Show John Key Your Opposition To Coal Mining On Conservation Land!
This Wednesday 21st March, 5 pm, 1 Willeston Street, Downtown Wellington, John Key will officially open Bathurst Resources’ new New Zealand office. Bathurst Resources plan to develop New Zealand’s largest open-cast coal mine on conservation land and we plan to oppose it every step of the way.
Join Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Forest and Bird, Greenpeace, 350, Ora Taiao, Generation Zero, and other concerned groups and individuals from around the country to say ‘NO Mining Pure NZ’.
In May 2010, over 50 000 people marched up Queen Street in Auckland to protest the Government’s proposal to open up National Parks and other protected areas, after which the government executed a remarkable backdown and committed not to mine in National Parks and other significant conservation areas protected under Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act.
They also stated that “significant applications to mine on public conservation land should be notified”. In November 2011, Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson advised that the application for Australian-owned Bathurst Resources to have access to mine the fragile and unique Denniston Plateau will not be publicly notified.
Bathurst’s proposal for a resource consent to mine coal on the Denniston Plateau on the West Coast is currently under appeal to the Environment Court. This proposal is the thin edge of Bathurst’s wedge which would see a unique ecosystem destroyed and the volume of coal exported by New Zealand increase by 40% and more in the future if we don’t stop this.
So bring your placards and help give John Key and Bathurst Resources our simple message: “Keep the coal in the hole”.
Around the time Brent becomes $140-$160/barrel, I predict that the popularity of coal is going to skyrocket through the roof. October or November probably, during the northern hemisphere winter.
Around the time Brent becomes $140-$160/barrel, I predict that the popularity of coal is going to skyrocket through the roof. October or November probably, during the northern hemisphere winter.
Colonial Viper
No doubt you are probably right CV. And vested interest and their government toadies will be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect. We might as well tcelebrate the victory of greed over nature and throw the last Hectors Dolphin onto the fire to use the little store of blubber these creatures possess to stoke the flames, as the acidification of the ocean caused by burning all that coal will kill them eventually anyway.
Do I sound bitter?
Last week I asked the editors at ‘The Standard’ to give notice of the above public event protesting against open cast coal mining on the Deniston Plateau. A proposal that if it goes ahead as well as destroying a unique eco-system will increase New Zealand’s coal exports by 40%.
Nothing but silence.
I again sent a request to put up a notice about this event to the editors last night, fully expecting to see something today.
To admit to the problem but not want to do everything in your power to help those who want to do something practical about it. In some ways is worse than being a denier.
Can’t make it to Denniston Mine protest – cost too much in petrol and exhaust gasses.
Its a hell of a long way to nowhere, even from Westport, to seed some snails
As an exercise in nausea I visited the national party 2011 election website. Looking primarily for the things Key did not mention they would do after the election. We all knew he would sell the SOEs off but we had nothing there about the more extreme rightist policies.
Charter Schools anybody? Hear about that from National pre election? Ditto private prisons? Whats next?
What we are seeing is a creeping rash of extreme right policies: what I am not hearing is a dialogue from Labour as a leftist (or even centrist) counter. Must we all whistle Dixie whilst Shearer considers a response rather than a minor display of visceral anger and opposition? Get a spine Labour, stop Shearer from appearing like a filleted jellyfish.
There are some elements of the proposed legislation that are potentially good. It’s not all bad, especially around the possibility of making it easier to create larger more efficient council structures. But the real weasel is in the first section of the document released yesterday:
1. The Local Government Act 2002 will be amended to replace references to the ‘social, economic,
environmental and cultural well-being of communities’ (the four well beings) with a new purpose for
councils of ‘providing good quality local infrastructure, public services and regulatory functions at
the least possible cost to households and business.’
The important words in the new purpose statement are ‘local’ to differentiate from services better provided by central government and ‘public’ to clarify that councils should not try to replace services provided by the private sector. The proviso requiring least cost is to emphasize the need for efficiency. The definitions will make it plain that ‘least possible cost’ means costs now and into the future, to ensure decision makers do not take a narrow, short term view of cost effectiveness.
The crucial loophole here is that it is entirely a matter of interpretation … presumably the discretion of the Minister… as to what is a public or private activity. And given that the Minister is given drastic new powers to intervene in Local Government then he can impose his intepretation however he likes.
If the Minister for instance deems that a Port operation is a ‘private sector business’ then he can force a Council to sell it. If he deems Water Supply to be the same.. the same applies. There is no limit to what the Minister can impose.
Especially if the political cost is irrelevant to him.
Especially if the political cost is irrelevant to him.
Then other pressures can and should be imposed on the Government by the local communities which are dictatorially affected, beyond purely political ones. After all, political costs come in many shapes and forms.
Can you imagine how Auckland feels with this announcement. One of the super city reforms required the Council to prepare a “spatial plan” the purpose of which was to “contribute to Auckland’s social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being through a comprehensive and effective long-term (20- to 30-year) strategy for Auckland’s growth and development.”
