Further to my post of yesterday about extreme climate change, we need to be proactive, not reactive. At the moment we have a government which is barely even reactive: business as usual, as if you can have infinite growth on a finite planet!
So, how could we future-proof this country, accepting that we have not a hope in hell of escaping the world-wide effects of climate change:
• ‘weather bombs’ like the one that hit South Canterbury yesterday will occur with increasing frequency and intensity. These are hard to guard against, but putting more money into Civil Defence both nationally and regionally would be a good idea.
• think locally, not globally. For instance, unless bananas can be grown in the far north of New Zealand, (and they can) bananas will disappear from the menu. So will all imported tropical fruit. But we lived without them before and we can again.
• industrial farming has to go. The Fonterra business model is ludicrous, even in a capitalist society; in Bill McKibben’s harsh new Eaarth, it has no place.
• nor has the whole capitalist system of growth. We need to think small, non-profit (ie – service) and local.
• I may be criticised for saying this – and perhaps deservedly so – but in the mass migrations which have already started and will continue, NZ is particularly well insulated. At the moment people are moving north into Europe (and to a lesser extent into USA) but they’ll also stream southwards, in Africa, South America, from Indonesia and India into Australia. This country has more chance of closing its doors than most. We need to be prepared for these migrations! Think through the implications of this!
• we need a government, like that of France, which commits to 100% electric cars by 2030 or some such date. Yes, too little, too late but still . . .; imported petrol won’t last forever, but the sun will.
• every new house should be as self-sufficient as possible. Power companies should be compelled to promote solar power.
• no new highways, but much investment in railways. Put the long-haul trucking companies out of business.
We’re talking survival here, not convenience.
I could go on – some further reading. Suggestions?
In case you weren’t aware, petrol and diesel can be synthesised from coal via the Fischer-Tropsch process. The Nazis did it when their oil supplies got squeezed, and South Africa has used it for a substantial part of their petrol and diesel to save buying oil from other countries.
So we have to make a conscious choice to move away from petrol and diesel. Peak oil ain’t going to force it on us. Our choice is to either make petrol and diesel increasingly expensive via a rising carbon tax, or by some sort of regulatory decree.
Or we can do the dumb lazy thing and just wait until renewable electricity and batteries are so much cheaper that there’s no longer any reason to use liquid fuels (except for aviation where their energy density is absolutely crucial and will hopefully come from biofuels).
I agree with you on the mass migration to NZ, but I was thinking more terror, rapid demographic changes caused by the influx of millions of refugees in Europe, + economic upheaval.
I tell myself at least I am already here while I can’t afford my rent. Or my car and public transport is worse. Or medical treatment. Yay NZ.
Electric cars are not the karma free alternatives you imagine them to be.
Look up “Blood Cobalt” and you can read about how children are used as slave labor.
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All homes should be as self sufficient as possible. Of course this is easier if you actually own it, and you can afford to improve it. Apparently we have to be connected to the grid, which I object to.
“Apparently we have to be connected to the grid, which I object to.”
What do you mean by this? You obviously have to be connected to the grid if you want the option of getting power supplied when you aren’t generating enough, or if you expect to sell your surplus to other users, but I am not aware of any law that requires you to have a connection or any reason to be connected if you don’t mind going without if your generator isn’t working.
Is there something else you have in mind?
It’s not illegal to be off grid but some councils are putting serious pressure on new builds to put in grid infrastructure. To the point that people then can’t afford off grid solar.
“councils are putting serious pressure “.
Well to hell with them.
Do you have any names of such outfits in the Wellington area? I can at least complain there.
If people will take entire responsibility for not having any power available for their use, and pay the entire connection cost if they change their mind I don’t see why they should have to have a connection.
I suspect the Councils may be worried about tear sodden stories in the paper about how an electricity provider left them without power after a storm that knocked out their home generation equipment but looked after other people in the area whose lines had gone down under a falling tree or some such thing. You can imagine the sort of thing.
“The electricity company left us to freeze for 3 days and we had a sick baby. They refused to supply us with even a small generator”.
That is not to say they do, but without being able to contact a council I can’t see what other justification they could possibly have for their attitude.
Hughes wasn’t complaining about charges being imposed on people who are totally off-grid.
He is talking about people who are on grid but only draw a little power. That would typically be a times of high demand overall, like right now when it is cold and wet, without any sun to run their solar panels.
They want to have the ability to draw a little bit of power but want the people who get all their power that way to subsidise them because the cost of attaching consumers to the grid is pretty well independent of how much power they draw.
I have very little sympathy for them or for Hughes’ complaints.
They want to have the ability to draw a little bit of power but want the people who get all their power that way to subsidise them because the cost of attaching consumers to the grid is pretty well independent of how much power they draw.
I’m pretty sure that if the line charge was a fixed price the people with solar power that’s connected to the grid wouldn’t complain at all. The people who don’t have it complain about that idea all the time because they believe that the amount should be dependent upon use rather than the simple fact of its existence. The amount of maintenance isn’t going to change after all.
TLDR: The real problem is that it’s not a fixed price but is variable dependent upon the amount of power you use.
No you wouldn’t – but I didn’t expect you too.
The fact is, however, that for those in the Hawke’s Bay it is a huge disincentive to move to alternative systems.
In Australia, the Govts there have (in the past) given good incentives for people to install solar. In new subdivisions almost every second household now has both solar hot water systems, and PV. Most of these households are now pumping more electricity into the grid than they consume, (my family in WA are paid by the electric supplier even during the winter months! and theirs is only a 5000kw installation many are much bigger – I’ve seen a number of of 15,000 kw installations) thus saving the burning of coal upon which most of Australia’s grid depends.
While NZ’s main grid is powered by Hydro; adding wind and solar to the mix will mean that less drawdown on lake levels will be required. So although there will be times (such as storms) when solar will not deliver – the fact is that that is offset by the times when the solar is pumping energy into the grid reducing the drawdown on lake levels in dry weather.
Is WA a bit like Texas – everything’s bigger there? I mean, it’s about 5 sq m for 1 kW so if they’ve got 5000 kW then they’ve got around 2.5 hectares of panels. That’s truly heroic.
Please don’t tell me something boring like there was an extra k or 2 as typos.
Councils require utility services to be available at the boundary of subdivisions. But that is as far as I have seen Councils push connection.
All grid connected PV systems in NZ have an invertor in them that detects for voltage on the network and open circuits when it detects voltage above or below certain thresholds.
To your the homeowner this means that if the supply goes down on the network, then your PV system shuts down as well. So you will be without power jus to like everybody else.
That doesn’t sound right. It should have the detector and an isolator. When grid power goes down it needs to isolate from the grid so that work can be done on it but should maintain feeding the house itself.
If it is isolating the house then what you have is poor design because the solar will keep generating anyway – it can’t actually be turned off.
From memory As/NZS 4777.2 covers grid connected invertors and clearly requires an automatic open circuit requirement to prevent back feed (anti islanding) when grid supply falls below 180VAC.
You would require an interlocked switch that isolates the installation from the network and then switches the mode of the invertor so that it is not required to detect grid supply voltage.
I am unaware of systems that can do that. Let me know if they exist.
The other side of the coin is that if the supply voltage increases beyond say 6% of nominal voltage of 230V then the invertor shuts down to stop the grid voltage from rising to unsafe levels.
The way I hear it is that people wanting to do off grid and are say building alt tech housing, councils are telling them to put the house on grid (I think because they assume house will eventually be sold and new people will apparently need grid). It’s not that the council can force that, but when you are in complex negotiations over consents for a range of alt tech, that pressure from council has an effect.
Didn’t know about grid tied shutting down with the grid. That makes it even worse then because lots of people want off grid because they believe that the grid will be less reliable going forward.
Councils require that power to site is generally part of any subdivision – but hooking up power isn’t normally part of a building consent- so where are Council causing issue with this ?
