"Japan's government has decided to release radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, with a formal announcement expected to be made within this month, Kyodo news agency and other media reported."
"Early this year, a panel of experts advising Japan's government on the disposal of radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima plant, recommended releasing it into the ocean."
A "panel of experts" ? Were they fans of Godzilla? or What?
Meanwhile…
"Japan’s government has pledged that the soil will moved to the interim storage facility and then, by 2045, to a permanent site outside of Fukushima prefecture as part of a deal with local residents who do not want their communities turned into a nuclear dumping ground.
But the government’s blueprint for the soil is unravelling: so far, not a single location has agreed to accommodate the toxic waste."
It certainly is for me. Especially staying up well after midnight to look at the comparison behaviours of DateTime structures in php (not one of my daily languages).
I'm sipping coffee while watching robots trying to login or to request login names using ?author=1 style queries. We're getting a lot of attempts on the site at present. Jetpack reports:-
Brute force attack protection
91,653 Blocked malicious login attempts
I only turned that on a few months ago. And it isn't the first line of defence on that.
Edit: That was odd – this was a reply to Treetop at 3.1. Oh well.. I am the sysop – I can trash and add the comment again.
"Evidence of a changing climate is stacking up in the South.Kiwifruit can now be grown in Invercargill and Dunedin suffers from drought, a new report from the Ministry for the Environment says."
Andrew Noone..
"Otago Regional Council chairman Andrew Noone said the report was sobering."
Yes. I'm quite happily working on subtropical species right now due to climate change. Not happy about climate change, but happy I'm full steam ahead making adjustments that will help.
Definitely time for growers to stop using clones and FI hybrids and to actually breed their own localised veggies with an ever watchful eye out for drought and heat tolerant genotypes.
The tecomanthe I planted in my tunnelhouse didn't make it through the winter, but the cutting I took from it and grew inside over the cold season, is looking strong. I'll plant it out in the tunnelhouse tomorrow, in celebration.
Only one plant from one site (Three Kings Islands) has ever been found. Flowers as you describe, seeds form in long pods up to about 200mm long, initially green but turn brown before they split open. My plant here in Wellington currently has one pod forming, previous years it has produced viable seed.
Setting seed seems to be less reliable than flowering here, some years there's no seed. I'm unsure what pollinates them. I recall reading of one on Banks Peninsula producing viable seed.
I hope the grapes aren't going to take a hammering from that bastard pest, harlequin ladybug. They managed to infest Wellington summer last, and have heard from people in Marlborough that the harlequin has managed to establish itself over there. Another bloody pest bug that NZ doesn't need, and one that could utterly annihilate the wine industry in Marlborough.
Harlequins are the ultimate in mimicry. As they look so similar to real ladybirds, people don't kill them like they should. Terrible things to kill as well as the skunky smell they leave behind no matter what, is absolutely foul.
Oh well, I suppose us coffee drinker will be happy as now the farmers will be able to grow coffee in the Southern Alps foothills. Probably go well with the grapes that are already grown there.
I believe it is Draco. They can't keep up with the orders. There was a Country Calendar episode earlier this year, and the reports were very favourable.
You should see their passionfruit vine! A couple of years back I built a metal support frame for it, and just as well I did, the thing is like a triffid and produces heaps of passionfruit. And the olives (6 of them) just dripping with big fat olives. The 28 parrots keep an eye on them – but there are still heaps for them and their friends. They also have a curry plant, and heaps more. All on a 400+ sqm section.
Thought electioneering was over? Wrong. As the humans take their last chance to go to the ballot box, the birds are just starting their campaign, it's looking like a fierce one.
If you thought today would be a day free from pleas for your vote and campaign promises you'd be wrong.
Human politicians are legally silenced on voting day, but another election is kicking off and candidates are keen to get their messages across.
It's not the United States elections, it's Bird of the Year. Voting opens on November 2 and the hopefuls are already out and about on social media, delivering messages, memes and smackdowns.
The annual competition is Forest & Bird’s biggest event of the year. Communications advisor Laura Keown said last year at least 50,000 people engaged with it on the website.
There really is only one choice lets concentrate on native birds of prey. One who traditional diet includes other birds. Ruru time (my favourite).. Or the NZ falcon, swamp harrier (kahu), and barn owl ? Oh the latter is apparently a aussie that is now breeding here.
I’d vote for “paint it black” by the rolling stones. But I guess that classical music means dead and decomposing rather than composers who are still alive. Even if Mick Jagger does look like a bit like a mobile corpse these days.
I never listen to the concert programme. I have heard all of the classical repitore before I was 20.
My sole interest in the concert programmes is that my 81yo father listens to it. He doesn’t have a Spotify account.
One day I will show him how to pipe Bluetooth Spotify through his hearing aids, then he can curate his own classical music. The same way I do. I have several hundred tracks of that genre on a Playlist. They’re stored on my phone and on my computers as cached files. I also have access to a lot of volunteer curated Playlists.
sympathy for the devil , also by the greatest rock and roll band ever. good point about the qualifications to be considered classical. if it was a car, 35 yrs. if its that the composer is dead, theres plenty of dead rock composers..
Critics have described the track as revolutionary in its combination of different musical elements, the youthful, cynical sound of Dylan's voice, and the directness of the question "How does it feel?" "Like a Rolling Stone" completed the transformation of Dylan's image from folk singer to rock star, and is considered one of the most influential compositions in postwar popular music. According to review aggregator Acclaimed Music, "Like a Rolling Stone" is the statistically most acclaimed song of all time.
Watching the ones at work is always a pleasure. Have yet to witness a kill but watching them pass their catch to their mate and young mid air is always good,the occasional strafing from them is a bonus.
Lots of bush pockets everywhere out here. They have been nesting just in a little patch for a few years but have shifted this year not sure where to so only see them on occasion which is a shame.
Yeah. Just reminds me that I don’t get out of the city enough these days. Lack of good data for work and a lack of a pad between the right big toe and the foot bones causing a bone grate.
I am just hoping that rural data will improve by the time I want to stop working.
When I was out in ohura 7 years ago there was an Auckland guy who moved there for the high speed internet, you could buy most of the town for the price of your Auckland appartment.
No idea but the usually fast aonet wifi that bounces into the valley I live in died just after I wrote that last comment so I missed all the fun at the standard last night 🔥am now outstanding in my field trying to catch up.
Yes. If you listen to the mellifluous calls of the tui, many of which were learned by its ancestors listening to now extinct birds like the huia, you'll hear some raucous croaking sounds every now and then; that's the echo of the cry of Archaeopterix, a common sound in our early fern and horsetail forests 🙂
I seem to remember reading that some of the seamen-workers in the early ship landings asked to be allowed to sleep on board as the birds were so dominant that there wasn't enough quiet time for a tired man to get uninterrupted zzzz.
It's just struck me that I've read lots of stories about Drumpf 2016 to Biden 2020 voters, but I haven't seen anything about Hillary 2016 to Drumpf 2020 voters. Nothing.
I guess that indicates if there actually is one, they're somewhere like MarmotRump, Montana, and their only communication with the outside world is via smoke signals.
A bit of water to go under the bridge until 3 November. Once the NZ election is over I will tune in more to the US election. The ratings for the US build up will hopefully widen. If so what is going to come out of the mouth of Trump is anyone's guess.
This morning Kim questioned her journalist guest who was saying that Trump refuses to condemn the White Supremesist or other extreme groups. Listeners pointed out the number of times Trump had been recorded condemning them. After justifying himself the interview ended abruptly I thought.
I suspect that the issue is that Trump seldom condeems them immediately. He says something ambiguous. Then after a small shitstorm arises and he gets the headline he wants. He makes a suitably ambiguous statement condeeming everyone – including those quering him. More headlines.
