Watched ShonKey try very hard to explain his security council mtg, just did his yeah, nah, she’ll be right mate. He’s really good at filling up airtime with nothing but blah blah.
Coming our way with the National government – having to compete with multinationals to buy our own water…
“A small town in Ontario, Canada, has prompted fresh scrutiny of the bottled-water industry after its attempt secure a long-term water supply through the purchase of a well was outbid by the food and drinks multinational Nestlé.
When authorities in Centre Wellington, population of about 30,000, learned that Nestlé had put a bid on a spring water well in their region, they scrambled over the summer to counter with a competing bid. The goal was to safeguard a water supply for the township’s fast-growing population, Kelly Linton, the mayor, told the Guardian. “By 2041, we’ll be closer to 50,000 so protecting our water sources is critical to us.”
wtf. Farmer groups want to be able to use wayer, gm, etc, to make money, it does not matter other frmers aquifers dry up, or gm escapes, as long as the corp farmer can make profit oblivious of effects… ..just like shitty rivers.
why would any farmer lobby argue for gm and against regional efforts to grow value? Is the farming lobby a talk fest for big corp?
This is already happening in the north, unfortunately.
A small iwi is battling the Northland Regional Council to retain its long-held rights in the Poroti Springs which the NRC is busily selling off water rights to overseas companies – including Nestles which has been looking at Poroti Springs too. I’m not sure how far along Nestles has got with its resource consent application to withdraw water from the Springs.
There is the Freshwater site set up by Forest and Bird. Maybe it could be expanded to be an advocacy site for local water rights as so many are being hawked off by the National government and clueless councils around the country.
@b waghorn – name and shame. There has already been a case in the US where the judge ruled, water is not a human right. NZ needs to get active to nip water selloffs in the bud before there is no drinkable water left. It’s no coincidence corporates are buying up water. Everyone needs water – very profitable – especially when sold so cheaply in NZ with the help of the cronies.
Food for thought (I think some of it applies across the spectrum).
The left now suffer from closed minds and moral smugness. They are moribund and backward-looking.
They run from ideas. Opposing philosophies distress them.
They pillory dissenters as stupid or immoral and often both. There’s no debating or explaining, just abuse for those who step outside received wisdom.
The left have taken to social media with gusto. It only takes 140 characters to abuse and attack.
They fill Twitter and blogs with their righteousness and smugness, puffed up by their own perceived moral and intellectual superiority.
There’s no allowance that a person with a differing view might offer an opportunity to learn and to strengthen your ideas and perhaps, just perhaps, to change them.
That’s never allowed as a possibility.
Their minds are closed and they gasp and take offence at any idea or opinion different to their own.
Indeed, ganging up against dissenters on social media is what binds them. Their attacks on others proves to them their correctness and superiority.
The left are puzzled about why they’re politically marginalised but never trouble themselves to listen to those who have turned away from them. They look down on them and despise them.
The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.
They are a self-reinforcing sect who in their wretchedness and anger are becoming ever smaller. Their narrow and insular outlook prevents them reaching out. Little wonder it’s not attractive to new recruits.
Labour is the narrow party that has shut itself off from the great bulk of New Zealanders.
Rodney Hides opinion? Fuck off.
I have just read through yesterdays Open Mike…. wow. Well done all the contributors , esp CV and Paul and Adrian, for ably fending off the narrow minded, ignorant defenders of ‘ pax Americana ‘ or , to put it more bluntly, those who are basically backing Zionism.
For me all the hypocrisy of the USA can be summed up in one word….. Vietnam.
Yes, we can really listen to Rodney – ACT last election getting less than 1% of votes. Bit like at the amount of voters who actually take ACT seriously and soon to be the amount of people who take the Herald seriously.
Even die hard Natz supporters know that Granny is not really a news organisation anymore and you can’t trust news from Granny – sponsor-an-article cum crony-alert-reporting style. Have MR less than 1% Hide as a commentator just reinforces their dying readership.
Yep – and revolutionary as the idea might seem to the likes of Pete George, a country with 300 000 children in poverty and an entire generation consigned to homelessness has no particular need to slide further to the right. It has significant and pressing pragmatic problems that paying lip service to the bloody idols of neoliberalism will not address.
and an entire generation consigned to homelessness has no particular need to slide further to the right.
Labour will have the first affordable $600,000 homes ready by 2019. So the Aucklanders priced out of the housing market today only need to put their lives on hold until then.
(By which time the prices of the “affordable” homes will be more like $700,000).
It is of course optimistic, but the hope is that when they get their paws on the reins of power they will begin to govern, part of which will necessarily include addressing such problems. Better that they have a local Corbynist lobby to encourage them probably, or a community housing initiative to show them the way.
One of the outcomes of the last election for Labour was to notice that the Gnats produced no policy. The Gnats have no intention of being lampooned in public for their gross dishonesty and manifest stupidity. This is a lesson Labour has learned. We will only see a general picture of what they might do – but if you want genuine growth and reform that will need to come from a community base. Produce a working model & Labour might be very happy to fund and proliferate it. But thus far it doesn’t seem to be how they choose to fight their corner.
One of the outcomes of the last election for Labour was to notice that the Gnats produced no policy. The Gnats have no intention of being lampooned in public for their gross dishonesty and manifest stupidity. This is a lesson Labour has learned.
Labour has been facing off against the National tories since the 1930s.
You can’t tell me that they’ve only just figured out how Tories think.
The Tories changed their presentation. Under Bill English they represented themselves honestly as the crooked and unambiguously backward set of chumps they actually are. Key brought in the Crosby Textor thing – and the MSM decided they could embrace bias without any proximate prospect of comeuppance. Now the media are locked in – they will be reformed when the Gnats leave power and they know it.
Nevertheless a strong press is believed to be one of the pillars of a healthy democracy – and I think we are feeling the lack. But yes, the LP isn’t setting speed records. Partly this is that feature of organisations that they grow to do the opposite of what they were established for. This is where a large activist membership is supposed to apply corrective feedback.
There are some curiosities in reform movements in that they require a receptive environment to develop new ideas – an incubator or as the trolls would have it an echo chamber. The Beijing student uprising resembled nothing so much as a magnetron – the ring of university campuses acting as the circulating amplifying chambers feeding the centre.
If you react badly to that you may well be proving Rodney’s point.
Pete George is moribund and backward-looking. He suffers from a closed mind and moral smugness. He runs from ideas and opposing philosophies distress him.
If he reacts badly to that he may well be proving my point.
The good thing about Rodders is. He’s full of shit and everyone knows it.
Aucklander’s want his testicles danglin from the sky tower in recognition of his superb super city idea.
I imaging stepping out in public is wonderful for him. Wondering if someone will dent his face.
As for the article. It’s actually a reflection of their own closed minds, they(people like him) think everyone else is behaving like they do themselves.
Rodney telling the left they have closed minds is more so outrageous that it will click bait people into A reading his article,. B push up ratings at the Herald which thankfully is diving like a Stuka!
I used to read the Herald, now it’s a third rate click bait celebrity mag. They lost the plot. If the Herald doesn’t turn it around soon it’ll be gone.
Sacking Rodney and actually reporting news would help.
As for the article. It’s actually a reflection of their own closed minds, they(people like him) think everyone else is behaving like they do themselves.
Yep, pure bloody projection and we see it from the RWNJs all the time as they use their own actions to justify keeping things the way they are and even to make things worse instead of making things better.
“Willem Wiskerke, a spokesman for Greenpeace Netherlands said: “He is a climate denier like Donald Trump, nothing more, nothing less, a rightwing, fact-free populist who denies the climate crisis and will not put any effort into solving it.”
“You will like me very much” – the Don to fossil fuel execs:
“The same day as a new report highlighted the carbon emissions calamity that would accompany new fossil fuel extraction, Donald Trump promised an audience of fossil fuel executives that is the very agenda he would pursue if elected to the White House.
” “Oh, you will like me so much,” the Republican presidential candidate said in his address to the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
“He promised to lift regulations, open up more federal lands for fossil fuel extraction—including coal and fracking—and ease the way for new fossil fuel infrastructure projects including pipelines.
From your Stuff link:
“A large chunk of Canterbury’s coast will again be offered up for oil and gas exploration, under a Government proposal described as “lunacy” by Christchurch’s deputy mayor.
“The Government wants to set aside nearly 300,000 square kilometres of New Zealand’s east coast for oil and gas companies as part of its 2017 block offer.
“The annual block offer allows companies to compete for exploration permits.
“This year’s proposed offer would open up the largest area near Canterbury yet.
“It includes a space near the Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Reserve, home to the endangered Hector’s dolphin.”
“Last year’s offer was deeply unpopular with the Christchurch City Council and environmental groups.
“They argued that deep-sea drilling could threaten the region with a catastrophic oil spill for little economic gain.”
“Under Hide’s leadership, the vote in the September 2005 elections severely reduced ACT’s party parliamentary representation. ACT’s share of the party vote dropped from over 7% of the total in 2002 to around 1.5%; its representation in Parliament fell from nine MPs to two. Despite this reduction, the party remained in parliament due to Hide winning the Epsom seat. As a consequence of its reduced share of the vote, ACT received a significant cut in taxpayer-funded Parliamentary resourcing and Hide shifted his electorate office in Remuera to Newmarket, the same location as that of ACT’s head office”
wiki
now that Rodney’s (and by extension, ACT’s) popularity/support has been bought up it occurs to me if you want to measure the publics appetite for neoliberal theory you only need to examine the level of support for ACT, which I believe peaked at around 7% and now languishes within the MoE
It is quite amazing that ACT got 7% as we always beleived that there were only 5% intelligent enough to vote ACT. Now some 4% are looking elsewhere …. NZF ?