Just a slight guess, but you might have trouble satisfying the building inspector that you meet building code requirements for bathroom and kitchen ventilation without mains supply. You’d have to provide these 100% of the time, and without opening a window ’cause that will do your insulation. Just been through a compliance where they were a bit picky on that area.
All homes should be as self sufficient as possible. Of course this is easier if you actually own it, and you can afford to improve it.
Actually, private ownership makes it harder because of that ‘afford’ BS that you mention.
The ‘government’ can afford to build the factory to make the solar panels no matter how many it makes. It can afford to make enough houses without worrying about profits. It can afford to retrofit every house in the country with solar panels and insulation.
It can afford to do these things because everybody will be paying the support cutting the cost per person down and not just a few who are wealthy enough and thus keeping the cost per person high. And, of course, there’s no dead-weight loss of profit.
Apparently we have to be connected to the grid, which I object to.
Being connected to the grid allows for a more efficient, less costly power generation infrastructure.
You objecting to that just proves your ignorance on economics.
DtB is correct. The best way to think of the grid is as a giant distributed battery. Absolutely there is every reason to have stand-alone solar generation onsite, but if you try to store enough onsite to cover say 99% of usage scenarios, then you either have to cut back your demand a fair bit, or buy a lot of battery.
On the other hand if you only cover storage for say 80-90% of usage scenarios onsite, and share with the grid to cover the balance, the economics are suddenly a lot more appealing.
The main demand for cobalt in the current generation of EVs is for the lithium ion battery. Lithium isn’t particularly plentiful either. There’s a large number of battery researchers working on a wide range of alternatives that don’t require scarce materials.
There’s also sourcing issues around other scarce materials such as rare-earths used in high-efficiency motors. Similarly there’s a lot of research going into reducing or eliminating those. If a major battery breakthrough happens and the last few percentage points of motor efficiency don’t matter quite so much, then the demand for those other elements will drop too.
TOKYO — Honda Motor Co. has developed a new electric motor for hybrid vehicles that tackles two top challenges in manufacturing the crucial drivetrain component: The high cost and uncertain supply of the rare-earth metals used in their powerful magnets.
The key is a new motor not using any heavy rare-earth metals, such as dysprosium or terbium. The breakthrough frees Honda from being at the mercy of supply bottlenecks of the sparsely distributed metals and increasing prices as demand for them soars.
Our steel production is some of the best in the world so I think we could produce that ourselves from our resources.
If a major battery breakthrough happens and the last few percentage points of motor efficiency don’t matter quite so much, then the demand for those other elements will drop too.
Stanford University Professor Hongjie Dai and colleagues have developed a high-performance aluminum battery.
Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that’s fast-charging, long-lasting and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology offers a safe alternative to many commercial batteries in wide use today.
And, yes, we have a fairly large bauxite deposit as well.
I seem to recall other reports of different battery chemistries with all the good stuff – high energy density, high power density, non-flammability, low toxicity, no rare materials – being demonstrated in lab environments. I’ve yet to see reports of any transitioning to production, but I’m confident some of them will make it.
That Honda electric motor is limited to temperatures quite a lot lower than a rare-earth based motor. So that limits the appeal somewhat for an EV since it will need to be a bigger and heavier motor and/or cooling system for the same performance. I seem to recall an article delving into actual testing, and it’s efficiency was down a wee bit compared to a rare earth motor. That’s a bit of a double-whammy combined with the reduced temperature performance, since if the efficiency drops, say from 95% to 90%, that’s double the heat that has to be taken away. But all of that won’t matter if there’s a big jump in battery performance.
There’s plenty of lithium in the ocean too. Just needs some way to harvest it. Pacific Lithium had a go, although I’m not entirely sure how much of that was just financial shenanigans.
That aluminum ion battery doesn’t look likely to take over for transport, its energy density by weight is about a quarter of a lithium ion battery.
Needs more development but the important thing is that it works.
The important bit about the Honda motor is that it reduces the need for the rare earths, which, although not exactly rare (they appear pretty much everywhere), aren’t exactly abundant either.
There’s plenty of lithium in the ocean too.
Estimated at 230 billion tonnes or 0.14 to 0.25 parts per million (ppm). The problem is filtering it out but that applies to the Waikato as well although the Waikato does seem to have a much higher concentration.
Your comments also apply to uranium.
I have had people tell me that we cannot use nuclear power, not because they think it is unsafe but because uranium is very rare.
There are about 4.5 billion tons of it in seawater. As usual the problem is in filtering it out. The cheapest proposed method would cost about three times as much as the current market price.
I seem to recall an article saying the concentration in seawater is essentially saturated, so if the concentration drops significantly from the current value it will get replenished as more dissolves back in. If that’s correct. then the supply from seawater is a lot more than 4.5 billion tons.
Off the top of my head, the prices I’ve seen are about $50/lb from land-based mines and around $200/lb from seawater. Even at $200/lb, the cost of the uranium is a negligible part of the cost of generating nuclear power. The cost is in enriching the uranium, building and maintaining the plant, disposing of the waste.
Although there’s a smarter use of the depleted uranium from the enrichment than throwing it away as a dangerous waste which also throws away 99% or so of the uranium’s energy. Use it as fuel for a fast neutron reactor. Which burns up almost all the dangerous radioactive elements.
We also need to take control of food production, relying on outdoor growing will become a thing of the past, floods and temperatures etc will affect outdoor crops.
I’d like to see hydroponic warehouses in the cities, before vegetables etc become even more expensive due to climate change and bad growing conditions.
Here’s an example…
“We can grow 200 percent more food per square foot than traditional agriculture, and without the use of chemical fertilizers,”
I think we can make use of buildings to grow food, but high tech food systems are not resilient enough for the future we face.
NZ is actually going to be reasonably well placed to relocalise food and that includes growing outdoors. The flooding issues we have in NZ are because we don’t design sustainable and resilient systems. I’m writing a post about that 🙂 but the gist is that a forest will cope with a shit load of water, a bare paddock or field of soy won’t. Likewise, much of the drought in NZ is caused by misuse of land so that in low rainfall times the land dries out. There are lots of ways to design so that doesn’t happen.
Better that we design food systems to fit in with nature.
The flooding issues we have in NZ are because we don’t design sustainable and resilient systems.
The flooding problems we have seem to be largely the result of the same as policies as Britain – cutting down far too many trees in all the worst places. We need to be replanting them and letting the wetlands regenerate.
If you design food supply to be dependent on a building, mains power supply and industrially produced spare parts, what happens if an earthquake breaks it? What happens if a quake breaks it and collapses the NZ economy (e.g. if the Alpine Fault takes out Wellington and major infrastructure like the SI grid)? And collapses the buildings that the spare parts are in?
There are lots of scenarios in which high tech systems fall over. Which isn’t to say we shouldn’t use high tech (I think we should where appropriate), but that we shouldn’t base our systems on it where there are such failure points.
If you design food supply to be dependent on a building, mains power supply and industrially produced spare parts, what happens if an earthquake breaks it?
The same thing that happens now when an earthquake breaks a farm? It goes offline and we’re short of food for awhile.
This is why we do distributed production. One area may be affected but all others should still be going.
Regenag doesn’t need high tech.
Yes it does which is why I added the link to the definition of technology. You can’t make a regenerative farm without knowing what you’re doing.
“The same thing that happens now when an earthquake breaks a farm? It goes offline and we’re short of food for awhile.”
But farms don’t break in the way that buildings do, and I’m not suggesting that we have farms that are that susceptible to quakes.
If you lose high tech infrastructure you’re out of food production for quite some time not a short time.
‘Technology’ is not high tech. Humans have used technology for all time, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about high tech. I think that’s fairly obvious from what I’m saying, not interested in a semantic argument.
I may be criticised for saying this – and perhaps deservedly so – but in the mass migrations which have already started and will continue, NZ is particularly well insulated. At the moment people are moving north into Europe (and to a lesser extent into USA) but they’ll also stream southwards, in Africa, South America, from Indonesia and India into Australia. This country has more chance of closing its doors than most. We need to be prepared for these migrations! Think through the implications of this!
