Most Australians back Assange, poll finds
August 9, 2012
by Phillip Coorey, Sydney Morning Herald chief political correspondent
A majority of Australians believe the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would not receive a fair trial should he ever be extradited to the United States. The nationwide poll, conducted by UMR Research, also finds more than half do not believe he should be prosecuted for releasing thousands of leaked diplomatic cables.
Meanwhile, public opinion is split over whether the Gillard government is doing enough to help the Australian national.
After unsuccessfully challenging moves to extradite him to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged sexual offences, Mr Assange remains holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
He is seeking asylum in Ecuador but if unsuccessful could find himself sent to Sweden. Officially, the US government says it has no plans to then extradite him to the US – but a grand jury has been convened to probe the release by WikiLeaks of about 250,000 allegedly stolen diplomatic cables, raising suspicions to the contrary.
[lprent: Small quotes and link rather than whole articles. You’re also lacking any of your opinion. This isn’t a newspaper. We want to see what you think. ]
Idiot. You need to do some reading on this topic; after you’ve learned a little bit, I doubt that you’ll continue with your lame, politically driven “jokes”.
The poll is only about Assange’s chances if he is ever asked to stand trial in America over the leaks. There is no indication that Aussies support his cowardice in relation to the sexual assault investigation and the majority do consider the Aussie government’s consular support of him so far in that matter to be adequate.
Right. So they didn’t go to the police – the cops just turned up on their doorstep saying “we’re going to press charges, you have to go along with it. Oh, and here’s a lawyer who we will make represent you, so when we drop the investigation he’ll appeal the decision ‘on your behalf’ so we can look at the matter again and restart the investigation we already dropped “.
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The Swedish and English judicial systems seem to think the allegations are reasonable enough to investigate/extradite. But you got the interwebz so you know exactly what’s happened.
It does indeed. Which is why I think it’s just an excuse used by groupies who can’t think of a more likely reason someone would want to dodge a sexual assault investigation.
   Â
Apparently Assange has been panning to skip to Ecuador for almost a year. Did he tell this to the people who put up his bail money?Â
Right. So they didnât go to the police â the cops just turned up on their doorstep saying âweâre going to press charges, you have to go along with it. Oh, and hereâs a lawyer who we will make represent you, so when we drop the investigation heâll appeal the decision âon your behalfâ so we can look at the matter again and restart the investigation we already dropped â.
Someone—and it was certainly not the Swedish police—used the women in order to press this ludicrous and uniquely Swedish statute into service as a weapon to use against the most dangerous political dissenter in the world.
The Swedish and English judicial systems seem to think the allegations are reasonable enough to investigate/extradite.
Nobody with any integrity in or outside of the legal system thinks these allegations have a shred of credibility. People like you were persuaded by the compliance and silence of key British legal and government officials in 2003 to accept the bogus case to attack Iraq. You’re impressed and gulled not by authority, but by power.
But you got the interwebz so you know exactly whatâs happened.
There you go with your trivialization strategy again. I know a lot more than you do about this because I read seriously and widely, and I can discriminate between what is serious journalism and what is nothing more than black propaganda. Of course I don’t know exactly what happened; what I do know is what you also know but lack the integrity to admit: that this “case” against Assange is as robust as the 1960 case against Martin Luther King for driving in Georgia on an Alabama license.
Oh my god – are you still promulgating the “sex by surprise” myth? Maybe you need to go to the source. Show me where it says “sex by surprise”.
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I love how you deny the women involved any possible agency in dealing with their own sexual assault allegations – they must have been manipulated or “used” by others. Maybe they are telling the truth and without ulterior motive. Not definitely. Just maybe. In which case it’s not St Julian who’s being victimised and harrassed, is it?
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BTW, if you still believe the “sex by surprise” slur, you “know” fuck all.
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And I cannot believe you just compared Assange to MLK.Â
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“I cannot believe you just compared Assange to MLK.”
Of course not. Martin Luther King was traduced by the FBI—although people like you will deny the evidence of that—and ridiculed by the establishment. He spoke out trenchantly against his country’s destruction of Indo-China, thus incurring undying resentment and hatred from the “liberal” establishment. He also “got with” many of the women who were drawn to him and no doubt had he lived longer, would have suffered a concocted campaign of outrage about an invented incident of rape.
Clearly there are no comparisons obvious to everybody else but yourself.
oh, by the way – if you know so much about it, did Assange tell the people who stumped up his not insubstantial bail money that he had spent months planning to skip the country and leave them out of pocket?Â
Y’know, the accusation is that Assange exhibits inappropriate sexual behaviours. Two complaints from two women relating to (more or less) the same point in time. But where are the other complaints? Don’t know why no-one has picked up on the fact that aside from when the victim of sexual predation (or whatever) is specific and therefore unique, the perpetrator usually has a history of the behaviour complained of. And people emerge from that history when some-one finally does complain or have charges laid or whatever. But in the case of Assange? Nothing. Now, why would that be?
Youâve obviously got a point to make Bill.
why donât you spit it out.
You know perfectly well what his point was. But just to confirm what you already know but lack the integrity to admit: the allegations against Assange are baseless, ludicrous, fantastical, and vicious. The “case” against Assange makes the case—giraffes in the basement and all—against Peter Ellis look robust.
What, Bill? You mean people donât or canât change behaviour (for better or worse) when their situation/ circumstances/ opportunity change?
There is no evidence against Assange, rosy. Why don’t you have the courage to just admit it? Better still, do some reading on this affair. Serious reading, that is—not simply accepting what the comedy writers on the Grauniad staff come up with.
Banks and MMP – this guy actually doesn’t understand the debate.
He is rambling on about this current stable government would have been affected.
Banks did not benefit from either of the two proposed adjustments – “threshold and coat-tailing”. ACT and UF have electorate seats only.
When ACT finally dies I and the thousands of others who went through the Auckland local government restructure will be there to tramp the dirt down on their political graves, good and hard.
My thoughts on his rant on Radio NZ National this morning was that he has also “forgotten” that he is now supposedly ACT not National when he claimed that National will not agree to the changes as if he was their spokesperson.
I think it’s just more bluster designed to cover up how stupid student loans are and deflect attention from more serious problems, such as avoidance and evasion by the rich. Australia told them about a year ago that they weren’t interested.
Bugga ! As much as this is great for Adams it’s a really bad outcome for truth and a fair go as the redneck talkback feeding monkeys that pass for journalists in this country will feel vindicated and ignore the baseless allegations they made and claiim ‘moral high ground’
The fact that Ostapchuk threw, was it 3 national records in about a 10 day period not long before the olympics, in her own country, would have at least begged the question.
Its not like she was throwing world records though, so perhaps not overt in its warnings, but seems to this point was, “enhanced”.
Agree about the red neck media, I find the pundits are simply a mirror of those they preside over, and its a little bit like chicken and egg, which idiot came first the pundit or the fan!
A lot of people, including me, felt that the pattern of her performance over the last ten years did not support the recent radical gain in her outcomes. Speculation is not of itself an indication of redneckery, by which I presume you mean a mean-spirited refusal to recognize merit?
itâs a really bad outcome for truth and a fair go as the redneck talkback feeding monkeys that pass for journalists in this country
From what I just heard on 3 News, yes. They’re talking about the Belorussian woman as if she is the embodiment of all evil…
I wouldn’t care at all, if it didn’t remind me of the American comments in previous Olympics, that all Eastern European women athletes and competitors were all men in disguise.Â
There were comments about how difficult it’s going to be to get Valerie’s medal from around the neck of that evil, lying Russian medal thief!
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That’s the sort of thing that has made me loathe and despise sport all my life.
