But the National Party is outraged that someone in business might have tried (and failed) to leverage their relationship with politicians for pecuniary interest. Would never happen under their watch eh? They are definitely scavenging around for the opportunity to mount a 2008-style ‘corruption’ attack on NZF.
IMHO, what we are seeing here is institutional racism in action. NZ is a small society which makes it hard for elites to avoid stories like this if the MSM decide to go after you. When you are dealing with the Maori business elite, which is a small part of a minority in an already small population it become almost impossible to do anything and avoid an establishment white media hatchet job around your connections.
The proof of the pudding is whether or not there is any evidence of impropriety – and the behaviour of the minister seems to have been perfectly in order.
Espiner seems to be happy to be a tool of the business/right wing elites these days, as long as he gets any sort of "serious" content for the pearl clutching class. His Pharmac panic mongering seemed to parrot the propaganda put out by PR agencies that push the agenda of big drug companies. Now it seems he is muck raking on behalf of that section of our society that is outraged Shane Jones has a billion dollars to spend and so far he isn't giving the usual suspects their cut.
This arvo I am headed your way for the cider festival. Looking forward to catching up with Alex Peckham. He guided a swag (I need a collective noun for cider enthusiasts) of us through a selection of Peckhams cider.
He generously sent a 20 litre ladder of Black Chisel(?) Apple juice to the Manawatu for me to ferment into cider.
I have had The Free House recommended to me.
If any Standardistas are going, I am the big gallah in the watermelon bucket hat.
This is my problem with the reaction and reporting of climate change or global warming. Everything that happens in the world is leveraged in the context of climate change.
Before a single gallon of oil was taken from the ground my great grandparents were terrified of bushfire in rural Victoria. Drought and bushfires have been a part of Australia for so long that gum trees have had millions of years to adapt to and even require fire to stay healthy as it kills the parasites in the bark.
Whats the problem now? Fucking idiot people ! A large number of these fires have been deliberatly lit by humans, others by discarded bottles and careless smokers, people really are stupid.
These fires used to rage without damage generally to lives and infrastructure because there were none, but if you want to stick a house in what is essentially a forest of petroleum producing trees there is a very good chance that you will lose it one day, a bit the same as building here in the Shakey Isles.
Maybe not as clear as I imagined….the events are greater and more frequent and compounding….there is less and less time/capacity to recover and resources (physical and human) are overwhelmed…this is not as before and it will increase
But Pat, how much of that is due to an expanding population that are increasingly living in vulnerable areas? How much of that is merely your perception due to a far greater reporting of bush fires and such like?
I am not disagreeing regarding climate change, and it seems an inescapable conclusion that much of that is human generated, but really, these doomsday scenarios that link every naturally occurring event to 'climate change' when patently it is not just gives fuel to those who deny human generated climate change.
The doomsday hypocrit Al Gore and his ilk have done immense damage to climate change acceptance.
Yes population larger and more living amongst bush etc but that does not change the cascading effects, it simply means more people impacted and more resources at risk than were in the past…the undelying point is the increased incidence and diminishing ability to cope and that is solely down to CC and with the lag involved in that impact it will increase in effect even if we stopped adding to it at this instant
Pat, I just love this video showing population growth . Near exponential over last two centuries after little more than flat lining for the millennia before.
And some people still say humans are not driving much of the climate change! Hope you enjoy.
ask yourself whether this planet would or could support 8 billion without the emissions of its primary energy source…the answer is quite simply, no it could (and will) not….if we (the human race) are lucky we will adapt and settle into an equilibrium…and it wont be supporting 8 billion
"These fires used to rage without damage generally to lives and infrastructure because there were none, but if you want to stick a house in what is essentially a forest of petroleum producing trees there is a very good chance that you will lose it one day, a bit the same as building here in the Shakey Isles."
Yes, and no. Climate change impacts intersect with other things humans are doing. It might have been reasonable to build houses in fire-prone forests 50 years ago, because the risk was lowish. Climate change is making that risk much much higher. So we have the confluence of three things: building in a fire area; a bigger population in a fire area; many more fires than normal (and of unusual intensity).
There are other factors there, like drought making forest management harder (there is less opportunity to controlled burns at other time).
In all that climate change has to be centred, because the potential for global catastrophe is serious, and because locally, in terms of adaptation, the impacts of AGW matter (drought, frequency, changes to vegetation and ecologies).
Two areas where this happens in NZ. One is we are building in some pretty stupid places (eg among kānuka/mānuka or pine or gums), and planting flammable trees in stupid places too. Still haven't caught up our thinking, and we'd be much better off if CC was centred in all those decisions.
The other is the tenure review process changing land use, so that many of our dry areas now have a lot of flammable vegetation (sans sheep grazing and farmer burnoffs). Farmers are talking about this, but I'm not seeing conservationists having this conversation yet.
I suspect in increasing areas adaptation will be abandoned as an option as there will simply be no capacity (or will) to continue to expend resources needed elsewhere….you can hear the phrasing now
probably. NZ's impending but largely unacknowledged* crisis is around big slips covering roads. Neither our engineering nor economics is designed around the frequency we will experience going forward.
*weird given we should be planning around this for quakes anyway.
"2) Capitalism has reached a dead end. We are entering a period of social revolution because capitalism is exhausted as a social relation: it generates more and more superfluous humanity, it expels living labor from social production, and it consumes energy and raw materials with increasing voracity to try to address with more commodities what it loses by expelling human labor. Its crises are and will be more and more catastrophic."
One of the major problems I have interacting with this style (I'm going to call it vaguely marxist) of writing is interpreting the writers meaning of capitalism. As far as i understand the term capitalism refers to how economic relations are defined by society. But the problem is if thats the case then in a democracy these arrangements are at all times up for change by legitimate democratic process. So there is a continuous 'revolution' going on but the authors picture of where this leads is obscured. Its also unclear which bits of the economic arrangements would be disposed of by a non capitalist alternative.
Revolts caused by weakness in democratic responsiveness included:
– Every single election since 2016 across Europe including Brexit (despite multiple elections in the last 5 year term)
– Every new political party formed in Europe since 2011
– The election of Donald Trump
– The election of the new Brazilian president
– The ejection of the President of Bolivia a few weeks' ago
– The Hong Kong riots this year
– The Indian election this year
It would be just so lovely if class analysis worked at all these days. It very rarely does.
But the revolutions have come from the right, rising to defend the nation-state better than the left have done for 90 years, won repeatedly and for years, and they continue to win.
In a case of egregiously bad timing, the Venice City Council was flooded with the largest flood in 50 years on the same night that the Coucnil voted to reject climate change measures.
"Ironically, the chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia parties rejected our amendments to tackle climate change," Zanoni, who is deputy chairman of the environment committee, said in the post, which also has photographs of the room under water.
Among the rejected amendments were measures to fund renewable sources, to replace diesel buses with "more efficient and less polluting ones," to scrap polluting stoves and reduce the impact of plastics, he said.