Sorry that is trolling but I couldn’t resist 🙂
I was showing that ‘save nz’ is wrong, Hide has had many people voting for him in an electorate, especially when compared to Little.
I said nothing about ‘his popularity alone’, it was more complex than that but Hide worked hard in Epsom. I don’t think anyone gets all their votes on popularity alone.
In 2008 ACT got 85,496 votes, that had little to do with National and quite a lot to do with Hide’s efforts.
@Peter George – save the spin. We all know that they were National voters told to vote for him to prop up the Natz. Not many people would willingly vote for Hide. He’s a joke, as is his ideology.
You’re claiming that 78% of Epsom voters acted under instruction from National. Confirmation your comment wasn’t ‘a colloquial euphemism’, you were making thing things up.
In the old Newspaper days letters to the editor would have curtailed them from posting to much of fringe politicians crap like Rodney.
The complaints and stinging letters he received would have told him that. The editors letters would have also put the dickhead back where he belongs, talking fringe politics to nutters in a mental health ward.
Take this little fact in, someone born since 1980 doesn’t know truth or proper politics like us older people. They have never heard dissention. They have never seen proper protests(springboks tour someone born 1980 ain’t going to remember) They don’t know what unions can do, all they know is wall street, greed is good, consumerism and having the latest phone and trainers is important.
” talking fringe politics to nutters in a mental health ward.”
By this I assume you mean the way a senile old fool like Geoffrey Palmer on his ideas for a written Constitution?
Now there is someone who really should be ignored.
alwyn the list of people who enter representative politics with completely the wrong mental attitude, and who have not been scarred in some way by their nurture is tiny. Most of them who seek the halls of power, do it for fame, and ego.
It’s the one field I think psychological evaluation should be completed on, that is anyone seeking public office. IMHO.
Start with John Key, and many questions about his mum, and how long he breast fed for. Did he find it comforting gently pulling her hair whilst he was feeding on the nipple at 10, or did he think it felt a little strange at that age.
That’s what the media tells us, Richard Rawshark, but I do keep coming across young people who are thinking about other things – not just worried about not being able to own a home, but worried about climate change, dirty waters, oil drilling, and NZ (their home) being taken over by multitudes of others.
I just hope there are enough of these younger people to carry on dissension and protests when the time comes for those things.
sadly I did the one thing there I hate most, I stereo typed. Sorry. Their are a lot of good youth out there don’t get me wrong. barring the stereotyping i’m sure you all get the gist of what I said though.
I consider the youth of the greens Genter etc, an example of youth excelling beyond what we could back in my day. But they seem fewer.
US RWNJ’s doing the Trumps going to win thing when Hillary will clearly pass the post, is an old trick they employ when it’s looking bad for their guy. In that it’s to stop the rot and keep voters and try to gain the undecided.
Hope i’m right on that, even though Hillarys donkey deep in it too(war mongering), Trumps scarier and a big gamble. Better the devil you know.
Good to see the latest attempt to spread CCOs and forced local government amalgamations has been shelved.
Glad to have helped.
Seen this?
‘Activists – get things done’
Unlike ALL the other Auckland Mayoral candidates – I successfully petitioned Parliament for an urgent inquiry into Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
The following information I made available to Mayors in other parts of NZ to assist in their fight back against the continued corporate takeover of our local democracy, our assets and our public property.
The following proves that I already have an effective working relationship with central government.
Petition 2014/33 of Penelope Mary Bright and 55 others, and Report from the Controller and Auditor-General, Governance and accountability of council- controlled organisations
Nuclear Power and Climate Change – excerpt:
“Overall, the idea that atomic power is “clean” or “carbon free” or “emission free” is a very expensive misconception, especially when compared to renewable energy, efficiency, and conservation. Among conservation, efficiency, solar and wind power technologies, there are no global warming analogs to the heat, carbon, and radioactive waste impacts of nuclear power. No green technology kills anywhere near the number of marine organisms that die through reactor cooling systems.
“Rooftop solar panels do not lose ten percent of the power they generate to transmission, as happens with virtually all centralized power generators. S. David Freeman, former head of numerous large utilities and author of All Electric America: A Climate Solution and the Hopeful Future, says: “Renewables are cheaper and safer. That argument is winning. Let’s stick to it.”
Financially it seems pretty clear that renewables are the cheapest option for utility-scale new builds, even without a carbon tax. So worldwide I doubt we’ll see many more nuclear new builds, at least in western countries.
But it seems to me the appropriate comparison for nuclear is against fossil fuels. In that comparison, nuclear still looks pretty favourable to coal/gas/oil (and actually even hydro) in terms of land area ruined and human health/mortality footprints, even considering the worst case projections from Chernobyl, Fukushima etc. So to me, it looks like an environmental setback when a nuclear plant is closed prematurely while fossil plants feeding the same grid are still running and polluting.
Current production is far from ideal, but it’s still a lot better than fossil fuels. Most of the problems with current production are fairly easy to manage and eliminate, if the producers are incentivised to actually do it.
Interesting comments by Rodney Hide on the left in the herald this morning, expresses much commentary you see on this site
“The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.
They are a self-reinforcing sect who in their wretchedness and anger are becoming ever smaller. Their narrow and insular outlook prevents them reaching out. Little wonder it’s not attractive to new recruits.
It’s astonishing that National is now the vibrant party looking to the future and open to diverse views.
Labour is the narrow party that has shut itself off from the great bulk of New Zealanders.”
He does have point Paul no matter how much you may not like it, the lefts failure can’t be all externally afflicted, ie msm, dumb voters and other conspiracies
““The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.”
meanwhile – if you talk to people on the left you quickly find the above assertion to be based on a deliberate over simplification of actual arguments made
We had a wander around MOTAT on Friday and came across a potted history of Radio in New Zealand. This is what I read –
“On New Year’s Day in 1932 the Government took over the responsibility of the Radio Broadcasting Company in providing a national service. This was done under a three man Broadcasting Board who was also given the power to impose restrictions on the private stations. By 1937 most of the private stations had been bought by the New Zealand Government. Two distinct systems were then set up – one NATIONAL and one COMMERCIAL.
The first Director of Broadcasting was Professor James Shelley. He saw radio as an instrument of real democracy based on a sympathetic understanding of all points of view.
In 1946 the commercial and non-commercial branches of the national radio system were amalgamated under the name New Zealand Broadcasting Service.”
My words – the poor sod Professor Shelley will be turning in his grave at the state of our airways these days – so much for “a sympathetic understanding of all points of view.” There isn’t one jot of balance in anything we listen to on Radio or TV – just adoration for a corrupt Government which is sickening.
Tend to agree nutters on both sides of the phone , the medium attracts them like moths to a flame Albeit I do find Paul Henry entertaining you just need to take him with a grain of salt
I didn’t realise they went right through to Holyoake’s time in the early 1960s. If it was early in his second term that he got rid of it, it would seem that he didn’t approve of the practice. He was only there for about 3 months in 1957 before the election and he wouldn’t really have time to change very much.
Was Nash also doing it? From what you say it sounds as if he must have been.
Actually I can tolerate Fraser if it was about anything to do with the war.
However I highlighted Savage because he was the PM when Shelley was primarily involved in broadcasting and it was Shelley that WK was talking about.
As per your link – in 1947 things were relaxed to allow controversial broadcasts to be aired but Prime Ministerial approval was required until restrictions were abolished in 1962.
If you want to hear an out of touch ex pollie who actually dislikes democracy making a complete fool of himself, tune in to Natrad and listen to doddery old Geoffrey Palmer play with his constitutional toy soldiers.
Well said. He would tie us up in expensive knots for years trying to nut out a constitution. The main benefits of the monarchy are its distance and saving us from yet another self-important ex-pollie (like Geoffrey?) pretending to be our head of state.
It’s a esotreic academic law professors hobby horse, law lecturers blather on about it in 101 law since the the beginning of time The rest of us don’t really give a monkeys, status quo is fine, bigger issues to deal with
+100 rhino…lol…we live in a time of profound bullshit, trivia …and wasted time and white collar technological trickery and bankster fraud and usury…driven by materialism and venal mindless greed
“President Barack Obama used a pseudonym when communicating with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by email, while her IT company referred to her email deleting as a “cover-up”, new FBI documents reveal….
During the interview with Huma Abedin, who served as deputy chief of staff under Clinton, the FBI reportedly presented her with an email exchange between Clinton and a person she did not recognize. The FBI then revealed the unknown person’s name was believed to be a pseudonym used by Obama. Abedin reacted by saying, “How is this not classified?”
This exchange could expose Obama as having mislead the public on the issue, given his 2015 statement that he found out about Clinton’s use of a private email server “the same time everybody else learned it, through news reports.”…
Cops, a lot of talk about cops lately, underfunded, understaffed, ignoring things, skewing stats..
If Key remained PM lets say for another decade god forbid, how long do the standardista”s think it will be before a police surcharge to come out, comes along.
What was it 25 police stations to close, but a little while ago they close a load down too.
