Perhaps when we have govt depts making such announcements as "Total international spend is expected to reach $14.8 billion in 2024, up 40% from 2017." and how well our economy is to benefit from such growth we should now expect to accompany the impact of any govt decision towards GHG, And understand should there be an increase where the offset is to be sourced from ? Otherwise without reporting the "Cost" how can we expect there to be any action to restore our planet ?
Yes, I know it's David Icke BUT he is the first one to gather + comment on a recent case where a teenage girl falsely accused a group of men of a gang rape in the news. Here he is covering the other deeply disturbing side of the story. #boycottcypress
Found a mainstream link buried in the SERPs. The complainant has been trapped in the country for over 5 months now after reporting a gang rape to police.
In a trial that had been repeatedly postponed, proceedings had been dominated by what was described as the court’s predilection for “gender stereotypes, classic rape myths and victim bashing”.
But it was Israeli women, also appalled by the way the Briton had been portrayed at home, who, Cypriot activists say, emboldened them to take risks.
“They were more daring than us,” said Gregoriou. “They were able to say ‘we believe you’ when here we could only talk about the young woman not being given a fair trial. They had a wisdom and dynamism that has proved how important these transnational bonds really are.”
Letter to the editor; The Southland Times 16 Jan 2020
OMV critics use oil too
Does Environment Southland councillor Robert Guyton ride a pushbike or walk from his place of abode or, horror of horrors, drive a petrol-tax guzzling motor car, to Environment Southland meetings?
Does he also claim travel allowance from us poor, long-suffering ratepayers?
Len Lind of Stewart Island
Councillor Robert Guyton replied:
Len has spotted my weakness; I'm just like everybody else! I too have to use petroleum products in order to live; it's unavoidable, they are everywhere! Len seems to believe that I should never criticise the activities of the big oil companies; their spills, accidents and massive contribution to climate change, because I drive a car and have plastic lenses in my glasses. We're all in the same boat when it comes to reliance on fossil fuels; we’re all compromised but should that disqualify us from talking about the damage the industry causes? I don’t think Len really wants to silence everybody; he himself feels he has the right to criticise in public. He got me thinking though, about what I have already done to reduce my use of oil and top of that list comes my decision never to fly again in an aircraft; I think that will make at least some difference. And thanks to Len’s reminder, I’ll get my old bicycle back onto the road again; the chain’s a bit rusty but a little oil should fix that.
So when this OZ fire season ends end of this summer (hopefully) how much will be left over of the flaura and fauna of this continent?
And when the fires start again in Sept, will the rest be burned then? And to be honest is that what is wanted by those that call the shots? Allow for such environmental degradation that the Scot Morrisons of this planet can simply throw their hands up and declare that 'nothing much can be done, its to late' and drilling will resume as buisness as usual?
Because really, when these fires are extinct – 180+ currently still burning and mainly not being contained, not much will be left over, those critters that survived will need to be fed, watered if they are to survive. As for the humans, has anyone in OZ yet dared to put a realistic estimate to the damage the fires caused? And i am not looking for another 2000 houses burned 🙂 a proper estimate maybe by a insurance company? And then looking at the article i linked too (yes its huffpost, only read if if it passes the purity test 🙂 ) what about the estimated losses world wide.
the world is burning and all our selected overlords play a fiddle. In the meantime, 'we can't breathe' is a thing now.
There was a link posted on The Standard the other day, the last paragraph of which I found profoundly chilling:
"Millennials and the children we call Generation Z face the horrifying prospect that they will get stuck with the tab for humanity’s centuries-long rape of planet Earth, the mass desecration of which radically accelerated after 1950. There is an intolerably high chance that today’s young people will starve to death, die of thirst, be killed by a superstorm, succumb to a new disease, boil to death, asphyxiate from air pollution, be murdered in a riot or shot or blown up in a war sparked by environmentally related political instability long before they survive to old age."
"how much will be left over of the flaura and fauna of this continent? "
Well, quite a lot actually. Up till now about 63,000 sq kms has been burnt. The area of Australia is 7.7 million hectares so the amount subject to the fires is about 0.8 percent.and more than 99% has not been touched. Now that is a huge amount of land, and a great tragedy, but the answer to "will the rest be burned then?" is NO and to "not much will be left over" the answer is nearly all of it will be untouched.
That would be a fair answer if Australia was all one kind of landscape. But it isn't, at least 80% of it would be fairly barren and open outback, with a sparse vegetation at the best of times. It rarely burns unless a particularly wet spring has allowed a lot of grass species to flourish.
What we have seen burn this year are the eucalypt forests in the alpine and coastal regions, and the fraction of these that have been severely damaged is substantial. Worse still in many places it's old temperate forests that have never burned before which are being destroyed. These eco-niches are not adapted to fire, have a very poor capacity for recovery, once they're lost, they will never return.
Species like the Bogong moth, already under pressure will have a flow on effect to already highly endangered fauna such as the pygmy mountain possum. And places that have been reliably lush for generations, are no longer. As with almost everything to do with climate, the story is more complex than you are implying.
"What we have seen burn this year are the eucalypt forests in the alpine and coastal regions".
I assume you mean that these areas are not usually affected by bush fires. I will have to take your word for it as far as New South Wales. I am not really familiar with that state. However for Victoria the areas that have been burnt out appear to be generally similar to other recent major bush fire seasons such as 2008-9, 2006-7 and 2003-4 when about 500,000 ha, 1,200,000 ha and 1,300,000 ha burned. The latter two years would seem to be of a similar scale to the current season's numbers. 2009 didn't hit the same area of land but it was of course Black Saturday with 173 deaths.
They are also on much the same area as the previous monsters such as 1939-40 (2,000,000 ha) and the daddy of them all in 1851 when 5,000,000 ha went up in flames.All of these fires affected the NE and Gippsland regions of the state, just like the current lot. Thus it doesn't seem to be unusual for the alpine and coastal forests to be badly affected in Victoria.
There have been other major fires than affected the NW of course, which has been pretty well spared this year.
(Luckily) Australia is 7.7 million sq km large, so 100 times larger than 7.7 million hectares. The burnt area was 63,000 sq km or 6.3 million hectares; the latest numbers have been over 10 million hectares burnt or around 100,000 sq km. As a comparison, 100,000 sq km is Canterburry + Otago + Southland!
At the moment Australia is the victim of a positive phase of the Indian Ocean Dipole where the warm water is in the west of the IO and does not produce any rain over Oz. It is like the Pacific's El Nino /La Nina, it slops around every 4 or 5 years or so. The LN/EN is about every 7 years, probably because its a bigger ocean. Sometimes the positive or negative IOD phase coincides with a LN or EN phase and causes even more problems. Both systems are wind driven.
But wait there's more, the Southern Annular Mode of westerly winds that rotate around Antarctica are further north in the current mode stopping the big Aussie summer anti-cyclones from picking up cooler damp air from the Southern Ocean, these are the big highs that eventually drift over us giving us nice warm calm summer weather, but not this year, the SAM is too strong bequeathing us these bloody cold South Westers and Easterlies, and squeezing the central Aussie highs rotating over the desert making them hotter and hotter.
