Ummm. Don’t have win10 handy at present. I pulled the VM HDD off the system to get this up and running again. Need to raid the cable supplies for a USB 3.0 type B (the over/under one) so I can run that drive in a USB cloner device.
So is it that the reply button isn’t working /showing. Or is it that the replies to comments aren’t visible?
Replies to comments aren’t visible in the usual column between “comments” and “opinions”. Also having to enter handle and email address for every comment.
They must say it is only for “local pickup suburban trucks as long range trucks are not available and tyres cause massive air pollution and cancer from tyre ingredients used in tyres such as 1,3, butadience and styrene.
Rail is the only land transport answer here, as rail can be converted to electric locomotion and also uses only steel wheels not tyres.
So the greens need to revise their sole reliance on using electric trucks for all land transport.and use electric locomotives instead, – wrong move James sorry there.
I will be raising this with them at the meeting they have invited us all to “have your say” so we will.
You, or the Greens, say that “long range trucks are not available”.
It may be worse than that. Studies of Tesla plans for long range trucks suggest that without some completely new battery technology they may never be available.
A study of the planned Tesla truck suggests that
“To cover 600 miles without stopping to charge, the truck would need a 14 ton battery. A 900-mile battery would weigh about 22 tons. Based on current prices, those packs would cost between $290,000 and $450,000. A comparable diesel rig costs about $120,000, all-in.”
and then, based on US rules, proposes that the cargo capacity would be much less than current vehicles..
“Considering the heft of the battery pack, plus things like the cab, trailer, and wheels, the researchers figure a 600-mile-ready Tesla truck could carry just nine tons of cargo. That’s two-thirds the current average payload of 16 tons” https://www.wired.com/2017/06/elon-musk-tesla-semi-truck-battery/
Electric vehicles will no doubt provide acceptable ranges for cars, and short range trucks. I can’t see long range electric trucks for decades until a new battery technology may be developed.
Best go for electric trains for most of journey, with more but fewer warehouses in regional centres for smaller short-capacity electric trucks form there.
Thank God rail in Australasia and globally is going so strong at the right time.
We are about to see these forces hit real hard and fast once the petrol taxes come in. Everything but everything will increase, unless it’s fully electrified.
A good trial run before carbon itself gets taxes with the Greens impending legislation.
More smaller warehouses, thus increased frequency of deliveries, increased inventory and complexity of managing multiple stock locations, loss of economies of scale and scope across labour, facilities and freight increasing firms costs and working / fixed capital, all equals higher prices for consumers with any green benifits debatable. Highlights the problem with most green ideas, feel good, virtue signalling but never really worked through re unintended consequences
@Ad.
Thank you. Now I understand.
If Electric vehicles catch on in a big way they are going to be taxed anyway,
It doesn’t matter very much when there is only a small fraction of 1% of the vehicles on the road are electrical but what is going to happen when electric, and probably AV, cars take over in a big way and there may be 50% electric cars?
They will have to be taxed unless you plan to finance roads out of general taxes.
cleangreen you’ve spoken about the alleged carcinogenic properties of truck tyre dust a number of times. I’ve spent an afternoon at a burn-out pad, how long do you give me?
Surely if the minute particles of truck tyre dust that get carried into my lungs were going to kill me, these kind of antics would be illegal. Lynchy does such a good job and he doesn’t even win!
Ugh ! … just woke up and groggy , and having a stiff coffee,… spent my time last night reading and watching vids about the Battle of the Solent… the one where King Henry’s flagship the Mary Rose sank . Love anything historical like that.
Nah , I get on a roll and its like a good book you cant put down… plus always been a Morepork… so was well suited to night security. A real documentary history freak 🙂
Same for me in regards to a good book.
I have been pigging out on Simon Winchester: Surgeon of Crowthorne, Pacific etc
As for fiction half way through David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.
I can’t recommend them highly enough.
And so the “Winter of Winston” is about to begin………..
John Key tells Winston to stop “barking at the press”….