He was correct, due to sheer dumb luck. He immediately started bawling that the Belorussian was a drug cheat, but he proffered no evidence; as with his rugby commentating, there was no evidence he had done any investigation whatsoever.
Harvard authority on energy claims there could be an oil glut in the next decade.
Maugeri’s report, published by the Belfer Center at Harvard University, states: “contrary to what most people believe, oil supply capacity is growing worldwide at such an unprecedented level that it might outpace consumption.”
Advanced recovery techniques, deep water and unconventional sources could actually postpone a “peak” for some time yet.
Maugeri forecasts new global oil production capacity of 49 million barrels per day (mbpd) by 2020, a number that is âunrestrictedâ by real-world circumstances, and âunadjusted for risk.â This constitutes a whopping 53 percent increase over the current claimed capacity of 93 mbpd in just eight years. While impressive, this headline number obscures some important details.
…
We must conclude that the key assumptions about reserve growth and its effect on decline rates in Maugeriâs report are muddled, speculative and unverifiable. And sprinkling those assertions with repeated declamations about how peak oil is a non-issue, insisting repeatedly that the only real constraints on his scenario have to do with political decisions and geopolitical risks, suggests that his report is more about grinding a political axe on behalf of the oil industry than offering a serious or transparent analysis.
It’s all in the analysis, and I heard a radio report that Maugeri is relying on recovering a lot of hard-to-access oil, through processes like frakking (this is not news) – and that is using processes that cause all kinds of environmental harm.
Yep, there’s plenty of oil, we just need to make the planet uninhabitable to access it. But if thats the price our grandchildren have to pay, so be it, it would seem.
An oil company’s reserve capacity has a direct bearing on its share price which in turn drives executive pay. This is why oil company executives are responding to peak oil by redefining ‘resources’ sich as shale as reserve capacity.
There’s a very good explanation of how this works here:
The Ultimate Corporation
JUNE 7, 2012
Bill McKibben
Reviewing:
Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power
by Steve Coll
Penguin, 685 pp., $36.00 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
All of his stuff is talking about ‘unconventional’ oil, which is the expensive stuff. He may well be right, that we’re still years or even decades away from a peak in All Liquids, but nothing he says suggests that we’ll see a new peak in conventional oil.
In other words, a peak in All Liquids might be some way away, but when it happens, All Liquids will and must be more expensive than they are now for that to happen, because this will only come about by production of expensive and difficult reserves.
Improved technology tends to act more like a super-straw, sucking up the available oil much faster than it otherwise would have been. This gives much higher short-term production rates, and a high peak, but at the cost of longevity in the well. Frankly I’m more interested in technologies that can significantly increase ultimate recoverable reserves, but not the rate of extraction.
This is an aside, although relevant: I’m about 3/4ths of the way through reading Twilight in the Desert
For all oil fields, there is a figure which is the total amount of oil in the specific reservoir, called Oil In Place (OIP). Production of oil fields practically never recovers 100% of OIP, in fact often recovery is around 40-50% of the total OIP.
Here’s a very contrived example to illustrate the point I made above. Imagine you have 10b barrels of oil in a field, but your ultimate recovery with existing technology is going to be 5b barrels. If you produce at 1b barrels per year constant, you will be able to produce the well for 5 years before it depletes. If you create some new technology that lets you produce at 2b barrels per year, but doesn’t increase the recoverable reserves, that same well will now produce for a total of 2.5 years (2.5 * 2b = 5b). If instead you had a new technology that increased the recoverable oil – think tar sands and shale oil/shale gas, then the recoverable oil might go from 5b to 7b. At your original rate of recovery of 1b the well will now last 7 years instead of 5.
Peak Oil is primarily about the rate of recovery, which is what the ‘peak’ is all about. Oil industry people get very excited about new technology that increases flow rates because it makes a field look very profitable, but they often make the basic mistake of assuming high oil flows has increased the total recoverable reserves in a field, but in experience usually all it does is deplete the same amount of oil faster (a ‘super-straw’). Using my example above, some people see oil flows of 2b/year and keep the production life of the well constant at 5 years, now thinking they are going to recover 10b from the field (or 100% OIP in my example), but actually all they end up doing is depleting the field twice as fast as they would have otherwise.
I think Peak Oil, the price pressure and demand destruction world wide is only a good thing for our consumerist society, but on the flip side I’d like to see a very gradual decline in production post-peak as that will give us the best chance of re-organising society to deal with it. A steep decline after peak will be disastrous to society at large. Hence why I’m more interested in technologies that can improve oil recovery, not flow rates.
In short its all about EROEI (energy return over energy invested)…new technologies might make the EROEI better but eventually you go into deficit and the whole thing becomes pointless. Perhaps the real issue is denial, denial that we cant just keep doing this forever because like the last bottle of wine of the night it runs out before the shop opens.
I did once think that it was a desirable thing to avoid a steep decline: for us to live as we are used to, that’s a desirable option. For us to live at all is another issue. Collapse now might be a far more useful thing if this is to be believed. http://arctic-news.blogspot.co.nz/p/global-extinction-within-one-human.html
PS Who knows if the article is good science, true or likely? Could not possibly say, so shall we work on the principle it is too extreme and just ignore it? Or perhaps wait and see whilst we might or might not go past a point of no return? Perhaps BAU and be damned?
A strict focus on EROEI is actually misleading. Broadly it is true, and in the general case going very much below 1 is going to be financially pointless.
But there are cases where it makes sense, for example when you’re converting energy in one form/source to another form/source that is more useful. Lostinsuburbia below highlights one such case: turning natural gas in Canada into tar sands oil. Natural gas is not as easily traded as oil is, because it requires expensive pipelines or facilities to compress/liquidise it, compared to oil which can go on tankers and pipes much more easily. Oil is also a more valuable fuel for transportation than gas is, again thanks to the shipment but also the energy density.
So therefore an EROEI that is below 1 when using gas energy to unlock oil energy is not necessarily economically infeasible, if you had no other direct economic use for that gas energy.
I bet that on an EROEI case this would be well below 1, but the RTG stores and releases energy in a way that other fuels simply cannot, so it doesn’t matter if the EROEI is below 1 because it’s the special properties of the resultant fuel source that you’re interested in, not the net energy.
All you are talking about is an arbitrage, which does delivery utility whilst wasting energy. This delays the evil day energy is all used up , which may or may not be a good thing.
Reading the link I provided might help you think about whether continuing blithely is a good thing?
Lanth is talking about an economic system which rewards the rapid waste of finite, irreplaceable resources (using up natural gas energy to recover a lesser amount of tar sands oil energy).
I bet that on an EROEI case this would be well below 1, but the RTG stores and releases energy in a way that other fuels simply cannot, so it doesnât matter if the EROEI is below 1
Sure, diverting some extra energy doesn’t matter particularly if there is still excess energy available presently.
It will matter when people and communities are starved in order to make available the energy which needs to be invested in a far away elite project. Of course, we have always done this to the third world and the developing world. Now, its becoming increasingly obvious in the West’s own backyard.
I have no doubt the USAF will still be flying F-22’s using jet fuel for years after the rest of us plebs have to walk or bicycle everywhere. In other words, the prioritisation of remaining highly constrained energy expenditures as the ruling classes see fit.
its also the fact that the “unconventional” sources require prodiguous amounts of energy to “extraact” – just look at the dependency of the Alberta Oil Sands on natural gas. There may be huge amounts of energy locked away in such reserves but it would take equally huge amounts to actually access and use it resulting in very low net energy gain.
We’ll just end up trashing the environment in a race to industrial crash unless we use our remaining reserves wisely and start moving towards smarter uses and sources of energy.
