“Mr Parker says the current model has led to huge profits from holders of hydro power stations which use water – a public resource – as fuel.
“The value of that has been captured by the generators and capitalised into their revalued balance sheets.”
Labour and the Greens’ solution is NZ Power’s “differential” pricing model, where generators would receive payment based on operating costs and a “fair” return on capital.”
Quote from NZ Herald – Adam Bennett 24/4
Re Greens/Labour NZ Power – does anybody know whether the “”Fair” return on capital” is going to be calculated on the pre revaluation capital (Historical cost) or the post over inflated revaluation of capital?
“does anybody know whether the “”Fair” return on capital” is going to be calculated on the pre revaluation capital”
They are a bit vague on that aren’t they? I doubt even they know, this is Labour here. When the dust settles people will start asking the right questions and I’m betting they won’t be able to answer them all.
Asset revaluations make up 76% of MRP’s equity. Just what are Labour’s intentions there?
The Geoff Bertram research paper on power showed the increase in power prices between 1990-2011 came mostly via the rising costs of the retail model, the retail side now making up 40% of the domestic price today (see page 13). NZ Power doesn’t look to be addressing that and Labour want to separate the generators from their retail arms which will add another layer of costs.
It’s very entertaining listening to the shrieking from the right but Labour will need to come up with the details & numbers sometime and until then it’s just politics IMO. These are, after all, the same people who bled us dry for nine years.
Essentially the same model that is used for Network Companies and that allows for such excessive “line charges”.
The profits will still be high as under that model it is good business for a Chinese company, closely linked to the Chinese Government to own all of the Wellington electricity network. I wonder who was in power when that lovely deal was done?
Of course the electricity market is dysfunctional and of course it produces excessive profits for the plethora of so called “power companies”.
The chief lobbyist on behalf of the proposed “power companies” to Bradford and other idiots was none other than that doyen of the left, Roger Sutton, now head of CERA and part of the Green Party royalty.
That is interesting DH, the Revaluation Reserve dwarfs the actual capital invested in the business…you’ve got to feel for people on low incomes having to pay returns on huge revaluations when they should be allowed to take advantage of low cost hydro electricity, one of our few competitive advantages as a nation. As a former Business Analysts in the Paper industry, if Greens/Labour are successful in reducing the cost of power , this has the potential to drive capacity and jobs away from Aus to NZ. I did a lot of analysis on this sort of thing over the years and because of Bradfords reforms NZ electricity costs were higher than Aussie’s, so we certainly didnt get any benefit in this area when we should have.
We hear panic from institutions that will take advantage of the MRP Float but we havent heard what industry people such as Graham Hart and SCA have to say about NZ Power. I would imagine that they would be pretty keen on the initiative. Maybe we could see a little more work on this by our hopeless MSM media?
If you look at page 13 you can see what the residential price of power is made up of. Generation looks to be only about 30% and as grumpy mentions above the ratio of distribution costs has gone up via their asset revaluations etc. To get a 10% cut in domestic retail prices just from generation alone would require something like a 35% drop in the wholesale price.
Further adding to the problem is Transpower haven’t kept depreciation reserves so now they’re charging for upgrades that should have been paid for by depreciation.
It may well be workable but there’s a hell of a lot more to it than meets the eye and until we hear some solid details I’m reserving my judgment.
Almost cries out for local government owned electricity distributors/retailers and central government owned generators and main trunk distributors eh? Oh….wait…..!
. . . These are, after all, the same people who bled us dry for nine years . . .
Seriously, if you take your facts from John Key you run the very real risk of being accused of being a liar. I think you’re just a parrot but if you repeat this sort of nonsense again, my position may have to change. Here’s what Blinglish said when faced with no option other than to tell the truth. . .
” . . . In the midst of the horrible outlook and depressing uncertainty about how bad it might get, English was forced to change his message about his inheritance from Labour . . . “In New Zealand we have room to respond. This is the rainy day that Government has been saving up for” he said . . .
Get that? Labour had done such a good job of running the economy in the nine years prior to National Ltd™ there was room to move and savings on hand.
“Seriously, if you take your facts from John Key you run the very real risk of being accused of being a liar. ”
And if you jump to wild conclusions you run the risk of being taken for a troll & ignored.
I was referring to the price of power, of which we were indeed severely bled during Labours nine year reign. If you want facts see Mike Smith’s graph on it here;
Note the blip is the Bradford years, the big rise in prices after that is… guess who
There’s a certain irony in the fact that Labour gleefully banked the bloated profits from the SOEs for nine years & now they’re using that very situation to turn the tables on the Nats. Good for them, I don’t like this Govt either, but you’ll have to forgive my doubts and cynicism when I see people who showed no sign of a conscience over power prices previously now having us believe they’ve developed one. Does a leopard really change its spots?
I’ve been thinking. Let’s assume that Mr Key believed at the time that he was acting unlawfully in his recruitment. He would feel obliged to duck and dive to avoid scrutiny. And did so until a week after the question was raised, he discovered that what he did was actually legal. Oh the agony! Oh the irony!
All that ducking for nothing. Fire that PR man and lick your unnecessary wounds.
Other events may have highlighted his personality, such as the bufoonery of the threeway, the schmoozing of his crush on Obama but I expect the Fletcher Files have exposed his true character moreso than any of his numerous blunders to date.
If he had nothing to hide, why did he see fit to hide everything ?
“If he had nothing to hide, why did he see fit to hide everything ?”
Either:
a) He does have something to hide.
b) He thinks he has something to hide but is really just a bit paranoid.
c) He’s so arrogant about his lying that bullshitting the public is now a default mode for him that he’s confident about slipping into for no good reason.
I agree ianmac, that is what prompted my reflection on the behaviour displayed and how this is different from the playful gleebug that delivered such clangers as the catwalk and David Letterman. I think we all agree, at the very least, the lies to parliament were an instinctive defence. This was the PM backing up to the electric fence after trying to cut through a siring pen.
Unfortunately, they’ve long taken over modern society. So this is not about resisting an invader, that was lost when Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.
Now, it’s about ejecting an occupying force who has massive and oversized influence over corporates, governments, central banks and media.
As well CV knows, look at how little punishment the banking/financial system has received in countries where they have caused far greater carnage than they have, so far, in NZ.
I would expect the *scientists* behind geo-engineering might have some idea Jenny, at least once the technology had developed, and the opportunity to study decades of *experimental results*, allowed great levels of control.
Ha! Don’t know where you dug that one up from, Joe 90, but it’s a classic. Muzza; it’s a video of your mum talking about the link between HAARP and Maurice Williamson’s rainbow. Boy, is she onto it!
Do you, jenny, joe90, and any others, like to state your view/position on geo-engineering, or do you want to pretend that its not going on, and attempt to draw conclusions about CC, and the environment, while factoring out, what could be a major influence.
Or you can continue to throw immature comments around the place..
Joe90, how’s SFO working out for you, didn’t see that information I asked you provide, perhaps I missed it…
To be fair if someone asked me to show where an airport, located on the coast was in relation to a pic of supposed contrails, looking like they were crossing the angles of a land-locked location, I would rather not provide it either eh 😉
You can look up the BBC contrails video, the one which now sells the story, that airline contrails are the *new cirrus clouds*, being seen around the world, and how the *cirrus clouds* were helping protect the earth from solar heat, and *keeping the temp down* – They even cite the planes grounded on 911, as some sort of evidence the *contrails*, are helping keep the earths temperature down. Look it up, and see how many holes you might identify in the propaganda!
It’s quite something to see the BBC deteriorate to such drivel, Voice you will love it, cos its on the beeb!
Muzz,
if it A) exists and B) is a major effect on climate change, then the IPCC and others would need to account for it in their reports to avoid major errors (due to not accommodating “geoengineering”). Do they?
If it A) exists but B) has no appreciable effect, it is pointless, so why would they bother?
It’s not my field (nor, I suspect, is it yours), but it seems to me that the major reports and peer-reviewed research have been pretty accurate about the trends, effects and rate of progression of climate change over the last couple of decades without including “geo-engineering”.
