This is bullshit. This guy is just spending more time on the beach than others.
This “eviction” is so that the wealthy people can enjoy uninterrupted views as well as reinforcing the capital model of paying exorbitant rental…to the wealthy! We’ve just come full circle.
An eccentric living in a hand-made driftwood and tarpaulin home on the foreshore near Oakura has been given his marching orders.
But Eric Brewer, 62, says he is unfazed at the threat to remove him from his seaside home with the million-dollar views at Tapuae.
“I’m out of here,” the sickness beneficiary told the Taranaki Daily News team whom he warmly welcomed into his beach bach on a perfect late summer’s afternoon yesterday.
Averse to paying rent or a mortgage, he has no idea where he will go. He has lived off-and-on at Tapuae for nearly two decades.
-snip-
Mr Brewer concedes he is living on the Queen’s Chain but says it is confiscated Maori land.
“I swear allegiance to this land, not the Queen of England,” he said.
[lprent: Yes. The result of some irritated and coffee concentrated cursing and other hard work. Turns out the the damn thing was trying to access admin functions without defining it as requiring a https connection. It will require some more work to get to play nicely with the rest of the system. But gives me more time to figure out a more elegant solution. ]
Like the Californian equivalent, Malibu, where the wealthy keep attempting to secure exclusive use of the beach in contrast to Venice Beach where it belongs to everyone.
They’re wealthy enough to buy their own but there’s no ‘look at me and what I’ve got’ ‘value in that and Public land is free, just use the system to keep the riff raff out.
“The New Plymouth District Council confirmed last night it was taking action after receiving complaints from nearby landowners and the public about “Mr Brewer’s unlawful activities on the land”.”
Interesting use of the word “unlawful” there. I wonder what they think it means.
However, from Campbell Live
Solid Energy : “a culture of extravagance at Stockton”, SUVs for Africa, a 6M machine unused,
yet, a cut-back on miners per shift hours
yet more days required of miners to be on site (bussed in)
from RNZ; Telecom- “too many people at the top-end” (lawyers and accountants among those getting the axe.
Back to tele,Fontera have re-bottled the Anchor Milk brand (light-blocking) while the executive oncedes upon questioning; Anchor sales have declined vs supermarket / house brands; that they are exactly the same (price premium justified by “all the R&D Anchor carry out; “milk consumption in NZ is flat and declining)
Obama offered little in speech to Palestinians (little was expected) yet “recovered his voice” when addressing Israeli students.
14:31 He who oppresses the por shows contempt for their maker, yet whoever is kind to the needy honours God.
Balaam’s error; the error of consuming greed.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
( a mischievious Goodfellow hub indeed; thanks, yet gave the candy away)
If the Minister is going to stand up and tell this House that 5,000 people have come off a sickness benefit, I will point out that during that time 7,000 people went on. Sure, absolutely, if they need to access it, they should. But it is absolutely disingenuous for that Minister to try and bandy around numbers as though her reforms have changed the world when in actual fact, for the people who are experiencing it on the front line, they have done no such thing.
TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West):
The other thing I want to say to Asenati Lole-Taylor is just that I believe that all honest work is inherently valuable, and although some is work that a lot of us would shy away from and that some of us are fortunate enough not to have to do, I have nothing but respect for those who are working on some of those humble and at times very, very unpleasant jobs. I am sure that every member of this House would want to support those people, and not in any way undermine their efforts.
So put your money where your mouth is and pay them a minimum of at least $15ph.
God told me to tell you to do it. :wanker:
Yeah past by 1 vote 61/60 what is best described as the Youth Employment Discrimination Bill should be one of the first of the ugly pieces of National Government legislation that the next Labour lead Government toss in the rubbish bin,
It’s ugly enough to be giving young people the kick through youth rates but applying those same youth rates to those a year or two older for having been on the dole for a while for no specific reason other than they thunk it makes me think that that particular piece of legislation might better have been named the Molestation of Young People in Employment Bill…
Yeah, I am waiting to see Tim MacIndoe clean the toilets at public facilities in Hamiltion then, voluntarily or on the minimum wage. Yeah Right, pull out YET ANOTHER TUI Board!
“He is ARROGANT, he is MOODY, he is CONTROLLING”
Bill Ralston’s wife has a go at him on air
“The Huddle”, NewstalkZB, Thursday 21 March 2013, 5:45 p.m.
Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Pam Corkery, Janet Wilson
Anyone who tuned into the usually dire “Huddle” segment yesterday would have heard something remarkable: Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson took the opportunity to tell the world just what she thought of her husband Bill. However, she wasn’t so unwise as to do it directly; she chose the time-honored technique, widely used in Soviet Russia and other repressive regimes, of allegory….
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Okay, ahhhhhhhhhmmm. Julia Gillard. She’s GONE for sure!
PAM CORKERY: Actually, I don’t think so. Kevin Rudd is extremely unpopular. I predict Gillard will win this leadership vote.
JANET WILSON: I agree with Pam. I’ve never understood the fascination of the Australian public with Kevin Rudd. [voice thickening to a croak as she becomes emotional] He is arrogant, he is moody, he is controlling.
[Several uneasy seconds of stunned silence follow…]
LACKWIT WILLIAMS: Okay, ummmm… errrr….
By the end of that little contribution, Janet Wilson was snarling, and I’m sure she was shaking with emotion too.
POINT TO PONDER
When Pam Corkery appears on this show, the quality improves noticeably. That’s because Corkery, one of the few liberal commentators allowed on, will not be bullied and shut out by Lackwit-Williams and whoever happens to be the other Huddle guest. She insists on making her points clearly and will not allow Lackwit-Williams to laugh her into silence. Today, after her coded attack on her husband, Janet Wilson spoke sensibly and thoughtfully, something she is just not usually compelled to do on this normally pisspoor program.
???Hah, you have to have a very ‘free thinking’ imagination to make the leap from the Australian politics being discussed in the part of the transcript that you have put up to entertain the belief that Ralston’s wife is talking about Him and not the Australian politicians being discussed,
Perhaps i am missing something here, are there special code words that indicate we should beleive She is talking of Her husband and not Kevin Rudd…
Yeah well you also have to have a fairly free-thinking imagination to call it a transcript as Morrissey is known to have quite a different definition of the word to everyone else on the planet.
1.) …. border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style…
What, pray tell, was slanderous in suggesting that an angry and emotionally fraught woman was taking the opportunity to publicly excoriate her obnoxious spouse? Of course, she was smart enough to phrase it so that it seemed like a criticism of an obnoxious Australian politician; but smart listeners—and admittedly there are not many of them in that station’s audience—-will have appreciated what she REALLY meant.
1.) >OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…
Oh yes, we need to remember that the afternoon chatterboxes on NewstalkZB are dignified, professional and rigorously dedicated to telling the truth.
Nah what i do remember is Lange versus What’s His Face where the judge set out the difference between what could be slander against a politician and a ‘normal’ person, the latter having far more protection under the law than the former,
i cannot be bothered to expend the energy necessary to address the other part of your comment, except to say that it is as absurd as the original suggestion that the commenter on the radio station was addressing Her husband and not commenting on Kevin Rudd,and, you must have ‘special powers’ to be able to deduce from the comment made the inference later attributed to what was commented upon as the reason to come to that particular conclusion…
I went to pay my website bill after getting the final notice, only to find my payment was bounced back. When I contacted the sales team, they told me I could now no longer pay by bank transfer, as I agreed when I opened the account, because of the unforeseen death of the director.
So I asked what happens next? Do I just transfer to another place that wants my money? And within a minute I had a transfer key and a goodbye.
Maybe they just don’t want to make money. Maybe they just don’t want my site on their servers.
Site down (not that anyone visits) ’til I sort it.
I was going to post this also but you beat me to it :)..
A perfect example for those who say – if you don’t like the system, don’t participate in it. Go and live in the bush or something. To do this is damn near impossible. The system is so pervasive that even when one chooses to this is what inevitably happens
-In short You cannot be free of the system even if you want to.
Have a mind to drive up there and build another makeshift beach bach 30 meters down the beach after the council have gone and give it to him to live in and then keep doing it each time he is evicted!
Just where do these captains of industry get off?
One day the masses are going to wake up to the fact that these inflated egos are going to have to stop being able to nominate their worth to an organisation and be paid just a reasonable living wage.
Telecom have had a succession of leaders who have been paid multi-million annual salaries, after a few years have moved on with massive golden handshakes and then, suddenly, these organisations announce massive layoffs of the ordinary employees … (saying they have to trim the fat).
These same captains of industry of course join such organisations as the EMA, Round Table etc and dictate to the government what they think nurses, teachers, firemen etc are worth.
Testing (no HTML) Testing (Italics using the editor button)
<i>Testing</i> (Italics using HTML) This is a link (Link inserted using the editor function)
And, no, I don’t have the WYSIWYG turned on. At least it has an escapse to HTML.
So Bill from Dipton, the Minister of Finance is ‘surprised’ by having nearly 10% of Kiwi’s sign up for the preregistration of the legislated theft of Mighty River Power from the other 90% of Kiwi’s,
This 10% only too happy to be availed the chance to steal off of the other 90% of us are to be given what, 10% of the shares, 20% of the shares???,
The other 80-90% of the shares will go where, from what Bill says they will be ‘retailed’ on the open market so presumably the ‘mums and dads’ who are the likes of the Goldman Saches US Banking Cartel will swallow the majority of the shares in Mighty River Power,
Bill’s surprise, sounds like He has promised the ‘banking cartels’ that less than 10% of Kiwis will have the coin to buy into Mighty River so there would be no problem for them through their various Nominee Companies to gain the lions share of the float…
Yep, call it what it is. Theft. All those ‘law abiding’ citizens are stealing our property. Time for Labour to tell them they’ll renationalise any assets sold…come on DS…want to be a leader then fucking lead.
Yes as a starting point of ‘ownership’ Labour should look at the Cullen Super Fund becoming the ‘owner’ of all the shares of the assets that National plan on putting into the hands of the International Banking Cartels,
We could in the future then have a rational discussion, after the Baby Boomer Retirement Bump has passed about changing the focus of that Cullen Fund being used to pre-fund part or all future retirement from dividends of the assets held by it…
I have put the point that the wealthy have the option of shunting their children and the guidance of their young ones, to boarding schools. Gina Campbell, daughter of speed record winner Donald Campbell was sent to one at age two when her parents’ marriage broke up. Her father had three marriages, and her mother I think the same. She has written a book Daughter of Bluebird.
Later she had the experience of her mother needling her ex-husband with great promises to Gina about how she would look after her horse with top class treatment, which caused unrest as Gina thought she was in earnest. When the offer was accepted, the mother withdrew it with numerous excuses.
Poorer people’s abandonment of a child’s care tend to be obvious, the wealthy can slither out
from withholding emotional support and guidance to their child untouched by approbrium. ‘Look what I did for you’ is often the comment from parents who have given little personal love and care, but money spent on the child’s living and schooling piles up and is seen as a debt to the parents. The child becomes an object of charity to them with periods of erratic expressions of love and interest from them.
Further to my thoughts on parenting, I consider that this is relevant to the behaviour that we are receiving from politicians. Politicians are very resilient as you must be when as a child you have to be self-sufficient, have a drive for self-advancement, are self-centred, competitive and lack empathy, because that usually has to be learned from older, kind, wiser people. This lack would apply to Paula Bennett, John Key…
If we think of Lord of the Flies, this is the background that would set the direction of much political behaviour that we observe.
Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes,
In ‘primitive’ New Zealand it’s probably a forlorn hope that all the CO2 being given off as exhaust from ‘wasting’ all that gas will be captured at it’s source,
Of interest when i was looking for information on this project was the fact that the construction also included a gas storage facility, (an existing played out gas well that surplus gas is being pumped into),
i have to wonder if the ‘players’ in this gas to electricity game of waste realize that they are building the infrastructure that allows CO2 to be harvested from the atmosphere using the air’s own movement to bring the CO2 to the point of harvest and be turned into the very gas that they are at present taking from the ground and turning into CO2 by burning it,
Capturing that CO2 and turning it into Methane Gas, (even petrol), is a technology in it’s infancy but at least one country, Iceland, is capturing CO2 from it’s geothermal electricity generation,(yes apparently ‘some’ geothermal electricity generation does produce CO2), and doing just that with it,
Yes, we can all see the problem with turning CO2 into a fuel and then burning it as a fuel is still releasing CO2 to the atmosphere, BUT, harvesting CO2 from the atmosphere and refining that into fuel to produce electricity may be the way of the future IF the CO2 expelled in the production of electricity is captured at it’s source and refined back into the same fuel burned to create it in the first place…
So, after searching the web I’m figuring that that is 100MW generator. For just a little bit extra we could have had wind turbines with nowhere near as much pollution or need for ongoing importation (we’re almost out of natural gas in NZ) for gas.
The best thing that can be said about a gas generator is that it’s most likely to be shut down in a few years due of lack of fuel.
As far as running out of gas with which to cause even more CO2 to be pumped into the atmosphere, these people seem to think it’s going to be around for a while,
But, thats not really the point i am making, whats of interest is that it appears much of the present infrastructure of turning CO2 into methane gas, including it’s storage, is already present in Taranaki,
Here’s the fledgling CO2 to Methane industry in Iceland, the obvious BAD bit of that is to then allow the CO2 back into the atmosphere via burning the methane in vehicle engines,
What that Icelandic power plant should be doing is simply burning the product made from CO2 in it’s electricity generator, capturing the CO2 produced by having done so and sent that CO2 back through the process of turning it into Methane so as to enable it’s re-burning,
Also of interest on that page is the story of the ‘break-through’ science involved in using biological catalysts which enable CO2 to be turned into Methane using Sun-light without the expensive metals like gold previously thought to be the only catalyst able to perform such a function,
The next part of the jigsaw is of course the separation of the CO2 from the air, again such a ‘science’ is in it’s infancy but a theoretical study i have read, (will try and link to it later), ‘sees’ this to be not necessary as a removal of CO2 from the air at the source of the CO2 emissions but more a case of having the air movement in a place akin to todays wind farms bringing the CO2 to the means of it’s extraction from that air,
My particular interest in Taranaki at the moment is because the infrastructure present as part of the oil/gas system would also be the infrastructure necessary for a CO2 to fuel industry…
Grrr, bugger, did you get error 404???, the pages are not expired tho, if you Google the heading above the dud links it should, (hopefully), take you to the page,
1 out of 4, i spose i should look on the bright side of that, Grrr, that CO2 to Methanol site contains most of the info i am attempting to impart here and the third story on the page is also of interest as little old NZ gets a mention for the technology that is already in place in Taranaki,
Googling, Converting CO2 to Methanol also provides a zillion pages of useful info on the subject,
Of course Methanol has a lot more uses than just fuel, most of the plastics made in the world today contain the stuff, and IF we had the cost effective tech that took CO2 from the atmosphere and eventually made plastics with it then we have ‘fixed’ that CO2 for the lifetime of those plastics most of which i would dare suggest will end their existence buried in a landfill…
No not necessarily from what i have read, given that with bio-catalysts and sunlight quite a stream of methane can be obtained from CO2 with little ongoing energy cost the efficacy of doing so will come down to the cost of extracting such CO2 from suitably robust air-flows,
The rest is simply the cost of the rest of the process that the 2 methanol plants in Taranaki have been carrying out from time to time since they were built by Muldoons ‘think big’,
If a tonne of carbon had a price in NZ as a straight tax, such a tax could then be applied to the extraction of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere thus lowering the cost of fuels extracted from that carbon,
My next dig through the internet mountain of info i think will have to concentrate on both those questions, what price we as a society are willing to pay as tax for a tonne of carbon and what it might cost per tonne to extract such carbon from the atmosphere from suitable sites of high airflow,
Obviously the closer all these different ‘processes’ occur to the plants which manufacture methanol the more cost effective and commercially viable they become…
You have an interesting view on what is “just a little bit extra”.
Your link give a cost of about $1.75m for a megawatt of nameplate capacity. That’s the average of the range of $1.3m – $2.2m given in your link. However that is the maximum possible generating capacity of the turbine. The actual efficiency of them varies between about 25% and 40% so you would expect to need about 3 times the installed capacity as the power you generate.
The cost of producing 100MW would then be about 100 * 1.75 * 3 million dollars.
This works out at about $525m as opposed to the quoted figure of $100m. To Bill Gates, (or perhaps David Shearer), that might be “just a little bit extra” but it doesn’t seem so to me.
There is also no reason at all to believe that we are just about of natural gas. That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more. If the Greens get to ban any exploration or production it might come true but we live in hope that they won’t get the chance to do so.
And if the worst case scenario expounded by the climate scientists were to be correct??? what price would you put on your current lifestyles continuance, the very continuance of the life of your grandchildren???,
Capitalist bean-counters should in my opinion when it comes to the equation vis a vis money over climate simply be abused as the whole money system is a foolish joke clung to by the wing-nuts as an ancient African witch-doctor clung to his baubles of divination…
Yeah, Ok, I was out on the price. Still say that wind, being renewable and sustainable, would be better option. Price isn’t the best way to choose.
When will oil, natural gas, and coal peak?
Globally, gas peaks in the 2020s and we’re a small nation at the bottom of the world with very little reason for people to gas sell to us. We may have a small amount left but I heard a few years ago that the Maui Field was out.
That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more.
Wrong concept. Natural gas economics is crashing mate. The fossil fuel industry will grind to a commercial halt while there are gigatonnes of the stuff left under the ground.
Jokeyhen’s attitude to NZ is that it is a great scenic background in front of which he can perform various celebrity gestures and give out uplifting and soothing speeches about the great conditions we have here. We’re like a unique handbag accessory for this most prominent NZer. The rest of us just have to use plastic ones with folksy pictures or a koru on them.
“Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes”
Slippery failed to do an essential thing: To light a cigarette with an open flame lighter, which could have saved the country from a damned lot of harm. But I suppose, he does not smoke, regrettably.
If it costs $1,500 per house to build a power station then wtf are we doing not doing so cooperatively? That is shit all coin. Far less than installing a solar number or something similar, by a large multiple.
And surely the ongoing cost of running the power station and supplying the fuel is relatively minor compared to the capital cost of construction.
If so, why on earth would the average hosuehold be paying around $2,500 per annum for electricity?
Does this not highlight something very very fishy around power companies …………..
If we paid for the power-stations through taxes and considered them a social good then we don’t need a return (profit) on the capital. At that point all we’d need to cover is the running and maintenance and that spread across all households would be SFA and that cost goes down if we use renewables as there’s no longer any drag from the costs of supplying fuel.
Conclusion: A state monopoly in power supply and reticulation is the most efficient and cost effective way of supplying power especially if using renewables.
No, I don’t think he’s that ignorant. He’ll know how to get rich which is to get a lot of people to give you a little bit of money (A little bit here, a little bit there and pretty soon you’re talking serious money). As such he’ll know that to keep costs per person down would be to spread them out across as many people as possible.
Selwyn Manning at his best, red rattler! Yes, it stinks so much, it is so bloody obvious, but the NZ media and public still have “blind” faith in a PM, like too many Germans once had in Hitler. When will they ever wake up?
A candle in a long street
A candle in the sleep of houses
A candle for frightened shops
A candle for bakeries
A candle for a journalist trembling in an empty office
A candle for a fighter
A candle for a woman doctor watching over patients
A candle for the wounded
A candle for plain talk
A candle for the stairs
A candle for a hotel packed with refugees
A candle for a singer
A candle for broadcasters in their hideouts
A candle for a bottle of water
A candle for the air
A candle for two lovers in a naked flat
A candle for the falling sky
A candle for the beginning
A candle for the ending
A candle for the last communique
A candle for conscience
A candle in your hands.
“We keep our hands in our pockets, and, unable to say “yes” to ourselves, we lack a “no” that is sure enough to stand between our best and our worst interests. We are left to make do with plans and policies that have little bearing on the main plot. It is a different play that is being staged, and we are actors and audience both, but unable to change the script.”
“The willingness to be less than what we could be is endemic. The lack of care and complicity of silence finds us all wanting. We cannot dissociate ourselves from the hypocricies of our governments or the immoralities of our corporations. Nor can we hide behind the screen of busyness, even if we do call it “work and family commitments”. This is classic middle-class camouflage : one of the more altruistic personae of self-interest.”
-Kerry Flattley
-Chris Wallace Crabbe.
Before you go, I need to tell you
why here tongues turn dry as piki bread.
No one knows why this story is true.
but I know there was a woman who
buried both her hands in blue dough. She said,
Before you go, I need to tell you
why Hopi corn grows short, in a few
spindly clumps, not deep wide and red.
No one knows why this story is true,
but I know it is not a lie. New
seed lay still; the sheep we gave for dead.
Before you go I need to tell you
the crater’s spirit gave us breath. Blu
winds swept ash from the mesa, it bled-
no one knows why this story is true-
earth’s sky blood washed ragged furrows. Blue
corn cracked tucked sharp in this lava bed.
Before you go, I need to tell you:
no one knows why this story is true.
-Peggy Shumaker
(Hopi corn is a biological riddle. It germinates only in thin volcanic soil and thrives in the sever, unforgiving climate of the high desert.)
A NZ living in Victoria has taken a case against the government there of discrimenation because he has been denied a student concession. The case is due to go before the Tribunal some months hence and if it succeeds it could unroll that denial and pay the student some compensation. The final comment was that the Oz government has been concerned about discrimination against NZ in the social welfare sector. Concerned enough to reverse this discrimination? Did Jokeyhen mention it to Gillard? I wonder.
The point, I imagine, is
not to learn to expect
betrayal, self-deceit, lies
however thick they collect
in the cul-de-sac of one’s days,
half-noticed, half-numbered, half-checked:
but rather to learn to praise
fidelity, trust and love
which in their modest ways continue to be and move
(however mocked, however derided,
however difficult, indeed, to prove),
utterly undivided-
if inarticulate or mute,
still mortally decided.
Neither fashionable nor astute
this point to take to heart:
merely final and absolute:
1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities (Might actually be less than 1%) in the USA
2. The gun murder rate has been dropping since the last ban (in the late 80s) was lifted
3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
4. Prohibition doesn’t work
5. The “evil” weapons in the USA are available in NZ
6. There are over 20000 gun laws in the USA, enforce those first before implementing new ones
I think something along the lines of what Portugal is doing is what we should be doing. I would decriminalize all drugs and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.
I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.
Mind you I’d up the sentence term for pushers, dealers and suppliers
Oh yeah forgot to add that in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans
You must be one of those ‘blue greenies’ some bod was telling us about the other day.
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would you have government pay for that?
“I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.”
Agreed, though not all drug users are addicts.
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation, or those that could have, but now can’t, are thug criminals? Good job they don’t have access to legal fire arms.
I don’t know about being blue-green just that prohibition and “the war on drugs” doesn’t/isn’t working and Portugal seems to be going well so why not try it
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would government pay for that?
Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation are now thug criminals? Good job they don’t have legal access to fire arms
No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased whereas the USA ended its ban on semi-auto rifle sales in the late 80s and violent crime and gun deaths have steadily decreased.
Are there problems, yes. Is a knee-jerk feel-good ban on semi-auto rifles going to work, no. Are their better ways to deal with the problems, yes.
Just to note the weapons used at Columbine were a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines.
The carbine was developed in response to the ban on semi-auto rifles and capacity of magazine size.
Also a 9 mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a 12-gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.
It is illegal to cut a barrel down beyond a certain length but it didn’t stop him from doing it.
No, I think it was someone with an agenda, making a point, but very badly.
Oxymoron if ever I read one.
“Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)”
It’s an ambitious project and I’m sure quite costly to set up, certainly more than the prison spend. The left are advocates of spend now, reduce long term costs later. It’s all over education, health, welfare, but the right scream about the money and where it’s coming from and keep the status quo.
Good luck convincing your tory mp to support Labour and Green policy.
