernance in NZ, it's surprising, for a supposedly democratic state, how few of them enjoyed popular support or even assent. Referenda exist to stiffen the spines of those pasta-like MPs and parties who typically flop whichever way entrenched financial interests prefer.
Poor people have no reason to vote for labour if the point is that national is worse on beneficiaries.
They are both bad, they are both full of contempt. And hiding the shit sandwich served to the poor, the soon to be poor and unemployed in a wrapping of kindness and gentlenessness still leaves it a shit sandwich.
mate, are you mansplaining the right of a women to vote to a women?
Just asking sweety, cause it was not your kind that just 'gave' us that right out of their good heart,.It was earned by the women who came before me, nothing to do with men and certainly nothing to do with white landowning men who think they have eaten wisdom and knowledge with a soup laddle such as yourself. . Non of that however does away with the reality of todays useless eaters that want to be elected to government cause it sure beats getting a job in private industry, and that includes the pretenders in your favorite party.
no, i can't anymore.
I can find no reason to re-elect the Greens, National, Labour or any of the other useless eaters. Not one.
As for 'the environment', that was fucked generally speaking by white stale males a long time ago.
And i have always identified as a female, Sabine being my given name since i first came here to this blog, no matter how much you want to pretend to be 'woke and / or uninformed'.
I don't like to assume. Re: "the environment" being f*cked by the patriarchal hierarchy, I'm totally with you there. Can I do better? It's my life mission to do just that. I apportion a very small part of my efforts to the political "solution", though I will vote; participation is vital, in my opinion. The rest of my energy goes toward reparation, reconciliation, recognition, re-cognition, re-imagining and doing the mahi required. I met a couple today who introduced themselves as (phonetically) toe-nee and pa-ris; can you confidently assign gender to them, Sabine?
I attended an Advance Party meeting in my village yesterday; their candidate believes they'll get 15%, comfortably; "The polls didn't pick Trump's win," he declared, "and look what happened!" They talked about Trump a lot.
The were from outside of the village They received absolute support, no matter what they said. I've been pressing some of the attendees to respond to the article that describes Billy's "epiphany" during lockdown, where he immersed himself in Qanon -studies and "became acutely aware" of the real situation, asking them if they'd feel comfortable if their child was to reverse their ordinary positions on the world, following a weeks-long-soaking in Facebook and the work of American Hard-Right activists, but so far my suggestions have bounced off the hard walls of Blind Devotion and they're beginning to express pity for me.
Around 30? Much the same turnout that any politician event gets here. A high percentage were/looked non-European. I asked if they thought Billy's rapid adoption through Facebook was of any concern to them, but they said no, as that's how they too "woke up".
Do you think the attendees will actually turn up to vote, and / or give financial support to the guy.
I know a couple of people who are well down that rabbit hole, amongst others, and the chances of them fronting up to a polling booth and giving their name and address to get a voting paper, and then filling it out in a valid manner would be pretty close to zero.
I can't decide if it's a serious political vehicle or a con job designed to fleece the vulnerable.
I don't think anyone there was able to donate much at all. Your point about the fearfulness for being in a place and being noted for being there (polling booth, intending to vote "Billy") is interesting and the "x" factor that will, come the election, expose them all as chumps.; I wonder, though, if it's something else. I wonder if it's simply a pathological "happening" that's attracting a few moths.
Serious, Graeme, as in seriously naive & delusional. I know three, all old friends, two are university grads, all successful professionals now retired.
I seriously pissed off the two males back at the start last summer (before Billy & JLR jumped on) when I pointed out via emails exactly where they were going wrong in their thinking. 😎
I also pulled rank by reminding them I'd been checking out conspiracy theories way longer than either of them. I could've used academic elitism (hard science qualifications always outranked soft science etc) but better to have mercy. Still, testing friendships that have endured 47 & 37 years is unusual.
The cost of bringing busloads/carloads of people from elsewhere will be listed under "unofficial expenses" that will never be seen.
In the second to last photo in the link provided by Dennis Frank @ 2, there is a woman with a placard hanging down the front with the words in upper-casing:
UN MASKED. UN MUZZLED, UN VACCINATED, UN AFRAID.
Someone should have marched behind her holding up a big sign : UN HINGED.
It's a UN conspiracy. One hoarding in my town, New Conservative I think, says "NZ not UN".
Here's an interesting article giving 5 reasons why people buy into conspiracy theories. I have to admit that I had to look up Qanon. The article might help explain what is happening.
Probably the best way to 'cure' these dumb asses is to undermine them with humour.
If all the wits – famous or otherwise – and cartoonists in the world were to make a mass effort to laugh them out of the limelight, then they lose their power and influence and hopefully fade into obscurity.
Especially those of us who wore brown shoes and safari suits.
I wonder what Bob says now about metros with their immaculate short hair and huge beards, men who wear sports coats with ripped jeans, and the cult of shaven heads?
Oh he won't like metros. I remember a few years ago hearing Bob Jones say he absolutely hated people who wore their sunglasses on top of their heads, and he would never employ anyone who did so. Seemed a rather extreme reaction but there you go. At the same time he said he hated having to comply with building regulations for accessibility ramps etc because most people in wheelchairs were 'faking it'.
It seems the cops have become very lenient since we, who were arrested during peace protests against the American war against Vietnam. Why were the leaders of that anti Covid protest not arrested for breaking the law and inciting people to also break that law.
For one thing, there is an election on in NZ and the leaders would likely claim the police were interfering with their political/electioneering rights.This would likely motivate many others to join their cause and to also protest in large groups in the streets.
For another thing, the police did not arrest members of the Mt Roskill church group for alledgedly gathering together in groups larger than the official allowable number. If so, that would likely mean that any law enforcement action against the anti Covid crowd would be dismissed by the courts on the grounds of inconsistent application of the law.
But, on yet another hand, if the government is going to have 'rules' on these matters, it looks impotent and weak if they are not enforced.