The plan was not a wish list. It had to “identify policies, priorities, land allocations, and programmes and investments to implement the strategic direction and specify how resources will be provided to implement the strategic direction.”
Now Smith is telling Auckland not to bother with the social, environmental or cultural well beings. He could have saved a lot of work and bother by excluding them from the start.
The key line from Campbell sums it up This reform is not about ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’. It is about imposing a right wing strait jacket on communities and their elected councils, in order to further commercialise the provision of quite basic needs..
You might ask the questions:
1. How much do all of the services put out to tender to the private sector under the LATE legislation etc cost?
2. How much does it cost to do in-house?
I suspect that the difference is the “profit” that has to be paid to the private sector. If we were to total the cumulative profit implicit within LATE contracts since the Bassett legislation in 1987 (25 years) how much I wonder would that offset the council debt loadings?
No doubt this will need to be pushed through under urgency.
“Councils would be steered away from spending on social and cultural activities in favour of “core” activities such as key infrastructure, regulations and public services.”
Lets face it bigger is better, bigger is cheaper, bigger is more efficient……fuck these bastard rationalists really give me the heebies. Show me the evidence.
First order of business for the next left government. The “Reversal Of Every Single Piece Of Legislation Passed Over The Last Six Years Bill”. To be debated under urgency, naturally.
@Kotahi Tane Huta
😀 I see this government and its moneyed coaches as repeating the taking of the commons land from the English lower classes back when the moneyed classes there decided they could do better with the land than the poor people who relied on it.
I’ve talked about attacks and abuse here before, most of it is really quite tame. Especially compared to what I’ve been witnessing elsewhere online over the past few weeks.
I have been witnessing an online campaign of abuse, false and unsubstantiated accusation, character assassination, misrepresentation of identities, attempts to shut down speech, attempts to shut down organisations. It has ranged from annoying to disgraceful.
And that’s not the worst of it. Others have linked some of this to criminal and mental health histories, death threats, even incest. This is associated with people who present themselves as working against abuse – some of them are the worst of abusers.
It puts political bickering into perspective, although it does show how bad fighting and abusing can degenerate on an unregulated web.
In fact a degree of regulation is always a necessary thing. Politics is essentially the art of striking a desirable balance between too much and too little.
Well, they’re protecting us against big bad terrorists by filtering them big baddasses out of being able to get on planes so regulating the net is gonna help against bad words too. I reckon. Good on ya George for being such an obedient MSM regurgitator.
Pete George, try a little more thinking first …. “I have been witnessing an online campaign of abuse, false and unsubstantiated accusation, character assassination, misrepresentation of identities, attempts to shut down speech, attempts to shut down organisations.”
Start with your own ambition and types Pete – Parliament and politicians…
abuse … feral inbreds on the west coast
false and unsubstantiated accusation … Winston Peters tirades under the shade of privilege against any number of private people – shameful.
character assassination … Bennett in exposing the private details of the Auckland women.
misrepresentation of identities ….
attempts to shut down speech … NZ on Air contorting to only show certain programs last year to aid election of incumbent.
attempts to shut down organisations … kim dotcom
I am sure others would be aware of more and better examples but the bottom line is that it is your own arena Pete George which is the most abusive and should be better regulated. Think first man.
It is also dishonest as PG the eternal fluffer attempts to inflate or is that fellate, the leader of his pack, with truth bending, missleading and flat out denial of facts on this blog as a start..
The word offended is far too soft when used towards PG the Dunny Brush supporter on this site…its flat out insulting!
With respect, Pete George, please fuck off. We’ve had enough of your ideologically driven duplicitous bullshit. You’re a very dangerous man, and as long as you keep spouting your ill-thought out pseudo-intellectual clap-trap, we’ll continue to tell you so.
Pete, whilst you continue to support that idiot Dunne and his desire to aid and abet the legalised theft of state assets by his larcenous mates in the National party I will continue to “abuse” your viewpoint.
I’ve read your stuff, and although I disagree with some of the stuff you say, I recon you are a nice person inspite of our ideological differences. But I think you are a little bit naive to think the Internet is some sort of prime time “censored and ok for kids hour” tv slot. People will swear and take the mickey online, mostly in jest and to prove a point about something they are passionate about, and not out of maliciousness. Sure there are trolls and griefers, but I suspect they are dealt with pretty well here. The Internet can be a bit more like a rowdy local pub at times, and that’s why I’m surprised you seem a bit naive considering you’ve been active here for a fair while.
If the chances of dying from a terrorist attack are 1:25.000.000 while the chances of dying from a lightening strike are 1:500.000 than why does this three year old boy in a wheel chair for fuck’s sake have to be terrorised by the TSA on his trip to Disney land?
Or if you’re not mad you haven’t been paying attention.
Probably because the US is just a year or two away from becoming a “turnkey totalitarian state” able to intercept, decode and store every single electronic message or phone call you make in your life time, anywhere in the world.