So “geo-engineering” is not necessary to incorporate into any theories about what’s going on with the climate.
So Occam’s Razor comes into play.
AND So you’re suggesting that at least thousands of people and dozens of countries are spending millions if not billions or trillions on a global conspiracy that has no appreciable effect.
McFlock, there are many assumptions in your response, as you could argue there are in my comments, and I would have to accept that.
Your faith/assumptions in the *system*, scientific community, is well meaning, as always though, its who ever controls the funding, controls the research, and its outputs, and that’s only what the public are told about, such as the IPCC published reports/findings etc.
Take the FDA as an example, why would the IPCC be any less open to similar takeover or corruption! – To leave out data from any research, is to steal opportunity for full disclosure, which is theft to be avoided at all costs, as it means people forms their views, make decisions, on an imcomplete data set!
Its a dangerous position for people’s own well being, to think they *know* such things are not happening, my position, if wrong, impacts no-one, not so the opposite position, which impacts everyone!
TC – Below, yes mate, I come from a family who have spent considerable time in the air (many moon miles awards actually), and in service, working in planes, on planes, and around planes, going back long before WW2
The lines in the sky these days, are not contrails, you can tell this because the genuine contrails are still rare, and beautiful, and look the same as they ever have, they don’t hang in the sky for hours, days or longer.
“The lines in the sky these days, are not contrails, you can tell this because the genuine contrails are still rare, and beautiful, and look the same as they ever have, they don’t hang in the sky for hours, days or longer.”
The same ‘persistent contrail’ phenomena have been observed since World War 2. They looked the same back then as they do now.
If the IPCC were wrong, then you would be able to point to a massive geo-engineering shaped gap between what they predict and the observed climate. Monckton et al have been trying this for years from another direction, and the only credibility they have eroded is their own.
But the real problem, why I give a damn about your delusions, is this:
, my position, if wrong, impacts no-one, not so the opposite position, which impacts everyone!
Your position, if wrong, is a distraction and diversion from the myriad of problems that exist today, Climate Change probably being the most serious. That does actually impact everyone. So you really need to be objectively correct, with actual evidence and a contiguous, strong case constantly being matched against observations in the real world.
McFlock – Again you’re not addressing my contention which is fraud, and corruption, via control of the information/data sets – I for one do not believe for a minute that there has not been massive fraud inside the scientific community over the CC information flows, research etc, and ultimately the lies which are being sold to the plebs, because thats what incomplete data leads to, lies!
The IPCC is as fraudulent as Monkton, the UN is a fraud, the IMF and WB are a fraud etc, there is no differentiating, the funds/backing come from the same place, the power rests in the same hands, really its rather straight forward. In simple terms for you, the world is a mess, because thats how its wanted to be, and if it was peace that was wanted, there would be peace!
Its as if you’re pretending to ignore that money controls everything, including science, scientists, the data, the research, and therefore the *results*. I know it hard for people to accept, but science is as controlled as any other industry!
*Science will save us* – That’s what many want to believe, it won’t, the system will not allow it to be that way!
As for your contention that I’m a distraction, when the truth comes out (note, it is already out), you’ll be wishing that’s what I had been!
In the meantime, we all have to live underneath, and with the policies of lies!
I for one do not believe for a minute that there has not been massive fraud inside the scientific community over the CC information flows, research etc, and ultimately the lies which are being sold to the plebs, because thats what incomplete data leads to, lies!
You know I’m not wholly unsympathetic with your thinking muzza. But I come from a different background to you, I’ve an engineering degree, I worked for a major science organisation for five years, I’ve worked in science and technology related areas more than 30 years, and many of my closest and most trusted friends are PhD’s who’ve worked directly in various geo-physical fields all their lives.
I can count four of them who have all direct field work and specific experience. I’ve had personal one on one conversations with them covering all manner of aspects of this topic. And yet even these four people are just a small random slice of the ‘science community’ whom I personally know by happenstance. The depth and detail they command of this subject, that they know from first-hand work leaves me gasping in their wake.
In the most sincere and genuine manner muzza I have to tell you that the idea that all these people are somehow involved in a world-wide conspiracy, over dozens of nations, thousands of institutions and tens of thousands of cranky, highly trained skeptics … is just plain wrong. The idea that all these people have been lying in unison for decades, all telling the same made up yet perfectly synchronised story ….without so much as one scrap of evidence of such a massively coordinated conspiracy anywhere…just cannot be sustained.
I’m not attacking you muzza. I’m simply asking you to consider that the science community is something a lot more complex and powerful than you’re imagining. It can make mistakes, it can get things wrong, it can take a while to correct it’s course, but one thing it doesn’t tolerate is fraud.
RL – I appreciate that you’re one of the more open minded on this site, and I respect what you have to say, and your comments and posts on this site. I usually take away a thought provoking angle in your writings.
However, with respect, your background lends no more kudos to the discussion than mine does, in real terms, and you have also assumed that I believe there is a wholesale cover up, which is not something I have ever eluded to on this topic!
Its needs not be far reaching, in fact given the history of *intelligence/covert* (Operation Popeye) nature of such industry of which details make the public arena, why do people expect that it would be wide spread, or that those involved could not keep it off radar, imagine how much has gone on, and is going on, that we may never hear of Red, that’s my point, always. Human history of top level lies and cover ups, is why I have this view, and it strikes me as naïve when people want to believe such undertakings are not happening!
In any case, the old adage that , its simply too big, too many people involved, it must have come out….Take a look at the banking industry Red, people know the fraud exists, heck, its the biggest open *non cover up* in the history of mankind, plus or minus, its in broad daylight, and what’s being done about it so far, NOTHING!
Consider the power of the money strings (I know you do), and how those who control the entire global financial structure, might just also use that monetary control in such nefarious ways, that mere mortals, including your PhD friends, and mine, have no understanding of whatsoever! Money controls the world, which includes the scientific, R&D industry, not to mention the tertiary structures of the world.
By the time the MSM (controlled by the intelligence industry, through the likes of GE), have rinsed any information, and sanitized it for public consumption, is it any surprise that cover up’s exist, you know as well as I do, it’s not!
I also have many PhD level friends, come in Europe, who are very liberal with sharing their research projects, and lab work carried out, where the funding came from etc not only by them, but those they also know, and I can tell that what I hear from them, would blow your mind!
Put it this way, I have friends who are CEO’s of huge NZ enterprises, and senior executives in many of the big four banks, and, when we speak, seem relatively supportive of what the neoliberal programme is doing, not exhaustively, but overall, that are good with it. My point is that those inside industry, have a large vested interest in it, and prone to bias, the same as any other, if not more so, science is no different, much as people might want to believe it is.
What is more complex and powerful (than any industry named), than you or I can ever imagine Red, is the control over every/any aspect of our existence, by the power players, whose names or faces , are the stuff of *conspiracy* !
Science, and scientists want to believe that they’re special, and in many ways they are, but when it comes to being controlled and or corrupted, at an individual level, or as big as IPCC, they are no different from your average human being, when the screws are turned, careers to protect, families to feed, lies to protect!
Quite why people need to believe that science, and related industry is above such behavior, can only be down to ego! – Note, this is not aimed at you, this is in a general sense!
Flooding after drought is typical, esp where you have land management practices that decrease drought resistance (that’s the kind we mostly use in NZ). If you keep pasture short and use other techniques to dehydrate that land, then the soil becomes hydrophobic ie it will repel water instead of absorbing it. Gardeners are usually well familiar with this phenomenon too. So when you get a lot of rain, it simply runs over the top of the ground, hence flooding. Our current river and stream management practices add to the problem, because they are generally kept clear and so water flows through them much faster, taking along with it much of the bank stability and any bare soil it comes into contact with..
The way around this is to conserve water in the ground all the time, and to build organic matter in the soil (it absorbs water).
A parallel would be losing your job, getting the dole, then picking up another job but continuing getting the dole while you ‘build back your reserves’
Running rings around a naïve Kiwi radio host
Radio NZ National, Nights with Bryan Crump
Tuesday 23 April 2013, 8:45 p.m.
