Elizabeth Warren's healthcare proposal really isn't Medicare-for-all, it's more like Medicare-for-all-who-want-it. And that's a very good thing.
What she has laid out in detail as a first stage is ambitious, makes it feasible to expand coverage to a lot of people that are now under-covered or not covered. It's politically achievable through a combination of executive action and budget reconciliation, meaning it can get passed with a bare majority in the senate even if the filibuster remains. (There is a second stage that really is Medicare-for-all, but anybody that actually see the real world, even if just through a telescope, will immediately understand that it simply ain't gonna happen in the next couple of decades.)
Most importantly, it avoids the trap of making the half of Americans covered by employer sponsored health insurance think they are going to be forced to give it up.
But it does carry the risk of being insufficient for purity progressives and the congenitally disgruntled that would rather give power to the right's regressive agenda than accept real progress that falls short of their politically unattainable ideal.
To me the bigger risk is she's viewed as a tax-and-spend wonk with too-big policies and not the ability to win the states that enabled Trump to be in power. That's the more important purity contest. Much as I love wonks.
Currently Medicare is funded by a payroll tax of around 3% (alongside a payroll tax around 12% for Social Security) that applies to income up to about $140k pa then disappears (much like the ACC earner levy here disappears for income over around $130k).
Making the Medicare expansion relatively modest opens the door to the possibility of funding it by lifting or removing the threshold at which it stops getting applied, and possibly extending it to other forms of income such as dividends.
Then the argument could become that it's not adding to ordinary people's taxes, instead it's making the bosses making millions pay the same taxes as ordinary people that they've been escaping until now.
In contrast, Bernie embraces the entire tax-and-spend vibe by being explicit that middle-class taxes are gonna rise to pay for his ideas. Which is why he's not going to rise beyond having a small-but-enthusiastic portion of the Dem base.
The Stuff piece about his decision kinda highlights that it's not a lack of commitment and vision that's holding Greens back from being transformational, it's a lack of votes that denies them the parliamentary numbers and power to be transformational. Whoever replaces Gareth into going to run smack into the exact same constraint.
But whoever is next on the list now is kinda moot. He's retiring at the coming election, not before. No doubt there will be a new list drawn up by then with a lot more position changes than just that one.
The Defence Force refused to be interviewed, but in a statement said it "takes its responsibility to ensure areas used by New Zealand forces are free of unexploded ordnance very seriously".
…But locals point out it is now six years since New Zealand left Afghanistan and question why the work hasn't been carried out already.
Yeah very seriously indeed NOT – I wonder what their spin will be on this and who will misremember important items and communication this time. Rotten.
"I was just a working class kid from Gisborne who cared about girls and cars and rugby more than politics that somehow fell into a passion for environmentalism, somehow got to Parliament. So I've always pinched myself, the fact that I'm here."
""As I reflect across 20 years of activism I realise that I've spent 20 years winning campaigns, but each one's kind of like chopping off the head of the hydra. There's always another equally important campaign right behind it. I've spent 20 years fighting the symptoms, not the source."
And
"Across my 10 years here, things have actually got worse. Emissions have increased, we are still losing a hundred million tons of topsoil every year – our most precious resource – homelessness is growing," Hughes says.
"I don't think the Government has been transformational. There's been pockets of transformation, but you know, I don't think historians are gonna look back at it and say 'This was a turning point on the scale of the 1930s or 1980s'. And I think that's desperately needed."
"It's a disappointment that we aren't seeing the change I think we need. As a father, I'm desperately worried about the future of the world."
At the aggregate, progress remains on track. We have better nutrition, medicines, homes and playthings.
But at the collective level many things have changed. While Boomers grew up in an era of very low-income inequality and state mechanisms that assisted them with education, housing supply, and infrastructure, the same is not true for future generations.
The majority Boomer political consensus that guides our politics is individual and short-term. The reforms of the 1980s entrenched this, and reversed many of the past fixes to society's problems.
To me, the core neolib value of selfishness has driven too many New Zealanders to pass wealth to their own children (house deposits, loan-free education, etc) while our governments have steadily reduced any redistribution to broader society. People voted those governments back in. Culture industries reinforced the ideology. Inequality thrived.
Boomers have disproportionately had the power to do something different if they chose to, just by life stage and demographic shifts over their lifetimes. The following generations are now quite naturally asking why they did not. And my, doesn't that hit a raw nerve.
At least name the person you’re quoting and point to (as in mention) the website.
Some readers of this site may want to read it or more of it and don’t suffer from the same conflict as you do. In fact, they would copy & paste more or less the whole thing here to draw attention 😉
When you quote, you have to provide a little more than just the quote, please.
Edit: providing information allows for fact-checking and guards against people making up shit. You’d be surprised how often this happens! We don’t want (our) politicians to make up shit and we have to have similar expectations of others and ourselves IMO.
Maybe, or maybe they would want to read it for themselves and make up their own minds. We’re not parrots and this is not an echo-chamber nor are we a Borg-collective of like-minded obedient conforming entities toeing some (party?) line. I’d like to think that being as inclusive and diverse as possible creates the most interesting environment and basis for progressive politics. Maybe I’m dreaming.
Either way, just quoting a one-sentence tease like Robert did was just plain mean. Especially since the URL included the necessary info for those uninterested in considering alternative views.
Feeling internally conflicted is a sure sign for being (more) open and transparent (and inclusive) in order to avoid wrong-footing people. Comments here should not read like ‘headlines’ and clarity is key IMO.
