The answer, sadly, is that the contemporary Left is almost entirely ignorant of geopolitics and the strict limitations it places on diplomatic action. Even when it comes to basic economics and its decisive influence on politics, the Left’s powers of analysis have atrophied to an astonishing degree.
Others would summarise that into `ignorant & clueless'. Yet, having adopted the wrong frame for the situation, Chris risks putting himself into the same category!
The Cold War was produced by a polarisation of ideology: two competing belief systems. Capitalism and communism. Since China is now both, the frame doesn't apply to current geopolitics. What part of that don't you understand, Chris??
He then proceeds to falsify history as though fronting as an apologist for the communist regime is a good idea.
Whenever the Chinese Empire was strong enough to assert its suzerainty over Tibet (which was most of the time) the Tibetan theocracy willingly paid homage to Beijing.
Those of us who have actually done the historical research know he's bullshitting. There was a century or two when that suzerainty was real (around the 17th, from memory) but the rest of the time it was mere pretence by the emperor – and he fails to mention the earlier period of history when the Tibetans conquered China and the opposite situation prevailed.
Intellectual dishonesty is characteristic of leftists, of course, so his demonstration of tribalism merely serves to remind us why the left never achieves widespread respect.
One can be thoughtful and pose questions and offer an alternative view, and still be handing people the wrong end of the stick. Which Trotter does with monotonic regularity.
Dennis merely showed one aspect of the shit smeared on the wrong end of the stick Trotter is offering. But Trotter starts out from the get-go with bullshit framing and misrepresentation, let alone the public self-pleasuring he indulges in his second paragraph.
As for echo chambers – there's a particular echo chamber filled with blinkered views formed in particular group in an odd period almost half a century ago. Trotter keeps that chamber resonating admirably.
Andre – Chris provokes discussion at least. And Dennis and you are so entrenched in the belief that you know all, that you set yourselves up as gurus. You may worship yourselves, others respect your knowledge and wisdom, but don't accept your take on everything as the last word. Hence words from and to Chris's opinions are valuable. And accepted truth may change over time as different information and perspectives arise.
Trotter writes brilliantly but he writes to be provocative.The consistent themes are 1. Old School Labour is good. 2. The Greens are bad.
He often makes valid points. For instance he rues the gradual loss of the unions (which I agree with) because power has shifted far too much into the hands of the employees employers. For this reason he often attacks the current Labour government for not addressing this power imbalance. He overdoes these attacks.
He consistently attacks the Greens either because they are not green enough or because they are too green. I think he yearns for the old FPP days where a strong Labour government could do what it likes.
IMHO he would be better off accepting the current order of things under MMP, especially the rise of the Greens and the need to address Climate Change, and argue for a CGT, Land Tax, and Transaction Tax that will move capital from the rich to the poor and into resources that will combat Climate Change.
I don’t think the new cold war has anything to do with capitalism/communism , why should it?
It’s about a failing ,falling empire trying to hang on and a new rising power challenging it’s economic/military hegemony
A so called cold war means shots have (so far) not been fired .The hot war comes when its all out hard weaponry, not just propaganda and economics
Dennis, that's a nice critique of Trotter's post. Have you ever reflected on why you feel the need to spoil such contributions by ending them with rubbish generalisations and hyperbole? Are you perhaps 'concerned' that without a provocative assertion or two your contributions would lack punch?
"Intellectual dishonesty is characteristic of leftists, of course, so his demonstration of tribalism merely serves to remind us why the left never achieves widespread respect."
Really, Dennis, NEVER? Certainly 'the right' governments in the USA, UK and Brazil haven't covered themselves in glory with their 'handling' of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the evident failure of those administrations to keep their citizenry safe has contributed to the “widespread respect” that NZ citizens, not to mention the wider world, have for our health services and centre-left government.
Never felt the need for physical projection during this form of jousting, although I do get some relief from wearing a brace to treat tendonitis in my right achilles
So it seems to me that your counter argument Dennis is "Those of us who have actually done the historical research know he's bullshitting."
However it doesn't take much effort to research your claim and I find that Chris may be right.
"The first international document which used and explained this word was a convention signed by Britain and Russia in Petersburg on August 31, 1907, titled The Convention Between Great Britain and Russia Relating to Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet.
The third ….. section declared that the governments of Great Britain and Russia recognized China's right of suzerainty over Tibet."
One wonders why you haven't challenged Chris on TDB or his own blog.
Bash, bash , bash, the great West on China bash, the elite one percent fear their moribund grip on power and their bashing of their Capitalist rivals, China and Russia knows no bounds, as though they have the moral high ground, of course no mention of the 'Berlin wall' Israel has built to imprison Palestinians and jailing 12 year old stone throwers for 3-4 years. No mention of the Arms sales that enable their mates to bomb and starve to death Yemeni children etc etc. Mushroom clouds for tea anyone?.
We've discussed the terrors Israel places on the Palestinians as well as the horrid situation in Yemen many times on this blog. Am yet to read a poster on TS that supports what is happening in either Palestine or Yemen.
Sorry Byd0NZ, my bad. Thanks for explaining 🙂 I appreciate that, text has no tone, sometimes I get confused 🙂
Dennis, re the car crash. Yes will wait with interest regarding the result. I hope the person in hospital makes a recovery, their insight will be paramount.
Shoot the messenger has been around a very long time. Reasonable to suspect Chinese agents somehow performed the elimination of their opponents, but we must wait & see if the cops find evidence.
I remember reading in Rolling Stone about how Karen Silkwood got killed. She was a reporter investigating a nuclear power plant in '75. Car got run off the road & Hollywood eventually made a movie about it. Best way to prevent someone telling the truth is to eliminate them. It's why the left does de-platforming, eh?
Karen Silkwood was a whistleblower, working in a nuclear plant and very anxious about what seemed to be a cover-up of their operations. And had a convenient vehicle malfunction that led to her death.
This was a very unfortunate car crash in NZ killing two pro-democracy Chinese activists. Vehicle crossing the centre line, scraping one and lining up for head-on for the second with these precious, brave people inside. Is that coincidence? Who was driving the vehicle that was 'out of line'?
However, international security analyst Paul Buchanan said China had a track record of interfering in other nations' affairs, including hacking.
Furthermore, "independent" Chinese voices in New Zealand regularly experienced intimidation by pro-Beijing groups, he said.
"It's not unjustified that independent members of the Chinese community may feel threatened to the point that when something tragic like this happens, they – if not jump to conclusions – then certainly suspect that the accident may have more sinister causes than a mere accident."
I'm reading Anne Perry's book, A Sunless Sea which is about opium and gives detail of the Opium Wars and degradation that Britain rained on China and the terrible toll produced by vicious British behaviour. I think she does good backgrounding giving correct information. I'll try to put a bit up later as it would help us to know what may be in Chinese minds if we understood some of the low-down dirtiness this part of British history overseas. Which would help in balancing our opinions.
So now we have the northbound assassins doing a kamikaze move over the centre line, initially missing the target, clipping the wrong car but serendipitously slamming headlong into the right car and severely injuring themselves.Not much of a payoff or career advancement there.
I can think of more surefire ways, but why waste a tragedy when there's propagandistic hay to be made?
I think Prof Brady is showing her true pro US (Wilson Centre)colours here and would take a large grain of salt with her claims
Evidently the car that collided into them was driven by a Women with a young daughter as a passenger.
Yesterday the news implied sabotage, the only thing I could think of that would result in the death of the front seat occupants was that the safety belts had been interfered with, or the air bags failed.
Yes, a rather messy “hit” to say the least. It stretches credibility really, unless some evidence emerges beyond the apparent coincidences.
Professor Brady makes some fair and interesting points about China in her writings, but seems too much of a US proxy to have her every utterance taken as absolute truth.
Those with valid concerns about the influence and 'machinations' of the CCP do their case no favours by indulging in fact-free speculation. Fearmongering, IMHO.
I am delighted to read that vaccinologist Helen Petousis- Harris has finally realised that dismissing or minimising adverse effects from vaccines is not a sound tactic when trying to sell the product to the wider public.
Excellent and well referenced article from Farah Hancock on the progress around developing a vaccine against Covid 19.
With vaccine hesitancy an identified global health concern there's a risk not communicating likely side effects could see people lose trust in a vaccination programme.
University of Auckland vaccinologist associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris said potential side effects need to be talked about upfront.
“People will lose trust and their confidence if you don’t.”
Side effects are normal “and not necessarily a bad thing either” she said.
“You don’t want them to be serious or severe but there’s a range of effects you get when your body is making an immune response.”
This is the first time I have heard of a vaccine promoter actually admitting that a vaccine can cause significant symptoms, and acknowledging that being honest and transparent about these significant post -vaccine symptoms (rather than dismissing them as being 'coincidental') is more likely to inspire trust in the target market.
Everyone will agree that it is way too early to celebrate the apparent efficacy of these very new and novel vaccines as potential long term effects have not as yet been assessed.
Misrepresenting again, Rosemary. Or else you really haven't been paying attention.