“We must conclude that the key assumptions about reserve growth and its effect on decline rates in Maugeriâs report are muddled, speculative and unverifiable. And sprinkling those assertions with repeated declamations about how peak oil is a non-issue, insisting repeatedly that the only real constraints on his scenario have to do with political decisions and geopolitical risks, suggests that his report is more about grinding a political axe on behalf of the oil industry than offering a serious or transparent analysis. Finally we must note that Maugeri is well known for his hostility to peak oil, as is BP, which funded his report. After taking real-world risks, costs, and restrictions into account, the case for peak oilâwhich is about production rates, not production capacity or reservesâseems far more realistic.”
The TV3 Garner smear on Cunliffe initially was damaging to the Party, Shearer and Cunliffe in that order.Â
Â
Following the appalling weak un-real comments from Shearer yesterday that he was happy with Causus discipline, Â the whole affair now damages Shearer and the ABC nasties. Â Cunliffe’s mana is enhanced by Shearer’s handling of this matter.
The Party needs to be united and Cunliffe has the leadership skills to do so.Â
Sometimes you guys sound like Cunliffe is actually Elvis at the 1964 Comeback Special with the slim black full leather jumsuit, singing I’m Just A Hunk-a Hunk-a Burnin’ Love.
The Hawes article he links to is a cold hard financial analysis of the share float of MRP that does not mention Iwi claims or the risks that they pose.  Hawes’ conclusion is that “[o]n all of these measures, MRP comes out well. It is in a good, stable industry providing energy from renewables, but with growth prospects as it sells its expertise in thermal power to other countries. It has strong finances and very good governance and management.”
It would appear that Pagani thinks buying MRP shares is a good idea.
What an unelectable shambles Shearer’s Caucus and it’s advisers are becoming.
They look about as inspiring as the current gov’t….bravo trev and all you other has beens that feared so much for your undeserving arses you undermined the best choice at taking back the power possibly in your own right with DC out front.
Enjoy the warmth of your safe seats, what a disgrace you all are to the history and mana that was the Labour party and the everyday kiwis being left out to dry at the hands of the Hollowmen because of your ego’s…..SHAME !
Well, it appears that the Australian banks aren’t as pure as the driven snow as some would have liked to think:
I received 4,000 emails and in those emails from the banks to the brokers you’d see clearly bank officers instructing the brokers how to have no-loan mortgage insurance, no income necessary, no assets and liability, virtually just get a signature on a document, send it in and we’ll give this person, no matter what their income or affordability criteria is, give them a $500,000 loan.
I’m not sure if this has been mentioned on here yet, but in case it hasn’t.
Steve Keen is going to be giving talks in NZ in September.
The New Zealand and Australian Asset Markets
Friday 7th September in Auckland
The Global Economy
Saturday 8th September in Auckland
Solutions to the Crisis
Monday 10th September in Wellington
Sad grieving families are saying much about the pathetic lack of controls and safety consciousness in adventure tourism as the hearing about the plane crash at Fox Glacier proceeds. It may be that notice will be taken by leading people suffering the responsibility virus. I really hope so.
A young pilot used to automatic trim to keep the rear of his plane in balance was in a different plane at Fox Glacier, which was manual and had to be set before he took off. That’s what I understood from the radio report this morning. I would be trusting this company to know and give the advice its pilot needed so that 9 people didn’t die.
Complacently we undertake selling forays into the world and succeed in attracting tourists, overseas students etc. But then its too often laissez faire which ends up in some tragedy. Disparagingly remarks are made by NZs about other small countries – that we don’t want to turn into a banana republic. But we are already more like a banana republic than we are like an efficient and modern European country to which I think we compare ourselves.
So we must get restraints on our easy-peasy ways and poor oversight of whatever. CAA keeps being castigated. Make sure they do their job and earn their big pay. Bring in an amendment to accident law so that companies can be sued under certain circumstances, even if the government does it as Safety Master. Sharpen up everybody in tourism and don’t try to delegate the overview of work.
Another example of lack of responsibility and hurried, inadequate checks. The CCTV building in Christchurch was signed off, hurried through, certification missed, lacking senior overview. Result 16 people died, or was it more? And the Christchurch Building Inspections Manager under pressure to get things through faster, government made a lot of noise about slow procedures for builders, so in line with current ‘let business govern itself’ he signed off in line with business assurances when there was any argy-bargy. He is dead now, and another one close to the job also. It would make a sad end for a career to face this situation.
And reports about later work that was done to strengthen it, involved boring holes that could have gone through reinforcing rods so weakening the column. The work involved inserting epoxy or something with slurry to set and hold it firm but the slurry may not have keyed to the building and it has been found in that case that the epoxy tube or wedge can be just pulled out by hand. Trust in supposed experts again in doubt.
I see this common theme of she’ll be right recurring through NZ tragedies. We have to sharpen up, be efficient and timely, but thorough. That is if we want to have self-respect as a nation. And the respect of other nations when we speak about anything.
Aren’t those things meant to be the solution for all our energy problems in a post-fossil fuel and post holocene world? Oh, well. Back to the drawing board I guess.
Eventually, engineers could change the Millford reactorâs intake pipe so it draws water from further below the surface, where temperatures are lower, Mr. Holt said. They could also sharpen their pencils and try to determine whether the plant can operate safely with cooling water above 75 degrees, but neither is a short-term project.
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Pencil sharpening, a metaphor for action in the last days of the empire.
The nuclear reactor having the latest trouble was called Millstone. These tech people have no sense of irony, maybe missing some other senses too. Fear?
True lies – it’s all in the pictures. I guess this is why Key does all those photo ops, often while speaking indecipherable gibberish, rather than attempting a rational explanation:
Trusting research over their guts, scientists in New Zealand and Canada examined the phenomenon Stephen Colbert, comedian and news satirist, calls âtruthinessââthe feeling that something is true. In four different experiments they discovered that people believe claims are true, regardless of whether they actually are true, when a decorative photograph appears alongside the claim. The work is published online in the Springer journal, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
Think it was the blocking of facebook that has raisedd Penny’s ‘truth’ antennae McFlock.
Sounds odd, thanks Penny. Am so fed up with deceivers,(so I hope your suspicions come to nought) but it pays to keep watch unless,deceptively, they creep up on you. What a sad old world that we have to live in such an atmosphere of distrust, one that really began in earnest with the onset of neoliberalism and ‘self’ above all else..
Infomercial:
Anyone who wants an excuse to make money by any means, and sod the cost,especially human, look to your bright burnished idols like Thatcher, Douglas, Key (especially key) for any and every wickedly spun reason, answer, mindbend possible:
Change your moral outlook to amoral with these gems that you can add to your business ethics portfolio – “politics of envy”, “mums and Dads”, ‘up to the individual’- “no such thing as society’,”breeding for business”, ‘poverty is a lifestyle choice,’ and my personal more specific favourite phrased proudly by key (credit where credit is due) to mothers of an extra child born for whatever reason, being sent to look for part time work when their child is one year old,
“I personally think it is actually helping …… to actually make sure that they get an opportunity to fill their lives.”
” (translation from me ….sorry kids you are not fulfilling enough, away with you…)
I know key is not known for his intelligent rhetoric but on this occasion, and a few others, when he has to ‘lower himself to the occasion’ on behalf of popularity and money, he can produce ‘stunners’.
I’ve read a couple of his books which have been quite thought provoking and would recommend them. The Institute’s website has quite a lot of good stuff too.
Just thought this might be of interest to a few folks on here!
