Local, regional or full lock-downs. Checkpoints, soldiers on the streets, mandatory door-to-door testing. Further job losses, mass anxiety, bankruptcies. How long before the team of 5 million start calling for the Government to fully close the borders?
Jacinda warned that even the best trained and best equipped staff face a high risk of picking up the virus at one of New Zealand’s border facilities.
If we genuinely want to take a better safe than sorry approach, isn't it time we start having the discussion on fully closing the borders. I believe so. What say you?
I'm not concerned about the risk of having to go back into lockdowns, let alone the other bizarre things you're suggesting.
At this point, it's frankly nuts to be suggesting to suggest we might want to completely lock down borders, denying New Zealanders their right to come home. As for soldiers in the streets – get a grip.
The very few wobbles with managed isolation and quarantine that have happened at the border have come about from a slight excess of confidence in regular people being able to be trusted to do the right thing. Those holes are being plugged.
But even if there's spread to staff, they know how to manage it, and the behavioural changes most of us have made will slow any undetected community transmission down to much more easily manageable levels when it finally does get detected.
Good to know you are not personally concerned about the risk of having to go back into lockdowns. However, I think it would be fair to assume some are.
What are these bizarre things you think I'm suggesting? Local, regional or full lock-downs. Checkpoints, soldiers on the streets, mandatory door-to-door testing. Resulting in further job losses, mass anxiety, bankruptcies etc is the Government's new plan of action.
As for being nuts to suggest we need to have a discussion on fully closing down the borders, I think you will find some of us think it's crazy not to be having this discussion.
In normal circumstances allowing New Zealanders access is unquestionable, however this is far from normal circumstances. Globally, the rate of those infected is vastly growing, hence so is the risk
Not playing the hysteria card. Highlighting the reality of going back into lockdown. Which is a genuine risk the longer the border remains open and the virus vastly spreads.
PS
As for the Nats, don’t they want to widen the border – ie by bringing in offshore students? No wonder them playing the hysteria card went down like a cup of hot sick.
Here’s an informative article without the emotive hyperbole by people who put their names to it, unlike you who’s referring to imaginary and assumed “we” and “some of us”, which is a form of astroturfing and thus frowned upon by Moderators.
Stringent border controls and mandatory quarantine give New Zealand a good chance to remain free of Covid-19 for months to come, according to our latest modelling.
It's been 76 days since New Zealand's last reported case of community transmission, and our model shows the risk of an infectious person slipping through the border undetected remains very low. Provided the rules are followed, we would expect this to happen only once over the next 18 months — and even then, this person may not infect anyone else.
According to your link, currently about 400 people fly into New Zealand each day.
And again from your link, the modelling suggests the risk of an infectious person being released into the community is around 0.1 per cent – which according to your link means for every 1000 infected people who arrive at the border, one person will be released from quarantine while still infectious.
Moreover, the modeling in your link doesn't take into account people deliberately absconding from quarantine.
Therefore, in a perfect world where all rules are followed and no human mishaps occur then yes, the risk is no doubt far lower. However, as we know, we don't live in a perfect world. And as we have all seen, mishaps and people deliberately absconding happens.
If you aren't already hearing it from people within your current social circles, wait till we end up going back into lockdown, then the cries to fully close the border will become much louder.
Therefore, the discussion should be considered now rather than after the shit hits the fan.
Therefore, the discussion should be considered now rather than after the shit hits the fan.
Therefore, any discussion should be grounded in reality and be based on realistic assumptions and risk assessments rather than on scaremongering by individuals who freak out because they’re having nightmares or personal agendas.
The article was quite clear about their assumptions and based on our collective experience over the last months I think those assumptions are valid.
I don’t have a social circle filled with cries – no crybabies here. Even if I did, I wouldn’t base my comments here on it!
Therefore, any discussion should be grounded in reality and be based on realistic assumptions and risk assessments rather than on scaremongering by individuals who freak out because they’re having nightmares or personal agendas.
Indeed. No argument there.
The article was also quite clear their assumptions were based on all the rules being followed. However, based on our collective experience over the last months, the rules clearly haven't been followed.
And now we are or will be facing Martial Law and health ‘pogroms’? What I’m saying is that yes, there are risks that can be and are managed well enough and that there’s no need at present for kneejerk reactions and scaremongering. You do live in NZ, don’t you?
Calling for a discussion is not a knee-jerk reaction or scaremongering.
As for martial law and health ‘pogroms’, all I know is what the Government have announced, which is troops possibly manning regional check points. There could potentially be mandatory door-to-door testing. And there could be local, regional or full lock-downs with no warning notices given. Which will result in further job losses, mass anxiety, bankruptcies etc
Could you please stop your knee-jerking and scaremongering? Your whole comment is steeped in it! You’re not calling for a discussion with an open mind and your kind of ‘discussion’ is not worth having here. What you’re doing here on TS is scaring the horses for no good reason. Please, stop it or I will stop you, again.
Yes, the article does indeed state that the modelling suggests that around 1 in 1000 released from isolation/quarantine are still infectious. But I suspect there's either a typo or significant modifiers are being left out.
We have had around 26,000 people be released from managed isolation/quarantine since March 26, so an estimated 26 infectious people have been released. Yet not one of them has apparently infected anyone else after release.
So if there isn't a typo involved, maybe that "infectious" is really "theoretically infectious, but negligibly so in practical terms".
We need to improve the managed isolation regime to reduce risk.
All those in the first week confined to their room – keeping the first week intake and the second week intake separate is important.
As for the second week they should be separated by day – thus day 8, day 9, day 10, day 11 day 12 day 13 and day 14 would be allowed out of their rooms at different times.
Re guards being infected.
They should be required to practice social distancing when off work and maybe have a wristbracelet that identifies their position time for easy track tracing. soition
And pay them extra (with generous paid leave in 6 week blocks – 2 week self isolation, a month off without social distancing). It's money well spent. 12 weeks on, 6 weeks off.
As to community spread – we really need a card with bluetooth, and if we get this spread before we have such a card – we have to consider phone location tracking (develop capacity for this until such time as we have a card).
Yes, more can be done to help reduce the risk in managed isolation. Although, that will be offset somewhat by the increase in risk due to the growing rate of global infections.
I've yet to see any good articles exploring how it might play out as the parts of the world experiencing the highest population growth – India, Nigeria, Tanzania, Pakistan, Angola etc – run smack into increasing severe heat stress from climate change. Let alone water supply issues.
As a baby boomer I do consider that I am of the golden age due to having had the luxury of security on many levels compared to what the two generations below me are facing.
This is a nasty virus but even in the US it has still so far only affected about 1% of the population or 3.5 million out of about 338 million though their figures may be light by up to 40%. This in a country that seems to be trying its hardest to contact Covid.
The figures coming over the border here appear to be well below that threshold with 1 or 2 a day out of about 500-700. It is hard to get a handle on how many but it seems like around 30 with Covid in about 10,000 since level 1. My figures are probably shit but thats about .03% affected, hardly the plague of Biblical proportions but no reason to relax our guard, but also not a lot of reason for so much fear mongering.
Exactly froggle, my point was lets keep the bloody thing out but I am seeing a fair bit of every day unessecary angst about the pretty much non-existent threat to us here in NZ. Things like local nimbys complaining when a hotel gets requisitioned and silly little worries, I think some are winding up their mental anxiety levels for no good reason and harming their health , I blame the Nats for a lot of that with their disinformation. We are OK, we did the right thing and we are living with the well earned benefits of that, so lets shut down the Panic Merchants as quickly as we can by telling them to calm down.
It is satisfying to see the biggest most egregious bunch of PMs reaping the rewards of their nastiness with their precious party publicly garroting itself, the funny part is how much it looks like an old style Soviet putsch when an even more toxic arsehole grabs power and the bodies of the previous arsehole's acolytes start getting piled up in the streets.
Actually, "all it takes" is one person being missed by the departure terminal screening, not being observed on the plane, not being detected in iso tests, passing it to someone else in an undetected manner, that person not being symptomatic, then that person passing it to someone otherwise unconnected with the iso facility, then that person passing it on to another person via an unrecorded contact, then the next thing you know we have community transmission when the last person in the chain finally presents to medical care and they can't find any connection with overseas travellers or an isolation facility.
Even though your figure is that 1% have been infected, the disruption of the virus has a huge impact in many other ways on every person in the country.
This in a country that seems to be trying its hardest to contact Covid.
A pretty good number are also trying very hard to avoid it. Let's say it's 50% are taking measures, this slows it down big-time. Didn't the NZ Covid Brains Trust suggest that when you get above 80% taking social distancing etc seriously, then the infection rate drops? so this may explain the non-explosive spread you allude to.
There is no doubt that "kiwibuild" will be bandied about by national in the coming electioneering
So here is my scorecard for kiwibuild.
Labour
Positive 10, for recognizing a housing crisis and having a plan to deal with it.
Negative 10, for plan implementation and being naive in believing that a developer will build cheap housing, when using the same crap materials the same crap construction methods they can flossie it up a bit and ask twice the price for a 25 year life cycle house. Thereby doubling the profit.
Average net effect = zero
National.
Negative 10, for dishonestly denying there is a housing crisis.
For instance they won't compare what happened between 2014 to 2017 and 2017 to 2020, as being equivalents. Labour made Kiwibuild a flagship policy and have transparently failed. That failure is what will be in the voters minds.
If Labour can successfully pivot to the number of state house builds, they will be on much firmer ground.
So what you're saying is, Labour's attempt to let the free mark fully participate in Kiwibuild is what failed, and they should have just built them all themselves.
Seems like a bit of a repudiation to National's favoured philosophy.
Well that is the thing that voters do remember dear Wayne,
Labour builds State Houses
National sells them.
And National replaces the sold stock of houses with ditches and tents and vans parked in parks with open public toilets and calls it a 'housing initiative'.
And Wayne, its not Labour that needs to pivot, its your troupe of clowns that need to stop spinning out of control in the clown car.
