"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.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. 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 ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
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:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
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. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
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 ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
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. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
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 A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
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While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
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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