My comments may seem an over-reaction but it goes to one of re-occurring issues on and of this site, which is that of inappropriate attribution, e.g. quoting/citing without source, paraphrasing without making it clear, putting words/thoughts/intentions into people’s comments, et cetera. The list is actually quite long because it goes to the core issue of commenting from only or largely one PoV, i.e. your own. Politicians must feel this conflict and tension a lot and the two referendums next year give some support to this notion. For example, this piece in Stuff by Thomas Coughlan: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/117450429/two-years-in-parliament-groans-under-the-weight-of-difficult-social-lawmaking
This is normally a blog where the comments are typically in the zone of reasonable. But not today.
Dial it back, otherwise it makes it impossible for the comments section to have actual debate, as opposed to abuse.
[not sure what you are referring to there Wayne, but if there is something specific the mods should know about please link below. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
PhD in International Law from Christ's College Cambridge in 1988. According to a "free encyclopedia" entry last edited on 10 November 2019, at 09:13 (UTC) and available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Just because the subject matter is outside your range of sensibilities does not make it any less worthy of reflection and discussion.
Pity. Your responses in person to the Operation Burnham Inquiry earned you quite a bit of kudos here a month or two ago, and now you spoil it by throwing sticks at a few people having a reasonable conversation.
I'm not ok with TS commentariat being a small number of commenters, many of whom like to bitch at each other. The kaupapa here is robust debate and that transcends party politics. I disagree with most things Wayne says, but he has a long history of bringing political points to the commentariat that encourage robust debate. If we excluded people like him and were left with just the people that want to bitch at each other, it would be a pretty sad place.
The point I appreciate about Wayne's comment is that how we talk here can encourage debate or make it less likely. Given how few people have been commenting lately, it looks to me like there are reasons for people to stay away. That with the low number of authors* is an issue for the site, now and long term. I'd appreciate it if you could have a think about those things.
*I'm one of the authors who writes in part to stimulate discussion, so it's demoralising when commenters appear to not care about the wellbeing of the community.
Fair enough – I don't really like what you and incog are trying to do to the place – I think you take it too serious and have pretensions on what you think happens here – but that's just my opinion. I can't really be bothered with the tension from you two so I'll take a break from here for a while.
I found it pretty hard going too. Nothing that can be engaged with but nevertheless with barbs. I rate marty's presence here, but honestly, given the state of the commentariat and the low number of authors, there's a limit to how much ad hom shit like this I can take before my modding becomes more self-preservation as much as anything. Often people really don't get what it takes to keep TS running, but dumping on authors and mods seems really self-defeating.
What was in yesterday's open mike or anywhere else recent was pretty tame compared to stuff that's appeared here in the past. Including some really vicious stuff directed personally at Wayne.
Maybe Wayne was replying to a comment that subsequently got deleted?
I thought it wasn't out of the norm for here either, but commenting was just starting to pick up so it was disappointing seeing two regulars think that their personal issues were more important than making a good space for everyone.
you and bwaghorn (who copped a ban). But that was just yesterday, it could have been any of a number of regulars. My concern here is about the health and vitality of the commentariat (vis a vis my comment at 7.5.1.1.2 above)
"In summary, National has failed to demonstrate it understands the climate crisis, our gains from responding to it and the pivotal importance of the Zero Carbon Bill in tackling it."
Thanks for trying weka…sometimes I am astounded at the depth of my technical ineptitude…but I have managed to convince the predictive text function that no, I am meaning 'weka' not 'weak'.
The people of the West Coast March for their right to poison the air, water and turn pristine landscapes into apopylptic wastelands
Let's face it. All they care about is profit. They hate clean water, trees and National parks. They will strip mine the whole area and burn down every tree to get that sweet sweet coin.
They could just start planting hemp. Start producing body parts for the new Porsche, or produce bio fuel,or the stuff to make batteries for electric vehicles. Make Monsanto free cloth, Sequester some carbon and heal the soil and rivers. Make healthy drinks or super food.
This rally is more important than the Beehive rally of the farmers last week protesting about arable land going into forestry.
Labour aren't going to win back any farmer votes, because they barely had any in the first place.
But the Labour Party in no small part was formed on the West Coast out of miners. Damien O'Connor is the local MP.
Just like Southland when the Tiwai Point smelter closes down, the West Coast has had rescue packages before but with continued decline they need even more "transition" plans i.e. more public money. Enter stage right … Shane Jones one would hope.
I hope they figure out how dumb selling the West Coast dairy company was. Fucking moronic.
I'd like to see more pressure put onto the government to come up with transition plans for regions like this.
These companies need to be forced into paying for their polluting products so they learn to minimise the amount of their products ending up in the Sea ultimately that is were it all ends up. They must pay a bounty so it will be profitable for people to recycle the stuff.
Big plastic polluters accused of cynically backing US recycling day
America Recycles Day promoted by EPA is brainchild of not-for-profit backed by companies that produce plastic products
But critics point out that the initiative is the brainchild of Keep America Beautiful, a not-for-profit founded and backed by large companies that produce vast quantities of plastic products that end up as pollution.
Current backers include Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Pepsico, and Altria, the tobacco giant formerly known as Phillip Morris. Decades of campaigns by the group have emphasized individual responsibility for plastic recycling, which data reveals to be a largely broken system.