Why do we pay tax under national, they have pretty much driven everything under.
Anyone can talk about moving left of the centre; where is the left wing action, the left wing policy and the left wing personnel from Labour to back it up?
He would be silly to show all his cards to early , but going on clarkes performance on the tpp and praising of shit key, having Little publicly slap her down speaks volumes.
He is the right man for the next pm.
More crap neoliberal advice from last century. Thanks but no thanks Aunty Helen. Little was right to distance himself from Helen’s divisive legacy.
Anyway, Key currently rules the “centre” and won’t be budged. Labour’s only chance to get it back is if FJK makes a huge ballsup like David Cameron, but I reckon Key is more self aware
John Key is an exceptional politician. As cunning as Fraser, as likable as Lange. But his set piece, 'statesman' speeches are bloddy shite— Morgan Godfery (@MorganGodfery) September 21, 2016
Aunty Helen was right and is always right. She was smart to quickly dump any left-wing policies unpalatable to the centre so that she could appeal to the ‘middle’ voters.
Wrong, she lost the 2008 election because she wasted her political capital on pet social policies that alienated most voters. And she failed to address inequality and the growing housing bubble.
I respect her as a well-intentioned and highly intelligent person, her government was excellent on foreign policy, but she bought into the “Third Way” Blairite bullshit on economic matters, a betrayal of all workers & class struggles of the last century
In the next election I will be voting Green Party(not Labour ) for the first time in what will be my 12th election.
The last time I voted National was for Muldoon, and I honestly believe that was the last time a National Party leader gave a shit for the ordinary kiwi.
Key spoke as if he were more interested in his own speech rather than any solution for the Syrian people.
That neither the US nor Russia batted an eyelid at Key’s weak pleas to ‘hold hands’ over the matter, and indeed doubled their strikes immediately says a lot about how the rest of the world views him.
I’m loving the DPRK News Service. (yes, it’s a parody account)
As expected, oily cave troll Ted Cruise offers endorsement of shouting rotting papaya Donald Trump, to applause of idiot racists across US. pic.twitter.com/5PyU7G1l2g— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) September 23, 2016
I Imagine Clinton’s heard about Gennifer Flowers’ appearance at the first debate so I guess she’s out and about organising a front row seat for Trump’s former mistress.
A well written rant, shame Trotter didn’t get his facts straight, some reactions from Spinoff/GenZero author here (the whole thread on twitter is longer)
Never seen anyone get this pissed over a b-. If I publish my academic transcript will you stop calling us corrupt?— Leroy Beckett (@LeroyBeckett) September 25, 2016
saying we have been paid for our opinions or anything GZ do is laughable and kinda offensive to the ridiculous amount of work we do for free— Leroy Beckett (@LeroyBeckett) September 25, 2016
For what it's worth, scorecards and UP campaigns funded entirely from small donations from our supporters. All that went to promotions— Leroy Beckett (@LeroyBeckett) September 25, 2016
i know nothing of Lee but the endorsement of Ralston was what caused the enquiry…and as you note, they didn’t defend their endorsements merely their funding.
That said I think Trotter is right about the UP being twisted by property developers & speculators for their own ends, it is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Need to close the immigration floodgates, penalise speculation & McMansions, and implement proper rates/LVT based on unimproved land value.
A major problem with Millennials is they have no concept of life outside of the market oriented neoliberal narratives. From TDB:
Underlying this debate is the mute acceptance of the government’s ‘more is always better’ mantra by so many. Anyone who dissents is attacked overtly and covertly. Huge population increase is being pursued solely to line the pockets of the already rich and will be detrimental to NZ in most respects. We should be growing quality, not numbers. We would not have to build hundreds of thousands of homes over productive horticultural land if we accepted pursued a small, high quality niche approach.
“A while back, Mikhail Gorbachev famously said: ‘The most puzzling development in modern politics is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.’
Gorbachev wasn’t referring to the European Union’s hunger to expand eastwards, but instead the bloc’s top-heavy governance, where smaller states are increasingly dominated by larger members.
This was evident last year, when Angela Merkel pretty much unilaterally imposed a liberal migration policy on the confederation, which has led to massive division…
You’re very welcome. And this one also sometime at the end of last month:
“Market Economy – Reinvent or Reboot?”
Yanis Varoufakis versus Clemens Fuest, at the Alpbach Forum, along the lines of the proposition: “The market economy is the best model. It will also successfully manage the challenges faced in the future.” Agree or disagree with this statement?”
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TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects. “We are undertaking a stocktake about how ...
Sometime before the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that this year would be about “bread and butter issues”, National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis decided to move from Wellington Central and stand for Ohariu, which spreads across north Wellington from the central city to Johnsonville and Tawa. It’s an ...
They say a week is a long time in politics. For Mayor Wayne Brown, turns out 24 hours was long enough for many of us to see, quite obviously, “something isn’t right here…”. That in fact, a lot was going wrong. Very wrong indeed.Mainly because it turns ...
One of the most effective, and successful, graphics developed by Skeptical Science is the escalator. The escalator shows how global surface temperature anomalies vary with time, and illustrates how "contrarians" tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there has been no recent warming, while "realists" recognise ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Tomorrow we have a funeral, and thank you all of you for your very kind words and thoughts — flowers, even.Our friend Michèle messaged: we never get to feel one thing at a time, us grownups, and oh boy is that ever the truth. Tomorrow we have the funeral, and ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
A new Prime Minister, a revitalised Cabinet, and possibly revised priorities – but is the political and, importantly, economic landscape much different? Certainly some within the news media were excited by the changes which Chris Hipkins announced yesterday or – before the announcement – by the prospect of changes in ...
Currently the government's strategy for reducing transport emissions hinges on boosting vehicle fuel-efficiency, via the clean car standard and clean car discount, and some improvements to public transport. The former has been hugely successful, and has clearly set us on the right path, but its also not enough, and will ...
Buzz from the Beehive Before he announced his Cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced he would be flying to Australia next week to meet that country’s Prime Minister. And before Kieran McAnulty had time to say “Three Waters” after his promotion to the Local Government portfolio, he was dishing ...
The quarterly labour market statistics were released this morning, showing that unemployment has risen slightly to 3.4%. There are now 99,000 people unemployed - 24,000 fewer than when Labour took office. So, I guess the Reserve Bank's plan to throw people out of work to stop wage rises "inflation", and ...
Another night of heavy rain, flooding, damage to homes, and people worried about where the hell all this water is going to go as we enter day twenty two of rain this year.Honestly if the government can’t sell Three Waters on the back of what has happened with storm water ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular reforms in water and DHB centralisation ...
Hi,It’s weird to me that in 2023 we still have people falling for multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs for short). There are Netflix documentaries about them, countless articles, and last year we did an Armchaired and Dangerous episode on them.Then you check a ticketing website like EventBrite and see this shit ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Shortly, the absolute state of Wayne Brown. But before that, something I wrote four years ago for the council’s own media machine. It was a day-in-the-life profile of their many and varied and quite possibly unnoticed vital services. We went all over Auckland in 48 hours for the story, the ...
Completed reads for January Lilith, by George MacDonald The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, by Anonymous The Lay of Kraka (poem), by Anonymous 1066 and All That, by W.C. Sellar and R.J. ...
Pity the poor Brits. They just can’t catch a break. After years of reporting of lying Boris Johnson, a change to a less colourful PM in Rishi Sunak has resulted in a smooth media pivot to an end-of-empire narrative. The New York Times, no less, amplifies suggestions that Blighty ...
On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth.Genesis 6:11-12THE TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS that dumped a record-breaking amount of rain on Auckland this anniversary weekend will reoccur with ever-increasing frequency. The planet’s atmosphere is ...
Buzz from the Beehive There has been plenty to keep the relevant Ministers busy in flood-stricken Auckland over the past day or two. But New Zealand, last time we looked, extends north of Auckland into Northland and south of the Bombay Hills all the way to the bottom of the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters When early settlers came to the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers before the California Gold Rush, Indigenous people warned them that the Sacramento Valley could become an inland sea when great winter rains came. The storytellers described water filling the ...
Wayne Brown managed a smile when meeting with Remuera residents, but he was grumpy about having to deal with “media drongos”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: In my pick of the news links found in my rounds since 4am for paying subscribers below the paywall:Wayne Brown moans about the media and ...
Wayne Brown managed a smile when meeting with Remuera residents, but he was grumpy about having to deal with “media drongos”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: In my pick of the news links found in my rounds since 4am for paying subscribers below the paywall:Wayne Brown moans about the media and ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins ...
Hipkins’ aim this year will be to present a ‘low target’ for those seeking to attack Labour’s policies and spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Anyone dealing with Government departments and councils who wants some sort of big or long-term decision out of officials or politicians this year should brace for ...
Hipkins’ aim this year will be to present a ‘low target’ for those seeking to attack Labour’s policies and spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Anyone dealing with Government departments and councils who wants some sort of big or long-term decision out of officials or politicians this year should brace for ...
Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins has changed everything, and Labour is back ...
Over the last few years, it’s seemed like city after city around the world has become subject to extreme flooding events that have been made worse by impacts from climate change. We’ve highlighted many of them in our Weekly Roundup series. Sadly, over the last few days it’s been Auckland’s ...
And so the first month of the year draws to a close. It rained in Auckland on 21 out of the 31 days in January. Feels like summer never really happened this year. It’s actually hard to believe there were 10 days that it didn’t rain. Was it any better where ...