The SAM is probably caused by the wobble in the Earth's rotation which in turn is probably caused by the Earth's molten iron core slopping around. Another bloody thing to worry about. Lets Stop the Slop!
Last years "Beast from the East "in northern Europe is a similar phenomenon.
So its not all Climate Change just weather and it has been doing it for millenia, not Melania, shes just a temporary aberration thank Christ.
For what its worth, a few hours ago around midday there, SE Australia was cooler and a lot wetter than NZ, Hobart 11Degrees, Melbourne 18, Sydney and Brisbane 22, ( where they are breaking out the jerseys) . Fancy that.
It's just weather and if we didn't have it redistributing warmth and moisture around the globe fuck all of anything could live here.
"7 million hectares". Oh dear, why does that always happen? Yes, square kms. And I read it over a couple of times looking for silly mistakes like that. At least I got the calculation right though.
I'm not saying it isn't a huge amount of land. It is. However when it is compared to the total land area of Australia it doesn't really justify the somewhat hyperbolic questions I highlighted in the final sentence.
The Standing Committee of Correspondents vigorously objects to restrictions being considered on press access during the upcoming Senate trial of President Trump.
The Standing Committee sought to address our concerns with the Sergeant at Arms and with Rules Committee before final decisions were made, but decisions are being made quickly as plans for the trial are completed and we are hearing that nearly every suggestion has been rejected
Our suggestions were rejected without an explanation of how the restrictions contribute to safety rather than simply limit coverage of the trial.
The restrictions that are being considered exceed what occurred during the Clinton trial 20 years ago, with fewer ways for press to speak to senators and even a magnetometer being installed within the Senate Press Gallery to ensure electronics are not brought into the chamber.
The no electronics in the chamber rule has existed for many years, reporters don’t violate it, and we’ve never needed an extra layer of screening to ensure it is followed.
Installing a magnetometer means the Senate trial will have a soundtrack of “beep, beep, beep” as 90+ reporters walk in and out all day. There is no additional safety or security brought by bringing such a device into reporter work space
It also gives the impression that it is being done mostly to protect Senators from the bright light of the public knowing what they are doing in one of the country’s most important moments.
The Standing Committee requested an exemption to the no technology in the chamber rule so that we can provide the public with up to the moment information without having to walk out of the chamber, but we’re hearing that request has been denied.
I grasp that there is precedent, but few things in Washington are more momentous than an impeachment trial and the American public deserves to have eyes in the room.
Reporters will be kept in pens, meaning only senators seeking out press coverage will get covered.
Currently we can walk with Senators as they enter the chamber, wait for them outside of meetings or lunches. It leads to a diversity of voices. Penning us means people across the country might not hear from their senator.
They are not protecting "him" they are protecting themselves.
Trump is now wholesale owned by the Republicans (who will last longer then Trump imo) and he owes them, bigly some people say, super duper bigly.
He is the pen that signs their legislations, Tax cuts for the Ueberrich, gutting of social security, gutting of environmental regulations, their god before government etc etc etc. Essentially the Republicans done a 'back to the past' replaced one old senile man with another old senile man, heck its all the Presidents Man. 🙂
but again, this Kabuki Theatre in the US, or Russia for that matter will have no importance when the world burns and runs out of the stuff that we humans need so deseperatly to live.
Btw, did you hear that the entire Russian parliament 'resigned'? King Putin, long he may live and his future clones.
"Putin announced that he appointed Mikhail Mishustin, the head of Russia's Federal Tax Service, as the new Prime Minister." Just guessing, makes sense that a competent bureaucrat gets jumped up to become top bureaucrat.
Presuming the guy has actually established a system for selective wealth-extraction as required, and enough time has passed for Putin to agree that the system works. He's a systems engineer.
"In 1989, he graduated from the STANKIN, majoring in system engineering, and then in 1992, he completed postgraduate studies at the same Institute. After graduating from graduate school, he began working as a Director of a test laboratory, and later headed the Board of the International Computer Club (ICC), a public non — profit organization."
"In 1998, he joined the state service as an assistant for information systems for accounting and control over the receipt of tax payments to the head of the State tax service of the Russian Federation. Then he worked at the rank of Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for taxes and duties, head of the Federal Agency for Real Estate Cadastre within the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, and head of the Federal Agency for Managing Special Economic Zones."
"In 2008, he left the civil service on his own and returned to business — this time in the field of investment. In February 2009, he joined the personnel reserve of the President of Russia." Putin likes competence.
To get around presidential term limits. Handing presidential powers to parliament makes PM the highest office in the land. Poots snares himself another term as PM and bingo, he's the leader of Russia, again.
In the 80s the ideas of big union and centrally planned economies etc were rejected in favour of letting the market rule (and there actually were good reasons to be unhappy with the way things were). But that change hasn't turned out well either. So what lies beyond?
The Roosevelt Institute examined work from more than 150 thinkers in order to distill a new progressive vision for the United States. There’s no one set answer. But instead of a world where capital returns will always outpace wage gains, the progressive worldview puts in place higher taxation. It focuses on robust antitrust enforcement instead of allowing for corporate concentration, puts power back into the hands of organized labor, and ensures women and people of color are included.
“This isn’t just a flash in the pan — this is really based on a lot of work by a lot of preeminent scholars and thinkers and policy experts,” Wong, who authored the paper outlining the positive vision for a progressive worldview, said.
She identified the various critiques of neoliberalism that are embedded with positive progressive solutions and distilled them into four groups. It’s not a cohesive progressive answer, but instead a set of four broad categories of answers, many of which work in concert.
So "it’s time for a broad-based, democratic effort for the government to shape the economy and foster the public good." True.
"The theory at the center of the “new structuralist” belief system is that government rules structure markets, and a new set of rules is needed to foster more equality and widely shared prosperity. A major plank of this is tied to antitrust enforcement and a government that prevents a wider range of merger types and considers a broader set of stakeholders when deciding whether to approve a deal. It also entails higher taxes on the rich and corporations, and measures such as a potential financial transaction tax; it also puts limits on corporate governance matters, such as stock buybacks."
Increasing stakeholder involvement and financial transaction tax are both essential. Rules operate as guidelines only, however, since lack of effective enforcement has consistently discredited the concept of government regulation. A theory that offers no solution to corporate capture of governance is clearly inadequate.
"The basic theory is that the government can be more efficient at providing certain public goods, not less" but in what way is this not utopian?? Anyone would think it had been written by some Democrat seller of snake oil.
"The paper points to the Green New Deal as a prime example of the approach: a public-investment-led initiative that employs different policy tools to promote innovation, equity, jobs, and decarbonization." Promotion is different to delivery. Since Democrats are famous for non-delivery, this is typical.
"Implementing the types of policies being proposed in progressive circles isn’t going to happen overnight, or without some real electoral and institutional shifts first. That’s where the economic democratists come in. They argue that economic reform hinges on participatory democracy, where unions are strengthened, communities are activated, and public agencies are open and transparent."