Zanoni went on to accuse Veneto regional president Luca Zaia, who is a member of Matteo Salvini's far-right League Party, of presenting a budget "with no concrete actions to combat climate change."
The flooding is not linked to climate change. Venice has been sinking into the mud slowly for centuries, and this was recognised as a major threat as far back as the 18th century.
It's not that sort of question. Every storm is, and every storm isn't. You get a 1 in 50-year event, that's probably just bad luck even though it is part of "climate". You get ten of them in five years, we'd know most of them will be directly attributable to climate change, but we'd never know exactly which one.
But Venice is built on crap ground and has been slowly sinking for centuries, and they keep building up and reclaiming. Fascinating history.
I think given the shit we are in it's reasonable to assume that climate change is affecting everything. It's a bit abstract to think that one storm is caused by CC and another isn't.
Also, the intersection of human activity with CC. Building in South Dunedin seemed reasonable in the 1800s, not so much now, but has our thinking caught up yet? Does it matter what is caused by CC? We can focus on the pumps if we want, but ultimately seeing all the causative factors in the bigger picture will help us more.
Yeah I was only joking ha ha – the response will be funny.
In a telephone interview with the Guardian, in response to a question about whether he was nervous that Trump might “throw him under a bus” in the impeachment crisis, Giuliani said, with a slight laugh: “I’m not, but I do have very, very good insurance, so if he does, all my hospital bills will be paid.”
Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, who was also on the call, then interjected: “He’s joking.”
No matter what pharmac's budget is, there will always be someone who wants more money spent on a medication that might or might not have any effect. Last time it was herceptin.
We have yet to see whether this latest funding decision reversal is the result of the substitution being a genuine error with clinical consequnces, or another case of the squeaky wheel getting the grease.
Medsafe's advice to Pharmac against making the change makes for deeply uncomfortable reading. Not because of the potential for increased deaths, which Medsafe didn't mention and it has yet to be demonstrated that there actually are increased deaths due to the change, but because of the likelihood of extreme adverse quality of life effects for those do suffer adverse effects from the change.
Yeah – the bit about rejecting studies funded by pharmacorps when they disagree with pharmac's decision even though pharmac as a policy accepts such studies is a suggestion that the move was a done deal before consultation.
There seems to be a theme…patient seizure free for many years, is dispensed generic by pharmacy with sticker reassuring patient that it is the same drug just a different colour. Patient has sudden seizure and dies.
Thing is McFlock…as far as I know one is allowed to criticize a decision made by one of our State's agencies
This is not treason.
Pharmac may be the hard arsed deal-makers needed to drive the bargaining for affordable drugs for all…but when another State agency strongly advises caution against a particular cost saving measure because of, well, lives….
Pharmac forgot the Rule..
First do no harm.
Hope y'all listened to Espiner's interviewing Herr Doktor this evening.
What a warm man. Overflowing with the milk of human kindness. How well we are served. Sarc.
The incidence of SUDEP in New Zealand is not known but using this figure it is estimated that approximately 40 people with epilepsy in New Zealand die from SUDEP every year.
terrible for all users of those drugs and especially for the victims and their families – appears a change happening
In a statement, Pharmac's medical director Dr Ken Clark said "we understand the news of the three deaths of patients taking Lamotrigine will concern people. We don't know if this is linked to the brand change – and we don't want people to stop taking their medication out of fear so we're making it easier for people to stay on their current brand if their doctor believes it is the right thing for them."
Professor Andrew Geddis, an expert on constitutional and electoral law at Otago University, believes the New Zealand First Foundation did not provide the level of transparency the public needed, especially from a party with ministers in government."
It's an odd beast because it's not clear why it exists," he said of the foundation.
He said one possible explanation was the foundation was used "to allow money to be given for the benefit of the New Zealand First party without going through the usual disclosure requirements".
Many authors here over the last 12 years has said that non-transparent funding of political parties is an rort (or words to that effect) at one point or another. If you go back 11-12 years you’ll find that we tried to get this crap closed down over and over again.
The Electoral Finance Act 2008 tightened the rules for anonymous donations. But they are still in my opinion far too lax, inherently undemocratic, and too susceptible to abuse. The voters should know who is funding political parties.
The only real solution for donations are that all donations above a minimal value need to have a single person responsible for and required by law to fully account for the sources of funding – however small. That includes such things as the organisers of raffles and trusts.
Or political parties can only get funded by the state.
I prefer the latter. I’m willing to accept the former.
In the meantime could you suggest a alternate mechanism that would prevent such rorts happening – because when I look at the kinds of corruption that comes with practices like this one https://thestandard.org.nz/ross-resigns-to-lay-corrupt-practices-complain-against-bridges-with-police/ with its allegation of a $100k donation to National being broken down into non-declarable $15k packets – I can’t see one.
All of those were apparently legal at the time (except maybe the last – can’t remember seeing the police response to that). Each change to tighten up has had fatal flaws and more rorts. It seems to be in the nature of politicians that they simply cannot be trusted to write the legislation required to control their own carnal behavior.
But I suspect that you’re going to simply be your dimwitted critical self. Once more tirelessly and fruitlessly simpering on the sidelines criticising those who actually try to do something about such practices. Basically I can’t see you doing anything except for presenting yourself as being hypocritical jerk – as usual.
I'm with you on this one lprent. State funding seems the most logical.
Moreover, campaigns should be simplified. Give all parties some airtime on TV to put forward their policies and allow them all to have a mass debate thereafter. And that's it. No more billboards, ads, etc.
I haven’t since 2012 because the advertising just wastes my time and disrupts the few bits of time that I have to watch TV – I haven’t seen anything on it worth watching in a decade. It isn’t exactly a mass media any more – it only caters to the elderly, the technophobic conservatives, and the idiotic. At least that seems to be who they are catering for – from the ‘news’ to the local content.
I’d personally prefer to pour state money down a sewer rather than spend any more on television, it’d have a better chance of remaining productive and clean (think of MAFS for instance).
As it is I both spend my own money to get something I can be bothered watching, and I pay wasted taxes on the drivel that is free-to-air TV. The RNZ National programme I like, the concert programme is worth supporting, but television as it currently stands isn’t worth wasting money on.
Nationwide, the weekly cumulative audience for RNZ National is 599,800 New Zealanders of the 10 plus population.
Among all radio stations in New Zealand, RNZ National’s station share of 11.1%.
The weekly cumulative audience for RNZ Concert is 165,600 or 3.8% of the 10+ population.
The weekly cumulative audience for RNZ (National and Concert combined) is 669,600 people aged 10+ years or 15.4% of the NZ population. Many Concert listeners also listen to National.
However the usual screw up that I have come to expect from all of the media websites.
The ubuntu system is on the correct timezone, running chrome, and this system is almost direct out to the net. It sits behind a bog standard ethernet router hooked on to a fibre connection. There is a pinhole firewall in there. In other words the default setup for most desktop systems (apart from linux).
I even trapped the transmitted data and the location looked ok in there as well. Just a bug in the TVNZ streaming provider.
Oh well, I’ll have a look around to see if there are other legit sources that are competently run. It may work on android… But basically this is too much trouble already. I was going to look at it on my 4k monitor.