A ‘small target’ strategy is not going to cut it anymore if National want to win the upcoming election. The game has changed and the game plan needs to change as well. Jacinda Ardern’s abrupt departure from the 9th floor has the potential to derail what looked to be an ...
When Grant Robertson talks about how the economy might change post-covid, one of the things he talks about is what he calls an unsung but interesting white paper on science. “It’s really important,” he says. The Minister in charge of the White Paper — Te Ara Paerangi, Future Pathways ...
The clean up has begun but more rain is on the way. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Auckland’s floods over the last three days are turning into a macroeconomic event, with losses from Aotearoa’s biggest-ever climate event estimated at around $500 million and Auckland’s schools all closed for a week until ...
The clean up has begun but more rain is on the way. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Auckland’s floods over the last three days are turning into a macroeconomic event, with losses from Aotearoa’s biggest-ever climate event estimated at around $500 million and Auckland’s schools all closed for a week until ...
The news media were at one ceremony by the looks of things. The Governor-General, the Prime Minister and his deputy were at another. The news media were at a swearing-in ceremony. The country’s leaders were at an appointment ceremony. The New Zealand Gazette record of what transpired says: Appointment of ...
I n some alternative universe, Auckland mayor Efeso Collins readily grasped the scale of Friday’s deluge, and quickly made the emergency declaration that enabled central government to immediately throw its resources behind the rescue and remediation effort. As Friday evening became night, Mayor Collins seemed to be everywhere: talking with ...
They called it an “atmospheric river”, the weather bombardment which hit NZ’s northern region at the weekend. It exacted a terrible toll on metropolitan Auckland and the rest of the region. Few living there may have noted a statement from electricity generator Mercury Energy labelled “WET, WET, WET!” This was ...
I know, that is a pretty corny title but given the circumstances here in the Auckland region, I just had to say it. The more oblique reference embedded in the title is to the leadership failures exhibited by Mayor Wayne Brown and his so-called leadership team when confronted by the ...
How much confidence should the public have in authorities managing natural disasters? Not much, judging by the farcical way in which the civil defence emergence in Auckland has played out. The way authorities dealt with Auckland’s extreme weather on Friday illustrated how hit-and-miss our civil defence emergency system is. In ...
TLDR: Here’s the key news links and useful longer reads I’ve spotted since 4 am this morning, including:calls for a more ‘spongey’ urban infrastructure after Auckland’s floods;demands for an inquiry into Auckland Council’s communications failure;the latest on Chris Hipkins’ plans for Three Waters; inside the PR trainwreck that is Wayne ...
TLDR: Here’s the key news links and useful longer reads I’ve spotted since 4 am this morning, including:calls for a more ‘spongey’ urban infrastructure after Auckland’s floods;demands for an inquiry into Auckland Council’s communications failure;the latest on Chris Hipkins’ plans for Three Waters; inside the PR trainwreck that is Wayne ...
Mayor Wayne Brown, under fire for his communication failures, quietly visited the scene of the fatal Remuera slip on Sunday, with his staff taking photos for social media updates. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: The cleanup and the post-mortem have begun, even though the rain just keeps falling in Auckland after ...
Mayor Wayne Brown, under fire for his communication failures, quietly visited the scene of the fatal Remuera slip on Sunday, with his staff taking photos for social media updates. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: The cleanup and the post-mortem have begun, even though the rain just keeps falling in Auckland after ...
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The recent leadership change in the governing Labour party resulted in a very strange response from National’s (current) leader, Christopher Luxon. Mr Luxon berated Labour for it’s change of leader, citing no actual change.As ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 22, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 28, 2023. Story of the Week New Study Reveals Arctic Ice, Tracked Both Above and Below, Is Freezing LaterClimate change is affecting the timing of both ...
We’ve just announced a massive infrastructure investment to kick-start new housing developments across New Zealand. Through our Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, we’re making sure that critical infrastructure - like pipes, roads and wastewater connections - is in place, so thousands more homes can be built. ...
The Green Party is joining more than 20 community organisations to call for an immediate rent freeze in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, after reports of landlords intending to hike rents after flooding. ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Over $10 million infrastructure funding to unlock housing in Whangārei The purchase of a 3.279 hectare site in Kerikeri to enable 56 new homes Northland becomes eligible for $100 million scheme for affordable rentals Multiple Northland communities will benefit from multiple Government housing investments, delivering thousands of new homes for ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
COMMENTARY:By Kayt Davies in Perth I wasn’t good at French in my final year of high school. My classmates had five years of language studies behind them. I had three. As a result of my woeful grip on the language, I wrote a terribly bad essay in my final ...
RNZ Pacific Journalist Victor Mambor, who is the chief editor of the West Papuan newspaper and websiteJubi, has received the Oktovianus Pogau Award from the Indonesian-based Pantau Foundation for courage in journalism. The foundation’s Andreas Harsono said Mambor’s decision to return to his father’s homeland and defend the rights ...
RNZ News Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick is brushing off concerns a temporary rent freeze in flood-hit Auckland would just see landlords hike rents even more when the controls were lifted — arguing they should stay permanently. More than 20 organisations have signed a letter urging Minister for Auckland Michael ...
Iwi leaders have accused National and ACT of "fanning the flames of racism", urging the prime minister to be brave and not walk away from partnership on three waters. ...
About this time last week it had become apparent that Auckland was in for a bit more than just a wet Friday. While the state of emergency remains in place for another seven days, it appears the worst should now be behind us. Last night, Niwa shared a fascinating thread ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra ShutterstockIndigenous Australians are respectfully advised that the following includes the names and images of some people who are now deceased. The Reserve Bank of Australia ...
The government has confirmed the money will be spent in Northland, including unlocking greenfields land and transport upgrades like a new bridge in Kamo. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabrielle Appleby, Professor, UNSW Law School, UNSW Sydney Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that sometime between August and November this year, the Australian people will go to a referendum for the first time since 1999. We’ll be asked whether we support ...
Viewers across the United States were today shown a slice of New Zealand, with a reporter for Good Morning America broadcasting live from Rotorua. Robin Roberts, a co-anchor for the popular morning TV show, has been touring the country this week. During her visit to Rotorua’s Te Puia centre, she ...
They can be environmentally unsound and are a symbol used to shame millennials, but everyone still loves an avo. I love avocados, always have, always will. The buttery golden-green flesh from a perfectly ripe avocado is a culinary blessing. Today I’d love to simply wax poetic about twisting open a ...
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.AUCKLAND1The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Penguin Press, $50) The beautiful ...
A new poem by Robin Peace. To the kahikatea I see from my bed Thinking inside the square, the ellipse, the round of what life is, I only see the trees. Not only as if that were the only thing I see, but only as if the tree matters more. ...
A week ago, Elton John’s first Auckland show was called off at the last minute. What was it like getting there, being there, and trying to return home afterwards?Elton John has long been a blessing for our ears, but in recent years his Auckland shows have been cursed. His ...
For Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, sorry seems to be the hardest word to say The mayoral chains must have been heavy this week for Auckland’s Wayne Brown, as his response to last week’s flood garnered its own veritable torrent of scandals and media scrutiny. Almost exactly one week on from ...
For Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, sorry seems to be the hardest word to say The mayoral chains must have been heavy this week for Auckland’s Wayne Brown, as his response to last week’s flood garnered its own veritable torrent of scandals and media scrutiny. Almost exactly one week on from ...
Ours Not Mines is cautiously excited about reporting that the Government is drafting legislation to ban new mines on conservation land. The anti-mining group's spokesperson, Morgan Donoghue says: "The Government has been promising us some action for ...
People who enjoy the outdoors for recreation, fishing and hunting will lose rights under the Natural and Built Environments Bill. Fish & Game New Zealand chief executive Corina Jordan says the proposed replacement for the Resource Management ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has conceded he “dropped the ball” during last Friday’s major flooding event. The state of emergency in the super city has today been extended for a further seven days, though Brown said he expects it will be lifted early. After a week of defensiveness over his ...
As the reality TV juggernaut returns for a new season, Tara Ward steps into the minds of the show’s relationship experts to assess the compatibility of this year’s brides and grooms. Married at First Sight: Australia returns on Monday night, and by season ten, you’d think the show’s relationship experts ...
Auckland’s state of emergency is expected to be extended for another seven days, according to the Herald. It was due to expire overnight after being declared a week ago, the day of the worst flooding in the super city. While weather conditions have improved, the city is continuing to experience ...
Proposed pay equity claim settlements for school librarians and science technicians have been reached between the Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa, Secretary for Education, Iona Holsted and NZEI Te Riu Roa president, Mark Potter, announced ...
Members of NZEI Te Riu Roa negotiating on behalf of school librarians, library assistants and science technicians are excited to announce that proposed pay equity settlements are ready to be voted on by their colleagues. They include pay increases of up to ...
