Te Anau farmer accused of destroying 800ha of native forest
Judge Jon Jackson said in a statement the station was home to "significant indigenous vegetation".
"Its protection is a matter of national importance. There appears to be a pattern of non-compliance and the clearance over the past two winters alone has allegedly caused irreparable damage to approximately 800 hectares of significant flora and fauna," he said
The chair of Forest and Bird's Southland branch, Chris Henderson, said it was one of the worst examples of vegetation clearance she had heard of in the district, where there was not much lowland native forest left.
Beyond the threat to biodiversity and native lizards, bats and bird species, she said it would be in Chartres' interests to keep the native forests for carbon credits.
"His area that he's cleared could have been a really important biodiversity hotspot if he'd allowed it to flourish," she said.
IMO : This…especially following on from the already recently high lighted, and… ongoing tragedy of World…And incl NZ loss of Biodiversity (even extinctions ! )..seems incongruous. At the very least
He says it’s a battle that began when armed police and two ecologists had arrived unannounced at the family’s homestead back in September 2018 to exercise a search warrant to undertake an ecological investigation.
If true, that's just a completely stupid action. Te Anau is a conservative community, with lots of people antagonistic towards conservation and environmentalism. It's also a small community. I'm sure the other side has its own telling of how things went down, but you have to work with people not just try and force them into cultural change that the wider community doesn't support.
There are progressive farmers in the area, and people who are pro-conservation. Getting people's backs up is not a good approach.
I'd like to know how the station became freehold from the Crown in the early 80s.
I’d also like to know what compensation the Chartres family have received and not received since the 80s.
Sounds to me like a conflict at the most basic level: should there be a farm there, or should it be a conservation estate. You cannot apply the same rules to both situations (and that's why the Council's knuckles have been rapped so hard).
Sell off of 'productive' Crown lands in the 80s and 90s was fairly standard government policy. Lands which had been in long-term lease for farming (and therefore weren't conservation areas) – were made available for the farmers to buy, rather than continue leasing. Not all farmers *wanted* to buy – some were perfectly happy with continuing as long-term leaseholders (with perpetual right of renewal).
From 1998 – many farmers have also gone through the tenure review process – where they can separate out conservation quality land, from general farming land.
So the Chartres would have paid to buy the farm in 1982? Was that market price or was the government doing easy deals for farmers?
As for what the land use 'should be', the Chartres have farmed there for 100 years and others before them. I can't see how it could now be converted to conservation estate unless the family want to sell to the Crown (very unlikely).
This is the quintessential conflict between capitalism and nature, but there are many parts of that whole area that 'should' be conservation land and instead there is conversion to dairying.
A compromise would be for the farm to transition to commercial regenerative land use with a heavy emphasis on native biodiversity.
Pretty sure that the prices paid were commercial value at the time (hence the fact that lots of farmers wanted to remain as lessors, rather than convert the land)
I don't think that the farmer is going to think of your solution as a compromise.
He thinks (and the law seems to be overwhelmingly in his favour), that this is farmland (and has been for over 100 years), and usual farm management practices apply. Basically, he can continue to manage his farm, in the way which makes most economic sense to him (within the broad restrictions of NZ environmental legislation, with which all farmers have to comply)
It may be that regenag could be a good solution- unfortunately the well has been thoroughly poisoned by the Council and conservation activists – and he's unlikely to be willing to listen to them.
"Usual farm management" has nothing to do with modern farming practices, especially in Canterbury. BAN PALM KERNEL now, and accept that farmers should stock their land according to the numbers their own land can sustain.
Yes BD is correct. If he had a pastoral lease he had no right of obtaining a freehold title unless per mechanism of the tenure review system. Pastoral leases had restrictions on stocking rates etc.
If he had entered toot the tenure review system he would have been paid in that the land better suited to conservation would have been valued and then the land to be given as a freehold title would be valued and either a credit or debit to the Crown….No way would he have given land or had land appropriated without some sort of compensation. Some land holders do give land but rarely.
But big bad old meany Crown sounds better when you are a 'poor hard done by Crown agencies' farmer.
Some of these farmers would be leaning towards recalcitrant and always have been in their dealings with the Crown who was their landlord in times gone by. Worked in this field in the 1980s/90s and it is interesting to see the ones who are still a bit anti Crown/anti conservation.
In the Te Anau basin itself, as opposed to the high country around it, the Crown poured money and expertise in so that the land could be developed and sold to young farmers back in the 1960s/70s. This followed on from the boom after the war when rehab farm settlements were developoed so those who came back from WW2 could have some recompense for their work to defend NZ. This land is long moved from leasehold to deferred Payments Licences and on to freehold titles and last time I was there much had gone to dairying.
Some Councils have been using their planning expertise and soil maps to guide on land use. Some are doing a great job but broad brush just lets in inappropriate irrigation and dairying. Some farmers seem to think that they should not be subject to planning rules as the rest of us are.
I see that some of the land was grazing lease, this had even fewer rights to long term leasing than pastoral leases themselves and PLs were/are pretty restrictive. These usually had no automatic right of renewal and often were re-let after being pruned back and the conservation- type land added to the conservation estate.
I sense a passed down the generations story of naughty Crown doing things that were quite legal and appropriate when looking at the health of the land.
"I'd like to know how the station became freehold from the Crown in the early 80s."
A good start would be Ann Brower's book "Who Owns the High Country?" (Craig Potton Publishing, 2008). Might be in your local library.
I don't think Te Anau Downs station (Chartres property) is mentioned but the shonky pastoral lease freeholding process certainly is covered in relation to Glendhu Station and others.
Well….IMO theres an interesting bit. Maybe wonder why…armed Police ?
Anyway….some other on Peter Chartres
The slow pace of the council's investigation has frustrated Robson, especially as he had previously come under fire for not sharing the location of winter grazing breaches with the council.
He considered the complaint a "slam dunk" which the council should have acted on quickly.
"Those wetlands are absolutely filled with biodiversity. They're really, really valuable, for lots of reasons. And they've been protected for a reason."
“Chartres is renowned in that district for making life difficult for regulatory agencies – whether they be regional councils or district councils or DoC or anybody else – they just take the easy way out. And it’s not their money.”
IMO : while the different Councils, and DOC, seem to have not been careful…with their cases (seemingly they absolutely needed to have their A game and should have known this ! ) Mr Chartres…quite possibly needed/needs careful handling. IMO.
The latest case seems to have been decided on the farmer's "existing use" rights. Although clearance of indigenous vegetation went on for 20 years, the Southland DC plan had some sort of transitional rule allowing clearance of previous regrowth.
There was also a technical point (raised but not decided) about the council CEO not being able to delegate powers of enforcement all the way down to front line officials.
Looks like a field day for the lawyers, with the environment the loser.
pretty sure it will be regrowth that is being cleared. The issue being more at what point do we consider regrowth to be forest that shouldn't be cleared. Is that based on length of time, or state of the ecosystem? Should fairness to the farmers be part of the decision? Is the place better off having regrowth and periodic removal rather than being converted to pasture permanently? It's complex.
Fairness to the farmers is almost overwhelming in cases like this …….what is the problem is that it is often all one way…….not inherent fairness to the land as a living breathing thing not to the Crown who still administers some pastoral leases and has stewardship over conservation land.
In some cases where land was transferred out of the family to suitably a qualified farmer from out of the area it was not unusual to see that the incoming farmer could not see the need to bring in every last acre. They saw the benefit of preserving/conserving land.
Often unless the older generation of farmers on the land were inherently progressive/awake subsequent generations farmed like Dad did and if Dad/Granddad was only so-so then the later generation would be too. Some of these later generations do not go to Lincoln/Massey or farm as shepherds on other properties here or overseas before taking over the family farm. Not saying this has happened here but it has happened on some of these farms.
Sad really.
But the Councils do hold a key in that they can enact reasonable protections for the land as farming land so it holds it for later generations to protect it if they see fit.
We're just bad at this all round. We don't know what the Chartres think about ecology, we know a little bit about what they think about running their farm. But they are no alone in not being fair to nature, that's pretty much most of NZ. The Crown hasn't been that great a steward either.