QFT
Been saying that for awhile myself. We will be closing our borders, we won’t have any choice. That’s part and parcel of living in a small area – we can only support a small number of people.
every new house should be as self-sufficient as possible.
Every new house should meet passive house specs.
Power companies should be compelled to promote solar power.
Actually, we need to get rid of the power corporations as part of that thinking small, non-profit that you mention.
It does look cool but unfortunately the video does not feature a single shot of the rider pedaling. I’d have to try it but it looks like it would kill your back.
That is ugly and the use of wood rather stupid as a) it will endanger forests, and b) it’s going to be heavier and thus use more power requiring more generating capacity.
I rode a wooden-framed bicycle once, while visiting the town of Geraldine; a kindly German fellow loaned me his machine for a spin around the town. Very cool.
Brendan Cox got an easy ride this morning;
these Blairite robots need to be challenged, not indulged.
RNZ National, Saturday 22 July 2017, 8:09 a.m.
This looked promising….
8.09 Brendan Cox – In memory of Jo
British Labour MP for the constituency of Batley and Spen, Jo Cox, was murdered on June 16th, 2016 as she met with constituents. A campaigner and an active member of her community, Jo was a wife, daughter, sister and mother of two, and her death galvanised calls for a return to civility in political discourse.
Jo’s husband Brendan Cox has spoken out about growing xenophobia and intolerance across Europe in the wake of his wife’s murder, and has now written a book, Jo Cox: More in Common, which has just been released. Royalties from the book will go to the Jo Cox Foundation, which supports humanitarian causes around the world.
However, as I suspected, this bloke proved to be a complacent and dishonest New Labour type—i.e., a Blairite. As such, he made sure to fire a couple of shots at Britain’s prime minister-in-waiting.
Sadly, host Kim Hill chose to put aside her critical facilities and instead acted as nothing more than a warm and supportive sounding board. I wrote her the following email, which any of you listening to RNZ National after the 9 o’clock news would have heard her read aloud….
Dear Kim,
Brendan Cox made a partial list of the international crises that his late wife had spoken out about: “Syria, Darfur, the former Yugoslavia, and, you know, even back to the Holocaust.” For some reason he chose not to mention that she had also spoken out repeatedly against Israel’s crimes in Gaza and the Occupied Territories. Ironically, he then spoke of the way politicians “keep getting beaten down and think, if I keep quiet on this then I can move on to the next level.”
I was also offended by his smoothly dishonest statement that Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to back the Al Nusra-dominated Syrian opposition was not “nuanced”.
The interview was basically about the man’s relationship with his wife. You expected a lecture on his political opinions and how far he has strayed from your path of righteousness and virtue. Naturally you are disappointed. How could Ms Hill betray you like this. She must be set back on the path with some well chosen sage advice on the great work she has been chosen for. How much simpler it would be if you could send a list of questions and the desired conclusion, maybe a short prewritten closing address to the nation.
The interview was basically about the man’s relationship with his wife.
Sadly, however, the man broadened it out into a nasty attack on Jeremy Corbyn. Maybe you didn’t listen to the interview?
You expected a lecture on his political opinions…
He did indeed take the opportunity to indulge in his (poorly thought out and incoherent) political opinions.
…and how far he has strayed from your path of righteousness and virtue.
Well, yes, I think Labour Party people who smear as “not nuanced” the only decent leader they’ve had in fifty years are indeed straying from a path of righteousness and virtue. I was appalled by Brendan Cox’s cynical use of that nonsensical descriptor, which he clearly took from superior, nastier enemies of Corbyn such as Alistair Campbell and Martin Amis. [1]
Naturally you are disappointed. How could Ms Hill betray you like this. She must be set back on the path with some well chosen sage advice on the great work she has been chosen for. How much simpler it would be if you could send a list of questions and the desired conclusion, maybe a short prewritten closing address to the nation.
Sarcasm doesn’t enhance your message one little bit, Gabby. Could I suggest you now spend 40 minutes or so and actually listen to that farcical interview?
Maybe to help, everyone could stop eating meat, dairy etc or face the consequences. This weather will get worse.
[there’s a climate change post where you can talk about politicised climate change strategies that are likely to be controversial. Emergency threads aren’t the place to do that – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Are you going to stop driving a vehicle and only use public transport for longer trips?Its certainly not meat production that is the critical factor in CO2, its fossil fuels
dukeofurl
Stop for a moment, being reflective and wise about climate change. This is now a different subject where empathy and planning and rationality about present conditions applies. It is insulting to the people going through these troubles to meander off onto wondering about what to do for the future.
The comments been moved now, I just thought someone was telling others what to do rather than follow an example of reducing carbon emissions.
I can remember in my primary school days of rowboats in the street and so on. I think that has affected me to think of streams and rivers flooding potential still.
Any flat area with a river nearby spells risk for me.
Stupid comment Belladonna. You are talking about methodology re climate change over months and years, the question is what can the people being hit do now and what do they need and what pressure can be brought on providers and exploiters so they release some of their cash for useful purposes of others. Where do you go to the spots on exploiters that are erroneous (sic) zones – tickle them, kick them in the nuts?
we’ve missed the agreed targets that would allow BAU for Western civilisation
the only thing to do now is drop fossil fuels rapidly
high tech Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is very expensive, unreliable, risky, and probably implausible as a solution.
low tech sequestration via natural cycles might buy us some time but on its own won’t be enough
it’s our kids that will bear the brunt of this”
my translation….we’re f**ked (and a hell of a lot sooner than predicted)
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
I quite agree that irrelevant comments should be moved to open mike but would you consider putting where it was moved from? Just to satisfy my curiosity.
To be fair I suppose this particular comment could appear on almost any post on The Standard.
Someone could comment on how they have an ingrowing toenail and someone else is going to blame it on the National Party.
Survival kit list for Natz .–Loot bag for banking scam details. trust details-(twice removed)-folded photo -B English, Locket -J Key. -Cattle prodder,-moving other homeless out of prime spots. Porridge and bagels-breakfast. Basic items only.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[I don’t have a problem with political commentary during emergencies per se, but better to not put them under posts about the disaster while it’s still active. Open Mike is always there – weka]
“Zero tolerance of climate change denial or ‘we’re all going to die, it’s too late’ comments. ”
Yep, that’s how to talk about science. Let’s limit the discussion to those we agree with.
The term climate change denier is a political canard that has no meaning. Climate has always changed and always will. Labeling someone who disagrees with your worldview as a ‘denier’ is just intellectual cowardice.
What is wrong with stipulating doom? What harm does it cause you? If you do not like it you can just ignore it!
Moderating comments to avoid abusive behavior is fine. Keeping on topic fine. But treating dissent the same way that the “Consensus” treated Galileo is just stupid, antidemocratic and counterproductive.
There are lots of reasons we should be acting to reduce environmental impacts and improve the condition of our biosphere. Not one single one of these is zero tolerance for diverse opinions.
Science, especially complex science, has been shown to be “wrong” many times and the truth is often surprising. If you close your mind due to “Settled science” or “consensus” then you are a fool. No credible scientist would EVER do this.
Harden up and embrace debate, even scary “denier” debate. If you are right about anthropogenic climate change, it will be your ability to bring “deniers” into the fold and not ostracizing them, that will be a huge part of saving the planet.
Wonder if this’ll get me a ban?
PS
Interesting that your spell checker does not even recognize “anthropogenic”
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[of course it will earn you a ban. However important you feel your argument is, you obviously failed to understand what zero tolerance means and instead believe that it’s ok to derail threads and waste my time as a moderator on a Saturday morning. If you had put your comment in Open Mike, I might have replied and rebutted your argument, but the level of disrespect you just demonstrated to the authors/moderators here means you’re out. 6 months – weka]
They obviously were aware that they could get a ban and didn’t care. Like I said, they can say what the like (within the rules) in Open Mike, but I’m not spending time writing posts so people can trash the discussions under them. If they’d commented in OM, I probably would have argued back. But they didn’t. They chose to poke the bear and the bear said fuck off and stop wasting my time. The reason I have zero tolerance is because it’s the most important issue of all time. The internet’s a big place, if they want to dissent that then do it somewhere else. No-one is stopping that or their freedom of expression. .