That one looks more promising – yet still rendered ineffective by woolly leftist language. Vague intentions won't get them far. Explanations of what is going to change, and how that change will be delivered, remain necessary. Obviously it's wonderful that the liberals have figured out where they went wrong 30 years too late, and I hope they get their act together before we all die.
We've had this stale debate over the relative role of the state and the market since … well Adam Smith. The argument usually degenerates because everyone presumes that somehow if you automatically have more 'state' this means an equal measure of 'market' has been displaced, and vice versa.
Yet obviously the state is not a one for one substitute for markets. As Arnold Nordmeyer acerbically observed "Do we want the state to run corner dairies?". The two forces may overlap to a degree, but their crucial differences complement each other. Specifically the state is good at long term investment, high risk, and wide scope. If politically the state cannot tolerate the failure of an enterprise and therefore implicitly underwrites it, then it probably should be in public hands. By contrast private capital is really good at running business for short term cash flow, low risk, small scope enterprise … the daily stuff of feeding and clothing us for example.
If we were a lot clearer about this distinction we might be able to sell it better.
Also in the bigger picture I would suggest this binary model omits a crucial actor, an omission that explains why the debate has become so stale. The role of community in moderating and regulating the excesses of both state and market has been consistently ignored. Well at least until quite recently, it’s a good sign that many thinkers are now working with this notion.
I would suggest this binary model omits a crucial actor, an omission that explains why the debate has become so stale. The role of community in moderating and regulating the excesses of both state and market has been consistently ignored. Well at least until quite recently, it’s a good sign that many thinkers are now working with this notion.
Yes, I think the binary model had the fatal flaw of tacitly assuming that voters are mere passive recipients of largesse.
If you frame the community as players in the political game, you acknowledge their agency as being proactive. That's where participatory democracy comes in.
A generally good read, but then I stumble over ideology like this:
Recent research by leading thinkers studying racial inequality has exposed the shortcomings of this theory by analyzing data on employment, income, and wealth disparities for people of color. At every level of education, people of color experience higher rates of unemployment, are paid less than their white counterparts, have fewer assets than their white counterparts, and accrue less wealth.
Well for 'leading thinkers' they seem remarkably resistant to actual data. Consistently all the data shows East Asian Americans as substantially the highest income group. (Setting aside 'Australian Americans' as probably an outlier group of academics and/or professionals). Nor does it explain dramatic differences between groups such as Nigerian Americans with household incomes around $60k compared with Somali Americans at a miserable $24k.
Nor are they willing to look at data showing that white working class males are the big group in the USA with a falling life expectancy. For certain some white people are doing exceedingly well, as you might rationally expect in a society where white people remain a numerically dominant group. But to then lazily imply this means all white people are unfairly advantaged across the whole of the USA, just flies in the face of ordinary people's experience.
The white American man who I worked with last year, whose wife was scared of his meth-addicted brother in law running out of control, with him stuck on site thousands of miles away, plus a catalog of other intractable worries … would spit on this article … and vote Trump.
Yes ethnicity plays a role in outcomes, but to grossly simplify it down to a 'white privilege' narrative oversimplifies a complex story.
Great link thank you. I've skimmed through it fast; it seems to capture something very like what my now ex-colleague told me first hand over a beer or two.
“We have to stop being obsessed over impeachment and start actually digging in and solving the problems that got Donald Trump elected in the first place,” Andrew Yang argued in the last Democratic presidential debate. Whatever you think of Yang as a candidate, on this he is dead right: We have to treat America’s cancer.
FWIW in terms of Dem candidates, Bernie had my total support last time, but I think he was mistaken to run a second time. Tulsi Gabbard won my heart with her Joe Rogan podcasts. Andrew Yang won my head with his Universal Income, his backing for next gen nuclear and his clear headed ability to cut to the essence of the big story as above. There is hope, but the Dem machine is doing it's best to crush it.
Bernard Hickey has left out one very important variable, which is how well Bridges and his mates execute a filthy lies campaign leading up to the election and whether the media buys it, i.e. whether what happened to Corbyn and UK Labour will happen to Ardern.
Expect NZ First to swiftboat the Nats on this, and while NZ First and the Nats are slinging mud at each other over funding Labour to pick up votes from disgusted New Zealanders.
According to the Freedom House Financial Statement 2016, Freedom House "was substantially funded by grants from the U.S. Government", with grants from the United States government accounting for approximately 86% of revenue.[5]
Below are the organizations and entities who funded Freedom House in 2016:[5]
Government of the United States – $24,813,164 (85.5%)
International public agencies – 2,266,949 (7.8%)
Corporations and foundations – 1,113,262 (3.8%)
Individual contributions – 1,113,262 (2.8%)
In its 2017 and 2018 financial statements, Freedom House once again disclosed that it "was substantially funded by grants from the U.S. Government." In 2017, the organization received $29,502,776, 90% of its total revenue that year, from the US government.[36] In 2018, the US government gave Freedom House $35,206,355, or 88% of its annual revenue.[37]
So a shot across the bows from Uncle Sam. Must be some really interesting discussion going down in the inner reaches of the National Party right now.
Wonder if a very slickly produced political add pops up just before the election featuring little blue pandas dancing across the bottom of the screen.
Hickey describes how MMP has locked in what public policy was present at its inception. And how Centrists act as a handbrake on major policy changes.
Contrary to what Centrists believe of themselves being pragmatists who generate consensus and "just get shit done", the opposite is true. Centrists are obstacles to both progress from the left and to reaction from the right. Consequently nothing gets done.
Hickey's thoughts on risk-taking and staying safe in the centre echoes the article Sanctuary posted yesterday which was a critique of the roles of Centrists within UK Labour in the spectacular undermining of Jeremy Corbyn.
What confuses me about the replies is the vain belief from Centrists they actually get shit done. They don't get shit done, they just prevent others from getting shit done.
True some of the time. We have a center-left coalition govt. It gets shit done whenever the leftists and centrists within it agree on proposed legislation. Then the agreed proposals get passed into law to prove it.
I realise you're unlikely to claim that they have no such track record of progress made. Perhaps you just don't want to admit to yourself that the three parties have proven themselves to be genuinely progressive by enacting their legislation?
Get real instead. Telling the truth earns respect. Seeking refuge in partisan delusions achieves the opposite.
I think they've tinkered and patched up a few risk-free things but you have to be deluded to believe this is a government of progress. There is nothing "genuinely progressive" about it. The left of centre part has made some noises but as Hickey correctly states it is the centrist part of the government, NZ First, which has acted as a handbrake to progress.
I can only assume that this government's glacially meek movement on social fairness and social infrastructure progress looks positively dynamic – almost dangerous – to a staid Centrist such as yourself!
😎 Oooh, truth hurts (a little). The staid bit comes from putting oneself out to pasture in retirement. However I have actually spent a lifetime watching self-professed radicals drop off the pace.
That learning curve is all about how mass movements actually work. When progressives blame each other for not being radical enough, they focus on division instead of common ground. When the masses divide amongst themselves, the control system doesn't need to do divide and rule against them. They've already disempowered themselves!
Several decades of watching that shit happen imposes a fundamental learning about mass psychology. So you get to appreciate whatever gains result from consensus.