Hell all, I am off camping now until 2023 so merry Xmas and happy new year to the Standardnistas and their families (IT IS XMAS ON SUNDAY!!!!!!).
2022 was a bit crappy, but hey – Trump is diminished, the right in retreat, the consequences of nostalgia as policy are biting the British ruling class hard on the arse and Putin is on the ropes.
May 2023 see Trump jail, Zelensky presiding over the victory parade of the AFU in Red Square, the Democrats back in the Whitehouse, and Jacinda winning.
I'm in Spain for a while now Joe and not mourning any Franco acolyte….when I was at college when Franco's death was announced in (I think) 1975 somebody through a beer bottle through the tv when his picture came up ….we had no TV for the rest of the year but we cheered
I spent Christmas 1975 and a good part of the new year camped up in Hendaye waiting to see if Franco's death would trigger another civil war. We finally entered Spain in October. Post-fascist Spain was a life-changing experience for a Taranaki boy.
Ah, Also known as Spain's first Astronaut, hard to believe that car was launched over a 5 story building.
Old mate in the back was killed, but driver survived & I understand there is a book on how they dug the tunnel underneath where old mate would get his car like regular clock work to go to work.
A brilliant piece of intelligence work & Tactical appreciation which they probably didn't realise the strategic implications on how fast the regime collapse after this bombing.
Another example of broken laws that are not fit for purpose:
The Department of Conservation couldn’t intervene when concrete was poured for a new marina within metres of a kororā/little penguin nest containing chicks because of a 2019 Supreme Court ruling on shark cage diving.
Minister of Conservation Poto Williams gave the ruling as the reason for not intervening when wildlife advocates raised concern about the impact of work on the chicks within the construction zone of a marina at Waiheke Island in a recent response to Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick.
Swarbrick had asked the minister to urgently intervene in October, citing details of a Wildlife Act Authority granted to marina developer, Kennedy Point Marina Development Limited (KPMDL), in March to carry out rock removal and piling work in the protected birds’ habitat.
The permit stipulated that no work be carried out within 20m of a burrow containing a moulting kororā, eggs or chicks.
However, Williams wrote in her early December letter to Swarbrick that because the rock and piling work was completed in May, the permit no longer applied and neither she nor DOC “can intervene based on the conditions of the Wildlife Act Authority”.
It would be nice if the party with complete control of government didn't use excuses of the limitations of laws to abdicate doing something to fix them.
Farmers continue to get the kid glove treatment regarding meeting climate change targets:
After an outcry from farmers the government has made some changes to its proposal to price agricultural carbon emissions.
It has released its response to the more than 23,000 submissions to its plan, though final decisions will not be made until next year.
Instead of using the rising price of carbon to drive change, as the Climate Change Commission suggested, the government is now going to set the levy price as low as possible.
the good farmers are already doing that, the ones who don't care about climate will continue to drag the chain. Maybe there's a shift from the latter to the former, but it's way too slow. We're out of time and anyone arguing for slower transition at this point either doesn't understand the brutal reality of the climate problem, or doesn't care.
Imagine if your suburban back yard was growing old-growth native trees. You cut them down and sow grass. Drain the damp area where the dragonflies and frogs live. Drop a concrete pipe into the creek and cover it up. Drench the area with herbicide, because you don't like dandelion, molluscicide, because slugs, pesticide, ditto bees, and pour on the synthetic fertiliser coz grass = profit. That fertiliser contains a poisonous heavy metal, but you've got exemption from the contaminated land rules, so it's all good. It emerges that off-gassing from your activities is endangering us all, but lobbying from your mates all but frees you from the obligation to reduce it.
You're sitting pretty!
The neighbours are becoming a bit irritated by you though!
We have turned the corner, I've personally been involved in a couple of large wetlands being formed ,and am now with in touching distance of being able to make real changes myself , recently excluded cattle from 15ks of regenerating native bush ,
NEW FROM ME: I investigated the origins of 15 video stills taken from inside homes by robot vacuums and shared to social media—some featuring humans in VERY candid positions, faces clearly visible—and wrote abt the supply chain of data used to train AI. https://t.co/BbkCFzkJ79
The SNP is a progressive party seeking independence within the more modern EU than the backward living in the past Tory city of London England.
They want another referendum (they are working with those wanting one for NI leaving the UK for Eire).
And this is where they are at the moment promoting self ID.
Once upon a time English men were a threat to Scottish woman, so a particularly tall Briton living in Scotland picked up a particularly big sword.
An amendment to the Gender Recognition Reform Bill which the Scottish Government warned would force it to pause the legislation has been rejected.
Parliament was suspended after protests from the public gallery in the immediate aftermath of the vote.
A series of other votes on similar amendments will take place later on Tuesday evening.
Those attempted changes, put forward by Conservative Russell Findlay and SNP MSP Michelle Thomson, attempted to prevent men who had been charged or convicted of sexual offences from obtaining a gender recognition certificate (GRC).
But Shona Robison, the social justice secretary, had previously warned the members that there was a “serious risk” that these changes would put the bill beyond the competency of the Scottish Parliament.
Ministers said the amendments would make the bill incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights as it would require all applying for a GRC to be asked if they had been charged with a sexual offence.
Yet the ECHR does not require any right to self ID …
Nor does the ECHR prevent police checks and pre employment vetting …
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protects the human rights of people in countries that belong to the Council of Europe.
I haven't been following the legislation closely but here's my best guess,
the SNP don't want a public debate on self ID, hence any delay is seen as a problem. Even delaying to sort out the best way to write the law.
we already knew that men's rights trump women's right to not be raped, because trans identified males (TW and men faking it) are already being housed in women's prisons and women are already being raped and assaulted.
the idea that the prison service can be trusted to best assess a trans identified male and their risk of sexual violence against women has already been shown to be a nonsense, but it also reinforces the low value placed on women's rights and safety. Women are collateral damage to the ideology that says that any man who says he is a woman should be treated as a women in law and policy. Any man. Including rapists.
gender ideology is misogynist and half the left can't get its head around that because it is so committed to the idea that trans rights are the priority. Hence the left wing SNP pushing through legislation that will entrench harm to women
The essential problem is defining self ID as a human right without qualification. The first duty of a realm is the protection of the rights of its citizens which includes their safety.
Any government that both had pandemic mandates and also supported self ID has a credibility problem.
But I dinna think they canna see it.
The issue is not gender, gender equality was and is a worthy cause, it made manifest common/equal human rights. So I would be wary of claiming claiming gender ideology is misogynist as that plays into the hands of the promise keeper Christian patriarchy types and their war against "liberal/Marxist/woke" culture.
I would rather focus on noting that Self ID compromises women's safety, and that allowing transgender women to compete with women in sport is unfair (exceptions for community participation). And reserving the rights of women's groups to restrict membership to biological females (if they so choose).
Yes SPC. I can't believe that people would go into bat for the right to enter whatever competition they chose sporting wise (no one gets that, a heavy weight boxer can't choose to go into the light weight category), what ever bathrooms they choose (women have always had sex segregation bathrooms for bloody obvious reasons). Also changing the language so it is no longer "women" but people who menstruate etc.
Fwiw, the left no more then the right gives a fuck about those that are not born man. The left as much as the right will use those not born man to advance their own plans and ideas, and then discard those that are not born man without a second thought.
And seriously, the left needs to find a better bogey man to scare those who can't be defined anymore with the 'christian right'. That train left a long time ago.
The biggest threat to women the world over is not the right, it is the utter mockery that the left made out of womanhood. The right could have never hoped for a bigger and better gift by the men of the left to the right. But then, bros before…..?
You want us to be afraid of the right? You just erased women as a fully human being, endanger them, dehumanize them, and have them raped, assaulted and threatened legally. You are the ones that lock convicted rapists into cells with women’s. You are the ones that will charge incarcerated women with extra time if they refuse to call a he/him a she/her simply because that he/him identified themselves into the female estate. You are the ones that harass women that want to assert their rights to boundaries and single sex spaces. The left are the ones that call women bigots for not wanting to be washed by men in womanface. The left is the one that says that ones man erection in his stolen clothes from an airport makes them a 'women'.The left is the one that promote the castration and sterilisation of children.