Coca-Cola is world's biggest plastics polluter – again
“Just like the fossil fuel industry, corporate polluters have been using recycling to justify ever-increasing production of single-use packaging, while taxpayers and cities are left to foot the bill,” said Denise Patel, the US and Canada program director of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.
“Lower-income communities and communities of color, who are the hardest hit and the least responsible, bear the brunt of a model that has brought us to the brink of the waste and climate crisis
The wealthiest people of the World must pay more tax so that all the problems created by their massive companies harvesting their wealth can be minimized.
Taxing wealth is an idea now thrust to the center of the Democratic primary. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have both put forward wealth tax plans that would hit the nation's richest citizens with steeper taxes in a bid to reduce inequality and pay for their progressive agendas.
The plans have generated fierce blowback among some economists, Wall Street financiers and leading corporate leaders like Bill Gates, who argue that a wealth tax would stifle economic growth and hurt investment.
It's an argument that echoes back to the 19th century, when the brutal system of slavery was locked into the engine of the American economy, according to two economists at the University of California in a recent book
The World needs to investigate and invest in Renewable energy solutions to clean up the mess we will leave our Grandchildren.
In Finland, a start-up wants to produce hydrocarbons using renewables
Soletair Power says it will integrate its system into buildings. Petri Laakso, the firm's CEO, explained to CNBC's "Sustainable Energy" that city air could be pushed through a ventilation unit and a carbon capturing unit, resulting in less carbon dioxide indoors. The firm's electrolyzer and synthesis unit would then be utilized to produce hydrocarbons.
If the building were connected to a gas grid, Laakso said, "you could provide synthetic methane, which you can pump into (the) gas grid." The grid could be used for energy storage or as a filling station for cars, he added.
Whether Soletair Power's concept becomes a fixture on buildings remains to be seen, but the idea is generating interest.
In April 2019, it announced it had secured 500,000 euros (around $551,630) in seed funding from the Wärtsilä Corporation to "pilot and commercialize its concept" of boosting air quality in buildings through the capture and conversion of carbon dioxide into "synthetic renewable fuel.
Te Waiata is a great way to let tangata know what the true feeling of the nation is.
I ignore the ignorant times have changed.
Like I have said before whanau tangata whenua have to run for Council seats so Our voices will be heard 3 years is a lot of time to plan the mahi.
I know what they are talking about Homeless Kaumatua the rents are spiking. We have discrimination because we're Maori and age discrimination as well.
Ka pai Kiri Mana Wahine you have been a bright shining Star from Maoridom.
That’s awesome a Ap to help our Rangatahi show there sports skills to the world
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[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
Upscaling work already underway to restore two iconic ecosystems will deliver jobs and a lasting legacy, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “The Jobs for Nature programme provides $1.25 billion over four years to offer employment opportunities for people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 recession. “Two new projects ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Véronique Duché, A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, University of Melbourne In this series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. When I first heard that Rowan Atkinson was to put on Maigret’s velvet-collared overcoat, I wondered ...
Auckland writer Olivia Hayfield* explains how she resurrected 16th-century playwright Christopher Marlowe to star in her new novel, Sister to Sister. Olivia Hayfield is a pen name. Real name: Sue Copsey. When I’m planning my modern retellings of historical tales, I read widely on the characters and see who leaps out at ...
The Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine could be approved as early as next week, Marc Daalder reports Medsafe will be asked to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 on February 2, the Government has announced. The Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee (MAAC) is an independent panel that provides advice on some medicine approvals in ...
COMMENT:By Bryan Kramer, PNG’s Minister of Police who has defended Commissioner Manning’s appointment today in The National My last article, announcing that I intend to make a submission to the National Executive Council (NEC) to amend the Public Service regulation to no longer require the Commissioner of Police to ...
The Point of Order Trough Monitor was triggered today by the announcement of a $9 million handout for Southlanders – sorry, some Southlanders. The news came from the office of Grant Robertson who, as Minister of Finance, prefers to invest public money rather than give it away – especially when ...
Few people outside of her campaign team gave Chlöe Swarbrick any chance of winning in Auckland Central this year – but the Green Party MP was too busy to listen. Here’s how they turned the electorate green.First published November 12, 2020.Three Ticks Chlöe is part of Frame, a series of short ...
Interactions between parents and healthcare providers could have a big impact on the wellbeing of our children, according to new research. The way parents and healthcare providers interact has lasting implications for children’s health, new research has found – and that includes immunisation uptake.Released today, the report is based on research ...
The Opposition starts the political year calling for emergency, temporary legislation to free up house building National leader Judith Collins has set five priorities for her party over the next three years - but excluded climate change, education and Crown-Māori relations. Giving her first 'state of the nation' speech as party ...
One of the biggest challenges facing the Ardern government is in public health. New Zealand may have escaped the pressures heaped on other health systems by the Covid-19 pandemic but its health service has had its problems, not least those exposed in the first report from Heather Simpson and her ...
New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has revealed that 14 close contacts of the Northland community case have returned negative test results. Yesterday he announced two close contacts – her husband and hair dresser – were negative. In his tweet, Hipkins described the news as “encouraging”. However, New ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the arbitrary and opaque experiments that Google is conducting with its search engine in Australia, with the consequence that many national news websites are no longer appearing in the search results seen by some users. The Australian, ABC, Australian Financial ...
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says councils can take stronger action against companies dumping contaminated waste water, even though they have identified loopholes in the law on fines. ...
Drag Race Down Under, part of the popular RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise, is filming in New Zealand. In their own words, local drag talent share what drag means to them and how it might be impacted by the show.RuPaul’s Drag Race is, quite simply, a television phenomenon. Love it or ...