Anyone see the Fran on Q+A? She issued a fervent leftist critique at the end that was as acute as it was forthright. Never seen her do that before. Maybe she's between contracts?? 🤔
Could you give me the link to that Q+A. I limit what I take in so that I don't fall out of my tree from being 'stoned' on the drug of political farce but I try to keep up. So if you can please?
I watched it on my flat-screen tv, which gets it via roof aerial carefully pointed at the transmission tower they built on the side of Mt Taranaki to provide line-of-sight to New Plymouth.
I presume TVNZ can give it to you via their on-demand system, which I have never used and expect never will (due to going cold turkey on my prior habit of watching tv for entertainment in 1973). Most of the show was about the euthanasia referendum, which I avoided, but the final segment they discussed Labour's tax policy. The Fran, the Jack, & the Indian economist…
So I would have to stream it or something. I gave tv up when they switched to digital, couldn't be bothered having verbal lashings of Harvey Norman and my repeat programs dumped in favour of sport. Is Q&A on TV1?
Not having it leaves room in my day for reading, listening, and not knowing anything at all about a wide mass of people who appear very vacuous anyway. It does provide a venue for NZ creatives though, and so it helps industry.
Yeah, TV1 @ 9am. I don't normally bother, but the election campaign is likely to induce them to provide something substantial so I check out the intro to see what topics they will cover. Agree that one must be highly selective…
Thanks. I realise why I don't watch. I'm asked to sign up and get an account and then login. I thought it was going to be like public tv and you just watched it when you wanted not having this carry-on. It's not TV on Demand – you have to ask permission.
The idea that she might be enlightened is too strange for me to consider, so no. I agreed with her. I've noticed that happens when she is sensible. However, on this occasion, it was an opinion produced by a value judgment.
I thought that a Forbes report would be factual and well backed and find it was from a 'factoid' bunch. NZ listed as the 2nd best country for coping with Covid-19 isn't a solid fact.
The complicated calculations that spawned the Covid rankings had actually been compiled by an outfit called The Deep Knowledge Group – not exactly a household name. The Group’s website declares that “Deep Knowledge is Transcendent Power.” It says the survey has “140 parameters” and “35,000 data points.” The 36-page methodology document is bewildering.
But none of the news stories published here addressed evident inconsistencies in the findings. The report claimed to have assessed 250 countries. By most measures there are not that many nations in the world.
I see some similarity with Surgisphere, the shady company that provided dubious data to reputable scientific journals on clinical trials with the miracle cure hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19.
One thing I have noticed in NZ (and I won't mention any names) is an unholy alliance between marketers and data analysis. They purchase access to diverse (anonymised) datasets, cherry-pick results they don't actually understand (let alone understand the ethical implications of mashing together correlations between different data sources), and shill them around various sectors that might have an interest.
They're not specialists answering a specific research question with full knowledge of the context, they're data sinks that try to find observations to sell to clients. I am unimpressed.
I agree. Don’t forget the role that some academics play in this. On the one hand, it is great to see input form scientists who do studies and surveys, for example, but the findings are open to debate, or should be. The drip-feeding is not always a good thing and those who control the narrative know how to package something as scientific (read: unbiased and non-partisan) when they ‘sell it’ to the public, literally, in some cases. Making data sets full public is not really a solution because the public lacks the skills and tools to digest the data and extract meaningful information from it. The pseudo-science of the Plan B group is a textbook example of how data and interpretations can mislead if not worse.
I think this person has a case. If the people can work where needed and have a good record, and get housing etc. they are here, free of infection, no expensive border and isolation to do. Let them stay if poss. – be practical and kind. Immigration needs to stop playing with people's lives like some malign god.
IIRC there are about 16000 of them. -and they don't have to do horticultural work they can be doing other stuff.
These work schemes and the student work visa's put our own young people coming onto the job market under huge pressure. Birth cohorts coming on to the labour market are about 50,000 to 60,000.
Student visas were about 70000 plus around 28000 on these tried to stay on the next year. Then there are these work travel visas as well.
So the young person trying to find work here or to finance study is competing with around 2-3 imported work visas for that job.
And for every month those 16000 work – if some one else stays on a benefit – its costing us $16 mil.
Plus these are industries that need a reset for labour and working conditions. Frankly we are better using the actual RSE scheme if needed.
Yup, there's a shed load of money to be made defrauding malcontented fools prepared to swallow all manner of preposterous claptrap.
(Bloomberg) — A popular website for posts about the conspiracy group QAnon abruptly shut down after a fact-checking group identified the developer as a New Jersey man.
Qmap.pub is among the largest websites promoting the QAnon conspiracy, with over 10 million visitors in July, according to web analytics firm SimilarWeb Ltd., and served as the primary archive of QAnon’s posts. The website aggregates posts by Q, the anonymous figure behind the QAnon theory, and the creator of the Qmap.pub website is known online only as “QAppAnon.”
The fact-checking site Logically.ai identified Jason Gelinas of New Jersey on Sept. 10 as the “developer and mouthpiece” for the site. New Jersey state records connect QAppAnon to Gelinas’s home address, Bloomberg found.
Reached outside his home, Gelinas declined to comment on the Logically report, saying only that someone had sent it to him on Twitter after it was published.
[…]
A LinkedIn profile for Gelinas says he works as an information security analyst at Citigroup. Citigroup declined to comment.
[…]
QAppAnon, the online name of qmap’s creator, also runs a Patreon account, which receives more than $3,000 a month in donations, according to the Patreon site. In March, QAppAnon announced on Patreon an upcoming Android app named “Armor of God,” a social network for followers of QAnon.
In his new book, The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life, University of Otago professor Richie Poulton and his co-authors set out to determine to what extent our origins shape our later lives. Poulton, who is the leader of the internationally recognised Dunedin Study, joins the show to discuss how childhood experiences impact on our lives…
Second – perhaps we need to smile at ourselves to limit our depressing thoughts.
Moving your facial muscles in a way that mimics a smile can trick your brain into a more positive state, according to a new study by researchers from the University of South Australia. Lead researcher Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos says that even though the smiles are forced, the brain can't tell the difference. He joins the show from Adelaide.
Just evidence of the intellect of Americans you reckon? There is criticism of the yokels and absolutely thick there who do dumbs things and can't see through Trump.