“No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased”
As those chavs and idiots on the street would ever legally own a weapon before or after legislation, I don’t think there’s a case for linking the statistics.
There isn’t really a need for anyone to own guns, especially military grade killing tools. Sport and recreation are not good enough reasons to justify burying school children. Take up golf.
“military grade killing tools”
1. Theres no real difference between an AR-15 (the semi-auto civilian version of the american assault rifle) and a semi-auto rifle, in fact in some cases the semi-auto rifle is a better option
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing.
3. I wonder if proudly proclaiming you’re a “gun-free” zone is the smartest thing they could do:
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing
Think about it.
Firstly, think about the US Air Force. Then think about the Marine corp, the US Army, and the highly militarized police forces the US federal and state governments have.
Now ask yourself what sort of weaponry you would need to fight the US government, and look around to check the availability of such weaponry.
What does such thinking tell you about the theory that US citizens are given the right to collect weapons sufficient to beat off their government.
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing
Nah that’s bullshit.
The original Second Amendment talked about the right to bear arms within the context of a “well regulated militia” i.e. a trained, disciplined and organised state militia for the defence of the state and of the union.
Various judicial interpretations in recent decades has turned that into a right to bear arms individually for essentially any individual purpose, and with no connection or participation to any “well regulated militia”.
The US gun lobby have made their bed, they will sleep in it.
And people forget that there are up to 1M firearms here in NZ. And fuck all people get shot…on purpose.
Actually I think that if you look at what the makers of the constitution said at the time, the intent was to prevent governments from disarming the local militias. Disciplined formations of men are somewhat different to individual idiots with weapons.
From what was recorded, I’d think that they’d have been aghast at the idea of giving the right to bear “semi-auto” weapons (convertable to automatic with a freely available cheap kit) to random nutters who want them.
Looks at Madison and the arguments he was having in Virginia at the time of ratification. The timeline and evolution of the language of the amendment which he submitted seem to suggest it was mostly about leaving the States with the authority to call out their own militia to put down slave revolts without having to get Congressional say so.
Excellent. I hadn’t run across that before. But it fits.
In any case, it is clear that the intent of the framers of the constitution was for a disciplined and well regulated state run militia. The current position that people outside the national guard, state troopers, and other such well regulated bodies should bear arms is a travesty of the wording of the US constitution and the intent of the framers.
In which case I’d suggest that tightning up and enforcing rules against the mentally ill would have a greater effect on ending mass killings then enacting another law that’d most likely be ignored
Also this guy didn’t use guns to kill more then anybody else:
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
They didn’t know how big the government would become but they did know that the government should fear the people not the other way around, they knew there had to be checks and balances to stop the government of the day (whenever that day is) from becoming tyrannical and guaranteeing the rights of its citizens to bear is the simplest way to ensure that
Think about it
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
You have to go back and read some of the (many many) things written at the time to work out what they were up to. There were long arguments about most stuff, and the right to bear arms was no different. The arguments weren’t focused on fighting the US government. A major aspect was the right of the States to have military patrols. Some thought that the States should not have this right, that it was similar to the standing army thing that was part of what the revolution was against. However, others felt the need to have regular armed patrols of the country side. Guess why (clue: these were the slave states).
On the technology of the time, irrelevant. Unless you are suggesting that the constitution only allows muskets? Or that citizens should indeed be able to buy and maintain private air forces and set up SAM sites?
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
Dude please. This is bloody “Wolverines!” nonsense. You cannot compare Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else to a supposed attempted overthrow of the US Federal Govt.
-You’ll note that not one of those wars were an existential war for the US. They were wars they could afford to lose.
-You’ll note that the opposing forces in those wars had better knowledge of the people and terrain, not something the US lacks in the US.
-You’re still left with the problem that rifles are not what you need. If the US gun nuts were serious about defending themselves from the government, they’d be buying different things.
If they were serious they would revolted years ago, like maybe when Bush declared that a President could just call a citizen an enemy combatant, and they’d lose all their legal rights. Or when Obama said he could put them on kill lists. Neither of which are subjected to any checks or balances. Just a President’s say so. How does that compare to King George/ what are they waiting for?
They are basically role playing at being rebels. It’s a hobby. They are not a threat to their government
Here’s a good read on what they should be buying if they’re serious;
GIs who’d seen what an RPG hit could do to an M113 got in the habit of saying, “I’ll walk, thanks.” The RPG warhead does something called “spalling,” which means the warhead turns the aluminum side armor of an APC into molten shrapnel which goes zipping through the guts of everybody inside like a Benihana chef’s knife, only it’s a knife as hot as the surface of the sun.
Thanks for the link…hey M113’s isnt’ that what the NZ Army used to drive around in?
Did the post Peters referred to really say that NZanders spend 27 days per year on overseas hols?
Btw, LPrent – when I leave the page (to follow a link for example) I am no longer able to return to the same place in the page I left. I’m returned to the top. It’s happened a quite a few times now.
Another disgusting OIA fob-off, and I have had them also. Now surely, there is no great difficulty in “collating” that information, as the PM himself could easily offer it, and if need be, airline tickets must exist and can be presented. The whole OIA process these days is ridiculous, it is not worth pursuing anymore. The DICTATORSHIP in AOTEAROA NZ is WORKING!
Is Cyprus about to implode across our screens? It is surely way too late now to take that money off depositors – you would think that sort of thing must be done overnight, not a week later. Otherwise the time gets people to thinking about reaction………
Indeed. And the theft of bank deposits will be quickly back on the table if the international capital strike now being organised against Cypress is effective.
Many Russians not happy. (Just like many Brits weren’t happy at Iceland…)
Oh look. It’s only been a couple of days and new proposals on the table suggest taking 25% of large bank accounts. Many accounts affected will belong to Russians.
Didn’t take long for banker pressure (threats) on the Cyprus parliament to do its job, did it.
(The geopolitical angle is the massive EU vs Russia stoush this is shaping into)
Activists, take note: People support reform if they believe the changes will enhance the future character of society, according to a study published online this month in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Namely, people support a future society that fosters the development of warm and moral individuals.
So one wonders how National and their ever present outright nastiness ever manages to get voted in to power.
Ouch, rumor via TV1 news is that Telecom will likely be cutting up to 2500 jobs in May, the flow on effects of that are a horror story,
Bill from Dipton was saying on the last Q+A that the welfare budget would probably have to have more money this year, wonder if the Finance Minister had prior knowledge…
That is why I gave up cycling around Auckland many years ago. It is too damned dangerous. In many European countries cycleways are clearly separated from the main road, and well marked and mostly well maintained, so no such close encounters with cars or trucks would usually happen.
But the cycleways in NZ, I am talking about Auckland by the way, are not quite as bad as they used to be, but still leave cyclists exposed to immense risks and danger.
NO, I won’t cycle in Auckland again, unless the whole infrastructure gets improved and car drivers are held more accountable for their negligence and dangerous driving.
My previous enthusiasm and sympathy for Brazil has been more than moderated over recent days. While I love the culture and spirit of people there, the newest top 50 of their “hits’ shows how corrupt and Americanised that society is. Even their own performers are rather up themselves and believing they are better than others. In some cases they may be, but not in all. I am disappointed, and the commercial world is taking its toll all over the place. It is rot, rot and more rot, not quality aand skill.
The top 50 hits will be those that get promoted on tv, especially by Rede Globo (think Murdoch in Portuguese). Brazil is a large and complex country, with the cultural differences from north to south being something like Invercargill to PNG. East to west isn’t much different. There are things about Brazil I absolutely love, and things I hate, but none of those things have much to do with the top 50.
The Herald reported over the weekend that an Auckland business owner is being targeted with asset forfeiture laws over a workplace death:A workplace fatality has seen police use a law usually associated with drugs and organised crime to seize millions of dollars in assets from a business owner because of ...
Just days after talking about how people feel "squeezed" and promising tax and service cuts as a "solution", National is talking about cancelling a rise in the minimum wage if elected: National is considering scrapping the Government's planned minimum wage increase if it wins this year's election, the party's finance ...
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...
A Labour government desperate for the numbers crawls into bed with Winston Peters. Winston ignores the law and secretly takes money under the table from someone. When it is exposed just months out from an election, he is investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. That's what happened back in 2008. ...
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...
Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanHousing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...
Stuff today has a piece about the government discovering it has been oversubsidising polluters for a decade under the Emissions Trading scheme:The Government is pledging to urgently fix an issue within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), after it emerged some polluters are likely being over-compensated with taxpayer-funded carbon credits. [...] ...
The Marlborough District Council, tired of public scrutiny, wants to increase the amount it charges for LGOIMA requests:The cost of requesting official information from Marlborough's government agency could almost double after a jump in "fishing expeditions". Charges could be raised from $60 to $100 an hour for information supplied by ...
When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet?Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
I’m not quite sure of what to make of the new figures for COVID-19 (as we must now call the novel coronavirus – though I’m not sure the capitalisation is correct) from Hubei province:Image from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51495484The spike yesterday is a consequence of a using a different way of ...
Bob Jones has dropped his defamation case against Renae Maihi. Good. But at the same time, it perfectly exposes what the case was all about: not protecting Jones' reputation, but punishing someone who had dared to criticise him, and deterring others from doing the same. This rich pompous asshat dragged ...
As I've done for the past few years, I'm curating and presenting The Listening Lounge, the talk programme at Splore. On the morning of Saturday the 22nd at the Living Lounge stage, the korero goes like this.Yes, we're talking about drugs again, not just because I'm professionally interested in drug ...
What Were They Thinking? RNZ's CEO Paul Thompson (left) and Jim Mather, Chairman of the RNZ Board of Governors, attempt to justify the debacle arising out of their attempt to downgrade RNZ Concert to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee at Parliament on Thursday, 13 February 2020.WHAT IS ...
Dame Tariana Turia with former PM John KeyWhat is it about Tariana Turia’s grudge against the Labour Party? Not content with attacking the Government over Whānau Ora funding, which was increased by $80 million in 2019, she has now made it personal by saying that Jacinda Ardern is out of her ...
Back in 2017, right after being elected, Jacinda Ardern promised that there would be no new mines on conservation land. Since then, her government has done nothing to make that happen, and now the policy has been officially "parked" for the election:West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor says the "no new ...
So the guy who advocated for public burning and beheading feels offended because someone called him a racist!Perhaps Bob Jones hasn't heard of the very old saying; Live by the sword, die by the sword?I mean for someone who often writes opinionated nonsense about Maori; this is a ridiculous case ...
The government today announced a major support package aimed at reducing homelessness. A thousand new transitional housing places, more support for people to find homes (or not lose them in the first place), all good stuff. The one problem with it is that they're going to start charging people in ...
Courtroom Drama: There is no off-switch in a courtroom. Neither is it possible to turn the page in disgust. Ill-formed and ill-defended opinions will be exposed ruthlessly and unapologetically. As Shakespeare put it: “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” Sometimes the ...
As of today, the novel coronavirus spreading in China is called COVID-19. Why does it matter? Around the office, we’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks about how 2019-nCoV needed its own name. First, it was getting annoying calling it by the above designation, and ‘novel coronavirus’ doesn’t ...
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill (No 2) (Brett Hudson)Its basicly more "tough on crime" nonsense (its already illegal for unlicensed people to own guns) designed to wedge NZ First against its arsehole base. ...
In 2015 the world agreed to the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. Each country would offer a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) "that it intends to achieve", and "pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving [it]". And every five years, they'd improve on it, ratcheting up ambition until ...
In theory, the emissions trading scheme should reduce emissions. Making polluters pay for permits to pollute lets them save money by reducing pollution, giving them a financial incentive to do the right thing. But right from the start the ETS was broken with a system of free allocation, so polluters ...
Irish voters went to the polls on Saturday in parliamentary elections, and perhaps delivered a political revolution. Since independence, Irish politics has been dominated by two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Basicly patronage networks with indistinguishable policies, their cleavage isn't ideology, but who killed whose father or grandfather in ...
