Time to change our relationships to our waterways.
“Fish & Game commissioned the nationwide poll which was conducted in early December by Colmar Brunton.
About 82 percent of respondents said they would support a move to introduce mandatory environmental standards for New Zealand’s waterways, even if it meant regulating intensive farming.
Support is stronger among people who are very concerned about the pollution of rivers and lakes, with nine out of ten supporting tougher rules.
Fish & Game chief executive Martin Taylor said local authorities had for too long allowed intensive farms to become established in unsuitable areas, and then protected them at the expense of the environment.”
7 billion people.
Enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world a thousand times.
Trillions of litres of chemicals in the air in the water in the land.
I wonder by the end of this century if living out doors will still be possible
or if the survivors will be in sealed in bubbles.
Many of those contributing to the degradation of rivers through their farming practices might be caring, unwitting, reluctant, unable to do otherwise. But those uncaring ones, they deserve a reckoning.
Most people live in the Cities so won’t be impacted by any tough new regulations. It is easy to call for this when it isn’t your livelihood that is directly impacted.
There are much tougher regulations in urban areas too.
Farmers have had it too easy too long.
Either comply or sell the land to someone who will comply.
I just heard Vernon Tava on Morning Report, interviewed about his initiative for a new green party. He said it has to be genuinely centrist. That’s reassuring. He didn’t use the bluegreen framing. In fact, he explained that he hadn’t canvassed the idea with any other National MPs.
That’s a puzzle! It suggests the Nats view their brand as captive and want to keep it in-house. It also suggests tacit thinking: their bluegreen MPs are dogs who need to be kept in their kennels, rather than be allowed to roam freely in public.
This all paints a picture in which establishment politics has successfully marginalised both political wings of the Green movement. Since the public, as revealed in the new poll, is 80% behind authentic environmentalism, the political arena is wide open for centrist political representation.
Vernon reckons the time is right. People seem to feel the same, but we ought not to discount the gate-keeper effect of MMP. Getting a new party through the gate already clogged up with other parties can only succeed if voters see it as a better option and switch their support. One leader can’t achieve that result: authenticity requires a genuine convergence of political activists from the margins. No sign of that yet.
Bit like searching for an oasis in the desert, eh? There, alright, but always real hard to find. If it was easy, environmental problems wouldn’t persist.
Robert G
As a non-market solution to trees needing water in a drought, I have a street tree with tap root apparently – liquidamber, with a lot of grass around it, and also a decorative plum prunus cerasifera nigra I think.
Now would it be good and useful to the tree to carry a 10 litre bucket of water and splash it round about 1 metre from the trunk each day? It’s been dry here for a while and the recent high winds have been getting warmer.
If I just did the above daily would that help the trees or would I be wasting my time?
Hi Greywarshark. How big/old are the trees? If they are young (1 or 2 years) then hand-watering is a good option. Often the grass will be affecting the availability of water and nutrient to the tree, so carefully (no weed-whackers, ever!) removing the live grass will help – lay it down as mulch. If the tree is well established and showing signs of stress from drought, the chances of saving it with buckets of water are reduced, but you’ll probably enjoy the activity anyway and it could help. Often, amenity trees are poorly planted and have distorted roots, so it’s difficult to really know what’s going on down there.
Why is that a Troll? That is a valid environmental question. If you have a scarce resource such as water you have to make decisions on the best use of it. In some circumstances giving it to a tree might not make sense.
Is Gosman breaking the Rules as set out in the “Policy” for TS?
Or is he actually within the Rules in putting up “dissenting views” and participating in “reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints”?
IE “We encourage robust debate and we’re tolerant of dissenting views. But this site run for reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints and we intend to keep it operating that way.”
Is Gosman making “pointless personal attacks”, or commenting in a “tone or language that has the effect of excluding others”?
IE “What we’re not prepared to accept are pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others.”
Is Gosman continuing a flame war “where there is little discussion or debate”?
IE “We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate.”
Is Gosman making assertions that he/she is unable to substantiate with some proof?
Is Gosman unable/refusing to argue when requested to do so?
IE “We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate. This includes making assertions that you are unable to substantiate with some proof (and that doesn’t mean endless links to unsubstantial authorities) or even argue when requested to do so”
Hint – what about Gosman’s comment at 2.1.2.3 below.
Now I don’t often agree with Gosman’s comments, but my perceptions/opinion of his behaviour here is that, for the most part, Gosman actually complies with the TS rules above – much more so that the (many) commenters who have and continue to:
— Call for Gosman to be him banned ( “using language that has the effect of excluding others”)
— Make personal attacks, derogatory or snide personal remarks about him/her, attack the messenger not the message (“pointless personal attacks”).
Ta I’ll give it a try Robert. The amenity tree liquidamber, is large well established growing on a berm, swale-style. The prunus is old but lovely, so will take out the yarrow that I mistakenly planted, I don’t want more large roots to go with the bindweed, what a dope I am. That should give the old lady a bit of a boost.
“Case study: acid rain
Problem: Sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power plants was creating harmful acid rain several decades ago. Traditional regulation would have simply directed every plant owner to cut pollution by a specific amount in a specific way, an expensive and often ineffective solution.
Solution: Our experts proposed a cap-and-trade approach that required overall sulfur emissions be cut in half, but would let each company decide how to do it. Power plants that cut their pollution more than required could sell the extra allowances.
Outcome: Cap and trade was so effective and affordable that The Economist magazine called it the “greatest green success story of the decade.”
“
The Right loves talking about the so-called free market. While on paper this utopia of the free market system seems to make sense in the real world it does not.
A free market in order to work as they claim it should requires all those involved to deal fairly with each other and everyone to have equal negotiation power. However, in the real world, it falls over very fast as greedy people always find ways to manipulate the market in their favor.
Some business people who claim to be for the free market, for example, use their power to force workers to take crappy deals to keep their jobs and when they attempt to unionize to give them equal negotiating power to get their fair market share of the profits they are suddenly no longer for a free and fair market and try and break the unions.
The current non-free market cannot find a solution to solving environmental issues as it would require the greedy to spend a tiny bit of their profits to prevent pollution.
There are a lot of solutions out there right now that will work, but because they require extra money to be spent they choose to ignore them.
Fabulous: having no basis in reality; mythical.
“fabulous creatures”
synonyms: mythical, legendary, mythic, mythological, fabled, folkloric, fairy-tale, heroic, traditional; More
Have you listened to this Morrissey?
It’s an excellent interview with Laith Marouf by Eva Bartlett on the history and current state in the Middle East. Particularly how the Kurds got to be Syrian citizens.
Gosman don’t listen to this, it’s way beyond your intellect.
Yes but the Maori party sounded great at the time, but sadly hijacked for a “seat at the table” mentality. Now Maori seem worse off in terms of homelessness and wages and conditions post the near decade of support the Maori party gave to the Natz, which also destroyed and divided the Maori/party in reality as well.
The party The Maori party most served was the National party, it helped take down the Mana party which was a lot more focused on raising poverty standards and genuine treaty issues for Maori.
I’d say the Green Party are already too close to the National party, and it’s taking down their voter support along with their tenancy to go woke left as well as intentionally or unintentionally supporting the right, so I don’t necessarily think that another Green Party allied to the Natz is going to help the environment, more like have an outcome like the Maori party.
The biggest 3rd party can often play Queen maker
so well worth the Greens looking to add to it’s vote.
Green/Red, Green/Blue, Green/Old Fartz NZF, Green/Brown, or Green /young?
Do the research, get the stats find two photogenic articulate spin doctors
and hit the hustings I mean FB,Snap Chat and E-Mail.
Don’t forget to tick, share,and subscribe.
Idiot/Savant looks at the issue of an “astroturf” party.:
“National has no friends, leaving them with an obvious problem in the MMP coalition game next election. Their solution? To simply create one:
…
The problem: if they do, then its a clear signal that the party isn’t really green. Because National’s policies of supporting the dairy, oil and trucking industries, sucking the rivers dry, and dragging their feet on climate change in the name of “balance” with economic growth are inherently anti-environment, and any environmentally-minded voter can see that. Which makes their “BlueGreen” astroturf idea laughable – the only people it convinces are people who don’t understand environmental issues at all. But like Colin Craig, Kim Dotcom and Gareth Morgan, they probably think they can simply throw money at the problem and buy the votes they need, with a fallback of hoping to buy enough votes away from the actual Green Party to drive them out of Parliament – a deeply undemocratic goal. But unlike National, I think environmentally-minded voters are smart enough not to fall for it.”
Are you stating that there are not Green voters who would be swayed by a political party willing to work across the political divide to solve environmental problems?
The trouble is you would think ANY political party willing to work with National is a puppet. Take off your ideological blinkers for one second and try and look at the situation with the minimal of bias.
The same can be stated for Labour. Where is the Alliance? Where is United Future (a Labour partner as much as National). NZ First disappeared from Parliament after the last time it was in coalition with Labour. Look what is happening to The Greens now.
I wonder how they’ll respond to challenges over any policies or principles they might profess. Environmentalists are well practiced at arguing these issues, centrists and right wingers, not so much, beyond their narrow range. “Off-setting” would be a good example.
A good example of the Right’s approach to conserving natural taonga. Turn it into money, wreck it, buy something somewhere else that fits your own model of what’s valuable.
You haven’t explained how “Off-setting” is bad beyond your emotive dislike of it. I have yet to see anybody argue that “Off-setting” should be used in all circumstances to deal with every environmental concern. It is merely one of multiple tools that could be employed. I am pretty sure you don’t have an issue with the principle behind it either.
Gosman – what is it about my explanation for the failings of the off-set model described at 10:14 don’t you understand to be bad? My dislike of it, is not based on emotion; I’ve had close associations with the process and weighed up the reality of it carefully. It’s typical of the Right’s approach to environmental management and it’s a fail, imo.
You have not explained why. You objection does seem to be based purely on your emotional dislike of the ideology behind it rather than whether it works or not. If it was based on some actual facts showing that it doesn’t work (i.e. it makes the overall environmental problem worse) then you have a valid argument against it.
My argument is, Gosman, that something like a pristine river can be damned/dammed if the dammers pay for the creation of a kiwi sanctuary elsewhere. That is, the river is lost. Gone. Environmental loss, right there. Not emotive, actual.
Where is this proposal to build a Kiwi sanctuary to enable a river to have a dam to be built on it? That generally is not how a proper “Off-setting” scheme works anyway.
“something like” was to indicate a theoretical example.
What is your understanding of “off setting” Gosman?
In any case, off setting, as proposed by Right wingers, is just one of many examples where the Right ideology (everything has a price!) exemplifies the narrow range the Right makes decisions from on environmental matters – my original claim.
Yes, that possibility is what will be deterring those in the know. If their market research has established the likelihood. From a design perspective, they have to ensure the split is more like 35:10.
That was implied in my suggestion re Bridges & Nat caucus endorsement. They ought to brainstorm the design then create consensus. Just enough front-people to pull the bluegreens over the threshold, up to a comfortable margin. At least two sitting MPs with centrist street cred and safe seats should suffice.
But Tava is not actually proclaiming the bluegreen brand. Leftist misrepresentation is a ruse to lead observers astray.
“Blue Greens will fail to get any electorate traction at all and I support National wasting energy on this bullshit as it will only eat into National’s voter base without any representation.” Bridges hasn’t endorsed use of the bluegreen brand, has he? Bradbury’s kool-aid intake must’ve gone over the limit.