The binary party structure of democracy in the USA was seen as evil by one of the founding fathers. This from a letter written by John Adams in 1780: "There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
They ignored him and built evil into their system anyway. It's why the Democrats supported slavery during the 19th century. They had to oppose the Republicans, who wanted to free the slaves. It's why the Democrats worked with organised crime in the 20th century – to oppose Republicans who wanted to eliminate it. The American middle class got eliminated via the gfc & predatory lending, authorised by govt regulators appointed by both parties. Their system incorporates the deep state, who eliminate whistle-blowers by whatever means necessary. It's a puppet show that no longer compels collective belief.
"A large majority of the public (67%) says “their side” in politics has been losing more often than winning in recent years on issues that matter to them." Yet losing is good, according to the poll. "About six-in-ten Americans (58%) say democracy is working well in the U.S., though just 18% say it is working very well. At the same time, a majority supports making sweeping changes to the political system: 61% say “significant changes” are needed in the fundamental “design and structure” of the U.S. government to make it work in current times."
So most Americans think the system is working well because it is turning them into losers. Remarkable, eh? Who'da thunk they were that clever?
"Tamarind Taranaki went into receivership just before Christmas after its $300 million offshore drilling campaign at the Tui oil field failed. It owes creditors about $484m. Matt Hareb owns an excavation company which had the contract to transport drilling waste from Tamarind Taranaki's operation. The business, which employs about 10 staff, is owed more than $500,000. Hareb said it would take years for it to recover."
Limited liability is part of the design of the capitalist system. Being able to dodge debt is hard-wired. I can't see how the govt can enforce moral culpability.
"Hareb Excavating is one of 82 creditors, of which 72 are unsecured, many of them small Taranaki-based firms." Destroying local small business is a frequent consequence of corporates using smart lawyers. Like big fish eating small fish, it's normal. Social darwinism rules, okay?
"The government is owed between $100m and $155m for Tamarind's share of decommissioning costs for the Tui oil field." So the big fish is gonna rip off the taxpayer too? Whoopee, what fun!
"Other creditors spoken to by RNZ described the Tamarind collapse as tantamount to "daylight robbery" and said a "heck of a lot of people had got done over"." Capitalism divides users into screwers and screwees though, eh? Nobody can claim the system is based on the concept of a fair deal, can they? Exploitation is the entire point.
"The government has an obligation to look at this" reckons my local Nat MP. "Minster of Energy and Resources Megan Woods says Tamarind's acquisition of the Tui permit in 2017 had exposed a gap in the Crown Minerals Act." " "The government has now closed this loophole with an amendment to the Crown Minerals Act," she said. Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted is a good move.
Food waste. Food in held longer for sale to mitigate it being wasted. Supermarket sell stuff they were throwing away. More produce goes off at home, increasing food waste tonnage and carbon credits going more often to supermarkets. Profits for retailers skyrocket as they keep increasing the amount of sub standard produce sitting in shelves waiting to be brought and then throw out as it's gone off by the time it reaches homes. I know this because it keeps happening, bad meat, old carrots, yuck throw out, never used to throw out a onion, potato, used to use them all or nearly. not now. Food waste is a self forefilling prophesy that forts consumers and radically increases supermarket profit. Supermarket go to their suppliers, who know this and start selling their non export food, or returned from china unsold food, in big PR specials. To the point that either you buy for a local producer of buy the imported good if in Auckland before they get shipped to the new food deserts.
The solution is to force a percentage of all local food to be sold locally. Given the bulk deals that should mean cheap good food, that then if not sold be sold even cheaper to restaurants etc way before it goes off. Most food I see is old.
There are already business that already sell cheaper fresher goods and will sell unsold vegies cheaper to save putting them back on the truck. They exist in many places, not enough though. They are call market stalls, and instead of getting old food that's been ship to Auckland, and back, or worse. They sell local food locally. Now some councils did away with them, and so super markets don't need to sell the freshest, selling processed fresh Fox's that are processed to send their nutrients and energy to their skins, and remain attractive for longer shelf life. Foods that once brought go off. I brought a carrot before Christmas, a week later came to roast it, it had gone off. This is my point targeting a negative only rewards more of the same. Target food miles, if my carrot has gone unsold in China then mark it as such so I have informed choice when it's put on nz shelves. Save the planet and sell fresh local goods with simple cloud data.
People need to learn to respect Orca and other creatures of Tangaroa I have a great yarn of A Orca encounter He was a huge Bull.
Its sad that people are drowning because they can't swim.
The only way to fix Manuka harbour is for the city to put money in plant mangroves and clean up their water that goes into the water course I have seen them they are a big mess
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Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
With The Stroke Of A Pen:Populism, especially right-wing populism, invests all the power of an electoral/parliamentary majority in a single political leader because it no longer trusts the bona fides of the sprawling political class among whom power is traditionally dispersed. Populism eschews traditional politics, because, among populists, traditional politics ...
I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. ...
Mr Mojo Rising: Economic growth is possible, Christopher Luxon reassures us, but only under a government that is willing to get out of the way and let those with drive and ambition get on with it.ABOUT TWELVE KILOMETRES from the farm on the North Otago coast where I grew up stands ...
You're nearly a good laughAlmost a jokerWith your head down in the pig binSaying, 'Keep on digging.'Pig stain on your fat chinWhat do you hope to findDown in the pig mine?You're nearly a laughYou're nearly a laughBut you're really a crySongwriter: Roger Waters.NZ First - Kiwi Battlers.Say what you like ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Climate denial is dead. Renewable energy denial is here. As “alternative facts” become the norm, it’s worth looking at what actual facts tell us about how renewable energy sources like solar and wind are lowering the price of electricity. As ...
SIR GEOFFREY PALMER is worried about democracy. In his Newsroom website post of 27 January 2025 he asserts that “the future of democracy across the world now seems to be in question.” Following a year of important electoral contests across the world, culminating in Donald Trump’s emphatic recapture of the ...
The Government hasn’t stopped talking about growth since the Prime Minister made his “yes” speech at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce last week. But so far, the measures announced would seem hardly likely to suddenly pitch New Zealand into the fast-growth East Asian league. The digital nomad announcement hardly deserved ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Gail Duncan, Chairperson of the St Peter’s on Willis Social Justice Group, one of the organisations invited to submit on the Bill, says the Government’s actions are unprecedented. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amani Kasherwa, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland In late January, a rebel group that has long caused mayhem in the sprawling African nation of Democratic Republic of Congo took control of Goma, a major city of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yee-Fui Ng, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University An ad falsely depicting independent candidate Alex Dyson as a Greens member.ABC News/Supplied The highly pertinent case of a little-known independent candidate in the Victorian seat of Wannon has exposed a gaping ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland Nik/Unsplash You might have heard that eating too many eggs will cause high cholesterol levels, leading to poor health. Researchers have examined the science behind this myth again, and ...
Everything you missed from the third day of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard four hours of oral submission. Read our recaps of day one of the hearings here, and day two here. Parliament was quiet on Friday for the third day of hearings on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University Tijana Simic/Shutterstock The news last week that three people in Sydney were hospitalised with botulism after receiving botox injections has raised questions about the regulation of the cosmetic injectables industry. The ...