Short answer: if one mixes paranoia with private security suppliers who employ lowest-wage staff, who in turn have no incentive to think for themselves, one can expect things like this, and the occasional shooting of a distressed passenger (or high-multiple-tasering followed by an unfortunate but “unrelated” demise).
But fear is a good distraction from the other -problems in life.
My second attempt at putting in a link the “neat” way. May not work. If not, it’s in the herald
This story just keeps getting better.
If this is true, I find it fascinating that, ACC staff have continued to aggressively manage Ms Pullar’s claim despite her pulling some of the strongest ‘contact’ cards in the pack. She must have really pissed them off because I’m pretty sure that most middle-manager types in the public service would, (and probably do) cave pretty quickly in these kinds of circumstances. Seems like a mini-rebellion.
Key is predictably relaxed about his ACC minister intervening in this way, and said he had known Pullar for years himself, as she had been a National Party official, and that she had often talked to him about her ACC woes at funtions.
Real estate institute Canterbury director Tony McPherson said the repairs were in danger of being delayed and the problem was going to get worse as rebuilds were added to the repair work.
”There is huge pressure on rental accommodation in the city from people who have been forced out of the red zone, the large short-term work force in the city there to assist with the recovery, as well as the normal seasonal demand from tertiary students.”
Moteliers and other accommodation providers were becoming consistently full with displaced families rather than the usual numbers of tourists, which was affecting the business of other industries reliant on visitors spending money, he said.
McPherson said he understood temporary accommodation opened up by Government was fully occupied.
”There is a need for a circuit-breaker if the rebuild of homes is to be carried out efficiently. Without it, the rebuild is in jeopardy, causing further frustration, delay and unnecessary stress on Christchurch people, who now want to get on with their lives.”
What could this “circuit breaker” be?
I see that there are hundreds of perfectly good and undamaged homes are on the market in and around Christchurch.
For a government that has been very swift in bailing out the wealthy, burnt by bad investment decisions to the tune of $billions. How about buying up all this housing stock and renting it out to those in need?
Unlike the bailout of the rich speculators instead of gaining billions of dollars of worthless junk bonds and making a loss, the government, as well as helping people suffering through no fault of their own, will gain an appreciable asset.
(And I am sure the real estate agents and sellers would appreciate it as well.)
Why don’t the government buy up all these perfectly good houses and rent them out?
There is no need for anyone at all to go homeless in Christchurch.
Simple.
The government can spend $billions of our tax money bailing out millionaires who lost money on investments. Why are they sitting around on their hands doing nothing about the rental crisis in Christchurch?
It is like Brownlee is reading my criticisms of his government, and giving his reply.
Either that, or the need to take such obvious action to ease the Christchurch rental housing crisis, must be apparent even to him. So apparent in fact, that he has to come up with his fatuous defence that protecting the market is more important than housing people. Even though the housing crisis is so bad that it is hampering the very recovery and reconstruction of the city which is supposed to be his main responsibility.
The needs of the “lucrative” “private investors” must come first.
With this sort of attitude, let’s pray that Brownlee’s government buddies don’t spy another bunch of millionaires that need bailing out.
That’s right folks. The CBD is like a ghost town with virtually no work going on. All the giant machinery is sitting idle right now, despite a huge amount of demolition work remaining (all the big buildings). There are no workers around, the place is quiet and dead.
Yes well it surprised me. I have not been into the CBD for some time but it was quiet. Really quiet. And the giant machinery was sitting idle.
Perhaps it is lack of insurance money flow again. Perhaps it is owners leaving and simply not bothering to follow things through in good speed.
Either way, there ainto nothing much going on. And there are a large number of the big buildings which haven’t even been started yet. The small old easy ones have long gone, but not the big and difficult ones. The biggest jobs remain.
The timeframe is going to stretch way out ………………………
I’d bet that machinery is being paid for by someone, Other wise it would be somewhere else working/ making money. No one with that amount of coin invested in machinery likes to have it sitting still for long….
I bet someone’s paying a healthy retainer to have it sitting there….
Personal responsibility. Take an aspect of everyone’s life, that people have had to live with the consequences of their actions since the year dot, and then claim they could have done better, should do better, and they are parasites on the backside of society that they ever made a mistake.
Your government hates you.
So does National have any intention of actually trying to decrease reoffending or are they just interested in jobs for the boys? Building Wiri is most definitely not in the best interests of the justice system, although it’s obviously in the best interest of Fletchers, Serco and National’s coffers…
Am waiting to see where the billions of EQC and Insurance Company money is going. To the banks or ?
I note thet the sale of new expensive cars is up in the Christchurch area.
The video is definitely worth a watch, but here are a couple highlights:
The RIAA argues that $150,000 is lost for every illegal copy of a song. Based on this argument, an iPod Classic could carry up to $8 billion in pirated music.
The MPAA says that $58 billion and 370,000 jobs are lost annually to piracy, yet, Reid argues, only the music industry is down in revenue since 2000 and by nowhere near $58 billion.
