The potential Coalition of Chaos (unless we stop them !)
Moderator Rebecca Wright asked Seymour if he could work with Peters.
"Can anyone?" he responded.
While seeming to agree a short time later he could sit down with Peters, he went on to say: "Ultimately, if a parliament's elected by the people then you make it work, but I just say it's not credible for the guy who has had more chances to fix New Zealand's problems showing up like a fireman and saying, 'I'm here to fix it all'. It's just not credible."
At one point Davidson interjected: "Do people actually think Luxon is going to be able to manage these two, for real?" gesturing to Peters and Seymour.
There has been criticism of Jenna Lynch on the Standard, some valid, some not….and some to do with her Husband being in ACT? Anyway..she made this comment
It is quite incredible to watch the real-life transformation of David Seymour into a kind of low-rent Winston Peters when he hates the guy," Lynch said.
Sure, they are both populist politicians and they both have a combative style, but as individuals they about as far apart as one could get. They don't appear to have anything in common apart from their lust for power for power's sake. There's plenty of politicians past and present who could be described as such.
I'm not sure Jenna Lynch was being genuine with that comment. It almost came across as a line she had rehearsed in advance. She knew it would garner a response from the audience and she got it.
Not sure to be honest. TV3 political commentators are into gotcha politics and like to stir the pot for clickbait? Pitching Seymour and Peters together like that would be one way of doing it.
There are, no doubt, many media political commentators who like to throw in inflammatory comments…(stirrers ?). However I dont know which would be more inclined to do so? The Herald is often put forward as one..but I have seen some reporting not so… right wing ?
Also Stuff…and others. I suppose its subjective.
Anyway..the response to the Jenna Lynch comment I saw and heard..is on the link video, around… 5:35
Yea I think..(IMO of course}…that Seymour is a Narcissist. And thats possibly whereby some of his antipathy towards Winston Peters. They very much view each other as competition in the limelight regard.
All that..would be very bad for us and NZ. And the more that is revealed..the less Chris Luxon and his chaos crew will be seen as any good.
"Yea I think..(IMO of course}…that Seymour is a Narcissist."
Absolutely. And a sociopath to boot. The two invariably go together. The way he intends to carve up some of the good work the Labour Govt. has done to assist the vulnerable in society is a case in point. [Yeah there's more to be done but it can't be done overnight.]
For example, I am on the Super and the heating subsidy over the winter months is a godsend. He wants it scrapped. Not a thought for the welfare of most pensioners. There are numerous other examples of his sociopathic tendances as well.
The 'vulnerable' are undeserving in his view. What a first class prick!
Looks like the change from La Nina to El Nino in an overheated world just means different sorts of severe damage in different places. It's not stopping. But at least the delightful people of Queenstown with their guts ravaged by cryptosporidium, their town awash and tourists getting out and staying away for the forseeable, might get the tax cut they so ache for from that wonderfully decisive and 'up for it' Mr Luxon next year. That will solve all problems.
Food prices won't be coming down soon – El Nino will most likely hammer global food production, and "heatflation" is coming.
You'd like to think the government at least had a plan on what to do in the case of a severe global cereal shortage (for example – re-purposing land to wheat production) but you just know that no is, and if there is a small team somewhere who even monitor this sort of thing ACT wants to get rid of them, on the basis that if the market says people must starve to death, well the market is infalliable.
The 2023-36 government no matter who they are will be required to clean up multiple disasters. The current Southland floods are nowhere near as great as the 1979-1983 series that wiped out Kelso and took out large sections of Invercargill including the airport.
But coupled with a lower-than-optimum water purification system in Queenstown we are going to see the necessity for Three Waters integrated stormwater and wastewater and water supply integrated investments at a deeper and broader level – no matter what Luxon or Hipkins want.
With the collapse of the milk price per kilo, in reality it's the Queenstown tourism industry propping up the country's export income. And indeed, up the workers, sleeping in their vans.
With diesel heading for $2.50 and 91 heading for $3.50, this government's closure and active dismantling of Marsden Point refinery could be the most damaging long term move they ever did. In Queenstown and Wanaka we are already there for diesel.
Anyone wants to see where our main inflation driver is, fuel is about 25% of food production.
not really. If we don't use these pressures to transition, it's akin to saying 'sorry pandemic, we're not ready to do what is necessary, let's do it later'. The cost of living crisis doesn't exist separately from the climate/eco crisis, it's part of the same thing.
There's no good reason to not be transitioning right now. For instance, we could be relocalising food production and adopting regenerative models. That both drops GHGs, and builds resilience by reducing our reliance on the global food supply chain.