Audrey Young writes “Ardern will forgive Peters anything, even the unforgivable”…
A National MP has joked “We don’t want it so chaotic they are desperate to get Jacinda back. We want a medium level of dysfunction”………..
The National opposition are clearly in turmoil as the PM is about to starve them of media oxygen and with Winston being in charge. Most interesting and very likely entertaining political times ahead. The Beehive is a reality show in more ways than one.
Interesting the Herald editor sees fit to make an opinion piece headline news on their online edition. What’s newsworthy about a Herald staffer having an opinion?
It’s not boding well for Luigis turn at the wheel is it. I fear we might see a big surge in the Winston baiting & taunting from the feckless media. The egos need feeding.
“Tolley and Bennett adamantly deny they misused the information given to them, which would make them better people than I am.
Were I a minister given such information about an opponent during an election campaign, I would leak it immediately. Any fault in this affair ultimately lies with obsequious bureaucrats not campaign-obsessed politicians.”
Sorry Mathew, but I find your hypocrisy to be just as galling as your utterly twisted moral compass. If it wrong for the bureaucrat to pass on un-necessary information to the minister (seemingly because the minister might misuse it), then it’s twice as wrong for the minister to then misuse that information. All you have done here is lay wide open the moral failings of the past National government.
Yep….this is going to get really entertaining, although probably not for the respondents. Can see a few careers shredded here and probably not Mr Peters’
Yes ,… and Hootens ACT – like bemoaning of tax payers footing the bill:
… ” His way will cost the taxpayer more but is a small price to pay if it stops the passing of tax, welfare, police, health, education or other personal information to the Beehive and limits the “no surprises” rule to the purpose originally intended”…
Really adds up to a ‘ small price to pay’ in lieu of lack of an adequate anti Crime and Corruption Commission such as the state of Queensland has , – and if this is the price we pay for tolerating this sort of behavior then that is also on our collective tax paying heads.
Hooten has no leg to stand on. But to his credit, at least he did soften his stance as the above paragraph demonstrates.
Now I also recall Rodney Hide was undergoing some pretty unfair goings on I think it was with state surveillance issues a few years ago. It was quite incredulous and came at a time when he was forced to resign from ACT apparently,… he even wrote on the Daily Blog and we were very supportive of him. And I say that because these sorts of things are inclusive , – not exclusive to any citizen of any particular political stripe.
The law is there for a reason,… and is only contested when that law is shown to be either unfair or unworkable.
I wrote a comment yesterday and it posted before I finished.
Sounds like Winston and his best man Shane Jones the massive tree hoax planter has put a virus in the standard.org.nz
More like a pissed off remnant employee of the GSCB that got their fingers slapped when Key bailed after Trump got in, Pike River became too hot , Operation Burnham rose to public notice , and he got booed off stage at the Big Gay Out and the Rugby League… oh ,… and the Tax haven fiasco , Panama Papers and … do we really have to go on and on?…
Is the two words completely missing from this news report. Climate change is the real reason that no new coal mine should ever be permitted in this country or anywhere else on the planet.
*(Climate change ignoring has now become a high art)
So every day Mikes Mutterings come out with a new mutter of the day. Does anybody even read the mutterer. I see his topic of the day in passing but never feel the need to actually read the latest mutter. Comes to the crunch his mutter doesn’t matter
The country where it is illegal to mention climate change.*
Most of land which the company seeks to mine is within the Westport Water Conservation Reserve vested in, and managed by, the Buller District Council. The Council is the decision-maker for mining access to that area.
Under a 2004 amendment to the RMA, it is illegal to raise climate change as an objection to coal mines or any other industry in local council planning consent hearings in New Zealand.
The councils are bound to disregard climate change as a factor in their decision-making, accepting as they do that the Government will make all decisions with regard climate change, however, councils have to take into account the effects of climate change wherever their responsibilities apply. Even so, the general public can still demand that councils act responsibly with regard climate change and councillors themselves can harp. It’s all useful pressure. The pressure point would be insurance. There is also a signed accord by mayors and chairs about climate change and the councils’ intentions, so that can be used to encourage behaviours.