Every two months, Bryan Crump speaks to someone from Israel, to find out what’s happening there. Sounds like a good idea, right?
Wrong. For some reason, Crump’s producers have seen fit to saddle him with Liat Colliins, a columnist on the extreme right Jerusalem Post. Liat Collins is an utterly notorious propagandist, an uncritical and unceasing booster of the Holy State, and she never loses a chance to get one past Crump, who seems ill-informed and naïve to an almost criminal extent….
LIAT COLLINS: Ehhhmmmm. We had two rocket attacks from the south last week. Ehhhmmm.
BRYAN CRUMP: Oh no, have they started launching rockets again?
LIAT COLLINS: No, no, these were from Egyptian-occupied Sinai. These incidents have increased since the fall of Mubarak.
BRYAN CRUMP: Ohhhhh, I seeeeee….
LIAT COLLINS: We had basically a WAR last year.
BRYAN CRUMP:[sympathetically] Mmmmm, mmmm.
LIAT COLLINS: It’s only getting worse since the Arab Spring. I was never optimistic about the Arab Spring, I’m afraid.
BRYAN CRUMP: Mmmmmm, mmmmmm…
Not one of Collins’ statements is challenged by Crump. Not one.
Bryan Crump is one of the smartest and most sensitive people on the radio, but when it comes to Israel-Palestine, he apparently knows nothing. Which means people like Liat Collins, who are nothing more than fanatics posing as journalists, just walk all over him.
Here are a few other observations I have made about Bryan Crump and the dodgy “middle east correspondents” his producers have lumped on him….
“I was never optimistic about the Arab Spring, I’m afraid”.
Oh of course not you poor oppressed thing. Zionist fanatics are optimistic about nothing, to the point where they caricature themselves.
Except of course as to the singular “exceptionalism” they claim on behalf of the fanatical, oppressed turned oppressors, Zionist state. Where a cold, advised, virulent, evil apartheid prevails.
Fast recovery though on graph on the Rodrigo twit after that fall – BAU. Fantails say a lot which I don’t understand, human twitters seem likely to be stream of consciousness stuff still hard to comprehend the reasoning.
remember, traders make the most money on volatility not on stability. Price stability actually means frak all profits for the banksters and the money traders. And with high speed automated algorithmic trading, they can cause “flash crashes” at will (or accidentally).
We can see the stocks traded but because we can’t see the related and highly leveraged derivative activity, its quite likely the transactions around the movement were much larger than that in total.
But all you hear the RWNJ drum beat for is austerity on the already poor.
I prefer piwakawaka tweets…what they are saying to me as I walk the path is “Be a useful creature and disturb my food so that I might eat”. This of course makes perfect sense.
Digital tweets I don’t understand, yes the language can be comprehended but the thinking is anybodies guess. You can make noise on any instrument you like but without tuning it and learning to play music…….
as the above events indicates, this “value” is simply a pyramid scheme casino based scam. And RWNJs think that this is what the economy should be all about.
I can see that this is true. Every time there is a change in the market value of stock, someone has an opportunity to hedge or something on a further change. It is very casino-like. Meanwhile the currency that we exchange to provide for our necessities is being turned into monopoly money but we still go on with the game earnestly trying to buy that attractive property here and here and here.
To anyone interested in National Standards, or education in general, I highly recommend Puddleglum’s three part investigation at ‘The Political Scientist’.
Note: I have linked to the site rather than one of the three individual posts. The top of the page is part three, so you might want to scroll down to part one if you haven’t already read it.
A teaser from part three:
Given that a good part of the justification for introducing National Standards is to do with the so-called ‘long tail’ of underachieving students, it is remarkable that those standards explicitly embody a monitoring and assessment strategy well known – from psychological research – to exacerbate initial inequalities in ‘expertise’, or ‘achievement’. ‘Novices’ will not do well under observation.
Once again, Gray (2013, p. 133) says it so much better:
…with their incessant monitoring and evaluation of students’ performance, schools seem to be ideally designed to boost the performances of those who are already good and to interfere with learning… of those who are not so proficient*
……of those who have somehow already learned the school tasks, maybe at home, generally perform well in this setting, but those who haven’t tend to flounder. Evaluation drives a wedge between those who already know how and those who don’t, pushing the former up and the latter down.
It gets worse.
We are, today, almost incessantly told that creativity and innovation are the keys to success in the modern economy – whether as individuals or as nations. An interesting study of rates of creativity in succeeding generations of American children was recently reported by Kyung Hee Kim (2011) – (see her own outline of the research here). Briefly, on all sub-measures of creativity, the evidence is that it is declining in the United States – supposedly the Western home of creativity and innovation.
*I added my own words here to try and clarify the meaning. I hope that was okay Puddleglum?
Pink Floyd Animals is an incredible album that is severely underrated in the context of their other work. Its so good it makes the world seem ok when listening to it. =)
Garth McVicar is STILL being treated seriously by Radio New Zealand. Why?
Radio NZ National, Wednesday 24 April 2013
I’ve just heard something slimy and extremely unpleasant on the 11 a.m. news. S.S. Führer Garth “The Knife” McVicar is ranting again, and grooming another victim of a violent crime. This time he’s moving on the mother of murdered Christchurch schoolgirl Jade Bayliss.
There are several reasons why this monster of hypocrisy should not be given any air-time:
1.) McVicar himself is currently being tried on very serious charges;
2.) McVicar cannot even remotely be regarded as a “victims’ advocate” (as Radio New Zealand persists in calling him) in light of his outrageous and callous behaviour following the knife-killing of Pihema Cameron in 2008;
3.) Following his loud and frequently reiterated support for the grave-robber, serial sexual harasser and doctor-basher David Garrett, McVicar surely has no credibility whatsoever.
But he is being reported, and quoted, on National Radio as if he is a serious commentator.
A lawyer for the Human Rights Commission has told a court the Sensible Sentencing Trust not only broke name suppression for a convicted paedophile, but breached his privacy by getting his private police record.
The commission is prosecuting the trust at the Auckland District Court on Wednesday for breaching the rights of the man who was jailed in 1995 for 12 months for five offences that took place in 1975 and 1978 against two girls….
Read the rest and find out who the S.S. Trust’s lawyer is…..
Indeed it is. We didn’t need any further confirmation of course, but keeping that discredited, almost universally reviled villain on as a “legal counsel” underlines the fact that McVicar, as well as being completely shameless, lacks even a semblance of common sense.
Why? Well, because he lends himself rather nicely to the culture that relies on vaccuous soundbites that can masquerade as informed opinion. You can’t have thoughtful people ‘entertained’ by todays media. That wouldn’t be entertaining at all, as it would require a level of engagement. Which is to say that the formally passive listener would be afforded the opportunity to invest time, analysis, thought and reflection that would lead to the formation of informed opinions. And at that point, things are getting ‘out of hand’; beyond a comforting nicely packaged presentation that has ‘everything in its right place’ – ie, where everything is more or less ordered and controled.
Yup. He is. And that requires no great thought or reflection. And that’s then posited against whatever. And it’s the simple juxtaposition that is meant to determine the breadth and depth of your opinions…basically an invitation to indulge in pinning flags to masts.
what about this tragedy whereby some no-nuts has taken the lives of two young people, one in Aus, one here. The lives some people live is unbelievable; very sad.
Facts are so often fiction these days. It is increasingly difficult to trust the figures in the stated numbers of jobs available. Just now, when going over all the jobs listed on-line for my area, over half of the positions advertised where already filled, or the application date had passed, yet were still listed in the total jobs available. These are the very same listings that are being quoted in Parliament and parroted in the media every week.
It is kind of sad that the MSM are simply not bothering to investigate the data they report on. Guess there is no real need for reality anymore.
The only jobs really vacant in New Zealand are to do with farming, IT (though you are underpaid and overworked compared to overseas), crap temporary services jobs (a few months and you are out) and recruitment agencies. Every week skilled, unskilled or highly qualified, everyone is leaving the no job, low pay economy under National. Think of how Romney supporters believed their idol couldn’t lose, National supporters in the MSM are the same…they refuse to accept reality. 😉
It’s worse than that freedom – and its been going on for years. One job advertised by many different agencies – i.e. the same job.