These are their bright young things. America deserves to be doomed.
Now Roger Stone is going on Infowars and openly calling for Emperor PalPutin to declare martial law and calling for open sedition and rebellion from supporters if their attempts to steal the election don't work.
Both men talked of an ongoing “coup” against Trump, and Stone inexplicably claimed that he predicted “almost three decades ago that this moment would come.”
Its easy to predict if it was your game plan all along.
Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean blasted Stone for calling on Trump to “declare himself America’s dictator” — voicing what “many Republicans crave.”
And many Republicans wanting a right-wing dictatorship wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
In the meantime John Campbell reports on two much larger Vitamin D correlation studies. They both conclude that it is an independent variable that has a substantial impact on the clinical progression of COVID.
To paraphrase Campbell, the failure by the medical authorities to properly follow this up is now fast reaching the point of negligence. At the very least Vitamin D supplementation should be standard for all elderly in care and rest homes.
"These trees on Canal Rd, on this small section, are some of the most diverse range of native trees that you will find in Auckland city. I would have to actually say that it is the most diverse range of native trees in the city," Wedding said.
"And since tree protection went away in 2012, basically one in every three trees has been removed and at this site, there are some really precious, rare trees, which for arborists, we've just got to a point where enough is enough and we have to make a stand and we have to put a stop to this."
General tree protection was scrapped in changes to the Resource Management Act in 2012, something which Wedding said had resulted in the loss of one of three trees in Auckland.
This specific property has a range of trees, including black maire, manoao, pōhutukawa, tōtara and pūriri and a kawaka which another arborist has been occupying for the past 20 days.
Laggard NZ, paralysed Auckland, I think it is time to buy up this property. People's property can be taken for nationally important things, these trees are that.
One of the magic moments of my trip through Africa was one morning in a campground getting breakfast sorted, and a serval walks out of the hedge and up to me looking for cuddles just like a super-friendly domestic cat. Except his shoulders and hips were knee-high on me. Then his sister wandered out, just the same. They stuck around for nearly ten minutes being super-friendly and playful, they weren't even mooching for food.
Turns out the rangers had rescued them from a bush fire as tiny kittens and their mum never came back for them, so the rangers raised them They were trying to get them to back to the wild, but they liked the campground life. The regulars there were over them, tho. There was a good fishing lake there, but often someone would be pulling in a fish and one of the servals would jump in the water to grab it. Then they'd have to take it to the vet to get yet another hook out of its mouth.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
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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 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
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Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
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Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
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The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
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The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
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The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
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https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300105567/greens-want-to-clean-up-agriculture-with-300m-fund-for-farms–but-theres-a-catch
What does regenerative farming actually entail?
Can we ban pke without messing up trade deals .?
Is banning sow crates fair to kiwi farmers if imported pork comes from sow crate garnering. ?
Stop importing pork or any other food we can produce ourselves – and make it compulsory for country of origin to be CLEARLY visible on all food products.
What does conventional farming actually entail? The regenerative movement sees significant differences between what they do and what those who don't label themselves "regenerative", do. It would pay to ask them for the details.
Can we consume pke without messing up tropical forests elsewhere?
Is continuing the use of sow crates fair to kiwi pigs?
So it's just an eerie airy fluffy wuffy green policy with no actual science or targets to aim for the regenerative claptrap?
Is that how the regenerative farmers describe it?
did you read the policy b?
I made a post, with links and everything
https://thestandard.org.nz/what-is-this-regenerative-agriculture-thing-anyway/
A good place to start looking for an official definition but I still like my short one from a while back:
Farming practices that leave the soil in as good or better condition than before the farming began.
And I'm still of the opinion that the amount of farmland a nation has should only be enough to feed its people and leaving the rest to the wild.
The fertiliser thing is the bastard offspring of failing to set limits for nitrates in streams and ground water. You set nitrate levels at 5ppm if you want to contain cancer deaths and allow freshwater species to flourish.
Then, according to nitrate levels, you set local policies for nitrate use. South Canterbury has a long way to go before nitrate use would be sensible, for instance.
But if a farmer or horticulturist, in an area where the groundwater is in good shape, wants to use a bit of nitrate fertiliser, there is no reason why they shouldn't.
But…but…but…Overseer!
Yes, you'd need a regular testing public authority. But surely the lesson from Havelock North is that water must be regularly monitored. With clear limits in place, and a regular testing regime, councils will encounter much less opposition enforcing district regulations consequent upon water quality.
But perhaps the government is waiting for a few nitrate linked infant deaths to force their hand.
"You can't manage if you don't measure"
That's nonsense, imo and believing that plays into the hands of those who know how to obfuscate endlessly to slow-down or prevent change that doesn't suit.
No, it's not nonsense. Believing that we don't need it is.
Those who are obfuscating when the science is clear need to be jailed and lose everything.
it's not that measuring isn't needed, it's that land can in fact be managed without it. The reason why measuring is so important at this time is because so many people just don't know how to manage land regeneratively.
No it can't because basing actions upon reckons only wrecks things.
They're not reckons though. Experienced gardeners know things that can't be measured. Measuring is a great tool but if civilisation collapsed tomorrow we'd still be able to grow food regeneratively.
No they don't.
What they know has been measured but they haven't written it down making it difficult, if not impossible, to pass on.
Time and time again I've heard stories of people saying how they got advice from someone and, after following there advice, it didn't work. This happens so much, in fact, that researchers looked into it.
The research showed that the people passing on their advice were missing a vital piece of information, something that they were doing that was so ingrained in them that they didn't even realise that they were doing it nor, more importantly, that it was a necessary part of what they were doing.
This is why we measure, to find out what actually works and how so that the information can be reliably passed on.
And I've linked before to the fallibility of human memory.
DTB Times are going to be tough in the future without reacting angrily and jailing the recalcitrants. Perhaps put them in stocks where we can all see them and people can come along and heckle them. The Chinese called it re-education. Somehow the responsibles have to check the irresponsibles, there is just so much fluff floating around obscuring the important issues and the methods of improvement.
