With a dearth of political news over the past 3 weeks, what an opportunity for our wonderful media to look at some of the issues facing our country in depth; some real investigative journalism looking at water quality, poverty, mental health, housing, the gas pipe leak…….. there’s quite a list of subjects calling out for enquiry from the 4th estate.
Traditional media continue to deliver the biggest audiences in New Zealand, however these audiences have declined since 2014 and nearly all online media and especially SVOD services have grown significantly.
The consumers are fine – it’s the people in there ivory towers (CEOs, PMs, and other hierarchical types) complaining about the consumers not liking what they’ve been told to like.
Also there’s autobots writing and publishing pieces now. Bezos has used his ownership of washington post to roll out the tech behind it.
Feed it some numbers, it’s normally hooked into a data stream, throw in some key phrases to use in a meta structure and shazam ! Auto ‘journalism’ as you get full control over theme and structure without pesky salaries.
The kind of dross our media has churned out since election day could’ve come from a creative writing class it’s so lacking in facts and keeps circling the same themes.
Friend of mine did a PhD on this. Journalism quality is crucial to readership – she was able to lift circulation in two different papers by over 70% by pursuing quality indicators like freshness, newsworthiness, depth and so forth.
Hi rhinocrates – this is completely off topic but… I know your handle is to be read, “rye – nok – rat- ees”, and is a play on “Hippocrates” but I can’t help but mouthing, “rhino – crates” every time I see it; you know, a rhino in a crate, being moved from one African location to another. Fyi 🙂
This one was quite safe in the Auckland zoo. I got to feed a giraffe and see her baby born on xmas day at the same time.
Yes we are in the midst of the 6th great extinction…
Zoos are now seen more as sanctuaries rather than exhibition places – at least that is how the keepers view their task.
We try to keep them on their toes though.
Buyers in Auckland with agreements as to their ability to buy to a certain price are being turned down when they apply often because the bank considers the price too high, or that the income is too low to service it. Unless you get a fully analysed agreement taking into account your debts and reliable wage, and some of the middle class precariat are contractors, part time workers with variable salaries, then it might be thumbs down. Don’t count your chickens until they are hatched, or you may end up living in the henhouse and be glad of it! Our
brighter future may come, but not before we have a storm. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/341696/bank-caution-leaves-home-buyers-high-and-dry
Somebody that’s got a $120,000 deposit gets pre-approved for a $500,000 mortage; they go out and find a property to buy around the $600,000 mark; they go back to their lender, who’s pre-approved them, and then they get turned down.
“They get told, ‘well, actually we don’t value it to where you do. We think that we’ll loan you $480,000’.”
‘It can no longer continue’: mental health service cuts beds over staff woes.’
‘The only acute mental health unit on Auckland’s North Shore has been forced to close five beds because it can’t find staff.
For months, staff at He Puna Waiora have worked double shifts of 16 hours or longer, often dealing with violent and aggressive patients.
A Public Service Association spokesperson said the shortage of nurses had forced the ward to reduce its bed numbers for seven weeks.
The shortage of nurses had forced the ward to reduce its beds for seven weeks, the PSA said. It’s understood four nurses left their jobs last week.
Ms Polaczuk said the staff shortages had placed pressure on staff to work double shifts.
“A week recently … there were 35 double shifts worked. There would almost be no days where there is not somebody on shift who has a double.
“It’s been going on for some months and obviously it’s at the point now where it can no longer continue,” she said.
The union said the pressure on staff had increased the risk of violent and aggressive behaviour by patients.
This is the sort of issue that James and other right wing ‘contributors’ to this site do not care about.
Instead they care abut the betting odds for a National government. How can someone not care about this?
Nice attitude iceman – you don’t care about others unless you’re moaning that they haven’t got your latte right. Sad. Fake carer about people especially mental health workers and patients is outed – nice slow clap for James.
So, perhaps health funding should have been raised so that wages for nurses could go up so that people would be encouraged to become nurses rather than cutting them, as National did, so as to give tax cuts to the rich?
So what you are saying is the government has failed to provide sufficient resources to have the service function properly.
Thank you for admitting that National has failed.
Because in the majority’s just-world, the betting odds for a National government are a damn sight more important than the needs of those enduring an acute mental health crisis.
The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.
British colonial administrator Charles Trevelyan, on the victims of The Great Hunger.
It’s not the money, it’s all about the work stress, lack of opportunity to work with your patients, the inability to take leave or days off, all leading to burnout and loss of skilled educated people to the health professions. On a double shift I could bring home a thousand dollars a day but its not worth it. Excess overtime is a killer.
Been there in the past year. 14 hr plus days, 21 days on end without a break. Then 7 days off and repeat 6 times over a period of 7 months. In an environment with no sunlight for most of the period.
Short answer is it breaks people. It damages memory, concentration, metabolism and breaks down their immune system. The ability to cope with distractions and aggravations diminishes, they make mistakes for which they get blamed which only adds another layer of stress.
Looking back I’m kind of amazed at how the whole team survived it without anyone falling completely apart on the project, but fortunately it has come to a definitive end.
I’m still recovering mentally. As Pysch Nurse puts it … just not really worth it. And the liability totally sits with the employers who manipulate people into doing this kind of shit.
A few high profile prosecutions are really needed.
To many bureaucrats sitting in front of a PC all day over analyzing whatever with those trusty spreadsheets and ending up completely depraved of humanity.
I wonder who the “they” in that statement is intended to represent? Because you’re a partisan supporter of the “they” who could pay them more, but won’t, and who pretend “won’t” is a virtue. You might as well write “Then let them eat cake.”
Many thanks to the staff at Rotorua Hospital for the care they gave my family.
I take my hat off to you ladys whom raise our children as I would rather work the hardest job I have worked for free than care for sick children its a hard task.
Many thanks to the rest home in Napier whom are caring for my mother.
In my view our high suicide rate is directly linked to broken family’s .
As one needs love and guidance from mothers fathers and grandparents in our world as this love helps one lift there wairua and one can learn a lot from our experienced elderly people. So we need to make changes to our society that encourage the the family to stay together. ie reward 2 parent family’s as this financial reward will help prevent many problems we have with our youth and we will gain substantially from this minor adjustment to Winz . We will avoid having to many people end up in the ambulance at the bottom of the hill E,C,T. Many thanks to all the people who support me
Did Trump say he’s going to make other countries pay more for medicines so the U.S pays less? (CNN post cabinet meeting) I think he did. That’s not something to ignore – especially in terms of avoiding the non-existent Trans-Pacific partnership.
tRump blames drug companies for the cost of prescription drugs….. but it’s the rest of the world’s fault.
.
As far as — and I didn’t speak to Mitch about this today, but a priority of mine, and you know that this is coming up, will be the cost of prescription drugs. We’re going to get the costs way down, way down — and those drug companies. So you have the insurance companies on the one case (ph). In the other case, actually with regard to both you have the drug companies.
They contribute massive amounts of money to political people. I don’t know, Mitch, maybe even to you. But I have to tell you, they contribute massive amounts of money.
Me? I’m not interested in their money. I don’t need their money.
I will tell you, you have prescription drugs — you go to England, you go to various places, Canada, you go to many, many countries, and the same exact pill from the same company, the same box, same everything is a tiny fraction of what it costs in the United States. We are going to get drug prices — prescription drug prices way down, because the world is taking advantage of us. The world is taking advantage of us when that happens, so that’s going to be very important.
They murdered the Panama papers writer today so we have a bad world full of crooks now, so time for a revolution is moving closer with this murder of free press.
So what do we now make of John Key’s reluctance to cast light on secret foreign trusts in NZ, the existence of which was disclosed in the Panama Papers?
Does this make him a grubby enabler of the sorts of criminals who would conspire to murder a journalist?
Not directly responsible in any way of course, just a low-level enabler of a rotten system.
There’s shock and anger in Malta as news spreads about the death in a car bomb of the Maltese journalist and blogger who led the investigation into the Panama Papers scandal. Daphne Caruana Galizia died overnight when a powerful explosive device blew her car into pieces and threw the debris into a nearby field. She spoke to Nine to Noon last April. Her most recent revelations pointed the finger at Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, and two of his closest aides, connecting offshore companies linked to the three men with the sale of Maltese passports and payments from the government of Azerbaijan. David Thake is a former Nationalist party general election candidate and radio presenter in Malta, who knew Daphne Caruana Galizia well.
John Keys legacy is like an abscess …. poisons the blood.
“Income inequality is one of the defining issues of our time,” the statement begins, asking why its “sudden acceleration” has many people “helpless to stop its steady growth.”
“The Panama Papers provide a compelling answer to these questions: massive, pervasive corruption,”…. : John Doe
“Confronted with the blatant nature of the grubby pillaging of 1MDB, however, and the huge sums flushed through property, businesses and the art market, countries like the United States, Switzerland and Singapore have taken action and are punishing financial facilitators in their regions.
Yet, down south, Australia and New Zealand are still doing their best to pretend none of this was to do with them.” …..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And Lignite Bill has no problems with facilitating theft from Mexican or Maltese children …
Hon BILL ENGLISH: …… “In this case, the concerns about tax avoidance are concerns held by the Mexican Government and the Maltese Government, not by the New Zealand Government. There is no suggestion that these trusts are used to erode New Zealand’s tax base” …
Helping steal from poor kids …..English and Key have the class of dog shit.
Well now Peter Dunny’s getting in on the act I see.
Pretty rich coming from that guy about anything to do with NZ First is doomed to failure… he left because he knew Peters had his number ,… and has been a one man band like ACTS leaders have for years as well…
This is my interpretation of the 2 choices that New Zealand First has to make for our future and how I view that future under the 2 different choices .
Nzf Lab Grn We have many sports stars of Maori descent and every Maori in our world is proud to be Maori. Because we change our system to divert most of our young from the clutches of the judicial system . In my view we are locking up our sports stars whom could be making millions around our world. We are all talking about movies made about our past and how proud everyone in NZ is about our Maori culture these movies are all based on fact and show how advanced Maori were in the 1800 and we have movies about Apirana Ngata as it is the media and movies that makeup our reality .That movie that say that we could control our weather is a farce as we will only be able to predict our weather more accurately in the future not control it on a large scale.
Year 10 we have 25 % electric cars on our roads our 50 % less trucks we have plans for high speed rail that links our major city’s. Our oil use has been cut by a third we have had many surpluses on our trade with the rest of the world as everyone around the world no that our clean and green image in true and we are looking after everything in our country and everyone around our world is making the changes to there systems to copy our successful systems.
Our hospital waiting list is 7 days long as we have made change that have cut management cost and stream lined the systems back to a models like our hosptial boards we have saved millions everyone is treated before they develop more complicated health issues .We have next to no homeless people as we have come up with idea’s to give them employment and housing all our bad stats have droped down the OECD charts
All our sports stadiums are full as everyone has some spare money in a more equal society our racing industry’s and all our other regional industry’s are thriving and because of this we don’t have to much exposure to Dairy as all our exports are trading well and not just Dairy .Our electricity is 100 % renewable we have banned plastic in everything but the essentials products 1/3 of our houses have solar power
as the electricity company’s pay a fair price for net metering of power. Everyone is talking about the right choices that our governments. All the wealthy people from around our world flock to our shores but they can only lease our land and this stops us from being tenants in our own country there are many positive scenarios in this partnership and in every partnership everyone has to give and take to get along.
In 40 years we will be view Winston Peters in the same light as Apirana Ngata.
Nzf nat they have poured more money into our health system and because its not cutting our waiting list there are plans to privatize parts of our health systems look at the USA do we want to go there. Our exports are still dominated by dairy the old saying to many eggs in one basket is not logically Ideal we have huge and expensive highways that are not coping with the traffic all our bad stats on the OECD charts are getting worse but no one is talking about it because national have total control of our media/reality our major city’s are bursting at the seams and not even the middle class people can afford to buy a house as all the rich and famous have flocked to our shores and pushed up the price of everything We can look around our world now and see this effect now we have spent millions trying to clean up our enviroment but national are just keeping the image that everything is fine a new oil well has bursted and ruined our hoki fisheries our jails are costing more and half of them are privatized and no one is talking about the bad atrocities in private prisons.
Even some middle class could be classed as home less in our big city’s they have banned homeless people from all the tourist destinations there has been a lot of bad press about NZF as natianal set them up ie sex scandal money scandal and because natianal don’t want a great Maori leader to shine they minuplate the media to portray Winston as a maverick that just used his power to line his own pockets.
Look at the Maori party they had good intentions with there smoke price hike but national new that this move would upset and cost the Maori party there support as Maori have the highest percentage of smokes It would have been better to ban smoking but this would not go down with the tobacco companys .
Another underarm to the Maori party was the whano ora policy .The Maori party had good intentions with this policy but all national did was take from other health budgets and transfer the money to whano ora and everyone was moaning about the the other needed health services that were missing out on funding and this was going to Maori a lot of my elderly clients were talking about this fact.
national will show you a to good to be true deal up front but as soon as they get the chance they will throw you under the bus as they don’t like to share anything and especially power and if we get more immigrants the will vote national and with tec advancing so fast that could swing voters 5 % more to national. The left will never have a another chance to get into power this is happening all around our world Kia Kaha
A Spanish judge has ordered two leaders of Catalonia’s pro-independence movement jailed while they are being investigated on possible charges of sedition.
The judge jailed Jordi Sanchez of the Catalan National Assembly and Jordi Cuixart of the Omnium Cultural group after questioning them and two senior law enforcement officials on Monday.
I like the rail bit, but you will need to break up the high powered Trucking lobby as they have taken over the National Government and intend to kill rail dead as rail poses a threatn to their road freight transport policy going forward.
Top ex national ministers are hired to run the trucking lobby groups and use ‘greenwashing’ to convince politicians that truck freight is so very environemntally responsible, but it is full of lies and deception.
Note rail do not use tyres;
The trucks run up to 32 tyres each truck, that cause the worst tyre pollution in our times, now as tyre dust is entering our streams,rivers, lakes, aqifers and into our drinking water as we speak, and tyre pollution causes cancer and nervous system damage and reproductive damage.
look up 1,3, butadiene which is one of the main components in tyres today.