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Perhaps when we have govt depts making such announcements as "Total international spend is expected to reach $14.8 billion in 2024, up 40% from 2017." and how well our economy is to benefit from such growth we should now expect to accompany the impact of any govt decision towards GHG, And understand should there be an increase where the offset is to be sourced from ? Otherwise without reporting the "Cost" how can we expect there to be any action to restore our planet ?
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/assets/5c05b7bfce/nz-tourism-forecasts-2018-2024-report.pdf
Yes, I know it's David Icke BUT he is the first one to gather + comment on a recent case where a teenage girl falsely accused a group of men of a gang rape in the news. Here he is covering the other deeply disturbing side of the story. #boycottcypress
Found a mainstream link buried in the SERPs. The complainant has been trapped in the country for over 5 months now after reporting a gang rape to police.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/07/a-defining-moment-teenagers-fight-for-justice-galvanises-cypruss-feminists
Letter to the editor; The Southland Times 16 Jan 2020
OMV critics use oil too
Does Environment Southland councillor Robert Guyton ride a pushbike or walk from his place of abode or, horror of horrors, drive a petrol-tax guzzling motor car, to Environment Southland meetings?
Does he also claim travel allowance from us poor, long-suffering ratepayers?
Len Lind of Stewart Island
Councillor Robert Guyton replied:
Len has spotted my weakness; I'm just like everybody else! I too have to use petroleum products in order to live; it's unavoidable, they are everywhere! Len seems to believe that I should never criticise the activities of the big oil companies; their spills, accidents and massive contribution to climate change, because I drive a car and have plastic lenses in my glasses. We're all in the same boat when it comes to reliance on fossil fuels; we’re all compromised but should that disqualify us from talking about the damage the industry causes? I don’t think Len really wants to silence everybody; he himself feels he has the right to criticise in public. He got me thinking though, about what I have already done to reduce my use of oil and top of that list comes my decision never to fly again in an aircraft; I think that will make at least some difference. And thanks to Len’s reminder, I’ll get my old bicycle back onto the road again; the chain’s a bit rusty but a little oil should fix that.
Much as I'm not necessarily a fan of the Eagles – though possibly your detractors are …
Btw – you don't have a mullet do you?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wildfires-california-amazon-indonesia-climate-change_n_5dcd3f4ee4b0d43931d01baf
So when this OZ fire season ends end of this summer (hopefully) how much will be left over of the flaura and fauna of this continent?
And when the fires start again in Sept, will the rest be burned then? And to be honest is that what is wanted by those that call the shots? Allow for such environmental degradation that the Scot Morrisons of this planet can simply throw their hands up and declare that 'nothing much can be done, its to late' and drilling will resume as buisness as usual?
Because really, when these fires are extinct – 180+ currently still burning and mainly not being contained, not much will be left over, those critters that survived will need to be fed, watered if they are to survive. As for the humans, has anyone in OZ yet dared to put a realistic estimate to the damage the fires caused? And i am not looking for another 2000 houses burned 🙂 a proper estimate maybe by a insurance company? And then looking at the article i linked too (yes its huffpost, only read if if it passes the purity test 🙂 ) what about the estimated losses world wide.
the world is burning and all our selected overlords play a fiddle. In the meantime, 'we can't breathe' is a thing now.
I couldn't agree more, Sabine.
There was a link posted on The Standard the other day, the last paragraph of which I found profoundly chilling:
"Millennials and the children we call Generation Z face the horrifying prospect that they will get stuck with the tab for humanity’s centuries-long rape of planet Earth, the mass desecration of which radically accelerated after 1950. There is an intolerably high chance that today’s young people will starve to death, die of thirst, be killed by a superstorm, succumb to a new disease, boil to death, asphyxiate from air pollution, be murdered in a riot or shot or blown up in a war sparked by environmentally related political instability long before they survive to old age."
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/1/13/1909613/-Climate-models-suggest-global-food-system-crisis-at-hand-dust-bowl-scenarios-now-locked-in?utm_campaign=trending
"how much will be left over of the flaura and fauna of this continent? "
Well, quite a lot actually. Up till now about 63,000 sq kms has been burnt. The area of Australia is 7.7 million hectares so the amount subject to the fires is about 0.8 percent.and more than 99% has not been touched. Now that is a huge amount of land, and a great tragedy, but the answer to "will the rest be burned then?" is NO and to "not much will be left over" the answer is nearly all of it will be untouched.
That would be a fair answer if Australia was all one kind of landscape. But it isn't, at least 80% of it would be fairly barren and open outback, with a sparse vegetation at the best of times. It rarely burns unless a particularly wet spring has allowed a lot of grass species to flourish.
What we have seen burn this year are the eucalypt forests in the alpine and coastal regions, and the fraction of these that have been severely damaged is substantial. Worse still in many places it's old temperate forests that have never burned before which are being destroyed. These eco-niches are not adapted to fire, have a very poor capacity for recovery, once they're lost, they will never return.
Species like the Bogong moth, already under pressure will have a flow on effect to already highly endangered fauna such as the pygmy mountain possum. And places that have been reliably lush for generations, are no longer. As with almost everything to do with climate, the story is more complex than you are implying.
"What we have seen burn this year are the eucalypt forests in the alpine and coastal regions".
I assume you mean that these areas are not usually affected by bush fires. I will have to take your word for it as far as New South Wales. I am not really familiar with that state. However for Victoria the areas that have been burnt out appear to be generally similar to other recent major bush fire seasons such as 2008-9, 2006-7 and 2003-4 when about 500,000 ha, 1,200,000 ha and 1,300,000 ha burned. The latter two years would seem to be of a similar scale to the current season's numbers. 2009 didn't hit the same area of land but it was of course Black Saturday with 173 deaths.
They are also on much the same area as the previous monsters such as 1939-40 (2,000,000 ha) and the daddy of them all in 1851 when 5,000,000 ha went up in flames.All of these fires affected the NE and Gippsland regions of the state, just like the current lot. Thus it doesn't seem to be unusual for the alpine and coastal forests to be badly affected in Victoria.
There have been other major fires than affected the NW of course, which has been pretty well spared this year.
https://www.ffm.vic.gov.au/history-and-incidents/past-bushfires
(Luckily) Australia is 7.7 million sq km large, so 100 times larger than 7.7 million hectares. The burnt area was 63,000 sq km or 6.3 million hectares; the latest numbers have been over 10 million hectares burnt or around 100,000 sq km. As a comparison, 100,000 sq km is Canterburry + Otago + Southland!
Apparently the burnt area is the size of Ireland!!!
At the moment Australia is the victim of a positive phase of the Indian Ocean Dipole where the warm water is in the west of the IO and does not produce any rain over Oz. It is like the Pacific's El Nino /La Nina, it slops around every 4 or 5 years or so. The LN/EN is about every 7 years, probably because its a bigger ocean. Sometimes the positive or negative IOD phase coincides with a LN or EN phase and causes even more problems. Both systems are wind driven.