Every time I've gone and got a jab, the possibility of side effects and reactions has been presented to me, along with going through a checklist to determine that the vaccines I was about to get were not contraindicated for me. Ranging from being told to expect my shoulder to be sore enough to be dysfunctional for several days, to being expected to call in regularly to the travel health doctor's office for several days after getting a whole bunch at once (if they didn't hear from me on schedule they were going to come looking).
Let alone that even the briefest glance at credible information sources shows a plethora of info on what kinds of reactions are likely.
If I did not make it clear…I am not referring to an individual’s experience with an individual vaccine administrator, although there are one or two accounts from credible persons whose vaccine experience has not been as well managed as your own. For example, the former editor of the British Medical Journal who's account you seem to be ignoring. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2019/03/13/richard-smith-who-is-most-likely-to-have-side-effects-to-flu-vaccination/
I am referring to the official vaccine narrative…if I missed the press release where it was acknowledged that many vaccines cause local pain and irritation and perhaps low fever, and that some vaccines cause more significant symptoms in some people and occasionally long term disability or health effects…please provide a link.
Any vaccine can cause side effects. For the most part these are minor (for example, a sore arm or low-grade fever) and go away within a few days. Listed below are vaccines licensed in the United States and side effects that have been associated with each of them. This information is copied directly from CDC’s Vaccine Information Statements (VISs), which in turn are derived from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations for each vaccine.
Remember, vaccines are continually monitored for safety, and like any medication, vaccines can cause side effects. However, a decision not to immunize a child also involves risk and could put the child and others who come into contact with him or her at risk of contracting a potentially deadly disease.
Petousis-Harris said even though a vaccine is still some time away, it’s a good time to start thinking about managing people’s expectations so side effects don't come as a surprise.
“That can be tailored as time goes on.”
She said it’s something New Zealand has done before for the Meningococcal B MeNZB vaccine where a side effect was a very sore arm after injection.
“That was talked about a lot in the media, and people were prepared for that. They actually over-talked it, and it wasn’t as bad, but it made people prepared.”
And:
The public’s tolerance for side effects has reduced in recent decades. Le Gros said he has a deep scar on his arm from a smallpox vaccine. Nowadays, that kind of reaction would be considered too severe for a vaccine to get approved.
Just a brief search for Petousis-Harris and vaccine side-effects turns up plenty:
Informed consent is about gaining appropriate knowledge in an environment and manner that is meaningful and without coercion. People must understand what is being offered, what is involved, the probable benefits, risks, side effects, failure rates, alternatives, the risks and benefits of not receiving the treatment, and that they have a choice.
Sounds reasonable? The sticking point is what constitutes risks and benefits, and scientific information versus pseudoscience. Informed consent must be based on the best current science-based information or else it is a sham.
My note: grossly overstating risks and side effects degrades and interferes with informed consent by falsely skewing the entire benefit/risk picture.
You're correct that I'm not spending my time looking for examples of credible people making comments I can misrepresent and distort into painting a false overstated picture of risks and harms from vaccines, and/or paint a false picture that vaccine experts hide the widely acknowledged side effects that can occur, and that a very few people should not get specific vaccines and that these contraindications are checked for before administering a vaccine..
And Bill Gates says something similar – that there are side effects and these need to be reduced before a vaccine is provided. He gets well mis-represented by the conspiracy people.
"You know, if we have, you know, one in 10,000 side effects, that’s, you know, way more — 700,000, you know, people — who will suffer from that,” he said.
“So, really understanding the safety at gigantic scale across all age ranges… it’s very, very hard.”
It has been my experience as a person who has been having the flu vaccine, as an at risk person since 1995, that with all vaccines their possible side-effects are pointed out at the time of 'sticking' as it were. I am of an age were to travel we had to have a range of vaccinations & a vaccination card and the side-effects of these were always pointed out
Whenever I have had a vaccination I have had to give an informed consent and the last flu one I signed the form that the nurse had that had the actual name and makeup of the vaccine and was taken through any side-effects and asked if I had any allergies. For instance people who are allergic to egg white were known to have a reaction to one of the flu vaccines as egg white is used as a carrier.
With all vaccines there will be side-effects whether permanent or transitory, ranging from the carrier ingredients to the attenuated culture used. These will be known at the time of sticking. As part of informed consent they will be explained.
The vaccine trials will have thrown up side effects and that is why time to test and do a range of tests is always a good thing. Treatments have to undergo a huge testing regime after they have been derived.
So for me far from being unusual it is very usual and has been my experience over many years with vaccines and other 'chemical' medical treatments.
Some side-effects they will know to be coincidental from the testing carried out. Some they will note as possibly new, do some more testing etc.
But as with most things these days there will be people who don't want to have treatment for whatever reason. The key is to get as many people who do not have concerns vaccinated/treated, keep the communication up so the nay-sayers do not queer the pitch ie by putting people off seeking vaccines or treatment for those who are wanting to play a part.
There have always been articles on side effects and usually at flu jab time they come out in the press releases/articles. The side effects for other vaccines are available on Ms Google.
The narrative about the current work on the Covid-19 vaccine has always seemed wrapped around with the issue of possible side-effects.
Rosemary, I'm wondering about your use of the phrases "sell the product" and "the target market" with regard to vaccines. I've been vaccinated for polio, MMR, tetanus, influenza (regularly) and probably others I've forgotten about (damn vaccines!), but have yet to part with a penny directly for any of those treatments. I suppose I must thank taxpayers (and therefore myself) for covering the cost of that disease protection.
For those concerned about New Zealand's greenhouse gas emission roduction, a really interesting release from Stats NZ yesterday:
Approximately two-thirds of New Zealand’s regions recorded decreases in their total greenhouse gas emissions, while one-third of regions saw increases between 2007 and 2018.
Between 2007 and 2018, the largest falls in emissions were in:
– Auckland, down 955 kilotonnes (7.8 per cent)
– Taranaki, down 707 kilotonnes (11.3 per cent)
– Northland, down 545 kilotonnes (10.8 per cent), and
– Waikato, down 272 kilotonnes (2.0 per cent).
Over the same period, emissions increased in:
– Canterbury, up 1,175 kilotonnes (11.0 per cent),
– Bay of Plenty, up 356 kilotonnes (11.9 per cent),
– Southland, up 335 kilotonnes (6.2 per cent), and
– Otago, up 333 kilotonnes (7.0 per cent).
“This is the first comprehensive picture we have been able to develop to show where emissions are being produced in New Zealand and which regions are driving the changes in emissions,” Mr Oakley (Head of Stats) said.
I'm hoping this gives rise to debate about divergence between energy density and industrial productivity, and to be able to break that down on a regional basis.
Today’s the 20th Anniversary of the my mate Lenny Manning who was KIA while on a Patrol in Timor-Leste with BCoy 2/1 Battalion as a part of NZBATT2 under a UN Peacekeeping Mandate.
The Black Beret represents his service in WAI/WEC SQN, the Bayonet represents his service BCoy in 2nd/ 1st Battalion RNZIR, the beer can in QAMR stubby cooler is the many beers we drunk on Crewmen’s and later at Burnham Camp home to both NZ Scots & 2/1 Battalion
Thanks for reminding us Skud. Not to be forgotten. We who read and happily/unhappily responded to the overseas fighting can too easily dismiss those who faced it.
And it is interesting to read Tricledown's points on outdated gear. I thought that National was all gun-ho to paraphrase, and would be wanting ours to be strong, well-equipped fighting men. But it seems that even matters they agree with they want to do on a mean budget, the skinflints.
Maybe it is because they are less skin and more flint; they like machinery and technology and despise the human side of life, in other words, their own selves and person. Now that is really screwy. Let's not vote the National Anti-Human Party into power for God's sake – and for those of us who haven't caught this obliterating human-hating virus. Nah to NAHPs.
The NZ Army was sent into Timor by the Shipley govt with antique equipment that didn't work and the Steyr rifle that malfunctioned.
Tax cuts by National led to running down of military capability to where it was barely functioning. Same with Healthcare Education etc.
Now Goldsmith is promising to cut $80 billion of govt spending .
Are we going to run down healthcare further than now with Carona virus threatening our Country,Education now we have lost overseas students and have high unemployment. Police numbers with gangs on the rise,
Cutting govt spending will send New Zealand into a deeper longer recession making it harder to repay debt as well as keeping the economy afloat.
What makes me laugh at Goldsmiths naivety is the Conservative Australian govt is tracking on the same debt level per capita as NZ so that makes Goldsmith's false narative scaremongering about debt levels in NZ a fallacy.
The announcement by Paora Goldsmith on the Nats plan for cutting back the Public Service seems
other-wordly like harking back in the mists of time
boring
repetitive
super BAU from the National waybacks
missed the public mood with all our public servants being thanked for all their steady work in Covid-19 and to come.
That was the effect on me, after thought.
My first reaction though was a chill. Really it was.
Been there done that got oodles of scars mentally & career-wise from the time-wasting, stupid, never-ending restructurings that took place in the PS. What a pall these constant PS restructurings cast over NZ. They restricted service, diverted us from being able to work on our departmental work full time so as to serve our people. Instead we spent time, endless days and months fighting to retain our own jobs, functions or departments.