1,3-Butadiene
Recommend on FacebookTweetShare May 1994
Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health Concentrations (IDLH)
CAS number: 106-99-0
NIOSH REL: Exposure level; None established; NIOSH considers 1,3-butadiene to be a potential occupational carcinogen as defined by the OSHA carcinogen policy [29 CFR 1990].
You’re worried about the 1,3-Butadiene, huh? Here’s how your data sheet describes it: “Description of Substance: Colorless gas with a mild aromatic or gasoline-like odor.”
A gas isn’t much use for making a tyre. So the butadiene is a precursor component that gets polymerised into the final solid rubber. The properties and hazard profile of a polymer are very different to the properties of the monomers that go into it.
edit: If you really feel like having a freakout about hazardous chemicals, look up the hazards of styrene, than ponder how much food spends time in contact with polystyrene.
The 1,3, butadiene is also an “inert” component traced in the final composition as you can verify it when you go to NZTA site for tyre materials review of the final composition of the tyre material, or any other data study of components found therin.
Many studies have been done of tyre repairers and workshops where tyre dust is prevelent so your point is very simplistic and flawed.
“Due to their volatility, carcinogens such as N-nitrosamines, which cause cancer,
are able to segregate from tyre rubber into the atmosphere as dust and fine aerosol during tyre use.
The research of chemical content of tyre dust and fine aerosol from different tyres (manufactured by domestic and foreign manufacturers), performed in the Russian Federation in 1999-2000 [2], allowed to determine that each kilogram of tyre dust and fine aerosol may contain different value of volatile N-nitrosamines, which may reach up to 70μg.
Thus, during vehicle operation with wear of tyres considerable values of not only tyre dust, but also the carcinogenic substances causing various oncology diseases are allocated in environment.”
For example, how do you consider the “butadiene/styrene” as being cited as the primary components in tyre material when the tyre is placed in a laboratory analysis under GCMS as Spectrometry mass testing prodedure?
Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is an analytical method that combines the features of gas-chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify different substances within a test sample.
Applications of GC-MS include drug detection, fire investigation, environmental analysis, explosives investigation, and identification of unknown samples, including that of material samples obtained from planet Mars during probe missions as early as the 1970s. GC-MS can also be used in airport security to detect substances in luggage or on human beings. Additionally, it can identify trace elements in materials that were previously thought to have disintegrated beyond identification. Like liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, it allows analysis and detection even of tiny amounts of a substance.
Please be careful not to send the message falsely that tyre dust is not harmful as you appear to suggest as it is widely known now in Europe as a major human hazard and cancer causing air and water pollutant.
If you want to talk about the hazards of tyre dust, then by all means give us information about tyre dust. Hazard information about a constituent precursor is relevant to workers compounding the rubber, but not relevant to the hazard from the wear debris of the final product.
Similarly the volatiles given off by tyres, especially new ones, are relevant to workers in the tyre industry who are exposed to them in high concentrations during their workday through working in enclosed spaces where they are stored. They are much less relevant to the general public who spend 15 minutes in a tyre shop every four years or so, and the rest of the time their vehicle is outdoors where the volatiles quickly disperse.
Andre,
I am astouded that you fail to see the affects of tyre particulates as being importent here as I told you for the last time the inert coumpouds including styrene and 1,3, butadiene are traced inside the final polymer compounds of the tyre not the monomer (precursor) and and I did not say a ‘new tyre’ which you seem to be centering your comments on as irrelevent to my comments..
I have begun my post discssing the truck tyre has become a largest polutant in “road runoff” from our roads now going into our waterways and you failed sadly had no concerns about this as to see the connection.
So I cannot get through to you about this new (so far “out of sight”) “public health” issue of tyre dust pollution which is now being ignored by some agencies and some industries (perhaps those who produce those tyres or trucking interests) that I have suggested already.
It is puzzling why you do not show any health concerns about tyre dust?
I quote again for the last time; https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2013/wp29grpe/GRPE-65-20e.pdf
“Automobile tyres as a source of deterioration products till now remain out of sight of the experts engaged in technical rationing. For a long time was considered, that tyre protector deterioration product particle sizes are large enough and do not pose a health hazard. However, research of the American doctors [1], who noticed a higher sensibility to allergic and oncology diseases of inhabitants of the houses located near to motorways in cities, had allowed to assume, that at natural wear of automobile tyres significant amount of aerosol is emitted to the atmosphere. After thorough research of the air at highway with moderate traffic, the researchers found between 3,800 and 6,900 tyre particles per cubic meter of air while more the 58% of them are under 10 microns in size and therefore are able to penetrate into human lungs causing bronchial asthma, allergic reactions, as a result of skin and mucosa contact – rhinitis, conjunctivitis and urticaria. Such tyre particles almost cannot be excreted from the body. According to the research carried out in Moscow [2] the core pollutant of the city air (up to 60% of hazardous matter) is the rubber of automobile tyre used up in a small dust. The performed analysis of various tyres in operation, had allowed to define weights of a worn out parts of tyres of different sizes, which are resulted in the Tables”
NZTA documents show one truck tyre sheds 0.2mgs per km and a car 0.07mgs every day so 32 tyres are emitting a considerable amount of these dust compounds.
The studies show on any road carrying an average of 20 000 vehicles every day sheds 9kilos per km along that road.
It washes off the road in rain and enters our aqifers and waterways so think when you drink that water.
So we know this has a dramatic effect truck freight traffic has on our environmental health over rail what uses no tyres at all.
Congratulations. You’ve finally isolated the relevant hazard of the dust to show the rest of us.
Now do you want to have a go at putting some context around how that hazard compares to other everyday hazards, such as the volatiles you breathe in when you fill your tank? Or the particulates from diesel and petrol exhaust? Interestingly, the latest generations of direct injection petrol engines may be worse than diesels… http://gas2.org/2017/05/27/gasolne-engines-emit-particulates-diesels/
Andre did I say tyre dust was the only toxic exposure? = answer = no.
And you failed mostly to read the posts as your responses were wildly off the focus of my subject. Rail vs road freight.
Lastly – as I have asked you several times before in other words, ‘what is your interest in the subject of Trucking – rail which was my subject here in case you forgot?
What is your interest in these exposures to toxins or are you representing some ‘bussiness interests like road freight industry or representing a chemical industry or associated client?
My interest is in hazard assessment and mitigation. Most of the places I’ve worked deal with a variety of hazardous substances, and understanding and managing the risks of those substances usually ends up on my plate.
Saying something is hazardous and treating that as an argument against that activity is meaningless, I can’t think of anything I do or have contact with that doesn’t have some kind of hazard. It’s the relative size of the hazard compared to the alternatives that matters.
So when you start your argument with an assertion about tyre dust, then present information about a substance totally unrelated to the hazard of tyre dust, well, it’s a crap argument.
As it happens, I have a very poor opinion of the trucking industry and agree that improving rail would bring huge benefits to NZ. But weird scaremongering about tyre dust that doesn’t even correctly identify the hazard, let alone put it context, is more likely to set the cause back than help it.
You are entitled to your opinions, unfounded as they are, and i can see that you are of the opinion that tyre dust is harmless which is sadly very misguided;
You have no evidence to support or prove that tyre dust is harmless other than just simple words claiming such.
I have a post grad in Occupatioal Health & Safety at a NZ University and spent seven years preceeding this in Florida and Toronto studying Chemical toxicology, so you have just insulted my intellegence.
I was involved in a six month workplace chemical poisoning incident in an unventillated workplace which damaged/disabled the health of several wokers and myself, before this so I know something about hazardous chemicals.
You are relying on academic rubbish only as if it was an exact science we should never had been damaged nor should many other workers have been in the past.
So while unlike you I do have personal expierience on the toxic effects of chemicals without being to specific at this time.
If you were personally chemically poisoned as I was you would not be so ‘cavalier’ as you are now.
So I end this exchange now, and will carry on making ‘tyre dust road runnoff pollution’ one of my continued studies just as the rest of the world is becomming ‘enlighted’ even if some in NZ is not prepared to be engaged in presently.
Have a careful read through my comments. At no point did I assert tyre dust is harmless.
I asked you to correctly identify what the hazard is, instead of scaremongering with data about irrelevant substances. I also asked you to provide some context about how great the hazard of tyre dust is compared to other everyday hazards.
Surely that shouldn’t be difficult for someone as learned and qualified as yourself.
Now do you want to have a go at putting some context around how that hazard compares to other everyday hazards, such as the volatiles you breathe in when you fill your tank? Or the particulates from diesel and petrol exhaust? Interestingly, the latest generations of direct injection petrol engines may be worse than diesels…
I’d be more interested in studies on cumulative effect. Can you point to any?
Since I have been chemically poisoned my role in life is to save every other soul from suffering my demise, so I will attempt to give you some idea of how serious the issue of Truck emissions as ‘dust sources from tyres and brake dust’, using the latest OECD data and cost as relative to other emissions of other hazardous chemicals/compounds.
My Environmental Monitoring Company chooses now to target 2.5 micrograms airborne sized particles from transport sources such as truck routes/roads through urban locations where they can affect the lives of many than a rural are would.
Particulates that are of a lower weighted form such as 2.5 micrograms is more dangerous than is the more common 10 micrograms sized particles as they travel lower down into our lungs causing more agressive forms of cancer.
It shows the actual cost of human damages from this form of air pollution.
Good reading regards.
OECD report The cost of air pollution. – transport http://www.oecd.org/env/the-cost-of-air-pollution-9789264210448-en.htm http://www.oecd.org/env/the-cost-of-air-pollution-9789264210448-en.htm
Air pollution: Tyre and brake fatigue compound an exhausting problem
8 September 2016
tags: air pollution, road transport, rubber
by Guest author
Danger ahead
Shayne MacLachlan, OECD Environment Directorate
Anyone else feeling exhausted by all this drum humming about air pollution? Indeed it appears the fumes won’t be dissipating any time soon as we consider the extent to which tyre and brake rubbish exacerbate the problem. The European Commission says exhaust and non-exhaust sources may contribute almost equally to total traffic-related PM10 emissions. A few months ago, I was proposing (on this very Insights blog) that electric cars are essential in fighting filthy air pollution in urban areas because humans are unwilling to relinquish the comfort of their vehicles. Since then, I find myself mulling hard after this “alarmingly obvious” realisation that electric cars use tyres and brakes too! Even if they emit less of the harmful fine particles than conventional vehicles, please do feel free to file that blog in the “seemed like a good idea at the time” folder. And to turn insult to injury, I see that my own colleagues at the OECD have just published new data on PM2.5 emissions which did little to ease my blushes.
Fine particles vs coarse particles
A lot of non-exhaust pollution from tyres and brakes winds up in rivers, streams and lakes. They produce particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) which is more harmful for humans than gas pollutants like ozone and NO2. Fine particulate matter penetrates deep into your lungs and cardiovascular system. New research has even discovered tiny particles of pollution inside samples of brain tissue. The OECD is amongst a few international organisations proudly leading the fight against ambient air pollution. And rightly so, with 80% of the world population exposed to PM2.5. Outdoor air pollution causes 3.7 million premature deaths a year and 1 in 8 people die from filthy air. OECD Environment Director, Simon Upton recently stated that air pollution is not just an economic issue, but also a moral one. He urges governments to stop fussing over the costs of efforts to limit pollution and start worrying more about the even larger costs they will incur if they continue to allow it to go unchecked.
You mind making it a bit clearer what are your own words and what is quoting from elsewhere? Also, do you mean micron or micrometre where you mention 2.5 microgram and 10 microgram size particles?
Since you got me curious, I went looking for more info and found this.
So far I’ve only skimmed most of it and just stopped at interesting looking bits. The consensus seems to be most of the tyre dust mass is in particles much larger than 10 microns, and falls to the ground very quickly. Those larger particles are not a major respiratory hazard. I didn’t see anything that suggests to me that tyre dust should be raised in priority compared to exhaust issues, or fireplace smoke or a variety of other pollution problems.
However, the reported size and composition distribution of brake dust particles has me somewhat more concerned than I was this morning.
Andre
I am now to busy for any more, so for any more I suggest you use this study (below) as I use several others in references for our Company when sizing tyre particulates in micrograms when measuring tyre dust collection of busy roads.
We have detected tyre dust down to 0.5 micrograms though our gravimetric filters in our air pollution monitors .
You are reading everything wrong here, as the road surface, amount of times the particulates are run over with other vehicles when settling of roads and other variables that can reduce particulate size.
Dust Resulting from Tire Wear and the Risk of Health Hazards
http://file.scirp.org/pdf/JEP_2013061711221865.pdf
Page 514
Dust particles, suspended particulate matter, with a diameter of 10 μm or less, are also produced from some types of tire.
Page 515
Finally, the study discussed the possible effects of tire dust absorbed into the human body. Tire dust particles with a small diameter enter the human body. As particulate substances of 10 μm or smaller reach the alveoli, they may cause a variety of respiratory disorders, such as bronchitis and bronchial asthma.
Do the math on how a 1 microgram particle or 0.5 microgram particle relates in size to a PM10 (10 micrometres maximum diameter). Hint: it’s an order of magnitude larger. So the particles you’re filtering and making a fuss over are much much larger than the PM10 and PM2.5 particles that are of particular concern to lung health.
weka, I’d need to google it and I’m fairly sure your google skills are as good or better than mine.
The last time I had occasion to look into something close to that question was decades ago. I vaguely recall effects were more or less cumulative for particles that were effectively inert, but the hazards increased rapidly as particle size got smaller (deeper lung penetration) and hazards increased rapidly with increasing exposure if the particles had any kind of biological activity.
That report in my reply to cleangreen suggests that a lot of brake dust particles are very small and can be chemically active, hence my concern level rising. But that’s also a problem that will reduce with electric cars that primarily use regenerative braking so the old-school friction brakes will become emergency-only use.
Sorry, that wasn’t what I meant (if I understood what you said). I meant that single substance studies are useful, but they don’t tell us about the risk associated with multiple substance and stressor exposures over time. e.g. the tyre dust and the petrol fumes and the new building off gassing and all the sugar in the diet and the stress of being unemployed or overworked and the endogenous oestrogens and nitrates in the water ( 😉 ) and so on.