“The only purpose for running Blue Greens is as a spoiler to the actual Greens who will face a strong challenge again from TOP and with the additional syphoning off by Blue Greens would see the Greens slip beneath 5%.”
Now there he actually makes a very good point. Splitting the centrist vote defeats the centrist cause, so both tribes within the GP could lose big.
And “global warming and the catastrophes it’s bringing will demand radical policy responses”. True. Does this mean the GP will go radical? Of course not. Democracy will always marginalise radicals. That’s why it’s a prescription for disaster.
I suspect there probably is room for a socially and economically centrist, environmentally focused party. I’m aware of more than a few voters that can relate to the likes of Kennedy Graham and David Clendon, but can’t swallow the idea of voting for a party whose public profile is as much about reclaiming the c-word or promoting the crap Sue Kedgley was into, as it is about environmental issues.
These are people that enjoy spending time in the outdoors, can see and are distressed by the damage currently being done and want to turn it around. Sneering comments like ” … don’t understand environmental issues at all” simply provokes a ‘fuck you very much’ in return.
“These are people that enjoy spending time in the outdoors, can see and are distressed by the damage currently being done and want to turn it around”
Farmers? Operators of earth moving machinery? Hunters?
Listening to Minister Mahuta on RNZ drone on about water industry and regulation reform, looks like the most she will achieve in a term is slightly stronger drinking water standards some time after the election – once she puts up her Cabinet paper mid this year.
In reality there will be nothing that gets the critical issues of
– water and wastewater pricing regulation,
– system amalgamation, state capex subsidy, or
– the kind of either regulatory approach to networks seen in the Electricity Authority over our electricity generators, or
– the full core+subsidy approach that extends over the New Zealand land transport network through NZTA.
Nothing from Mahuta this morning told us we will see effective action about water.
The weakness in this cabinet to regulate is pretty apparent in water.
“National leader Simon Bridges says he retains confidence in Invercargill MP Sarah Dowie and she won’t be stood down, despite a police investigation into a message sent from her phone to Jami-Lee Ross.
But he said he does not condone her behaviour, in relation to the text in question.”
Tells us two things:
Bridges is a weak leader who would have demanded a “stand down” at least, if it was the other way round.
That Dowie did send the message.
The engines are currently idling on an eco-friendly fuel mix of botulinum and ethanol produced from a load of rotting old spuds with a heavy dose of colagen in the sump to keep everything all greased up.
And the only problem they’ve yet to overcome is the potential for being charged with ‘sustained loss of traction’
“Bridges retains confidence”.
So when Dowie steps down in the near future
she can say “although I retained support of my colleagues
I believe it is best I step aside”.
This will make it easier for the Nat’s to win any by- election.
Spin spin spin.
NB.
News caster ends with
“Dowie does not rule out a return to politics
at some time in the future”
Blenheim 33 degrees at moment Cinny. As kids we used to revel in very hot summers but now not so much fun. The washing on the line dried almost instantly though.
Overhead sun doesn’t reach inside much but doors windows wide open and a stiff gutsy gusty norwester keeps the air moving. Refuse the use of an air conditioner.
Cinny in Australia one household I know of, puts 8 cool packs in the freezer to be used if a household member becomes heat stressed, wrapped, placed on head and back.
Also four milk bottles in freezer. Place two at at a time in front of a fan so air blows across them.
Make fruit juice and cordial iceblocks/popcicles
DRINK PLENTY, a pinch of salt and sugar help quickly replace lost sweat.
Fill the bath with cold water, sit in it for ten minutes before bed.
Wear pure cotton or lawn. Cheers. Not everyone has aircon, or even power goes down for a while sometimes
The so called “new” idea about a cooler using the simple evaporation of water works OK. We had a little porous concrete one 60 plus years ago to keep the butter cool.
A soaking wet towel near the breeze or a fan would work.
I would tell my kids to get the water off their swimming skins as the change of state water to gas, is what chills them.
Yes, Ian, did you hear about how our soldiers kept beer cool in the desert during WWII? Wrapped in a wet towel suspended from a line in blazing sunshine, apparently. Actually, did they really get a beer ration from the powers that be or was that an urban legend? Maybe it was water…
Bags of frozen vegetables (eg peas) can also be used in place of cool packs for heat stress – and of course, sprained ankles etc. Better in fact than solid style cool packs as they ‘wrap’.
Sssshhh – not PC these days, but Glad sell soft plastic ice block bags in packs of 8 (?) for just a couple of dollars where you fill a bag with tap water through a pocket which then self-seals and you end up with a wrapable ice pack for next to nothing. Not reuseable however, unless you use something else (peg?) to reseal the filling hole.
Not available in all supermarkets but if so, in the same part as sandwich bags etc.
patricia b
Something i remember from time in Oz – they tend to line bathroom and have on floor, ceramic tiles which tend to remain cold. Lying lightly clad on the floor, with damp towels over body, could be emergency cooling. Perhaps some soothing music to lower stress, and alleviate the discomfort, cold water for sipping.
Then there are the novelty caps with reservoirs of water and tubes to suck on, silly but they could save extreme heat stress. Can’t find much on google for these which i remember from decades ago. But coca Cola has come up with a simple? version. I would recommend having plastic disposable gloves though. Bit stupid not including these in the demonstration as nothing is ever as simple as you expect.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q50UL5LpeEo
Greywarshark, my brother and family used to sleep in the dining room on the tiled floor with the fan going. It was a regular thing in summer if the temperature got above 35 deg. It had a cathedral ceiling
Google diy swamp cooler for a bunch of ideas (if an article from that blathering idiot The Hosk appears, don’t bother with that one).
Swamp coolers really work a treat in dry areas, but if it’s humid heat they don’t do anything useful.
Window coverings stopping the heat getting in are good. Something on the outside works better than a curtain on the inside if there’s an easy way to put something there.
Private enterprise will look after us better than slack government – so the mantra goes. It is much more efficient to employ people in a just-in-time scenario? This is very hard on anyone wanting to have a life.
Prime is a 24/7 emergency medical service which relies on local doctors and nurses, who also have day jobs, as on-call contractors. The medics who are signed-up with Prime drop everything to attend call outs as and when they arise.
For rural communities, it’s a lifeline.
Dr Creegan was a Prime doctor on isolated Great Barrier Island before moving to Waimate in South Canterbury, where she raised her family and established her practice while continuing her Prime work.
She’s one of three Prime responders in the practice covering the service.
“There’s a thing in the back of your mind all of the time that you’re on call. You just tuck it in and get on with it. But you go to sleep with that thought that you might be woken up in the night,” Dr Creegan said.
“You can’t go and have a swim without thinking that you’re away from your pager or your phone so you might need to ask someone to hold it for you and sing out to you, or you might just actually say ‘I’m going to go for a swim and I’m not going to worry about it for 20 minutes’. But then you’re going to look at your pager when you come back and if something’s come in that time, how are you going to feel?”
What planet are these people on if they think those paltry fines will act as a deterrent. Many of the migrants pay that just for the job in the first place! They should have a minimum $50k fine and increasing the more turnover the business has, then 10 times the amount undercharged paid back to the worker with a minimum of $25,000 and then be banned from employing migrant workers and defiantly not allowed to sponsor them permanantly! IF the employer is not a citizen they should be deported for illegal trading and not be allowed to become a resident here!
If businesses are still better off when they are caught underpaying or asking for money for the job, then what is the deterrent???
Probably costs more than that for the government to prosecute them, when you look at the lawyers fees and court costs! crazy!
Allan Nairn: “I think someone like Mr. Abrams would
be a fit subject for such a Nuremberg-style inquiry.”
In March 1995, journalist Allan Nairn exposed how Elliott Abrams organized death squads in Guatemala. and confronted him on television.
Twenty-four years later, Abrams has yet to serve a day in prison for his crimes. Donald Trump has just appointed this terrible criminal “Special U.S. Envoy to Venezuela.”
ROSE: Let me just ask you a hypothetical question. Would you as an
assistant secretary of State for Latin American affairs, if you found out that our government was paying a man in the Guatemalan military after it learned that he had been implicated in the assassination of an American or someone married to an American, would you be outraged?
ABRAMS: I would certainly be outraged in the Devine case which looked like the cold blooded murder of an innocent American. The notion that we would continue to employ such a person would give him and others in the Guatemalan military the sense that we just didn’t care about the killing of American citizens. The Bamaca case is a different case. That guy was a guerrilla and he was not an American.
ROSE: Yeah, but he wasn’t killed in battle, he was killed in prison.
ABRAMS: No, but it is a different case. And the responsibility we have is to protect above all American citizens, not Guatemalan guerrillas. So it is a different case, different kind of level of seriousness for the U.S. government.
NAIRN: Charlie, you asked a hypothetical: How would Mr. Abrams react? In fact we have the historical record. We can see how he and the other Reagan and Bush and Clinton officials have reacted.
ROSE: In the State Department, or in the CIA, or both?
NAIRN: Across the board. And in the face of this systematic policy of slaughter by the Guatemalan military, more than 110,000 civilians killed by that military since 1978, what Amnesty International has called a “government program of political murder,” the U.S. has continued to provide covert assistance to the G-2 and they have continued, especially during the time of Mr. Abrams, to provide political aid and comfort. For example. . .
ABRAMS: Uh, Charlie.
ROSE: One second.
NAIRN: …during the Northwest Highland massacres of the [early] ’80s when the Catholic Church said: “never in our history has it come to such grave extremes. It has reached the point of genocide,” President Reagan went down, embraced Rios Montt, the dictator who was staging these massacres, and said he was getting “a bum rap on human rights.” In ’85 when human rights leader Rosario Godoy was abducted by the army, raped, and mutilated, her baby had his fingernails torn out, the Guatemalan military said: “Oh, they died in a traffic accident.” Human rights groups contacted Mr. Abrams, asked him about it, he wrote back-this is his letter of reply-he said: yes, “there’s no evidence other than that they died in a traffic accident.” Now this is a woman raped and mutilated, a baby with his fingernails torn out. This is
long-standing policy.
ROSE: …these are specific points raised by Allan having to do with your public conduct.
ABRAMS: I’m not, I tell you, whatever Allan Nairn wants to do, Charlie, I’m not here to refight the Cold War. I’m glad we won, maybe he’s not. What I’m here to say is we’re talking not about U.S. policy in the world .
NAIRN: Won against who, won against those civilians the Guatemalan army was massacring?
ABRAMS: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We’re not here to refight the Cold War.
“Mr Barclay was employed by MBIE from July to October 2018 when the KiwiBuild programme was transferred to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. During this period, there were no issues raised about his performance, management style or leadership,” the statement [from Barclay’s PR company] said.
“Within two weeks of the KiwiBuild programme moving to MHUD, he can confirm there were a small number of complaints from individuals who held a close relationship to the Chief Executive, Mr [Andrew] Crisp.”
The statement said the nature of the complaints related to Barclay’s direct management style and dealings with certain individuals.
“They were entirely linked to the implementation of the KiwiBuild programme which was Mr Barclay’s only remit. His commitment was to execute against the targets of the KiwiBuild programme, and he was attempting to do this at pace.”
I actually worked with/for Andrew briefly in his Department of Labour days back in the early 2000s and also had dealings with him when he was at Treasury. I always found him excellent (and easy) to work for and with. I consider him someone with integrity, very intelligent but down to earth, a good team player who worked to bring people along with him. Haven’t seen him for years but I doubt he has changed much over the yearsin those respects.
