Giving farmers more time to prepare and clean up their act is a good thing. I hope they don’t blow this opportunity and try to stall the process for as long as possible.
The 1st of November deadline is impractical, shit my crop paddocks at work were pooled with surface water till mid November.
And from what I've heard there slope mapping system is a shemozzle, I'm picking the government buying time so they can fix the problems and quietly let the daft bits fall away.
Formal Complaint to RNZ… not holding my breath that anything will happen, but you gotta do something, right?
Re; RNZ coverage of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018.
In a brief search I found over 20 RNZ headline stories from the period 8-22 April 2018 on the above subject.
In light of the recent letter titled "Statement of Concern" signed by five former OPCW officials, including the organization's founding leader, José Bustani, and others including Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Tulsi Gabbard, John Pilger, Lord West of Spithead, as well two former senior UN officials, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, in which there are raised (with many supporting documents and witnesses) serious concerns over the validity of the finished OPCW report on the April 7th Douma incident, one would expect RNZ to inform the public of these new developments under Part 2 9a of the Radio Code Standards "In the event that a material error of fact has occurred, broadcasters should correct it at the earliest appropriate opportunity."
Please let me reiterate, now that creditable evidence has surfaced that sheds new light and information, and in many ways repudiates many of the assumptions guests and commentators were asserting on RNZ over the period RNZ covered this story in April 2018, RNZ surely now has a responsibility (Part2 9b) to inform the pubic of these new developments on this story, just as they rightly reported on the story well over 20 times in April 2018.
I will cite Part 2 Standard 8 at a later date if no measures are taken by RNZ in the near future to bring this new information it's audience, thereby through its own reporting, leaving an unbalanced description of the events of the Douma event in the pubic arena.
But of course, RNZ gets their overseas news from the US standard bearers and the likes of Reuters, recently implicated in FCO collusion to "weaken Russia " through it's charitable arm
RNZ doesn't bother to fact check or verify or seek a diversity of opinions because it has been brought up to believe the western press is free and good and would never lie , unlike those bastards beyond the pale.
Thanks francesca, a little while ago I meet an interesting young couple who used to work at RNZ. They informed me that the interesting emails (and I would assume complaints) often get handed around the offices, so who knows…planting seeds maybe?…and at the very least, it's cathartic for me.
I can't see Rio Tinto shifting all that stuff (ouvea). What's in it for them? They have more money than our virtual widespread city. We could fight them in a Court battle and film it and make some money perhaps if it could have a Boston Legal approach put on it. That might pay for our legal costs which would end up being high no matter what we do. Would we be like cities in the USA which have gone bankrupt? Flint was managed into ill health through toxic water fed to them by officials and leaders trying to save money, in a depressed city previously driven by the wealth of a now closed car manufacturer.
And shipping it away somewhere; a nasty taste in the mouth will be felt by us out of guilt, and the poor people in any other country that the ouvea, even some of it, is shipped to. That is unless it can be neutralised somehow. Has anybody ideas from known facts about managing chemicals – what have you learned as an engineer Red Logix? Or anyone with some real knowledge behind their statements. Waving our arms in the air and expressing concern can be taken for granted. Let's move past that and see if anyone knows anything definite and doable, even if it is costly.
Just what is ouvea premix and what is dross and is it merely playing with words and degrees of toxicity? Fertiliser firm apologises for dross dumping – HazTec
(haztec.co.nz › announcements › fertiliser-firm-apologis… 17/09/2014 — Ouvea premix had substantially different chemical characteristics than dross, was less hazardous and had different requirements under the …)
And a nasty little sting. Ouvea is actually the name of a place (in Loyalty Islands I think where Bauxite was found). It sounds pleasanter than ' bauxite trash'. I wonder how people in that area like having that name used for toxic waste? Perhaps it will end up being called Kiwi?
I searched on google using these words 'scholarly technical details about ouvea from aluminium process' – this seems to open up the listings beyond NZ's problems. This stuff must have piled up around the world. What has happened to it? What have other countries done with it?
It needs to be neutralised as it will result in an environmental disaster bigger than we have had to cope with out of cows bottoms and those of men thrusting their way into piles of credits that they can turn into anything that takes their fancy. Ultimately nothing does, or so I understand from reading about Howard Hughes. In the process of reaching nothingness these people spread harm like Sauron the beast of Mordor.
In our part of the world Rio Tinto extract bauxite near Weipa in the far north of Queensland, ship it to Gladstone (and some direct to China) where it is converted to alumina using the Bayer Process. The alumina is then shipped to refineries, four in Australia and I have to assume some winds up at Bluff.
The main waste stream of the Bayer Process is a material called 'red mud'. It's mainly a bunch of relatively non-toxic oxides (all of which occur naturally in large quantities) but it is very alkaline and uncontrolled discharges of it are highly undesirable. Considerable effort is being made to find better ways to handle and dispose of it.
However this ain't what is of concern here in NZ. What we have is a different waste stream resulting from the refinery process when the alumina is converted into aluminum metal. For some reason the term 'ouvea waste' seems specific to NZ and the Bluff smelter. It's not clear to me why this is.
The best article I've found so far is here. It quotes two expert opinions, which both agree on the composition of this waste, but slightly disagree on the possible consequences.
“Ouvea premix is a mixture comprising around 30% aluminium oxide, 30% aluminium nitride and 30% magnesium aluminate, together with, amongst other things, small amounts of metallic aluminium.
“Of these, the most potentially hazardous compound is aluminium nitride, which reacts with water to form ammonia, release of which into waterways could have significant effects on fish life and aquatic flora.
The aluminium oxide is chemically stable with a very low bioavailability. It essentially comprises the surface layer on every piece of aluminium you've ever touched. In it's powdered form you don't want to get on your skin as it's an irritant.
