“The speech contained no new policy – only a hint of a future tax break on private health insurance after a question from the audience.” Hamish Rutherford Stuff.co.nz
What more need be said?.
Other than:
A vote for New Zealand First is a vote for National
It’s nasty stuff alright, but Peters is playing both sides:
Blaming economic reform dating back to the 1980s as the cause of a range of issues facing New Zealand today, Peters said privatisation mainly affected Maori.
Instead of taking steps to fix the problems, successive governments had instead turned to appeasing Maori leaders.
Winnie will go with Labour…so for Christs sake dont alienate him
( fools you dont want to push him into the arms of NACT do you?…and another NACT government….. because they DO need him!
….and there is nothing wrong with fitting into NZ values eg Pommie elitist class system wallers have to fit into NZ egalitarian ideas…cultures where the female is second class to the male and /or to be exploited for profit must fit into out values of human rights for women as equals and NOT to be ill treated or exploited)
I am intrigued about Winston going with a tip off from a real estate person about the alleged selling of the Huka Lodge. How could the estate agent have got it soooo wrong?
That’s just Winston responding to his anti National supporters who wanted a clear message he wouldn’t run with National at his State of the Nation speech. Peters pulled that one out of his arse and pinned the ‘pending’ sale to John Key. A bit of a cryptic message but those who ‘believe’ heard it loud and clear lol. Huka Lodge is already foreign owned, just not by the Chinese ‘yet’.
As we know Winston extracts plenty of votes out of the Asian bashing trip. My wise old mum would argue till she was blue in the face that Peters was part Chinese, so it’s if true its ironic he bashes both Maori & Chinese.
If ‘my wise old mum’ was that wise she would know that Winston’s ethnic ancestry is completely irrelevant as he is talking about culture not ethnicity. If you go down that pathway you are in danger of playing the race card
Cut it out Jan. Winston may have toned down his racist crap in recent years but every now and then he can’t help having a crack at migrants. Not too long ago it was Chinese migrant restaurants not paying tax, indian migrant taxi driver over charging, this is only a couple that spring to mind.
Why can’t I recall seeing any Kiwi’s of Chinese or Indian ethnicity at ‘any’ of his rally’s over the years. Because one would assume they wouldn’t want to be sitting there listening to Peters attacking immigrants from their part of the World.
I don’t think you understand the difference between race and culture. It’s the difference between how you look because of who your ancestors were and how you think because of where you were brought up, to put it simply
He is an educated man, veutoviper, and that is the current theory based on research to date
It’s obvious you don’t get the difference between ethnicity and culture, either
Because South East Asia =/= China. And I thought the current theory was South East Asia.
Now, obviously, you can suggest that maybe the people of South East Asia originated from China (or vice versa). But if you’re going to keep going back, then we all started off roughly from the same place anyway.
I do actually, JanM – that is, get the difference bwtween ethnicity and culture.
I also know Peters is an educated man – worked with him on and off for years professionally through Parliament. And I am not disputing the theory of where Maori originated. I was simply providing a link to verify that Peters had raised this back in 2002.
Actually current genetics studies coalesces on Sundaland, the landform now under water that bridged Indochina to Borneo + some of the major Indonesian islands. It’s drowning led to major population migrations that colonised Taiwan, Philippines etc. Should be covered by the austronesian page on wikipedia.
Ha ha well there you go then cheers for that viper gave me a good laugh, my dear old mum (late) must have been a fortune teller the old duck was saying this in the late 80’s. Of course I use to rubbish her claim. Even from the grave she gets the last laugh bless her 🙂
@ Skinny…not disputing your esteemed dear Mother but Winnie looks more like he has Japanese blood to me ..rather than Chinese ( maybe she really meant Japanese?…..get out the ouija board and lets give your Mum a call….she probably knows the final answer now on Winnie’s ancestors)
….but of course Winnie has a Scottish Mother he was devoted to ….so that could explain a few things also
Unless there has been a huge shift in comparative linguistics since I studied, Maori is not an Indo-European language but is Proto-Polynesian in origin. The latest DNA trails for Maori ancestry suggest Taiwan or it’s vicinity as the beginning place for Polynesian migration so China is not that out there as a statement.
Peters went too soon. Should’ve kept his powder dry. Now Key et al have time to do more to distance themselves from the OIO and the Chinese group can do more to disguise themselves then the sale will go ahead and Key can claim he never lied. Just like the Winebox – Peters went way too soon. Peters finally won that fight but by the time the High Court quashed the Davison Inquiry everybody was sick of hearing about it.
But yes, how could Peters have got it so wrong? Well, he went too soon, but also you’ve got to remember that Key has got a machine behind him that clears everything in his way. As soon as Peters raised the issue it went into action.
Yes didn’t seem that Winston got his facts right. And he usually tries to. Se that informant is a rat.
And Winston on immigrants. He is spending any credits he has built up each time he comes out with such blatant troublemaking fingerpointing and good policy-denying attacks.
Politicians holding themselves out as good people have to show some practicality and some ethics if they hope to get the vote of the thinking public.
NACTs of course, don’t have to worry about that – they just have to appeal to those to whom money and the advancement of their own plans, is the god they worship, and any lies that further the attainment of it are overlooked, invisible.
I agree – I believe, having received this information from a reliable source, that asset sales are the not negotiable bottom line for New Zealand First
I guess perhaps that in a situation where they held the balance of power they hold some hope that national would be desperate enough to concede this point for their support – fat chance, of course, because part of their policy is to buy back the shares at no more than they were initially sold for.
They probably prefer not to lay all their cards on the table at this stage – gives the nats too much time to wriggle and plot.
That’s a generous interpretation. Based on Peters history, I would say it’s more likely that it suits his own power games and ploys to not be honest and open before the election.
Because of that, I think a vote for NZF is a not a left wing vote, and people need to be aware of that. If you want a left wing govt, then vote on the left. If you don’t mind whether we have a left wing govt or not, then vote NZF.
No, it’s not a left wing vote, you’re right there. I can’t think of any good reason why you would vote for them unless you agreed with the whole package – dead rats and all!
“The big issue this year will be sorting out these ‘camps’ and where political parties sit as opposed to where they pretend to sit.”
With regrad to Winston, it’s really not that difficult.
Only vote for Winston if you want Winston more than you care about who he hooks up with.
Winston draws votes from both national and labour. He won’t rule out going with either of them. He will attack both of them during the campaign in order to wedge support of them. He’ll attack the left for it’s liberalism, (seeking lefty conservatives) and the right for it’s economics (seeking righty nationalists).
If you have a preference for who he teams up with, vote for that preference. You cannot predict who he will go with, because who he goes with will be determined by negotiations post election.
Weka, throughout the asset sales referendum period, Peters continually said that if NZF was in a position to influence the next government that they would be pushing for the asset shares to be bought back.
NZF has a whole section on their website setting out their position against asset sales.
If you can’t answer my question, that’s fine. Not sure why you have responded to my comment though. I’m pointing out that voting NZF isn’t guaranteed to be a vote for a left wing govt. Until Peters states categorically before the election what he will actually do, then any vote for NZF is a risk if you want a left wing govt.
What you personally believe (as per 1.4.1.2) is interesting to gain your perspective, but it doesn’t have any bearing on what I just said (in fact it confirms it. We are reduced to trying to guess what Peters will do).
My reply above re asset sales with the two links was actually a response to your earlier unnumbered reply to JanM’s comment at 1.1.1.1.1.2, ie
JanM – “I agree – I believe, having received this information from a reliable source, that asset sales are the not negotiable bottom line for New Zealand First”
Your reply – “Then why don’t they say so?”
My reply to both of you was pointing out that Peters has been saying publicly for many months that assets sales are a no go for NZF. I don’t know who JanM’s reliable source is, but I have heard Peters on radio (RNZ National) use exactly those words that no asset sales are the non-negotiable bottom line – and also seen it in online on Stuff and/or Herald.
So that reply was not responding to your later question as to who NZF would or would not go into coalition with, or support.
My response to that is that Peters has always (to date anyway) refused to disclose this prior to an election. His stance in years past was that he would talk to the party with the largest vote. His stance in more recent years as MMP has bedded in has been to avoid this statement directly (as it was very FPP not MMP) and to play coy. His stance prior to the 2011 election was that NZF would probably remain on the cross benches regardless of which main party got to govern.
So far, Peters has refused to say which way they may go this election – and he has been interviewed many times to repond to Key’s recent overtures to NZF. (And no, I am not going to go looking for links. Other people, including presumably you, are just as capable as me to search Google.) On past behaviour, he will presumably maintain this stance right up to the election. But the way this crazy election year is shaping up, any thing could happen.
So, at the end of the day, you are right that a vote for NZF is no guarantee that this will support a left wing government.
As I said in 1.4.1.2 below, IMO Peters will not go with National, but he may again choose to stay on the cross benches if NZF get back in. Only time will tell.
Fair enough 🙂 Looks like we were talking at cross purposes. I’m not disputing Peters’ statements about asset sales, I’m disputing how to interpret those statements in an election year. We seem to be in agreement on that.
Having said that, even with those statements, I find it hard to place any absolute trust in them. Perhaps Peters will find a way to support National on confidence and supply but vote against any asset sales legislation. When people on the left start implying that his stance on asset sales = he will go with the left, I want to bang my head on the desk at the illogic (looking further upthread).
Just one more point/question – NZF did not provide Confidence and Supply to National in this electoral cycle, so why would they in the next? Just me stirring the pot, LOL. But my thoughts but not money is still that he may again take the cross benches approach.
I suppose I don’t enjoy speculating on what Peters might or might not do as much as some 😉 because I see the potential for so much damage. I think a better take home message is the man can’t be trusted, and if you want a left wing govt then vote on the left.
C73 the more Key puts Winston down the more Peters attacks Key.
The price of the baubles Key will have to pay goes up.
In the most the collateral damage will damage National.
The bigger the dead Rat Key will have to swallow .
I don’t want Winston anywhere near government. Unfortunately, both parties will probably take him in to give themselves a majority and there’s nothing my vote can do to stop that.
i find it very interesting that those who seem to hate Winnie the most are usually new immigrant Poms…..and i have met a few of them…. usually aspiring middle class pretentious Poms …think they are a cut above the local rif raff
….closet racism and classism imo…i mean how dare that darkie native be so stroppy, outspoken , intelligent and have a such following by NZers which makes him king maker….all very galling!
It’s nothing about Winston Peters’s skin colour. And it’s certainly nothing to do with his evident intellect. It’s more to do with the fact that while all politicians lie, Winston takes it to an art form.
I have a fair bit of time for someone like Hone Harawira. I don’t agree with him on much. Sometimes I find his language a little offensive. But overall, he’s passionate and honest about what he wants to do. He’s a great representative for his constituency.
Winston? Not really honest. And the way he swaps his principles for the baubles of office, not that passionate either.
Also, you seem to have taken my education and spun a lot of assumptions out of it. A lot of them not true.
National campaigned on the sale of state assets. They may have done it in a ridiculously idiotic way that made no sense from an economic sense… but they did say they were going to do it.
They didn’t lie. They were just dumb.
Edit: Oh, or are you talking about something when Winston was last in government with the Nats. When Winston joined with a government that had already sold several assets…
I think they thought they were going to add culture to the sum of things out here and that we should be grateful to have them – the raj and all that.
They’re also not that fond of pakeha, for that matter, especially ones that have any appreciation and depth of knowledge about the history of this country – they mostly vote ‘conservative’ of course, because after all, that’s what the ‘proper’ people do. It almost makes one sympathise with Winston’s immigration policy!
Immigrants from the United Kingdom have consistently been left-wing/liberals since the very beginning of the Empire to after its slow, drawn-out collapse.
It’s quite logical, actually. The privilege elites don’t leave the country they have a favoured position in. It’s the down and outs who escape overseas.
So you’re comment doesn’t even make sense from a historical or logical point of view.
Congratulations.
Also, do you generally think the vast majority of British people still think of the Raj and go around toasting the Queen and so on?
While I’d agree, overall there’s a more complicated heritage.
The empire was governed by virtue of a segment of the elite becoming ex-pats and, often, managing either the colonial bureaucracy or commercial operations (or both given their inherent overlap and purposes). But, in New Zealand’s case at least, there was also an ‘aspiring’ capitalist class who came from relatively modest origins in the UK. See No Idle Rich by Jim McAloon for details of the South Island wealthy.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t for no reason that Muldoon spoke of ‘Pommie stirrers’ and prominent unionists having ‘Clydeside accents’. Most of the colonial labour-force and foot soldiers in the military were as you describe, as I understand it.
Watched the old PBS documentary A Class Divided with the family yesterday, about a teacher’s experiment that divided a third-grade class in the US into blue-eyed and brown eyed groups.
Followed up the discussion with a readout of the checklist from Peggy McIntosh’s Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack about privilege and the unwillingness to recognise it.
Have had a couple of discussions about “privilege” lately, and the lack of acknowledgement. Seems like this is a good place to direct those I had difficultly explaining to.
Yeah, I actually remember seeing the earlier doco about her blue-eye/brown-eye experiment: Eye of the storm (1971) as a kid in the early 70s. Broadcast on TVNZ (or should that be NZBC ?).
I am starting to be convinced Winston has no intention whatsoever of runing with National and will start really honing in on Key for mismanagement of our economy. Joyce continues to message some happy deal has been done, with as Stephen says things like “Grumpy Uncle Winston”.