Probably from a quick read of the articles today. Crisp has previous ‘form’ in cleaning up similar messy CE situations. Exactly what he was doing when I worked under him. LOL. I mean “form” in the best of meanings . He was/ hopefully still is, top notch in that regard/role.
A New Zealander, Barclay was chief executive of the 2013 America’s Cup defence in San Francisco …
Barclay copped bitter criticism from both city politicians and media amid accusations the event had not delivered sufficiently for San Francisco, leading him to launch a parting broadside after the event had ended.
Nope nope nope. Rapist supporter Homophobic Lier Cheater Party switcher. Antisemitic Animal abuser. And front bums?! How embarrassing, no… revolting that’s all they could find and think is good enough for Auckland. https://t.co/DWSIh3g9R5
They deployed a trained killer. What could possibly go wrong?
New details in the case against a Navy SEAL charged with multiple war crimes emerged during a marathon hearing this week at Naval Base San Diego.
Friday’s hearing revealed that seven Navy SEALs have been granted immunity to testify for the prosecution during the upcoming trial of Edward R. Gallagher, a chief special warfare operator alleged to have murdered a wounded teenage Islamic State combatant by stabbing him in the neck.
[…]
Witnesses told investigators that Gallagher boasted of killing up to 200 people during the 2017 deployment. Another witness said Gallagher told him he killed “three a day” and to “do the math” for the total number he killed.
[…]
Prosecutors said the incident began May 3, 2017, with a drone strike and two Hellfire missiles hitting two sides of a home in Mosul. Witness statements conflict about whether the injured Islamic State fighter was inside the home when it was struck. The prosecution says he was, but the defense said their witnesses say he was injured by gunfire, not the drone strike. Both sides agree that Iraqi forces loaded the combatant onto the hood of a Humvee and delivered him to Gallagher’s team. Gallagher, a medic, began treating him.
Prosecutors say Gallagher stabbed the fighter, estimated to be between 15 and 17 years old. Gallagher also is accused of posing for photos with the corpse, operating a drone over it and, sometime later, celebrating his reenlistment next to it.
[…]
In unrelated incidents, Gallagher is charged with shooting two civilians — an old man and a little girl — and with shooting indiscriminately at civilians throughout his deployment.
One witness told investigators Gallagher told him it was “OK to shoot at women.”
This could be the subject of an interesting fast paced scam novel. From 2016 but part of our interesting development as we tried to be the sleazy Switzerland or offshore haven for those with hot money, perhaps hot from being passed around so quickly; too much friction.
A foreign exchange business that looks and smells like a Ponzi scheme targeting Malaysians, a Nelson-based global stock exchange, a warning from the Czech Republic’s central bank, a fantasist, and curious French-Latvian connections all have one thing in common. New Zealand registered financial service providers.
While the NZ government looks, albeit unenthusiastically, at changing foreign trust laws in the wake of the Panama Papers, here’s a reminder the country’s international reputation is being degraded by more than just Mossack Fonseca and foreign trusts. This statement is based on our probe of just a handful of NZ registered financial service providers.
Michael SchulsonWhen Shane Burcaw flies on an airplane, he brings along a customized gel cushion, a car seat, and about 10 pieces of memory foam. The whole arsenal costs around $1,000, but for Burcaw it’s a necessity. The 27-year-old author and speaker — who, alongside his fiancée, Hannah ...
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New Zealand's Underarm Banker: It bears recalling that the “independence” of the Reserve Bank Governor was for decades held up by neoliberal capitalists as the most compelling justification for passing the Reserve Bank Act. Interesting, is it not, how the ruling class’s support for the Bank’s independence lasted no longer than ...
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Some people seem to want to close down any critical discussion of the current research into the relationship between water fluoride and child IQ. They appear to argue that claims made by researchers should not be open to critical review and that the claims be accepted without proper consideration ...
The government has been congratulating itself over the passage of the Zero Carbon Act, which sets out long-term emissions targets. Meanwhile, Climate Action Tracker has the shameful reality: those targets are insufficient:While New Zealand is showing leadership by having passed the world’s second-ever Zero Carbon Act in November 2019, under ...
The government introduced a Racing Industry Bill today. As an urban who horse racing as pointless-to-cruel, and gambling as a tax on stupidity and/or hope, this isn't normally a bill which would interest me in the slightest, beyond grumpiness at more government money for a dying industry. But there is ...
Check. Check. One, two, three, four. Is this thing ON? Hello readers, I logged in last night (yeah, it’s been a while) to mark THE END of the landmark legal case, Jordan Williams v Colin Craig, which (gulp) reached The Supreme Court, in which New Zealand’s most-defamed man was suing the politician he ...
Before The Birth: Israel’s most fervent supporters set their clocks ticking in Biblical times. They cite the kingdoms of David and Solomon as proof that, in the words of the Exodus movie’s theme-song: “This land is mine.” The majority of Israel’s backers, however, start their clocks in 1933 – the year Adolf ...
In an unreliable, strange and confusing world, Public Address is proud to present a measure of comfort and stability by annually asking everyone what words or phrases sum up the year that's been – and then giving some of them consumer goods as prizes for being clever or simply lucky.Well, ...
Both my parents are pretty handy – and they seem to have the right tools for most jobs in the garage and they know how to fix practically anything. A similar story could be told about their generation’s experience in the workforce – being a generalist was not unusual and ...
When it was revealed that NZ First had tried to enrich itself from public office via the Provoncial Growth Fund, the Prime Minister assured us that everything was OK as Shane Jones, the Minister responsible for the fund, had recused himself. Except it seems that that recusal came very late ...
Today is a Member's Day, and probably the last one of the year. After the marathon of the End of Life Choice Act, most of the bills up for debate today are uncontentious. First up is the second reading of Chlöe Swarbrick's Election Access Fund Bill. This will be followed ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has reported back on the government's odious and tyrannical control orders bill. As expected, the fraudulent select committee process has made no significant changes (partly because they couldn't agree, but mostly because it was a stitch-up from the start, with no intention of ...
Yesterday, the government released its draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, which will be put to a non-binding referendum at the next election. I'm not a drug policy expert, but Russell Brown is, and he thinks its pretty good. And pretty obviously, it will be a massive improvement on the ...
As you're probably aware, the draft bill outlining the proposed legal cannabis regime to be put to a referendum late next year was published yesterday, and has already attracted a flurry of comment. It's notable that a good deal of the comment is about proposals that aren't actually new.A minimum ...
One of the big problems in New Zealand climate change policy is the government working at cross-purposes with itself. It wants to reduce fossil fuel use, but encourages oil and gas exploration. It wants to reduce transport emissions, but then builds enormous new roads. The problem could be avoided if ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzAccording to the United Nations, food shortages are a threat ...
Last year, the government announced it was ending offshore oil exploration by no longer issuing new permits. The idea was that the industry would then die off as permits expired. Except almost immediately the government revealed its bad faith, by saying they would extend permits and alter conditions to keep ...
The government introduced the Education and Training Bill to Parliament yesterday. Its a massive bill, which replaces both existing Education Acts, as well as various other bits of legislation (including some which are still proceeding through the House). I'll leave the serious analysis to teachers and people who actually know ...
Amelia SharmanThere’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to micro-credentials, those bits of bite-sized learning that can help workers stay on top of technological change. What’s a micro-credential? While definitions vary, micro-credentials can be understood as short courses that allow people to learn new skills or have an existing competency recognised. ...
All Smiles Now: Claire Szabo is taking up her presidential role after serving as the CEO of Habitat For Humanity. Which is absolutely perfect! After KiwiBuild was so comprehensively mismanaged by Phil Twyford, the party has not only elected a new president from a thoroughly respectable not-for-profit, but one who ...
While much of the NZ left has transitioned to postmodern and identity politics in relation to transgender ideology, there are some very good articles about that deploy Marxist methodology in relation to this subject. The one below is from the British marxist group Counterfire and appeared on their site here ...
by Daphna Whitmore At Golden Oaks, a luxurious country retreat in the Hudson Valley, pregnant women have the best care money can buy. From the organic food, personalised exercise programmes, private yoga instruction and daily massages Golden Oaks looks like a country lodge for the upper class. Set some time ...
When Labour was running for election in 2017, it felt it needed to demonstrate "fiscal responsibility" and signed itself up to masochistic "budget responsibility rules". It was a fool's errand: the sorts of voters who demand fiscal responsibility are also the sorts of voters who believe that labour can never ...
Writing in Stuff, Joel MacManus looks at what we need to do to meet the Zero Carbon Act's targets. The core of it:1. Convert 85 per cent of vehicles on the road to electric. 2. Eliminate fossil fuels from all industrial heating up to 300 degrees Celsius. 3. Double our ...
Professors Janet Hoek and Richard Edwards, Emeritus Professor Phil Gendall, Jude Ball, Dr Judith McCool, Anaru Waa, Dr Becky FreemanRecent media reports have presented conflicting evidence on youth vaping in NZ. While some NZ school principals report concerns about increasing vaping on school grounds and confiscating vapes, ASH Year ...
“America the Beautiful!”, staunch defender of democracy, freedom and… a whole lot of despotic tyrants that play nice with what is called “the Washington Consensus.” America is indeed capable of immense good, but like any Nation, and most assuredly any aspirant to the mantle of Empire, great, immense evil. All ...
Image credit:The beginner’s guide to blogging I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is ...
1080 is used to control pests in NZ. Its use is contested by a noisy few. A new report claims high levels of 1080 in rats washed up on a beach. Flora and Fauna of Aotearoa (F&F) won’t name the laboratory that did their testing. It has sparked a hunt ...
What Kind Of Empire? The thing for Kiwis to decide is what kind of empire they want to belong to. The kind that, while offering its own citizens democratic rights, demands absolute obedience from its “friends”? Or, the kind that, while authoritarian at home, takes a relaxed attitude to the ...
It hasn't been a good week for the Conservatives, pollwise. All major recent polls are showing their lead shrinking.Comparing each pollster's current (between 29/11 and 22/11) and previous most recent poll.Com Res - Conservative lead down 3 points.You Gov - Conservative lead down 1 point.Kantar - Conservative lead down 4 ...
Within quick succession, Countdown maths wizard and twitterer Rachel Riley, alleged comedian David Baddiel and prominent lawyer Andrew Julius have all expressed very similar opinions / ideas:
These #3billboards are going round London today, organised by ex-Labour people, horrified by what their party has become. Their principles haven’t changed, they’re ...
So, there have been a bunch of bad polls out for Labour, and even the Leftie's friend, Survation, have recently given the Conservatives a rip-snorting 11% lead. You Gov's much vaunted MRP poll - which pretty much nailed the result in 2015 - is currently predicting a comfortable majority for ...
The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to declare a climate emergency:The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” as it urged all EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The vote came as scientists warned that the world may have already crossed ...
Pure Fear: Worse than Heroin, this drug’s addictive power was terrifying. People under its influence didn’t drift off to Elysium. Nor did it persuade inadequate individuals that they could conquer the world. No, this drug – pure crystal methamphetamine, “P” for short – unlocked the gates of Hell itself. It ...
As the rate of measles infection, and of deaths, continues to climb in Samoa, antivaccination activists infectious disease proponents seem intent on doubling down on their claims about vaccination. (Check pretty much any news-media FB post about measles & you’ll see exactly what I mean.) Unfortunately, some of them have ...
Samoa are experiencing a devastating measles epidemic. It is possible that 2-3% of the population will ultimately be infected by the time it is over. Hopefully the mass immunisation campaign currently under way can mitigate some of this, for many it is too late. The first question many people ask ...
