'Dairy's huge role earning export dollars for New Zealand is facing a threat some say could bring it to its knees. Lab-grown milk protein is now stepping outside niche cheese and ice cream markets and into the bulk ingredient arena.'
Industrial protein alternatives are a more plausible threat to dairying than vegans ever could be. However there will always be a niche for 'heritage' cheese, etc.
'Yeah, you said the same things about the death of dairy years ago on here. You never would give a time frame for collapse, and it hasn't happened yet.'
you are correct that a couple of years ago i gave repeated heads-up! on this..and i said it would be here in a couple of years….(and was generally scoffed at..)
you are now one of the few still left scoffing..?
does that at all give you pause for thought/a scoff re-think..?
Big dairy is very much alive. Once again you're confusing wishful thinking with fact.
There will be a time when the industry declines, primarily I suspect to climate change and the environmental cost of exporting milk powder and added value products off shore, but there will always be a willing local market for milk and meat, and reduction in farm numbers and resulting smaller herds will feed that market with a reduced emissions footprint.
No need for fake foods at all, even when the export bubble is forced to burst.
Once again you’re confusing wishful thinking with fact.
You read my mind. When people predict the demise of someone or something more often than not there is a huge element of wishful thinking even though they may not realise or admit it. Very few doom’s day scenarios are based on scientific predictions (models) and most contain a huge bias, which can be personal but also a collective bias (i.e. shared by many, e.g. peers).
i would contest ur contention that i am just engaging in 'wishful thinking'
i have always known the world was not going to wake up one day and decide to go vegan..(my 'wishful' vegan thought)..
and that reality was for me for quite a long time quite depressing..
so the arrival of plant-based meats/milk (indistinguishable in taste/texture from animal-based) got me very excited – and since then i have just been watching it unfolding..
and my excitement is not based on wishful-thinking…but on economic forces..
when you have a product that tastes/smells/chews just like the highest quality of the real thing – that is not fucking the planet – is cheaper..is cruelty-free..
and is sitting on the supermarket shelve/(in burgers/in pizzas)..
then the consumer is going to have to choose to pay more for an environment-fucking product – that also guarantees animals have suffered..
these are the reasons/economic-forces (not wishful thinking) – why i think the dairy/animal-extraction industries..
are sunset industries..are going down the gurgler..
See you in a couple of years when the mass crates of affordable natural milk and shelves of meat, cheese, yoghurt and other dairy products are still plentiful, and you can try again with the wishful thinking death of dairy is nigh meme. You never know, next time you might be right. lol
To be clearer, fake meats may well be available in the future, but if no one wants to eat them, they won't be viable or around for long.
As long as real meat is for sale at an affordable price, which it will be if export sales collapse and consumers are not paying offshore prices in the local marketplace and the supermarket chains screw the remaining sellers down, people will eat it without nary a second thought about the animal extraction industry.
"At between 50 and 100 million tonnes of methane a year, rice agriculture is a big source of atmospheric methane, possibly the biggest of man-made methane sources."
And solutions arent being considered for dairying , a minor product in pantheon of agriculture ?
eg US has about 95 mill cattle with only 10% dairy cows.
Also to be considered is
Carbon is the backbone of life on Earth. We are made of carbon, we eat carbon, and our civilizations—our economies, our homes, our means of transport—are built on carbon.
Human emissions, which have become a problem are a fraction of the natural cycle
My comment was in response to The Al1en @ 1.1.2.1. and neither person-specific nor content- or topic-specific. In other words, it was not about you, veganism, or whatever …
Given that you have shown repeatedly that you are not interested in engaging in genuine debate it is an exercise in futility to engage with you on any of your strongly felt topics.
One look at your comment @ 1.1.2.1.1.1. confirms that you don’t acknowledge your bias and emotional attachment to the issue at hand as wishful thinking. Of course, it is all about “reasons/economic-forces”. Yeah, right.
Wishful thinking based on severely impacted emotional reasoning.
When people like PU deliberately won't even correctly address you by your given login, you know they're on shaky ground to start with. It's a dead give away.
lol sure allen – you said, "Wishful thinking based on severely impacted emotional reasoning."
Phil said this, "ok..and to be clear – it is not just dairy..it is all the animal extraction industries..
all 'meats' will be available – with no need for any animals to suffer..
that is my wishful thinking..and it is coming to pass.."
Your whole argument is emotional imo AND basically you seem to be implying that you are into animal suffering – you think that that is fine do you? It is NOT emotional dissonance or "severely impacted emotional reasoning" that leads people to not want animals to suffer it is the opposite.
I dispute your assumption my argument is emotionally driven, PU's isn't, and I am "into" animal suffering.
However, I do accept animals are killed to provide all the meat I eat, and even do it myself with wild rabbits. The anti cruelty angle isn't one I can be shamed with, though of course, try all you like.
The wishful thinking bit is the "is coming to pass".
There are some interesting small-scale advances in a couple of areas. This is a massiveloy different proposition from being on the cusp of the commercial unviability of all livestock-related industries because of plant-based products that are indistinguishable and cheaper.
Maybe in 50 or a hundred years scotch fillet will be plant based. Even then punters will shell out for wagyu beef.
if you say,"Wishful thinking based on severely impacted emotional reasoning" about wanting to reduce animal suffering then you are being emotional imo – if not what is it? PU is being emotional too – it's cool – humans decide emotionally and justify with reason, afterwards, in my vast and wide experience.
Not trying to shame you – I don't really care what you put in your mouth but I do care about fairness and your argument slips on that regard imo especially the dissing of someone wanting to reduce animal suffering. That's it from me on it – I've made my point and I don't care to argue about nothing.
edit @ mcflock – not sure if severely impacted emotional reasoning applies to ‘coming to pass’ – that would be a full excessive response from TA which would be even harder to call non emotional.
The severe impacted emotional reasoning is all through the arguments put forward today, and other times, and whilst that is up to him to do that, it is surely there. He can't even say a certified free range egg is okay to eat. That's not a winnable argument from the perspective of well treatment of animals, that's entirely overly emotive over the substance.
It's confusing wishful thinking with fact, again, to re-state the coming death of the NZ dairy industry because of the linked report to start up labs in the u.s. I could say flying vehicles will be the end of the car industry based on the research work of some company, somewhere, if I found a sliver of supporting to put forward, but it would, of course, likewise be wishful thinking.
I have argued the industry won't die, certainly on a local level, even with restrictions due to climate change. Sure, time will tell how it all works out, yet so far it's an unchallenged counter point with only 'meat is murder' and 'you're into animal suffering' given back. Now what's that about emotional and excessive?
Sure, all for stopping ill treatment of anyone or anything, person or animal, but if you equate slaughtering an animal to eat as animal suffering, then we're poles apart. The .22 pellets that goes through the head and clean kill rabbits aren't animal suffering, certainly not like giving them mixomatosis anyway.
The death of the animal is ultimately the end game, and as a meat eater, I'm okay with it.
I know what you’re saying. I tried in vain recently but the nonsensical ‘arguments’ that were put forth showed it was only ever going to be an enormous waste of (my) time. Interestingly, commenters like PU seem to relish these exchanges so they must be getting/gaining something from it …
I hope I’m not wasting my time and your questions were genuine and in good faith.
It’s quite simple, if you don’t relish the abuse why do you keep coming back for more and why do you invite more?
I think people find your arguments/ideas challenging and your comments inaccessible because the way you present them, the style, the form & format, the words, the grammar, the punctuation, et cetera.
When you put forward your comments in a certain way, people are more likely to respond in a similar vein (sow – reap).
You draw attention to yourself. Don’t want it, don’t do it.
The answer to my question is: zero, none, never, not once. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? But you didn’t have a clue!? And yet I “seem to be so much on [your] case”!?
Nope, I didn’t accuse again of not debating in good faith. I said @ 5:15 PM “that you have shown repeatedly that you are not interested in engaging in genuine debate”.
You have been a long-term commenter on this platform. Yet, you have to ask what is meant with “debate”!?
It can be found at the top of the Policy (/policy/#rules):
We encourage robust debate and we’re tolerant of dissenting views. But this site run [sic] for reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints and we intend to keep it operating that way.
The qualifiers “genuine” and “in good faith” are commonly understood terms in the English language I thought. Nevertheless, briefly, they describe debate as honest, respectful, with integrity, open-minded, willing to listen and politely (and patiently) asking for clarification, tolerant, free of prejudice and discrimination, supported by evidence, et cetera. The outcome is not being right vs. wrong or winning vs. losing but finding commonality, better understanding of each other’s viewpoints, increased mutual respect, and in some (rare) cases, a newly found truth (as in understanding of reality). The outcome can also be to agree to disagree. There is no place for fake facts, disingenuous comments, dogmatism and closed-mindedness, for example.
You have traded insults in your comments (but not to me). This, to me, shows again a lack of self-awareness of how you behave here, and how you come across.
I hope this helps.
PS I believe Robert Guyton thinks positively of you, which to me suggests that we might be dealing with a communication issue more than anything.
You still can't even bring yourself to use my chosen login, that's not only a dishonest approach to engage in debate, for a start, it's a clear example of not in good faith. lol
It’s starting to look like there is another epic fail by Phil Twyford on the cards. In a rather odd press release yesterday he confirmed that for the first time the NZTA has been thrust into a competitive tender process against an unsolicited bid from the NZ Super Fund and its French Canadian partners to build and run the city to Mangere light rail project in Auckland.
So Labour’s flagship transport policy which Ardern promised at the last election would be finished by 2025 is further delayed. By the time the country goes to the polls again next year it seems likely that completely zero progress will have been made with this project, (there was also a northwestern light rail project planned too but we know the Super Fund aren’t interested in that so it appears to have been shelved). And we can be sure that if the Coalition government is turfed out next year National will move quickly to cancel the planned Auckland ATAP projects and redirect the funding back to RONS including the East-West Link, their disastrous motorway connection which would have destroyed the Onehunga waterfront and had the dubious honour of being the most expensive road ever planned anywhere on the planet.
If this all falls apart as seems increasingly likely Aucklanders will be living with the results of Twyford’s incompetence for a very long time.
Those private finance initiatives are financial hell holes for the taxpayer. Especially when the light rail vehicle builder Bombardier is the canadian side of things. They will inflate the cost of the trams rather than source through competitive tender.
These sort of projects are always very involved as huge investigations need to happen first.
Personally the distruption along Dominion Rd isnt worth it building a traditional centre of the road tracks.
Articulated guided buses are a far better option, as trams with tyres and electric powered.
Why don’t they just make one lane of the highways in each direction bus only 24/7? Electric buses, less cars and no outrageous investment in cash and energy for essentially fixed capacity services.
Short term unionist thinking makes train sets the default desire, but it isn’t what is best for this planet
I agree it makes sense to convert a lane of the NW motorway to bus-only right now, while we wait for the full connection to be built.
Trains can carry more people per hour per metre of lane space than buses or cars – a crucial factor for peak services in built-up environments. Trams also out-perform buses and cars.
Steel wheels on rails are way more energy efficient than rubber on asphalt, so even electric buses are more carbon-intensive than electric trains or trams. That's a long-term proposition.
There are more members of bus unions than train ones. I do not know what you are on about there.
Twyford himself has said quite recently that the northwestern light rail plans may need to be scaled back.
Personally I think they should just get on with the original plans for a busway from the northwest to the city. We’ve seen how transformative the Northern Express has been for public transport users on the Shore. And it’s relatively easy and cheap to convert dedicated busways to light rail at a later date.
Biggest problem with building a busway first then converting to light rail later is having to close the whole thing for a couple of years during the changeover. As we will find out with the Northern one sometime..
There would be no need whatsoever to close the northern busway while it’s transitioned to LRT. Starting at the city end you’d build the city terminus, lines and stations plus the 2nd harbour crossing (hopefully a cable stayed bridge) and the spur line to Takapuna – busway services run as normal while done. Then the rest of the network can be done in stages with the busway using the motorway at whichever station is being worked on. Meanwhile services have commenced on the new Takapuna to city. LRT. It’s not fucking rocket science.
We Aucklanders like to think we’re in the same league as Sydney and Melbourne but the reality with public transport in this city is that we aren’t even keeping up with fucking Canberra.
It’s true that there has been an enormous amount of junk stories written about these projects in the last few years. Anne Gibson’s “Slow Trams” piece in the Herald the other day was almost completely devoid of any facts.