The block to that is industry's lack of imagination and experience on how to create a different kind of economy. The people who do know how to transition aren't the ones with the power (mostly). It's the same dynamic with tourism that wasted the opportunity from the pandemic because the industry bods were using old ways of thinking.
Not completely, there are obviously good things happening in tourism from the more progressive side. But trying to do things like save the ski industry in its current form is just fucking nuts.
People have a right to be fucked off and react to the CoL crisis. Chickens are coming home to roost though, and voting in a NactNZF hybrid government because of the CoL crisis will just make the situation much much worse.
Scolding people convinces no one. Change your tone.
Cynically drawing on the ruptures of crisis to tilt our society very rarely goes to plan and usually makes things worse. You could always pop down to Gore right now and try to convince people about their unrighteousness.
No one is having a block of imagination when they're at Pak n Save unable to afford a block of cheese.
The ski industry is happily transitioning to the offroad cycling industry, from where I work in Wanaka and Queenstown. They do so when they are presented with reasonable and rational choices.
Being fucked off in reality is just a signal for people to fuck off. So what we get as a replacement is cheap foreign labour, not some utopia where the haute-bourgeoisie and their ultra-refined tastes gradually expand. If only.
The most organised transition towns are either in dire poverty subsidised up the wazoo by the state, or run by ultra-elites like Wanaka's WAO movement.
This is not a moment for blunt ideological instruments and cheap shots at the poor who have no choice.
stop making shit up about my views. I'm not taking shots at poor people, I'm taking shots at industry leaders who've been dragging the chain for decades.
I'm talking to people on TS not people in Gore or Queenstown or Twizel. This is classic manipulative commenting from you. If you feel scolded, maybe that says something about your resistance to change.
The ski industry is happily transitioning to the offroad cycling industry, from where I work in Wanaka and Queenstown. They do so when they are presented with reasonable and rational choices.
Yes, this is my point exactly. We need the people with the imagination to bring the reasonable and rational transition choices to the table, but instead far too many BAU people are still the ones with the power.
Mountain bike tracks are great, and they won't help people feed themselves when the shit hits the fan because we used an economy before ecology lens going into the climate crisis.
As for tone, at times you are one of the most relentlessly negative people here. Sometimes it's like two different people commenting from your handle, you obviously bring a wealth of industry experience and sometimes some deep and clear thought. But your constant sniping at the leading edge on transition is just tedious as fuck, and it also blocks change in its own small way.
Be kind to the ones who told us it was a hoax, then to be fast followers, then slow followers, and now that they already are the best in the world at efficiency (no link provided), that no one else is doing anything and that it is all a hoax any how.
Don’t scold them Weka. Be kind.
Also don’t scold Ad. Be kind.
It’s going to be a long 6- 9 years with a wealth of ignorance representing our official positions or nod, wink.
Applause for Peters at Business North Shore for strip tease climate denial:
Oh and Andrew Hoggard of the Federated Farmers- the rational ones- who said climate change probably exists and then joined ACT.
We’ve been lead by blunt tools for a long time.
For 25 years, as Chippy did when he arrived as PM, the speeches begin with ‘Now is not the time…’
I too struggle to find a consistency of ideas with Ad. I think I might have said at a grumpier moment that he seemed like a Rogernome ready to join ACT with some of his rhetoric.
There is no alternative to ignoring climate change. Anyone who tries policies to come to terms with it is a something or other.
Unbelievable that Queenstown has cut back its rates to the point where they are unable to provide drinking water. It’s a preview. If no drinking water is an option for cuts, then minimal climate action isn’t going to be much more popular.
What sticks in the craw, is Wood's decision (Wood's advisors decision, let's be frank) was purely a financial decision, see DOS's Newsroom link.
Undermines our independence, resilience and puts out fuel security at the whim of foreign shipping companies.
Of course holding this opinion makes you a nutjob, a cooker, a fringe. Hard to keep company with those who thoughtlessly use this refrain.
See TM below, although they are far from the only one to chuck this epithet around carelessly.
Closing Marsden Point looks like a big mistake from a resiliency pov. And a neolib response from someone who doesn't understand the seriousness of the crisis.
Fossil fuels, no matter where they are refined, are a mistake from a resiliency pov for New Zealand. Either way they still have to be imported.
When you've got to import most of the components, especially the really critical ones, that keep Marsden Point going, it makes sense to leave the refining to economies that have the engineering scale and expertise to build, maintain and run the things. Refineries are hard, and a sunset industry. It might surprise some people here but the industry sets that, which is why small, isolated refineries like Marsden Point are being closed around the world.
The reality is there is little difference in fuel security risk between importing refined fuel or crude oil. A multitude of seaborne routes to-and-from Australia ensure a reasonable level of supply chain security.