The magnesium aluminate is otherwise called 'spinel'. Again it's a naturally occurring mineral that's stable and seems to present no obvious hazard at least according to it's MDS sheet.
This leaves the aluminium nitride as the potential problem because it's less chemically stable, and according to this MDS it slowly hydrolyses in the presence of water to form among other things ammonia and hydrogen gas.
The unanswered question is just how fast does this happen? It's certainly not characterised anywhere as a fast, highly unstable, exothermic reaction that would produce a fire, explosion or large quantities of gas. Nor at the other extreme is it something very slow like iron rusting.
And while ammonia gas is definitely toxic if you get a lung full of it at high exposure, as anyone whose worked with ammonia based refrigeration can tell you, it dissipates fairly quickly and breaks down in the environment without any accumulation issues. Ammonia is a very common material that's widely used very safely.
However in very damp conditions the gas will become heavier than air and linger in low lying pockets and enclosed spaces. The good news is that the odour is extremely pungent and most people will smell it and get the hell out long before it becomes dangerous to them. It's really only a risk when you're trapped inside with it and you don't have a safe exit route.
The hydrogen gas is extremely mobile and will dissipate very quickly with no harm whatsoever, but again it's possible to imagine a scenario where sufficient quantity is trapped in an enclosed space with the real potential for an explosion. Again it's hard to judge the risk here not knowing the reaction rates and ventilation available.
Overall my conclusion is yes there is a hazard, but it's not a very severe one. It does seem a dumb idea to store large quantities of it in a location subject to flooding – that should certainly be dealt to. (Has it been removed from the old Mataura Paper mill yet?) But even in the event that such a stockpile was flooded, it's not clear just how much or how fast the ammonia gas would be released, and whether it would ever gather in sufficient intensity to cause a hazard to people nearby. It could conceivably be a problem for anyone entering the building – but it's an open question that probably no-one can give an authoritative answer to.
Excessive alarm and stress over it's presence is not justified in my view. However I also agree it must not be left in Southland indefinitely, there is a good case for Rio to take ownership of the problem and ship it back to an Australian site where they already have better options to store it remote from any possible harm.
I should add that I’m absolutely not a chemist, but I’ve made a best effort here based on open sources of information. If someone has better information I’m happy to stand corrected.
This is the link to some NZ expert opinions that are consistent with the information in RL's comment @5.1. One concern appears to be the potential downstream effects of ammonia gas dissolving in water and giving a nitrogen (ammonium –> nitrate) nutrient boost to the river, a bit like nitrogen run-off from fertiliser and farm animal urine/faeces contaminating waterways. https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC2002/S00009/flooding-could-release-toxic-gas-expert-reaction.htm
8000 tonnes of aluminium dross, so say 2400 tonnes of aluminium nitride, containing ~800 tonnes of nitrogen; 'a drop in the Matura'. For comparison:
Is the aluminium dross byproduct of the Tiwai Point smelting process not suitable for recycling? In Iceland, "Around 7000 tonnes of aluminium dross is recycled annually", but maybe their aluminium dross is not the same as our dross? https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43615-021-00010-7/tables/4
Excessive alarm and stress over it's presence is not justified in my view.
Excessive alarm is seldom justified, imho. How about proportionate alarm?
Aluminium nitride – Ecotoxicological Summary
Overall, the available data on the hydrolysis products of AlN suggest that aluminium nitride should be classified as “Aquatic Chronic 1, H410” (very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects).
Still, the EU is notoriously risk averse about ecotoxicity – wonder why?
6. Accidental release measures Personal Precautions: Ensure adequate ventilation. Use personal protective equipment as required. Avoid dust formation. Environmental Precautions: Do not flush into surface water or sanitary sewer system. Do not allow material to contaminate ground water system. Prevent product from entering drains. Local authorities should be advised if significant spillages cannot be contained.
Understanding what the material actually is, and what the potential hazards are is the key to responding to it rationally. That I tried to provide above. My conclusion is that it doesn't represent an urgent or alarming risk to people. There is no need to catastrophise over this one.
The waterways are a somewhat different matter I agree, but that is something that can be readily managed in the short term at least. Long term it should go back to Australia where they're in a much better position generally to handle it.
It’s my understanding that one of the big constraints on Rio is that increasingly stringent regulations are making it impossible for them to move this material, even when it clearly makes sense for them to do so.
My conclusion is that it doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to people.
You might be right. One thing's for certain – the aluminium dross distributed around Southland doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to you and me.
If some locals are skeptical, then they need to understand that’s just the cost of doing business – suck up those risks, OK?
Oops, maybe the problem is a bit bigger than we knew. This time it's "Spent Pot Lining" – makes 8,000 tonnes of aluminium dross look like pretty small beans!
SPL is the "most significant solid waste" to come from smelting, according to the aluminium industry's global body, the International Aluminium Institute.
Again if you read the article, Rio have made real efforts to sell this SPL material as it can be safely recycled in the cement making process.
But the one plant in NZ interested in doing it closed down and tightened regulations make it very hard to send overseas. Regulations intended to protect the environment apparently.
"When one reflects on other events, eg the recent fire in stockpiled tyres [in Canterbury], it is clear that we are all becoming much more aware of the impact of historic activities on environmental well-being," Hadley said.
If only that were true.
Again if you read the article
I did read the article – even linked to it. However, since you've only got good things to say about Rio Tinto's efforts, and seem to be placing the blame on those dastedly 'environmental regulators', it's difficult to believe that we read the same article
The aluminium smelter at Bluff has stockpiled more than 100,000 tonnes of cyanide-laced hazardous waste less than 100 metres from a fast-eroding Southland beach.