To turn the corner we need innovation, failed has-been policies won't work. They shouldn't be given the opportunity to work.
The cost is too high on those affected both 'clients' or whatever name our people are called, and public servants. Public Servants work for the good of the public.
I'd love to get away from the tosh neo-lib stuff written into the Acts dealing with the State Sector that we work for the Minister. We work for whatever govt is in power upholding and bringing about whatever legislation, policies etc the govt has been elected to do.
The Minister is responsible for bringing us $$$$, legislation, policy direction. We don't work for them…our over-riding work is for the people of NZ.
Hopefully the reviews of legislation this Govt is proposing will look at, and determine, what was actually wrong with the system prior to these pieces of legislation. Sure there were a few good parts in what followed but those of us working at the sharp end were never sure what the 'mischief' was that the reforms were trying to remedy.
Meantime here is the link…..public servants prepare to shiver.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu/uk-ready-to-quit-eu-on-australia-terms-if-no-brexit-deal-johnson-says-idUSKBN23Y0J6
Jun.28/20 LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will be ready to quit its transitional arrangements with the European Union “on Australia terms” if no deal on their future relationship is reached, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday. .. Australia does not have a comprehensive trade agreement with the EU. Much of EU-Australia trade follows default World Trade Organisation rules, though specific agreements are in place for certain goods.
The UK Government has now passed a deadline of 30 June where it could have asked for extension from the EU and now the end of December 2020 seems fixed as final for leaving – ready or not as in the chant of the children's game. However… it may be possible for the UK and the EU to secure more preparation time in the form of a real implementation phase later in the year.
An obvious hit job , pay back double . I have no doubt about that as she , unlike the PM , felt an overpowering need to drop it into the media's lap so as to play it as whataboutism . Difference from Falloon is that there is no aggrieved victim (s) behind the disclosure and the ex mistress is seemingly living in London now and no doubt horrified about being ammunition in Collins game of dirty politics . The equivalent to Key's top drawer of dirt but more likely tip offs from Slater. I think Collins figures the only way to win is to have a bitch fight in a mud pool and needs to drag Jacinda down to her level for a competition to be had.
Alan makes a valid point. I already know the answer to "when Jacinda knew."
I do think she would have sorted it out had she known at an earlier date and ILG would have lost his ministerial portfolios but not have been in the position to have hastily resigned.
I'm more interested in the time line for falloons case . When did the first victim make a complaint and was it only to the police? It seems strange that the national party was the last to know.?
I don't want Ian L-G to stay on as an MP. I have a very low opinion of him now. While I understand people giving in to attraction under intense circumstances when working at parliament, what I think is outrageous about Lees-Galloway is taking his mistress to Paris. Can you imagine the lying and underhandedness that went on. Phoning his wife from Paris and lying. Meanwhile, she's at home in Palm North looking after their three kids……………what an absolute pig he is. He has treated her with utter contempt…………….She deserves better than this
Yes you are right I am assuming the affair was secret or at least his wife didn't know about it. I assume that if she did LG might have said "my wife and I have an understanding and I was completely transparent with her. She also said about Paris, no darling you take the mistress, I am all good here in Palmy minding our three children"…. But seriously though, I am making an assumption that the wife didn't know and I could be wrong.
BTW my opinion of LG doesn't alter my opinion about Judith C's handling of this, definitely a political hit, playing dirty politics, muddying the waters the old they do it too defence.
Ok Treetop, I accept that you didn't want the conversation to go in this direction. But I was expressing my view. There has not be a note from a moderator that my view is unacceptable for this site (at least not yet).
I am certainly not trying to be a marriage counsellor. No marriage counsellor would or should express such a view to a couple they are trying to help. It was just my opinion. I am making a judgement on L-G behaviour or an aspect of it. My perception is that others on this site talk about other politicians and each other like this. It is out of character for me to comment like this…..and I will give thought as to whether it is helpful to do so or not.
I still maintain my view of L-G behaviour.
I to am making a judgment and I am trying to keep within the boundary of dirty politics ending a politicians career. My judgment is not based on the private life or the impact on the individuals involved.
Individuals have their own style on TS, some comments I look forward to reading and others I only partially read.
"If we go down this pathway of abandoning Tiwai Point, in favour of a transition package as some politicians would advocate for, the results will be dwarfed by what happens here and the wider impact on employment across New Zealand," he said.
"If we don't prevail, and restore honesty and common sense to this issue, we will have disastrous effects here and across the country."
Where 'common sense' means increasing corporate welfare.
My son is an alternative power researcher and when asked about Tesla going to Tiwai he doubted it would happen as a battery factory would not use much electricity as the component materials need to be processed nearer to source as they are only a very small percentage of the rocks and soils containing them and it is that process that requires almost all of the power use. Transporting thousands of tonnes of rock halfway around the world to extract kilos of rare earths etc is not an economic goer, not to mention the problems we already have with the existing dross from Tiwai.
Rio Tinto have plenty of money, they can write off any losses, last yr they increased production by 30% by adding another Pot, 6 months later we're closing down, power is too expensive.
Peters wants to provide Corporate Welfare, again, and again, to a mining magnate thats makes $2.5m every hour of every day.
A number of yrs ago she suggested to Aus Govt that she should be able to import workers from China who'll work for $1 an hour, they turned her down.
TC, see my comment at 12.1.1, similar things apply for a data server, not many jobs for the local boys and girls and good luck convincing 250k/pa data scientists from Silicon Valley to relocate to Bluff. Auckland maybe, or Coromandel at a pinch, better off using the power to electrify trucks and trains which is the use that would have the most dramatic results on our carbon total.
The thought occurs that we already have the KAREN fibre network in place. Plus lots of power and a good source of cooling seawater.
Sure, not many local jobs in the finished product, but an ongoing process of construction of supercomputer facility A, five year construction of B when A is online, refit of A when B is online… a fair few local jobs in the ongoing development cycle.
Dunedin might be about the closest place slightly attractive to foreign staff that's not atop a faultline, but overall our problem making data centres viable is constrained cable capacity into the world. Shame because NZ has the governance and integrity reputation to make that sort of industry work.
Yeah – ISTR a data centre was part of the harbour revamp aspiration.
I'm just intrigued by what could be done with the massive power infrastructure going to the smelter, but that wouldn't track through the dunedin CBD 🙂
We do have good fibre within NZ. So something with moderate international data flows but lots of calculations required on it? And if it gets really good, Bluff might be a handy shore station for another fibre cable in a decade or so.
I just can't help thinking there's a powerful resource there for a jump ahead for Southland.
As in "when the smelter closure makes hundreds of people unemployed in Southland, what new industries and enterprises can use the infrastructure strengths of Southland to supplement the employment and revenue of Southland in the manner of the SIT free fees scheme?"
The HVDC link from Benmore to Haywards (Lower Hutt) loses about 6% of the input energy over that 610km distance. So if the HVDC were extended to Manapouri in the south and to Auckland in the north, total losses from Manapouri to Auckland might be around 15%, compared to maybe a couple percent loss in transmission (wild-ass guess) from Manapouri to Tiwai Point.
Round figures Tiwai Point was guessed to pay around $250M a year for electricity plus maybe $60M for transmission. So rough hand-wavy numbers there's maybe $50M of value in electricity that's not lost by using it in Southland rather than sending it all the way to Auckland.
That's without considering the cost of grid upgrades that would be needed.
The main high voltage line goes direct from Manapouri to Invercargill where it joins up with the rest of the grid. Then looking at really non-detailed maps it appears the high-voltage lines go north past Gore to Roxburgh and Clyde.
The smelter's demand is fairly closely matched to Manapouri's output, by design. But there are times when Tiwai Point draws more than Manapouri produces and draws the extra from the rest of the grid, and there are times when Tiwai Point doesn't use all of what Manapouri is producing so that excess goes into the grid.
So if a new heavy user appeared somewhere close to existing high-voltage lines, then it's likely just a matter of putting in a substation to tap off from existing lines. But if the new heavy user were well away from existing lines, say somewhere like Mossburn or Kingston, then a new high voltage line would likely be needed as well as a substation.
Losses are affected by distance (more distance more loss), voltage (higher voltage loses less) and whether it's AC or DC (DC loses less, but it's not easy to convert to AC so you need to be dealing with a lot of juice to make DC transmission worthwhile)
Wonder about electrifying the big dairy factory at Edendale (currently a coal burner). There's an existing grid line via Gore but don't know if it has sufficient capacity (it's lower voltage 110kV, compared to the main national grid 220kV).
Manapouri to Tiwai lines run near Ohai then straight to Makarewa substaion north of Invercargill (see Transpower National Grid maps).
@ Andre
Rather than HVDC through to Auckland, I wonder about increaing the 220kV capacity north of Wellington, which would allow more South Island power to be used throughout the Lower North Island. Might free up some of the existing North Island generation for Auckland.