Meghan Murphy is a Canadian writer and journalist She runs the Feminist Current website which she founded in 2012. She was a keynote speaker for the Feminism2020 conference in Wellington this month. When Massey University cancelled the original venue booking Feminism2020 was hosted in Parliament by MP David Seymour. Meghan ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Colombia has lived through one week of protests against the economic measures taken by president Duque. What looked like a protest that would fizzle out after its first day on November 21st is still going strong. Part of the reason for the continuance ...
Around a million billion pass through you each second, almost all originating from our sun, but few of them are likely to interact with you enroute. I was reading in a physics magazine earlier in the week about the nature of neutrinos. These are extremely numerous elementary particles, but only ...
By Pallab GhoshThere’s value in covering new research advances, even when the underlying science is unsettled. But there are also risks.The recent announcement that scientists discovered water on the planet K2-18b, 110 light years away, prompted a media swoon. News stories, including a piece written by me, billed ...
I wrote this review a couple of years ago when I was still in the process of getting my head around the politics of transgenderism, and specifically the claim that intersex conditions lend support to the notion that sex is ‘socially constructed’. Since writing this review I have come across ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzHow much does our use of air travel contribute to the ...
Minor planet/asteroid (2309) Mr. Spock is named not for the character in Star Trek, but for a cat that was itself imperturbable, logical, intelligent and had pointed ears. In a preceding blog post I introduced one of my favourite asteroids, (2472) Bradman, and also mentioned (6581) Sobers amongst a few ...
Today the death toll from measles in Samoa rose to 32. All but four of the dead were less than 5 years old. Absolutely terrible, heartbreaking, news. That statistic alone should be enough to give the lie to the common claim by antivaccination activists plague enthusiasts that “measles is a ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh It is late here in Bogotá, almost 11.30pm on Monday the 25th of November as I write this. The day began full of hope with yet more massive marches throughout the country, a mix of the International Day of Non-Violence Against Women and the National Strike. ...
Anti-fluoride activists are rubbing their hands in glee over what they claim is “yet another study” showing fluoride harms the brains of children. But their promotion relies on IQ relationships which the paper’s authors acknowledge disappearing when outliers or other factors are considered. And they completely ignore other relationships ...
The feature below is the conclusion of A History of Economic Thought, whose author was a leading Marxist economist in Russia in the early 20th century, Isaac Ilyich Rubin. The book arose from a course he ran at Moscow University following the Russian Revolution. First published in Russian in 1929, ...
There are many thousands of asteroids with formal names, some humdrum but other more noteworthy (depending on your predilections). One of my favourites, the name of which I was involved in suggesting, is (2472) Bradman, named for the Australian cricketing great. As a minor planet (synonym: asteroid) spotter, I have ...
Tory manifesto: big on austerity, low on promise, non-existent on delivery. The Tories: the party so big on ambition they couldn't be arsed writing a manifesto. MLK: "I have a dream!"BJ: "I'll just have a nap." Labour: Broadband!Tories: Narrow minds! Labour have hope, dreams and ambition. The Tories will save ...
The Ministry of Health has announced that “people under the age of 50 travelling from New Zealand to Samoa, Tonga, Philippines and Fiji” are now on the list of national priorities for MMR vaccination. Given the outbreaks of measles in Samoa, Tonga, Philippines and Fiji, the Ministry of Health is ...
Hong Kong has been protesting for six months for, demanding democracy, human rights, and an end to police violence. Today, they went to the polls in district council elections - a low-level of government with virtually no power, similar to community boards in New Zealand. But while the positions themselves ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On Friday 22nd of November a curfew came into effect and troops were deployed on the streets, here in Bogota. It was the first time since September 1977 that a curfew had been imposed on the city. The decision was a cynical pre-planned ...
Meanwhile, while the government is planning to restore voting rights to prisoners, National is promising to turn our prisons into US-style slave-labour camps:The Opposition is proposing compulsory education, training or employment for prisoners who are serving sentences of two years or more. [...] On Sunday, National Party Leader Simon Bridges ...
Excerpts from Being and Being Bought, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman Spinifex Press, 2013. Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book. This is the second part of a synopsis and brief commentary of the book by Daphna ...
Dalmeet Singh ChawlaIn 2008, psychologists proposed that when humans are shown an unfamiliar face, they judge it on two main dimensions: trustworthiness and physical strength. These form the basis of first impressions, which may help people make important social decisions, from who to vote for to how long a ...
Claas Kirchhelle, University of Oxford; Adam Roberts, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and Andrew Singer, Centre for Ecology & HydrologyAntibiotics are among the most important medicines known to humankind, but we are running out of this crucial resource. Decisive action is needed if we are to retain access to ...
Things That Make You Go - Hmmmm: “All right. Let me come at this another way. I’m guessing that what you’ve got in that box contains names, dates, bank account numbers – all the details you need to put Winston Peters and Jacinda Ardern squarely in the cross-hairs. So, the first ...
Coasters Turn Out In Droves: It’s precisely the widening gulf between those with actual experience of things like guns, chainsaws and drilling machines, and those who regulate their use, that accounts for the angry crowd at Greymouth’s Messenger Park on Sunday, 17 November 2019. In the rarefied atmosphere where decisions ...
There are perennial arguments about the circumstances of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, and in particular whether more than one shooter is required by the evidence (such as the Zapruder film). Those who know little about physics frequently claim that the sharp backwards motion of JFK’s head as ...
Apparently, some people enjoy washing their cars. Each to his or her own, I suppose. I mean, some people like duck shooting, some people follow Coronation Street, and some people’s idea of a good day out is to sit on a grass bank at Seddon Park and watch cricket all ...
Last week we learned that New Zealand First had apparently tried to enrich itself from public office, with a dodgy forestry company linked to a number of NZ First figures sticking its hand out repeatedly for government money. Today in Question Time Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had his ...
Finally, governments seem slowly to be beginning to act on climate change. But its not enough. While they're publicly signing up to targets, they're planning to destroy the world by continuing fossil fuel extraction:The world’s nations are on track to produce more than twice as much coal, oil and gas ...
Stuff has begun interviewing NZ First's secret donors, and it turns out that its as bad as we expected. They start with racing industry figure Garry Chittick, who is predictably grumpy about NZ First's coalition choices. Meanwhile, I'm looking at the list of pork NZ First has effectively given its ...
Stag At Bay: Twelve years ago, Winston Peters was still robust enough to come back from the political crucifixion which his political and media enemies had prepared for him. In his seventies now, the chances of a second resurrection are slim. We should, therefore, prepare for the last gasp of ...
Satellites pass over NZ all the time (literally). Here I focus on the 187 Planet Labs ‘Dove’ Earth-imaging satellites, and I show that one can determine in advance where they will be, enabling scientists on the ground to correlate their environmental and other data collection with opportunities to get imaging ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, has called for awareness to be raised and more stringent biosecurity checks to be put in place for African Swine Fever (ASF), a widespread virus that is uncontrolled in most of Asia and a serious ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Human Rights A critical step has been taken to end gender based violence against women and girls in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Human Rights Jenny Marcroft MP has welcomed the passing of the first reading of the Crimes (Definition of Female ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says it's time to recognise market forces haven't led to the expected reduction in Māori smoking rates and try a new approach. The Party had recently invoked the agree to disagree clause in their Coalition Agreement with the Labour Party, and will not support ...
Live from the Whanganui Opera House, on the final day of the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Jacinda Ardern announced the largest investment in school property in 25 years. ...
The Coalition Government will be banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, ahead of next year’s general elections. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament and passed under urgency – emphasising the need for such restrictions to safeguard our democracy. The bill introduces a new requirement that party secretaries and ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones opened Taipā's $19 million bridge recently, improving transport infrastructure in the Northland region. The two-lane bridge is 107m long with a 2.5m-wide shared walking and cycling path, and will reduce the congestion that the old one-lane bridge was notorious for. The project had also included ...
The Overseas Investment Office have rejected the application of Mercury Agriculture LP, which is 92 per cent controlled by Canadian interests, to purchase more than 2000 hectares of South Canterbury and Otago land. Mercury wanted to buy 2000ha at Rangitata, 1494ha near Ashburton, 816ha near Cromwell and 212ha near Temuka. ...
This weekend was Labour's 103rd Party Conference! We welcomed over 500 of our Labour whānau in red to Whanganui, where we reflected on the last two years in Government, and looked ahead to 2020 and beyond. We know the long-term challenges facing New Zealand won't be tackled overnight, but we're making ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced that the Provincial Growth Fund will invest $9.6 million to seal the final unsealed section of State Highway 43 from Stratford to Taumarunui. The Minister said sealing the 12-kilometre gravel section of the highway – also called the “Forgotten World Highway” - through ...
Former Finance Minister and former chair of the Tax Working Group, Sir Michael Cullen, has voiced his support for New Zealand First’s decision to oppose the planned increase in tobacco excise tax. In an interview with The Weekend Collective, he said that increasing the price was no longer effective in ...
Māori are natural storytellers. On the marae we use stories to tell our history, to teach the next generation life lessons and to let people know, in our most creative of ways, who we are and where we have come from. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First has invoked the ‘Agree to Disagree’ provisions of the Coalition Agreement because it cannot support the announced 11.46 percent increase in the tobacco excise from 1 January 2020. “Studies show that the automatic tobacco excise increases are having less effect ...
Taupō-based company Geo40 has made a breakthrough in extracting near battery-grade lithium from geothermal fluid which its says could be a gamechanger. Its chief executive John Worth said the earth mineral was highly prized, with battery-grade lithium selling for US$10,000 (NZ$15,600) a tonne. Geo40 was founded in 2010 to find ...
Crown research institute AgResearch Ltd, as part of its Future Footprint plan, had intended to relocate top scientists and support staff — particularly those focused on sheep genetics and genomics — from Invermay to Lincoln. However, those plans seem to have been shelved at the request of the Coalition Government. ...
Ten engineering firms in Southland are receiving a total of $2.13 million in Provincial Growth Fund funding to lift productivity and create new jobs. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced in Invercargill that the 10 engineering and manufacturing firms would receive funding to assist them with buying equipment that ...
The number of new residents to New Zealand is the lowest it has been in nearly two decades and it has earned the ire of the immigration industry. The industry alleges that 'Trump-style extreme vetting' is being put in place aimed at keeping a lid on immigration numbers. June Ranson, ...
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is one step closer to modernising its fleet after the United States State Department recently approved the sale of five new C-130J Hercules aircraft to New Zealand. Arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the aircraft, but as a "foreign military ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones wants to create a log barging facility at Hicks Bay and turn the area into a Special Economic Zone. The move would be part of protecting New Zealand's forests from being depleted by India and China, he said. It follows his announcement last week to strengthen ...
New Zealand First supports the changes recommended by the Winter Grazing Taskforce to improve animal welfare outcomes through the winter months, and the establishment of a pan-sector action group to implement them. New Zealand First Primary Industries Spokesperson Mark Patterson says the report highlights areas of concern about the animal ...
Former prime ministers Helen Clark and Sir John Key, formerly from the Labour and National parties respectively, have joined forces in support of New Zealand First’s plan to relocate Auckland's port to Whangārei. While Ms Clark and Sir John spent their political careers on opposite sides of the political divide, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Japan for the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the G20 grouping of countries as one of nine "invited" countries. He has used the opportunity to cast a spotlight on the plight of Pacific countries, calling out countries which still offered subsidies or Government assistance to ...