The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) is calling for Michael Wood, the Minister of Transport, and now Auckland, to cancel the light rail project immediately. Auckland Light Rail was never going to happen, as our group has repeatedly said dozens of ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been asked to intervene following confirmation today that the Government plans to implement a ban on all extractive sector activities on the conservation estate. Wayne Scott, CEO of the Aggregate and Quarry Association, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Getty Images The heated (and often confused) debate about “co-governance” in Aotearoa New Zealand inevitably leads back to its source, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. But, as its long-contested meanings demonstrate, very little ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Hunter, Lecturer in Art and Performance, Deakin University Jodie Hutchinson/Red StitchReview: Wittenoom, directed by Susie Dee, Red Stitch Deep in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, the town of Wittenoom lies empty, desolate … and contaminated. Wittenoom ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Oliver Bown, Postdoctoral fellow, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock The past few years have seen an explosion in applications of artificial intelligence to creative fields. A new generation of image and text generators is delivering impressiveresults. Now AI has also found ...
New Zealand’s egg shortage is hitting cruise ships too – forcing the crew of one vessel to hatch a poaching plan. This story was first published on Stuff. On the hunt for eggs, a crew from a luxury cruise ship got cracking and hatched a cunning plan. Earlier this week, Stuff ...
Now demolished, the First Church of Christ Scientist was a masterclass of architectural imagination. Kate Linzey visits the site on which it once stood, to learn more. The object is delicate and small. Small enough to sit in the palm of my hand and weighing less than 300 grams. It ...
When your food parcel arrives before the emergency alert, you know something’s not working properly.This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. I’ve spent the last week desperately and at times fruitlessly attempting to drain and then sweep my whānau home of knee-deep water, pull up ...
Drongo-gate continues for another day with the Herald reporting that Auckland’s mayor has been caught out using the slang term for a second time. It comes this time from a former minor mayoral candidate, Mike Kampkes, who said he received a message from Brown in response to a media release ...
How does Aotearoa stop relying so heavily on agriculture to prop up our economy? Online tax and accounting service Hnry just raised $35m to grow its software on-demand service across the globe. Bernard Hickey talks with AirTree partner Jackie Vullinghs about how venture capitalists are funding Aotearoa’s fastest growing, least-polluting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Guastella, Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Michael Crouch Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health, University of Sydney Shutterstock With childcare and schools starting the new year, parents might be anxiously wondering how their child will adapt in a new ...
I am delighted to announce the appointment of John Price ONZM as the new Director Civil Defence Emergency Management and Deputy Chief Executive Emergency Management for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). John has been a member of the ...
Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki are calling on the new Prime Minister and new Minister of Conservation Willow Jean Prime to immediately implement the 2017 promise to ban new mining activity on conservation lands. “ The mining industry group Straterra ...
How does Aotearoa stop relying so heavily on agriculture to prop up our economy? Online tax and accounting service Hnry just raised $35m to grow its software on-demand service across the globe. In the latest episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey talks with AirTree partner Jackie Vullinghs about how ...
There’s a fear that highlighting menopause will undermine women, especially at work. But what have centuries of secrecy achieved for us? Are you sick of hearing about menopause? Kim Hill is. The living legend of Aotearoa broadcasting told actor Robyn Malcolm (also a legend) on her Saturday Morning show on RNZ ...
Dunedin city council has reached an agreement to save Foulden Maar from commercial mining. The maar is the site of a crater lake from 23 million years ago with the diatomite of the lake preserving fossils and a climate record covering 100,000 years from that period. It is fantastic news for Otago University ...
Some are speculating whether the Auckland Mayor's leadership is circling the drain. James Elliott hopes they're right. There’s never been a week quite like it. It was the week when the rains came. All of them. Even the rain from Spain that was supposed to fall mainly on the plain, came. ...
The Bus and Coach Association supports the Government’s decision to continue half-price fares on public transport services. The fare reduction was set to expire on 31 March 2023, but will now continue to 30 June 2023. “Half-price fares have cost ten-times ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Hipkins’ bread and butter reshufflePolitical scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Chris Hipkins hires a lobbyist to run the BeehiveNew Zealand Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, speaking when Minister of Education, at NZEI Te Riu Roa strike rally on the steps of the New Zealand Parliament, 15th August 2018. Image; Wiki Commons. New Zealand is ...
New Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project. Items of interest and importance todayCO-GOVERNANCE, WAITANGI, THREE WATERS Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Blowing Off The Froth: Why Chris Hipkins Must Ditch ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Tweed, Senior lecturer, Massey University Shutterstock/Renata Apanaviciene As we approach another Waitangi Day, we should be thinking again about what Te Tiriti o Waitangi means. As the late Moana Jackson commented, the meaning of Te Tiriti will be ...
Even prime ministers get caught in bad weather. It’s a week on from the devastating flooding that hit Auckland and Northland and Chris Hipkins has been forced to drive north for the start of Waitangi weekend commemorations after his plan was turned away from Kerikeri airport (twice). Today will see ...
Less than a year ago, co-governance had a future, at least as potentially accepted terminology. Now some iwi leaders want the label removed and replaced, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
“The decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to not replace the late Queen with Charles on the Aussie $5 note should indicate to our Reserve Bank that it’s time to change the NZ $20 note” said Lewis Holden, campaign chair of New ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Wolf, Associate Professor, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Australian National University Somchat Parkaythong/Shutterstock Black holes are bizarre things, even by the standards of astronomers. Their mass is so great, it bends space around them so tightly that nothing can escape, even ...
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Watched ShonKey try very hard to explain his security council mtg, just did his yeah, nah, she’ll be right mate. He’s really good at filling up airtime with nothing but blah blah.
JEZ HE DID! Despite a purge that prevented a quarter of Labour supporters from voting.
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/09/24/jez-despite-purge-prevented-quarter-labour-supporters-voting/
Hokio Stream has become ‘an open sewer’ after years of polluting
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/84576646/hokio-stream-has-become-an-open-sewer-after-years-of-polluting
Coming our way with the National government – having to compete with multinationals to buy our own water…
“A small town in Ontario, Canada, has prompted fresh scrutiny of the bottled-water industry after its attempt secure a long-term water supply through the purchase of a well was outbid by the food and drinks multinational Nestlé.
When authorities in Centre Wellington, population of about 30,000, learned that Nestlé had put a bid on a spring water well in their region, they scrambled over the summer to counter with a competing bid. The goal was to safeguard a water supply for the township’s fast-growing population, Kelly Linton, the mayor, told the Guardian. “By 2041, we’ll be closer to 50,000 so protecting our water sources is critical to us.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/24/canada-nestle-water-well-bid-centre-wellington
That is what will happen if the government brings in tradeable water rights.
wtf. Farmer groups want to be able to use wayer, gm, etc, to make money, it does not matter other frmers aquifers dry up, or gm escapes, as long as the corp farmer can make profit oblivious of effects… ..just like shitty rivers.
why would any farmer lobby argue for gm and against regional efforts to grow value? Is the farming lobby a talk fest for big corp?
This is already happening in the north, unfortunately.
A small iwi is battling the Northland Regional Council to retain its long-held rights in the Poroti Springs which the NRC is busily selling off water rights to overseas companies – including Nestles which has been looking at Poroti Springs too. I’m not sure how far along Nestles has got with its resource consent application to withdraw water from the Springs.
Shocking Jenny Kirk!
There is the Freshwater site set up by Forest and Bird. Maybe it could be expanded to be an advocacy site for local water rights as so many are being hawked off by the National government and clueless councils around the country.
https://web.facebook.com/groups/freshwater111/?_rdr
there is a bottling plant taking the best aquifer water in the havlock north/ napier area for bottling will the locals drink shit.
@b waghorn – name and shame. There has already been a case in the US where the judge ruled, water is not a human right. NZ needs to get active to nip water selloffs in the bud before there is no drinkable water left. It’s no coincidence corporates are buying up water. Everyone needs water – very profitable – especially when sold so cheaply in NZ with the help of the cronies.
http://nzmiracle.com/en_US/
http://onepure.co.nz/our-mineral-water/
It would appear there is two of them.
Food for thought (I think some of it applies across the spectrum).
Some of that may be a bit on the nose but it is generally quite close to the mark. If you react badly to that you may well be proving Rodney’s point.
If the left want to attract more support they need to look more attractive.
Rodney Hide is not someone whose views are worth listening to.
The left now suffer from closed minds and moral smugness. They are moribund and backward-looking.
They run from ideas. Opposing philosophies distress them.
Top of the article Paul.
I would not call what comes from Hide’s brains ideas.
+1
Nor would I confuse laughing at his dated drivel with ‘distress’.
+1
We are reading them Paul …. anyway much of what he wrote applies to those on the right … the signs of “true beleivers” including religious devotees. 🙂
Rodney Hides opinion? Fuck off.
I have just read through yesterdays Open Mike…. wow. Well done all the contributors , esp CV and Paul and Adrian, for ably fending off the narrow minded, ignorant defenders of ‘ pax Americana ‘ or , to put it more bluntly, those who are basically backing Zionism.
For me all the hypocrisy of the USA can be summed up in one word….. Vietnam.
Yes, we can really listen to Rodney – ACT last election getting less than 1% of votes. Bit like at the amount of voters who actually take ACT seriously and soon to be the amount of people who take the Herald seriously.
Even die hard Natz supporters know that Granny is not really a news organisation anymore and you can’t trust news from Granny – sponsor-an-article cum crony-alert-reporting style. Have MR less than 1% Hide as a commentator just reinforces their dying readership.
The left will not get support from the right – they would be fools to look for it.
+1
But we do need to point out their delusional ideology and how it fails the nation.