"Nonsense" was a bit harsh. It's a ploy used by people who immediately recognise that the requirement to measure before acting can be gamed; challenge the measuring methods, the measuring devices, the measures themselves, muddy the waters with other measurements made by industry, cite the changing standards, the results from overseas measurements, the ideologies and methodologies and you can delay action for ever and ever. Amen.
For some which is why I mentioned science.
Except for the fact that they don't if there's been adequate measuring standards put in place first – hence science.
All the arguments against false measures by the climate change deniers were proven to be false and that was done fairly quickly as well.
Indeed, who would argue with Science being a way to the understanding the World? If only we didn’t have to rely on those pesky humans with their fallible brains and fragile little egos.
Got anything better?
Perhaps we should just go on Hoskins reckons?
Maybe you’re too rational to have a useful conversation with about Science? Maybe you don’t recognise sarcasm when the tag isn’t there for your convenience? Science is a human endeavour, by humans, for humans. There’s no ‘special magic’ despite the aura that some claim to see there – we have moved on from Alchemy but not that much. For many scientists, it is just another fucking job.
Science is still the best that we have at finding answers despite the shortcomings of humans.
And the peer-review system is fairly good at catching those as well.
You're really gun-ho for jailing people
Could always shoot them I suppose.
I do think that our punishment of white-collar crime is far below what it needs to be. A murderer only kills people, white-collar crime destroys civilisation.
While your “destroys civilisation” is a little…Errr… overstating things I do agree white collar fraud is something that should be prosecuted a little harder.
But not all of it. Some amounts to simple theft, others – like Enron, is out and out fraud
Nope
Its pretty much a slippery slope (which I hate) but the longer we leave it in place the more damage that it does and it escalates. We fail to prosecute the small corruption (such as cash jobs where taxes are avoided) and so those who commit those small corruptions commit bigger (Its just the same as the other action, right?). And eventually the people committing this fraud is too big to adequately prosecute.
Say, like the banks.
Or farmers.
Whether it is nonsense or not really depends upon what level of management you're referring to. You can and I'm sure do manage your forest garden in a way that is not damaging to the environment, without recourse to testing.
Councils and central governments however, need some kinds of objective measures of the degree to which agricultural interests are complying with their responsibilities. This is in no small part because not all operators will act in good faith to contain their nitrate and or silt or organic particulate leaching. Those who act in bad faith and fail to contain pollutants need to be charged, and objective evidence will greatly assist the councils if they contest council findings.
If the levels are centrally set as a health policy as they should have been, at the level advised by the WHO for example, then councils can be required to set policy to try to achieve target levels. In areas with significant nitrification that might include a ban on nitrate fertilisers and or requirements to bioremediate or destock.
For farmers to be contesting the levels, as seems to have been the practice during David Parker's roadshow is an impropriety. The safe and appropriate level for nitrates is a matter of fact, not a ball for opinion or financial interest to kick around.
"The safe and appropriate level for nitrates is a matter of fact"
Ah, yes indeed, but the John Key's of this world can wheel out several at-variance facts to support the case for BAU.
And if those alternative facts survived peer review we should be delighted to entertain them. Tragically, they have not.
The do their own peer reviews and it's all good!
That at least accounts for their legendary economic acumen – their virtues being so advanced in that field that neither universities nor the Nobel committee can even perceive them.
This is a really good example of why the rules and regulations governing different economies need to be the same. If they're not the same then the one that doesn't have as strict a rules as the other is going to undercut the other. The difference in pricing results in a misallocation of resources away from the more expensive regulations.
The answer is not to dump the regulations (as National/ACT want) but to dump trading with nations that don't have equivalent regulations and enforcement.
Again, we're faced with the fact that free-trade won't bring about equitable or economic results. There only thing that will is well regulated trade.
Hopefully, they'll get round to making an official definition that both makes sense but isn't too restrictive on process. All other legislation has such definitions.
Covid-deniers on their freedom march up Queen St, rage against Big Sister! Drew "a few thousand people": https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12364413
Check out the photo of the MAGA poster. MAKE AOTEAROA GREAT AGAIN! Nicely dressed with two iconic images – cool design which ought to get traction.
Who knew?? Govt groggy, struggling to get back off the ropes. "Bugger! That logic sure did come with a wallop." (groan, whimper)
Still, he's teaching Judith how to be an effective opposition leader, eh? Since when has she ever got a few thousand out on a protest march?? Lame as…
Be careful about what you wish for DF or what you goad someone into.
Andrea Vance is with the quarter of the electorate that sees no reason to vote. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/122736201/election-2020-when-these-are-the-options-this-is-why-i-dont-vote
I've been there, done that, and sympathise. Don't vote, it only encourages them! That's been a popular notion for yonks. The worst thing about democracy is the delusional effect on younger generations, who get suckered en masse.
Then there's the other side of the coin. Being proactive is good. Progress comes via convergence on common ground. Consensus politics can be made to work well, if you apply skill to the process. The power of positive thinking.
Having spent most of my life exploring that side, while recalling the alienation phase of my younger self, I reckon muddle through the middle is better than defeatism.
My answer to "don't vote it only encourages them" is to point out that the people who do vote get the political advantage that they know comes from voting- the power, the policies, the control.
Who benefits from saying 'don't vote, it only encourages them?" What is in it for them? Will I be one of the beneficiaries of allowing others to decide, by voting, who is in charge?
And voting is like renewing your registration on your car, sort of.
It says this is my country, and I support it when I vote, I register my ideas as a citizen to be counted along with my fellows. And I will vote along with fellow citizens who I consider are choosing good ways to direct the country. These are the ones trying to guide behaviour and reasonable controls over the country so that we advance together and solve problems and make future plans, in responsible ways for our and the country's mutual good.
That's why I vote, that's what is in my mind, and if any journalist or campaigner, or any of the entitled or sourly cynical are prepared to deny what advantages they have received from the country, and deny that it is a country and system of any worth, then they are feckless, mindless, untrustworthy, and should be watched with suspicion.