The smelter company will not reveal its plans for the hazardous waste, despite international industry guidelines it has signed up to that say it should.
At Tiwai Point, the smelter company now faces legal action over the SCL waste. Retired environmental engineer Carl Reller from Wairarapa is seeking an enforcement order from the Environment Court to force a clean-up.
Some of the Tiwai waste has been processed overseas into mineral wool insulation, or detoxified for use in cement, bricks and the like in Europe, according to the Aluminium Institute, though it gives no figures.
"Regulations intended to protect the environment" – you don't approve?
In other respects, hazardous substance regulations apply – but these have been faulted. WorkSafe cited them specifically when it told the government recently that some of the regulations it had to work with "are so old" they were no longer relevant.
doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to you and me.
If you are imply that I'm willing to minimise the hazard because I'm not personally involved, then you really need to produce some evidence of this. I looked at the composition of the 'ouvea premix' and applied a reasoned analysis. If you think I got that wrong then produce your own case.
Speculating that I'm being dishonest is gutless.
If some locals are skeptical, then they need to understand that’s just the cost of doing business – suck up those risks, OK?
If the locals are being fed alarmist lies and are being misled into stressing about something that is unlikely to impact them – then exactly who is to blame do you think?
There is a lesson to be learned from Fukushima here – it’s now well accepted that some 2000 premature deaths were caused by the stress, despair, depression, drug use and suicides caused by unnecessary evacuations from around the plant. In the meantime deaths due to radiation = 0.
If you are imply [sic] that I'm willing to minimise the hazard because I'm not personally involved, then you really need to produce some evidence of this.
RL, clearly I've upset you and apologise for that. The hazard is what it is – expressing our opinions makes no difference to that.
In my opinion your conclusion ("My conclusion is that it doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to people.") is an opinion; one I can't entirely agree with.
Also, in my opinion, my response to your opinion began with a statement of fact: "One thing's for certain – the aluminium dross distributed around Southland doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to you and me." Although, to be fair, I only know that's a factual statement as it applies to me; I'm just assuming that you're (still) domiciled in Australia.
If you would prefer, then I'm happy to amend my statement to read: 'One thing's for certain – the aluminium dross distributed around Southland doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to you and me, and our comparative lack of proximity to said waste has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on our opinions of the risk(s) (or lack thereof) such waste might (or might not) pose to those living and/or working near the dross.'
Bit clumsy, but I hope that covers it.
Still, now that you've mentioned it, I can't help wondering if I'd be even more concerned about the risks (real and/or imagined) if I lived in Mataura. I mean, I like to think that I could be completely disinterested regardless, but then maybe I'm not the best person to judge that?
Therefore, and due to the relatively low release rate, classification of AlN for acute aquatic hazards based on the formation of NH3 is not possible.
This at least confirms what I concluded above, that the hydrolysis of AIN is so slow that the rate of ammonia and hydrogen production are very unlikely to cause a hazard.
As for the second part of that analysis around chronic toxicity, all of those calculations if I'm reading them correctly are based on the worst case scenario of high concentrations of AlN trapped in a fixed body of water, like a lake. And even then they only just manage to exceed the NOEC limits.
In a river system this would just not apply, everything would just get flushed out to sea within days or weeks. And by then the concentrations would be so low there would be zero impact of any kind.
There is an old saying that goes 'the solution to pollution is dilution'. And while it sounds dark – in many cases it's entirely true.
There is an old saying that goes 'the solution to pollution is dilution'.
Just as well it's an old saying. The capacity of spaceship Earth's atmosphere, and marine and terrestrial environments, to dilute the pollutants that civilisation churns out is vast, but not infinite – global warming makes that quite clear.
And yet, if it's water soluble then down the sink with lots of water it goes – no matter the toxicity. I wonder, does NZ test for PFAS in drinking water?
The situation in New Zealand is on a much smaller scale compared to Australia, both in terms of contamination area and substance concentration. A 2013 study found that New Zealanders generally had PFOS levels in their blood that were lower than concentrations found in the blood of individuals in the USA, Canada, Germany and Australia. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) levels were similar or lower. New Zealand has used PFAS compounds in consumer and industrial applications, but has not manufactured the substances.
I was careful to qualify my statement – dilution is certainly not a good solution in all cases.
Understanding chemical and radiological hazard is a very complex topic, but I can summarise the three most important ideas as – impact, volatility and bioaccumulation. Each one of these must be present before a particular material represents a hazard.
Impact – clearly different chemicals/isotopes have wildly differing biological outcomes, at hugely different concentrations. Understanding exactly how the material in question behaves in the body or environment is critical to evaluating the potential hazard.
In many cases, especially where a material is a naturally occurring mineral anyway, sufficient dilution almost always means there is no possible impact. What your reference called the NOEC limit.
Volatility relates to how easily the material moves around in the environment. The room you're in right now probably has hundreds of compounds that if they got into your body in sufficient quantity would be highly dangerous – but because they're immobile and can't get inside of you – they're perfectly safe.
And the final aspect that must be present is bioaccumulation. If a material can be excreted from your body faster than it's being ingested, it's unlikely to cause significant harm. This is pretty much what your kidneys, liver and skin do for you all the time.
Toxic hazard is really the aggregate of these three characteristics, and absent any one of them – there is no toxicity. And in the case of the oevea premix we were originally talking about – it looks like the toxic hazard is very low indeed.
But as you've now widened the discussion to all possible chemicals that can be found in the environment – and I'm going to have to decline to do a toxic hazard analysis on all of them – I fully accept that there are many chemicals which are very problematic indeed, even at very low levels.