For a long time, weighted blankets were considered a specialist device. Now they’re popular with even the most normal sleepers.Growing up, Temple Grandin spent time on her aunt’s cattle ranch in America, watching cow after stressed cow enter a squeeze chute and come out calm as the dead sea. She ...
Increased provisional tax thresholds, immediate low-value asset write offs and allowing the deferral of tax payments and use of money interest (UOMI) write offs were the most popular tax measures introduced by the Government to help businesses survive ...
The latest fleeing driver statistics show the numbers of incidents sky-rocketing out of control through 2020 with Police deciding the only tactic is to give up on chasing altogether, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The inconvenient truth is ...
With new revelations of the appalling racism behind Israel’s refusal to provide Covid-19 vaccines to 4.5 million Palestinians under its occupation and control, PSNA has renewed our call for the government to speak out alongside the United Nations ...
The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again, on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “COVID-19 may have stopped us in our tracks in the past. However, I tend ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Parwinder Kaur, Associate Professor | Director, DNA Zoo Australia, University of Western Australia Koalas are unique in the animal kingdom, living on a eucalyptus diet that would kill other creatures and drinking so little their name comes from the Dharug word gula, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By S. Anna Florin, Research fellow, University of Wollongong Archaeological research provides a long-term perspective on how humans survived various environmental conditions over tens of thousands of years. In a paper published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, we’ve tracked rainfall in northern ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Binoy Kampmark, Senior Lecturer in Global Studies, Social Science & Planning, RMIT University Since 2005, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has been one of the most stable and enduring of political forces, both in Europe and on the global stage. During her 16 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Véronique Duché, A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, University of Melbourne In this series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. When I first heard that Rowan Atkinson was to put on Maigret’s velvet-collared overcoat, I wondered ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Experts are calling for hotels with sub-par ventilation systems to no longer be used as managed isolation facilities as health officials investigate how a Northland woman became infected with Covid-19 while staying at the Pullman hotel, Rowan Quinn reports. ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 26, keeping you up to date with the latest local and international news. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur Members make The Spinoff happen! Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions to be answered about case in the community, major companies flagrantly breaching wastewater consents, and Tenancy Tribunal decisions harming abuse survivors.As of this morning, we’re still waiting on some crucial information about the situation in Northland, after a person travelled ...
With democracy what now separates the US from its adversaries, Wellington can bet on more continuity than change in Washington’s hardline view of China. ...
We continue our week-long examination of writer Roderick Finlayson. Today: his daughter Kate on his doomed love for Poti Mita, whose family inspired him to write short stories about Māori life in the 1930s We all knew of Poti Mita and how important Pukehina was to Dad. He wanted ...
Sleepyhead is chopping and changing its ambitious plan to build a super-factory and a community of 1100 medium density houses on a block of farmland in the north Waikato. Sydney Turner set his grandsons Craig and Graeme to work on the factory floor, building mattresses. Now Craig and Graeme Turner own ...
Helen Petousis-Harris looks at the potential complications of vaccinating older New Zealanders - and how we should prepare Two weeks ago health authorities in Norway reported some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their Covid-19 vaccine. Are these deaths related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are ...
A change of plans for round-the-world single-handed sailor Elana Connor means she's helping Kiwi kids in foster care to go sailing - as she also seeks to 'demystify' the sport for women. Elana Connor wears a silver necklace engraved with the word “Fearlessness”. As she sails solo around the globe, it reminds her that ...
New Zealand rose to the occasion in its response to Covid-19. Will it do the same for climate change? Jack Santa Barbara looks ahead to the Climate Change Commission report. New Zealand’s management of the Covid pandemic clearly demonstrated the benefits of paying attention to the science and prioritising human wellbeing ...
Was Covid-19 and lockdown the catalyst for a new future for healthcare or did it just expose systemic inequity? In the latest of a series on the country's future infrastructure needs, Tim Murphy looks at how the long push to shift health's focus from hospitals to the community might have received a nudge ...
Not only is the New Zealand summer in danger of coming to a grinding halt, but we increase the risk that an almighty wreck might follow shortly afterwards. Here's what we can do, writes Dr Sarb Johal. While the rest of the world is wrestling with virulent new strains of the ...
For two decades, under both National and Labour governments, housing costs have risen far faster than wages. Here’s a horrific graph that shows by just how much.Last Thursday saw the first of what will no doubt be dozens of housing-related set pieces from Labour, wherein they announced 8,000 public and ...
The new Northland case has been linked to the South African strain of Covid-19, one of a number of new, more contagious Covid variants. Here’s how they emerge and why.Let’s start with the basics. The genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is a strand of RNA made ...
New Zealand’s richest citizen, Graeme Hart, has seen his fortune increase by NZ$3,494,333,333 since March 2020 – a sum equivalent to over half a million New Zealanders receiving a cheque for NZ$6,849 each, reveals a new analysis from Oxfam today. The New Zealand ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tauel Harper, Lecturer, Media and Communication, UWA, University of Western Australia With a vaccine rollout impending, key groups have backed calls for the Australian government to force social media platforms to share details about popular coronavirus misinformation. An open letter was put ...