Nice way of getting headlines whilst never taking a stand. It is a pretty common way to do PR. The Kardashians also do it pretty well.
I just ignore it as being a way that no talent dithering idiots seek fame and exposure.
I heard the interview. Interesting when it came to how Trump would leave were he to be defeated. Maybe Kim could bring the journalist back a week after the US election.
New York Times opinionista raves about those dastardly Russian masterminds; Kim Hill does not raise the slightest objection
RNZ National, Saturday 17 October 2020, 8:10 a.m.
This certainly sounded promising….
8:10 The week in US politics: Nicholas Fandos
…Facebook and Twitter have restricted access to a controversial New York Post story critical of Joe Biden, raising questions about how social media platforms should tackle misinformation. And President Trump is back up and dancing, but how are the final weeks of the campaign going for him? Nicholas Fandos, a reporter based in the Washington bureau for The New York Times, joins us to discuss. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
However, towards the end of the interview, Fandos repeated the key propaganda point of the most ridiculous misinformation campaign of the last four years. Kim Hill let him chunter on, without raising the slightest demur. I sent her the following email….
Nicholas Fandos lectures about conspiracy theories—then indulges in the "Russian" one
Dear Kim,
Nicholas Fandos spoke compellingly about the Republicans' suppression of the vote, and of Trump's racism, and his predilection for conspiracy theories—and then he suddenly started talking about "Russian manipulation."
The Clinton campaign's absurd allegations about those sinister Russian masterminds is a conspiracy as weird and as free of evidence as anything cooked up by the sad souls at Q-Anon.
Possibly she has her own opinion that doesn’t match your lunatic ideas.
I know I do. I also respect her abilities to distinguish crap and fact far more than I respect yours. By several orders of magnitude. She appears to not live in a small and ever reducing bubble of information.
Kim Hill is a true believer in the cranky notion that Russia is running Trump as an asset. She has given a free, uninterrupted, and uncritical platform to the most cynical political operatives and traducers (Alex Gibney, Jonathan Freedland, Simon Schama, A.A. Gill) and—perhaps her most foolish lapse—to the discredited conspiracy theorist Luke Harding. Yet you claim, in spite of all of that, to "respect her abilities to distinguish crap and fact."
Your ad hominem attacks on me—"lunatic ideas… ever reducing bubble of information"—are as rigorous as her analyses of American politics.
Yeah I always love the way that you routinely criticize others for traits that are so outstanding in yourself.
My descriptions of how I view your badly thought through ramblings and opinions are simply a accurate representation of my assessment of how much value I place on them.
There is no need to get defensive and uptight about it. Just value the considerable honesty and effort with which I make them.
After all I could have used that effort on something more productive. Like changing the minds of machines with finely crafted and much more precise code.
Yeah I always love the way that you routinely criticize others for traits that are so outstanding in yourself.
No, when I criticise someone, even caustically, I always justify what I write by providing evidence. I don't just call Heather Du Plessis-Allen or Duncan Garner, for example, ignorant and nasty, I provide evidence of it. You have simply asserted something about me, without justification. That's nothing more than abuse.
My descriptions of how I view your badly thought through ramblings and opinions are simply a accurate representation of my assessment of how much value I place on them.
Your "descriptions" of my "ramblings and opinions" are unsupported by any evidence. It's mere assertion.
Yep, Andre, that's the clincher. It's certainly as strong as any other "evidence" that the Russians are running the show in America. What a journalistic jewel that excellent HuffPost is!
Do you have any evidence that Putin was responsible for the death of the Notorious RBG? You know it's out there!
I’m not. I just have a extremely good memory and a scientists / historian / programmers ability to look at patterns. I am also blessed with an extreme reading speed so I seldom get caught in teeny bubbles of self-referential fabrications like some of you bozos.
It means that I am seldom gullible about anything. The Russian institutional patterns of behaviour are just as distinctive as those of the other major and minor players. The US for instance. When I see them repeating certain things, that have shown up in their history then there are usually only two or three usual explanations. I just eliminate and act on the basis of the most likely ones.
Have you ever asked yourself why Estonia now has such a paranoid computer network for instance. And what the implication are for that for other countries. I sure as hell did. It shows up in the bordering states. The same way that I was looking at the attacks on the Iranian uranium processing.
Fingerprints on the net are quite distinctive. You may not be able to definitively prove who was involved. But you can be sure who was most likely to be doing the deed – and act accordingly.
Basically, I consider that most of you illiterates are just kind of retarded in your delusions. You tend to believe people who have no competence in networks blathering on about networks. I really don’t care what people say – I’m interested in what I can see,.
For a good historical overview of Russiagate and the uses to which it will now be put in online censorship along with the clowns entrusted with the desion making the following is enlightening from Craig Murray. And nobody can accuse him of promoting Putin whom he has no love for. This isnt a binary conversation. Its possible to recognise the idiocy of Russiagate and the uses that conservative ideologues will put it to without becoming a Putin or Trump cheerleader.
Well said, my friend. Be aware, however, that this is a site on which several of the moderators have poured ridicule on Craig Murray, Glenn Greenwald, and even Noam Chomsky. You have by daring to question one of this forum’s articles of faith, i.e. the Russiagate narrative, now opened yourself up for retribution which is intended to be nasty but which is in fact (unintentionally) amusing. As you can see in the comments above yours, my temerity in criticizing Dame Hill has engendered from one person a spray about "badly thought through ramblings"—sans evidence—followed by self praise of his own "considerable honesty and effort". After that, another person suggests that my critique of La Hill makes me a flat earther.
Thankfully our friend Gabby has then posted one of her gnomic contributions, which injects a little levity to the situation.
'Professor Judith Butler is an activist, philosopher, and critical theorist who has spent decades writing about gender.'
This mix of disciplines would be perfect i think for producing the arguments and furore over sex and gender being taken to extremes that we are receiving.
On this morning with Kim.
10:05 Feminist philosopher Judith Butler: why gender still causes trouble
Professor Judith Butler is an activist, philosopher, and critical theorist who has spent decades writing about gender.
She's authored several books, but is best known for her widely influential 1990 work Gender Trouble, in which she argues that gender is a kind of performance.
Recently she's spoken up against a vocal minority of feminists who reject the assertion that trans women are women.
one of the stupider aspects of the sex/gender wars is the weaponising of semantics. It's understandable and not stupid as a war tactic, but I expect those not engaged to grasp what is going on and they often don't.
If one uses the term woman to refer to biological sex, then obviously trans women are male not female. If one uses the term woman to refer to social gender, then I can see why trans women want to be part of the class that is women (and also why women have some issues with that). GCFs insist on the first usage exclusively, TAs the later.
The main problem here is the suppression of debate, and us not having moved past the semantic weapons to a better understanding so we can try and figure out some solutions.
Didn't hear the whole interview, but the bits I did hear made me think that Butler is adept at not answering questions (she neatly avoided talking the issues for detrans women for instance). I also thought that Hill asking Butler what GCFs think and feel is akin to asking politicised anti-abortionists what feminists think and feel about abortion. Just not a useful question unless Hill was going to dig in deeper (which she didn't).
Would have to listen to the whole thing, but Hill seemed a bit out of her depth (although she may also have been feeling the need to be careful in how she did the interview because of the risk of backlash).
I will if I get the time, but have to say her evasiveness wasn't attracting me to listening to the whole thing.
(I agree there are other consequences, and my preference is we get to have a public conversation about all the issues. The war is ugly and harming lots of different people).
Butler will know full well about the detrans issues, she chose not to address them even when asked direction. The question was clear and relevant, Hill didn't follow up and Butler easily deflected.