Although relying on short voter memory is the only thing National has to offer, it is by no means a perfect strategy. Hypocrisy offends people, and offended people spread the reminders of how the Key government contributed to the present housing crisis. It is a subject upon which National MPs would not be able to speak for shame – if any of them had ever had any integrity whatsoever. 😀
The facts immediately below it (The headline) show that Labour has developed 5400 homes and sold 146 that were not worth repairing or in the wrong place.
"Massey University associate professor Grant Duncan, who teaches public policy and political theory, said politicians were known to make statements without providing additional information to qualify it.
While it made sense for the Government to sell housing stock that may not be fit for purpose or not geographically suited to demand, it had not done what it said it would and stop the sale of state houses, he said.
Don't forget Hobsonville and the meager promises of National to provide affordable houses ,developers sold those earmarked for affordable houses on the private market for a good profit.
You know that is a hyperlinked headline, don’t you? You know that others can click and read it the actual article, unlike you, and see straight through your BS troll attempt, don’t you? This begs the question why you act so stupid thinking that others are even more stupid? It looks like I may need to remove you from TS in the lead-up to the Election, don’t you agree?
The problem, of course, is that many won't go past the headline and so the headline will do its job of putting people off Labour despite the fact that the reality is far more nuanced.
edit
DTB So true. There is so much information or hyperbole or lies or part-facts swirling around that people don't have time to look up and read every link provided. It takes time just reading the blogs and comments that have the links in them. It is misleading for stuff business journalists/headline specialists to write that part truth headline about Labour, so that it reads entirely against Labour.
(In the media item John Anthony presents a valid point – that Twyford (let's blame him, I feel he deserves it) said that no more state houses would be sold by Labour. But I still think that the heading could have been better written. Better to say that Labour wanted to have its cake and eat it in its 100-days announcement.)
In the lead up to the 2017 election Labour said if elected it would immediately end the sale of state houses. In December that year former housing minister Phil Twyford issued a press release titled: Government stops the sale of state houses. The statement said the Labour-led Government had “cancelled the sell-off of state houses, fulfilling another of its first 100 day promises”. However, towards the bottom of the statement Twyford said it would still sell houses that were no longer fit for purpose.
You know that is a hyperlinked headline, don’t you?
This is i believe a deliberate stratagem and seems to be happening sufficiently often that perhaps we could start documenting and analyzing which publications are mostly responsible (NZ HERALD, stuff) for starters.
Its just more DP as far as i can see and would be good to be calling these players out.
Not necessarily DP per se, but certainly used by DP operators. MSM use headlines/clickbait to lure readers to their sites; it is how they operate. TS Moderators have no control over MSM but can point out ‘bad habits’ by some punters here on this site.
No deal, hyperlinks are fine and handy. It is the headline ‘message’ embedded in the hyperlink that often is the issue. Most people don’t even read past the headline but/because they have already taken in the ‘message’, mostly sub-consciously, especially when it confirms their cognitive bias.
Commenters are often asked by moderators to be descriptive when commenting. If linking, at a minimum we need to explain what the link is and, in the form of a response, why we are posting it. I think a quote from the article always helps liven it up too.
"It is the headline ‘message’ embedded in the hyperlink that often is the issue. Most people don’t even read past the headline but/because they have already taken in the ‘message’, mostly sub-consciously, especially when it confirms their cognitive bias."
Catering for "rural interests and scaling back what Ball labels overbearing and nonsensical environmental policies." A journo ought to ask Todd Muller why heartland Nats are deserting! No point asking the Nat leader? Well she didn't work with James Shaw. But she did grow up on a farm, so maybe.
Just like four out of five kiwis, most farmers also want cleaner lakes and streams, says Ball. But the government should set the environmental targets, not the rules and regulations. Leave that to the regional councils and farmers groups, who know the best way to manage their land.
Good point, so the Stuff journo got clever & ran it by a Bluegreen.
“He's got quite a good point there actually,” says Guy Salmon, an executive director of Ecologic a non-profit foundation that promotes sustainable development. Salmon says The Land and Water Forum, recommended this approach in 2012, which was then trialled in the Waikato with some success. However, delayed negotiations over iwi water rights stalled the policy from going nation-wide.
“Good luck to them if they can make it work,” says Salmon. But while Salmon says the Heartland freshwater ideas make some sense, the same can’t be said for their stance on climate change.
What interests me is that these hicks from the sticks have decided that Nats + neocons + Act look too much like one big pile of crap to be worth supporting.
Leave that to the regional councils and farmers groups, who know the best way to manage their land.
Can't see how you can think that is a good point. If farmers knew how to best manage 'their' land and actually gave a shit then we wouldn't have a problem. Most farmers know jack shit about fresh water ecology.
Yes, definitely, re farmers. I was agreeing with the logic about regional councils. I recall how big the Greens were on local & regional governance when I was an activist. It is true, however, that capture of governance decisions by farmer activists could be a downside of that.
The reality is that regional councils have been fuck useless at enforcing their own rules. Yes often regional councils are captured by farmer interests.
It's all about culture and agri-culture is embedded in all of us; recognising it for what it is, then acting outside of its influence is our only hope (imo).
Agree with both soltka and RG here. Elected regional councils tend to be conservative and farmer heavy. RC staff tend not to enforce their own regs. It's a shit show, literally and figuratively. NZ mostly stood by and watched it happen. Part of the issue is regional council elections and lots of people not voting.
In that case there's important learning to be done by Green parliamentarians. They may have already done it. But could be worth checking Green policy to discern if that learning has been integrated! In respect of the relevant Green Charter principle, I mean. Policy ought to signal how to implement our principles in real life situations…
Good question – but I was just acknowledging your point about democracy vs vested interests. I see no future in Greens advocating local/regional democracy if it doesn't work in practice. Mere words, then. As devoid of substance as any sloganeering by Labour.
It's up to your generation & any other generation younger than mine to progress the situation now. Whatever framing the GP has since put around the principle we adopted ought to be reality-checked!
I see no future in Greens advocating local/regional democracy if it doesn't work in practice.
It works. NZers generally don't care if we have shitty rivers, despite what they say, and they vote in the local govt that gives them that. It's a low form of democracy but I don't see that giving up on it would improve the situation, and would actually make it much worse.
I was agreeing with the logic about regional councils.
High probability that the regional councils don't know any thing about fresh water ecology either. They simply don't have the dedicated research teams and I doubt if they read what the universities put out.
Oh, that's not true at all! Not only do councils have such teams/people, but they are intimately connected to the non-council teams that are dedicated to such research. Councillors may know little, but their science staff know full-well!
They are political institutions. If those were dominated by National Party voting councillors, what sort of decisions do you expect would be made? Environmentally-friendly ones?
I don’t follow how you set targets without rules & regulations. Very wishy-washy toothless proposal. My target is to lose 15 kg by Christmas but I don’t set rules & regulations for myself and it will just happen by my sheer willpower (positive thinking) and motivation (NY’s resolutions from 2016) without having to change any habits or make any sacrifices. Mate, they’re dreaming!
And living that dream. Trying to. I agree targets are insufficient: implementation strategies are crucial to hitting a target. As bowmen of your discovered: need a straight arrow, a competent fletcher, plus a yew bow like Robin Hood!
Leave that to the regional councils and farmers groups, who know the best way to manage their land.
If they knew the best way to manage their land then we wouldn't be having the issues that we're having now and we wouldn't need to have the central government stepping in to fix their mess.
Couple of pieces on the state of play with Tiwai Point.
There's a six month "un-termination" window in the power supply contract. So maybe this is next-level hardball negotiation from Rio Tinto. For mine, fuck 'em. Let's sort out an alternative plan for the Southland economy and the affected people and say Bye Felicia to Rio Tinto.
But it seems WinnieFirst wants to pay the ransom to buy a temporary reprieve for the jobs hostages. Hopefully they'll get told Bye Felicia in a couple of months too.
For a start, the government is the only party that has the required cash. Funny really, all these reforms after 36 years and the New Zealand private sector is still too weak to engage in capital intensive activities.
The only national interest reason to have a smelter is if there's a massive oversupply of electricity that we want to somehow sell overseas. That may have been arguably true back when Tiwai Point and Manapouri were first conceived and hardly anybody cared about GHG emissions. That is definitely no longer true, we have plenty of good uses for that electricity domestically, not least of which is simply shutting down Huntly's inefficient single stage coal-fired turbines.
The other possible (really dumb) reason is just as an explicit jobs creation scheme, regardless of how the economics stack up. In this case, the economics just won't stack up, because of the messed up structure of the worldwide aluminium production market.
Chinese suppliers are a real mess of subsidies and other government intervention, and non-chinese suppliers are heavily vertically integrated. As I understand it, there are very few alumina suppliers that aren't tightly bound to smelters, so a nationalised smelter would be subject to the same jobs-hostage squeezes that we're currently subjected to from Rio Tinto. That makes it all a snake-pit we would do best to keep well clear of.
But the private sector is really great at getting subsidies and ripping off the tax payer as proven by all the subsidies that we've paid over for the aluminium smelter over the decades.
But having the ability to smelt aluminium, especially if we develop that bauxite up in Northland, would be beneficial to the country if our supply lines become even more disrupted.
And, of course, the whole point of the government keeping it going is for the benefit of NZ which means that it cannot be left in private hands.
First question that should be answered is smelting aluminium from imported raw materials the best use of that energy and labour. Are there better options that would be better for Southland and New Zealand.
There’s been talk if a Tesla plant and also of a silica industry, refining a local resource. Not sure about the scale of that resource but it’s said to be of very good quality. Also wonder if there’s a connection between the two.
That Tesla gigafactory thing is pure unicorns frolicking in a meadow with daffodils.
Silica could be more interesting if it indeed uses a local resource so it's not subject to international supply chain fuckery and the value of the final product is largely dependent on the energy supplied to produce it.
Electricity consumption really isn't that significant an input, so access to Manapouri power isn't much of an advantage.
A Tesla gigafactory needs a lot of people with very highly specialised skills. Attracting them to the bottom of the South Island would be quite the project. (well, maybe attracting them wouldn't be difficult right now, but getting them to stay might be tougher).
People with high paying jobs on Southland tend to hang onto them. The lifestyle, and low cost of living makes the place pretty good. The climate can have it's moments, but Southland on a good day takes some beating, and if it's crap you're not far from somewhere that's not too bad. Even a howling southwesterly has it's charms for it's sheer power.