Selling out ACT’s Waitangi Day State of the Nation Address is set to sell out again. If you’d like to start the political year right over brunch with fellow ACT supporters (Saturday 6 February 10am-12pm, Mt Eden), please buy your tickets ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Kirkness, Postdoctoral research fellow, Macquarie University As government COVID updates have become a daily part of our lives over the past 12 months, so too has the sight of sign language interpreters on our screens. This has understandably had a huge ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Dwyer, Associate Professor, Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney Executives from Google and Facebook have told a Senate committee they are prepared to take drastic action if Australia’s news media bargaining code, which would force the internet giants to ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Hundreds of companies have dumped contaminants - like blood, fat, and toxic chemicals such as ammonia and sulphides - into sewers in breach of their trade waste consents over the past year, RNZ can reveal. Anusha Bradley reports. Frank ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Morag Kobez, Associate lecturer, Queensland University of Technology In this series, our writers explore how food shaped Australian history – and who we are today. The history of cheese in Australia has, until recent decades, been a rather tasteless affair. Not so ...
On the edge of the Mataura River, a disused paper mill is filled with thousands of bags of toxic waste. Locals want to find out who’s responsible for it – and they want it gone before disaster strikes.First published November 10, 2020.The Paper Mill is part of Frame, a series ...
At the Chorus Fibre Lab, José Barbosa peeked behind the curtain of the internet and found something beautiful and very, very fast. The human mind is a daily swarm of notions, speculations, ruminations, thoughts and otherwise base-level brain puffs. Just to get through the grind of survival, we’ve evolved to mentally ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. The Ministry of Health is confident the Northland community case came directly from the Pullman Hotel and there is no missing link. In a press conference this afternoon, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield confirmed the strain of Covid in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Longden, Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Heat is more dangerous than the cold in most Australian regions. About 2% of deaths in Australia between 2006 and 2017 were associated with the heat, and the estimate increases to ...
Levin GP Glenn Colquhoun talks with books editor Catherine Woulfe about his new collection of poetry, Letters to Young People.Glenn Colquhoun is an acclaimed and accomplished poet. He has published four collections, including Playing God, in December 2002, which sold a massive 10,000 copies. He’s won a clutch of Montanas ...
Contrasting reactions to news of Grainne Moss’s resignation as Oranga Tamariki chief executive inevitably can be found in the blogosphere. Lindsay Dawson has recorded the ACT Party’s response to the resignation and hailed it as “spot on”. The statement was made in the name of Karen Chhour, described as a ...
Zendaya has been around for a decade, but she’s gone from Disney prodigy to pop star to acclaimed actress. Here are the highlights of the 24-year-old’s already impressive career.Shaking it up: Zendaya on DisneyThe world’s first encounter with Zendaya was a little Disney show called Shake It Up, a series ...
What’s it like to have your life governed by your gut? It’s crap, frankly.On my birthday last year I was given a bottle of fancy Aesop post-poo drops which clear the air after rigorous bowel activity – though on reflection, it may have been more of a gift for my ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Negative tests results for two of the closest contacts of a woman who tested positive for Covid-19 after leaving managed isolation is a good sign, says Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins. Two of the closest contacts of a woman ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Dyer, Associate Professor, RMIT University At a dinner party, or in the schoolyard, the question of favourite colour frequently results in an answer of “blue”. Why is it that humans are so fond of blue? And why does it seem to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan Davis, Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous UNSW and Professor of Law, UNSW We are on the eve of the nation’s annual ritual of celebrating the arrivals, while not formally recognising the ancient peoples who were dispossessed. Each year the tensions spill over, rendering ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Bright, Senior Lecturer of Addiction, Edith Cowan University While the public focus remains on COVID vaccines, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) continues to evaluate a range of proposals around the provision of medical treatments in Australia. The regulatory body is currently ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Wilkinson, Professor, School of the Built Environment, University of Technology Sydney Many of us who endured lockdowns in Australia are familiar with the surge in energy bills at home. But for older Australians who depend on the Age Pension for income, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael P. Cameron, Associate Professor in Economics, University of Waikato Population growth plays a role in environmental damage and climate change. But addressing climate change through either reducing or reversing growth in population raises difficult moral questions that most people would prefer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Sonnemann, Fellow, School Education, Grattan Institute School is back for 2021, and some students will get extra help this year. Students who fell behind in their learning during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 will be eligible for extra tutoring in Victoria ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Duffy, Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney University Australia Day used to be an obvious and uncontroversial occasion for brands to endear themselves to Australian consumers. No longer. There has been a decided shift over the past decade in commercial attitudes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanna Mendelssohn, Principal Fellow (Hon), Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, University of Melbourne In January 1971, Art News published Linda Nochlin’s Why have there been no great women artists? Her ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 25, keeping you up to date with the latest local and international news. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz7.40am: Two close contacts of new Covid case test negativeThe husband of the new Northland case of Covid-19 has tested negative for the virus, along with ...
Elizabeth Warren's healthcare proposal really isn't Medicare-for-all, it's more like Medicare-for-all-who-want-it. And that's a very good thing.
What she has laid out in detail as a first stage is ambitious, makes it feasible to expand coverage to a lot of people that are now under-covered or not covered. It's politically achievable through a combination of executive action and budget reconciliation, meaning it can get passed with a bare majority in the senate even if the filibuster remains. (There is a second stage that really is Medicare-for-all, but anybody that actually see the real world, even if just through a telescope, will immediately understand that it simply ain't gonna happen in the next couple of decades.)
Most importantly, it avoids the trap of making the half of Americans covered by employer sponsored health insurance think they are going to be forced to give it up.