Everything I've read/listened to so far indicates that you'rereading her wrong:
We depend on gender as a historical category, and that means we do not yet know all the ways it may come to signify, and we are open to new understandings of its social meanings. It would be a disaster for feminism to return either to a strictly biological understanding of gender or to reduce social conduct to a body part or to impose fearful fantasies, their own anxieties, on trans women… Their abiding and very real sense of gender ought to be recognised socially and publicly as a relatively simple matter of according another human dignity. The trans-exclusionary radical feminist position attacks the dignity of trans people.
And she most definitely got her reading of what J.K. Rolling said wrong.
there is a massive culture war going on, and it's impacting society in ways that most of society aren't even aware of yet, including in legislation. If you want to understand Butler, it pays to read the critiques, and in the war understanding the GCF position is imperative.
Left wing GCFs aren't anti-trans, they want trans people to be ok too. They're not going to give up women's rights, and until progressive get to grips with the conflict of rights here and set ourselves to find good resolutions for all, there is going to be a lot of blood shed.
For our erudition, how does gender studies define gender without reference to biological gender? All the explanations of LGBT categories I have seen define then with reference to biological males or females, but this would not allow these categories to exist without the foundational biological categories.
I see the horticulteralists are talking about labour shortages and no NZers wanting to do the work. The problem is that if a person isn't single then they have to maintain their current home and the place they move to when they do the vinyard work. The money may be above minimum but it's not enough to keep two homes going especially when one of the places to try and live is Queenstown.
The claims about recompense are disingenuous…the fact that some can achieve perhaps $30 p/h it misrepresents the reality..some exceptional individuals can run a 4 min mile but we know the overwhelming majority will never come close to that level…and then theres the issue that the hours are not guaranteed and the potential productivity of the crops to be harvested vary by time and location.
If the business is not viable providing pay and conditions at a level that attracts local labour then quite simply the business model is not viable and it needs to be recognised…either automate, pay at a level that attracts local labour or find another activity.
Automation isn't the only alternative there, and it leads to a presumption of commoditized production. What humans are better at than machines is producing high quality products, that a mass market approach tends to compromise. When that comes to things like fruit that might mean individual bagging and manual thinning for market size preferences. The quality focus also tends to reduce waste that can hide in larger production streams.
They really want their exploitable labour. How much they really need that labour force will become apparent if the immigration rules get enforced for a change, and growers are obliged to hire or pick themselves. I have a feeling the real driver of the grower 'need' was a desire to alter the dynamics of the market massively in their favour. By no means all of those desirable (to employer) outcomes were in the public interest.
Simpler investment in machinery mentioned a few weeks ago when this was in the news: wheeled hydraulic lifting platforms that can take the workers to the fruit without trips up and down ladders. Reduces the need for workers to have rugby thighs.
If the business is not viable providing pay and conditions at a level that attracts local labour then quite simply the business model is not viable and it needs to be recognised…either automate, pay at a level that attracts local labour or find another activity.
Exactly.
The whole point of the free-market is to have non-viable businesses shut down and so we should be seeing these businesses shutting down. Instead, they go crying to government and get to import cheap labour in complete contradiction to their professed backing of the free-market.
The article I saw this morning did mention wages. Paying above minimum wages, with a prospect of earning more. However they glossed over the problems involved in moving between jobs High accommodation costs in moving. Lack of support for dependents. And of course the perennial disincentive of idiotic standdown periods when there was no work.
Not necessarily. Just a reduction in their own income. A scenario they're obviously not prepared to consider. They've got use to an income far greater than their parents was when they employed young care-free NZers 40 years ago.
Although I guess with the increased income they've increased their debt….
I'm pretty sure that if they paid all the costs of short term jobs then they'd go broke. IMO, that applies to all of NZ businesses.
They want a free labour market but can't actually afford to pay for it.
In reality, a free-market costs more as everyone needs to be able to cover the cost of not being employed and the costs of moving unexpectedly for work.
the piece I saw was basically MSM running PR for an industry intent on getting government policy change to suit itself and to avoid decent pay and work conditions. I'm planning on doing a post this week, there's so much bullshit on this atm.
I worked in Motueka for a few seasons in the 70s. Pay was basic, but the job included free accommodation and being paid when it was too wet to work. No worries about being stood down for the dole either, as jobs were plentiful. At the time Motueka was a bit scruffy and run down . Now it reeks of money.
Newman said he was pleased that after years councils had banded together to do something. But there was still debate on how to pay for it and Newman warned that too much bureaucracy could delay much-needed action.
Managed retreat of dwellings from climate change impacts like rising seas is a far bigger thing than one settlement or council can decide on. It's why the proposed replacement for the RMA includes a dedicated nationwide law on it.
Yes it's a big job to tackle. Individual councils need to think about it too and not just wait to be told. In Nelson our council was thinking of building expensive buildings on the river bank across a previous swamp area with the seafront a short distance away and just some metres above sea level.
how are they intending to decide who will get assistance when? At some point there needs to be a cutoff right? (esp for new builds, personally I think that should be now).
Can learn a bit watching that. Triple walls seem the way to go, with the first two walls close together and crenellated in a pattern of overlap to take maximum wave impact simultaneously dissipating it and allowing rapid drainage. And in between the front and back a place for any water thrown up and over to collect and drain.
They've made some interlocking concrete blocks down south somewhere's which is smart so you can create massive structures from smaller efforts, adding to and subtracting from them as desired.
A combo of this kitset kiwi ingenuity with some designs run through models to maximise wave dissipation could really help some places.
Sea level models will also show us where to hold em, and where to fold em. Some places a small wall might save a lot of land. In others…
there's also a case for finding best use of buildings in such a zone rather than just trashing them. Those houses on the North Island town that the council want not lived in any more because of rainfall flooding but the locals want to stay, they should be allowed to stay so long as they know the risks.
The wave house people should be funded out of there if they don't want to be there, but there needs to be a cut off point. Building or buying on the coast now should have a caveat.
Costly solution, who pays for it, and still won't prevent a determined coastline change. Removal of material under any protection barrier cannot be stopped, only slowed.
Here is a lengthy, but brilliant, article concerning NZ's move toward regenerative agriculture. The political will behind it, and the hurdles we face in implementing it correctly.
The article makes a great point about levies on synthetic ferts being detrimental if alternative systems or support are not in place for farmers.
We can do this. We are positioned to become the worlds best food producer and get the best prices. But we need to do it right.
One of Trump's 'miracle' drugs fails the claim in the WHO Solidarity clinical trials.
"The drug having no life-saving effect at all. It is a similar message ( of failure ) for preventing people needing ventilation or speeding up people's recovery."
Thread about Zuckerberg's FB gaming their system to starve investigative journalism outlets of traffic and burying them under the very RW crank sites who cry about being censored.
There are 4 more articles on Jacinda and the election in the Weekend Australian, I haven’t read them as yet as I usually read the sports and Business Sections on Saturday.
Anyway I assume it will be normal service once the polls are closed? As I missed the closing of the tote last night for today’s race meeting with Weka’s post on CC.
Anyway Folks have a lovely day in NZ today and don’t drink too much tonight when the counting starts. Also make sure everyone gets out and vote.
Like your 'distressed' paintwork on the verandah, plus the look-alike ornamental paw prints. After tonight who can guess what the decoration will look like?
Household spending remains strong.
Total income support numbers fell this week . "The weekly proportion of cancelled Jobseeker grants where the recipient had obtained work has been trending up since June."
Food prices fell in September.
The IMF revises upwards for a better than expected GDP outturn in developed countries.
Rent prices continued to rise.