Otherwise there are providers who are actually competent and fast – unlike TVNZ on-demand.
Here's (link below) a bit of background on it. But you may want to read it after you have viewed it. That's, of course, if you can locate a legal site screening it.
I'm guessing the other group that watches free to air is poor people. I don't know what's happening with broadband prices these days, but the whole computer/streaming thing is not cheap if you have no money. One (partial) solution there would be for WINZ to consider internet access as a basic need.
The other problem at the moment is the weird way that the networks manage their streaming and on demand access. I can't figure out how to watch The Nation other than having to turn up right at 9.30am on a Saturday morning (streaming). Which never happens, so I'm out of the #nzpol twitter convos immediately. If you go to their webpage the on demand videos for The Nation are random, the first one I just clicked on is from August.
This may be TV3 cutting costs pre-sale, but I remember it being like that at other times too and I just gave up.
I find the sign-in for general on demand for either network a big cumbersome, which I can resolve if it bothers me. I often it takes time to find what I want to watch, I think because of how the networks are trying to corral viewers (you're supposed to become a loyal viewer I guess then they push stuff at you). Quite often I just give up. I've been thinking I should just get a TV for the 2020 election.
I think there is a case for not putting political content behind a tracking wall though. Mentioning this because the TVNZ/RNZ merger proposal includes paywalls and ads.
Also, rural internet speeds still often suck.
All of that is resolvable, and streaming and broadcast seem the way to go, but I'm not particularly confident that we would get it right.
This popped up in my twitter feed this morning. Free, high speed internet for all Brits via a publicly owned company (tied in with job creation, economy, working from home)
But, in 1990, then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided that BT's rapid and extensive rollout of fibre optic broadband was anti-competitive and held a monopoly on a technology and service that no other telecom company could do.
"Unfortunately, the Thatcher government decided that it wanted the American cable companies providing the same service to increase competition. So the decision was made to close down the local loop roll out and in 1991 that roll out was stopped.
I can't figure out how to watch The Nation other than having to turn up right at 9.30am on a Saturday morning (streaming)
It is very easy. Go to: https://www.threenow.co.nz/ Scroll down to: NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS and select it. 41 episodes available there if you feel like a binge.
edit
the first one there is last weeks for me using chrome. sorry should have read that last sentence properly.
yeah, but if I miss the stream (or broadcast) at 9.30am I can't watch it in time to take part in #nzpol convos because they don't put the on demand up until some random time later. It's current affairs, people are talking about it on the day, it's bizarre they're not making that available. I don't know if that's a technical issue, but I had assumed it was how they wanted to do it in terms of controlling how people view their content.
Even more bizarrely, I followed your instructions and there is no sign of the live stream, which should be happening right now. FFS.
I don't know if that's a technical issue, but I had assumed it was how they wanted to do it in terms of controlling how people view their content.
More basic than that: their systems still require humans to make the clips available to view – so it's about paying them on a weekend vs the return on that. Other tasks are more profitable. Civic conversations do not factor into commercial broadcasting.
By comparison, RNZ has a fully-automated post-broadcast publishing pipeline because they had a very smart tech boss years ago when it was created (who also made their site a model of universal accessibility just because it was the right thing to do). I guess you could call that a technical issue.
thanks, re technical, I wasn't sure how easy it was to automate or to enable livestreaming where you can start watching the start half way through the stream (this is possible, just not sure how easy).
And yep, the driving force of profit doesn't serve us.
I find the sign-in for general on demand for either network a big cumbersome
I don't. I create a login with whatever name comes to mind and leave it logged in. I never remember the passwords. TVNZ has logged me out a couple of times over several years but i just create a new login.
edit
I use Chrome for TV and radio and Firefox for internet with Chrome set up so two windows for each TV site and windows for George FM and Ngati Hine FM open automatically.
I don't log out and then both networks log me out at some point (also not a fan of staying logged in because I assume it enhances tracking). I need to write down the login details and make them easily accessible on my desktop. Which I will no doubt do next year for the election to make my life easier, but I think there is a case for actual free to stream for politics during an election year.
Most browsers will offer to store login details for websites on the first sign in, and apart from internet banking, which I decline, there’s no need to write the details down. I always log out after visiting a site I've logged in to and I've never had an issue, and I clear the cache and internet files multiple times a day.
The problem with that approach is that it sort of works when you jump across multiple machines with chrome and firefox – but not quite.
I routinely use at least 5-10 computers during a day. Between work laptops, mobiles and tablets, base systems, and TVs it gets to be a mess trying to have remembered login names and passwords – all of which need to be updated.
But the real issue is that the TV sites want you to jump through their promo pages and ads. So they don’t have good persistent links. I usually can’t have a link direct to what I want to watch. There is always a new hoop to jump through with media sites. I prefer to use the attention time for login hoops like that for things that I work with – like email, messaging, slack, stackoverflow, man pages, language reference sites etc – so I seldom bother.
I’m certainly not going to waste that valuable attention to detail on sites that are basically trying to sell me stuff.
Good point about multiple devices. I only us a desktop for interwebs. TV as a cascaded second screen.
Agree the Three site is a dog with intrusive ads but i find the TVNZ site easy to use with minimal ads and no hoops. I have Crome set to open two windows of the ondemad page on startup. The first two rows with no ads are favourites and new.
I was meaning on the page itself. No ads at all on the ondemand page, not even self-promoting. One small commercial ad on the homepage, and some for shows but you would expect that. The videos themselves have about a third of the ad time of the live stream.
I’m guessing the other group that watches free to air is poor people.
Oh I agree. To a large extent they are catering to that market. It shows in content of the adverts in particular.
It is just that I have zero interest in anything where I can figure out the inevitable ‘story’ pattern within 10 minutes of the first episode. Or in the case of something like MAFS, without even seeing more than a few paragraphs of promotional stories in the NZ Herald. Similarly I don’t find much to be interested in with the slow unrolling of news or current affairs punctuated by inane ads for something that I already read online days or even weeks earlier.
The problem is that there are viable alternatives these days without ads and on-demand. So what is happening is that free-to-air is becoming a broadcast media desolation that is losing the more affluent and time constrained of their audience to anything else. That means that the support for a free-to-air network model is being continuously eroded.
As the number of audience who have the income to be really interesting to advertisers stop watching, the number of and length of ad breaks increases to drop costs – driving more of their audience with choices away. Ads targeting those groups get increasingly concentrated around the things that draw them back – like political debates or current affairs or the news or local content or satire. Driving them away from that as well.
But there is a need as a society to maintain public broadcasting systems for a whole host of reasons that I won’t describe right now. The problem is that when the system is orientated around advertising or even competitive advertorials (advertising upcoming shows etc) when there are viable alternatives without those factors, the public support for maintaining a free-to-air system diminishes as well.