However I’m inclined to agree with Ad that, in the Year of Delivery we’re looking at another major fail from the government as a signature policy turns to custard.
Twyford has appointed MoT to oversee a procurement contest between NZTA's light rail team, and the NZSuper/Quebec Pension Fund team.
MoT have no experience in this area.
Treasury do.
MoT have also proven themselves to be a totally ineffective regulator of NZTA, and we are still awaiting the Martyn Jenkins into how responsibilities for regulating and enforcing the transport system will be redesigned. 12 months later still waiting ……….
So there is no reason to be confident in MoT decisionmaking in infrastructure projects which also have an integrated operating model, and are outside PTOM. Also there's no word on how the NZSuper model fits within ATAP, and ATAP is the first time Crown and Auckland ever agreed on transport project priority and funding together.
If anyone can think of an instance where the country's major infrastructure agency was actively undermined by another agency on a deal this scale, I'd be very interested.
DPMC should have been all over this smacking heads a long time ago. There's now going to be a Cabinet decision some time next year. It makes it a very high risk that an election and change of government will kill light rail completely. That is caused by this government's inability to control its own entities.
Also some chance that Tamihere will come in to rule Auckland and actively oppose it, a risk that would have been managed if the Government had got their shit together.
So the parallels to Muldoon's Aramoana deal are pretty similar.
More detail on GreaterAuckland if you want it.
The sum total of this terms' transport infrastructure delivery will be the motorway jobs around the Waikato that were started by National.
Can you please explain why MoT doesn’t have experience in the area of procurement? They certainly feature on GETS (https://www.gets.govt.nz/).
That is caused by this government's inability to control its own entities. [my italics]
What do you mean by this? The system is set up to ensure independence from Government interference and to shield operational matters from political meddling.
Lastly, if this was “an unsolicited bid from the NZ Super Fund and its French Canadian partners” as alleged by ScottGN @ 2 then it cannot be simply ignored and brushed aside as an inconvenience or political nuisance, can it?
NZTA aren’t exactly blameless either though Ad. In retrospect Twyford’s decision to take the projects off AT and give them to NZTA looks like a major blunder.
Greg Newbold knows nothing about how white terrorist mass-messaging works. This is not the same as a prisoner who killed someone in a pub brawl and is writing to his nan.
"but it is simply illegal." [ to stop him sending letters]
S108 Withholding mail
(1)
A prison manager may withhold mail between a prisoner and another person if—
(a)
the prisoner or the other person asks the manager to do so; or
(b)
the other person is under 16 years, and his or her guardian asks the manager to do so; or
(c)
the other person is a prisoner, and neither prisoner has first notified the prison manager of his or her intention to correspond; or
(d)
it is correspondence that the manager believes on reasonable grounds is likely to—
(i)
threaten or intimidate a person to whom it is being sent by the prisoner; or
(ii)
endanger the safety or welfare of any person; or
(iii)
pose a threat to the security of the prison; or
(iv)
promote or encourage the commission of an offence, or involve, or facilitate the commission or possible commission of, an offence; or
(v)
prejudice the maintenance of the law (including the prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution, and punishment of offences, and the right to a fair trial); or
(vi)
breach an order or direction of any court (for example, a direction given under section 168A (no-contact conditions if family violence offence defendant remanded in custody) of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011) or constitute contempt of court.
Its typical of NRT to have a rant without even reading the Full Corrections Act. he mentions S69. Ignores section 108 m which is far broader
And hes wrong again at the end when he says this terrorist will eventualyl get out of jail.
hes totally ignorant about the sentence of life without parole. Mudering 51 people , in a place of worship , will certainly attract the maximum
Pretty much nope. Idiot/Savant isn't suggesting that withholding mail is never legitimate;
"Incoming or outgoing mail (or items in it) can be withheld for various reasons, including consent, court orders, and preventing the commission of further offences."
rather that there are no legal grounds for an instant, blanket ban on all mail for this particular prisoner.
(Regarding "life without parole"; I'm pretty sure it's a sentence that's never been used in NZ but I agree with you that it's inevitable in this case.)
Not so sure about the blanket ban in this case. It's not just what he says, but that it's from him that encourages these jerks/promotes similar acts.
In his case, it might be currently legal to have a list of authorised contactees who get mail unless there's something explicitly fucked up, and for random weirdos in Russia or wherever it all gets returned to sender. Even a "nice to hear from you, I like cats, too" note from the fucker would end up in a wee shrine on their wall.
Corrections' immediate response to publicly fucking up is to ban the prisoner from sending or receiving any more mail.
I remember the head of Corrections saying every piece of his mail would now come over her desk.
And the ban , its temporary
"The man accused of the Christchurch mosque shootings will be blocked from sending or receiving mail pending a review, Corrections' chief executive says.
NRT doesnt read it properly and calls it "any more mail"
So his story has 3 falsehoods.
No ban on 'any more mail' its temporary
Not Illegal, S108 allows various circumstances
Not ' Will Get out of prison one day', as life without parole is available and NRT doesnt yet know how the sentence will turnout
"A third-strike murderer who avoided life imprisonment without parole, now says even the 20-year minimum term was too long."
All prisoners sentenced to 'life' have the parole period set by the judge but its still an option to set no minimum period before parole that isnt a 3rd strike murder case
Garrett has said there has been a Judge who did set Life without parole, not sure which one and maybe Appeal Court changed it ?
My first love was Miss McCabe, my English teacher in secondary school. She was so pretty, I must have stared at her for two three hour lessons per week for a couple of years and learnt nothing. She got married and I was devastated at the time, but I managed to cope and move on.
Like the first casualty of war but different, she took my grammar, my spelling and my innersents.
'Veteran National MP and former Cabinet minister Judith Collins will lift the lid on her time in Government in a tell-all book which details some of the most trying times of her political career.'
Now we'll find out what really happened, happy days
"The National Party, which generally pulls in more money in donations than other parties, has run more ads than others in recent months, with a fierce campaign against Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter over her proposed "feebate" scheme.
At one point the party had 14 ads running at once."
Still not sure why facebook google cookies are being set for this site – the extra cookie load may be slowing down things too. But web pages are loading ok now.
I would assume its WordPress doing it for them . Wont be long before Twitter is lurking in the background as well
when a link to FB Twitter etc is placed in a post or comment WordPress adds a tag so that your browser goes and get an image from FB to connect the link to
"They could think about an appropriate development there that takes into account all the concerns Pania has mentioned," said Dr Finlayson.
"You could get an appropriate Novotel there, beautiful open space. Someone suggested it could be a golf course… Open space, beautiful piece of land. What better than having 18 holes before you jump on the Emirates flight to Dubai?"
Garner isn’t the last person I’d go to for information about Māoridom, but he’s close to last. I can’t see how this kind of MSM rumourmongering helps anyone.
Whatever happens there’s still the issue of the land having been confiscated by the Crown.
I agree, middle-NZ can rejoice in the fact that property rights are still enshrined and the mighty dollar still rules. Law & Order has been restored and life will return to normal again. All is well in middle-NZ. When is SPJ’s next movie coming out and when are the ABs playing again?
I agree having organisation over sea company's looking after our tamariki in state care is a failed system of the past.
Ka pai Brendon from Christchurch going to the Marae to teach the people and kaumatua about the correct medication and method of taking of the medication as well as methods to save money.
Your documents to help pharmacist work well with tangata whenua o Aotearoa. A lot of our kaumatua don't have the tautoko they need some people don't recognise me being tangata whenua to.
Ka pai Kura your winning the Billy T James comedy awards I say comedy and laughter is good for the wairua. Kura woulder shoulded will be a great comedy show
I tau toko Equality for Wahine all around Te Papatuanuku. Its great to see world leaders championing this cause equality and respect for Wahine Eco Maori congratulates the Wahine times are changing for the better for all
Every G7 country should have a feminist foreign policy
We members of the G7’s Gender Equality Advisory Council are urging countries to ditch archaic and discriminatory laws and promote empowerment.
The sheer tenacity of women raising their voices and organising for fundamental change has been, and will continue to be, the driving force for achieving women’s rights and a gender-equal world. Yet we cannot ignore the fundamental role that governments can play in either promoting or thwarting change.
That is why the four of us accepted French president Emmanuel Macron’s invitation to join 32 colleagues to form a G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council. On Sunday, we will present the culmination of our work; a package of recommended laws focused on ending gender-based violence; ensuring inclusive, equitable, and quality health and education; promoting the economic empowerment of women; and combating discrimination, ensuring full gender equality in policies and public life. In each area we point to laws from around the world that illustrate the type of action countries should take.
Most countries – including the G7 – still have discriminatory laws that violate the rights of girls and women. Almost 40% have at least one constraint on women’s rights to own property. Women don’t have the same rights as men to get a job or pursue a trade or profession in 18 countries or to get a national ID card in 11 countries. Added to these archaic laws are the more recent ones that restrict women’s bodily autonomy, and deny sexual and reproductive rights.
More positively, there are hundreds of good laws that address critical issues and push progress. For example, Denmark has a new law on cyber harassment, Iceland has the strongest equal pay laws in the world, and Morocco is institutionalising gender equality Ka kite Ano link below.
I was just talking to someone educatiing them about our rear native Kaka beak the other day here we have a story on this site. We have to come up with a humane way to control goats and deer as this
be a place where our kaka beak could thrive. Eco Maori will go with fenceing off a area to be a haven for our native animals floral and fruna
An audacious plan to save a rare species
With fewer kākā beak plants in the wild than kākāpō, conservationists have been testing novel ways to hold the fort on extinction.
Yes Lloyd the Amazon is one of the most important forests in the Papatuanuku its great that people are protesting about Brazil not putting more resources into the fighting that fire.
I agree laws are not good enough to to protect people from alcohol negative effects on people. Mike this is a great story to run I can look back into the past and see many negative incidents that stem from alcohol over use.
That' will give Sir Tim a big smile having a direct flight from Auckland to Invercargill the student will be happy to.
Lightning strike at a golf game in America we never no when Tawhirimate lightning is going to strike
To me it seems like the person who made the Culture and heritage site has deliberately left the data on the site open to all Google searches. I E set up.
Te uroa the Smear you near campaign has raised the profile of cervical cancer for Wahine tangata whenua.
Sons of Black Bird showing how Pacific Islanders were used as slaves in Australia sugar plantation This will be a awesome doco/film for all. to watch Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa have problems with employment discrimination some can't even see that it's happening to them It cost one company a few hundred million. Black birds are one of my favourite birds to.
There you go the NZ housing market is still strong the regions outside of Auckland are doing great like Christchurch and Gisborne people saying our housing market is going down are not very intelligent as everyone knows that there is a huge housing short at the minute.
Cameron All the governments of the Papatuanuku need to work together in these times of uncertainty and Climate Change its hard for people to stop thinking about their own wellbeing over that of the World's future wellbeing self graterfacation is the Capitalist way of thinking so short sighted
The Myanmar government has treated their Muslim Rohingya tangata very bad I tau toko their gathering together to protest the way they are being pushed into A refugee camps across their borders. Respect for all cultures is the humane way to behave in the year 2019.
Collegiun needs to be put in the rubbish bin and in our history books. Ka kite Ano.
Australian betting on Carbon Coal is a bet that will see Australia fortunes drop dramatically especially when Solar Power is %30 cheaper a %90 cleaner needs less water to run also the price of Solar is coming down rapidly just 1 year ago Solar was just % 5 more efficient than Coal.
Eco Maori bet is on the good clean and green energy from Te Ra the Sun Solar power and Wind Energy.
Australian thermal coal exporters warned of falling demand from India
Report says outlook in India is ‘finely balanced and uncertain’ despite resources industry’s high hopes.
Thermal coal exporters face “significant risk” that demand from India will decline, a report by the Australian office of the chief economist says.
It also warned of long-term uncertainties in the market considered a “great hope” by miners.
The report, released on Friday, came as the resources minister, Matt Canavan, prepared to visit India to spruik the Australian resources sector
“If India’s thermal coal imports decline, there could be substantial implications for seaborne markets.”
These uncertainties were largely out of the control of Australian miners and policymakers.
The growth of its domestic coalmining sector, and an increase in the uptake of renewables, were among the uncertainties cited by the chief economist’s report
As demand slows, particularly in China, the benchmark thermal coal price has sunk to a three-year low: US$61 a tonne.
Buckley said solar power in India was three times cheaper than the assumptions used in the chief economist’s report, based on outdated IEA predictions.
“They’re underestimating the importance of low-cost renewable energy,” he said.