Property investors have been driving increase in house sales. "an average of 32 days to sell, is the lowest September result for 3 years."
( A risk-free rate of return method (RFRM) of taxation or a brightline tax NOW without any time frames on 2nd and consecutive houses anyone?)
It's Monty Python in Oz as 230 kiwi 'holidaymakers' (Scomo speak for family reunions with the Oz based kiwi diaspora) fly into Sydney without having to go through quarantine for the first time. It's only one way as Aussies can't leave Oz anyway and NZ will make anyone quarantine and pay for it anyway. Then 17 of the kiwi 'holidaymakers' jump on the next plane to Melbourne, just recovering from 9 weeks lockdown and are seized and told they are not welcome in Victoria as they haven't been quarantined after arrival from virus free NZ. No-one is taking responsibility for the stuff up. The only other place the 'holidaymakers' are allowed to go is the NT, a lovely place to visit at this time of the year in the 35 to 40C build up and crocs on every beach. Meanwhile, NSWers can't even get into Queensland. Not sure if Australia actually exists at the moment.
The official in charge of tourism sounds peeved that Australians can't come from their bug… infested country to our clean (at present) one. I think he would rather stop Kiwis coming into his space and bringing our tourist dollars, if they can't do the same. I wonder what the Oz businesses think of that less than business-like approach?
Apparently Australians can register to be allowed across the SA border. But not being able to come here, requires retaliation – simple equation for an Australian. I could understand some time in isolation just to be sure – three days for those from a Covid-free NZ and not having been in a hot-spot is another query. Also Kiwis should not move around much; originally it was suggested just NSW and Northern Territory. But Kiwis are more at risk than Australians I think.
"As much as we definitely want to see Kiwis here, we love having them here, they're great tourists, they get around and see a a lot of our state and we think we've got a lot to offer New Zealanders.
"I think from our perspective it's reasonably convoluted and complicated at the moment in terms of how they can travel around, I guess our advice would be when it is free to move and travel both ways that is probably the optimum time to come."
Hill said he understood people wanting to make urgent trips to see friends and family, but he has a message for state hoppers. "If people are intending to do things like travelling into New South Wales and then getting in cars and coming through, you don't want to get caught up and find yourself unwittingly having to do quarantine or something of that nature, and I think it's just easier, it shouldn't be too far away that we have an open bubble on both ends.
I'm thinking of getting rid of my email account because I get rubbish and the odd plumbers bill – which could be sent to my phone number I suspect. Any thoughts ?? Has anyone done this?
Advance votes have increased about 60 percent compared to the previous election, with just under 2 million votes cast before election day this year.
The Electoral Commission has reported the statistics this afternoon, recording 1,976,996 total advance votes including 233,575 cast on Friday, the final day before the election.
That compares to just 1,240,740 advance votes cast in 2017, which accounted for about 47 percent of the 2,630,173 total votes….
However, people this year for the first time have the option to enrol and vote on voting day, so total enrolment numbers could still increase. About 92 percent of eligible voters have already enrolled….
Early voting has notably increased on the Māori roll, with 77,600 Māori having cast their vote by 14 October, a 98 percent increase on the same period in 2017.
Advance votes do not include special votes – for example prisoners, overseas voters, people voting on the unpublished roll, or those unable to vote at a voting place – which totalled more than 440,000 votes in the previous election.
I was surprised to see that since 2006 they have been encouraging musicians to some extent. So good on them, and let's hear more innovative business-building ideas.
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Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Remember to read the Election Day rules post.
Ignorance is just a reason to pick up a ban.
"Japan's government has decided to release radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, with a formal announcement expected to be made within this month, Kyodo news agency and other media reported."
"Early this year, a panel of experts advising Japan's government on the disposal of radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima plant, recommended releasing it into the ocean."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/428540/japan-to-release-fukushima-contaminated-water-into-sea-reports
A "panel of experts" ? Were they fans of Godzilla? or What?
Meanwhile…
"Japan’s government has pledged that the soil will moved to the interim storage facility and then, by 2045, to a permanent site outside of Fukushima prefecture as part of a deal with local residents who do not want their communities turned into a nuclear dumping ground.
But the government’s blueprint for the soil is unravelling: so far, not a single location has agreed to accommodate the toxic waste."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/fukushima-toxic-soil-disaster-radioactive
So, no one in Japan wants the contaminated soil (quite rightly ), but their Ocean..(Ours too) will take the contaminated water? Not good
Will it end up in Africa? Maybe one of the islands China is truculently claiming.
Tip-toeing through a minefield!
Looking forward to a very enjoyable evening with friends and family, watching the good news roll in!
The morning after either you wake up happy or disappointed. At least a coffee will cheer a disappointed person up if that is their fuel.
It certainly is for me. Especially staying up well after midnight to look at the comparison behaviours of DateTime structures in php (not one of my daily languages).
I'm sipping coffee while watching robots trying to login or to request login names using ?author=1 style queries. We're getting a lot of attempts on the site at present. Jetpack reports:-
I only turned that on a few months ago. And it isn't the first line of defence on that.
Edit: That was odd – this was a reply to Treetop at 3.1. Oh well.. I am the sysop – I can trash and add the comment again.
I'm not human until I have my wake up coffee.
I hesitate to ask what you are before the coffee. Probably something lovecraftian that charles stross would write about?
I am a mangled skeleton not sure of the species.
Aren’t we all. Just have some flesh hiding it.
Coffee in hand, I have removed the overnight moderation on this post. Yawn…
"Evidence of a changing climate is stacking up in the South.Kiwifruit can now be grown in Invercargill and Dunedin suffers from drought, a new report from the Ministry for the Environment says."
Andrew Noone..
"Otago Regional Council chairman Andrew Noone said the report was sobering."
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/report-climate-change-effects-hitting-nz
Eventually the elephant in the room…leaves no other room
Yes. I'm quite happily working on subtropical species right now due to climate change. Not happy about climate change, but happy I'm full steam ahead making adjustments that will help.
Definitely time for growers to stop using clones and FI hybrids and to actually breed their own localised veggies with an ever watchful eye out for drought and heat tolerant genotypes.
The tecomanthe I planted in my tunnelhouse didn't make it through the winter, but the cutting I took from it and grew inside over the cold season, is looking strong. I'll plant it out in the tunnelhouse tomorrow, in celebration.
A tecomanthe is a vine I take it. Is it scented or fruited?
Vine from one site – the Kermadec Islands. Nice flower trumpet like I think. All I know.
Only one plant from one site (Three Kings Islands) has ever been found. Flowers as you describe, seeds form in long pods up to about 200mm long, initially green but turn brown before they split open. My plant here in Wellington currently has one pod forming, previous years it has produced viable seed.
I had high hopes for mine, but got complacent. The new vine will be pampered and hopefully produce seed some day. Well done you!
I have one growing vigorously over my shed, here on the West Coast. Planted over 15 years ago in a frost free site, it flowers but doesn't seed
Setting seed seems to be less reliable than flowering here, some years there's no seed. I'm unsure what pollinates them. I recall reading of one on Banks Peninsula producing viable seed.
I had rellies growing kiwifruit in Invercargill in the 70s. Bugger of a thing to get to ripen there though, lol. Microclimates make a big difference.
Well thats news to us in Marlborough where the grapes have had a bit of a hammering from the COLD this spring.
I hope the grapes aren't going to take a hammering from that bastard pest, harlequin ladybug. They managed to infest Wellington summer last, and have heard from people in Marlborough that the harlequin has managed to establish itself over there. Another bloody pest bug that NZ doesn't need, and one that could utterly annihilate the wine industry in Marlborough.
Harlequins are the ultimate in mimicry. As they look so similar to real ladybirds, people don't kill them like they should. Terrible things to kill as well as the skunky smell they leave behind no matter what, is absolutely foul.