The smelter has a very stable workforce and it's really hard to get jobs there.
It's one or the other, a lot of people get into what the region has to offer and thrive on it, others it's not their cup of tea and can't stand the place. But I'm like that with Auckland.
While the smelter has a stable workforce, the money has a lot to do with that. On smelter wages Southland is pretty good. No one's that fussed about the job but know people from process workers to engineers and admin that have been there 20+ years
The hill was pretty good today too, I'm working at 1000m on a north aspect, had fantails flying around this afternoon, but looking down on permafrost in the basin.
There’s been talk if a Tesla plant and also of a silica industry, refining a local resource. Not sure about the scale of that resource but it’s said to be of very good quality.
Government estimates put Southland's reserves at 350,000 to 400,000 tonnes of high-purity silica, as well as one billion tonnes of potentially usable lower-grade silica.
Of course, if we put the effort in, the low quality can be turned to high quality.
The problem, IMO, is that we tend to only think of doing one thing with it. Solar cells or batteries – not both. Thing is, if we also developed our rare earth extraction and processing then producing silicon chips (CPUs, GPUs, and other) becomes an option as well. Build a fabrication plant and produce Intel/AMD/nVidia chips under contract as Taiwan does as well as being able to support the development of our own local IT industry.
People are worried about the loss of jobs when the smelter closes down but there's so much potential for other jobs.
And I'd keep the smelter going to some extent so as to support our local aircraft manufacture even going so far as to develop our bauxite deposit in Northland.
The problem of focussing on farming as the main earner (with everyone else doing low paid service jobs) over the last few decades is that we've let so much potential go to waste.
Pretty sure import bauxite from Australia for smelting – not alumina. This would indicate that Tiwai either does process to alumina or skips that step altogether.
An interesting point is that the smelter at Tiwai uses an old smelting technique. It produces better aluminium but it costs a lot more to run that what the rest of the world is using.
"The facility, New Zealand’s only aluminium smelter,[3] is at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. It imports alumina and processes it into primary aluminium. The plant's alumina is supplied from refineries in Queensland and the Northern Territory of Australia. Around 90 per cent of the aluminium produced at NZAS is exported, mainly to Japan.[4]"
An interesting point is that the smelter at Tiwai uses an old smelting technique. It produces better aluminium but it costs a lot more to run that what the rest of the world is using.
And that is the problem with Tiwai. It was built just before the process changed to something more efficient and has never been competitive. Tiwai's closing has been a thing from pretty much the day it opened.
Turn it into a huge hydrogen production plant producing clean hydrogen instead of aluminium. Sell that on the international market as a new green fuel alternative. Become the ME/OPEC of the Pacific.
Let's put some rough hand-wavy numbers to that thought.
Tiwai Point consumes around 5,000 GWhr of electricity annually. It takes about 65kWhr of electricity to split enough water to get 1 kg of hydrogen and compress it for storage and transportation. So that could produce around 80,000 tonnes of compressed hydrogen. That's just over 0.1% of the 70 million tonnes of hydrogen currently produced worldwide.
In dollar terms, Tiwai Point is probably paying a bit over 6 cents per kWhr (including transmission charges). That means the electricity cost for 1kg would be around NZD3.50 to NZD4.00. That doesn't look great compared to a worldwide market price for hydrogen of around USD1.65/kg.
The main reason hydrogen is so cheap is it's mostly produced by steam reformation of fossil fuels, and the producers get to dump the hazardous waste CO2 produced into the atmosphere for free. But even if that wasn't the case, and NZ hydrogen had to compete against worldwide electrically produced green hydrogen, it would probably be competing against photovoltaic electricity produced at a price under USD0.02/kWhr, produced somewhat geographically closer to where it gets used.
So it would make more sense to use it domestically, reducing our imports of fossil fuels.
I'm personally of the view that hydrogen is unlikely to take off, except for niche uses, and that batteries will become the dominant energy storage for most users such as cars, domestic, industrial etc.
First up, the hydrogen round-trip energy efficiency from electricity generation to finally doing useful work is lucky to beat 50%, and down as low as 30% is reasonably likely.
Sources of energy loss are in the electrolytic splitting of water, compressing and/or cooling it for storage, then fuel cell efficiency isn't that great (if the final energy conversion is in an internal combustion energy, total efficiency is abominable). In contrast, electricity generation to final useful work easily exceeds 80%, and can go into the 90s if the energy is stored in batteries.
Hydrogen is a real materials engineering nightmare. It embrittles many useful grades of metals, and the ones it doesn't tend to have lower performance but be more expensive. It just pisses through plastics and other polymers, usually degrading them rapidly. So flexible piping and sealing are headaches. It requires skill and care from mechanics and technicians that's a level or two up from most common technologies now.
It scares me from a safety viewpoint. It has a very wide range of explosion concentration in air, from 4% to 74% (IIRC, only acetylene has a wider range for the commonish gases). Its flame is invisible, but gives off a shitload of UV.
For a while in the early noughties when hydrogen was more widely thought to be the future and battery tech hadn't taken off, there was concern that widespread hydrogen leakage would have serious effects on the ozone layer. That's gone a bit quiet, but I dunno if that's just because hydrogen hype has gone a bit quiet, or further investigation suggests the risk to the ozone layer isn't so serious.
To my mind, the only potential real advantage hydrogen has for most users is it's quickish to refuel, closer to filling up with petrol than recharging a battery. But charging speeds are quickly increasing along with battery sizes, so that potential advantage is rapidly shrinking.
It hasn't gone unnoticed – the case of Tauranga's entire stock of Housing NZ homes being sold lock stock & barrel for an undisclosed pittance is another part of the story that remains untold IMO. Accessible Properties now are after govt funding to exploit the land in the guise of "social housing" by now demolishing a significant number of the homes
This government needs to remove IHC the heck away from the provision of state housing. What a complete and utter balls up that was. The filthy money grubbing snakes at IHC swooped in when the opportunity arose purely because the Salvation Army gave Key's government the finger. Total slime.
It certainly was convenient – I thought it was a bit moot with them for a bit effectively "gone" but I will wait with interest for the next candidate election returns as both Bridges (2014 & 2017) & Muller (2017) had the same main donor who oversaw the sale here as the CEO of Accessible Properties. It's all a matter of public record that's been largely over looked but with the "bad blood" that appears to have arisen between the 2 local candidates it will be fascinating if the patronage continues to both of them – or as I suspect only one or more likely neither of them this time around
The facts immediately below it show that Labour has developed 5400 homes and sold 146 that were not worth repairing or in the wrong place.
The article only looks at Nationals record over its last 3 years where over its 9 years in power it decreased the stock of state houses by several thousand….somebody on TS will have the exact numbers.
After a quick look all I can say is that National has gone full on delusional. They seem to still be thinking in terms of economic growth that is simply not physically possible.
At first glance it looks like a gold-plated make work scheme and given the Transmission Gully stuff up, it looks as though it could be extended for years with a never ending series of financial top ups. However, TG is mopping up overseas unemployed more than make-work for Kiwi's. Looking closer, it seems more likely that it is a financial transfusion from essential services into the pockets of profiteering parasites like Downer, Fulton Hogan et al and cash pools for the 'financial partners' to slosh around tax havens. Oh joy!
Interesting to watch the headlines change, it went from "It's the biggest infrastructure spend ever!" then a couple of hours later they added "National claims", someone's obviously done some fact checking.
It seems they are going to smash congestion according to Bishop,who's aspiration to build world class cities suggest he is provincial.
“Previous governments have not been ambitious enough in dealing to congestion. World-class cities have high-quality public transport networks where mass transit is a normal part of everyday life.
“Under National, Auckland will become the world-class city it can and should be – and the Upper North Island will become an interconnected economic powerhouse.”
As John Raulston Saul suggests (quite convincing)
“World class is a phrase used by provincial cities and second-rate entertainment events, as well as a wide variety of insecure individuals, to assert that they are not provincial or second-rate, thereby confirming that they are.”
Further as Bishop states.
“Congestion costs Auckland over $1 billion per year. It means unreliable journey times,
Indeed the problems that arose for his constituents ( Corona and Disease) on their big day out was problematic at best.
Why are they proposing heavy rail to Auckland Airport, via a Puhunui spur, I thought that debate had been well canvassed, and a heavy rail line was always the first option but found to be unworkable
Greater Auckland might say it's unworkable because it's not in their Congestion Free Network Mk2. But how workable is two raised tram lines running the length of Dominion Road and beyond???
I, presumably like everyone else, am kind of seduced by their CFN2 with its London Underground graphics but am also bewildered why it never seems to be referenced in high level discussions. I could be wrong on this.
The constant criticism of Twyford and Labour is there was no vision but there is a vision, GA has worked on this very thing for years.
Right now I prefer the Puhinui spur CBD-airport solution but am happy to change my mind if a case for GA's 'Central Line' has some widespread consensus. But nobody seems to be selling it.
I would say that the London Underground is better 'rail' than NZ ‘Toytown Express’ rail system, and it goes all the way to Heathrow underground, unimpeded by road traffic. The same would apply to Paris's larger underground service (the RER?) which efficiently services Paris's airports. I don't think your point is valid here: I see trams being held up in Dominion Road as a bloody silly idea.
Yes, was too slow to delete as my wife pointed out there were trains to both Heathrow and Charles deGaulle though not Melbourne (I asked why we then used taxis). …so the comment can be ignored.
Thanks for correcting Pat. There's both Underground and BR lines beneath Heathrow.
I think New Zealand's tourism numbers and the industry's contribution to GDP demands better infrastructure for travellers.
There's a lot of talk about improving tourism infrastructure up and down the line so that both visitors and Kiwis benefit and I think a 21st Century connection from the main entry point to the rest of the country is vital to that cause.
Very good and well worth the read. I see MMT as an interesting evolution pulling together the functional threads of both socialism and capitalism into a form better adapted to the world we are rapidly plunging into.
According to MMT economists, we've been thinking about government spending and budget deficits the wrong way.