One topic I've been following closely for some years now, is the alarming decline of male fertility observed worldwide that is not well understood. The most reasonable hypothesis is the presence of endocrine disruptors such a PABA in the environment. So by no means am I blind to the importance of understanding what we are putting into the environment.
And of course this would be one of the key drivers of a society with abundant energy and 100% closed loop resource use.
In reference to 6 1 2 1 – Something I have noticed before on this site is a tendency to stray from the point being examined, to include the situation in the rest of the world. While that should be in everybodys' minds, when thinking about N problems we have to think and act locally, and then take cognisance of the rest of the planet. Conflating all aspects of the problem may make it unmanageable.
You're right Grey, but imho storing aluminium dross (or SPL) in NZ is just one manifestation of a behavioural flaw. Many still don't/won't recognise the limited ability of natural ecosystems to buffer civilisation against its excesses.
It's pretty hopeless (not for me personally; I'm thinking about the living conditions we’ve bequeathed to future generations.)
Information that would allow linking the classification of ammonia to concentration levels relevant for classification of AlN [as an acute aquatic hazard]is not available. Therefore, and due to the relatively low release rate, classification of AlN for acute aquatic hazards based on the formation of NH3 is not possible.
Imho the thrust the quoted passage is that it is not possible to accurately classify AlN as an acute aquatic hazard because the necessary information is not available. This clearly differs from your assertion that the ammonia formed from the hydrolysis of AlN is "very unlikely to cause a hazard".
Tbh I'm struggling to understand how someone with your expertise and experience could make such an obvious mistake.
Aluminium nitride – Ecotoxicological Summary
Overall, the available data on the hydrolysis products of AlN suggest that aluminium nitride should be classified as “Aquatic Chronic 1, H410” (very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects).
The document draws a clear distinction between 'acute' and 'chronic' effects. In a river system any release due to flooding of the oevea waste stockpile is going to be short lived. Floods are like that, they go up, they go down.
Under the acute section it concludes:
Read-across from other aluminium salts and from ammonia, as detailed above, suggests that AlN need not be classified for acute aquatic hazards.
Essentially the reason why they conclude this is that because the release of ammonia due to AlN hydrolysis is so slow, and it breaks down so quickly in the environment:
For ammonia, there is no harmonised classification for chronic aquatic hazards. However, joint entries into the CLP inventory claim a classification as “Aquatic Chronic 2, H411”. This is based on presumed rapid degradability (NH3, as a central element of the bio-geochemical nitrogen cycle, is constantly incorporated into biomass) …
In a flowing waterway this is the context that is relevant. The conclusion you're quoting is under the chronic effect section that would be only reasonably applicable if the AlN was continuously present in large quantities in a slow moving or static body of water like a lake.
When NH3 is released from AlN exposed to water, it's presumed rapid degradation and incorporation into biomass could be part of the problem.
My personal preference is to adhere to the precautionary principle when gauging the risks posed by storing thousands of tonnes of non-natural chemicals in a residential setting, and to keep an open mind.
The people of Mataura cannot wait to see the back of waste from the Tiwai aluminium smelter.
Finally, six years after the dross began to arrive at the former paper mill beside the Mataura River, agreement has been reached to fast-track its removal.
The work has begun, and it is supposed to be all trucked to Tiwai by the end of April. It will eventually be exported.
This is, of course, a saga that should never have occurred. It is staggering that a potentially toxic substance could be stored on the banks of a major river in the middle of a town. The ouvea premix can generate poisonous ammonia gas when exposed to water.
A total of 10,000 tonnes of the premix had been sitting in sacks in the mill.
Concerned residents will not believe their front-door peril has disappeared until it actually goes, given the history.
The dangers were especially apparent in February last year when water from the flooded river entered the mill, and again in July when a sprinkler burst. In 2018, Gore District Council chief executive Steve Parry said Mataura had come close to environmental disaster during a flash flood.
Mataura residents, understandably, were anxious every time it rained heavily.
The dross was taken over by Bahrain-based Taha Asia Pacific, and it began storing the premix in the mill in 2014 without resource consent.
Concerned locals heard about this, and retrospective consent was given subject to a $2.6million bond. Taha went into liquidation in 2016 and the bond was never paid.
If I lived in Matuara, then my preference would be to support the protesters.
When NH3 is released from AlN exposed to water, it's presumed rapid degradation and incorporation into biomass could be part of the problem.
None of the references looked at so far use the word 'rapid'.
Aluminium nitride (AlN) undergoes hydrolysis in contact with water, with a reaction half-life of 22 h.
Linky? If that's correct it's actually pretty slow, and aligns with everything I've been saying.
The point is that worst case if the Mataura River had flooded, and swept away the entire stockpile into the river – virtually all of the ammonia release would be done and gone within less than a week. This isn't going to be a chronic event that hangs around for decades.
And if it was confined to just soaking the stockpile in-situ the rate of ventilation in the old mill would be quite likely enough to disperse the ammonia gas in a reasonably controlled fashion, and pose only a moderate hazard locally. We're not talking an overwhelming cloud of gas expanding rapidly and out of control; there would almost certainly be time to respond to such an event in a safe manner.
And keep in mind I was quite clear that storing it in such a location where it was vulnerable to flooding was a mistake and fixing that was an obvious way to mitigate most of of an already modest hazard.
Precautionary principle is well and good when applied to unknown or novel threats – but it’s not an excuse for catastrophising either. Once we know what we’re up against we can act accordingly .
Precautionary principle is well and good when applied to unknown or novel threats – but it’s not an excuse for catastrophising either.