But it does carry the risk of being insufficient for purity progressives and the congenitally disgruntled that would rather give power to the right's regressive agenda than accept real progress that falls short of their politically unattainable ideal.
https://slate.com/business/2019/11/elizabeth-warren-health-care-transition-medicare-for-all.html
To me the bigger risk is she's viewed as a tax-and-spend wonk with too-big policies and not the ability to win the states that enabled Trump to be in power. That's the more important purity contest. Much as I love wonks.
Currently Medicare is funded by a payroll tax of around 3% (alongside a payroll tax around 12% for Social Security) that applies to income up to about $140k pa then disappears (much like the ACC earner levy here disappears for income over around $130k).
Making the Medicare expansion relatively modest opens the door to the possibility of funding it by lifting or removing the threshold at which it stops getting applied, and possibly extending it to other forms of income such as dividends.
Then the argument could become that it's not adding to ordinary people's taxes, instead it's making the bosses making millions pay the same taxes as ordinary people that they've been escaping until now.
In contrast, Bernie embraces the entire tax-and-spend vibe by being explicit that middle-class taxes are gonna rise to pay for his ideas. Which is why he's not going to rise beyond having a small-but-enthusiastic portion of the Dem base.
With Gareth Hughes retiring, all results being equal who is next on the Green Party list?
The Stuff piece about his decision kinda highlights that it's not a lack of commitment and vision that's holding Greens back from being transformational, it's a lack of votes that denies them the parliamentary numbers and power to be transformational. Whoever replaces Gareth into going to run smack into the exact same constraint.
But whoever is next on the list now is kinda moot. He's retiring at the coming election, not before. No doubt there will be a new list drawn up by then with a lot more position changes than just that one.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/117439116/outgoing-green-mp-gareth-hughes-says-the-government-has-not-been-transformational
Whoops a daisy:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/117411799/blast-from-new-zealand-firing-range-ammunition-kills-afghan-children
Yeah very seriously indeed NOT – I wonder what their spin will be on this and who will misremember important items and communication this time. Rotten.
Well, I didn't know that!
"I was just a working class kid from Gisborne who cared about girls and cars and rugby more than politics that somehow fell into a passion for environmentalism, somehow got to Parliament. So I've always pinched myself, the fact that I'm here."
Gareth Hughes
Gareth, who's retiring from politics, also said:
""As I reflect across 20 years of activism I realise that I've spent 20 years winning campaigns, but each one's kind of like chopping off the head of the hydra. There's always another equally important campaign right behind it. I've spent 20 years fighting the symptoms, not the source."
And
"Across my 10 years here, things have actually got worse. Emissions have increased, we are still losing a hundred million tons of topsoil every year – our most precious resource – homelessness is growing," Hughes says.
"I don't think the Government has been transformational. There's been pockets of transformation, but you know, I don't think historians are gonna look back at it and say 'This was a turning point on the scale of the 1930s or 1980s'. And I think that's desperately needed."
"It's a disappointment that we aren't seeing the change I think we need. As a father, I'm desperately worried about the future of the world."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/117439116/outgoing-green-mp-gareth-hughes-says-the-government-has-not-been-transformational
Ha!
Shamubeel Eaqub brings the crossover with those generational frustrations that have popped up again:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/117422673/baby-boomers-had-a-chance-to-help-younger-generations-they-didnt
To me, the core neolib value of selfishness has driven too many New Zealanders to pass wealth to their own children (house deposits, loan-free education, etc) while our governments have steadily reduced any redistribution to broader society. People voted those governments back in. Culture industries reinforced the ideology. Inequality thrived.
Boomers have disproportionately had the power to do something different if they chose to, just by life stage and demographic shifts over their lifetimes. The following generations are now quite naturally asking why they did not. And my, doesn't that hit a raw nerve.
"Let's be clear, defining people by generation is as stupid as a vegan burger but since that is the way the game is now played, I'll play."
Whoever wrote that seriously lacks the ability to self-reflect. Seriously.
Link please.
It’s one of those “do not link” situations, so I’m conflicted.
At least name the person you’re quoting and point to (as in mention) the website.
Some readers of this site may want to read it or more of it and don’t suffer from the same conflict as you do. In fact, they would copy & paste more or less the whole thing here to draw attention 😉
When you quote, you have to provide a little more than just the quote, please.
Edit: providing information allows for fact-checking and guards against people making up shit. You’d be surprised how often this happens! We don’t want (our) politicians to make up shit and we have to have similar expectations of others and ourselves IMO.
For those readers on phones that might be interested enough to search for it:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/117392407/damien-grant-quit-whinging-millennials-boomers-built-your-houses-and-endured-actual-nuclear-war
But maybe the information that it's a Damien Grant piece will tell them all they might want to know without going any further.
Maybe, or maybe they would want to read it for themselves and make up their own minds. We’re not parrots and this is not an echo-chamber nor are we a Borg-collective of like-minded obedient conforming entities toeing some (party?) line. I’d like to think that being as inclusive and diverse as possible creates the most interesting environment and basis for progressive politics. Maybe I’m dreaming.
Either way, just quoting a one-sentence tease like Robert did was just plain mean. Especially since the URL included the necessary info for those uninterested in considering alternative views.
Feeling internally conflicted is a sure sign for being (more) open and transparent (and inclusive) in order to avoid wrong-footing people. Comments here should not read like ‘headlines’ and clarity is key IMO.
