The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just released a report on it's view on 'US Hegemony and Its Perils' it makes for an interesting read, especially in light of it's origin, it's is some of the most pointed and direct jabs at the US I have seen coming directly from official Chinese sources…obviously the Chinese are getting more than a little tired of the US and it's endless belligerent antagonism aimed at China and so much of the world…like many of us!
"While a just cause wins its champion wide support, an unjust one condemns its pursuer to be an outcast. The hegemonic, domineering, and bullying practices of using strength to intimidate the weak, taking from others by force and subterfuge, and playing zero-sum games are exerting grave harm. The historical trends of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit are unstoppable. The United States has been overriding truth with its power and trampling justice to serve self-interest. These unilateral, egoistic and regressive hegemonic practices have drawn growing, intense criticism and opposition from the international community.
Countries need to respect each other and treat each other as equals. Big countries should behave in a manner befitting their status and take the lead in pursuing a new model of state-to-state relations featuring dialogue and partnership, not confrontation or alliance. China opposes all forms of hegemonism and power politics, and rejects interference in other countries' internal affairs. The United States must conduct serious soul-searching. It must critically examine what it has done, let go of its arrogance and prejudice, and quit its hegemonic, domineering and bullying practices."
The peril of claiming atolls in the South China Sea are islands/air and seaports of China and having ignore the ruling of The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, as to the dubious nature of its own claims to effect the theft of the economic zones off weaker nations to their south, is the small size of the moral footprint they then make when criticising any other nation.
And it cannot even call out Russia on the invasion of Ukraine, or itself on the establishment of "police stations" on foreign territory without consent.
If Biden and Blinken had any balls they would say to China, if you arm the Russians or recognise the annexation of Ukraine territory (after a local vote as per Crimea), then it might be inferred that it would be hypercritical to deny Taiwan a vote on independence or oppose other nations coming to its defence should it be attacked.
they would say to China, if you arm the Russians or recognise the annexation of Ukraine territory (after a local vote as per Crimea), then it might be inferred that it would be hypercritical to deny Taiwan a vote on independence or oppose other nations coming to its defence should it be attacked.
Why? Taiwan is part of China. Even the Taiwanese admit that; though they don't agree that the CCP is the legitimate government of China. Any attack on Taiwan would therefor be a civil war, and no concern of any other country.
Just two places, the United States (4.7% of the world’s population) and Western Europe (2.52%), are the overwhelmingly dominant news sources for the planet, containing all three major news agencies, plus all the major newspapers and news TV channels. The rest of us, more than 90% of humanity, feel that our points of view should not be excluded.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says building post-cyclone State Highway 1 resilience will potentially take years
IMO Yes. I agree with our PM.
And….oh really ?
Northland Regional Council chair Tui Shortland said Cyclone Gabrielle had exposed deep vulnerabilities in the North.
Were all the Local body and Regional Councils looking at Native Replanting on at-risk hill sides ? And that Wetlands were not being drained for new developments/subdivisions ? Probably a LOT of vulnerabilities that were high-lit by Local Environmental groups…and NZ wide..and mostly ignored by aforesaid councils..and Mayors ! : (.
There are no quick fix solutions , although Nact and other RWhingers will moan long and loudly (same as ever)
There is much to be done…and Change is going to be prime. NZ cant keep repeating the same mistakes.
The Guardian, to its credit, finally published an editorial that made plain that Corbyn had fought against racism for many years. It still (wrongly in my view) criticised Corbyn for his response to antisemitism in the Labour Party, and (wrongly) praised Starmer, but in a fairly low key manner.
I found this part of he Guardian editorial particularly interesting.
“To conflate the antisemitism of some on the left with all leftwing politics is illogical and shortsighted. Given the state of the country and the world, now is not the time to dismiss important ideas just because John McDonnell once smiled at them. Not only is the former shadow chancellor one of the most interesting economic thinkers in the Labour party, he was also right to oppose austerity from 2010 onwards – not a claim that can be made by all of the shadow cabinet.”
The Guardian has realised that many people think that Starmer has gone way too far in his unjustified and non-fact based attacks on Corbyn.
From various comments by the PM, among other government ministers, it seems likely that managed retreat, in some form, will be on the table for the worst-affected-by-flooding areas.
Assuming this goes ahead, the next question is going to be 'Managed retreat to where'?
This article quotes 5,500 properties affected by flooding in Auckland. Assuming that not all need managed retreat (or at least don't need it right now), and that some will resist any buyout (Matata, case in point) – we can substantially reduce that number.
It doesn't, however, address properties affected by slips and landslides (which are rarely in flood plains – so that would add to the total.
However, even if we're 'only' looking at 2,500 new properties in Auckland – where will we put them?
Clearly *not* in flood-prone areas.
The current plan allowing for 3×3 townhouse development on virtually every site in Auckland (that is 3 properties up to 3 stories high) – will only make any stormwater issues worse. I've seen these townhouse developments. There is zero permeable surface. And, unless they are part of a larger development (most are not), there is no associated run-off mitigation work. Stonefields and Hobsonville (large suburb-size developments) both had stormwater mitigation features, and fared well in both the Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. But the vast majority of the developments are single-site ones – so no mitigation features.
Residents are unlikely to want to leave their local area (with a somewhat more elastic definition of 'local' for some than others).
And Auckland doesn't have great zones of suitable unbuilt-on land awaiting developement.
Can managed-retreat pay-outs be tied to ecologically-friendly solutions, e.g. apartment blocks (with decent-sized family-suitable apartments), on sites with appropriate stormwater mitigation?
Some of the issues around this are to do with cost: apartment blocks appear to cost considerably more to build, than stand alone or terraced housing. Some are to do with reputation – Aucklanders are justifiably wary of apartments after the leaky building saga. Some are to do with the Covid scars (lockdown in an apartment with kids is no joke). Some are to do with the mental shift – Kiwis think of 'home' as having a backyard – and apartments are a temporary solution to getting there
I'm not saying that they are not. I was just saying that they are likely to be over-and-above the total of houses in the article quoted – which was only discussing flood-plain damage.
Can managed-retreat pay-outs be tied to ecologically-friendly solutions, e.g. apartment blocks (with decent-sized family-suitable apartments), on sites with appropriate stormwater mitigation?
Let's look 30 years in the future. We have much less power supply, we have frequent events like the last month, there are global food shortages because industrial ag is failing from temperature rises, increase droughts and floods, and interruptions to supply lines, and presumably we are closer to post-FF.
Do we really want to have infilled with lots of concrete and hardscarp infrastructure that was designed for less events? How would we even predict that far out how the weather is going to be?
One alternative is to use whole system design. Reduce transport across the board, so that transport infrastructure is freed up for essentials. Grow as much food locally as possible (which means retaining non-concreted spaces). Integrate that with city forestry and wetland systems designed to manage the peak rain events. More people can work from home, or be educated from home or in the neighbourhood. What is needed is sets of interlocking villages. There would be low rise appartments within that, but the starting point isn't 'too many people, where do we put them'. It's 'what's the carrying capacity of this landbase and how can we meet human needs by working with nature'.
Re immediate housing, one option (to be used alongside others), the tiny house on wheels movement is sufficiently established to scale up and provide interim accommodation for those that it suits. This frees up housing for those that need more space.
1.5 million people in Auckland. Even cutting out the pop in the more rural areas, you're going to come up with a total of 1 million plus in the densely populated areas.
What sort of practical programme can there be to translate this into the kind of village settlements you're talking about?