Once again the Aotearoa Bike Challenge is on us, and once again I’m participating. In principle this is not hard because it does not represent a significant switch in behavior for me. I already bike nearly every day. The Bicycle The fascinating thing about cycling is the realisation that this ...
Lately there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the origins and purpose of Skeptical Science. As John Cook wrote nearly a decade ago, Skeptical Science is primarily a website that debunks climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. Despite the ever-worsening impacts from climate change, with record after record being broken in ...
Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
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The Global Protest to #FightInequality was powerful – thankyou and what next? Dear allies, We started the decade with a huge protest to #FightInequality that was heard around the world, including the 1% at Davos. Watch and share the highlights on facebook and twitter. A huge thank you. Together we ...
The Ministry of Health have announced a package that might ensure NZ will never experience another measles epidemic. While at the time of writing the details are still limited it appears that the important limitations in our current programme have been acknowledged and the intent is to address them. Great ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly summarise our assessment of the highly uncertain new coronavirus threat. Given its potential to become a severe and prolonged global pandemic, a precautionary response now means activating all components of our pandemic plan, with a particular focus on ‘keep ...
When Labour was running for election, Jacinda Ardern famously said that climate change was "my generation's nuclear free moment". The implication was that her government would take the problem seriously, and act swiftly to reduce emissions. The reality:New Zealand will emit a million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 ...
James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
by Philip Ferguson Exit polls are showing a three-way virtual tie between the main parties in the south of Ireland. Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are all on just over 22%. FG on 22.4, SF on 22.3, FF on 22.2. Exit polls indicate that over 30% of 18-24 ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 2, 2020 through Sat, Feb 8, 2020 Editor's Pick New Report Details How Fossil Fuel Industry's Climate Destruction Also Exacerbates Human Rights Abuses"Even in the face of the ...
In a previous post I described briefly when and how the Starlink satellite chains – recent launches by Space-X in a scheme to bring 5G internet connectivity to the whole globe – could be seen from New Zealand with the naked eye. Here I provide an update and predictions for ...
Keeping The Faith: This Government’s broad, new, heavily moderated, progressive faith does not require a prime minister with the powers of a medieval pope. Jacinda’s regime has no need of subterranean torture chambers to ensure compliance. A gift for diplomacy and the ability to inspire her fellow human-beings is all ...
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...
Tonight’s news suggests the coronavirus outbreak may have originated from pangolins. Details are very sketchy, almost nothing at all beyond a claim of high similarity. My impression is this claim comes from a press release by South China Agricultural University. Initial discussion online suggests this is a more likely candidate ...
by Susanne Kemp The Fire and Emergency service (FENZ) has recently asked firefighters in Auckland Areas 3, 4 and 5 to take on an additional duty that has rather ominous implications. Namely, to collect names and addresses of everyone on the premises of fires they attend. The firefighters’ union, the ...
Part of the story of the Nazis' rise to power in Germany was the willingness of mainstream right-wing parties to work with them to keep out the left. Because of this, one of the fundamental rules of postwar German politics has been "do not work with Nazis". As a result, ...
There has long been a truism in public broadcasting: don't mess with Concert FM. The theory was that although the station has been in a long-term audience decline, and that audience is steadily ageing out, it has powerful establishment support – and any threat to it would provoke a fury.As ...
This is a re-post from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The heat absorbed in Earth’s oceans reached a new record in 2019, found a recent study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. Despite the fact that this has been the case for almost every year over the past decade, this information ...
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics.Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...
by Don Franks Under a government claiming empathy with the fine arts, Radio New Zealand ( RNZ) is poised to cut back its classical music station, RNZ Concert. The plan is replacing it on FM radio with music “for a younger audience” as part of a new multimedia music brand. ...
More Thwaites This past week we heard disturbing news about Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. Helping to fill in the longer term history of Thwaites' behavior and especially helpful in interpreting results of the recent drilling project and what it may say about the future of this unstable mass of ice is Revealing the ...
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit:Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ...
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A few years ago, a company lowballed a contract to dispose of toxic waste from the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. So, they dumped it in a disused paper mill in Mataura, then went into liquidation - effectively dumping the problem on local councils. The waste is dangerous - it releases ...
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...
Over on The Good Society, Max Rashbrooke suggests that its time to start directly taxing wealth:A wealth tax would be levied on net wealth – that is, the value of people’s assets once their debts have been subtracted. Such a tax would be highly redistributive. Levied at 1% on wealth ...
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I’m about to start teaching science communication to tertiary students, which is equally hilarious and terrifying to me. (Hi to my students who have Googled me and found this post.) I loved English at high school, but we spent most of our time reading The Outsiders, discussing the differences between metaphors and ...
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A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...
All New Zealanders need to have their voices heard at work to ensure we have an inclusive and productive economy. Today we introduce a Bill to do this for workers in the New Zealand screen industry, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “The Screen Industry Workers Bill will ...
The Government has announced further help for the Southland and Otago regions to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. “I’ve approved Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG), making $500,000 available to help with the clean-up in Fiordland, Southland, and the Clutha district in Otago,” Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Following the announcement that more than 340 schools will be funded to run events promoting vocational education, the Government has announced it will fund a further 257 events to be run by employers and industry. “These industry-run events will allow more than 30,000 students to connect with more than 2,000 ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
Clear requirements for ensuring customers are treated fairly by banks, insurers and other financial service providers are included in new financial conduct legislation that passed its first reading today. “The recent reviews, by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, into the conduct of banks and ...
Applications are now open for the fifth round of the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced today. “I am delighted to open this year’s fund which has some $7 million available to support performing arts venues, galleries, museums and whare ...
The Minister of Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta today congratulated Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu on her appointment as the next President of the Law Commission. “Amokura Kawharu will be a standout in her new role, leading in an innovative and forward looking approach to the law reform process. She will ...
Auckland University legal academic Amokura Kawharu has been appointed as the next President of the Law Commission, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Associate Professor Kawharu will take up her new appointment on 11 May 2020. “I would like to congratulate Associate Professor Kawharu on her appointment,” Andrew ...
A programme for employers to help them engage effectively with younger employees was launched today by Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson. The Youth Ready Employer Programme contains a range of on-line templates that employers can easily access to help with employing and retaining young people in their businesses. The programme ...
Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursday 14 May, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “This year’s Budget will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also preparing the economy for the future. “Those challenges and opportunities cannot be resolved in one budget, ...
I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has today classified the drought conditions in Northland as an adverse event for the primary sector, unlocking $80,000 in Government support. “This is recognition that the extreme and prolonged nature of this dry spell is taking its toll on our farmers and growers and additional support ...
The Minister of Police says an operation to smash a trans national drug smuggling ring today will make a significant impact on the methamphetamine trade fuelling harm in our communities. Police have announced 10 arrests and the seizure of up to five million dollars’ worth of illicit drugs after an ...
The Government’s books are in a strong position to withstand global headwinds, with the accounts in surplus and expenses close to forecast, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown accounts for the six months to December. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was above ...
Race courses can improve safety with this year’s second round of funding from the Racing Safety Development Fund. Minister for Racing Winston Peters has announced the second funding round of 2019/20 is open with $347,875 available for distribution. “The racing industry is integral to the economic and social fabric of ...
The Government is committing $300,000 to fund research to update behavioural information to make sure HIV and STI prevention services are targeted appropriately in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson made the announcement at today’s Big Gay Out in Auckland. “There is much talk about ...
The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has announced work will begin on a business case to assess the viability of forming a new public media entity. “The Government must ensure New Zealanders have a strong independent public media service for decades to come, which means ensuring public ...
Minister of Civil Defence Hon Peeni Henare announced today that the Government will contribute $100,000 to the Southland regional Mayoral Relief Fund, to support communities impacted by the recent flooding in Southland. Mr Henare says this week’s flooding has caused significant disruption to communities in the lower South Island. ...
Heritage buildings throughout New Zealand will benefit from the $1.1 million in Heritage EQUIP funding grants announced today. “These grants for seismic strengthening projects help private building owners get the advice they need to start building work or to get the work completed,” Grant Robertson says. “Timaru’s Grosvenor Hotel has ...
A new survey has found New Zealand’s game development sector has grown beyond expectations and is on track to becoming a billion dollar industry in 2025, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says. “New Zealand’s interactive media sector grew by 42 per cent in last financial year to $203.4 million, according ...
Te Tii, the lower marae at Waitangi, is among more than 70 marae now connected to broadband internet thanks to the Provincial Growth Fund’s marae connectivity scheme, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said today. In February 2019, the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) allocated $21 million to connect rural towns ...
The West Coast has had a funding injection of over $1.2 million from the Provincial Growth Fund, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced at Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika today. The PGF projects announced are: $800,000 to Development West Coast for a Grey District Regional Digital Hub ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has declared an adverse event for the Southland and Otago regions, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “Widespread flooding has resulted in severe disruption, with many people evacuated from their homes and many farms being affected by flood waters. It’s putting pressure on our farmers, ...
The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations applauds the changes to the Residential Tenancies Act released by the government yesterday but does not believe that they go far enough to improving the rights of renters. The power imbalance in the current ...
The Prime Minister will take no action against Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, after confirmation of a Serious Fraud Office investigation. ...
Eamonn Marra’s debut novel makes a study of the mundane: sanding a fence, heating baked beans, three pizzas for $29.99 delivered. Alie Benge reckons it belongs somewhere between Sally Rooney and Elena Ferrante. It was about page three of 2000ft Above Worry Level. A feeling burst inside me: the joy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzie Gibson, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Charles Sturt University The gothic developed as a European architectural phenomenon in 12th-century France, where awe-inspiring cathedrals reflected a world drenched in religious piety and superstition. Its veneration was revisited in 18th-century English literature, when ...
Financial services company Heartland Bank has reported a solid lift in its first-half profit driven by increased lending despite a squeeze on margins and rising costs. ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, e-bikes are now just a tap away! Josie Adams reviews the latest disruption in transport culture.When Lime launched in 2018, New Zealand’s transport culture got the electric shock it needed. For too long we’d ...
Ministers love to bray about the seizing of illegal drugs. Customs statistics on seizures last year – albeit “preliminary” statistics – therefore were irresistible to Customs Minister Jenny Salesa. They gave her a platform to remind us of her existence as a Minister while acknowledging the work of her officials. ...
The rise of ‘plant-based’ diets seems like a win for those who decry eating meat. But some vegan groups claim the halfway step of vegetarianism is ineffectual if you really care about animal cruelty, climate change, or your own personal health.An article in the Guardian last year asked “Why do ...
FIRST Union General Secretary Dennis Maga says that this morning’s comments from National Party Finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith that the party would consider scrapping the Government’s proposed minimum wage increases if elected ...
The State Housing Action Network (SHAN) is deeply disappointed that the Government’s recently announced Aotearoa Homelessness Action Plan fails to provide for increases in the state housing stock which are essential for addressing the homelessness crisis. ...
Electricity retailers will no longer be able to entice former customers with steep and exclusive discounts, the Electricity Authority has announced. ...
The National Party leader Simon Bridges says it came as a surprise to him that the Serious Fraud Office prosecution relates to two $100,000 donations to the party. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne The federal court’s rejection of the ABC case against the Australian Federal Police raid on its Sydney headquarters in June 2019 reveals two issues of great importance to ...
Zero waste campaigners are petitioning the Government to take a more active stance in tackling Aotearoa New Zealand’s waste crisis, with a comprehensive ban on single-use disposable plastic food and drink serviceware, and a phasing in of accessible, reusable ...
“Callaghan Innovation’s $440,000 grant for an electric ferry design is pure corporate welfare,” says New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke. “If EV Maritime’s ferries present such good value, then why didn’t it get private ...
President Rodrigo Duterte takes legal action to shut down the biggest broadcaster in the Philippines in what is being described as the most severe attack on media freedom in the country. Video: Al JazeeraPacific Media Watch More than 500 journalists have gathered to protest threats to the survival ...
Pacific Media Centre Papua New Guinea’s Minister for State Enterprises Sasindran Muthuvel has reassured the nation that Air Niugini is taking all necessary steps to protect the country against the spread of coronavirus, reports EMTV News. “The airline has instituted a wide range of measures to minimise the risk ...