Seriously??? as Minister of Land Information in the Clark Government how many hectares of land went into foreign ownership while this particular one of the Daves looked on…
Wish i didn’t have to make it really, the point that is, sometimes i feel like i am living in 2 parallel Universe,
My apologies to all you die hard Labour-ites, being able to pretend that the present Labour Party is in any way representative of very much of my view of things is becoming increasingly difficult,
Being able to pretend that it was some other Labour Party that held the Treasury Benches for the 9 years previous to this abysmal National one, impossible…
PS, i don’t even see this as a matter of ism’s, more the sheer dishonesty inherent in a Party that while in Government flicked off New Zealand land like there was a factory making the stuff down the street,
What this makes Labour look like is a Party simply interested in Power for the sake of holding it, no principles,no honesty, if there’s a set of iornclad policy anyplace it appears to be doing duty in the ablutions block as you know what,
Perhaps my expectations are far too high and all we can really expect from Labour is that they sit in the Parliament opposing everything this abhorrent National Government does,
So that once the cycle swings the other way Labour can do it instead, the politics of we oppose what your doing because we think we should be doing it…
Yeah, it concerns me that these kinds of measures further restrict the meagre freedoms of the poor, supposedly for the greater good. Apparently only the poor need to change their ways to this end. Maybe if we had some measures that made their lives less shit….
On a related noted, I was interested to see that Whanau Ora will only help those who agree to stop drinking and smoking completely, into affordable, decent housing*. Those “aunties” get their tentacles into every nook and cranny. They seem to be Big Brother’s sisters, and as the trojan horse into ever increasing privatisation of welfare services, disturbing…
Btw, about how much is a bottle of whisky now?
*Will dig out the link if anyone gives a flying f#$k.
Some can only afford Famous Grouse/Grants Capt Morgan etc. See how many products are well below $50 from the link below. And then think of the PAYE person & what they drink. I wonder if those from Labour/Greens have considered only the rtd’s and low cost wine and not consequence of a $2 policy has on spirits
Those that drink single malts have nothing to worry about under this policy, though for curiosity I wonder what $60 would have purchased 20+ years ago, it must have been good as a classic malt in 2000 was about $45 duty free and that was a 1125 bottle !!!. But not everyone can afford such nectar from heaven. http://www.lk.co.nz/spirits/rum.html
Dewar’s white label sitting nicely on the tongue right now. Not a single malt but quite passable for $40. I have a Talisker sitting patiently in the cabinet for more special occasions.
I prefer anything from Islay. Oldest rocks in the UK and some of the oldest anywhere to be found. You can taste every one of the 600-1000 million years in any bottle from here!! http://www.islaynaturalhistory.org/geology/geology.htm
I think that a min pricing is one of many tools to help cure this problem. But IMO $2 being touted is too steep. Better still would be too increase exercise duty then the added price (tax) would benefit NZ not the alcohol industry & the likes of the supermarkets.
Some can only afford Famous Grouse/Grants Capt Morgan etc.
Yes, and?
And then think of the PAYE person & what they drink.
Beer with the occasional top shelf thrown in.
Those that drink single malts have nothing to worry about under this policy, though for curiosity I wonder what $60 would have purchased 20+ years ago, it must have been good as a classic malt in 2000 was about $45 duty free and that was a 1125 bottle !
Glenfiddich (sp?), Johnny Walker (Black Label) – during the 1990s the prices of liquor came down as tariffs and duties were removed.
Hurrah for the Blackshirts! revisited. The Daily Mail reckons Arbeit Macht Frei. Journo Dominique Jackson advises unemployed young grads to lower their sights:
Â
“The German slogan ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ is somewhat tainted by its connection with Nazi concentration camps, but its essential message, ‘work sets you free’ still has something serious to commend it.
There is dignity to be gained from any job, no matter how menial, and for young people at the start of their careers, there are valuable lessons to be learned from any form of employment, whether that is on the factory floor, on a supermarket till or in the contemporary hard labour camp of a merchant bank or law office.”
I’d say that’s because big charities are now big business in the UK and they’re scrambling for every reduced penny going. Those involved in workfare schemes have sold-out their ethics. I hope they’ve remembered to change their mission statements to reflect their new purpose.
Having walked through the gates of Dachau and seen the remnants of what went on there, that highly offensive phrase needs to be thrown into the dustbin of history.
Fuck the Daily Mail for using it is all I can say.
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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 weâve 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 Zealandâs 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 Zealandâs 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 âmoisture-ladenâ 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 governmentâs fiscal policies raised issues of substance. âToday in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media â sure enough â have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willisâ 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 â that the Budget âwill 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 – Itâs 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-MÄori andâŚ. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you donât like and donât ...
Don Brash writes –Â 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 countryâs 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 isnât already pretty well-off? Itâs as if protecting landlordsâ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of Nationalâs ...
 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, itâs that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxonâs ...
Robert MacCulloch writes –Â 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 yearâs Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran OâSullivan, 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 â a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon â note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinsonâs 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 â or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. Itâs 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 Zealandâs 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 –Â Â 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 – âIt is often said that behind every great man is a great womanâ. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their âLadies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxonâ. 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 Petersâ 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 â 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 Newshubâs 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 Governmentâs plan to âget Auckland movingâ 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 sheâs 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 Governmentâs 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 Americaâs 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 wonât stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Memberâs 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 Labourâs 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 Firstâs 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 âco-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 PÄti MÄori 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. âIâm 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 âtake back our countryâ 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 Jonesâ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Governmentâs 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 public service 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 public service on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Governmentâs 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 doesnât 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. âIt 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. âThe 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.  âThis travel will focus on a range of New Zealandâs traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,â 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. âRoad 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. âOur 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 Parliamentâs order paper. âThe Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,â Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams wonât be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. âThe coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. âDam 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. âI 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. âThe Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023â24, 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 governmentâs 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 Governmentâs Budget objectives. âThe 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.                                        âThe 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.  âThese changes are long overdue â 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 Zealandâs growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Ministerâs Prizes for Space today. âNew Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealandâs concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. Â Â âThe 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 Educationâs School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. âThere 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. âToday 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 Peopleâs Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. âThe use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,â 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. âWeâre 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 Zealandâs ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. Â Â âI 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. âI have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commissionâs online consultation portal.â 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. âComprising 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. âI 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. âThis is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women donât ...
Good morning, itâs 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 Governmentâs ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Governmentâs commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools MÄori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. âThe Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, Iâm proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of todayâs 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 Iâm sorry I canât 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 ...
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[deleted]
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/most-australians-back-assange-poll-finds-20120808-23uwh.html#ixzz23S2qn2xL
[lprent: Small quotes and link rather than whole articles. You’re also lacking any of your opinion. This isn’t a newspaper. We want to see what you think. ]
Just don’t fall asleep around him. đ
Just don’t fall asleep around him đ
Â
FIFY
Just donât fall asleep around him.
Idiot. You need to do some reading on this topic; after you’ve learned a little bit, I doubt that you’ll continue with your lame, politically driven “jokes”.
The poll is only about Assange’s chances if he is ever asked to stand trial in America over the leaks. There is no indication that Aussies support his cowardice in relation to the sexual assault investigation and the majority do consider the Aussie government’s consular support of him so far in that matter to be adequate.
…his cowardice in relation to the sexual assault investigation
I know that you are only trying to provoke, but surely even you know that there is no evidence whatsoever that Assange committed sexual assault.
Only formal complaints from two women. But I guess that doesn’t mean much, does it.
Something called “OneTrack” seems a tad confused….
Only formal complaints from two women.
There were no complaints from them. The women were inveigled, probably threatened, into complying with this bizarre attempt to snare Assange.
But I guess that doesnât mean much, does it.
The Women Against Rape organization does not think the allegations have any credibility.
Right. So they didn’t go to the police – the cops just turned up on their doorstep saying “we’re going to press charges, you have to go along with it. Oh, and here’s a lawyer who we will make represent you, so when we drop the investigation he’ll appeal the decision ‘on your behalf’ so we can look at the matter again and restart the investigation we already dropped “.