I think she forfeits any right to be paid to comment on politics publicly if she can't bring herself to behave like a responsible adult, and worse, encourages others to behave likewise
Democracy would be fine – if we actually had a democracy rather than an elected dictatorship that can, and usually does, ignore the will of the people.
That is what I have felt time and time again in recent years. Too often the will of the people has been deliberately ignored. I would like to see the Swiss system where there are regular referendum – three or four times a year – usually putting up 3 or 4 questions for the public to vote on. The results are binding and must be implemented within 2 years. I would like to have had the opportunity to vote on such things as 1/ course fees and student loans 2/allowing large numbers of overseas students into our schools and universities ( It was supposed to have improved our education system Haha ) 3/ The escalation of immigration 4/ scrapping of the superannuation fund and more….
Perhaps somebody can explain how binding referendums are supposedly instruments or conduits of and for ‘the will of the people’. Aren’t they just a variation on the theme of ‘the majority wins’? In other words, 51% of the people get what they want and ‘the will of the losers’ is basically ignored?
That would be the will of the people wouldn't it?
Or it could be that it's actually a compromise and 80% like it.
Question: Why should the majority be ignored in favour of the minority?
There will never be a time when there is full agreement and waiting for it prevents action.
The lowest bar is 51% and demands for expediency and efficiency result in this low bar becoming the aim to strive for (target or threshold). Compromise is a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘need to have’ when trying to reach the bar. These are the pragmatic considerations of the system as it is and I cannot see how binding referendums make a meaningful difference. That is not ‘the will of the people’ but of a self-selecting group of people. This only gets worse when more people disengage from the process altogether. Opinion pieces by Andrea Vance and Luke Malpass today don’t help one bit.
And thus why we need voting to be compulsory.
And you didn't answer my question.
Question: Why should the majority be ignored in favour of the minority?
I’ll paraphrase your Q.: Why should the 51% be ignored in favour of the 49%.
I think I have made it clear enough to understand that this question is the wrong one and a mirror of the Q. that I posed, but neither is framing the issue in a way that leads to a meaningful solution. Referendums per se are not the solution and you have only managed to confirm my view, so far. How is compulsory voting changing the bar of 50%?
You've made it clear that you think that the minority should rule the majority.
Why not?
It ensures that everybody votes and removes the self-selecting nature of voluntary voting that you mentioned that you didn't like.
It also, IMO, has a chance to increase peoples engagement in politics.
Sometimes these discussions remind me of a first-year ethics class.
Firstly, if you want referenda to reflect compromises that make 80% of voters happy, make the threshold for adoption 80%, not 50%.
Secondly, even then you have what tories love to call "the tyranny of the majority". Most of the time they're referring to hardships that most people would love to have (like a high marginal tax rate on millionaires, when the median income is ~$50k), but some issues might arise where they have a point. Compulsory euthenasia, maybe? So obviously there would have to be strict constitutional constraints upon governments and the power of a referendum.
Thirdly, there's the question of whether it's even a good way to run a government. Not because the voters are stupid, but because it's chaotic and slow. Small inputs can have significant pseudo-random effects. What about contradictory referenda? UBI referendum followed by a tax cut referendum? Removal of enforcement powers from one body, with another referendum introducing new regulations that need to be enforced?
Fourth, a lot of policy shouldn't be controlled by demagogues. Elected representatives can tweak and change things as they go, based on available information from experts. Binding referenda need to be followed, regardless of whether the available information changes or whether big bucks were spent on targeted advertising for three weeks.
It's not about running the administration like that but in running the country. A rather important difference.
Slow I would agree with but not chaotic if the right processes are put in place.
That's pretty much what we have now.
They can but they don't. If they did then personal cars would have been dropped years ago.
Then make it so that:
Yes but I happen to think that we need that anyway and that constitution needs to be written by the people.
Iceland’s crowd-sourced constitution: hope for disillusioned voters everywhere
When a super intelligent commenter thinks that’s what I think then obviously I fucked up badly in making clear what I think 🙁
I won’t dwell on mandatory voting because obviously my alleged dislike of voluntary voting has pre-empted any useful conversation.
For the record, mandatory voting is not engagement – do you have any good examples? Some seriously misguided thinking there, if you ask me.
Australia.
The proportion of voters they have is greater than ours and the political engagement is also greater.
Ta
Looks like engagement as such was not measured directly but implied, requiring further research.
Referenda are generally over a single issue. They are less susceptible to the kinds of capture that occurs with other parts of the political system. Looking back over the many tragic instances of misgovernance in NZ, it's surprising, for a supposedly democratic state, how few of them enjoyed popular support or even assent. Referenda exist to stiffen the spines of those pasta-like MPs and parties who typically flop whichever way entrenched financial interests prefer.
Or the will of draco is probably more appropriate
You can make your point without making it personal, yes?
No, he can't, because he doesn't have a point.
Ah, I see you like the dictatorship.
Vancy doesn't see any reason for Labour voters to vote.
Poor people have no reason to vote for labour if the point is that national is worse on beneficiaries.
They are both bad, they are both full of contempt. And hiding the shit sandwich served to the poor, the soon to be poor and unemployed in a wrapping of kindness and gentlenessness still leaves it a shit sandwich.
Heck, i vote and i don't see any reason why.
Coz passionate people fought for your right to do so?
mate, are you mansplaining the right of a women to vote to a women?
Just asking sweety, cause it was not your kind that just 'gave' us that right out of their good heart,.It was earned by the women who came before me, nothing to do with men and certainly nothing to do with white landowning men who think they have eaten wisdom and knowledge with a soup laddle such as yourself. . Non of that however does away with the reality of todays useless eaters that want to be elected to government cause it sure beats getting a job in private industry, and that includes the pretenders in your favorite party.
You sure strangled a lot out of, "Coz passionate people fought for your right to do so?"
In any case, mine was not a 'splaining, it was a question.
Can you, male, female, what-ever-you-are, offer a "reason why" vou should vote?
no, i can't anymore.
I can find no reason to re-elect the Greens, National, Labour or any of the other useless eaters. Not one.
As for 'the environment', that was fucked generally speaking by white stale males a long time ago.