“Growth of thermal coal demand in India is financially challenged by the fact renewable energy is 30% cheaper, so what bank in their right mind would finance a new coal-fired power plant.
This government has put more resources into our Rangatahi than any I can remember. Mental health funding education funding trade training. More money for Social Security.
. Yes. Mike thing have to change this issue is big and like any thing big it takes time to change I can see the positive change in Aotearoa.
The experts need to listen to other people's advice and opinions on mental health.
These issues mental health home less oranga tamariki are the symptoms of nine years of a government that puts money before tangata the everdince is there organisations recording record Profits.
Great cover of Queen Marc's he is one of my favourite singers
The dream is the oil barons hocking there carbon to the Papatuanuku and in the process that we are the %99.9 going stand by and watch the oil barons burn down OUR Whare. Solar and Wind Energy is the new trend that no one can NOT stop. The positive of Green energy verse the negative effects of carbon even a pepi could work out what is the best bet for All Solar and Wind Energy.
I get that. Lgb and transvestites minority culture have high self-harming and suerside rates hence Haters Shut Up Idiots.
How can there be justice if the process isn’t just.
Through the years, the mainstream media has had trouble applying itself to the task of calling the Crown to account for downplaying the Treaty.You get the impression that most of its influential journalists have seen the 1840 deal as undeserving of much of their time or space, unless there’s a punch-up.
The news priorities are different within the Māori media. A number of the voices coming from that direction stick to the belief that the dishonouring of the Treaty by the Crown (and the media) are at the heart of New Zealand’s problems.
One of those voices is that of Moana Maniapoto who’s on the case in various ways. One example is her documentary series The Negotiators which startson Māori Television on September 2. And another is Te Ao with Moana which runs on Tuesday nights at 8pm.
Last Tuesday, she had three guests to chew over the little-understood business of Treaty settlements.
They were Chris Finlayson, the former Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, who’d worked on Ngāi Tahu’s Treaty claims before entering parliament in 2005. Professor Margaret Mutu, professor of Māori Studies at Auckland University and chief negotiator for Te Rūnanga a iwi o Ngāti Kahu. And Chris McKenzie, who was the lead Treaty settlement negotiator for Ngāti Raukawa, which included their historical claims and also co-management of the Waikato River.
Former National Party chief whip Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four people charged over National's multiple fraudulent donations. How unsurprising. Meanwhile, just days ago National leader Simon Bridges was trying to pretend the charges were nothing to do with his party. Yeah, right. When your chief whip effectively publicly ...
If you've been watching FYI for a while, you'll have noticed that the police have a bad habit of demanding ID from requesters. They have apparently been repeatedly told to stop doing this by the Ombudsman, but we all know what law enforcement thinks of the law, so thye keep ...
Collateral Damage: For the Green Phoenix to be reborn, the funeral pyre so patiently assembled by its identity politicians over the course of many fractious years – but with growing intensity over the past three – first has to be ignited. The terrible probability, of course, is that, in setting ...
If you follow politics in New Zealand you've likely noticed that the right wing have been going on and on about the Coalition Government failing to reduce poverty. In fact they’ve been incessantly claiming, in the absence of any conclusive data, that poverty has been getting worse.Yesterday, NewstalkZB reported:Mike Hosking: ...
The Herald reported over the weekend that an Auckland business owner is being targeted with asset forfeiture laws over a workplace death:A workplace fatality has seen police use a law usually associated with drugs and organised crime to seize millions of dollars in assets from a business owner because of ...
Just days after talking about how people feel "squeezed" and promising tax and service cuts as a "solution", National is talking about cancelling a rise in the minimum wage if elected: National is considering scrapping the Government's planned minimum wage increase if it wins this year's election, the party's finance ...
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...
A Labour government desperate for the numbers crawls into bed with Winston Peters. Winston ignores the law and secretly takes money under the table from someone. When it is exposed just months out from an election, he is investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. That's what happened back in 2008. ...
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...
Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanHousing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...
Stuff today has a piece about the government discovering it has been oversubsidising polluters for a decade under the Emissions Trading scheme:The Government is pledging to urgently fix an issue within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), after it emerged some polluters are likely being over-compensated with taxpayer-funded carbon credits. [...] ...
The Marlborough District Council, tired of public scrutiny, wants to increase the amount it charges for LGOIMA requests:The cost of requesting official information from Marlborough's government agency could almost double after a jump in "fishing expeditions". Charges could be raised from $60 to $100 an hour for information supplied by ...
When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet?Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
I’m not quite sure of what to make of the new figures for COVID-19 (as we must now call the novel coronavirus – though I’m not sure the capitalisation is correct) from Hubei province:Image from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51495484The spike yesterday is a consequence of a using a different way of ...
Bob Jones has dropped his defamation case against Renae Maihi. Good. But at the same time, it perfectly exposes what the case was all about: not protecting Jones' reputation, but punishing someone who had dared to criticise him, and deterring others from doing the same. This rich pompous asshat dragged ...
As I've done for the past few years, I'm curating and presenting The Listening Lounge, the talk programme at Splore. On the morning of Saturday the 22nd at the Living Lounge stage, the korero goes like this.Yes, we're talking about drugs again, not just because I'm professionally interested in drug ...
What Were They Thinking? RNZ's CEO Paul Thompson (left) and Jim Mather, Chairman of the RNZ Board of Governors, attempt to justify the debacle arising out of their attempt to downgrade RNZ Concert to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee at Parliament on Thursday, 13 February 2020.WHAT IS ...
Dame Tariana Turia with former PM John KeyWhat is it about Tariana Turia’s grudge against the Labour Party? Not content with attacking the Government over Whānau Ora funding, which was increased by $80 million in 2019, she has now made it personal by saying that Jacinda Ardern is out of her ...
Back in 2017, right after being elected, Jacinda Ardern promised that there would be no new mines on conservation land. Since then, her government has done nothing to make that happen, and now the policy has been officially "parked" for the election:West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor says the "no new ...
So the guy who advocated for public burning and beheading feels offended because someone called him a racist!Perhaps Bob Jones hasn't heard of the very old saying; Live by the sword, die by the sword?I mean for someone who often writes opinionated nonsense about Maori; this is a ridiculous case ...
The government today announced a major support package aimed at reducing homelessness. A thousand new transitional housing places, more support for people to find homes (or not lose them in the first place), all good stuff. The one problem with it is that they're going to start charging people in ...
Courtroom Drama: There is no off-switch in a courtroom. Neither is it possible to turn the page in disgust. Ill-formed and ill-defended opinions will be exposed ruthlessly and unapologetically. As Shakespeare put it: “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” Sometimes the ...
As of today, the novel coronavirus spreading in China is called COVID-19. Why does it matter? Around the office, we’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks about how 2019-nCoV needed its own name. First, it was getting annoying calling it by the above designation, and ‘novel coronavirus’ doesn’t ...
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill (No 2) (Brett Hudson)Its basicly more "tough on crime" nonsense (its already illegal for unlicensed people to own guns) designed to wedge NZ First against its arsehole base. ...
In 2015 the world agreed to the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. Each country would offer a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) "that it intends to achieve", and "pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving [it]". And every five years, they'd improve on it, ratcheting up ambition until ...
In theory, the emissions trading scheme should reduce emissions. Making polluters pay for permits to pollute lets them save money by reducing pollution, giving them a financial incentive to do the right thing. But right from the start the ETS was broken with a system of free allocation, so polluters ...
Irish voters went to the polls on Saturday in parliamentary elections, and perhaps delivered a political revolution. Since independence, Irish politics has been dominated by two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Basicly patronage networks with indistinguishable policies, their cleavage isn't ideology, but who killed whose father or grandfather in ...
Once again the Aotearoa Bike Challenge is on us, and once again I’m participating. In principle this is not hard because it does not represent a significant switch in behavior for me. I already bike nearly every day. The Bicycle The fascinating thing about cycling is the realisation that this ...
Lately there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the origins and purpose of Skeptical Science. As John Cook wrote nearly a decade ago, Skeptical Science is primarily a website that debunks climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. Despite the ever-worsening impacts from climate change, with record after record being broken in ...
Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Australian smoke plume sets recordsThe recent wildfires in Australia sent one of ...
The Global Protest to #FightInequality was powerful – thankyou and what next? Dear allies, We started the decade with a huge protest to #FightInequality that was heard around the world, including the 1% at Davos. Watch and share the highlights on facebook and twitter. A huge thank you. Together we ...
The Ministry of Health have announced a package that might ensure NZ will never experience another measles epidemic. While at the time of writing the details are still limited it appears that the important limitations in our current programme have been acknowledged and the intent is to address them. Great ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly summarise our assessment of the highly uncertain new coronavirus threat. Given its potential to become a severe and prolonged global pandemic, a precautionary response now means activating all components of our pandemic plan, with a particular focus on ‘keep ...
When Labour was running for election, Jacinda Ardern famously said that climate change was "my generation's nuclear free moment". The implication was that her government would take the problem seriously, and act swiftly to reduce emissions. The reality:New Zealand will emit a million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 ...
James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
by Philip Ferguson Exit polls are showing a three-way virtual tie between the main parties in the south of Ireland. Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are all on just over 22%. FG on 22.4, SF on 22.3, FF on 22.2. Exit polls indicate that over 30% of 18-24 ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 2, 2020 through Sat, Feb 8, 2020 Editor's Pick New Report Details How Fossil Fuel Industry's Climate Destruction Also Exacerbates Human Rights Abuses"Even in the face of the ...
In a previous post I described briefly when and how the Starlink satellite chains – recent launches by Space-X in a scheme to bring 5G internet connectivity to the whole globe – could be seen from New Zealand with the naked eye. Here I provide an update and predictions for ...
Keeping The Faith: This Government’s broad, new, heavily moderated, progressive faith does not require a prime minister with the powers of a medieval pope. Jacinda’s regime has no need of subterranean torture chambers to ensure compliance. A gift for diplomacy and the ability to inspire her fellow human-beings is all ...
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...
Tonight’s news suggests the coronavirus outbreak may have originated from pangolins. Details are very sketchy, almost nothing at all beyond a claim of high similarity. My impression is this claim comes from a press release by South China Agricultural University. Initial discussion online suggests this is a more likely candidate ...
by Susanne Kemp The Fire and Emergency service (FENZ) has recently asked firefighters in Auckland Areas 3, 4 and 5 to take on an additional duty that has rather ominous implications. Namely, to collect names and addresses of everyone on the premises of fires they attend. The firefighters’ union, the ...
Part of the story of the Nazis' rise to power in Germany was the willingness of mainstream right-wing parties to work with them to keep out the left. Because of this, one of the fundamental rules of postwar German politics has been "do not work with Nazis". As a result, ...
There has long been a truism in public broadcasting: don't mess with Concert FM. The theory was that although the station has been in a long-term audience decline, and that audience is steadily ageing out, it has powerful establishment support – and any threat to it would provoke a fury.As ...
This is a re-post from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The heat absorbed in Earth’s oceans reached a new record in 2019, found a recent study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. Despite the fact that this has been the case for almost every year over the past decade, this information ...
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics.Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...
by Don Franks Under a government claiming empathy with the fine arts, Radio New Zealand ( RNZ) is poised to cut back its classical music station, RNZ Concert. The plan is replacing it on FM radio with music “for a younger audience” as part of a new multimedia music brand. ...
More Thwaites This past week we heard disturbing news about Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. Helping to fill in the longer term history of Thwaites' behavior and especially helpful in interpreting results of the recent drilling project and what it may say about the future of this unstable mass of ice is Revealing the ...
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit:Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ...
“The scene is set, the players met…”. And what players they are in this farce of an Election coming up in the United States this year. There is a multi-faceted anger in the broader situation the world finds itself in, in which the false promises of so-called “moderates” find themselves ...
A few years ago, a company lowballed a contract to dispose of toxic waste from the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. So, they dumped it in a disused paper mill in Mataura, then went into liquidation - effectively dumping the problem on local councils. The waste is dangerous - it releases ...
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...
Over on The Good Society, Max Rashbrooke suggests that its time to start directly taxing wealth:A wealth tax would be levied on net wealth – that is, the value of people’s assets once their debts have been subtracted. Such a tax would be highly redistributive. Levied at 1% on wealth ...