The more I look at the claims of the copyright industry the more I realise that all their claims are complete bollocks.
Anyone else find it odd that Close Up is interviewing an American professor about the ‘terror’ trials?
I find it irksome that we are turning to someone from the country behind terror laws for comment about the legitimacy of this trial – couldn’t they find a NZ academic?
Ooops my bad – he has been here since ’72 so probably is a NZ resident – Sorry Bill, but your accent is still the last one I want to hear when commentary on this issue is being delivered – nothing personal.
ms asked earlier why didn’t nick smith cut out the social cultural thing when Auckland was being turned into a smoothie. I think that this government is like a tag wrestling team with some upfront mixing it with the public and others waiting in the wings with their particular maneouvre ready to utilise.
Someone on jim mora today pointed out the huge burden that large amalgamations make for the CEOs, which explains their huge salaries. Where did economy of scale go? And flatten the management structure and pay most of the saving in salary to the top banana! That’s a sort of parallel book keeping.
Yesterday, there were more reports of Radioactive cesium levels rising sharply in Fukushima and last week there were a couple of serious nuclear accidents in Canada and South Korea that went largely unreported…
last week there were a couple of serious nuclear accidents in Canada and South Korea that went largely unreported…
Of course they went unreported – there wasn’t any natural disaster to cause them and they were in 1) first world country and 2) US nuclear state friends.
The essential public good that Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and now Cameron sell is not power stations, or trains, or hospitals. It’s the public itself. It’s us.
Which is really what this government is selling with their state asset sales program – us. Selling the power will give a few people a permanent revenue stream from our work for doing absolutely nothing.
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Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – The United States shares the pathologies of all dying empires with their mixture of buffoonery, rampant corruption, military fiascos, economic collapse and savage state repression.ANALYSIS: By Chris Hedges The billionaires, Christian fascists, grifters, psychopaths, imbeciles, narcissists and deviants who ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government has secured bipartisan support for a major new regime covering political donations and spending, after making significant concessions. The government agreed to increase the proposed threshold above which donations must be disclosed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With the election only months away, the Labor government finds itself suddenly battling with the Trump administration for an exemption from new US tariffs on steel and aluminium. The opposition has supported the effort, but ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julee McDonagh, Senior Research Fellow of Frailty Research, University of Wollongong PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock Ageing is a normal part of the life course. It doesn’t matter how many green smoothies you drink, or how many “anti-ageing” skin care products you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Critical Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University The Conversation, CC BY-SAAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people. Colonial commemorations ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Masarik/Shutterstock In some overseas countries, pets can travel with their owners in a plane’s cabin, in a carrier under a seat. In Australia, pets must travel in the ...
A raft of proposed legislation changes to the media and screen industry have been announced this morning – we read through it all all so you don’t have to. What’s all this then? This morning the Ministry for Culture and Heritage released its draft proposed changes to media and screen ...
David Seymour's recent off-road parliamentary excursion led to a reprimand from the Speaker, who also said the rules didn't apply to this instance. What are the rules? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee Morgenbesser, Associate Professor, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Griffith University Many Americans have watched in horror as Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has been permitted to tear through various offices of the United States government in recent ...
By Patrick Decloitre,RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls has announced he will travel to New Caledonia later this month to pursue talks on the French territory’s political future. These discussions on February 22 follow preliminary talks held last week in Paris in “bilateral” mode ...
As Benjamin Netanyahu threatens to resume war, Hamas outlines widespread Israeli ceasefire violations in document sent to the mediators.By Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Dropsite News Hamas officials submitted a two-page report to mediators yesterday listing a wide range of Israeli violations of the Gaza ceasefire since ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Murray Print, Professor of Education, University of Sydney A federal parliamentary inquiry has just recommended civics and citizenship become a compulsory part of the Australian Curriculum, which covers the first year of school to Year 10. The committee also recommended a ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits of Aotearoa writers, and guests. This week: Claire Baylis, author of Dice and guest at the forthcoming HamLit programme at the Hamilton Arts Festival. The book I wish I’d writtenMy mind seems surprisingly unwilling ...
The courts should deal with illegal fishing, not the "court of public opinion", Shane Jones says, as he announces proposed changes to the Quota Management System. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan McElhone, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Monash University A London court has found Sam Kerr not guilty of the racially aggravated harassment of Metropolitan Police officer Stephen Lovell. As captain of the Australian women’s national soccer team, Kerr was widely condemned when ...
Could iwi and hapū be the unexpected solution to the government’s asset dilemma? David Seymour pressured the prime minister into an unwelcome conversation, and in the couple of weeks since the Act leader raised the issue in his state of the nation speech, privatisation has shifted from absent in the ...
Human rights advocates must uphold human dignity, rights and justice, while rejecting the discriminatory tactics we oppose, writes Taimor Hazou.Two weeks ago the Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) launched a campaign inviting New Zealanders to call a hotline if they suspected an Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldier that had ...