Oh well, I suppose us coffee drinker will be happy as now the farmers will be able to grow coffee in the Southern Alps foothills. Probably go well with the grapes that are already grown there.
dunno about that, fresh snow in Otago last night.
Had to look it up. Altitude, and sub tropical climate with defined wet and dry seasons.
Quite a lot of rain too, which probably rules out lots of the east side of the SI.
But would probably apply quite nicely to the West Coast.
I suspect not enough dry. Looks like coffee needs 3 months of dry at a specific time in its growth cycle.
Actually coffee is now being grown roasted and ground right here in NZ – but in Northland not the Southern Alps.
https://www.ikaruscoffee.co.nz/
I'm looking forward to eating bananas grown on Mt Kaukau.
You could grow your own bananas – we had some in Coatesville; and we got our plant from some people who were growing them in the Waitakeres.
Maybe someone else could at my place. But everything I touch, dies. Which is kinda handy for pest control, not much use for anything else.
Yes, but is it the nice coffee that doesn't need sugar?
No coffee needs sugar.
Well, I suppose if you like you coffee so bitter it makes lemon taste sweet…
I believe it is Draco. They can't keep up with the orders. There was a Country Calendar episode earlier this year, and the reports were very favourable.
I have a coffee plant growing in my lounge – not quite warm enough outside just yet!
My daughter is growing Coffee plants in Perth. But the Mulberry tree is my favourite. Sooo Yummy.
Mulberries are superb!
You should see their passionfruit vine! A couple of years back I built a metal support frame for it, and just as well I did, the thing is like a triffid and produces heaps of passionfruit. And the olives (6 of them) just dripping with big fat olives. The 28 parrots keep an eye on them – but there are still heaps for them and their friends. They also have a curry plant, and heaps more. All on a 400+ sqm section.
OMG not this again.
There really is only one choice lets concentrate on native birds of prey. One who traditional diet includes other birds. Ruru time (my favourite).. Or the NZ falcon, swamp harrier (kahu), and barn owl ? Oh the latter is apparently a aussie that is now breeding here.
ConcertFM (or RNZConcert) is running an election for the post popular classical music – voting closes Sunday 18th.
Lol – last year an Auckland school block voted their school song – which just happened to be from Verdi's Aida.
I’d vote for “paint it black” by the rolling stones. But I guess that classical music means dead and decomposing rather than composers who are still alive. Even if Mick Jagger does look like a bit like a mobile corpse these days.
But I guess that classical music means dead and decomposing…
?????!!??
Hell, Lin, that comment makes you sound like Chris Faafoi, or those rogue executives at RNZ who want to destroy Concert FM.
I never listen to the concert programme. I have heard all of the classical repitore before I was 20.
My sole interest in the concert programmes is that my 81yo father listens to it. He doesn’t have a Spotify account.
One day I will show him how to pipe Bluetooth Spotify through his hearing aids, then he can curate his own classical music. The same way I do. I have several hundred tracks of that genre on a Playlist. They’re stored on my phone and on my computers as cached files. I also have access to a lot of volunteer curated Playlists.
Broadcast music is very obsolete.
This year as every year I'm voting for the Large-Breasted-Mattress-Thrasher.
Ah I guess that is what you get with a one track mind. 😉
There are many tracks in the world Iprent, I just sometimes take the well-worn one.
very good choice lprent. I would probably pick
sympathy for the devil , also by the greatest rock and roll band ever. good point about the qualifications to be considered classical. if it was a car, 35 yrs. if its that the composer is dead, theres plenty of dead rock composers..
Well then, both classic and topical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT0cKjDACIY
Nah! This is it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xz7WfVYxok
hard to disagree with his bobness, noble prize winner.
That song was revolutionary in so many ways
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_a_Rolling_Stone
Slave Chorus from Aida?
Lol. Actually the Grand March.
The karerearea all the way
Watching the ones at work is always a pleasure. Have yet to witness a kill but watching them pass their catch to their mate and young mid air is always good,the occasional strafing from them is a bonus.
Some residents Anakiwa in the Sounds complained that the falcons made very annoying calls.
Townies really should stay in town they dont deserve the country.
really? Sounds an odd thing to complain about.
Here it is, fairly annoying if it was happening alot, but people wouldn't normally be this close.
https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/conservation/native-animals/birds/bird-song/nz-falcon-song-12.mp3
that's cool. Do you have native bush nearby?
Lots of bush pockets everywhere out here. They have been nesting just in a little patch for a few years but have shifted this year not sure where to so only see them on occasion which is a shame.
Yeah. Just reminds me that I don’t get out of the city enough these days. Lack of good data for work and a lack of a pad between the right big toe and the foot bones causing a bone grate.
I am just hoping that rural data will improve by the time I want to stop working.
When I was out in ohura 7 years ago there was an Auckland guy who moved there for the high speed internet, you could buy most of the town for the price of your Auckland appartment.
Wow. How did they get fast internet there?
https://i.stuff.co.nz/life-style/life/69911692/ohura-portrait-of-a-small-town-off-the-beaten-track
No idea but the usually fast aonet wifi that bounces into the valley I live in died just after I wrote that last comment so I missed all the fun at the standard last night 🔥am now outstanding in my field trying to catch up.
I could attract young karearea down with a dead mouse thrown into the air; one afternoon, one caught it.
if we're allowed extinct birds, Haast Eagle every time.
Swamp harrier, is that what most people call a hawk? (also an Aussie migrant I think).
That would be my preferred choice also.
Extinct is okay? You can't go past a fully-fledged Archaeopteryx!
Yeah, but can you prove that they ever existed in our lands.
Yes. If you listen to the mellifluous calls of the tui, many of which were learned by its ancestors listening to now extinct birds like the huia, you'll hear some raucous croaking sounds every now and then; that's the echo of the cry of Archaeopterix, a common sound in our early fern and horsetail forests 🙂
BOTY will always be the Tui for me.
It sounds like magic. A native forest full of NZ birds is nature's stereo system.
I seem to remember reading that some of the seamen-workers in the early ship landings asked to be allowed to sleep on board as the birds were so dominant that there wasn't enough quiet time for a tired man to get uninterrupted zzzz.
My choice is the Bellbird – korimako who wakes me up with his song outside my bedroom window
Oh yes 100% Bell bird.. beautiful and haunting.
The dawn chorus on Tirirtiri Matanga (spelling?) was almost deafening! A wonder to listen to and behold.
If you’re in the Whangaparaoa Electorate, Wade Hotel, Silverdale from 7.00 pm.
It's just struck me that I've read lots of stories about Drumpf 2016 to Biden 2020 voters, but I haven't seen anything about Hillary 2016 to Drumpf 2020 voters. Nothing.
I guess that indicates if there actually is one, they're somewhere like MarmotRump, Montana, and their only communication with the outside world is via smoke signals.
A bit of water to go under the bridge until 3 November. Once the NZ election is over I will tune in more to the US election. The ratings for the US build up will hopefully widen. If so what is going to come out of the mouth of Trump is anyone's guess.
This morning Kim questioned her journalist guest who was saying that Trump refuses to condemn the White Supremesist or other extreme groups. Listeners pointed out the number of times Trump had been recorded condemning them. After justifying himself the interview ended abruptly I thought.
I suspect that the issue is that Trump seldom condeems them immediately. He says something ambiguous. Then after a small shitstorm arises and he gets the headline he wants. He makes a suitably ambiguous statement condeeming everyone – including those quering him. More headlines.
Nice way of getting headlines whilst never taking a stand. It is a pretty common way to do PR. The Kardashians also do it pretty well.