They say Margaret Thatcher's dictum that federal governments must tax or borrow before they can spend is fundamentally wrong, and it's the other way around — federal governments have to spend money into the economy before they can tax or borrow.
It's a crucial point.
That is a crucial point. But it has a point that most don't realise.
If the government can spend money then we don't need rich people to fund enterprise.
We don't need shareholders and we don't need owners and at that point it becomes obvious that we don't need capitalism to push development.
A group of people can come together, form a business and then go down to the state bank and, if their business plan looks good, get a 0% interest loan that only needs to be paid back once the business starts making a profit – or not paid back at all if the business falls over. That business would, of course, be a cooperative with none of the people working there owning it but all sharing in its governance and sharing in the rewards.
That silica development mentioned up thread could be done that way as well or it could be that the government finances and directs for a time until its established and then has it continue as a cooperative. What we most definitely shouldn't do is finance people to develop it and then allowing them to take ownership of it as that just increases the bludging of the shareholders.
The article doesn't address the question of whether the private banking establishment should be allowed to create money out of nothing – an issue which also seems to be part of the the MMT agenda.
National party supporters are criticizing the government for loading the government up with debt in response to the covid19 crisis. I'm inclined to agree; instead the government should simply have "printed" the money.
Sorry – I am not getting notifications for replies to comments and I am not constantly perusing them to see a response.
There were insinuations in the comments sections re the declined breakfast show – people pointed out that Helen, still working full time as an employment lawyer may have other commitments – to which Chloe made snarky 'at 7am' comments and the suggestion that she is not working as hard as she should be this close to the election.
Every reference to Helen being the nearest competitor has been coupled with comments about entitlement to votes. – Again repeatedly on her facebook page and commentary there. I don't think the fact that she hasn't singled Helen out by name really matters, given her initial refusal to even name her as the candidate (although I saw that was edited later following criticism in the comments section).
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[you look like you are new here Breanna, so please read the About and the Policy before commenting again. If there’s anything you don’t understand, please ask. The upshot is that if you make claims of fact eg Swarbrick called White lazy, then you have to back that up. This is to protect the site owners legally, and it’s also to protect the debate culture here. The expectation is that you will do the work to back up what you say. This is doubly so if a moderator asks you.
If you want have a go about the Greens you have to make a sound political argument not just spread rumours. In this instance you would need to quote what CS actually said and give a citation or link. The site exists for robust debate, not political slander. At the moment it looks like you just made shit up. I’d appreciate a response so I know you have read this an understood. Incognito may also want to address the issues he moderated – weka]
Pretty rough to move Breanna's comment and give it the old 'two paragraphs of bold type' when it seemed like a pretty detailed observation on the battle for Auckland Central.
A steep learning curve for a newcomer to the site who demonstrates a clear negative bias towards the Greens, in this case, in all comments so far. Either they learn quickly or they’ll be moved on. The site is attracting more traffic and comments and there have been an increased number of new users as one would expect on a political blog in Pre-Election time. Moderators will display decreasing levels of leniency.
I’m not that quite satisfied with your response to the Moderation and I’ll explain why.
When you state that people said something, e.g. about another person, it needs to be linked/shown as a quote. Paraphrasing is often more like selective quoting. Going on insinuations and comments in threads means you are making some assumptions of the intended meaning and that you’re drawing your own conclusions (or spin). Given your obvious negativity towards the Greens, I think that this is what’s happened when you accused CS of the things you did.
To avoid future run-ins with Moderators here you should stick to facts and verbatim quotes and clearly indicate when you state your opinion, i.e. what you think or believe to be true but you cannot be sure that it is actually true and that you haven’t made it up, e.g. in your own mind. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have malicious intend but that your own mind tricks you in believing things that are not real, true, or correct. When in doubt, say so, e.g. ‘I think …’ or ‘I believe …’, et cetera.
In Summary, don’t assert or allege things that you cannot support or prove. Don’t put words into people’s mouths if you cannot show the verbatim text.
On reflection the big Transport declaration from Collins is an example of, "We might impress by declaring huge plans as we have nothing to lose. So promise the Earth with no planning, no costing and maybe we will impress."
I reckon the biggest takeout from the Nats announcement today is the timing really. Presumably they would have preferred to announce this in the campaign proper. But after the disaster of the last few weeks they’ve been forced to roll something big out now just to try and arrest the damage.
Omg- in the week when two of the former top 3 resign FROM PARLIAMENT, and the former leader says I voted for the other guy RNZ's round up is 'Collins moves fast to fix the National party'.
What a total farce. Complete disarray and backstabbing is gone in 60 seconds with RNZ. Imagine if it had been the Labour party. Actually don't need to- remember how they treated the last two leaders?
‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ GoetheI was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveReporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure. “These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s ...
Peter Dunne writes – I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure. According to the legislation, the role of the Controller ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought NZ to the brink of economic and cultural chaos Chris Trotter writes – TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition ...
And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal’s jurisdiction? Gary Judd writes – Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result?As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and ...
Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Senior lecturer, international migration and refugee law, University of Technology Sydney The High Court unanimously ruled today that the Australian government can keep asylum seekers in immigration detention indefinitely in cases where they do not “voluntarily” cooperate with their own ...
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350 Aotearoa is calling the Environment Select Committee’s decision to allow oral submissions from just 40% of individual, unique submitters who asked to speak to the committee ‘a disgraceful blight to democracy’. ...
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The Royal New Zealand Ballet is performing Swan Lake around the country. What kind of dream does the ballet sell?Before going to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet perform Swan Lake, I had about as much familiarity with the plot of this ballet as could be expected from having ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Eamonn Tee. High Tide at Local Maxima It is only going to get worse. The streams will be narrow and fickle. The week will bend and buckle like a pot-bellied waist. You will make it to the weekend with one ...
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Tara Ward previews a new local TV series offering alternative visions of motherhood. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. A woman is clambering up the side of her two-story house, clinging desperately to a drainpipe. Nearby, her child is perched on the ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is supportive of the cross-party approach to climate adaptation announced by the Minister of Climate Change today. ...
The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) and Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC) welcome today’s announcement from Government around a bipartisan inquiry into an enduring climate adaptation framework for New Zealand. ...
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision by the Department of Internal Affairs, and Minister Brooke Van Velden, to abandon proposals to further regulate online speech. ...
Its new building in Wellington will not be nearly big enough for all its records, and it has also run out of money to build its new storage facility in Levin. ...
BusinessNZ is congratulating the Minister of Climate Change for his work in achieving cross-party consensus for a way forward on climate adaptation. ...
Recent research reveals the repeal of smokefree measures is not only bad for our health, but also the economy. The Government has repealed various smokefree measures to ensure it keeps collecting $1.2 billion a year in tobacco taxes, in order to pay for tax cuts already being delivered to ...
The club’s surprisingly good season is built on the desire to prove a random A-League YouTuber wrong… and a few other factors.“There’s no way that Wellington Phoenix play finals this year. I can’t see it happening at all.” Those are the words of Lachlan Raeside, an Australian football content ...
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Writer Rebecca K Reilly breaks down the national book awards. What are the Ockhams?The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are our annual national awards for books published for adults, and have existed in this form since 2016. There are four categories: Fiction, Poetry, General Non-fiction and Illustrated Non-fiction. There ...
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Local, regional or full lock-downs. Checkpoints, soldiers on the streets, mandatory door-to-door testing. Further job losses, mass anxiety, bankruptcies. How long before the team of 5 million start calling for the Government to fully close the borders?
Jacinda warned that even the best trained and best equipped staff face a high risk of picking up the virus at one of New Zealand’s border facilities.
If we genuinely want to take a better safe than sorry approach, isn't it time we start having the discussion on fully closing the borders. I believe so. What say you?
I'm not concerned about the risk of having to go back into lockdowns, let alone the other bizarre things you're suggesting.
At this point, it's frankly nuts to be suggesting to suggest we might want to completely lock down borders, denying New Zealanders their right to come home. As for soldiers in the streets – get a grip.
The very few wobbles with managed isolation and quarantine that have happened at the border have come about from a slight excess of confidence in regular people being able to be trusted to do the right thing. Those holes are being plugged.
But even if there's spread to staff, they know how to manage it, and the behavioural changes most of us have made will slow any undetected community transmission down to much more easily manageable levels when it finally does get detected.
Good to know you are not personally concerned about the risk of having to go back into lockdowns. However, I think it would be fair to assume some are.
What are these bizarre things you think I'm suggesting? Local, regional or full lock-downs. Checkpoints, soldiers on the streets, mandatory door-to-door testing. Resulting in further job losses, mass anxiety, bankruptcies etc is the Government's new plan of action.
As for being nuts to suggest we need to have a discussion on fully closing down the borders, I think you will find some of us think it's crazy not to be having this discussion.
In normal circumstances allowing New Zealanders access is unquestionable, however this is far from normal circumstances. Globally, the rate of those infected is vastly growing, hence so is the risk
So does that include freight? Or will you just put the cargo handlers in lockdown, for fear they came within 50ft of a sailor?
They could get crushed by a falling shipping container or something heavy.
https://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/public/news/media-releases-2020/20200710a.asp
Playing the hysteria card that went down like a cup of hot sick.
Bridges Woodhouse boag etc all tried it .
Not playing the hysteria card. Highlighting the reality of going back into lockdown. Which is a genuine risk the longer the border remains open and the virus vastly spreads.
PS
As for the Nats, don’t they want to widen the border – ie by bringing in offshore students? No wonder them playing the hysteria card went down like a cup of hot sick.
Oh dear, here we go again 🙁
Here’s an informative article without the emotive hyperbole by people who put their names to it, unlike you who’s referring to imaginary and assumed “we” and “some of us”, which is a form of astroturfing and thus frowned upon by Moderators.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122156782/how-new-zealand-could-keep-eliminating-covid19-the-border-for-months-to-come-even-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-worsens
According to your link, currently about 400 people fly into New Zealand each day.
And again from your link, the modelling suggests the risk of an infectious person being released into the community is around 0.1 per cent – which according to your link means for every 1000 infected people who arrive at the border, one person will be released from quarantine while still infectious.