The quarterly labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has dropped to 4%. There are now 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when Labour took office. Its not the performance we had under Clark (when unemployment was ~3.3%), but its still a reasonable improvement over prevailing conditions under National. ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was on RNZ’s Morning Report talking about the recent droughts in the Northland region and what the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is doing to alleviate its impact. The PGF recently announced a funding of $2 million for temporary water supplies to Kaikohe and Kaitaia, ...
Speaking to The Country’s Jamie Mackay, New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones talks water storage, plant-based meat imitation, and superstar Hollywood director James Cameron. While water storage may have its critics, Minister Jones defended the scheme by saying: “unless we invest and continue to invest” in this ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is accusing northern iwi leaders of selling out Māori by voting for ideologically-driven court cases rather than practical steps to increase water supply. “I just think that iwi leaders who think that water issues are going to be solved by perpetually fighting in the ...
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs The Government has agreed with Air New Zealand to charter an aircraft to assist New Zealanders leaving Wuhan, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. The aircraft will have capacity for around 300 passengers and will fly from Wuhan to ...
Hundreds of New Zealanders and international visitors will be able to get back out into nature with the Milford Track partially reopening next week, after extensive assessments and repairs, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The popular Great Walk has been closed since 3 February after an extreme ...
Up to 110 new EV chargers nationwide in cities and regions 50 electric vehicles for ride-sharing The Government is helping deliver more infrastructure and options for low emissions transport through new projects, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. Tauranga, Nelson, Levin, New Plymouth and Oamaru are just some ...
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...
All New Zealanders need to have their voices heard at work to ensure we have an inclusive and productive economy. Today we introduce a Bill to do this for workers in the New Zealand screen industry, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “The Screen Industry Workers Bill will ...
The Government has announced further help for the Southland and Otago regions to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. “I’ve approved Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG), making $500,000 available to help with the clean-up in Fiordland, Southland, and the Clutha district in Otago,” Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Following the announcement that more than 340 schools will be funded to run events promoting vocational education, the Government has announced it will fund a further 257 events to be run by employers and industry. “These industry-run events will allow more than 30,000 students to connect with more than 2,000 ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
Clear requirements for ensuring customers are treated fairly by banks, insurers and other financial service providers are included in new financial conduct legislation that passed its first reading today. “The recent reviews, by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, into the conduct of banks and ...
Applications are now open for the fifth round of the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced today. “I am delighted to open this year’s fund which has some $7 million available to support performing arts venues, galleries, museums and whare ...
The Minister of Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta today congratulated Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu on her appointment as the next President of the Law Commission. “Amokura Kawharu will be a standout in her new role, leading in an innovative and forward looking approach to the law reform process. She will ...
Auckland University legal academic Amokura Kawharu has been appointed as the next President of the Law Commission, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Associate Professor Kawharu will take up her new appointment on 11 May 2020. “I would like to congratulate Associate Professor Kawharu on her appointment,” Andrew ...
A programme for employers to help them engage effectively with younger employees was launched today by Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson. The Youth Ready Employer Programme contains a range of on-line templates that employers can easily access to help with employing and retaining young people in their businesses. The programme ...
Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursday 14 May, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “This year’s Budget will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also preparing the economy for the future. “Those challenges and opportunities cannot be resolved in one budget, ...
I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has today classified the drought conditions in Northland as an adverse event for the primary sector, unlocking $80,000 in Government support. “This is recognition that the extreme and prolonged nature of this dry spell is taking its toll on our farmers and growers and additional support ...
The Minister of Police says an operation to smash a trans national drug smuggling ring today will make a significant impact on the methamphetamine trade fuelling harm in our communities. Police have announced 10 arrests and the seizure of up to five million dollars’ worth of illicit drugs after an ...
The Government’s books are in a strong position to withstand global headwinds, with the accounts in surplus and expenses close to forecast, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown accounts for the six months to December. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was above ...
Race courses can improve safety with this year’s second round of funding from the Racing Safety Development Fund. Minister for Racing Winston Peters has announced the second funding round of 2019/20 is open with $347,875 available for distribution. “The racing industry is integral to the economic and social fabric of ...
Hundreds of thousands of young adults will be offered measles vaccinations in a new campaign to strengthen New Zealand’s immunisation system, Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter said at its launch in Auckland today. “About 300,000 young adults aged between 15 and 29 are not fully protected against measles, and ...
The Government is committing $300,000 to fund research to update behavioural information to make sure HIV and STI prevention services are targeted appropriately in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson made the announcement at today’s Big Gay Out in Auckland. “There is much talk about ...
The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has announced work will begin on a business case to assess the viability of forming a new public media entity. “The Government must ensure New Zealanders have a strong independent public media service for decades to come, which means ensuring public ...
Minister of Civil Defence Hon Peeni Henare announced today that the Government will contribute $100,000 to the Southland regional Mayoral Relief Fund, to support communities impacted by the recent flooding in Southland. Mr Henare says this week’s flooding has caused significant disruption to communities in the lower South Island. ...
Heritage buildings throughout New Zealand will benefit from the $1.1 million in Heritage EQUIP funding grants announced today. “These grants for seismic strengthening projects help private building owners get the advice they need to start building work or to get the work completed,” Grant Robertson says. “Timaru’s Grosvenor Hotel has ...
A new survey has found New Zealand’s game development sector has grown beyond expectations and is on track to becoming a billion dollar industry in 2025, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says. “New Zealand’s interactive media sector grew by 42 per cent in last financial year to $203.4 million, according ...
Are you a time-poor urban apartment-dweller who’s put composting in the too-hard basket? Read on…About half of what Aucklanders chuck in their rubbish bins is actually compostable material. That means a whopping 90,000 tonnes of Auckland households’ food waste ends up in landfill each year. Why is that a problem? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Associate Professor, Psychology, Deakin University Snapchat has announced a new feature called “Here For You” that promises to “provide proactive in-app support to Snapchatters who may be experiencing a mental health or emotional crisis”. The popular youth-oriented app is the ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.A very concerning element of the current NZ First donations scandal is the role of lobbying and lobbyists close to the Government. The most recent story from RNZ’s Guyon Espiner and Kate Newton, revealed that lobbyist Doug Woolerton, who is also a trustee of the NZ First ...
“The visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing has reinforced the need to view good, affordable homes as a fundamental human right – and highlighted what needs to happen to ensure all New Zealanders are well-housed,” says Scott ...
The government has announced a ban on electricity retailers using promotions to lure back customers who’ve changed companies. Flick Electric’s Nikki Cockburn explains why this is a victory for consumers and competition. Progress on the Electricity Price Review (EPR) might be slow – especially when it comes to putting recommendations into ...
Acculturation – the cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture or a merging of cultures – is increasingly evident in this country’s public agencies. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has not escaped the process. In July 2018, soon after ...
Pacific Media Watch The Philippines top state lawyer has filed a lawsuit against the country’s key television broadcaster with “guns blazing” but he ought to be devoting more effort on governance, says Rappler co-founder and managing editor Glenda M. Gloria. Gloria, who has been announced as a keynote speaker ...
The Electricity Authority says the ban on power companies offering better deals to customers who want to switch should bring down power prices. From 21 March the authority will ban the so-called win-backs offered to customers within 180 days of leaving their original supplier. Figures show 435,000 consumers switched suppliers ...
This is a press statement from UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing at the end of her 10-day visit to New Zealand. The Government of New Zealand has recognized that the country is facing a housing crisis, said Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur ...
Fletcher Building is hopeful the Ihumātao land dispute can be resolved soon but says it cannot hold off indefinitely. Presenting the construction company's half-year results to the end of December 2019 chief executive Ross Taylor said it has been a complex situation. But the company said in a presentation that ...
The telecommunications company Spark has made a larger profit off a big boost in mobile sales, with the company's bottom line rising 9.2 percent to $167 million in the six months ended December. Revenue rose 4 percent to $1.82 billion with increased margins in the mobile, broadband and cloud divisions. ...
Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt, welcomes the release of the preliminary findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, today, and looks forward to giving her recommendations careful consideration. “Ms ...
Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross, has been named today as one of the four people facing Serious Fraud Office charges in relation to two $100,000 donations made to the National Party. ...
Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four men charged by the Serious Fraud Office in the National Party donations case - alongside a Chinese community leader who reportedly gave $100,000 to the party, and two others. Name suppression for Ross and his co-accused Zhang Yikun, Zheng Shijia, ...
Almost a third of middle-aged New Zealanders have tried methamphetamine at least once, according to a new University of Otago, Christchurch study looking at the link between using the drug and violence in the general population. The study found those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Theresa Larkin, Lecturer Medical Sciences, University of Wollongong Why don’t burns bleed? – from the year three and four students at Islington Public School in NSW Hello year three and four students – thanks for your excellent question! To ...
The report details an unannounced follow-up inspection, the first in a new phase of inspections of all 18 New Zealand prisons by the Office of the Inspectorate. This follows the first phase of inspections, where all prisons were inspected in a process ...
Netflix’s new release Horse Girl promised a quirky indie dramedy from its trailer. In reality, it’s a nightmarish time-warped look into the mind of a mental illness sufferer, writes Alice Webb-Liddall.There was a horse girl in every primary school classroom. The one with ballet flats and low ponytails and books ...
You may not be punching strangers’ seats, but there’s plenty of other behaviour that is guaranteed to make your fellow passengers seethe with rage. Here’s how to travel by plane without making people hate you.You’ve probably seen the video: a woman leans back in her reclined seat as a man ...
Earmarked for big things since she left high school, the ‘Nothing to Regret’ singer has been dealing with the weight of expectations for a while now. With her debut EP just released, she’s OK with where she’s at.Given the circumstances, Robinson is surprisingly relaxed. It’s early afternoon on a swelteringly ...
By Meriba Tulo in Port Moresby Over the past month, the Autonomous Bougainville Government has made known its intention to put forward several proposed amendments to the Bougainville House of Representatives. These amendments include a provision to allow for a president to serve for more than two terms – ...
New Zealand’s Catholic bishops are concerned that unborn babies will lose their existing tenuous legal rights if Parliament passes the Abortion Legislation Bill in the form proposed by a select committee. And unborn babies with a fetal disability ...
Younger voters are being encouraged to take time now to make sure they are enrolled and ready to vote in this year’s election and referendums. The Electoral Commission’s enrolment teams will be at orientation events at universities, polytechnics and wānanga ...
FIRST Union’s Real Work Real Jobs campaign is expanding its focus to include ‘gig economy’ workers like Uber drivers and dependent contractors, with the public release of the union’s submission on the Government’s Better Protections for Contractors ...
Linda Burgess climbs the eternal staircase at the Opera House in Wellington to watch the virtuoso actor. At the interval her legs are aching. But in the second half, magic happens.There’s one person wearing a face mask, just the one, and it turns his face into a disposable nappy with ...
National Party leader Simon Bridges says the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the New Zealand First Foundation adds weight to calls for Winston Peters to be stood down. ...
Tutors at Northtec have begun strike action this week, action that will be disruptive for the institution and students. “Tutors never want to affect their students in negative ways, but they want their employer to show respect and put a decent pay ...
Dairy prices have fallen again in the latest global dairy auction, as the coronavirus outbreak takes its toll on trade. The average price at the overnight auction fell by almost 3 percent to $US3176 a tonne. Following a 4.7 percent fall at the previous auction two weeks ago, it was ...
Motorists are now able to offset their carbon emissions when they fuel up at Z Energy stations. A new feature in the Z app called Carbon Count will show drivers the carbon impact of each fill, then give them the option to offset that. There will be a per-fill option ...
Growth in bank sector profits stalled last year after years of seemingly unstoppable development. Business advisory firm KPMG's annual sector report showed the industry's collective profits fell just under 1 percent to $5.7 billion, with a growth in lending, while margins were squeezed slightly, costs rose markedly, and bad debts ...
After years of swearword-emblazoned book covers, are readers all out of fucks to give about bad language?Since Adam Mansbuch’s 2011 bestseller, Go the Fuck to Sleep, book titles have been swearing profusely to grab audience attention. The author followed up on the winning formula with You Have to Fucking Eat ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters will keep his Ministerial portfolios as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigates the New Zealand First Foundation. ...