Probably throughout the region, but an electrical system is a bit like plumbing or information transmission: a network is only as big as its smallest pipe. If the local subtation or lines are at capacity, then being able to supply more energy is useless because the current pipe isn't big enough.
But we do know that the smelter already has bloody big pipes from generator to factory floor, so if I were to make an uneducated and speculative guess, I'd suspect the cheapest option from a grid point of view would be to have another high-energy facility (maybe not as big as the smelter, but a good energy user).
Another high-energy option would be a particle accelerator: the Large Hadron Collider uses 200MW at peak flow, less than half the smelter's capacity. And the farmland around might be easier to access for a trench-dug tunnel (like a fuel line, but without the kauri logging risk) or elevated pipe than in other countries. And the data can get transmitted to any NZ scientific facility via the KAREN fibre line.
I'm just spitballing here, but my point is that there are far more options than "save the smelter" available. And, frankly, Shadbolt's Invercargill has a history of having good ideas for Southland that are out of left field. I wouldn't be surprised if they float something that makes people go "wtf" but which actually comes off looking good.
Given we have supplies of iron sand in NZ could there be conversion to steel and us building our own trains, building supplies, etc.
We'd have to move away from the notion that cheapest is best of course – we know that this is generally not the case.
We need to build the notion of community good into our state owned infrastructure rather than this notion of profit e.g. rail has a split of public good (say 60%) paid through taxation and private good (40%) paid for through sales and fees and ticketing.
I do actually think the same for roads if we applied the same 60/40 split to roads then maybe road user charges could be reduced.
And they should be state owned – profit is just a dead-weight and high executive salaries are just capital theft.
The smelter is at Tiwai because of the the deep water port for the alumina, and other inputs coming in, and product going out.
Another industry may not be that critical of location, data centre could be just north of Invercargill by the Lorneville substation. A silica refinery, probably between the resource in Western Southland and Lorneville.
It feels a bit like the occasional problem I have at work, where although I don't know the method I can feel there's a bloody good answer that's just a bit too far away to grasp at the moment.
Ah well, Southland will figure it out. It's a bit flat for my taste, but it's got a lot going for it these days.
There's a mapped active fault less than 10 km from The Octagon (runs along SE side of Taieri Plain at least as far N as Wingatui) (NZAFD, GNS). Also, the Akatore Fault that goes offshore near Taieri Mouth likely continues towards Dunedin (& possible under it). Recent research suggests it's capable of M7 to M7.4 quake & is the biggest seismic threat to Dunedin (piece on Newshub: best non-paywalled source I could find).
Just for fun, looking back to the Ruatoki event (Urerewa-Operation 8) and Comm. Marshall's (video) comments; (Jackal’s post, 24 May 2012).
Did the accused NOT get the legal representation that many believed they deserved?
He, he, he, ho, ho, ho!
And did anyone ever really determined whether the bus (or the tourist coach perhaps) would have been targeted at Johnkey's head from a great height, or Bush’s? (George Bush that is, not Mike Bush's)
Is it not high time that Tame Iti got himself a high salaried job somewhere, either in corporate or performing arts?
That guy still has heaps of talent and maybe he should avoid getting mixed up with many of those old farty arts patrons (especially of the Akarana ilk).
I really do not believe that most of them have his best interests at heart.
Brian Easton writes van interesting column on Pundit. It covers the National shifts in Economic terms and some pointers on the Collin position.
So where in the political spectrum does the current National Party stand? I start with the right-to-left (or more precisely extreme-right-to-centre-right) economic spectrum and include the social dimension later.
John Key repeatedly distanced his party from the extreme right, treating Don Brash almost cruelly in order to maintain the distance. He was not of the centre-right either. His allegiance was (mainly) to the Auckland Business Community (which abandoned neoliberalism about twenty years ago in favour of a more active government support). His style was mañana: never do anything today which can be left to tomorrow….
…National’s fundamental tenet is low taxes which means squeezing the public sector. It was so adamant about this that when the Canterbury Earthquakes provided the perfect opportunity to raise taxes, it failed to impose a special earthquake levy. Not only did the earthquake recovery suffer, but so did the public sector, to the detriment of its service to the public. The current government is still trying to recover the mess…..
"Addendum: This column was drafted before the events involving Andrew Falloon and Ian Lees-Galloway. It has not been rewritten.. However, I must add this. The column tries hard to be fair towards Judith Collins; after all it is really about wider issues than her. But the way she dealt with the Lees-Galloway allegations was inappropriate. She was right to pass her knowledge on to Jacinda Ardern, as the prime minister had done to her over Falloon. She was wrong to announce she had done so (on morning radio) before the Prime Minister had publicly dealt with the information. In contrast Ardern waited until Collins had made her Falloon announcement before explaining her involvement. Collins’ timing has the hallmarks of a Whale Oil counterpuncher. It does not promise a clean election."
got chipped on FB yesterday fordaring to mention that some of the nationals female mp's were showing a bit more cleavage than necessary on teevee ch31 last night. then a nationals troll showed up and demanded this and that and it was a great old brou ha ha. the upshot was the post was deleted but then they all went and changed their clobber. hahahahahaha.
Jonathan Pie spouts his disgust at the sensitivity that has established new norms so that we aren't even allowed to regard ourselves as one biological sex now and accept that there is generally two plus.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Chris Trotter asks "Why Is The Left Not Opposing The West’s New Cold War With China?" Then fumbles around for a while trying to figure it out. https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/07/24/why-is-the-left-not-opposing-the-wests-new-cold-war-with-china/
Others would summarise that into `ignorant & clueless'. Yet, having adopted the wrong frame for the situation, Chris risks putting himself into the same category!
The Cold War was produced by a polarisation of ideology: two competing belief systems. Capitalism and communism. Since China is now both, the frame doesn't apply to current geopolitics. What part of that don't you understand, Chris??
He then proceeds to falsify history as though fronting as an apologist for the communist regime is a good idea.
Those of us who have actually done the historical research know he's bullshitting. There was a century or two when that suzerainty was real (around the 17th, from memory) but the rest of the time it was mere pretence by the emperor – and he fails to mention the earlier period of history when the Tibetans conquered China and the opposite situation prevailed.
Intellectual dishonesty is characteristic of leftists, of course, so his demonstration of tribalism merely serves to remind us why the left never achieves widespread respect.
My question is simpler: why does anyone pay any attention at all to Chris Trotter?
In asking that, you prove the point Dennis was making.
Dennis Frank wants to suggest that Trotter talks crap.
To make the point that he knows what crap is he wrote that last paragraph.
He successfully proves that point.
Why do people read Chris Trotter?
Because his is a thoughtful voice that poses questions and offers an alternate view to the mainstream
Who wants to live in an echo chamber
One can be thoughtful and pose questions and offer an alternative view, and still be handing people the wrong end of the stick. Which Trotter does with monotonic regularity.
Dennis merely showed one aspect of the shit smeared on the wrong end of the stick Trotter is offering. But Trotter starts out from the get-go with bullshit framing and misrepresentation, let alone the public self-pleasuring he indulges in his second paragraph.
As for echo chambers – there's a particular echo chamber filled with blinkered views formed in particular group in an odd period almost half a century ago. Trotter keeps that chamber resonating admirably.
Andre – Chris provokes discussion at least. And Dennis and you are so entrenched in the belief that you know all, that you set yourselves up as gurus. You may worship yourselves, others respect your knowledge and wisdom, but don't accept your take on everything as the last word. Hence words from and to Chris's opinions are valuable. And accepted truth may change over time as different information and perspectives arise.
Aha. A new word to me. "
2.speaking or uttered with an unchanging pitch or tone.
"her dour, monotonic husband"
Trotter writes brilliantly but he writes to be provocative.The consistent themes are 1. Old School Labour is good. 2. The Greens are bad.
He often makes valid points. For instance he rues the gradual loss of the unions (which I agree with) because power has shifted far too much into the hands of the
employeesemployers. For this reason he often attacks the current Labour government for not addressing this power imbalance. He overdoes these attacks.He consistently attacks the Greens either because they are not green enough or because they are too green. I think he yearns for the old FPP days where a strong Labour government could do what it likes.
IMHO he would be better off accepting the current order of things under MMP, especially the rise of the Greens and the need to address Climate Change, and argue for a CGT, Land Tax, and Transaction Tax that will move capital from the rich to the poor and into resources that will combat Climate Change.
[lprent: corrected ’employees’. ]
I think you mean employers not employees. 😉
oops yes I meant employers…..thanks Anne
That's a must-read for me Shanreagh.
.
Oh, a number of people here … Intersectionals & Clintonistas in particular (although the former demands while the latter simply wants).
.
He sometimes gets things right and its worth paying attention when he does.
I'm not big on watching stopped clocks.
I don’t think the new cold war has anything to do with capitalism/communism , why should it?
It’s about a failing ,falling empire trying to hang on and a new rising power challenging it’s economic/military hegemony
A so called cold war means shots have (so far) not been fired .The hot war comes when its all out hard weaponry, not just propaganda and economics
The Cold War was also about having a ready bogey-man to keep US defence spending through the roof and the populace scared.