Climate change denial is not just pig ignorant it is dangerous and destructive and gives a free pass to big polluters to carry on their (highly profitable) filthy ways. A well earned ban. Don’t waste time and energy on belligerent fools.
But the left needs to be very careful about running with the idea that business should be able to veto decisions made by the electorate. If Labour had won the recent election, Corbyn would have had a mandate for extensive nationalisation, ending austerity and higher taxation on companies and the well-off. Big business would certainly have cut up rough about all that. There would have been warnings from the Confederation of British Industry about its members moving thousands of jobs out of the country. Would those calling for a second EU referendum be calling for another general election so voters could think again about supporting such a dangerously radical policy? Probably not.
Which is a valid point that needs to be taken into account. Our parliament should be setting laws that the populace wants and not what business wants. Business gets to operate in the environment that we want.
Jacinda Ardern stated (on the Nation today) Labour is a party that believes in full employment, yet she says they’ve set an unemployment target rate of 4%. And unlike the Greens, Labour aren’t committed to increasing benefit payment rates. However, they are only .3% below National’s employment projections.
Far from being bold. Yet, when asked why Labour didn’t take a more bolder stance (in its alternative budget) Jacinda insisted it was bold, pointing to canceling tax cuts etc…
Congratulations to Labour on being both bold and leaving space to be bolder in times to come. Deft manoeuvring! Onwards and upwards! Cast down the dithering doubters like the Chairman!
Economic analysis is largely hope and religion, especially when projecting to a decimal point.
But the difference is that if it looks like that 4% isn’t being achieved, Labour will change it’s policy to get that 4%. If a projection isn’t achieved, the nats will just say that the next projection is soooo much better. As they tend to do.
In any case, 0.3% represents a fixed number of people relative to the total number of people who make up the workforce regardless of how many are unemployed. The extreme situation (reductio ad absurdum is when the unemployment rate is 0.3% and the target is to lower this by, you guessed it, 0.3%. But according to you it is an insignificant difference!?
You also fail to acknowledge that tackling the long tail in unemployment is extremely hard; the longer you have been unemployed the harder it is to find and get work and these unfortunate people form a large proportion of the long tail. The long tail is always where things get progressively (exponentially) hard(er).
“In any case, 0.3% represents a fixed number of people relative to the total number of people who make up the workforce regardless of how many are unemployed.”
In which case, you’re also claiming Gabby is incorrect. There is no difference.
“The extreme situation (reductio ad absurdum is when the unemployment rate is 0.3% and the target is to lower this by, you guessed it, 0.3%. But according to you it is an insignificant difference!? ”
I said less significant not insignificant, but you’re correct. My bad. The deference is the same and not “shitloads” as Gabby claimed.
It wasn’t that I failed to acknowledge it. How difficult it is to achieve merely wasn’t part of the discussion.
Nevertheless, do you believe Labour should have taken a more bolder stance?
With all that requires doing, are you happy less is being done (over a longer time frame) as they plan to maintain a $4 billion plus surplus?
I’m trying to see the whole picture, the full context, which is impossible because not all policies have been released yet AFAIK although the major ones are out now I assume.
Assuming that Labour and the Green Party will form a coalition I think the current joined policy framework is a step in the right direction but still quite a timid one given the baseline from where we’re starting.
TOP seems to have a few economic ideas that I quite like prima facie and it would be an interesting ‘marriage’ between TOP, the Greens, and Labour except that GM does not seem to be much of a team-player to me.
“I’m trying to see the whole picture, the full context, which is impossible because not all policies have been released yet …”
At this stage the Greens are being bolder and it’s a real shame Labour couldn’t have just stepped up a little more. Offering voters not only a chance to change the Government but also presenting them with a more unified front and a larger margin of difference. Which I believe is required to get them over the line.
We’ve yet to hear Labour’s Kiwisaver stance for this election.
And if it hasn’t been altered, the uncapped variable savings rate could potentially take away a good slice of the fiscal benefits being handed out thus far.
It’s not necessarily about being perceived the boldest – surely the Master Populist Sir Winston wins this hands down, every time – but about points of real difference as well as common policies and how well these are articulated, as you said.
I feel the PR for want of a better word is fuzzy and muddled.
I also thought there were some interesting possible intersections between Labour’s Future of Work and TOP’s UBI policy but Labour’s former showroom policy has not yet made it to production, unfortunately. In fact, there’s an eerie silence surrounding what could (have) become a signature policy for Labour. Maybe they need more time or maybe they’re too timid …
Ever notice how the National Party like to trumpet intentions like increasing immunisation rates and reducing communicable disease?
Well, here’s another example of it just being an exercise in hot air marketing as if the only thing important to the National Party is the message that they are doing something rather than the actual outcomes. Plainly the outcomes are very different. See also National cancelling their own targets when they are not met, or reframing the target as ‘ambitious’.
If Winnie goes as part of the 4-headed monster it’s 55.5 versus 42.0
If Winnie goes with the Lab/Gr bloc it’s 51.0 versus 46.5
Both would give safe majorities, especially as Hone will probably win TTT for the Left. National is polling 44% under English rather than more like 48% under Key and that is after a budget bounce.
The election campaign has seen both Labour and the Greens come out fighting-lots of new policies being put across well. A clear choice for the voters that is not reflected in the above numbers. My theory is that English will get less than 40% for the Nats; the question is where will that 5% or more will go.
So how much of ‘Sir’ John Key’s extra $10 million increase in wealth from the time he became Prime Minister of NZ, to when he left, (2008 – 2016) was because of his arguably hugely increased potential, in my considered opinion, to benefit from ‘insider trading’?
Seen this?
“Is John Key shonky?”
A video clip (10 mins) of my complaints to Police, the SFO and finally a private prosecution of John Key in 2008, over his undisclosed financial interests in TranzRail.
(None of the above got ONE sentence in the NZ Herald.)
The illegal spying which earned Kim Dotcom an apology from former Prime Minister Sir John Key went on two months longer than previously admitted, according to a High Court judgment.
The revelation – if accurate – would open a can of worms over sworn admissions the GCSB has made in the High Court and the Court of Appeal over assistance given to police ahead of the FBI-inspired 2012 raid which saw Dotcom and three others arrested.
It could also raise the possibility of a fresh apology to Dotcom because Key’s apology was in the context of spying from December 16, 2011 through to January 20, 2012.
Questions have been asked of Prime Minister Bill English but he has not responded. A spokesman for GCSB Minister Chris Finlayson referred questions to the GCSB, even though previous issues around the illegal spying have been handled at ministerial level.
The dates provided in the judgment from Justice Gilbert – released yesterday – extended the range of the spying operation.
Justice Gilbert stated the GCSB “has admitted unlawfully intercepting private communications of Kim and Mona Dotcom (the Dotcoms) and Bram van der Kolk during the period from 16 December 2011 to 22 March 2012“.
Dotcom texted comment, saying: “I don’t know what to say any more. Speechless. It’s sad for New Zealand what this Government keeps getting away with. Time and time again. No moral compass.“
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
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Further to my post of yesterday about extreme climate change, we need to be proactive, not reactive. At the moment we have a government which is barely even reactive: business as usual, as if you can have infinite growth on a finite planet!
So, how could we future-proof this country, accepting that we have not a hope in hell of escaping the world-wide effects of climate change:
• ‘weather bombs’ like the one that hit South Canterbury yesterday will occur with increasing frequency and intensity. These are hard to guard against, but putting more money into Civil Defence both nationally and regionally would be a good idea.