Shocking. ‘Clean, green, NZ’ what a lie. The RMA needs to be modernised to reflect modern environmental and sustainable rules and have long term social and environmental good at it’s centre.
The National (ex) Government took away the power of councils to make decisions using climate change as a reason. They didn’t want such things as oil and gas drilling, farming and transport affected by pesky local councils making decisions that might threaten those leviathans.
This last clause has been used by fossil fuel industry lawyers at Council Resource Consent Tribunal Hearings to get the court to strike out all evidence relating to the detrimental effects of climate change that arise from the granting of consents for new coal mines fossil fueled power stations, etc.
This ban on hearing climate change evidence in planning consent hearings, has been upheld by the Supreme court who ruled against Forest and Bird and Greenpeace who sought to have this ban overturned, in relation to the coal mining of the Denniston Plateau by Australian owned Bathurst Resources Ltd.
MPI’s Geoff Gwyn said this had been made more difficult by a lack of co-operation from farmers.
“After 10 months we’ve not had one scenario, and many of these names are in the public domain, who have come to us and said ‘oh by the way I got animals from a property down south’.
“We have even gone out down in Invercargill and put advertisements in the newspaper with the farmer’s consent and people are not coming forward and saying I traded with them.”
I think that ONLY farms that can show NAIT records of stock transfer should be taxpayer compensated.
NO RECORDS NO COMPENSATION
The sandflys tried there jam the breaks on there car in a dangerous part of the road with no logical reason for doing that last nite lucky Eco Maori always has a guard up Muppets . What I want to know is why is this story always getting the title changed and been around for weeks here the link below.
I know why Its storys like this that the some in the media keep alive that affect tangata whenua mana in a negative way there are many out there.?????????? ka kite ano
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Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
By RNZ Pacific The number of people with Covid-19 in the Pacific continues to climb with French Polynesia hitting 40 cases, Guam now over 90 and the US state of Hawai’i suffering its third coronavirus death. In the past day, another person tested positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia. ...
We needed a reasonable period of time to allow the recent surging wave of highly geared first home buyers to get financially comfortable. We didn’t get it, writes David Hargreaves of interest.co.nz.You know, I was really beginning to think (as well as hope) that we might just get away with it.By ‘it’ ...
Being stuck inside all day might be wearing you and your kids down, but there’s never been a better time to encourage them to pick up their musical instrument and get stuck into writing songs. Mike Chunn from Play It Strange explains how. Mums and dads and households with teenage children. ...
Siouxsie Wiles on the vitriolic correspondence she’s received since the Covid-19 outbreak struck, and the realities of communicating evidence.I recently received an email and text from someone telling me they are planning to email my boss, the University of Auckland vice chancellor. They are going to ask for me to ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, five of New Zealand’s best writers chronicle the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Fiona Farrell.There’s a sign sticky-taped to the bakery window. Closed Until Further Notice. Stay Safe NZ and Be Kind. We will get through this!We all know where the words ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes.It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes.And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...
On Friday night, the government quietly laid down some lockdown rules via a legal order under the Health Act. Law professor Andrew Geddis explains what it means for all of us (including David Clark). As the first week of level four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was ...
The health and wellbeing of people working and being held inside our prisons needs to be a priority, writes JustSpeak director Tania Sawicki Mead. Kelvin Davis’s interview on The Hui last weekend made it clear that precautions taken by Corrections to stop the spread of Covid-19 will create an unprecedented restriction ...
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes.Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks.When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Welcome to the second edition of our lockdown Top 10s. A reminder that this chart has nothing to do with sales or launches or the publishing cycle; these are just books the Unity team love – and this week it’s westerns, full of big skies and long rides and showdowns.AUCKLANDAll ...