In order to gain the space for the kind of wetland/forestry systems you're talking about, in combination with the existing population, you'll need to have serious high-rise accommodation. And will involve massive razing of existing housing infrastructure.
Unless you're suggesting massive relocation – probably involuntary (people in general don't like leaving their homes); or some other mechanism to reduce the population to the "carrying capacity of the landbase" – the population has to be accommodated somewhere.
I'd like to see more tiny houses in operation. However, they require space, and (for most) connection to existing power/water/sewerage infrastructure. All of which is at a premium in Auckland. I'm sure there are solutions, but I'd like to see what they might be. Freeing up Council bureaucracy might be one of them (the hoops to be jumped through to put a minor dwelling (which is what a tiny home is counted as) on a site are immense).
Government departments used to have lots of onsite housing that was tiny housing e.g. single mens quarters on railways. Ensuring employees have accommodation isn't a bad thing and no reason railway land could not be used for workers accommodation.
this is the problem when you start with 'can't' instead of 'how'. Sustainable design comes from location. What will work in one part of Auckland won't work in another.
Unless you're suggesting massive relocation – probably involuntary (people in general don't like leaving their homes); or some other mechanism to reduce the population to the "carrying capacity of the landbase" – the population has to be accommodated somewhere.
You're assuming a few things there. One is that no-one wants to move. Firstly, Gabrielle just completely changed the cultural normal that we all get to live where we want.
Secondly, the number of Auckland people coming south, suggests there are people that are happy to move. So start with the people that do want to move instead of a blanket 'too many people to move'. Why do people want to move? Down here the idea is that people understand how hard it's going to get to remain in Auckland, on many levels, and they want a better life.
Not that I want them to come down here lol, but you are still starting with '1.5m people have to be fitted into here irrespective of sustainability or climate', whereas I'm saying if you start with sustainable design principles then the solutions become apparent.
How many renters in Auckland would move to another part of their neighbourhood if it meant an improvement in their lifestyle?
People that live in areas that are flooding repeatedly will be more likely to want to move.
Every new development could be based in climate transition. Start with the low hanging fruit. Does Auckland still have suburbs with houses on a section? See below.
The other assumption is that the carrying capacity of the landbase is already vastly overreached. Do you know that to be true?
One influence on my thinking was David Holmgren's early work on Retrofitting the suburbs. He later developed this into Retrosuburbia, which is also excellent. The idea is how to transform existing infrastructure towards more sustainability. By sustainability, I mean that key principles are used like cradle to grave design, closing loops to reduce pollution, capturing energy flows to make spaces more efficient and so on. I don't mean greening things up a bit.
His work was around Australian and NZ suburbs that were built in the 50s and 60s and that have largely become commuter suburbs. They have land with housing for multiple people, and space for food growing, but tend towards couples who spend little time there, going out to work, eat and socialise. Instead, we could be changing how we live so that we can work, eat and socialise close to where we live, and produce food locally. We might have to share housing with people again (shock horror), there are ways to make that a good thing not a negative, but probably the biggest thing here is what we've become accustomed to and thinking we cannot change.
Everything I've just described is about making people more resilient where they live, and for that to be based in sustainability. In addition, local planners could work with the known and projected flood risks and develop natural systems (this doesn't preclude hard infrastructure) to change how water flows through the city.
In order to gain the space for the kind of wetland/forestry systems you're talking about, in combination with the existing population, you'll need to have serious high-rise accommodation. And will involve massive razing of existing housing infrastructure.
Don't know why you jumped to that idea. Auckland already has stormwater systems, there's no suggestion of removing all of that. What Ak could be doing is working with nature instead of thinking that it can just force all that water to run somewhere (which obviously doesn't work any more).
Key point here. If you take Ak as it is now, the more you infill those suburbs and city areas with high and medium density housing via BAU urban design, the less resilient you make those areas and the wider city. More flooding, less ability to grow food, less green space for mental health, more overheating, more congestion and so on. This is why cities are already like this, and why BAU approaches greened up a bit won't work.
It's the thinking that's the problem. Gabrielle is teaching us about the limits of growth but also the limits of our imaginations. If the only thing you can see is 1.5m people needing to be squeezed into finite land, then that's all you can see.
Here's an example of the two kinds of thinking. BAU and working with nature. This isn't a solution for Ak, it's a solution to being stuck in thinking there is only one way to approach flooding.
No matter the 'solution(s)' arrived at there will be an element of compulsion otherwise the authorities (no matter who they end up being) will be compelled to maintain infrastructure in both the under threat areas as well as the new/adapted ….and that creates political, social and economic problems as the ChCh red zoning continues to demonstrate
I tend to agree, and certainly the longer we keep doing BAU the more we will need compulsion. But we can also 'mitigate' that, by transitioning now and doing transition in a community based way as much as possible.
Which leads to the nature of compulsion….Id suggest that compulsion can be equated with money (or at least wealth) ….i.e. wealth is the freedom from compulsion.
i expect we may see that demonstrated again shortly.
this is why I place so much emphasis on defensive voting. Whatever struggles are coming it's going to be far far worse under a Nact govt than a centre left one.
The reality is the freedom bestowed by wealth remains irrespective of Government hue, or at least under the existing paradigm…and will remain so as long as we desire the benefits of the global system.
Auckland has already done large scale property purchases out of the flood plain, without resorting to compulsory acquisition powers. Project Twin Streams took out over 150 houses.
This article cited says it was 78 purchases but the later total was over 150.
Ain’t that the truth! Unfortunately, some are a little liberal with the truth and more than happy to spin it to suit their narrative and fit within their biased thinking. Opinions need to be stated clearly as such and even then they must have a sound foundation in reality. Anything else is spin, often with an intention if not an agenda.
Yes. I was a bit nonplussed by this though – "[t]hat some people who would take advantage of their fellow Kiwis in their time of need has unsurprisingly generated anger." That sort of activity is very common across our economy. Some of it such as profiteering-driven inflation is is legal, while some isn't.
Whether something is pretty legal or not is a pretty low bar but it seems good enough for Law & Order dogmatists, which is why they use this as pretty much the only (and critically dividing) benchmark in their axiomatic ‘debates’. The Law is a huge grey area of rather technical complexities and interpretations, IMHO. It is not surprising that those same people transfer this same dogmatic thinking of motive, means & opportunity to pretty much all areas of life: economy, society, politics, etcetera. Where and when do values, principles, and higher aspirations come into it?
The mis-information people just ramp up and spread bull-shit regardless of the impact on other people. They are heartless souls.
Civil defence does not have container loads of people to instantly jump out in a disaster. At best in most regions there is half a dozen people who co-ordinate and plan for response.
Most government agencies have abandoned the regions with very few feet on the ground and I would suggest one of the things Nash does is make sure that agencies that have to respond to recovery have permanent local boots on the ground in the regions affected across all aspects of recovery e.g. policy people, engineers, building experts, MBIE, TEC, etc. No doing all this from Wellington.
People who for years have pushed for and voted for smaller government (local and central) suddenly want more government when they are affected. I don't see them pushing their insurance companies the same way. Where are their quick decisions in the supposedly more efficient private sector world e.g. we can see from the photos your house is full of mud, here is a 100% payout so you can go build somewhere else or buy a house elsewhere and note we won't reinsure you if you choose to rebuild here in the same place. Seems to be a sensible and fast approach to help people quickly move on.
Establish at least a regional training hub in affected regions for necessary skills and rebuilding and regional MOW hubs. Replacement jobs will need to go to locals and many will need retraining or training in the first place. If this had happened in Christchurch we would have many more skilled NZer's right now. Let's assume from the outset that there will continue to be more disasters and we will need a long term trained workforce to deal with them. Take advantage of the older skilled workforce for training before it is gone.