Agreed, it is indeed well and good – as far as I know the storage of thousands of tonnes of aluminium dross on the banks of a river that is prone to flooding, in the middle of a small town, represents a novel situation. Gore District Council chief executive Steve Parry certainly perceived a threat ("Mataura had come close to environmental disaster during a flash flood") – I wonder how he might respond to a suggestion that he was "catastrophising"?
Once we know what we’re up against we can act accordingly.
Is it really expecting too much of the owners/managers of Taha Asia Pacific, the (now bankrupt) Bahrain-based company responsible for storing aluminium dross in Matuara, that they might have foreseen this could be “a mistake“? Of course, if they had then they might have felt obliged to inform those pesky regulators – ignorance is business bliss.
Aluminium nitride (AlN) undergoes hydrolysis in contact with water, with a reaction half-life of 22 h.
Linky?
It's in the document linked to @6.1.2.2 (and before that @6.1). You yourself linked to this document @6.1.2. Just search the page for "22".
Hardly. There is nothing unknown about the materials and the hazard is pretty well understood. If you really wanted to be thorough I'd take a couple of bags of the stuff and dump it into a tank of water in order to see exactly what happened.
That should tell us fairly quickly whether or not we actually have the potential for a catastrophe here.
Great suggestion – then we might be closer to knowing. Being thorough is not always the most profitable option, so I apply the precautionary principle when availing myself of for-profit services.
– as far as I know the storage of thousands of tonnes of aluminium dross on the banks of a river that is prone to flooding, in the middle of a small town, represents a novel situation.
Your response – “Hardly“. Well I’ll take your word for it. You’re not by any chance a businessman?
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David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
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Giving farmers more time to prepare and clean up their act is a good thing. I hope they don’t blow this opportunity and try to stall the process for as long as possible.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/124563172/government-delays-most-proposed-intensive-winter-grazing-regulations-for-a-year
The 1st of November deadline is impractical, shit my crop paddocks at work were pooled with surface water till mid November.
And from what I've heard there slope mapping system is a shemozzle, I'm picking the government buying time so they can fix the problems and quietly let the daft bits fall away.
Perhaps Grant Robertson will be the next MP to ditch Newstalk ZB after this interview.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/grant-robertson-defends-government-after-poll-results-travel-bubble-drama/
Hipkins and Nash both still turn up for ZB.
Formal Complaint to RNZ… not holding my breath that anything will happen, but you gotta do something, right?
Re; RNZ coverage of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria in April 2018.
In a brief search I found over 20 RNZ headline stories from the period 8-22 April 2018 on the above subject.
In light of the recent letter titled "Statement of Concern" signed by five former OPCW officials, including the organization's founding leader, José Bustani, and others including Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Tulsi Gabbard, John Pilger, Lord West of Spithead, as well two former senior UN officials, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, in which there are raised (with many supporting documents and witnesses) serious concerns over the validity of the finished OPCW report on the April 7th Douma incident, one would expect RNZ to inform the public of these new developments under Part 2 9a of the Radio Code Standards "In the event that a material error of fact has occurred, broadcasters should correct it at the earliest appropriate opportunity."
Statement of Concern: https://couragefound.org/2021/03/stat…
Please let me reiterate, now that creditable evidence has surfaced that sheds new light and information, and in many ways repudiates many of the assumptions guests and commentators were asserting on RNZ over the period RNZ covered this story in April 2018, RNZ surely now has a responsibility (Part2 9b) to inform the pubic of these new developments on this story, just as they rightly reported on the story well over 20 times in April 2018.
I will cite Part 2 Standard 8 at a later date if no measures are taken by RNZ in the near future to bring this new information it's audience, thereby through its own reporting, leaving an unbalanced description of the events of the Douma event in the pubic arena.
Regards
Adrian Thornton
Good on you Adrian
But of course, RNZ gets their overseas news from the US standard bearers and the likes of Reuters, recently implicated in FCO collusion to "weaken Russia " through it's charitable arm
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-office-russian-media/
RNZ doesn't bother to fact check or verify or seek a diversity of opinions because it has been brought up to believe the western press is free and good and would never lie , unlike those bastards beyond the pale.
Thanks francesca, a little while ago I meet an interesting young couple who used to work at RNZ. They informed me that the interesting emails (and I would assume complaints) often get handed around the offices, so who knows…planting seeds maybe?…and at the very least, it's cathartic for me.
Thank you and good luck
This is very likely unless NZ government can draw on help from specialist scientists around the world.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/438550/report-details-consequences-of-landfill-of-toxic-waste-at-tiwai-point
I can't see Rio Tinto shifting all that stuff (ouvea). What's in it for them? They have more money than our virtual widespread city. We could fight them in a Court battle and film it and make some money perhaps if it could have a Boston Legal approach put on it. That might pay for our legal costs which would end up being high no matter what we do. Would we be like cities in the USA which have gone bankrupt? Flint was managed into ill health through toxic water fed to them by officials and leaders trying to save money, in a depressed city previously driven by the wealth of a now closed car manufacturer.
And shipping it away somewhere; a nasty taste in the mouth will be felt by us out of guilt, and the poor people in any other country that the ouvea, even some of it, is shipped to. That is unless it can be neutralised somehow. Has anybody ideas from known facts about managing chemicals – what have you learned as an engineer Red Logix? Or anyone with some real knowledge behind their statements. Waving our arms in the air and expressing concern can be taken for granted. Let's move past that and see if anyone knows anything definite and doable, even if it is costly.
There may be something in this paper about bauxite. https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1076b/report.pdf
Just what is ouvea premix and what is dross and is it merely playing with words and degrees of toxicity?