It's been a great week of progress: we've celebrated Children's Day, we've made communities safer with 1800 new police, and we've seen almost 90% of eligible schools take up Government funding to scrap school donations - taking pressure off the families of more than 416,000 students. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The Government will further strengthen New Zealand’s wood processing sector as part of our focus on ‘value over volume’ in our forestry industry, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Minister Jones will today meet with forestry representatives in Northland to signal new measures to help the ...
New Zealand First are celebrating the announcement of an investment of $3.5 million into five new trapping devices. These are a range of bait and trap devices, all designed to be left unattended for long periods of time. NZ First conservation spokesperson Jenny Marcroft says that this latest development will ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Conservation New Zealand First is proud to announce the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) has allocated $3.5 million to develop innovative predator control approaches which will reduce the need for repeated 1080 use. $19.5 million of PGF funding was announced for Predator Free 2050 Limited in February ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Police New Zealand First is proud to have delivered on a key Coalition Agreement commitment to adding 1800 new frontline police, with the graduation of Recruit Wing 332 in Porirua today. Law and Order Spokesperson Darroch Ball says increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one ...
Clayton Mitchell, Spokesperson for Consumer Affairs The ‘wheel clamping’ Bill that will cap clamper fees to $100 passed its third readinginParliament today. New Zealand First welcomes The Land Transport (Wheel Clamping) Amendment Bill to combat predatory wheel clamping behaviour in what is currently a largely unregulated business. Cowboy clampers are: gouging ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its first reading in Parliament. “Today’s progress takes serious action on the mental health and addiction crisis the country is facing,” says New Zealand First Health Spokesperson Jenny Marcroft. “The re-establishment ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries Today the Government announced the delivery of the promise to protect New Zealand interests by applying a new National Interest Test to the sales of our most sensitive and high risk assets to overseas buyers. This further strengthening of the Overseas Investment Act will ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced further support as the Government of Samoa responds to a serious measles outbreak. “New Zealand will deploy a further 18 vaccination nurses, bringing the total to 30 working in Samoa over the next ...
The Coalition Government is delivering on its promise to protect New Zealanders’ interests by applying a new national interest test to the sales of our most sensitive and high-risk assets to overseas buyers. Under current Overseas Investment Act (OIA) rules, assets such as ports and airports, telecommunications infrastructure, electricity and ...
Rt Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Allegations raised this morning by Stuff Limited / Fairfax concern a party matter but I am confident that New Zealand First has operated within electoral laws, now and for the last 27 years. Declarable donations were declared to the Electoral Commission. Our ...
The chairman of the Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy (UNISCS) working group, Wayne Brown, has hit back at critics of his group’s recommendations to relocate the Ports of Auckland cargo operations to Whangarei’s deepwater port of Northport. The working group's recommendation to close Auckland waterfront to all but cruise ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new appointments to DHBs represent a significant changing of the guard, with 13 new chairs including four Māori chairs. Today 76 appointments have been announced to complement elected board members, as well as eight elected members appointed as either chair or deputy chair. Four ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Fletcher Tabuteau, is travelling to Germany, Poland, Austria, and Spain next week to bolster New Zealand’s political and trade relationships in Europe. While in Spain, Mr Tabuteau will represent New Zealand at the 14th Asia-Europe (ASEM) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Madrid. “New Zealand strongly supports ...
“I’ve spoken to Minister Faafoi, who has apologised for his poor handling of this issue,” Jacinda Ardern said. “I have confidence in Kris as a hardworking and effective Minister, but this should have been dealt with in a much clearer manner, and I’ve made my views on that very clear ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters met with Tongan Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa in Wellington today. The pair signed a Statement of Partnership setting out joint priorities for cooperation out to 2023. “We welcomed Prime Minister Tu'i'onetoa on his first visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister. Tonga ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash says his sympathies are with the family of a man who died after being shot by Police in Kurow. “Initial reports are that Police were called by a family member to help the man who was threatening to harm himself,” Mr Nash says. “However ...
Healthier waterways, better productivity and farmer wellbeing are front and centre in a new project involving more than 1000 Southland farmers and growers. Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor today announced that the Thriving Southland Change and Innovation Project is the first region-wide extension programme supported by the $229 million Sustainable ...
Work to look after nature and restore freshwater quality in Te Hoiere/Pelorus River catchment is getting a significant boost, thanks to new Government funding support Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage announced in Canvastown today. “Every New Zealander should be able to swim in their local river without getting sick, and ...
Eight Queen’s Counsel have been appointed under a process that includes the new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. “The new criterion was included this year. It emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community ...
Onslow College in Wellington will get 20 new classrooms for more than 400 students, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The much-needed investment will relieve growth pressure the school has been experiencing for some time. Seven existing classrooms which have deteriorated over time will also be replaced, bringing the total ...
More than 250 young New Zealanders will add international experience to their education, thanks to the latest Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia (PMSA) and Latin America (PMSLA), Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This round of scholarships supports 252 recent graduates or current students to undertake study, research or internships ...
Consumers will benefit from a more competitive, transparent retail fuel market as a result of changes the Government will be making in response to the findings of the Commerce Commission’s study of the fuel sector. “We accept the Commission’s findings and, as the Prime Minister has said, we’re ready to ...
Five new cancer medicines have now been funded this year, meaning thousands of people have more treatment options PHARMAC has today announced that it has approved two new medicines for funding – fulvestrant for breast cancer and olaparib for ovarian cancer. This follows earlier decisions on advanced lung cancer treatment alectinib, ...
The Minister of Local Government, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says the Government will consider making changes to local electoral legislation before the 2022 elections to fix the problems that have arisen where elections are settled by a coin toss. The Minister says the recount process in the Murupara- Galatea ward at ...
New Zealand will sign up to new international maritime regulations to reduce ship emissions and lift air quality around ports and harbours, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter announced today. Subject to completion of the Parliamentary treaty examination process, New Zealand will sign up to Annex VI of MARPOL, an ...
New legislation to transform our urban areas and create sustainable, inclusive and thriving communities will tomorrow be introduced to Parliament, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford said. “The Urban Development Bill gives Kāinga Ora-Homes and Communities the tools it needs to partner with councils, communities, mana whenua and private developers to ...
Today’s launch of He taonga te Tamaiti: Every child a taonga: The Early Learning Action Plan 2019-2029 provides the foundation for long-lasting changes to early learning, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. “Early learning will be one of the Government’s top education priorities going into 2020,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
Major decisions made by the Government will now be considered under a climate change lens, Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. “Cabinet routinely considers the effects of its decisions on human rights, the Treaty of Waitangi, rural communities, the disability community, and gender – now climate change will ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced the appointment of Māori education specialist Dr Wayne Ngata and Business NZ head Kirk Hope to the Board of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). Dr Alastair MacCormick has been reappointed for another term. “Wayne Ngata, Kirk Hope and Alastair MacCormick bring a great deal ...
The next phase of the Pike River Re-entry project is underway, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little says. “Fresh air will be pumped into the Pike River Mine drift this week, following acceptance of the plan for re-entry beyond the 170m barrier by New Zealand’s independent health and ...
New Zealand consumers will have greater certainty about their insurance cover when they need to make claims as a result of proposed government changes. “Insurance is vitally important in supporting consumers and businesses to be financially resilient when unexpected events happen,” Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kris Faafoi said. ...
The Crown is providing an opportunity for the hapu of Ngāpuhi to rebuild its framework from the ground up for collective negotiations to deal with its historical Treaty claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little and Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The Crown is also ...
A Bill enabling referendums to be held with the 2020 General Election has passed its third reading. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the Act is important for upholding the integrity of New Zealand’s electoral process. “The Government has committed to holding a referendum on legalising recreational cannabis at the next ...
The first release of public information on the two referendums to be held at next year’s General Election was made today with an informative new Government website going live. Additionally, the draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill has been released, showing the strict controls on cannabis that will apply if ...
The Government is taking action to protect New Zealand from foreign interference in our elections by banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament this afternoon and passed under urgency. “There’s no need for anyone other than New ...
Governments and tech companies are holding a two-day workshop, hosted by YouTube/Google in Wellington, to test the Christchurch Call Shared Crisis Response Protocol. The workshop aims to refine and strengthen the response in the event of a terrorist attack with online implications. Companies, governments, civil society experts and NGOs will ...
The new independent Cancer Control Agency has formally opened today, delivering on the Government’s plan to improve cancer care in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister of Health David Clark marked the occasion by announcing the membership of the Advisory Council that will be supporting ...
Small businesses who deal with government departments are set to be paid faster and have improved cash flow as a result, under a new strategy released today. The Government is backing recommendations from the Small Business Council (SBC) and has agreed to implement three initiatives immediately to support business and ...
The Education and Training Bill 2019, introduced in Parliament today, proposes the biggest education changes in decades and is an important step towards improving success for all our learners, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “The Bill’s rewrite of education legislation is long overdue. Indeed one Education Act, parts of which ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio will travel to Bali to represent New Zealand at the 12th Bali Democracy Forum that will be held on the 5-6 December. “The Forum is a valuable opportunity for Asia-Pacific countries to share experiences and best practice in building home-grown democracy and fostering ...
A package of new and expanded technology and other tools will encourage responsible camping and help communities and local councils better manage freedom camping this summer, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. “Our Government has been investing to improve the freedom camping experience for everyone because we want to support ...
The government is laying the groundwork to understanding our genes – work that can help us tackle some of our biggest health challenges, like heart disease and diabetes, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. $4.7 million has been invested in the Genomics Aotearoa Rakeiora programme. The programme will ...
Nearly every state schools will receive a capital injection next year valued at $693 per student to bring forward urgent school property improvements, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The one-off cash injection is the first project to be announced from the Government’s infrastructure package ...
The Government has decided to bring forward major investments in New Zealand’s infrastructure to future proof the economy. “Cabinet has agreed to a significant boost to infrastructure investment. I have directed the Treasury to help bring together a package of projects that can be brought into the Government’s short and ...
It is a great pleasure to be with you today in Whanganui. Like the Prime Minister I grew up with the TV clip of Selwyn Toogood booming “What do you say Whanganui, the money or the bag?” to an unsuspecting ‘It’s in the Bag’ audience. For those under the age ...
New Zealand’s newest Great Walk, the Paparoa Track, was officially opened in Blackball today by the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage alongside the family members of the Pike 29 and Ngāti Waewae. Local mayors and MP for the West Coast Hon Damien O’Connor were also in attendance. “Paparoa National Park ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark turned the first sod of earth on the infrastructure works for the new P-8A Poseidon fleet at RNZAF Base Ohakea today. “The Coalition Government’s investment in Ohakea will ensure the Royal New Zealand Air Force can manage, maintain and task the new fleet efficiently ahead ...
Civil Defence Minister Hon Peeni Henare today announced the establishment of the new National Emergency Management Agency from 1 December 2019. The National Emergency Management Agency will replace the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. It will be an autonomous departmental agency, hosted by the Department of the Prime ...
New Zealand tertiary students with top grades and a passion for space will once again be offered the opportunity to work with the world’s best and brightest at NASA, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Recipients of the New Zealand Space Scholarship are nominated by the Ministry of Business, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further support to Samoa in the wake of an ongoing measles outbreak in the country. Additional medical supplies and personnel, including a third rotation of New Zealand’s emergency medical assistance team (NZMAT), further nurse vaccinators, intensive care (ICU) specialists and Samoan-speaking medical professionals, will ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new data showing a sharp drop in the number of people who can’t afford to visit their GP is a sign of real progress. One year after the Government made it cheaper for about 600,000 Kiwis to visit their doctor, results of the New ...