As Nationals campaign manger, Joyce knows full well the election result can go many ways for his team, from a solid win where they govern alone, thru to a total whitewash if many of the 800,000 show up polling day.
The current strong polling for National is not good for Winston, he wants it tight so NZF has influence. Peters is now in a position where he has to sustain a prolonged attack to trim back Nationals lead, that’s if Labour don’t get their shot together. He may be forced to make overtones of a NO deal earlier than the last fortnight, categoric NO deal.
John Key and Winston Peters can’t stand each other, I’m not sure who hates each other the most, I have a feeling it will be Winston who shows the most hatred in the end.
Watch the body language in parliament. Winston can’t stand Key and will go with Labour and Greens-notice how the relationship between NZF and the Greens has thawed in this term.
Peters started in politics with National; it’s just Key he can’t stand. My fear is that the Smiling Assassin will hang around long enough to win the election for the right, then abscond to Hawaii during the post-vote wrangling (sure, he said he’d be there for the full term, but do even the RWNJs believe any word that oozes from from his lips these days?). Then it’ll be a repay of 1996 with Collins shoulder tapped for the Shipley role.
The only solution I can see is for the combined left to get enough votes that Winston First has to give them confidence & supply.
I don’t believe that Peters would go into coalition with National. The animosity is too great and has built since 2008.
However, I don’t necessarily believe that he would go into coalition with Labour/Greens either, although the thaw with the Greens has been noticable. Maybe Confidence and Supply?
My pick is that at the end of the day, he may choose to sit on the cross benches, as he said he would before the 2011 election.
No baubles? No, but does he really want the fast life anymore? Money is not an issue, from what I understand.
This is obviously predicated on NZ First getting back in, which I believe they will.
If money is not an issue then it is the baubles, power, prestige of office he will want. Foreign Minister with a much stricter overseas land purchases regime and retirement kept at 65 and he will go with Lab/Gr.
Has Mr. Munter (othewise known as Simon Moutter), the CEO of Telecom, been hijacked by the PR flakes and re-branding trough feeders? How could one fall for the line that ‘Spark’, something to do with electricity, is more indicative of the company’s business than a reference to communication. Worse than that though is the email they sent out to long-suffering customers. Once again they proved their incompetence in that the link didn’t work (pretty basic business??). The final insult was the concluding sentence, ‘Of course, the one thing that never changes is we’re stoked you’re with us.’ The only stoking does not require a graphic description but the customer, as is usually the case with overblown re-brandings, is the receiver another PR stoking. Yes folks – see what a Munter can do when he lives in the fantasy world of corporate self-importance – $20m of customers money chucked around in the pursuit of being seen to do something to justify(??) an over-blown salary.
Years back Telecom tried to “go large” (in broadband speed) advertised with stereotyped male computer types roaming around in a van clutching oversized drinks in plastic cups, what truly went large was customer dissatisfaction and reimbursements for the actual leisurely pace of the product. Then there was the new mobile network advertised from floating shipping containers, again the new part was a new high in customer dissatisfaction with massive holes in coverage and outages. And then there was…
Spark, what a fizzer. This is one part of national infrastructure that should be nationalised and the consultants sent packing.
‘ Spark, what a fizzer. This is one part of national infrastructure that should be nationalised and the consultants sent packing.’
Chorus is what needs nationalisation along with the southern cross cable access if that’s with telecom still, leave the bloated, self serving, masters of deception to go head to head with Vodafone etc and force proper separation. Telecom/chorus are effectively still the same systems with separate brands.
It’s just nuts that over $1b of taxpayer funds is being used to build a network for private interests but that’s SOP with this gov’t
Chorus is what needs nationalisation along with the southern cross cable access if that’s with telecom still, leave the bloated, self serving, masters of deception to go head to head with Vodafone etc and force proper separation.
Every bit of telecommunications network needs to be nationalised and brought in under a single administration. Spark, Vodafone and 2 Degrees would then just become re-sellers and it wouldn’t take long for the populace to realise that they’re just ticket clippers – if they haven’t done so already.
New lipstick on the pig doesn’t resolve any of the issues that constraint NZ in terms of Internet etc which Telecom/Chorus still have NZ over a barrell on.
Access to the web still a chorus/telecom controlled monopoly unless you’re on a satellite service.
Structural separation was creating a new management structure/board/logo etc, scratch the surface nothing below has changed in fact it’s alot worse with the attrition of knowledgable worker bees at telecom under Moutter.
If you are a telecom shareholder you should be demanding this $20m is invested into network services and technology, like getting their stressed coalface workers off IE8 which is end of life next month.
There will be no need for that Shrillands. The State Super Market chain will have a fly buys type arrangement so it will end up free if you shop to you drop.
Yes and Labour needs a very strong spokesperson to go up against Paula Bennet.!!!!( a brown face and I hate to say it …attractive looking ,former solo mother….she is strong, has ‘credibility’ and form…NACT is incredibly cunning in its placement of Spokespeople, unlike Labour which tends to be cronyist imo and quite abysmal)
….preferably Labour needs a spokesperson ….who can capture Media attention big time, with sound bites , acting flair….gravitas , PASSION, background experience of the people she/he is speaking for and be in a constituency where people are struggling….and preferably be of Maori or Polynesian extraction, simply because they are at the bottom of the economic heap and he /she requires their identification with her for them to vote Labour ( those at the bottom of the heap which NeoLib NACT has created and wants to continue creating…despite desperately trying to pretend otherwise, alienate and show Labour up… and capture the 800,000+ non voters)
While Jacinda Adern knows her stuff and can speak well and finally it is good to hear speaking out publicly…imo she is not the right person to go head- to- head with Paula Bennett….she is too white middle class looking and refined……..( sorry Jacinda, i think you are best as spokeswoman on the ARTS, which is actually very important)
If i was betting on the horses best suited to take on Paula Bennet… and to be Spokesperson for Labour ….i would go for Poto Williams( she has a Christchurch East constituencey of really struggling people and is articulate and intelligent), Louisa Wall ( on fighting form), Rina Tirikatene , Meka Whaaitirie
I’m actually quite sad that Ardern hasn’t really taken Finlayson to task over the Arts. But there’s a permanent fear that you can’t talk too loudly about the Arts because people think it’s a waste of money.
If a politician could clearly explain the benefits of investing in that area, that would be such a good moment for New Zealand.
Ardern is lazy, sat back whilst Kaye out campaigned her in akl central and has far too high an opinion of herself. Like so many of them they forget to keep is simple, snappy and consistent with some emotion in the delivery.
Perception will play a massive role in the outcome this year and she projects as chooky states ‘… white middle class looking and refined…’
DC has more than a few roles to refresh for the run in to show diversity and passion for the cause.
As the nat’s will go for the same smile n wave at the funny man/ financial genius / local boy made good etc with the MSM as a backing band.
About 18 months ago, I had to deal with the aftermath of someone who had committed suicide, on behalf of his family overseas. The cost of cremation only (no funeral service etc in accordance with his wishes) was almost $3500 and that was through whanau in the funeral business. Almost all of that was the charges of the local council crematorium. The WINZ allowance could not be claimed as he had a few thousand in Kiwisaver funds, although he was totally broke cashwise at the time of his death.
Funeral costs etc were briefly discussed on Open Mike on 22 Jan 2014 following a similar article in the Guardian re UK costs. At that time, by accident, I had come across articles etc re a review currently underway on NZ law relating to funerals, cremation etc by the Law Commission.
Here is my comment in that discussion which provides links relating to this review
I have never got around to reading the issues paper in full, but the cynic in me thinks that it is unlikely the review will focus on the horrendous costs faced by ordinary NZers. The review is being led by – Dr Wayne Mapp. And who is the new CEO of the Undertakers of NZ Association? Katrina Shanks, ex National MP.
On a related note, Public Trust used to provide a free will service, and reduced estate management fees.
No longer. This went by the board about 2 to 3 years ago, and the Public Trust now charges similar fees to those of the private legal profession.
yesterday I headed into town with every intention of hitting the New World ( NZ owned supermarket) …but missed the turnoff and i was in a hurry ….so I ended up at my usual Countdown( Aussie owned …the one Shane Jones as been going on about)..feeling guilty and out of sheer expediency
…i was satisfied to note that it had a fraction of the usual customers! I would say it was down by about three quarters ….Instead of 4 or 5 checkout counters there were about 2 or 3……Aussie owners of Countdown must be getting worried ….and there were cut prices everywhere…i avoided the vege section
Interesting and good to have an insight into this. Lose the guilt. Does anyone know how long it takes to establish a new shopping pattern so that at least some of the effect is permanent?
..and during this (deserved) villification of the aussie half of this duopoly..
..let’s not forget they pay their workers above minimum-wage..
..whereas the kiwi half of the duopoly likes to ensure they well and truly screw-over every other nz’er who comes in contact with..
..the proof..?
..they only pay their workers minimum-wage..
..and of course..theses facts only strengthen the case for both of them to go on the partial-nationalisation chopping-block..
..our food-supply nightmare is perhaps the most glaring/impacting on us all each/every day example of the failures of neo-lib/let the market rule! politics..
We need to spark up competition the Commerce Commission needs to be pro active rather than reactive.
Successive govts have paid lip service to anticompetative practices
ie. Labour with challenge petrol stations and National with supermarkets.
That is the debacle over competition from the wharehouse.
Allowing the Duopoly to buy shares in the warehouse that should never have been allowed to happen.
the comm comm needs to be rebuilt with some fangs and a 21st century arsenal, as the gnats have gutted it, not that it was needed as it’s effectively created duopoly/oligopoly in telecoms, building supplies, freight etc.
There’s also been subtle creeping reduction on the fringes with warehouse snapping up leemings/torpedo7, woolies with ezibuy who would be a big loss to palmy if the DC was moved to Oz, it’s biggest market.
Comcom needs an overhaul of the Commerce Act is what it really needs. There are problems with s36 as it’s about “intent” to abuse market power, which requires crystal ball gazing.
I recall reading something last year in the SST that s36 needs a complete overhaul and the focus needs to be taken away from the “intent” of the market power to establishing whether it WILL cause market power.
It’s one of the most ridiculous sections, and is probably something that IAG knows will probably enable them to purchase Lumley Insurance, giving Insurance Australia Group (IAG) 70% of the residential insurance market in New Zealand. Comcom will just effectively rubber stamp their acquisition saying “no barriers to entry” or something equally inane.
Actually, that’s more my idea of full ownership although she’s saying that the government should own and operate a supermarket chain in competition with the presently existing supermarkets. She certainly isn’t suggesting that the government go to partial nationalisation.
setting up a whole new chain to price-compete them into submission just seems like a potential nightmare..on so many levels..to my mind/thinking..
Whereas I think that’s the best option as the government can make rational decisions such as free delivery on all purchases. The present cartel see delivery as just another way to make more profit whereas the government can use it to reduce resource use (fuel and time mostly but land also as an actual shop won’t be needed).
Good prices with free delivery will absolutely kill the private system.
“..Good prices with free delivery will absolutely kill the private system…”
y’see..i think that would be a mistake..to ‘kill the private system’..
..as you would also kill the efficiencies learnt/built into that ‘private-system’..
..and once you have killed off that ‘private system’ with yr free-delivery-ploy..(really..?..that’s all it will take..?..)
..do we just slump back into a (too-often) inefficient/corrupt state-controlled system..?
..no thanks..
..the other beauty of 51% partial-nationalisation is that no new infrastructures/supply-lines have to be created..you are just working with what is already there..
..and of course..51% state-ownership means 51% of the profits of that (former) duopoly flow back to the state coffers…
..for the people..it is win-win all around..
..whereas i wd forsee great popular opposition to either full-nationalisation..(for reasons already listed)
..or the potential perils of/from setting up a new state-run food retail-chain..
as you would also kill the efficiencies learnt/built into that ‘private-system’..
There aren’t any.
do we just slump back into a (too-often) inefficient/corrupt state-controlled system..?
How you prevent that is to make sure that everyone can see what’s happening. Also, what Shane Jones is talking about is the corruption that’s inside the private system. Corruption that hard to get rid of because of the secrecy that’s inherent in any private market system.
and of course..51% state-ownership means 51% of the profits of that (former) duopoly flow back to the state coffers
And with a fully state owned system there won’t be any dead weight loss of profit.
i’m sorry..but to deny there are no profit-driven inbuilt/operating ‘efficiencies’ in the current private duopoly. business-model.
You’re talking physical distribution in which case there’s pretty much only one way to do it. Pick it up at a (the farm/factory) and deliver it to b (the household). That means a combination of trucks, trains, aircraft and ships. The best way to determine the best combination would be by computer analysing and comparing the resources used in each mode.
No amount of profit will change that.
..of course those efficiencies exist..everyone knows/can see that..
No, that’s just everybody believing the modern religion that they’ve had force fed to them through the MSM. Thankfully, people are starting to wake up to the BS.
what is not to love about all that..?
It’s still kowtowing to the capitalist delusion which makes it sociopathic and if you think that’s something to love then you have problems.
HINT: Believing in capitalism and the profit motive is the same as believing in perpetual motion machines.
“Thankfully, people are starting to wake up to the BS.”
You have no evidence for such a statement. Efficient markets are predominating the world like never before. In New Zealand we have had successive governments that have led the world in promoting free trade. New Zealand has efficient institutions to promote capitalism. That is not changing any time soon.
The only people waking up are those in your tiny 1950s echo chamber.
“our cost of living in relation to wages is one of the highest in the world..”
Look you have a point. The problem is barriers to capitalism.