I find the sign-in for general on demand for either network a big cumbersome, which I can resolve if it bothers me. I often it takes time to find what I want to watch,
That is how I find it as well. Apart from anything else they seem to delight in not having persistent links to content. You have to jump through pages and hoops to the point where it is easier to just dig a snippet off youtube (permanent links and no sign ins) to see if it looks interesting – and if it isn’t on one of the existing subscriptions to fire up a torrent. After all I’ll lose interest in most things half way through the first episode if the storyline has been cribbed from shakespeare et al yet again. Or we have ‘celebrity’ fools like Hosking (who I have never seen) posturing that they can moderate political debate.
I think there is a case for not putting political content behind a tracking wall though. Mentioning this because the TVNZ/RNZ merger proposal includes paywalls and ads.
Yeah. You either have public money funding open political debate or you don’t. None of the political content in NZ runs without large support from state funding. It shouldn’t have either paywalls or adverts. It should just be available online.
Also, rural internet speeds still often suck.
I know. Otherwise I’d have been living in Glenorchy 2 decades ago.
Mostly that is currently an issue of maintaining above ground copper networks. While cell-systems are a viable way to put in network infrastructure, their bandwidth is a direct function of distance and weather (ie it is an issue of attenuation). Thee more bandwidth, the closer the tower have to be together – which is why there will be a lot of infill for 5G in urban areas.
Besides they require a higher speed network to get to cell towers anyway. Basically fibre has few limitations over time and is the approach that needs to be taken (unless quantum entangling becomes more than curiosity).
They have pretty well wired up the urban areas with fiber-optic now – ie max people at least cable length. We need to start biting the bullet and look at a decades long project to persistently (ie underground) keep getting fibre into smaller communities. There really isn’t a good technical way to fibre out to the farms. The lengths are long and the maintenance costs mount up over longer lengths – even underground.
Nancy has quite a lot of mahi on Maori made films she will be missed.
I remember when the reserve in Te Tairawhiti had Kai moana in it before the same as it has now with the reservation. Its great to see Te Kai Moana return to the reservation in great numbers we need reservations like that all around Aotearoa.
Awsome that Ngāti Oneone are planting native trees on their Moanga.
Coal is old dirty technology that needs to be banished to our history books.
Two of America’s biggest coal plants closed this month
First the dirtiest ones began shutting down. Then it was the old ones. Now it’s some of the biggest. America’s coal plants are turning off the boilers, facing brutal economics and customers fleeing for natural gas and renewable energy.
This week, Arizona’s 2.25-GW Navajo Generating Station burned its last load of coal after no buyers turned up during a two-year search
This week, Arizona’s 2.25-GW Navajo Generating Station burned its last load of coal after no buyers turned up during a two-year search. Trade publication Utility Dive reports that the fate of the financially ailing plant was sealed after a bid to force an Arizona water agency to buy its electricity failed. The Navajo station emitted about 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, equivalent to 3.3 million cars. It’s one of the biggest retirements in a year of massive shutdowns.
The second is Pennsylvania’s 2.7-GW Bruce Mansfield unit. The plant’s bankrupt owner began shutdown on Nov. 7, almost two years ahead of schedule. It was the state’s largest coal-fired plant, operating for 40 years.
Together, the two retirements equal all the emission reductions from coal plant shut-downs in 2015, a record year when 15 GW of mostly smaller and older units were shuttered, reports Scientific American. Last year, 14 GW were mothballed. In 2020, more are on the way, including Kentucky’s Paradise plant.
Thanks to The European Investment Bank for their move to protect our mokopuna future from a carbon polluted environment.
The European Investment Bank has agreed to phase out its multibillion-euro financing for fossil fuels within the next two years to become the world’s first ‘“climate bank”.
The bank will end its financing of oil, gas, and coal projects after 2021, a policy that will make the EU’s lending arm the first multilateral lender to rule out financing for projects that contribute to the climate crisis.
The decision to stem the flow of capital into fossil fuel projects has been welcomed by green groups as an important step towards the EU’s aim to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
The EIB, the world’s largest multilateral financial institution, described its decision as a “quantum leap” in ambition. “Climate is the top issue on the political agenda of our time,” said the bank’s president, Werner Hoyer. “We will stop financing fossil fuels and launch the most ambitious climate investment strategy of any public financial institution anywhere.”
The bank’s vice-president, Andrew McDowell, said the move was “an important first step – not the last step, but probably one of the most difficult.”
Under its new policy, the bank will end all lending to fossil fuels within two years and align all funding decisions with the Paris climate accord. Energy projects applying for EIB funding will have to show they can produce one kilowatt hour of energy while emitting less than 250 grammes of carbon dioxide.
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Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
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Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
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When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
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Guyon Espiner has a huge scoop of a minister behaving correctly with a potential conflict of interest.
I guess with all the $$$ spent on work done for a nothing outcome he has to yell fire at any sign of smoke, but honestly.
But the National Party is outraged that someone in business might have tried (and failed) to leverage their relationship with politicians for pecuniary interest. Would never happen under their watch eh? They are definitely scavenging around for the opportunity to mount a 2008-style ‘corruption’ attack on NZF.
IMHO, what we are seeing here is institutional racism in action. NZ is a small society which makes it hard for elites to avoid stories like this if the MSM decide to go after you. When you are dealing with the Maori business elite, which is a small part of a minority in an already small population it become almost impossible to do anything and avoid an establishment white media hatchet job around your connections.
The proof of the pudding is whether or not there is any evidence of impropriety – and the behaviour of the minister seems to have been perfectly in order.
Espiner seems to be happy to be a tool of the business/right wing elites these days, as long as he gets any sort of "serious" content for the pearl clutching class. His Pharmac panic mongering seemed to parrot the propaganda put out by PR agencies that push the agenda of big drug companies. Now it seems he is muck raking on behalf of that section of our society that is outraged Shane Jones has a billion dollars to spend and so far he isn't giving the usual suspects their cut.
Yes very good point – a 'corruption' narrative amplified by an underlying racist sentiment that “Maoris can't be trusted with public money”.
Didn't Bill English brother get a special job in Canterbury?
Didn't the Speaker back then get irrigation benefit for his Hurinui farm while ECan was stripped of its democratic power??
I also had a funny feeling reading the RNZ report that this is a lead in to something else. The return serve could be interesting
On a lighter note: Take Cover Nelson!
This arvo I am headed your way for the cider festival. Looking forward to catching up with Alex Peckham. He guided a swag (I need a collective noun for cider enthusiasts) of us through a selection of Peckhams cider.
He generously sent a 20 litre ladder of Black Chisel(?) Apple juice to the Manawatu for me to ferment into cider.
I have had The Free House recommended to me.
If any Standardistas are going, I am the big gallah in the watermelon bucket hat.
Heh shame I am not in Nelson this weekend!
Sounds wonderful gsays!
How much clearer can anyone be?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018722343/australia-enters-era-of-disaster-bushfires-and-drought
This is my problem with the reaction and reporting of climate change or global warming. Everything that happens in the world is leveraged in the context of climate change.
Before a single gallon of oil was taken from the ground my great grandparents were terrified of bushfire in rural Victoria. Drought and bushfires have been a part of Australia for so long that gum trees have had millions of years to adapt to and even require fire to stay healthy as it kills the parasites in the bark.