Re resilience
The Australia Institute’s quarterly National Energy Emissions Audit has previously questioned the logic of propping up old and inefficient refineries with public money and suggested it will do little to boost Australia’s fuel security. “The best way to increase Australia’s energy security in the medium term would be to reduce consumption of petrol by rapidly switching to electric passenger vehicles and focus on diesel and jet fuel supplies as the main energy security challenge,” says Dr. Hugh Saddler, energy analyst and author of the National Energy Emissions Audit.
NZ oil is exported as it is very low in sulpher and is used amongst other tasks for smelting steel and high grade chemicals and is worth a lot more per barrel than the low grade stuff used for processing into diesel and petrol. Just economic sense.
The refinery was closed down because by the time the necessary multi billion dollar rebuild would be finished it would have been almost redundant as the majority of the transport fleet will then be electric.
When the crap hits the fan with fuel all the Nat/Act, private enterprise/ 'Government out of business' mob will go crazy about Labour. It'll be 'they should have bought the refinery, taken it over, blah, blah blah.'
A number of anti 5G type nut jobs up here in Northland made much of closing the Refinery, but for different reasons it may indeed have been a mistake
A person I know well was there a lot in a Union role and got to know the site’s history and the motivation of various managers. Green energy was not at all acceptable to the board, that was a potential happener on the old Marsden B site.
Really, it goes back to Rogernomics and setting up Refining NZ which was the typical license to rake it in for the international oil industry.
Though I had always understood it wasn't able to process Maui's oil and the reasons for closing it down had very little to do with the government. The shareholders voted to sell. I'm not sure what you would have wanted – the government to buy a refinery (and incur the future clean-up costs) from the private sector who had deemed it be closed.
Thought you were against unnecessary government spending.
The refinery was closed down for commercial strategic reasons – closure was even a condition of Ampol’s takeover of Z Energy.
There is a substantial difference however between the government choosing not to buy it versus the government closing it down.
In my view Douglas should never have sold it but he did. Unsure as to the wisdom of picking it up again. Here is MBIES advice which also points out that refinery's were closing/had closed elsewhere as well.
Australia had seven operating refineries in 2010, of which only two now remain operating – supported by an Australian Government assistance package of up to A$2.3 billion announced in May 2021. According to the US Energy Information Agency, the US had 129 oil refineries at the beginning of 2021, down from 135 a year earlier, with closures attributed to falling fuel demand and increasing interest in renewable diesel production.
I think the bigger mistake made in NZ was decommissioning the electrification of the main trunk line
Absolutely. But really…there was no Govt interest in continuing any Rail in NZ…at all. It was instead, more and heavier trucks ..with of course the ever increasing attendant road damage.
Now that the Marsden Refinery has been shut down the next move should be to dismantle the eyesore that it is and return the Cove to the beauty it once was. Whangarei is starting to look like a lovely city and a wonderful place to live. With the Bay of Islands just up the road Northland is truly a gem in the NZ crown. The marine industry for one is on a high growth curve.
That was a 'possibility' from 2021……not so sure now but then it would not surprise me in the least if the likes of a paper mill or some massive timber treatment plant suddenly appeared….putting ugly factories and other industrial eyesores in prime locations has been de rigueur in NZ ……
For all the beauty and all the prospects Tiger Mountain has pointed out one severe limitation – the number of 5G type nut jobs. That links to the associated nuts in the so called Freedom and Democracy groups, the Destiny Church and the random fruit cakes who became obvious through the Covid situation.
sorry about that, I wasn't sure how bluesky displayed here. So annoying when they do that. Here's the first post, but there are ten altogether.
9 years ago, in the year of our lord 2014, came the release of the book Dirty Politics by Nicky Hager detailing the haxored disclosures by Rawshark the great, which brought the National lead governments dirty politics division to a grinding halt.
That only pushed it underground and made them more careful at not been caught.This has resulted in better coordination and funding of the Dirty politics brigade morphing into so-called independent institutes which push the right wing agenda.
Nick Hager has been stalked and bullied out of politics by the right wing.The police illegally hounded him and had to pay a large sum in reparation no one charged in the police for the political hatchet job.The SIS had tabs on green activists who were protesting legally while the SIS completely ignored right wing white supremacists .No open inquiry into both organisations!
Nick Hager's investigative journalism is missing in this country today,It takes a very brave individual to take on the very powerful.
"Nick Hager has been stalked and bullied out of politics by the right wing."
He was only one with a very high profile. It started way back in the 1960s/70s (maybe earlier) and continued to occur well into the 1990s at the least.
Someone here recently suggested I should write a book about my experiences. What I think would be far more useful would be for an expert (Nicky Hager or someone with his level of experience) to interview those of us targeted in the past and write a book of our collective experiences. I think it would shock many people to discover what was going on in this country. I am sure the meme that 'New Zealand is the least corrupt country in the world' would take a bit of a thrashing.
