Open mike 17/08/2023

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 17th, 2023 - 27 comments
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27 comments on “Open mike 17/08/2023 ”

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  1. Sanctuary 1
    17 August 2023 at 7:48 am

    Decided to work in Albany yesterday so I went from Morningside to Albany, with one bus change (20 to the NX1). The commute took 55 minutes door to door. The North doesn't need more PT options. The busway is amazing. And the Busway seems to have all the flash thrusting hip young buses, compared to the pack a day 52 year old wheezers you seem get down south.

  2. arkie 2
    17 August 2023 at 9:59 am

    Thomas Coughlan at the Herald has written about the lack of climate change policies of the so-called government in waiting. This is unacceptable given the climate emergency and really needs to be reiterated; we cannot afford to go backwards:

    The Herald put that allegation that the party was light on climate to the party’s Climate Change spokesman Simon Watts, who said it was a bit “biased” to call National out for a lack of climate policy. He said National was the only to release an agricultural emissions policy, for example.

    There are several shades of wrong with this.

    National does have an agricultural emissions policy, but it’s only to to delay the start date at which agriculture will pay an emissions price to 2030, from Labour and the Greens’ date of 2025.

    It’s a sort of un-policy – a policy to undo a policy. It won’t reduce emissions.

    It’s not even correct that National is the only party with an agricultural emissions policy. The idea of delaying the start date is a watered-down version of on an Act idea, which is that New Zealand farmers should not pay an agricultural emissions price until our major trading partners do.

    Not only is National not the only party with an agricultural emissions policy – it’s not even the only party with their policy.

    This problem bleeds through all of National’s climate agenda. The party is committed to the Government’s emissions budgets, and New Zealand’s Paris Agreement commitments, but doesn’t have a credible plan to reach these goals.

    …

    The choice is currently between a flawed status quo and a leap into the abyss.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2023-nationals-concerning-lack-of-climate-policies/2JKNFA6UL5FQVIEP5RFMJONHII/

    • PsyclingLeft.Always 2.1
      17 August 2023 at 10:21 am

      Simon Watts..Nats Climate Change spokesperson.

      Watts stated his objectives in politics are giving more government support to the health sector and building more roads

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Watts

      He obviously doesnt see the incongruity of being a Climate Change spokesperson and building more roads.

    • Herodotus 2.2
      17 August 2023 at 10:55 am

      Meanwhile our pm was recently in China promoting tourism- if there was a climate crises how does flying millions around the world daily help? That’s right as per link international travel does NOT count. So that is all good we can go overseas and it doesn’t matter to the climate !! Either it is and all attention is required or it isn’t – from actions I gather there is NO climate crisis

      And “The second is how aviation emissions are attributed to countries. CO2 emissions from domestic flights are counted in a country’s emission accounts. International flights are not”

      https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-aviation

      • AB 2.2.1
        17 August 2023 at 11:15 am

        He's doing it because our economies are highly fragile houses of cards optimised for profit and efficiency. If tourism to this country declines, then lots of businesses fail, people lose jobs and there is a follow-on cascade of nasty effects that ripples out from there. The economy has to be constantly buzzing and growing in the goldilocks zone (not too fast not too slow) for it all to work. Major disruptions – either external factors like climate change or endogenous shocks from its inherent pathologies – cause crises. It is hard to be sanguine about how this mad machine can cope with the what is needed to deal with climate change. Hence the appeal of technology solutions that might allow it to keep running.

  3. Ad 3
    17 August 2023 at 11:30 am

    Would a post on FNZ's reliance on Fonterra, and the agricultural lobby resistance to agricultural emissions, be of interest? It will take a bit of work so just checking in.

    • Patricia Bremner 4.1
      17 August 2023 at 2:33 pm

      No Chris, most realise that the repairs and shortfall caused by the storms must be paid for. $52 a year seems reasonable to meyes

      Those who won’t cost their Policies worry me.. How much..???? Who pays???? Nacts Policies are more “Statements of Intent” not costed and planned imo. ( $34billion, even Act asked where’s the money coming from?)

      • Chris 4.1.1
        17 August 2023 at 2:44 pm

        I agree entirely, but what they're doing is giving fodder to luxon and co to bellow back with "Labour's the party of taxes". Just another reason for the ill-informed voting public to ditch Labour.

        • bwaghorn 4.1.1.1
          17 August 2023 at 6:23 pm

          No point being in government if your not going to fix stuff, and I for one prefer honest open conversation.

    • Ad 4.2
      17 August 2023 at 2:43 pm

      Just another code for climate change effects.

      Can certainly see why National are proposing to shift $500m around from Road Safety to beefing up road maintenance.

      Labour are dead right in the move, but they will need to sell that message with exquisite accuracy to land well.

    • bwaghorn 4.3
      17 August 2023 at 6:21 pm

      Probably about time evs paid ruc's

  5. newsense 5
    17 August 2023 at 7:00 pm

    Ad’s politics confuse me.

    The Spin-off is talking about the country essentially wanting a National government led by Chris Hipkins. And the Spin-off is positing that this is what we have now. Is that about where Ad sits? Is that fair?