Anyone that’s ever placed a vacancy in the hands of agencies should know this – and they’ll be aware of the bullshit you’ve identified as well – i.e. listings still current once the position has been filled. At one time, agencies used to do it in order to get prospective candidates and CVs on their books.
It’d be useful for one of those ‘consumer watchdogs’ to investigate.
Oh wait – we don’t have any that are effective, or that have the means to access the necessary information. And IF we did, how the hell would those bank financial gurus be able to justify various ‘business confidence’ claims?
It’s 2013, time for the News
The Neo-Liberal agenda got a solid thirty year opportunity to prove itself. Any basic measure proves complete failure on its stated promise of trickle down economic benefits to the general populace. All benchmarks show real world inflation adjusted incomes are lower, living costs are higher and every single day more and more people are worse off than when the crew of the good ship SelfishFuck put this raft to sea in the early 80’s. It is time to scuttle the ship and swim back to land, there is no new frontier across the way. Just the everyday necessity of work and homes and lives that need protecting and support. The sad part is we increasingly need protecting from those who are elected to represent us.
That blithering nincompoop Peter Dunne could not organise drinkies in a champaign bar!
His inability to sort out the “Synthetic Cannabis” nonsense is on par with his incompetence on Revenue.
Labour should be hitting The Lord of Ohariu like a billio!
That blithering nincompoop Peter Dunne could not organise drinkies in a champaign bar!
Dunne couldn’t organise a root in a brothel, he couldn’t organise a right-wing rant at a Sensible Sentencing Trust meeting, he couldn’t organise a high tackle in a Samoa versus Tonga football match, he couldn’t organise a glib remark in an episode of Jim Mora’s Panel show, he couldn’t organise an inappropriate remark in a pub conversation involving Bob Clarkson, Winston Peters, Pam Corkery and Richard Prosser.
Wellington Labour is now afraid to take on Dunne in Ohariu.
Charles Chauvel would have rolled Dunne at the next election, had he not been pushed out of the party by Grant Robertson.
Robertson led Labour to THIRD place behind the Greens in Wellington. And he still thinks he should be treated like he is a competent street politician or something! Grant Robertson is still only a back-room jostler and only comfortable between the Westpac Stadium and the Basin Reserve. Outside of there Robertson is a wus and a legend in his own lunchtime.
Look at the combined Wellington Labour party-vote over the past few elections and you will see ROT. And you will see Grant Robertson.
Dunne is safe as long as Wellington Labour continues to repeat the same same same .
If and when the Brethren-financed National M.P. Maurice Williamson appears on Ellen, will he be obliged to dance his way on to the stage, like every other guest on this horrible, horrible programme?
Thanks, Paul, but today’s show is just too dull to get excited about. So far, anyway. (It’s 4:39 right now.) Highlight so far was when Mora used the word “obesogenic”, which impressed me if nobody else.
Less impressively, he has again quoted David Brooks, the right wing New York Times columnist. He has done that a lot over the years, and it’s a worry. He invariably quotes Brooks with approval, which raises grave questions about Mora’s judgement, as well as the depth and breadth of his reading.
Otherwise, the discussions have been pretty ho-hum.
Did I just hear Jeremy Ellwood say just now that NZers are now more interested in ANZAC Day because we’ve been involved in wars recently…like Iraq?
Obviously members of the panel are not required to be informed to pontificate on subjects!
No one picked him up on it either.
Yes, you heard right, my friend. Elwood is not particularly well informed. It’s just a pity that some crusty old right winger wasn’t on the show today, so that Elwood could have bent over backwards to agree with everything the old codger said. That’s when Elwood is at his (unintentional) funniest.
Elwood’s schtick on 7 Days consists of sitting with a glum look of rebuke on his puss whenever Dai Henwood and the others veer off into insensitive or politically incorrect territory, which is of course for practically the whole show. The only person who has ever looked unhappier and more dispproving is Elwood’s similarly “right on” partner Michelle Acourt.
This arvo, Greenpeace activists have occupied a coal ship bound for Sth Korea. The occupied ship is near Aussies’s Great Barrier reef. They are protesting about Aussie’s coal industry.
I guess they don’t have to worry about legislation restricting protests.
That BP lied about the amount of oil it discharged into the gulf is already established. Lying to Congress about that was one of 14 felonies to which BP pleaded guilty last year in a legal settlement with the Justice Department that included a $4.5 billion fine, the largest fine ever levied against a corporation in the U.S.
What has not been revealed until now is how BP hid that massive amount of oil from TV cameras and the price that this “disappearing act” imposed on cleanup workers, coastal residents, and the ecosystem of the gulf. That story can now be told because an anonymous whistleblower has provided evidence that BP was warned in advance about the safety risks of attempting to cover up its leaking oil. Nevertheless, BP proceeded. Furthermore, BP appears to have withheld these safety warnings, as well as protective measures, both from the thousands of workers hired for the cleanup and from the millions of Gulf Coast residents who stood to be affected.
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
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“Mr Parker says the current model has led to huge profits from holders of hydro power stations which use water – a public resource – as fuel.
“The value of that has been captured by the generators and capitalised into their revalued balance sheets.”
Labour and the Greens’ solution is NZ Power’s “differential” pricing model, where generators would receive payment based on operating costs and a “fair” return on capital.”
Quote from NZ Herald – Adam Bennett 24/4
Re Greens/Labour NZ Power – does anybody know whether the “”Fair” return on capital” is going to be calculated on the pre revaluation capital (Historical cost) or the post over inflated revaluation of capital?
“does anybody know whether the “”Fair” return on capital” is going to be calculated on the pre revaluation capital”
They are a bit vague on that aren’t they? I doubt even they know, this is Labour here. When the dust settles people will start asking the right questions and I’m betting they won’t be able to answer them all.
This is Mighty River’s equity;
Issued capital 377,561,000
Retained earnings 487,628,000
Asset revaluation reserves 2,300,652,000
Cash flow hedge reserve -118,872,000
Forex reserve -32,048,000
Total equity $3.014 billion
Asset revaluations make up 76% of MRP’s equity. Just what are Labour’s intentions there?
The Geoff Bertram research paper on power showed the increase in power prices between 1990-2011 came mostly via the rising costs of the retail model, the retail side now making up 40% of the domestic price today (see page 13). NZ Power doesn’t look to be addressing that and Labour want to separate the generators from their retail arms which will add another layer of costs.
It’s very entertaining listening to the shrieking from the right but Labour will need to come up with the details & numbers sometime and until then it’s just politics IMO. These are, after all, the same people who bled us dry for nine years.
Essentially the same model that is used for Network Companies and that allows for such excessive “line charges”.
The profits will still be high as under that model it is good business for a Chinese company, closely linked to the Chinese Government to own all of the Wellington electricity network. I wonder who was in power when that lovely deal was done?
Of course the electricity market is dysfunctional and of course it produces excessive profits for the plethora of so called “power companies”.
The chief lobbyist on behalf of the proposed “power companies” to Bradford and other idiots was none other than that doyen of the left, Roger Sutton, now head of CERA and part of the Green Party royalty.
That is interesting DH, the Revaluation Reserve dwarfs the actual capital invested in the business…you’ve got to feel for people on low incomes having to pay returns on huge revaluations when they should be allowed to take advantage of low cost hydro electricity, one of our few competitive advantages as a nation. As a former Business Analysts in the Paper industry, if Greens/Labour are successful in reducing the cost of power , this has the potential to drive capacity and jobs away from Aus to NZ. I did a lot of analysis on this sort of thing over the years and because of Bradfords reforms NZ electricity costs were higher than Aussie’s, so we certainly didnt get any benefit in this area when we should have.