I just ignore it as being a way that no talent dithering idiots seek fame and exposure.
I heard the interview. Interesting when it came to how Trump would leave were he to be defeated. Maybe Kim could bring the journalist back a week after the US election.
New York Times opinionista raves about those dastardly Russian masterminds; Kim Hill does not raise the slightest objection
RNZ National, Saturday 17 October 2020, 8:10 a.m.
This certainly sounded promising….
However, towards the end of the interview, Fandos repeated the key propaganda point of the most ridiculous misinformation campaign of the last four years. Kim Hill let him chunter on, without raising the slightest demur. I sent her the following email….
Nicholas Fandos lectures about conspiracy theories—then indulges in the "Russian" one
Dear Kim,
Nicholas Fandos spoke compellingly about the Republicans' suppression of the vote, and of Trump's racism, and his predilection for conspiracy theories—and then he suddenly started talking about "Russian manipulation."
The Clinton campaign's absurd allegations about those sinister Russian masterminds is a conspiracy as weird and as free of evidence as anything cooked up by the sad souls at Q-Anon.
Shame on you for failing to challenge him.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen Northcote Point
Possibly she has her own opinion that doesn’t match your lunatic ideas.
I know I do. I also respect her abilities to distinguish crap and fact far more than I respect yours. By several orders of magnitude. She appears to not live in a small and ever reducing bubble of information.
Kim Hill is a true believer in the cranky notion that Russia is running Trump as an asset. She has given a free, uninterrupted, and uncritical platform to the most cynical political operatives and traducers (Alex Gibney, Jonathan Freedland, Simon Schama, A.A. Gill) and—perhaps her most foolish lapse—to the discredited conspiracy theorist Luke Harding. Yet you claim, in spite of all of that, to "respect her abilities to distinguish crap and fact."
Your ad hominem attacks on me—"lunatic ideas… ever reducing bubble of information"—are as rigorous as her analyses of American politics.
Yeah I always love the way that you routinely criticize others for traits that are so outstanding in yourself.
My descriptions of how I view your badly thought through ramblings and opinions are simply a accurate representation of my assessment of how much value I place on them.
There is no need to get defensive and uptight about it. Just value the considerable honesty and effort with which I make them.
After all I could have used that effort on something more productive. Like changing the minds of machines with finely crafted and much more precise code.
Yeah I always love the way that you routinely criticize others for traits that are so outstanding in yourself.
No, when I criticise someone, even caustically, I always justify what I write by providing evidence. I don't just call Heather Du Plessis-Allen or Duncan Garner, for example, ignorant and nasty, I provide evidence of it. You have simply asserted something about me, without justification. That's nothing more than abuse.
My descriptions of how I view your badly thought through ramblings and opinions are simply a accurate representation of my assessment of how much value I place on them.
Your "descriptions" of my "ramblings and opinions" are unsupported by any evidence. It's mere assertion.
And she refuses to accept that the world is flat! I shall dash off a letter forthwith.
There is a fair bit of daylight between running prump as an asset and meddling to prompt an outcome that will damage yankistan.
Just putting this out because I enjoy that droning mozzie whine so much …
https://twitter.com/sam_vinograd/status/1317144577359446016
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kayleigh-mcenany-everyone-is-against-us-tweet_n_5f89eb3dc5b62dbe71c290dc
Yep, Andre, that's the clincher. It's certainly as strong as any other "evidence" that the Russians are running the show in America. What a journalistic jewel that excellent HuffPost is!
Do you have any evidence that Putin was responsible for the death of the Notorious RBG? You know it's out there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onV4HDJSxb8
Oooh look! Russia and FBI and HuffPo. A triple treat for your reading pleasure!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fbi-probe-hunter-biden-email-new-york-post_n_5f8a032ec5b62dbe71c2b067
Thanks mate! Enjoyable as ever.
Quacks like a duck..
https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi/status/1317097366000979968
https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi/status/665353435827470336
I am surprised you are so gullible on this matter Lprent
I’m not. I just have a extremely good memory and a scientists / historian / programmers ability to look at patterns. I am also blessed with an extreme reading speed so I seldom get caught in teeny bubbles of self-referential fabrications like some of you bozos.
It means that I am seldom gullible about anything. The Russian institutional patterns of behaviour are just as distinctive as those of the other major and minor players. The US for instance. When I see them repeating certain things, that have shown up in their history then there are usually only two or three usual explanations. I just eliminate and act on the basis of the most likely ones.
Have you ever asked yourself why Estonia now has such a paranoid computer network for instance. And what the implication are for that for other countries. I sure as hell did. It shows up in the bordering states. The same way that I was looking at the attacks on the Iranian uranium processing.
Fingerprints on the net are quite distinctive. You may not be able to definitively prove who was involved. But you can be sure who was most likely to be doing the deed – and act accordingly.
Basically, I consider that most of you illiterates are just kind of retarded in your delusions. You tend to believe people who have no competence in networks blathering on about networks. I really don’t care what people say – I’m interested in what I can see,.
yeah sure with your superior powers etc etc bla bla. you actually know absolutely nothing about my skill set!
do the russions, USA, UK, etc etc etc regularly indulge in unethical online behaviour , absolutely !
is there any actual evidence of anything other than BAU that actually materially altered the US 2016 election. absolutely not.
Thank you for your time.
you actually know absolutely nothing about my skill set!
To be honest, my conclusion from your commentary here is that it's the empty set.
For a good historical overview of Russiagate and the uses to which it will now be put in online censorship along with the clowns entrusted with the desion making the following is enlightening from Craig Murray. And nobody can accuse him of promoting Putin whom he has no love for. This isnt a binary conversation. Its possible to recognise the idiocy of Russiagate and the uses that conservative ideologues will put it to without becoming a Putin or Trump cheerleader.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/08/the-russian-interference-report-without-laughing/
Well said, my friend. Be aware, however, that this is a site on which several of the moderators have poured ridicule on Craig Murray, Glenn Greenwald, and even Noam Chomsky. You have by daring to question one of this forum’s articles of faith, i.e. the Russiagate narrative, now opened yourself up for retribution which is intended to be nasty but which is in fact (unintentionally) amusing. As you can see in the comments above yours, my temerity in criticizing Dame Hill has engendered from one person a spray about "badly thought through ramblings"—sans evidence—followed by self praise of his own "considerable honesty and effort". After that, another person suggests that my critique of La Hill makes me a flat earther.
Thankfully our friend Gabby has then posted one of her gnomic contributions, which injects a little levity to the situation.
'Professor Judith Butler is an activist, philosopher, and critical theorist who has spent decades writing about gender.'
This mix of disciplines would be perfect i think for producing the arguments and furore over sex and gender being taken to extremes that we are receiving.
On this morning with Kim.
10:05 Feminist philosopher Judith Butler: why gender still causes trouble
Professor Judith Butler is an activist, philosopher, and critical theorist who has spent decades writing about gender.
She's authored several books, but is best known for her widely influential 1990 work Gender Trouble, in which she argues that gender is a kind of performance.
Recently she's spoken up against a vocal minority of feminists who reject the assertion that trans women are women.
Her latest book is The Force of Nonviolence.
A very intelligent discussion well-grounded in decades of critical theory – (35 mins) https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018768768/feminist-philosopher-judith-butler-why-gender-still-causes
one of the stupider aspects of the sex/gender wars is the weaponising of semantics. It's understandable and not stupid as a war tactic, but I expect those not engaged to grasp what is going on and they often don't.
If one uses the term woman to refer to biological sex, then obviously trans women are male not female. If one uses the term woman to refer to social gender, then I can see why trans women want to be part of the class that is women (and also why women have some issues with that). GCFs insist on the first usage exclusively, TAs the later.