Ha! I had a dream last night that Labour were going to screw over the disenfranchised and all the middle class people were doing ok so no-one was taking any notice. Peters wasn’t even an issue in the dream.
Steve Maharey, posting on the Pundit website, reports that Peters’ has said that his forthcoming announcement could be ” written on the wall”. Is this a reference to Book of Daniel, where the writing on the wall predicted the fall of the ruling regime?
What a careful chap is Bill. Know as little as possible. Remember very little. Say as few words as possible.
Good advice for any of us picked up even if with a guilty conscience.
(Mind you human nature would have caused Bill to ask a fair bit more of his “pupil”.)
Good grief. How ridiculous. Whats your name…. what’s your occupation… where do you live (no he didn’t ask that but he might as well have)… do you know Glenys
Dickson… how long have you known her… did you know she was recorded… did you hear the recordings.
English answers ‘yes”to the second to last question and “no” to the last one. So, he’s trying to kid that he never heard the recordings? And the police officer never asked whether he knew what was on them?
Whats your name…. what’s your occupation… where do you live (no he didn’t ask that but he might as well have)… do you know Glenys
Dickson… how long have you known her… did you know she was recorded… did you hear the recordings.
That’s how the plods do it when they take statements.
A huge, American-owned oil and gas company is suing the Canadian government for $250 million for protecting the St Lawrence River from fracking exploration. This week, Lone Pine Resources is in court to try to force Canada to pay for Quebec’s decision to protect one of the most important waterways in the country.
“Council acting chair Steve Lowndes said he, like many, struggled with the twin targets the council had to meet under planning rules to increase the amount of irrigated land on the Canterbury Plains while at the same time improving water quality.
Irrigation would not be used to grow grass for cows in the future, he said.
True, but we know what the cause is and the reason it’s not being solved is not for lack of a solution, it’s because some people want to be able to make money by activities that are highly polluting. Putting in ambulance at the bottom of the cliff tech just encourages them. We already know how to farm without causing this degree of damage.
“ECan has been run by commissioners since 2010, when the Government sacked its councillors, citing apparent mismanagement of water issues.
Canterbury will be the only region [in the country] where the Government thinks it has the right to appoint the people who govern our region rather than let the voters decide.”
I’m guessing that’s it too, although it would be interesting to see if other regional councils have likewise bound themselves in via their regional plan.
😎 That’s a great article, lots of gems in that. I’ve been to that piece of swamp. Don’t think we saw any fern birds but the ecology was fantastic. They’re doing very good work. Interesting it is now closed to the public.
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Initially it was reported that in an aerial bombardment that took place on August 30th seven children were massacred; the figure then went up to eight and then on November 11th Noticias Uno reported that, according to people from the community in close proximity to the ...
Next year is an election year, and Labour needs money to fund its campaign. So naturally, they're selling access:Labour is charging wealthy business figures $1500-a-head to lunch with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at its annual conference later this month. [...] On the weekend beginning November 29th, around 800 delegates will ...
Yesterday the government announced its changes to tenancy laws, including an end to no-cause evictions, limits on rent increases, and anonyminity for tenants who defend their rights against bad landlords (sadly necessary because landlords are scum who maintain blacklists of "uppity" tenants). They're all good moves, and have resulted in ...
In 2003 New Zealand sent a Provincial Reconstruction Team to Afghanistan to support America's doomed war there. While there, they conducted regular weapons practice on local firing ranges, littering the landscape with unexploded ammunition. These ranges weren't secure - they're on land used by locals for animal herding - so ...
Green MP Gareth Hughes has announced he will retire at the election. Its understandable - he's been there ten years, and wants to actually see his children grow up rather than miss it while drowning in the toxic parliamentary sewer. But his departure is also a huge loss for the ...
Words and images by Jacqui GibsonGone are Auckland Museum’s days of doing science using a museum-centric academic approach, after Māori land rights holders Ngāti Kuri gave the museum an ultimatum.Tom Trnski holding a fossilised whale tooth from the Far North.Aussie-born Head of Natural Sciences at Auckland Museum ...
MediaWorks announced in October 2019 that it intended to sell off its struggling television business and cancel or cut back on several popular local programmes, including New Zealand Today, Married at First SightNew Zealand and 7 Days. Its radio and outdoor advertising arms are currently performing well, but MediaWorks’ ...
Westminster voting intention:CON: 44% (+3)LAB: 28% (-1)LDEM: 14% (-1)BREX: 6% (-)via @OpiniumResearch, surveyed this weekChgs. w/ 08 Nov— Britain Elects (@britainelects) 16 November 2019 This, of course, doesn't look good. Labour have been chucking big, headline grabbing policies left, right and centre ... Well, maybe not right. Left, left ...
Some readers may remember that I mentioned last year that I was applying for NZ citizenship. I filled out the paperwork and had my original citizenship interview in February. Everything went well until they discovered that, because I had spent five months in the US in 2017, I had not ...
by Deirdre O’Neill It is becoming quite acceptable for certain sections of the left to declare that people like me – women who are ‘gender critical’ – should not be allowed in leftist or anarchist spaces. Leaving aside the arrogance and implicit authoritarianism of this claim, its lack of critical ...
There is an article in The Conversation, written by Jeremy P. Shapiro (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University), about what he sees as the psychologically-based underpinnings of three main matters that seem to vex people all around the planet. The article is titled “The Thinking ...
. . Blogger Martyn Bradbury has won his case against unreasonable search and surveillance against the NZ Police; and subsequent Police attempts to produce evidence in secrecy, in a closed Court. His case highlights a disturbing growing trend in Aotearoa New Zealand for State power to be used against ...
The Committee of Disobedient Women has intercepted an email from Dr Emma Eejut, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Massey University to the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Jan Thomas. Dear Jan, Thank you for your courageous move. I think 10 pages of blether** should tie any of the students game enough to try holding ...
That's the only response to the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation into LGOIMA practices at the Christchurch City Council:My investigation identified serious concerns about the Council’s leadership and culture, and its commitment to openness and transparency. In particular, Council staff raised concerns with me about various methods employed by some ...
NZ First seems to be nakedly trying to enrich itself from public office:A powerful New Zealand First figure helped establish a forestry company that then pushed for money from two key funding streams controlled by a New Zealand First Minister. An RNZ investigation has found Brian Henry, lawyer for Winston ...
Behrouz Boochani is an award winning author and journalist. He is also a refugee, who for the past six years has been detained in Australia's offshore gulag on Manus Island, and in Papua New Guinea. But last night, with the cooperation of the WORD Christchurch festival and Amnesty International, he ...
Different Strokes: If a multicultural immigration policy imposes no obligation on immigrant communities to acknowledge and ultimately embrace their host nation’s most cherished traditions and values, then how is that nation to prevent itself from being reduced to a collection of inward-looking and self-replicating ethnic and cultural enclaves?THE COALITION GOVERNMENT’S ...
Protective Zone: Reading the rules and guidelines released by Massey University, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that its governing body considers the whole concept of free speech a disruptive threat to the orderly imparting of orthodox academic knowledge.IN TRUE ORWELLIAN fashion, Massey University has announced its commitment to ...
Farmers held a hate-march on Parliament today, complete with MAGA hats, gun-nut signs, and gendered insults. While supposedly about a grab-bag of issues - including, weirdly, mental health - it was clear that the protest was about one thing, and one thing only: climate change. And specifically, forestry "destroying" rural ...
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security released their annual report today, and I've been busy reading through it. In amongst the usual review of what they've been doing all year, there's a few interesting bits. For example, a discussion on "agency retention and disposal of information", which points out that ...
Recently more than 150 post-graduate students and young scientists presented an open letter to the Green Party via The Spinoff, encouraging them to reconsider their position on genetic modification. Their target is tackling climate change issues.[1] Can any party continue to be dismissive about genetic modification (GM) contributing to ...
by Deirdre O’Neill Under Thatcher and then Blair and continuing up until our contemporary moment, the working class has seen its culture slowly and progressively destroyed. The change from an industrial society to a service society produced a marked shift in focus from the working class as the backbone of ...
Since 2013, the Australian government has detained refugees without trial in Pacific gulags, where they are abused, tortured, and driven to suicide. The policy is not just an abuse of human rights and possible crime against humanity; it has also had a corrosive effect on the states Australia uses as ...
It seems fair to say that we currently live in a problematic political moment in world history. Democracies are in decline and dictatorships are on the rise. Primordial, sectarian and post-modern divisions have re-emerged, are on the rise or have been accentuated by political evolutions of the moment such as ...
Last month, Greenpeace head Russel Norman surrendered his speaking slot at an EPA conference to student climate activist Sorcha Carr, who told the EPA exactly what she thought of them. It was a bold move, which confronted both regulators and polluters (or, as the EPA calls them, "stakeholders") with the ...
The core principle supposedly underlying New Zealand's electoral finance regime is transparency: parties can accept large donations from rich people wanting to buy policy, but only if they tell the public they've been bought. Most parties abide by this, so we know that TOP was wholly-owned by Gareth Morgan, and ...
Today is a Member's Day, probably the second-to-last one of the year, and its a big one, with the Third Reading of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. last Member's Day it was reported back from committee, after MPs voted narrowly to make it subject to a (rules TBA) ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThe growth of the human population over the last 70 ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...
by Don Franks In 1957, E M Forster wrote, of his greatest work: “The India described in ‘A Passage to India’ no longer exists either politically or socially. Change had begun even at the time the book was published ( 1924) and during the following quarter of a century it ...
The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from select committee today. But there's no report on it. Instead, the bill has been bounced back to the House under Standing order 29593) because the Committee didn't bother to produce one. They probably tried. But given the membership of the committee (which ...
Two years into New Zealand’s Labour-led government, the long-delayed Zero Carbon Bill became law on 7 November. Passed essentially unanimously, the lengthy public debates and political manoeuvring faded away until the final passage was even anticlimactic: Flipping through the @nzstuff@DomPost I was starting to wonder if I’d dreamt ...
Now the Zero Carbon Bill is law, what's next? Obviously, the ETS changes currently before select committee are going to be the next battleground. But we're also going to get a good idea of where we're going, and if the progress the Zero Carbon Act promises is good enough, during ...
Grant PearceThe effects of the current Australian bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland (and also again in California) are devastating and far-reaching. To date, the fires have resulted in several lives being lost and many homes and properties destroyed. Here in New Zealand, the impacts have been only ...
A passing comment in a post the other day about the labour force participation rates of older people prompted me to pull down the fuller data and see what we could see about various participation rates over the decades since the HLFS began in 1986. As it happens, the ...
Distract And Divert: The rise of what we have come to call “Identity Politics” represents the ideological manifestation of the ruling class’s objective need to destroy class politics, and of the middle-class’s subjective need to justify their participation in the process.THE RELIEF of the ruling class can only be imagined. ...
"I saw a newspaper picture,From the political campaignA woman was kissing a child,Who was obviously in pain.She spills with compassion,As that young child'sFace in her hands she gripsCan you imagine all that greed and avariceComing down on that child's lips?" ...
Dr Matt Boyd, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick WilsonThe Global Health Security Index which considers pandemic threats has just been published. Unfortunately, NZ scores approximately half marks (54/100), coming in 35th in the world rankings – far behind Australia. This poor result suggests that the NZ Government needs to ...
The Zero Carbon Act is inadequate, with a weak methane target designed to give farmers a free ride. But it turns out it could have been worse: Climate Change Minister James Shaw was so desperate to get National on board, he wanted to gut that target, and leave it in ...
The Herald reprints an Australian story on a couple of tragic deaths in Bali from drinking cocktails that had methanol in them. The story argues that methanol is likely the result of home distillation. But what the young tourists were experiencing was far from a hangover. They’d consumed a toxic cocktail ...
Last month, the police announced a trial of specialist roaming armed units, which would drive round (poor, brown) areas in armoured SUVs, armed to the teeth. When they announced the trial, they told us it was about having armed police "ready to attend major incidents at any time if needed". ...
Spain went to the polls today in the second elections this year, after the Socialists (who had come to power in a confidence vote, then gone to the polls in April) rejected the offer of a coalition with the left-wing PoDemos, and instead decided to gamble n a better outcome ...
A couple of days ago I attended (and spoke at) the University of Waikato’s “LearnFest” event. There were lots of talks and sessions on very diverse aspects of teaching, mostly at tertiary level. One was by Myra Williamson from Te Piringa Faculty of Law here at Waikato, on Contract Cheating ...
There will be a transit of Mercury – the planet Mercury will pass across the face of the Sun – taking place at sunrise in New Zealand on Tuesday, 12th November. It was by observing such an event 250 years ago that James Cook and his scientist colleagues were able ...
Since becoming the world’s first openly transexual mayor and member of parliament, Georgina Beyer has been recognised as a trailblazer for trans rights. Daphna Whitmore talks with her about where she sees the current trans movement We start out talking about legislation the government put on hold that would have ...
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ...
National Messiah? Chris Luxon identifies himself as an evangelical Christian. If he is genuine in this self-characterisation, then he will take every opportunity his public office provides to proselytise on behalf of his faith. He will also feel obliged to bear witness against beliefs and practices he believes to be ...
I'm going to make a Reckless Prediction™ that the Tories have 'topped out' in the 'poll of polls' / Britain Elects multipoll tracker at about 38%, and in the next week we will start to see Labour creep up on them.In fact, we might just be seeing the start of ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Lizzie Marvelly: “I may have missed this… has @afterellen gone all terf-y? Or am I reading something incorrectly? “ https://twitter.com/LizzieMarvelly/status/1191840059105742849 After Ellen is a lesbian website that is unashamedly pro-lesbian, as you’d expect. So why is Ms Marvelly so bothered about lesbians having their ...
Did you know there once was a time when it was illegal to be a gypsy (aka Romani) in Britain?That was between 1530, when the Egyptians Act was passed, and 1856, when it was repealed.Amongst other things, the act forbade the entry of 'Egyptians' into England, ordered those already there ...
Some days I sit and think, “what will I write…?” What do you say when you get to 1000 posts? Maybe you just start where you are, diverge to where this all began, then offer a collection of reader’s favourite posts, and a few of your own? (And throw in ...