The collusion between the red & blue neolibs is exemplified by their campaign strategy (fake it till you make it) as dissected by RNZ here:
This week, neither National nor Labour answered clearly how much they had planned to set aside for these costs nor how they intended to pay them. They instead focused their answers on wanting to cut planet-heating emissions more deeply inside New Zealand’s borders.
At times, politicians seemed to confuse domestic emissions budgets with the $3b-plus added cost of buying offsets to meet the Paris target, or they made heroic statements about how much they could do onshore, without supplying the figures behind them.
I suppose one could sympathise with the collective horror they must feel at the challenge of having to deliver realistic long-term budgeting, but circumstances seem to be demanding that they do their job properly. We're hiring these turkeys to act professional.
And according to The Guardian many of the schemes "appear to have fundamental failings suggesting they cannot be relied upon to cut planet-heating emissions"
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The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...
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New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill today that will remove the power of MPs conscience votes and ensure mandatory national referendums are held before any conscience issues are passed into law. “We are giving democracy and power back to the people”, says New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters. ...
Welcome to members of the diplomatic corp, fellow members of parliament, the fourth estate, foreign affairs experts, trade tragics, ladies and gentlemen. ...
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Health Minister Simeon Brown and Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey attended a sod turning today to officially mark the start of construction on a new mental health facility at Hillmorton Campus. “This represents a significant step in modernising mental health services in Canterbury,” Mr Brown says. “Improving health infrastructure is ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has welcomed confirmation the economy has turned the corner. Stats NZ reported today that gross domestic product grew 0.7 per cent in the three months to December following falls in the June and September quarters. “We know many families and businesses are still suffering the after-effects ...
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Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters says relations between New Zealand and the United States are on a strong footing, as he concludes a week-long visit to New York and Washington DC today. “We came to the United States to ask the new Administration what it wants from ...
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has welcomed changes to international anti-money laundering standards which closely align with the Government’s reforms. “The Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) last month adopted revised standards for tackling money laundering and the financing of terrorism to allow for simplified regulatory measures for businesses, organisations and sectors ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour says he welcomes Medsafe’s decision to approve an electronic controlled drug register for use in New Zealand pharmacies, allowing pharmacies to replace their physical paper-based register. “The register, developed by Kiwi brand Toniq Limited, is the first of its kind to be approved in New ...
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[Comments following the bilateral meeting with United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio; United States State Department, Washington D.C.] * We’re very pleased with our meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this afternoon. * We came here to listen to the new Administration and to be clear about what ...
The intersection of State Highway 2 (SH2) and Wainui Road in the Eastern Bay of Plenty will be made safer and more efficient for vehicles and freight with the construction of a new and long-awaited roundabout, says Transport Minister Chris Bishop. “The current intersection of SH2 and Wainui Road is ...
The Ocean Race will return to the City of Sails in 2027 following the Government’s decision to invest up to $4 million from the Major Events Fund into the international event, Auckland Minister Simeon Brown says. “New Zealand is a proud sailing nation, and Auckland is well-known internationally as the ...
Improving access to mental health and addiction support took a significant step forward today with Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey announcing that the University of Canterbury have been the first to be selected to develop the Government’s new associate psychologist training programme. “I am thrilled that the University of Canterbury ...
Health Minister Simeon Brown has today officially opened the new East Building expansion at Manukau Health Park. “This is a significant milestone and the first stage of the Grow Manukau programme, which will double the footprint of the Manukau Health Park to around 30,000m2 once complete,” Mr Brown says. “Home ...
The Government will boost anti-crime measures across central Auckland with $1.3 million of funding as a result of the Proceeds of Crime Fund, Auckland Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee say. “In recent years there has been increased antisocial and criminal behaviour in our CBD. The Government ...
The Government is moving to strengthen rules for feeding food waste to pigs to protect New Zealand from exotic animal diseases like foot and mouth disease (FMD), says Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard. ‘Feeding untreated meat waste, often known as "swill", to pigs could introduce serious animal diseases like FMD and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held productive talks in New Delhi today. Fresh off announcing that New Zealand and India would commence negotiations towards a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, the two Prime Ministers released a joint statement detailing plans for further cooperation between the two countries across ...
Agriculture and Trade Minister Todd McClay signed a new Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) today during the Prime Minister’s Indian Trade Mission, reinforcing New Zealand’s commitment to enhancing collaboration with India in the forestry sector. “Our relationship with India is a key priority for New Zealand, and this agreement reflects our ...