I can go on to the interweb and purchase tramping boots and books and just about everything else at 50% of NZ costs. I have no idea how any retail survives here. That fucking great Whitcouls on Lambon Quay is dead as dead.
If we impede the performance of markets we will be fucked.
You do realise that when Labour is out of office and disintegrates until 2023, historians will write:
“The associated activists at The Standard wanted the Government to run supermarkets.”
I maintain that post 2020 we will see a stable coalition of post-Labour-break away, National and Act. There will be an opposition of Green/Communist NZ First/Nationalist,and Maori Radical.
If I am wrong, by 2030 will look something like a cross between PNG and Fiji.
Some Saturday morning inspiration. Narrated by George Monbiot, ‘How Wolves Change Rivers’ is a four minute film on trophic cascades in nature. It shows why land management in NZ is about so much more than just our human perceptions of polluted water from dairy farms.
Looking at some of the arguments voiced by electricity companies around solar rooftop power.
Clearly obvious that none of them do anything like housework or running a home. The refrain seems to be “nobody is home during the day to use the power”.
Well blokes, let me introduce you to the modern washing machine/ dryer and dishwasher and older waterheater and nightstore technology.
As we all know the waterheater and nightstore will use any daytime electricity to heat themselves ready for use that night and the next morning.
Most modern diswashers and washers have time lapse on them so they are simply set to run during the day. Drying clothes can then be done the next day in dryer or on the line.
Cooking, ovens have time lapse on them too. Put the food in that morning either heavily chilled or lightly frozen and set to cook slowly later in the day. Meal ready at home time.
Evening use is then the lights.
Deep cycle batteries are part of most systems and provide electricity when the sun has gone.
These companies are playing on peoples lack of knowledge.
Low power 12 volt systems are another way the average person can save money through solar power.
Running all lighting with led low power longlife bulbs.
12 v Radios stereos and tvs are relatively cheap and easy to buy.
You don’t need an electrician to install a simple system.
Small wind mills using F&P smart drive motors can make large amounts of power.
For peak usage you will still have to use mains but reducing the amount of power we buy will force prices down.
Yep, 12V is the way to go for anyone wanting to seriously look at reducing consumption and working towards a sustainable future.
The boating and motorhome sections at tradme are good places to look at what’s available and pricing (cheaper than the retailers).
“12 v Radios stereos and tvs are relatively cheap and easy to buy.”
Car stereos already run on 12V 😉 Laptops, cellphones, cameras, batteries etc can all be charged easily and more efficiently with 12V.
However the big draws on household power are hot water, fridges, and stoves. Most people I know that go off grid have alternative fuels or systems for those.
Off the solar panels on the roof—>through a smart meter/inverter into the outside lines—>sold at wholesale rates by Labour/Greens proposed single wholesaler—>reduction in power bill sent by Government computer to power supplier either as discount or monetary credit on account—> Government wholesaler by computer gives power supplier to household credit on future purchase of electricity of the same amount credited on the consumers bill,
Seems a relatively simple system allowing for a battery free system which would save both on maintainence and set up costs,
Battery solar is resource intensive when there is no need to be, using batteries in a solar system that is not totally off grid seems senseless and then begs the question what would be done with the mass of batteries once they had reached the end of their useful life,
Which Children of the sub-continent would we be happy to pay 2 cents a day to break open these spent batteries poisoning themselves looking for re-usable metals???…
Battery minimisation would be a good thing, as they can indeed be pretty toxic to dispose of. Their mass is a major limiting factor in electric vehicles, but fortunately houses don’t move around that much. I like the idea of hydrogen fuel cells as a power-sump for residential communities/ apartment blocks, but the tech is not really quite there yet.
Pasupial, yah, i have read, a while ago, where a solar farm had been set up which turned the generated power into heat—->stored the heat in i think salt filled towers—->then at night retrieved the heat turning it back into electricity,
Think the experiment occurred in Greece and allowed for near 24 hours of solar power use, but, in a small country like ours which has a reaonably well wired grid and local systems why duplicate,
As RL points out below the best electricity storage in the world exists now behind every Hydo dam in the country and it wouldn’t take much to integrate household solar into that system leaving the Hydro to take up peak daytime and nighttime loads,
Once such a system has been in place for a while i would suggest that solar arrays should become part of the building code for new builds and then a good look at the cost/benefits of solar hot water need be had so that in the future that solar hot water may also become a standard part of any new housing,(along with Government sponsored retrofitting of older housing),
Obviously such much needed changes in energy production and use would be much easier to bring about if the Government owned the whole system from dams to the grid to the local wiring network…
That works IF we reduce usage. Or are willing to dam more rivers/fill the landscape with windfarms.
Neither of those options offers long term resiliency in the face of natural disasters and AGW/PO/GFC. Drought is already an issue with hydro.
Bad raises a good point about the problems with batteries. However I think teh solution to that is to manage batteries within the recycle stream in NZ (rather than exporting them). We’ve done this before, and we should be looking at doing this again for other batteries anyway. Having batteries in a solar set up means we don’t have all our eggs in one basket.
btw Bad, I appreciate your willingness to live without electricity in the event of the Big One as a way of preventing us having batteries that people overseas have to suffer with dealing with, but with all due respect, doing that in Welly is a bit different than doing it in places that have -10C frosts in the winter. This is of increasing concern given how many houses have electrity as their sole power source now ie no other means of heating or cooking or boiling water. We think of natural disasters as being something we need to plan for surviving on our own for 3 days until the cavalry arrives. Chch showed us this wasn’t true, and Chch wasn’t a big quake. It’s also not just about one off, might never happen in our lifetime events. It’s about how PO and AGW effects will coincide and impact on our ability to manage infrastructure. Try asking your local authorities how much of their infrastructure is dependent on imported parts for instance and then imagine a world where we are trying to fix things post-quake when we don’t have the finances or political clout internationally to vie for precious, depleting resources.
It’s pretty sunny outside today, but the next 50+ years don’t look so bright and the more we can future proof our systems here the better. This is why despite my unease over the battery pollution and waste issues, I think the GP are right in having that as part of the scheme. I’m unclear whether they are proposing that people choose either battery or grid-tied only, but hope that people can choose both.
The other thing that comes from using solar battery systems is that it makes householders acutely aware of how much power they use when and where and will act as an incentive to use less. This will happen with grid-tied also to an extent, but there is nothing like understanding that solar is a finite resource too.
That works IF we reduce usage. Or are willing to dam more rivers/fill the landscape with windfarms.
Nope, don’t need to do any of that either.
Neither of those options offers long term resiliency in the face of natural disasters and AGW/PO/GFC.
Actually, they do.
However I think teh solution to that is to manage batteries within the recycle stream in NZ (rather than exporting them).
We should be recycling batteries that we use but we don’t need to use batteries in our power grid.
doing that in Welly is a bit different than doing it in places that have -10C frosts in the winter.
The solution to that isn’t batteries but houses built to Passive House Standard. Houses that, even in the middle of winter, don’t need any artificial heating.
Try asking your local authorities how much of their infrastructure is dependent on imported parts for instance and then imagine a world where we are trying to fix things post-quake when we don’t have the finances or political clout internationally to vie for precious, depleting resources.
We don’t have to compete for international resources as we already have all the resources that we need right here in NZ. The problem is that the governments of both Labour and National have bought into the BS of free-trade which has made our society both unsustainable and lacking any resilience.
It’s pretty sunny outside today, but the next 50+ years don’t look so bright and the more we can future proof our systems here the better.
Then why are you saying that we need to build batteries? It’s just another layer of complexity that we don’t need.
I agree generally about passive housing*, but we can’t replace the housing stock in NZ in the short or med term.
*although I suspect you will find that many people living in the colder parts of NZ will want direct heating as well.
Bad and I had a conversation the other day where he said he would rather do post-earthquake with no power for a time rather than use battery solar because of the social justice issues involved in disposal. I pointed out that that’s easier to say in Welly.
“Then why are you saying that we need to build batteries? It’s just another layer of complexity that we don’t need.”
Ideally we wouldn’t need it. But with things the way they are now, politically and in terms of the awareness and willingness of the population, stand alone solar gives us a window in the powerdown where we keep a certain standard of living while we figure out what happens next.
You and I are in fundamental disagreement about the possible outcomes. I don’t believe that transition without massive powerdown is a given were we to do the right things from today, and I don’t believe we will do the right things anyway. The main difference here seems to be that you believe in tech solutions as inherently possible AND that we will actually do them. I look at the information about what is going on and what is coming and the main thing I see is uncertainty and unwillingness to change until we are forced to. We could perhaps describe the difference as between a sustainability view and a resiliency one. I am more focussed on resiliency now.
Localised systems offer the best mid and long term resiliency. Doesn’t have to be solar battery systems in each household, but because we’re not even close to being able to have a decent conversation publically about this, solar battery systems are a not bad way to go in the meantime. I’m also mindful that the people who are most expert in this at a pragmatic level, who have been thinking about these issues and making the actual changes in their lives and living this life for a long time already, generally have chosen solar batteries as part of what they do. They’re generally aware of the limits of that, having lived with it.
I think where one lives is a big part of this too. Geography, climate, population density, existing infrastructure are all part of the picture. I don’t think one size fits all.
The main difference here seems to be that you believe in tech solutions as inherently possible AND that we will actually do them.
We will do them. It’s just a question of whether we’ll do them before we need them or after. In today’s system we’ll do them after which will cause a massive amount of unnecessary suffering. This is where the government can, and should, step in to make that necessary change before we need it.
And I’m not even talking about new tech but what’s been known for 100 years or so.
“Neither of those options offers long term resiliency in the face of natural disasters and AGW/PO/GFC.”
“Actually, they do.”
Ok, so maybe explain what would happen to the national supply (assuming grid tied solar but no batteries) in the following scenario:
A big quake on the Alpine fault in July leaves the Clyde dam intact but takes out the Hawea Control gate (ie no storage in Lake Hawea). This coincides with a dry winter following a SI summer drought, so the Waitaki catchments and even Manapouri are low. There is increased demand in the grid because of increased numbers of bad winter storms that year (more cold, less solar panel generation).
One of the big power generators up north is offline for maintenance. This normally happens in summer then the SI lakes are full, but because we’ve now had 4 really bad drought years in a row, the back up generation is getting really stretched.
Post-quake the SI is left without power for a period of time (weeks or months). I assume this means that the infrastructure for getting the Clyde power generation up north is compromisedas well as distribution within the SI. The lack of power seriously hampers reconstruction along the divide (think roads and bridges being out for long periods of time) including work on the grid infrastructure.
And just for fun, let’s say we have National govt in power, and Gerry Brownlee is still around.
There are some extreme conditions that can’t be planned for and that would be one of them.
That said, if every house had a decent PV installation then the local grid would still have power even if it is only during the day. But considering that we would also have wind power which comes in from a different feed to the hydro-stations the local grid would probably also have power during the night. Any excess from solar and wind would be used to pump water back up into the damns as well.
It’s not a one size fits all situation. It’s about having enough diversity in the power grid across the country so that extreme scenarios can be managed effectively. Yes, there would be some disruption but I don’t think it would be as bad as you think.
Oh, and the lack of power in the grid won’t hamper reconstruction due to portable generators run on bio-fuel.
I’m kind of surprised I have to explain this to someone living in Wellington, but NZ is capable of far bigger earthquake disasters than what happened in Chch. Chch was more than bad enough, and we haven’t dealt that well with it. A big quake on the Alpine fault that shuts down Wellington? Or takes out the power supply to the South Island in the middle of a hard winter? We were lucky with Chch that it was in Feb not July. How would we deal with the Big One?
“Solar is a finite resource too—again really???,perhaps you would care to explain in which context you see solar as a finite resource…”
I suppose if we want to wait for the sun to replace our stock of fossil fuels, then yeah, techinically, we can call it infinite (until the sun explodes). But in human timeframes, with the population we have now, solar for electricity is dependent on other things than solar radiation, and those things are finite. So solar power (which is the context I made the statement in) is a finite resource. The only way to get out of that is to go passive solar, but even much of that tech is dependent on finite resources unless we lower our standard of living hugely.
It helps to think about things as being interconnected. When we talk about ‘renewables’ we simply mean that in an isolated economic sense and an abstract physics sense. In physical reality that we all live in, there is really no such thing. If the population was lower we might have been able to set up renewable forestry for power (and carbon neutral), but again, at the population we have now, it’s all dependend on finite resources (fossil fuels, metals, industrial society). You can’t build a solar panel without a factory, and none of the factories are being built, maintained and run on solar. They’re all using fossil fuels and limited supplies of metals. That’s not even getting the plastics involved.
What we’re left with is knowledge. We won’t be going back to the stone age because we know about electricity as well as how to make bricks, but business as usual is over.
Yep. I actually find the idea of how to use our knowledge within the powerdown pretty interesting and exciting. I think human capacity for innovation will excel, given the right conditions.
Yeah sure our geology is capable of bigger earthquakes than those that totaled Christchurch, but, i doubt you will be on this earth when the next city totaling one occurs,
Myself i think your trying to over-intellectualize the whole energy thing and i havn’t really got the energy on a Saturday afternoon to get into one of those ‘dancing on the head of a pin debates’,
Hell if i was keen to engage i would start with your ”limited supply of metals”, probably starting the dance with a Ha-ha-ha, only limited on planet weka…
It’s not overintellectualising. It’s systems thinking and seeing everything as interrelated. If you don’t understand the relationships between metal extraction, metal prices and the global economy, as it is today, I probably can’t explain anything about future scenarios. Beyond that, it’s about what paradigm we think in. If we had understood the fundamental limited nature of, well, nature, 100 years ago we wouldn’t be in this incredibly fucked up situation now. We would have had some chance of creating actual sustainable societies with a pretty decent standard of living.