Fertiliser firm apologises for dross dumping – HazTec
(haztec.co.nz › announcements › fertiliser-firm-apologis… 17/09/2014 — Ouvea premix had substantially different chemical characteristics than dross, was less hazardous and had different requirements under the …)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/437445/full-removal-of-all-stored-southland-dross-and-ouvea-premix-likely-four-years-away-council
And a nasty little sting. Ouvea is actually the name of a place (in Loyalty Islands I think where Bauxite was found). It sounds pleasanter than ' bauxite trash'. I wonder how people in that area like having that name used for toxic waste? Perhaps it will end up being called Kiwi?
I searched on google using these words 'scholarly technical details about ouvea from aluminium process' – this seems to open up the listings beyond NZ's problems. This stuff must have piled up around the world. What has happened to it? What have other countries done with it?
It needs to be neutralised as it will result in an environmental disaster bigger than we have had to cope with out of cows bottoms and those of men thrusting their way into piles of credits that they can turn into anything that takes their fancy. Ultimately nothing does, or so I understand from reading about Howard Hughes. In the process of reaching nothingness these people spread harm like Sauron the beast of Mordor.
In our part of the world Rio Tinto extract bauxite near Weipa in the far north of Queensland, ship it to Gladstone (and some direct to China) where it is converted to alumina using the Bayer Process. The alumina is then shipped to refineries, four in Australia and I have to assume some winds up at Bluff.
The main waste stream of the Bayer Process is a material called 'red mud'. It's mainly a bunch of relatively non-toxic oxides (all of which occur naturally in large quantities) but it is very alkaline and uncontrolled discharges of it are highly undesirable. Considerable effort is being made to find better ways to handle and dispose of it.
However this ain't what is of concern here in NZ. What we have is a different waste stream resulting from the refinery process when the alumina is converted into aluminum metal. For some reason the term 'ouvea waste' seems specific to NZ and the Bluff smelter. It's not clear to me why this is.
The best article I've found so far is here. It quotes two expert opinions, which both agree on the composition of this waste, but slightly disagree on the possible consequences.
The aluminium oxide is chemically stable with a very low bioavailability. It essentially comprises the surface layer on every piece of aluminium you've ever touched. In it's powdered form you don't want to get on your skin as it's an irritant.
The magnesium aluminate is otherwise called 'spinel'. Again it's a naturally occurring mineral that's stable and seems to present no obvious hazard at least according to it's MDS sheet.
This leaves the aluminium nitride as the potential problem because it's less chemically stable, and according to this MDS it slowly hydrolyses in the presence of water to form among other things ammonia and hydrogen gas.
The unanswered question is just how fast does this happen? It's certainly not characterised anywhere as a fast, highly unstable, exothermic reaction that would produce a fire, explosion or large quantities of gas. Nor at the other extreme is it something very slow like iron rusting.
And while ammonia gas is definitely toxic if you get a lung full of it at high exposure, as anyone whose worked with ammonia based refrigeration can tell you, it dissipates fairly quickly and breaks down in the environment without any accumulation issues. Ammonia is a very common material that's widely used very safely.
However in very damp conditions the gas will become heavier than air and linger in low lying pockets and enclosed spaces. The good news is that the odour is extremely pungent and most people will smell it and get the hell out long before it becomes dangerous to them. It's really only a risk when you're trapped inside with it and you don't have a safe exit route.
The hydrogen gas is extremely mobile and will dissipate very quickly with no harm whatsoever, but again it's possible to imagine a scenario where sufficient quantity is trapped in an enclosed space with the real potential for an explosion. Again it's hard to judge the risk here not knowing the reaction rates and ventilation available.
Overall my conclusion is yes there is a hazard, but it's not a very severe one. It does seem a dumb idea to store large quantities of it in a location subject to flooding – that should certainly be dealt to. (Has it been removed from the old Mataura Paper mill yet?) But even in the event that such a stockpile was flooded, it's not clear just how much or how fast the ammonia gas would be released, and whether it would ever gather in sufficient intensity to cause a hazard to people nearby. It could conceivably be a problem for anyone entering the building – but it's an open question that probably no-one can give an authoritative answer to.
Excessive alarm and stress over it's presence is not justified in my view. However I also agree it must not be left in Southland indefinitely, there is a good case for Rio to take ownership of the problem and ship it back to an Australian site where they already have better options to store it remote from any possible harm.
I should add that I’m absolutely not a chemist, but I’ve made a best effort here based on open sources of information. If someone has better information I’m happy to stand corrected.
Well that is good toffee to chew on Red L. I can hardly get my teeth apart. That will keep me quiet for some time!
I was motivated by your own comment above that you clearly put both time and sincerity into.
Cheers
Much appreciated. It's all bad news I feel, but it has to be faced and it is good to know more than I have seen so far.
How sincere are the apologies for the toxic mess?
Even if sincere still not good enough, the waste is an environmental problem which requires the right solution to clean it up.
Like those tyres that went up in smoke; it's only the environment – she'll be right. /sarc
This is the link to some NZ expert opinions that are consistent with the information in RL's comment @5.1. One concern appears to be the potential downstream effects of ammonia gas dissolving in water and giving a nitrogen (ammonium –> nitrate) nutrient boost to the river, a bit like nitrogen run-off from fertiliser and farm animal urine/faeces contaminating waterways.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC2002/S00009/flooding-could-release-toxic-gas-expert-reaction.htm
8000 tonnes of aluminium dross, so say 2400 tonnes of aluminium nitride, containing ~800 tonnes of nitrogen; 'a drop in the Matura'. For comparison:
Is the aluminium dross byproduct of the Tiwai Point smelting process not suitable for recycling? In Iceland, "Around 7000 tonnes of aluminium dross is recycled annually", but maybe their aluminium dross is not the same as our dross?