Counter-Puncher: The “activists” and “radicals” (his own words) from the Indian community who took such strong exception to Shane Jones’ remarks about Immigration NZ’s treatment of arranged marriages, may end up bitterly regretting their intervention. Jones is not the sort of person who turns the other cheek to his critics.SHANE ...
In the spirit of Remember, remember the fifth of November, let's keep this in mind FOREVER.
Oh dear. Extraordinary interview on PM with Andrew Bridgen and @EvanHD just now. Bridgen was defending Jacob Rees Mogg’s Grenfell comments. Evan asked him if JRM had meant to say he would have left ...
Collision Course? In conditions of ideological white-out, the international bankers’ “Woop-Woop! Pull Up!” warning may have come too late to save global capitalism.WHAT DOES IT MEAN when international bankers are more willing to embrace radical solutions than our politicians and their electors? At both the International Monetary Fund and the ...
Pertussis (whooping cough) is a conundrum. It is a disease that was described hundreds of years ago and the bacteria that causes it (Bordetella pertussis) isolated in 1906. We have had vaccines for about 80 years but this disease is defiant in the face of human immunity. I wanted to ...
The Zero Carbon Bill has just passed its third reading, uanimously. In the end, National supported it - but we all know they'll turn around and gut it the moment they regain power. Meanwhile, I guess ACT's David Seymour didn't even bother to show up. I am on record as ...
Dr Lindsay Robertson, Dr Jerram Bateman, Professor Janet HoekMembers of the public health community hold divergent views on how access to vaping products or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products should be arranged. Some believe ENDS should be as widely available as smoked tobacco and argue for liberal ...
When the Police were trying to cover up for the National Party over Dirty Politics, they went all-in with their abuses of power. They illegally search Nicky Hager's house, violating his journalistic privilege and invading his privacy. They unlawfully acquired Hager's bank records. They did the same to left-wing blogger ...
Last month, in response to a wave of protests by Extinction Rebellion, the British government purported to ban their protests from the whole of London. It was a significant interference with the freedoms of expression and assembly, and another sign of the country's decline into tyranny. But now, a court ...
Last year, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security reported on significant problems with the intelligence warrant system. While they were unwilling to declare any warrant "irregular" (meaning unlawful) due to the recent law change, they were also not willing to give the system a clean bill of health. Now, they've ...
The National Party has come out in support of encouraging greater vaccination uptake. But it sure isn’t the way I’d do it. National’s suggested docking the benefits of those on benefit whose kids aren’t keeping up with their vaccinations. Some in National have suggested extending that to payments under Working ...
Feeding The Flames: It is simply not enough to demand an end to “corruption”, or “inequality”, or the overbearing influence of the authorities in Beijing. These are just “lowest common denominator” demands: the sort of slogans that pull people onto the streets. They are not a plan.WHERE’S THE PLAN? Across ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has risen to 4.2%. There are 115,000 unemployed - 11,000 fewer than when Labour took office. In that time the minimum wage has gone up by $2 an hour, which shows that the right's fears about increases causing unemployment are simply ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has called for submissions on Andrew Little's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill. Normally I encourage participation in the democratic process. I am not doing so in this case. Instead, I encourage all of you to boycott this submissions process, and to post ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIf tiny concentrations of carbon dioxide can hold enough heat ...
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and within it, one of the fastest sources is elite travel: billionaires flitting around the world in their private jets, spewing excessive pollution into the atmosphere just so they can avoid mixing with us dirty peasants. But in ...
That's what we face if we don't stop climate change, according to a warning from 11,000 scientists:The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists. “We declare clearly and unequivocally ...
by Phil Duncan Here’s just a few of the kind of threats issued day in and day out against gender-critical women – feminists, marxists, etc – overwhelmingly by MEN (albeit men identifying as women). “Kill all Terfs”. “Shoot a Terf today”. “All terfs deserve to be shot in the head”. ...
This is the third of the synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Unlike the humble cup of coffee and t-shirt that we looked at in ...
Tom MooreTraditionally a food source and cutting tool, freshwater mussels/kākahi are now widely valued as water filters that help clean our waterbodies and maintain ecosystem health throughout Aotearoa. The improvement they provide in water quality can make it easier for other animals to live in streams and rivers, as ...
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…Installation complete: this was nothing ...
The chairman of the Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy (UNISCS) working group, Wayne Brown, has hit back at critics of his group’s recommendations to relocate the Ports of Auckland cargo operations to Whangarei’s deepwater port of Northport. The working group's recommendation to close Auckland waterfront to all but cruise ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First backs the public to decide on the End of Life Choice Bill via a referendum at the 2020 General Election. The Bill, with New Zealand First’s referendum provision incorporated, passed its final reading in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Justice New Zealand First is proud that a key Coalition Agreement commitment which will provide for a more transparent and effective criminal justice system has been realised. Legislation to establish the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent body focused on identifying and responding to possible miscarriages of ...
"Today we have made a choice that will leave a legacy... I hope that means that future generations will see that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history." - Jacinda Ardern, Third Reading of the Zero Carbon Bill ...
Darroch Ball, New Zealand First List MP A Member’s bill has been proposed that would provide income tax exemptions for all New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel while on operational deployment overseas. The Income Tax (Exemption for Salary or Wages of NZDF Members on Active Deployment) Amendment Bill proposed by New Zealand First ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have brought common sense to the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, which passed its final reading in Parliament today. Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters says months of hard work went into negotiating a balanced ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First has listened to calls to recognise paramedics as registered health professionals under the Health Practitioners’ Competence Assurance Act (the Act).Today, the Coalition Government announced plans for paramedics to be registered as health practitioners under the Act, and the establishment of a ...
We began the week by commemorating the New Zealand Wars and celebrating a major increase in the number of teachers. Then, we were busy supporting offenders into work and getting our rail back on track after years of underinvestment. And that's just the start! ...
In October I was sworn in as the Mayor of Lower Hutt.It’s the privilege of my life to serve Hutt people as their Mayor. There is something really special to be able to serve the community where I was raised, and where I live. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters met with Korea Racing Authority Chairperson Nak Soon Kim in Seoul today to discuss closer cooperation between the New Zealand and Korean horse racing industries. As part of the visit to the Seoul Racecourse, Mr Peters witnessed ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $10 million to establish Otago as the centre of New Zealand’s creative digital industry over the next ten years, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “The initiative will bring us closer to the vision of ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)’s skills and employment programme will help young Otago people into long-term forestry careers, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Te Ara Mahi will invest $63,000 in the 2020 school year to support eight 17 and 18 ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will support local plans to revitalise and stimulate economic development opportunities in Otago, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The four Regional Economic Development Ministers have approved an in-principle investment of $19.9 million towards the region’s ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is pleased to have received the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) report on the Coalition Government’s Mycoplasma bovis eradication efforts, which shows significant progress in the fight against the disease. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, says the report’s findings ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon David Parker, Minister for Trade and Export Growth The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing to support economic growth opportunities for Otago’s engineering and manufacturing sectors, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Trade and Export Minister David Parker announced today. Almost $20 million ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, discussed in Seoul today opportunities to work more closely in the Pacific and the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Mr Peters and Minister Kang confirmed New Zealand and the ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Minister for Māori Development The three marae in the historic Parihaka Pa complex in Taranaki have been upgraded to high speed broadband with the support of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Connecting the ...
Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins today introduced into Parliament a Bill that will make it easier for the public service to tackle the biggest challenges facing Governments. The Bill represents the most significant change in the public service in 30 years. The State Sector Act 1988 will be repealed ...
The families of more than 416,000 students will be better off next year as their schools have signed up to the Government’s donations scheme, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. The scheme will see almost $62.5 million in additional Government funding go to schools nationwide next year. “I’m really pleased ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced further support as the Government of Samoa responds to a serious measles outbreak. “New Zealand will deploy a further 18 vaccination nurses, bringing the total to 30 working in Samoa over the next four weeks,” Mr Peters said. “A New Zealand Medical Assistance ...
Fa’atalofa atu, malo e lelei, Kia ora koutou katoa Thank you to the Child Poverty Action Group for asking me to be here today to provide an update on some of the things that have been happening across my the social development portfolio. Can I firstly acknowledge the vast ...
***Please check against delivery*** Good morning everyone. It is a pleasure to be with you this morning to open this year’s New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Conference and AGM. Firstly, thank you Dr Alan Jackson, NZTR Chair for your introduction. And let us acknowledge also: The NZTR Board; Dean McKenzie, Chair ...
The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer and more secure, Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing) Kris Faafoi has announced today. Both renters and landlords will benefit from the suite of practical changes to the Residential ...
A marine conservation milestone - the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve - is being celebrated today at a community event in Tairāwhiti/East Coast attended by the Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “The creation of this marine reserve in November 1999 was a game ...
The Government is asking the food industry to step up work to tackle obesity including reducing sugar, fat and salt in their products, better information for consumers, and tighter restrictions on advertising to children. Health Minister David Clark and Food Safety Minister Damien O’Connor have responded to a ...
ew, modern emergency department and outpatient facilities at Queenstown’s Lakes District Hospital mean better emergency care for the growing tourist mecca’s visitors and locals, says Health Minister David Clark. Today Dr Clark officially opened the hospital’s redeveloped Emergency Department and Outpatient facilities. The new facilities include: • An extended Emergency Department ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter says today’s release of sexual and reproductive health data reinforces the significance of the Government’s commitment to providing free or very low-cost contraception. The Ministry of Health today published statistics from the Ministry of Health’s 2014/15 Health Survey. “It is important people can make ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced that at the request of the Samoan Government, New Zealand will be providing further support to Samoa as it faces a worsening measles outbreak. “In response to a request from the people of Samoa, New Zealand is providing 3000 measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) ...
“The new Disability Action Plan 2019–2023 moves us towards the inclusive and accessible New Zealand that this government has committed to,” Minister for Disability Issues Carmel Sepuloni announced today. “The Action Plan was designed by disabled people, their family and supporters, the disability sector and government agencies. It will ensure ...
Third Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting 14 November 2019 Joint Statement 1. Defence Ministers Ron Mark and Dr Ng Eng Hen today conducted their third annual Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore. 2. Building on the Enhanced Partnership signed between both countries in May this year, this annual meeting ...
A Bill to improve the court system’s response to sexual violence has passed its first reading in Parliament today. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill will reduce the trauma sexual violence complainants experience in court, while maintaining defendants’ fundamental rights and making sure the trial process ...
Streamlined payment practices are a step closer for Kiwi businesses with the formal launch of New Zealand’s e-Invoicing framework. Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the government has now established the structure to enable automated and direct data exchange between the accounting systems of buyers and sellers. “The move to ...
Another 51 quarantine officers and four new biosecurity detector dog teams will help protect New Zealand from invasive pests and diseases this summer, says Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor. “The Government is delivering on its commitment to strengthen New Zealand’s biosecurity system and support our valuable primary sector “New Zealand’s flora, fauna ...
A new report has found New Zealand’s space sector contributed $1.69 billion to the economy in the last financial year and employs 12,000 people, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. The report by Deloitte was commissioned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and shows New Zealand ...
Judge Coral Shaw has been appointed as the new Chair of the Royal Commission into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today. "Judge Shaw, who is currently one of the inquiry commissioners, is extremely well qualified for the ...
The Government has confirmed its third major mental health facility upgrade since the Budget, this time at Palmerston North Hospital. The Prime Minister and Health Minister today visited MidCentral DHB to announce that $30 million has been allocated to upgrade its acute mental health facility. It follows earlier announcements in ...
The roll out of the National Bowel Screening Programme has reached the halfway mark, with 10 out of 20 District Health Boards now part of the programme. MidCentral DHB, which covers Palmerston North, Manawatu and surrounding districts, this week became the latest to DHB to offer free bowel screening to ...
The Government welcomes PHARMAC’s decision to fund a vaccine to protect young people from meningococcal disease from 1 December this year. “Meningococcal disease is a serious threat which people at higher risk should be protected from,” says Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter. “The combined pharmaceutical budget was increased by ...
Groups involved with innovative fisheries research projects are encouraged to apply for government support in the latest funding round from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash says the SFF Futures funding is designed to be flexible enough to support small or large projects across a ...
The Government has fixed an issue affecting how Immigration New Zealand has processed visa applications for culturally arranged marriages, which will now see a consistent process applied which ensures people with legitimate arranged marriages can visit New Zealand while also preventing any rorting of the system. Earlier this year Immigration ...
The Royal Commission into the Attacks on Christchurch Mosques will report back on 30 April 2020 to give it more time to hear submissions and consider information, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Royal Commission was originally scheduled to report back to Government by 10 December 2019. “There has ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Washington DC today to attend a ministerial meeting focused on defeating ISIS, and to continue pursuing New Zealand’s trade opportunities. Mr Peters will participate in a meeting of Foreign and Defence Ministers from key countries contributing to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. ...
The recently crowned Bird of the Year, the hoiho/yellow eyed penguin, is getting a much needed helping hand alongside more than 168 other community conservation projects announced Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage today. 168 community conservation projects throughout New Zealand are benefiting from $8 million in government grants, including $500,000 ...
Controls on assault rifles and semi-automatic firearms are to be broadened to include some types of pistols, under changes to a bill currently making its way through Parliament. Police Minister Stuart Nash has tabled a Supplementary Order Paper to the Arms Legislation Bill, which is currently before a Select Committee ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark will travel to Singapore today to conduct a counterpart visit and to co-chair the third annual Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting with his counterpart, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen. “Singapore is one of our most important defence partners in the region, and our ...
Nelson’s Salisbury School is to be rebuilt, creating a modern and suitable learning environment for students at the residential special school, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The school for girls aged 8-15, in Richmond, was earmarked for closure by National until the process ...
The panel undertaking a comprehensive review of the Resource Management Act has identified the main issues to be addressed and options for reform and is calling for feedback to inform its final report. In July the Government announced the comprehensive review of the resource management system, including the RMA - ...
An important safety valve has been added to New Zealand’s criminal justice system with the third reading of the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill today. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) will investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “We’ve seen how our justice system can very occasionally get things spectacularly wrong, ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters welcomes the tabling of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) 2019 Annual Report in Parliament today. He says the 2019 Annual Report marks the point when New Zealand’s racing industry’s decline was arrested and a turnaround started. RITA’s 2019 Annual Report recorded an industry net profit ...