The left is the one that provided the legal frame work for medical experiments on young and vulnerable teenagers and young adults. The left has become theTaliban of our society. Their god is Gender, Their religion is gender ideology and they are religious zealots. The only difference is that the Taliban know what women are and they put them under bedsheets. The gender ideology taliban in our countries removed us from law, from medical documents, from pubic speech and pretend that men can give birth, but lets us know that we can abort any child someone fucks into our tummies, and that sex work is work. There bitch, that ought to do it. You can suck dick for min wage and if your john knocks you up you can have an abortion. There, that’s your rights.
The left really has become what it is so afraid of. Religious zealots by any other name.
You want to cultivate hate against the left among women, fine .. but the biggest victim of right wing government are women, it's a function of inequality in society.
You could compare notes with the women of Teheran and Kabul and inform us of their response, if that is possible …
I don't cultivate that hate, the left does a good job on its own, and it seems to hate women so much they pretend that men are women.
Biggest victim of the left governments in the US, Canada, Scotland, Germany, France, and so forth are women and children. The ones that now have to content with men in their prisons, changing rooms, awards, list places, and so forth, the ones that get put on medication that will remove their sexual function and trap them in broken bodies for the rest of their life.
I am comparing notes, and you know what, i remember 1983 in Iran when the women suddenly were to wear bedsheets lest they get beat, raped into death – cause god will not allow raped and sullied women into the heavens, and so on. And you know whats the difference between us and them? A change of government. That is all it took. From a very left, western orientated US American stooge to a rightwing religious zealot. 1983 – you can actually look it up for your information.
And fwiw, it might be a religious government that likes to kill young women by raping them into death, but it is a a very trans friendly government. Yes, that right wing religious government is quite happy to castrate gay man and surgically fashion them into something akin to 'women' or if they don't want to hang them from a crane. I mean can you feel the kindness?
And the women in Afghanistan that get beat to death for wanting an education, for not wanting to marry man the age of methusalem, for wanting to listen to music and maybe not die age 11 in childbirth, well i guess the Taliban know full well what women are, but then the left in our world can't define women at all. You can look your birthing body in the face and not know what it is. That is the epitome of 'the left'.
I mean, who is more of a fuckwit? The one that admits reality and beats it to death for wanting to live, or the one who denies reality and threatens to send it to prison for stating that men aren't lesbians? That would be Norway – that bastion of left liberalism.
As i said, the right in all these countries is quite happy to let the left destroy any and all women rights, after all it means they don't have to do it.
You can hide behind the right as much as you want too, you can't however pretend that the left is not doing the shit it is.
I think that it is more than half the left are so committed to trans rights over women and girls (just my guess). They have brought the idea that trans women are a highly marginalized group and their needs must always trump those of women and girls.
With the government as of today enabling farmers to calculate their own offsets, betcha within 5 years all those marginal high country farms go to bush or pine.
Fewer animals killed, fewer cows total, more kiwi habitat, more honey.
We have a problem with debt keeping people in poverty.
Talking about household debt is difficult. Whether it’s to banks or loan sharks, most Kiwis will find themselves in debt at some point.
But often missing from the conversation is debt households owe to Government – and the way it can negatively impact lives.
… more than half a million New Zealanders collectively owe the government $3.5 billion. For many living in unmanageable debt, a significant portion is owed to the Government.
It sounds absurd, but there is no single place people can go to see how much debt they owe to the Government. Without a central data portal, debtors owing to many different government agencies often struggle to identify where their debt lies and how much is owed. This places people on low incomes with little margin for error into a fog of uncertainty about their finances.
For example, you can owe money to the Ministry of Social Development for emergency assistance, Ministry of Justice for parking tickets and other fines, or the IRD through Studylink.
If government placed repayment of debt whether to MSD, MoJ and IRD studylink on the same terms it would make things a lot easier.
The one for TD would be ideal (it would defer repayment of MSD debt until people found employment).
And groups trying to assist people out of poverty caused by costly debt repayment via interest free loans would have better information to work with.
PS One of the best ways government could reduce child poverty would be to assist women retain a place to live after divorce by taking over their partners share of the house.
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Big transport news today with the government beginning public engagement on options for the Waitemata Harbour Connections project. This project has had an incredibly long history, with previous versions somehow managing to be incredibly expensive, detrimental to most of the transport outcomes we are trying to achieve in Auckland, and ...
If ever there was an example of complacency about corruption and integrity in New Zealand politics it’s the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office knew back in 2021 that Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash was feeding privileged Cabinet information to business donors but did nothing about it. This is one of ...
Open access notables "Despite the potential for positive methane–climate feedbacks from global wetlands, most Earth System Models (ESMs) and Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) that informed the last Assessment Report of the IPCC do not directly incorporate this process."Publishing in Nature Climate Change, Zheng et al. unpack the implications of this ...
Among its ‘go slow’ on climate measures, the Government chose to delay tighter regulation of vehicle imports for air pollution for six years because it would have increased vehicle purchase costs. Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government continues to backtrack on moves to reduce emissions, with three news items ...
Stuart Nash’s downfall appears to have had its beginnings with one of the players from the “Dirty Politics” scandals of 2014. Simon Lusk, a close associate of Cameron “Whaleoil” Slater, one of the key figures in Nicky Hagar’s “Dirty Politics” expose, has been associated with Stuart Nash. Lusk has ...
Worried if this election will be shellacked by “the culture war”? That arrived ages ago. And, one side is definitely in panic mode, even if that’s not being admitted right now. Because of that, they’re reverting yet again to straight up… culture wars. Yes, fellow traveler, the Party who ...
All About Climate is a Youtube channel dedicated to communicating climate science and combating misinformation about global warming. It is run by Roshan Salgado D'Arcy - or 'Rosh' for short. He is a geology graduate with an MSc in climate change and is currently reading for a PhD in the communication of ...
ChatGPT is an interesting little beastie. I have only really started experimenting with it recently – not because I have any interest in using it for my own writing projects, but because I enjoy pushing and prodding the AI in strange directions. I have spent an inordinate amount of ...
The science of climate change is clear: we need to stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and we cannot burn even a fraction of those already discovered. So naturally, Labour is offering oil companies more exploration permits: The Government is offering companies another opportunity to search for ...
There are two keyboards in my office. I hammer at one a lot more than the other.But some days — today, for instance, after a few days of steeping myself in toxicity —that other keyboard can really come into its own.I learned to play the piano as a kid, went ...
Is the government imploding? Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has had to sack one of his more effective (and likeable) ministers, while another (from the Green Party) has insulted many of the adult population. For his part, Hipkins had appeared to be shaping up well since he took over the ...
Mobbed! As Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s (Posie Parker’s) opponents surged forward, her only protecters were a handful of burly security guards who surrounded their client and began forcing a path through what was now a howling mob. At least one video recording shows the diminutive Keen-Minshull, a terrified rag-doll, eyes dulled by ...
Buzz from the Beehive It looks like Marama Davidson must revile white sis males – or some other group of our population – three more times before she gets the heave-ho as one of Chris Hipkins’ ministers. That’s the conclusion to be drawn from the PM’s treatment of Stuart Nash, ...
For a serial offender like Stuart Nash, it was inevitable that another skeleton would emerge from his closet, and end his ministerial career. This one though, was a whopper. Previously, Nash had tried to tell the Police how to do their job. He had also tried to tell the courts ...
Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash was sacked last night for violating Cabinet Collective Responsibility rules, when it was revealed he disclosed sensitive Government information to business supporters who had donated money to him. The breach of the Cabinet Manual was enough to land him in trouble, but the fact that it ...
Some good news last week with the Council confirming that Te Hā Noa – Victoria St Linear Park will go ahead and with construction starting on 11 April – though with a few fishhooks. Te Hā Noa, a renewed Victoria Street, is the next big project in Auckland Council’s Midtown ...
Stuart Nash’s assurances to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins that there were no further examples of him breaching the Cabinet Manual became meaningless with the release of emails from Nash sharing Cabinet discussions with business people. The Prime Minister had no choice but to sack Nash as a Minister with immediate ...
Hi,Just a quick online-only update after yesterday’s newsletter, How Michael Organ Weaponised the Family Court... and Sean Plunket. First up — wow. Thanks for all the support, and to all those who shared their own personal stories in the comments. And welcome to any new Webworm readers.I just wanted ...