We hear panic from institutions that will take advantage of the MRP Float but we havent heard what industry people such as Graham Hart and SCA have to say about NZ Power. I would imagine that they would be pretty keen on the initiative. Maybe we could see a little more work on this by our hopeless MSM media?
you read it here first 😉
Aye, there is a whole lot more to it than simply reducing generation charges. Mike Smith linked to the Bertram research paper here;
https://www.dropbox.com/s/82w3do7x96enjv2/LHREnergySectors.pdf
If you look at page 13 you can see what the residential price of power is made up of. Generation looks to be only about 30% and as grumpy mentions above the ratio of distribution costs has gone up via their asset revaluations etc. To get a 10% cut in domestic retail prices just from generation alone would require something like a 35% drop in the wholesale price.
Further adding to the problem is Transpower haven’t kept depreciation reserves so now they’re charging for upgrades that should have been paid for by depreciation.
It may well be workable but there’s a hell of a lot more to it than meets the eye and until we hear some solid details I’m reserving my judgment.
Almost cries out for local government owned electricity distributors/retailers and central government owned generators and main trunk distributors eh? Oh….wait…..!
haha someone with a working memory!
Seriously, if you take your facts from John Key you run the very real risk of being accused of being a liar. I think you’re just a parrot but if you repeat this sort of nonsense again, my position may have to change. Here’s what Blinglish said when faced with no option other than to tell the truth. . .
Get that? Labour had done such a good job of running the economy in the nine years prior to National Ltd™ there was room to move and savings on hand.
“Seriously, if you take your facts from John Key you run the very real risk of being accused of being a liar. ”
And if you jump to wild conclusions you run the risk of being taken for a troll & ignored.
I was referring to the price of power, of which we were indeed severely bled during Labours nine year reign. If you want facts see Mike Smith’s graph on it here;
http://thestandard.org.nz/power-profits-and-the-consumer/
Note the blip is the Bradford years, the big rise in prices after that is… guess who
There’s a certain irony in the fact that Labour gleefully banked the bloated profits from the SOEs for nine years & now they’re using that very situation to turn the tables on the Nats. Good for them, I don’t like this Govt either, but you’ll have to forgive my doubts and cynicism when I see people who showed no sign of a conscience over power prices previously now having us believe they’ve developed one. Does a leopard really change its spots?
“Does a leopard really change its spots?”
Chameleons more like it, but really just one more reason to vote Green don’t you think DH
Fantastic question! If its only $300 a year saving per person and hydro costs 1c/kWh then I bet it is on the inflated book value.
Yet another one for BliP’s big list ‘o’ lies; it turns out Key met Fletcher for brekkie during the selection process.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8588475/Key-met-spy-candidate-for-breakfast
The really fun stuff will be when Key’s going/gone and Felcher turns on him.
I see what you did there 😉
And now it appears that Key’s involvement in Fletcher’s hiring was covered up even before the scandal broke: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879399
I’ve been thinking. Let’s assume that Mr Key believed at the time that he was acting unlawfully in his recruitment. He would feel obliged to duck and dive to avoid scrutiny. And did so until a week after the question was raised, he discovered that what he did was actually legal. Oh the agony! Oh the irony!
All that ducking for nothing. Fire that PR man and lick your unnecessary wounds.
Other events may have highlighted his personality, such as the bufoonery of the threeway, the schmoozing of his crush on Obama but I expect the Fletcher Files have exposed his true character moreso than any of his numerous blunders to date.
If he had nothing to hide, why did he see fit to hide everything ?
“If he had nothing to hide, why did he see fit to hide everything ?”
Either:
a) He does have something to hide.
b) He thinks he has something to hide but is really just a bit paranoid.
c) He’s so arrogant about his lying that bullshitting the public is now a default mode for him that he’s confident about slipping into for no good reason.
My thought was that Key thought what he had done was illegal. Hence the lying about it. Then found that what he did was legal after all. Ironic?
Yep. The point is that none of these possibilities are a good look for Key.
I agree ianmac, that is what prompted my reflection on the behaviour displayed and how this is different from the playful gleebug that delivered such clangers as the catwalk and David Letterman. I think we all agree, at the very least, the lies to parliament were an instinctive defence. This was the PM backing up to the electric fence after trying to cut through a siring pen.
Chris Trotter on consulting economic “gurus”.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/04/23/no-dog-in-the-fight-whatever-happened-to-academic-expertise/
Nice piece. So sick of the bank men on network news shows, with their soul patches and smug expressions, acting as though they’re unbiased.
Banks like to get in the veins of society. That is why they must be heavily resisted and controlled. Like drugs.
I like your thinking.
Unfortunately, they’ve long taken over modern society. So this is not about resisting an invader, that was lost when Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913.
Now, it’s about ejecting an occupying force who has massive and oversized influence over corporates, governments, central banks and media.
As well CV knows, look at how little punishment the banking/financial system has received in countries where they have caused far greater carnage than they have, so far, in NZ.
Steal a £15 bottle of Pimms during the London riots, get a year in prison.
Steal £150,000,000 from workers pension funds, get a knighthood.
A year for £15 Pimms? – that person got off lightly. How about 6 months imprisonment for £3.50 of water?
When it comes to agriculture…. Drought, Flood, Drought, is predicted to be the “New Normal”.
But who knew they could exist at the same time?
Drought status likely to remain until September
I would expect the *scientists* behind geo-engineering might have some idea Jenny, at least once the technology had developed, and the opportunity to study decades of *experimental results*, allowed great levels of control.
New normal – As if any of this is *normal* !
Without being able to see the link Joe, hows about you let me know the key points, just a summary will do!
Ha! Don’t know where you dug that one up from, Joe 90, but it’s a classic. Muzza; it’s a video of your mum talking about the link between HAARP and Maurice Williamson’s rainbow. Boy, is she onto it!
Poor taste use of *the mum comment* aside..
Do you, jenny, joe90, and any others, like to state your view/position on geo-engineering, or do you want to pretend that its not going on, and attempt to draw conclusions about CC, and the environment, while factoring out, what could be a major influence.
Or you can continue to throw immature comments around the place..
Joe90, how’s SFO working out for you, didn’t see that information I asked you provide, perhaps I missed it…
To be fair if someone asked me to show where an airport, located on the coast was in relation to a pic of supposed contrails, looking like they were crossing the angles of a land-locked location, I would rather not provide it either eh 😉
You can look up the BBC contrails video, the one which now sells the story, that airline contrails are the *new cirrus clouds*, being seen around the world, and how the *cirrus clouds* were helping protect the earth from solar heat, and *keeping the temp down* – They even cite the planes grounded on 911, as some sort of evidence the *contrails*, are helping keep the earths temperature down. Look it up, and see how many holes you might identify in the propaganda!
It’s quite something to see the BBC deteriorate to such drivel, Voice you will love it, cos its on the beeb!
Muzz,
if it A) exists and B) is a major effect on climate change, then the IPCC and others would need to account for it in their reports to avoid major errors (due to not accommodating “geoengineering”). Do they?
If it A) exists but B) has no appreciable effect, it is pointless, so why would they bother?
It’s not my field (nor, I suspect, is it yours), but it seems to me that the major reports and peer-reviewed research have been pretty accurate about the trends, effects and rate of progression of climate change over the last couple of decades without including “geo-engineering”.
So “geo-engineering” is not necessary to incorporate into any theories about what’s going on with the climate.
So Occam’s Razor comes into play.
AND So you’re suggesting that at least thousands of people and dozens of countries are spending millions if not billions or trillions on a global conspiracy that has no appreciable effect.
McFlock, there are many assumptions in your response, as you could argue there are in my comments, and I would have to accept that.
Your faith/assumptions in the *system*, scientific community, is well meaning, as always though, its who ever controls the funding, controls the research, and its outputs, and that’s only what the public are told about, such as the IPCC published reports/findings etc.
Take the FDA as an example, why would the IPCC be any less open to similar takeover or corruption! – To leave out data from any research, is to steal opportunity for full disclosure, which is theft to be avoided at all costs, as it means people forms their views, make decisions, on an imcomplete data set!
Its a dangerous position for people’s own well being, to think they *know* such things are not happening, my position, if wrong, impacts no-one, not so the opposite position, which impacts everyone!