The New Zealand Government is today sending 21 firefighters to help fight the ongoing catastrophic Australian bushfires. “The fires in Australia are in some of the toughest, most challenging conditions ever,” says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “As of yesterday morning, there were 100 active bushfire-related incidents across Queensland and ...
More frontline support for schools through a new education agency, as part of a redesigned Ministry of Education More support for principals and school boards including through a new centre of leadership and local leadership advisor roles New independent disputes panels for parents and students Management of school property ...
The Government’s reform of the Tomorrow’s Schools system is a watershed moment in education and an opportunity to create meaningful change for ākonga Māori and their whānau, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis said today. “Last year through Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation, Māori teachers, parents, ākonga, whānau, hapū and iwi ...
Infrastructure Minister is welcoming the first of many updated project pipelines from the newly established New Zealand Infrastructure Commission today. The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga, has released an expanded pipeline of major capital projects – another crucial step towards delivering better infrastructure outcomes. “The first iteration of the ...
Tougher gun laws designed to improve public safety through firearms prohibition orders are proposed in a new document released for public input. Police Minister Stuart Nash says firearms prohibition orders (FPOs) would give new powers to Police to ensure high-risk individuals come nowhere near firearms. “We have already prohibited the ...
Andy Coupe has been confirmed as TVNZ’s new Board Chair. “Mr Coupe has strong commercial and capital markets experience and TVNZ has benefited from his technical knowledge of business and finance, as well as his extensive governance experience,” the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Kris Faafoi said. Andy ...
Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter today officially opened a separated pathway, following the completion of the Kaiwharawhara Stream bridge, which will improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians along Hutt Road. The $6.8m Hutt Road project provides a separated path for cycling and pedestrians, the replacement of informal parking ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of career diplomat Si’alei van Toor as New Zealand’s next Ambassador to Russia. “I’m pleased to appoint Ms van Toor to this position. She brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously served as Senior Trade Adviser to the ...
Sources tell RNZ the Crown is considering loaning money to the council to buy the disputed land, with Fletcher seeking $40m - more than double what it paid in 2014. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Christchurch stadium funding in the spotlight, more trouble for NZ First, and medical students caught in rort.Construction hasn’t even come close to starting on the new Christchurch stadium and the money is looking shaky. Stuff’s Michael Hayward reports a business case is ...
New rental reforms aren’t about shafting landlords, they’re about requesting that those who built an industry around housing accept that with industry, comes regulation, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell. ...
Severe storm surges will get bigger around parts of the South Island and smaller around the North Island as the climate changes, two studies have now predicted. ...
Bernard Hickey visited E-Go’s electric car factory in Aachen, Germany to find how it used a 5G network to flip car-making on its head, and how it’s an example of what Industry 4.0 could look like in New Zealand. ...
Were Fonterra’s Open Gates events a shallow PR stunt, or was there something deeper going on? Alex Braae went to Mangatawhiri to find out.This feature is made possible thanks to the Spinoff Members Fund. We need your help to make journalism that matters. For more information, click here.Walking into the Fonterra ...
It was meant to ‘draw a line under the whole episode’. So how did it turn into an unmitigated PR disaster, asks former Edelman executive David Brain.The thing about the Royal Family is that everything they do is PR really. I mean in the old sense of image and spin. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Clarke, Associate Professor, National Security College, Australian National University This past weekend, The New York Times’ China correspondents, Chris Buckley and Austin Ramzy, published an expose of over 400 internal Chinese government documents relating to Beijing’s mass detentions of Uighurs, Kazakhs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Clarke, Associate Professor, National Security College, Australian National University This past weekend, The New York Times’ China correspondents, Chris Buckley and Austin Ramzy, published an expose of over 400 internal Chinese government documents relating to Beijing’s mass detentions of Uighurs, Kazakhs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janet Stanley, Associate professor/Principal Research Fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne It’s hard to comprehend why someone would deliberately light a bushfire. Yet this behaviour regularly occurs in Australia and other countries. We would go a long way to preventing ...
There are 540,000 dwellings in Auckland and 580,000 households. The result is misery no matter how you try to square things through tenancy regulation. ...
The PM says she's set a very clear expectation that the clearing of firing ranges in Afghanistan will be sped up, but says it's not possible to conclude NZ is responsible for civilian deaths. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Former prime minister Paul Keating has launched a scathing attack on the Australian media for its coverage of China, denouncing “the nominally pious belchings of ‘do-gooder’ journalists” who live on leaks from security agencies. Keating ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Senior Lecturer and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University A parasite is an organism that lives in or on an organism of another species. Three main classes of parasites can cause disease in humans: protozoa, helminths, and ectoparasites. Protozoa and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Lilburn, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Melbourne You’re driving down an unfamiliar street on a clear spring evening. You’ve been invited to a friend of a friend’s party, at a house you’ve never been to before. Tracking the street numbers, you ...
Crimestoppers New Zealand launched its updated website www.crimestoppers-nz.org today. As well as catering for traditional anonymous reports the site now supports mobile users and allows files and images to be attached. The changes support people of all ...
Prince Andrew has spoken for the first time in public about his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. What did he say to create such a media storm, and how did he get into this mess in the first place? First thing’s first: who is Prince Andrew? Prince Andrew, Duke ...
Sam Brooks interviews the three guest curators of the New Zealand Festival of Arts: Bret McKenzie, Laurie Anderson and Lemi Ponifasio.An Oscar-winning Conchord, the world’s most beloved multimedia artist, and a world-renowned director and choreographer with an attitude. Three weeks, three unique visions of what a festival can and should ...
Plans are being put in place to increase methyl bromide monitoring following a theoretical modelling report about how the log fumigant disperses into the environment after use. ...
It’s the most beautiful time of the year! Comedian Sera Devcich joins Emily Writes to share the joy and investigate the top 10 toys your ungrateful kids will want this Christmas.It’s November which means it’s officially time for your kids to start bugging you day in and day out about ...
Proposed changes to tenancy rights are trickle down, not transformational, change says the Manawatu Tenants’ Union (MTU). There are however improvements for renters, and these efforts must be commended according to the MTU. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Stokes, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Deakin University “To be dead,” wrote the 20th century French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, “is to be a prey for the living.” Even Sartre, though, would have struggled to imagine casting James Dean in a movie 64 ...
The Good Citizen podcast focuses on the way good design – and good people – can change cities for the better. In this episode, Jeremy Hansen talks to architect Richard Goldie about his bold idea for a partially submerged stadium on Auckland’s waterfront, a project that’s now a finalist in ...
Former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC has published two books with Andrew Butler calling for a written, codified constitution that sets out ‘in an accessible form and a single document the fundamental rules and principles under which New Zealand is to be governed’. A road trip and consultation attracted ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Housing Luke Malpass and Henry Cooke (Stuff): Government hikes claims thresholds for bad landlords, increases ...
People with intellectual disabilities and their families are struggling to access support more than ever before, as the disability sector faces a now $574 million annual funding shortfall, says IHC. ...
The Labour-led coalition may have to generate a second wave of Jacindamania if it is to win another term in the Beehive. Re-election is not an impossible dream, despite the failure of Labour to deliver what many of those who voted for it in 2017 expected. Retiring Green MP Gareth Hughes ...
A corporate undertaker talks top tips for making sure you get paid, reining in rogue liquidators, and having a heart for those who’ve lost money.PwC’s John Fisk has handled high profile company failures from Pike River to Lombard Finance and the Ross Asset Management Ponzi scheme. He also chairs the ...
Armed police represent a serious cause for concern, especially for the most vulnerable, writes the chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation.The Mental Health Foundation has publicly condemned the police trial of special armed response teams patrolling three districts around New Zealand. We’re extremely worried these trials will result in ...
International crime rings are increasingly targeting New Zealanders’ bank accounts to launder proceeds from scams and fraud. Bronwyn Groot, Fraud Education Manager at the Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC) is highlighting the rising incidence ...
A just-released report shows that the food industry wants to stay in a business-as-usual mode with a few minor tweaks around the edges. In response, the New Zealand Government appeared comfortable with that approach, and provided no Government plans for comprehensive ...
New Zealand consumers will be left in the dark about foods grown in Australia that have been created using gene editing techniques. On the 13 November the Australian Senator Rice put up a motion to disallow, or overturn, the recently passed Gene Technology ...
As Aotearoa plans for festive season celebrations, The Salvation Army is preparing to make its house a home to hundreds of men, women and children who have nowhere else to stay. ...
Landlords say they feel under siege with the government planning to make it tougher for them to boot out troublesome tenants; and skilled immigrants waiting for a residents visa say its unfair officials are fast tracking applications for those on salaries over $105,000. ...
Standing with the farmers, New Conservative is committed to pushing back against the lunacy of the ETS and Carbon Zero commitments by this government. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tomas Trescak, Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Systems, Western Sydney University Just a few years ago, virtual reality (VR) was being showered with very real money. The industry raised an estimated US$900 million in venture capital in 2016, but by 2018 that figure ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rowena Maguire, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Institute for Future Environments, Queensland University of Technology Over the past two weeks, bushfires have raged across New South Wales and Queensland. While the narrative appears focused on potential causes and political point-scoring, what’s lost ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Davis, Chair of Women’s Health, Monash University At menopause, a woman’s ovaries lose their reproductive function. Eggs are no longer released and the production of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone falls. It’s the lowered levels of oestrogen after menopause that gives ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Bolleter, Deputy Director, Australian Urban Design Research Centre, University of Western Australia Around the world, the vast majority of people are flocking to cities not to dwell in their centres but to live in the new suburbs expanding their outer limits. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Natalya Saldanha, Academic, RMIT University Like any eight-year-old, Ryan Kaji loves to play with toys. But when Ryan plays, millions watch. Since the age of four he’s been the star of his own YouTube channel. All up his videos have gained ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kieran Wong, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Indigenous voices are finally being acknowledged as important voices in Australian galleries and museums. Since 2014, I have worked as an advisor to Western Australia’s New Museum, a A$450 million project and one of ...
Retiring Green MP Gareth Hughes says the pace of change in the current Government is not fast enough for his liking but that is not the reason he is quitting politics. ...
The Superdiversity Institute for Law, Policy and Business is releasing its latest report today on Culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse parties in the Courts: A Chinese case study . The Report’s author, Mai Chen, Chair of the Superdiversity ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Doubts emerge about Auckland port move, NZDF leaves death-causing material behind in Afghanistan, and laws around renting to be shaken up.Over the last week, the ramifications of moving most of the operations of Auckland’s port north to Whangarei have been ...
An ambitious new partnership between Sky Sports and more than 50 sports promises more free sport for Kiwis. Suzanne McFadden looks at how it will change the way we see female athletes ...
Catriona MacLennan helped conduct a survey of the top NZ companies to establish the ethnicity of their directors. The results were not surprising, but also far from encouraging. ...
Episode 1 in a series on the trials of injured animals as they’re rescued, rehabilitated and released back into the wild follows the rescue of a yellow-eyed penguin. ...
New Zealand Defence Force's failed to clean up properly after itself in Afghanistan - with the result that seven children have been killed and another 10 civilians injured. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Chinese embassy has lashed out at two Liberal members of parliament, Andrew Hastie and James Paterson, saying they would need to “repent and redress their mistakes” before they would be welcome in China. The ...
Tim Costley National’s new candidate in Otaki Local party members have selected Tim Costley as National’s candidate in Ōtaki for the 2020 General Election. Mr Costley is replacing retiring MP Nathan Guy, who is standing down after five terms. ...
“Compelling research out of the UK reaffirms vaping’s life-saving role. Here’s hoping our Government’s pending legislation reflects vaping’s increasingly documented health benefits for smokers,” say Ben Pryor, co-owner of the largest Kiwi-owned ...
Open Mike 17/10/2017 
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Initially it was reported that in an aerial bombardment that took place on August 30th seven children were massacred; the figure then went up to eight and then on November 11th Noticias Uno reported that, according to people from the community in close proximity to the ...1 hour ago
Next year is an election year, and Labour needs money to fund its campaign. So naturally, they're selling access:Labour is charging wealthy business figures $1500-a-head to lunch with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at its annual conference later this month. [...] On the weekend beginning November 29th, around 800 delegates will ...20 hours ago
Words and images by Jacqui Gibson Gone are Auckland Museum’s days of doing science using a museum-centric academic approach, after Māori land rights holders Ngāti Kuri gave the museum an ultimatum.