    Â
The Swedish and English judicial systems seem to think the allegations are reasonable enough to investigate/extradite. But you got the interwebz so you know exactly what’s happened.
Reasonable enough to extradite him to Guantanamo Bay? That seems a bit over the top doesn’t it? đ
It does indeed. Which is why I think it’s just an excuse used by groupies who can’t think of a more likely reason someone would want to dodge a sexual assault investigation.
   Â
Apparently Assange has been panning to skip to Ecuador for almost a year. Did he tell this to the people who put up his bail money?Â
Right. So they didnât go to the police â the cops just turned up on their doorstep saying âweâre going to press charges, you have to go along with it. Oh, and hereâs a lawyer who we will make represent you, so when we drop the investigation heâll appeal the decision âon your behalfâ so we can look at the matter again and restart the investigation we already dropped â.
Someone—and it was certainly not the Swedish police—used the women in order to press this ludicrous and uniquely Swedish statute into service as a weapon to use against the most dangerous political dissenter in the world.
The Swedish and English judicial systems seem to think the allegations are reasonable enough to investigate/extradite.
Nobody with any integrity in or outside of the legal system thinks these allegations have a shred of credibility. People like you were persuaded by the compliance and silence of key British legal and government officials in 2003 to accept the bogus case to attack Iraq. You’re impressed and gulled not by authority, but by power.
But you got the interwebz so you know exactly whatâs happened.
There you go with your trivialization strategy again. I know a lot more than you do about this because I read seriously and widely, and I can discriminate between what is serious journalism and what is nothing more than black propaganda. Of course I don’t know exactly what happened; what I do know is what you also know but lack the integrity to admit: that this “case” against Assange is as robust as the 1960 case against Martin Luther King for driving in Georgia on an Alabama license.
Oh my god – are you still promulgating the “sex by surprise” myth? Maybe you need to go to the source. Show me where it says “sex by surprise”.
   Â
I love how you deny the women involved any possible agency in dealing with their own sexual assault allegations – they must have been manipulated or “used” by others. Maybe they are telling the truth and without ulterior motive. Not definitely. Just maybe. In which case it’s not St Julian who’s being victimised and harrassed, is it?
  Â
BTW, if you still believe the “sex by surprise” slur, you “know” fuck all.
 Â
And I cannot believe you just compared Assange to MLK.Â
Â
“I cannot believe you just compared Assange to MLK.”
Of course not. Martin Luther King was traduced by the FBI—although people like you will deny the evidence of that—and ridiculed by the establishment. He spoke out trenchantly against his country’s destruction of Indo-China, thus incurring undying resentment and hatred from the “liberal” establishment. He also “got with” many of the women who were drawn to him and no doubt had he lived longer, would have suffered a concocted campaign of outrage about an invented incident of rape.
Clearly there are no comparisons obvious to everybody else but yourself.
oh, by the way – if you know so much about it, did Assange tell the people who stumped up his not insubstantial bail money that he had spent months planning to skip the country and leave them out of pocket?Â
ooo – the Olympics are over! Ecuador will soon be deciding if they’ll let Assange flee a sexual assault investigation!
    Â
Just for you guys. Don’t say I don’t help out.
http://lpickering.net/item/8468
Just for you guys. Donât say I donât help out.
Unfunny.
I thought it was quite topical and in line with your original comment…………
Y’know, the accusation is that Assange exhibits inappropriate sexual behaviours. Two complaints from two women relating to (more or less) the same point in time. But where are the other complaints? Don’t know why no-one has picked up on the fact that aside from when the victim of sexual predation (or whatever) is specific and therefore unique, the perpetrator usually has a history of the behaviour complained of. And people emerge from that history when some-one finally does complain or have charges laid or whatever. But in the case of Assange? Nothing. Now, why would that be?
You’ve obviously got a point to make Bill.
why don’t you spit it out.
Its a convenient reason to get him to Guantanomo Bay with a quick stopover in Stockholm.
Youâve obviously got a point to make Bill.
why donât you spit it out.
You know perfectly well what his point was. But just to confirm what you already know but lack the integrity to admit: the allegations against Assange are baseless, ludicrous, fantastical, and vicious. The “case” against Assange makes the case—giraffes in the basement and all—against Peter Ellis look robust.
What, Bill? You mean people don’t or can’t change behaviour (for better or worse) when their situation/ circumstances/ opportunity change?
What, Bill? You mean people donât or canât change behaviour (for better or worse) when their situation/ circumstances/ opportunity change?
There is no evidence against Assange, rosy. Why don’t you have the courage to just admit it? Better still, do some reading on this affair. Serious reading, that is—not simply accepting what the comedy writers on the Grauniad staff come up with.
Banks and MMP – this guy actually doesn’t understand the debate.
He is rambling on about this current stable government would have been affected.
Banks did not benefit from either of the two proposed adjustments – “threshold and coat-tailing”. ACT and UF have electorate seats only.
Since when has reality got in the way of a Banks rant?
I heard Banks say on tele last night something to the effect:
“it (the recommendations) opens everything up to gerrymandering…”.
Fortunately I’d just put my coffee mug back on the table.
Intellectually and morally Bank-rupt…. (“that donation was anonymous”)
And Bank’s understanding of Gerrymandering, is anything that Gerry Brownlee want’s.
Very good David H.
I believe Banks is under the impression that he still has a party, and that he is a good chance to bring in more MPs on his coat tails next time.
Then again, he forgot how he managed to acquire thousands of dollars, so maybe his mind really is going.
He probably hasn’t read the commissions’ report, so it’s a bit tough to expect him to take responsibilty for his comments on it.
When ACT finally dies I and the thousands of others who went through the Auckland local government restructure will be there to tramp the dirt down on their political graves, good and hard.
Make sure you also plant garlic and spread holy water around.
My thoughts on his rant on Radio NZ National this morning was that he has also “forgotten” that he is now supposedly ACT not National when he claimed that National will not agree to the changes as if he was their spokesperson.
Katrina Williams, an IRD section director, said in the documents: “In Australia, we are taking legal action and when this fails, issue bankruptcy proceedings when overseas-based borrowers have not paid.”
That would mean that the IRD could get a New Zealand court judgment transferred to Australia, where it would then be enforced.
[lprent: fixed the link. ]
I think it’s just more bluster designed to cover up how stupid student loans are and deflect attention from more serious problems, such as avoidance and evasion by the rich. Australia told them about a year ago that they weren’t interested.
New Zealand has won its sixth gold medal of the Olympics after Valerie Adams’ rival Nadzeya Ostapchuk tested positive for drugs and was stripped of gold.
Tony Johnston, correct?
Bugga ! As much as this is great for Adams it’s a really bad outcome for truth and a fair go as the redneck talkback feeding monkeys that pass for journalists in this country will feel vindicated and ignore the baseless allegations they made and claiim ‘moral high ground’
The fact that Ostapchuk threw, was it 3 national records in about a 10 day period not long before the olympics, in her own country, would have at least begged the question.
Its not like she was throwing world records though, so perhaps not overt in its warnings, but seems to this point was, “enhanced”.
Agree about the red neck media, I find the pundits are simply a mirror of those they preside over, and its a little bit like chicken and egg, which idiot came first the pundit or the fan!
A lot of people, including me, felt that the pattern of her performance over the last ten years did not support the recent radical gain in her outcomes. Speculation is not of itself an indication of redneckery, by which I presume you mean a mean-spirited refusal to recognize merit?