Eight Queen’s Counsel have been appointed under a process that includes the new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice, Attorney-General David Parker announced this week. The new criterion, he explained, ” … emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community ...
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Hell’s bells it’s Gone By Lunchtime, with Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire shooting the breeze on Kris Faafoi, Jason Kerrison, Winston Peters, NZ First donations, a cannabis referendum, and the year to come.Just when you thought politics was tucking under the duvet for Christmas, along comes the guy ...
Tis the season for hangovers, so we convinced some of New Zealand’s most experienced consumers of food and/or drink (OK, Spinoff staff and a bunch of chefs/hospo people) to share their tried-and-true culinary remedies.A hangover is a very individual thing. For some, it manifests as a splitting headache and extreme ...
Before Britain’s Got Talent: Champions hits our screens tonight, let’s take a fond look back at some of the show’s weirdest and most wonderful acts.Place your hands on your Golden Buzzer, because Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions kicks off this weekend. Champions is BGT bigger and better than it’s been before, ...
Following the raging success of the 2018 non-goat ethical Christmas gift guide, here for you today – responsibly wrapped in reusable gift wrap – is the 2019 list of ethical, sustainable, socially conscious, or charitable gift ideas to satisfy all kinds of family members and budgets.Budget Category: ‘Can we pay ...
Lime brought e-scooters to Auckland and changed the way we travel in less than a year. Now, the council is replacing it and Wave with three new contenders. Josie Adams goes to the Lime warehouse to say goodbye to the original scooters.In a warehouse in Eden Terrace, almost a thousand ...
Analysis - The government's first crack at cannabis legislation runs into trouble, a foreign donations bill is rammed through Parliament and a select committee refuses to listen to former NZ First officeholders. ...
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Cabinet minister Kris Faafoi has apologised to the Prime Minister for his messages to Jason Kerrison regarding an immigration case, but will not lose his job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Flinders University The decision to merge the Department of Communications and the Arts with Transport, Infrastructure and Regional development (dropping the “Arts” entirely) ends a year in which Australian politics has been deeply confused over its ...
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Dairy farmers had some Xmas cheer this week, as dairy giant Fonterra told them the forecast payout would be the fourth-highest-ever, at the mid-point of its farmgate milk price range. The $7.30kg/ms means the cash payout for the season will reach $11.2bn, a rise of about $400m from the earlier forecast. ...
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It’s that time of year again when, for the third year running, a new A Christmas Prince movie is released. Sam Brooks was in front of a TV screen for the latest instalment’s debut on Netflix last night, and here catalogues the many stupid, wild, and wildly stupid things he ...
One of the most highly rated members of Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet is under pressure over assurances given in relation to an immigration case. How bad could it get, asks Toby Manhire.There has never been a New Zealand prime minister more engaged with contemporary homegrown music than Jacinda Ardern. She’s forever ...
Kris Faafoi, Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media; Minister ofCommerce and Consumer Affairs;Minister of Government Digital Services; Associate Minister forHousing; MP for Mana.The latest allegations of a corruption scandal involving a Cabinet minister suggests this government is far too loose when it comes to providing access to power ...
The National Party cannot credibly critique the Government’s hikes to fuel tax while it refuses to commit to reversing these hikes, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “Simon Bridges has lambasted ...
Newspaper staff were among those to express dismay and fury during the frenzy of denunciations that followed publication of an ill-considered cartoon about Samoa and the measles epidemic. The Spinoffrecorded their reactions under the heading ODT cartoonist infuriates his colleagues with Sāmoa measles epidemic ‘joke’. It also reproduced the ...
New Zealand Police Association condemns comments made by People Against Prisons Aotearoa following the fatal police shooting of an armed man who had made threats of suicide. ...
A new poem by Harry Ricketts. The Writing Life You want to write.You want to be published.You want to be read. You want to be a cult figure.You want to be reviewed.You want to write. You want to win prizes.You want to be anthologised.You want to be read. You want to be taught in schools ...
As Christmas is near, it’s time to set the record straight on some of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of employment law that apply to the festive season. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Kris Faafoi immigration case Fiona Connor and Tova O’Brien (Newshub): ‘I’m on it bro’: Messages show Kris Faafoi offering help to ...
The Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta has announced changes to prevent Māori wards being voted down by referendums are off the table, saying she believes such a change is not possible within the coalition. ...
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The shooting of a suicidal man in Southland shows that police armament is dangerous, says criminal justice group People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The shooting comes just over a month into the controversial trial of heavily armed police teams in 3 regions ...
The Prime Minister should deal urgently with reports Cabinet Minister Kris Faafoi offered to help a friend over an immigration case, National Party leader Simon Bridges says. ...
The families of top former All Blacks are likely to donate their loved ones’ brains to research so the effect of head impacts in sport can be studied. ...
A woman who went on a Tinder date with the man who murdered Grace Millane tells her story, and issues a warning to other women to trust their instincts when something doesn’t feel right.First published on Newshub.co.nzI went on a date with Grace Millane’s killer while her body lay in ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond University According to the latest figures, homicides in Australia are at historic lows and compare well against international trends. So what do the trends tell us and why is the homicide rate in Australia declining? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy O’Rourke, Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture, The University of Queensland Welcome to the next article in our Designing Hospitals series, where we explore how architecture and design shape our hospitals and medical centres. Today, we look at what Indigenous people tell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results are bad news for Australian students, parents, employers and policymakers. Pretty much everyone. Australian 15-year-olds are now below the OECD average in mathematics, and our results in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Clode, Senior Research Fellow in Creative Writing, Flinders University It is only mid-November but we have to walk early to avoid the heat. A northerly wind picks up clouds of dust and pollen, sending dirty billows across the paddocks. The long ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Changes coming to fuel market, anti-vaxxer arrested in Samoa, and banks told to hold more capital.New recommendations to increase competition in the fuel market have been made by the Commerce Commission, reports the NZ Herald. Their conclusion is that it isn’t competitive ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias. ...
An alliance of top researchers is trying to keep New Zealand ahead of complex health challenges from overuse of antibiotics, threats to freshwater quality and emerging infectious diseases. ...
The birthplace of the Labour Party is once again at the forefront of a new movement, this time harnessing the power of the collective to step away from coal towards a low carbon future.Blackball is a small place with a huge history. This week the town, 29 kilometres from Greymouth, ...
Life expectancy is increasing all the time, and now actuaries and retirement experts say young people need far more information on what they’ll need to do with their money if they live to 100. Don’t worry, we’re here to help. The message from the Retirement Income Interest Group of the New ...
German politician Joschka Fischer has had a remarkable career. From street violence and helping to set up the Green party, he matured into the foreign minister and vice-chancellor of a united Germany, serving until 2005. His understanding of power politics led him to support the use of force in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison said it with a straight face, and repetition for emphasis. “I’m very pleased, very pleased, with the performance of all of my ministers,” he declared on Thursday. This ringing if unconvincing universal endorsement ...
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Government proposals to overhaul insurance contract laws should make the whole process of taking out insurance easier and simpler to understand for consumers, says Financial Advice New Zealand. ...
Despite New Zealand First lobbying hard at the Cabinet table, the Finance Minister says the case to move Auckland's port operations north has not yet been made. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Tomnay, Assoc. Professor / Director of Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health, University of Melbourne Around one in six Australian women have had an abortion by their mid-30s. These women come from all age groups and demographics: some are mothers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roslyn Petelin, Course coordinator, The University of Queensland Reports this week about the demise of the Apostrophe Protection Society may have been greatly exaggerated. The Apostrophe Protection Society was set up in 2001 in the UK by retired journalist John Richards with ...
Today the Court of Appeal released their decision to allow Helen Milner (The Black Widow) to have the last remaining body samples of the husband she murdered, in an attempt to prove her innocence by trying to see if he had an underlying heart condition. ...
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Time to change our relationships to our waterways.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/381064/new-zealanders-want-tougher-protections-for-waterways
The day of reckoning is coming for uncaring polluters.
7 billion people.
Enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world a thousand times.
Trillions of litres of chemicals in the air in the water in the land.
I wonder by the end of this century if living out doors will still be possible
or if the survivors will be in sealed in bubbles.
Many of those contributing to the degradation of rivers through their farming practices might be caring, unwitting, reluctant, unable to do otherwise. But those uncaring ones, they deserve a reckoning.
Most people live in the Cities so won’t be impacted by any tough new regulations. It is easy to call for this when it isn’t your livelihood that is directly impacted.
There are much tougher regulations in urban areas too.
Farmers have had it too easy too long.
Either comply or sell the land to someone who will comply.
I just heard Vernon Tava on Morning Report, interviewed about his initiative for a new green party. He said it has to be genuinely centrist. That’s reassuring. He didn’t use the bluegreen framing. In fact, he explained that he hadn’t canvassed the idea with any other National MPs.
That’s a puzzle! It suggests the Nats view their brand as captive and want to keep it in-house. It also suggests tacit thinking: their bluegreen MPs are dogs who need to be kept in their kennels, rather than be allowed to roam freely in public.
This all paints a picture in which establishment politics has successfully marginalised both political wings of the Green movement. Since the public, as revealed in the new poll, is 80% behind authentic environmentalism, the political arena is wide open for centrist political representation.
Vernon reckons the time is right. People seem to feel the same, but we ought not to discount the gate-keeper effect of MMP. Getting a new party through the gate already clogged up with other parties can only succeed if voters see it as a better option and switch their support. One leader can’t achieve that result: authenticity requires a genuine convergence of political activists from the margins. No sign of that yet.
I would be tempted to support a Blue-Green party if they genuinely searched for market based solutions to environmental issues.
Bit like searching for an oasis in the desert, eh? There, alright, but always real hard to find. If it was easy, environmental problems wouldn’t persist.
“market based solutions to environmental issues.”
Can you give an example of one such solution, Gosman?
Gosman?
Robert G
As a non-market solution to trees needing water in a drought, I have a street tree with tap root apparently – liquidamber, with a lot of grass around it, and also a decorative plum prunus cerasifera nigra I think.
Now would it be good and useful to the tree to carry a 10 litre bucket of water and splash it round about 1 metre from the trunk each day? It’s been dry here for a while and the recent high winds have been getting warmer.
If I just did the above daily would that help the trees or would I be wasting my time?
Hi Greywarshark. How big/old are the trees? If they are young (1 or 2 years) then hand-watering is a good option. Often the grass will be affecting the availability of water and nutrient to the tree, so carefully (no weed-whackers, ever!) removing the live grass will help – lay it down as mulch. If the tree is well established and showing signs of stress from drought, the chances of saving it with buckets of water are reduced, but you’ll probably enjoy the activity anyway and it could help. Often, amenity trees are poorly planted and have distorted roots, so it’s difficult to really know what’s going on down there.
Or the tree should be left to die and the precious water used for something more appropriate. Not all tress are good in every location they exist.
And still the administrators of this blog allow gosman to continue to troll.
Why is that te reo putake, LPrent?
After all te reo putake, you set a precedent with banning Ed you know.
Why is that a Troll? That is a valid environmental question. If you have a scarce resource such as water you have to make decisions on the best use of it. In some circumstances giving it to a tree might not make sense.
+10000000 the market based Green Party comment is worth a year long ban…trolling par excellence
Why?
Is Gosman breaking the Rules as set out in the “Policy” for TS?
Or is he actually within the Rules in putting up “dissenting views” and participating in “reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints”?