But wait there's more, the Southern Annular Mode of westerly winds that rotate around Antarctica are further north in the current mode stopping the big Aussie summer anti-cyclones from picking up cooler damp air from the Southern Ocean, these are the big highs that eventually drift over us giving us nice warm calm summer weather, but not this year, the SAM is too strong bequeathing us these bloody cold South Westers and Easterlies, and squeezing the central Aussie highs rotating over the desert making them hotter and hotter.
The SAM is probably caused by the wobble in the Earth's rotation which in turn is probably caused by the Earth's molten iron core slopping around. Another bloody thing to worry about. Lets Stop the Slop!
Last years "Beast from the East "in northern Europe is a similar phenomenon.
So its not all Climate Change just weather and it has been doing it for millenia, not Melania, shes just a temporary aberration thank Christ.
For what its worth, a few hours ago around midday there, SE Australia was cooler and a lot wetter than NZ, Hobart 11Degrees, Melbourne 18, Sydney and Brisbane 22, ( where they are breaking out the jerseys) . Fancy that.
It's just weather and if we didn't have it redistributing warmth and moisture around the globe fuck all of anything could live here.
Look up bom.govt.au for much better explanations than mine. And pretty diagrams.
"7 million hectares". Oh dear, why does that always happen? Yes, square kms. And I read it over a couple of times looking for silly mistakes like that. At least I got the calculation right though.
I'm not saying it isn't a huge amount of land. It is. However when it is compared to the total land area of Australia it doesn't really justify the somewhat hyperbolic questions I highlighted in the final sentence.
GOP cockroaches plan to scuttle around in the dark..
https://twitter.com/sarahdwire/status/1217202438031257602
The Standing Committee of Correspondents vigorously objects to restrictions being considered on press access during the upcoming Senate trial of President Trump.
The Standing Committee sought to address our concerns with the Sergeant at Arms and with Rules Committee before final decisions were made, but decisions are being made quickly as plans for the trial are completed and we are hearing that nearly every suggestion has been rejected
Our suggestions were rejected without an explanation of how the restrictions contribute to safety rather than simply limit coverage of the trial.
The restrictions that are being considered exceed what occurred during the Clinton trial 20 years ago, with fewer ways for press to speak to senators and even a magnetometer being installed within the Senate Press Gallery to ensure electronics are not brought into the chamber.
The no electronics in the chamber rule has existed for many years, reporters don’t violate it, and we’ve never needed an extra layer of screening to ensure it is followed.
Installing a magnetometer means the Senate trial will have a soundtrack of “beep, beep, beep” as 90+ reporters walk in and out all day. There is no additional safety or security brought by bringing such a device into reporter work space
It also gives the impression that it is being done mostly to protect Senators from the bright light of the public knowing what they are doing in one of the country’s most important moments.
The Standing Committee requested an exemption to the no technology in the chamber rule so that we can provide the public with up to the moment information without having to walk out of the chamber, but we’re hearing that request has been denied.
I grasp that there is precedent, but few things in Washington are more momentous than an impeachment trial and the American public deserves to have eyes in the room.
Reporters will be kept in pens, meaning only senators seeking out press coverage will get covered.
Currently we can walk with Senators as they enter the chamber, wait for them outside of meetings or lunches. It leads to a diversity of voices. Penning us means people across the country might not hear from their senator.
https://twitter.com/sarahdwire/status/1217204300260216835
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1217202438031257602.html
They seem to be going to extraordinary lengths to protect someone who has done nothing wrong… /s
They are not protecting "him" they are protecting themselves.
Trump is now wholesale owned by the Republicans (who will last longer then Trump imo) and he owes them, bigly some people say, super duper bigly.
He is the pen that signs their legislations, Tax cuts for the Ueberrich, gutting of social security, gutting of environmental regulations, their god before government etc etc etc. Essentially the Republicans done a 'back to the past' replaced one old senile man with another old senile man, heck its all the Presidents Man. 🙂
but again, this Kabuki Theatre in the US, or Russia for that matter will have no importance when the world burns and runs out of the stuff that we humans need so deseperatly to live.
Btw, did you hear that the entire Russian parliament 'resigned'? King Putin, long he may live and his future clones.
A rather more nuanced article than your comment
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/01/the-russian-prime-minister-resigns-and-no-one-knows-why.html#more
Or to put it more accurately, an article that expands on your comment
"Putin announced that he appointed Mikhail Mishustin, the head of Russia's Federal Tax Service, as the new Prime Minister." Just guessing, makes sense that a competent bureaucrat gets jumped up to become top bureaucrat.
Presuming the guy has actually established a system for selective wealth-extraction as required, and enough time has passed for Putin to agree that the system works. He's a systems engineer.
"In 1989, he graduated from the STANKIN, majoring in system engineering, and then in 1992, he completed postgraduate studies at the same Institute. After graduating from graduate school, he began working as a Director of a test laboratory, and later headed the Board of the International Computer Club (ICC), a public non — profit organization."
"In 1998, he joined the state service as an assistant for information systems for accounting and control over the receipt of tax payments to the head of the State tax service of the Russian Federation. Then he worked at the rank of Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for taxes and duties, head of the Federal Agency for Real Estate Cadastre within the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, and head of the Federal Agency for Managing Special Economic Zones."
"In 2008, he left the civil service on his own and returned to business — this time in the field of investment. In February 2009, he joined the personnel reserve of the President of Russia." Putin likes competence.
As usual AlJazeera provides a measured view on Putin's plan.
The Russian national game is chess, and Putin has just transitioned to his end-game.
To get around presidential term limits. Handing presidential powers to parliament makes PM the highest office in the land. Poots snares himself another term as PM and bingo, he's the leader of Russia, again.
nah, you are not nuanced enough Joe.
Hey but he's KingPooty
He's a dictator,he's the autocratic boss he's a thug a clown a mafia don doncha know
Why bother with the constitution?
Seems a bit wussy
Heh
The nod to technicalities keeps fools on his side.
In the 80s the ideas of big union and centrally planned economies etc were rejected in favour of letting the market rule (and there actually were good reasons to be unhappy with the way things were). But that change hasn't turned out well either. So what lies beyond?
So "it’s time for a broad-based, democratic effort for the government to shape the economy and foster the public good." True.
"The theory at the center of the “new structuralist” belief system is that government rules structure markets, and a new set of rules is needed to foster more equality and widely shared prosperity. A major plank of this is tied to antitrust enforcement and a government that prevents a wider range of merger types and considers a broader set of stakeholders when deciding whether to approve a deal. It also entails higher taxes on the rich and corporations, and measures such as a potential financial transaction tax; it also puts limits on corporate governance matters, such as stock buybacks."
Increasing stakeholder involvement and financial transaction tax are both essential. Rules operate as guidelines only, however, since lack of effective enforcement has consistently discredited the concept of government regulation. A theory that offers no solution to corporate capture of governance is clearly inadequate.
"The basic theory is that the government can be more efficient at providing certain public goods, not less" but in what way is this not utopian?? Anyone would think it had been written by some Democrat seller of snake oil.
"The paper points to the Green New Deal as a prime example of the approach: a public-investment-led initiative that employs different policy tools to promote innovation, equity, jobs, and decarbonization." Promotion is different to delivery. Since Democrats are famous for non-delivery, this is typical.