TC – Below, yes mate, I come from a family who have spent considerable time in the air (many moon miles awards actually), and in service, working in planes, on planes, and around planes, going back long before WW2
The lines in the sky these days, are not contrails, you can tell this because the genuine contrails are still rare, and beautiful, and look the same as they ever have, they don’t hang in the sky for hours, days or longer.
Only the very foolish will believe that nonsense!
“The lines in the sky these days, are not contrails, you can tell this because the genuine contrails are still rare, and beautiful, and look the same as they ever have, they don’t hang in the sky for hours, days or longer.”
The same ‘persistent contrail’ phenomena have been observed since World War 2. They looked the same back then as they do now.
No, they don’t!
Amazing how they have only started to show up in NZ looking this way over the past 5-10 years though!
“No, they don’t!”
Well, yeah they did.
http://contrailscience.com/contrail-photos-through-history/
Nothing about the recent arrival of these *hybrid* trails in NZ from you then,,,why is that you think!
TC – Oh dear, and you call people with my POV conspiracy theorists..
At least learn to read through what is an obvious disinfo site, my goodness!
Muzz,
If the IPCC were wrong, then you would be able to point to a massive geo-engineering shaped gap between what they predict and the observed climate. Monckton et al have been trying this for years from another direction, and the only credibility they have eroded is their own.
But the real problem, why I give a damn about your delusions, is this:
Your position, if wrong, is a distraction and diversion from the myriad of problems that exist today, Climate Change probably being the most serious. That does actually impact everyone. So you really need to be objectively correct, with actual evidence and a contiguous, strong case constantly being matched against observations in the real world.
Much like the IPCC did with its reports.
McFlock – Again you’re not addressing my contention which is fraud, and corruption, via control of the information/data sets – I for one do not believe for a minute that there has not been massive fraud inside the scientific community over the CC information flows, research etc, and ultimately the lies which are being sold to the plebs, because thats what incomplete data leads to, lies!
The IPCC is as fraudulent as Monkton, the UN is a fraud, the IMF and WB are a fraud etc, there is no differentiating, the funds/backing come from the same place, the power rests in the same hands, really its rather straight forward. In simple terms for you, the world is a mess, because thats how its wanted to be, and if it was peace that was wanted, there would be peace!
Its as if you’re pretending to ignore that money controls everything, including science, scientists, the data, the research, and therefore the *results*. I know it hard for people to accept, but science is as controlled as any other industry!
*Science will save us* – That’s what many want to believe, it won’t, the system will not allow it to be that way!
As for your contention that I’m a distraction, when the truth comes out (note, it is already out), you’ll be wishing that’s what I had been!
In the meantime, we all have to live underneath, and with the policies of lies!
I for one do not believe for a minute that there has not been massive fraud inside the scientific community over the CC information flows, research etc, and ultimately the lies which are being sold to the plebs, because thats what incomplete data leads to, lies!
You know I’m not wholly unsympathetic with your thinking muzza. But I come from a different background to you, I’ve an engineering degree, I worked for a major science organisation for five years, I’ve worked in science and technology related areas more than 30 years, and many of my closest and most trusted friends are PhD’s who’ve worked directly in various geo-physical fields all their lives.
I can count four of them who have all direct field work and specific experience. I’ve had personal one on one conversations with them covering all manner of aspects of this topic. And yet even these four people are just a small random slice of the ‘science community’ whom I personally know by happenstance. The depth and detail they command of this subject, that they know from first-hand work leaves me gasping in their wake.
In the most sincere and genuine manner muzza I have to tell you that the idea that all these people are somehow involved in a world-wide conspiracy, over dozens of nations, thousands of institutions and tens of thousands of cranky, highly trained skeptics … is just plain wrong. The idea that all these people have been lying in unison for decades, all telling the same made up yet perfectly synchronised story ….without so much as one scrap of evidence of such a massively coordinated conspiracy anywhere…just cannot be sustained.
I’m not attacking you muzza. I’m simply asking you to consider that the science community is something a lot more complex and powerful than you’re imagining. It can make mistakes, it can get things wrong, it can take a while to correct it’s course, but one thing it doesn’t tolerate is fraud.
RL – I appreciate that you’re one of the more open minded on this site, and I respect what you have to say, and your comments and posts on this site. I usually take away a thought provoking angle in your writings.
However, with respect, your background lends no more kudos to the discussion than mine does, in real terms, and you have also assumed that I believe there is a wholesale cover up, which is not something I have ever eluded to on this topic!
Its needs not be far reaching, in fact given the history of *intelligence/covert* (Operation Popeye) nature of such industry of which details make the public arena, why do people expect that it would be wide spread, or that those involved could not keep it off radar, imagine how much has gone on, and is going on, that we may never hear of Red, that’s my point, always. Human history of top level lies and cover ups, is why I have this view, and it strikes me as naïve when people want to believe such undertakings are not happening!
In any case, the old adage that , its simply too big, too many people involved, it must have come out….Take a look at the banking industry Red, people know the fraud exists, heck, its the biggest open *non cover up* in the history of mankind, plus or minus, its in broad daylight, and what’s being done about it so far, NOTHING!
Consider the power of the money strings (I know you do), and how those who control the entire global financial structure, might just also use that monetary control in such nefarious ways, that mere mortals, including your PhD friends, and mine, have no understanding of whatsoever! Money controls the world, which includes the scientific, R&D industry, not to mention the tertiary structures of the world.
By the time the MSM (controlled by the intelligence industry, through the likes of GE), have rinsed any information, and sanitized it for public consumption, is it any surprise that cover up’s exist, you know as well as I do, it’s not!
I also have many PhD level friends, come in Europe, who are very liberal with sharing their research projects, and lab work carried out, where the funding came from etc not only by them, but those they also know, and I can tell that what I hear from them, would blow your mind!
Put it this way, I have friends who are CEO’s of huge NZ enterprises, and senior executives in many of the big four banks, and, when we speak, seem relatively supportive of what the neoliberal programme is doing, not exhaustively, but overall, that are good with it. My point is that those inside industry, have a large vested interest in it, and prone to bias, the same as any other, if not more so, science is no different, much as people might want to believe it is.
What is more complex and powerful (than any industry named), than you or I can ever imagine Red, is the control over every/any aspect of our existence, by the power players, whose names or faces , are the stuff of *conspiracy* !
Science, and scientists want to believe that they’re special, and in many ways they are, but when it comes to being controlled and or corrupted, at an individual level, or as big as IPCC, they are no different from your average human being, when the screws are turned, careers to protect, families to feed, lies to protect!
Quite why people need to believe that science, and related industry is above such behavior, can only be down to ego! – Note, this is not aimed at you, this is in a general sense!
Muzza, did you know persistent contrails have been recorded since World War 2?
Every single photograph of a persistent contrail before 1993 is a fake WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!
heh – the sirens in the background are kind of appropriate on that one 🙂
“But who knew they could exist at the same time?”
Flooding after drought is typical, esp where you have land management practices that decrease drought resistance (that’s the kind we mostly use in NZ). If you keep pasture short and use other techniques to dehydrate that land, then the soil becomes hydrophobic ie it will repel water instead of absorbing it. Gardeners are usually well familiar with this phenomenon too. So when you get a lot of rain, it simply runs over the top of the ground, hence flooding. Our current river and stream management practices add to the problem, because they are generally kept clear and so water flows through them much faster, taking along with it much of the bank stability and any bare soil it comes into contact with..
The way around this is to conserve water in the ground all the time, and to build organic matter in the soil (it absorbs water).
Colin Craig says you should blame gay marriage.
A parallel would be losing your job, getting the dole, then picking up another job but continuing getting the dole while you ‘build back your reserves’
Only for farmers.
Running rings around a naïve Kiwi radio host
Radio NZ National, Nights with Bryan Crump
Tuesday 23 April 2013, 8:45 p.m.
Every two months, Bryan Crump speaks to someone from Israel, to find out what’s happening there. Sounds like a good idea, right?