Let that sink in for a moment - Christopher Luxon, who has spent the last year demonising Māori, wants Marama Davidson to apologise to white men.You will likely have seen the video, or read about it. Marama Davidson rushing along Princes St on Saturday evening, the road that runs between ...
Stuart Nash, the great-grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Walter Nash, has lost his political career. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Stuart Nash was sacked for telling donors what happened in Cabinet. Wellington’s City and Regional Councils are going cold on light rail plans. Wayne Brown is under ...
NZ First Leader Winston Peters is sympathising with Stuart Nash and defending him but dodging questions on whether he would be welcome in New Zealand First. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins last night sacked Nash from the Cabinet after an email he had sent to two of his campaign donors ...
So, after interfering with the police, and then interfering with immigration decisions, Stuart Nash has finally been sacked: Stuart Nash has been sacked as a minister, after Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the people Nash emailed ...
Nearly 25% of mortgages in Auckland are deemed at risk in a 1-in-100 year flood event. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Once a year, every year, from now on, in our not-so-slow-cooking climate crisis, there will be a moment when the most important number in Aotearoa’s own personal, national ...
Item One: About a confected crisis Please bear with me for a moment, readers outside Auckland, I wish to sound the klaxon. Auckland, we have until 11pm today to have our say. About what? About this, as copied and pasted from Pippa Coom’s Facebook page:The "austerity" budget is built on ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet again, the statement we were looking for could not be found on the Beehive website. Nor was it on the Scoop or Green Party websites. But – come to think of it – we are probably wasting our time by searching. Our quest is for the ...
The following is from a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the Swedish Academy on March 22, 2023, at a conference called Thought and Truth Under Pressure and reprinted from Literary Hub. I thank the Swedish Academy for inviting me to speak at this conference and for affording me the privilege ...
After almost two decades of racism, Australia is finally getting off its "stop the boats" bullshit. But don't worry, racists - Michael Wood has your back!The Government wants to increase the time it can detain without a warrant people seeking asylum en masse from four days to 28 ...
Last year, the Education and Workforce Committee recommended that the government legislate for pay transparency to prevent employers from secretly discriminating. This ought to be a bread and butter issue for Labour - discrimination sees women (and particularly Māori and Pasifika women) paid significantly less than men. But since then ...
Thomas Cranmer writes – ———— An unruly mob in Albert Park has catapulted New Zealand into the global headlines with ugly images that may become iconic in the debate about the dangers of transgenderism. ———— Bravo Kellie-Jay Keen. She did the job that needed to be done. For all the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global warming is melting the Arctic ice cap, and that’s having unforeseen effects on the world’s weather — even thousands of miles away from the North Pole. Some climate scientists have begun to link increasingly common heat waves in Europe to what is ...
Hot on the heels of the demotion of former police Minister Stuart Nash for breaching the Cabinet Manual, Radio New Zealand has revealed the close links between lobbyists and politicians- an area of New Zealand politics that is completely unregulated. The evidence in Guyon Espiner’s series Mate, Comrade, Brother, the ...
At the Auckland Transport board meeting today a series of papers really highlight the cost of sprawl. For the last few years, the Supporting Growth work has been looking at designing the strategic transport networks for future greenfield areas in the South, Northwest, North (around Dairy flat) and in Warkworth. ...
Hi,Today’s newsletter is something I’ve wanted to report for ages, but I have been waiting on a New Zealand judge to make a ruling. That ruling has been made — so here we go.Enjoy.A scene from Mister Organ.Two Police Officers Knock on My DoorOn November 4 last year, I was ...
Only three days after Nanaia Mahuta had dinner with China’s Foreign Minister, New Zealand’s intelligence chiefs were talking about state actors interfering in New Zealand politics and using ethnic communities here for espionage purposes. Neither GSCB Director (and new SIS director) Andrew Hampton nor acting SIS CEO Phil McKee ...
In what has been one of her most important diplomatic mission, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has opened the door for a visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins later this year. Such a mission is regarded as vital with a new Prime Minister Li Qiang settling into office. ...
Saturday morning, we went to Albert Park.We were there to show support, to challenge words of demonisation.To repeat those words from Michèle A’Court:Making them sound “other” is a technique used by racists and homophobes to dehumanise whole groups of people who “aren’t like them”. If you dehumanise people, it is ...
Over a million New Zealanders will receive a little extra to help with the cost of living as a result of our 1 April changes. Around the world, inflation is causing costs to rise and we’re feeling it here at home. In tough times, we need to support those who ...
With benefit changes coming into effect tomorrow, the Green Party is calling on the Government to lift benefits to liveable levels to make sure everyone has what they need to thrive. ...
Following decades of work by the Green Party alongside the organics sector, people will finally be able to be confident that products labelled organic have met standards. ...
The Green Party supports immediate Government action to close the pay gap as called for in an open letter released today by the Human Rights Commission and 50 other organisations. ...
The Green Party is today welcoming the release of the Government’s waste strategy, but says it has a big gap without action on the container return scheme for beverage containers. ...
The Government’s decision to introduce ‘mass arrivals’ legislation goes against the values we all share of Aotearoa as a place where all people are treated fairly, the Green Party says. ...
MINISTER DAVIDSON MUST RESIGN AFTER 'VIOLENCE' COMMENTS Marama Davidson should stand down as ‘Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence’ for the clear and outrageous statement she made at the Posie Parker protest that ‘white straight men’ are the cause of violence. Her offensive, racist, and sexist remarks ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
“This is it; 2023 will be the last opportunity New Zealand has to get a government that will confront the climate emergency with the urgency it demands,” says the Green Party’s co-leader and climate change spokesperson, James Shaw. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
From today, 1.8 million flu vaccines are available to help protect New Zealanders from winter illness, Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall has announced. “Vaccination against flu is safe and will be a first line of defence against severe illness this winter,” Dr Verrall said. “We can all play a part ...
Associate Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Willow-Jean Prime has congratulated Professor Rangi Mātāmua (Ngāi Tūhoe) who was last night named the prestigious Te Pou Whakarae o Aotearoa New Zealander of the Year. Professor Mātāmua, who is the government's Chief Adviser Mātauranga Matariki, was the winner of the New Zealander ...
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has announced further sanctions on political and military figures from Russia and Belarus as part of the ongoing response to the war in Ukraine. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova ...
A new public housing development planned for Whangārei will provide 95 warm and dry, modern homes for people in need, Housing Minister Megan Woods says. The Kauika Road development will replace a motel complex in the Avenues with 89 three-level walk up apartments, alongside six homes. “Whangārei has a rapidly ...
New Zealand welcomes the substantial conclusion of negotiations on the United Kingdom’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Continuing to grow our export returns is a priority for the Government and part of our plan to ...
Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown initial Taranaki Maunga collective redress deed Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown have today initialled the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Deed, named Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little says. “I am pleased to be here for this ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Barbara Edmonds has announced the 2023 Pacific Language week series, highlighting the need to revitalise and sustain languages for future generations. “Pacific languages are a cornerstone of our health, wellbeing and identity as Pacific peoples. When our languages are spoken, heard and celebrated, our communities thrive,” ...
880,000 pensioners to get a boost to Super, including 5000 veterans 52,000 students to see a bump in allowance or loan living costs Approximately 223,000 workers to receive a wage rise as a result of the minimum wage increasing to $22.70 8,000 community nurses to receive pay increase of up ...
Over 8000 community nurses will start receiving well-deserved pay rises of up to 15 percent over the next month as a Government initiative worth $200 million a year kicks in, says Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. “The Government is committed to ensuring nurses are paid fairly and will receive ...
Tākiri mai ana te ata Ki runga o ngākau mārohirohi Kōrihi ana te manu kaupapa Ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea Tihei mauri ora Let the dawn break On the hearts and minds of those who stand resolute As the bird of action sings, it welcomes the dawn of a ...
The Government is introducing a scheme which will lift incomes for artists, support them beyond the current spike in cost of living and ensure they are properly recognised for their contribution to New Zealand’s economy and culture. “In line with New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with the UK, last ...