From what I just heard on 3 News, yes. They’re talking about the Belorussian woman as if she is the embodiment of all evil…
I wouldn’t care at all, if it didn’t remind me of the American comments in previous Olympics, that all Eastern European women athletes and competitors were all men in disguise.Â
There were comments about how difficult it’s going to be to get Valerie’s medal from around the neck of that evil, lying Russian medal thief!
Â
That’s the sort of thing that has made me loathe and despise sport all my life.
Tony Johnston, correct?
He was correct, due to sheer dumb luck. He immediately started bawling that the Belorussian was a drug cheat, but he proffered no evidence; as with his rugby commentating, there was no evidence he had done any investigation whatsoever.
Oil isn’t running out: expert
Advanced recovery techniques, deep water and unconventional sources could actually postpone a “peak” for some time yet.
Your link doesn’t work.
You mean this Maugeri, who works for the Italian oil company ENI and a senior fellow at a BP-funded center at Harvard University?
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/07/24/1094111/is-peak-oil-dead/
It’s all in the analysis, and I heard a radio report that Maugeri is relying on recovering a lot of hard-to-access oil, through processes like frakking (this is not news) – and that is using processes that cause all kinds of environmental harm.
Yep, there’s plenty of oil, we just need to make the planet uninhabitable to access it. But if thats the price our grandchildren have to pay, so be it, it would seem.
An oil company’s reserve capacity has a direct bearing on its share price which in turn drives executive pay. This is why oil company executives are responding to peak oil by redefining ‘resources’ sich as shale as reserve capacity.
There’s a very good explanation of how this works here:
The Ultimate Corporation
JUNE 7, 2012
Bill McKibben
Reviewing:
Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power
by Steve Coll
Penguin, 685 pp., $36.00 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/07/ultimate-corporation/?pagination=false
The question is rather whether supply of oil will keep up with demand for oil.
At 7 billion world population and rising, there may well be a problem.
All of his stuff is talking about ‘unconventional’ oil, which is the expensive stuff. He may well be right, that we’re still years or even decades away from a peak in All Liquids, but nothing he says suggests that we’ll see a new peak in conventional oil.
In other words, a peak in All Liquids might be some way away, but when it happens, All Liquids will and must be more expensive than they are now for that to happen, because this will only come about by production of expensive and difficult reserves.
Improved technology tends to act more like a super-straw, sucking up the available oil much faster than it otherwise would have been. This gives much higher short-term production rates, and a high peak, but at the cost of longevity in the well. Frankly I’m more interested in technologies that can significantly increase ultimate recoverable reserves, but not the rate of extraction.
Can you explain that a bit more Lanth?
This is an aside, although relevant: I’m about 3/4ths of the way through reading Twilight in the Desert
For all oil fields, there is a figure which is the total amount of oil in the specific reservoir, called Oil In Place (OIP). Production of oil fields practically never recovers 100% of OIP, in fact often recovery is around 40-50% of the total OIP.
Here’s a very contrived example to illustrate the point I made above. Imagine you have 10b barrels of oil in a field, but your ultimate recovery with existing technology is going to be 5b barrels. If you produce at 1b barrels per year constant, you will be able to produce the well for 5 years before it depletes. If you create some new technology that lets you produce at 2b barrels per year, but doesn’t increase the recoverable reserves, that same well will now produce for a total of 2.5 years (2.5 * 2b = 5b). If instead you had a new technology that increased the recoverable oil – think tar sands and shale oil/shale gas, then the recoverable oil might go from 5b to 7b. At your original rate of recovery of 1b the well will now last 7 years instead of 5.
Peak Oil is primarily about the rate of recovery, which is what the ‘peak’ is all about. Oil industry people get very excited about new technology that increases flow rates because it makes a field look very profitable, but they often make the basic mistake of assuming high oil flows has increased the total recoverable reserves in a field, but in experience usually all it does is deplete the same amount of oil faster (a ‘super-straw’). Using my example above, some people see oil flows of 2b/year and keep the production life of the well constant at 5 years, now thinking they are going to recover 10b from the field (or 100% OIP in my example), but actually all they end up doing is depleting the field twice as fast as they would have otherwise.
I think Peak Oil, the price pressure and demand destruction world wide is only a good thing for our consumerist society, but on the flip side I’d like to see a very gradual decline in production post-peak as that will give us the best chance of re-organising society to deal with it. A steep decline after peak will be disastrous to society at large. Hence why I’m more interested in technologies that can improve oil recovery, not flow rates.
In short its all about EROEI (energy return over energy invested)…new technologies might make the EROEI better but eventually you go into deficit and the whole thing becomes pointless. Perhaps the real issue is denial, denial that we cant just keep doing this forever because like the last bottle of wine of the night it runs out before the shop opens.
I did once think that it was a desirable thing to avoid a steep decline: for us to live as we are used to, that’s a desirable option. For us to live at all is another issue. Collapse now might be a far more useful thing if this is to be believed. http://arctic-news.blogspot.co.nz/p/global-extinction-within-one-human.html
PS Who knows if the article is good science, true or likely? Could not possibly say, so shall we work on the principle it is too extreme and just ignore it? Or perhaps wait and see whilst we might or might not go past a point of no return? Perhaps BAU and be damned?
A strict focus on EROEI is actually misleading. Broadly it is true, and in the general case going very much below 1 is going to be financially pointless.
But there are cases where it makes sense, for example when you’re converting energy in one form/source to another form/source that is more useful. Lostinsuburbia below highlights one such case: turning natural gas in Canada into tar sands oil. Natural gas is not as easily traded as oil is, because it requires expensive pipelines or facilities to compress/liquidise it, compared to oil which can go on tankers and pipes much more easily. Oil is also a more valuable fuel for transportation than gas is, again thanks to the shipment but also the energy density.
So therefore an EROEI that is below 1 when using gas energy to unlock oil energy is not necessarily economically infeasible, if you had no other direct economic use for that gas energy.
Another extreme example is the RTG: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator
I bet that on an EROEI case this would be well below 1, but the RTG stores and releases energy in a way that other fuels simply cannot, so it doesn’t matter if the EROEI is below 1 because it’s the special properties of the resultant fuel source that you’re interested in, not the net energy.
All you are talking about is an arbitrage, which does delivery utility whilst wasting energy. This delays the evil day energy is all used up , which may or may not be a good thing.
Reading the link I provided might help you think about whether continuing blithely is a good thing?
Lanth is talking about an economic system which rewards the rapid waste of finite, irreplaceable resources (using up natural gas energy to recover a lesser amount of tar sands oil energy).
Sure, diverting some extra energy doesn’t matter particularly if there is still excess energy available presently.
It will matter when people and communities are starved in order to make available the energy which needs to be invested in a far away elite project. Of course, we have always done this to the third world and the developing world. Now, its becoming increasingly obvious in the West’s own backyard.
I have no doubt the USAF will still be flying F-22’s using jet fuel for years after the rest of us plebs have to walk or bicycle everywhere. In other words, the prioritisation of remaining highly constrained energy expenditures as the ruling classes see fit.
its also the fact that the “unconventional” sources require prodiguous amounts of energy to “extraact” – just look at the dependency of the Alberta Oil Sands on natural gas. There may be huge amounts of energy locked away in such reserves but it would take equally huge amounts to actually access and use it resulting in very low net energy gain.
We’ll just end up trashing the environment in a race to industrial crash unless we use our remaining reserves wisely and start moving towards smarter uses and sources of energy.
Maugeri of full of shit. End of story.