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster’s plan to cover revenue shortfalls through borrowing without cutting low priority spending is immoral, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “Businesses and households across the country are meeting financial challenges ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin John Brophy, Emeritus Professor of Creative writing, University of Melbourne “Katrina, I had in mind a prayer, but only this came,” Bruce Dawe wrote to his infant daughter, new-born, in intensive care, her life in the balance, declaring as poets must ...
The shock closure of Bauer NZ – and with it all of the country’s current affairs magazines – is a stark reminder of the fragile state of local media, writes Mel Bunce, the author of a book on the subject.It is a dark week for journalism in New Zealand, with ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Rāmere/FridayWe made it to the end of week one e te whānau. It wasn’t that hard! In fact it was… Māori made easy.To end our week of pronunciation practice we’re going to revisit everything we ...
India faces more challenges battling Covid-19 than any other country in the world. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, hundreds of different languages spoken, and an estimated 80% of the workforce daily wage earners currently without jobs, it could be a recipe for disaster.I’ve been living in India for more than three ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi of Pacific Media Watch The Vanuatu government is using the Covid-19 to impose draconian measures and authoritarian rule by end of last month. Wholesale censorship of all Covid-19 related content has been instituted. Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) took the extraordinary step to ...
Open Mike 16/06/2018 
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...44 mins ago
Some time during the night we went over the 850,000 views mark. We might have had our millionth view by the end of this year – certainly by early next year. Most of the people involved in Redline spent years and years producing various small left-wing papers and selling them ...45 mins ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...2 hours ago
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...2 hours ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...17 hours ago
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messages from different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...23 hours ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...2 days ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...2 days ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...2 days ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...2 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...3 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...4 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 4 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...4 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...5 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...6 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...2 days ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...1 week ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...2 days ago
By RNZ Pacific The number of people with Covid-19 in the Pacific continues to climb with French Polynesia hitting 40 cases, Guam now over 90 and the US state of Hawai’i suffering its third coronavirus death. In the past day, another person tested positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia. ...28 mins ago
We needed a reasonable period of time to allow the recent surging wave of highly geared first home buyers to get financially comfortable. We didn’t get it, writes David Hargreaves of interest.co.nz.You know, I was really beginning to think (as well as hope) that we might just get away with it.By ‘it’ ...33 mins ago
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...7 hours ago
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes. It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes. And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...7 hours ago
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...7 hours ago
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...7 hours ago
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes. Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks. When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...21 hours ago
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...22 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...1 day ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...1 day ago
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...1 day ago
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...1 day ago
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford. I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...1 day ago
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...1 day ago
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...1 day ago
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...2 days ago
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...2 days ago
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...2 days ago
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...2 days ago
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...2 days ago
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...2 days ago
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...2 days ago
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...2 days ago
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...2 days ago
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...2 days ago
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...2 days ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...2 days ago
Vodafone says its continuing to see significant increases in calls and data on its networks after the first week of level 4 lockdown. ...2 days ago
We’re back!
Where is everyone today?
Shifted servers to (hopefully) lose those nasty outages that happened while I was cooking in Singapore for the last couple of months.
Still tuning up the performance.
Good work lprent
Thanks for keeping the machine running
* Still have the search to do.
* The caching isn’t too good right now – using way too little RAM.
* the opcache doesn’t seem to be working
But I’m going to nurse my jetlag right now
Looks like a problem in the mobile version as well.
Nope I am getting that as well. Might be a timeout error loading all those damn javascripts
You looking after you lprent, is more important than than those other tasks.
I’m pretty sure, we will all survive if you take some time to look after yourself.
Don’t know if others are also having this problem but replies hasn’t been working for me for sometime now.
In mobile or desktop?
Which operating system and browser?
What does it so?
Desktop. Windows 10. Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
Only Comments and Opinions are showing.
Ummm. Don’t have win10 handy at present. I pulled the VM HDD off the system to get this up and running again. Need to raid the cable supplies for a USB 3.0 type B (the over/under one) so I can run that drive in a USB cloner device.
So is it that the reply button isn’t working /showing. Or is it that the replies to comments aren’t visible?