New Zealand is welcoming a decision by the United Nations General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice to consider countries’ international legal obligations on climate change. The United Nations has voted unanimously to adopt a resolution led by Vanuatu to ask the ICJ for an advisory opinion on ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 59 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. “The graduation for recruit wing 364 was my first since becoming Police Minister last week,” Ginny Andersen said. “It was a real honour. I want to ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta met with Vanuatu Foreign Minister Jotham Napat in Port Vila, today, signing a new Statement of Partnership — Aotearoa New Zealand’s first with Vanuatu. “The Mauri Statement of Partnership is a joint expression of the values, priorities and principles that will guide the Aotearoa New Zealand–Vanuatu relationship into ...
The Government has passed new legislation amending the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) levy regime, ensuring the best balance between a fair and cost effective funding model. The Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Levy) Amendment Bill makes changes to the existing law to: charge the levy on contracts of ...
The Government has passed the Organic Products and Production Bill through its third reading today in Parliament helping New Zealand’s organic sector to grow and lift export revenue. “The Organic Products and Production Bill will introduce robust and practical regulation to give businesses the certainty they need to continue to ...
The Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill, which will make it easier for New Zealanders to safely prove who they are digitally has passed its third and final reading today. “We know New Zealanders want control over their identity information and how it’s used by the companies and services they ...
The full Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Taskforce has met formally for the first time as work continues to help the regions recover and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle. The Taskforce, which includes representatives from business, local government, iwi and unions, covers all regions affected by the January and February floods and cyclone. ...
Changes have been made to legislation to give subcontractors the confidence they will be paid the retention money they are owed should the head contractor’s business fail, Minister for Building and Construction Megan Woods announced today. “These changes passed in the Construction Contracts (Retention Money) Amendment Act safeguard subcontractors who ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has unveiled five scenarios for one of the most significant city-shaping projects for Tāmaki Makaurau in coming decades, the additional Waitematā Harbour crossing. “Aucklanders and businesses have made it clear that the biggest barriers to the success of Auckland is persistent congestion and after years of ...
The Government has passed new legislation that ensures New Zealand’s civil aviation rules are fit for purpose in the 21st century, Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allan says. The Civil Aviation Bill repeals and replaces the Civil Aviation Act 1990 and the Airport Authorities Act 1966 with a single modern law ...
A Bill aimed at helping to reduce delays in the coronial jurisdiction passed its third reading today. The Coroners Amendment Bill, amongst other things, will establish new coronial positions, known as Associate Coroners, who will be able to perform most of the functions, powers, and duties of Coroners. The new ...
The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Secretary to conduct a review into communications between Stuart Nash and his donors. The review will take place over the next two months. The review will look at whether there have been any other breaches of cabinet collective responsibility or confidentiality, or whether ...
The new Recovery Visa to help bring in additional migrant workers to support cyclone and flooding recovery has attracted over 600 successful applicants within its first month. “The Government is moving quickly to support businesses bring in the workers needed to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods,” Michael ...
Bills to ensure non-teaching employees and contractors at schools, and unlicensed childcare services like mall crèches are vetted by police, and provide safeguards for school board appointments have passed their first reading today. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No. 3) and the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill have now ...
Wānanga will gain increased flexibility and autonomy that recognises the unique role they fill in the tertiary education sector, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No.3), that had its first reading today, proposes a new Wānanga enabling framework for the three current ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will travel to Vanuatu today, announcing that Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further relief and recovery assistance there, following the recent destruction caused by Cyclones Judy and Kevin. While in Vanuatu, Minister Mahuta will meet with Vanuatu Acting Prime Minister Sato Kilman, Foreign Minister Jotham ...
The Government is backing Police and making communities safer with the roll-out of state-of-the-art tools and training to frontline staff, Police Minister Ginny Andersen said today. “Frontline staff face high-risk situations daily as they increasingly respond to sophisticated organised crime, gang-violence and the availability of illegal firearms,” Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government has provided Police with more tools to crack down on gang offending with the passing of new legislation today which will further improve public safety, Justice Minister Kiri Allan says. The Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill amends existing law to: create new targeted warrant and additional search powers ...
The Government today announced far-reaching changes to the way we make, use, recycle and dispose of waste, ushering in a new era for New Zealand’s waste system. The changes will ensure that where waste is recycled, for instance by households at the kerbside, it is less likely to be contaminated ...
New legislation passed by the Government today will make it harder for gangs and their leaders to benefit financially from crime that causes considerable harm in our communities, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan says. Since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 came into effect police have been highly successful in ...
This evening I have advised the Governor-General to dismiss Stuart Nash from all his ministerial portfolios. Late this afternoon I was made aware by a news outlet of an email Stuart Nash sent in March 2020 to two contacts regarding a commercial rent relief package that Cabinet had considered. In ...
Legislation to enable more build-to-rent developments has passed its third reading in Parliament, so this type of rental will be able to claim interest deductibility in perpetuity where it meets the requirements. Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods, says the changes will help unlock the potential of the build-to-rent sector and ...
A law passed by Parliament today exempts employers from paying fringe benefit tax on certain low emission commuting options they provide or subsidise for their staff. “Many employers already subsidise the commuting costs of their staff, for instance by providing car parks,” Environment Minister David Parker said. “This move supports ...
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER), our gold standard free trade agreement between New Zealand and Australia. “CER was a world-leading agreement in 1983, is still world-renowned today and is emblematic of both our countries’ commitment to free trade. The WTO has called it the world’s ...
The Government is making procedural changes to the Immigration Act to ensure that 2013 amendments operate as Parliament intended. The Government is also introducing a new community management approach for asylum seekers. “While it’s unlikely we’ll experience a mass arrival due to our remote positioning, there is no doubt New ...
The Government welcomes progress on public sector pay adjustment (PSPA) agreements, and the release of the updated public service pay guidance by the Public Service Commission today, Minister for the Public Service Andrew Little says. “More than a dozen collective agreements are now settled in the public service, Crown Agents, ...
The Government has introduced the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill to further support the recovery and rebuild from the recent severe weather events in the North Island. “We know from our experiences following the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes that it will take some time before we completely understand the ...
Further assistance is now available to businesses impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle, with Customs able to offer payment plans and to remit late-payments, Customs Minister Meka Whaitiri has announced. “This is part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to assist economic recovery in the regions,” Meka Whaitiri said. “Cabinet has approved the ...
More than 41,000 sole parent families will be better off with a median gain of $20 a week Law change estimated to help lift up to 14,000 children out of poverty Child support payments will be passed on directly to people receiving a sole parent rate of main benefit, making ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The rout of the Liberals in Aston is a disaster for Peter Dutton. The party has defied history – in the worst possible way. This is the first time in more than a century ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Morgan Hancock/AAP With 44% of enrolled voters counted in today’s Aston federal byelection, the ABC has Labor expected to win ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Morgan Hancock/AAP With 44% of enrolled voters counted in today’s Aston federal byelection, the ABC has Labor expected to win ...
Analysis - When is a cabinet minister not a cabinet minister? The faulty logic of Stuart Nash has landed him and Labour in a heap of trouble but opened the door to serious reform of the Official Information Act, Tim Watkin writes. ...
Jubi News in Jayapura Indonesia’s Papua police chief Inspector-General Mathius D Fakhiri has called for action to ensure that “security disturbances” in the Puncak Jaya highlands do not widen in the face of escalating attacks by pro-independence militants. “For Puncak, we will take immediate action,” he said. According to General ...
What are you going to be watching this month? We round up everything coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ+. The biggies Party Down (all seasons on TVNZ+ from April 1) Thirteen years is a long time between drinks and ...
Ginny Andersen has landed a hot-potato portfolio and has been in Cabinet less than two months - the opposition will be eager to test her mettle this election year. ...
The executive producer of Modern Family has issued an incendiary claim about New Zealanders cheering and clapping in public. Hayden Donnell gets to the bottom of things.The sitcom Modern Family is remembered as a “warm-hearted story about the unbreakable bonds of family”; a tale of radically different people overcoming ...
As rain kept falling across January, February and into March, all band members cold do was sit at home cancelling festivals and posting sad Facebook messages to fans. The first post landed on January 3. As wild weather began hitting the country, campers around Northland packed up their tents ...