My comments may seem an over-reaction but it goes to one of re-occurring issues on and of this site, which is that of inappropriate attribution, e.g. quoting/citing without source, paraphrasing without making it clear, putting words/thoughts/intentions into people’s comments, et cetera. The list is actually quite long because it goes to the core issue of commenting from only or largely one PoV, i.e. your own. Politicians must feel this conflict and tension a lot and the two referendums next year give some support to this notion. For example, this piece in Stuff by Thomas Coughlan: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/117450429/two-years-in-parliament-groans-under-the-weight-of-difficult-social-lawmaking
It's all I would have needed.
This is normally a blog where the comments are typically in the zone of reasonable. But not today.
Dial it back, otherwise it makes it impossible for the comments section to have actual debate, as opposed to abuse.
[not sure what you are referring to there Wayne, but if there is something specific the mods should know about please link below. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Classic! I think you might have misplaced your comment, Wayne; was it intended for the National Party Homepage?
What did you folk say to set him off like that?
We might take this as your boilerplate response to anything even vaguely socially responsible Wayne.
If you actually have anything specific to criticize you really ought to put it out there.
Tree planting?
I thought he might be having a go at Gareth in fact – might have pricked the balloon of his vanity, especially given the new child deaths likely to go on his slate. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/403448/blast-from-nz-firing-range-ammunition-kills-afghan-children
It'll take a few trees to make that right.
Yes,Mr Mapp
Dr Mapp.
PhD in International Law from Christ's College Cambridge in 1988. According to a "free encyclopedia" entry last edited on 10 November 2019, at 09:13 (UTC) and available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Mapp
That was uncalled for Wayne Mapp.
Just because the subject matter is outside your range of sensibilities does not make it any less worthy of reflection and discussion.
Pity. Your responses in person to the Operation Burnham Inquiry earned you quite a bit of kudos here a month or two ago, and now you spoil it by throwing sticks at a few people having a reasonable conversation.
lol mapp having a paddy – trying to distract like a typical ex politician
Or maybe he was reading yesterday's OM and saw a couple of long term regulars trashing the place again by being shits to each other.
trashing the place again? lol – ban the bastards that'll bring more nice people like wayne in…
Working on it … 😉
I'm not ok with TS commentariat being a small number of commenters, many of whom like to bitch at each other. The kaupapa here is robust debate and that transcends party politics. I disagree with most things Wayne says, but he has a long history of bringing political points to the commentariat that encourage robust debate. If we excluded people like him and were left with just the people that want to bitch at each other, it would be a pretty sad place.
The point I appreciate about Wayne's comment is that how we talk here can encourage debate or make it less likely. Given how few people have been commenting lately, it looks to me like there are reasons for people to stay away. That with the low number of authors* is an issue for the site, now and long term. I'd appreciate it if you could have a think about those things.
*I'm one of the authors who writes in part to stimulate discussion, so it's demoralising when commenters appear to not care about the wellbeing of the community.
Fair enough – I don't really like what you and incog are trying to do to the place – I think you take it too serious and have pretensions on what you think happens here – but that's just my opinion. I can't really be bothered with the tension from you two so I'll take a break from here for a while.
as you wish marty. I'm sorry you don't appreciate my posts and comments.
I am dumbfounded by this comment, which doesn’t give anything useful to engage with 🙁
I found it pretty hard going too. Nothing that can be engaged with but nevertheless with barbs. I rate marty's presence here, but honestly, given the state of the commentariat and the low number of authors, there's a limit to how much ad hom shit like this I can take before my modding becomes more self-preservation as much as anything. Often people really don't get what it takes to keep TS running, but dumping on authors and mods seems really self-defeating.
What was in yesterday's open mike or anywhere else recent was pretty tame compared to stuff that's appeared here in the past. Including some really vicious stuff directed personally at Wayne.
Maybe Wayne was replying to a comment that subsequently got deleted?
I thought it wasn't out of the norm for here either, but commenting was just starting to pick up so it was disappointing seeing two regulars think that their personal issues were more important than making a good space for everyone.
I feel you may be talking about me – is that correct?
you and bwaghorn (who copped a ban). But that was just yesterday, it could have been any of a number of regulars. My concern here is about the health and vitality of the commentariat (vis a vis my comment at 7.5.1.1.2 above)
you and b both bring important perspectives to this place, so I don't really get why you both do that other stuff.
"In summary, National has failed to demonstrate it understands the climate crisis, our gains from responding to it and the pivotal importance of the Zero Carbon Bill in tackling it."
No surprises there
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/11/17/911072/we-did-this-oram
Just listened to "Two Cents Worth " on Natrad. Needed tissues.
Rhymes with wankers….
(Prostrate I am owing to lack of linking ability. Happy for someone to explain to me how to do the link thing from my phone. Single syllables please.)
It's basically the same as on a computer, but the technique for copying and pasting one a touch screen is a bit different.
Thanks for trying weka…sometimes I am astounded at the depth of my technical ineptitude…but I have managed to convince the predictive text function that no, I am meaning 'weka' not 'weak'.
I'm off to find a Young Person.
Thanks for reminding us of that….its too easy to forget
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/two-cents-worth/story/2018722089/the-banks-the-swaps-and-the-suicide-box
Meanwhile, a black man in Texas still faces execution for a crime that he probably didn't commit.
https://taskandpurpose.com/trump-frees-clint-lorance
The contrast in cases says it all.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12285880
The people of the West Coast March for their right to poison the air, water and turn pristine landscapes into apopylptic wastelands
Let's face it. All they care about is profit. They hate clean water, trees and National parks. They will strip mine the whole area and burn down every tree to get that sweet sweet coin.