And i have always identified as a female, Sabine being my given name since i first came here to this blog, no matter how much you want to pretend to be 'woke and / or uninformed'.
Seriously, can't you do better?
.
I don't like to assume. Re: "the environment" being f*cked by the patriarchal hierarchy, I'm totally with you there. Can I do better? It's my life mission to do just that. I apportion a very small part of my efforts to the political "solution", though I will vote; participation is vital, in my opinion. The rest of my energy goes toward reparation, reconciliation, recognition, re-cognition, re-imagining and doing the mahi required. I met a couple today who introduced themselves as (phonetically) toe-nee and pa-ris; can you confidently assign gender to them, Sabine?
I wonder if the funding for that march comes under campaign expenditure.
I attended an Advance Party meeting in my village yesterday; their candidate believes they'll get 15%, comfortably; "The polls didn't pick Trump's win," he declared, "and look what happened!" They talked about Trump a lot.
Dis his carers in the white coats take him back to his haven when events concluded?
The Pandora Party.
Were they a local? What was the response from attendees?
The were from outside of the village They received absolute support, no matter what they said. I've been pressing some of the attendees to respond to the article that describes Billy's "epiphany" during lockdown, where he immersed himself in Qanon -studies and "became acutely aware" of the real situation, asking them if they'd feel comfortable if their child was to reverse their ordinary positions on the world, following a weeks-long-soaking in Facebook and the work of American Hard-Right activists, but so far my suggestions have bounced off the hard walls of Blind Devotion and they're beginning to express pity for me.
Yikes. How many people attended?
Around 30? Much the same turnout that any politician event gets here. A high percentage were/looked non-European. I asked if they thought Billy's rapid adoption through Facebook was of any concern to them, but they said no, as that's how they too "woke up".
well I've certainly woken up a bit more being in this conversation. An alarm went off.
It's a definite worry. I'm hoping that the number of fringe parties will split the anti-any-government vote, but it's all in the air.
I'm also hoping that if dolt45 loses then the Q-crap will start to fizzle for lack of establishment support.
Do you think the attendees will actually turn up to vote, and / or give financial support to the guy.
I know a couple of people who are well down that rabbit hole, amongst others, and the chances of them fronting up to a polling booth and giving their name and address to get a voting paper, and then filling it out in a valid manner would be pretty close to zero.
I can't decide if it's a serious political vehicle or a con job designed to fleece the vulnerable.
I don't think anyone there was able to donate much at all. Your point about the fearfulness for being in a place and being noted for being there (polling booth, intending to vote "Billy") is interesting and the "x" factor that will, come the election, expose them all as chumps.; I wonder, though, if it's something else. I wonder if it's simply a pathological "happening" that's attracting a few moths.
Well someone, or something is paying for btk jnr's suits.
But it's also about the only performance art going on at any scale right now, especially in the stoner market.
Serious, Graeme, as in seriously naive & delusional. I know three, all old friends, two are university grads, all successful professionals now retired.
I seriously pissed off the two males back at the start last summer (before Billy & JLR jumped on) when I pointed out via emails exactly where they were going wrong in their thinking. 😎
I also pulled rank by reminding them I'd been checking out conspiracy theories way longer than either of them. I could've used academic elitism (hard science qualifications always outranked soft science etc) but better to have mercy. Still, testing friendships that have endured 47 & 37 years is unusual.
Did you ask the candidate where in the head the horse kicked him?
No need. It was apparent. Same place as it got those listening to him. (Unkind, I know. Jut joshing’) there were no hoof-prints to be seen.
The cost of bringing busloads/carloads of people from elsewhere will be listed under "unofficial expenses" that will never be seen.
In the second to last photo in the link provided by Dennis Frank @ 2, there is a woman with a placard hanging down the front with the words in upper-casing:
UN MASKED. UN MUZZLED, UN VACCINATED, UN AFRAID.
Someone should have marched behind her holding up a big sign : UN HINGED.
It's a UN conspiracy. One hoarding in my town, New Conservative I think, says "NZ not UN".
Here's an interesting article giving 5 reasons why people buy into conspiracy theories. I have to admit that I had to look up Qanon. The article might help explain what is happening.
https://www.cracked.com/article_28514_5-ways-dumb-conspiracies-suck-in-normal-people
Probably the best way to 'cure' these dumb asses is to undermine them with humour.
If all the wits – famous or otherwise – and cartoonists in the world were to make a mass effort to laugh them out of the limelight, then they lose their power and influence and hopefully fade into obscurity.
That would just confirm them in their beliefs, as being mocked for their truth; refer point number three in the article.
Anne, you realise of course that us lefties don't have a sense of humour. That's what Bob Jones reckoned, anyway.
haven't we humoured Bob for years ?
Especially those of us who wore brown shoes and safari suits.
I wonder what Bob says now about metros with their immaculate short hair and huge beards, men who wear sports coats with ripped jeans, and the cult of shaven heads?
Don't tell me you wore brown shoes and a safari suit. 😮
Wonder what he thought of the hot pants era. I had two – lime green and red with matching thigh length knickerbockers edged with black lace. 😎
Oh he won't like metros. I remember a few years ago hearing Bob Jones say he absolutely hated people who wore their sunglasses on top of their heads, and he would never employ anyone who did so. Seemed a rather extreme reaction but there you go. At the same time he said he hated having to comply with building regulations for accessibility ramps etc because most people in wheelchairs were 'faking it'.
Brown shoes, yes. Never a safari suit. Walk shorts and long socks, yes. And corduroy trousers and shirts, jacket and shoes, with suede tie…….
Those skinny ties. I used to knit ties for my first boyfriend. Not sure he ever wore them.
I've remembered now, the 'knickerbockers' went under our incredibly skimpy skirts and they were actually called witches-britches.
Those were the days. 😉
Yeah, but we'd have a lot of fun in the process.
Anne et al
why would it?
It seems the cops have become very lenient since we, who were arrested during peace protests against the American war against Vietnam. Why were the leaders of that anti Covid protest not arrested for breaking the law and inciting people to also break that law.