Because pro-social behaviour emerges so often after disaster, community empowerment should be central to disaster mitigation and recoveryOpinion: Cyclone Gabrielle caused major damage across the North Island. This unprecedented climate event created great uncertainty. People are wondering if, or when, they can return to their homes, the extent to ...
"We, women, loving you; you, men, finding new women to love": a Francophile love story in NZ Louis woke up and found out Marine was not lying next to him in bed. He checked his phone – 5:30am. The aurora shone a bright gold on the windows of the detached ...
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, we looked at how co-governance really works, Labour's record on climate action, what the new AUKUS nuclear submarine deal means for New Zealand, Posie Parker's visit to Auckland and the free speech debate, and the damage processed foods are ...
The radio workers were caught by the unexpected speed of the decline of NZ's consumer economy, since Christmas – and they won't be the last. Jonathan Milne reports. When broadcaster Tova O’Brien uttered the resounding words, "they’ve f***ed us", they resonated beyond the 1 percent audience share of a small talk radio operation ...
A New Zealand Battery Project centred on Lake Onslow in Central Otago is up against a cheaper North Island alternative Studies into whether a massive pumped-hydro scheme at Lake Onslow is New Zealand’s best bet for a secure energy future may have only four more months to run. While the ...
This is The Detail's Long Read - one in-depth story read by us every weekend. This week, it's Jungle Warfare, written by Ellen Rykers and published in New Zealand Geographic's March/April 2023 edition. You can find the full article, with photos by Adrian Malloch, here. Hundreds of pest plant species—many of them garden escapees—run rampant in ...
The Red, White & Brass star talks spectacle, honouring family sacrifices and his debut lead role over a Tongan lunch in Otāhuhu.Name a creative pursuit and 28-year-old Tongan New Zealander John-Paul Foliaki will give it a go. That is, if he hasn’t already. Foliaki plays the lead role, Maka, ...
To mark 100 years since the great short story writer’s death, books editor Claire Mabey marathonned her collected works – these are the top 20.Reader, I did it. I read all of Katherine Mansfield’s short stories. Confession: I haven’t always been a fan. I have tedious memories of ...
In her first season as an ANZ Premiership captain, Ameliaranne Ekenasio was nervous about filling the shoes of the legendary Magic captains before her. But, as Merryn Anderson writes, the quiet leader has the full respect of the side who voted her in. When the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic created history ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Ordway, Associate Professor Sport Management and Sport Integrity Lead, University of Canberra Lawyers for Australian 800-metre star Peter Bol say allegations the runner engaged in doping should be dropped after two independent labs found no evidence he used a banned substance. ...
Vanuatu’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Trading Post Ltd, the owner of the VanuatuDaily Post newspaper, BUZZ FM96 and other media outlets, in a case against the government’s refusal to renew the company’s former media director’s work permit. Dan McGarry, who served as a director of the ...
Balclutha-based farmer Stephen Jack has been selected by local party members as National’s candidate in Taieri for the 2023 General Election. “Taieri is my home and I’m incredibly excited to have the opportunity to campaign for a National Government ...
Analysis - The Stuart Nash scandal has the potential to damage Labour's election chances, Marama Davidson creates controversy and Auckland's second harbour crossing to be built earlier than expected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare JM Burns, Assistant Professor and Non-executive Director, Bond University Shutterstock The story of the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund, whose name and marketing misled thousands of customers into believing it was Indigenous owned and run, is a stark example of ...
It’s the biannual reminder to tamper with that pesky analogue clock you still have in your kitchen for some reason (or at the least your microwave/car stereo). This Sunday at 3am, we will all gain an hour of sleep as the clocks roll back ahead of winter. Get ready for ...
The chief ombudsman has elected to reopen his investigation into an email from former minister Stuart Nash to a pair of donors back in 2020. The email, which only came to light this week, quickly triggered Nash’s dismissal from cabinet. But in bad news for the prime minister Chris Hipkins, ...
Last week we celebrated The Bulletin’s fifth birthday with Spinoff members and staff at The Spinoff’s offices in Auckland. The Bulletin launched in March 2018 seeking to curate news and great journalism and email that to people for free each weekday morning. That hasn’t changed and it’s still going strong. ...
The biggest increase in the history of the minimum wage will have a huge impact for workers on low wages, says the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions. From tomorrow, the minimum wage will rise to $22.70, up from $21.20. This increase will benefit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By George Siemens, Co-Director, Professor, Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning, University of South Australia agsandrew/Shutterstock Recent public interest in tools like ChatGPT has raised an old question in the artificial intelligence community: is artificial general intelligence (in this case, ...
Auckland’s wet summer is delivering one final blow just in time for the weekend. The Synthony festival, due to be held on Saturday at Auckland Domain and featuring performances by Shapeshifter, Dave Dobbyn and Kimbra, has been postponed following predictions of heavy rainfall across the day. More than 20,000 people ...
We would like to see a temporary by-pass of the major slip on State Highway 25A built to alleviate the concerns of the residents of the Eastern Side of Coromandel. Cyclone Gabrielle inflicted substantial damage to roading on the Coromandel Peninsula. ...
Alex Casey watches Wellmania, the new Netflix comedy starring Instagram sensation Celeste Barber. The lowdownBased on the book by journalist Brigid Delaney, Netflix comedy Wellmania follows successful yet shambolic Australian food writer Liv Bealey (Celeste Barber) as she embarks on a quest to get well as quickly as possible. ...
The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says he has reopened his investigation into an Official Information Act complaint about a decision by former Minister Stuart Nash. "The original enquiry was discontinued in May last year in discussion with the ...
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IMO : This…especially following on from the already recently high lighted, and… ongoing tragedy of World…And incl NZ loss of Biodiversity (even extinctions ! )..seems incongruous. At the very least
sounds like the council and environmentalists fucked up. Reasonable write up here of what went wrong for the council,
https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/features/130418930/the-trouble-with-a-lofty-view-from-above
If true, that's just a completely stupid action. Te Anau is a conservative community, with lots of people antagonistic towards conservation and environmentalism. It's also a small community. I'm sure the other side has its own telling of how things went down, but you have to work with people not just try and force them into cultural change that the wider community doesn't support.
There are progressive farmers in the area, and people who are pro-conservation. Getting people's backs up is not a good approach.
I'd like to know how the station became freehold from the Crown in the early 80s.
I’d also like to know what compensation the Chartres family have received and not received since the 80s.
From another source:
"This position was pursued despite the fact that the council had – on several occasions since 2001 – confirmed that vegetation clearance activities were lawful and compliant," Chartres explained. He added that during the course of the four day Environment Court hearing, SDC was forced to concedde that it could no longer prove that clearances undertaken prior to 2017 were unlawful and – by the time the case had closed – it had abandoned this part of the case.
If this is correct, Council have stuffed up badly, and the ratepayers will be picking up the bill.
"I’d also like to know what compensation the Chartres family have received and not received since the 80s."
"Chartres says his family has called Te Anau Downs Station their home since 1925, with its farming history dating back to 1860. He added that around 78% of the original farm has been appropriated to the conservation estate without compensation."
Sounds to me like a conflict at the most basic level: should there be a farm there, or should it be a conservation estate. You cannot apply the same rules to both situations (and that's why the Council's knuckles have been rapped so hard).
Sell off of 'productive' Crown lands in the 80s and 90s was fairly standard government policy. Lands which had been in long-term lease for farming (and therefore weren't conservation areas) – were made available for the farmers to buy, rather than continue leasing. Not all farmers *wanted* to buy – some were perfectly happy with continuing as long-term leaseholders (with perpetual right of renewal).
From 1998 – many farmers have also gone through the tenure review process – where they can separate out conservation quality land, from general farming land.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/pastoral-lease-reform-back-to-the-future
So the Chartres would have paid to buy the farm in 1982? Was that market price or was the government doing easy deals for farmers?
As for what the land use 'should be', the Chartres have farmed there for 100 years and others before them. I can't see how it could now be converted to conservation estate unless the family want to sell to the Crown (very unlikely).
This is the quintessential conflict between capitalism and nature, but there are many parts of that whole area that 'should' be conservation land and instead there is conversion to dairying.