“Yeah sure our geology is capable of bigger earthquakes than those that totaled Christchurch, but, i doubt you will be on this earth when the next city totaling one occurs,”
by all means doubt away. I probably would if I lived in Welly too. Unfortunately, I’ve been listening to people who are actual experts in geology and earthquakes.
There is a case to be made for simply ignoring the earthquake potential and sucking it up when it happens. But if we are going to the trouble of thinking about how to manage resources then future proofing is a natural enough part of that.
Of course solar is a finite resource. 340W/m² multiplied by percentage of planetary surface available divided by external considerations cf: Weka’s comment.
Germany will be turning off about 25% of it’s peak demand gas fuelled generation and Oz reckons no new power plants needed for about 15-20 years thanks to wind/solar capacity encouraged by Govt rebates and schemes over the past years.
We have wind, sun and water in abundance, our power prices are there to sustain the packages of the Binns/Hefferndens etc and duplication of roles/systems across generation, distribution, retail.
Next they’ll be saying home solar power put back into the grid will break it, watch out for that BS.
Something I have not read anywhere is that most of the demand is in Auckland/North Island and most generation in the South Island.
Put in a whole lot of solar in Auckland and you reduce the losses in the grid shipping all that electricity to Auckland/North Island.
It is not like power consumption does not happen during the day as industry uses lots.
I would not trust power companies to offer any unbiased opinions on this. It is not in their interests to see a lot of solar generation. They’ll lose a chunk of profits as they will not be the only suppliers.
This election could be interesting – with Dotcom’s involvement.
Quote follows ..
Some of the documents taken by Anonymous show HBGary Federal was working on behalf of Bank of America to respond to Wikileaks’ planned release of the bank’s internal documents.[4][23] “Potential proactive tactics against WikiLeaks include feeding the fuel between the feuding groups, disinformation, creating messages around actions to sabotage or discredit the opposing organization, and submitting fake documents to WikiLeaks and then calling out the error.”[24]
Emails indicate Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies, and the law firm Hunton & Williams (recommended to Bank of America by the US Justice Department)[15] all cooperated on the project.[24] Other e-mails appear to show the U.S. Chamber of Commerce contracted the firms to spy on and discredit unions and liberal groups.[25][26]
On Radionz they are just doing a piece apparently on energy and food for the world and so on.
Someone has just made reference to New Yorkers defecating a huge amount of energy producing faeces a day, something like 900 tonnes or… and that could produce $90 million worth of electricity. An idea!
If it could have electricity extracted, part of which would go into drying the stuff, mixing with growing medium from rubbish dumps, and if it could then be an earth friendly product that would act both as mulch and growing medium on denatured soils.
If, that great word full of promise, if that could be developed, that would be a huge boost to the planet that might offset the Iraqi oil wells burning for almost a year back those decades,.
health benefits of Cayenne Pepper ?….( for smokers, those with dickey hearts and vascular issues, those with gout, those with stomach issues, those with obesity problems)
lol…mix it with honey in hot water ( 2 teaspoons cayenne plus 2 dessert spoons honey in boiling water)…hope it doesnt kill you but it could cure something or other…but do your own research first
I really struggle with this. I didn’t pay much attention to Charlotte Dawson when she was alive, but one thing I do remember is the massive amount of hate speech directed against her.
It isn’t enough to “hope the tr*lls are feeling bad about themselves today.” Hate speech is hate speech.
It pushes my authoritarian buttons. Can we address this merely by tackling inequality?
i had to have a giggle at the description of what occurred around the person that heckled the Len ‘love-in’, sounds like those involved were so ‘into’ democracy and free speech that they were prepared to give said heckler a kicking forcing the plods to step in…
(Interesting – this comment is ‘awaiting moderation’ on that bastion of ‘free speech’ – Kiwiblog )
We are awaiting a decision from the Solicitor-General by 28 February 2014, as to whether or not leave will be granted for a private prosecution against Auckland Mayor Len Brown for alleged bribery and corruption.
For those who want to make light of the efforts of private prosecutor Graham McCready – how many ever expected John Banks to ever face trial for alleged electoral fraud, and the Solicitor-General to take over the prosecution?
Come on – provide EVIDENCE that proves any of you predicted this historic precedent would ever happen!
One of the considerations that the Solicitor-General will be taking into account, before granting leave, is ‘public interest’.
In my view – public FUSS equals ‘public interest’.
-Here is some media coverage of our LEN BROWN – STAND DOWN march held today, Saturday 22 February 2014:
LET YOUR BANNERS DO THE TALKING!
(Lots more folk are now getting the message about ‘corrupt corporate cronyism – of the casino variety’ – and Auckland Mayor Len Brown’s alleged criminal complicity – although this message has NOT been covered (yet) by mainstream media ……
(I use the electoral process to help make a fuss about the issues – it’s proven to be quite effective?
Polled fourth with nearly 12,000 votes on an ‘in-your-face anti-corporate corruption’ platform ….
That was what was so interesting about today’s march, the coalition of political aliens from arguably different political galaxies, working together in common cause, calling for Auckland Mayor, Len Brown to STAND DOWN.
PPS: My formal complaint to Auckland Police against (former) Auckland Council CEO Doug McKay for alleged ‘contravention of statute’ (over failing to follow the due process outlined in the Auckland Council ‘Code of Conduct’ s.8 ‘Compliance’ – and effectively making up his own process and picking his own people to write the Ernst and Young Report) is currently being assessed by an Inspector attached to Auckland CIB.
(Don’t believe a word I say – read it for yourself –
[Dear Penny. I see you have sent an email out suggesting that the Standard has effectively censored your comment. It was picked up by Akismet and someone needs to release it. It is Saturday night and authors’ attentions are probably on other things. There has been no decision made to censor your comment. It would help if your comments were shorter and did not have as many links, that way they would probably go straight through – MS]
PENNY BRIGHT says:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
FEBRUARY 22, 2014 AT 11:46 PM
TESTING…..
Am I able to make comments on your blog Martyn Bradbury – to reply to comments you make about me – or have you still banned me because you didn’t agree that I should stand against John Minto from Mana (at a time you were being paid as a consultant for Mana?)
….ANYONE :
Did I hear correctly? (I was busy avoiding Mora and guests taking their egos for a walk under the pretense of coming across as sages, critical thinkers and people who think a mere audience should take them seriously as of their right) …….
RNZ news at 4pm:
The GCSB has refuse to tell a parliamentary committee whether or not they get any sort of funding from elsewhere.
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Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
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The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. It’s not as if we haven’t done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didn’t say: “Oh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.” No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
The government's plan to reintroduce a three strikes regime is being strongly opposed by lawyers, who argue there is no evidence it reduces crime or helps people rehabilitate. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer “yes” to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if they’re experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
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Immigrants Should “Fit In”
Maori have a “Treaty of Waitangi Grievance Industry”
Traditional Winston Peters racist tub thumping to drum up votes.
Winston Peters is playing the racist card, because he has nothing else, as he positions himself to prop up National after the election.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9749504/Immigrants-should-fit-in-says-Peters
What more need be said?.
Other than:
A vote for New Zealand First is a vote for National
It’s nasty stuff alright, but Peters is playing both sides:
i think the best tack to take against peters –
is to argue that a vote for peters/nz first..
..is not a ‘safe’ vote ..
..for anyone who opposes this govt..and wants change..
..and it’s an easily-understandable/simple/true/factual-message..
..a vote for peters..could well turn into a vote for key…
(..tho’..as for that peter’s-quote featured by oan..
..it’s hard to argue against the facts of the matter of that..eh..?..)
..phillip ure..
A vote for Winston is a vote for whatever party offers him the most
Winnie will go with Labour…so for Christs sake dont alienate him
( fools you dont want to push him into the arms of NACT do you?…and another NACT government….. because they DO need him!
….and there is nothing wrong with fitting into NZ values eg Pommie elitist class system wallers have to fit into NZ egalitarian ideas…cultures where the female is second class to the male and /or to be exploited for profit must fit into out values of human rights for women as equals and NOT to be ill treated or exploited)
I am intrigued about Winston going with a tip off from a real estate person about the alleged selling of the Huka Lodge. How could the estate agent have got it soooo wrong?
Definite whiff of a rat and dirty tricks.
how could someone believe anything a real estate salesperson tells them..?
..about anything..?
..phillip ure..
That’s just Winston responding to his anti National supporters who wanted a clear message he wouldn’t run with National at his State of the Nation speech. Peters pulled that one out of his arse and pinned the ‘pending’ sale to John Key. A bit of a cryptic message but those who ‘believe’ heard it loud and clear lol. Huka Lodge is already foreign owned, just not by the Chinese ‘yet’.
As we know Winston extracts plenty of votes out of the Asian bashing trip. My wise old mum would argue till she was blue in the face that Peters was part Chinese, so it’s if true its ironic he bashes both Maori & Chinese.
If ‘my wise old mum’ was that wise she would know that Winston’s ethnic ancestry is completely irrelevant as he is talking about culture not ethnicity. If you go down that pathway you are in danger of playing the race card
Cut it out Jan. Winston may have toned down his racist crap in recent years but every now and then he can’t help having a crack at migrants. Not too long ago it was Chinese migrant restaurants not paying tax, indian migrant taxi driver over charging, this is only a couple that spring to mind.
Why can’t I recall seeing any Kiwi’s of Chinese or Indian ethnicity at ‘any’ of his rally’s over the years. Because one would assume they wouldn’t want to be sitting there listening to Peters attacking immigrants from their part of the World.
I don’t think you understand the difference between race and culture. It’s the difference between how you look because of who your ancestors were and how you think because of where you were brought up, to put it simply
Could not resist this link, Skinny. As your wise old mum said, back in 2002 , Peters claimed that Maori originally came from mainland China.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=2097764
He is an educated man, veutoviper, and that is the current theory based on research to date
It’s obvious you don’t get the difference between ethnicity and culture, either
Is it the current theory?
Because South East Asia =/= China. And I thought the current theory was South East Asia.
Now, obviously, you can suggest that maybe the people of South East Asia originated from China (or vice versa). But if you’re going to keep going back, then we all started off roughly from the same place anyway.
Which makes the whole argument rather silly, yes.
I do actually, JanM – that is, get the difference bwtween ethnicity and culture.
I also know Peters is an educated man – worked with him on and off for years professionally through Parliament. And I am not disputing the theory of where Maori originated. I was simply providing a link to verify that Peters had raised this back in 2002.
Actually current genetics studies coalesces on Sundaland, the landform now under water that bridged Indochina to Borneo + some of the major Indonesian islands. It’s drowning led to major population migrations that colonised Taiwan, Philippines etc. Should be covered by the austronesian page on wikipedia.
Ha ha well there you go then cheers for that viper gave me a good laugh, my dear old mum (late) must have been a fortune teller the old duck was saying this in the late 80’s. Of course I use to rubbish her claim. Even from the grave she gets the last laugh bless her 🙂
@ Skinny…not disputing your esteemed dear Mother but Winnie looks more like he has Japanese blood to me ..rather than Chinese ( maybe she really meant Japanese?…..get out the ouija board and lets give your Mum a call….she probably knows the final answer now on Winnie’s ancestors)
….but of course Winnie has a Scottish Mother he was devoted to ….so that could explain a few things also
The Maori language is apparently Indo-European, which suggests an Indian origin rather than Chinese.
mikesh,
Unless there has been a huge shift in comparative linguistics since I studied, Maori is not an Indo-European language but is Proto-Polynesian in origin. The latest DNA trails for Maori ancestry suggest Taiwan or it’s vicinity as the beginning place for Polynesian migration so China is not that out there as a statement.
Sorry just couldn’t let it go.
Yep, Fran, Taiwan is my understanding too.
Peters went too soon. Should’ve kept his powder dry. Now Key et al have time to do more to distance themselves from the OIO and the Chinese group can do more to disguise themselves then the sale will go ahead and Key can claim he never lied. Just like the Winebox – Peters went way too soon. Peters finally won that fight but by the time the High Court quashed the Davison Inquiry everybody was sick of hearing about it.
But yes, how could Peters have got it so wrong? Well, he went too soon, but also you’ve got to remember that Key has got a machine behind him that clears everything in his way. As soon as Peters raised the issue it went into action.
Yes didn’t seem that Winston got his facts right. And he usually tries to. Se that informant is a rat.
And Winston on immigrants. He is spending any credits he has built up each time he comes out with such blatant troublemaking fingerpointing and good policy-denying attacks.
Politicians holding themselves out as good people have to show some practicality and some ethics if they hope to get the vote of the thinking public.
NACTs of course, don’t have to worry about that – they just have to appeal to those to whom money and the advancement of their own plans, is the god they worship, and any lies that further the attainment of it are overlooked, invisible.
Or SNAFU.
I agree – I believe, having received this information from a reliable source, that asset sales are the not negotiable bottom line for New Zealand First
Then why don’t they say so?
It’s irrelevant. National will be selling genesis before the election.
There won’t be any in the table for the next term, and Winston will claim that as a victory for him.
I guess perhaps that in a situation where they held the balance of power they hold some hope that national would be desperate enough to concede this point for their support – fat chance, of course, because part of their policy is to buy back the shares at no more than they were initially sold for.