IE “We encourage robust debate and we’re tolerant of dissenting views. But this site run for reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints and we intend to keep it operating that way.”
Is Gosman making “pointless personal attacks”, or commenting in a “tone or language that has the effect of excluding others”?
IE “What we’re not prepared to accept are pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others.”
Is Gosman continuing a flame war “where there is little discussion or debate”?
IE “We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate.”
Is Gosman making assertions that he/she is unable to substantiate with some proof?
Is Gosman unable/refusing to argue when requested to do so?
IE “We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate. This includes making assertions that you are unable to substantiate with some proof (and that doesn’t mean endless links to unsubstantial authorities) or even argue when requested to do so”
Hint – what about Gosman’s comment at 2.1.2.3 below.
Now I don’t often agree with Gosman’s comments, but my perceptions/opinion of his behaviour here is that, for the most part, Gosman actually complies with the TS rules above – much more so that the (many) commenters who have and continue to:
— Call for Gosman to be him banned ( “using language that has the effect of excluding others”)
— Make personal attacks, derogatory or snide personal remarks about him/her, attack the messenger not the message (“pointless personal attacks”).
etc, etc.
‘
Ta I’ll give it a try Robert. The amenity tree liquidamber, is large well established growing on a berm, swale-style. The prunus is old but lovely, so will take out the yarrow that I mistakenly planted, I don’t want more large roots to go with the bindweed, what a dope I am. That should give the old lady a bit of a boost.
https://www.edf.org/approach/markets
“Case study: acid rain
Problem: Sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power plants was creating harmful acid rain several decades ago. Traditional regulation would have simply directed every plant owner to cut pollution by a specific amount in a specific way, an expensive and often ineffective solution.
Solution: Our experts proposed a cap-and-trade approach that required overall sulfur emissions be cut in half, but would let each company decide how to do it. Power plants that cut their pollution more than required could sell the extra allowances.
Outcome: Cap and trade was so effective and affordable that The Economist magazine called it the “greatest green success story of the decade.”
“
Meanwhile in the real world,it is not as simple ie it increased surface radiation.
http://www.iac.ethz.ch/group/climate-and-water-cycle/research/radiation-and-the-hydrological-cycle/global-dimming-and-brightening.html
and increased methane in the atmosphere.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2005GL022544
The Right loves talking about the so-called free market. While on paper this utopia of the free market system seems to make sense in the real world it does not.
A free market in order to work as they claim it should requires all those involved to deal fairly with each other and everyone to have equal negotiation power. However, in the real world, it falls over very fast as greedy people always find ways to manipulate the market in their favor.
Some business people who claim to be for the free market, for example, use their power to force workers to take crappy deals to keep their jobs and when they attempt to unionize to give them equal negotiating power to get their fair market share of the profits they are suddenly no longer for a free and fair market and try and break the unions.
The current non-free market cannot find a solution to solving environmental issues as it would require the greedy to spend a tiny bit of their profits to prevent pollution.
There are a lot of solutions out there right now that will work, but because they require extra money to be spent they choose to ignore them.
That’s easy enough. Simply charge polluters for the cost of cleaning up just as was done with SOX/NOX emissions in the 1980s
Any political party genuinely interested in environmemtal sustainability would be fabulous,
Fabulous: having no basis in reality; mythical.
“fabulous creatures”
synonyms: mythical, legendary, mythic, mythological, fabled, folkloric, fairy-tale, heroic, traditional; More
He hasn’t a clue, Robert. You’re wasting your time trying to argue in good faith with him.
Have you listened to this Morrissey?
It’s an excellent interview with Laith Marouf by Eva Bartlett on the history and current state in the Middle East. Particularly how the Kurds got to be Syrian citizens.
Gosman don’t listen to this, it’s way beyond your intellect.
Thanks robert , looks like “fabulous” is the correct word then at this time. Altho i think i intended “welcome”
Yes but the Maori party sounded great at the time, but sadly hijacked for a “seat at the table” mentality. Now Maori seem worse off in terms of homelessness and wages and conditions post the near decade of support the Maori party gave to the Natz, which also destroyed and divided the Maori/party in reality as well.
The party The Maori party most served was the National party, it helped take down the Mana party which was a lot more focused on raising poverty standards and genuine treaty issues for Maori.
I’d say the Green Party are already too close to the National party, and it’s taking down their voter support along with their tenancy to go woke left as well as intentionally or unintentionally supporting the right, so I don’t necessarily think that another Green Party allied to the Natz is going to help the environment, more like have an outcome like the Maori party.
Well when you have an idiot as a leader (Fox) who supports screwing up the RMA what chance do u have?
The biggest 3rd party can often play Queen maker
so well worth the Greens looking to add to it’s vote.
Green/Red, Green/Blue, Green/Old Fartz NZF, Green/Brown, or Green /young?
Do the research, get the stats find two photogenic articulate spin doctors
and hit the hustings I mean FB,Snap Chat and E-Mail.
Don’t forget to tick, share,and subscribe.
Idiot/Savant looks at the issue of an “astroturf” party.:
“National has no friends, leaving them with an obvious problem in the MMP coalition game next election. Their solution? To simply create one:
…
The problem: if they do, then its a clear signal that the party isn’t really green. Because National’s policies of supporting the dairy, oil and trucking industries, sucking the rivers dry, and dragging their feet on climate change in the name of “balance” with economic growth are inherently anti-environment, and any environmentally-minded voter can see that. Which makes their “BlueGreen” astroturf idea laughable – the only people it convinces are people who don’t understand environmental issues at all. But like Colin Craig, Kim Dotcom and Gareth Morgan, they probably think they can simply throw money at the problem and buy the votes they need, with a fallback of hoping to buy enough votes away from the actual Green Party to drive them out of Parliament – a deeply undemocratic goal. But unlike National, I think environmentally-minded voters are smart enough not to fall for it.”
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/01/an-astroturf-party.html
I suspect it will mostly grab existing NAct voters – certainly won’t take many Green voters.
Plus maybe a few rightish Labour voters – this is probably the biggest risk to a left-side coalition.
Are you stating that there are not Green voters who would be swayed by a political party willing to work across the political divide to solve environmental problems?
There are very few Green voters who won’t be able to see straight through a green-painted puppet of the National Party.
The trouble is you would think ANY political party willing to work with National is a puppet. Take off your ideological blinkers for one second and try and look at the situation with the minimal of bias.
How many parties that worked with National are still alive and kicking?
so like a child the National party uses others for play time and when broken goes to find a new toy.
So yeah, generally speaking any Party willing to work with National, especially one created to work with National, is a Puppet.
The same can be stated for Labour. Where is the Alliance? Where is United Future (a Labour partner as much as National). NZ First disappeared from Parliament after the last time it was in coalition with Labour. Look what is happening to The Greens now.
troll
See my reply to your other similar (unnumbered) comment further up thread a couple under 2.1.2.2.1.
I wonder how they’ll respond to challenges over any policies or principles they might profess. Environmentalists are well practiced at arguing these issues, centrists and right wingers, not so much, beyond their narrow range. “Off-setting” would be a good example.
How is “Off-setting” a good example?
A good example of the Right’s approach to conserving natural taonga. Turn it into money, wreck it, buy something somewhere else that fits your own model of what’s valuable.
You haven’t explained how “Off-setting” is bad beyond your emotive dislike of it. I have yet to see anybody argue that “Off-setting” should be used in all circumstances to deal with every environmental concern. It is merely one of multiple tools that could be employed. I am pretty sure you don’t have an issue with the principle behind it either.
Gosman – what is it about my explanation for the failings of the off-set model described at 10:14 don’t you understand to be bad? My dislike of it, is not based on emotion; I’ve had close associations with the process and weighed up the reality of it carefully. It’s typical of the Right’s approach to environmental management and it’s a fail, imo.
You have not explained why. You objection does seem to be based purely on your emotional dislike of the ideology behind it rather than whether it works or not. If it was based on some actual facts showing that it doesn’t work (i.e. it makes the overall environmental problem worse) then you have a valid argument against it.
My argument is, Gosman, that something like a pristine river can be damned/dammed if the dammers pay for the creation of a kiwi sanctuary elsewhere. That is, the river is lost. Gone. Environmental loss, right there. Not emotive, actual.
Where is this proposal to build a Kiwi sanctuary to enable a river to have a dam to be built on it? That generally is not how a proper “Off-setting” scheme works anyway.
“something like” was to indicate a theoretical example.
What is your understanding of “off setting” Gosman?
In any case, off setting, as proposed by Right wingers, is just one of many examples where the Right ideology (everything has a price!) exemplifies the narrow range the Right makes decisions from on environmental matters – my original claim.
troll
You could be very wrong there.
You wont get the far left nutters, but you will get some of the more rational people who like to vote for the enviornment.
When you are just hovering above 5% you wouldn’t want to lose many.
esp with NZ first under 5%.
Hell – Labour could lose all their friends after just one term.
And national could split itself apart into two ~20% parties.
Two can play “coulds”.
Yes, that possibility is what will be deterring those in the know. If their market research has established the likelihood. From a design perspective, they have to ensure the split is more like 35:10.
That was implied in my suggestion re Bridges & Nat caucus endorsement. They ought to brainstorm the design then create consensus. Just enough front-people to pull the bluegreens over the threshold, up to a comfortable margin. At least two sitting MPs with centrist street cred and safe seats should suffice.
He’s not the only one to get it wrong. Here’s what the bomber thinks: “There’s no actual electorate here for Blue Greens so getting to 5% is a total pipe dream.” https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/01/27/vernon-tava-blue-green-fantasy-shows-how-desperate-national-are-becoming/
But Tava is not actually proclaiming the bluegreen brand. Leftist misrepresentation is a ruse to lead observers astray.
“Blue Greens will fail to get any electorate traction at all and I support National wasting energy on this bullshit as it will only eat into National’s voter base without any representation.” Bridges hasn’t endorsed use of the bluegreen brand, has he? Bradbury’s kool-aid intake must’ve gone over the limit.
“The only purpose for running Blue Greens is as a spoiler to the actual Greens who will face a strong challenge again from TOP and with the additional syphoning off by Blue Greens would see the Greens slip beneath 5%.”
Now there he actually makes a very good point. Splitting the centrist vote defeats the centrist cause, so both tribes within the GP could lose big.
And “global warming and the catastrophes it’s bringing will demand radical policy responses”. True. Does this mean the GP will go radical? Of course not. Democracy will always marginalise radicals. That’s why it’s a prescription for disaster.
I suspect there probably is room for a socially and economically centrist, environmentally focused party. I’m aware of more than a few voters that can relate to the likes of Kennedy Graham and David Clendon, but can’t swallow the idea of voting for a party whose public profile is as much about reclaiming the c-word or promoting the crap Sue Kedgley was into, as it is about environmental issues.
These are people that enjoy spending time in the outdoors, can see and are distressed by the damage currently being done and want to turn it around. Sneering comments like ” … don’t understand environmental issues at all” simply provokes a ‘fuck you very much’ in return.
“These are people that enjoy spending time in the outdoors, can see and are distressed by the damage currently being done and want to turn it around”
Farmers? Operators of earth moving machinery? Hunters?
Listening to Minister Mahuta on RNZ drone on about water industry and regulation reform, looks like the most she will achieve in a term is slightly stronger drinking water standards some time after the election – once she puts up her Cabinet paper mid this year.