The main problem here is the suppression of debate, and us not having moved past the semantic weapons to a better understanding so we can try and figure out some solutions.
Didn't hear the whole interview, but the bits I did hear made me think that Butler is adept at not answering questions (she neatly avoided talking the issues for detrans women for instance). I also thought that Hill asking Butler what GCFs think and feel is akin to asking politicised anti-abortionists what feminists think and feel about abortion. Just not a useful question unless Hill was going to dig in deeper (which she didn't).
Would have to listen to the whole thing, but Hill seemed a bit out of her depth (although she may also have been feeling the need to be careful in how she did the interview because of the risk of backlash).
.. then there are other consequences, which Butler described concisely. Really worth listening to the whole thing.
I will if I get the time, but have to say her evasiveness wasn't attracting me to listening to the whole thing.
(I agree there are other consequences, and my preference is we get to have a public conversation about all the issues. The war is ugly and harming lots of different people).
Probably not evasiveness but trying to answer a question that didn't really apply.
Butler will know full well about the detrans issues, she chose not to address them even when asked direction. The question was clear and relevant, Hill didn't follow up and Butler easily deflected.
Everything I've read/listened to so far indicates that you're reading her wrong:
And she most definitely got her reading of what J.K. Rolling said wrong.
which GCF critiques of Butler have you been reading?
What's that got to do with the price of fish?
there is a massive culture war going on, and it's impacting society in ways that most of society aren't even aware of yet, including in legislation. If you want to understand Butler, it pays to read the critiques, and in the war understanding the GCF position is imperative.
Left wing GCFs aren't anti-trans, they want trans people to be ok too. They're not going to give up women's rights, and until progressive get to grips with the conflict of rights here and set ourselves to find good resolutions for all, there is going to be a lot of blood shed.
For our erudition, how does gender studies define gender without reference to biological gender? All the explanations of LGBT categories I have seen define then with reference to biological males or females, but this would not allow these categories to exist without the foundational biological categories.
Hill seemed a bit out of her depth…
As she was in her credulous encounter with that Russiagate conspiracy theorist a couple of hours earlier.
Rest assured the weaponisation of language is intentional, and it won't be stopping any time soon.
I see the horticulteralists are talking about labour shortages and no NZers wanting to do the work. The problem is that if a person isn't single then they have to maintain their current home and the place they move to when they do the vinyard work. The money may be above minimum but it's not enough to keep two homes going especially when one of the places to try and live is Queenstown.
The claims about recompense are disingenuous…the fact that some can achieve perhaps $30 p/h it misrepresents the reality..some exceptional individuals can run a 4 min mile but we know the overwhelming majority will never come close to that level…and then theres the issue that the hours are not guaranteed and the potential productivity of the crops to be harvested vary by time and location.
If the business is not viable providing pay and conditions at a level that attracts local labour then quite simply the business model is not viable and it needs to be recognised…either automate, pay at a level that attracts local labour or find another activity.
woner how many of these horticulturalists will change over to growing marijuarna if it legalised?
either automate
Automation isn't the only alternative there, and it leads to a presumption of commoditized production. What humans are better at than machines is producing high quality products, that a mass market approach tends to compromise. When that comes to things like fruit that might mean individual bagging and manual thinning for market size preferences. The quality focus also tends to reduce waste that can hide in larger production streams.
They really want their exploitable labour. How much they really need that labour force will become apparent if the immigration rules get enforced for a change, and growers are obliged to hire or pick themselves. I have a feeling the real driver of the grower 'need' was a desire to alter the dynamics of the market massively in their favour. By no means all of those desirable (to employer) outcomes were in the public interest.
Simpler investment in machinery mentioned a few weeks ago when this was in the news: wheeled hydraulic lifting platforms that can take the workers to the fruit without trips up and down ladders. Reduces the need for workers to have rugby thighs.
Says Ned Ludd
Yes – NZ employers aren't noted for their enthusiasm for investing in machinery.
As long as they can sweet-talk invertebrate administrations they'll rely on, and increase the use of migrant labour.
As a 'covid' compromise, this time the public may be expected to subsidise their 'shovel ready' capital investment instead. Bless the free market.
Exactly.
The whole point of the free-market is to have non-viable businesses shut down and so we should be seeing these businesses shutting down. Instead, they go crying to government and get to import cheap labour in complete contradiction to their professed backing of the free-market.
I see the horticulteralists are not talking about
labourwages shortages and no NZers wanting to do the work.FIFY
The article I saw this morning did mention wages. Paying above minimum wages, with a prospect of earning more. However they glossed over the problems involved in moving between jobs High accommodation costs in moving. Lack of support for dependents. And of course the perennial disincentive of idiotic standdown periods when there was no work.
Basically the business model is wrong.
If they paid enough to support all of that then they'd go broke and everybody knows it.
" they'd go broke"
Not necessarily. Just a reduction in their own income. A scenario they're obviously not prepared to consider. They've got use to an income far greater than their parents was when they employed young care-free NZers 40 years ago.
Although I guess with the increased income they've increased their debt….
I'm pretty sure that if they paid all the costs of short term jobs then they'd go broke. IMO, that applies to all of NZ businesses.
They want a free labour market but can't actually afford to pay for it.
In reality, a free-market costs more as everyone needs to be able to cover the cost of not being employed and the costs of moving unexpectedly for work.
"Not necessarily. Just a reduction in their own income."
and
"Although I guess with the increased income they've increased their debt…."
Pretty much, the debt growth model has a lot to answer for
the piece I saw was basically MSM running PR for an industry intent on getting government policy change to suit itself and to avoid decent pay and work conditions. I'm planning on doing a post this week, there's so much bullshit on this atm.
I worked in Motueka for a few seasons in the 70s. Pay was basic, but the job included free accommodation and being paid when it was too wet to work. No worries about being stood down for the dole either, as jobs were plentiful. At the time Motueka was a bit scruffy and run down . Now it reeks of money.
Another way that bureaucrats are holding us back from doing practical things while enabling other things that are in vogue.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/428533/warning-squabbling-may-delay-action-over-coastal-erosion
Keith Newman, who lives in Haumoana on the coast, is one who has seen the effects of erosion first hand….
He is the chairman of Walking on Water, an trust set up to help find solutions for erosion.
Newman said he was pleased that after years councils had banded together to do something.
But there was still debate on how to pay for it and Newman warned that too much bureaucracy could delay much-needed action.
Managed retreat of dwellings from climate change impacts like rising seas is a far bigger thing than one settlement or council can decide on. It's why the proposed replacement for the RMA includes a dedicated nationwide law on it.
Yes it's a big job to tackle. Individual councils need to think about it too and not just wait to be told. In Nelson our council was thinking of building expensive buildings on the river bank across a previous swamp area with the seafront a short distance away and just some metres above sea level.
They are waiting for a national lead on it, otherwise what they do can set precedent in their area. Huge expensive decision.
how are they intending to decide who will get assistance when? At some point there needs to be a cutoff right? (esp for new builds, personally I think that should be now).
No short answer to that. Decision process will take some time to get in place.
Perhaps the bureaucrats know a boondoggle when they see one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtZYtWoZJNo
two years ago. Wonder what the state of those properties is now.
Can learn a bit watching that. Triple walls seem the way to go, with the first two walls close together and crenellated in a pattern of overlap to take maximum wave impact simultaneously dissipating it and allowing rapid drainage. And in between the front and back a place for any water thrown up and over to collect and drain.
They've made some interlocking concrete blocks down south somewhere's which is smart so you can create massive structures from smaller efforts, adding to and subtracting from them as desired.