• think locally, not globally. For instance, unless bananas can be grown in the far north of New Zealand, (and they can) bananas will disappear from the menu. So will all imported tropical fruit. But we lived without them before and we can again.
• industrial farming has to go. The Fonterra business model is ludicrous, even in a capitalist society; in Bill McKibben’s harsh new Eaarth, it has no place.
• nor has the whole capitalist system of growth. We need to think small, non-profit (ie – service) and local.
• I may be criticised for saying this – and perhaps deservedly so – but in the mass migrations which have already started and will continue, NZ is particularly well insulated. At the moment people are moving north into Europe (and to a lesser extent into USA) but they’ll also stream southwards, in Africa, South America, from Indonesia and India into Australia. This country has more chance of closing its doors than most. We need to be prepared for these migrations! Think through the implications of this!
• we need a government, like that of France, which commits to 100% electric cars by 2030 or some such date. Yes, too little, too late but still . . .; imported petrol won’t last forever, but the sun will.
• every new house should be as self-sufficient as possible. Power companies should be compelled to promote solar power.
• no new highways, but much investment in railways. Put the long-haul trucking companies out of business.
We’re talking survival here, not convenience.
I could go on – some further reading. Suggestions?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/true-north/2017/jul/17/neoliberalism-has-conned-us-into-fighting-climate-change-as-individuals
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html
In case you weren’t aware, petrol and diesel can be synthesised from coal via the Fischer-Tropsch process. The Nazis did it when their oil supplies got squeezed, and South Africa has used it for a substantial part of their petrol and diesel to save buying oil from other countries.
So we have to make a conscious choice to move away from petrol and diesel. Peak oil ain’t going to force it on us. Our choice is to either make petrol and diesel increasingly expensive via a rising carbon tax, or by some sort of regulatory decree.
Or we can do the dumb lazy thing and just wait until renewable electricity and batteries are so much cheaper that there’s no longer any reason to use liquid fuels (except for aviation where their energy density is absolutely crucial and will hopefully come from biofuels).
I agree with you on the mass migration to NZ, but I was thinking more terror, rapid demographic changes caused by the influx of millions of refugees in Europe, + economic upheaval.
I tell myself at least I am already here while I can’t afford my rent. Or my car and public transport is worse. Or medical treatment. Yay NZ.
FFS I’m not even on the bottom of the heap.
Electric cars are not the karma free alternatives you imagine them to be.
Look up “Blood Cobalt” and you can read about how children are used as slave labor.
========================================
All homes should be as self sufficient as possible. Of course this is easier if you actually own it, and you can afford to improve it. Apparently we have to be connected to the grid, which I object to.
“Apparently we have to be connected to the grid, which I object to.”
What do you mean by this? You obviously have to be connected to the grid if you want the option of getting power supplied when you aren’t generating enough, or if you expect to sell your surplus to other users, but I am not aware of any law that requires you to have a connection or any reason to be connected if you don’t mind going without if your generator isn’t working.
Is there something else you have in mind?
It’s not illegal to be off grid but some councils are putting serious pressure on new builds to put in grid infrastructure. To the point that people then can’t afford off grid solar.
“councils are putting serious pressure “.
Well to hell with them.
Do you have any names of such outfits in the Wellington area? I can at least complain there.
If people will take entire responsibility for not having any power available for their use, and pay the entire connection cost if they change their mind I don’t see why they should have to have a connection.
I suspect the Councils may be worried about tear sodden stories in the paper about how an electricity provider left them without power after a storm that knocked out their home generation equipment but looked after other people in the area whose lines had gone down under a falling tree or some such thing. You can imagine the sort of thing.
“The electricity company left us to freeze for 3 days and we had a sick baby. They refused to supply us with even a small generator”.
That is not to say they do, but without being able to contact a council I can’t see what other justification they could possibly have for their attitude.
Not just Councils – who place large compliance costs on instillations – but also regional Power Co’s notably in the Hawkes Bay Taupo and Rotorua districts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503459&objectid=11675291
Hughes wasn’t complaining about charges being imposed on people who are totally off-grid.
He is talking about people who are on grid but only draw a little power. That would typically be a times of high demand overall, like right now when it is cold and wet, without any sun to run their solar panels.
They want to have the ability to draw a little bit of power but want the people who get all their power that way to subsidise them because the cost of attaching consumers to the grid is pretty well independent of how much power they draw.
I have very little sympathy for them or for Hughes’ complaints.
I’m pretty sure that if the line charge was a fixed price the people with solar power that’s connected to the grid wouldn’t complain at all. The people who don’t have it complain about that idea all the time because they believe that the amount should be dependent upon use rather than the simple fact of its existence. The amount of maintenance isn’t going to change after all.
TLDR: The real problem is that it’s not a fixed price but is variable dependent upon the amount of power you use.
No you wouldn’t – but I didn’t expect you too.
The fact is, however, that for those in the Hawke’s Bay it is a huge disincentive to move to alternative systems.
In Australia, the Govts there have (in the past) given good incentives for people to install solar. In new subdivisions almost every second household now has both solar hot water systems, and PV. Most of these households are now pumping more electricity into the grid than they consume, (my family in WA are paid by the electric supplier even during the winter months! and theirs is only a 5000kw installation many are much bigger – I’ve seen a number of of 15,000 kw installations) thus saving the burning of coal upon which most of Australia’s grid depends.
While NZ’s main grid is powered by Hydro; adding wind and solar to the mix will mean that less drawdown on lake levels will be required. So although there will be times (such as storms) when solar will not deliver – the fact is that that is offset by the times when the solar is pumping energy into the grid reducing the drawdown on lake levels in dry weather.
Is WA a bit like Texas – everything’s bigger there? I mean, it’s about 5 sq m for 1 kW so if they’ve got 5000 kW then they’ve got around 2.5 hectares of panels. That’s truly heroic.
Please don’t tell me something boring like there was an extra k or 2 as typos.
ooops! finger trouble
ignore the k
Councils require utility services to be available at the boundary of subdivisions. But that is as far as I have seen Councils push connection.
All grid connected PV systems in NZ have an invertor in them that detects for voltage on the network and open circuits when it detects voltage above or below certain thresholds.
To your the homeowner this means that if the supply goes down on the network, then your PV system shuts down as well. So you will be without power jus to like everybody else.
That doesn’t sound right. It should have the detector and an isolator. When grid power goes down it needs to isolate from the grid so that work can be done on it but should maintain feeding the house itself.
If it is isolating the house then what you have is poor design because the solar will keep generating anyway – it can’t actually be turned off.
From memory As/NZS 4777.2 covers grid connected invertors and clearly requires an automatic open circuit requirement to prevent back feed (anti islanding) when grid supply falls below 180VAC.
You would require an interlocked switch that isolates the installation from the network and then switches the mode of the invertor so that it is not required to detect grid supply voltage.
I am unaware of systems that can do that. Let me know if they exist.
The other side of the coin is that if the supply voltage increases beyond say 6% of nominal voltage of 230V then the invertor shuts down to stop the grid voltage from rising to unsafe levels.
The way I hear it is that people wanting to do off grid and are say building alt tech housing, councils are telling them to put the house on grid (I think because they assume house will eventually be sold and new people will apparently need grid). It’s not that the council can force that, but when you are in complex negotiations over consents for a range of alt tech, that pressure from council has an effect.
Didn’t know about grid tied shutting down with the grid. That makes it even worse then because lots of people want off grid because they believe that the grid will be less reliable going forward.
How?
Councils require that power to site is generally part of any subdivision – but hooking up power isn’t normally part of a building consent- so where are Council causing issue with this ?
Just a slight guess, but you might have trouble satisfying the building inspector that you meet building code requirements for bathroom and kitchen ventilation without mains supply. You’d have to provide these 100% of the time, and without opening a window ’cause that will do your insulation. Just been through a compliance where they were a bit picky on that area.
Actually, private ownership makes it harder because of that ‘afford’ BS that you mention.