MediaWorks announced in October 2019 that it intended to sell off its struggling television business and cancel or cut back on several popular local programmes, including New Zealand Today, Married at First Sight New Zealand and 7 Days. Its radio and outdoor advertising arms are currently performing well, but MediaWorks’ ...1 day ago
Some readers may remember that I mentioned last year that I was applying for NZ citizenship. I filled out the paperwork and had my original citizenship interview in February. Everything went well until they discovered that, because I had spent five months in the US in 2017, I had not ...2 days ago
There is an article in The Conversation, written by Jeremy P. Shapiro (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University), about what he sees as the psychologically-based underpinnings of three main matters that seem to vex people all around the planet. The article is titled “The Thinking ...3 days ago
. . Blogger Martyn Bradbury has won his case against unreasonable search and surveillance against the NZ Police; and subsequent Police attempts to produce evidence in secrecy, in a closed Court. His case highlights a disturbing growing trend in Aotearoa New Zealand for State power to be used against ...3 days ago
Different Strokes: If a multicultural immigration policy imposes no obligation on immigrant communities to acknowledge and ultimately embrace their host nation’s most cherished traditions and values, then how is that nation to prevent itself from being reduced to a collection of inward-looking and self-replicating ethnic and cultural enclaves?THE COALITION GOVERNMENT’S ...4 days ago
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...6 days ago
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ... 1 week ago
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…
Installation complete: this was nothing ... 2 weeks ago
The chairman of the Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy (UNISCS) working group, Wayne Brown, has hit back at critics of his group’s recommendations to relocate the Ports of Auckland cargo operations to Whangarei’s deepwater port of Northport. The working group's recommendation to close Auckland waterfront to all but cruise ...16 hours ago
We're setting our young people up for success, investing in education around the country. ...23 hours ago
Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins today introduced into Parliament a Bill that will make it easier for the public service to tackle the biggest challenges facing Governments. The Bill represents the most significant change in the public service in 30 years. The State Sector Act 1988 will be repealed ...15 hours ago
Sources tell RNZ the Crown is considering loaning money to the council to buy the disputed land, with Fletcher seeking $40m - more than double what it paid in 2014. ...57 mins ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Christchurch stadium funding in the spotlight, more trouble for NZ First, and medical students caught in rort.Construction hasn’t even come close to starting on the new Christchurch stadium and the money is looking shaky. Stuff’s Michael Hayward reports a business case is ...59 mins ago
"To me, boxing is art. It is beautiful. It is brutal. It is violent. It is challenging. It is pure." ...2 hours ago
New rental reforms aren’t about shafting landlords, they’re about requesting that those who built an industry around housing accept that with industry, comes regulation, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell. ...2 hours ago
Severe storm surges will get bigger around parts of the South Island and smaller around the North Island as the climate changes, two studies have now predicted. ...2 hours ago
Bernard Hickey visited E-Go’s electric car factory in Aachen, Germany to find how it used a 5G network to flip car-making on its head, and how it’s an example of what Industry 4.0 could look like in New Zealand. ...2 hours ago
John McCrystal reviews a book of maps by someone called John McCrystal. ...2 hours ago
Pat Baskett asks: Are we so worried about methane and agriculture we don’t even think about carbon from vehicles? ...2 hours ago
Two investigators with a meal allowance are hoped to address nationwide inconsistencies with council RMA monitoring and enforcement. ...2 hours ago
Ashley Stanley will join LockerRoom early next year as a full-time writer on women in sport, thanks to a partnership with Sky Sport. ...2 hours ago
Out of control fires, distressed animals, sleepless nights as your suburb turns into a war zone - has our annual fireworks fun gone too far? ...3 hours ago
"Mum and Dad" landlords are likely to turn to property managers, or even exit the market ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Clarke, Associate Professor, National Security College, Australian National University This past weekend, The New York Times’ China correspondents, Chris Buckley and Austin Ramzy, published an expose of over 400 internal Chinese government documents relating to Beijing’s mass detentions of Uighurs, Kazakhs ...13 hours ago
A parliamentary hearing on gun reforms was cut short when a submitter alleged he sold ammunition to the accused Christchurch gunman. ...13 hours ago
The Govt wants to crack down on exports that could be used to commit human rights abuses - but NZ universities say the proposal is "unworkable". ...13 hours ago
There are 540,000 dwellings in Auckland and 580,000 households. The result is misery no matter how you try to square things through tenancy regulation. ...14 hours ago
Internet Service Providers relied on ad hoc tools, including Google Docs, to coordinate blocking access to the Christchurch shooting video. ...15 hours ago
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) is seeking feedback on its proposed energy levy-funded activities for the 2020/21 year. ...15 hours ago
Hamilton Press Club life president Steve Braunias on the next guest speaker - embattled TV3 employee Patrick Gower. ...17 hours ago
Pay TV operator Sky Television expects its revenue and earnings to fall after investing in new content, new services and sponsorship deals. ...18 hours ago
Air New Zealand has cancelled some of its international flights due to ongoing issues with its Rolls-Royce engines. ...19 hours ago
Air New Zealand has cancelled some of its international flights due to ongoing issues with its Rolls-Royce engines. ...20 hours ago
The Labour-led coalition may have to generate a second wave of Jacindamania if it is to win another term in the Beehive. Re-election is not an impossible dream, despite the failure of Labour to deliver what many of those who voted for it in 2017 expected. Retiring Green MP Gareth Hughes ...21 hours ago
Landlords say they feel under siege with the government planning to make it tougher for them to boot out troublesome tenants; and skilled immigrants waiting for a residents visa say its unfair officials are fast tracking applications for those on salaries over $105,000. ...23 hours ago
Retiring Green MP Gareth Hughes says the pace of change in the current Government is not fast enough for his liking but that is not the reason he is quitting politics. ...24 hours ago
Labour is charging wealthy business figures $1500-a-pop to lunch with Jacinda Ardern; and NZ First-linked forestry company pushed for govt funds. ...24 hours ago
An ambitious new partnership between Sky Sports and more than 50 sports promises more free sport for Kiwis. Suzanne McFadden looks at how it will change the way we see female athletes ...1 day ago
Catriona MacLennan helped conduct a survey of the top NZ companies to establish the ethnicity of their directors. The results were not surprising, but also far from encouraging. ...1 day ago
Episode 1 in a series on the trials of injured animals as they’re rescued, rehabilitated and released back into the wild follows the rescue of a yellow-eyed penguin. ...1 day ago
Steve Braunias reviews the as-told-to book of All Blacks skipper Kieran Read, and fully expects it to suck. ...1 day ago
The disastrous impact of banks selling risky financial derivatives to farmers is still being felt in rural communities more than a decade later. ...1 day ago
New Zealand Defence Force's failed to clean up properly after itself in Afghanistan - with the result that seven children have been killed and another 10 civilians injured. ...1 day ago
Gee that born-to-rule triumphalism we saw from National and their mates on election night seems a long, long time ago now…
Great eh! ScottGN
“silence is golden.”
With a dearth of political news over the past 3 weeks, what an opportunity for our wonderful media to look at some of the issues facing our country in depth; some real investigative journalism looking at water quality, poverty, mental health, housing, the gas pipe leak…….. there’s quite a list of subjects calling out for enquiry from the 4th estate.
But no…..
Reality TV is more important
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11933580
And foreign celebrities
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2017/10/ed-sheeran-breaks-arm-after-being-hit-by-car.html
We need a better media.
Or better consumers. After all they write what people read.
No they write what they’re told to, readership isn’t a factor.
Surely you’ve got more nuanced memes than that lazy ill fitting one James ?
James = national trolll
Nah. Simple soul.
No they don’t:
The consumers are fine – it’s the people in there ivory towers (CEOs, PMs, and other hierarchical types) complaining about the consumers not liking what they’ve been told to like.
Also there’s autobots writing and publishing pieces now. Bezos has used his ownership of washington post to roll out the tech behind it.
Feed it some numbers, it’s normally hooked into a data stream, throw in some key phrases to use in a meta structure and shazam ! Auto ‘journalism’ as you get full control over theme and structure without pesky salaries.
The kind of dross our media has churned out since election day could’ve come from a creative writing class it’s so lacking in facts and keeps circling the same themes.
I’m pretty sure those are Decepticons, not Autobots…
Friend of mine did a PhD on this. Journalism quality is crucial to readership – she was able to lift circulation in two different papers by over 70% by pursuing quality indicators like freshness, newsworthiness, depth and so forth.
Your logic is what nearly killed TV3.
And the lie that did kill TV7.
IIRC, TV7 was doing well and then National killed it.
Nope, newspapers make most of their money from advertisers, so they write what the advertisers want. They’re their market.
Hi rhinocrates – this is completely off topic but… I know your handle is to be read, “rye – nok – rat- ees”, and is a play on “Hippocrates” but I can’t help but mouthing, “rhino – crates” every time I see it; you know, a rhino in a crate, being moved from one African location to another. Fyi 🙂
it’s the brilliance of the name 🙂
My Oath! 😈
Actually I got to touch a Rhino earlier this year. Mind you there were 6″ steel bars between me and him! Impressive animals.
We’re annihilating them though, right? Hippos are next.
This one was quite safe in the Auckland zoo. I got to feed a giraffe and see her baby born on xmas day at the same time.
Yes we are in the midst of the 6th great extinction…
Zoos are now seen more as sanctuaries rather than exhibition places – at least that is how the keepers view their task.
I think we’re annihilating everything. Apparently we will escape into space when we need to.
“Technology will fix it.”
That’s bm’s response to climate change…..
Yup – that’s who I was thinking of.
But I find myself liking this movie more and more – at some level it’s kindof faithful to Mœbius’s vision of the future.
Hollywood should have a crack at one of Druillet’s maybe…
James, “they” would then be story tellers but by no means reporters. Mind you, looking at the caliber on offer, lets leave it at story tellers.
What we need is real journalism but that’s a rare thing in NZ these days…..
We try to keep them on their toes though.
Buyers in Auckland with agreements as to their ability to buy to a certain price are being turned down when they apply often because the bank considers the price too high, or that the income is too low to service it. Unless you get a fully analysed agreement taking into account your debts and reliable wage, and some of the middle class precariat are contractors, part time workers with variable salaries, then it might be thumbs down. Don’t count your chickens until they are hatched, or you may end up living in the henhouse and be glad of it! Our
brighter future may come, but not before we have a storm.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/341696/bank-caution-leaves-home-buyers-high-and-dry
Somebody that’s got a $120,000 deposit gets pre-approved for a $500,000 mortage; they go out and find a property to buy around the $600,000 mark; they go back to their lender, who’s pre-approved them, and then they get turned down.
“They get told, ‘well, actually we don’t value it to where you do. We think that we’ll loan you $480,000’.”
Cleangreen’s 15/10 piece on downward trend of the world economy fits with this.
link /open-mike-15102017/#comment-1400592
‘It can no longer continue’: mental health service cuts beds over staff woes.’
‘The only acute mental health unit on Auckland’s North Shore has been forced to close five beds because it can’t find staff.
For months, staff at He Puna Waiora have worked double shifts of 16 hours or longer, often dealing with violent and aggressive patients.
A Public Service Association spokesperson said the shortage of nurses had forced the ward to reduce its bed numbers for seven weeks.
The shortage of nurses had forced the ward to reduce its beds for seven weeks, the PSA said. It’s understood four nurses left their jobs last week.
Ms Polaczuk said the staff shortages had placed pressure on staff to work double shifts.
“A week recently … there were 35 double shifts worked. There would almost be no days where there is not somebody on shift who has a double.
“It’s been going on for some months and obviously it’s at the point now where it can no longer continue,” she said.
The union said the pressure on staff had increased the risk of violent and aggressive behaviour by patients.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/341695/mental-health-service-cuts-beds-over-staff-woes
This is the sort of issue that James and other right wing ‘contributors’ to this site do not care about.
Instead they care abut the betting odds for a National government.
How can someone not care about this?
Ed , as BM and James will tell you,it’s all about personal choices (sarc).
It is.
If they don’t offer enough money for a job – people won’t work there. (Unless there is nothing better around).
So people are choosing to work elsewhere.
Nice attitude iceman – you don’t care about others unless you’re moaning that they haven’t got your latte right. Sad. Fake carer about people especially mental health workers and patients is outed – nice slow clap for James.
So, perhaps health funding should have been raised so that wages for nurses could go up so that people would be encouraged to become nurses rather than cutting them, as National did, so as to give tax cuts to the rich?
So what you are saying is the government has failed to provide sufficient resources to have the service function properly.
Thank you for admitting that National has failed.
James it’s all about brainwashing by the Corporatge controlled media or are you just so blind you can’t see or are you representing Corporate media?
Because in the majority’s just-world, the betting odds for a National government are a damn sight more important than the needs of those enduring an acute mental health crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis#Illness
This is not a new thing.
British colonial administrator Charles Trevelyan, on the victims of The Great Hunger.
100000% Ed, fully agree.
National and their media dont want to raise throrny issues that would show them up as being inept and ineffectual.
“Money talks while truth walks” – is best given as the motto that belongs to the National Party.
They could just pay the staff more. Then they would get staff. Easy really.
Then. They would have to raise taxes!
There’s plenty of money in the public sector both now and in the forecasts.
This is all on Coleman’s head.
It’s not the money, it’s all about the work stress, lack of opportunity to work with your patients, the inability to take leave or days off, all leading to burnout and loss of skilled educated people to the health professions. On a double shift I could bring home a thousand dollars a day but its not worth it. Excess overtime is a killer.
+111
My son-in-law is on a double shift today – 14 hours straight. How anyone can be expected to make good decisions at end of that, I fail to see.
Been there in the past year. 14 hr plus days, 21 days on end without a break. Then 7 days off and repeat 6 times over a period of 7 months. In an environment with no sunlight for most of the period.
Short answer is it breaks people. It damages memory, concentration, metabolism and breaks down their immune system. The ability to cope with distractions and aggravations diminishes, they make mistakes for which they get blamed which only adds another layer of stress.
Looking back I’m kind of amazed at how the whole team survived it without anyone falling completely apart on the project, but fortunately it has come to a definitive end.
I’m still recovering mentally. As Pysch Nurse puts it … just not really worth it. And the liability totally sits with the employers who manipulate people into doing this kind of shit.
A few high profile prosecutions are really needed.
Yep – by offering days off in lieu and same money for apparently less work employers avoid penal rates and a host of other worker conditions.
To many bureaucrats sitting in front of a PC all day over analyzing whatever with those trusty spreadsheets and ending up completely depraved of humanity.
They could just pay the staff more.
I wonder who the “they” in that statement is intended to represent? Because you’re a partisan supporter of the “they” who could pay them more, but won’t, and who pretend “won’t” is a virtue. You might as well write “Then let them eat cake.”
By the way Ed – did you place a bet ?
You could do a lot of good with those profits – or don’t you care ?
I can’t think of anything stupider then to place such a bet.
And, if you are right-wing, surely it’s irrational to waste money on such an unproductive endeavour.
mpledger ++++++
James – Psych Nurse said,
“It’s not the money…”
Geddit???
Many thanks to the staff at Rotorua Hospital for the care they gave my family.
I take my hat off to you ladys whom raise our children as I would rather work the hardest job I have worked for free than care for sick children its a hard task.
Many thanks to the rest home in Napier whom are caring for my mother.
In my view our high suicide rate is directly linked to broken family’s .