Agriculture and Trade Minister Todd McClay signed a new Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) today during the Prime Minister’s Indian Trade Mission, reinforcing New Zealand’s commitment to enhancing collaboration with India in the horticulture sector. “Our relationship with India is a key priority for New Zealand, and this agreement reflects our ...
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Health Minister Simeon Brown has today officially opened Wellington Regional Hospital’s first High Dependency Unit (HDU). “This unit will boost critical care services in the lower North Island, providing extra capacity and relieving pressure on the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and emergency department. “Wellington Regional Hospital has previously relied ...
Namaskar, Sat Sri Akal, kia ora and good afternoon everyone. What an honour it is to stand on this stage - to inaugurate this august Dialogue - with none other than the Honourable Narendra Modi. My good friend, thank you for so generously welcoming me to India and for our ...
Starving public services of resources, gutting the workforce and then proposing private market solutions has been a key strategy of this government, says Vanessa Cole, spokesperson for Public Housing Futures. ...
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The government’s own Regulatory Impact Statement acknowledges that organic producers will bear the financial burden of adapting to the risks posed by GMO expansion. ...
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Comment: The Consumer Data Right is now part of New Zealand law. The CDR is intended to give customers (including consumers and business customers) greater control over the data that certain service providers hold about them.The introduction of the CDR was confirmed by the enactment of the Customer and Product ...
Dirty, filthy, Rupert Murdoch is to step down. The damage this person has done to human society is immense.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/21/rupert-murdoch-stepping-down-chair-fox-news-corp
Can't see much changes just because he steps down with all the outlets he has globally continuing on with their agendas.
Probably gets worse as it frees him up to be involved in the day to day matters even more.
The potential Coalition of Chaos (unless we stop them !)
And Marama Davidson…
There has been some dislike (if not worse!) for Marama on The Standard. I like her….IMO a genuine person.
Here's the video of the Newshub Power Brokers debate, fyi:
https://www.youtube.com/live/db6k68wgwHA?si=Efx1NfrEivbvqMht
Oh, and here's an interesting analysis on the actual words used by each speaker:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/498497/how-david-seymour-and-winston-peters-hogged-the-mic-in-the-minor-party-leaders-debate
There has been criticism of Jenna Lynch on the Standard, some valid, some not….and some to do with her Husband being in ACT? Anyway..she made this comment
Well…that was a pretty perceptive comment.
"… that was a pretty perceptive comment."
We'll have to disagree on that one PLA.
Sure, they are both populist politicians and they both have a combative style, but as individuals they about as far apart as one could get. They don't appear to have anything in common apart from their lust for power for power's sake. There's plenty of politicians past and present who could be described as such.
I'm not sure Jenna Lynch was being genuine with that comment. It almost came across as a line she had rehearsed in advance. She knew it would garner a response from the audience and she got it.
What response do you think she wanted?
Not sure to be honest. TV3 political commentators are into gotcha politics and like to stir the pot for clickbait? Pitching Seymour and Peters together like that would be one way of doing it.
There are, no doubt, many media political commentators who like to throw in inflammatory comments…(stirrers ?). However I dont know which would be more inclined to do so? The Herald is often put forward as one..but I have seen some reporting not so… right wing ?
Also Stuff…and others. I suppose its subjective.
Anyway..the response to the Jenna Lynch comment I saw and heard..is on the link video, around… 5:35
The audience didnt seem exactly happy? And that was why I made my initial comment….
IMO Seymour/Peters still..very much Narcissist's and alike in ..however that goes.
Well spotted psych….Seymour may yet screw this up for Luxon
Yea I think..(IMO of course}…that Seymour is a Narcissist. And thats possibly whereby some of his antipathy towards Winston Peters. They very much view each other as competition in the limelight regard.
All that..would be very bad for us and NZ. And the more that is revealed..the less Chris Luxon and his chaos crew will be seen as any good.
"Yea I think..(IMO of course}…that Seymour is a Narcissist."
Absolutely. And a sociopath to boot. The two invariably go together. The way he intends to carve up some of the good work the Labour Govt. has done to assist the vulnerable in society is a case in point. [Yeah there's more to be done but it can't be done overnight.]
For example, I am on the Super and the heating subsidy over the winter months is a godsend. He wants it scrapped. Not a thought for the welfare of most pensioners. There are numerous other examples of his sociopathic tendances as well.
The 'vulnerable' are undeserving in his view. What a first class prick!
Anne..that is so much, why I fear that NAct could be in power.
I am getting older..but still able to work hard physical jobs at times..(not sure how much longer?!) and do a lot of self sufficiency.
Its not so much for me..but for the vulnerable that i fear .
Seymour and his cronies…would willingly institute a slash society. With them slashing…. all the way down..to the slashed at the bottom : (
I sincerely hope they never get to do it
For the sake of power; principles, policy, and personal feelings will be compromised.