Whats the problem now? Fucking idiot people ! A large number of these fires have been deliberatly lit by humans, others by discarded bottles and careless smokers, people really are stupid.
These fires used to rage without damage generally to lives and infrastructure because there were none, but if you want to stick a house in what is essentially a forest of petroleum producing trees there is a very good chance that you will lose it one day, a bit the same as building here in the Shakey Isles.
Maybe not as clear as I imagined….the events are greater and more frequent and compounding….there is less and less time/capacity to recover and resources (physical and human) are overwhelmed…this is not as before and it will increase
But Pat, how much of that is due to an expanding population that are increasingly living in vulnerable areas? How much of that is merely your perception due to a far greater reporting of bush fires and such like?
I am not disagreeing regarding climate change, and it seems an inescapable conclusion that much of that is human generated, but really, these doomsday scenarios that link every naturally occurring event to 'climate change' when patently it is not just gives fuel to those who deny human generated climate change.
The doomsday hypocrit Al Gore and his ilk have done immense damage to climate change acceptance.
Yes population larger and more living amongst bush etc but that does not change the cascading effects, it simply means more people impacted and more resources at risk than were in the past…the undelying point is the increased incidence and diminishing ability to cope and that is solely down to CC and with the lag involved in that impact it will increase in effect even if we stopped adding to it at this instant
Pat, I just love this video showing population growth . Near exponential over last two centuries after little more than flat lining for the millennia before.
And some people still say humans are not driving much of the climate change! Hope you enjoy.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DPUwmA3Q0_OE&ved=2ahUKEwj01b2w8OrlAhWWfisKHfsNBZ4Qo7QBMAB6BAgAEAI&usg=AOvVaw14_amXHFfgrw33Iog0P1YK
meanwhile, data, not perception, suggests otherwise.
he is however correct in the link between population growth and climate change.
Population growth causes many ills, but if we'd stuck with a billion people and kept the fossil fuel use, climate change would still be a major issue.
Losing fossil fuel use but still going to 7B people, I suspect climate change would be much less significant.
ask yourself whether this planet would or could support 8 billion without the emissions of its primary energy source…the answer is quite simply, no it could (and will) not….if we (the human race) are lucky we will adapt and settle into an equilibrium…and it wont be supporting 8 billion
No argument there.
Just saying population isn't as much of a problem relating to climate change as the fuel source that sustains us.
unfortunately we have developed said population on that unsustainable fuel source and have created something of a conundrum
If only it were so unsustainable that it had run out around 1960 lol.
yep…that might have been a lifesaver
"These fires used to rage without damage generally to lives and infrastructure because there were none, but if you want to stick a house in what is essentially a forest of petroleum producing trees there is a very good chance that you will lose it one day, a bit the same as building here in the Shakey Isles."
Yes, and no. Climate change impacts intersect with other things humans are doing. It might have been reasonable to build houses in fire-prone forests 50 years ago, because the risk was lowish. Climate change is making that risk much much higher. So we have the confluence of three things: building in a fire area; a bigger population in a fire area; many more fires than normal (and of unusual intensity).
There are other factors there, like drought making forest management harder (there is less opportunity to controlled burns at other time).
In all that climate change has to be centred, because the potential for global catastrophe is serious, and because locally, in terms of adaptation, the impacts of AGW matter (drought, frequency, changes to vegetation and ecologies).
Two areas where this happens in NZ. One is we are building in some pretty stupid places (eg among kānuka/mānuka or pine or gums), and planting flammable trees in stupid places too. Still haven't caught up our thinking, and we'd be much better off if CC was centred in all those decisions.
The other is the tenure review process changing land use, so that many of our dry areas now have a lot of flammable vegetation (sans sheep grazing and farmer burnoffs). Farmers are talking about this, but I'm not seeing conservationists having this conversation yet.
I suspect in increasing areas adaptation will be abandoned as an option as there will simply be no capacity (or will) to continue to expend resources needed elsewhere….you can hear the phrasing now
probably. NZ's impending but largely unacknowledged* crisis is around big slips covering roads. Neither our engineering nor economics is designed around the frequency we will experience going forward.
*weird given we should be planning around this for quakes anyway.
The year in revolt, in review. Well worth the read if your not a beige lefty.
https://libcom.org/news/balance-sheet-perspective-current-proletarian-struggles-all-over-world-14112019
From the article:
"2) Capitalism has reached a dead end. We are entering a period of social revolution because capitalism is exhausted as a social relation: it generates more and more superfluous humanity, it expels living labor from social production, and it consumes energy and raw materials with increasing voracity to try to address with more commodities what it loses by expelling human labor. Its crises are and will be more and more catastrophic."
Capitalism is doing very well.
Democracy is the one retreating fast.
One of the major problems I have interacting with this style (I'm going to call it vaguely marxist) of writing is interpreting the writers meaning of capitalism. As far as i understand the term capitalism refers to how economic relations are defined by society. But the problem is if thats the case then in a democracy these arrangements are at all times up for change by legitimate democratic process. So there is a continuous 'revolution' going on but the authors picture of where this leads is obscured. Its also unclear which bits of the economic arrangements would be disposed of by a non capitalist alternative.
"All right chaps, look this democracy thing is not doing to well – let's revolt"
YEAH RIGHT
OK let me see.
Revolts caused by weakness in democratic responsiveness included:
– Every single election since 2016 across Europe including Brexit (despite multiple elections in the last 5 year term)
– Every new political party formed in Europe since 2011
– The election of Donald Trump
– The election of the new Brazilian president
– The ejection of the President of Bolivia a few weeks' ago
– The Hong Kong riots this year
– The Indian election this year
It would be just so lovely if class analysis worked at all these days. It very rarely does.
But the revolutions have come from the right, rising to defend the nation-state better than the left have done for 90 years, won repeatedly and for years, and they continue to win.
You don't think Bolivia should maybe be called a military coup?
I think you are conflating "caused" with "enabled".
In a case of egregiously bad timing, the Venice City Council was flooded with the largest flood in 50 years on the same night that the Coucnil voted to reject climate change measures.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/14/europe/veneto-council-climate-change-floods-trnd-intl-scli/index.html
"Ironically, the chamber was flooded two minutes after the majority League, Brothers of Italy, and Forza Italia parties rejected our amendments to tackle climate change," Zanoni, who is deputy chairman of the environment committee, said in the post, which also has photographs of the room under water.
Among the rejected amendments were measures to fund renewable sources, to replace diesel buses with "more efficient and less polluting ones," to scrap polluting stoves and reduce the impact of plastics, he said.
Zanoni went on to accuse Veneto regional president Luca Zaia, who is a member of Matteo Salvini's far-right League Party, of presenting a budget "with no concrete actions to combat climate change."
The flooding is not linked to climate change. Venice has been sinking into the mud slowly for centuries, and this was recognised as a major threat as far back as the 18th century.
"is not linked" is a stronger claim than "is much less of a factor than Venice sinking".