“We must conclude that the key assumptions about reserve growth and its effect on decline rates in Maugeriâs report are muddled, speculative and unverifiable. And sprinkling those assertions with repeated declamations about how peak oil is a non-issue, insisting repeatedly that the only real constraints on his scenario have to do with political decisions and geopolitical risks, suggests that his report is more about grinding a political axe on behalf of the oil industry than offering a serious or transparent analysis. Finally we must note that Maugeri is well known for his hostility to peak oil, as is BP, which funded his report. After taking real-world risks, costs, and restrictions into account, the case for peak oilâwhich is about production rates, not production capacity or reservesâseems far more realistic.”
http://www.davidstrahan.com/blog/?p=1576
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2012/07/24/1094111/is-peak-oil-dead/
http://peakoilmatters.com/2012/08/06/peak-oil-denial-debunking-the-attempted-debunking/
The TV3 Garner smear on Cunliffe initially was damaging to the Party, Shearer and Cunliffe in that order.Â
Â
Following the appalling weak un-real comments from Shearer yesterday that he was happy with Causus discipline, Â the whole affair now damages Shearer and the ABC nasties. Â Cunliffe’s mana is enhanced by Shearer’s handling of this matter.
The Party needs to be united and Cunliffe has the leadership skills to do so.Â
The experiment is over. Finito!Â
Â
Sometimes you guys sound like Cunliffe is actually Elvis at the 1964 Comeback Special with the slim black full leather jumsuit, singing I’m Just A Hunk-a Hunk-a Burnin’ Love.
It’s possible he’s human.
Are you saying Cunliffe was born in 1964, and that he might be a re-incarnation of Elvis? Â
Nah, he was born in 1963 when Kennedy died…Â
I hear the new shave means he’s proposing to reincarnate himself with his baby photos at the next election.
Typical bloody politicians, using their wedding photos on hoardings right into retirement.Â
After thinking about Josie Pagani’s bene bashing comments yesterday on Radio New Zealand I thought I would check out hubby John Pagani’s activities.
It seems that his blog is down. Â I wonder when that happened.
He has recently sent a couple of tweets. Â One of them says “Martin Hawes on buying shares in Mighty River.Excellent analysis. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7466680/Ignore-hype-when-investing”
The Hawes article he links to is a cold hard financial analysis of the share float of MRP that does not mention Iwi claims or the risks that they pose.  Hawes’ conclusion is that “[o]n all of these measures, MRP comes out well. It is in a good, stable industry providing energy from renewables, but with growth prospects as it sells its expertise in thermal power to other countries. It has strong finances and very good governance and management.”
It would appear that Pagani thinks buying MRP shares is a good idea.
Is he still speech writing for the Labour Party?
What an unelectable shambles Shearer’s Caucus and it’s advisers are becoming.
They look about as inspiring as the current gov’t….bravo trev and all you other has beens that feared so much for your undeserving arses you undermined the best choice at taking back the power possibly in your own right with DC out front.
Enjoy the warmth of your safe seats, what a disgrace you all are to the history and mana that was the Labour party and the everyday kiwis being left out to dry at the hands of the Hollowmen because of your ego’s…..SHAME !
Well, it appears that the Australian banks aren’t as pure as the driven snow as some would have liked to think:
So, how many loans in NZ were Liars Loans?
Rich and ignorant
It may be that te reo is not spoken in the limited circles Rodney Hide and Bob Jones move in, however it is far from obsolete…
I’m not sure if this has been mentioned on here yet, but in case it hasn’t.
Steve Keen is going to be giving talks in NZ in September.
The New Zealand and Australian Asset Markets
Friday 7th September in Auckland
The Global Economy
Saturday 8th September in Auckland
Solutions to the Crisis
Monday 10th September in Wellington
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1207/S00499/economist-professor-steve-keen-to-visit-new-zealand.htm
Ahhhhh thanks, very handy
Whose Banking Sector Is It Anyway? – An Infographic
Hint, it’s not Spanish or Greek.
http://ineteconomics.org/blog/inet/katharina-pistor-whose-banking-sector-it-anyway-infographic
Sad grieving families are saying much about the pathetic lack of controls and safety consciousness in adventure tourism as the hearing about the plane crash at Fox Glacier proceeds. It may be that notice will be taken by leading people suffering the responsibility virus. I really hope so.
A young pilot used to automatic trim to keep the rear of his plane in balance was in a different plane at Fox Glacier, which was manual and had to be set before he took off. That’s what I understood from the radio report this morning. I would be trusting this company to know and give the advice its pilot needed so that 9 people didn’t die.
Complacently we undertake selling forays into the world and succeed in attracting tourists, overseas students etc. But then its too often laissez faire which ends up in some tragedy. Disparagingly remarks are made by NZs about other small countries – that we don’t want to turn into a banana republic. But we are already more like a banana republic than we are like an efficient and modern European country to which I think we compare ourselves.
So we must get restraints on our easy-peasy ways and poor oversight of whatever. CAA keeps being castigated. Make sure they do their job and earn their big pay. Bring in an amendment to accident law so that companies can be sued under certain circumstances, even if the government does it as Safety Master. Sharpen up everybody in tourism and don’t try to delegate the overview of work.
Another example of lack of responsibility and hurried, inadequate checks. The CCTV building in Christchurch was signed off, hurried through, certification missed, lacking senior overview. Result 16 people died, or was it more? And the Christchurch Building Inspections Manager under pressure to get things through faster, government made a lot of noise about slow procedures for builders, so in line with current ‘let business govern itself’ he signed off in line with business assurances when there was any argy-bargy. He is dead now, and another one close to the job also. It would make a sad end for a career to face this situation.
And reports about later work that was done to strengthen it, involved boring holes that could have gone through reinforcing rods so weakening the column. The work involved inserting epoxy or something with slurry to set and hold it firm but the slurry may not have keyed to the building and it has been found in that case that the epoxy tube or wedge can be just pulled out by hand. Trust in supposed experts again in doubt.
I see this common theme of she’ll be right recurring through NZ tragedies. We have to sharpen up, be efficient and timely, but thorough. That is if we want to have self-respect as a nation. And the respect of other nations when we speak about anything.
This somewhat covers the reality that the economy is not about creating jobs any more. A reality that the political parties just don’t seem to get.
Remember when the Minister got up there in the house and said blah blah blah? Lies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10826855
Bugger.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/heat-shuts-down-a-coastal-reactor/
Aren’t those things meant to be the solution for all our energy problems in a post-fossil fuel and post holocene world? Oh, well. Back to the drawing board I guess.
Pencil sharpening, a metaphor for action in the last days of the empire.
Oh well. Back to the coal fired power stations I guess.
Why? Wind and solar work fine – just have to build it.
The nuclear reactor having the latest trouble was called Millstone. These tech people have no sense of irony, maybe missing some other senses too. Fear?
heka paratai getting more and more toxic buy the day.
this mornings dompost.
her head is so swollen that nobody can tell her anything.
True lies – it’s all in the pictures. I guess this is why Key does all those photo ops, often while speaking indecipherable gibberish, rather than attempting a rational explanation:
http://www.springer.com/about+springer/media/springer+select?SGWID=0-11001-6-1385843-0
@ Carol
Excellent link!
IrishBill: too much like stalking for my taste, Penny. Tone it down.
So people who work in IT or business aren’t allowed to be pro-democracy without having some sort of ulterior motive?
       Â
Think it was the blocking of facebook that has raisedd Penny’s ‘truth’ antennae McFlock.
Sounds odd, thanks Penny. Am so fed up with deceivers,(so I hope your suspicions come to nought) but it pays to keep watch unless,deceptively, they creep up on you. What a sad old world that we have to live in such an atmosphere of distrust, one that really began in earnest with the onset of neoliberalism and ‘self’ above all else..