They probably prefer not to lay all their cards on the table at this stage – gives the nats too much time to wriggle and plot.
That’s a generous interpretation. Based on Peters history, I would say it’s more likely that it suits his own power games and ploys to not be honest and open before the election.
Because of that, I think a vote for NZF is a not a left wing vote, and people need to be aware of that. If you want a left wing govt, then vote on the left. If you don’t mind whether we have a left wing govt or not, then vote NZF.
No, it’s not a left wing vote, you’re right there. I can’t think of any good reason why you would vote for them unless you agreed with the whole package – dead rats and all!
1 I agree weka. The big issue this year will be sorting out these ‘camps’ and where political parties sit as opposed to where they pretend to sit.
“The big issue this year will be sorting out these ‘camps’ and where political parties sit as opposed to where they pretend to sit.”
With regrad to Winston, it’s really not that difficult.
Only vote for Winston if you want Winston more than you care about who he hooks up with.
Winston draws votes from both national and labour. He won’t rule out going with either of them. He will attack both of them during the campaign in order to wedge support of them. He’ll attack the left for it’s liberalism, (seeking lefty conservatives) and the right for it’s economics (seeking righty nationalists).
If you have a preference for who he teams up with, vote for that preference. You cannot predict who he will go with, because who he goes with will be determined by negotiations post election.
Weka, throughout the asset sales referendum period, Peters continually said that if NZF was in a position to influence the next government that they would be pushing for the asset shares to be bought back.
NZF has a whole section on their website setting out their position against asset sales.
http://nzfirst.org.nz/what-we-stand-for/no-asset-sales
http://nzfirst.org.nz/article/our-asset-sales-buyback-promise-radio-live-column
Do either of those two links tell me which parties NZF would or wouldn’t go into coalition with, or support to be government?
That is a different subject that Peters has spoken about several times recently. Try searching yourself – eg the NZF website, or use Google.
Re my views on this, see my comment at 1.4.1.2 bwlow.
If you can’t answer my question, that’s fine. Not sure why you have responded to my comment though. I’m pointing out that voting NZF isn’t guaranteed to be a vote for a left wing govt. Until Peters states categorically before the election what he will actually do, then any vote for NZF is a risk if you want a left wing govt.
What you personally believe (as per 1.4.1.2) is interesting to gain your perspective, but it doesn’t have any bearing on what I just said (in fact it confirms it. We are reduced to trying to guess what Peters will do).
My reply above re asset sales with the two links was actually a response to your earlier unnumbered reply to JanM’s comment at 1.1.1.1.1.2, ie
JanM – “I agree – I believe, having received this information from a reliable source, that asset sales are the not negotiable bottom line for New Zealand First”
Your reply – “Then why don’t they say so?”
My reply to both of you was pointing out that Peters has been saying publicly for many months that assets sales are a no go for NZF. I don’t know who JanM’s reliable source is, but I have heard Peters on radio (RNZ National) use exactly those words that no asset sales are the non-negotiable bottom line – and also seen it in online on Stuff and/or Herald.
So that reply was not responding to your later question as to who NZF would or would not go into coalition with, or support.
My response to that is that Peters has always (to date anyway) refused to disclose this prior to an election. His stance in years past was that he would talk to the party with the largest vote. His stance in more recent years as MMP has bedded in has been to avoid this statement directly (as it was very FPP not MMP) and to play coy. His stance prior to the 2011 election was that NZF would probably remain on the cross benches regardless of which main party got to govern.
So far, Peters has refused to say which way they may go this election – and he has been interviewed many times to repond to Key’s recent overtures to NZF. (And no, I am not going to go looking for links. Other people, including presumably you, are just as capable as me to search Google.) On past behaviour, he will presumably maintain this stance right up to the election. But the way this crazy election year is shaping up, any thing could happen.
So, at the end of the day, you are right that a vote for NZF is no guarantee that this will support a left wing government.
As I said in 1.4.1.2 below, IMO Peters will not go with National, but he may again choose to stay on the cross benches if NZF get back in. Only time will tell.
Fair enough 🙂 Looks like we were talking at cross purposes. I’m not disputing Peters’ statements about asset sales, I’m disputing how to interpret those statements in an election year. We seem to be in agreement on that.
Having said that, even with those statements, I find it hard to place any absolute trust in them. Perhaps Peters will find a way to support National on confidence and supply but vote against any asset sales legislation. When people on the left start implying that his stance on asset sales = he will go with the left, I want to bang my head on the desk at the illogic (looking further upthread).
Glad that is sorted!
Just one more point/question – NZF did not provide Confidence and Supply to National in this electoral cycle, so why would they in the next? Just me stirring the pot, LOL. But my thoughts but not money is still that he may again take the cross benches approach.
I suppose I don’t enjoy speculating on what Peters might or might not do as much as some 😉 because I see the potential for so much damage. I think a better take home message is the man can’t be trusted, and if you want a left wing govt then vote on the left.
C73 the more Key puts Winston down the more Peters attacks Key.
The price of the baubles Key will have to pay goes up.
In the most the collateral damage will damage National.
The bigger the dead Rat Key will have to swallow .
It’s throughly disgusting and also very annoying.
I don’t want Winston anywhere near government. Unfortunately, both parties will probably take him in to give themselves a majority and there’s nothing my vote can do to stop that.
…well Cambidge man i would expect this from you
i find it very interesting that those who seem to hate Winnie the most are usually new immigrant Poms…..and i have met a few of them…. usually aspiring middle class pretentious Poms …think they are a cut above the local rif raff
….closet racism and classism imo…i mean how dare that darkie native be so stroppy, outspoken , intelligent and have a such following by NZers which makes him king maker….all very galling!
It’s nothing about Winston Peters’s skin colour. And it’s certainly nothing to do with his evident intellect. It’s more to do with the fact that while all politicians lie, Winston takes it to an art form.
I have a fair bit of time for someone like Hone Harawira. I don’t agree with him on much. Sometimes I find his language a little offensive. But overall, he’s passionate and honest about what he wants to do. He’s a great representative for his constituency.
Winston? Not really honest. And the way he swaps his principles for the baubles of office, not that passionate either.
Also, you seem to have taken my education and spun a lot of assumptions out of it. A lot of them not true.
Winston does not lie where it counts….He has stood on a platform of NO SALE of STATE ASSETS and has been true to it
….”Winston takes it [lying] to an art form”
…This is a NACT slur…..because they hate him for bringing down their government on the SALE of STATE ASSETS….when they were the liars
Huh.
National campaigned on the sale of state assets. They may have done it in a ridiculously idiotic way that made no sense from an economic sense… but they did say they were going to do it.
They didn’t lie. They were just dumb.
Edit: Oh, or are you talking about something when Winston was last in government with the Nats. When Winston joined with a government that had already sold several assets…
I am talking about the Bolger Shipley NACT government …this may be before your time in New Zealand
I think they thought they were going to add culture to the sum of things out here and that we should be grateful to have them – the raj and all that.
They’re also not that fond of pakeha, for that matter, especially ones that have any appreciation and depth of knowledge about the history of this country – they mostly vote ‘conservative’ of course, because after all, that’s what the ‘proper’ people do. It almost makes one sympathise with Winston’s immigration policy!
Immigrants from the United Kingdom have consistently been left-wing/liberals since the very beginning of the Empire to after its slow, drawn-out collapse.
It’s quite logical, actually. The privilege elites don’t leave the country they have a favoured position in. It’s the down and outs who escape overseas.
So you’re comment doesn’t even make sense from a historical or logical point of view.
Congratulations.
Also, do you generally think the vast majority of British people still think of the Raj and go around toasting the Queen and so on?
Sigh.
Perhaps you’ve never come across the section of NZ society that chooky and I are talking about – lucky you!
Or you’re just making shit up and extrapolating a few individual cases across an entire culture of people…
No, I;m not ‘making shit up’, but I also was not talking about ‘an entire culture of people’, just the kind that chooky referred to
While I’d agree, overall there’s a more complicated heritage.
The empire was governed by virtue of a segment of the elite becoming ex-pats and, often, managing either the colonial bureaucracy or commercial operations (or both given their inherent overlap and purposes). But, in New Zealand’s case at least, there was also an ‘aspiring’ capitalist class who came from relatively modest origins in the UK. See No Idle Rich by Jim McAloon for details of the South Island wealthy.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t for no reason that Muldoon spoke of ‘Pommie stirrers’ and prominent unionists having ‘Clydeside accents’. Most of the colonial labour-force and foot soldiers in the military were as you describe, as I understand it.
Watched the old PBS documentary A Class Divided with the family yesterday, about a teacher’s experiment that divided a third-grade class in the US into blue-eyed and brown eyed groups.
Followed up the discussion with a readout of the checklist from Peggy McIntosh’s Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack about privilege and the unwillingness to recognise it.
Have had a couple of discussions about “privilege” lately, and the lack of acknowledgement. Seems like this is a good place to direct those I had difficultly explaining to.
Yeah, I actually remember seeing the earlier doco about her blue-eye/brown-eye experiment: Eye of the storm (1971) as a kid in the early 70s. Broadcast on TVNZ (or should that be NZBC ?).
I am starting to be convinced Winston has no intention whatsoever of runing with National and will start really honing in on Key for mismanagement of our economy. Joyce continues to message some happy deal has been done, with as Stephen says things like “Grumpy Uncle Winston”.
As Nationals campaign manger, Joyce knows full well the election result can go many ways for his team, from a solid win where they govern alone, thru to a total whitewash if many of the 800,000 show up polling day.
The current strong polling for National is not good for Winston, he wants it tight so NZF has influence. Peters is now in a position where he has to sustain a prolonged attack to trim back Nationals lead, that’s if Labour don’t get their shot together. He may be forced to make overtones of a NO deal earlier than the last fortnight, categoric NO deal.
John Key and Winston Peters can’t stand each other, I’m not sure who hates each other the most, I have a feeling it will be Winston who shows the most hatred in the end.
Agreed Skinny.
Watch the body language in parliament. Winston can’t stand Key and will go with Labour and Greens-notice how the relationship between NZF and the Greens has thawed in this term.
BG
Peters started in politics with National; it’s just Key he can’t stand. My fear is that the Smiling Assassin will hang around long enough to win the election for the right, then abscond to Hawaii during the post-vote wrangling (sure, he said he’d be there for the full term, but do even the RWNJs believe any word that oozes from from his lips these days?). Then it’ll be a repay of 1996 with Collins shoulder tapped for the Shipley role.
The only solution I can see is for the combined left to get enough votes that Winston First has to give them confidence & supply.
I agree with both you and Skinny.
I don’t believe that Peters would go into coalition with National. The animosity is too great and has built since 2008.
However, I don’t necessarily believe that he would go into coalition with Labour/Greens either, although the thaw with the Greens has been noticable. Maybe Confidence and Supply?
My pick is that at the end of the day, he may choose to sit on the cross benches, as he said he would before the 2011 election.
No baubles? No, but does he really want the fast life anymore? Money is not an issue, from what I understand.
This is obviously predicated on NZ First getting back in, which I believe they will.
If money is not an issue then it is the baubles, power, prestige of office he will want. Foreign Minister with a much stricter overseas land purchases regime and retirement kept at 65 and he will go with Lab/Gr.
“Immigrants Should “Fit In””
… Pakeha immigrants excepted, apparently:
“Maori have a “Treaty of Waitangi Grievance Industry”“
Yes, you can tell it’s election year when Winston trots out this rubbish!
Has Mr. Munter (othewise known as Simon Moutter), the CEO of Telecom, been hijacked by the PR flakes and re-branding trough feeders? How could one fall for the line that ‘Spark’, something to do with electricity, is more indicative of the company’s business than a reference to communication. Worse than that though is the email they sent out to long-suffering customers. Once again they proved their incompetence in that the link didn’t work (pretty basic business??). The final insult was the concluding sentence, ‘Of course, the one thing that never changes is we’re stoked you’re with us.’ The only stoking does not require a graphic description but the customer, as is usually the case with overblown re-brandings, is the receiver another PR stoking. Yes folks – see what a Munter can do when he lives in the fantasy world of corporate self-importance – $20m of customers money chucked around in the pursuit of being seen to do something to justify(??) an over-blown salary.
‘spark’ vs. ‘sky’…?
..seems an uneven match to me…
..telecom as sky-rocket..?..
..a brand-name that defines impermanence/transitory..?
..a ‘spark’..
..are they trying to tell us something..?
..phillip ure..
,.,…,
.
Yes .phil…..
You will be able to spark up in any telphone box and get free wifi.
lol funny
Years back Telecom tried to “go large” (in broadband speed) advertised with stereotyped male computer types roaming around in a van clutching oversized drinks in plastic cups, what truly went large was customer dissatisfaction and reimbursements for the actual leisurely pace of the product. Then there was the new mobile network advertised from floating shipping containers, again the new part was a new high in customer dissatisfaction with massive holes in coverage and outages. And then there was…
Spark, what a fizzer. This is one part of national infrastructure that should be nationalised and the consultants sent packing.
‘ Spark, what a fizzer. This is one part of national infrastructure that should be nationalised and the consultants sent packing.’
Chorus is what needs nationalisation along with the southern cross cable access if that’s with telecom still, leave the bloated, self serving, masters of deception to go head to head with Vodafone etc and force proper separation. Telecom/chorus are effectively still the same systems with separate brands.