People are great and communities don't care about race, gender, ethnicity etc when the chips are down. People are just helping people – neighbours, friends, the local marae, etc. Many left wing priorities are peacetime priorities. That being said my observation is that Maori have performed particularly well during both COVID-19 and the flood response – particularly with caring for the older population – and having great organisational skills from years of preparing and providing for hui, tangi etc on marae. They are an essential part of the response phase in NZ and will be part of the recovery. They should have some direct annual funding for civil defense and other emergency response – no ifs no buts. It is a feature of NZ that for years has been part of our responsiveness whether planned by civil defense or not. It is time we openly funded this oft unspoken expectation. Then funded actual responses as well.
Luxon has announced his plan to Stop 3 Waters and instead set strong rules for Councils to upgrade their waters. They will pay with secured(?) loans and different Councils can club together if they wish. (Suppose smaller/poorer councils will get left out?) Wonder if the water rules will cover 3 Waters?
TV1: Four key points are listed in the party's plan: "Repeal Three Waters and scrap the four co-governed mega-entities; Restore council ownership and control; Set strict rules for water quality and investment in infrastructure; Ensure water services are financially sustainable".
But this approach is "effectively arguing for the status quo," Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told media today.
Should be fun with more rules and stricter rules. What with Luxon's Deputy Prime Minister Seymour coming in on a platform of getting rid of bureaucrats, red tape and Wellington control.
The problem is that National, when in government, never attempted to enforce the rule, guidelines and legislation that already existed. Never dragged councils and councillors into court for dereliction of duty in not increasing rates to cover the required future of their water resources. It doesn’t sound like they have the backbone to do it now as well.
Why do they see to think that scolding councillors will work over the next 30 years. It never did in the past.
Never helped councils with small or poor ratepayer bases to pay for their upgrades. National's only contribution to councils water in the past has been to put limits on what they could borrow to finance these works. You’ll note that they haven’t mentioned anything about raising debt ceilings for councils thate they previously imposed?
National just announced they aren't going to do anything significiant. They're just going to hand the task of an under-resourced and toothless oversight group that has absolutely no powers to do anything useful – like capital financing.
Notably there was nothing about new legislation in the area to replace the legislation they are want to remove – just regulation. That approach is the useless one that caused the current under funding and lack of maintenance of water infrastructure.
Notably, they managed to not mention the biggest single issue for smaller councils. That they cannot afford to hire the expertise to actually upgrade their water infrastructure. That is one of the key advantages
National is what you use when you need useless and completely ineffectual. They certainly delivered that with this pile of waffling.
So… councillors will think they control the Council's water infrastructure but they will be going cap in hand to some regulatory bureaucracy that doles out the funding kinda like Waka Kotahi does with roading funding. Although this isn't specified there isn't really any other way it would work for councils that couldn't afford the work required, as Government funding will be essential to meet current standards in nearly all Councils outside Auckland. Council engineering departments would be tied up with funding applications rather than engineering the infrastructure.
Not sure that's going to be an improvement on the status quo, and the situation that the 3 Waters reforms were designed to overcome.
While National's policy will give ratepayers and councillors a feeling of control, in effect they will be pawns of a central bureaucracy that will really dictate what work is done, how it is done, and how much the council has to contribute. Where a positive CBR is difficult, like in our many shrinking rural towns with completely fucked infrastructure, this contribution will still be cripling for the ratepayers and the councillors will get it up the chook at the ballot box.
National haven't addressed the long term issues of how we upgrade urban infrastructure without destroying the communities that depend in that infrastructure. they are just focused on the short term imperative of getting elected this year.
But winning … vote outside of mid-Waikato with this?
He might reclaim some votes from Advance NZ or Freedom & Outdoors but there will be questions from the more sensible folk in likes of Gore and Clutha once they think about where this policy is going to take them. The numbers, and disruption, are pretty daunting for both Districts, not sure I'd like to be the elected councillor fronting those projects.
On Wednesday, Mexico's Senate approved changes backed by López Obrador to the National Election Institute, known by its initials in Spanish as the INE. The independent authority is beloved by many Mexicans for its role in securing free and fair elections and transitioning the country away from nearly a century of one-party rule just over two decades ago.
The new legislation, which Mexico's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, passed in December and which López Obrador is expected to soon sign into law ahead of likely legal challenges, will cut the INE's budget, hamstring its ability to penalize candidates for campaign finance violations and loosen rules on public officials campaigning while in office.
By the INE's own estimates, those budget cuts will force it to cut as much as 85% of its staff. That could mean fewer polling places or less secure electoral rolls — real impacts on the agency's ability to credibly administer federal elections, according to analysts.
Renewable energy getting closer to being sustainable.
.
“Going forward, we can now view old epoxy-based blades as a source of raw material. Once this new technology is implemented at scale, legacy blade material currently sitting in landfill, as well as blade material in active windfarms, can be disassembled, and re-used.
“This signals a new era for the wind industry, and accelerates our journey towards achieving circularity.”
While efforts to create more environmentally friendly wind turbine blades and the growth of a market for recycling blades will continue, the new discovery from Vestas and its partners heralds a massive stepchange for the global wind energy industry.
“The newly discovered chemical process shows that epoxy-based turbine blades, whether in operation or sitting in landfill, can be turned into a source of raw material to potentially build new turbine blades,” said Mie Elholm Birkbak, specialist for innovation & concepts at Vestas.
But kit vulnerable to fluid stresses and associated moving parts don't. And unfortunately, remediation of the cavitation, corrosion, fatigue, and material defects, etc, that contribute to declining efficiencies, the bane of hydro power, isn't quite as straight forward as swinging by with a crane and rigging crew to swap out a rotor.
Some people see a trans women aka a literal woman. Some people see a man loitering outside the women's toilet filming. Some people see an autogynephilic male (Quilette).
The Carmens and the Georginas of this world have always used the women's toilets with no problems. They came in, closed the stall door, did their business, came out, washed their hands and left.
They were not there to take "bathroom selfies" with a crowd of schoolgirls in the background (looking at you Jonathan/Jessica Yaniv/Simpson).
They were not there to noisily achieve their "gender euphoria" and video it to share with their pervy mates, (thanks "Nig Heke" for trawling the grubbier corners of the internet for the evidence).
They were not there to steal used sanitary products for use in their menstrual fetishes. (Not even going to suggest where you might look for that, much too close to breakfast time!)
And that is before you get to the videoing over and under the stalls, and the plain basic sexual assaults well documented by the good folks at "This Never Happens" https://www.facebook.com/groups/1722756661380462/
There are still very good reasons to prevent men from entering spaces where women are vulnerable.
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I came in this morning after doing some chores and looked quickly at Twitter before unpacking the groceries. Someone was retweeting a Radio NZ story with the headline “Reserve Bank’s budget to be slashed by 25%”. Wow, I thought, the Minister of Finance has really delivered this time. And then ...
So, having teased it last week, Andrew Little has announced he will run for mayor of Wellington. On RNZ, he's saying its all about services - "fixing the pipes, making public transport cheaper, investing in parks, swimming pools and libraries, and developing more housing". Meanwhile, to the readers of the ...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming, 1921ALL OVER THE WORLD, devout Christians will be reaching for their bibles, reading and re-reading Revelation 13:16-17. For the benefit of all you non-Christians out there, these are the verses describing ...