Either way, it's still pretty funny.
Yep, McFlock. Poor choice of wording on my part and true, is very funny.
how would we know if such a situation was linked to CC or not?
It's not that sort of question. Every storm is, and every storm isn't. You get a 1 in 50-year event, that's probably just bad luck even though it is part of "climate". You get ten of them in five years, we'd know most of them will be directly attributable to climate change, but we'd never know exactly which one.
But Venice is built on crap ground and has been slowly sinking for centuries, and they keep building up and reclaiming. Fascinating history.
I think given the shit we are in it's reasonable to assume that climate change is affecting everything. It's a bit abstract to think that one storm is caused by CC and another isn't.
Also, the intersection of human activity with CC. Building in South Dunedin seemed reasonable in the 1800s, not so much now, but has our thinking caught up yet? Does it matter what is caused by CC? We can focus on the pumps if we want, but ultimately seeing all the causative factors in the bigger picture will help us more.
The fantasy of everything being fine if only we had perfectly regulated markets – Elizabeth Warren sounding surprisingly silly for a very smart person.
The American connection in Bolivia's right wing coup.
https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/11/14/the-clear-us-role-in-bolivias-tragic-hard-right-coup/
The level playing field of the U.K media campaign.
https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2019/11/13/we-need-to-have-a-serious-conversation-about-bbc-bias-because-this-really-isnt-on/
Yeah I was only joking ha ha – the response will be funny.
Lol. Nervous.
So. Pharmac. Didn't they do well?
Four deaths now, possibly due to patients having to accept generic epilepsy medication.
Pharmac kind of relaxing its 'exceptional circumstances ' provision but it's too late for the victims.
Ho hum. Those here steadfastly defending Pharmac's determined stance on this despite Medsafe advising caution….how do you feel now?
If it was 400 deaths, it would clearly be a scandal.
4… is the rate any higher than one would expect without med change?
Fairly brutal observation McFlock.
400 is your indication of a scandal. I would suggest that if 4 have died because 'balance sheet' then someone should be facing gaol time.
I suppose with all the euthanasia talk around, life is cheap.
I was pulling a number that would be a demonstrable change in mortality rate.
Life isn't cheap. It can be very expensive. Pharmac's job is to save as many lives as possible for the given $$$.
"..the given $$$."
That's the crux of it there I reckon. Many say Pharmac's budget needs to increase.
In the context of euthanasia, I would speculate that the lack of $ will contribute to some folk being euthanized inappropriately.
Euthanasia is a whole other discussion.
No matter what pharmac's budget is, there will always be someone who wants more money spent on a medication that might or might not have any effect. Last time it was herceptin.
We have yet to see whether this latest funding decision reversal is the result of the substitution being a genuine error with clinical consequnces, or another case of the squeaky wheel getting the grease.
Medsafe's advice to Pharmac against making the change makes for deeply uncomfortable reading. Not because of the potential for increased deaths, which Medsafe didn't mention and it has yet to be demonstrated that there actually are increased deaths due to the change, but because of the likelihood of extreme adverse quality of life effects for those do suffer adverse effects from the change.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6025152-MedSafe-OIA.html
Yeah – the bit about rejecting studies funded by pharmacorps when they disagree with pharmac's decision even though pharmac as a policy accepts such studies is a suggestion that the move was a done deal before consultation.
There seems to be a theme…patient seizure free for many years, is dispensed generic by pharmacy with sticker reassuring patient that it is the same drug just a different colour. Patient has sudden seizure and dies.
Thing is McFlock…as far as I know one is allowed to criticize a decision made by one of our State's agencies
This is not treason.
Pharmac may be the hard arsed deal-makers needed to drive the bargaining for affordable drugs for all…but when another State agency strongly advises caution against a particular cost saving measure because of, well, lives….
Pharmac forgot the Rule..
First do no harm.
Hope y'all listened to Espiner's interviewing Herr Doktor this evening.
What a warm man. Overflowing with the milk of human kindness. How well we are served. Sarc.
To argue "first do no harm" when harm has not been established might not be treason, but it is unreasonable.
The theme you outline happens regularly in NZ, with and without medication changes.
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP)
If a person with epilepsy dies and no other cause of death can be found, this is called SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy).
How common is SUDEP?
SUDEP is less common in children than in adults.
Who is at risk of SUDEP?
The cause of SUDEP is unknown but there are some things that can increase the risk of SUDEP:
https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/e/epilepsy/
http://epilepsy.org.nz/viewobj/abn_poster_sudep1_pb_003_.pdf?objID=363
terrible for all users of those drugs and especially for the victims and their families – appears a change happening
Welcome change. We all make errors of judgement. What matters is what we do about it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/403141/mysterious-foundation-loaning-new-zealand-first-money
It may be legal, but it shouldn't be.
I'll give you a good deal on your furniture and drive you to the airport as soon as tomorrow. Why on earth do you continue to tolerate this shit-hole?
OK, that's not going to work. You need only respond "None of the people I love will leave the shit-hole with me, they like frolicking in feces."
Many authors here over the last 12 years has said that non-transparent funding of political parties is an rort (or words to that effect) at one point or another. If you go back 11-12 years you’ll find that we tried to get this crap closed down over and over again.
Just for instance consider r0b with https://thestandard.org.nz/what-can-you-buy-with-5×10000/ which looks like exactly the same kind of thing with a slightly different mechanism.
Or Steve P with https://thestandard.org.nz/open-up-the-trusts/
Or me with https://thestandard.org.nz/political-funding-have-your-say/ where i said
The only real solution for donations are that all donations above a minimal value need to have a single person responsible for and required by law to fully account for the sources of funding – however small. That includes such things as the organisers of raffles and trusts.
Or political parties can only get funded by the state.
I prefer the latter. I’m willing to accept the former.
In the meantime could you suggest a alternate mechanism that would prevent such rorts happening – because when I look at the kinds of corruption that comes with practices like this one https://thestandard.org.nz/ross-resigns-to-lay-corrupt-practices-complain-against-bridges-with-police/ with its allegation of a $100k donation to National being broken down into non-declarable $15k packets – I can’t see one.
All of those were apparently legal at the time (except maybe the last – can’t remember seeing the police response to that). Each change to tighten up has had fatal flaws and more rorts. It seems to be in the nature of politicians that they simply cannot be trusted to write the legislation required to control their own carnal behavior.
But I suspect that you’re going to simply be your dimwitted critical self. Once more tirelessly and fruitlessly simpering on the sidelines criticising those who actually try to do something about such practices. Basically I can’t see you doing anything except for presenting yourself as being hypocritical jerk – as usual.
I'm with you on this one lprent. State funding seems the most logical.
Moreover, campaigns should be simplified. Give all parties some airtime on TV to put forward their policies and allow them all to have a mass debate thereafter. And that's it. No more billboards, ads, etc.
Who watches ‘free-to-air’ TV any more?