A compromise would be for the farm to transition to commercial regenerative land use with a heavy emphasis on native biodiversity.
Pretty sure that the prices paid were commercial value at the time (hence the fact that lots of farmers wanted to remain as lessors, rather than convert the land)
I don't think that the farmer is going to think of your solution as a compromise.
He thinks (and the law seems to be overwhelmingly in his favour), that this is farmland (and has been for over 100 years), and usual farm management practices apply. Basically, he can continue to manage his farm, in the way which makes most economic sense to him (within the broad restrictions of NZ environmental legislation, with which all farmers have to comply)
It may be that regenag could be a good solution- unfortunately the well has been thoroughly poisoned by the Council and conservation activists – and he's unlikely to be willing to listen to them.
"Usual farm management" has nothing to do with modern farming practices, especially in Canterbury. BAN PALM KERNEL now, and accept that farmers should stock their land according to the numbers their own land can sustain.
Yes BD is correct. If he had a pastoral lease he had no right of obtaining a freehold title unless per mechanism of the tenure review system. Pastoral leases had restrictions on stocking rates etc.
If he had entered toot the tenure review system he would have been paid in that the land better suited to conservation would have been valued and then the land to be given as a freehold title would be valued and either a credit or debit to the Crown….No way would he have given land or had land appropriated without some sort of compensation. Some land holders do give land but rarely.
But big bad old meany Crown sounds better when you are a 'poor hard done by Crown agencies' farmer.
Some of these farmers would be leaning towards recalcitrant and always have been in their dealings with the Crown who was their landlord in times gone by. Worked in this field in the 1980s/90s and it is interesting to see the ones who are still a bit anti Crown/anti conservation.
In the Te Anau basin itself, as opposed to the high country around it, the Crown poured money and expertise in so that the land could be developed and sold to young farmers back in the 1960s/70s. This followed on from the boom after the war when rehab farm settlements were developoed so those who came back from WW2 could have some recompense for their work to defend NZ. This land is long moved from leasehold to deferred Payments Licences and on to freehold titles and last time I was there much had gone to dairying.
Some Councils have been using their planning expertise and soil maps to guide on land use. Some are doing a great job but broad brush just lets in inappropriate irrigation and dairying. Some farmers seem to think that they should not be subject to planning rules as the rest of us are.
I see that some of the land was grazing lease, this had even fewer rights to long term leasing than pastoral leases themselves and PLs were/are pretty restrictive. These usually had no automatic right of renewal and often were re-let after being pruned back and the conservation- type land added to the conservation estate.
I sense a passed down the generations story of naughty Crown doing things that were quite legal and appropriate when looking at the health of the land.
"I'd like to know how the station became freehold from the Crown in the early 80s."
A good start would be Ann Brower's book "Who Owns the High Country?" (Craig Potton Publishing, 2008). Might be in your local library.
I don't think Te Anau Downs station (Chartres property) is mentioned but the shonky pastoral lease freeholding process certainly is covered in relation to Glendhu Station and others.
Yes. IMO An indictment on those who decided, the people involved … and the utter greed .
Well….IMO theres an interesting bit. Maybe wonder why…armed Police ?
Anyway….some other on Peter Chartres
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/negligent-doc-lets-
IMO : while the different Councils, and DOC, seem to have not been careful…with their cases (seemingly they absolutely needed to have their A game and should have known this ! ) Mr Chartres…quite possibly needed/needs careful handling. IMO.
The latest case seems to have been decided on the farmer's "existing use" rights. Although clearance of indigenous vegetation went on for 20 years, the Southland DC plan had some sort of transitional rule allowing clearance of previous regrowth.
There was also a technical point (raised but not decided) about the council CEO not being able to delegate powers of enforcement all the way down to front line officials.
Looks like a field day for the lawyers, with the environment the loser.
pretty sure it will be regrowth that is being cleared. The issue being more at what point do we consider regrowth to be forest that shouldn't be cleared. Is that based on length of time, or state of the ecosystem? Should fairness to the farmers be part of the decision? Is the place better off having regrowth and periodic removal rather than being converted to pasture permanently? It's complex.
Fairness to the farmers is almost overwhelming in cases like this …….what is the problem is that it is often all one way…….not inherent fairness to the land as a living breathing thing not to the Crown who still administers some pastoral leases and has stewardship over conservation land.
In some cases where land was transferred out of the family to suitably a qualified farmer from out of the area it was not unusual to see that the incoming farmer could not see the need to bring in every last acre. They saw the benefit of preserving/conserving land.
Often unless the older generation of farmers on the land were inherently progressive/awake subsequent generations farmed like Dad did and if Dad/Granddad was only so-so then the later generation would be too. Some of these later generations do not go to Lincoln/Massey or farm as shepherds on other properties here or overseas before taking over the family farm. Not saying this has happened here but it has happened on some of these farms.
Sad really.
But the Councils do hold a key in that they can enact reasonable protections for the land as farming land so it holds it for later generations to protect it if they see fit.
We're just bad at this all round. We don't know what the Chartres think about ecology, we know a little bit about what they think about running their farm. But they are no alone in not being fair to nature, that's pretty much most of NZ. The Crown hasn't been that great a steward either.
Esp when dealing with this particular situation. Also, Sad….but True
throughout NZ..and the rest of Our Earth
I wonder if some of the Pacific Island countries could join the law suit? Their case is just as strong.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/20/big-oil-is-behind-conspiracy-to-deceive-public-first-climate-racketeering-lawsuit-says?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Hell all, I am off camping now until 2023 so merry Xmas and happy new year to the Standardnistas and their families (IT IS XMAS ON SUNDAY!!!!!!).
2022 was a bit crappy, but hey – Trump is diminished, the right in retreat, the consequences of nostalgia as policy are biting the British ruling class hard on the arse and Putin is on the ropes.
May 2023 see Trump jail, Zelensky presiding over the victory parade of the AFU in Red Square, the Democrats back in the Whitehouse, and Jacinda winning.
See you all in the new year!
Enjoy mate. Appreciated your thoughtful, passionate and well crafted contributions here this past year.
Enjoy the Christmas break and be extra careful if driving on the roads.
2023 will be interesting.
Get off your ass and start writing proper posts.
You know you're capable.
It's like making sausages.
Merry Christmas.
Brilliant choice Anne.
Merry Christmas Sanctuary. Hope you have a very enjoyable celebration
Mind that camping business doesn't interfere with the eating/drinking/reading/sloth.
Enjoy!.
Keep up the excellent posts in the NY Sanc.
Enjoy your holiday Sanctuary. Stay safe. Looking forward to reading your posts next year. Merry Xmas and a very happy and healthy 2023.
Avoid camping near those Auckland beaches…….nothing good will come of that!
Happy Christmas and see you back in the New Year.
No easy way out.
https://www.interest.co.nz/business/118954/motu-executive-director-and-ex-rbnz-assistant-governor-john-mcdermott-assesses
Mistakes all round and those least able/responsible to bear the brunt…..as usual.
Forty nine years ago today Basque separatists assassinated Franco's PM and nominated successor Luis Carrero Blanco.
I'm in Spain for a while now Joe and not mourning any Franco acolyte….when I was at college when Franco's death was announced in (I think) 1975 somebody through a beer bottle through the tv when his picture came up ….we had no TV for the rest of the year but we cheered
I spent Christmas 1975 and a good part of the new year camped up in Hendaye waiting to see if Franco's death would trigger another civil war. We finally entered Spain in October. Post-fascist Spain was a life-changing experience for a Taranaki boy.
.
Ah, Also known as Spain's first Astronaut, hard to believe that car was launched over a 5 story building.
Old mate in the back was killed, but driver survived & I understand there is a book on how they dug the tunnel underneath where old mate would get his car like regular clock work to go to work.
A brilliant piece of intelligence work & Tactical appreciation which they probably didn't realise the strategic implications on how fast the regime collapse after this bombing.
Another example of broken laws that are not fit for purpose:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-government/300733403/why-doc-couldnt-intervene-when-concrete-was-poured-next-to-penguin-chicks
It would be nice if the party with complete control of government didn't use excuses of the limitations of laws to abdicate doing something to fix them.