Replies to comments aren’t visible in the usual column between “comments” and “opinions”. Also having to enter handle and email address for every comment.
Win 8.1, Chrome Version 67.0.3396.87.
Thanks for all the effort you put in 🙂
For me, it’s the reply button that isn’t showing.
Same here, also have to enter my details into the form every time I make a comment. I’m guessing cookies are not handled properly
Chrome on MacOS
Safari Mac too
Yes, I also have to enter in my details every time I make a comment.
Ditto here as well re commenting.
Same here.
Same, using Windows 10 & Firefox and Android & Chrome.
Same for me as ropata
Same Samsung x4
Add to all of the above:
Edit function a bit dodgy. Doesn’t always accept an edit even though well within time limit.
Ok. that makes it clearer. Will fix in the morning. It is javascript reading cookies on your local machine and plopping the results into the fields.
Obviously I don’t get this as I have to login.
Thanks 👍🏼
Hi folks hope all is well with you all.
The Greens are using electric trucks as a way to move freight???
https://beehive.govt.nz/speech/zero-carbon-bill-consultation-launch
They must say it is only for “local pickup suburban trucks as long range trucks are not available and tyres cause massive air pollution and cancer from tyre ingredients used in tyres such as 1,3, butadience and styrene.
Rail is the only land transport answer here, as rail can be converted to electric locomotion and also uses only steel wheels not tyres.
So the greens need to revise their sole reliance on using electric trucks for all land transport.and use electric locomotives instead, – wrong move James sorry there.
I will be raising this with them at the meeting they have invited us all to “have your say” so we will.
You, or the Greens, say that “long range trucks are not available”.
It may be worse than that. Studies of Tesla plans for long range trucks suggest that without some completely new battery technology they may never be available.
A study of the planned Tesla truck suggests that
“To cover 600 miles without stopping to charge, the truck would need a 14 ton battery. A 900-mile battery would weigh about 22 tons. Based on current prices, those packs would cost between $290,000 and $450,000. A comparable diesel rig costs about $120,000, all-in.”
and then, based on US rules, proposes that the cargo capacity would be much less than current vehicles..
“Considering the heft of the battery pack, plus things like the cab, trailer, and wheels, the researchers figure a 600-mile-ready Tesla truck could carry just nine tons of cargo. That’s two-thirds the current average payload of 16 tons”
https://www.wired.com/2017/06/elon-musk-tesla-semi-truck-battery/
Electric vehicles will no doubt provide acceptable ranges for cars, and short range trucks. I can’t see long range electric trucks for decades until a new battery technology may be developed.
Best go for electric trains for most of journey, with more but fewer warehouses in regional centres for smaller short-capacity electric trucks form there.
Thank God rail in Australasia and globally is going so strong at the right time.
For the life of me I cannot understand what you mean when you say
“with more but fewer warehouses “.
What are you trying to say?
“…more but smaller…”
Apologies.
We are about to see these forces hit real hard and fast once the petrol taxes come in. Everything but everything will increase, unless it’s fully electrified.
A good trial run before carbon itself gets taxes with the Greens impending legislation.
alwyn the trucker.
Bad news , eh?
More smaller warehouses, thus increased frequency of deliveries, increased inventory and complexity of managing multiple stock locations, loss of economies of scale and scope across labour, facilities and freight increasing firms costs and working / fixed capital, all equals higher prices for consumers with any green benifits debatable. Highlights the problem with most green ideas, feel good, virtue signalling but never really worked through re unintended consequences
Inflationary and will reduce consumption…..not necessarily unintended
@Ad.
Thank you. Now I understand.
If Electric vehicles catch on in a big way they are going to be taxed anyway,
It doesn’t matter very much when there is only a small fraction of 1% of the vehicles on the road are electrical but what is going to happen when electric, and probably AV, cars take over in a big way and there may be 50% electric cars?
They will have to be taxed unless you plan to finance roads out of general taxes.
cleangreen you’ve spoken about the alleged carcinogenic properties of truck tyre dust a number of times. I’ve spent an afternoon at a burn-out pad, how long do you give me?