I haven’t since 2012 because the advertising just wastes my time and disrupts the few bits of time that I have to watch TV – I haven’t seen anything on it worth watching in a decade. It isn’t exactly a mass media any more – it only caters to the elderly, the technophobic conservatives, and the idiotic. At least that seems to be who they are catering for – from the ‘news’ to the local content.
Perhaps you should (re-)read my last post on the subject.
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-fast-death-of-broadcast-free-to-air-tv/
I’m not exactly a minority in this, especially with the 40 and under age groups
I’d personally prefer to pour state money down a sewer rather than spend any more on television, it’d have a better chance of remaining productive and clean (think of MAFS for instance).
As it is I both spend my own money to get something I can be bothered watching, and I pay wasted taxes on the drivel that is free-to-air TV. The RNZ National programme I like, the concert programme is worth supporting, but television as it currently stands isn’t worth wasting money on.
Perhaps the RNZ non-commercial model should just take over TVNZ? After all it appears to be climbing in audience and not contracting. https://www.rnz.co.nz/about/audience-research
They could also stream it live and have it on demand to better fit in with peoples schedules.
But I hear what you are saying about declining viewership, therefore have no problem with a RNZ non-commercial model take over.
Not to sure about your viewing taste but I found this show (links below) of late to be rather good.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/the-capture/episodes/s1-e1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSSmitzvmUU
Went and checked it out. Looks interesting.
However the usual screw up that I have come to expect from all of the media websites.
The ubuntu system is on the correct timezone, running chrome, and this system is almost direct out to the net. It sits behind a bog standard ethernet router hooked on to a fibre connection. There is a pinhole firewall in there. In other words the default setup for most desktop systems (apart from linux).
I even trapped the transmitted data and the location looked ok in there as well. Just a bug in the TVNZ streaming provider.
Oh well, I’ll have a look around to see if there are other legit sources that are competently run. It may work on android… But basically this is too much trouble already. I was going to look at it on my 4k monitor.
Otherwise there are providers who are actually competent and fast – unlike TVNZ on-demand.
Bugger! That's a shame.
It was all the talk in the UK.
Here's (link below) a bit of background on it. But you may want to read it after you have viewed it. That's, of course, if you can locate a legal site screening it.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/aug/31/bbc-the-capture-thriller-fake-news
I'm guessing the other group that watches free to air is poor people. I don't know what's happening with broadband prices these days, but the whole computer/streaming thing is not cheap if you have no money. One (partial) solution there would be for WINZ to consider internet access as a basic need.
The other problem at the moment is the weird way that the networks manage their streaming and on demand access. I can't figure out how to watch The Nation other than having to turn up right at 9.30am on a Saturday morning (streaming). Which never happens, so I'm out of the #nzpol twitter convos immediately. If you go to their webpage the on demand videos for The Nation are random, the first one I just clicked on is from August.
This may be TV3 cutting costs pre-sale, but I remember it being like that at other times too and I just gave up.
I find the sign-in for general on demand for either network a big cumbersome, which I can resolve if it bothers me. I often it takes time to find what I want to watch, I think because of how the networks are trying to corral viewers (you're supposed to become a loyal viewer I guess then they push stuff at you). Quite often I just give up. I've been thinking I should just get a TV for the 2020 election.
I think there is a case for not putting political content behind a tracking wall though. Mentioning this because the TVNZ/RNZ merger proposal includes paywalls and ads.
Also, rural internet speeds still often suck.
All of that is resolvable, and streaming and broadcast seem the way to go, but I'm not particularly confident that we would get it right.
This popped up in my twitter feed this morning. Free, high speed internet for all Brits via a publicly owned company (tied in with job creation, economy, working from home)
https://twitter.com/PeoplesMomentum/status/1195250079143223296
The UK is starting a long way behind, thanks to slavish neoliberalism: https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/world-of-tech/how-the-uk-lost-the-broadband-race-in-1990-1224784
I can't figure out how to watch The Nation other than having to turn up right at 9.30am on a Saturday morning (streaming)
It is very easy. Go to: https://www.threenow.co.nz/ Scroll down to: NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS and select it. 41 episodes available there if you feel like a binge.
edit
the first one there is last weeks for me using chrome. sorry should have read that last sentence properly.
edit edit
same with firefox
yeah, but if I miss the stream (or broadcast) at 9.30am I can't watch it in time to take part in #nzpol convos because they don't put the on demand up until some random time later. It's current affairs, people are talking about it on the day, it's bizarre they're not making that available. I don't know if that's a technical issue, but I had assumed it was how they wanted to do it in terms of controlling how people view their content.
Even more bizarrely, I followed your instructions and there is no sign of the live stream, which should be happening right now. FFS.
It shouldn't be this hard.
To get the live stream you need to go via "Live TV and Guide". Watching now. TERF stuff.
Yes it is annoying that stuff comes ondemand at random times after the live stream.
"To get the live stream you need to go via "Live TV and Guide"
Right. It's not like they're going to make it easy, you have to know your way around the website and how they organise content. It's daft.
Imagine you can't remember the name of the show, they don't even have a live stream link on TV3's front page ffs. Compare to RNZ's front page,
https://www.rnz.co.nz/
The thing that annoys me most about the three site is that you need to click into the live stream of each sub-channel just to see the guide.
More basic than that: their systems still require humans to make the clips available to view – so it's about paying them on a weekend vs the return on that. Other tasks are more profitable. Civic conversations do not factor into commercial broadcasting.
By comparison, RNZ has a fully-automated post-broadcast publishing pipeline because they had a very smart tech boss years ago when it was created (who also made their site a model of universal accessibility just because it was the right thing to do). I guess you could call that a technical issue.
thanks, re technical, I wasn't sure how easy it was to automate or to enable livestreaming where you can start watching the start half way through the stream (this is possible, just not sure how easy).
And yep, the driving force of profit doesn't serve us.
I find the sign-in for general on demand for either network a big cumbersome
I don't. I create a login with whatever name comes to mind and leave it logged in. I never remember the passwords. TVNZ has logged me out a couple of times over several years but i just create a new login.
edit
I use Chrome for TV and radio and Firefox for internet with Chrome set up so two windows for each TV site and windows for George FM and Ngati Hine FM open automatically.
I don't log out and then both networks log me out at some point (also not a fan of staying logged in because I assume it enhances tracking). I need to write down the login details and make them easily accessible on my desktop. Which I will no doubt do next year for the election to make my life easier, but I think there is a case for actual free to stream for politics during an election year.
Most browsers will offer to store login details for websites on the first sign in, and apart from internet banking, which I decline, there’s no need to write the details down. I always log out after visiting a site I've logged in to and I've never had an issue, and I clear the cache and internet files multiple times a day.
What browser are you using?
Opera at the moment, but it works in Firefox and Chrome
Firefox
Chrome
The problem with that approach is that it sort of works when you jump across multiple machines with chrome and firefox – but not quite.
I routinely use at least 5-10 computers during a day. Between work laptops, mobiles and tablets, base systems, and TVs it gets to be a mess trying to have remembered login names and passwords – all of which need to be updated.