Give me what I want, what I really, really want: And what India really wants from New Zealand isn’t butter or cheese, but a radical relaxation of the rules controlling Indian immigration.WHAT DOES INDIA WANT from New Zealand? Not our dairy products, that’s for sure, it’s got plenty of those. ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
Yesterday, 5,500 senior doctors across Aotearoa New Zealand voted overwhelmingly to strike for a day.This is the first time in New Zealand ASMS members have taken strike action for 24 hours.They are asking the government tofund them and account for resource shortfalls.Vacancies are critical - 45-50% in some regions.The ...
For years and years and years, David Seymour and his posse of deluded neoliberals have been preaching their “tough on crime” gospel to voters. Harsher sentences! More police! Lock ‘em up! Throw away the key. But when it comes to their own, namely former Act Party president Tim Jago, a ...
Judith Collins is a seasoned master at political hypocrisy. As New Zealand’s Defence Minister, she's recently been banging the war drum, announcing a jaw-dropping $12 billion boost to the defence budget over the next four years, all while the coalition of chaos cries poor over housing, health, and education.Apparently, there’s ...
I’m on the London Overground watching what the phones people are holding are doing to their faces: The man-bun guy who could not be less impressed by what he's seeing but cannot stop reading; the woman who's impatient for a response; the one who’s frowning; the one who’s puzzled; the ...
You don't have no prescriptionYou don't have to take no pillsYou don't have no prescriptionAnd baby don't have to take no pillsIf you come to see meDoctor Brown will cure your ills.Songwriters: Waymon Glasco.Dr Luxon. Image: David and Grok.First, they came for the Bottom FeedersAnd I did not speak outBecause ...
The Health Minister says the striking doctors already “well remunerated,” and are “walking away from” and “hurting” their patients. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Wednesday, April 16:Simeon Brown has attacked1 doctors striking for more than a 1.5% pay rise as already “well remunerated,” even ...
The time is ripe for Australia and South Korea to strengthen cooperation in space, through embarking on joint projects and initiatives that offer practical outcomes for both countries. This is the finding of a new ...
Hi,When Trump raised tariffs against China to 145%, he destined many small businesses to annihilation. The Daily podcast captured the mass chaos by zooming in and talking to one person, Beth Benike, a small-business owner who will likely lose her home very soon.She pointed out that no, she wasn’t surprised ...
National’s handling of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis is an utter shambles and a gutless betrayal of every Kiwi scraping by. The Coalition of Chaos Ministers strut around preaching about how effective their policies are, but really all they're doing is perpetuating a cruel and sick joke of undelivered promises, ...
Most people wouldn't have heard of a little worm like Rhys Williams, a so-called businessman and former NZ First member, who has recently been unmasked as the venomous troll behind a relentless online campaign targeting Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.According to reports, Williams has been slinging mud at Doyle under ...
Illustration credit: Jonathan McHugh (New Statesman)The other day, a subscriber said they were unsubscribing because they needed “some good news”.I empathised. Don’t we all.I skimmed a NZME article about the impacts of tariffs this morning with analysis from Kiwibank’s Jarrod Kerr. Kerr, their Chief Economist, suggested another recession is the ...
Let’s assume, as prudence demands we assume, that the United States will not at any predictable time go back to being its old, reliable self. This means its allies must be prepared indefinitely to lean ...
Over the last three rather tumultuous US trade policy weeks, I’ve read these four books. I started with Irwin (whose book had sat on my pile for years, consulted from time to time but not read) in a week of lots of flights and hanging around airports/hotels, and then one ...
Indonesia could do without an increase in military spending that the Ministry of Defence is proposing. The country has more pressing issues, including public welfare and human rights. Moreover, the transparency and accountability to justify ...
Former Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has slithered back into the spotlight, not as a principled dissenter, but as a vindictive puppeteer of digital venom. The revelations from a recent court case paint a damning portrait of a man whose departure from Hutt City Council in 2022 was merely the ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
The economy is not doing what it was supposed to when PM Christopher Luxon said in January it was ‘going for growth.’ Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short from our political economy on Tuesday, April 15:New Zealand’s economic recovery is stalling, according to business surveys, retail spending and ...
This is a guest post by Lewis Creed, managing editor of the University of Auckland student publication Craccum, which is currently running a campaign for a safer Symonds Street in the wake of a horrific recent crash.The post has two parts: 1) Craccum’s original call for safety (6 ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff has published an opinion piece which makes the case for a different approach to economic development, as proposed in the CTU’s Aotearoa Reimagined programme. The number of people studying to become teachers has jumped after several years of low enrolment. The coalition has directed Health New ...
The growth of China’s AI industry gives it great influence over emerging technologies. That creates security risks for countries using those technologies. So, Australia must foster its own domestic AI industry to protect its interests. ...
Unfortunately we have another National Party government in power at the moment, and as a consequence, another economic dumpster fire taking hold. Inflation’s hurting Kiwis, and instead of providing relief, National is fiddling while wallets burn.Prime Minister Chris Luxon's response is a tired remix of tax cuts for the rich ...
Girls who are boys who like boys to be girlsWho do boys like they're girls, who do girls like they're boysAlways should be someone you really loveSongwriters: Damon Albarn / Graham Leslie Coxon / Alexander Rowntree David / Alexander James Steven.Last month, I wrote about the Birds and Bees being ...
Australia needs to reevaluate its security priorities and establish a more dynamic regulatory framework for cybersecurity. To advance in this area, it can learn from Britain’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which presents a compelling ...
Deputy PM Winston Peters likes nothing more than to portray himself as the only wise old head while everyone else is losing theirs. Yet this time, his “old master” routine isn’t working. What global trade is experiencing is more than the usual swings and roundabouts of market sentiment. President Donald ...
President Trump’s hopes of ending the war in Ukraine seemed more driven by ego than realistic analysis. Professor Vladimir Brovkin’s latest video above highlights the internal conflicts within the USA, Russia, Europe, and Ukraine, which are currently hindering peace talks and clarity. Brovkin pointed out major contradictions within ...
In the cesspool that is often New Zealand’s online political discourse, few figures wield their influence as destructively as Ani O’Brien. Masquerading as a champion of free speech and women’s rights, O’Brien’s campaigns are a masterclass in bad faith, built on a foundation of lies, selective outrage, and a knack ...
The international challenge confronting Australia today is unparalleled, at least since the 1940s. It requires what the late Brendan Sargeant, a defence analyst, called strategic imagination. We need more than shrewd economic manoeuvring and a ...
This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) will take place as a fully hybrid conference in both Vienna and online from April 27 to May 2. This year, I'll join the event on site in Vienna for the full week and I've already picked several sessions I plan ...
Here’s a book that looks not in at China but out from China. David Daokui Li’s China’s World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict is a refreshing offering in that Li is very much ...
The New Zealand National Party has long mastered the art of crafting messaging that resonates with a large number of desperate, often white middle-class, voters. From their 2023 campaign mantra of “getting our country back on track” to promises of economic revival, safer streets, and better education, their rhetoric paints ...
A global contest of ideas is underway, and democracy as an ideal is at stake. Democracies must respond by lifting support for public service media with an international footprint. With the recent decision by the ...
It is almost six weeks since the shock announcement early on the afternoon of Wednesday 5 March that the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr, was resigning effective 31 March, and that in fact he had already left and an acting Governor was already in place. Orr had been ...
The PSA surveyed more than 900 of its members, with 55 percent of respondents saying AI is used at their place of work, despite most workers not being in trained in how to use the technology safely. Figures to be released on Thursday are expected to show inflation has risen ...
Be on guard for AI-powered messaging and disinformation in the campaign for Australia’s 3 May election. And be aware that parties can use AI to sharpen their campaigning, zeroing in on issues that the technology ...