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43615-021-00010-7/tables/4
Excessive alarm is seldom justified, imho. How about proportionate alarm?
Still, the EU is notoriously risk averse about ecotoxicity – wonder why?
Understanding what the material actually is, and what the potential hazards are is the key to responding to it rationally. That I tried to provide above. My conclusion is that it doesn't represent an urgent or alarming risk to people. There is no need to catastrophise over this one.
The waterways are a somewhat different matter I agree, but that is something that can be readily managed in the short term at least. Long term it should go back to Australia where they're in a much better position generally to handle it.
It’s my understanding that one of the big constraints on Rio is that increasingly stringent regulations are making it impossible for them to move this material, even when it clearly makes sense for them to do so.
More unintended consequences.
You might be right. One thing's for certain – the aluminium dross distributed around Southland doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to you and me.
If some locals are skeptical, then they need to understand that’s just the cost of doing business – suck up those risks, OK?
Oops, maybe the problem is a bit bigger than we knew. This time it's "Spent Pot Lining" – makes 8,000 tonnes of aluminium dross look like pretty small beans!
Again if you read the article, Rio have made real efforts to sell this SPL material as it can be safely recycled in the cement making process.
But the one plant in NZ interested in doing it closed down and tightened regulations make it very hard to send overseas. Regulations intended to protect the environment apparently.
If only that were true.
I did read the article – even linked to it. However, since you've only got good things to say about Rio Tinto's efforts, and seem to be placing the blame on those dastedly 'environmental regulators', it's difficult to believe that we read the same article
"Regulations intended to protect the environment" – you don't approve?
Pesky regulations!
doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to you and me.
If you are imply that I'm willing to minimise the hazard because I'm not personally involved, then you really need to produce some evidence of this. I looked at the composition of the 'ouvea premix' and applied a reasoned analysis. If you think I got that wrong then produce your own case.
Speculating that I'm being dishonest is gutless.
If some locals are skeptical, then they need to understand that’s just the cost of doing business – suck up those risks, OK?
If the locals are being fed alarmist lies and are being misled into stressing about something that is unlikely to impact them – then exactly who is to blame do you think?
There is a lesson to be learned from Fukushima here – it’s now well accepted that some 2000 premature deaths were caused by the stress, despair, depression, drug use and suicides caused by unnecessary evacuations from around the plant. In the meantime deaths due to radiation = 0.
RL, clearly I've upset you and apologise for that. The hazard is what it is – expressing our opinions makes no difference to that.
In my opinion your conclusion ("My conclusion is that it doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to people.") is an opinion; one I can't entirely agree with.
Also, in my opinion, my response to your opinion began with a statement of fact: "One thing's for certain – the aluminium dross distributed around Southland doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to you and me." Although, to be fair, I only know that's a factual statement as it applies to me; I'm just assuming that you're (still) domiciled in Australia.
If you would prefer, then I'm happy to amend my statement to read: 'One thing's for certain – the aluminium dross distributed around Southland doesn't represent a serious or alarming risk to you and me, and our comparative lack of proximity to said waste has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on our opinions of the risk(s) (or lack thereof) such waste might (or might not) pose to those living and/or working near the dross.'
Bit clumsy, but I hope that covers it.
Still, now that you've mentioned it, I can't help wondering if I'd be even more concerned about the risks (real and/or imagined) if I lived in Mataura. I mean, I like to think that I could be completely disinterested regardless, but then maybe I'm not the best person to judge that?
Also from your link above:
This at least confirms what I concluded above, that the hydrolysis of AIN is so slow that the rate of ammonia and hydrogen production are very unlikely to cause a hazard.
As for the second part of that analysis around chronic toxicity, all of those calculations if I'm reading them correctly are based on the worst case scenario of high concentrations of AlN trapped in a fixed body of water, like a lake. And even then they only just manage to exceed the NOEC limits.
In a river system this would just not apply, everything would just get flushed out to sea within days or weeks. And by then the concentrations would be so low there would be zero impact of any kind.
There is an old saying that goes 'the solution to pollution is dilution'. And while it sounds dark – in many cases it's entirely true.
Just as well it's an old saying. The capacity of spaceship Earth's atmosphere, and marine and terrestrial environments, to dilute the pollutants that civilisation churns out is vast, but not infinite – global warming makes that quite clear.
And yet, if it's water soluble then down the sink with lots of water it goes – no matter the toxicity. I wonder, does NZ test for PFAS in drinking water?
Phew!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/01/23/pfas-toxic-forever-chemicals-found-drinking-water-throughout-us/4540909002/
I was careful to qualify my statement – dilution is certainly not a good solution in all cases.
Understanding chemical and radiological hazard is a very complex topic, but I can summarise the three most important ideas as – impact, volatility and bioaccumulation. Each one of these must be present before a particular material represents a hazard.
Impact – clearly different chemicals/isotopes have wildly differing biological outcomes, at hugely different concentrations. Understanding exactly how the material in question behaves in the body or environment is critical to evaluating the potential hazard.
In many cases, especially where a material is a naturally occurring mineral anyway, sufficient dilution almost always means there is no possible impact. What your reference called the NOEC limit.
Volatility relates to how easily the material moves around in the environment. The room you're in right now probably has hundreds of compounds that if they got into your body in sufficient quantity would be highly dangerous – but because they're immobile and can't get inside of you – they're perfectly safe.
And the final aspect that must be present is bioaccumulation. If a material can be excreted from your body faster than it's being ingested, it's unlikely to cause significant harm. This is pretty much what your kidneys, liver and skin do for you all the time.
Toxic hazard is really the aggregate of these three characteristics, and absent any one of them – there is no toxicity. And in the case of the oevea premix we were originally talking about – it looks like the toxic hazard is very low indeed.