Surely if the minute particles of truck tyre dust that get carried into my lungs were going to kill me, these kind of antics would be illegal. Lynchy does such a good job and he doesn’t even win!
I am sure that will upset a few of the wowsers.
Ugh ! … just woke up and groggy , and having a stiff coffee,… spent my time last night reading and watching vids about the Battle of the Solent… the one where King Henry’s flagship the Mary Rose sank . Love anything historical like that.
??! Crikey I thought I was bad, slept in til 10 😛
Nah , I get on a roll and its like a good book you cant put down… plus always been a Morepork… so was well suited to night security. A real documentary history freak 🙂
Same Wild Katipo, quite often realise I’m commenting at 1am or later!!
Same for me in regards to a good book.
I have been pigging out on Simon Winchester: Surgeon of Crowthorne, Pacific etc
As for fiction half way through David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.
I can’t recommend them highly enough.
If you need a laugh.
And so the “Winter of Winston” is about to begin………..
John Key tells Winston to stop “barking at the press”….
Audrey Young writes “Ardern will forgive Peters anything, even the unforgivable”…
A National MP has joked “We don’t want it so chaotic they are desperate to get Jacinda back. We want a medium level of dysfunction”………..
The National opposition are clearly in turmoil as the PM is about to starve them of media oxygen and with Winston being in charge. Most interesting and very likely entertaining political times ahead. The Beehive is a reality show in more ways than one.
The Winter of Winston.
Finally , some sunshine to bring to bear into the dark corners of Nationals dank corners…
Let the show commence !!!
Interesting the Herald editor sees fit to make an opinion piece headline news on their online edition. What’s newsworthy about a Herald staffer having an opinion?
It’s not boding well for Luigis turn at the wheel is it. I fear we might see a big surge in the Winston baiting & taunting from the feckless media. The egos need feeding.
There’s no such thing as ‘Winston baiting’…
That is food and sustenance to Mr Winston Peters.
Probably why he has had such a long and illustrious career and his detractors haven’t…
🙂
funny – Alice Snedden Te Reo Māori
Thanks Marty, a lovely nostalgia trip on the side bar as well !
Sheik of scrubby creek and Old farts in caravan parks.
The Hooter putting the spin on some uncomfortable truths coming out of the Winston Peters super leak case (but not really succeeding)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12070995
“Tolley and Bennett adamantly deny they misused the information given to them, which would make them better people than I am.
Were I a minister given such information about an opponent during an election campaign, I would leak it immediately. Any fault in this affair ultimately lies with obsequious bureaucrats not campaign-obsessed politicians.”
Sorry Mathew, but I find your hypocrisy to be just as galling as your utterly twisted moral compass. If it wrong for the bureaucrat to pass on un-necessary information to the minister (seemingly because the minister might misuse it), then it’s twice as wrong for the minister to then misuse that information. All you have done here is lay wide open the moral failings of the past National government.
Matters not.
What was done was a breach of privacy and thus illegal.
Mr Peters will be having a field day, and what Hooten says amounts to nothing.
“Mr Peters will be having a field day”
Yep….this is going to get really entertaining, although probably not for the respondents. Can see a few careers shredded here and probably not Mr Peters’
Yes ,… and Hootens ACT – like bemoaning of tax payers footing the bill:
… ” His way will cost the taxpayer more but is a small price to pay if it stops the passing of tax, welfare, police, health, education or other personal information to the Beehive and limits the “no surprises” rule to the purpose originally intended”…
Really adds up to a ‘ small price to pay’ in lieu of lack of an adequate anti Crime and Corruption Commission such as the state of Queensland has , – and if this is the price we pay for tolerating this sort of behavior then that is also on our collective tax paying heads.
Hooten has no leg to stand on. But to his credit, at least he did soften his stance as the above paragraph demonstrates.
As so he should have.