Moreover, the modeling in your link doesn't take into account people deliberately absconding from quarantine.
Therefore, in a perfect world where all rules are followed and no human mishaps occur then yes, the risk is no doubt far lower. However, as we know, we don't live in a perfect world. And as we have all seen, mishaps and people deliberately absconding happens.
If you aren't already hearing it from people within your current social circles, wait till we end up going back into lockdown, then the cries to fully close the border will become much louder.
Therefore, the discussion should be considered now rather than after the shit hits the fan.
Therefore, any discussion should be grounded in reality and be based on realistic assumptions and risk assessments rather than on scaremongering by individuals who freak out because they’re having nightmares or personal agendas.
The article was quite clear about their assumptions and based on our collective experience over the last months I think those assumptions are valid.
I don’t have a social circle filled with cries – no crybabies here. Even if I did, I wouldn’t base my comments here on it!
Indeed. No argument there.
The article was also quite clear their assumptions were based on all the rules being followed. However, based on our collective experience over the last months, the rules clearly haven't been followed.
And now we are or will be facing Martial Law and health ‘pogroms’? What I’m saying is that yes, there are risks that can be and are managed well enough and that there’s no need at present for kneejerk reactions and scaremongering. You do live in NZ, don’t you?
Calling for a discussion is not a knee-jerk reaction or scaremongering.
As for martial law and health ‘pogroms’, all I know is what the Government have announced, which is troops possibly manning regional check points. There could potentially be mandatory door-to-door testing. And there could be local, regional or full lock-downs with no warning notices given. Which will result in further job losses, mass anxiety, bankruptcies etc
Could you please stop your knee-jerking and scaremongering? Your whole comment is steeped in it! You’re not calling for a discussion with an open mind and your kind of ‘discussion’ is not worth having here. What you’re doing here on TS is scaring the horses for no good reason. Please, stop it or I will stop you, again.
That's why there are outbreaks of community transmission and our hospitals are overflowing. Oh, wait..
No. But the potential was there for that to happen. Moreover, you seem to have missed the point, rules were not followed.
Therefore, if we genuinely want to take a better safe than sorry approach, we really need to consider fully closing the borders.
Oh noes, the sky is falling! Quick, take down the stars lest they hurt our heads.
Don't be silly. The sky hasn't fallen yet.
But it won't be looking too good if we end up back in total lockdown.
Therefore, one needs to ask, doesn't the best interest of the country come before the inconvenience of Kiwis wanting to return home?
And ponder this, would Kiwis really want to return home if shit hits the fan here?
One does not need to ask. You just want to. For fun.
Out of 30,000 plus returning NZers 30 have tested positive 4 escaped one tested positive 1 in 30,000 is not 0.1%.
That would equate to 30 people with covid escaping.
Most of the escape's are wealthy Most likely a Right Wing supporters
Yes, the article does indeed state that the modelling suggests that around 1 in 1000 released from isolation/quarantine are still infectious. But I suspect there's either a typo or significant modifiers are being left out.
We have had around 26,000 people be released from managed isolation/quarantine since March 26, so an estimated 26 infectious people have been released. Yet not one of them has apparently infected anyone else after release.
So if there isn't a typo involved, maybe that "infectious" is really "theoretically infectious, but negligibly so in practical terms".
Pretty much.
We need to improve the managed isolation regime to reduce risk.
All those in the first week confined to their room – keeping the first week intake and the second week intake separate is important.
As for the second week they should be separated by day – thus day 8, day 9, day 10, day 11 day 12 day 13 and day 14 would be allowed out of their rooms at different times.
Re guards being infected.
They should be required to practice social distancing when off work and maybe have a wristbracelet that identifies their position time for easy track tracing. soition
And pay them extra (with generous paid leave in 6 week blocks – 2 week self isolation, a month off without social distancing). It's money well spent. 12 weeks on, 6 weeks off.
As to community spread – we really need a card with bluetooth, and if we get this spread before we have such a card – we have to consider phone location tracking (develop capacity for this until such time as we have a card).
Yes, more can be done to help reduce the risk in managed isolation. Although, that will be offset somewhat by the increase in risk due to the growing rate of global infections.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53415298
When combined with super bugs making hospitals more dangerous places, the baby boomer era may be seen as the golden age.
For mine the population forecast of a lot more old people by 2100 has taken none of this into account.
I've yet to see any good articles exploring how it might play out as the parts of the world experiencing the highest population growth – India, Nigeria, Tanzania, Pakistan, Angola etc – run smack into increasing severe heat stress from climate change. Let alone water supply issues.
As a baby boomer I do consider that I am of the golden age due to having had the luxury of security on many levels compared to what the two generations below me are facing.
Fantastic. Reminds me of the old Colbert.
Can't believe that people take that site seriously, knowing the people involved
https://medium.com/discourse/the-lincoln-project-is-not-our-ally-bd3c845b1f4b
Late last night I feel love posted this gem to Daily Review:
Definitely worth recycling! 👍 😍
Even the ACT Party has the ambition to have more MP's than the number who have escaped managed isolation.
This is a nasty virus but even in the US it has still so far only affected about 1% of the population or 3.5 million out of about 338 million though their figures may be light by up to 40%. This in a country that seems to be trying its hardest to contact Covid.
The figures coming over the border here appear to be well below that threshold with 1 or 2 a day out of about 500-700. It is hard to get a handle on how many but it seems like around 30 with Covid in about 10,000 since level 1. My figures are probably shit but thats about .03% affected, hardly the plague of Biblical proportions but no reason to relax our guard, but also not a lot of reason for so much fear mongering.
But all it takes is 1 person to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Exactly froggle, my point was lets keep the bloody thing out but I am seeing a fair bit of every day unessecary angst about the pretty much non-existent threat to us here in NZ. Things like local nimbys complaining when a hotel gets requisitioned and silly little worries, I think some are winding up their mental anxiety levels for no good reason and harming their health , I blame the Nats for a lot of that with their disinformation. We are OK, we did the right thing and we are living with the well earned benefits of that, so lets shut down the Panic Merchants as quickly as we can by telling them to calm down.
It is satisfying to see the biggest most egregious bunch of PMs reaping the rewards of their nastiness with their precious party publicly garroting itself, the funny part is how much it looks like an old style Soviet putsch when an even more toxic arsehole grabs power and the bodies of the previous arsehole's acolytes start getting piled up in the streets.
I'm loving it.
It's always bloody Neal, innit.
Actually, "all it takes" is one person being missed by the departure terminal screening, not being observed on the plane, not being detected in iso tests, passing it to someone else in an undetected manner, that person not being symptomatic, then that person passing it to someone otherwise unconnected with the iso facility, then that person passing it on to another person via an unrecorded contact, then the next thing you know we have community transmission when the last person in the chain finally presents to medical care and they can't find any connection with overseas travellers or an isolation facility.
Even though your figure is that 1% have been infected, the disruption of the virus has a huge impact in many other ways on every person in the country.
A pretty good number are also trying very hard to avoid it. Let's say it's 50% are taking measures, this slows it down big-time. Didn't the NZ Covid Brains Trust suggest that when you get above 80% taking social distancing etc seriously, then the infection rate drops? so this may explain the non-explosive spread you allude to.
There is no doubt that "kiwibuild" will be bandied about by national in the coming electioneering
So here is my scorecard for kiwibuild.
Labour
Positive 10, for recognizing a housing crisis and having a plan to deal with it.
Negative 10, for plan implementation and being naive in believing that a developer will build cheap housing, when using the same crap materials the same crap construction methods they can flossie it up a bit and ask twice the price for a 25 year life cycle house. Thereby doubling the profit.
Average net effect = zero
National.
Negative 10, for dishonestly denying there is a housing crisis.
Zero, for no plan and no implementation
Average net effect = negative 5
Voters don't look at things the way you suggest.
For instance they won't compare what happened between 2014 to 2017 and 2017 to 2020, as being equivalents. Labour made Kiwibuild a flagship policy and have transparently failed. That failure is what will be in the voters minds.
If Labour can successfully pivot to the number of state house builds, they will be on much firmer ground.
So what you're saying is, Labour's attempt to let the free mark fully participate in Kiwibuild is what failed, and they should have just built them all themselves.
Seems like a bit of a repudiation to National's favoured philosophy.
National say they will build more state houses, it'll be the public/private style, Labour should abandon privatisation once and for all.
It wasn't the private sector that promised to build the houses, it was politicians.
Well that is the thing that voters do remember dear Wayne,
Labour builds State Houses
National sells them.
And National replaces the sold stock of houses with ditches and tents and vans parked in parks with open public toilets and calls it a 'housing initiative'.
And Wayne, its not Labour that needs to pivot, its your troupe of clowns that need to stop spinning out of control in the clown car.
Nationals housing spokesperson apologized for selling off state houses it was a mistake that they won't repeat.
Although relying on short voter memory is the only thing National has to offer, it is by no means a perfect strategy. Hypocrisy offends people, and offended people spread the reminders of how the Key government contributed to the present housing crisis. It is a subject upon which National MPs would not be able to speak for shame – if any of them had ever had any integrity whatsoever. 😀
The leaky party that gave us leaky homes hospitals schools etc
Oooops!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/122149832/government-sells-30m-worth-of-state-houses-after-labour-promised-to-stop-sales
From Bearded Git below
The facts immediately below it (The headline) show that Labour has developed 5400 homes and sold 146 that were not worth repairing or in the wrong place.
NOTE a plus of about 5200 new homes!!!!
The houes' they sold are still there as well. Its not like they disappeared so there has been no loss of houses.
Good point.
Still got tenants or are they owner occupied?
If the former then we have more bludging drowning the economy.
But that wasn't the promise.
"Massey University associate professor Grant Duncan, who teaches public policy and political theory, said politicians were known to make statements without providing additional information to qualify it.
While it made sense for the Government to sell housing stock that may not be fit for purpose or not geographically suited to demand, it had not done what it said it would and stop the sale of state houses, he said.
“They didn’t stop selling, that’s clear,” Duncan said."
I'd say that's a fair reflection.
Don't forget Hobsonville and the meager promises of National to provide affordable houses ,developers sold those earmarked for affordable houses on the private market for a good profit.