It’s just nuts that over $1b of taxpayer funds is being used to build a network for private interests but that’s SOP with this gov’t
Every bit of telecommunications network needs to be nationalised and brought in under a single administration. Spark, Vodafone and 2 Degrees would then just become re-sellers and it wouldn’t take long for the populace to realise that they’re just ticket clippers – if they haven’t done so already.
Last night on the Paul Henry Show Henry had an interview with the Spark man Jason Harris and was openly derisive at the whole idea of Spark. His questions were searching and the answers unconvincing. (I flicked to TV3 and stayed to watch the interview. Sorry.)
http://www.3news.co.nz/Telecoms-new-name-Spark-ing-debate/tabid/1837/articleID/333180/Default.aspx
New lipstick on the pig doesn’t resolve any of the issues that constraint NZ in terms of Internet etc which Telecom/Chorus still have NZ over a barrell on.
Access to the web still a chorus/telecom controlled monopoly unless you’re on a satellite service.
Structural separation was creating a new management structure/board/logo etc, scratch the surface nothing below has changed in fact it’s alot worse with the attrition of knowledgable worker bees at telecom under Moutter.
If you are a telecom shareholder you should be demanding this $20m is invested into network services and technology, like getting their stressed coalface workers off IE8 which is end of life next month.
SPARKS- In a rare insight Nisbett the cartoonist suggested Sparks should be spelled backwards.
Think I might refer to it by that name.
These days, many people can’t afford to die. And Paula Bennet is no help – more of a hindrance.
What sort of society are we, that is failing our children, our young adults, and our elderly?
We need progressive pricing of funeral services. Also a government owned undertaker to provide real competition. Maybe KiwiTangi?
Empathy was always your strong suit.
There will be no need for that Shrillands. The State Super Market chain will have a fly buys type arrangement so it will end up free if you shop to you drop.
And here’s me thinking that SSR would go for the totally privatised option of his own front yard.
@ karol
Yes and Labour needs a very strong spokesperson to go up against Paula Bennet.!!!!( a brown face and I hate to say it …attractive looking ,former solo mother….she is strong, has ‘credibility’ and form…NACT is incredibly cunning in its placement of Spokespeople, unlike Labour which tends to be cronyist imo and quite abysmal)
….preferably Labour needs a spokesperson ….who can capture Media attention big time, with sound bites , acting flair….gravitas , PASSION, background experience of the people she/he is speaking for and be in a constituency where people are struggling….and preferably be of Maori or Polynesian extraction, simply because they are at the bottom of the economic heap and he /she requires their identification with her for them to vote Labour ( those at the bottom of the heap which NeoLib NACT has created and wants to continue creating…despite desperately trying to pretend otherwise, alienate and show Labour up… and capture the 800,000+ non voters)
While Jacinda Adern knows her stuff and can speak well and finally it is good to hear speaking out publicly…imo she is not the right person to go head- to- head with Paula Bennett….she is too white middle class looking and refined……..( sorry Jacinda, i think you are best as spokeswoman on the ARTS, which is actually very important)
If i was betting on the horses best suited to take on Paula Bennet… and to be Spokesperson for Labour ….i would go for Poto Williams( she has a Christchurch East constituencey of really struggling people and is articulate and intelligent), Louisa Wall ( on fighting form), Rina Tirikatene , Meka Whaaitirie
I’m actually quite sad that Ardern hasn’t really taken Finlayson to task over the Arts. But there’s a permanent fear that you can’t talk too loudly about the Arts because people think it’s a waste of money.
If a politician could clearly explain the benefits of investing in that area, that would be such a good moment for New Zealand.
Ardern is lazy, sat back whilst Kaye out campaigned her in akl central and has far too high an opinion of herself. Like so many of them they forget to keep is simple, snappy and consistent with some emotion in the delivery.
Perception will play a massive role in the outcome this year and she projects as chooky states ‘… white middle class looking and refined…’
DC has more than a few roles to refresh for the run in to show diversity and passion for the cause.
As the nat’s will go for the same smile n wave at the funny man/ financial genius / local boy made good etc with the MSM as a backing band.
Agreed, Karol.
About 18 months ago, I had to deal with the aftermath of someone who had committed suicide, on behalf of his family overseas. The cost of cremation only (no funeral service etc in accordance with his wishes) was almost $3500 and that was through whanau in the funeral business. Almost all of that was the charges of the local council crematorium. The WINZ allowance could not be claimed as he had a few thousand in Kiwisaver funds, although he was totally broke cashwise at the time of his death.
Funeral costs etc were briefly discussed on Open Mike on 22 Jan 2014 following a similar article in the Guardian re UK costs. At that time, by accident, I had come across articles etc re a review currently underway on NZ law relating to funerals, cremation etc by the Law Commission.
Here is my comment in that discussion which provides links relating to this review
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22012014/#comment-761064
I have never got around to reading the issues paper in full, but the cynic in me thinks that it is unlikely the review will focus on the horrendous costs faced by ordinary NZers. The review is being led by – Dr Wayne Mapp. And who is the new CEO of the Undertakers of NZ Association? Katrina Shanks, ex National MP.
On a related note, Public Trust used to provide a free will service, and reduced estate management fees.
No longer. This went by the board about 2 to 3 years ago, and the Public Trust now charges similar fees to those of the private legal profession.
good to see my idea for nationalising the supermarket-duopoly is gaining some mainstream traction..
..tho’ de boni has missed the boat on the nuances/benefits of my partial-nationalisation take on the concept..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/dita-de-boni-we-need-govt-owned-supermarkets-ed-nice-to-see-a-mainstream-economics-reporter-going-for-my-nationalising-the-supermarkets-idea-eh/
(excerpt:..)
..this control will make bringing in the new food-quality regulations a breeze..
..(instead of the long/drawn-out shit-fight we now face..
..as big-food and the duopoly join forces..
..against the rest of us..
..partial-nationalisation will cut them off at the knees..before they even get started..
(cont..)
phillip ure..
Yes interesting phillip ure
yesterday I headed into town with every intention of hitting the New World ( NZ owned supermarket) …but missed the turnoff and i was in a hurry ….so I ended up at my usual Countdown( Aussie owned …the one Shane Jones as been going on about)..feeling guilty and out of sheer expediency
…i was satisfied to note that it had a fraction of the usual customers! I would say it was down by about three quarters ….Instead of 4 or 5 checkout counters there were about 2 or 3……Aussie owners of Countdown must be getting worried ….and there were cut prices everywhere…i avoided the vege section
Interesting and good to have an insight into this. Lose the guilt. Does anyone know how long it takes to establish a new shopping pattern so that at least some of the effect is permanent?
@ chooky..
..and during this (deserved) villification of the aussie half of this duopoly..
..let’s not forget they pay their workers above minimum-wage..
..whereas the kiwi half of the duopoly likes to ensure they well and truly screw-over every other nz’er who comes in contact with..
..the proof..?
..they only pay their workers minimum-wage..
..and of course..theses facts only strengthen the case for both of them to go on the partial-nationalisation chopping-block..
..our food-supply nightmare is perhaps the most glaring/impacting on us all each/every day example of the failures of neo-lib/let the market rule! politics..
..the down-the-line failures of rogernomics..
..phillip ure..
We need to spark up competition the Commerce Commission needs to be pro active rather than reactive.
Successive govts have paid lip service to anticompetative practices
ie. Labour with challenge petrol stations and National with supermarkets.
That is the debacle over competition from the wharehouse.
Allowing the Duopoly to buy shares in the warehouse that should never have been allowed to happen.
the comm comm needs to be rebuilt with some fangs and a 21st century arsenal, as the gnats have gutted it, not that it was needed as it’s effectively created duopoly/oligopoly in telecoms, building supplies, freight etc.
There’s also been subtle creeping reduction on the fringes with warehouse snapping up leemings/torpedo7, woolies with ezibuy who would be a big loss to palmy if the DC was moved to Oz, it’s biggest market.
Comcom needs an overhaul of the Commerce Act is what it really needs. There are problems with s36 as it’s about “intent” to abuse market power, which requires crystal ball gazing.
I recall reading something last year in the SST that s36 needs a complete overhaul and the focus needs to be taken away from the “intent” of the market power to establishing whether it WILL cause market power.
It’s one of the most ridiculous sections, and is probably something that IAG knows will probably enable them to purchase Lumley Insurance, giving Insurance Australia Group (IAG) 70% of the residential insurance market in New Zealand. Comcom will just effectively rubber stamp their acquisition saying “no barriers to entry” or something equally inane.
Actually, that’s more my idea of full ownership although she’s saying that the government should own and operate a supermarket chain in competition with the presently existing supermarkets. She certainly isn’t suggesting that the government go to partial nationalisation.
i am celebrating the idea of the state doing what it is meant to do..
..and stopping these bastards from screwing us/their workers over..
..each and every day/way..
..and up until now..the corporate-media trouts have not dared to bite the ad-hand that feeds them so well..
..but how/what final-form that seachange takes..partial/full-nationalisation..competition..i don’t really care that much..
..(tho’ i do see my partial-nationalisation take on the problem as being the simplest/easiest to both do and sell to the electorate..
..setting up a whole new chain to price-compete them into submission just seems like a potential nightmare..on so many levels..to my mind/thinking..)
..just as long as those changes happen..
..the way things are now is both untenable and exploitive of this duopoly’s market-capture/dominance..
..and this must change..
..their ‘game’/scam is over..
..we won’t be going back to sleep over this one..
..i hope the duopoly realise this..
..but they probably don’t..yet..
..eh..?
phillip ure..
Whereas I think that’s the best option as the government can make rational decisions such as free delivery on all purchases. The present cartel see delivery as just another way to make more profit whereas the government can use it to reduce resource use (fuel and time mostly but land also as an actual shop won’t be needed).
Good prices with free delivery will absolutely kill the private system.
“..Good prices with free delivery will absolutely kill the private system…”
y’see..i think that would be a mistake..to ‘kill the private system’..
..as you would also kill the efficiencies learnt/built into that ‘private-system’..
..and once you have killed off that ‘private system’ with yr free-delivery-ploy..(really..?..that’s all it will take..?..)
..do we just slump back into a (too-often) inefficient/corrupt state-controlled system..?
..no thanks..
..the other beauty of 51% partial-nationalisation is that no new infrastructures/supply-lines have to be created..you are just working with what is already there..
..and of course..51% state-ownership means 51% of the profits of that (former) duopoly flow back to the state coffers…
..for the people..it is win-win all around..
..whereas i wd forsee great popular opposition to either full-nationalisation..(for reasons already listed)
..or the potential perils of/from setting up a new state-run food retail-chain..
..phillip ure..
moderation..?
phillip ure..
For the rest of the day???, blessed are we that are given reprieve from the task of scroll on by…
There aren’t any.
How you prevent that is to make sure that everyone can see what’s happening. Also, what Shane Jones is talking about is the corruption that’s inside the private system. Corruption that hard to get rid of because of the secrecy that’s inherent in any private market system.
And with a fully state owned system there won’t be any dead weight loss of profit.
i’m sorry..but to deny there are no profit-driven inbuilt/operating ‘efficiencies’ in the current private duopoly. business-model.
..does yrslf/yr arguments no favours..eh..?
..of course those efficiencies exist..everyone knows/can see that..
..the ‘corruption’ you mention/cite in yr point 2..would be ended/cleaned up..by the oversight inherent in partial-nationalisation/51% control..
..and using that 100% share of profit – as justification for the (extremely hard idea to sell to anyone) call for 100% nationalisation..isn’t enough..
..plus..retaining that 49% citizen-ownership..also ensures the retaining of those ‘efficiencies’ i address above..
..and of course..allowing nz super schemes etc to buy into that 49% citizen-share..
..could well see yr desire of close to 100% local profit-taking come to pass..
..and certainly well over the 51% designated state-control..
..what is not to love about all that..?
..phillip ure..
and remember..that 51% current value would not be taken/’stolen’ from anyone..
..they would receive a partial-payment now..and the rest to come out of future profits..
..and when you add together the current profits made each year by the duopoly..
..you will see that it will not take that long to pay off the rest of that purchase-price..
.and after that..the profits return to the communities it has been taken out of..
..not into the pockets of foreign shareholders/local greedy elites..
..you don’t want to leave any open sores ..when undertaking these much-needed reforms..
..current owners/profiteers..(minimum-wage..?..really..?..)..may be a tad gruntled the gravey-train has come to a shuddering halt for them..
..but tough..!
..they will have no ‘we wuz robbed!’ case to make..
.phillip ure..
You’re talking physical distribution in which case there’s pretty much only one way to do it. Pick it up at a (the farm/factory) and deliver it to b (the household). That means a combination of trucks, trains, aircraft and ships. The best way to determine the best combination would be by computer analysing and comparing the resources used in each mode.
No amount of profit will change that.
No, that’s just everybody believing the modern religion that they’ve had force fed to them through the MSM. Thankfully, people are starting to wake up to the BS.
It’s still kowtowing to the capitalist delusion which makes it sociopathic and if you think that’s something to love then you have problems.
HINT: Believing in capitalism and the profit motive is the same as believing in perpetual motion machines.
Actually, it’s probably more like believing a group of uncontrolled psychopaths would spontaneously develop an efficient healthcare system.
good luck with trying to sell yr 100% model..
..and..um..!..have you had to have much face-to-face-time with the employees of 100% state-owned fat/lazy/inefficient entities…?
..i have no problem with competition that is ultimately benefiting the consumer..
..my gripes are the exorbitant-profiteering/paying slave-wages..etc..
..of the current model..
..and i see 51% control/buy-out/partial-nationalisation..