There was a fair amount of willy-waving involved too.
Colonel Trotter's writings are ever-wistful for that waving and the certainties of his youth.
Dennis, that's a nice critique of Trotter's post. Have you ever reflected on why you feel the need to spoil such contributions by ending them with rubbish generalisations and hyperbole? Are you perhaps 'concerned' that without a provocative assertion or two your contributions would lack punch?
"Intellectual dishonesty is characteristic of leftists, of course, so his demonstration of tribalism merely serves to remind us why the left never achieves widespread respect."
Really, Dennis, NEVER? Certainly 'the right' governments in the USA, UK and Brazil haven't covered themselves in glory with their 'handling' of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the evident failure of those administrations to keep their citizenry safe has contributed to the “widespread respect” that NZ citizens, not to mention the wider world, have for our health services and centre-left government.
Before you engage with some you may want to strap on your shin pads: one on the right and two on the left leg. Jockstrap/pelvic protector is optional.
Never felt the need for physical projection during this form of jousting, although I do get some relief from wearing a brace to treat tendonitis in my right achilles
That’s good; some acutely feel the body blows and some don’t.
So it seems to me that your counter argument Dennis is "Those of us who have actually done the historical research know he's bullshitting."
However it doesn't take much effort to research your claim and I find that Chris may be right.
"The first international document which used and explained this word was a convention signed by Britain and Russia in Petersburg on August 31, 1907, titled The Convention Between Great Britain and Russia Relating to Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet.
The third ….. section declared that the governments of Great Britain and Russia recognized China's right of suzerainty over Tibet."
One wonders why you haven't challenged Chris on TDB or his own blog.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-24-07-2020/#comment-1733839
Maybe Dennis doesn’t want to falsify his own beautiful hypothesis 😉
Bash, bash , bash, the great West on China bash, the elite one percent fear their moribund grip on power and their bashing of their Capitalist rivals, China and Russia knows no bounds, as though they have the moral high ground, of course no mention of the 'Berlin wall' Israel has built to imprison Palestinians and jailing 12 year old stone throwers for 3-4 years. No mention of the Arms sales that enable their mates to bomb and starve to death Yemeni children etc etc. Mushroom clouds for tea anyone?.
Byd0nz, Looks like you are new here, welcome.
We've discussed the terrors Israel places on the Palestinians as well as the horrid situation in Yemen many times on this blog. Am yet to read a poster on TS that supports what is happening in either Palestine or Yemen.
Meanwhile China is rather topical atm, especially considering the information surrounding the recent deaths of two NZ Chinese in a car accident.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12350414
Yes, well I was refering to the news media being the ones doing the bashing rather than the good people on this blog.
Sorry Byd0NZ, my bad. Thanks for explaining 🙂 I appreciate that, text has no tone, sometimes I get confused 🙂
Dennis, re the car crash. Yes will wait with interest regarding the result. I hope the person in hospital makes a recovery, their insight will be paramount.
Shoot the messenger has been around a very long time. Reasonable to suspect Chinese agents somehow performed the elimination of their opponents, but we must wait & see if the cops find evidence.
I remember reading in Rolling Stone about how Karen Silkwood got killed. She was a reporter investigating a nuclear power plant in '75. Car got run off the road & Hollywood eventually made a movie about it. Best way to prevent someone telling the truth is to eliminate them. It's why the left does de-platforming, eh?
Karen Silkwood was a whistleblower, working in a nuclear plant and very anxious about what seemed to be a cover-up of their operations. And had a convenient vehicle malfunction that led to her death.
This was a very unfortunate car crash in NZ killing two pro-democracy Chinese activists. Vehicle crossing the centre line, scraping one and lining up for head-on for the second with these precious, brave people inside. Is that coincidence? Who was driving the vehicle that was 'out of line'?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/421877/concerns-raised-over-crash-involving-chinese-activists
However, international security analyst Paul Buchanan said China had a track record of interfering in other nations' affairs, including hacking.
Furthermore, "independent" Chinese voices in New Zealand regularly experienced intimidation by pro-Beijing groups, he said.
"It's not unjustified that independent members of the Chinese community may feel threatened to the point that when something tragic like this happens, they – if not jump to conclusions – then certainly suspect that the accident may have more sinister causes than a mere accident."
I'm reading Anne Perry's book, A Sunless Sea which is about opium and gives detail of the Opium Wars and degradation that Britain rained on China and the terrible toll produced by vicious British behaviour. I think she does good backgrounding giving correct information. I'll try to put a bit up later as it would help us to know what may be in Chinese minds if we understood some of the low-down dirtiness this part of British history overseas. Which would help in balancing our opinions.
So now we have the northbound assassins doing a kamikaze move over the centre line, initially missing the target, clipping the wrong car but serendipitously slamming headlong into the right car and severely injuring themselves.Not much of a payoff or career advancement there.
I can think of more surefire ways, but why waste a tragedy when there's propagandistic hay to be made?
I think Prof Brady is showing her true pro US (Wilson Centre)colours here and would take a large grain of salt with her claims
Smoke.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/07/30/705870/aut-scraps-tiananmen-square-event
Fire?
Evidently the car that collided into them was driven by a Women with a young daughter as a passenger.
Yesterday the news implied sabotage, the only thing I could think of that would result in the death of the front seat occupants was that the safety belts had been interfered with, or the air bags failed.
Conspiracy????
Yes, a rather messy “hit” to say the least. It stretches credibility really, unless some evidence emerges beyond the apparent coincidences.
Professor Brady makes some fair and interesting points about China in her writings, but seems too much of a US proxy to have her every utterance taken as absolute truth.
Those with valid concerns about the influence and 'machinations' of the CCP do their case no favours by indulging in fact-free speculation. Fearmongering, IMHO.
Appears it was pouring rain. More likely they planed in the wet.
Mr Trotter
You want the Lefties to take the burden of War.
You are worse than smug Trotter.
Good ol' Observer Tokoroa. Always comes up with something interesting and helpful. Not.
I am delighted to read that vaccinologist Helen Petousis- Harris has finally realised that dismissing or minimising adverse effects from vaccines is not a sound tactic when trying to sell the product to the wider public.
Excellent and well referenced article from Farah Hancock on the progress around developing a vaccine against Covid 19.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/be-prepared-for-covid-19-vaccine-side-effects
With vaccine hesitancy an identified global health concern there's a risk not communicating likely side effects could see people lose trust in a vaccination programme.
University of Auckland vaccinologist associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris said potential side effects need to be talked about upfront.
“People will lose trust and their confidence if you don’t.”
Side effects are normal “and not necessarily a bad thing either” she said.
“You don’t want them to be serious or severe but there’s a range of effects you get when your body is making an immune response.”
This is the first time I have heard of a vaccine promoter actually admitting that a vaccine can cause significant symptoms, and acknowledging that being honest and transparent about these significant post -vaccine symptoms (rather than dismissing them as being 'coincidental') is more likely to inspire trust in the target market.
Everyone will agree that it is way too early to celebrate the apparent efficacy of these very new and novel vaccines as potential long term effects have not as yet been assessed.
Misrepresenting again, Rosemary. Or else you really haven't been paying attention.
Every time I've gone and got a jab, the possibility of side effects and reactions has been presented to me, along with going through a checklist to determine that the vaccines I was about to get were not contraindicated for me. Ranging from being told to expect my shoulder to be sore enough to be dysfunctional for several days, to being expected to call in regularly to the travel health doctor's office for several days after getting a whole bunch at once (if they didn't hear from me on schedule they were going to come looking).
Let alone that even the briefest glance at credible information sources shows a plethora of info on what kinds of reactions are likely.
Andre. You remind me of Pavlov's dogs.
If I did not make it clear…I am not referring to an individual’s experience with an individual vaccine administrator, although there are one or two accounts from credible persons whose vaccine experience has not been as well managed as your own. For example, the former editor of the British Medical Journal who's account you seem to be ignoring. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2019/03/13/richard-smith-who-is-most-likely-to-have-side-effects-to-flu-vaccination/
I am referring to the official vaccine narrative…if I missed the press release where it was acknowledged that many vaccines cause local pain and irritation and perhaps low fever, and that some vaccines cause more significant symptoms in some people and occasionally long term disability or health effects…please provide a link.
The CDC on side effects:
Your own link:
And:
Just a brief search for Petousis-Harris and vaccine side-effects turns up plenty:
My note: grossly overstating risks and side effects degrades and interferes with informed consent by falsely skewing the entire benefit/risk picture.
You're correct that I'm not spending my time looking for examples of credible people making comments I can misrepresent and distort into painting a false overstated picture of risks and harms from vaccines, and/or paint a false picture that vaccine experts hide the widely acknowledged side effects that can occur, and that a very few people should not get specific vaccines and that these contraindications are checked for before administering a vaccine..
And Bill Gates says something similar – that there are side effects and these need to be reduced before a vaccine is provided. He gets well mis-represented by the conspiracy people.
"You know, if we have, you know, one in 10,000 side effects, that’s, you know, way more — 700,000, you know, people — who will suffer from that,” he said.