Wrong. For some reason, Crump’s producers have seen fit to saddle him with Liat Colliins, a columnist on the extreme right Jerusalem Post. Liat Collins is an utterly notorious propagandist, an uncritical and unceasing booster of the Holy State, and she never loses a chance to get one past Crump, who seems ill-informed and naïve to an almost criminal extent….
LIAT COLLINS: Ehhhmmmm. We had two rocket attacks from the south last week. Ehhhmmm.
BRYAN CRUMP: Oh no, have they started launching rockets again?
LIAT COLLINS: No, no, these were from Egyptian-occupied Sinai. These incidents have increased since the fall of Mubarak.
BRYAN CRUMP: Ohhhhh, I seeeeee….
LIAT COLLINS: We had basically a WAR last year.
BRYAN CRUMP: [sympathetically] Mmmmm, mmmm.
LIAT COLLINS: It’s only getting worse since the Arab Spring. I was never optimistic about the Arab Spring, I’m afraid.
BRYAN CRUMP: Mmmmmm, mmmmmm…
Not one of Collins’ statements is challenged by Crump. Not one.
Bryan Crump is one of the smartest and most sensitive people on the radio, but when it comes to Israel-Palestine, he apparently knows nothing. Which means people like Liat Collins, who are nothing more than fanatics posing as journalists, just walk all over him.
Here are a few other observations I have made about Bryan Crump and the dodgy “middle east correspondents” his producers have lumped on him….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-29032011/#comment-314173
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04072011/#comment-347912
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12072011/#comment-352724
“I was never optimistic about the Arab Spring, I’m afraid”.
Oh of course not you poor oppressed thing. Zionist fanatics are optimistic about nothing, to the point where they caricature themselves.
Except of course as to the singular “exceptionalism” they claim on behalf of the fanatical, oppressed turned oppressors, Zionist state. Where a cold, advised, virulent, evil apartheid prevails.
This is how you do economic sabotage.
RT @Didz1234 “AP’s fake tweet erased $136 billion in equity market value in 3 minutes”
https://twitter.com/Official_SEA6/status/326786844266229760
https://twitter.com/RodrigoEBR/status/326747829160775681/photo/1
Fast recovery though on graph on the Rodrigo twit after that fall – BAU. Fantails say a lot which I don’t understand, human twitters seem likely to be stream of consciousness stuff still hard to comprehend the reasoning.
remember, traders make the most money on volatility not on stability. Price stability actually means frak all profits for the banksters and the money traders. And with high speed automated algorithmic trading, they can cause “flash crashes” at will (or accidentally).
Yep, that $136b loss recovered rapidly – who got the $136b? Somebody did, be very sure of that.
We can see the stocks traded but because we can’t see the related and highly leveraged derivative activity, its quite likely the transactions around the movement were much larger than that in total.
But all you hear the RWNJ drum beat for is austerity on the already poor.
I prefer piwakawaka tweets…what they are saying to me as I walk the path is “Be a useful creature and disturb my food so that I might eat”. This of course makes perfect sense.
Digital tweets I don’t understand, yes the language can be comprehended but the thinking is anybodies guess. You can make noise on any instrument you like but without tuning it and learning to play music…….
“equity market value”
as the above events indicates, this “value” is simply a pyramid scheme casino based scam. And RWNJs think that this is what the economy should be all about.
I can see that this is true. Every time there is a change in the market value of stock, someone has an opportunity to hedge or something on a further change. It is very casino-like. Meanwhile the currency that we exchange to provide for our necessities is being turned into monopoly money but we still go on with the game earnestly trying to buy that attractive property here and here and here.
http://www.thepoliticalscientist.org/
To anyone interested in National Standards, or education in general, I highly recommend Puddleglum’s three part investigation at ‘The Political Scientist’.
Note: I have linked to the site rather than one of the three individual posts. The top of the page is part three, so you might want to scroll down to part one if you haven’t already read it.
A teaser from part three:
*I added my own words here to try and clarify the meaning. I hope that was okay Puddleglum?
But it won’t be once Puddleglum posts something else and the whole point of the links is so that people can find what you’re talking about.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Great thanks just saying and Puddlegum. Have bookmarked it and on-posted to those in the trade.
Thanks just saying. And it’s perfectly ok to add your own words.
Of course, if this blog was The Civilian you might be hearing from my lawyers. 🙂
Pink Floyd Animals is an incredible album that is severely underrated in the context of their other work. Its so good it makes the world seem ok when listening to it. =)
😀 (listened to Half of The Dark Side while hanging curtains this morning; may I recommend Bay FM to you all, again)
Garth McVicar is STILL being treated seriously by Radio New Zealand. Why?
Radio NZ National, Wednesday 24 April 2013
I’ve just heard something slimy and extremely unpleasant on the 11 a.m. news. S.S. Führer Garth “The Knife” McVicar is ranting again, and grooming another victim of a violent crime. This time he’s moving on the mother of murdered Christchurch schoolgirl Jade Bayliss.
There are several reasons why this monster of hypocrisy should not be given any air-time:
1.) McVicar himself is currently being tried on very serious charges;
2.) McVicar cannot even remotely be regarded as a “victims’ advocate” (as Radio New Zealand persists in calling him) in light of his outrageous and callous behaviour following the knife-killing of Pihema Cameron in 2008;
3.) Following his loud and frequently reiterated support for the grave-robber, serial sexual harasser and doctor-basher David Garrett, McVicar surely has no credibility whatsoever.
But he is being reported, and quoted, on National Radio as if he is a serious commentator.
Why?
“McVicar himself is currently being tried on very serious charges”
Really? What’s this all about then?
A lawyer for the Human Rights Commission has told a court the Sensible Sentencing Trust not only broke name suppression for a convicted paedophile, but breached his privacy by getting his private police record.
The commission is prosecuting the trust at the Auckland District Court on Wednesday for breaching the rights of the man who was jailed in 1995 for 12 months for five offences that took place in 1975 and 1978 against two girls….
Read the rest and find out who the S.S. Trust’s lawyer is…..
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/133016/sensible-sentencing-trust-broke-suppression-lawyer
Garrett, isn’t it? That’s how he got on the ACT list in the first place.
Indeed it is. We didn’t need any further confirmation of course, but keeping that discredited, almost universally reviled villain on as a “legal counsel” underlines the fact that McVicar, as well as being completely shameless, lacks even a semblance of common sense.
I’m struggling to figure out which of them reflects more poorly on the other.
Why? Well, because he lends himself rather nicely to the culture that relies on vaccuous soundbites that can masquerade as informed opinion. You can’t have thoughtful people ‘entertained’ by todays media. That wouldn’t be entertaining at all, as it would require a level of engagement. Which is to say that the formally passive listener would be afforded the opportunity to invest time, analysis, thought and reflection that would lead to the formation of informed opinions. And at that point, things are getting ‘out of hand’; beyond a comforting nicely packaged presentation that has ‘everything in its right place’ – ie, where everything is more or less ordered and controled.
McVicar, the apologist for criminal mates.
China’s Purchasing Managers Index slower than March; a tissue anyone?
NZ 10-year bonds at all time low yield.
Yup. He is. And that requires no great thought or reflection. And that’s then posited against whatever. And it’s the simple juxtaposition that is meant to determine the breadth and depth of your opinions…basically an invitation to indulge in pinning flags to masts.
hows the villa today Bill; sunny down your way?
what about this tragedy whereby some no-nuts has taken the lives of two young people, one in Aus, one here. The lives some people live is unbelievable; very sad.
Remember Travelin’ Light? when you were young?
Facts are so often fiction these days. It is increasingly difficult to trust the figures in the stated numbers of jobs available. Just now, when going over all the jobs listed on-line for my area, over half of the positions advertised where already filled, or the application date had passed, yet were still listed in the total jobs available. These are the very same listings that are being quoted in Parliament and parroted in the media every week.
It is kind of sad that the MSM are simply not bothering to investigate the data they report on. Guess there is no real need for reality anymore.
only the free one we create, or not.