Seymour hasn’t come this far to sit on the cross benches. Winston will do anything to stay relevant.
I agree completely, seymour is definitely morning into peters , 40 years of seymour is something to look forward to ain't it!!!!
Thinking of the down South people – take care out there.
Looks like the change from La Nina to El Nino in an overheated world just means different sorts of severe damage in different places. It's not stopping. But at least the delightful people of Queenstown with their guts ravaged by cryptosporidium, their town awash and tourists getting out and staying away for the forseeable, might get the tax cut they so ache for from that wonderfully decisive and 'up for it' Mr Luxon next year. That will solve all problems.
Food prices won't be coming down soon – El Nino will most likely hammer global food production, and "heatflation" is coming.
You'd like to think the government at least had a plan on what to do in the case of a severe global cereal shortage (for example – re-purposing land to wheat production) but you just know that no is, and if there is a small team somewhere who even monitor this sort of thing ACT wants to get rid of them, on the basis that if the market says people must starve to death, well the market is infalliable.
The 2023-36 government no matter who they are will be required to clean up multiple disasters. The current Southland floods are nowhere near as great as the 1979-1983 series that wiped out Kelso and took out large sections of Invercargill including the airport.
But coupled with a lower-than-optimum water purification system in Queenstown we are going to see the necessity for Three Waters integrated stormwater and wastewater and water supply integrated investments at a deeper and broader level – no matter what Luxon or Hipkins want.
As an empathetic type, my “thoughts and prayers” go out to Queenstown residents, well, at least to baristas and bartenders sleeping in vans!
With the collapse of the milk price per kilo, in reality it's the Queenstown tourism industry propping up the country's export income. And indeed, up the workers, sleeping in their vans.
With diesel heading for $2.50 and 91 heading for $3.50, this government's closure and active dismantling of Marsden Point refinery could be the most damaging long term move they ever did. In Queenstown and Wanaka we are already there for diesel.
Anyone wants to see where our main inflation driver is, fuel is about 25% of food production.
big incentive to transition faster.
That's a pretty cruel comment for most New Zealanders who have no choice how they get about.
not really. If we don't use these pressures to transition, it's akin to saying 'sorry pandemic, we're not ready to do what is necessary, let's do it later'. The cost of living crisis doesn't exist separately from the climate/eco crisis, it's part of the same thing.
There's no good reason to not be transitioning right now. For instance, we could be relocalising food production and adopting regenerative models. That both drops GHGs, and builds resilience by reducing our reliance on the global food supply chain.
The block to that is industry's lack of imagination and experience on how to create a different kind of economy. The people who do know how to transition aren't the ones with the power (mostly). It's the same dynamic with tourism that wasted the opportunity from the pandemic because the industry bods were using old ways of thinking.
Not completely, there are obviously good things happening in tourism from the more progressive side. But trying to do things like save the ski industry in its current form is just fucking nuts.
People have a right to be fucked off and react to the CoL crisis. Chickens are coming home to roost though, and voting in a NactNZF hybrid government because of the CoL crisis will just make the situation much much worse.
Scolding people convinces no one. Change your tone.
Cynically drawing on the ruptures of crisis to tilt our society very rarely goes to plan and usually makes things worse. You could always pop down to Gore right now and try to convince people about their unrighteousness.
No one is having a block of imagination when they're at Pak n Save unable to afford a block of cheese.
The ski industry is happily transitioning to the offroad cycling industry, from where I work in Wanaka and Queenstown. They do so when they are presented with reasonable and rational choices.
Being fucked off in reality is just a signal for people to fuck off. So what we get as a replacement is cheap foreign labour, not some utopia where the haute-bourgeoisie and their ultra-refined tastes gradually expand. If only.
The most organised transition towns are either in dire poverty subsidised up the wazoo by the state, or run by ultra-elites like Wanaka's WAO movement.
This is not a moment for blunt ideological instruments and cheap shots at the poor who have no choice.
stop making shit up about my views. I'm not taking shots at poor people, I'm taking shots at industry leaders who've been dragging the chain for decades.
I'm talking to people on TS not people in Gore or Queenstown or Twizel. This is classic manipulative commenting from you. If you feel scolded, maybe that says something about your resistance to change.
Yes, this is my point exactly. We need the people with the imagination to bring the reasonable and rational transition choices to the table, but instead far too many BAU people are still the ones with the power.
Mountain bike tracks are great, and they won't help people feed themselves when the shit hits the fan because we used an economy before ecology lens going into the climate crisis.
As for tone, at times you are one of the most relentlessly negative people here. Sometimes it's like two different people commenting from your handle, you obviously bring a wealth of industry experience and sometimes some deep and clear thought. But your constant sniping at the leading edge on transition is just tedious as fuck, and it also blocks change in its own small way.