Strap yourselves in, folks, it’s time for another round of Arsehole of the Week, and this week’s golden derrière trophy goes to—drumroll, please—David Seymour, the ACT Party’s resident genius who thought, “You know what we need? A shiny new Treaty Principles Bill to "fix" all that pesky Māori-Crown partnership nonsense ...
Apple Store, Shanghai. Trump wants all iPhones to be made in the USM but experts say that is impossible. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories shortist from our political economy on Monday, April 14:Donald Trump’s exemption on tariffs on phones and computers is temporary, and he wants all iPhones made in the ...
Kia ora, readers. It’s time to pull back the curtain on some uncomfortable truths about New Zealand’s political landscape. The National Party, often cloaked in the guise of "sensible centrism," has, at times, veered into territory that smells suspiciously like fascism.Now, before you roll your eyes and mutter about hyperbole, ...
Australia’s east coast is facing a gas crisis, as the country exports most of the gas it produces. Although it’s a major producer, Australia faces a risk of domestic liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply shortfalls ...
Overnight, Donald J. Trump, America’s 47th President, and only the second President since 1893 to win non-consecutive terms, rolled back more of his“no exemptions, no negotiations”&“no big deal” tariffs.Smartphones, computers, and other electronics1are now exempt from the 125% levies imposed on imports from China; they retain ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
The Privileges Committee has denied fundamental rights to Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, breaching their own standing orders, breaching principles of natural justice, and highlighting systemic prejudice and discrimination within our parliamentary processes. The three MPs were summoned to the privileges committee following their performance of a haka ...
April 1 used to be a day when workers could count on a pay rise with stronger support for those doing it tough, but that’s not the case under this Government. ...
Winston Peters is shopping for smaller ferries after Nicola Willis torpedoed the original deal, which would have delivered new rail enabled ferries next year. ...
The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...
ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 18, 2025. Labor’s poll surge continues in YouGov, but they’re barely ahead in FreshwaterSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30) Haymitch’s Hunger Games. 2 Careless People: A ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Labor increased their lead again in a YouGov poll, but Freshwater put them ahead by just 50.3–49.7. This article also covers the ...
A new poem by Tusiata Avia. How to make a terrorist First make a whistling sound which is the sound of a bomb just before it lands on a house. Then make an exploding sound which is the sound of the bomb which kills a father, decapitates a mother, roasts ...
The top-rated Scrabble players in the country go head-to-head this Easter weekend. Watch games live from 9.30am on the stream below.How does it all work?The Masters is different to most Scrabble tournaments in that it’s invitational, open only to the top-rated players in the country. The ...
Books editor Claire Mabey appraises all the Austen-adapted films from 1990 onwards to separate the delightful from the duds.For the purists, read our ranking of Jane Austen’s novels here.It is a truth universally acknowledged that not everything is created equal. Since 1990 there have been 12 attempts to ...
To arrive through the heavy red door of Margot in Newtown is to be invited to the best dinner party in town, hosted by the best friends you haven’t yet made. Table Service is a column about food and hospitality in Wellington, written by Nick Iles.Hospitality is a term ...
We recommend the best – and longest – television series to watch this holiday weekend. As the Easter holiday weekend descends and the weather turns a little grim, many of us will turn to the trusty old television for comfort and entertainment. If you’re lucky, you’ll have some time over ...
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NONFICTION1 No Words for This by Ali Mau (HarperCollins, $39.99)A free copy of the author’s new memoir was up for grabs in last week’s giveaway contest. Readers were asked to share their feelings about Mau, a former broadcaster and one of the most powerful figures in the New Zealand #metoo ...
Analysis: The announcement last week that Colossal Biosciences in the USA had “de-extincted” the dire wolf, which was last seen 13,000 years ago, was reported worldwide.The three wolf pups generated equal parts fascination and widespread scientific criticism. But is this actually de-extinction, and what are the implications for the potential ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gode Bola, Lecturer in Hydrology, University of Kinshasa The April 2025 flooding disaster in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, wasn’t just about intense rainfall. It was a symptom of recent land use change which has occurred rapidly in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton, now seriously on the back foot, has made an extraordinarily big “aspirational” commitment at the back end of this campaign. He says he wants to see a move to indexing personal income ...
Essay by Keith Rankin. Operation Gomorrah may have been the most cynical event of World War Two (WW2). Not only did the name fully convey the intent of the war crimes about to be committed, it, also represented the single biggest 24-hour murder toll for the European war that I ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Tietz, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW Sydney A New South Wales Senate inquiry into public toilets is underway, looking into the provision, design and maintenance of public toilets across the state. Whenever I mention this inquiry, however, everyone nervously ...
Shrinking budgets and job insecurity means there are fewer opportunities for young journalists, and that’s bad news, especially in regional Australia, reports 360infoANALYSIS:By Jee Young Lee of the University of Canberra Australia risks losing a generation of young journalists, particularly in the regions where they face the closure ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tessa Charles, Accelerator Physicist, Monash University An artist’s impression of the tunnel of the proposed Future Circular Collider.CERN The Large Hadron Collider has been responsible for astounding advances in physics: the discovery of the elusive, long-sought Higgs boson as well as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer McKay, Professor in Business Law, University of South Australia Parkova/Shutterstock Could someone take you to court over an agreement you made – or at least appeared to make – by sending a “👍”? Emojis can have more legal weight ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trang Nguyen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide Stokkete, Shutterstock Australians waste around 7.68 million tonnes of food a year. This costs the economy an estimated A$36.6 billion and households up to $2,500 annually. ...
Pushing people off income support doesn’t make the job market fairer or more accessible. It just assumes success is possible while unemployment rises and support systems become harder to navigate. ...
A year since the inquest into the death of Gore three-year-old Lachlan Jones began and the Coroner has completed his provisional findings. Interested parties have been provided with a copy of Coroner Ho’s provisional findings and have until May 16 to respond.The Coroner has indicated the final decision will be delivered on June 3 in Invercargill, citing high ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ken Nosaka, Professor of Exercise and Sports Science, Edith Cowan University Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock Do you ever feel like you can’t stop moving after you’ve pushed yourself exercising? Maybe you find yourself walking around in circles when you come off the pitch, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland After decades of Hollywood showcasing white-picket-fence celebrity smiles, the world has fallen for White Lotus actor Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachelle Martin, Senior Lecturer in Rehabilitation & Disability, University of Otago Getty Images Disabled people encounter all kinds of barriers to accessing healthcare – and not simply because some face significant mobility challenges. Others will see their symptoms not investigated properly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer, International Studies, University of South Australia Despite the challenges faced by local democratic activists, Thailand has often been an oasis of relative liberalism compared with neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Westerners, in particular, have been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Yue Zhang, Associate Professor, Technology and Innovation, University of Technology Sydney China has placed curbs on exports of rare germanium and gallium which are critical in manufacturing.Shutterstock In the escalating trade war between the United States and China, one notable ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vivien Holmes, Emerita Professor, Australian National University Momentum studio/Shutterstock No one goes into the legal profession thinking it is going to be easy. Long working hours are fairly standard, work is often completed to tight external deadlines, and 24/7 availability to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Prime The Narrow Road to the Deep North stands as some of the most visceral and moving television produced in Australia in recent memory. Marking a new accessibility and confidence to ...