..as being the easiest/simplest solution to all those problems..
..and of course the right can’t really argue against this idea..
..as it just mirrors..if upturning at the same time..their arguments for partial-privatisation…
..eh..?
..in fact..if keeping to what they preached..as the compelling reasons for partial-privatisation..
..they should support this model/idea..
..that just leaves the 100% nationalisers..like yrslf..
..phillip ure..
“Thankfully, people are starting to wake up to the BS.”
You have no evidence for such a statement. Efficient markets are predominating the world like never before. In New Zealand we have had successive governments that have led the world in promoting free trade. New Zealand has efficient institutions to promote capitalism. That is not changing any time soon.
The only people waking up are those in your tiny 1950s echo chamber.
Zzzzz
bullshit..!..srylands..
..our cost of living in relation to wages is one of the highest in the world..
..’efficient’ only for the profiteering bastards running them..
..and this is the end-result of three decades yr neo-lib/rogernomics lies/spin..
..this is the fact that is being ‘woken up’ to..
..and that cost of living comparison also shows up the current govt lie/spin that our benefits/dole etc are some of the highest in oecd..
..that extortionate prices paid for the basics of life..
..make/show that as the sick/cynical joke it is..
..phillip ure..
“.our cost of living in relation to wages is one of the highest in the world..”
Can you show me the data?
“our cost of living in relation to wages is one of the highest in the world..”
Look you have a point. The problem is barriers to capitalism.
I can go on to the interweb and purchase tramping boots and books and just about everything else at 50% of NZ costs. I have no idea how any retail survives here. That fucking great Whitcouls on Lambon Quay is dead as dead.
If we impede the performance of markets we will be fucked.
i’ll eall you what..
..you go first..
..how about some facts to back yr claims made..?
..y’know..!..how we ‘aren’t’ a low-wage/high cost of living country/economy..?
..how about you start there..eh..?
..phillip ure
the ‘problem’ we are currently discussing is the lack of an ‘efficient’-market mechanism in our retail food market..
..not the cost of tramping boots whatever..
..so..therefor..
..you should support my partial-nationalisation/51% state-control-model..
..surely a free-marketeer such as yrslf could not support this profiteering duopoly..could you..?
..it must be the antithesis of all you preach/believe..eh..?
..phillip ure..
You want state owned supermarkets?
You do realise that when Labour is out of office and disintegrates until 2023, historians will write:
“The associated activists at The Standard wanted the Government to run supermarkets.”
I maintain that post 2020 we will see a stable coalition of post-Labour-break away, National and Act. There will be an opposition of Green/Communist NZ First/Nationalist,and Maori Radical.
If I am wrong, by 2030 will look something like a cross between PNG and Fiji.
As opposed to Somalia, which your policies would turn NZ into.
i want the state having 51% control..
..do try to keep up..!
..do pay attention..!
..and yr evidence to support yr claims..?
..you still got nothing..?
..phillip ure..
Right, you want the New Zealand Government to take a 51% stake in some supermarket that sells food? Is that correct?
~70% against asset sales.
Yeah, I think people are waking up to the neo-liberal BS about free-markets.
and so the euphoria of 15 September 2013 dissipates.
The next Labour PM is not in parliament now.
no..not ‘a supermarket’..
..the current duopoly that bleeds us on prices/profit-margins..
..and pays slave wages..
..that one…
..do you have shares in them..?
..phillip ure..
decreasing tax take in NZ Sryland’s, strange in a country roaring forward.
Some Saturday morning inspiration. Narrated by George Monbiot, ‘How Wolves Change Rivers’ is a four minute film on trophic cascades in nature. It shows why land management in NZ is about so much more than just our human perceptions of polluted water from dairy farms.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q
Ausryland
Progressive like in enterprise.
Stand over tactics by Cartels.a
Graveyard for competition.
Ausrylands
Australian monopolies take over undertakers.
Plunderers from downunder
Looking at some of the arguments voiced by electricity companies around solar rooftop power.
Clearly obvious that none of them do anything like housework or running a home. The refrain seems to be “nobody is home during the day to use the power”.
Well blokes, let me introduce you to the modern washing machine/ dryer and dishwasher and older waterheater and nightstore technology.
As we all know the waterheater and nightstore will use any daytime electricity to heat themselves ready for use that night and the next morning.
Most modern diswashers and washers have time lapse on them so they are simply set to run during the day. Drying clothes can then be done the next day in dryer or on the line.
Cooking, ovens have time lapse on them too. Put the food in that morning either heavily chilled or lightly frozen and set to cook slowly later in the day. Meal ready at home time.
Evening use is then the lights.
Good on the Greens
Deep cycle batteries are part of most systems and provide electricity when the sun has gone.
These companies are playing on peoples lack of knowledge.
Low power 12 volt systems are another way the average person can save money through solar power.
Running all lighting with led low power longlife bulbs.
12 v Radios stereos and tvs are relatively cheap and easy to buy.
You don’t need an electrician to install a simple system.
Small wind mills using F&P smart drive motors can make large amounts of power.
For peak usage you will still have to use mains but reducing the amount of power we buy will force prices down.
Yep, 12V is the way to go for anyone wanting to seriously look at reducing consumption and working towards a sustainable future.
The boating and motorhome sections at tradme are good places to look at what’s available and pricing (cheaper than the retailers).
“12 v Radios stereos and tvs are relatively cheap and easy to buy.”
Car stereos already run on 12V 😉 Laptops, cellphones, cameras, batteries etc can all be charged easily and more efficiently with 12V.
However the big draws on household power are hot water, fridges, and stoves. Most people I know that go off grid have alternative fuels or systems for those.
Off the solar panels on the roof—>through a smart meter/inverter into the outside lines—>sold at wholesale rates by Labour/Greens proposed single wholesaler—>reduction in power bill sent by Government computer to power supplier either as discount or monetary credit on account—> Government wholesaler by computer gives power supplier to household credit on future purchase of electricity of the same amount credited on the consumers bill,
Seems a relatively simple system allowing for a battery free system which would save both on maintainence and set up costs,
Battery solar is resource intensive when there is no need to be, using batteries in a solar system that is not totally off grid seems senseless and then begs the question what would be done with the mass of batteries once they had reached the end of their useful life,
Which Children of the sub-continent would we be happy to pay 2 cents a day to break open these spent batteries poisoning themselves looking for re-usable metals???…
bad12
Battery minimisation would be a good thing, as they can indeed be pretty toxic to dispose of. Their mass is a major limiting factor in electric vehicles, but fortunately houses don’t move around that much. I like the idea of hydrogen fuel cells as a power-sump for residential communities/ apartment blocks, but the tech is not really quite there yet.
Pasupial, yah, i have read, a while ago, where a solar farm had been set up which turned the generated power into heat—->stored the heat in i think salt filled towers—->then at night retrieved the heat turning it back into electricity,
Think the experiment occurred in Greece and allowed for near 24 hours of solar power use, but, in a small country like ours which has a reaonably well wired grid and local systems why duplicate,
As RL points out below the best electricity storage in the world exists now behind every Hydo dam in the country and it wouldn’t take much to integrate household solar into that system leaving the Hydro to take up peak daytime and nighttime loads,
Once such a system has been in place for a while i would suggest that solar arrays should become part of the building code for new builds and then a good look at the cost/benefits of solar hot water need be had so that in the future that solar hot water may also become a standard part of any new housing,(along with Government sponsored retrofitting of older housing),
Obviously such much needed changes in energy production and use would be much easier to bring about if the Government owned the whole system from dams to the grid to the local wiring network…
New Zealand is uniquely possessed of a whole bunch of enormous solar batteries – our huge hydro system.
Run as a properly integrated engineering entity it is easy to use solar during the daytime and switch to hydro when the sun goes down.
You can even use surplus renewables like solar and wind for pumped hydro storage.
That works IF we reduce usage. Or are willing to dam more rivers/fill the landscape with windfarms.
Neither of those options offers long term resiliency in the face of natural disasters and AGW/PO/GFC. Drought is already an issue with hydro.
Bad raises a good point about the problems with batteries. However I think teh solution to that is to manage batteries within the recycle stream in NZ (rather than exporting them). We’ve done this before, and we should be looking at doing this again for other batteries anyway. Having batteries in a solar set up means we don’t have all our eggs in one basket.
btw Bad, I appreciate your willingness to live without electricity in the event of the Big One as a way of preventing us having batteries that people overseas have to suffer with dealing with, but with all due respect, doing that in Welly is a bit different than doing it in places that have -10C frosts in the winter. This is of increasing concern given how many houses have electrity as their sole power source now ie no other means of heating or cooking or boiling water. We think of natural disasters as being something we need to plan for surviving on our own for 3 days until the cavalry arrives. Chch showed us this wasn’t true, and Chch wasn’t a big quake. It’s also not just about one off, might never happen in our lifetime events. It’s about how PO and AGW effects will coincide and impact on our ability to manage infrastructure. Try asking your local authorities how much of their infrastructure is dependent on imported parts for instance and then imagine a world where we are trying to fix things post-quake when we don’t have the finances or political clout internationally to vie for precious, depleting resources.
It’s pretty sunny outside today, but the next 50+ years don’t look so bright and the more we can future proof our systems here the better. This is why despite my unease over the battery pollution and waste issues, I think the GP are right in having that as part of the scheme. I’m unclear whether they are proposing that people choose either battery or grid-tied only, but hope that people can choose both.
The other thing that comes from using solar battery systems is that it makes householders acutely aware of how much power they use when and where and will act as an incentive to use less. This will happen with grid-tied also to an extent, but there is nothing like understanding that solar is a finite resource too.
Nope, don’t need to do any of that either.
Actually, they do.
We should be recycling batteries that we use but we don’t need to use batteries in our power grid.
The solution to that isn’t batteries but houses built to Passive House Standard. Houses that, even in the middle of winter, don’t need any artificial heating.
We don’t have to compete for international resources as we already have all the resources that we need right here in NZ. The problem is that the governments of both Labour and National have bought into the BS of free-trade which has made our society both unsustainable and lacking any resilience.
Then why are you saying that we need to build batteries? It’s just another layer of complexity that we don’t need.
I agree generally about passive housing*, but we can’t replace the housing stock in NZ in the short or med term.
*although I suspect you will find that many people living in the colder parts of NZ will want direct heating as well.
Bad and I had a conversation the other day where he said he would rather do post-earthquake with no power for a time rather than use battery solar because of the social justice issues involved in disposal. I pointed out that that’s easier to say in Welly.
“Then why are you saying that we need to build batteries? It’s just another layer of complexity that we don’t need.”
Ideally we wouldn’t need it. But with things the way they are now, politically and in terms of the awareness and willingness of the population, stand alone solar gives us a window in the powerdown where we keep a certain standard of living while we figure out what happens next.
You and I are in fundamental disagreement about the possible outcomes. I don’t believe that transition without massive powerdown is a given were we to do the right things from today, and I don’t believe we will do the right things anyway. The main difference here seems to be that you believe in tech solutions as inherently possible AND that we will actually do them. I look at the information about what is going on and what is coming and the main thing I see is uncertainty and unwillingness to change until we are forced to. We could perhaps describe the difference as between a sustainability view and a resiliency one. I am more focussed on resiliency now.
Localised systems offer the best mid and long term resiliency. Doesn’t have to be solar battery systems in each household, but because we’re not even close to being able to have a decent conversation publically about this, solar battery systems are a not bad way to go in the meantime. I’m also mindful that the people who are most expert in this at a pragmatic level, who have been thinking about these issues and making the actual changes in their lives and living this life for a long time already, generally have chosen solar batteries as part of what they do. They’re generally aware of the limits of that, having lived with it.
I think where one lives is a big part of this too. Geography, climate, population density, existing infrastructure are all part of the picture. I don’t think one size fits all.
We will do them. It’s just a question of whether we’ll do them before we need them or after. In today’s system we’ll do them after which will cause a massive amount of unnecessary suffering. This is where the government can, and should, step in to make that necessary change before we need it.
And I’m not even talking about new tech but what’s been known for 100 years or so.
“Neither of those options offers long term resiliency in the face of natural disasters and AGW/PO/GFC.”
“Actually, they do.”
Ok, so maybe explain what would happen to the national supply (assuming grid tied solar but no batteries) in the following scenario:
A big quake on the Alpine fault in July leaves the Clyde dam intact but takes out the Hawea Control gate (ie no storage in Lake Hawea). This coincides with a dry winter following a SI summer drought, so the Waitaki catchments and even Manapouri are low. There is increased demand in the grid because of increased numbers of bad winter storms that year (more cold, less solar panel generation).
One of the big power generators up north is offline for maintenance. This normally happens in summer then the SI lakes are full, but because we’ve now had 4 really bad drought years in a row, the back up generation is getting really stretched.
Post-quake the SI is left without power for a period of time (weeks or months). I assume this means that the infrastructure for getting the Clyde power generation up north is compromisedas well as distribution within the SI. The lack of power seriously hampers reconstruction along the divide (think roads and bridges being out for long periods of time) including work on the grid infrastructure.
And just for fun, let’s say we have National govt in power, and Gerry Brownlee is still around.
There are some extreme conditions that can’t be planned for and that would be one of them.
That said, if every house had a decent PV installation then the local grid would still have power even if it is only during the day. But considering that we would also have wind power which comes in from a different feed to the hydro-stations the local grid would probably also have power during the night. Any excess from solar and wind would be used to pump water back up into the damns as well.