Immigration New Zealand figures shows more people have been looking at the ETA and visitor visa pages on the website, however fewer people have applied to come or to extend their stay. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsten Banks, Lecturer, School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology Debris on the surface of Mars from the Perseverance mission, captured on April 19 2022. NASA/JPL-Caltech In his inauguration speech in January, United States President Donald Trump ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alix Woolard, Senior Research Fellow, The Kids Research Institute Australia Stock Unit/Shutterstock Have you ever asked someone how their day was, or been chatting casually with a friend, only to have them tell you a horrific story that has left you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Quentin Grafton, Australian Laureate Professor of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Roper RiverChris Ison/Shutterstock Water is now a contested resource around the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fight playing out over the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Graeme Turner, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies, The University of Queensland Matej Kastellic/ Shutterstock As we head towards the federal election, both sides of politics are making a point of criticising universities and questioning their role in the community. ...
Alex Casey examines the perils of having your period at a music festival. It was right after Clairo’s swooning set that Sarah* knew it was time. She was on the second day of her period at Auckland’s Laneway festival, and braved the portaloos to empty her menstrual cup and change ...
A battle between health officials and local councils is heating up, as one government party seeks to change the rules. The Bulletin’s Stewart Sowman-Lund explains. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
“Keep The Coal In The Hole”
Please circulate throughout your lists
Are you concerned about global warming?
Do you want New Zealand to give a global lead?
Show John Key Your Opposition To Coal Mining On Conservation Land!
This Wednesday 21st March, 5 pm, 1 Willeston Street, Downtown Wellington, John Key will officially open Bathurst Resources’ new New Zealand office. Bathurst Resources plan to develop New Zealand’s largest open-cast coal mine on conservation land and we plan to oppose it every step of the way.
Join Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Forest and Bird, Greenpeace, 350, Ora Taiao, Generation Zero, and other concerned groups and individuals from around the country to say ‘NO Mining Pure NZ’.
In May 2010, over 50 000 people marched up Queen Street in Auckland to protest the Government’s proposal to open up National Parks and other protected areas, after which the government executed a remarkable backdown and committed not to mine in National Parks and other significant conservation areas protected under Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act.
They also stated that “significant applications to mine on public conservation land should be notified”. In November 2011, Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson advised that the application for Australian-owned Bathurst Resources to have access to mine the fragile and unique Denniston Plateau will not be publicly notified.
Bathurst’s proposal for a resource consent to mine coal on the Denniston Plateau on the West Coast is currently under appeal to the Environment Court. This proposal is the thin edge of Bathurst’s wedge which would see a unique ecosystem destroyed and the volume of coal exported by New Zealand increase by 40% and more in the future if we don’t stop this.
So bring your placards and help give John Key and Bathurst Resources our simple message: “Keep the coal in the hole”.
Find out more here
Or email: coalactionnetwork@gmail.com
Around the time Brent becomes $140-$160/barrel, I predict that the popularity of coal is going to skyrocket through the roof. October or November probably, during the northern hemisphere winter.
No doubt you are probably right CV. And vested interest and their government toadies will be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect. We might as well tcelebrate the victory of greed over nature and throw the last Hectors Dolphin onto the fire to use the little store of blubber these creatures possess to stoke the flames, as the acidification of the ocean caused by burning all that coal will kill them eventually anyway.
Do I sound bitter?
Last week I asked the editors at ‘The Standard’ to give notice of the above public event protesting against open cast coal mining on the Deniston Plateau. A proposal that if it goes ahead as well as destroying a unique eco-system will increase New Zealand’s coal exports by 40%.
Nothing but silence.
I again sent a request to put up a notice about this event to the editors last night, fully expecting to see something today.
To admit to the problem but not want to do everything in your power to help those who want to do something practical about it. In some ways is worse than being a denier.
The $60K-$120K pa middle classes want their creature comforts, cars and their consumption.
They have been promised by many cohorts of marketeers, politicians and economists, and they will not be denied.
Can’t make it to Denniston Mine protest – cost too much in petrol and exhaust gasses.
Its a hell of a long way to nowhere, even from Westport, to seed some snails
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Why?
As an exercise in nausea I visited the national party 2011 election website. Looking primarily for the things Key did not mention they would do after the election. We all knew he would sell the SOEs off but we had nothing there about the more extreme rightist policies.
Charter Schools anybody? Hear about that from National pre election? Ditto private prisons? Whats next?
What we are seeing is a creeping rash of extreme right policies: what I am not hearing is a dialogue from Labour as a leftist (or even centrist) counter. Must we all whistle Dixie whilst Shearer considers a response rather than a minor display of visceral anger and opposition? Get a spine Labour, stop Shearer from appearing like a filleted jellyfish.
Don’t hold your breath Bored. The response is probably going to be along the lines of:
“We are putting bad prison guards and badly run prisons on notice.”
NACT have one term left and they don’t care about being re-elected.
I was going to write an article on the local govt reforms but Gordon Campbell has done it much better. Worth a read.