BydOnz
It would open up a can of worms.
For one thing, there is an election on in NZ and the leaders would likely claim the police were interfering with their political/electioneering rights.This would likely motivate many others to join their cause and to also protest in large groups in the streets.
For another thing, the police did not arrest members of the Mt Roskill church group for alledgedly gathering together in groups larger than the official allowable number. If so, that would likely mean that any law enforcement action against the anti Covid crowd would be dismissed by the courts on the grounds of inconsistent application of the law.
But, on yet another hand, if the government is going to have 'rules' on these matters, it looks impotent and weak if they are not enforced.
Pointless debate on Q n A about euthanasia. It's not like it will be compulsary.
Anyone see the Fran on Q+A? She issued a fervent leftist critique at the end that was as acute as it was forthright. Never seen her do that before. Maybe she's between contracts?? 🤔
Could you give me the link to that Q+A. I limit what I take in so that I don't fall out of my tree from being 'stoned' on the drug of political farce but I try to keep up. So if you can please?
I watched it on my flat-screen tv, which gets it via roof aerial carefully pointed at the transmission tower they built on the side of Mt Taranaki to provide line-of-sight to New Plymouth.
I presume TVNZ can give it to you via their on-demand system, which I have never used and expect never will (due to going cold turkey on my prior habit of watching tv for entertainment in 1973). Most of the show was about the euthanasia referendum, which I avoided, but the final segment they discussed Labour's tax policy. The Fran, the Jack, & the Indian economist…
So I would have to stream it or something. I gave tv up when they switched to digital, couldn't be bothered having verbal lashings of Harvey Norman and my repeat programs dumped in favour of sport. Is Q&A on TV1?
Not having it leaves room in my day for reading, listening, and not knowing anything at all about a wide mass of people who appear very vacuous anyway. It does provide a venue for NZ creatives though, and so it helps industry.
Yeah, TV1 @ 9am. I don't normally bother, but the election campaign is likely to induce them to provide something substantial so I check out the intro to see what topics they will cover. Agree that one must be highly selective…
In case you have not found it yet 🙂
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/episodes/s2020-e30
Thanks. I realise why I don't watch. I'm asked to sign up and get an account and then login. I thought it was going to be like public tv and you just watched it when you wanted not having this carry-on. It's not TV on Demand – you have to ask permission.
Click on this link and no questions asked 🙂
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/clips/q-a-panel-lack-of-courage-from-main-political-parties
Are you using 'leftist' there to mean 'something Enlightened I disagree with'?
The idea that she might be enlightened is too strange for me to consider, so no. I agreed with her. I've noticed that happens when she is sensible. However, on this occasion, it was an opinion produced by a value judgment.
I thought that a Forbes report would be factual and well backed and find it was from a 'factoid' bunch. NZ listed as the 2nd best country for coping with Covid-19 isn't a solid fact.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018763421/a-closer-look-at-a-good-news-survey
…But – as the Herald and Newshub had pointed out – it was not Forbes that did the survey. ..
The complicated calculations that spawned the Covid rankings had actually been compiled by an outfit called The Deep Knowledge Group – not exactly a household name.
The Group’s website declares that “Deep Knowledge is Transcendent Power.” It says the survey has “140 parameters” and “35,000 data points.” The 36-page methodology document is bewildering.
But none of the news stories published here addressed evident inconsistencies in the findings.
The report claimed to have assessed 250 countries. By most measures there are not that many nations in the world.
Just to refresh our info: https://www.worldometers.info/geography/how-many-countries-are-there-in-the-world/ Not included in this total count of 195 countries are: Taiwan – the United Nations considers it represented by the People's Republic of China; The Cook Islands and …
I see some similarity with Surgisphere, the shady company that provided dubious data to reputable scientific journals on clinical trials with the miracle cure hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19.
Yeah I note if there is money in it, someone will find a way. Can you monetise being a mod? You mods ought to be rich by now.
Being a Moderator has been enriching in so many ways and the pay is just a bonus 😉
One thing I have noticed in NZ (and I won't mention any names) is an unholy alliance between marketers and data analysis. They purchase access to diverse (anonymised) datasets, cherry-pick results they don't actually understand (let alone understand the ethical implications of mashing together correlations between different data sources), and shill them around various sectors that might have an interest.
They're not specialists answering a specific research question with full knowledge of the context, they're data sinks that try to find observations to sell to clients. I am unimpressed.
I agree. Don’t forget the role that some academics play in this. On the one hand, it is great to see input form scientists who do studies and surveys, for example, but the findings are open to debate, or should be. The drip-feeding is not always a good thing and those who control the narrative know how to package something as scientific (read: unbiased and non-partisan) when they ‘sell it’ to the public, literally, in some cases. Making data sets full public is not really a solution because the public lacks the skills and tools to digest the data and extract meaningful information from it. The pseudo-science of the Plan B group is a textbook example of how data and interpretations can mislead if not worse.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/425918/german-backpacker-upset-petition-has-fallen-on-deaf-ears
I think this person has a case. If the people can work where needed and have a good record, and get housing etc. they are here, free of infection, no expensive border and isolation to do. Let them stay if poss. – be practical and kind. Immigration needs to stop playing with people's lives like some malign god.
IIRC there are about 16000 of them. -and they don't have to do horticultural work they can be doing other stuff.
These work schemes and the student work visa's put our own young people coming onto the job market under huge pressure. Birth cohorts coming on to the labour market are about 50,000 to 60,000.
Student visas were about 70000 plus around 28000 on these tried to stay on the next year. Then there are these work travel visas as well.
So the young person trying to find work here or to finance study is competing with around 2-3 imported work visas for that job.
And for every month those 16000 work – if some one else stays on a benefit – its costing us $16 mil.
Plus these are industries that need a reset for labour and working conditions. Frankly we are better using the actual RSE scheme if needed.
Yup, there's a shed load of money to be made defrauding malcontented fools prepared to swallow all manner of preposterous claptrap.
(Bloomberg) — A popular website for posts about the conspiracy group QAnon abruptly shut down after a fact-checking group identified the developer as a New Jersey man.