Farmers continue to get the kid glove treatment regarding meeting climate change targets:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/481197/government-makes-changes-to-farm-level-emissions-pricing-plan
Thus is a good day , once you've got the mob mustered and shut the gate securely, you can then start to do the things that need doing.
the good farmers are already doing that, the ones who don't care about climate will continue to drag the chain. Maybe there's a shift from the latter to the former, but it's way too slow. We're out of time and anyone arguing for slower transition at this point either doesn't understand the brutal reality of the climate problem, or doesn't care.
I think the ets is a sham and a failure so Takibg any carbon tax and using to study fixs is a win for me.
Xmas do awaits cheerio
have fun! I'm sure the debate will survive the holidays 😉
Lets see how many jump out of the yards, or just crash through the rails and head for the hills.
A bit of a show of unity in the announcement but let’s where it is in a year.
When’s Luxon going to come out say it’s all in bin after the election
Imagine if your suburban back yard was growing old-growth native trees. You cut them down and sow grass. Drain the damp area where the dragonflies and frogs live. Drop a concrete pipe into the creek and cover it up. Drench the area with herbicide, because you don't like dandelion, molluscicide, because slugs, pesticide, ditto bees, and pour on the synthetic fertiliser coz grass = profit. That fertiliser contains a poisonous heavy metal, but you've got exemption from the contaminated land rules, so it's all good. It emerges that off-gassing from your activities is endangering us all, but lobbying from your mates all but frees you from the obligation to reduce it.
You're sitting pretty!
The neighbours are becoming a bit irritated by you though!
We have turned the corner, I've personally been involved in a couple of large wetlands being formed ,and am now with in touching distance of being able to make real changes myself , recently excluded cattle from 15ks of regenerating native bush ,
Big ups to you, bwaghorn!
Much of the power for future good is in farmers' hands.
The internet of things is working out well.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/19/1065306/roomba-irobot-robot-vacuums-artificial-intelligence-training-data-privacy/
The SNP is a progressive party seeking independence within the more modern EU than the backward living in the past Tory city of London England.
They want another referendum (they are working with those wanting one for NI leaving the UK for Eire).
And this is where they are at the moment promoting self ID.
Once upon a time English men were a threat to Scottish woman, so a particularly tall Briton living in Scotland picked up a particularly big sword.
Yet the ECHR does not require any right to self ID …
Nor does the ECHR prevent police checks and pre employment vetting …
UK Human Rights is in accord with ECHR.
https://www.holyrood.com/news/view,gender-recognition-reform-msps-reject-amendment-following-government-concerns-about-competence
I haven't been following the legislation closely but here's my best guess,
The essential problem is defining self ID as a human right without qualification. The first duty of a realm is the protection of the rights of its citizens which includes their safety.
Any government that both had pandemic mandates and also supported self ID has a credibility problem.
But I dinna think they canna see it.
The issue is not gender, gender equality was and is a worthy cause, it made manifest common/equal human rights. So I would be wary of claiming claiming gender ideology is misogynist as that plays into the hands of the promise keeper Christian patriarchy types and their war against "liberal/Marxist/woke" culture.
I would rather focus on noting that Self ID compromises women's safety, and that allowing transgender women to compete with women in sport is unfair (exceptions for community participation). And reserving the rights of women's groups to restrict membership to biological females (if they so choose).
Yes SPC. I can't believe that people would go into bat for the right to enter whatever competition they chose sporting wise (no one gets that, a heavy weight boxer can't choose to go into the light weight category), what ever bathrooms they choose (women have always had sex segregation bathrooms for bloody obvious reasons). Also changing the language so it is no longer "women" but people who menstruate etc.
Its so arrogant and narcisstic
Fwiw, the left no more then the right gives a fuck about those that are not born man. The left as much as the right will use those not born man to advance their own plans and ideas, and then discard those that are not born man without a second thought.
And seriously, the left needs to find a better bogey man to scare those who can't be defined anymore with the 'christian right'. That train left a long time ago.
The biggest threat to women the world over is not the right, it is the utter mockery that the left made out of womanhood. The right could have never hoped for a bigger and better gift by the men of the left to the right. But then, bros before…..?
You want us to be afraid of the right? You just erased women as a fully human being, endanger them, dehumanize them, and have them raped, assaulted and threatened legally. You are the ones that lock convicted rapists into cells with women’s. You are the ones that will charge incarcerated women with extra time if they refuse to call a he/him a she/her simply because that he/him identified themselves into the female estate. You are the ones that harass women that want to assert their rights to boundaries and single sex spaces. The left are the ones that call women bigots for not wanting to be washed by men in womanface. The left is the one that says that ones man erection in his stolen clothes from an airport makes them a 'women'.The left is the one that promote the castration and sterilisation of children.
The left is the one that provided the legal frame work for medical experiments on young and vulnerable teenagers and young adults. The left has become theTaliban of our society. Their god is Gender, Their religion is gender ideology and they are religious zealots. The only difference is that the Taliban know what women are and they put them under bedsheets. The gender ideology taliban in our countries removed us from law, from medical documents, from pubic speech and pretend that men can give birth, but lets us know that we can abort any child someone fucks into our tummies, and that sex work is work. There bitch, that ought to do it. You can suck dick for min wage and if your john knocks you up you can have an abortion. There, that’s your rights.
The left really has become what it is so afraid of. Religious zealots by any other name.
The left is done.
You want to cultivate hate against the left among women, fine .. but the biggest victim of right wing government are women, it's a function of inequality in society.
You could compare notes with the women of Teheran and Kabul and inform us of their response, if that is possible …
I don't cultivate that hate, the left does a good job on its own, and it seems to hate women so much they pretend that men are women.
Biggest victim of the left governments in the US, Canada, Scotland, Germany, France, and so forth are women and children. The ones that now have to content with men in their prisons, changing rooms, awards, list places, and so forth, the ones that get put on medication that will remove their sexual function and trap them in broken bodies for the rest of their life.
I am comparing notes, and you know what, i remember 1983 in Iran when the women suddenly were to wear bedsheets lest they get beat, raped into death – cause god will not allow raped and sullied women into the heavens, and so on. And you know whats the difference between us and them? A change of government. That is all it took. From a very left, western orientated US American stooge to a rightwing religious zealot. 1983 – you can actually look it up for your information.
And fwiw, it might be a religious government that likes to kill young women by raping them into death, but it is a a very trans friendly government. Yes, that right wing religious government is quite happy to castrate gay man and surgically fashion them into something akin to 'women' or if they don't want to hang them from a crane. I mean can you feel the kindness?
And the women in Afghanistan that get beat to death for wanting an education, for not wanting to marry man the age of methusalem, for wanting to listen to music and maybe not die age 11 in childbirth, well i guess the Taliban know full well what women are, but then the left in our world can't define women at all. You can look your birthing body in the face and not know what it is. That is the epitome of 'the left'.
I mean, who is more of a fuckwit? The one that admits reality and beats it to death for wanting to live, or the one who denies reality and threatens to send it to prison for stating that men aren't lesbians? That would be Norway – that bastion of left liberalism.
As i said, the right in all these countries is quite happy to let the left destroy any and all women rights, after all it means they don't have to do it.
You can hide behind the right as much as you want too, you can't however pretend that the left is not doing the shit it is.
And self ID is the gift of the left to the right.
100% Weka. So well put.
I think that it is more than half the left are so committed to trans rights over women and girls (just my guess). They have brought the idea that trans women are a highly marginalized group and their needs must always trump those of women and girls.
With the government as of today enabling farmers to calculate their own offsets, betcha within 5 years all those marginal high country farms go to bush or pine.
Fewer animals killed, fewer cows total, more kiwi habitat, more honey.
We have a problem with debt keeping people in poverty.
If government placed repayment of debt whether to MSD, MoJ and IRD studylink on the same terms it would make things a lot easier.
The one for TD would be ideal (it would defer repayment of MSD debt until people found employment).
And groups trying to assist people out of poverty caused by costly debt repayment via interest free loans would have better information to work with.
PS One of the best ways government could reduce child poverty would be to assist women retain a place to live after divorce by taking over their partners share of the house.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/130817881/kiwis-need-to-be-able-to-see-everything-they-owe-the-government-in-one-place