Now I also recall Rodney Hide was undergoing some pretty unfair goings on I think it was with state surveillance issues a few years ago. It was quite incredulous and came at a time when he was forced to resign from ACT apparently,… he even wrote on the Daily Blog and we were very supportive of him. And I say that because these sorts of things are inclusive , – not exclusive to any citizen of any particular political stripe.
The law is there for a reason,… and is only contested when that law is shown to be either unfair or unworkable.
Farmers are not exactly helping themselves out here…
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/104770470/farmers-failing-to-report-suspect-livestock-trades-mpi
A “dignified exit” or an attempted gagging with a sweetener?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/06/david-clark-should-be-hauled-in-front-of-prime-minister-over-middlemore-scandal-jami-lee-ross.html
Quite likely neither – avoiding a PG maybe.
On what grounds do you envision a personal grievance claim being laid, Stuart?
I wrote a comment yesterday and it posted before I finished.
Sounds like Winston and his best man Shane Jones the massive tree hoax planter has put a virus in the standard.org.nz
More like a pissed off remnant employee of the GSCB that got their fingers slapped when Key bailed after Trump got in, Pike River became too hot , Operation Burnham rose to public notice , and he got booed off stage at the Big Gay Out and the Rugby League… oh ,… and the Tax haven fiasco , Panama Papers and … do we really have to go on and on?…
Government declines application to mine conservation land at Te Kuha
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-declines-application-mine-conservation-land-te-kuha
Talk about glaring ommission
“Climate Change”*
Is the two words completely missing from this news report. Climate change is the real reason that no new coal mine should ever be permitted in this country or anywhere else on the planet.
*(Climate change ignoring has now become a high art)
So every day Mikes Mutterings come out with a new mutter of the day. Does anybody even read the mutterer. I see his topic of the day in passing but never feel the need to actually read the latest mutter. Comes to the crunch his mutter doesn’t matter
The country where it is illegal to mention climate change.*
Omg I did not know that. That is nuts.
The councils are bound to disregard climate change as a factor in their decision-making, accepting as they do that the Government will make all decisions with regard climate change, however, councils have to take into account the effects of climate change wherever their responsibilities apply. Even so, the general public can still demand that councils act responsibly with regard climate change and councillors themselves can harp. It’s all useful pressure. The pressure point would be insurance. There is also a signed accord by mayors and chairs about climate change and the councils’ intentions, so that can be used to encourage behaviours.
Shocking. ‘Clean, green, NZ’ what a lie. The RMA needs to be modernised to reflect modern environmental and sustainable rules and have long term social and environmental good at it’s centre.
The National (ex) Government took away the power of councils to make decisions using climate change as a reason. They didn’t want such things as oil and gas drilling, farming and transport affected by pesky local councils making decisions that might threaten those leviathans.
Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Act 2004
*My emphasis.
This last clause has been used by fossil fuel industry lawyers at Council Resource Consent Tribunal Hearings to get the court to strike out all evidence relating to the detrimental effects of climate change that arise from the granting of consents for new coal mines fossil fueled power stations, etc.
This ban on hearing climate change evidence in planning consent hearings, has been upheld by the Supreme court who ruled against Forest and Bird and Greenpeace who sought to have this ban overturned, in relation to the coal mining of the Denniston Plateau by Australian owned Bathurst Resources Ltd.
Thanks, Jenny; yes, that’s quite correct. Cunning as.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/359654/uncooperative-farmers-making-m-bovis-fight-harder-mpi
I think that ONLY farms that can show NAIT records of stock transfer should be taxpayer compensated.
NO RECORDS NO COMPENSATION
A well publicized amnesty first…..
They have had 3? years? already
The sandflys tried there jam the breaks on there car in a dangerous part of the road with no logical reason for doing that last nite lucky Eco Maori always has a guard up Muppets . What I want to know is why is this story always getting the title changed and been around for weeks here the link below.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/104646320/generations-of-domestic-abuse-finally-broken-the-story-of-a-murder-acquittal
I know why Its storys like this that the some in the media keep alive that affect tangata whenua mana in a negative way there are many out there.?????????? ka kite ano