The forecast for Easter weekend in much of the country is pretty shitty. Here are some ideas for having a nice time indoors.Ex-tropical cyclone Tam might have been downgraded to a subtropical low, but it has already unleashed heavy rain, high winds and power outages on the upper North ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cécile L’Hermitte, Senior Lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, University of Waikato In the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, the driving time between Napier and Wairoa stretched from 90 minutes to over six hours, causing major supply chain delays. Retail prices rose ...
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just released a report on it's view on 'US Hegemony and Its Perils' it makes for an interesting read, especially in light of it's origin, it's is some of the most pointed and direct jabs at the US I have seen coming directly from official Chinese sources…obviously the Chinese are getting more than a little tired of the US and it's endless belligerent antagonism aimed at China and so much of the world…like many of us!
US Hegemony and Its Perils
from the conclusion….
"While a just cause wins its champion wide support, an unjust one condemns its pursuer to be an outcast. The hegemonic, domineering, and bullying practices of using strength to intimidate the weak, taking from others by force and subterfuge, and playing zero-sum games are exerting grave harm. The historical trends of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit are unstoppable. The United States has been overriding truth with its power and trampling justice to serve self-interest. These unilateral, egoistic and regressive hegemonic practices have drawn growing, intense criticism and opposition from the international community.
Countries need to respect each other and treat each other as equals. Big countries should behave in a manner befitting their status and take the lead in pursuing a new model of state-to-state relations featuring dialogue and partnership, not confrontation or alliance. China opposes all forms of hegemonism and power politics, and rejects interference in other countries' internal affairs. The United States must conduct serious soul-searching. It must critically examine what it has done, let go of its arrogance and prejudice, and quit its hegemonic, domineering and bullying practices."
I’ve missed the Civilian …
The peril of claiming atolls in the South China Sea are islands/air and seaports of China and having ignore the ruling of The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, as to the dubious nature of its own claims to effect the theft of the economic zones off weaker nations to their south, is the small size of the moral footprint they then make when criticising any other nation.
And it cannot even call out Russia on the invasion of Ukraine, or itself on the establishment of "police stations" on foreign territory without consent.
If Biden and Blinken had any balls they would say to China, if you arm the Russians or recognise the annexation of Ukraine territory (after a local vote as per Crimea), then it might be inferred that it would be hypercritical to deny Taiwan a vote on independence or oppose other nations coming to its defence should it be attacked.
they would say to China, if you arm the Russians or recognise the annexation of Ukraine territory (after a local vote as per Crimea), then it might be inferred that it would be hypercritical to deny Taiwan a vote on independence or oppose other nations coming to its defence should it be attacked.
Why? Taiwan is part of China. Even the Taiwanese admit that; though they don't agree that the CCP is the legitimate government of China. Any attack on Taiwan would therefor be a civil war, and no concern of any other country.
Crimea is no less part of Ukraine than Taiwan is of China ..
At the moment Crimea belongs to Russia. I don't see Ukraine getting it back.
The same way Kuwait belonged to Iraq, and recognised by no one.
Kuwait/Iraq, Crimea/Ukraine and Taiwan/China are three different situations. "Whataboutism" doesn't always work.
At the moment also applied when Germany occupied nations …some people could not see how the UK alone could change that …
Watch out for this book Adrian , coming out next month , from a University of London academic A.B.Abrams
Should be interesting reading!
https://www.fridayeveryday.com/exclusive-west-uses-atrocity-fabrications-to-demonize-enemies/
Interesting observation.
https://www.fridayeveryday.com/about-us/
"China opposes all forms of hegemonism and power politics, and rejects interference in other countries' internal affairs".
Seriously?
IMO Yes. I agree with our PM.
And….oh really ?
Were all the Local body and Regional Councils looking at Native Replanting on at-risk hill sides ? And that Wetlands were not being drained for new developments/subdivisions ? Probably a LOT of vulnerabilities that were high-lit by Local Environmental groups…and NZ wide..and mostly ignored by aforesaid councils..and Mayors ! : (.
There are no quick fix solutions , although Nact and other RWhingers will moan long and loudly (same as ever)
There is much to be done…and Change is going to be prime. NZ cant keep repeating the same mistakes.
Northland's representatives have a point. SH1 to Kaitaia has been broken for 6 months and there's no repair option in sight.
With the Brynderwyns out of action off-and-on for 6 weeks now, there is no SH1 route to the entire Northland.
No, passenger rail north of Kumeu isn't ever coming back.
So the call to accelerate the SH1 expressway from Warkworth to Whangarei is going to get stronger, and with good reason.
The EHRC report made no criticism of Jeremy Corbyn at all, and a tiny number of criticisms of the Labour Party-even these are disputed.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/23/attacks-on-your-editorial-about-the-ehrc-labour-and-antisemitism-are-baffling
The Guardian, to its credit, finally published an editorial that made plain that Corbyn had fought against racism for many years. It still (wrongly in my view) criticised Corbyn for his response to antisemitism in the Labour Party, and (wrongly) praised Starmer, but in a fairly low key manner.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/15/the-guardian-view-on-labour-and-antisemitism-two-cheers-for-keir-starmer
Needless to say the pro-Israel and extremist Jews reacted in their usual loopy manner.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/21/do-not-forget-jeremy-corbyn-failure-on-antisemitism
I found this part of he Guardian editorial particularly interesting.
“To conflate the antisemitism of some on the left with all leftwing politics is illogical and shortsighted. Given the state of the country and the world, now is not the time to dismiss important ideas just because John McDonnell once smiled at them. Not only is the former shadow chancellor one of the most interesting economic thinkers in the Labour party, he was also right to oppose austerity from 2010 onwards – not a claim that can be made by all of the shadow cabinet.”
The Guardian has realised that many people think that Starmer has gone way too far in his unjustified and non-fact based attacks on Corbyn.
From various comments by the PM, among other government ministers, it seems likely that managed retreat, in some form, will be on the table for the worst-affected-by-flooding areas.
Assuming this goes ahead, the next question is going to be 'Managed retreat to where'?
This article quotes 5,500 properties affected by flooding in Auckland. Assuming that not all need managed retreat (or at least don't need it right now), and that some will resist any buyout (Matata, case in point) – we can substantially reduce that number.
It doesn't, however, address properties affected by slips and landslides (which are rarely in flood plains – so that would add to the total.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/24-02-2023/the-case-for-abandoning-this-flood-prone-part-of-auckland
However, even if we're 'only' looking at 2,500 new properties in Auckland – where will we put them?
Clearly *not* in flood-prone areas.
The current plan allowing for 3×3 townhouse development on virtually every site in Auckland (that is 3 properties up to 3 stories high) – will only make any stormwater issues worse. I've seen these townhouse developments. There is zero permeable surface. And, unless they are part of a larger development (most are not), there is no associated run-off mitigation work. Stonefields and Hobsonville (large suburb-size developments) both had stormwater mitigation features, and fared well in both the Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. But the vast majority of the developments are single-site ones – so no mitigation features.
Residents are unlikely to want to leave their local area (with a somewhat more elastic definition of 'local' for some than others).
And Auckland doesn't have great zones of suitable unbuilt-on land awaiting developement.
Can managed-retreat pay-outs be tied to ecologically-friendly solutions, e.g. apartment blocks (with decent-sized family-suitable apartments), on sites with appropriate stormwater mitigation?
Some of the issues around this are to do with cost: apartment blocks appear to cost considerably more to build, than stand alone or terraced housing. Some are to do with reputation – Aucklanders are justifiably wary of apartments after the leaky building saga. Some are to do with the Covid scars (lockdown in an apartment with kids is no joke). Some are to do with the mental shift – Kiwis think of 'home' as having a backyard – and apartments are a temporary solution to getting there
Inaction (or committees) are typically the result when the 'solutions' are more problematic than the status quo.
are house at risk from slips not included in managed retreat? Why not?