“So, really understanding the safety at gigantic scale across all age ranges… it’s very, very hard.”
https://factcheck.afp.com/bill-gates-did-not-say-covid-19-vaccine-could-kill-nearly-million-people
It has been my experience as a person who has been having the flu vaccine, as an at risk person since 1995, that with all vaccines their possible side-effects are pointed out at the time of 'sticking' as it were. I am of an age were to travel we had to have a range of vaccinations & a vaccination card and the side-effects of these were always pointed out
Whenever I have had a vaccination I have had to give an informed consent and the last flu one I signed the form that the nurse had that had the actual name and makeup of the vaccine and was taken through any side-effects and asked if I had any allergies. For instance people who are allergic to egg white were known to have a reaction to one of the flu vaccines as egg white is used as a carrier.
With all vaccines there will be side-effects whether permanent or transitory, ranging from the carrier ingredients to the attenuated culture used. These will be known at the time of sticking. As part of informed consent they will be explained.
The vaccine trials will have thrown up side effects and that is why time to test and do a range of tests is always a good thing. Treatments have to undergo a huge testing regime after they have been derived.
So for me far from being unusual it is very usual and has been my experience over many years with vaccines and other 'chemical' medical treatments.
Some side-effects they will know to be coincidental from the testing carried out. Some they will note as possibly new, do some more testing etc.
But as with most things these days there will be people who don't want to have treatment for whatever reason. The key is to get as many people who do not have concerns vaccinated/treated, keep the communication up so the nay-sayers do not queer the pitch ie by putting people off seeking vaccines or treatment for those who are wanting to play a part.
There have always been articles on side effects and usually at flu jab time they come out in the press releases/articles. The side effects for other vaccines are available on Ms Google.
The narrative about the current work on the Covid-19 vaccine has always seemed wrapped around with the issue of possible side-effects.
Rosemary, I'm wondering about your use of the phrases "sell the product" and "the target market" with regard to vaccines. I've been vaccinated for polio, MMR, tetanus, influenza (regularly) and probably others I've forgotten about (damn vaccines!), but have yet to part with a penny directly for any of those treatments. I suppose I must thank taxpayers (and therefore myself) for covering the cost of that disease protection.
For those concerned about New Zealand's greenhouse gas emission roduction, a really interesting release from Stats NZ yesterday:
Approximately two-thirds of New Zealand’s regions recorded decreases in their total greenhouse gas emissions, while one-third of regions saw increases between 2007 and 2018.
Between 2007 and 2018, the largest falls in emissions were in:
– Auckland, down 955 kilotonnes (7.8 per cent)
– Taranaki, down 707 kilotonnes (11.3 per cent)
– Northland, down 545 kilotonnes (10.8 per cent), and
– Waikato, down 272 kilotonnes (2.0 per cent).
Over the same period, emissions increased in:
– Canterbury, up 1,175 kilotonnes (11.0 per cent),
– Bay of Plenty, up 356 kilotonnes (11.9 per cent),
– Southland, up 335 kilotonnes (6.2 per cent), and
– Otago, up 333 kilotonnes (7.0 per cent).
“This is the first comprehensive picture we have been able to develop to show where emissions are being produced in New Zealand and which regions are driving the changes in emissions,” Mr Oakley (Head of Stats) said.
I'm hoping this gives rise to debate about divergence between energy density and industrial productivity, and to be able to break that down on a regional basis.
http://community.scoop.co.nz/2020/07/mixed-performance-by-regions-leaves-national-emissions-picture-unchanged/
Another photo here.
I remember the news at the time. RIP.
Today’s the 20th Anniversary of the my mate Lenny Manning who was KIA while on a Patrol in Timor-Leste with BCoy 2/1 Battalion as a part of NZBATT2 under a UN Peacekeeping Mandate.
The Black Beret represents his service in WAI/WEC SQN, the Bayonet represents his service BCoy in 2nd/ 1st Battalion RNZIR, the beer can in QAMR stubby cooler is the many beers we drunk on Crewmen’s and later at Burnham Camp home to both NZ Scots & 2/1 Battalion
RIP Lenny
https://flic.kr/p/2jpcEir
https://flic.kr/p/2jp9T6Z
Thanks for reminding us Skud. Not to be forgotten. We who read and happily/unhappily responded to the overseas fighting can too easily dismiss those who faced it.
And it is interesting to read Tricledown's points on outdated gear. I thought that National was all gun-ho to paraphrase, and would be wanting ours to be strong, well-equipped fighting men. But it seems that even matters they agree with they want to do on a mean budget, the skinflints.
Maybe it is because they are less skin and more flint; they like machinery and technology and despise the human side of life, in other words, their own selves and person. Now that is really screwy. Let's not vote the National Anti-Human Party into power for God's sake – and for those of us who haven't caught this obliterating human-hating virus. Nah to NAHPs.
Cheer scud, appreciated.
+1,000 Scud. Kia kaha to your brother.
The NZ Army was sent into Timor by the Shipley govt with antique equipment that didn't work and the Steyr rifle that malfunctioned.
Tax cuts by National led to running down of military capability to where it was barely functioning. Same with Healthcare Education etc.
Now Goldsmith is promising to cut $80 billion of govt spending .
Are we going to run down healthcare further than now with Carona virus threatening our Country,Education now we have lost overseas students and have high unemployment. Police numbers with gangs on the rise,
Cutting govt spending will send New Zealand into a deeper longer recession making it harder to repay debt as well as keeping the economy afloat.
What makes me laugh at Goldsmiths naivety is the Conservative Australian govt is tracking on the same debt level per capita as NZ so that makes Goldsmith's false narative scaremongering about debt levels in NZ a fallacy.
Nationals three main policies are:
Tax Cuts
Austerity
Cuts to all Govt spending
The last 30 yrs proves that.
The announcement by Paora Goldsmith on the Nats plan for cutting back the Public Service seems
other-wordly like harking back in the mists of time
boring
repetitive
super BAU from the National waybacks
missed the public mood with all our public servants being thanked for all their steady work in Covid-19 and to come.
That was the effect on me, after thought.
My first reaction though was a chill. Really it was.
Been there done that got oodles of scars mentally & career-wise from the time-wasting, stupid, never-ending restructurings that took place in the PS. What a pall these constant PS restructurings cast over NZ. They restricted service, diverted us from being able to work on our departmental work full time so as to serve our people. Instead we spent time, endless days and months fighting to retain our own jobs, functions or departments.
To turn the corner we need innovation, failed has-been policies won't work. They shouldn't be given the opportunity to work.
The cost is too high on those affected both 'clients' or whatever name our people are called, and public servants. Public Servants work for the good of the public.
I'd love to get away from the tosh neo-lib stuff written into the Acts dealing with the State Sector that we work for the Minister. We work for whatever govt is in power upholding and bringing about whatever legislation, policies etc the govt has been elected to do.
The Minister is responsible for bringing us $$$$, legislation, policy direction. We don't work for them…our over-riding work is for the people of NZ.
Hopefully the reviews of legislation this Govt is proposing will look at, and determine, what was actually wrong with the system prior to these pieces of legislation. Sure there were a few good parts in what followed but those of us working at the sharp end were never sure what the 'mischief' was that the reforms were trying to remedy.
Meantime here is the link…..public servants prepare to shiver.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300064628/national-would-need-to-cut-tens-of-billions-in-public-services-to-meet-debt-target
Great article, thanks for sharing.
The 1980s and the 1990s – a case in point.
Experienced long-time servants thrown to the wolves.
Colleagues pitted against colleagues.
Back stabbing and lies in order to gain ascendancy.
New managements who didn't have a clue about the departments they were managing.
In the department/agency I worked for they lost some of the best brains in the business.
I could go on……………
Yeah, go get 'im, AOC. 🔥
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-ted-yoho_n_5f19a190c5b6296fbf3eddd5\
For a bit more detail:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aoc-ted-yoho-bitch-speech_n_5f19d838c5b6296fbf3f7b6d
Yep. Watch and marvel. Fire and ice.
Ice has a chance against fire. Maybe more like, I dunno, fire and a pile of used tissues?
Thinking of the famous Robert Frost poem – "but if it had to perish twice…" i.e. double destruction, once by fire, then by ice.
Watching full speech now, wow, and shows why we need people like her in these positions.
That guy is a pile in search of a butt.
What are 'Australian terms' I asked myself.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu/uk-ready-to-quit-eu-on-australia-terms-if-no-brexit-deal-johnson-says-idUSKBN23Y0J6
Jun.28/20 LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will be ready to quit its transitional arrangements with the European Union “on Australia terms” if no deal on their future relationship is reached, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday. ..
Australia does not have a comprehensive trade agreement with the EU. Much of EU-Australia trade follows default World Trade Organisation rules, though specific agreements are in place for certain goods.