Be kind to the farmers.
Be kind to the ones who told us it was a hoax, then to be fast followers, then slow followers, and now that they already are the best in the world at efficiency (no link provided), that no one else is doing anything and that it is all a hoax any how.
Don’t scold them Weka. Be kind.
Also don’t scold Ad. Be kind.
It’s going to be a long 6- 9 years with a wealth of ignorance representing our official positions or nod, wink.
Applause for Peters at Business North Shore for strip tease climate denial:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/peters-predicts-being-in-government-and-a-pre-xmas-mini-budget
Oh and Andrew Hoggard of the Federated Farmers- the rational ones- who said climate change probably exists and then joined ACT.
We’ve been lead by blunt tools for a long time.
For 25 years, as Chippy did when he arrived as PM, the speeches begin with ‘Now is not the time…’
I too struggle to find a consistency of ideas with Ad. I think I might have said at a grumpier moment that he seemed like a Rogernome ready to join ACT with some of his rhetoric.
There is no alternative to ignoring climate change. Anyone who tries policies to come to terms with it is a something or other.
Unbelievable that Queenstown has cut back its rates to the point where they are unable to provide drinking water. It’s a preview. If no drinking water is an option for cuts, then minimal climate action isn’t going to be much more popular.
I don't disagree with any of that.
What sticks in the craw, is Wood's decision (Wood's advisors decision, let's be frank) was purely a financial decision, see DOS's Newsroom link.
Undermines our independence, resilience and puts out fuel security at the whim of foreign shipping companies.
Of course holding this opinion makes you a nutjob, a cooker, a fringe. Hard to keep company with those who thoughtlessly use this refrain.
See TM below, although they are far from the only one to chuck this epithet around carelessly.
Closing Marsden Point looks like a big mistake from a resiliency pov. And a neolib response from someone who doesn't understand the seriousness of the crisis.
Fossil fuels, no matter where they are refined, are a mistake from a resiliency pov for New Zealand. Either way they still have to be imported.
When you've got to import most of the components, especially the really critical ones, that keep Marsden Point going, it makes sense to leave the refining to economies that have the engineering scale and expertise to build, maintain and run the things. Refineries are hard, and a sunset industry. It might surprise some people here but the industry sets that, which is why small, isolated refineries like Marsden Point are being closed around the world.
This article gives an interesting 'fuel industry' perspective https://www.fuelsandlubes.com/fli-article/the-end-of-oil-refining-in-australia/
Re security of supply
Re resilience
"Foreign shipping companies…………
How did the crude oil get to NZ to be refined, I am sure it wasn't by post.
NZ oil is exported as it is very low in sulpher and is used amongst other tasks for smelting steel and high grade chemicals and is worth a lot more per barrel than the low grade stuff used for processing into diesel and petrol. Just economic sense.
The refinery was closed down because by the time the necessary multi billion dollar rebuild would be finished it would have been almost redundant as the majority of the transport fleet will then be electric.
Thanks Adrian for that info/explanation.
Apart from the environmental plus, do you think closing Marsden Point was a good decision?
When the crap hits the fan with fuel all the Nat/Act, private enterprise/ 'Government out of business' mob will go crazy about Labour. It'll be 'they should have bought the refinery, taken it over, blah, blah blah.'
A number of anti 5G type nut jobs up here in Northland made much of closing the Refinery, but for different reasons it may indeed have been a mistake
A person I know well was there a lot in a Union role and got to know the site’s history and the motivation of various managers. Green energy was not at all acceptable to the board, that was a potential happener on the old Marsden B site.
Really, it goes back to Rogernomics and setting up Refining NZ which was the typical license to rake it in for the international oil industry.
Though I had always understood it wasn't able to process Maui's oil and the reasons for closing it down had very little to do with the government. The shareholders voted to sell. I'm not sure what you would have wanted – the government to buy a refinery (and incur the future clean-up costs) from the private sector who had deemed it be closed.
Thought you were against unnecessary government spending.
The refinery was closed down for commercial strategic reasons – closure was even a condition of Ampol’s takeover of Z Energy.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/national-cost-of-marsden-point-closure-highlighted-by-christmas-jet-fuel-shortage
It was Woods and Cabinet that discussed intervening in 2021 by underwriting the refinery for up to 10 years.
So Whangarei lost 240 of some of the highest paid jobs in Northland. And they are never coming back, either as incomes or as families to our shores.
Woods decided in her Cabinet paper on it that there wasn't enough of a case to support the continued operation on fuel security grounds.
Should not have needed a new Defence White Paper to figure out the risk we have to the Singapore refineries.
And of course we are quite happy to shore up Glenbrook Steel to the tune of $300 million to disable using our own ironsands.