Our writers celebrate the best performances you can watch right now on NEON. Basically? They’re iconic.We all love a good story, and a great plot twist can turn a mediocre TV show into addictive weekly viewing. But what really keeps us coming back are the characters, and seeing actors at ...
National finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith has refused to give details on the party's planned tax cut policy announced in a speech by leader Simon Bridges yesterday. ...
The owners of three properties in Twizel will have to sell-up after they failed to seek consent from the Overseas Investment Office (OIO). Vanessa Horne, Group Manager for the OIO, says a group of overseas investors bought the three properties, which ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentNZ First donations scandal Guyon Espiner and Kate Newton (RNZ): NZ First Foundation trustee was lobbying for donor Bryce ...
A Southland school has been criticised for requiring girls to see a counsellor before opting to wear shorts as their uniform. It’s merely a symptom of a bigger problem, Madeleine Chapman writes.On Sunday, Stuff reported that James Hargest College in Southland would soon allow girls to wear shorts or pants ...
The Manawatu Tenants’ Union’ (MTU) celebrates yesterday’s release of the Residential Tenancies Act Reform Bill, but challenges the Minister to stil go further to improving tenancy rights. The Bill would remove the ability for landlords to terminate a tenancy ...
The Government is putting together an $11 million package to offset the fallout from coronavirus and attract tourists from countries other than China. ...
Friends of Sherwood are asking that the following question be put to all voters: “ Should New Zealand stop using all cruel and inhumane poisons, such as 1080, brodifacoum, and PAPP, to kill wildlife because these toxic substances inflict intense and prolonged, ...
Organise Aotearoa will be joining rallies for abortion law reform, scheduled today in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. The National Day of Action is hosted by Fem Force - Feminist Action Aotearoa. “Nobody should be pressured to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By S. Anna Florin, PhD candidate, The University of Queensland Australia’s first people ate a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and other plant foods, many of which would have taken considerable time and knowledge to prepare, according to our analysis of charred ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Biddle, Associate Professor, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University Last month, the Australian National University contracted with the Social Research Centre (SRC) to survey more than 3,000 Australian adults about their experiences and attitudes related to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan Davis, Professor of Law, UNSW In his Closing the Gap speech to parliament last week, the prime minister injected some order and transparency back into the constitutional recognition process. The PM anchored his government’s work on the co-design of a Voice ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Woods, Professor of Health Economics, University of Technology Sydney Heavily subsidised aged care services used to be seen as a right and entitlement for all older Australians. But as aged care demand grows and costs rise, it’s becoming increasingly clear the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carla Liuzzo, Sessional Lecturer, School of Business, Queensland University of Technology As a parent, I find it so frustrating to take my children shopping, reusable bags in hand, only to be offered plastic toys at the checkout. It’s an incredibly confusing message ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of Technology The jingle used to tell us we loved “football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars”. These days we love Japanese utes and small Toyotas, Hyundais and Mazdas more. Monday’s announcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Donna Mazza, Senior Lecturer in Creative Arts, Edith Cowan University Warning: this piece features frequent coarse language that may offend some readers. Since Adam Mansbuch’s 2011 bestseller, Go the Fuck to Sleep, book titles have been swearing profusely to grab audience attention. ...
Simon Bridges says National would cut taxes and invest much more than Labour in infrastructure, and with less waste. But he's holding back the detail, and got a key figure wrong. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Creative accounting around the ETS explored, Ardern goes to ground on Peters, and ACT criticised for keeping donation from extremist.Often when reporting on technical and thorny pieces of legislation, it helps to have a specialist reporter looking into it. Stuff’s Charlie Mitchell ...
Planners and hazard experts talk to Newsroom’s Eloise Gibson about how climate change will impact Auckland, and how good planning can help the city adapt. ...
No matter how you measure it, science remains systematically biased against women – and ethnically diverse women even more so, writes Dr Hinemoa Elder.Women and girls in science, this is a public health announcement. You are entering unfriendly territory.Kia mataara, be vigilant. Keep your wits about you.There is irrefutable data ...
When it signed onto the Paris Climate Agreement, New Zealand pledged to increase its net greenhouse gas emissions by 10% across the 25 years to 2030. The latest government report shows with current policy settings it is on track to increase them by more than 20%. The challenge is acute ...
How are the children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants treading the line between immersion in a kiwi culture, and holding on to family traditions? ...
The $11 million tourism package announced after today’s Cabinet is a positive response. Auckland Business Chamber head Michael Barnett said possibly more important in the Prime Minister’s announcement was that further support was possible, as ...
By Joenner Paulo L. Enriquez and Ma. Alena O. Castillo in Manila Thomasian Jesuit priests Fr Albert Alejo and Fr Flaviano Villanueva have posted P10,000 (NZ$310) bail each after a judge issued a warrant of arrest in connection with their sedition case. “Nag-piyansa na kami Fr Flavie at sumama ...
Labour and NZ First are delaying a painful call on either lifting or cutting the annual residency visa limit, while the Greens want the limits removed completely. ...
Tame Impala’s new album The Slow Rush dropped over the weekend to universal acclaim. Jordan Hamel talked to the band’s frontman, Kevin Parker, about the five year gap between albums, and where the band fits into riock music in 2020.Kevin Parker’s musical baby Tame Impala steadily rose to indie prominence in the ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.NZ First is facing the boot at this year’s election, especially as it’s now embroiled in an unfolding donations scandal, which comes on top of low poll ratings. But what effect will the scandal have on NZ First’s government coalition colleagues? And is Labour and the Greens’ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Jones, Climate Scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology After the intensely dry conditions of 2019, January and February have brought much-needed rain. Dams in many cities and towns were replenished and some farmers may be able to grow a crop for the ...
New Zealand’s trusted service for ageing well, Age Concern New Zealand, is receiving a New Year boost after inking an agreement with Perpetual Guardian to have the nation’s largest and most dominant trustee services company as the platinum sponsor of Age ...
The boundaries of free speech were at issue in two recent court cases, one in Britain, the other in New Zealand. In the British case, a judge ruled that the police response to an ex-officer’s tweets (allegedly transphobic) was a “disproportionate interference” with his right to freedom of expression. The ...
The Tauranga-based power company Trustpower has cut its earnings expectations by as much as 14 percent because of lower power prices and pressure on margins. ...
It’s not worth putting much credence in Simon Bridges’s complaints about the current Government’s piling on hikes in petrol taxes until he commits to reversing them, says the Taxpayers’ Union . Spokesman Louis Houlbrooke said, “It’s not ...
Researchers say councils need to be doing much more to ensure homes and buildings aren't wiped out when a mega-tsunami eventually strikes the east coast of the North Island. ...
Water utilities right across the country face major challenges to upgrade and maintain their underground three waters network. Water New Zealand’s Technical Manager, Noel Roberts says Wellington’s waste water woes are not unique to the capital city. ...
Open mike 22/03/2013 
The Herald reported over the weekend that an Auckland business owner is being targeted with asset forfeiture laws over a workplace death:A workplace fatality has seen police use a law usually associated with drugs and organised crime to seize millions of dollars in assets from a business owner because of ...1 hour ago
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...5 hours ago
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...12 hours ago
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...24 hours ago
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...2 days ago
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre. (Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...3 days ago
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...6 days ago
...1 week ago
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...1 week ago
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics. Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...2 weeks ago
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit: Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ... 2 weeks ago
“The scene is set, the players met…”. And what players they are in this farce of an Election coming up in the United States this year. There is a multi-faceted anger in the broader situation the world finds itself in, in which the false promises of so-called “moderates” find themselves ...2 weeks ago
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...2 weeks ago
New Zealand was the first country to decriminalise prostitution and it was promoted as a progressive move. Yet survivors of the sex trade say that pimps and johns are emboldened operating within the law, and that the women are treated more like a piece of property to be used and ...2 weeks ago
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...1 hour ago
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...4 days ago
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...2 hours ago
Drought combined with the Covid-19 coronavirus might knock economic growth enough to cause a modest recession, a leading economist says. ...40 mins ago
The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations applauds the changes to the Residential Tenancies Act released by the government yesterday but does not believe that they go far enough to improving the rights of renters. The power imbalance in the current ...41 mins ago
The Prime Minister will take no action against Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, after confirmation of a Serious Fraud Office investigation. ...42 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Teare Ada Lambert, Adjunct Lecturer/ Ecologist, University of New England As the east coast bushfire crisis finally abates, it’s easy to see nothing but loss: more than 11 million hectares of charcoal and ash, and more than a billion dead animals. ...1 hour ago
Eamonn Marra’s debut novel makes a study of the mundane: sanding a fence, heating baked beans, three pizzas for $29.99 delivered. Alie Benge reckons it belongs somewhere between Sally Rooney and Elena Ferrante. It was about page three of 2000ft Above Worry Level. A feeling burst inside me: the joy ...1 hour ago
Financial services company Heartland Bank has reported a solid lift in its first-half profit driven by increased lending despite a squeeze on margins and rising costs. ...2 hours ago
Ministers love to bray about the seizing of illegal drugs. Customs statistics on seizures last year – albeit “preliminary” statistics – therefore were irresistible to Customs Minister Jenny Salesa. They gave her a platform to remind us of her existence as a Minister while acknowledging the work of her officials. ...3 hours ago
Electricity retailers will no longer be able to entice former customers with steep and exclusive discounts, the Electricity Authority has announced. ...4 hours ago
The National Party leader Simon Bridges says it came as a surprise to him that the Serious Fraud Office prosecution relates to two $100,000 donations to the party. ...4 hours ago
The Serious Fraud Office takes up police referral over question of political donations. ...5 hours ago
It's a familiar tale of small town New Zealand versus a government rulebook, and both of them refusing to blink. And all for a bit of raw milk. ...6 hours ago
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Court documents show the Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves two donations of $100,000. ...9 hours ago
The Government is putting together an $11 million package to offset the fallout from coronavirus and attract tourists from countries other than China. ...9 hours ago
Immigration deadlock: 'Endless waiting has destroyed all my dreams'; and 'Beyond the pale': Councils respond to Kāinga Ora powers. ...9 hours ago
Simon Bridges says National would cut taxes and invest much more than Labour in infrastructure, and with less waste. But he's holding back the detail, and got a key figure wrong. ...10 hours ago
An intimate extract from New Zealand's biggest-selling book of non-fiction, The Casketeers, by funeral directors Francis and Kaiora Tipene. ...11 hours ago
Closing in on her fourth shot at an elusive Olympic medal, rower Emma Twigg says she's stronger than ever ...12 hours ago
An urban forest that's grown undisturbed for almost a century is up for sale and only one of the 46 native trees on the site has legal protection. ...12 hours ago
Planners and hazard experts talk to Newsroom’s Eloise Gibson about how climate change will impact Auckland, and how good planning can help the city adapt. ...12 hours ago
The University of Auckland is about to open in Manukau for up to 140 students in the university's first, standalone presence in the south. ...12 hours ago
How are the children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants treading the line between immersion in a kiwi culture, and holding on to family traditions? ...12 hours ago
Labour and NZ First are delaying a painful call on either lifting or cutting the annual residency visa limit, while the Greens want the limits removed completely. ...22 hours ago
Seaweed harvested or farmed off the coast of Stewart Island by a Kiwi company could prove the key to decreasing methane emissions from livestock. ...23 hours ago
The SFO prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves not one but two $100,000 donations - in June 2017 and June 2018. ...23 hours ago
RNZ's ploy was the equivalent of strapping Concert FM to a car’s front bumper and gunning the engine, and it seems to have worked. ...1 day ago
Airbnb is putting forward its own blueprint to regulate holiday rentals in New Zealand. ...1 day ago
The Tauranga-based power company Trustpower has cut its earnings expectations by as much as 14 percent because of lower power prices and pressure on margins. ...1 day ago
Researchers say councils need to be doing much more to ensure homes and buildings aren't wiped out when a mega-tsunami eventually strikes the east coast of the North Island. ...1 day ago
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8458171/Evicted-beachcomber-says-he-ll-go-quietly
This is bullshit. This guy is just spending more time on the beach than others.