There are some elements of the proposed legislation that are potentially good. It’s not all bad, especially around the possibility of making it easier to create larger more efficient council structures. But the real weasel is in the first section of the document released yesterday:
The crucial loophole here is that it is entirely a matter of interpretation … presumably the discretion of the Minister… as to what is a public or private activity. And given that the Minister is given drastic new powers to intervene in Local Government then he can impose his intepretation however he likes.
If the Minister for instance deems that a Port operation is a ‘private sector business’ then he can force a Council to sell it. If he deems Water Supply to be the same.. the same applies. There is no limit to what the Minister can impose.
Especially if the political cost is irrelevant to him.
Then other pressures can and should be imposed on the Government by the local communities which are dictatorially affected, beyond purely political ones. After all, political costs come in many shapes and forms.
Can you imagine how Auckland feels with this announcement. One of the super city reforms required the Council to prepare a “spatial plan” the purpose of which was to “contribute to Auckland’s social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being through a comprehensive and effective long-term (20- to 30-year) strategy for Auckland’s growth and development.”
The plan was not a wish list. It had to “identify policies, priorities, land allocations, and programmes and investments to implement the strategic direction and specify how resources will be provided to implement the strategic direction.”
Now Smith is telling Auckland not to bother with the social, environmental or cultural well beings. He could have saved a lot of work and bother by excluding them from the start.
The key line from Campbell sums it up This reform is not about ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’. It is about imposing a right wing strait jacket on communities and their elected councils, in order to further commercialise the provision of quite basic needs..
You might ask the questions:
1. How much do all of the services put out to tender to the private sector under the LATE legislation etc cost?
2. How much does it cost to do in-house?
I suspect that the difference is the “profit” that has to be paid to the private sector. If we were to total the cumulative profit implicit within LATE contracts since the Bassett legislation in 1987 (25 years) how much I wonder would that offset the council debt loadings?
@Bored How about threatening to call him Doctor John Zoidberg the fishy intellectual with lobster arms from Futurama?
Fabulous idea, love it.
No doubt this will need to be pushed through under urgency.
“Councils would be steered away from spending on social and cultural activities in favour of “core” activities such as key infrastructure, regulations and public services.”
The whole Objectivist playbook.
Lets face it bigger is better, bigger is cheaper, bigger is more efficient……fuck these bastard rationalists really give me the heebies. Show me the evidence.
Not rational to ask them for scientific evidence when their decision making is ideological and profiteering in basis, not scientific.
First order of business for the next left government. The “Reversal Of Every Single Piece Of Legislation Passed Over The Last Six Years Bill”. To be debated under urgency, naturally.
@Kotahi Tane Huta
😀 I see this government and its moneyed coaches as repeating the taking of the commons land from the English lower classes back when the moneyed classes there decided they could do better with the land than the poor people who relied on it.
I’ve talked about attacks and abuse here before, most of it is really quite tame. Especially compared to what I’ve been witnessing elsewhere online over the past few weeks.
It puts political bickering into perspective, although it does show how bad fighting and abusing can degenerate on an unregulated web.
[It is one reason why we moderate this site…RL]
PG are you now promoting a ‘regulated web’ where statutory bodies have a direct say over what can and cannot be communicated over the internet.
I haven’t said anything like that.
Um petey you are saying an unregulated web is a bad thing and implying regulation is needed.
He doesn’t really think this stuff through to the end does he, MS.
I didn’t imply anything like that Greg, if you had a legal background you would understand what an implication was.
I said there are problems with an unregulated web, nothing about what could or should be done about it.
RL – yes, I agree that the sort of thing I’m talking about wouldn’t be allowed here. A degree of regulation isn’t always a bad thing.
A degree of regulation isn’t always a bad thing.
In fact a degree of regulation is always a necessary thing. Politics is essentially the art of striking a desirable balance between too much and too little.
Whatever, Wormtongue.
Well, they’re protecting us against big bad terrorists by filtering them big baddasses out of being able to get on planes so regulating the net is gonna help against bad words too. I reckon. Good on ya George for being such an obedient MSM regurgitator.
Pete George, try a little more thinking first …. “I have been witnessing an online campaign of abuse, false and unsubstantiated accusation, character assassination, misrepresentation of identities, attempts to shut down speech, attempts to shut down organisations.”
Start with your own ambition and types Pete – Parliament and politicians…
abuse … feral inbreds on the west coast
false and unsubstantiated accusation … Winston Peters tirades under the shade of privilege against any number of private people – shameful.
character assassination … Bennett in exposing the private details of the Auckland women.
misrepresentation of identities ….
attempts to shut down speech … NZ on Air contorting to only show certain programs last year to aid election of incumbent.
attempts to shut down organisations … kim dotcom
I am sure others would be aware of more and better examples but the bottom line is that it is your own arena Pete George which is the most abusive and should be better regulated. Think first man.
PG – I find your trolling here to shill for Dunne abusive.