I'm not saying that they are not. I was just saying that they are likely to be over-and-above the total of houses in the article quoted – which was only discussing flood-plain damage.
Let's look 30 years in the future. We have much less power supply, we have frequent events like the last month, there are global food shortages because industrial ag is failing from temperature rises, increase droughts and floods, and interruptions to supply lines, and presumably we are closer to post-FF.
Do we really want to have infilled with lots of concrete and hardscarp infrastructure that was designed for less events? How would we even predict that far out how the weather is going to be?
One alternative is to use whole system design. Reduce transport across the board, so that transport infrastructure is freed up for essentials. Grow as much food locally as possible (which means retaining non-concreted spaces). Integrate that with city forestry and wetland systems designed to manage the peak rain events. More people can work from home, or be educated from home or in the neighbourhood. What is needed is sets of interlocking villages. There would be low rise appartments within that, but the starting point isn't 'too many people, where do we put them'. It's 'what's the carrying capacity of this landbase and how can we meet human needs by working with nature'.
Re immediate housing, one option (to be used alongside others), the tiny house on wheels movement is sufficiently established to scale up and provide interim accommodation for those that it suits. This frees up housing for those that need more space.
1.5 million people in Auckland. Even cutting out the pop in the more rural areas, you're going to come up with a total of 1 million plus in the densely populated areas.
What sort of practical programme can there be to translate this into the kind of village settlements you're talking about?
In order to gain the space for the kind of wetland/forestry systems you're talking about, in combination with the existing population, you'll need to have serious high-rise accommodation. And will involve massive razing of existing housing infrastructure.
Unless you're suggesting massive relocation – probably involuntary (people in general don't like leaving their homes); or some other mechanism to reduce the population to the "carrying capacity of the landbase" – the population has to be accommodated somewhere.
I'd like to see more tiny houses in operation. However, they require space, and (for most) connection to existing power/water/sewerage infrastructure. All of which is at a premium in Auckland. I'm sure there are solutions, but I'd like to see what they might be. Freeing up Council bureaucracy might be one of them (the hoops to be jumped through to put a minor dwelling (which is what a tiny home is counted as) on a site are immense).
Government departments used to have lots of onsite housing that was tiny housing e.g. single mens quarters on railways. Ensuring employees have accommodation isn't a bad thing and no reason railway land could not be used for workers accommodation.
this is the problem when you start with 'can't' instead of 'how'. Sustainable design comes from location. What will work in one part of Auckland won't work in another.
You're assuming a few things there. One is that no-one wants to move. Firstly, Gabrielle just completely changed the cultural normal that we all get to live where we want.
Secondly, the number of Auckland people coming south, suggests there are people that are happy to move. So start with the people that do want to move instead of a blanket 'too many people to move'. Why do people want to move? Down here the idea is that people understand how hard it's going to get to remain in Auckland, on many levels, and they want a better life.
Not that I want them to come down here lol, but you are still starting with '1.5m people have to be fitted into here irrespective of sustainability or climate', whereas I'm saying if you start with sustainable design principles then the solutions become apparent.
How many renters in Auckland would move to another part of their neighbourhood if it meant an improvement in their lifestyle?
People that live in areas that are flooding repeatedly will be more likely to want to move.
Every new development could be based in climate transition. Start with the low hanging fruit. Does Auckland still have suburbs with houses on a section? See below.
The other assumption is that the carrying capacity of the landbase is already vastly overreached. Do you know that to be true?
One influence on my thinking was David Holmgren's early work on Retrofitting the suburbs. He later developed this into Retrosuburbia, which is also excellent. The idea is how to transform existing infrastructure towards more sustainability. By sustainability, I mean that key principles are used like cradle to grave design, closing loops to reduce pollution, capturing energy flows to make spaces more efficient and so on. I don't mean greening things up a bit.
His work was around Australian and NZ suburbs that were built in the 50s and 60s and that have largely become commuter suburbs. They have land with housing for multiple people, and space for food growing, but tend towards couples who spend little time there, going out to work, eat and socialise. Instead, we could be changing how we live so that we can work, eat and socialise close to where we live, and produce food locally. We might have to share housing with people again (shock horror), there are ways to make that a good thing not a negative, but probably the biggest thing here is what we've become accustomed to and thinking we cannot change.
Everything I've just described is about making people more resilient where they live, and for that to be based in sustainability. In addition, local planners could work with the known and projected flood risks and develop natural systems (this doesn't preclude hard infrastructure) to change how water flows through the city.
Don't know why you jumped to that idea. Auckland already has stormwater systems, there's no suggestion of removing all of that. What Ak could be doing is working with nature instead of thinking that it can just force all that water to run somewhere (which obviously doesn't work any more).
Key point here. If you take Ak as it is now, the more you infill those suburbs and city areas with high and medium density housing via BAU urban design, the less resilient you make those areas and the wider city. More flooding, less ability to grow food, less green space for mental health, more overheating, more congestion and so on. This is why cities are already like this, and why BAU approaches greened up a bit won't work.
It's the thinking that's the problem. Gabrielle is teaching us about the limits of growth but also the limits of our imaginations. If the only thing you can see is 1.5m people needing to be squeezed into finite land, then that's all you can see.
Here's an example of the two kinds of thinking. BAU and working with nature. This isn't a solution for Ak, it's a solution to being stuck in thinking there is only one way to approach flooding.
https://www.permaculturenews.org/2016/01/07/despite-uk-flooding-a-yorkshire-town-remains-dry/
No matter the 'solution(s)' arrived at there will be an element of compulsion otherwise the authorities (no matter who they end up being) will be compelled to maintain infrastructure in both the under threat areas as well as the new/adapted ….and that creates political, social and economic problems as the ChCh red zoning continues to demonstrate
I tend to agree, and certainly the longer we keep doing BAU the more we will need compulsion. But we can also 'mitigate' that, by transitioning now and doing transition in a community based way as much as possible.
Which leads to the nature of compulsion….Id suggest that compulsion can be equated with money (or at least wealth) ….i.e. wealth is the freedom from compulsion.
i expect we may see that demonstrated again shortly.
this is why I place so much emphasis on defensive voting. Whatever struggles are coming it's going to be far far worse under a Nact govt than a centre left one.
The reality is the freedom bestowed by wealth remains irrespective of Government hue, or at least under the existing paradigm…and will remain so as long as we desire the benefits of the global system.
Auckland has already done large scale property purchases out of the flood plain, without resorting to compulsory acquisition powers. Project Twin Streams took out over 150 houses.
This article cited says it was 78 purchases but the later total was over 150.
https://environment.govt.nz/publications/project-twin-streams-case-study-large-scale-property-purchase-without-recourse-to-compulsory-purchase/
But that was pre-amalgamation.
Auckland Council simply doesn't countenance that degree of intervention.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/384566/no-buy-out-option-in-offer-to-flood-hit-piha-homeowners
Ain’t that the truth! Unfortunately, some are a little liberal with the truth and more than happy to spin it to suit their narrative and fit within their biased thinking. Opinions need to be stated clearly as such and even then they must have a sound foundation in reality. Anything else is spin, often with an intention if not an agenda.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/finding-truth-and-compassion-in-the-wake-of-disaster
Yes. I was a bit nonplussed by this though – "[t]hat some people who would take advantage of their fellow Kiwis in their time of need has unsurprisingly generated anger." That sort of activity is very common across our economy. Some of it such as profiteering-driven inflation is is legal, while some isn't.