The UK Government has now passed a deadline of 30 June where it could have asked for extension from the EU and now the end of December 2020 seems fixed as final for leaving – ready or not as in the chant of the children's game. However… it may be possible for the UK and the EU to secure more preparation time in the form of a real implementation phase later in the year.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/june-deadline-brexit-extension-uk-buy-more-time
and
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/bracing-brexit-uk-tells-companies-prepare-december-31-200713011733897.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/post-brexit-exports-ni-uk-customs-papers-200702153740965.html
and
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/02/brexit-talks-break-up-early-over-serious-disagreements-michel-barnier
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/13/uk-to-open-10-12-brexit-border-customs-sites-in-eu-trading-shake-up
https://membership.theguardian.com/event/are-we-heading-towards-a-nodeal-brexit-113347112264
Finally concern about British citizens overseas – and what about
EU citizens in UK? What a shower the UK is.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/19/uk-urges-eu-countries-to-ensure-britons-living-abroad-can-stay-after-brexit
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/07/eu-citizens-being-used-as-guinea-pigs-for-brexit-digital-immigration-system-mps-told
Does anyone think that there is not an exception to not take action in regard to dirty politics when dirty politics should not claim a scalp of an MP?
I want an inquiry into when Collin's knew about ILG?
I saw what happened to Moyle after it happened and this is on par with what is happening to ILG.
I do realise that ILG compromised his Work Relations and Employment portfolio and that there is an investigation to check his ministerial spending.
I cannot prove it that Collin's knew earlier than claimed, this is why I want an inquiry held into my above question.
I would also like members of her caucus to come forward and say if Collins knew before she is alledging that she knew.
It isn't not difficult not to be uncertain about what you may not be asking due to the double negatives you haven't not eschewed.
TS is for opinions and not for proof reading grammar, comprehension or spelling.
Not untrue but it cannot have failed to escape your attention that unless clarity isn't avoided opinions may not be entirely unclear.
Depends if you want a discussion or just to enjoy the sound of your own voice.
Your interpretation of my opinion or any other opinion on TS is up to you. You can ignore it, nit pick it or reply.
Or not understand what not you are not saying.
Grow up Sacha and I am calling you out on your behaviour.
An obvious hit job , pay back double . I have no doubt about that as she , unlike the PM , felt an overpowering need to drop it into the media's lap so as to play it as whataboutism . Difference from Falloon is that there is no aggrieved victim (s) behind the disclosure and the ex mistress is seemingly living in London now and no doubt horrified about being ammunition in Collins game of dirty politics . The equivalent to Key's top drawer of dirt but more likely tip offs from Slater. I think Collins figures the only way to win is to have a bitch fight in a mud pool and needs to drag Jacinda down to her level for a competition to be had.
I want an inquisition into when Jacinda knew, apparently it was common knowledge for months – the boss should know about these things from the outset
Cameras on underpants and in bra straps and you could get a shoe like in the tv show Get Smart with a mike in the heel. What a heel!
You raise a good question.
Did you know about the affair?
Did you know that the other woman was connected to the office?
Is it up to a leader to ask a team member about their sex life?
The affair has been used against an MP to harm them and their political party. It is dirty politics to do this.
NOBODY expects the Alan Inquisition.
Alan makes a valid point. I already know the answer to "when Jacinda knew."
I do think she would have sorted it out had she known at an earlier date and ILG would have lost his ministerial portfolios but not have been in the position to have hastily resigned.
Alan if you hold this view, the same should be true for Judith/Todd/Simon they should have known about Falloon.
I'm more interested in the time line for falloons case . When did the first victim make a complaint and was it only to the police? It seems strange that the national party was the last to know.?
I am more interested to know if the images shared were photo-shops of a labour MP’s head on to a nude body
And at whose bidding Falloon was passing around the smut.
Strange how the ILG affair was exposed and the timing.
The only other recent affair exposed was Jamie lee Ross and what a mess that was in how the National Party handled that.
That is what I am getting at, so nasty to use an affair against someone to try and end their career.
I do admire Jamie lee Ross for standing as an independent and leaving on his own terms and not letting dirty politics kick him to the curb.
There were issues with Jamie lees behaviour in his office and I gather he took responsibility for this.
I would like ILG to change his mind about resigning as an MP. I do think not being a minister is enough punishment.
I don't want Ian L-G to stay on as an MP. I have a very low opinion of him now. While I understand people giving in to attraction under intense circumstances when working at parliament, what I think is outrageous about Lees-Galloway is taking his mistress to Paris. Can you imagine the lying and underhandedness that went on. Phoning his wife from Paris and lying. Meanwhile, she's at home in Palm North looking after their three kids……………what an absolute pig he is. He has treated her with utter contempt…………….She deserves better than this
We're assuming it was all secret I guess.
Yes you are right I am assuming the affair was secret or at least his wife didn't know about it. I assume that if she did LG might have said "my wife and I have an understanding and I was completely transparent with her. She also said about Paris, no darling you take the mistress, I am all good here in Palmy minding our three children"…. But seriously though, I am making an assumption that the wife didn't know and I could be wrong.
BTW my opinion of LG doesn't alter my opinion about Judith C's handling of this, definitely a political hit, playing dirty politics, muddying the waters the old they do it too defence.
Well it could have been more along the lines of ok we'll get divorced after the election.
I did not want the discussion to go where you are taking it and assuming it is for you to be a marriage guidance counsellor.
So every politician who has had an affair you are not fit to be in parliament.
Is that what you are saying?
Ok Treetop, I accept that you didn't want the conversation to go in this direction. But I was expressing my view. There has not be a note from a moderator that my view is unacceptable for this site (at least not yet).
I am certainly not trying to be a marriage counsellor. No marriage counsellor would or should express such a view to a couple they are trying to help. It was just my opinion. I am making a judgement on L-G behaviour or an aspect of it. My perception is that others on this site talk about other politicians and each other like this. It is out of character for me to comment like this…..and I will give thought as to whether it is helpful to do so or not.
I still maintain my view of L-G behaviour.
I to am making a judgment and I am trying to keep within the boundary of dirty politics ending a politicians career. My judgment is not based on the private life or the impact on the individuals involved.
Individuals have their own style on TS, some comments I look forward to reading and others I only partially read.
I think the answer to your question was in Bridge's safe and that is why Muller wanted a new safe.
Collins said she was done with dirty tricks. No worries. Nationals puppets and arselickers in the media, will do all the dirty politics for her.
Campaigning Winnie flaps his gums over Tiwai. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12350762
Where 'common sense' means increasing corporate welfare.
Down at the garage they said that Tesla was looking at the site for a possible manufacturing plant or whatever.
My son is an alternative power researcher and when asked about Tesla going to Tiwai he doubted it would happen as a battery factory would not use much electricity as the component materials need to be processed nearer to source as they are only a very small percentage of the rocks and soils containing them and it is that process that requires almost all of the power use. Transporting thousands of tonnes of rock halfway around the world to extract kilos of rare earths etc is not an economic goer, not to mention the problems we already have with the existing dross from Tiwai.
Utter fantasy. Also way too far from their markets.
Rio Tinto have plenty of money, they can write off any losses, last yr they increased production by 30% by adding another Pot, 6 months later we're closing down, power is too expensive.
Peters wants to provide Corporate Welfare, again, and again, to a mining magnate thats makes $2.5m every hour of every day.
A number of yrs ago she suggested to Aus Govt that she should be able to import workers from China who'll work for $1 an hour, they turned her down.
How greedy do you have to be.
Who is she?
This is interesting a write down of 14 billion wow. A while back. 2013
https://www.industryweek.com/leadership/companies-executives/article/21959275/rio-tinto-writes-down-14-billion-ceo-resigns
I suspect Just Is is mistakenly referring to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Rinehart
Gina Reinhart, Australias wealthiest person.
FFS Winnie, not an industry anyone wants to go up against china state sponsored makers anymore. Common sense is to say goodbye.
Maybe our own Silicon Valley/ Server farms etc as about time we had our own long white data cloud or act as our plan B. Tesla sounds fanciful IMO.
Not too tropical with significant power available, just saying. With Imagination
TC, see my comment at 12.1.1, similar things apply for a data server, not many jobs for the local boys and girls and good luck convincing 250k/pa data scientists from Silicon Valley to relocate to Bluff. Auckland maybe, or Coromandel at a pinch, better off using the power to electrify trucks and trains which is the use that would have the most dramatic results on our carbon total.
The thought occurs that we already have the KAREN fibre network in place. Plus lots of power and a good source of cooling seawater.
Sure, not many local jobs in the finished product, but an ongoing process of construction of supercomputer facility A, five year construction of B when A is online, refit of A when B is online… a fair few local jobs in the ongoing development cycle.
Dunedin might be about the closest place slightly attractive to foreign staff that's not atop a faultline, but overall our problem making data centres viable is constrained cable capacity into the world. Shame because NZ has the governance and integrity reputation to make that sort of industry work.
Agree about electrifying transport. Imagine farm vehicles too. Enough to support a local EV maintenance industry.
Yeah – ISTR a data centre was part of the harbour revamp aspiration.