Yep – and revolutionary as the idea might seem to the likes of Pete George, a country with 300 000 children in poverty and an entire generation consigned to homelessness has no particular need to slide further to the right. It has significant and pressing pragmatic problems that paying lip service to the bloody idols of neoliberalism will not address.
Labour will have the first affordable $600,000 homes ready by 2019. So the Aucklanders priced out of the housing market today only need to put their lives on hold until then.
(By which time the prices of the “affordable” homes will be more like $700,000).
It is of course optimistic, but the hope is that when they get their paws on the reins of power they will begin to govern, part of which will necessarily include addressing such problems. Better that they have a local Corbynist lobby to encourage them probably, or a community housing initiative to show them the way.
What are their plans with these “reins of power”?
How are they going to “address such problems”?
Labour have now had 8 years cooling their heels in Opposition. What have they come up with in that time that we can look forward to?
One of the outcomes of the last election for Labour was to notice that the Gnats produced no policy. The Gnats have no intention of being lampooned in public for their gross dishonesty and manifest stupidity. This is a lesson Labour has learned. We will only see a general picture of what they might do – but if you want genuine growth and reform that will need to come from a community base. Produce a working model & Labour might be very happy to fund and proliferate it. But thus far it doesn’t seem to be how they choose to fight their corner.
Labour has been facing off against the National tories since the 1930s.
You can’t tell me that they’ve only just figured out how Tories think.
The Tories changed their presentation. Under Bill English they represented themselves honestly as the crooked and unambiguously backward set of chumps they actually are. Key brought in the Crosby Textor thing – and the MSM decided they could embrace bias without any proximate prospect of comeuppance. Now the media are locked in – they will be reformed when the Gnats leave power and they know it.
We on The Standard can figure this shit out way fucking faster than the Labour caucus.
A Labour Govt is going to do fuck all “reform” to the MSM.
Nevertheless a strong press is believed to be one of the pillars of a healthy democracy – and I think we are feeling the lack. But yes, the LP isn’t setting speed records. Partly this is that feature of organisations that they grow to do the opposite of what they were established for. This is where a large activist membership is supposed to apply corrective feedback.
There are some curiosities in reform movements in that they require a receptive environment to develop new ideas – an incubator or as the trolls would have it an echo chamber. The Beijing student uprising resembled nothing so much as a magnetron – the ring of university campuses acting as the circulating amplifying chambers feeding the centre.
If you react badly to that you may well be proving Rodney’s point.
Pete George is moribund and backward-looking. He suffers from a closed mind and moral smugness. He runs from ideas and opposing philosophies distress him.
If he reacts badly to that he may well be proving my point.
He fills Twitter and blogs with [his] righteousness and smugness, puffed up by [his] own perceived moral and intellectual superiority.
OMG this is a great game, PM!
Yeah this Pete and George team are even worse than the Thatcher loving Gilbert and George!
+1 PM
Perhaps the Herald only publishes Hide’s silliness for amusement, not real political analysis
@ Rodney Hide rubbish on the Left…”They run from ideas” ….compared with this do-nothing regime…LOL.
Call me closed minded if you like but I never ever ever ever read Hypocrite Hide.
Or you just think Perky is a waste of skin.
The good thing about Rodders is. He’s full of shit and everyone knows it.
Aucklander’s want his testicles danglin from the sky tower in recognition of his superb super city idea.
I imaging stepping out in public is wonderful for him. Wondering if someone will dent his face.
As for the article. It’s actually a reflection of their own closed minds, they(people like him) think everyone else is behaving like they do themselves.
Rodney telling the left they have closed minds is more so outrageous that it will click bait people into A reading his article,. B push up ratings at the Herald which thankfully is diving like a Stuka!
I used to read the Herald, now it’s a third rate click bait celebrity mag. They lost the plot. If the Herald doesn’t turn it around soon it’ll be gone.
Sacking Rodney and actually reporting news would help.
Hide’s idea is basically there is no alternative to neo-liberalism.
I think he’s also a climate denier.
So we should be listening to this git.
Ha ha.
Yep, pure bloody projection and we see it from the RWNJs all the time as they use their own actions to justify keeping things the way they are and even to make things worse instead of making things better.
“Willem Wiskerke, a spokesman for Greenpeace Netherlands said: “He is a climate denier like Donald Trump, nothing more, nothing less, a rightwing, fact-free populist who denies the climate crisis and will not put any effort into solving it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/23/dutch-parliament-votes-to-close-down-countrys-coal-industry
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/23/existing-coal-oil-and-gas-fields-will-blow-carbon-budget-study
meanwhile…..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/84445709/large-area-off-canterbury-coast-proposed-for-oil-exploration
“You will like me very much” – the Don to fossil fuel execs:
“The same day as a new report highlighted the carbon emissions calamity that would accompany new fossil fuel extraction, Donald Trump promised an audience of fossil fuel executives that is the very agenda he would pursue if elected to the White House.
” “Oh, you will like me so much,” the Republican presidential candidate said in his address to the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
“He promised to lift regulations, open up more federal lands for fossil fuel extraction—including coal and fracking—and ease the way for new fossil fuel infrastructure projects including pipelines.
” Trump said he would get rid of “all unnecessary regulations, and [place] a temporary moratorium on new regulations not compelled by Congress or public safety.” He also called anti-coal regulations “unfair to our people and our workers.” ” http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/23/trump-fossil-fuel-execs-you-will-me-so-much
From your Stuff link:
“A large chunk of Canterbury’s coast will again be offered up for oil and gas exploration, under a Government proposal described as “lunacy” by Christchurch’s deputy mayor.
“The Government wants to set aside nearly 300,000 square kilometres of New Zealand’s east coast for oil and gas companies as part of its 2017 block offer.
“The annual block offer allows companies to compete for exploration permits.
“This year’s proposed offer would open up the largest area near Canterbury yet.
“It includes a space near the Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Reserve, home to the endangered Hector’s dolphin.”
“Last year’s offer was deeply unpopular with the Christchurch City Council and environmental groups.
“They argued that deep-sea drilling could threaten the region with a catastrophic oil spill for little economic gain.”
why encourage further investment and reliance on near term stranded assets……unless you don’t believe those assets will be stranded.
Is it even “investment” – in the truest sense of the word. Surely it is exploitation.
or fraud even….unless you don’t believe in CC.
and another generation of colonisation, as well as exploitation Manuka AOR.
Is there a way to end it?
If they struck oil there the economic gain would be out of this world.
If there was a big earthquake there, their could possibly be an out of this world catastrophe.
It’s just business to National we need energy we buy oil in, it would save us money and make money and jobs,. pure business.
You cannot change nature.
@Pat – Hides not even a populist. No one ever voted for him.
Rodney’s piece has no bearing on my post..though I do agree he is unlikely to ever be described as populist (nor popular)
Epsom 2005:
– Rodney Hide 21,102
– Richard Worth (National) 8,220
– Kate Sutton (Labour) 5,112
– Keith Locke *Greens) 2,787
New Plymouth 2014
– Jonathan Young (National) 21,566
– Andrew Little (Labour) 11,788
Young is ranked 38th in National’s caucus.
“Under Hide’s leadership, the vote in the September 2005 elections severely reduced ACT’s party parliamentary representation. ACT’s share of the party vote dropped from over 7% of the total in 2002 to around 1.5%; its representation in Parliament fell from nine MPs to two. Despite this reduction, the party remained in parliament due to Hide winning the Epsom seat. As a consequence of its reduced share of the vote, ACT received a significant cut in taxpayer-funded Parliamentary resourcing and Hide shifted his electorate office in Remuera to Newmarket, the same location as that of ACT’s head office”
wiki
Thanks Rodney
now that Rodney’s (and by extension, ACT’s) popularity/support has been bought up it occurs to me if you want to measure the publics appetite for neoliberal theory you only need to examine the level of support for ACT, which I believe peaked at around 7% and now languishes within the MoE
It is quite amazing that ACT got 7% as we always beleived that there were only 5% intelligent enough to vote ACT. Now some 4% are looking elsewhere …. NZF ?
Sorry that is trolling but I couldn’t resist 🙂
Explain what your getting at Pete please.
I feel a correction coming on if your trying to tell me Rodney won that against National on his popularity alone.
As for Andrew, yeah well, never been NP, wouldn’t have a clue to judge that result.
I was showing that ‘save nz’ is wrong, Hide has had many people voting for him in an electorate, especially when compared to Little.
I said nothing about ‘his popularity alone’, it was more complex than that but Hide worked hard in Epsom. I don’t think anyone gets all their votes on popularity alone.
In 2008 ACT got 85,496 votes, that had little to do with National and quite a lot to do with Hide’s efforts.
Striding victoriously over Savenz’s use of a colloquial euphemism, don’t get altitude sickness.
@Peter George – save the spin. We all know that they were National voters told to vote for him to prop up the Natz. Not many people would willingly vote for Hide. He’s a joke, as is his ideology.
You’re claiming that 78% of Epsom voters acted under instruction from National. Confirmation your comment wasn’t ‘a colloquial euphemism’, you were making thing things up.
I am sure the Labour Party should be taking its advice form Tories.
I like the way Kate Sutton still pulled in 5k of votes in Epsom, in bloody Epsom! Go Kate!
National and Rodney/Act must have really ignored their constituents or been talking to much shit for that to happen.
In the old Newspaper days letters to the editor would have curtailed them from posting to much of fringe politicians crap like Rodney.