As one needs love and guidance from mothers fathers and grandparents in our world as this love helps one lift there wairua and one can learn a lot from our experienced elderly people. So we need to make changes to our society that encourage the the family to stay together. ie reward 2 parent family’s as this financial reward will help prevent many problems we have with our youth and we will gain substantially from this minor adjustment to Winz . We will avoid having to many people end up in the ambulance at the bottom of the hill E,C,T. Many thanks to all the people who support me
Did Trump say he’s going to make other countries pay more for medicines so the U.S pays less? (CNN post cabinet meeting) I think he did. That’s not something to ignore – especially in terms of avoiding the non-existent Trans-Pacific partnership.
tRump blames drug companies for the cost of prescription drugs….. but it’s the rest of the world’s fault.
.
As far as — and I didn’t speak to Mitch about this today, but a priority of mine, and you know that this is coming up, will be the cost of prescription drugs. We’re going to get the costs way down, way down — and those drug companies. So you have the insurance companies on the one case (ph). In the other case, actually with regard to both you have the drug companies.
They contribute massive amounts of money to political people. I don’t know, Mitch, maybe even to you. But I have to tell you, they contribute massive amounts of money.
Me? I’m not interested in their money. I don’t need their money.
I will tell you, you have prescription drugs — you go to England, you go to various places, Canada, you go to many, many countries, and the same exact pill from the same company, the same box, same everything is a tiny fraction of what it costs in the United States. We are going to get drug prices — prescription drug prices way down, because the world is taking advantage of us. The world is taking advantage of us when that happens, so that’s going to be very important.
http://time.com/4984507/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-rose-garden-press-conference/
Ahh – thanks joe90.
Yes, that was it… he was free-wheeling a lot in that briefing. So he’s going to threaten the UK first. May will be heart-broken.
Easier to bully other countries than to look at why the US can’t negotiate better pharma pricing in the US, I guess.
They murdered the Panama papers writer today so we have a bad world full of crooks now, so time for a revolution is moving closer with this murder of free press.
Fortieth this year.
https://cpj.org/killed/2017/
So what do we now make of John Key’s reluctance to cast light on secret foreign trusts in NZ, the existence of which was disclosed in the Panama Papers?
Does this make him a grubby enabler of the sorts of criminals who would conspire to murder a journalist?
Not directly responsible in any way of course, just a low-level enabler of a rotten system.
Link?
On Nine-to-Noon:
https://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/DSC_8970bw3.jpg
John Keys legacy is like an abscess …. poisons the blood.
“Income inequality is one of the defining issues of our time,” the statement begins, asking why its “sudden acceleration” has many people “helpless to stop its steady growth.”
“The Panama Papers provide a compelling answer to these questions: massive, pervasive corruption,”…. : John Doe
http://www.sarawakreport.org/2017/07/australia-and-new-zealand-slide-from-their-responsibilities-over-mass-corruption-and-malaysia/
“Confronted with the blatant nature of the grubby pillaging of 1MDB, however, and the huge sums flushed through property, businesses and the art market, countries like the United States, Switzerland and Singapore have taken action and are punishing financial facilitators in their regions.
Yet, down south, Australia and New Zealand are still doing their best to pretend none of this was to do with them.” …..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And Lignite Bill has no problems with facilitating theft from Mexican or Maltese children …
Hon BILL ENGLISH: …… “In this case, the concerns about tax avoidance are concerns held by the Mexican Government and the Maltese Government, not by the New Zealand Government. There is no suggestion that these trusts are used to erode New Zealand’s tax base” …
Helping steal from poor kids …..English and Key have the class of dog shit.
Shocking – unbelievable really that they could murder this hero. RIP and I hope her family are well supported.
https://www.icij.org/blog/2017/10/investigative-malta-journalist-killed-bomb-blast/?utm_content=buffera3787&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Well now Peter Dunny’s getting in on the act I see.
Pretty rich coming from that guy about anything to do with NZ First is doomed to failure… he left because he knew Peters had his number ,… and has been a one man band like ACTS leaders have for years as well…
Sour Grapes all around , … that’s what this is.
Peter Dunne was a dispicable character;
While he was a well groomed man he was in fact just another Corporate puppet .
Nothing else was there to see in him as just another National “hollow man” that Nicky Hagar will write about in his next book.
Dunne summed himself up best with the ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ line.
Confirmed what everybody already knew about Dunnster, a whore with a pricetag who is not too bothered about morality.
Perfect national coalition partner really.
This is my interpretation of the 2 choices that New Zealand First has to make for our future and how I view that future under the 2 different choices .
Nzf Lab Grn We have many sports stars of Maori descent and every Maori in our world is proud to be Maori. Because we change our system to divert most of our young from the clutches of the judicial system . In my view we are locking up our sports stars whom could be making millions around our world. We are all talking about movies made about our past and how proud everyone in NZ is about our Maori culture these movies are all based on fact and show how advanced Maori were in the 1800 and we have movies about Apirana Ngata as it is the media and movies that makeup our reality .That movie that say that we could control our weather is a farce as we will only be able to predict our weather more accurately in the future not control it on a large scale.
Year 10 we have 25 % electric cars on our roads our 50 % less trucks we have plans for high speed rail that links our major city’s. Our oil use has been cut by a third we have had many surpluses on our trade with the rest of the world as everyone around the world no that our clean and green image in true and we are looking after everything in our country and everyone around our world is making the changes to there systems to copy our successful systems.
Our hospital waiting list is 7 days long as we have made change that have cut management cost and stream lined the systems back to a models like our hosptial boards we have saved millions everyone is treated before they develop more complicated health issues .We have next to no homeless people as we have come up with idea’s to give them employment and housing all our bad stats have droped down the OECD charts
All our sports stadiums are full as everyone has some spare money in a more equal society our racing industry’s and all our other regional industry’s are thriving and because of this we don’t have to much exposure to Dairy as all our exports are trading well and not just Dairy .Our electricity is 100 % renewable we have banned plastic in everything but the essentials products 1/3 of our houses have solar power
as the electricity company’s pay a fair price for net metering of power. Everyone is talking about the right choices that our governments. All the wealthy people from around our world flock to our shores but they can only lease our land and this stops us from being tenants in our own country there are many positive scenarios in this partnership and in every partnership everyone has to give and take to get along.
In 40 years we will be view Winston Peters in the same light as Apirana Ngata.
Nzf nat they have poured more money into our health system and because its not cutting our waiting list there are plans to privatize parts of our health systems look at the USA do we want to go there. Our exports are still dominated by dairy the old saying to many eggs in one basket is not logically Ideal we have huge and expensive highways that are not coping with the traffic all our bad stats on the OECD charts are getting worse but no one is talking about it because national have total control of our media/reality our major city’s are bursting at the seams and not even the middle class people can afford to buy a house as all the rich and famous have flocked to our shores and pushed up the price of everything We can look around our world now and see this effect now we have spent millions trying to clean up our enviroment but national are just keeping the image that everything is fine a new oil well has bursted and ruined our hoki fisheries our jails are costing more and half of them are privatized and no one is talking about the bad atrocities in private prisons.
Even some middle class could be classed as home less in our big city’s they have banned homeless people from all the tourist destinations there has been a lot of bad press about NZF as natianal set them up ie sex scandal money scandal and because natianal don’t want a great Maori leader to shine they minuplate the media to portray Winston as a maverick that just used his power to line his own pockets.
Look at the Maori party they had good intentions with there smoke price hike but national new that this move would upset and cost the Maori party there support as Maori have the highest percentage of smokes It would have been better to ban smoking but this would not go down with the tobacco companys .
Another underarm to the Maori party was the whano ora policy .The Maori party had good intentions with this policy but all national did was take from other health budgets and transfer the money to whano ora and everyone was moaning about the the other needed health services that were missing out on funding and this was going to Maori a lot of my elderly clients were talking about this fact.
national will show you a to good to be true deal up front but as soon as they get the chance they will throw you under the bus as they don’t like to share anything and especially power and if we get more immigrants the will vote national and with tec advancing so fast that could swing voters 5 % more to national. The left will never have a another chance to get into power this is happening all around our world Kia Kaha
Shit’s getting serious.
.
A Spanish judge has ordered two leaders of Catalonia’s pro-independence movement jailed while they are being investigated on possible charges of sedition.
The judge jailed Jordi Sanchez of the Catalan National Assembly and Jordi Cuixart of the Omnium Cultural group after questioning them and two senior law enforcement officials on Monday.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/catalonia-independence-leaders-jailed-spain-judge-sedition-jordi-sanchez-jordi-cuixart-latest-news-a8004001.html
Thoughtful analogy Eco maori,
I like the rail bit, but you will need to break up the high powered Trucking lobby as they have taken over the National Government and intend to kill rail dead as rail poses a threatn to their road freight transport policy going forward.
Top ex national ministers are hired to run the trucking lobby groups and use ‘greenwashing’ to convince politicians that truck freight is so very environemntally responsible, but it is full of lies and deception.
Note rail do not use tyres;
The trucks run up to 32 tyres each truck, that cause the worst tyre pollution in our times, now as tyre dust is entering our streams,rivers, lakes, aqifers and into our drinking water as we speak, and tyre pollution causes cancer and nervous system damage and reproductive damage.
look up 1,3, butadiene which is one of the main components in tyres today.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/idlh/106990.html
1,3-Butadiene
Recommend on FacebookTweetShare May 1994
Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health Concentrations (IDLH)
CAS number: 106-99-0
NIOSH REL: Exposure level; None established; NIOSH considers 1,3-butadiene to be a potential occupational carcinogen as defined by the OSHA carcinogen policy [29 CFR 1990].
Thanks for your excellent post.
You’re worried about the 1,3-Butadiene, huh? Here’s how your data sheet describes it: “Description of Substance: Colorless gas with a mild aromatic or gasoline-like odor.”
A gas isn’t much use for making a tyre. So the butadiene is a precursor component that gets polymerised into the final solid rubber. The properties and hazard profile of a polymer are very different to the properties of the monomers that go into it.
edit: If you really feel like having a freakout about hazardous chemicals, look up the hazards of styrene, than ponder how much food spends time in contact with polystyrene.
Wrong Andre,
The 1,3, butadiene is also an “inert” component traced in the final composition as you can verify it when you go to NZTA site for tyre materials review of the final composition of the tyre material, or any other data study of components found therin.
Many studies have been done of tyre repairers and workshops where tyre dust is prevelent so your point is very simplistic and flawed.
Tyre dust is very hazardous read this;
https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2013/wp29grpe/GRPE-65-20e.pdf
“Due to their volatility, carcinogens such as N-nitrosamines, which cause cancer,
are able to segregate from tyre rubber into the atmosphere as dust and fine aerosol during tyre use.
The research of chemical content of tyre dust and fine aerosol from different tyres (manufactured by domestic and foreign manufacturers), performed in the Russian Federation in 1999-2000 [2], allowed to determine that each kilogram of tyre dust and fine aerosol may contain different value of volatile N-nitrosamines, which may reach up to 70μg.
Thus, during vehicle operation with wear of tyres considerable values of not only tyre dust, but also the carcinogenic substances causing various oncology diseases are allocated in environment.”
For example, how do you consider the “butadiene/styrene” as being cited as the primary components in tyre material when the tyre is placed in a laboratory analysis under GCMS as Spectrometry mass testing prodedure?
Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is an analytical method that combines the features of gas-chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify different substances within a test sample.
Applications of GC-MS include drug detection, fire investigation, environmental analysis, explosives investigation, and identification of unknown samples, including that of material samples obtained from planet Mars during probe missions as early as the 1970s. GC-MS can also be used in airport security to detect substances in luggage or on human beings. Additionally, it can identify trace elements in materials that were previously thought to have disintegrated beyond identification. Like liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, it allows analysis and detection even of tiny amounts of a substance.
Please be careful not to send the message falsely that tyre dust is not harmful as you appear to suggest as it is widely known now in Europe as a major human hazard and cancer causing air and water pollutant.
WHO even recognises this fact.
If you want to talk about the hazards of tyre dust, then by all means give us information about tyre dust. Hazard information about a constituent precursor is relevant to workers compounding the rubber, but not relevant to the hazard from the wear debris of the final product.
Similarly the volatiles given off by tyres, especially new ones, are relevant to workers in the tyre industry who are exposed to them in high concentrations during their workday through working in enclosed spaces where they are stored. They are much less relevant to the general public who spend 15 minutes in a tyre shop every four years or so, and the rest of the time their vehicle is outdoors where the volatiles quickly disperse.
Andre,
I am astouded that you fail to see the affects of tyre particulates as being importent here as I told you for the last time the inert coumpouds including styrene and 1,3, butadiene are traced inside the final polymer compounds of the tyre not the monomer (precursor) and and I did not say a ‘new tyre’ which you seem to be centering your comments on as irrelevent to my comments..
I have begun my post discssing the truck tyre has become a largest polutant in “road runoff” from our roads now going into our waterways and you failed sadly had no concerns about this as to see the connection.
So I cannot get through to you about this new (so far “out of sight”) “public health” issue of tyre dust pollution which is now being ignored by some agencies and some industries (perhaps those who produce those tyres or trucking interests) that I have suggested already.
It is puzzling why you do not show any health concerns about tyre dust?
I quote again for the last time;
https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2013/wp29grpe/GRPE-65-20e.pdf
“Automobile tyres as a source of deterioration products till now remain out of sight of the experts engaged in technical rationing. For a long time was considered, that tyre protector deterioration product particle sizes are large enough and do not pose a health hazard. However, research of the American doctors [1], who noticed a higher sensibility to allergic and oncology diseases of inhabitants of the houses located near to motorways in cities, had allowed to assume, that at natural wear of automobile tyres significant amount of aerosol is emitted to the atmosphere. After thorough research of the air at highway with moderate traffic, the researchers found between 3,800 and 6,900 tyre particles per cubic meter of air while more the 58% of them are under 10 microns in size and therefore are able to penetrate into human lungs causing bronchial asthma, allergic reactions, as a result of skin and mucosa contact – rhinitis, conjunctivitis and urticaria. Such tyre particles almost cannot be excreted from the body. According to the research carried out in Moscow [2] the core pollutant of the city air (up to 60% of hazardous matter) is the rubber of automobile tyre used up in a small dust. The performed analysis of various tyres in operation, had allowed to define weights of a worn out parts of tyres of different sizes, which are resulted in the Tables”
NZTA documents show one truck tyre sheds 0.2mgs per km and a car 0.07mgs every day so 32 tyres are emitting a considerable amount of these dust compounds.