Here's how the Government could force you to sell your house for state housing; and impact of drought, coronavirus could lead to recession - economist. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentNZ First donations scandal Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Jacinda Ardern right to let Winston Peters’ keep his head over donations ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners is calling on Police Minister Stuart Nash to front up and explain, after releasing new figures showing that since 2011, Police employees have been caught 244 times for unauthorised use of confidential and sensitive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Director, Health Program, Grattan Institute Young Australians are abandoning private health insurance in droves. And the overall decline in the percentage of the population with private coverage is continuing. New data for the three months to the end of 2019, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Doctor of Botany, University of Melbourne As the brutal reality of climate change dawned this summer, you may have asked yourself a hard question: am I well-prepared to live in a warmer world? There are many ways we can ready ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eva Plaganyi, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Currents are strong around the Torres Strait Islands, lying between Australia’s northern-most tip and Papua New Guinea. When the tidal conditions are right and the waters relatively still, though, up to 230 islanders – a sizeable ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Fahey, PhD Candidate, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University General Motors has announced the Holden brand will be “retired” in 2021. This week’s announcement has been a long time coming. The Holden brand has been in a state of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra An “unholy coalition” is attacking the planned increase in the superannuation guarantee, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says in his latest “vision statement”, pledging to resist any attempt to stop the legislated rise to 12% going ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University China’s ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, let the cat out of the bag this week when he lambasted Canberra over its decision to exclude Huawei from the build-out of Australia’s 5G network. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thami Croeser, Research Officer, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The idea that we should decentralise our population has come up many times in Australia. Recently, the National Farmers’ Federation president pushed the notion, calling for a shift to the regions. And ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Fresh developments around in the political donations saga, the Chinese ambassador speaks out, and some troubling poll numbers for advocates of cannabis law reform.The Serious Fraud Office is formally investigating the operations of the NZ First Foundation. The confirmation came in ...
ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias interviews Dr Gwendoline Smith about how terrible it is to think too much.Certainly I overthink things, in the sense that I worry and fret and angst, but not in the sense that I actually think very deeply or intelligently. It’s more ...
A major report by the Auditor-General on how New Zealand's drinking, storm and waste waters are managed finds a conflicting, disorganised and stagnant system ill-prepared for climate change. Dileepa Fonseka reports. ...
The 10-year-old girl from Tawa who cherished a cricket bat signed by her 2000 World Cup heroes, now wants to spur a new crop of cricketers through her own swashbuckling deeds. In a recent column looking ahead to the T20 World Cup starting in Australia this week, Sophie Devine wrote that she “hoped to inspire ...
Transforming diseases into foes and therapies into battles isn’t the best way to face contagion. Annemarie Jutel asks: When did panic and catastrophe help anyone organise anything? Public anxiety and nations’ responses to coronavirus (COVID-19) have been shaped by the hyperbolic metaphors surrounding its discussion. Even the usually sedate and measured ...
Overworked and stressed teachers, overcrowded classrooms and substandard nutrition have ECE at crisis point. ECE teacher Susan Bates explains why everyone should care. If you want to know what NZ society might look like in the future, look into the eyes of the young children in your neighbourhood. Ask yourself ...
The pressures on the state budget of a rapidly ageing population must be acknowledged, and treated holistically and with nuance, write Susan St John and Dr Claire Dale The latest three-yearly 2019 Retirement Incomes Review takes a refreshingly holistic view of retirement policy and is welcomed by the Retirement Policy and ...
Manchester City and the Houston Astros are latest inductees into the sports hall of shame. Dirty, rotten cheats. Calculated, cynical, premeditated, habitual, recidivist, despicable cheats. Committed cheats. Add Manchester City and the Houston Astros to a gallery of shame occupied for all eternity by Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, ...
The dreaded pea weevil is no more in the Wairarapa, after a successful eradication effort. So why does this matter? OK, what on earth is a pea weevil?It’s a type of leaf beetle, so not actually a weevil after all, but the name is the name. Basically it gets into pea ...
Controversial Australian philosopher Peter Singer is coming to New Zealand in June. While he believes in reducing suffering for all humans and animals, his views on disability have sparked widespread alarm and condemnation.Utilitarian and moral philosopher Peter Singer is best known by many for the parable of the drowning child, ...
Sharon Brettkelly gets a rare look at the internal workings of Immigration New Zealand - and we look at what's holding up visa applications. Immigration New Zealand's Henderson office is like any other, with rows of workers at their computers. But in this workplace the lives of tens of thousands ...
Alex Casey delivers her seventh power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where a group of intruders have herniated the competition’s intestines forever. Click here for previous instalments. Welcome back to The Bachelorette NZ, where everything is made up and every man is suddenly named Mike. Intruders! Five of them! A whole ...
By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila Solicitor-General Jose Calida asked the Supreme Court today to issue a gag order against ABS-CBN, claiming the Philippines’ largest television network was engaging in “propaganda” to sway the justices in the quo warranto case seeking to void its franchise. Calida filed the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen R Fisher, Professor, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for young children with disability is not equal across Australia. Where you live can hinder access to information about disability support, assistance to apply for ...
The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations applauds the changes to the Residential Tenancies Act released by the government yesterday but does not believe that they go far enough to improving the rights of renters. The power imbalance in the current ...
The Prime Minister will take no action against Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, after confirmation of a Serious Fraud Office investigation. ...
Eamonn Marra’s debut novel makes a study of the mundane: sanding a fence, heating baked beans, three pizzas for $29.99 delivered. Alie Benge reckons it belongs somewhere between Sally Rooney and Elena Ferrante. It was about page three of 2000ft Above Worry Level. A feeling burst inside me: the joy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzie Gibson, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Charles Sturt University The gothic developed as a European architectural phenomenon in 12th-century France, where awe-inspiring cathedrals reflected a world drenched in religious piety and superstition. Its veneration was revisited in 18th-century English literature, when ...
Financial services company Heartland Bank has reported a solid lift in its first-half profit driven by increased lending despite a squeeze on margins and rising costs. ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, e-bikes are now just a tap away! Josie Adams reviews the latest disruption in transport culture.When Lime launched in 2018, New Zealand’s transport culture got the electric shock it needed. For too long we’d ...
Ministers love to bray about the seizing of illegal drugs. Customs statistics on seizures last year – albeit “preliminary” statistics – therefore were irresistible to Customs Minister Jenny Salesa. They gave her a platform to remind us of her existence as a Minister while acknowledging the work of her officials. ...
The rise of ‘plant-based’ diets seems like a win for those who decry eating meat. But some vegan groups claim the halfway step of vegetarianism is ineffectual if you really care about animal cruelty, climate change, or your own personal health.An article in the Guardian last year asked “Why do ...
FIRST Union General Secretary Dennis Maga says that this morning’s comments from National Party Finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith that the party would consider scrapping the Government’s proposed minimum wage increases if elected ...
The State Housing Action Network (SHAN) is deeply disappointed that the Government’s recently announced Aotearoa Homelessness Action Plan fails to provide for increases in the state housing stock which are essential for addressing the homelessness crisis. ...
Open mike 23/08/2019 
Former National Party chief whip Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four people charged over National's multiple fraudulent donations. How unsurprising. Meanwhile, just days ago National leader Simon Bridges was trying to pretend the charges were nothing to do with his party. Yeah, right. When your chief whip effectively publicly ...2 hours ago
9 hours ago
If you follow politics in New Zealand you've likely noticed that the right wing have been going on and on about the Coalition Government failing to reduce poverty. In fact they’ve been incessantly claiming, in the absence of any conclusive data, that poverty has been getting worse.Yesterday, NewstalkZB reported:Mike Hosking: ...11 hours ago
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...1 day ago
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...2 days ago
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...2 days ago
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...7 days ago
...1 week ago
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...2 weeks ago
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics. Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...2 weeks ago
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit: Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ... 2 weeks ago
“The scene is set, the players met…”. And what players they are in this farce of an Election coming up in the United States this year. There is a multi-faceted anger in the broader situation the world finds itself in, in which the false promises of so-called “moderates” find themselves ...2 weeks ago
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...2 weeks ago
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was on RNZ’s Morning Report talking about the recent droughts in the Northland region and what the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is doing to alleviate its impact. The PGF recently announced a funding of $2 million for temporary water supplies to Kaikohe and Kaitaia, ...5 hours ago
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...5 days ago
Hundreds of New Zealanders and international visitors will be able to get back out into nature with the Milford Track partially reopening next week, after extensive assessments and repairs, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The popular Great Walk has been closed since 3 February after an extreme ...2 hours ago
Are you a time-poor urban apartment-dweller who’s put composting in the too-hard basket? Read on…About half of what Aucklanders chuck in their rubbish bins is actually compostable material. That means a whopping 90,000 tonnes of Auckland households’ food waste ends up in landfill each year. Why is that a problem? ...12 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Associate Professor, Psychology, Deakin University Snapchat has announced a new feature called “Here For You” that promises to “provide proactive in-app support to Snapchatters who may be experiencing a mental health or emotional crisis”. The popular youth-oriented app is the ...15 mins ago
“The visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing has reinforced the need to view good, affordable homes as a fundamental human right – and highlighted what needs to happen to ensure all New Zealanders are well-housed,” says Scott ...1 hour ago
Acculturation – the cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture or a merging of cultures – is increasingly evident in this country’s public agencies. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has not escaped the process. In July 2018, soon after ...1 hour ago
The Electricity Authority says the ban on power companies offering better deals to customers who want to switch should bring down power prices. From 21 March the authority will ban the so-called win-backs offered to customers within 180 days of leaving their original supplier. Figures show 435,000 consumers switched suppliers ...2 hours ago
Fletcher Building is hopeful the Ihumātao land dispute can be resolved soon but says it cannot hold off indefinitely. Presenting the construction company's half-year results to the end of December 2019 chief executive Ross Taylor said it has been a complex situation. But the company said in a presentation that ...2 hours ago
The telecommunications company Spark has made a larger profit off a big boost in mobile sales, with the company's bottom line rising 9.2 percent to $167 million in the six months ended December. Revenue rose 4 percent to $1.82 billion with increased margins in the mobile, broadband and cloud divisions. ...2 hours ago
Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross, has been named today as one of the four people facing Serious Fraud Office charges in relation to two $100,000 donations made to the National Party. ...2 hours ago
Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four men charged by the Serious Fraud Office in the National Party donations case - alongside a Chinese community leader who reportedly gave $100,000 to the party, and two others. Name suppression for Ross and his co-accused Zhang Yikun, Zheng Shijia, ...2 hours ago
Fletcher Building says it hopeful the Ihumatao land dispute can be resolved soon. ...4 hours ago
In the interests of her party, let alone her Government, it is surely time for the PM to cut the Gordian knot, and cast aside New Zealand First. ...5 hours ago
Dairy prices have fallen again in the latest global dairy auction, as the coronavirus outbreak takes its toll on trade. The average price at the overnight auction fell by almost 3 percent to $US3176 a tonne. Following a 4.7 percent fall at the previous auction two weeks ago, it was ...7 hours ago
Motorists are now able to offset their carbon emissions when they fuel up at Z Energy stations. A new feature in the Z app called Carbon Count will show drivers the carbon impact of each fill, then give them the option to offset that. There will be a per-fill option ...7 hours ago
Growth in bank sector profits stalled last year after years of seemingly unstoppable development. Business advisory firm KPMG's annual sector report showed the industry's collective profits fell just under 1 percent to $5.7 billion, with a growth in lending, while margins were squeezed slightly, costs rose markedly, and bad debts ...7 hours ago
The Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says parts of drought hit Northland are in a crisis situation. ...8 hours ago
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters will keep his Ministerial portfolios as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigates the New Zealand First Foundation. ...8 hours ago
Here's how the Government could force you to sell your house for state housing; and impact of drought, coronavirus could lead to recession - economist. ...8 hours ago
ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias interviews Dr Gwendoline Smith about how terrible it is to think too much. Certainly I overthink things, in the sense that I worry and fret and angst, but not in the sense that I actually think very deeply or intelligently. It’s more ...11 hours ago
A major report by the Auditor-General on how New Zealand's drinking, storm and waste waters are managed finds a conflicting, disorganised and stagnant system ill-prepared for climate change. Dileepa Fonseka reports. ...11 hours ago
The 10-year-old girl from Tawa who cherished a cricket bat signed by her 2000 World Cup heroes, now wants to spur a new crop of cricketers through her own swashbuckling deeds. In a recent column looking ahead to the T20 World Cup starting in Australia this week, Sophie Devine wrote that she “hoped to inspire ...11 hours ago
Transforming diseases into foes and therapies into battles isn’t the best way to face contagion. Annemarie Jutel asks: When did panic and catastrophe help anyone organise anything? Public anxiety and nations’ responses to coronavirus (COVID-19) have been shaped by the hyperbolic metaphors surrounding its discussion. Even the usually sedate and measured ...11 hours ago
Overworked and stressed teachers, overcrowded classrooms and substandard nutrition have ECE at crisis point. ECE teacher Susan Bates explains why everyone should care. If you want to know what NZ society might look like in the future, look into the eyes of the young children in your neighbourhood. Ask yourself ...11 hours ago
The pressures on the state budget of a rapidly ageing population must be acknowledged, and treated holistically and with nuance, write Susan St John and Dr Claire Dale The latest three-yearly 2019 Retirement Incomes Review takes a refreshingly holistic view of retirement policy and is welcomed by the Retirement Policy and ...11 hours ago
Manchester City and the Houston Astros are latest inductees into the sports hall of shame. Dirty, rotten cheats. Calculated, cynical, premeditated, habitual, recidivist, despicable cheats. Committed cheats. Add Manchester City and the Houston Astros to a gallery of shame occupied for all eternity by Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, ...11 hours ago
Sharon Brettkelly gets a rare look at the internal workings of Immigration New Zealand - and we look at what's holding up visa applications. Immigration New Zealand's Henderson office is like any other, with rows of workers at their computers. But in this workplace the lives of tens of thousands ...12 hours ago
Drought combined with the Covid-19 coronavirus might knock economic growth enough to cause a modest recession, a leading economist says. ...1 day ago
Financial services company Heartland Bank has reported a solid lift in its first-half profit driven by increased lending despite a squeeze on margins and rising costs. ...1 day ago
Ministers love to bray about the seizing of illegal drugs. Customs statistics on seizures last year – albeit “preliminary” statistics – therefore were irresistible to Customs Minister Jenny Salesa. They gave her a platform to remind us of her existence as a Minister while acknowledging the work of her officials. ...1 day ago
(have an early listen to the insight program that will will be broadcast on sun-morn..)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018709853/milk-shake-why-the-future-of-dairy-looks-scary
'Dairy's huge role earning export dollars for New Zealand is facing a threat some say could bring it to its knees. Lab-grown milk protein is now stepping outside niche cheese and ice cream markets and into the bulk ingredient arena.'