But the real issue is that the TV sites want you to jump through their promo pages and ads. So they don’t have good persistent links. I usually can’t have a link direct to what I want to watch. There is always a new hoop to jump through with media sites. I prefer to use the attention time for login hoops like that for things that I work with – like email, messaging, slack, stackoverflow, man pages, language reference sites etc – so I seldom bother.
I’m certainly not going to waste that valuable attention to detail on sites that are basically trying to sell me stuff.
Good point about multiple devices. I only us a desktop for interwebs. TV as a cascaded second screen.
Agree the Three site is a dog with intrusive ads but i find the TVNZ site easy to use with minimal ads and no hoops. I have Crome set to open two windows of the ondemad page on startup. The first two rows with no ads are favourites and new.
do you mean they don't play ads on those videos?
I was meaning on the page itself. No ads at all on the ondemand page, not even self-promoting. One small commercial ad on the homepage, and some for shows but you would expect that. The videos themselves have about a third of the ad time of the live stream.
Oh I agree. To a large extent they are catering to that market. It shows in content of the adverts in particular.
It is just that I have zero interest in anything where I can figure out the inevitable ‘story’ pattern within 10 minutes of the first episode. Or in the case of something like MAFS, without even seeing more than a few paragraphs of promotional stories in the NZ Herald. Similarly I don’t find much to be interested in with the slow unrolling of news or current affairs punctuated by inane ads for something that I already read online days or even weeks earlier.
The problem is that there are viable alternatives these days without ads and on-demand. So what is happening is that free-to-air is becoming a broadcast media desolation that is losing the more affluent and time constrained of their audience to anything else. That means that the support for a free-to-air network model is being continuously eroded.
As the number of audience who have the income to be really interesting to advertisers stop watching, the number of and length of ad breaks increases to drop costs – driving more of their audience with choices away. Ads targeting those groups get increasingly concentrated around the things that draw them back – like political debates or current affairs or the news or local content or satire. Driving them away from that as well.
But there is a need as a society to maintain public broadcasting systems for a whole host of reasons that I won’t describe right now. The problem is that when the system is orientated around advertising or even competitive advertorials (advertising upcoming shows etc) when there are viable alternatives without those factors, the public support for maintaining a free-to-air system diminishes as well.
That is how I find it as well. Apart from anything else they seem to delight in not having persistent links to content. You have to jump through pages and hoops to the point where it is easier to just dig a snippet off youtube (permanent links and no sign ins) to see if it looks interesting – and if it isn’t on one of the existing subscriptions to fire up a torrent. After all I’ll lose interest in most things half way through the first episode if the storyline has been cribbed from shakespeare et al yet again. Or we have ‘celebrity’ fools like Hosking (who I have never seen) posturing that they can moderate political debate.
Yeah. You either have public money funding open political debate or you don’t. None of the political content in NZ runs without large support from state funding. It shouldn’t have either paywalls or adverts. It should just be available online.
I know. Otherwise I’d have been living in Glenorchy 2 decades ago.
Mostly that is currently an issue of maintaining above ground copper networks. While cell-systems are a viable way to put in network infrastructure, their bandwidth is a direct function of distance and weather (ie it is an issue of attenuation). Thee more bandwidth, the closer the tower have to be together – which is why there will be a lot of infill for 5G in urban areas.
Besides they require a higher speed network to get to cell towers anyway. Basically fibre has few limitations over time and is the approach that needs to be taken (unless quantum entangling becomes more than curiosity).
They have pretty well wired up the urban areas with fiber-optic now – ie max people at least cable length. We need to start biting the bullet and look at a decades long project to persistently (ie underground) keep getting fibre into smaller communities. There really isn’t a good technical way to fibre out to the farms. The lengths are long and the maintenance costs mount up over longer lengths – even underground.
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora 1 News.
Condolences to Nancy Brunning Whanau.
The Auckland City rail link will save Aotearoa burning a lot of carbon.
All the best on your new journey Gareth.
I think that DIY cervical smears will improve the diagnosis of Wahine cervical cancer.
That's awesome Paris highlighting our Ocean problems with their Christmas parades.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Nancy has quite a lot of mahi on Maori made films she will be missed.
I remember when the reserve in Te Tairawhiti had Kai moana in it before the same as it has now with the reservation. Its great to see Te Kai Moana return to the reservation in great numbers we need reservations like that all around Aotearoa.
Awsome that Ngāti Oneone are planting native trees on their Moanga.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora 1 News.
Ka pai to the Champion Chest playing tamariki.
Ka kite Ano
Coal is old dirty technology that needs to be banished to our history books.
Two of America’s biggest coal plants closed this month
First the dirtiest ones began shutting down. Then it was the old ones. Now it’s some of the biggest. America’s coal plants are turning off the boilers, facing brutal economics and customers fleeing for natural gas and renewable energy.
This week, Arizona’s 2.25-GW Navajo Generating Station burned its last load of coal after no buyers turned up during a two-year search
This week, Arizona’s 2.25-GW Navajo Generating Station burned its last load of coal after no buyers turned up during a two-year search. Trade publication Utility Dive reports that the fate of the financially ailing plant was sealed after a bid to force an Arizona water agency to buy its electricity failed. The Navajo station emitted about 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, equivalent to 3.3 million cars. It’s one of the biggest retirements in a year of massive shutdowns.
The second is Pennsylvania’s 2.7-GW Bruce Mansfield unit. The plant’s bankrupt owner began shutdown on Nov. 7, almost two years ahead of schedule. It was the state’s largest coal-fired plant, operating for 40 years.
Together, the two retirements equal all the emission reductions from coal plant shut-downs in 2015, a record year when 15 GW of mostly smaller and older units were shuttered, reports Scientific American. Last year, 14 GW were mothballed. In 2020, more are on the way, including Kentucky’s Paradise plant.
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://qz.com/1749023/two-of-americas-biggest-coal-plants-closed-this-month/amp/
Thanks to The European Investment Bank for their move to protect our mokopuna future from a carbon polluted environment.
The European Investment Bank has agreed to phase out its multibillion-euro financing for fossil fuels within the next two years to become the world’s first ‘“climate bank”.
The bank will end its financing of oil, gas, and coal projects after 2021, a policy that will make the EU’s lending arm the first multilateral lender to rule out financing for projects that contribute to the climate crisis.
The decision to stem the flow of capital into fossil fuel projects has been welcomed by green groups as an important step towards the EU’s aim to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
The EIB, the world’s largest multilateral financial institution, described its decision as a “quantum leap” in ambition. “Climate is the top issue on the political agenda of our time,” said the bank’s president, Werner Hoyer. “We will stop financing fossil fuels and launch the most ambitious climate investment strategy of any public financial institution anywhere.”
The bank’s vice-president, Andrew McDowell, said the move was “an important first step – not the last step, but probably one of the most difficult.”
Under its new policy, the bank will end all lending to fossil fuels within two years and align all funding decisions with the Paris climate accord. Energy projects applying for EIB funding will have to show they can produce one kilowatt hour of energy while emitting less than 250 grammes of carbon dioxide.
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/15/european-investment-bank-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels-financing