This “eviction” is so that the wealthy people can enjoy uninterrupted views as well as reinforcing the capital model of paying exorbitant rental…to the wealthy! We’ve just come full circle.
An eccentric living in a hand-made driftwood and tarpaulin home on the foreshore near Oakura has been given his marching orders.
But Eric Brewer, 62, says he is unfazed at the threat to remove him from his seaside home with the million-dollar views at Tapuae.
“I’m out of here,” the sickness beneficiary told the Taranaki Daily News team whom he warmly welcomed into his beach bach on a perfect late summer’s afternoon yesterday.
Averse to paying rent or a mortgage, he has no idea where he will go. He has lived off-and-on at Tapuae for nearly two decades.
-snip-
Mr Brewer concedes he is living on the Queen’s Chain but says it is confiscated Maori land.
“I swear allegiance to this land, not the Queen of England,” he said.
We need more like him.
OMG edit function is back!!
[lprent: Yes. The result of some irritated and coffee concentrated cursing and other hard work. Turns out the the damn thing was trying to access admin functions without defining it as requiring a https connection. It will require some more work to get to play nicely with the rest of the system. But gives me more time to figure out a more elegant solution. ]
Like the Californian equivalent, Malibu, where the wealthy keep attempting to secure exclusive use of the beach in contrast to Venice Beach where it belongs to everyone.
They’re wealthy enough to buy their own but there’s no ‘look at me and what I’ve got’ ‘value in that and Public land is free, just use the system to keep the riff raff out.
“The New Plymouth District Council confirmed last night it was taking action after receiving complaints from nearby landowners and the public about “Mr Brewer’s unlawful activities on the land”.”
Interesting use of the word “unlawful” there. I wonder what they think it means.
In this case it appears to mean irritating rich people by being poor and on the beach.
However, from Campbell Live
Solid Energy : “a culture of extravagance at Stockton”, SUVs for Africa, a 6M machine unused,
yet, a cut-back on miners per shift hours
yet more days required of miners to be on site (bussed in)
from RNZ; Telecom- “too many people at the top-end” (lawyers and accountants among those getting the axe.
Back to tele,Fontera have re-bottled the Anchor Milk brand (light-blocking) while the executive oncedes upon questioning; Anchor sales have declined vs supermarket / house brands; that they are exactly the same (price premium justified by “all the R&D Anchor carry out; “milk consumption in NZ is flat and declining)
Obama offered little in speech to Palestinians (little was expected) yet “recovered his voice” when addressing Israeli students.
14:31 He who oppresses the por shows contempt for their maker, yet whoever is kind to the needy honours God.
Balaam’s error; the error of consuming greed.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
( a mischievious Goodfellow hub indeed; thanks, yet gave the candy away)
I fail to see how any of that is in anyway related to this thread.
It’s unlawful to have a view that you haven’t paid a developer for. Same principle holds in GI with the evictions.
If the Minister is going to stand up and tell this House that 5,000 people have come off a sickness benefit, I will point out that during that time 7,000 people went on. Sure, absolutely, if they need to access it, they should. But it is absolutely disingenuous for that Minister to try and bandy around numbers as though her reforms have changed the world when in actual fact, for the people who are experiencing it on the front line, they have done no such thing.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Debates/Debates/a/e/d/50HansD_20130320_00000012-Social-Security-Benefit-Categories-and-Work.htm
TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West) :
The other thing I want to say to Asenati Lole-Taylor is just that I believe that all honest work is inherently valuable, and although some is work that a lot of us would shy away from and that some of us are fortunate enough not to have to do, I have nothing but respect for those who are working on some of those humble and at times very, very unpleasant jobs. I am sure that every member of this House would want to support those people, and not in any way undermine their efforts.
So put your money where your mouth is and pay them a minimum of at least $15ph.
God told me to tell you to do it. :wanker:
Yeah past by 1 vote 61/60 what is best described as the Youth Employment Discrimination Bill should be one of the first of the ugly pieces of National Government legislation that the next Labour lead Government toss in the rubbish bin,
It’s ugly enough to be giving young people the kick through youth rates but applying those same youth rates to those a year or two older for having been on the dole for a while for no specific reason other than they thunk it makes me think that that particular piece of legislation might better have been named the Molestation of Young People in Employment Bill…
Yeah, I am waiting to see Tim MacIndoe clean the toilets at public facilities in Hamiltion then, voluntarily or on the minimum wage. Yeah Right, pull out YET ANOTHER TUI Board!
“He is ARROGANT, he is MOODY, he is CONTROLLING”
Bill Ralston’s wife has a go at him on air
“The Huddle”, NewstalkZB, Thursday 21 March 2013, 5:45 p.m.
Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Pam Corkery, Janet Wilson
Anyone who tuned into the usually dire “Huddle” segment yesterday would have heard something remarkable: Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson took the opportunity to tell the world just what she thought of her husband Bill. However, she wasn’t so unwise as to do it directly; she chose the time-honored technique, widely used in Soviet Russia and other repressive regimes, of allegory….
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Okay, ahhhhhhhhhmmm. Julia Gillard. She’s GONE for sure!
PAM CORKERY: Actually, I don’t think so. Kevin Rudd is extremely unpopular. I predict Gillard will win this leadership vote.
JANET WILSON: I agree with Pam. I’ve never understood the fascination of the Australian public with Kevin Rudd. [voice thickening to a croak as she becomes emotional] He is arrogant, he is moody, he is controlling.
[Several uneasy seconds of stunned silence follow…]
LACKWIT WILLIAMS: Okay, ummmm… errrr….
By the end of that little contribution, Janet Wilson was snarling, and I’m sure she was shaking with emotion too.
POINT TO PONDER
When Pam Corkery appears on this show, the quality improves noticeably. That’s because Corkery, one of the few liberal commentators allowed on, will not be bullied and shut out by Lackwit-Williams and whoever happens to be the other Huddle guest. She insists on making her points clearly and will not allow Lackwit-Williams to laugh her into silence. Today, after her coded attack on her husband, Janet Wilson spoke sensibly and thoughtfully, something she is just not usually compelled to do on this normally pisspoor program.
???Hah, you have to have a very ‘free thinking’ imagination to make the leap from the Australian politics being discussed in the part of the transcript that you have put up to entertain the belief that Ralston’s wife is talking about Him and not the Australian politicians being discussed,
Perhaps i am missing something here, are there special code words that indicate we should beleive She is talking of Her husband and not Kevin Rudd…
Yeah well you also have to have a fairly free-thinking imagination to call it a transcript as Morrissey is known to have quite a different definition of the word to everyone else on the planet.
Lolz, my bad, it’s my new image, i should have said WTF is that s**t, but, i am trying to do nice lolz,
Yeah border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style, OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…
1.) …. border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style…
What, pray tell, was slanderous in suggesting that an angry and emotionally fraught woman was taking the opportunity to publicly excoriate her obnoxious spouse? Of course, she was smart enough to phrase it so that it seemed like a criticism of an obnoxious Australian politician; but smart listeners—and admittedly there are not many of them in that station’s audience—-will have appreciated what she REALLY meant.
1.) >OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…
Oh yes, we need to remember that the afternoon chatterboxes on NewstalkZB are dignified, professional and rigorously dedicated to telling the truth.
Nah what i do remember is Lange versus What’s His Face where the judge set out the difference between what could be slander against a politician and a ‘normal’ person, the latter having far more protection under the law than the former,
i cannot be bothered to expend the energy necessary to address the other part of your comment, except to say that it is as absurd as the original suggestion that the commenter on the radio station was addressing Her husband and not commenting on Kevin Rudd,and, you must have ‘special powers’ to be able to deduce from the comment made the inference later attributed to what was commented upon as the reason to come to that particular conclusion…
Talking of conspiracy theories…
I went to pay my website bill after getting the final notice, only to find my payment was bounced back. When I contacted the sales team, they told me I could now no longer pay by bank transfer, as I agreed when I opened the account, because of the unforeseen death of the director.
So I asked what happens next? Do I just transfer to another place that wants my money? And within a minute I had a transfer key and a goodbye.
Maybe they just don’t want to make money. Maybe they just don’t want my site on their servers.
Site down (not that anyone visits) ’til I sort it.
I was going to post this also but you beat me to it :)..
A perfect example for those who say – if you don’t like the system, don’t participate in it. Go and live in the bush or something. To do this is damn near impossible. The system is so pervasive that even when one chooses to this is what inevitably happens
-In short You cannot be free of the system even if you want to.
Have a mind to drive up there and build another makeshift beach bach 30 meters down the beach after the council have gone and give it to him to live in and then keep doing it each time he is evicted!
Just where do these captains of industry get off?
One day the masses are going to wake up to the fact that these inflated egos are going to have to stop being able to nominate their worth to an organisation and be paid just a reasonable living wage.
Telecom have had a succession of leaders who have been paid multi-million annual salaries, after a few years have moved on with massive golden handshakes and then, suddenly, these organisations announce massive layoffs of the ordinary employees … (saying they have to trim the fat).
These same captains of industry of course join such organisations as the EMA, Round Table etc and dictate to the government what they think nurses, teachers, firemen etc are worth.
Yay, the edit function is back and working, thank you very much i can now return to bad spelling and mangled English with the ability to amend such…
Testing (no HTML)
Testing (Italics using the editor button)
<i>Testing</i> (Italics using HTML)
This is a link (Link inserted using the editor function)
And, no, I don’t have the WYSIWYG turned on. At least it has an escapse to HTML.
Yeah – just turned it off. There are issues with it leaving replies at the end of the comments as well.
So Bill from Dipton, the Minister of Finance is ‘surprised’ by having nearly 10% of Kiwi’s sign up for the preregistration of the legislated theft of Mighty River Power from the other 90% of Kiwi’s,
This 10% only too happy to be availed the chance to steal off of the other 90% of us are to be given what, 10% of the shares, 20% of the shares???,
The other 80-90% of the shares will go where, from what Bill says they will be ‘retailed’ on the open market so presumably the ‘mums and dads’ who are the likes of the Goldman Saches US Banking Cartel will swallow the majority of the shares in Mighty River Power,
Bill’s surprise, sounds like He has promised the ‘banking cartels’ that less than 10% of Kiwis will have the coin to buy into Mighty River so there would be no problem for them through their various Nominee Companies to gain the lions share of the float…
Yep, call it what it is. Theft. All those ‘law abiding’ citizens are stealing our property. Time for Labour to tell them they’ll renationalise any assets sold…come on DS…want to be a leader then fucking lead.
Yes as a starting point of ‘ownership’ Labour should look at the Cullen Super Fund becoming the ‘owner’ of all the shares of the assets that National plan on putting into the hands of the International Banking Cartels,
We could in the future then have a rational discussion, after the Baby Boomer Retirement Bump has passed about changing the focus of that Cullen Fund being used to pre-fund part or all future retirement from dividends of the assets held by it…
And have Shonkey ask him if he’s going to pay for them out of secret bank accounts in the USA. A great leader he isn’t.
bad12
+1
I have put the point that the wealthy have the option of shunting their children and the guidance of their young ones, to boarding schools. Gina Campbell, daughter of speed record winner Donald Campbell was sent to one at age two when her parents’ marriage broke up. Her father had three marriages, and her mother I think the same. She has written a book Daughter of Bluebird.
Later she had the experience of her mother needling her ex-husband with great promises to Gina about how she would look after her horse with top class treatment, which caused unrest as Gina thought she was in earnest. When the offer was accepted, the mother withdrew it with numerous excuses.
Poorer people’s abandonment of a child’s care tend to be obvious, the wealthy can slither out
from withholding emotional support and guidance to their child untouched by approbrium. ‘Look what I did for you’ is often the comment from parents who have given little personal love and care, but money spent on the child’s living and schooling piles up and is seen as a debt to the parents. The child becomes an object of charity to them with periods of erratic expressions of love and interest from them.