The ‘government’ can afford to build the factory to make the solar panels no matter how many it makes. It can afford to make enough houses without worrying about profits. It can afford to retrofit every house in the country with solar panels and insulation.
It can afford to do these things because everybody will be paying the support cutting the cost per person down and not just a few who are wealthy enough and thus keeping the cost per person high. And, of course, there’s no dead-weight loss of profit.
Being connected to the grid allows for a more efficient, less costly power generation infrastructure.
You objecting to that just proves your ignorance on economics.
DtB is correct. The best way to think of the grid is as a giant distributed battery. Absolutely there is every reason to have stand-alone solar generation onsite, but if you try to store enough onsite to cover say 99% of usage scenarios, then you either have to cut back your demand a fair bit, or buy a lot of battery.
On the other hand if you only cover storage for say 80-90% of usage scenarios onsite, and share with the grid to cover the balance, the economics are suddenly a lot more appealing.
The main demand for cobalt in the current generation of EVs is for the lithium ion battery. Lithium isn’t particularly plentiful either. There’s a large number of battery researchers working on a wide range of alternatives that don’t require scarce materials.
There’s also sourcing issues around other scarce materials such as rare-earths used in high-efficiency motors. Similarly there’s a lot of research going into reducing or eliminating those. If a major battery breakthrough happens and the last few percentage points of motor efficiency don’t matter quite so much, then the demand for those other elements will drop too.
Around 450 tonnes of the stuff gets washed down the Waikato every year from one geothermal field:
Just need to find a way to catch it.
No longer an issue:
Our steel production is some of the best in the world so I think we could produce that ourselves from our resources.
All of which seems to be happening including battery break-throughs:
And, yes, we have a fairly large bauxite deposit as well.
That aluminum ion battery doesn’t look likely to take over for transport, its energy density by weight is about a quarter of a lithium ion battery.
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/the-aluminumion-battery-a-breakthrough-for-whom-cm471531
I seem to recall other reports of different battery chemistries with all the good stuff – high energy density, high power density, non-flammability, low toxicity, no rare materials – being demonstrated in lab environments. I’ve yet to see reports of any transitioning to production, but I’m confident some of them will make it.
That Honda electric motor is limited to temperatures quite a lot lower than a rare-earth based motor. So that limits the appeal somewhat for an EV since it will need to be a bigger and heavier motor and/or cooling system for the same performance. I seem to recall an article delving into actual testing, and it’s efficiency was down a wee bit compared to a rare earth motor. That’s a bit of a double-whammy combined with the reduced temperature performance, since if the efficiency drops, say from 95% to 90%, that’s double the heat that has to be taken away. But all of that won’t matter if there’s a big jump in battery performance.
There’s plenty of lithium in the ocean too. Just needs some way to harvest it. Pacific Lithium had a go, although I’m not entirely sure how much of that was just financial shenanigans.
Needs more development but the important thing is that it works.
The important bit about the Honda motor is that it reduces the need for the rare earths, which, although not exactly rare (they appear pretty much everywhere), aren’t exactly abundant either.
Estimated at 230 billion tonnes or 0.14 to 0.25 parts per million (ppm). The problem is filtering it out but that applies to the Waikato as well although the Waikato does seem to have a much higher concentration.
Your comments also apply to uranium.
I have had people tell me that we cannot use nuclear power, not because they think it is unsafe but because uranium is very rare.
There are about 4.5 billion tons of it in seawater. As usual the problem is in filtering it out. The cheapest proposed method would cost about three times as much as the current market price.
I seem to recall an article saying the concentration in seawater is essentially saturated, so if the concentration drops significantly from the current value it will get replenished as more dissolves back in. If that’s correct. then the supply from seawater is a lot more than 4.5 billion tons.
Off the top of my head, the prices I’ve seen are about $50/lb from land-based mines and around $200/lb from seawater. Even at $200/lb, the cost of the uranium is a negligible part of the cost of generating nuclear power. The cost is in enriching the uranium, building and maintaining the plant, disposing of the waste.
Although there’s a smarter use of the depleted uranium from the enrichment than throwing it away as a dangerous waste which also throws away 99% or so of the uranium’s energy. Use it as fuel for a fast neutron reactor. Which burns up almost all the dangerous radioactive elements.
We also need to take control of food production, relying on outdoor growing will become a thing of the past, floods and temperatures etc will affect outdoor crops.
I’d like to see hydroponic warehouses in the cities, before vegetables etc become even more expensive due to climate change and bad growing conditions.
Here’s an example…
“We can grow 200 percent more food per square foot than traditional agriculture, and without the use of chemical fertilizers,”
http://www.ibtimes.com/indoor-farming-future-takes-root-abandoned-buildings-warehouses-empty-lots-high-rises-1653412
I think we can make use of buildings to grow food, but high tech food systems are not resilient enough for the future we face.
NZ is actually going to be reasonably well placed to relocalise food and that includes growing outdoors. The flooding issues we have in NZ are because we don’t design sustainable and resilient systems. I’m writing a post about that 🙂 but the gist is that a forest will cope with a shit load of water, a bare paddock or field of soy won’t. Likewise, much of the drought in NZ is caused by misuse of land so that in low rainfall times the land dries out. There are lots of ways to design so that doesn’t happen.
Better that we design food systems to fit in with nature.
[Citation Needed]
That is going to require high-tech.
The flooding problems we have seem to be largely the result of the same as policies as Britain – cutting down far too many trees in all the worst places. We need to be replanting them and letting the wetlands regenerate.
If you design food supply to be dependent on a building, mains power supply and industrially produced spare parts, what happens if an earthquake breaks it? What happens if a quake breaks it and collapses the NZ economy (e.g. if the Alpine Fault takes out Wellington and major infrastructure like the SI grid)? And collapses the buildings that the spare parts are in?
There are lots of scenarios in which high tech systems fall over. Which isn’t to say we shouldn’t use high tech (I think we should where appropriate), but that we shouldn’t base our systems on it where there are such failure points.
Regenag doesn’t need high tech.
The same thing that happens now when an earthquake breaks a farm? It goes offline and we’re short of food for awhile.
This is why we do distributed production. One area may be affected but all others should still be going.
Yes it does which is why I added the link to the definition of technology. You can’t make a regenerative farm without knowing what you’re doing.
“The same thing that happens now when an earthquake breaks a farm? It goes offline and we’re short of food for awhile.”
But farms don’t break in the way that buildings do, and I’m not suggesting that we have farms that are that susceptible to quakes.
If you lose high tech infrastructure you’re out of food production for quite some time not a short time.
‘Technology’ is not high tech. Humans have used technology for all time, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about high tech. I think that’s fairly obvious from what I’m saying, not interested in a semantic argument.
They’re susceptible to earthquakes by default.
Yeah, really, it is. That’s its very definition.
QFT
Been saying that for awhile myself. We will be closing our borders, we won’t have any choice. That’s part and parcel of living in a small area – we can only support a small number of people.
Every new house should meet passive house specs.
Actually, we need to get rid of the power corporations as part of that thinking small, non-profit that you mention.
😆
Colbert immerses himself in the quest for the truth behind “that dossier”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stephen-colbert-russia-pee-room_us_59719f24e4b0e79ec1985d0d
Good job. Undercover cops on bikes educating drivers about how to behave around cyclists. Can we have some here too, please?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2017/jul/21/undercover-police-target-london-drivers-who-pass-too-close-to-cyclists
On the subject of bikes, here’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time…
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/07/21/coolest-electric-bicycle-ever-seen/
It certainly is, Andre. I feel myself being charmed by technology, same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.
It does look cool but unfortunately the video does not feature a single shot of the rider pedaling. I’d have to try it but it looks like it would kill your back.
I didn’t say practical or comfortable. Those don’t often go together with cool.
That is ugly and the use of wood rather stupid as a) it will endanger forests, and b) it’s going to be heavier and thus use more power requiring more generating capacity.