This world does not owe New Zealand the right to be secure.
was that an economic decision?
One would have had to have bugged the Cabinet discussion.
Or asked Nash /sarc/
There is a substantial difference however between the government choosing not to buy it versus the government closing it down.
In my view Douglas should never have sold it but he did. Unsure as to the wisdom of picking it up again. Here is MBIES advice which also points out that refinery's were closing/had closed elsewhere as well.
Australia had seven operating refineries in 2010, of which only two now remain operating – supported by an Australian Government assistance package of up to A$2.3 billion announced in May 2021. According to the US Energy Information Agency, the US had 129 oil refineries at the beginning of 2021, down from 135 a year earlier, with closures attributed to falling fuel demand and increasing interest in renewable diesel production.
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/17733-fuel-supply-resilience-without-a-domestic-oil-refinery-proactiverelease-pdf
I think the bigger mistake made in NZ was decommissioning the electrification of the main trunk line but we all have our particular interests.
Absolutely. But really…there was no Govt interest in continuing any Rail in NZ…at all. It was instead, more and heavier trucks ..with of course the ever increasing attendant road damage.
Now that the Marsden Refinery has been shut down the next move should be to dismantle the eyesore that it is and return the Cove to the beauty it once was. Whangarei is starting to look like a lovely city and a wonderful place to live. With the Bay of Islands just up the road Northland is truly a gem in the NZ crown. The marine industry for one is on a high growth curve.
It being renovated to a hydrogen fuel facility. So your eye sore will remain.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/458064/green-hydrogen-production-on-the-cards-for-marsden-point-refinery-site
That was a 'possibility' from 2021……not so sure now but then it would not surprise me in the least if the likes of a paper mill or some massive timber treatment plant suddenly appeared….putting ugly factories and other industrial eyesores in prime locations has been de rigueur in NZ ……
For all the beauty and all the prospects Tiger Mountain has pointed out one severe limitation – the number of 5G type nut jobs. That links to the associated nuts in the so called Freedom and Democracy groups, the Destiny Church and the random fruit cakes who became obvious through the Covid situation.
Good short read from Kemara on Dirty Politics and Rawshark.
https://bsky.app/profile/taipo.bsky.social/post/3k7k3hr2shq2n
Can you post the text here? That link just takes me to a Blue Sky login…? (Another thing to sign up for)
sorry about that, I wasn't sure how bluesky displayed here. So annoying when they do that. Here's the first post, but there are ten altogether.
test
https://twitter.com/KyleDChurch/status/1705024509219410091
can anyone who doesn't have a twitter account tell me if you can see the above tweet by Kyle? (you'll have to click on the link)
Yes I can.
Yes
Yes, I can see it, and am not on Twitter. And what Tricledrown said.
Yes.
That only pushed it underground and made them more careful at not been caught.This has resulted in better coordination and funding of the Dirty politics brigade morphing into so-called independent institutes which push the right wing agenda.
Nick Hager has been stalked and bullied out of politics by the right wing.The police illegally hounded him and had to pay a large sum in reparation no one charged in the police for the political hatchet job.The SIS had tabs on green activists who were protesting legally while the SIS completely ignored right wing white supremacists .No open inquiry into both organisations!
Nick Hager's investigative journalism is missing in this country today,It takes a very brave individual to take on the very powerful.
Well I saw him at warehouse stationery the other day, printing out a whole lot of… something! So maybe he's not missing, but regrouping!
"Nick Hager has been stalked and bullied out of politics by the right wing."
He was only one with a very high profile. It started way back in the 1960s/70s (maybe earlier) and continued to occur well into the 1990s at the least.
Someone here recently suggested I should write a book about my experiences. What I think would be far more useful would be for an expert (Nicky Hager or someone with his level of experience) to interview those of us targeted in the past and write a book of our collective experiences. I think it would shock many people to discover what was going on in this country. I am sure the meme that 'New Zealand is the least corrupt country in the world' would take a bit of a thrashing.
The collusion between the red & blue neolibs is exemplified by their campaign strategy (fake it till you make it) as dissected by RNZ here:
I suppose one could sympathise with the collective horror they must feel at the challenge of having to deliver realistic long-term budgeting, but circumstances seem to be demanding that they do their job properly. We're hiring these turkeys to act professional.
And according to The Guardian many of the schemes "appear to have fundamental failings suggesting they cannot be relied upon to cut planet-heating emissions"
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/do-carbon-credit-reduce-emissions-greenhouse-gases
I'd rather the offsetting was done in NZ where we can monitor it's integrity.
Chinese DNA tech
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/china-dna-sequencing-bgi-covid/?itid=hp_most-read_p006_f003_1