Yep, they both do it. No argument from me there.
https://twitter.com/nealejones/status/1283847212447993857
Neale's right, but Labour set themselves up for this by precisely the statements quoted in the Stuff article, including:
"In the lead up to the 2017 election Labour said if elected it would immediately end the sale of state houses."
"In December that year, former housing minister Phil Twyford issued a press release titled: Government stops the sale of state houses."
"The statement said the Labour-led Government had “cancelled the sell-off of state houses, fulfilling another of its first 100 day promises.”
No-one is going to release a statement saying,
"Government stops the sale of state houses, except for this small number of ones that weren't repairable or fit for purpose"
The words used were 'stops', 'end', 'cancelled'. There is a hint of dishonesty here.
I would say more than a hint of anal retention.
Nice one
The statements made are misleading. When you ‘cancel’ something, you put a stop to it. Not slow it. Not reduce it.
You know that is a hyperlinked headline, don’t you? You know that others can click and read it the actual article, unlike you, and see straight through your BS troll attempt, don’t you? This begs the question why you act so stupid thinking that others are even more stupid? It looks like I may need to remove you from TS in the lead-up to the Election, don’t you agree?
I know you have in for me, so here is something that might entertain you.
https://youtu.be/2MZZ__5F_-A
I was much more ‘entertained’ by DTB’s reply @ 6.2.2.2. (2:12 PM) that hit the nail on the head. Did it make you laugh too?
The problem, of course, is that many won't go past the headline and so the headline will do its job of putting people off Labour despite the fact that the reality is far more nuanced.
edit
DTB So true. There is so much information or hyperbole or lies or part-facts swirling around that people don't have time to look up and read every link provided. It takes time just reading the blogs and comments that have the links in them. It is misleading for stuff business journalists/headline specialists to write that part truth headline about Labour, so that it reads entirely against Labour.
(In the media item John Anthony presents a valid point – that Twyford (let's blame him, I feel he deserves it) said that no more state houses would be sold by Labour. But I still think that the heading could have been better written. Better to say that Labour wanted to have its cake and eat it in its 100-days announcement.)
In the lead up to the 2017 election Labour said if elected it would immediately end the sale of state houses.
In December that year former housing minister Phil Twyford issued a press release titled: Government stops the sale of state houses.
The statement said the Labour-led Government had “cancelled the sell-off of state houses, fulfilling another of its first 100 day promises”.
However, towards the bottom of the statement Twyford said it would still sell houses that were no longer fit for purpose.
TBF, Twyford used exactly the same tactic.
"In December that year, former housing minister Phil Twyford issued a press release titled: Government stops the sale of state houses."
then…
However, towards the bottom of the statement, Twyford said it would still sell houses that were no longer fit for purpose.
Edit, oops ditto grey.
You know that is a hyperlinked headline, don’t you?
This is i believe a deliberate stratagem and seems to be happening sufficiently often that perhaps we could start documenting and analyzing which publications are mostly responsible (NZ HERALD, stuff) for starters.
Its just more DP as far as i can see and would be good to be calling these players out.
Not necessarily DP per se, but certainly used by DP operators. MSM use headlines/clickbait to lure readers to their sites; it is how they operate. TS Moderators have no control over MSM but can point out ‘bad habits’ by some punters here on this site.
What's the deal with hyperlinks, that they causes such consternation?
No deal, hyperlinks are fine and handy. It is the headline ‘message’ embedded in the hyperlink that often is the issue. Most people don’t even read past the headline but/because they have already taken in the ‘message’, mostly sub-consciously, especially when it confirms their cognitive bias.
Ahh. Ta.
Commenters are often asked by moderators to be descriptive when commenting. If linking, at a minimum we need to explain what the link is and, in the form of a response, why we are posting it. I think a quote from the article always helps liven it up too.
It's just good forumming.
Indeed, context is important and it applies also to YT and other clips.
"It is the headline ‘message’ embedded in the hyperlink that often is the issue. Most people don’t even read past the headline but/because they have already taken in the ‘message’, mostly sub-consciously, especially when it confirms their cognitive bias."
Thanks cogs well put!
Interesting the Herald doesn't include the sub-headline in their links.
Had Covid-19 not have occurred I think that housing was going to be the winner.
The Heartland Party, yet another bunch of conservative splitters pitching for the dinosaur vote: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300054112/new-rural-heartland-party-challenges-climate-change-and-water-restrictions
Catering for "rural interests and scaling back what Ball labels overbearing and nonsensical environmental policies." A journo ought to ask Todd Muller why heartland Nats are deserting! No point asking the Nat leader? Well she didn't work with James Shaw. But she did grow up on a farm, so maybe.
Good point, so the Stuff journo got clever & ran it by a Bluegreen.
What interests me is that these hicks from the sticks have decided that Nats + neocons + Act look too much like one big pile of crap to be worth supporting.
Leave that to the regional councils and farmers groups, who know the best way to manage their land.
Can't see how you can think that is a good point. If farmers knew how to best manage 'their' land and actually gave a shit then we wouldn't have a problem. Most farmers know jack shit about fresh water ecology.
Yes, definitely, re farmers. I was agreeing with the logic about regional councils. I recall how big the Greens were on local & regional governance when I was an activist. It is true, however, that capture of governance decisions by farmer activists could be a downside of that.
The dominance in numbers and influence of farmer-councillors on regional councils is a significant factor.
The reality is that regional councils have been fuck useless at enforcing their own rules. Yes often regional councils are captured by farmer interests.
It's all about culture and agri-culture is embedded in all of us; recognising it for what it is, then acting outside of its influence is our only hope (imo).
Agree with both soltka and RG here. Elected regional councils tend to be conservative and farmer heavy. RC staff tend not to enforce their own regs. It's a shit show, literally and figuratively. NZ mostly stood by and watched it happen. Part of the issue is regional council elections and lots of people not voting.
In that case there's important learning to be done by Green parliamentarians. They may have already done it. But could be worth checking Green policy to discern if that learning has been integrated! In respect of the relevant Green Charter principle, I mean. Policy ought to signal how to implement our principles in real life situations…
what learning?
Good question – but I was just acknowledging your point about democracy vs vested interests. I see no future in Greens advocating local/regional democracy if it doesn't work in practice. Mere words, then. As devoid of substance as any sloganeering by Labour.
It's up to your generation & any other generation younger than mine to progress the situation now. Whatever framing the GP has since put around the principle we adopted ought to be reality-checked!
It works. NZers generally don't care if we have shitty rivers, despite what they say, and they vote in the local govt that gives them that. It's a low form of democracy but I don't see that giving up on it would improve the situation, and would actually make it much worse.
A left-leaning govt would overcome the problem with national policy overrides like the law already allows.
A right-leaning one would fire disobedient councillors and replace them with protected cronies, as we saw with ECan.
in that regard, it would be nice if we had a left leaning govt not stymied by a centrist one.
High probability that the regional councils don't know any thing about fresh water ecology either. They simply don't have the dedicated research teams and I doubt if they read what the universities put out.
Oh, that's not true at all! Not only do councils have such teams/people, but they are intimately connected to the non-council teams that are dedicated to such research. Councillors may know little, but their science staff know full-well!
Glad to hear but it does raise the question:
Why are so many councils then making poor decisions regarding the land under their care?
They are political institutions. If those were dominated by National Party voting councillors, what sort of decisions do you expect would be made? Environmentally-friendly ones?
I expect that politicians should make decisions based upon evidence and not ideology.
And if they don't then they should be going to jail as they're being detrimental to the people of the local community and NZ as a whole.
I don’t follow how you set targets without rules & regulations. Very wishy-washy toothless proposal. My target is to lose 15 kg by Christmas but I don’t set rules & regulations for myself and it will just happen by my sheer willpower (positive thinking) and motivation (NY’s resolutions from 2016) without having to change any habits or make any sacrifices. Mate, they’re dreaming!
And living that dream. Trying to. I agree targets are insufficient: implementation strategies are crucial to hitting a target. As bowmen of your discovered: need a straight arrow, a competent fletcher, plus a yew bow like Robin Hood!
dreaming, or it's deliberate strategy 😉
If they knew the best way to manage their land then we wouldn't be having the issues that we're having now and we wouldn't need to have the central government stepping in to fix their mess.
Don't leave the banks out of that picture when casting nasturtiums.
Couple of pieces on the state of play with Tiwai Point.
There's a six month "un-termination" window in the power supply contract. So maybe this is next-level hardball negotiation from Rio Tinto. For mine, fuck 'em. Let's sort out an alternative plan for the Southland economy and the affected people and say Bye Felicia to Rio Tinto.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/money/business/un-terminating-tiwai-point/ar-BB16Pxfy?li=BBqdg4K&ocid=mailsignout
But it seems WinnieFirst wants to pay the ransom to buy a temporary reprieve for the jobs hostages. Hopefully they'll get told Bye Felicia in a couple of months too.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/coalition-split-over-tiwai-point-aluminium-smelters-fate/ar-BB16O0da?li=BBqdg4K&ocid=mailsignout
I see nationalisation the only step forward.
For a start, the government is the only party that has the required cash. Funny really, all these reforms after 36 years and the New Zealand private sector is still too weak to engage in capital intensive activities.
The only national interest reason to have a smelter is if there's a massive oversupply of electricity that we want to somehow sell overseas. That may have been arguably true back when Tiwai Point and Manapouri were first conceived and hardly anybody cared about GHG emissions. That is definitely no longer true, we have plenty of good uses for that electricity domestically, not least of which is simply shutting down Huntly's inefficient single stage coal-fired turbines.
The other possible (really dumb) reason is just as an explicit jobs creation scheme, regardless of how the economics stack up. In this case, the economics just won't stack up, because of the messed up structure of the worldwide aluminium production market.
Chinese suppliers are a real mess of subsidies and other government intervention, and non-chinese suppliers are heavily vertically integrated. As I understand it, there are very few alumina suppliers that aren't tightly bound to smelters, so a nationalised smelter would be subject to the same jobs-hostage squeezes that we're currently subjected to from Rio Tinto. That makes it all a snake-pit we would do best to keep well clear of.