It’s not a one size fits all situation. It’s about having enough diversity in the power grid across the country so that extreme scenarios can be managed effectively. Yes, there would be some disruption but I don’t think it would be as bad as you think.
Oh, and the lack of power in the grid won’t hamper reconstruction due to portable generators run on bio-fuel.
Weka, ”Christchurch wasn’t a big earthquake”—really???, try telling that to the people of Christchurch…
Solar is a finite resource too—again really???,perhaps you would care to explain in which context you see solar as a finite resource…
I’m kind of surprised I have to explain this to someone living in Wellington, but NZ is capable of far bigger earthquake disasters than what happened in Chch. Chch was more than bad enough, and we haven’t dealt that well with it. A big quake on the Alpine fault that shuts down Wellington? Or takes out the power supply to the South Island in the middle of a hard winter? We were lucky with Chch that it was in Feb not July. How would we deal with the Big One?
“Solar is a finite resource too—again really???,perhaps you would care to explain in which context you see solar as a finite resource…”
I suppose if we want to wait for the sun to replace our stock of fossil fuels, then yeah, techinically, we can call it infinite (until the sun explodes). But in human timeframes, with the population we have now, solar for electricity is dependent on other things than solar radiation, and those things are finite. So solar power (which is the context I made the statement in) is a finite resource. The only way to get out of that is to go passive solar, but even much of that tech is dependent on finite resources unless we lower our standard of living hugely.
It helps to think about things as being interconnected. When we talk about ‘renewables’ we simply mean that in an isolated economic sense and an abstract physics sense. In physical reality that we all live in, there is really no such thing. If the population was lower we might have been able to set up renewable forestry for power (and carbon neutral), but again, at the population we have now, it’s all dependend on finite resources (fossil fuels, metals, industrial society). You can’t build a solar panel without a factory, and none of the factories are being built, maintained and run on solar. They’re all using fossil fuels and limited supplies of metals. That’s not even getting the plastics involved.
What we’re left with is knowledge. We won’t be going back to the stone age because we know about electricity as well as how to make bricks, but business as usual is over.
Yep. I actually find the idea of how to use our knowledge within the powerdown pretty interesting and exciting. I think human capacity for innovation will excel, given the right conditions.
It already has. Most of the solutions we’ll rely on have already been invented, apart from how to defend against stupidity.
Yeah sure our geology is capable of bigger earthquakes than those that totaled Christchurch, but, i doubt you will be on this earth when the next city totaling one occurs,
Myself i think your trying to over-intellectualize the whole energy thing and i havn’t really got the energy on a Saturday afternoon to get into one of those ‘dancing on the head of a pin debates’,
Hell if i was keen to engage i would start with your ”limited supply of metals”, probably starting the dance with a Ha-ha-ha, only limited on planet weka…
It’s not overintellectualising. It’s systems thinking and seeing everything as interrelated. If you don’t understand the relationships between metal extraction, metal prices and the global economy, as it is today, I probably can’t explain anything about future scenarios. Beyond that, it’s about what paradigm we think in. If we had understood the fundamental limited nature of, well, nature, 100 years ago we wouldn’t be in this incredibly fucked up situation now. We would have had some chance of creating actual sustainable societies with a pretty decent standard of living.
“Yeah sure our geology is capable of bigger earthquakes than those that totaled Christchurch, but, i doubt you will be on this earth when the next city totaling one occurs,”
by all means doubt away. I probably would if I lived in Welly too. Unfortunately, I’ve been listening to people who are actual experts in geology and earthquakes.
There is a case to be made for simply ignoring the earthquake potential and sucking it up when it happens. But if we are going to the trouble of thinking about how to manage resources then future proofing is a natural enough part of that.
Yep. Relentless destructive weather conditions magnified by large earthquake would be pretty negligent.
Of course solar is a finite resource. 340W/m² multiplied by percentage of planetary surface available divided by external considerations cf: Weka’s comment.
OAB, yes you win Saturdays ‘dancing on the head of a pin award’ having scored a 10/10…
😀
Ah the voice of self interest.
Germany will be turning off about 25% of it’s peak demand gas fuelled generation and Oz reckons no new power plants needed for about 15-20 years thanks to wind/solar capacity encouraged by Govt rebates and schemes over the past years.
We have wind, sun and water in abundance, our power prices are there to sustain the packages of the Binns/Hefferndens etc and duplication of roles/systems across generation, distribution, retail.
Next they’ll be saying home solar power put back into the grid will break it, watch out for that BS.
@RedBaronCV
Something I have not read anywhere is that most of the demand is in Auckland/North Island and most generation in the South Island.
Put in a whole lot of solar in Auckland and you reduce the losses in the grid shipping all that electricity to Auckland/North Island.
It is not like power consumption does not happen during the day as industry uses lots.
I would not trust power companies to offer any unbiased opinions on this. It is not in their interests to see a lot of solar generation. They’ll lose a chunk of profits as they will not be the only suppliers.
Yep, competition doing the only thing it can do – lowering profits.
Yes agreed on 12v system it would still need a battery .
Another option is to use your electric car as storage.
It seems that Palantir has been astrosurfing ..
This election could be interesting – with Dotcom’s involvement.
Quote follows ..
Some of the documents taken by Anonymous show HBGary Federal was working on behalf of Bank of America to respond to Wikileaks’ planned release of the bank’s internal documents.[4][23] “Potential proactive tactics against WikiLeaks include feeding the fuel between the feuding groups, disinformation, creating messages around actions to sabotage or discredit the opposing organization, and submitting fake documents to WikiLeaks and then calling out the error.”[24]
Emails indicate Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies, and the law firm Hunton & Williams (recommended to Bank of America by the US Justice Department)[15] all cooperated on the project.[24] Other e-mails appear to show the U.S. Chamber of Commerce contracted the firms to spy on and discredit unions and liberal groups.[25][26]
Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBGary
On Radionz they are just doing a piece apparently on energy and food for the world and so on.
Someone has just made reference to New Yorkers defecating a huge amount of energy producing faeces a day, something like 900 tonnes or… and that could produce $90 million worth of electricity. An idea!
If it could have electricity extracted, part of which would go into drying the stuff, mixing with growing medium from rubbish dumps, and if it could then be an earth friendly product that would act both as mulch and growing medium on denatured soils.
If, that great word full of promise, if that could be developed, that would be a huge boost to the planet that might offset the Iraqi oil wells burning for almost a year back those decades,.
lprent
The numbering seems to be disappearing.
Can key words, letters from commenters names go to main archive, so get gw, grey, warbler, warbly to greywarbler?
health benefits of Cayenne Pepper ?….( for smokers, those with dickey hearts and vascular issues, those with gout, those with stomach issues, those with obesity problems)
http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/benefits-of-cayenne-pepper/
Yummy, a couple of tea-spoons of cayenne pepper on the wheat-bix in the morning would sure cure what ails you…
lol…mix it with honey in hot water ( 2 teaspoons cayenne plus 2 dessert spoons honey in boiling water)…hope it doesnt kill you but it could cure something or other…but do your own research first
2 dessert spoons of honey? Not so great for the diabetes.
@ karol
Ok substitute honey …and put in Xylitol sweetner
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-best-natural-cures-high-blood-pressure-101652.html?cat=5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol
xylitol can be got cheaply( way cheaper than Health Shops) from:
Xylitol products ltd
291 Ody Rd
RD 4 Whangarei 0174
09 4340640
info@xylihealth.co.nz
Thanks, but generally I don’t do sweetners.
Best advice for cayenne – take a small amount. About quarter a teaspoon or less in warm water.
thanx karol…yes it pays to take care ..and moderation….even eating too many carrots can be bad for you or drinking too much water
Yes, I have a friend who turned yellow from eating too many carrots!
I really struggle with this. I didn’t pay much attention to Charlotte Dawson when she was alive, but one thing I do remember is the massive amount of hate speech directed against her.
It isn’t enough to “hope the tr*lls are feeling bad about themselves today.” Hate speech is hate speech.
It pushes my authoritarian buttons. Can we address this merely by tackling inequality?
I am sad that she took this option – as a society we are pretty poor in helping people that are struggling.
It would be good it the Herald gave other protests similar prominence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11208032
The Panty Sniffers.
All three hundred of them.
Revolution fail.
Penny Bright will surely be overjoyed with the description…
Innocent or guilty, the Red Queen just wants a head on a spike and she doesn’t care whose.
i had to have a giggle at the description of what occurred around the person that heckled the Len ‘love-in’, sounds like those involved were so ‘into’ democracy and free speech that they were prepared to give said heckler a kicking forcing the plods to step in…
I was there.
“they were prepared to give said heckler a kicking forcing the plods to step in…”
That is simply not true.
Penny Bright
I see wail boils rent a lynch mob in action again today.
Its about time the cops dispersed them with batons.
You want a cop to hit him/her self on the coupon with a baton?!!!
(disclaimer – not all cops are fucktards)
(Interesting – this comment is ‘awaiting moderation’ on that bastion of ‘free speech’ – Kiwiblog )
We are awaiting a decision from the Solicitor-General by 28 February 2014, as to whether or not leave will be granted for a private prosecution against Auckland Mayor Len Brown for alleged bribery and corruption.
For those who want to make light of the efforts of private prosecutor Graham McCready – how many ever expected John Banks to ever face trial for alleged electoral fraud, and the Solicitor-General to take over the prosecution?
Come on – provide EVIDENCE that proves any of you predicted this historic precedent would ever happen!
One of the considerations that the Solicitor-General will be taking into account, before granting leave, is ‘public interest’.
In my view – public FUSS equals ‘public interest’.
-Here is some media coverage of our LEN BROWN – STAND DOWN march held today, Saturday 22 February 2014:
LET YOUR BANNERS DO THE TALKING!
(Lots more folk are now getting the message about ‘corrupt corporate cronyism – of the casino variety’ – and Auckland Mayor Len Brown’s alleged criminal complicity – although this message has NOT been covered (yet) by mainstream media ……
TV3 NEWS
http://www.3news.co.nz/Anti-Len-Brown-march-in-Auckland/tabid/1607/articleID/333207/Default.aspx
TVNZ NEWS
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/dozens-support-calls-len-brown-stand-down-5846457
RADIO NZ
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/236974/marchers-call-for-brown-to-step-down
ZB TALKBACK
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/nbnat/610094480-campaigners-marching-for-len-brown-s-resignation
RADIO LIVE
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/News.aspx
PRIME NEWS??
PS: Want to describe me as ‘right-wing’?
ANYBODY?
If so – I suggest you have a look at the following websites?
www,dodgyjohnhasgone.com
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz
http://www.stopthesupercity.org.nz
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
http://www.pennybright4epsom.org.nz
(I use the electoral process to help make a fuss about the issues – it’s proven to be quite effective?
Polled fourth with nearly 12,000 votes on an ‘in-your-face anti-corporate corruption’ platform ….
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ANTI-CORRUPTION-WHITE-COLLAR-CRIME-CORPORATE-WELFARE-ACTION-PLAN-Ak-Mayoral-campaign-19-July-2013-2.pdf
That was what was so interesting about today’s march, the coalition of political aliens from arguably different political galaxies, working together in common cause, calling for Auckland Mayor, Len Brown to STAND DOWN.
PPS: My formal complaint to Auckland Police against (former) Auckland Council CEO Doug McKay for alleged ‘contravention of statute’ (over failing to follow the due process outlined in the Auckland Council ‘Code of Conduct’ s.8 ‘Compliance’ – and effectively making up his own process and picking his own people to write the Ernst and Young Report) is currently being assessed by an Inspector attached to Auckland CIB.
(Don’t believe a word I say – read it for yourself –
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/SiteCollectionDocuments/aboutcouncil/governingbody/codeofconductelectedmembers.pdf
s. 8 – ‘Compliance’.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation campaigner’
[Dear Penny. I see you have sent an email out suggesting that the Standard has effectively censored your comment. It was picked up by Akismet and someone needs to release it. It is Saturday night and authors’ attentions are probably on other things. There has been no decision made to censor your comment. It would help if your comments were shorter and did not have as many links, that way they would probably go straight through – MS]
Sorry about that.
Might have been the same reason why I got the same ‘awaiting moderation’ response on Kiwiblog.
Given the amount of crap I’ve been copping lately on this matter – my ‘FEISTY’ button has been jammed on FULL.
If there is one thing I don’t like – it’s not getting my say and having the right of reply when folks are saying things about me.
Some of my comments can be longer and have more links – because I like to back up what I am saying with supporting evidence.
Cheers!
Penny Bright
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11207496
Labour just can’t get a roll on
FYI
PENNY BRIGHT says:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
FEBRUARY 22, 2014 AT 11:46 PM
TESTING…..
Am I able to make comments on your blog Martyn Bradbury – to reply to comments you make about me – or have you still banned me because you didn’t agree that I should stand against John Minto from Mana (at a time you were being paid as a consultant for Mana?)
Penny Bright
See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/02/22/ive-seen-better-attended-chem-trail-protests-than-this-down-with-len-brown-march/#comment-192250
….ANYONE :
Did I hear correctly? (I was busy avoiding Mora and guests taking their egos for a walk under the pretense of coming across as sages, critical thinkers and people who think a mere audience should take them seriously as of their right) …….
RNZ news at 4pm:
The GCSB has refuse to tell a parliamentary committee whether or not they get any sort of funding from elsewhere.
yes it’s true and there is a whole thread about it on this site.
Will check later …. ankle biter biting. :p
But unbelievable arrogance and a wakeup call to sheeple on just how far things have become! UNBELIEVABLE!