Infomercial:
Anyone who wants an excuse to make money by any means, and sod the cost,especially human, look to your bright burnished idols like Thatcher, Douglas, Key (especially key) for any and every wickedly spun reason, answer, mindbend possible:
Change your moral outlook to amoral with these gems that you can add to your business ethics portfolio – “politics of envy”, “mums and Dads”, ‘up to the individual’- “no such thing as society’,”breeding for business”, ‘poverty is a lifestyle choice,’ and my personal more specific favourite phrased proudly by key (credit where credit is due) to mothers of an extra child born for whatever reason, being sent to look for part time work when their child is one year old,
“I personally think it is actually helping …… to actually make sure that they get an opportunity to fill their lives.”
” (translation from me ….sorry kids you are not fulfilling enough, away with you…)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6496132/Key-Mums-of-one-year-olds-better-off-working
I know key is not known for his intelligent rhetoric but on this occasion, and a few others, when he has to ‘lower himself to the occasion’ on behalf of popularity and money, he can produce ‘stunners’.
I suppose it depends on whether Penny’s style came across as harassment to the FB mods.
Richard Heinberg from the Post-Carbon Institute is doing a speaking tour of NZ and Australia next month. Just check out – http://www.postcarbon.org/event/964156-richard-heinberg-australia-and-new-zealand
I’ve read a couple of his books which have been quite thought provoking and would recommend them. The Institute’s website has quite a lot of good stuff too.
Just thought this might be of interest to a few folks on here!
Yay, urgent debate happening in the house right meow.
Kudos to David Parker….. Crafar Farms decision and protection of NZ asset base.
Seriously??? as Minister of Land Information in the Clark Government how many hectares of land went into foreign ownership while this particular one of the Daves looked on…
Good point, bad. He is tainted with neoliberalism. But, still, he’s kept this issue alive. Good to have t he debate.
Wish i didn’t have to make it really, the point that is, sometimes i feel like i am living in 2 parallel Universe,
My apologies to all you die hard Labour-ites, being able to pretend that the present Labour Party is in any way representative of very much of my view of things is becoming increasingly difficult,
Being able to pretend that it was some other Labour Party that held the Treasury Benches for the 9 years previous to this abysmal National one, impossible…
PS, i don’t even see this as a matter of ism’s, more the sheer dishonesty inherent in a Party that while in Government flicked off New Zealand land like there was a factory making the stuff down the street,
What this makes Labour look like is a Party simply interested in Power for the sake of holding it, no principles,no honesty, if there’s a set of iornclad policy anyplace it appears to be doing duty in the ablutions block as you know what,
Perhaps my expectations are far too high and all we can really expect from Labour is that they sit in the Parliament opposing everything this abhorrent National Government does,
So that once the cycle swings the other way Labour can do it instead, the politics of we oppose what your doing because we think we should be doing it…
I’ve a feeling Crafar is not just about the asset base, it’s about Joyce’s ‘intensification of agriculture’.
Oh good one rosy. I have a feeling you may well be correct. “intense” is, unfortunately, a suitable word in this situation.
Will I get banned from The Standard if I threaten to set all the moderators on fire and urinate on the server?
Nah, your too much of a plonker you will just get your thing fried…
Damn, I am trying to martyr myself to the single entity which is the standard who should do things my way
Fry you heathen…
Stop being lazy and ban yourself already đ
I try but I can’t. Some fucker remove me for a month. Damnit
Perhaps you could try some poetry…
Felix red pastel
Oh dear here comes a prolapse
scrumptious ass-tulip
Just call someone a bitch — youll be gone by lunchtime (thank you Dr Brash…)
On the minimum pricing for booze has anyone giving the idea of $2 a serving given any thought what that does for a 1 litre bottle of Whisky/Whiskey/Bourbon/Vodka etc Given that there are 30-35 std drinks per litre then a bottle of top shelve would be ???? $60-$70
http://www.alac.org.nz/sites/default/files/useruploads/Alcohol_YouPDFs/819_stddrinksstraightupguide.dafc3b6c.pdf
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10817774
With such an example how is Labour being relevant to its core blue collar union card holder support base?
At least the left doesn’t appear as self serving as Judith Collins on tv last night
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/government-denies-alcohol-industry-pressure-5021331
Yeah, it concerns me that these kinds of measures further restrict the meagre freedoms of the poor, supposedly for the greater good. Apparently only the poor need to change their ways to this end. Maybe if we had some measures that made their lives less shit….
On a related noted, I was interested to see that Whanau Ora will only help those who agree to stop drinking and smoking completely, into affordable, decent housing*. Those “aunties” get their tentacles into every nook and cranny. They seem to be Big Brother’s sisters, and as the trojan horse into ever increasing privatisation of welfare services, disturbing…
Btw, about how much is a bottle of whisky now?
*Will dig out the link if anyone gives a flying f#$k.
I remember paying that much for a bottle of top shelf 20 odd years ago. Which would be $110.48 to $128.89 today so I don’t see your point.
Some can only afford Famous Grouse/Grants Capt Morgan etc. See how many products are well below $50 from the link below. And then think of the PAYE person & what they drink. I wonder if those from Labour/Greens have considered only the rtd’s and low cost wine and not consequence of a $2 policy has on spirits
Those that drink single malts have nothing to worry about under this policy, though for curiosity I wonder what $60 would have purchased 20+ years ago, it must have been good as a classic malt in 2000 was about $45 duty free and that was a 1125 bottle !!!. But not everyone can afford such nectar from heaven.
http://www.lk.co.nz/spirits/rum.html
Dewar’s white label sitting nicely on the tongue right now. Not a single malt but quite passable for $40. I have a Talisker sitting patiently in the cabinet for more special occasions.
I prefer anything from Islay. Oldest rocks in the UK and some of the oldest anywhere to be found. You can taste every one of the 600-1000 million years in any bottle from here!!
http://www.islaynaturalhistory.org/geology/geology.htm
I think that a min pricing is one of many tools to help cure this problem. But IMO $2 being touted is too steep. Better still would be too increase exercise duty then the added price (tax) would benefit NZ not the alcohol industry & the likes of the supermarkets.
Now that’s a geology lesson I can appreciate. Cheers dude.
I’m guessing they don’t have any industrial scale dairy farming in that aquifer catchment then….
I wondered why Wilson’s was so distinctive.
Yes, and?
Beer with the occasional top shelf thrown in.
Glenfiddich (sp?), Johnny Walker (Black Label) – during the 1990s the prices of liquor came down as tariffs and duties were removed.
People forget that 1L of Vodka at less than $20 is generally only about 20% alcohol anyway.
Half the price half the liquor content.
Go check the bottles at your local liquor save if you don’t believe me
That’s not vodka, its just alcohol byproduct sourced from industrial (dairy) processes.
More to ignore.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/13/1119768/-New-CryoSat-2-Confirms-Catastrophic-Loss-of-Arctic-Sea-Ice-Volume
Even more disturbing, the Arctic could become totally ice free before 2030 if Wimpeus’ exponential fit to other months is correct.
It’s not……..
Fa&*%sm in Greece.
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.4/ari_paul_greece_austerity_golden_dawn_kke_liana_kanelli.php
previously
Hurrah for the Blackshirts! revisited. The Daily Mail reckons Arbeit Macht Frei. Journo Dominique Jackson advises unemployed young grads to lower their sights:
Â
Even UK charities are embracing Tory Govt ‘workfare’ schemes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2012/mar/12/large-charities-government-work-schemes
I’d say that’s because big charities are now big business in the UK and they’re scrambling for every reduced penny going. Those involved in workfare schemes have sold-out their ethics. I hope they’ve remembered to change their mission statements to reflect their new purpose.
Having walked through the gates of Dachau and seen the remnants of what went on there, that highly offensive phrase needs to be thrown into the dustbin of history.
Fuck the Daily Mail for using it is all I can say.