The complaints and stinging letters he received would have told him that. The editors letters would have also put the dickhead back where he belongs, talking fringe politics to nutters in a mental health ward.
Take this little fact in, someone born since 1980 doesn’t know truth or proper politics like us older people. They have never heard dissention. They have never seen proper protests(springboks tour someone born 1980 ain’t going to remember) They don’t know what unions can do, all they know is wall street, greed is good, consumerism and having the latest phone and trainers is important.
” talking fringe politics to nutters in a mental health ward.”
By this I assume you mean the way a senile old fool like Geoffrey Palmer on his ideas for a written Constitution?
Now there is someone who really should be ignored.
alwyn the list of people who enter representative politics with completely the wrong mental attitude, and who have not been scarred in some way by their nurture is tiny. Most of them who seek the halls of power, do it for fame, and ego.
It’s the one field I think psychological evaluation should be completed on, that is anyone seeking public office. IMHO.
Start with John Key, and many questions about his mum, and how long he breast fed for. Did he find it comforting gently pulling her hair whilst he was feeding on the nipple at 10, or did he think it felt a little strange at that age.
🙂
That’s what the media tells us, Richard Rawshark, but I do keep coming across young people who are thinking about other things – not just worried about not being able to own a home, but worried about climate change, dirty waters, oil drilling, and NZ (their home) being taken over by multitudes of others.
I just hope there are enough of these younger people to carry on dissension and protests when the time comes for those things.
…..the time comes for those things.
The youth I grew up with at that time would have marched to the beehive and thrown by force this National government out by now even.
Seriously.
Time comes for those things.., with this lot, it WILL be to late.
“I just hope there are enough of these younger people to carry on dissension and protests when the time comes for those things.”
Well you had about 100 protesters out in force yesterday for the union lead rally in Auckland.
sadly I did the one thing there I hate most, I stereo typed. Sorry. Their are a lot of good youth out there don’t get me wrong. barring the stereotyping i’m sure you all get the gist of what I said though.
I consider the youth of the greens Genter etc, an example of youth excelling beyond what we could back in my day. But they seem fewer.
Real Clear Politics still has Clinton 2-3% ahead…the Democrats in with a chance of taking the Senate…House of Reps staying with Republicans
US RWNJ’s doing the Trumps going to win thing when Hillary will clearly pass the post, is an old trick they employ when it’s looking bad for their guy. In that it’s to stop the rot and keep voters and try to gain the undecided.
Hope i’m right on that, even though Hillarys donkey deep in it too(war mongering), Trumps scarier and a big gamble. Better the devil you know.
????????
What
Lefties need to get in touch with the reality on the ground.
RCP no toss up states electoral map now has Hillary on 272 and Trump on 266. (270 electoral votes required to win the White House).
In mid Aug, Hillary was on 351 electoral votes and Trump was on 187.
In other words, according to RCP in just over a month Clinton has lost almost 80 electoral votes, while Trump has gained that much.
The gap between the two candidates on a no-toss up basis has therefore shrunk in 5 weeks by 164 electoral votes to just 6 electoral votes.
Which explains why Clinton is shouting on TV that she doesn’t know why she isn’t leading Trump by 50 points.
From recent accounts in the last week it would seem Hillary Clinton’s health is getting worse
…according to a doctor , eye movements would suggest Parkinsons or damage to brain from concussion?…and getting worse
…if this is the case, she should not be running for President because she will not be capable of the job and it would be irresponsible
…if the Democratic Party chooses to ignore this and can’t see this then the voters certainly will
Probably just a passing case of pneumonia eh… 😛
nah probably a passing case of photoshop
Even with parkinson’s, she’s a better choice than Trump.
I don’t care how many times she stumbles, falls or passes out. Among other things, a pair of blue glasses will sort things out.
The US Government is more than a President anyway and if she has the right people in the right places, that will be all fine and sweet.
lol…”if she has the right people in the right places, that will be all fine and sweet”.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/
https://www.mintpressnews.com/wikileaks-hillary-clinton-helped-topple-gadhafi-france-uk-fought-libyas-oil/215104/
Good to see the latest attempt to spread CCOs and forced local government amalgamations has been shelved.
Glad to have helped.
Seen this?
‘Activists – get things done’
Unlike ALL the other Auckland Mayoral candidates – I successfully petitioned Parliament for an urgent inquiry into Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
The following information I made available to Mayors in other parts of NZ to assist in their fight back against the continued corporate takeover of our local democracy, our assets and our public property.
The following proves that I already have an effective working relationship with central government.
Read for yourself …
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/51DBSCH_SCR69296_1/924613ec7fb831c4e74bd062f73287ac2ceb5081
Petition 2014/33 of Penelope Mary Bright and 55 others, and Report from the Controller and Auditor-General, Governance and accountability of council- controlled organisations
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Independent Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Nuclear Power and Climate Change – excerpt:
“Overall, the idea that atomic power is “clean” or “carbon free” or “emission free” is a very expensive misconception, especially when compared to renewable energy, efficiency, and conservation. Among conservation, efficiency, solar and wind power technologies, there are no global warming analogs to the heat, carbon, and radioactive waste impacts of nuclear power. No green technology kills anywhere near the number of marine organisms that die through reactor cooling systems.
“Rooftop solar panels do not lose ten percent of the power they generate to transmission, as happens with virtually all centralized power generators. S. David Freeman, former head of numerous large utilities and author of All Electric America: A Climate Solution and the Hopeful Future, says: “Renewables are cheaper and safer. That argument is winning. Let’s stick to it.”
“No terrorist will ever threaten one of our cities by blowing up a solar panel. But the nuclear industry that falsely claims its dying technology doesn’t cause global warming does threaten the future of our planet. ” http://www.progressive.org/news/2016/09/188947/how-nuclear-power-causes-global-warming
Financially it seems pretty clear that renewables are the cheapest option for utility-scale new builds, even without a carbon tax. So worldwide I doubt we’ll see many more nuclear new builds, at least in western countries.
But it seems to me the appropriate comparison for nuclear is against fossil fuels. In that comparison, nuclear still looks pretty favourable to coal/gas/oil (and actually even hydro) in terms of land area ruined and human health/mortality footprints, even considering the worst case projections from Chernobyl, Fukushima etc. So to me, it looks like an environmental setback when a nuclear plant is closed prematurely while fossil plants feeding the same grid are still running and polluting.
Overall, my views are pretty similar to Monbiot’s, who expresses them a lot better than I ever could. http://www.monbiot.com/category/nuclear/
Just how ‘green’ is the production of solar panels?
Current production is far from ideal, but it’s still a lot better than fossil fuels. Most of the problems with current production are fairly easy to manage and eliminate, if the producers are incentivised to actually do it.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/solar-energy-isnt-always-as-green-as-you-think
Interesting comments by Rodney Hide on the left in the herald this morning, expresses much commentary you see on this site
“The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.
They are a self-reinforcing sect who in their wretchedness and anger are becoming ever smaller. Their narrow and insular outlook prevents them reaching out. Little wonder it’s not attractive to new recruits.
It’s astonishing that National is now the vibrant party looking to the future and open to diverse views.
Labour is the narrow party that has shut itself off from the great bulk of New Zealanders.”
Red, go back to bed.
Truth hurts Garibaldi, in a strange way you are a reflection
of old Rodders comment 😀
Talking utter nonsense.
Hidebound describes the ex ACT leader perfectly.
You are being generous describing Hide’s outpourings as an interesting comment.
He does have point Paul no matter how much you may not like it, the lefts failure can’t be all externally afflicted, ie msm, dumb voters and other conspiracies
Hide does not have a point. He is pointless.
If not a point maybe then a smidgen of truth 😀
“the narrow party that has shut itself off from the great bulk of New Zealanders” sounds more like the one polling less than 1%.
Unusually stupid RW slanders repeated by morons so abject they never learned to write their own.
But the gnats are a bunch of lefties according to Seemore Coq. What are we to make of this?
Simple the Gnats control centre left and right, ie they are very removed from right wing
rofl
““The left view their political failure as the fault of voters who must be hoodwinked, stupid, selfish, or suffering some other ethical or intellectual shortcoming. Why else would they not be supporting the left when they are so good and true?
The problem is never with the left or their doctrine.”
meanwhile – if you talk to people on the left you quickly find the above assertion to be based on a deliberate over simplification of actual arguments made
in short – its horse shit
We had a wander around MOTAT on Friday and came across a potted history of Radio in New Zealand. This is what I read –
“On New Year’s Day in 1932 the Government took over the responsibility of the Radio Broadcasting Company in providing a national service. This was done under a three man Broadcasting Board who was also given the power to impose restrictions on the private stations. By 1937 most of the private stations had been bought by the New Zealand Government. Two distinct systems were then set up – one NATIONAL and one COMMERCIAL.
The first Director of Broadcasting was Professor James Shelley. He saw radio as an instrument of real democracy based on a sympathetic understanding of all points of view.
In 1946 the commercial and non-commercial branches of the national radio system were amalgamated under the name New Zealand Broadcasting Service.”
My words – the poor sod Professor Shelley will be turning in his grave at the state of our airways these days – so much for “a sympathetic understanding of all points of view.” There isn’t one jot of balance in anything we listen to on Radio or TV – just adoration for a corrupt Government which is sickening.