Yeah, you said the same things about the death of dairy years ago on here. You never would give a time frame for collapse, and it hasn't happened yet.
I guess, like paul/ed/milly and their impending coming global recession, if you keep repeating yourself you'll luck into one sometime.
Industrial protein alternatives are a more plausible threat to dairying than vegans ever could be. However there will always be a niche for 'heritage' cheese, etc.
@ allen..
'Yeah, you said the same things about the death of dairy years ago on here. You never would give a time frame for collapse, and it hasn't happened yet.'
you are correct that a couple of years ago i gave repeated heads-up! on this..and i said it would be here in a couple of years….(and was generally scoffed at..)
you are now one of the few still left scoffing..?
does that at all give you pause for thought/a scoff re-think..?
'cos allen – it's here…eh..?
Big dairy is very much alive. Once again you're confusing wishful thinking with fact.
There will be a time when the industry declines, primarily I suspect to climate change and the environmental cost of exporting milk powder and added value products off shore, but there will always be a willing local market for milk and meat, and reduction in farm numbers and resulting smaller herds will feed that market with a reduced emissions footprint.
No need for fake foods at all, even when the export bubble is forced to burst.
You read my mind. When people predict the demise of someone or something more often than not there is a huge element of wishful thinking even though they may not realise or admit it. Very few doom’s day scenarios are based on scientific predictions (models) and most contain a huge bias, which can be personal but also a collective bias (i.e. shared by many, e.g. peers).
@ allen + incognito..
i would contest ur contention that i am just engaging in 'wishful thinking'
i have always known the world was not going to wake up one day and decide to go vegan..(my 'wishful' vegan thought)..
and that reality was for me for quite a long time quite depressing..
so the arrival of plant-based meats/milk (indistinguishable in taste/texture from animal-based) got me very excited – and since then i have just been watching it unfolding..
and my excitement is not based on wishful-thinking…but on economic forces..
when you have a product that tastes/smells/chews just like the highest quality of the real thing – that is not fucking the planet – is cheaper..is cruelty-free..
and is sitting on the supermarket shelve/(in burgers/in pizzas)..
then the consumer is going to have to choose to pay more for an environment-fucking product – that also guarantees animals have suffered..
these are the reasons/economic-forces (not wishful thinking) – why i think the dairy/animal-extraction industries..
are sunset industries..are going down the gurgler..
See you in a couple of years when the mass crates of affordable natural milk and shelves of meat, cheese, yoghurt and other dairy products are still plentiful, and you can try again with the wishful thinking death of dairy is nigh meme. You never know, next time you might be right. lol
ok..and to be clear – it is not just dairy..it is all the animal extraction industries..
all 'meats' will be available – with no need for any animals to suffer..
that is my wishful thinking..and it is coming to pass..
To be clearer, fake meats may well be available in the future, but if no one wants to eat them, they won't be viable or around for long.
As long as real meat is for sale at an affordable price, which it will be if export sales collapse and consumers are not paying offshore prices in the local marketplace and the supermarket chains screw the remaining sellers down, people will eat it without nary a second thought about the animal extraction industry.
ah well..!..one of us will be right..
You are ignoring the elephant in the paddy field
"At between 50 and 100 million tonnes of methane a year, rice agriculture is a big source of atmospheric methane, possibly the biggest of man-made methane sources."
Is rice farming a sunset industry as well?
http://www.ghgonline.org/methanerice.htm
@ duke..
i think you need to read the final paragraph in yr link..
there you will find the solutions to rice-methane listed..
so no..i don't think rice farming is a sunset industry..
And solutions arent being considered for dairying , a minor product in pantheon of agriculture ?
eg US has about 95 mill cattle with only 10% dairy cows.
Also to be considered is
Carbon is the backbone of life on Earth. We are made of carbon, we eat carbon, and our civilizations—our economies, our homes, our means of transport—are built on carbon.
Human emissions, which have become a problem are a fraction of the natural cycle
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ContentFeature/CarbonCycle/images/carbon_cycle.jpg
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/CarbonCycle
Venus is no life at all but has a runaway carbon cycle
An absence of Venutians,and (biological feedback) does lead to increased forcing,whereas with biology it withers under weather.
https://www.nature.com/articles/340457a0
Sigh
My comment was in response to The Al1en @ 1.1.2.1. and neither person-specific nor content- or topic-specific. In other words, it was not about you, veganism, or whatever …
Given that you have shown repeatedly that you are not interested in engaging in genuine debate it is an exercise in futility to engage with you on any of your strongly felt topics.
One look at your comment @ 1.1.2.1.1.1. confirms that you don’t acknowledge your bias and emotional attachment to the issue at hand as wishful thinking. Of course, it is all about “reasons/economic-forces”. Yeah, right.
Wishful thinking based on severely impacted emotional reasoning.
When people like PU deliberately won't even correctly address you by your given login, you know they're on shaky ground to start with. It's a dead give away.
lol sure allen – you said, "Wishful thinking based on severely impacted emotional reasoning."
Phil said this, "ok..and to be clear – it is not just dairy..it is all the animal extraction industries..
all 'meats' will be available – with no need for any animals to suffer..
that is my wishful thinking..and it is coming to pass.."
Your whole argument is emotional imo AND basically you seem to be implying that you are into animal suffering – you think that that is fine do you? It is NOT emotional dissonance or "severely impacted emotional reasoning" that leads people to not want animals to suffer it is the opposite.
I dispute your assumption my argument is emotionally driven, PU's isn't, and I am "into" animal suffering.
However, I do accept animals are killed to provide all the meat I eat, and even do it myself with wild rabbits. The anti cruelty angle isn't one I can be shamed with, though of course, try all you like.
The wishful thinking bit is the "is coming to pass".
There are some interesting small-scale advances in a couple of areas. This is a massiveloy different proposition from being on the cusp of the commercial unviability of all livestock-related industries because of plant-based products that are indistinguishable and cheaper.
Maybe in 50 or a hundred years scotch fillet will be plant based. Even then punters will shell out for wagyu beef.
if you say,"Wishful thinking based on severely impacted emotional reasoning" about wanting to reduce animal suffering then you are being emotional imo – if not what is it? PU is being emotional too – it's cool – humans decide emotionally and justify with reason, afterwards, in my vast and wide experience.
Not trying to shame you – I don't really care what you put in your mouth but I do care about fairness and your argument slips on that regard imo especially the dissing of someone wanting to reduce animal suffering. That's it from me on it – I've made my point and I don't care to argue about nothing.
edit @ mcflock – not sure if severely impacted emotional reasoning applies to ‘coming to pass’ – that would be a full excessive response from TA which would be even harder to call non emotional.
lol I suspect that depends on just how far one assesses phil's statement as going into "wishful thinking" territory.
If it's just a little bit optimistic, meh.
Optimistic to the point of wildly inaccurate? certainly an impaired assessment for whatever reason.
The severe impacted emotional reasoning is all through the arguments put forward today, and other times, and whilst that is up to him to do that, it is surely there. He can't even say a certified free range egg is okay to eat. That's not a winnable argument from the perspective of well treatment of animals, that's entirely overly emotive over the substance.
It's confusing wishful thinking with fact, again, to re-state the coming death of the NZ dairy industry because of the linked report to start up labs in the u.s. I could say flying vehicles will be the end of the car industry based on the research work of some company, somewhere, if I found a sliver of supporting to put forward, but it would, of course, likewise be wishful thinking.
I have argued the industry won't die, certainly on a local level, even with restrictions due to climate change. Sure, time will tell how it all works out, yet so far it's an unchallenged counter point with only 'meat is murder' and 'you're into animal suffering' given back. Now what's that about emotional and excessive?
yeah nah – reducing animal suffering – yes or no? If possible – if you could, would you?
If yes, why?
If no, yuck
your call
Sure, all for stopping ill treatment of anyone or anything, person or animal, but if you equate slaughtering an animal to eat as animal suffering, then we're poles apart. The .22 pellets that goes through the head and clean kill rabbits aren't animal suffering, certainly not like giving them mixomatosis anyway.
The death of the animal is ultimately the end game, and as a meat eater, I'm okay with it.
@mcflock..
'Maybe in 50 or a hundred years scotch fillet will be plant based. Even then punters will shell out for wagyu beef.'
the scotch fillet is already here – and plant-based 'wagyu beef' will be here soon enough..
and way before 50-100 yrs..
"massiveloy"
My brain keeps reading that as "saveloy"
Must have been in a different aisle when I was at supermarket yesterday.
I know what you’re saying. I tried in vain recently but the nonsensical ‘arguments’ that were put forth showed it was only ever going to be an enormous waste of (my) time. Interestingly, commenters like PU seem to relish these exchanges so they must be getting/gaining something from it …
Yeah, I recall years past, and their game playing.
@ incognito..+ allen..
i do not 'relish' people pouring abuse on me – 'cos they find my arguments/ideas challenging..
and readers can decide if my four decades of fighting this cause – are some 'game' that i am playing..
and this is the general debate thread – the heading of which says:
''Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose'.
does that still apply..?
and does it apply to me..?
I suppose I have to ask what do you get from it if it is abuse because they don’t get your arguments/ideas?
Who said you were playing games?
I’d put it to you that reap what you sow ..
I’d also suggest to you that the challenge is due, in large part, to your style of communication ..
Why do you ask about OM and whether “that” (?) or “it” (?) still (?) applies (?) to you if you already know the answer?
Here is a question for you: how many times have you and I discussed veganism or killing animals for mass consumption?
@ incognito..
'suppose I have to ask what do you get from it if it is abuse because they don’t get your arguments/ideas?'
sorry – i can't make sense of that – could you try again..
'Who said you were playing games?'
allen..
'I’d put it to you that reap what you sow'
cd u plse explain what that means..what am i 'sow'-ing (sic)..?
'I’d also suggest to you that the challenge is due, in large part, to your style of communication'
do you mean my disdain for the false honorific – the capital letter..?..
'Why do you ask about OM and whether “that” (?) or “it” (?) still (?) applies (?) to you if you already know the answer?'
i am puzzled as to why you seem to be so much on my case ?
'Here is a question for you: how many times have you and I discussed veganism or killing animals for mass consumption?'
i wouldn't have a clue..
and here is a question for you..
once again tonite you have accused me of not debating 'in good faith'
could i plse have a definition of what debating 'in good faith' is..?
or perhaps more relevant – (seeing it is what i am being constantly accused of)
cd you plse tell me what are the markers of not debating 'in good faith'..?
what constitutes such a judgement being made..?