Nationalising it is only a massive taxpayer subsidy to Rio Tinto, considering their bill for cleaning up the site is an estimated $256m
But the private sector is really great at getting subsidies and ripping off the tax payer as proven by all the subsidies that we've paid over for the aluminium smelter over the decades.
Why would the private sector even be interested in investing in a business that is " no longer viable given high energy costs and a challenging outlook for the aluminium industry" (https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300052786/tiwai-point-aluminium-smelter-to-close-1000-jobs-to-go)? For that matter, why would the government?
Because it builds up our resilience in a troubled world?
Investing in a non-viable aluminium smelter? Surely there's better things for government to spend it's money on.
It's non-viable commercially.
But having the ability to smelt aluminium, especially if we develop that bauxite up in Northland, would be beneficial to the country if our supply lines become even more disrupted.
And, of course, the whole point of the government keeping it going is for the benefit of NZ which means that it cannot be left in private hands.
First question that should be answered is smelting aluminium from imported raw materials the best use of that energy and labour. Are there better options that would be better for Southland and New Zealand.
There’s been talk if a Tesla plant and also of a silica industry, refining a local resource. Not sure about the scale of that resource but it’s said to be of very good quality. Also wonder if there’s a connection between the two.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/09-12-2019/not-so-modest-proposals-for-tiwai/
That Tesla gigafactory thing is pure unicorns frolicking in a meadow with daffodils.
Silica could be more interesting if it indeed uses a local resource so it's not subject to international supply chain fuckery and the value of the final product is largely dependent on the energy supplied to produce it.
Here’s a link that’s got a bit more about the silica resource. On the side if a hill on my phone so linking a bit tricky
https://venture.vsnet.nz/projects/diversification-of-the-southland-economy/southlands-silica-potential
Bet it's a cold hillside, too!
Thanks for the linky. I'll keep an eye on them to see what processing they're proposing to do in NZ that uses huge quantities of electricity.
Agreed. Too far from markets primarily? when manufacturing is going closer to markets.
Distance from markets, and distance from inputs.
Electricity consumption really isn't that significant an input, so access to Manapouri power isn't much of an advantage.
A Tesla gigafactory needs a lot of people with very highly specialised skills. Attracting them to the bottom of the South Island would be quite the project. (well, maybe attracting them wouldn't be difficult right now, but getting them to stay might be tougher).
People with high paying jobs on Southland tend to hang onto them. The lifestyle, and low cost of living makes the place pretty good. The climate can have it's moments, but Southland on a good day takes some beating, and if it's crap you're not far from somewhere that's not too bad. Even a howling southwesterly has it's charms for it's sheer power.
The smelter has a very stable workforce and it's really hard to get jobs there.
Interesting. The two ex-smelter people I know (both engineers) hated being there and were delighted to be gone.
It's one or the other, a lot of people get into what the region has to offer and thrive on it, others it's not their cup of tea and can't stand the place. But I'm like that with Auckland.
While the smelter has a stable workforce, the money has a lot to do with that. On smelter wages Southland is pretty good. No one's that fussed about the job but know people from process workers to engineers and admin that have been there 20+ years
The hill was pretty good today too, I'm working at 1000m on a north aspect, had fantails flying around this afternoon, but looking down on permafrost in the basin.
There's a bit of very high quality silica in Southland and a hell of a lot of low quality:
Of course, if we put the effort in, the low quality can be turned to high quality.
The problem, IMO, is that we tend to only think of doing one thing with it. Solar cells or batteries – not both. Thing is, if we also developed our rare earth extraction and processing then producing silicon chips (CPUs, GPUs, and other) becomes an option as well. Build a fabrication plant and produce Intel/AMD/nVidia chips under contract as Taiwan does as well as being able to support the development of our own local IT industry.
People are worried about the loss of jobs when the smelter closes down but there's so much potential for other jobs.
And I'd keep the smelter going to some extent so as to support our local aircraft manufacture even going so far as to develop our bauxite deposit in Northland.
The problem of focussing on farming as the main earner (with everyone else doing low paid service jobs) over the last few decades is that we've let so much potential go to waste.
Are those bauxite deposits pitifully small or minuscule?
Estimated to be 20 to 25 million tonnes of low quality ore.
The low quality seems to be the issue for commercial viability.
Then it needs to be refined to produce alumina. Tiwai don't do that do they.
Pretty sure import bauxite from Australia for smelting – not alumina. This would indicate that Tiwai either does process to alumina or skips that step altogether.
An interesting point is that the smelter at Tiwai uses an old smelting technique. It produces better aluminium but it costs a lot more to run that what the rest of the world is using.
"The facility, New Zealand’s only aluminium smelter,[3] is at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. It imports alumina and processes it into primary aluminium. The plant's alumina is supplied from refineries in Queensland and the Northern Territory of Australia. Around 90 per cent of the aluminium produced at NZAS is exported, mainly to Japan.[4]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiwai_Point_Aluminium_Smelter
And that is the problem with Tiwai. It was built just before the process changed to something more efficient and has never been competitive. Tiwai's closing has been a thing from pretty much the day it opened.
You'd know if Tiwai had a red mud cycle – they don't.
Turn it into a huge hydrogen production plant producing clean hydrogen instead of aluminium. Sell that on the international market as a new green fuel alternative. Become the ME/OPEC of the Pacific.
Let's put some rough hand-wavy numbers to that thought.
Tiwai Point consumes around 5,000 GWhr of electricity annually. It takes about 65kWhr of electricity to split enough water to get 1 kg of hydrogen and compress it for storage and transportation. So that could produce around 80,000 tonnes of compressed hydrogen. That's just over 0.1% of the 70 million tonnes of hydrogen currently produced worldwide.
In dollar terms, Tiwai Point is probably paying a bit over 6 cents per kWhr (including transmission charges). That means the electricity cost for 1kg would be around NZD3.50 to NZD4.00. That doesn't look great compared to a worldwide market price for hydrogen of around USD1.65/kg.
The main reason hydrogen is so cheap is it's mostly produced by steam reformation of fossil fuels, and the producers get to dump the hazardous waste CO2 produced into the atmosphere for free. But even if that wasn't the case, and NZ hydrogen had to compete against worldwide electrically produced green hydrogen, it would probably be competing against photovoltaic electricity produced at a price under USD0.02/kWhr, produced somewhat geographically closer to where it gets used.
So it would make more sense to use it domestically, reducing our imports of fossil fuels.
Ta
I was hoping (!) somebody (…) would shoot it out of the water, to a degree 😉
Topical, particularly at the end.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/evs/122140021/new-zealand-needs-to-catch-up-with-global-demand-for-hydrogen-technology
I'm personally of the view that hydrogen is unlikely to take off, except for niche uses, and that batteries will become the dominant energy storage for most users such as cars, domestic, industrial etc.
First up, the hydrogen round-trip energy efficiency from electricity generation to finally doing useful work is lucky to beat 50%, and down as low as 30% is reasonably likely.
Sources of energy loss are in the electrolytic splitting of water, compressing and/or cooling it for storage, then fuel cell efficiency isn't that great (if the final energy conversion is in an internal combustion energy, total efficiency is abominable). In contrast, electricity generation to final useful work easily exceeds 80%, and can go into the 90s if the energy is stored in batteries.
Hydrogen is a real materials engineering nightmare. It embrittles many useful grades of metals, and the ones it doesn't tend to have lower performance but be more expensive. It just pisses through plastics and other polymers, usually degrading them rapidly. So flexible piping and sealing are headaches. It requires skill and care from mechanics and technicians that's a level or two up from most common technologies now.
It scares me from a safety viewpoint. It has a very wide range of explosion concentration in air, from 4% to 74% (IIRC, only acetylene has a wider range for the commonish gases). Its flame is invisible, but gives off a shitload of UV.
For a while in the early noughties when hydrogen was more widely thought to be the future and battery tech hadn't taken off, there was concern that widespread hydrogen leakage would have serious effects on the ozone layer. That's gone a bit quiet, but I dunno if that's just because hydrogen hype has gone a bit quiet, or further investigation suggests the risk to the ozone layer isn't so serious.
To my mind, the only potential real advantage hydrogen has for most users is it's quickish to refuel, closer to filling up with petrol than recharging a battery. But charging speeds are quickly increasing along with battery sizes, so that potential advantage is rapidly shrinking.
I thought the new Stuff management people would've put a stop to this kind of disingenuous and scaremongering headlines.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/122149832/government-sells-30m-worth-of-state-houses-after-labour-promised-to-stop-sales
It hasn't gone unnoticed – the case of Tauranga's entire stock of Housing NZ homes being sold lock stock & barrel for an undisclosed pittance is another part of the story that remains untold IMO. Accessible Properties now are after govt funding to exploit the land in the guise of "social housing" by now demolishing a significant number of the homes
https://twitter.com/nealejones/status/1283847212447993857
This government needs to remove IHC the heck away from the provision of state housing. What a complete and utter balls up that was. The filthy money grubbing snakes at IHC swooped in when the opportunity arose purely because the Salvation Army gave Key's government the finger. Total slime.
It certainly was convenient – I thought it was a bit moot with them for a bit effectively "gone" but I will wait with interest for the next candidate election returns as both Bridges (2014 & 2017) & Muller (2017) had the same main donor who oversaw the sale here as the CEO of Accessible Properties. It's all a matter of public record that's been largely over looked but with the "bad blood" that appears to have arisen between the 2 local candidates it will be fascinating if the patronage continues to both of them – or as I suspect only one or more likely neither of them this time around
Ridiculously biased headline.
The facts immediately below it show that Labour has developed 5400 homes and sold 146 that were not worth repairing or in the wrong place.
The article only looks at Nationals record over its last 3 years where over its 9 years in power it decreased the stock of state houses by several thousand….somebody on TS will have the exact numbers.
Yeah BG and that 38k one must have been a luxury waterfront property with indoor-outdoor flow!
In a plot twist that absolutely nobody saw coming, National's big new policy announcement is: moRe rOaDs!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122153158/national-announces-biggest-infrastructure-package-in-history
And it's going to be the biggest and longest and shiniest road in the whole world.