"Implementing the types of policies being proposed in progressive circles isn’t going to happen overnight, or without some real electoral and institutional shifts first. That’s where the economic democratists come in. They argue that economic reform hinges on participatory democracy, where unions are strengthened, communities are activated, and public agencies are open and transparent."
That one looks more promising – yet still rendered ineffective by woolly leftist language. Vague intentions won't get them far. Explanations of what is going to change, and how that change will be delivered, remain necessary. Obviously it's wonderful that the liberals have figured out where they went wrong 30 years too late, and I hope they get their act together before we all die.
We've had this stale debate over the relative role of the state and the market since … well Adam Smith. The argument usually degenerates because everyone presumes that somehow if you automatically have more 'state' this means an equal measure of 'market' has been displaced, and vice versa.
Yet obviously the state is not a one for one substitute for markets. As Arnold Nordmeyer acerbically observed "Do we want the state to run corner dairies?". The two forces may overlap to a degree, but their crucial differences complement each other. Specifically the state is good at long term investment, high risk, and wide scope. If politically the state cannot tolerate the failure of an enterprise and therefore implicitly underwrites it, then it probably should be in public hands. By contrast private capital is really good at running business for short term cash flow, low risk, small scope enterprise … the daily stuff of feeding and clothing us for example.
If we were a lot clearer about this distinction we might be able to sell it better.
Also in the bigger picture I would suggest this binary model omits a crucial actor, an omission that explains why the debate has become so stale. The role of community in moderating and regulating the excesses of both state and market has been consistently ignored. Well at least until quite recently, it’s a good sign that many thinkers are now working with this notion.
I would suggest this binary model omits a crucial actor, an omission that explains why the debate has become so stale. The role of community in moderating and regulating the excesses of both state and market has been consistently ignored. Well at least until quite recently, it’s a good sign that many thinkers are now working with this notion.
Yes, I think the binary model had the fatal flaw of tacitly assuming that voters are mere passive recipients of largesse.
If you frame the community as players in the political game, you acknowledge their agency as being proactive. That's where participatory democracy comes in.
A generally good read, but then I stumble over ideology like this:
Well for 'leading thinkers' they seem remarkably resistant to actual data. Consistently all the data shows East Asian Americans as substantially the highest income group. (Setting aside 'Australian Americans' as probably an outlier group of academics and/or professionals). Nor does it explain dramatic differences between groups such as Nigerian Americans with household incomes around $60k compared with Somali Americans at a miserable $24k.
Nor are they willing to look at data showing that white working class males are the big group in the USA with a falling life expectancy. For certain some white people are doing exceedingly well, as you might rationally expect in a society where white people remain a numerically dominant group. But to then lazily imply this means all white people are unfairly advantaged across the whole of the USA, just flies in the face of ordinary people's experience.
The white American man who I worked with last year, whose wife was scared of his meth-addicted brother in law running out of control, with him stuck on site thousands of miles away, plus a catalog of other intractable worries … would spit on this article … and vote Trump.
Yes ethnicity plays a role in outcomes, but to grossly simplify it down to a 'white privilege' narrative oversimplifies a complex story.
Actors 🙂
LOL … that's probably not too far off the truth.
and US Soldiers.
Who killed the Knapp family?
http://archive.li/iVmzL
Great link thank you. I've skimmed through it fast; it seems to capture something very like what my now ex-colleague told me first hand over a beer or two.
FWIW in terms of Dem candidates, Bernie had my total support last time, but I think he was mistaken to run a second time. Tulsi Gabbard won my heart with her Joe Rogan podcasts. Andrew Yang won my head with his Universal Income, his backing for next gen nuclear and his clear headed ability to cut to the essence of the big story as above. There is hope, but the Dem machine is doing it's best to crush it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/118823041/whether-and-how-labour-might-win-a-second-term
Bernard Hickey has left out one very important variable, which is how well Bridges and his mates execute a filthy lies campaign leading up to the election and whether the media buys it, i.e. whether what happened to Corbyn and UK Labour will happen to Ardern.
The sleeper issue for this election campaign is going to be the links between the National Party and the Chinese Communist Party – https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/01/us-democracy-watchdog-freedom-house-accuses-mp-todd-mcclay-of-echoing-china-to-justify-mass-detentions-in-xinjiang.html
Expect NZ First to swiftboat the Nats on this, and while NZ First and the Nats are slinging mud at each other over funding Labour to pick up votes from disgusted New Zealanders.
Gets even murkier when you look at who made the criticism reported in the Newshub piece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_House
So a shot across the bows from Uncle Sam. Must be some really interesting discussion going down in the inner reaches of the National Party right now.
Wonder if a very slickly produced political add pops up just before the election featuring little blue pandas dancing across the bottom of the screen.
Hickey describes how MMP has locked in what public policy was present at its inception. And how Centrists act as a handbrake on major policy changes.
Contrary to what Centrists believe of themselves being pragmatists who generate consensus and "just get shit done", the opposite is true. Centrists are obstacles to both progress from the left and to reaction from the right. Consequently nothing gets done.
Hickey's thoughts on risk-taking and staying safe in the centre echoes the article Sanctuary posted yesterday which was a critique of the roles of Centrists within UK Labour in the spectacular undermining of Jeremy Corbyn.
What confuses me about the replies is the vain belief from Centrists they actually get shit done. They don't get shit done, they just prevent others from getting shit done.
True some of the time. We have a center-left coalition govt. It gets shit done whenever the leftists and centrists within it agree on proposed legislation. Then the agreed proposals get passed into law to prove it.
I realise you're unlikely to claim that they have no such track record of progress made. Perhaps you just don't want to admit to yourself that the three parties have proven themselves to be genuinely progressive by enacting their legislation?
Get real instead. Telling the truth earns respect. Seeking refuge in partisan delusions achieves the opposite.
I think they've tinkered and patched up a few risk-free things but you have to be deluded to believe this is a government of progress. There is nothing "genuinely progressive" about it. The left of centre part has made some noises but as Hickey correctly states it is the centrist part of the government, NZ First, which has acted as a handbrake to progress.
I can only assume that this government's glacially meek movement on social fairness and social infrastructure progress looks positively dynamic – almost dangerous – to a staid Centrist such as yourself!
😎 Oooh, truth hurts (a little). The staid bit comes from putting oneself out to pasture in retirement. However I have actually spent a lifetime watching self-professed radicals drop off the pace.
That learning curve is all about how mass movements actually work. When progressives blame each other for not being radical enough, they focus on division instead of common ground. When the masses divide amongst themselves, the control system doesn't need to do divide and rule against them. They've already disempowered themselves!
Several decades of watching that shit happen imposes a fundamental learning about mass psychology. So you get to appreciate whatever gains result from consensus.