Reductionist philistine!
I rode a wooden-framed bicycle once, while visiting the town of Geraldine; a kindly German fellow loaned me his machine for a spin around the town. Very cool.
You might be into these then…
http://calfeedesign.com/bamboo/
A shocking report on RNZ Rural News explaining the dire situation of exploitation of growers, workers, everyone in the kiwifruit industry! Lol. If it wasn’t tragic it would be pure Monty Python. First four minutes. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ruralnews/audio/201851920/midday-rural-news-for-21-july-2017
Brendan Cox got an easy ride this morning;
these Blairite robots need to be challenged, not indulged.
RNZ National, Saturday 22 July 2017, 8:09 a.m.
This looked promising….
However, as I suspected, this bloke proved to be a complacent and dishonest New Labour type—i.e., a Blairite. As such, he made sure to fire a couple of shots at Britain’s prime minister-in-waiting.
Sadly, host Kim Hill chose to put aside her critical facilities and instead acted as nothing more than a warm and supportive sounding board. I wrote her the following email, which any of you listening to RNZ National after the 9 o’clock news would have heard her read aloud….
Dear Kim,
Brendan Cox made a partial list of the international crises that his late wife had spoken out about: “Syria, Darfur, the former Yugoslavia, and, you know, even back to the Holocaust.” For some reason he chose not to mention that she had also spoken out repeatedly against Israel’s crimes in Gaza and the Occupied Territories. Ironically, he then spoke of the way politicians “keep getting beaten down and think, if I keep quiet on this then I can move on to the next level.”
I was also offended by his smoothly dishonest statement that Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to back the Al Nusra-dominated Syrian opposition was not “nuanced”.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Not really the point of the interview. (Sarcastic observations on right on zealotry deleted.)
Not really the point of the interview.
Sorry, Gabby, but I’m mystified by that statement. Could you elaborate please?
(Sarcastic observations on right on zealotry deleted.)
And could you also explain what you mean by that? Thanks in anticipation.
The interview was basically about the man’s relationship with his wife. You expected a lecture on his political opinions and how far he has strayed from your path of righteousness and virtue. Naturally you are disappointed. How could Ms Hill betray you like this. She must be set back on the path with some well chosen sage advice on the great work she has been chosen for. How much simpler it would be if you could send a list of questions and the desired conclusion, maybe a short prewritten closing address to the nation.
The interview was basically about the man’s relationship with his wife.
Sadly, however, the man broadened it out into a nasty attack on Jeremy Corbyn. Maybe you didn’t listen to the interview?
You expected a lecture on his political opinions…
He did indeed take the opportunity to indulge in his (poorly thought out and incoherent) political opinions.
…and how far he has strayed from your path of righteousness and virtue.
Well, yes, I think Labour Party people who smear as “not nuanced” the only decent leader they’ve had in fifty years are indeed straying from a path of righteousness and virtue. I was appalled by Brendan Cox’s cynical use of that nonsensical descriptor, which he clearly took from superior, nastier enemies of Corbyn such as Alistair Campbell and Martin Amis. [1]
Naturally you are disappointed. How could Ms Hill betray you like this. She must be set back on the path with some well chosen sage advice on the great work she has been chosen for. How much simpler it would be if you could send a list of questions and the desired conclusion, maybe a short prewritten closing address to the nation.
Sarcasm doesn’t enhance your message one little bit, Gabby. Could I suggest you now spend 40 minutes or so and actually listen to that farcical interview?
[1] https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-29102015/#comment-1088122
I’ll need a copy of the exam questions and acceptably nuanced answers first, so I can practise writing them in my neatest script for you.
I’m too busy to write any exam questions. You’ve passed Gabby, just for showing an interest.
Maybe to help, everyone could stop eating meat, dairy etc or face the consequences. This weather will get worse.
[there’s a climate change post where you can talk about politicised climate change strategies that are likely to be controversial. Emergency threads aren’t the place to do that – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Are you going to stop driving a vehicle and only use public transport for longer trips?Its certainly not meat production that is the critical factor in CO2, its fossil fuels
dukeofurl
Stop for a moment, being reflective and wise about climate change. This is now a different subject where empathy and planning and rationality about present conditions applies. It is insulting to the people going through these troubles to meander off onto wondering about what to do for the future.
The comments been moved now, I just thought someone was telling others what to do rather than follow an example of reducing carbon emissions.
I can remember in my primary school days of rowboats in the street and so on. I think that has affected me to think of streams and rivers flooding potential still.
Any flat area with a river nearby spells risk for me.
Stupid comment Belladonna. You are talking about methodology re climate change over months and years, the question is what can the people being hit do now and what do they need and what pressure can be brought on providers and exploiters so they release some of their cash for useful purposes of others. Where do you go to the spots on exploiters that are erroneous (sic) zones – tickle them, kick them in the nuts?
“My translation of that reserved science speak:
we’ve missed the agreed targets that would allow BAU for Western civilisation
the only thing to do now is drop fossil fuels rapidly
high tech Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is very expensive, unreliable, risky, and probably implausible as a solution.
low tech sequestration via natural cycles might buy us some time but on its own won’t be enough
it’s our kids that will bear the brunt of this”
my translation….we’re f**ked (and a hell of a lot sooner than predicted)
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
No, Pat
Not a single soul on this planet ‘knows’ what the outcomes will be
It is not possible to accurately predict what will eventuate
While the message is important, my opinion is that the repetitive nature of these articles could begin to create unintended negativity…
Keep it positive
and of course the expanded version in quotation marks is positive?…..i prefer succinct.
I blame the National Party for this. It’s all their fault.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
I quite agree that irrelevant comments should be moved to open mike but would you consider putting where it was moved from? Just to satisfy my curiosity.
To be fair I suppose this particular comment could appear on almost any post on The Standard.
Someone could comment on how they have an ingrowing toenail and someone else is going to blame it on the National Party.
Too much work for moderators to do that. I’m already annoyed at the amount of moderating I’ve had to do on a Saturday morning.
Survival kit list for Natz .–Loot bag for banking scam details. trust details-(twice removed)-folded photo -B English, Locket -J Key. -Cattle prodder,-moving other homeless out of prime spots. Porridge and bagels-breakfast. Basic items only.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[I don’t have a problem with political commentary during emergencies per se, but better to not put them under posts about the disaster while it’s still active. Open Mike is always there – weka]
“Zero tolerance of climate change denial or ‘we’re all going to die, it’s too late’ comments. ”
Yep, that’s how to talk about science. Let’s limit the discussion to those we agree with.
The term climate change denier is a political canard that has no meaning. Climate has always changed and always will. Labeling someone who disagrees with your worldview as a ‘denier’ is just intellectual cowardice.
What is wrong with stipulating doom? What harm does it cause you? If you do not like it you can just ignore it!
Moderating comments to avoid abusive behavior is fine. Keeping on topic fine. But treating dissent the same way that the “Consensus” treated Galileo is just stupid, antidemocratic and counterproductive.
There are lots of reasons we should be acting to reduce environmental impacts and improve the condition of our biosphere. Not one single one of these is zero tolerance for diverse opinions.
Science, especially complex science, has been shown to be “wrong” many times and the truth is often surprising. If you close your mind due to “Settled science” or “consensus” then you are a fool. No credible scientist would EVER do this.
Harden up and embrace debate, even scary “denier” debate. If you are right about anthropogenic climate change, it will be your ability to bring “deniers” into the fold and not ostracizing them, that will be a huge part of saving the planet.
Wonder if this’ll get me a ban?
PS
Interesting that your spell checker does not even recognize “anthropogenic”
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[of course it will earn you a ban. However important you feel your argument is, you obviously failed to understand what zero tolerance means and instead believe that it’s ok to derail threads and waste my time as a moderator on a Saturday morning. If you had put your comment in Open Mike, I might have replied and rebutted your argument, but the level of disrespect you just demonstrated to the authors/moderators here means you’re out. 6 months – weka]
A six month ban Weka?