'cos i most certainly believe in the arguments/ideas i am promoting..
i am not trading insults…
i am attempting to answer (in a civil manner) any questions asked..
so what am i doing (or not doing) that causes you to repeatedly accuse me of not debating 'in good faith'..
thank you..
I hope I’m not wasting my time and your questions were genuine and in good faith.
It’s quite simple, if you don’t relish the abuse why do you keep coming back for more and why do you invite more?
I think people find your arguments/ideas challenging and your comments inaccessible because the way you present them, the style, the form & format, the words, the grammar, the punctuation, et cetera.
When you put forward your comments in a certain way, people are more likely to respond in a similar vein (sow – reap).
You draw attention to yourself. Don’t want it, don’t do it.
The answer to my question is: zero, none, never, not once. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? But you didn’t have a clue!? And yet I “seem to be so much on [your] case”!?
Nope, I didn’t accuse again of not debating in good faith. I said @ 5:15 PM “that you have shown repeatedly that you are not interested in engaging in genuine debate”.
You have been a long-term commenter on this platform. Yet, you have to ask what is meant with “debate”!?
It can be found at the top of the Policy (/policy/#rules):
The qualifiers “genuine” and “in good faith” are commonly understood terms in the English language I thought. Nevertheless, briefly, they describe debate as honest, respectful, with integrity, open-minded, willing to listen and politely (and patiently) asking for clarification, tolerant, free of prejudice and discrimination, supported by evidence, et cetera. The outcome is not being right vs. wrong or winning vs. losing but finding commonality, better understanding of each other’s viewpoints, increased mutual respect, and in some (rare) cases, a newly found truth (as in understanding of reality). The outcome can also be to agree to disagree. There is no place for fake facts, disingenuous comments, dogmatism and closed-mindedness, for example.
You have traded insults in your comments (but not to me). This, to me, shows again a lack of self-awareness of how you behave here, and how you come across.
I hope this helps.
PS I believe Robert Guyton thinks positively of you, which to me suggests that we might be dealing with a communication issue more than anything.
You still can't even bring yourself to use my chosen login, that's not only a dishonest approach to engage in debate, for a start, it's a clear example of not in good faith. lol
Lets leave milly out of this.
It’s starting to look like there is another epic fail by Phil Twyford on the cards. In a rather odd press release yesterday he confirmed that for the first time the NZTA has been thrust into a competitive tender process against an unsolicited bid from the NZ Super Fund and its French Canadian partners to build and run the city to Mangere light rail project in Auckland.
So Labour’s flagship transport policy which Ardern promised at the last election would be finished by 2025 is further delayed. By the time the country goes to the polls again next year it seems likely that completely zero progress will have been made with this project, (there was also a northwestern light rail project planned too but we know the Super Fund aren’t interested in that so it appears to have been shelved). And we can be sure that if the Coalition government is turfed out next year National will move quickly to cancel the planned Auckland ATAP projects and redirect the funding back to RONS including the East-West Link, their disastrous motorway connection which would have destroyed the Onehunga waterfront and had the dubious honour of being the most expensive road ever planned anywhere on the planet.
If this all falls apart as seems increasingly likely Aucklanders will be living with the results of Twyford’s incompetence for a very long time.
Do you have links about that? I always understood it was considered more viable as a package deal with the Mangere line.
Those private finance initiatives are financial hell holes for the taxpayer. Especially when the light rail vehicle builder Bombardier is the canadian side of things. They will inflate the cost of the trams rather than source through competitive tender.
These sort of projects are always very involved as huge investigations need to happen first.
Personally the distruption along Dominion Rd isnt worth it building a traditional centre of the road tracks.
Articulated guided buses are a far better option, as trams with tyres and electric powered.
Why don’t they just make one lane of the highways in each direction bus only 24/7? Electric buses, less cars and no outrageous investment in cash and energy for essentially fixed capacity services.
Short term unionist thinking makes train sets the default desire, but it isn’t what is best for this planet
I agree it makes sense to convert a lane of the NW motorway to bus-only right now, while we wait for the full connection to be built.
Trains can carry more people per hour per metre of lane space than buses or cars – a crucial factor for peak services in built-up environments. Trams also out-perform buses and cars.
Steel wheels on rails are way more energy efficient than rubber on asphalt, so even electric buses are more carbon-intensive than electric trains or trams. That's a long-term proposition.
There are more members of bus unions than train ones. I do not know what you are on about there.
Twyford himself has said quite recently that the northwestern light rail plans may need to be scaled back.
Personally I think they should just get on with the original plans for a busway from the northwest to the city. We’ve seen how transformative the Northern Express has been for public transport users on the Shore. And it’s relatively easy and cheap to convert dedicated busways to light rail at a later date.
Biggest problem with building a busway first then converting to light rail later is having to close the whole thing for a couple of years during the changeover. As we will find out with the Northern one sometime..
There would be no need whatsoever to close the northern busway while it’s transitioned to LRT. Starting at the city end you’d build the city terminus, lines and stations plus the 2nd harbour crossing (hopefully a cable stayed bridge) and the spur line to Takapuna – busway services run as normal while done. Then the rest of the network can be done in stages with the busway using the motorway at whichever station is being worked on. Meanwhile services have commenced on the new Takapuna to city. LRT. It’s not fucking rocket science.
We Aucklanders like to think we’re in the same league as Sydney and Melbourne but the reality with public transport in this city is that we aren’t even keeping up with fucking Canberra.
Light rail is on it's way to becoming the biggest government procurement disaster since the Aramoana smelter.
NZTA actively undermined by NZSuperfund for nearly two years.
Minister well past due to smack heads.
You are believing journalist hyberbole like you always do.
It’s true that there has been an enormous amount of junk stories written about these projects in the last few years. Anne Gibson’s “Slow Trams” piece in the Herald the other day was almost completely devoid of any facts.
However I’m inclined to agree with Ad that, in the Year of Delivery we’re looking at another major fail from the government as a signature policy turns to custard.
Twyford has appointed MoT to oversee a procurement contest between NZTA's light rail team, and the NZSuper/Quebec Pension Fund team.
MoT have no experience in this area.
Treasury do.
MoT have also proven themselves to be a totally ineffective regulator of NZTA, and we are still awaiting the Martyn Jenkins into how responsibilities for regulating and enforcing the transport system will be redesigned. 12 months later still waiting ……….
So there is no reason to be confident in MoT decisionmaking in infrastructure projects which also have an integrated operating model, and are outside PTOM. Also there's no word on how the NZSuper model fits within ATAP, and ATAP is the first time Crown and Auckland ever agreed on transport project priority and funding together.
If anyone can think of an instance where the country's major infrastructure agency was actively undermined by another agency on a deal this scale, I'd be very interested.
DPMC should have been all over this smacking heads a long time ago. There's now going to be a Cabinet decision some time next year. It makes it a very high risk that an election and change of government will kill light rail completely. That is caused by this government's inability to control its own entities.
Also some chance that Tamihere will come in to rule Auckland and actively oppose it, a risk that would have been managed if the Government had got their shit together.
So the parallels to Muldoon's Aramoana deal are pretty similar.
More detail on GreaterAuckland if you want it.
The sum total of this terms' transport infrastructure delivery will be the motorway jobs around the Waikato that were started by National.
Can you please explain why MoT doesn’t have experience in the area of procurement? They certainly feature on GETS (https://www.gets.govt.nz/).
What do you mean by this? The system is set up to ensure independence from Government interference and to shield operational matters from political meddling.
Lastly, if this was “an unsolicited bid from the NZ Super Fund and its French Canadian partners” as alleged by ScottGN @ 2 then it cannot be simply ignored and brushed aside as an inconvenience or political nuisance, can it?
NZTA aren’t exactly blameless either though Ad. In retrospect Twyford’s decision to take the projects off AT and give them to NZTA looks like a major blunder.
Agree NZTA are not blameless.
And when the get a new permanent CE some time this year, expect yet another top-down restructure, which in turn kills all major things getting done.
Kind of agree with the guy on breakfast who said people are making a mountain out of a molehill re the terrorists letter.
Greg Newbold knows nothing about how white terrorist mass-messaging works. This is not the same as a prisoner who killed someone in a pub brawl and is writing to his nan.
The best piece I've seen on this topic was by Idiot/Savant over at No Right Turn. Absolutely nailed it.
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/08/nazis-prisons-and-mail.html
Hes wrong
"but it is simply illegal." [ to stop him sending letters]
S108 Withholding mail
(1)
A prison manager may withhold mail between a prisoner and another person if—
(a)
the prisoner or the other person asks the manager to do so; or
(b)
the other person is under 16 years, and his or her guardian asks the manager to do so; or
(c)
the other person is a prisoner, and neither prisoner has first notified the prison manager of his or her intention to correspond; or
(d)
it is correspondence that the manager believes on reasonable grounds is likely to—
(i)
threaten or intimidate a person to whom it is being sent by the prisoner; or
(ii)
endanger the safety or welfare of any person; or
(iii)
pose a threat to the security of the prison; or
(iv)
promote or encourage the commission of an offence, or involve, or facilitate the commission or possible commission of, an offence; or
(v)
prejudice the maintenance of the law (including the prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution, and punishment of offences, and the right to a fair trial); or
(vi)
breach an order or direction of any court (for example, a direction given under section 168A (no-contact conditions if family violence offence defendant remanded in custody) of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011) or constitute contempt of court.
Its typical of NRT to have a rant without even reading the Full Corrections Act. he mentions S69. Ignores section 108 m which is far broader
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2004/0050/latest/DLM294849.html
And hes wrong again at the end when he says this terrorist will eventualyl get out of jail.
hes totally ignorant about the sentence of life without parole. Mudering 51 people , in a place of worship , will certainly attract the maximum
Pretty much nope. Idiot/Savant isn't suggesting that withholding mail is never legitimate;
"Incoming or outgoing mail (or items in it) can be withheld for various reasons, including consent, court orders, and preventing the commission of further offences."
rather that there are no legal grounds for an instant, blanket ban on all mail for this particular prisoner.
(Regarding "life without parole"; I'm pretty sure it's a sentence that's never been used in NZ but I agree with you that it's inevitable in this case.)
Not so sure about the blanket ban in this case. It's not just what he says, but that it's from him that encourages these jerks/promotes similar acts.
In his case, it might be currently legal to have a list of authorised contactees who get mail unless there's something explicitly fucked up, and for random weirdos in Russia or wherever it all gets returned to sender. Even a "nice to hear from you, I like cats, too" note from the fucker would end up in a wee shrine on their wall.
Blanket ban ?
you mean this from NRT
Corrections' immediate response to publicly fucking up is to ban the prisoner from sending or receiving any more mail.
I remember the head of Corrections saying every piece of his mail would now come over her desk.
And the ban , its temporary
"The man accused of the Christchurch mosque shootings will be blocked from sending or receiving mail pending a review, Corrections' chief executive says.
NRT doesnt read it properly and calls it "any more mail"
So his story has 3 falsehoods.
No ban on 'any more mail' its temporary
Not Illegal, S108 allows various circumstances
Not ' Will Get out of prison one day', as life without parole is available and NRT doesnt yet know how the sentence will turnout
Life without Parole has been used in relation to ACTs 3 strikes law.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/108955304/thirdstrike-killer-dylyn-davis-appeals-against-20year-minimum-term
"A third-strike murderer who avoided life imprisonment without parole, now says even the 20-year minimum term was too long."
All prisoners sentenced to 'life' have the parole period set by the judge but its still an option to set no minimum period before parole that isnt a 3rd strike murder case
Garrett has said there has been a Judge who did set Life without parole, not sure which one and maybe Appeal Court changed it ?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/110729786/crown-seeks-precedentsetting-life-without-parole-sentence-for-paul-russell-wilson
@lprent Am getting blocked by Wordfence a lot this morning. Have you changed some settings?
Me too.
Ditto
That happened to me last night on a tablet . Ok today on a desktop
Yesterday too.
I’m on a desktop. If you persevere you eventually get through. Found it best to click on to post title.
The Standard web page is now infested with cookies from Facebook and Google etc.
I looked earlier and had to delete a batch , yet on this post isnt any other than the ones for the Standard
I have a feeling they are linked to the strange 'fence' blocking
Just seen your post after I commented at 6.
Can't edit posts either.
Edit. Can edit now and delete.
Me too blocked twice.