In reality there will be nothing that gets the critical issues of
– water and wastewater pricing regulation,
– system amalgamation, state capex subsidy, or
– the kind of either regulatory approach to networks seen in the Electricity Authority over our electricity generators, or
– the full core+subsidy approach that extends over the New Zealand land transport network through NZTA.
Nothing from Mahuta this morning told us we will see effective action about water.
The weakness in this cabinet to regulate is pretty apparent in water.
“National leader Simon Bridges says he retains confidence in Invercargill MP Sarah Dowie and she won’t be stood down, despite a police investigation into a message sent from her phone to Jami-Lee Ross.
But he said he does not condone her behaviour, in relation to the text in question.”
Tells us two things:
Bridges is a weak leader who would have demanded a “stand down” at least, if it was the other way round.
That Dowie did send the message.
Bridges is an appaling poitical operator imo. He is wrecking the gnats, just him. Funny as hell.
Paula’s warming up her engines as we speak.
The engines are currently idling on an eco-friendly fuel mix of botulinum and ethanol produced from a load of rotting old spuds with a heavy dose of colagen in the sump to keep everything all greased up.
And the only problem they’ve yet to overcome is the potential for being charged with ‘sustained loss of traction’
“Bridges retains confidence”.
So when Dowie steps down in the near future
she can say “although I retained support of my colleagues
I believe it is best I step aside”.
This will make it easier for the Nat’s to win any by- election.
Spin spin spin.
NB.
News caster ends with
“Dowie does not rule out a return to politics
at some time in the future”
Heatwave, it’s been warm in Motueka.
What are your tips for keeping cool in the heat?
Have been opening up the house at night, then getting up before the sun and closing all the windows, curtains etc to keep out the sun.
Blenheim 33 degrees at moment Cinny. As kids we used to revel in very hot summers but now not so much fun. The washing on the line dried almost instantly though.
Overhead sun doesn’t reach inside much but doors windows wide open and a stiff gutsy gusty norwester keeps the air moving. Refuse the use of an air conditioner.
Whanganui 37c degrees here today
Cinny in Australia one household I know of, puts 8 cool packs in the freezer to be used if a household member becomes heat stressed, wrapped, placed on head and back.
Also four milk bottles in freezer. Place two at at a time in front of a fan so air blows across them.
Make fruit juice and cordial iceblocks/popcicles
DRINK PLENTY, a pinch of salt and sugar help quickly replace lost sweat.
Fill the bath with cold water, sit in it for ten minutes before bed.
Wear pure cotton or lawn. Cheers. Not everyone has aircon, or even power goes down for a while sometimes
The so called “new” idea about a cooler using the simple evaporation of water works OK. We had a little porous concrete one 60 plus years ago to keep the butter cool.
A soaking wet towel near the breeze or a fan would work.
I would tell my kids to get the water off their swimming skins as the change of state water to gas, is what chills them.
Yes, Ian, did you hear about how our soldiers kept beer cool in the desert during WWII? Wrapped in a wet towel suspended from a line in blazing sunshine, apparently. Actually, did they really get a beer ration from the powers that be or was that an urban legend? Maybe it was water…
Bags of frozen vegetables (eg peas) can also be used in place of cool packs for heat stress – and of course, sprained ankles etc. Better in fact than solid style cool packs as they ‘wrap’.
Sssshhh – not PC these days, but Glad sell soft plastic ice block bags in packs of 8 (?) for just a couple of dollars where you fill a bag with tap water through a pocket which then self-seals and you end up with a wrapable ice pack for next to nothing. Not reuseable however, unless you use something else (peg?) to reseal the filling hole.
Not available in all supermarkets but if so, in the same part as sandwich bags etc.
VeutoviperThe cool packs are a gel and can be pushed around an ankle. yes frozen pea pks are a good old stand by.
patricia b
Something i remember from time in Oz – they tend to line bathroom and have on floor, ceramic tiles which tend to remain cold. Lying lightly clad on the floor, with damp towels over body, could be emergency cooling. Perhaps some soothing music to lower stress, and alleviate the discomfort, cold water for sipping.
Then there are the novelty caps with reservoirs of water and tubes to suck on, silly but they could save extreme heat stress. Can’t find much on google for these which i remember from decades ago. But coca Cola has come up with a simple? version. I would recommend having plastic disposable gloves though. Bit stupid not including these in the demonstration as nothing is ever as simple as you expect.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q50UL5LpeEo
Beer hats
(https://www.amazon.com/Bazaar-Hands-Beverage-Tubularis-Drinking/dp/B06X9FJ2J3
(https://www.ebay.com.au/b/Beer-Hat/155078/bn_72173313
Greywarshark, my brother and family used to sleep in the dining room on the tiled floor with the fan going. It was a regular thing in summer if the temperature got above 35 deg. It had a cathedral ceiling
Awesome tips everyone thanks for the advice and tips, much appreciated.
No air-con at ours, so this kind of info being shared is gold.
Thanks again.
Google diy swamp cooler for a bunch of ideas (if an article from that blathering idiot The Hosk appears, don’t bother with that one).
Swamp coolers really work a treat in dry areas, but if it’s humid heat they don’t do anything useful.
Window coverings stopping the heat getting in are good. Something on the outside works better than a curtain on the inside if there’s an easy way to put something there.
Private enterprise will look after us better than slack government – so the mantra goes. It is much more efficient to employ people in a just-in-time scenario? This is very hard on anyone wanting to have a life.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018679697/survival-mode-why-some-rural-emergency-services-are-under-threat
Prime is a 24/7 emergency medical service which relies on local doctors and nurses, who also have day jobs, as on-call contractors. The medics who are signed-up with Prime drop everything to attend call outs as and when they arise.
For rural communities, it’s a lifeline.
Dr Creegan was a Prime doctor on isolated Great Barrier Island before moving to Waimate in South Canterbury, where she raised her family and established her practice while continuing her Prime work.
She’s one of three Prime responders in the practice covering the service.
“There’s a thing in the back of your mind all of the time that you’re on call. You just tuck it in and get on with it. But you go to sleep with that thought that you might be woken up in the night,” Dr Creegan said.
“You can’t go and have a swim without thinking that you’re away from your pager or your phone so you might need to ask someone to hold it for you and sing out to you, or you might just actually say ‘I’m going to go for a swim and I’m not going to worry about it for 20 minutes’. But then you’re going to look at your pager when you come back and if something’s come in that time, how are you going to feel?”
What planet are these people on if they think those paltry fines will act as a deterrent. Many of the migrants pay that just for the job in the first place! They should have a minimum $50k fine and increasing the more turnover the business has, then 10 times the amount undercharged paid back to the worker with a minimum of $25,000 and then be banned from employing migrant workers and defiantly not allowed to sponsor them permanantly! IF the employer is not a citizen they should be deported for illegal trading and not be allowed to become a resident here!
If businesses are still better off when they are caught underpaying or asking for money for the job, then what is the deterrent???
Probably costs more than that for the government to prosecute them, when you look at the lawyers fees and court costs! crazy!
Restaurant owner fined for poor treatment of migrant workers
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/381115/restaurant-owner-fined-for-poor-treatment-of-migrant-workers
No wonder places like Hawkes bay have high unemployment of local people and they have a rental crisis!
Allan Nairn: “I think someone like Mr. Abrams would
be a fit subject for such a Nuremberg-style inquiry.”
In March 1995, journalist Allan Nairn exposed how Elliott Abrams organized death squads in Guatemala. and confronted him on television.
Twenty-four years later, Abrams has yet to serve a day in prison for his crimes. Donald Trump has just appointed this terrible criminal “Special U.S. Envoy to Venezuela.”
He sounds like a real peach of a guy morry. Maybe the Venezuelans should apply for his extradition.
Sounds like the KiwiBuild boss who resigned had trouble with the inertia of the Housing department team he was transferred to – and his previous strong record across multiple jobs supports that: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12197474
What’s Crispy’s track record like.
Looks OK on paper as well. Someone may know.
Here is an article from Dec 2018 with a short bio for Andrew Crisp and the SSC press release on which it is based:
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/97196/andrew-crisp-appointed-ceo-new-ministry-housing-and-urban-development-responsible
http://www.ssc.govt.nz/chief-executive-ministry-housing-and-urban-development-appointed
And here is a 2016 one which gives a little more about his earlier Public Service career.
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/andrew-crisp-appointed-linz-chief-executive-195920
I actually worked with/for Andrew briefly in his Department of Labour days back in the early 2000s and also had dealings with him when he was at Treasury. I always found him excellent (and easy) to work for and with. I consider him someone with integrity, very intelligent but down to earth, a good team player who worked to bring people along with him. Haven’t seen him for years but I doubt he has changed much over the yearsin those respects.
Thank you. Must have been quite the clash in styles then.
Probably from a quick read of the articles today. Crisp has previous ‘form’ in cleaning up similar messy CE situations. Exactly what he was doing when I worked under him. LOL. I mean “form” in the best of meanings . He was/ hopefully still is, top notch in that regard/role.
And Barclay has form for badmouthing after leaving a role:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1901/S00241/housing-ministry-head-hints-he-acted-against-barclay.htm
‘Nuff said.
They deployed a trained killer. What could possibly go wrong?
New details in the case against a Navy SEAL charged with multiple war crimes emerged during a marathon hearing this week at Naval Base San Diego.
Friday’s hearing revealed that seven Navy SEALs have been granted immunity to testify for the prosecution during the upcoming trial of Edward R. Gallagher, a chief special warfare operator alleged to have murdered a wounded teenage Islamic State combatant by stabbing him in the neck.
[…]
Witnesses told investigators that Gallagher boasted of killing up to 200 people during the 2017 deployment. Another witness said Gallagher told him he killed “three a day” and to “do the math” for the total number he killed.
[…]
Prosecutors said the incident began May 3, 2017, with a drone strike and two Hellfire missiles hitting two sides of a home in Mosul. Witness statements conflict about whether the injured Islamic State fighter was inside the home when it was struck. The prosecution says he was, but the defense said their witnesses say he was injured by gunfire, not the drone strike. Both sides agree that Iraqi forces loaded the combatant onto the hood of a Humvee and delivered him to Gallagher’s team. Gallagher, a medic, began treating him.
Prosecutors say Gallagher stabbed the fighter, estimated to be between 15 and 17 years old. Gallagher also is accused of posing for photos with the corpse, operating a drone over it and, sometime later, celebrating his reenlistment next to it.
[…]
In unrelated incidents, Gallagher is charged with shooting two civilians — an old man and a little girl — and with shooting indiscriminately at civilians throughout his deployment.
One witness told investigators Gallagher told him it was “OK to shoot at women.”
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-seals-granted-immunity-in-murder-trial-20190126-story.html
This could be the subject of an interesting fast paced scam novel. From 2016 but part of our interesting development as we tried to be the sleazy Switzerland or offshore haven for those with hot money, perhaps hot from being passed around so quickly; too much friction.
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/81725/nelsons-stock-exchange-big-ponzi-scheme-and-other-tales-john-keys-offshore-financial
A foreign exchange business that looks and smells like a Ponzi scheme targeting Malaysians, a Nelson-based global stock exchange, a warning from the Czech Republic’s central bank, a fantasist, and curious French-Latvian connections all have one thing in common. New Zealand registered financial service providers.
While the NZ government looks, albeit unenthusiastically, at changing foreign trust laws in the wake of the Panama Papers, here’s a reminder the country’s international reputation is being degraded by more than just Mossack Fonseca and foreign trusts. This statement is based on our probe of just a handful of NZ registered financial service providers.