A combo of this kitset kiwi ingenuity with some designs run through models to maximise wave dissipation could really help some places.
Sea level models will also show us where to hold em, and where to fold em. Some places a small wall might save a lot of land. In others…
there's also a case for finding best use of buildings in such a zone rather than just trashing them. Those houses on the North Island town that the council want not lived in any more because of rainfall flooding but the locals want to stay, they should be allowed to stay so long as they know the risks.
The wave house people should be funded out of there if they don't want to be there, but there needs to be a cut off point. Building or buying on the coast now should have a caveat.
Tetrapods are the only thing that'll cut it. But costly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yhuS_Lu8ug
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapod_(structure)
only useful if they can be made without cement (or cement can be made without GHG emissions).
Costly solution, who pays for it, and still won't prevent a determined coastline change. Removal of material under any protection barrier cannot be stopped, only slowed.
Here is a lengthy, but brilliant, article concerning NZ's move toward regenerative agriculture. The political will behind it, and the hurdles we face in implementing it correctly.
The article makes a great point about levies on synthetic ferts being detrimental if alternative systems or support are not in place for farmers.
We can do this. We are positioned to become the worlds best food producer and get the best prices. But we need to do it right.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/14-10-2020/organics-regenerative-agriculture-and-the-political-will-to-grow-the-movement/?
One of Trump's 'miracle' drugs fails the claim in the WHO Solidarity clinical trials.
"The drug having no life-saving effect at all. It is a similar message ( of failure ) for preventing people needing ventilation or speeding up people's recovery."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54566730
Did Trump really have Covid19 or was it an NPD's #sadfishing stunt ?
Thread about Zuckerberg's FB gaming their system to starve investigative journalism outlets of traffic and burying them under the very RW crank sites who cry about being censored.
https://twitter.com/ClaraJeffery/status/1317191129964556288
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1317191129964556288.html
There are 4 more articles on Jacinda and the election in the Weekend Australian, I haven’t read them as yet as I usually read the sports and Business Sections on Saturday.
Anyway I assume it will be normal service once the polls are closed? As I missed the closing of the tote last night for today’s race meeting with Weka’s post on CC.
Anyway Folks have a lovely day in NZ today and don’t drink too much tonight when the counting starts. Also make sure everyone gets out and vote.
See you sometime tomorrow.
yes – at 1900 the blocks lift, and I would guess that we get some posts popping up.
Am doing and it really is a beautiful day here in Auckland.
And I get to break my first kegged beer:
Do report back.
Despite a minor technicality (the CO2 charger being broken resulting in excess pressure) its come out quite good.
Like your 'distressed' paintwork on the verandah, plus the look-alike ornamental paw prints. After tonight who can guess what the decoration will look like?
Weekly Economic Update – 16 October 2020 – cheery pickings ?
Household spending remains strong.
Total income support numbers fell this week . "The weekly proportion of cancelled Jobseeker grants where the recipient had obtained work has been trending up since June."
Food prices fell in September.
The IMF revises upwards for a better than expected GDP outturn in developed countries.
Rent prices continued to rise.
Property investors have been driving increase in house sales. "an average of 32 days to sell, is the lowest September result for 3 years."
( A risk-free rate of return method (RFRM) of taxation or a brightline tax NOW without any time frames on 2nd and consecutive houses anyone?)
https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/weu/weekly-economic-update-16-october-2020-html
It's Monty Python in Oz as 230 kiwi 'holidaymakers' (Scomo speak for family reunions with the Oz based kiwi diaspora) fly into Sydney without having to go through quarantine for the first time. It's only one way as Aussies can't leave Oz anyway and NZ will make anyone quarantine and pay for it anyway. Then 17 of the kiwi 'holidaymakers' jump on the next plane to Melbourne, just recovering from 9 weeks lockdown and are seized and told they are not welcome in Victoria as they haven't been quarantined after arrival from virus free NZ. No-one is taking responsibility for the stuff up. The only other place the 'holidaymakers' are allowed to go is the NT, a lovely place to visit at this time of the year in the 35 to 40C build up and crocs on every beach. Meanwhile, NSWers can't even get into Queensland. Not sure if Australia actually exists at the moment.
The official in charge of tourism sounds peeved that Australians can't come from their bug… infested country to our clean (at present) one. I think he would rather stop Kiwis coming into his space and bringing our tourist dollars, if they can't do the same. I wonder what the Oz businesses think of that less than business-like approach?
Apparently Australians can register to be allowed across the SA border. But not being able to come here, requires retaliation – simple equation for an Australian. I could understand some time in isolation just to be sure – three days for those from a Covid-free NZ and not having been in a hot-spot is another query. Also Kiwis should not move around much; originally it was suggested just NSW and Northern Territory. But Kiwis are more at risk than Australians I think.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018768713/new-zealanders-can-fly-to-australia-but-it-comes-with-a-warning
To enter South Australia from another state, you simply need to register your intention to travel. But the South Australian Tourism Commission marketing manager Brent Hill said Kiwis shouldn't take that as a greenlight to head to the likes of the Barossa Valley in their droves.
"As much as we definitely want to see Kiwis here, we love having them here, they're great tourists, they get around and see a a lot of our state and we think we've got a lot to offer New Zealanders.
"I think from our perspective it's reasonably convoluted and complicated at the moment in terms of how they can travel around, I guess our advice would be when it is free to move and travel both ways that is probably the optimum time to come."
Hill said he understood people wanting to make urgent trips to see friends and family, but he has a message for state hoppers.
"If people are intending to do things like travelling into New South Wales and then getting in cars and coming through, you don't want to get caught up and find yourself unwittingly having to do quarantine or something of that nature, and I think it's just easier, it shouldn't be too far away that we have an open bubble on both ends.
I'm thinking of getting rid of my email account because I get rubbish and the odd plumbers bill – which could be sent to my phone number I suspect. Any thoughts ?? Has anyone done this?
Lose your phone and ….?
This is a NZ Rail initiative to celebrate.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/428570/interislander-brings-back-bands-on-board-for-summer
Bands will be able to cross the Cook Strait for free this summer, provided they perform during the crossing…
It's only possible to do on the Kaitaki ferry sailings however, as no other ferry has the stage area to host musicians.
Since 2006, 4694 sailings have had an artist perform, with genres spanning across folk, jazz, blues and reggae
From Radionz 4.23pm today.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/428576/election-2020-advance-votes-total-just-under-2-million
Great statistics.
Advance votes have increased about 60 percent compared to the previous election, with just under 2 million votes cast before election day this year.
The Electoral Commission has reported the statistics this afternoon, recording 1,976,996 total advance votes including 233,575 cast on Friday, the final day before the election.
That compares to just 1,240,740 advance votes cast in 2017, which accounted for about 47 percent of the 2,630,173 total votes….
However, people this year for the first time have the option to enrol and vote on voting day, so total enrolment numbers could still increase. About 92 percent of eligible voters have already enrolled….
Early voting has notably increased on the Māori roll, with 77,600 Māori having cast their vote by 14 October, a 98 percent increase on the same period in 2017.
Advance votes do not include special votes – for example prisoners, overseas voters, people voting on the unpublished roll, or those unable to vote at a voting place – which totalled more than 440,000 votes in the previous election.
I havent been this nervous in ages. 7pm cannot come soon enough.
That's such a good idea that it is hard to think who at kiwirail could have come up with it.
I was surprised to see that since 2006 they have been encouraging musicians to some extent. So good on them, and let's hear more innovative business-building ideas.
Can someone tell me who the bearded guy for the Green Party was next to Sue Bradford on Radionz after 10 pm?
David Cormack.
I did wonder why #ptcruiser was trending.
https://twitter.com/ReardonReports/status/1317241836038217728