Lynn's on it.
me also
Looks like punctuation is a casualty of decolonisation.
[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.]
[mind your manners – weka]
My first love was Miss McCabe, my English teacher in secondary school. She was so pretty, I must have stared at her for two three hour lessons per week for a couple of years and learnt nothing. She got married and I was devastated at the time, but I managed to cope and move on.
Like the first casualty of war but different, she took my grammar, my spelling and my innersents.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12261171
'Veteran National MP and former Cabinet minister Judith Collins will lift the lid on her time in Government in a tell-all book which details some of the most trying times of her political career.'
Now we'll find out what really happened, happy days
Will you get a mention, Pucky?
You're her most ardent/deluded fan
Collins will dish the dirt on Key, English and Joyce, and maybe a few other of her frenemies in National
Puckish may not be liking that
Anything Jude does is for the greater good so I'll like it no matter what she writes
"The National Party, which generally pulls in more money in donations than other parties, has run more ads than others in recent months, with a fierce campaign against Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter over her proposed "feebate" scheme.
At one point the party had 14 ads running at once."
14 facebook ads, attacking Julie Anne Genter.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/115198193/facebook-ads-will-dominate-the-next-election–but-our-politicians-dont-have-to-tell-us-about-them
Attacking persons always trumps attacking policies but even better is to do both at once.
Am I the only one that is getting a 503 error and this if I try to look at more than about two articles in a minute?
"Your access to this site has been limited
Your access to this service has been temporarily limited. Please try again in a few minutes. (HTTP response code 503)
Reason: Exceeded the maximum global requests per minute for crawlers or humans."
see above
Ta
Still figuring out what it is. Looks like wordfence is getting a bit too much traffic.
I have reduced the timeouts a lot. But it may be that the cdn isn't working…
Working on it.
Ok. This may take a while as the CDN reloads. Looks like that was where bthe problem was.
In the meantime I have reduced the lockout times, and increased the number of downloads allowed.
Thanks – it's much better.
Seems way better to me too.
Cheers lprent
Heaps better
Don’t you like the new Auto-Moderation tool? You won’t even know that you’re being moderated 😉
Sheesh, just tell us not to be so chatty. 🙂
Still not sure why facebook google cookies are being set for this site – the extra cookie load may be slowing down things too. But web pages are loading ok now.
I would assume its WordPress doing it for them . Wont be long before Twitter is lurking in the background as well
"Still not sure why facebook google cookies are being set for this site"
Can you explain that in lay terms? eg when someone opens a TS page, the cookies from google are loaded into that browser?
I think that will be a feature of wordpress
when a link to FB Twitter etc is placed in a post or comment WordPress adds a tag so that your browser goes and get an image from FB to connect the link to
Tainui to buy Ihumātao land
at least according to Duncan Garner ? ""
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/08/tainui-to-buy-ihum-tao-land-sources.html
anyway Chris Finlayson thinks it is a great idea
"They could think about an appropriate development there that takes into account all the concerns Pania has mentioned," said Dr Finlayson.
"You could get an appropriate Novotel there, beautiful open space. Someone suggested it could be a golf course… Open space, beautiful piece of land. What better than having 18 holes before you jump on the Emirates flight to Dubai?"
WTF ???
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/397328/there-is-no-deal-waikato-tainui-leader
Garner isn’t the last person I’d go to for information about Māoridom, but he’s close to last. I can’t see how this kind of MSM rumourmongering helps anyone.
Whatever happens there’s still the issue of the land having been confiscated by the Crown.
It helps MSM.
It helps Garner and Shub 😛
It seeds the idea that Māori can pay for the land that was confiscated from them, delighting the scared 'middle New Zillunders' who media care about.
I agree, middle-NZ can rejoice in the fact that property rights are still enshrined and the mighty dollar still rules. Law & Order has been restored and life will return to normal again. All is well in middle-NZ. When is SPJ’s next movie coming out and when are the ABs playing again?
Minister for treaty settlements offers iwi land back with a Novotel on it… Genius!
and Māori have to pay for it, doubly brilliant!
and Māori will work there, triply brilliant!
Kia Ora The Hui.
I agree having organisation over sea company's looking after our tamariki in state care is a failed system of the past.
Ka pai Brendon from Christchurch going to the Marae to teach the people and kaumatua about the correct medication and method of taking of the medication as well as methods to save money.
Your documents to help pharmacist work well with tangata whenua o Aotearoa. A lot of our kaumatua don't have the tautoko they need some people don't recognise me being tangata whenua to.
Ka pai Kura your winning the Billy T James comedy awards I say comedy and laughter is good for the wairua. Kura woulder shoulded will be a great comedy show
The first Maori to win the award in 15 years.
Ka kite Ano
I tau toko Equality for Wahine all around Te Papatuanuku. Its great to see world leaders championing this cause equality and respect for Wahine Eco Maori congratulates the Wahine times are changing for the better for all
Every G7 country should have a feminist foreign policy
We members of the G7’s Gender Equality Advisory Council are urging countries to ditch archaic and discriminatory laws and promote empowerment.
The sheer tenacity of women raising their voices and organising for fundamental change has been, and will continue to be, the driving force for achieving women’s rights and a gender-equal world. Yet we cannot ignore the fundamental role that governments can play in either promoting or thwarting change.
That is why the four of us accepted French president Emmanuel Macron’s invitation to join 32 colleagues to form a G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council. On Sunday, we will present the culmination of our work; a package of recommended laws focused on ending gender-based violence; ensuring inclusive, equitable, and quality health and education; promoting the economic empowerment of women; and combating discrimination, ensuring full gender equality in policies and public life. In each area we point to laws from around the world that illustrate the type of action countries should take.
Most countries – including the G7 – still have discriminatory laws that violate the rights of girls and women. Almost 40% have at least one constraint on women’s rights to own property. Women don’t have the same rights as men to get a job or pursue a trade or profession in 18 countries or to get a national ID card in 11 countries. Added to these archaic laws are the more recent ones that restrict women’s bodily autonomy, and deny sexual and reproductive rights.
More positively, there are hundreds of good laws that address critical issues and push progress. For example, Denmark has a new law on cyber harassment, Iceland has the strongest equal pay laws in the world, and Morocco is institutionalising gender equality Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/aug/22/every-g7-country-should-have-a-feminist-foreign-policy-emma-watson
I was just talking to someone educatiing them about our rear native Kaka beak the other day here we have a story on this site. We have to come up with a humane way to control goats and deer as this
be a place where our kaka beak could thrive. Eco Maori will go with fenceing off a area to be a haven for our native animals floral and fruna
An audacious plan to save a rare species
With fewer kākā beak plants in the wild than kākāpō, conservationists have been testing novel ways to hold the fort on extinction.
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/08/21/764019/an-audacious-plan-to-save-a-rare-species
Kia Ora Newshub.
Yes Lloyd the Amazon is one of the most important forests in the Papatuanuku its great that people are protesting about Brazil not putting more resources into the fighting that fire.
I agree laws are not good enough to to protect people from alcohol negative effects on people. Mike this is a great story to run I can look back into the past and see many negative incidents that stem from alcohol over use.
That' will give Sir Tim a big smile having a direct flight from Auckland to Invercargill the student will be happy to.
Lightning strike at a golf game in America we never no when Tawhirimate lightning is going to strike
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Ka pai for our waka paddler all the best.
To me it seems like the person who made the Culture and heritage site has deliberately left the data on the site open to all Google searches. I E set up.
Te uroa the Smear you near campaign has raised the profile of cervical cancer for Wahine tangata whenua.
Sons of Black Bird showing how Pacific Islanders were used as slaves in Australia sugar plantation This will be a awesome doco/film for all. to watch Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa have problems with employment discrimination some can't even see that it's happening to them It cost one company a few hundred million. Black birds are one of my favourite birds to.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
There you go the NZ housing market is still strong the regions outside of Auckland are doing great like Christchurch and Gisborne people saying our housing market is going down are not very intelligent as everyone knows that there is a huge housing short at the minute.
Cameron All the governments of the Papatuanuku need to work together in these times of uncertainty and Climate Change its hard for people to stop thinking about their own wellbeing over that of the World's future wellbeing self graterfacation is the Capitalist way of thinking so short sighted
The Myanmar government has treated their Muslim Rohingya tangata very bad I tau toko their gathering together to protest the way they are being pushed into A refugee camps across their borders. Respect for all cultures is the humane way to behave in the year 2019.
Collegiun needs to be put in the rubbish bin and in our history books. Ka kite Ano.
Australian betting on Carbon Coal is a bet that will see Australia fortunes drop dramatically especially when Solar Power is %30 cheaper a %90 cleaner needs less water to run also the price of Solar is coming down rapidly just 1 year ago Solar was just % 5 more efficient than Coal.
Eco Maori bet is on the good clean and green energy from Te Ra the Sun Solar power and Wind Energy.
Australian thermal coal exporters warned of falling demand from India
Report says outlook in India is ‘finely balanced and uncertain’ despite resources industry’s high hopes.
Thermal coal exporters face “significant risk” that demand from India will decline, a report by the Australian office of the chief economist says.
It also warned of long-term uncertainties in the market considered a “great hope” by miners.
The report, released on Friday, came as the resources minister, Matt Canavan, prepared to visit India to spruik the Australian resources sector
“If India’s thermal coal imports decline, there could be substantial implications for seaborne markets.”
These uncertainties were largely out of the control of Australian miners and policymakers.
This month India announced a plan to cut its coal imports by a third, counting on an increase in domestic production and in renewable energy output.
The growth of its domestic coalmining sector, and an increase in the uptake of renewables, were among the uncertainties cited by the chief economist’s report
As demand slows, particularly in China, the benchmark thermal coal price has sunk to a three-year low: US$61 a tonne.
Buckley said solar power in India was three times cheaper than the assumptions used in the chief economist’s report, based on outdated IEA predictions.
“They’re underestimating the importance of low-cost renewable energy,” he said.
“Growth of thermal coal demand in India is financially challenged by the fact renewable energy is 30% cheaper, so what bank in their right mind would finance a new coal-fired power plant.
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/23/australian-thermal-coal-exporters-warned-of-falling-demand-from-india
The sandflys breaking into my new wind turbine stealing the charge controller and the manual on how to use the wind turbine
Kia Ora The Am Show.
This government has put more resources into our Rangatahi than any I can remember. Mental health funding education funding trade training. More money for Social Security.
. Yes. Mike thing have to change this issue is big and like any thing big it takes time to change I can see the positive change in Aotearoa.
The experts need to listen to other people's advice and opinions on mental health.
These issues mental health home less oranga tamariki are the symptoms of nine years of a government that puts money before tangata the everdince is there organisations recording record Profits.
Great cover of Queen Marc's he is one of my favourite singers
The dream is the oil barons hocking there carbon to the Papatuanuku and in the process that we are the %99.9 going stand by and watch the oil barons burn down OUR Whare. Solar and Wind Energy is the new trend that no one can NOT stop. The positive of Green energy verse the negative effects of carbon even a pepi could work out what is the best bet for All Solar and Wind Energy.
I get that. Lgb and transvestites minority culture have high self-harming and suerside rates hence Haters Shut Up Idiots.
Ka kite Ano
I ask myself this question all the time.
How can there be justice if the process isn’t just.
Through the years, the mainstream media has had trouble applying itself to the task of calling the Crown to account for downplaying the Treaty. You get the impression that most of its influential journalists have seen the 1840 deal as undeserving of much of their time or space, unless there’s a punch-up.
The news priorities are different within the Māori media. A number of the voices coming from that direction stick to the belief that the dishonouring of the Treaty by the Crown (and the media) are at the heart of New Zealand’s problems.
One of those voices is that of Moana Maniapoto who’s on the case in various ways. One example is her documentary series The Negotiators which starts on Māori Television on September 2. And another is Te Ao with Moana which runs on Tuesday nights at 8pm.
Last Tuesday, she had three guests to chew over the little-understood business of Treaty settlements.
They were Chris Finlayson, the former Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, who’d worked on Ngāi Tahu’s Treaty claims before entering parliament in 2005. Professor Margaret Mutu, professor of Māori Studies at Auckland University and chief negotiator for Te Rūnanga a iwi o Ngāti Kahu. And Chris McKenzie, who was the lead Treaty settlement negotiator for Ngāti Raukawa, which included their historical claims and also co-management of the Waikato River.
Here’s an edited version of that programme
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://e-tangata.co.nz/history/how-can-there-be-justice-if-the-process-isnt-just/