I'm just intrigued by what could be done with the massive power infrastructure going to the smelter, but that wouldn't track through the dunedin CBD 🙂
We do have good fibre within NZ. So something with moderate international data flows but lots of calculations required on it? And if it gets really good, Bluff might be a handy shore station for another fibre cable in a decade or so.
I just can't help thinking there's a powerful resource there for a jump ahead for Southland.
Southland is not the answer.
No, Southland is the question, not the answer.
As in "when the smelter closure makes hundreds of people unemployed in Southland, what new industries and enterprises can use the infrastructure strengths of Southland to supplement the employment and revenue of Southland in the manner of the SIT free fees scheme?"
is the power supply best used at Tiwai Point? Or anywhere in the nearby area?
The HVDC link from Benmore to Haywards (Lower Hutt) loses about 6% of the input energy over that 610km distance. So if the HVDC were extended to Manapouri in the south and to Auckland in the north, total losses from Manapouri to Auckland might be around 15%, compared to maybe a couple percent loss in transmission (wild-ass guess) from Manapouri to Tiwai Point.
Round figures Tiwai Point was guessed to pay around $250M a year for electricity plus maybe $60M for transmission. So rough hand-wavy numbers there's maybe $50M of value in electricity that's not lost by using it in Southland rather than sending it all the way to Auckland.
That's without considering the cost of grid upgrades that would be needed.
using it anywhere in Southland? (i.e is the power supplied via normal grid, or is it something special for Tiwai?)
The main high voltage line goes direct from Manapouri to Invercargill where it joins up with the rest of the grid. Then looking at really non-detailed maps it appears the high-voltage lines go north past Gore to Roxburgh and Clyde.
The smelter's demand is fairly closely matched to Manapouri's output, by design. But there are times when Tiwai Point draws more than Manapouri produces and draws the extra from the rest of the grid, and there are times when Tiwai Point doesn't use all of what Manapouri is producing so that excess goes into the grid.
So if a new heavy user appeared somewhere close to existing high-voltage lines, then it's likely just a matter of putting in a substation to tap off from existing lines. But if the new heavy user were well away from existing lines, say somewhere like Mossburn or Kingston, then a new high voltage line would likely be needed as well as a substation.
Losses are affected by distance (more distance more loss), voltage (higher voltage loses less) and whether it's AC or DC (DC loses less, but it's not easy to convert to AC so you need to be dealing with a lot of juice to make DC transmission worthwhile)
so quite a bit of potential not just the Tiwai site then. Which way do the lines go if not past Mossburn?
@Weka
Wonder about electrifying the big dairy factory at Edendale (currently a coal burner). There's an existing grid line via Gore but don't know if it has sufficient capacity (it's lower voltage 110kV, compared to the main national grid 220kV).
Manapouri to Tiwai lines run near Ohai then straight to Makarewa substaion north of Invercargill (see Transpower National Grid maps).
@ Andre
Rather than HVDC through to Auckland, I wonder about increaing the 220kV capacity north of Wellington, which would allow more South Island power to be used throughout the Lower North Island. Might free up some of the existing North Island generation for Auckland.
Depending on your level of nerdness, Transpower's GIS data is freely downloadable …
Probably throughout the region, but an electrical system is a bit like plumbing or information transmission: a network is only as big as its smallest pipe. If the local subtation or lines are at capacity, then being able to supply more energy is useless because the current pipe isn't big enough.
But we do know that the smelter already has bloody big pipes from generator to factory floor, so if I were to make an uneducated and speculative guess, I'd suspect the cheapest option from a grid point of view would be to have another high-energy facility (maybe not as big as the smelter, but a good energy user).
Another high-energy option would be a particle accelerator: the Large Hadron Collider uses 200MW at peak flow, less than half the smelter's capacity. And the farmland around might be easier to access for a trench-dug tunnel (like a fuel line, but without the kauri logging risk) or elevated pipe than in other countries. And the data can get transmitted to any NZ scientific facility via the KAREN fibre line.
I'm just spitballing here, but my point is that there are far more options than "save the smelter" available. And, frankly, Shadbolt's Invercargill has a history of having good ideas for Southland that are out of left field. I wouldn't be surprised if they float something that makes people go "wtf" but which actually comes off looking good.
Given we have supplies of iron sand in NZ could there be conversion to steel and us building our own trains, building supplies, etc.
We'd have to move away from the notion that cheapest is best of course – we know that this is generally not the case.
We need to build the notion of community good into our state owned infrastructure rather than this notion of profit e.g. rail has a split of public good (say 60%) paid through taxation and private good (40%) paid for through sales and fees and ticketing.
I do actually think the same for roads if we applied the same 60/40 split to roads then maybe road user charges could be reduced.
And they should be state owned – profit is just a dead-weight and high executive salaries are just capital theft.
The smelter is at Tiwai because of the the deep water port for the alumina, and other inputs coming in, and product going out.
Another industry may not be that critical of location, data centre could be just north of Invercargill by the Lorneville substation. A silica refinery, probably between the resource in Western Southland and Lorneville.
good point about the port, too.
It feels a bit like the occasional problem I have at work, where although I don't know the method I can feel there's a bloody good answer that's just a bit too far away to grasp at the moment.
Ah well, Southland will figure it out. It's a bit flat for my taste, but it's got a lot going for it these days.
Unlikely to beat other locations for sustainable ongoing benefit to the nation rather than one region. Takes more than one plant.
NZBitcom computers? Although there are no jobs from that – I think they just chew power. And the end product is pretty much a fantasy
There's a mapped active fault less than 10 km from The Octagon (runs along SE side of Taieri Plain at least as far N as Wingatui) (NZAFD, GNS). Also, the Akatore Fault that goes offshore near Taieri Mouth likely continues towards Dunedin (& possible under it). Recent research suggests it's capable of M7 to M7.4 quake & is the biggest seismic threat to Dunedin (piece on Newshub: best non-paywalled source I could find).
oops, there goes that advantage
the road to Tiwai Point comes from Invercargill not Bluff. Bluff is closer, but across the water.
surprised Winnie did not walk across, for effect
he's saving it up for next week.
The chameleonic Winston Peters has abandoned Northland for Southland. Someone needs to make this point in parliament or the media.
it's kind of obvious though.
Just for fun, looking back to the Ruatoki event (Urerewa-Operation 8) and Comm. Marshall's (video) comments; (Jackal’s post, 24 May 2012).
Did the accused NOT get the legal representation that many believed they deserved?
He, he, he, ho, ho, ho!
And did anyone ever really determined whether the bus (or the tourist coach perhaps) would have been targeted at Johnkey's head from a great height, or Bush’s? (George Bush that is, not Mike Bush's)
Is it not high time that Tame Iti got himself a high salaried job somewhere, either in corporate or performing arts?
That guy still has heaps of talent and maybe he should avoid getting mixed up with many of those old farty arts patrons (especially of the Akarana ilk).
I really do not believe that most of them have his best interests at heart.
Be self reliant or be a bottom feeder, I guess.
Drastic times call for drastic measures.
B.C. health officials are recommending an age-old, occasionally cutting-edge tactic for sex during the coronavirus pandemic: “glory holes.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/7204384/coronavirus-glory-holes-sex/
"cutting-edge tactic" – ouch! Also, from the article:
"The recommendation is just a tip and not a firm rule, according to the website."
Na they should just get married , that stops sex happening altogether 🤣
Brian Easton writes van interesting column on Pundit. It covers the National shifts in Economic terms and some pointers on the Collin position.
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/maana-politics
His addendum is most interesting:
"Addendum: This column was drafted before the events involving Andrew Falloon and Ian Lees-Galloway. It has not been rewritten.. However, I must add this. The column tries hard to be fair towards Judith Collins; after all it is really about wider issues than her. But the way she dealt with the Lees-Galloway allegations was inappropriate. She was right to pass her knowledge on to Jacinda Ardern, as the prime minister had done to her over Falloon. She was wrong to announce she had done so (on morning radio) before the Prime Minister had publicly dealt with the information. In contrast Ardern waited until Collins had made her Falloon announcement before explaining her involvement. Collins’ timing has the hallmarks of a Whale Oil counterpuncher. It does not promise a clean election."
Yes Robert. Collins never misses a chance to use a nasty jibe. Be interesting to know which people like her for that habit.
Na key was far right ,he just disguised it well .
His governments underfunding of health is privatization by stealth.
collins and goldsmith will finish the job if given the chance.
spot on bwaghorn. he knew what he was doing. punishing the working classes and siphoning off the money.
got chipped on FB yesterday fordaring to mention that some of the nationals female mp's were showing a bit more cleavage than necessary on teevee ch31 last night. then a nationals troll showed up and demanded this and that and it was a great old brou ha ha. the upshot was the post was deleted but then they all went and changed their clobber. hahahahahaha.
Surprising, given that Nat MPs excel at cover ups.
Jonathan Pie spouts his disgust at the sensitivity that has established new norms so that we aren't even allowed to regard ourselves as one biological sex now and accept that there is generally two plus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5TVLEaqqdI
Breaking news: Terrorists on the loose in Te Rapa.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/122247176/police-hunting-possible-quarantine-breakers-in-hamilton