Qmap.pub is among the largest websites promoting the QAnon conspiracy, with over 10 million visitors in July, according to web analytics firm SimilarWeb Ltd., and served as the primary archive of QAnon’s posts. The website aggregates posts by Q, the anonymous figure behind the QAnon theory, and the creator of the Qmap.pub website is known online only as “QAppAnon.”
The fact-checking site Logically.ai identified Jason Gelinas of New Jersey on Sept. 10 as the “developer and mouthpiece” for the site. New Jersey state records connect QAppAnon to Gelinas’s home address, Bloomberg found.
Reached outside his home, Gelinas declined to comment on the Logically report, saying only that someone had sent it to him on Twitter after it was published.
[…]
A LinkedIn profile for Gelinas says he works as an information security analyst at Citigroup. Citigroup declined to comment.
[…]
QAppAnon, the online name of qmap’s creator, also runs a Patreon account, which receives more than $3,000 a month in donations, according to the Patreon site. In March, QAppAnon announced on Patreon an upcoming Android app named “Armor of God,” a social network for followers of QAnon.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/qanon-website-shuts-down-n-185548744.html
Interesting stuff about us humans this morning on Radionz.
First about childhood to adulthood and our great long study of human growth.
11:05 New book examines how childhood shapes later life
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018763801/new-book-examines-how-childhood-shapes-later-life
In his new book, The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life, University of Otago professor Richie Poulton and his co-authors set out to determine to what extent our origins shape our later lives. Poulton, who is the leader of the internationally recognised Dunedin Study, joins the show to discuss how childhood experiences impact on our lives…
Second – perhaps we need to smile at ourselves to limit our depressing thoughts.
11:40 How forcing a smile can help improve your mood
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018763802/how-forcing-a-smile-can-help-improve-your-mood
Moving your facial muscles in a way that mimics a smile can trick your brain into a more positive state, according to a new study by researchers from the University of South Australia. Lead researcher Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos says that even though the smiles are forced, the brain can't tell the difference. He joins the show from Adelaide.
RIP Toots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmNJvSyWyQM
I loved what they did with this usually downbeat Radiohead song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfYg1ZJfEWY
It’s on!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300106152/election-2020-governorgeneral-signs-writ-triggering-next-step-on-road-to-election
They're past just being in trouble.
https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1304760445975302144
https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1304940692683329537
Old guy in the first video paraphrased:
Doesn't seem to be concerned with the tens/hundreds/thousands of others that he could take with him because of his stupidity.
Covidity is endemic.
https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1304913243324977152
https://twitter.com/reeseg_3/status/1304884155889717249
ffs
https://twitter.com/peterbakernyt/status/1304907317968855047
https://twitter.com/FirenzeMike/status/1304918815311106048
Just evidence of the intellect of Americans you reckon? There is criticism of the yokels and absolutely thick there who do dumbs things and can't see through Trump.
These are their bright young things. America deserves to be doomed.
Just selfish to the core, born selfish, raised selfish, worship at the altar of self. Can't comprehend any criticism of it.
Now Roger Stone is going on Infowars and openly calling for Emperor PalPutin to declare martial law and calling for open sedition and rebellion from supporters if their attempts to steal the election don't work.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/roger-stone-martial-law-donald-trump-election_n_5f5d3e28c5b62874bc1dd6d2
Its easy to predict if it was your game plan all along.
And many Republicans wanting a right-wing dictatorship wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
In the meantime John Campbell reports on two much larger Vitamin D correlation studies. They both conclude that it is an independent variable that has a substantial impact on the clinical progression of COVID.
To paraphrase Campbell, the failure by the medical authorities to properly follow this up is now fast reaching the point of negligence. At the very least Vitamin D supplementation should be standard for all elderly in care and rest homes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNji13yoW9g
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018762927/saving-100-year-old-native-trees-in-canal-road-avondale
"These trees on Canal Rd, on this small section, are some of the most diverse range of native trees that you will find in Auckland city. I would have to actually say that it is the most diverse range of native trees in the city," Wedding said.
"And since tree protection went away in 2012, basically one in every three trees has been removed and at this site, there are some really precious, rare trees, which for arborists, we've just got to a point where enough is enough and we have to make a stand and we have to put a stop to this."
General tree protection was scrapped in changes to the Resource Management Act in 2012, something which Wedding said had resulted in the loss of one of three trees in Auckland.
This specific property has a range of trees, including black maire, manoao, pōhutukawa, tōtara and pūriri and a kawaka which another arborist has been occupying for the past 20 days.
Laggard NZ, paralysed Auckland, I think it is time to buy up this property. People's property can be taken for nationally important things, these trees are that.
Getting crazier by the minute!
"The long-running debate over the presence of big cats in the South Island has been reignited after two new sightings."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122751025/new-south-island-big-cat-sightings-the-latest-in-a-50year-mystery
Send in Mr Green.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-13/kangaroo-island-species-under-threat-by-cats-after-bushfires/12651772
Well, maybe the wild domestic cats are already evolving to hunt goat.
Spartacus is home.
edit: a cat weighing the same as the long lean heading/ huntaway girl I got from the pound? nope!
https://twitter.com/BostonDotCom/status/1304823866066456577
One of the magic moments of my trip through Africa was one morning in a campground getting breakfast sorted, and a serval walks out of the hedge and up to me looking for cuddles just like a super-friendly domestic cat. Except his shoulders and hips were knee-high on me. Then his sister wandered out, just the same. They stuck around for nearly ten minutes being super-friendly and playful, they weren't even mooching for food.
Turns out the rangers had rescued them from a bush fire as tiny kittens and their mum never came back for them, so the rangers raised them They were trying to get them to back to the wild, but they liked the campground life. The regulars there were over them, tho. There was a good fishing lake there, but often someone would be pulling in a fish and one of the servals would jump in the water to grab it. Then they'd have to take it to the vet to get yet another hook out of its mouth.
this is just a very pretty and cute specimen of murder paws
UFO's – Unidentified Feline Ocelot
https://youtu.be/WpYeekQkAdc