The binary party structure of democracy in the USA was seen as evil by one of the founding fathers. This from a letter written by John Adams in 1780: "There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
They ignored him and built evil into their system anyway. It's why the Democrats supported slavery during the 19th century. They had to oppose the Republicans, who wanted to free the slaves. It's why the Democrats worked with organised crime in the 20th century – to oppose Republicans who wanted to eliminate it. The American middle class got eliminated via the gfc & predatory lending, authorised by govt regulators appointed by both parties. Their system incorporates the deep state, who eliminate whistle-blowers by whatever means necessary. It's a puppet show that no longer compels collective belief.
To gauge the extent of alienation, we need suitable research. "Carroll Doherty is director of political research at Pew Research Center." He presents some here: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/26/key-findings-on-americans-views-of-the-u-s-political-system-and-democracy/
"A large majority of the public (67%) says “their side” in politics has been losing more often than winning in recent years on issues that matter to them." Yet losing is good, according to the poll. "About six-in-ten Americans (58%) say democracy is working well in the U.S., though just 18% say it is working very well. At the same time, a majority supports making sweeping changes to the political system: 61% say “significant changes” are needed in the fundamental “design and structure” of the U.S. government to make it work in current times."
So most Americans think the system is working well because it is turning them into losers. Remarkable, eh? Who'da thunk they were that clever?
'The blob', a huge marine heatwave, killed nearly a million seabirds in the biggest known die-off of its kind
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-01-16/blob-seabird-murre-die-off-climate-change-marine-heatwave/11867264
So much winning…
https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1217510680170876928
a very stable genuis.
however what is not mentioned is how much money the orange hairball made of all this misery.
"A New Plymouth business owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by a failed oil and gas company is calling on the government to force the parent company to sell its remaining New Zealand assets to help repay creditors." https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/407474/creditor-calls-for-government-to-step-in-over-tamarind-taranaki-collapse
Can the govt actually do that??
"Tamarind Taranaki went into receivership just before Christmas after its $300 million offshore drilling campaign at the Tui oil field failed. It owes creditors about $484m. Matt Hareb owns an excavation company which had the contract to transport drilling waste from Tamarind Taranaki's operation. The business, which employs about 10 staff, is owed more than $500,000. Hareb said it would take years for it to recover."
Limited liability is part of the design of the capitalist system. Being able to dodge debt is hard-wired. I can't see how the govt can enforce moral culpability.
"Hareb Excavating is one of 82 creditors, of which 72 are unsecured, many of them small Taranaki-based firms." Destroying local small business is a frequent consequence of corporates using smart lawyers. Like big fish eating small fish, it's normal. Social darwinism rules, okay?
"The government is owed between $100m and $155m for Tamarind's share of decommissioning costs for the Tui oil field." So the big fish is gonna rip off the taxpayer too? Whoopee, what fun!
"Other creditors spoken to by RNZ described the Tamarind collapse as tantamount to "daylight robbery" and said a "heck of a lot of people had got done over"." Capitalism divides users into screwers and screwees though, eh? Nobody can claim the system is based on the concept of a fair deal, can they? Exploitation is the entire point.
"The government has an obligation to look at this" reckons my local Nat MP. "Minster of Energy and Resources Megan Woods says Tamarind's acquisition of the Tui permit in 2017 had exposed a gap in the Crown Minerals Act." " "The government has now closed this loophole with an amendment to the Crown Minerals Act," she said. Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted is a good move.
Food waste. Food in held longer for sale to mitigate it being wasted. Supermarket sell stuff they were throwing away. More produce goes off at home, increasing food waste tonnage and carbon credits going more often to supermarkets. Profits for retailers skyrocket as they keep increasing the amount of sub standard produce sitting in shelves waiting to be brought and then throw out as it's gone off by the time it reaches homes. I know this because it keeps happening, bad meat, old carrots, yuck throw out, never used to throw out a onion, potato, used to use them all or nearly. not now. Food waste is a self forefilling prophesy that forts consumers and radically increases supermarket profit. Supermarket go to their suppliers, who know this and start selling their non export food, or returned from china unsold food, in big PR specials. To the point that either you buy for a local producer of buy the imported good if in Auckland before they get shipped to the new food deserts.
The solution is to force a percentage of all local food to be sold locally. Given the bulk deals that should mean cheap good food, that then if not sold be sold even cheaper to restaurants etc way before it goes off. Most food I see is old.
https://imgur.com/gallery/m4XY1Cz
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/08/business/food-waste-climate-change.html
There are already business that already sell cheaper fresher goods and will sell unsold vegies cheaper to save putting them back on the truck. They exist in many places, not enough though. They are call market stalls, and instead of getting old food that's been ship to Auckland, and back, or worse. They sell local food locally. Now some councils did away with them, and so super markets don't need to sell the freshest, selling processed fresh Fox's that are processed to send their nutrients and energy to their skins, and remain attractive for longer shelf life. Foods that once brought go off. I brought a carrot before Christmas, a week later came to roast it, it had gone off. This is my point targeting a negative only rewards more of the same. Target food miles, if my carrot has gone unsold in China then mark it as such so I have informed choice when it's put on nz shelves. Save the planet and sell fresh local goods with simple cloud data.
maybe if all the food would be a bit cheaper people would actually buy a bit more.
there is quite a bit of 'food insecurity' aka 'hunger' in the developed world, and a lot of it is to do with the fact that it is too expensive.
maybe we could remove GST from food. All of the food.
Or we could make sure incomes are high enough to pay for it.
Alas, we don't do socialism in New Zealand, at least not for the hoi-polloi
A high-wage economy isn't even reserved for lefties..
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
https://youtu.be/YgFyi74DVjc
Kia Ora Newshub. .
A photo speaks a thousand words.
Suborbital flights from Dunedin that will be great for the economy.
Kaikoura getting putea from the Provincial growth fund they will be happy.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Pangawerewere tukutuku.
Kai pai for Rugby league setting up training for the tamariki there is a lot of talent Rangatahi in Aotearoa that just need a bit of guidance.
Football is a good game for the Rangatahi to get into.
Ka kite Ano
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
https://youtu.be/94dBVPpymac
Kia Ora Newshub.
People need to learn to respect Orca and other creatures of Tangaroa I have a great yarn of A Orca encounter He was a huge Bull.
Its sad that people are drowning because they can't swim.
The only way to fix Manuka harbour is for the city to put money in plant mangroves and clean up their water that goes into the water course I have seen them they are a big mess
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Condolences to Piri Whanau.
There should be respect given to Te uri taniwha wanting to protect their old cultural sights.
It would be sad to lose a mokopuna lets hope the Authorities carry on doing their mahi and find Jamie Kaiwai.
The Pacific Island are suffering from the effects of Global Warming sea-level rise.
I think the government should respect Ngapuhi opinion and wishes.
Ka kite Ano.
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora Newshub.
Yes the housing short will effect the students and poor badly. The students will have to have 2 unrelated per room.
That's is cool carers get more money for looking after there challenged love ones.
Mana Wahine that's A great reason to march for Wahine equality.
The oil barons.
That's swam of locus looks huge can cause havoc in Africa.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Piri will have a huge hakari.
I,,, we need Maori to look after Maori tamariki wellbeing aroha and understanding is needed for the correct care of our mokopuna.
Mana Wahine.
Ka pai for your Wakarma journey in Tamiki Makaru.
Ka kite Ano