It is also dishonest as PG the eternal fluffer attempts to inflate or is that fellate, the leader of his pack, with truth bending, missleading and flat out denial of facts on this blog as a start..
The word offended is far too soft when used towards PG the Dunny Brush supporter on this site…its flat out insulting!
Curious that I’m getting attacked and abused (mildly) here for posting that.
Oh how pathetic. And you stood for Parliament?
And no answer I see.
With respect, Pete George, please fuck off. We’ve had enough of your ideologically driven duplicitous bullshit. You’re a very dangerous man, and as long as you keep spouting your ill-thought out pseudo-intellectual clap-trap, we’ll continue to tell you so.
abuse … feral inbreds on the west coast
Just for the record, that one didn’t happen.
Clark referred to “some fairly feral attitudes”, and made no reference to “inbreds” at all.
Thanks rOb for some facts in this case, the myths blow a lot of dust in our eyes.
ha ha, thanks r0b, I wondered if that piece of artistic licence might lure you from your hiding place.
I am kinda hiding it’s true – but only because of over work just now. Should pass in just a few more weeks. I hope…
Pete, whilst you continue to support that idiot Dunne and his desire to aid and abet the legalised theft of state assets by his larcenous mates in the National party I will continue to “abuse” your viewpoint.
Perhaps you could try and disabuse PG of his mistaken viewpoints? Nah, no chance of success.
Hey Pete, welcome to the Internet.
I’ve read your stuff, and although I disagree with some of the stuff you say, I recon you are a nice person inspite of our ideological differences. But I think you are a little bit naive to think the Internet is some sort of prime time “censored and ok for kids hour” tv slot. People will swear and take the mickey online, mostly in jest and to prove a point about something they are passionate about, and not out of maliciousness. Sure there are trolls and griefers, but I suspect they are dealt with pretty well here. The Internet can be a bit more like a rowdy local pub at times, and that’s why I’m surprised you seem a bit naive considering you’ve been active here for a fair while.
Cheers.
Food for thought.
If the chances of dying from a terrorist attack are 1:25.000.000 while the chances of dying from a lightening strike are 1:500.000 than why does this three year old boy in a wheel chair for fuck’s sake have to be terrorised by the TSA on his trip to Disney land?
Or if you’re not mad you haven’t been paying attention.
Probably because the US is just a year or two away from becoming a “turnkey totalitarian state” able to intercept, decode and store every single electronic message or phone call you make in your life time, anywhere in the world.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/%E2%80%9Cwe-are-far-turnkey-totalitarian-state-big-brother-goes-live-september-2013
Short answer: if one mixes paranoia with private security suppliers who employ lowest-wage staff, who in turn have no incentive to think for themselves, one can expect things like this, and the occasional shooting of a distressed passenger (or high-multiple-tasering followed by an unfortunate but “unrelated” demise).
But fear is a good distraction from the other -problems in life.
ACC minister alleged to have provided a supportive reference for Pullar on ministerial notepaper
My second attempt at putting in a link the “neat” way. May not work. If not, it’s in the herald
This story just keeps getting better.
If this is true, I find it fascinating that, ACC staff have continued to aggressively manage Ms Pullar’s claim despite her pulling some of the strongest ‘contact’ cards in the pack. She must have really pissed them off because I’m pretty sure that most middle-manager types in the public service would, (and probably do) cave pretty quickly in these kinds of circumstances. Seems like a mini-rebellion.
Key is predictably relaxed about his ACC minister intervening in this way, and said he had known Pullar for years himself, as she had been a National Party official, and that she had often talked to him about her ACC woes at funtions.
Christchurch repairs are in danger due to lack of rental accommodation.
Christchurch Rental Crisis Deepens stuff.co.nz
What could this “circuit breaker” be?
I see that there are hundreds of perfectly good and undamaged homes are on the market in and around Christchurch.
For a government that has been very swift in bailing out the wealthy, burnt by bad investment decisions to the tune of $billions. How about buying up all this housing stock and renting it out to those in need?
Unlike the bailout of the rich speculators instead of gaining billions of dollars of worthless junk bonds and making a loss, the government, as well as helping people suffering through no fault of their own, will gain an appreciable asset.
(And I am sure the real estate agents and sellers would appreciate it as well.)
Check it out!
1) Harcourts
2) Professionals
3) Ray White
4) Mike Pero
5) Nation Wide
6) Total Realty
7) GlassMiles
8 ) Hastings McLeod Ltd
9) Simes
10) Blue Sky
This is just some of the houses available.
Why don’t the government buy up all these perfectly good houses and rent them out?
There is no need for anyone at all to go homeless in Christchurch.
Simple.
The government can spend $billions of our tax money bailing out millionaires who lost money on investments. Why are they sitting around on their hands doing nothing about the rental crisis in Christchurch?
Brownlee: ” it could have artificially lowered the appetite of private investors to provide a solution that could be lucrative for investors,”
What a scumbag.
It is like Brownlee is reading my criticisms of his government, and giving his reply.