Further to my thoughts on parenting, I consider that this is relevant to the behaviour that we are receiving from politicians. Politicians are very resilient as you must be when as a child you have to be self-sufficient, have a drive for self-advancement, are self-centred, competitive and lack empathy, because that usually has to be learned from older, kind, wiser people. This lack would apply to Paula Bennett, John Key…
If we think of Lord of the Flies, this is the background that would set the direction of much political behaviour that we observe.
on the subject of children
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10872838
Oh, great, more attacks on necessary government services.
Charter Schools Damage Students and Teachers
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/8458649/Charter-schools-damage-students-and-teachers
“no excuses” now.
Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes,
In ‘primitive’ New Zealand it’s probably a forlorn hope that all the CO2 being given off as exhaust from ‘wasting’ all that gas will be captured at it’s source,
Of interest when i was looking for information on this project was the fact that the construction also included a gas storage facility, (an existing played out gas well that surplus gas is being pumped into),
i have to wonder if the ‘players’ in this gas to electricity game of waste realize that they are building the infrastructure that allows CO2 to be harvested from the atmosphere using the air’s own movement to bring the CO2 to the point of harvest and be turned into the very gas that they are at present taking from the ground and turning into CO2 by burning it,
Capturing that CO2 and turning it into Methane Gas, (even petrol), is a technology in it’s infancy but at least one country, Iceland, is capturing CO2 from it’s geothermal electricity generation,(yes apparently ‘some’ geothermal electricity generation does produce CO2), and doing just that with it,
Yes, we can all see the problem with turning CO2 into a fuel and then burning it as a fuel is still releasing CO2 to the atmosphere, BUT, harvesting CO2 from the atmosphere and refining that into fuel to produce electricity may be the way of the future IF the CO2 expelled in the production of electricity is captured at it’s source and refined back into the same fuel burned to create it in the first place…
So, after searching the web I’m figuring that that is 100MW generator. For just a little bit extra we could have had wind turbines with nowhere near as much pollution or need for ongoing importation (we’re almost out of natural gas in NZ) for gas.
The best thing that can be said about a gas generator is that it’s most likely to be shut down in a few years due of lack of fuel.
Yes wind generation also seems to be on the cards for Taranaki,
Coastal site eyed for large wind farm,
http://www.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/news/coastal…wind-farm/1600159
As far as running out of gas with which to cause even more CO2 to be pumped into the atmosphere, these people seem to think it’s going to be around for a while,
Tag oil upbeat on well strike/stuff.co.nz,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/…/tag-oil-upbeat-on-well-strike...
2012-O&G industry kicks off to great start/ energy stream,
http://www.energystream.co.nz>newscenter
But, thats not really the point i am making, whats of interest is that it appears much of the present infrastructure of turning CO2 into methane gas, including it’s storage, is already present in Taranaki,
Here’s the fledgling CO2 to Methane industry in Iceland, the obvious BAD bit of that is to then allow the CO2 back into the atmosphere via burning the methane in vehicle engines,
What that Icelandic power plant should be doing is simply burning the product made from CO2 in it’s electricity generator, capturing the CO2 produced by having done so and sent that CO2 back through the process of turning it into Methane so as to enable it’s re-burning,
CO2 to Methanol.com, Iceland converts CO2 into Methanol,
http://www.co2tomethanol.com/
Also of interest on that page is the story of the ‘break-through’ science involved in using biological catalysts which enable CO2 to be turned into Methane using Sun-light without the expensive metals like gold previously thought to be the only catalyst able to perform such a function,
The next part of the jigsaw is of course the separation of the CO2 from the air, again such a ‘science’ is in it’s infancy but a theoretical study i have read, (will try and link to it later), ‘sees’ this to be not necessary as a removal of CO2 from the air at the source of the CO2 emissions but more a case of having the air movement in a place akin to todays wind farms bringing the CO2 to the means of it’s extraction from that air,
My particular interest in Taranaki at the moment is because the infrastructure present as part of the oil/gas system would also be the infrastructure necessary for a CO2 to fuel industry…
got the links sussed then
Lolz, have i ???, i just ‘hopeded’, haven’t tried them myself as yet…
1 in 4; others appear “expired” this end anyway
Grrr, bugger, did you get error 404???, the pages are not expired tho, if you Google the heading above the dud links it should, (hopefully), take you to the page,
1 out of 4, i spose i should look on the bright side of that, Grrr, that CO2 to Methanol site contains most of the info i am attempting to impart here and the third story on the page is also of interest as little old NZ gets a mention for the technology that is already in place in Taranaki,
Googling, Converting CO2 to Methanol also provides a zillion pages of useful info on the subject,
Of course Methanol has a lot more uses than just fuel, most of the plastics made in the world today contain the stuff, and IF we had the cost effective tech that took CO2 from the atmosphere and eventually made plastics with it then we have ‘fixed’ that CO2 for the lifetime of those plastics most of which i would dare suggest will end their existence buried in a landfill…
Energy. It can be done but the energy required and the cost of that energy is going to be massively prohibitive.
No not necessarily from what i have read, given that with bio-catalysts and sunlight quite a stream of methane can be obtained from CO2 with little ongoing energy cost the efficacy of doing so will come down to the cost of extracting such CO2 from suitably robust air-flows,
The rest is simply the cost of the rest of the process that the 2 methanol plants in Taranaki have been carrying out from time to time since they were built by Muldoons ‘think big’,
If a tonne of carbon had a price in NZ as a straight tax, such a tax could then be applied to the extraction of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere thus lowering the cost of fuels extracted from that carbon,
My next dig through the internet mountain of info i think will have to concentrate on both those questions, what price we as a society are willing to pay as tax for a tonne of carbon and what it might cost per tonne to extract such carbon from the atmosphere from suitable sites of high airflow,
Obviously the closer all these different ‘processes’ occur to the plants which manufacture methanol the more cost effective and commercially viable they become…
You have an interesting view on what is “just a little bit extra”.
Your link give a cost of about $1.75m for a megawatt of nameplate capacity. That’s the average of the range of $1.3m – $2.2m given in your link. However that is the maximum possible generating capacity of the turbine. The actual efficiency of them varies between about 25% and 40% so you would expect to need about 3 times the installed capacity as the power you generate.
The cost of producing 100MW would then be about 100 * 1.75 * 3 million dollars.
This works out at about $525m as opposed to the quoted figure of $100m. To Bill Gates, (or perhaps David Shearer), that might be “just a little bit extra” but it doesn’t seem so to me.
There is also no reason at all to believe that we are just about of natural gas. That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more. If the Greens get to ban any exploration or production it might come true but we live in hope that they won’t get the chance to do so.
And if the worst case scenario expounded by the climate scientists were to be correct??? what price would you put on your current lifestyles continuance, the very continuance of the life of your grandchildren???,
Capitalist bean-counters should in my opinion when it comes to the equation vis a vis money over climate simply be abused as the whole money system is a foolish joke clung to by the wing-nuts as an ancient African witch-doctor clung to his baubles of divination…
Yeah, Ok, I was out on the price. Still say that wind, being renewable and sustainable, would be better option. Price isn’t the best way to choose.
When will oil, natural gas, and coal peak?
Globally, gas peaks in the 2020s and we’re a small nation at the bottom of the world with very little reason for people to gas sell to us. We may have a small amount left but I heard a few years ago that the Maui Field was out.
Wrong concept. Natural gas economics is crashing mate. The fossil fuel industry will grind to a commercial halt while there are gigatonnes of the stuff left under the ground.
Jokeyhen’s attitude to NZ is that it is a great scenic background in front of which he can perform various celebrity gestures and give out uplifting and soothing speeches about the great conditions we have here. We’re like a unique handbag accessory for this most prominent NZer. The rest of us just have to use plastic ones with folksy pictures or a koru on them.
“Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes”
Slippery failed to do an essential thing: To light a cigarette with an open flame lighter, which could have saved the country from a damned lot of harm. But I suppose, he does not smoke, regrettably.
If it costs $1,500 per house to build a power station then wtf are we doing not doing so cooperatively? That is shit all coin. Far less than installing a solar number or something similar, by a large multiple.
And surely the ongoing cost of running the power station and supplying the fuel is relatively minor compared to the capital cost of construction.
If so, why on earth would the average hosuehold be paying around $2,500 per annum for electricity?
Does this not highlight something very very fishy around power companies …………..
If we paid for the power-stations through taxes and considered them a social good then we don’t need a return (profit) on the capital. At that point all we’d need to cover is the running and maintenance and that spread across all households would be SFA and that cost goes down if we use renewables as there’s no longer any drag from the costs of supplying fuel.
Conclusion: A state monopoly in power supply and reticulation is the most efficient and cost effective way of supplying power especially if using renewables.
Well yes John Key’s visit today would seem to underscore that reality.
Why do you think John Key would not recognise it? Blinkers? Paymasters? Dogmatism? Sheer ignorance?
All of the above?
No, I don’t think he’s that ignorant. He’ll know how to get rich which is to get a lot of people to give you a little bit of money (A little bit here, a little bit there and pretty soon you’re talking serious money). As such he’ll know that to keep costs per person down would be to spread them out across as many people as possible.
Key US imperialism spy sock puppet
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/22/special-feature-rudderless-within-the-great-game/
Selwyn Manning at his best, red rattler! Yes, it stinks so much, it is so bloody obvious, but the NZ media and public still have “blind” faith in a PM, like too many Germans once had in Hitler. When will they ever wake up?
When the Jackboots march over their doorstep?
The Denial of Racism in Godzone
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/maori/news/article.cfm?c_id=252&objectid=10872055
a “hidden evil”
the failing pursuit of growth
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10872671
Hamra Night -Sa’di Yusef (Lebanon)
A candle in a long street
A candle in the sleep of houses
A candle for frightened shops
A candle for bakeries
A candle for a journalist trembling in an empty office
A candle for a fighter
A candle for a woman doctor watching over patients
A candle for the wounded
A candle for plain talk
A candle for the stairs
A candle for a hotel packed with refugees
A candle for a singer
A candle for broadcasters in their hideouts
A candle for a bottle of water
A candle for the air
A candle for two lovers in a naked flat
A candle for the falling sky
A candle for the beginning
A candle for the ending
A candle for the last communique
A candle for conscience
A candle in your hands.
“We keep our hands in our pockets, and, unable to say “yes” to ourselves, we lack a “no” that is sure enough to stand between our best and our worst interests. We are left to make do with plans and policies that have little bearing on the main plot. It is a different play that is being staged, and we are actors and audience both, but unable to change the script.”
“The willingness to be less than what we could be is endemic. The lack of care and complicity of silence finds us all wanting. We cannot dissociate ourselves from the hypocricies of our governments or the immoralities of our corporations. Nor can we hide behind the screen of busyness, even if we do call it “work and family commitments”. This is classic middle-class camouflage : one of the more altruistic personae of self-interest.”
-Kerry Flattley
-Chris Wallace Crabbe.
Before you go, I need to tell you
why here tongues turn dry as piki bread.
No one knows why this story is true.
but I know there was a woman who
buried both her hands in blue dough. She said,
Before you go, I need to tell you
why Hopi corn grows short, in a few
spindly clumps, not deep wide and red.
No one knows why this story is true,
but I know it is not a lie. New
seed lay still; the sheep we gave for dead.
Before you go I need to tell you
the crater’s spirit gave us breath. Blu
winds swept ash from the mesa, it bled-
no one knows why this story is true-
earth’s sky blood washed ragged furrows. Blue
corn cracked tucked sharp in this lava bed.
Before you go, I need to tell you:
no one knows why this story is true.
-Peggy Shumaker
(Hopi corn is a biological riddle. It germinates only in thin volcanic soil and thrives in the sever, unforgiving climate of the high desert.)
A NZ living in Victoria has taken a case against the government there of discrimenation because he has been denied a student concession. The case is due to go before the Tribunal some months hence and if it succeeds it could unroll that denial and pay the student some compensation. The final comment was that the Oz government has been concerned about discrimination against NZ in the social welfare sector. Concerned enough to reverse this discrimination? Did Jokeyhen mention it to Gillard? I wonder.
The Point (?)