Guess there is no real need for reality anymore.
it is being able to differentiate,someone needs to tell the computer models
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-23/fake-report-erasing-136-billion-shows-market-s-fragility.html
And all because of a q rather than a g.
http://jimromenesko.com/2013/04/23/ap-warned-staffers-just-before-ap-was-hacked/
The only jobs really vacant in New Zealand are to do with farming, IT (though you are underpaid and overworked compared to overseas), crap temporary services jobs (a few months and you are out) and recruitment agencies. Every week skilled, unskilled or highly qualified, everyone is leaving the no job, low pay economy under National. Think of how Romney supporters believed their idol couldn’t lose, National supporters in the MSM are the same…they refuse to accept reality. 😉
It’s worse than that freedom – and its been going on for years. One job advertised by many different agencies – i.e. the same job.
Anyone that’s ever placed a vacancy in the hands of agencies should know this – and they’ll be aware of the bullshit you’ve identified as well – i.e. listings still current once the position has been filled. At one time, agencies used to do it in order to get prospective candidates and CVs on their books.
It’d be useful for one of those ‘consumer watchdogs’ to investigate.
Oh wait – we don’t have any that are effective, or that have the means to access the necessary information. And IF we did, how the hell would those bank financial gurus be able to justify various ‘business confidence’ claims?
just for laughs
visit scarfolk
a town where time stopped in 1979
Very clever.
This too – 1993 – 2013
they should advertise in “The St Cleve Chronicle and Linwell Advertiser” 😀
in light of this new census mooted (“your health records”), these came to mind;
The Open Society, and it’s enemies and Civilization and it’s Discontents
Good Lord! These folk down in Christchurch are doing it hard
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/christchurch-earthquake/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502981&objectid=10879246 and hacking into data-bases (Uni etc) appears to be going through a productive season…
It’s 2013, time for the News
The Neo-Liberal agenda got a solid thirty year opportunity to prove itself. Any basic measure proves complete failure on its stated promise of trickle down economic benefits to the general populace. All benchmarks show real world inflation adjusted incomes are lower, living costs are higher and every single day more and more people are worse off than when the crew of the good ship SelfishFuck put this raft to sea in the early 80’s. It is time to scuttle the ship and swim back to land, there is no new frontier across the way. Just the everyday necessity of work and homes and lives that need protecting and support. The sad part is we increasingly need protecting from those who are elected to represent us.
here’s Tom with the weather
Stuff: “Justice Minister Judith Collins is calling for law changes to allow the public better access to criminal histories. ”
Right on schedule?
That blithering nincompoop Peter Dunne could not organise drinkies in a champaign bar!
His inability to sort out the “Synthetic Cannabis” nonsense is on par with his incompetence on Revenue.
Labour should be hitting The Lord of Ohariu like a billio!
That blithering nincompoop Peter Dunne could not organise drinkies in a champaign bar!
Dunne couldn’t organise a root in a brothel, he couldn’t organise a right-wing rant at a Sensible Sentencing Trust meeting, he couldn’t organise a high tackle in a Samoa versus Tonga football match, he couldn’t organise a glib remark in an episode of Jim Mora’s Panel show, he couldn’t organise an inappropriate remark in a pub conversation involving Bob Clarkson, Winston Peters, Pam Corkery and Richard Prosser.
Morrissey, you do have your moments…….
Wellington Labour is now afraid to take on Dunne in Ohariu.
Charles Chauvel would have rolled Dunne at the next election, had he not been pushed out of the party by Grant Robertson.
Robertson led Labour to THIRD place behind the Greens in Wellington. And he still thinks he should be treated like he is a competent street politician or something! Grant Robertson is still only a back-room jostler and only comfortable between the Westpac Stadium and the Basin Reserve. Outside of there Robertson is a wus and a legend in his own lunchtime.
Look at the combined Wellington Labour party-vote over the past few elections and you will see ROT. And you will see Grant Robertson.
Dunne is safe as long as Wellington Labour continues to repeat the same same same .
Mmmm, I’ve heard said that Grant Robsetson is better at fighting inside the tent. It’s a bit chilly outside for the weee boy! !
Will Maurice be required to dance?
If and when the Brethren-financed National M.P. Maurice Williamson appears on Ellen, will he be obliged to dance his way on to the stage, like every other guest on this horrible, horrible programme?
Eight minutes of embarrassment HERE….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PpjhYfKuvU
Looking forward to the next instalment of the Mora show by Morrissey.
Thanks, Paul, but today’s show is just too dull to get excited about. So far, anyway. (It’s 4:39 right now.) Highlight so far was when Mora used the word “obesogenic”, which impressed me if nobody else.
Less impressively, he has again quoted David Brooks, the right wing New York Times columnist. He has done that a lot over the years, and it’s a worry. He invariably quotes Brooks with approval, which raises grave questions about Mora’s judgement, as well as the depth and breadth of his reading.
Otherwise, the discussions have been pretty ho-hum.
perhaps Warner Bros will insist he wears Hobbit feet whilst he dances?
LOL. At least he won’t be any worse than Pete Hodgson, Marion Hobbs and those other Labour Party conference-goers caught on tape a few years ago.
Surely not?
Did I just hear Jeremy Ellwood say just now that NZers are now more interested in ANZAC Day because we’ve been involved in wars recently…like Iraq?
Obviously members of the panel are not required to be informed to pontificate on subjects!
No one picked him up on it either.
Yes, you heard right, my friend. Elwood is not particularly well informed. It’s just a pity that some crusty old right winger wasn’t on the show today, so that Elwood could have bent over backwards to agree with everything the old codger said. That’s when Elwood is at his (unintentional) funniest.
Jeremy Ellwood, the “comedian”? If thats what he said, I guess we can at least assume his material is improving.
Elwood’s schtick on 7 Days consists of sitting with a glum look of rebuke on his puss whenever Dai Henwood and the others veer off into insensitive or politically incorrect territory, which is of course for practically the whole show. The only person who has ever looked unhappier and more dispproving is Elwood’s similarly “right on” partner Michelle Acourt.
what’s there to pick him up on, precisely?
Or do you think that the war in Iraq stopped after the invasion?
I’m surprised a comedian has such a poor grasp and knowledge of Current Events.
Not in the calibre of Bill Hicks or George Carlin then…
What did he say that leads you to believe he’s uninformed?
Soooo…. nothing?
He’s more of the calibre of Mike King, who like Elwood was also co-opted to go over to Afghanistan to entertain our brave troops.
Elwood has not uttered a word critical of the occupation ever since.
Embedded comedians..
The US government’s list of “terrorist” suspects is so long, they had one of the alleged Boston Bombers on their list, but he didn’t stand out enough to trigger any action.
If we are all
Spartacusvipertacus, who will they surveil first?He did stand out.
Former FBI employee says that the Tsarnaev brothers were recruited by FBI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wZoCIydCgg
http://www.infowars.com/tsarnaev-aunt-claims-naked-man-in-video-is-tamerlan/
This arvo, Greenpeace activists have occupied a coal ship bound for Sth Korea. The occupied ship is near Aussies’s Great Barrier reef. They are protesting about Aussie’s coal industry.
I guess they don’t have to worry about legislation restricting protests.
More reason not to trust the oil companies
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/04/22/what-bp-doesn-t-want-you-to-know-about-the-2010-gulf-spill.html
That BP lied about the amount of oil it discharged into the gulf is already established. Lying to Congress about that was one of 14 felonies to which BP pleaded guilty last year in a legal settlement with the Justice Department that included a $4.5 billion fine, the largest fine ever levied against a corporation in the U.S.
What has not been revealed until now is how BP hid that massive amount of oil from TV cameras and the price that this “disappearing act” imposed on cleanup workers, coastal residents, and the ecosystem of the gulf. That story can now be told because an anonymous whistleblower has provided evidence that BP was warned in advance about the safety risks of attempting to cover up its leaking oil. Nevertheless, BP proceeded. Furthermore, BP appears to have withheld these safety warnings, as well as protective measures, both from the thousands of workers hired for the cleanup and from the millions of Gulf Coast residents who stood to be affected.