Either that, or the need to take such obvious action to ease the Christchurch rental housing crisis, must be apparent even to him. So apparent in fact, that he has to come up with his fatuous defence that protecting the market is more important than housing people. Even though the housing crisis is so bad that it is hampering the very recovery and reconstruction of the city which is supposed to be his main responsibility.
The needs of the “lucrative” “private investors” must come first.
With this sort of attitude, let’s pray that Brownlee’s government buddies don’t spy another bunch of millionaires that need bailing out.
A starter for 10 …
What proportion of demolition diggers and nibblers in the Christchurch CBD sit idle all day long?
Ok, I’ll answer it – try about 80-90%
That’s right folks. The CBD is like a ghost town with virtually no work going on. All the giant machinery is sitting idle right now, despite a huge amount of demolition work remaining (all the big buildings). There are no workers around, the place is quiet and dead.
FFS
Just wait for Treasury to push out the economic benefits from Christchurch reconstruction yet again.
Better accept it people, building owners are taking their insurance payouts and have mentally already left the CBD.
Yes well it surprised me. I have not been into the CBD for some time but it was quiet. Really quiet. And the giant machinery was sitting idle.
Perhaps it is lack of insurance money flow again. Perhaps it is owners leaving and simply not bothering to follow things through in good speed.
Either way, there ainto nothing much going on. And there are a large number of the big buildings which haven’t even been started yet. The small old easy ones have long gone, but not the big and difficult ones. The biggest jobs remain.
The timeframe is going to stretch way out ………………………
I’d bet that machinery is being paid for by someone, Other wise it would be somewhere else working/ making money. No one with that amount of coin invested in machinery likes to have it sitting still for long….
I bet someone’s paying a healthy retainer to have it sitting there….
Yes. The contractors who took a punt on contracts in Chch and who are about to up-sticks.
We may need to look at providing a commissioner for the environment who can give you a counterview.
Freshwater report.
Christchurch Eco City? – it’s happening in China
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/13/tianjin-eco-city_n_806972.html?ref=green-technology#s221860
Personal responsibility. Take an aspect of everyone’s life, that people have had to live with the consequences of their actions since the year dot, and then claim they could have done better, should do better, and they are parasites on the backside of society that they ever made a mistake.
Your government hates you.
http://whoar.co.nz/2012/commentwhoar-the-standard-censor-tries-to-defend-hisher-parking-warden-ways/
phil-at-whoar.
The other day we surmised on the real target ofvWhale’s attack on Boag.
Now we have it, Nick Smith. Internal National politics……….
Paying the price for his ACC levy drop and upsetting Atilla the Hen as he’s always been a compulsive liar and general nutcase so it can’t be that.
Think big prisons fail
So does National have any intention of actually trying to decrease reoffending or are they just interested in jobs for the boys? Building Wiri is most definitely not in the best interests of the justice system, although it’s obviously in the best interest of Fletchers, Serco and National’s coffers…
Am waiting to see where the billions of EQC and Insurance Company money is going. To the banks or ?
I note thet the sale of new expensive cars is up in the Christchurch area.
The sale of new expensive cars in Dunedin took a drop when the ODHB IT guy got done for multimillion dollar fraud.
Food for thought:
Shameful and degrading evaluations of teachers by politicians.
The $8 Billion iPod
The more I look at the claims of the copyright industry the more I realise that all their claims are complete bollocks.
Anyone else find it odd that Close Up is interviewing an American professor about the ‘terror’ trials?
I find it irksome that we are turning to someone from the country behind terror laws for comment about the legitimacy of this trial – couldn’t they find a NZ academic?
Ooops my bad – he has been here since ’72 so probably is a NZ resident – Sorry Bill, but your accent is still the last one I want to hear when commentary on this issue is being delivered – nothing personal.
ms asked earlier why didn’t nick smith cut out the social cultural thing when Auckland was being turned into a smoothie. I think that this government is like a tag wrestling team with some upfront mixing it with the public and others waiting in the wings with their particular maneouvre ready to utilise.
Someone on jim mora today pointed out the huge burden that large amalgamations make for the CEOs, which explains their huge salaries. Where did economy of scale go? And flatten the management structure and pay most of the saving in salary to the top banana! That’s a sort of parallel book keeping.
” Where did economy of scale go? ”
I think it went down the toilet.
It costs more money to all shit together than to shit singularly. How did that happen?
Economy of scale used to work with factories (back when one factory could be far more efficient than another) – never worked with social institutions.
Ongoing nuclear nightmares
Yesterday, there were more reports of Radioactive cesium levels rising sharply in Fukushima and last week there were a couple of serious nuclear accidents in Canada and South Korea that went largely unreported…
Of course they went unreported – there wasn’t any natural disaster to cause them and they were in 1) first world country and 2) US nuclear state friends.
Human Revenue Stream
Which is really what this government is selling with their state asset sales program – us. Selling the power will give a few people a permanent revenue stream from our work for doing absolutely nothing.