Profit should never be put before our landscapes.
Wow. A Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Soimon Party.
Truly balanced reporting, as one would expect from the Herald.
They could just start planting hemp. Start producing body parts for the new Porsche, or produce bio fuel,or the stuff to make batteries for electric vehicles. Make Monsanto free cloth, Sequester some carbon and heal the soil and rivers. Make healthy drinks or super food.
This rally is more important than the Beehive rally of the farmers last week protesting about arable land going into forestry.
Labour aren't going to win back any farmer votes, because they barely had any in the first place.
But the Labour Party in no small part was formed on the West Coast out of miners. Damien O'Connor is the local MP.
Just like Southland when the Tiwai Point smelter closes down, the West Coast has had rescue packages before but with continued decline they need even more "transition" plans i.e. more public money. Enter stage right … Shane Jones one would hope.
I hope they figure out how dumb selling the West Coast dairy company was. Fucking moronic.
I'd like to see more pressure put onto the government to come up with transition plans for regions like this.
How come they are able to spread mischief lies and more damned lies without any explanation or clarity on just what is going to happen.
Was it a rally organised by National or did Bridges just turn up?
Kia Ora 1 News.
The weather is getting more Mana because of human cause Global Warming.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
That's is needed a new 40 room mental health unit.
Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa need to have a say in what happens to their Taonga Wai in their area.
Its good to see Te Tangata Whenua of Australia making a stand for getting respected and Human rights for justice.
Ka kite Ano
These companies need to be forced into paying for their polluting products so they learn to minimise the amount of their products ending up in the Sea ultimately that is were it all ends up. They must pay a bounty so it will be profitable for people to recycle the stuff.
Big plastic polluters accused of cynically backing US recycling day
America Recycles Day promoted by EPA is brainchild of not-for-profit backed by companies that produce plastic products
But critics point out that the initiative is the brainchild of Keep America Beautiful, a not-for-profit founded and backed by large companies that produce vast quantities of plastic products that end up as pollution.
Current backers include Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Pepsico, and Altria, the tobacco giant formerly known as Phillip Morris. Decades of campaigns by the group have emphasized individual responsibility for plastic recycling, which data reveals to be a largely broken system.
Coca-Cola is world's biggest plastics polluter – again
“Just like the fossil fuel industry, corporate polluters have been using recycling to justify ever-increasing production of single-use packaging, while taxpayers and cities are left to foot the bill,” said Denise Patel, the US and Canada program director of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.
“Lower-income communities and communities of color, who are the hardest hit and the least responsible, bear the brunt of a model that has brought us to the brink of the waste and climate crisis
Link to above post
Ka kite Ano.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/14/america-recycles-day-plastic-pollution-cover
The wealthiest people of the World must pay more tax so that all the problems created by their massive companies harvesting their wealth can be minimized.
Taxing wealth is an idea now thrust to the center of the Democratic primary. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have both put forward wealth tax plans that would hit the nation's richest citizens with steeper taxes in a bid to reduce inequality and pay for their progressive agendas.
The plans have generated fierce blowback among some economists, Wall Street financiers and leading corporate leaders like Bill Gates, who argue that a wealth tax would stifle economic growth and hurt investment.
It's an argument that echoes back to the 19th century, when the brutal system of slavery was locked into the engine of the American economy, according to two economists at the University of California in a recent book
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://amp.businessinsider.com/how-wealth-tax-opposition-rooted-in-rhetoric-of-southern-slaveowners-2019-11
The World needs to investigate and invest in Renewable energy solutions to clean up the mess we will leave our Grandchildren.
In Finland, a start-up wants to produce hydrocarbons using renewables
Soletair Power says it will integrate its system into buildings. Petri Laakso, the firm's CEO, explained to CNBC's "Sustainable Energy" that city air could be pushed through a ventilation unit and a carbon capturing unit, resulting in less carbon dioxide indoors. The firm's electrolyzer and synthesis unit would then be utilized to produce hydrocarbons.
If the building were connected to a gas grid, Laakso said, "you could provide synthetic methane, which you can pump into (the) gas grid." The grid could be used for energy storage or as a filling station for cars, he added.
Whether Soletair Power's concept becomes a fixture on buildings remains to be seen, but the idea is generating interest.
In April 2019, it announced it had secured 500,000 euros (around $551,630) in seed funding from the Wärtsilä Corporation to "pilot and commercialize its concept" of boosting air quality in buildings through the capture and conversion of carbon dioxide into "synthetic renewable fuel.
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/11/18/in-finland-a-start-up-wants-to-produce-hydrocarbons-using-renewables.html
Kia Ora 1 News.
Looks good that the Ihumatao issues are looking like being sorted.
I admire the Prince many years of commitment to conservation.
That's the way the Government has to have the tools laws to protect Aotearoa sovereignty the new is needed.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Te Waiata is a great way to let tangata know what the true feeling of the nation is.
I ignore the ignorant times have changed.
Like I have said before whanau tangata whenua have to run for Council seats so Our voices will be heard 3 years is a lot of time to plan the mahi.
I know what they are talking about Homeless Kaumatua the rents are spiking. We have discrimination because we're Maori and age discrimination as well.
Ka pai Kiri Mana Wahine you have been a bright shining Star from Maoridom.
That’s awesome a Ap to help our Rangatahi show there sports skills to the world
Ka kite Ano