The point, I imagine, is
not to learn to expect
betrayal, self-deceit, lies
however thick they collect
in the cul-de-sac of one’s days,
half-noticed, half-numbered, half-checked:
but rather to learn to praise
fidelity, trust and love
which in their modest ways continue to be and move
(however mocked, however derided,
however difficult, indeed, to prove),
utterly undivided-
if inarticulate or mute,
still mortally decided.
Neither fashionable nor astute
this point to take to heart:
merely final and absolute:
without it no people, no life, no art.
-Evan Jones.
now, back to mischief. 🙂
ghost +1
Awww nu!!!…Paula Bennett de-friended me on facebook 🙂
Lolz, really, i feel your pain…
I’m not even going to ask why. After seeing several years of the steadily improving ‘quality’ of your comments, I think I can guess. 😈
Like a fine red wine 😀
Yep. Practise and gray hairs leveraging….
You deserve a medal for that!!!
And fortunately the American Congress gets something right but for the wrong reasons
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/8459865/Congress-too-scared-to-ban-assault-rifles
Yes, allowing more mass murderers easy access to weapons is obviously the right thing to do.
/sarc
1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities (Might actually be less than 1%) in the USA
2. The gun murder rate has been dropping since the last ban (in the late 80s) was lifted
3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
4. Prohibition doesn’t work
5. The “evil” weapons in the USA are available in NZ
6. There are over 20000 gun laws in the USA, enforce those first before implementing new ones
“1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities”
But 100% responsible for each of those deaths.
“3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
4. Prohibition doesn’t work”
Is this also your view in the drugs debate?
Yes
I think something along the lines of what Portugal is doing is what we should be doing. I would decriminalize all drugs and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.
I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.
Mind you I’d up the sentence term for pushers, dealers and suppliers
Oh yeah forgot to add that in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans
“Yes”
You must be one of those ‘blue greenies’ some bod was telling us about the other day.
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would you have government pay for that?
“I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.”
Agreed, though not all drug users are addicts.
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation, or those that could have, but now can’t, are thug criminals? Good job they don’t have access to legal fire arms.
I don’t know about being blue-green just that prohibition and “the war on drugs” doesn’t/isn’t working and Portugal seems to be going well so why not try it
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would government pay for that?
Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation are now thug criminals? Good job they don’t have legal access to fire arms
No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased whereas the USA ended its ban on semi-auto rifle sales in the late 80s and violent crime and gun deaths have steadily decreased.
Are there problems, yes. Is a knee-jerk feel-good ban on semi-auto rifles going to work, no. Are their better ways to deal with the problems, yes.
Just to note the weapons used at Columbine were a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines.
The carbine was developed in response to the ban on semi-auto rifles and capacity of magazine size.
Also a 9 mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a 12-gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.
It is illegal to cut a barrel down beyond a certain length but it didn’t stop him from doing it.
“I don’t know about being blue-green”
No, I think it was someone with an agenda, making a point, but very badly.
Oxymoron if ever I read one.
“Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)”
It’s an ambitious project and I’m sure quite costly to set up, certainly more than the prison spend. The left are advocates of spend now, reduce long term costs later. It’s all over education, health, welfare, but the right scream about the money and where it’s coming from and keep the status quo.
Good luck convincing your tory mp to support Labour and Green policy.
“No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased”
As those chavs and idiots on the street would ever legally own a weapon before or after legislation, I don’t think there’s a case for linking the statistics.
There isn’t really a need for anyone to own guns, especially military grade killing tools. Sport and recreation are not good enough reasons to justify burying school children. Take up golf.
“military grade killing tools”
1. Theres no real difference between an AR-15 (the semi-auto civilian version of the american assault rifle) and a semi-auto rifle, in fact in some cases the semi-auto rifle is a better option
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing.
3. I wonder if proudly proclaiming you’re a “gun-free” zone is the smartest thing they could do:
(takes ten minutes but its worth it)
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing
Think about it.
Firstly, think about the US Air Force. Then think about the Marine corp, the US Army, and the highly militarized police forces the US federal and state governments have.
Now ask yourself what sort of weaponry you would need to fight the US government, and look around to check the availability of such weaponry.
What does such thinking tell you about the theory that US citizens are given the right to collect weapons sufficient to beat off their government.
Nah that’s bullshit.
The original Second Amendment talked about the right to bear arms within the context of a “well regulated militia” i.e. a trained, disciplined and organised state militia for the defence of the state and of the union.
Various judicial interpretations in recent decades has turned that into a right to bear arms individually for essentially any individual purpose, and with no connection or participation to any “well regulated militia”.
The US gun lobby have made their bed, they will sleep in it.
And people forget that there are up to 1M firearms here in NZ. And fuck all people get shot…on purpose.
Actually I think that if you look at what the makers of the constitution said at the time, the intent was to prevent governments from disarming the local militias. Disciplined formations of men are somewhat different to individual idiots with weapons.
From what was recorded, I’d think that they’d have been aghast at the idea of giving the right to bear “semi-auto” weapons (convertable to automatic with a freely available cheap kit) to random nutters who want them.
lprent
fascinating paper here:
http://www.saf.org/lawreviews/bogus2.htm
shorter write up:
http://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2013/01/was-second-amendment-adopted-slaveholders
Looks at Madison and the arguments he was having in Virginia at the time of ratification. The timeline and evolution of the language of the amendment which he submitted seem to suggest it was mostly about leaving the States with the authority to call out their own militia to put down slave revolts without having to get Congressional say so.
Excellent. I hadn’t run across that before. But it fits.
In any case, it is clear that the intent of the framers of the constitution was for a disciplined and well regulated state run militia. The current position that people outside the national guard, state troopers, and other such well regulated bodies should bear arms is a travesty of the wording of the US constitution and the intent of the framers.
Gun manufacturer lobby likes it.
[citation needed]
Gun crime statistics by US state: latest data (Unfortunately, that blog isn’t actually dated)
I’d say it’s probably an overall societal effect (i.e, People are just less violent) rather than a change in laws that’s brought about the decline.
In which case I’d suggest that tightning up and enforcing rules against the mentally ill would have a greater effect on ending mass killings then enacting another law that’d most likely be ignored
Also this guy didn’t use guns to kill more then anybody else:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Kehoe
And this is interesting reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_massacre
To pascals bookie
Think about it
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
They didn’t know how big the government would become but they did know that the government should fear the people not the other way around, they knew there had to be checks and balances to stop the government of the day (whenever that day is) from becoming tyrannical and guaranteeing the rights of its citizens to bear is the simplest way to ensure that
Think about it
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
FFS yeah time to target the “mentally ill” again, that’s a good old canard to trot out, guns don’t kill people, mentally ill people do etc.
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
You have to go back and read some of the (many many) things written at the time to work out what they were up to. There were long arguments about most stuff, and the right to bear arms was no different. The arguments weren’t focused on fighting the US government. A major aspect was the right of the States to have military patrols. Some thought that the States should not have this right, that it was similar to the standing army thing that was part of what the revolution was against. However, others felt the need to have regular armed patrols of the country side. Guess why (clue: these were the slave states).
On the technology of the time, irrelevant. Unless you are suggesting that the constitution only allows muskets? Or that citizens should indeed be able to buy and maintain private air forces and set up SAM sites?
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
Dude please. This is bloody “Wolverines!” nonsense. You cannot compare Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else to a supposed attempted overthrow of the US Federal Govt.
-You’ll note that not one of those wars were an existential war for the US. They were wars they could afford to lose.
-You’ll note that the opposing forces in those wars had better knowledge of the people and terrain, not something the US lacks in the US.
-You’re still left with the problem that rifles are not what you need. If the US gun nuts were serious about defending themselves from the government, they’d be buying different things.
If they were serious they would revolted years ago, like maybe when Bush declared that a President could just call a citizen an enemy combatant, and they’d lose all their legal rights. Or when Obama said he could put them on kill lists. Neither of which are subjected to any checks or balances. Just a President’s say so. How does that compare to King George/ what are they waiting for?
They are basically role playing at being rebels. It’s a hobby. They are not a threat to their government
Here’s a good read on what they should be buying if they’re serious;
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7322
Thanks for the link…hey M113’s isnt’ that what the NZ Army used to drive around in?
Winston Peters picks up on a Standard post:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Default.aspx?TabId=1607&articleID=291370&ce17407
Amusing.
Did the post Peters referred to really say that NZanders spend 27 days per year on overseas hols?
Btw, LPrent – when I leave the page (to follow a link for example) I am no longer able to return to the same place in the page I left. I’m returned to the top. It’s happened a quite a few times now.
Another disgusting OIA fob-off, and I have had them also. Now surely, there is no great difficulty in “collating” that information, as the PM himself could easily offer it, and if need be, airline tickets must exist and can be presented. The whole OIA process these days is ridiculous, it is not worth pursuing anymore. The DICTATORSHIP in AOTEAROA NZ is WORKING!
Is Cyprus about to implode across our screens? It is surely way too late now to take that money off depositors – you would think that sort of thing must be done overnight, not a week later. Otherwise the time gets people to thinking about reaction………
As I understand it, from Al Jazeera News Hour this morning, the theft of bank deposits is off the table. Other alternatives are being looked at.
methinks the damage is done.
Indeed. And the theft of bank deposits will be quickly back on the table if the international capital strike now being organised against Cypress is effective.
Many Russians not happy. (Just like many Brits weren’t happy at Iceland…)
Very significant consequences. I will watch your capital strike theory wth interest CV – you’ve mentioned it a few times lately.
Oh look. It’s only been a couple of days and new proposals on the table suggest taking 25% of large bank accounts. Many accounts affected will belong to Russians.
Didn’t take long for banker pressure (threats) on the Cyprus parliament to do its job, did it.
(The geopolitical angle is the massive EU vs Russia stoush this is shaping into)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/23/cyprus-savings-levy-minister-european
Cyprus
http://www.cityam.com/article/four-days-save-cyprus
and the Eurozone
http://www.scmp.com/business/money/markets-investing/article/1197042/asian-markets-mixed-eyes-trained-cyprus
Three Shades of War
http://www.euronews.com/2013/03/21/iran-fires-warning-to-israel/
http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2299725&Language=en
(North Korea)
Rely on the B-52
http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2299725&Language=en
Scientists find visions of a benevolent future society motivate reform
So one wonders how National and their ever present outright nastiness ever manages to get voted in to power.
A brighter future, don’t you know.
Ouch, rumor via TV1 news is that Telecom will likely be cutting up to 2500 jobs in May, the flow on effects of that are a horror story,
Bill from Dipton was saying on the last Q+A that the welfare budget would probably have to have more money this year, wonder if the Finance Minister had prior knowledge…
Campbell Live – cyclist funeral. Heartbreaking. She was well loved.
Was this RL’s relative 🙁
I think so. Big funeral.
Yes it was. Saw notice in the Herald this week.
That is why I gave up cycling around Auckland many years ago. It is too damned dangerous. In many European countries cycleways are clearly separated from the main road, and well marked and mostly well maintained, so no such close encounters with cars or trucks would usually happen.
But the cycleways in NZ, I am talking about Auckland by the way, are not quite as bad as they used to be, but still leave cyclists exposed to immense risks and danger.
NO, I won’t cycle in Auckland again, unless the whole infrastructure gets improved and car drivers are held more accountable for their negligence and dangerous driving.
My previous enthusiasm and sympathy for Brazil has been more than moderated over recent days. While I love the culture and spirit of people there, the newest top 50 of their “hits’ shows how corrupt and Americanised that society is. Even their own performers are rather up themselves and believing they are better than others. In some cases they may be, but not in all. I am disappointed, and the commercial world is taking its toll all over the place. It is rot, rot and more rot, not quality aand skill.
Don’t be too harsh mate that’s like judging NZers via the GC
The top 50 hits will be those that get promoted on tv, especially by Rede Globo (think Murdoch in Portuguese). Brazil is a large and complex country, with the cultural differences from north to south being something like Invercargill to PNG. East to west isn’t much different. There are things about Brazil I absolutely love, and things I hate, but none of those things have much to do with the top 50.