In my opinion, as someone who has been arrested MANY times in defence of freedom of expression that seems a bit harsh.
Meant in a polite and respectful way 🙂
Kind regards
Penny Bright.
They obviously were aware that they could get a ban and didn’t care. Like I said, they can say what the like (within the rules) in Open Mike, but I’m not spending time writing posts so people can trash the discussions under them. If they’d commented in OM, I probably would have argued back. But they didn’t. They chose to poke the bear and the bear said fuck off and stop wasting my time. The reason I have zero tolerance is because it’s the most important issue of all time. The internet’s a big place, if they want to dissent that then do it somewhere else. No-one is stopping that or their freedom of expression. .
Climate change denial is not just pig ignorant it is dangerous and destructive and gives a free pass to big polluters to carry on their (highly profitable) filthy ways. A well earned ban. Don’t waste time and energy on belligerent fools.
Why the moaning? If anything can halt capitalism’s fat cats, it’s Brexit
Which is a valid point that needs to be taken into account. Our parliament should be setting laws that the populace wants and not what business wants. Business gets to operate in the environment that we want.
Jacinda Ardern stated (on the Nation today) Labour is a party that believes in full employment, yet she says they’ve set an unemployment target rate of 4%. And unlike the Greens, Labour aren’t committed to increasing benefit payment rates. However, they are only .3% below National’s employment projections.
Far from being bold. Yet, when asked why Labour didn’t take a more bolder stance (in its alternative budget) Jacinda insisted it was bold, pointing to canceling tax cuts etc…
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2017/07/interview-jacinda-ardern.html
Bold enough or should Labour have been bolder?
Congratulations to Labour on being both bold and leaving space to be bolder in times to come. Deft manoeuvring! Onwards and upwards! Cast down the dithering doubters like the Chairman!
.3% is far from a bold difference. Thus, claiming it’s bold is an acceptance of this lowering of the bar.
Cast down the apologists. It’s time to hold their feet to the fire. Turn Labour left.
Actually aiming for a realistic change in the near future is a big difference from “projecting” (hoping) that things will get better.
What economists expect and what actually happens frequently disagree.
Projections will be based on economic analysis, thus it’s more than just “hoping”.
And while projections may not always be correct, it’s good to see you believe 4% is a “realistic change” as 4.3% (the projection) isn’t far off.
Hence, not much difference at all.
Economic analysis is largely hope and religion, especially when projecting to a decimal point.
But the difference is that if it looks like that 4% isn’t being achieved, Labour will change it’s policy to get that 4%. If a projection isn’t achieved, the nats will just say that the next projection is soooo much better. As they tend to do.
When unemployment is so low, it’s shitloads chairmie.
When 1 hour of work a week counts as employment, figures can look better than they really are.
Dead right, amirite.
You’ve got that the wrong way around, Gabby. The lower the number the less significant the difference is.
Gabby is correct.
In any case, 0.3% represents a fixed number of people relative to the total number of people who make up the workforce regardless of how many are unemployed. The extreme situation (reductio ad absurdum is when the unemployment rate is 0.3% and the target is to lower this by, you guessed it, 0.3%. But according to you it is an insignificant difference!?
You also fail to acknowledge that tackling the long tail in unemployment is extremely hard; the longer you have been unemployed the harder it is to find and get work and these unfortunate people form a large proportion of the long tail. The long tail is always where things get progressively (exponentially) hard(er).
“In any case, 0.3% represents a fixed number of people relative to the total number of people who make up the workforce regardless of how many are unemployed.”
In which case, you’re also claiming Gabby is incorrect. There is no difference.
“The extreme situation (reductio ad absurdum is when the unemployment rate is 0.3% and the target is to lower this by, you guessed it, 0.3%. But according to you it is an insignificant difference!? ”
I said less significant not insignificant, but you’re correct. My bad. The deference is the same and not “shitloads” as Gabby claimed.
It wasn’t that I failed to acknowledge it. How difficult it is to achieve merely wasn’t part of the discussion.
Nevertheless, do you believe Labour should have taken a more bolder stance?
With all that requires doing, are you happy less is being done (over a longer time frame) as they plan to maintain a $4 billion plus surplus?
I’m trying to see the whole picture, the full context, which is impossible because not all policies have been released yet AFAIK although the major ones are out now I assume.
Assuming that Labour and the Green Party will form a coalition I think the current joined policy framework is a step in the right direction but still quite a timid one given the baseline from where we’re starting.
TOP seems to have a few economic ideas that I quite like prima facie and it would be an interesting ‘marriage’ between TOP, the Greens, and Labour except that GM does not seem to be much of a team-player to me.
“I’m trying to see the whole picture, the full context, which is impossible because not all policies have been released yet …”
At this stage the Greens are being bolder and it’s a real shame Labour couldn’t have just stepped up a little more. Offering voters not only a chance to change the Government but also presenting them with a more unified front and a larger margin of difference. Which I believe is required to get them over the line.
We’ve yet to hear Labour’s Kiwisaver stance for this election.
And if it hasn’t been altered, the uncapped variable savings rate could potentially take away a good slice of the fiscal benefits being handed out thus far.
TOP largely fails to appeal to me.
It’s not necessarily about being perceived the boldest – surely the Master Populist Sir Winston wins this hands down, every time – but about points of real difference as well as common policies and how well these are articulated, as you said.
I feel the PR for want of a better word is fuzzy and muddled.
I also thought there were some interesting possible intersections between Labour’s Future of Work and TOP’s UBI policy but Labour’s former showroom policy has not yet made it to production, unfortunately. In fact, there’s an eerie silence surrounding what could (have) become a signature policy for Labour. Maybe they need more time or maybe they’re too timid …
Ever notice how the National Party like to trumpet intentions like increasing immunisation rates and reducing communicable disease?
Well, here’s another example of it just being an exercise in hot air marketing as if the only thing important to the National Party is the message that they are doing something rather than the actual outcomes. Plainly the outcomes are very different. See also National cancelling their own targets when they are not met, or reframing the target as ‘ambitious’.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/335603/mumps-outbreak-169-infected-in-auckland
My rolling average of the last 3 Roy Morgans:
Lab/Gr 42.0
Lab/Gr/NZF 51.0
Nats 44.2
Nats/ACT/MP 46.5
Nats/ACT/MP/NZF 55.5
NZF 9.0
If Winnie goes as part of the 4-headed monster it’s 55.5 versus 42.0
If Winnie goes with the Lab/Gr bloc it’s 51.0 versus 46.5
Both would give safe majorities, especially as Hone will probably win TTT for the Left. National is polling 44% under English rather than more like 48% under Key and that is after a budget bounce.
The election campaign has seen both Labour and the Greens come out fighting-lots of new policies being put across well. A clear choice for the voters that is not reflected in the above numbers. My theory is that English will get less than 40% for the Nats; the question is where will that 5% or more will go.
maybe look at a few polls other than Roy Morgan or UMR for a more realistic picture
DID ‘SIR’ JOHN KEY PERSONALLY PROFIT FROM BEING NZ PRIME MINISTER?
Looks like it – IMO – to the tune of an extra $10 million from 2008 – 2016?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11893239
So how much of ‘Sir’ John Key’s extra $10 million increase in wealth from the time he became Prime Minister of NZ, to when he left, (2008 – 2016) was because of his arguably hugely increased potential, in my considered opinion, to benefit from ‘insider trading’?
Seen this?
“Is John Key shonky?”
A video clip (10 mins) of my complaints to Police, the SFO and finally a private prosecution of John Key in 2008, over his undisclosed financial interests in TranzRail.
(None of the above got ONE sentence in the NZ Herald.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFTYZVQo-A8&sns=em
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner.
2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.
David Fisher is a gem, his latest piece in the Herald:
Judge: Dotcom spied on two months longer than previously admitted
Indeed.
“Sir” John Key, what a guy
Right up there with Sir Roger.