But as you've now widened the discussion to all possible chemicals that can be found in the environment – and I'm going to have to decline to do a toxic hazard analysis on all of them – I fully accept that there are many chemicals which are very problematic indeed, even at very low levels.
One topic I've been following closely for some years now, is the alarming decline of male fertility observed worldwide that is not well understood. The most reasonable hypothesis is the presence of endocrine disruptors such a PABA in the environment. So by no means am I blind to the importance of understanding what we are putting into the environment.
And of course this would be one of the key drivers of a society with abundant energy and 100% closed loop resource use.
In reference to 6 1 2 1 – Something I have noticed before on this site is a tendency to stray from the point being examined, to include the situation in the rest of the world. While that should be in everybodys' minds, when thinking about N problems we have to think and act locally, and then take cognisance of the rest of the planet. Conflating all aspects of the problem may make it unmanageable.
You're right Grey, but imho storing aluminium dross (or SPL) in NZ is just one manifestation of a behavioural flaw. Many still don't/won't recognise the limited ability of natural ecosystems to buffer civilisation against its excesses.
It's pretty hopeless (not for me personally; I'm thinking about the living conditions we’ve bequeathed to future generations.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU
Let's just expand that quote a bit.
Imho the thrust the quoted passage is that it is not possible to accurately classify AlN as an acute aquatic hazard because the necessary information is not available. This clearly differs from your assertion that the ammonia formed from the hydrolysis of AlN is "very unlikely to cause a hazard".
Tbh I'm struggling to understand how someone with your expertise and experience could make such an obvious mistake.
The document draws a clear distinction between 'acute' and 'chronic' effects. In a river system any release due to flooding of the oevea waste stockpile is going to be short lived. Floods are like that, they go up, they go down.
Under the acute section it concludes:
Essentially the reason why they conclude this is that because the release of ammonia due to AlN hydrolysis is so slow, and it breaks down so quickly in the environment:
In a flowing waterway this is the context that is relevant. The conclusion you're quoting is under the chronic effect section that would be only reasonably applicable if the AlN was continuously present in large quantities in a slow moving or static body of water like a lake.
When NH3 is released from AlN exposed to water, it's presumed rapid degradation and incorporation into biomass could be part of the problem.
My personal preference is to adhere to the precautionary principle when gauging the risks posed by storing thousands of tonnes of non-natural chemicals in a residential setting, and to keep an open mind.
If I lived in Matuara, then my preference would be to support the protesters.
“…over the next four years.” Good – get a move on.
Aluminium nitride (AlN) undergoes hydrolysis in contact with water, with a reaction half-life of 22 h.
When NH3 is released from AlN exposed to water, it's presumed rapid degradation and incorporation into biomass could be part of the problem.
None of the references looked at so far use the word 'rapid'.
Aluminium nitride (AlN) undergoes hydrolysis in contact with water, with a reaction half-life of 22 h.
Linky? If that's correct it's actually pretty slow, and aligns with everything I've been saying.
The point is that worst case if the Mataura River had flooded, and swept away the entire stockpile into the river – virtually all of the ammonia release would be done and gone within less than a week. This isn't going to be a chronic event that hangs around for decades.
And if it was confined to just soaking the stockpile in-situ the rate of ventilation in the old mill would be quite likely enough to disperse the ammonia gas in a reasonably controlled fashion, and pose only a moderate hazard locally. We're not talking an overwhelming cloud of gas expanding rapidly and out of control; there would almost certainly be time to respond to such an event in a safe manner.
And keep in mind I was quite clear that storing it in such a location where it was vulnerable to flooding was a mistake and fixing that was an obvious way to mitigate most of of an already modest hazard.
Precautionary principle is well and good when applied to unknown or novel threats – but it’s not an excuse for catastrophising either. Once we know what we’re up against we can act accordingly .
Agreed, it is indeed well and good – as far as I know the storage of thousands of tonnes of aluminium dross on the banks of a river that is prone to flooding, in the middle of a small town, represents a novel situation. Gore District Council chief executive Steve Parry certainly perceived a threat ("Mataura had come close to environmental disaster during a flash flood") – I wonder how he might respond to a suggestion that he was "catastrophising"?
Is it really expecting too much of the owners/managers of Taha Asia Pacific, the (now bankrupt) Bahrain-based company responsible for storing aluminium dross in Matuara, that they might have foreseen this could be “a mistake“? Of course, if they had then they might have felt obliged to inform those pesky regulators – ignorance is business bliss.
It's in the document linked to @6.1.2.2 (and before that @6.1). You yourself linked to this document @6.1.2. Just search the page for "22".
represents a novel situation.
Hardly. There is nothing unknown about the materials and the hazard is pretty well understood. If you really wanted to be thorough I'd take a couple of bags of the stuff and dump it into a tank of water in order to see exactly what happened.
That should tell us fairly quickly whether or not we actually have the potential for a catastrophe here.
Great suggestion – then we might be closer to knowing. Being thorough is not always the most profitable option, so I apply the precautionary principle when availing myself of for-profit services.
Your response – “Hardly“. Well I’ll take your word for it. You’re not by any chance a businessman?
And in other Australian news – it's ridiculously fucking wet here on the East Coast.
The past month here in Brissy has already seen a lot of rain, the past three days have been particularly extensive – and now this.
Crazy country – either bone dry or up to your neck in it.
This will be a good test for the Mulloon Institute and their hydration systems. They are really taking off with this practice after a long gestation.
https://themullooninstitute.org/blog/2020/9/10/leaky-weirs-in-rising-floodwaters
Excellent linky – enjoyed that a lot!
Australian farmers are a tough and often adaptive bunch – they have to be.