As most radio is talkback every nut job in the country has the power to share his view
usually the worst nutters are the host’s , m laws ,hosking and henry have all had goes spilling the rubbish into peoples
Tend to agree nutters on both sides of the phone , the medium attracts them like moths to a flame Albeit I do find Paul Henry entertaining you just need to take him with a grain of salt
tonne of salt, ………..fify
It would in fact only take a grain of salt to cover his thought section of his brain
Professor Shelley was turning in his grave even before he died. The views you attribute to him are correct. They were not those of the Prime Minister of the day however. Savage had no intention of allowing an understanding of all points of view.
Did you know that the news program to be broadcast was written in the Prime Minister’s office and delivered to the broadcasters?
Have a look at this and weep.
https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=oEXQCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=prime+minister+savage+radio+news+broadcast&source=bl&ots=O_Focr02bn&sig=C1YmpV0mlbOwJ6guXVGs78thJ6o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmpvzyqKnPAhUDoZQKHWBNAe4Q6AEIRzAG#v=onepage&q=prime%20minister%20savage%20radio%20news%20broadcast&f=false
Through the premierships of Fraser, Holland and Holyoake’s first, and repealed in the early part of his [Holyoake’s] second term.
I didn’t realise they went right through to Holyoake’s time in the early 1960s. If it was early in his second term that he got rid of it, it would seem that he didn’t approve of the practice. He was only there for about 3 months in 1957 before the election and he wouldn’t really have time to change very much.
Was Nash also doing it? From what you say it sounds as if he must have been.
Actually I can tolerate Fraser if it was about anything to do with the war.
However I highlighted Savage because he was the PM when Shelley was primarily involved in broadcasting and it was Shelley that WK was talking about.
As per your link – in 1947 things were relaxed to allow controversial broadcasts to be aired but Prime Ministerial approval was required until restrictions were abolished in 1962.
If you want to hear an out of touch ex pollie who actually dislikes democracy making a complete fool of himself, tune in to Natrad and listen to doddery old Geoffrey Palmer play with his constitutional toy soldiers.
Well said. He would tie us up in expensive knots for years trying to nut out a constitution. The main benefits of the monarchy are its distance and saving us from yet another self-important ex-pollie (like Geoffrey?) pretending to be our head of state.
It’s a esotreic academic law professors hobby horse, law lecturers blather on about it in 101 law since the the beginning of time The rest of us don’t really give a monkeys, status quo is fine, bigger issues to deal with
+100 to all that
I am not sure that you or your two supporters know what your talking about…
What happened to ‘Open Mike’ on the 24th at the end?….comments aren’t showing properly
From the Ig Nobel Prizes this year, my favourite:
“On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit”
http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html
The rest:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/sex-life-rats-personalities-rocks-awarded-ig-nobel-prizes?utm_source=sciencemagazine&utm_medium=facebook-text&utm_campaign=ignobel-7717
+100 rhino…lol…we live in a time of profound bullshit, trivia …and wasted time and white collar technological trickery and bankster fraud and usury…driven by materialism and venal mindless greed
‘Obama implicated in Clinton email scandal – New FBI docs’
https://www.rt.com/usa/360528-obama-implicated-clinton-email/
“President Barack Obama used a pseudonym when communicating with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by email, while her IT company referred to her email deleting as a “cover-up”, new FBI documents reveal….
During the interview with Huma Abedin, who served as deputy chief of staff under Clinton, the FBI reportedly presented her with an email exchange between Clinton and a person she did not recognize. The FBI then revealed the unknown person’s name was believed to be a pseudonym used by Obama. Abedin reacted by saying, “How is this not classified?”
This exchange could expose Obama as having mislead the public on the issue, given his 2015 statement that he found out about Clinton’s use of a private email server “the same time everybody else learned it, through news reports.”…
Cops, a lot of talk about cops lately, underfunded, understaffed, ignoring things, skewing stats..
If Key remained PM lets say for another decade god forbid, how long do the standardista”s think it will be before a police surcharge to come out, comes along.
What was it 25 police stations to close, but a little while ago they close a load down too.
Why do we pay tax under national, they have pretty much driven everything under.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/84636485/labour-leader-andrew-little-dismisses-helen-clarks-advice-about-commanding-the-centre-ground
The title says it all, Little is not going to be a more of the same leader.
Anyone can talk about moving left of the centre; where is the left wing action, the left wing policy and the left wing personnel from Labour to back it up?
He would be silly to show all his cards to early , but going on clarkes performance on the tpp and praising of shit key, having Little publicly slap her down speaks volumes.
He is the right man for the next pm.
he is the right man for taking Labour to sub 20%
did you think that up all on your own?
More crap neoliberal advice from last century. Thanks but no thanks Aunty Helen. Little was right to distance himself from Helen’s divisive legacy.
Anyway, Key currently rules the “centre” and won’t be budged. Labour’s only chance to get it back is if FJK makes a huge ballsup like David Cameron, but I reckon Key is more self aware
Aunty Helen was right and is always right. She was smart to quickly dump any left-wing policies unpalatable to the centre so that she could appeal to the ‘middle’ voters.
Wrong, she lost the 2008 election because she wasted her political capital on pet social policies that alienated most voters. And she failed to address inequality and the growing housing bubble.
I respect her as a well-intentioned and highly intelligent person, her government was excellent on foreign policy, but she bought into the “Third Way” Blairite bullshit on economic matters, a betrayal of all workers & class struggles of the last century
St Helen tried her best to protect workers and contain the class strugles.
In the “ghost zone” ?
In the Green Party?
In the next election I will be voting Green Party(not Labour ) for the first time in what will be my 12th election.
The last time I voted National was for Muldoon, and I honestly believe that was the last time a National Party leader gave a shit for the ordinary kiwi.
Meh, I need another beer.
Looks like things have got worse in Syria today just as John Key chaired the Security Council this week with blithe, meaningless sound-bites.
Coincidence? I think not.
John Key has made an art of dividing those he pretends to represent.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/314163/security-council-to-meet-as-syria-violence-escalates
Murdoch nails it……
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtJUd2VVUAAYDId.jpg:large
Ouch.
Key spoke as if he were more interested in his own speech rather than any solution for the Syrian people.
That neither the US nor Russia batted an eyelid at Key’s weak pleas to ‘hold hands’ over the matter, and indeed doubled their strikes immediately says a lot about how the rest of the world views him.
I’m loving the DPRK News Service. (yes, it’s a parody account)
I still get a giggle out of the headline “Cruz unhinges his jaw, swallows his pride.”
Maassive trump rally in Roanoke Virginia today. Crowd estimate of 10,000 to 20,000.
https://youtu.be/jwgLr_XPHe4
Where did Clinton campaign today? How many thousand supporters did she attract?
I Imagine Clinton’s heard about Gennifer Flowers’ appearance at the first debate so I guess she’s out and about organising a front row seat for Trump’s former mistress.
Marla perhaps, or Melania…….
Did Clinton take a rest day today?
Virginia is a swing state.
Yep. Thats why Trump has held rallies there several times in the last month.
Polls in Virginia?
Currently leans Clinton by +6
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/va/virginia_trump_vs_clinton-5542.html#polls
it would appear the more things change the more they stay the same….has CT got this right?..from an Aucklander’s perspective?
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2016/09/from-good-guys-to-fall-guys-spinoff-and.html
A well written rant, shame Trotter didn’t get his facts straight, some reactions from Spinoff/GenZero author here (the whole thread on twitter is longer)
note that Beckett didnt even try to defend their shitty endorsement of Right Wing Ralston or their BS labelling of Mike Lee as an anachronism.
i know nothing of Lee but the endorsement of Ralston was what caused the enquiry…and as you note, they didn’t defend their endorsements merely their funding.
The colour of his jib is not the issue, the Spinoff criteria are policy positions that will deal with the housing crisis
rather a wider questionnaire than that….with some rather peculiar grading
That said I think Trotter is right about the UP being twisted by property developers & speculators for their own ends, it is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Need to close the immigration floodgates, penalise speculation & McMansions, and implement proper rates/LVT based on unimproved land value.
They’re privileged kids of the top 10%. Of course they’re going to endorse Key’s mate Bill Ralston ahead of public transportation champ Lee.
A major problem with Millennials is they have no concept of life outside of the market oriented neoliberal narratives. From TDB:
Is the EU doomed?…interesting article by an Irishman, Bryan MacDonald
‘Like the Soviet Union, is EU heading for ash heap of history?’
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/359327-soviet-union-eu-history/
“A while back, Mikhail Gorbachev famously said: ‘The most puzzling development in modern politics is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to re-create the Soviet Union in Western Europe.’
Gorbachev wasn’t referring to the European Union’s hunger to expand eastwards, but instead the bloc’s top-heavy governance, where smaller states are increasingly dominated by larger members.
This was evident last year, when Angela Merkel pretty much unilaterally imposed a liberal migration policy on the confederation, which has led to massive division…
just earlier in the week, Varoufakis on the largest global economic threat 😉
And from 2’46”:
“The European Union is in dire straits, the European Union is disintegrating” (Varoufakis)
Thanks for that, it led to this great TED talk by Varoufakis
You’re very welcome. And this one also sometime at the end of last month:
“Market Economy – Reinvent or Reboot?”
Yanis Varoufakis versus Clemens Fuest, at the Alpbach Forum, along the lines of the proposition: “The market economy is the best model. It will also successfully manage the challenges faced in the future.” Agree or disagree with this statement?”