The studies show on any road carrying an average of 20 000 vehicles every day sheds 9kilos per km along that road.
It washes off the road in rain and enters our aqifers and waterways so think when you drink that water.
So we know this has a dramatic effect truck freight traffic has on our environmental health over rail what uses no tyres at all.
Congratulations. You’ve finally isolated the relevant hazard of the dust to show the rest of us.
Now do you want to have a go at putting some context around how that hazard compares to other everyday hazards, such as the volatiles you breathe in when you fill your tank? Or the particulates from diesel and petrol exhaust? Interestingly, the latest generations of direct injection petrol engines may be worse than diesels…
http://gas2.org/2017/05/27/gasolne-engines-emit-particulates-diesels/
Andre did I say tyre dust was the only toxic exposure? = answer = no.
And you failed mostly to read the posts as your responses were wildly off the focus of my subject. Rail vs road freight.
Lastly – as I have asked you several times before in other words, ‘what is your interest in the subject of Trucking – rail which was my subject here in case you forgot?
What is your interest in these exposures to toxins or are you representing some ‘bussiness interests like road freight industry or representing a chemical industry or associated client?
Guess you are reluctant to respond are you?
My interest is in hazard assessment and mitigation. Most of the places I’ve worked deal with a variety of hazardous substances, and understanding and managing the risks of those substances usually ends up on my plate.
Saying something is hazardous and treating that as an argument against that activity is meaningless, I can’t think of anything I do or have contact with that doesn’t have some kind of hazard. It’s the relative size of the hazard compared to the alternatives that matters.
So when you start your argument with an assertion about tyre dust, then present information about a substance totally unrelated to the hazard of tyre dust, well, it’s a crap argument.
As it happens, I have a very poor opinion of the trucking industry and agree that improving rail would bring huge benefits to NZ. But weird scaremongering about tyre dust that doesn’t even correctly identify the hazard, let alone put it context, is more likely to set the cause back than help it.
Andre,
You are entitled to your opinions, unfounded as they are, and i can see that you are of the opinion that tyre dust is harmless which is sadly very misguided;
You have no evidence to support or prove that tyre dust is harmless other than just simple words claiming such.
I have a post grad in Occupatioal Health & Safety at a NZ University and spent seven years preceeding this in Florida and Toronto studying Chemical toxicology, so you have just insulted my intellegence.
I was involved in a six month workplace chemical poisoning incident in an unventillated workplace which damaged/disabled the health of several wokers and myself, before this so I know something about hazardous chemicals.
You are relying on academic rubbish only as if it was an exact science we should never had been damaged nor should many other workers have been in the past.
So while unlike you I do have personal expierience on the toxic effects of chemicals without being to specific at this time.
If you were personally chemically poisoned as I was you would not be so ‘cavalier’ as you are now.
So I end this exchange now, and will carry on making ‘tyre dust road runnoff pollution’ one of my continued studies just as the rest of the world is becomming ‘enlighted’ even if some in NZ is not prepared to be engaged in presently.
Have a careful read through my comments. At no point did I assert tyre dust is harmless.
I asked you to correctly identify what the hazard is, instead of scaremongering with data about irrelevant substances. I also asked you to provide some context about how great the hazard of tyre dust is compared to other everyday hazards.
Surely that shouldn’t be difficult for someone as learned and qualified as yourself.
Now do you want to have a go at putting some context around how that hazard compares to other everyday hazards, such as the volatiles you breathe in when you fill your tank? Or the particulates from diesel and petrol exhaust? Interestingly, the latest generations of direct injection petrol engines may be worse than diesels…
I’d be more interested in studies on cumulative effect. Can you point to any?
O/K Andre,
Since I have been chemically poisoned my role in life is to save every other soul from suffering my demise, so I will attempt to give you some idea of how serious the issue of Truck emissions as ‘dust sources from tyres and brake dust’, using the latest OECD data and cost as relative to other emissions of other hazardous chemicals/compounds.
My Environmental Monitoring Company chooses now to target 2.5 micrograms airborne sized particles from transport sources such as truck routes/roads through urban locations where they can affect the lives of many than a rural are would.
Particulates that are of a lower weighted form such as 2.5 micrograms is more dangerous than is the more common 10 micrograms sized particles as they travel lower down into our lungs causing more agressive forms of cancer.
It shows the actual cost of human damages from this form of air pollution.
Good reading regards.
OECD report The cost of air pollution. – transport http://www.oecd.org/env/the-cost-of-air-pollution-9789264210448-en.htm
http://www.oecd.org/env/the-cost-of-air-pollution-9789264210448-en.htm
Air pollution: Tyre and brake fatigue compound an exhausting problem
8 September 2016
tags: air pollution, road transport, rubber
by Guest author
Danger ahead
Shayne MacLachlan, OECD Environment Directorate
Anyone else feeling exhausted by all this drum humming about air pollution? Indeed it appears the fumes won’t be dissipating any time soon as we consider the extent to which tyre and brake rubbish exacerbate the problem. The European Commission says exhaust and non-exhaust sources may contribute almost equally to total traffic-related PM10 emissions. A few months ago, I was proposing (on this very Insights blog) that electric cars are essential in fighting filthy air pollution in urban areas because humans are unwilling to relinquish the comfort of their vehicles. Since then, I find myself mulling hard after this “alarmingly obvious” realisation that electric cars use tyres and brakes too! Even if they emit less of the harmful fine particles than conventional vehicles, please do feel free to file that blog in the “seemed like a good idea at the time” folder. And to turn insult to injury, I see that my own colleagues at the OECD have just published new data on PM2.5 emissions which did little to ease my blushes.
Fine particles vs coarse particles
A lot of non-exhaust pollution from tyres and brakes winds up in rivers, streams and lakes. They produce particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) which is more harmful for humans than gas pollutants like ozone and NO2. Fine particulate matter penetrates deep into your lungs and cardiovascular system. New research has even discovered tiny particles of pollution inside samples of brain tissue. The OECD is amongst a few international organisations proudly leading the fight against ambient air pollution. And rightly so, with 80% of the world population exposed to PM2.5. Outdoor air pollution causes 3.7 million premature deaths a year and 1 in 8 people die from filthy air. OECD Environment Director, Simon Upton recently stated that air pollution is not just an economic issue, but also a moral one. He urges governments to stop fussing over the costs of efforts to limit pollution and start worrying more about the even larger costs they will incur if they continue to allow it to go unchecked.
You mind making it a bit clearer what are your own words and what is quoting from elsewhere? Also, do you mean micron or micrometre where you mention 2.5 microgram and 10 microgram size particles?
Since you got me curious, I went looking for more info and found this.
http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC89231/jrc89231-online%20final%20version%202.pdf
So far I’ve only skimmed most of it and just stopped at interesting looking bits. The consensus seems to be most of the tyre dust mass is in particles much larger than 10 microns, and falls to the ground very quickly. Those larger particles are not a major respiratory hazard. I didn’t see anything that suggests to me that tyre dust should be raised in priority compared to exhaust issues, or fireplace smoke or a variety of other pollution problems.
However, the reported size and composition distribution of brake dust particles has me somewhat more concerned than I was this morning.
Andre
I am now to busy for any more, so for any more I suggest you use this study (below) as I use several others in references for our Company when sizing tyre particulates in micrograms when measuring tyre dust collection of busy roads.
We have detected tyre dust down to 0.5 micrograms though our gravimetric filters in our air pollution monitors .
You are reading everything wrong here, as the road surface, amount of times the particulates are run over with other vehicles when settling of roads and other variables that can reduce particulate size.
Journal of Environmental Protection, 2013, 4, 509-515 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jep.2013.46059 Published Online June 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jep)
Dust Resulting from Tire Wear and the Risk of Health Hazards
http://file.scirp.org/pdf/JEP_2013061711221865.pdf
Page 514
Dust particles, suspended particulate matter, with a diameter of 10 μm or less, are also produced from some types of tire.
Page 515
Finally, the study discussed the possible effects of tire dust absorbed into the human body. Tire dust particles with a small diameter enter the human body. As particulate substances of 10 μm or smaller reach the alveoli, they may cause a variety of respiratory disorders, such as bronchitis and bronchial asthma.
Do the math on how a 1 microgram particle or 0.5 microgram particle relates in size to a PM10 (10 micrometres maximum diameter). Hint: it’s an order of magnitude larger. So the particles you’re filtering and making a fuss over are much much larger than the PM10 and PM2.5 particles that are of particular concern to lung health.
weka, I’d need to google it and I’m fairly sure your google skills are as good or better than mine.
The last time I had occasion to look into something close to that question was decades ago. I vaguely recall effects were more or less cumulative for particles that were effectively inert, but the hazards increased rapidly as particle size got smaller (deeper lung penetration) and hazards increased rapidly with increasing exposure if the particles had any kind of biological activity.
That report in my reply to cleangreen suggests that a lot of brake dust particles are very small and can be chemically active, hence my concern level rising. But that’s also a problem that will reduce with electric cars that primarily use regenerative braking so the old-school friction brakes will become emergency-only use.
Sorry, that wasn’t what I meant (if I understood what you said). I meant that single substance studies are useful, but they don’t tell us about the risk associated with multiple substance and stressor exposures over time. e.g. the tyre dust and the petrol fumes and the new building off gassing and all the sugar in the diet and the stress of being unemployed or overworked and the endogenous oestrogens and nitrates in the water ( 😉 ) and so on.
test
test 2
wrong reply button.
test 3
test 4
test 5
Is this one of those IQ tests? If so, I failed, obviously 😉
Lol, only an IQ test for me. I think I figured it out.
Phew!
The green one suits you best, if I may say so 😉
Which green one 😉 I like test and test 1. I briefly considered seeing if I can trick the system into making that my avatar.
This one @ 12.2.1.1.1.1.
I probably feel the need for a change. Doesn’t Lynn occasionally randomly change the avatars?
It could be Freudian or something; you may really want a change of government or some other change(s) …
Ha! I had a dream last night that Labour were going to screw over the disenfranchised and all the middle class people were doing ok so no-one was taking any notice. Peters wasn’t even an issue in the dream.
I agree Incognito, #4 Weka.
Steve Maharey, posting on the Pundit website, reports that Peters’ has said that his forthcoming announcement could be ” written on the wall”. Is this a reference to Book of Daniel, where the writing on the wall predicted the fall of the ruling regime?
A giant NO sign perhaps ?
His sign on his election poster was “Had Enough”?
We hope Winston joins ‘the coalition of the willing’ to sack this evil National carpetbagger treasonous National Government.
Winston Peters is Banksy? Well, I’d never guessed that.
Well we’ve certainly had seven lean years.
I like Corbyn’s work against religious extremism here:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/16/jeremy-corbyn-tells-twitter-and-facebook-to-tackle-racial-abuse
Well overdue that Facebook and Twitter demonstrated themselves to be subject to advertising regulators and media regulators in Britain.
BY CRIKEY….
Listen: Bill English’s police statement on Todd Barclay
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/97962326/listen-bill-englishs-police-statement-on-todd-barclay
What a careful chap is Bill. Know as little as possible. Remember very little. Say as few words as possible.
Good advice for any of us picked up even if with a guilty conscience.
(Mind you human nature would have caused Bill to ask a fair bit more of his “pupil”.)
Him, and his cronies certainly think ahead of any potential ramifications in their actions. Sly comes to mind.
Good grief. How ridiculous. Whats your name…. what’s your occupation… where do you live (no he didn’t ask that but he might as well have)… do you know Glenys
Dickson… how long have you known her… did you know she was recorded… did you hear the recordings.
English answers ‘yes”to the second to last question and “no” to the last one. So, he’s trying to kid that he never heard the recordings? And the police officer never asked whether he knew what was on them?
I smell one big jack-up!
That’s how the plods do it when they take statements.
I know it is, but when you’re dealing with the Prime Minister it comes across as damm stupid.
But that’s the plods for you.
A huge, American-owned oil and gas company is suing the Canadian government for $250 million for protecting the St Lawrence River from fracking exploration. This week, Lone Pine Resources is in court to try to force Canada to pay for Quebec’s decision to protect one of the most important waterways in the country.
https://actions.sumofus.org/a/lone-pine-drop-usd250-million-lawsuit-against-canada-now?sp_ref=342557391.99.183682.f.0.2&source=fb
Yep SAVENZ,
More the reason why we need winston here to stop Multi-national companies from doing this to us in NZ as they will if given half a chance.
Re Weka’s Blue Babies Post last week:
“Council acting chair Steve Lowndes said he, like many, struggled with the twin targets the council had to meet under planning rules to increase the amount of irrigated land on the Canterbury Plains while at the same time improving water quality.
Irrigation would not be used to grow grass for cows in the future, he said.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/341701/concerns-raised-over-nitrates-effects-on-babies
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/97527503/denitrificaton-wall-could-be-answer-to-silverstreams-nitrate-problems
this might help
tech that allows farmers to keep polluting is not the answer.
tech that helps mitigate a problem while working out how to solve the cause is though.
True, but we know what the cause is and the reason it’s not being solved is not for lack of a solution, it’s because some people want to be able to make money by activities that are highly polluting. Putting in ambulance at the bottom of the cliff tech just encourages them. We already know how to farm without causing this degree of damage.
Interesting. So the council is bound into its own Regional Plan to increase irrigation? How did that happen I wonder.
Here’s a Clue…
“ECan has been run by commissioners since 2010, when the Government sacked its councillors, citing apparent mismanagement of water issues.
Canterbury will be the only region [in the country] where the Government thinks it has the right to appoint the people who govern our region rather than let the voters decide.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/67438119/Democratic-ECan-carries-too-many-risks-says-Nick-Smith
I’m guessing that’s it too, although it would be interesting to see if other regional councils have likewise bound themselves in via their regional plan.
Robert??
Weka, some Great bed time reading for you, (if you didn’t catch it)
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/10/16/53699/southland-couples-safe-haven-for-birds
😎 That’s a great article, lots of gems in that. I’ve been to that piece of swamp. Don’t think we saw any fern birds but the ecology was fantastic. They’re doing very good work. Interesting it is now closed to the public.