Whether something is pretty legal or not is a pretty low bar but it seems good enough for Law & Order dogmatists, which is why they use this as pretty much the only (and critically dividing) benchmark in their axiomatic ‘debates’. The Law is a huge grey area of rather technical complexities and interpretations, IMHO. It is not surprising that those same people transfer this same dogmatic thinking of motive, means & opportunity to pretty much all areas of life: economy, society, politics, etcetera. Where and when do values, principles, and higher aspirations come into it?
Landlords wouldn't put rents up would they?
Far out. How much more ? All the best for you North islanders. Esp Standardistas !
Great interview about East Palestine. Direct and to the point.
Thoughts from the cyclone so far:
Luxon has announced his plan to Stop 3 Waters and instead set strong rules for Councils to upgrade their waters. They will pay with secured(?) loans and different Councils can club together if they wish. (Suppose smaller/poorer councils will get left out?) Wonder if the water rules will cover 3 Waters?
Can't find the column I read re this but someone must be able to.
Found it:
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/02/25/luxon-national-will-scrap-three-waters-set-strict-water-rules/
Should be fun with more rules and stricter rules. What with Luxon's Deputy Prime Minister Seymour coming in on a platform of getting rid of bureaucrats, red tape and Wellington control.
The problem is that National, when in government, never attempted to enforce the rule, guidelines and legislation that already existed. Never dragged councils and councillors into court for dereliction of duty in not increasing rates to cover the required future of their water resources. It doesn’t sound like they have the backbone to do it now as well.
Why do they see to think that scolding councillors will work over the next 30 years. It never did in the past.
Never helped councils with small or poor ratepayer bases to pay for their upgrades. National's only contribution to councils water in the past has been to put limits on what they could borrow to finance these works. You’ll note that they haven’t mentioned anything about raising debt ceilings for councils thate they previously imposed?
National just announced they aren't going to do anything significiant. They're just going to hand the task of an under-resourced and toothless oversight group that has absolutely no powers to do anything useful – like capital financing.
Notably there was nothing about new legislation in the area to replace the legislation they are want to remove – just regulation. That approach is the useless one that caused the current under funding and lack of maintenance of water infrastructure.
Notably, they managed to not mention the biggest single issue for smaller councils. That they cannot afford to hire the expertise to actually upgrade their water infrastructure. That is one of the key advantages
National is what you use when you need useless and completely ineffectual. They certainly delivered that with this pile of waffling.
So… councillors will think they control the Council's water infrastructure but they will be going cap in hand to some regulatory bureaucracy that doles out the funding kinda like Waka Kotahi does with roading funding. Although this isn't specified there isn't really any other way it would work for councils that couldn't afford the work required, as Government funding will be essential to meet current standards in nearly all Councils outside Auckland. Council engineering departments would be tied up with funding applications rather than engineering the infrastructure.
Not sure that's going to be an improvement on the status quo, and the situation that the 3 Waters reforms were designed to overcome.
While National's policy will give ratepayers and councillors a feeling of control, in effect they will be pawns of a central bureaucracy that will really dictate what work is done, how it is done, and how much the council has to contribute. Where a positive CBR is difficult, like in our many shrinking rural towns with completely fucked infrastructure, this contribution will still be cripling for the ratepayers and the councillors will get it up the chook at the ballot box.
National haven't addressed the long term issues of how we upgrade urban infrastructure without destroying the communities that depend in that infrastructure. they are just focused on the short term imperative of getting elected this year.
He'll build the South Island vote, but there's not much more of that he could get anyway.
But winning North Island vote outside of mid-Waikato with this?
How many more cataclysmic storms will it take?
He might reclaim some votes from Advance NZ or Freedom & Outdoors but there will be questions from the more sensible folk in likes of Gore and Clutha once they think about where this policy is going to take them. The numbers, and disruption, are pretty daunting for both Districts, not sure I'd like to be the elected councillor fronting those projects.
Lopez Obrador is returning his country to the bad old days when the incumbents controlled elections.
On Wednesday, Mexico's Senate approved changes backed by López Obrador to the National Election Institute, known by its initials in Spanish as the INE. The independent authority is beloved by many Mexicans for its role in securing free and fair elections and transitioning the country away from nearly a century of one-party rule just over two decades ago.
The new legislation, which Mexico's lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, passed in December and which López Obrador is expected to soon sign into law ahead of likely legal challenges, will cut the INE's budget, hamstring its ability to penalize candidates for campaign finance violations and loosen rules on public officials campaigning while in office.
By the INE's own estimates, those budget cuts will force it to cut as much as 85% of its staff. That could mean fewer polling places or less secure electoral rolls — real impacts on the agency's ability to credibly administer federal elections, according to analysts.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mexican-presidents-push-change-elections-agency-sparks-debate/story?id=97421229
Renewable energy getting closer to being sustainable.
.
“Going forward, we can now view old epoxy-based blades as a source of raw material. Once this new technology is implemented at scale, legacy blade material currently sitting in landfill, as well as blade material in active windfarms, can be disassembled, and re-used.
“This signals a new era for the wind industry, and accelerates our journey towards achieving circularity.”
While efforts to create more environmentally friendly wind turbine blades and the growth of a market for recycling blades will continue, the new discovery from Vestas and its partners heralds a massive stepchange for the global wind energy industry.
“The newly discovered chemical process shows that epoxy-based turbine blades, whether in operation or sitting in landfill, can be turned into a source of raw material to potentially build new turbine blades,” said Mie Elholm Birkbak, specialist for innovation & concepts at Vestas.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/vestas-claims-major-breakthough-in-wind-turbine-blade-recycling/
Took them long enough.
Now if only they could make the turbine last for longer than 25 years.
Whereas a dam lasts for a century or more.
But kit vulnerable to fluid stresses and associated moving parts don't. And unfortunately, remediation of the cavitation, corrosion, fatigue, and material defects, etc, that contribute to declining efficiencies, the bane of hydro power, isn't quite as straight forward as swinging by with a crane and rigging crew to swap out a rotor.
Even the highlights tell you what kind of Rugby we've been missing from the true Pasifika style.
I can see either of them winning against most of the Australian and many of the New Zealand teams.
Just wait until the pointy end of the comp when they've had ten weeks together.
Simone Segouin worked and fought with the resistance from 1942 through to the liberation of Paris. Post war, she worked as a paediatric nurse.
https://twitter.com/kershaw_alex/status/1628478968197177344
Some people see a trans women aka a literal woman. Some people see a man loitering outside the women's toilet filming. Some people see an autogynephilic male (Quilette).
https://twitter.com/uhohwoman/status/1629216676029026304
The Carmens and the Georginas of this world have always used the women's toilets with no problems. They came in, closed the stall door, did their business, came out, washed their hands and left.
They were not there to take "bathroom selfies" with a crowd of schoolgirls in the background (looking at you Jonathan/Jessica Yaniv/Simpson).
They were not there to noisily achieve their "gender euphoria" and video it to share with their pervy mates, (thanks "Nig Heke" for trawling the grubbier corners of the internet for the evidence).
They were not there to steal used sanitary products for use in their menstrual fetishes. (Not even going to suggest where you might look for that, much too close to breakfast time!)
And that is before you get to the videoing over and under the stalls, and the plain basic sexual assaults well documented by the good folks at "This Never Happens" https://www.facebook.com/groups/1722756661380462/
There are still very good reasons to prevent men from entering spaces where women are vulnerable.
gender ideology is regressive nonsense part 4356
https://twitter.com/francesweetman/status/1629403765370388487