Yellow lines gold-plated with Taxpayers’ money and little diamonds as cat-eyes.
After a quick look all I can say is that National has gone full on delusional. They seem to still be thinking in terms of economic growth that is simply not physically possible.
At first glance it looks like a gold-plated make work scheme and given the Transmission Gully stuff up, it looks as though it could be extended for years with a never ending series of financial top ups. However, TG is mopping up overseas unemployed more than make-work for Kiwi's. Looking closer, it seems more likely that it is a financial transfusion from essential services into the pockets of profiteering parasites like Downer, Fulton Hogan et al and cash pools for the 'financial partners' to slosh around tax havens. Oh joy!
You should provide evidence that the companies you name are "profiteering parasites".
On which job did they earn more than 7% return?
You should be able to answer.
Interesting to watch the headlines change, it went from "It's the biggest infrastructure spend ever!" then a couple of hours later they added "National claims", someone's obviously done some fact checking.
Seems to be a spending reduction, even.
https://twitter.com/ClintVSmith/status/1283898475285905408
It seems they are going to smash congestion according to Bishop,who's aspiration to build world class cities suggest he is provincial.
“Previous governments have not been ambitious enough in dealing to congestion. World-class cities have high-quality public transport networks where mass transit is a normal part of everyday life.
“Under National, Auckland will become the world-class city it can and should be – and the Upper North Island will become an interconnected economic powerhouse.”
As John Raulston Saul suggests (quite convincing)
“World class is a phrase used by provincial cities and second-rate entertainment events, as well as a wide variety of insecure individuals, to assert that they are not provincial or second-rate, thereby confirming that they are.”
Further as Bishop states.
“Congestion costs Auckland over $1 billion per year. It means unreliable journey times,
Indeed the problems that arose for his constituents ( Corona and Disease) on their big day out was problematic at best.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2007/S00158/national-will-smash-congestion-with-intergenerational-funding.htm
Watch out for the strong masculine metaphors “smash” and “crush”.
That's right building roads has always led to less congestion right?(sarc)
So effectively Labour’s infrastructure policy plus logical extensions, and using Labour’s covid fast track RMA provisions to approve it in time
So all that’s go then, lets get into it. So what’s the point of difference.
Collins and team announce a 31 billion transport package for Auckland (mostly ) and vague about how it would be paid for.
Will this be an Election with mine is bigger than yours?
Hate to raise a National promise but we have to consider its merit – or not.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12348768
Why are they proposing heavy rail to Auckland Airport, via a Puhunui spur, I thought that debate had been well canvassed, and a heavy rail line was always the first option but found to be unworkable
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2018/10/19/how-easy-is-a-puhinui-airport-rail-spur/
Greater Auckland might say it's unworkable because it's not in their Congestion Free Network Mk2. But how workable is two raised tram lines running the length of Dominion Road and beyond???
I, presumably like everyone else, am kind of seduced by their CFN2 with its London Underground graphics but am also bewildered why it never seems to be referenced in high level discussions. I could be wrong on this.
The constant criticism of Twyford and Labour is there was no vision but there is a vision, GA has worked on this very thing for years.
Right now I prefer the Puhinui spur CBD-airport solution but am happy to change my mind if a case for GA's 'Central Line' has some widespread consensus. But nobody seems to be selling it.
a curious thing….there is no rail to the airports of London . Paris or Melbourne….and yet all three have extensive rail networks
I would say that the London Underground is better 'rail' than NZ ‘Toytown Express’ rail system, and it goes all the way to Heathrow underground, unimpeded by road traffic. The same would apply to Paris's larger underground service (the RER?) which efficiently services Paris's airports. I don't think your point is valid here: I see trams being held up in Dominion Road as a bloody silly idea.
Yes, was too slow to delete as my wife pointed out there were trains to both Heathrow and Charles deGaulle though not Melbourne (I asked why we then used taxis). …so the comment can be ignored.
Thanks for correcting Pat. There's both Underground and BR lines beneath Heathrow.
I think New Zealand's tourism numbers and the industry's contribution to GDP demands better infrastructure for travellers.
There's a lot of talk about improving tourism infrastructure up and down the line so that both visitors and Kiwis benefit and I think a 21st Century connection from the main entry point to the rest of the country is vital to that cause.
AND
suspending super contributions
continuing to sell state houses
stopping the ak fuel tax
For those interested in a "Different Monetary System" this a very good article on an alternative system, MMT, Modern Monetary theory.
Worth the long read if you think the current economic system isn't working.
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-17/what-is-modern-monetary-theory/12455806
Very good and well worth the read. I see MMT as an interesting evolution pulling together the functional threads of both socialism and capitalism into a form better adapted to the world we are rapidly plunging into.
That is a crucial point. But it has a point that most don't realise.
If the government can spend money then we don't need rich people to fund enterprise.
We don't need shareholders and we don't need owners and at that point it becomes obvious that we don't need capitalism to push development.
A group of people can come together, form a business and then go down to the state bank and, if their business plan looks good, get a 0% interest loan that only needs to be paid back once the business starts making a profit – or not paid back at all if the business falls over. That business would, of course, be a cooperative with none of the people working there owning it but all sharing in its governance and sharing in the rewards.
That silica development mentioned up thread could be done that way as well or it could be that the government finances and directs for a time until its established and then has it continue as a cooperative. What we most definitely shouldn't do is finance people to develop it and then allowing them to take ownership of it as that just increases the bludging of the shareholders.
The article doesn't address the question of whether the private banking establishment should be allowed to create money out of nothing – an issue which also seems to be part of the the MMT agenda.
National party supporters are criticizing the government for loading the government up with debt in response to the covid19 crisis. I'm inclined to agree; instead the government should simply have "printed" the money.
Yes, but how do we persuade Governments to consider this alternative
There certainly is merit in theory, there are a number here who would prescribe to this economic way of thinking.
Skeletons
https://twitter.com/MandyHager/status/1283925821686595585
Outstanding protest action against the proposed Dome Valley Dump.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/300059289/hundreds-march-in-auckland-cbd-for-hkoi-protesting-dome-valley-dump-poposal
Its election time…come on candidates step up and show your true colours!
Some excellent speakers…well worth a listen.
Potential solution…waste emanating from inside the pre super city boundary has to stay inside that boundary by law.
Yes 100%. This should never have been allowed.
Well done those people. Unfortunately I don't hold out any hope Auckland Council will listen.
Sorry – I am not getting notifications for replies to comments and I am not constantly perusing them to see a response.
There were insinuations in the comments sections re the declined breakfast show – people pointed out that Helen, still working full time as an employment lawyer may have other commitments – to which Chloe made snarky 'at 7am' comments and the suggestion that she is not working as hard as she should be this close to the election.
Every reference to Helen being the nearest competitor has been coupled with comments about entitlement to votes. – Again repeatedly on her facebook page and commentary there. I don't think the fact that she hasn't singled Helen out by name really matters, given her initial refusal to even name her as the candidate (although I saw that was edited later following criticism in the comments section).
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[you look like you are new here Breanna, so please read the About and the Policy before commenting again. If there’s anything you don’t understand, please ask. The upshot is that if you make claims of fact eg Swarbrick called White lazy, then you have to back that up. This is to protect the site owners legally, and it’s also to protect the debate culture here. The expectation is that you will do the work to back up what you say. This is doubly so if a moderator asks you.
If you want have a go about the Greens you have to make a sound political argument not just spread rumours. In this instance you would need to quote what CS actually said and give a citation or link. The site exists for robust debate, not political slander. At the moment it looks like you just made shit up. I’d appreciate a response so I know you have read this an understood. Incognito may also want to address the issues he moderated – weka]
Which ones? And by whom?
Pretty rough to move Breanna's comment and give it the old 'two paragraphs of bold type' when it seemed like a pretty detailed observation on the battle for Auckland Central.
A steep learning curve for a newcomer to the site who demonstrates a clear negative bias towards the Greens, in this case, in all comments so far. Either they learn quickly or they’ll be moved on. The site is attracting more traffic and comments and there have been an increased number of new users as one would expect on a political blog in Pre-Election time. Moderators will display decreasing levels of leniency.
I’m not that quite satisfied with your response to the Moderation and I’ll explain why.
When you state that people said something, e.g. about another person, it needs to be linked/shown as a quote. Paraphrasing is often more like selective quoting. Going on insinuations and comments in threads means you are making some assumptions of the intended meaning and that you’re drawing your own conclusions (or spin). Given your obvious negativity towards the Greens, I think that this is what’s happened when you accused CS of the things you did.
To avoid future run-ins with Moderators here you should stick to facts and verbatim quotes and clearly indicate when you state your opinion, i.e. what you think or believe to be true but you cannot be sure that it is actually true and that you haven’t made it up, e.g. in your own mind. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have malicious intend but that your own mind tricks you in believing things that are not real, true, or correct. When in doubt, say so, e.g. ‘I think …’ or ‘I believe …’, et cetera.
In Summary, don’t assert or allege things that you cannot support or prove. Don’t put words into people’s mouths if you cannot show the verbatim text.
HTH
On reflection the big Transport declaration from Collins is an example of, "We might impress by declaring huge plans as we have nothing to lose. So promise the Earth with no planning, no costing and maybe we will impress."
I reckon the biggest takeout from the Nats announcement today is the timing really. Presumably they would have preferred to announce this in the campaign proper. But after the disaster of the last few weeks they’ve been forced to roll something big out now just to try and arrest the damage.
The National Party Board meets to elect a leader
Board Chair: Ok everyone, we are meeting today to elect a new leader of the party
Board member #1:who have we got left to choose from
Board Chair: hmmmm lets see, Judith Collins, Gerry Brownlee and David Bennett
Board member #2: Gordon Bennett
Board Chair: No DAVID Bennett
Board member #2: I know what you said
Omg- in the week when two of the former top 3 resign FROM PARLIAMENT, and the former leader says I voted for the other guy RNZ's round up is 'Collins moves fast to fix the National party'.
What a total farce. Complete disarray and backstabbing is gone in 60 seconds with RNZ. Imagine if it had been the Labour party. Actually don't need to- remember how they treated the last two leaders?
'Collins moves fast to fix the National party'.