As an unashamed righty – this was far from the result I was wanting. But Nation ran a terrible campaign – and lets face it Winston (Love or loath him) really does have that “X” factor.
Personally I hope that this does not impact the RMA reforms, but I can see that this is going to be an issue now.
Oh well, lets hope the cricket goes well. On that at least most of us will agree.
Why do you want the RMA reforms? The current system does not prevent development, provided it is environmentally sustainable. And conversely, the proposed reforms were simply a return to colonial times of greed, slash and burn and fuck the environment. The proposed reforms were indicative of Neanderthal thinking.
The beginning of the end of an evil dishonest RW era of Key. Well done Winston, Well done NZF, Well done Willow-Jean, Well done Labour, Well done Andrew Little, Well done all the Opposition of NAT/ACT, Well done Northland and Well done New Zealand!
Thanks especially to; Clendon and his Northland team, for convincing the Wellington GP strategists that contesting this byelection would be a waste of time and money. His 3639 voters from last election certainly helped make Peters’ victory an emphatic one.
+I
Actually I would credit both the Whangarei and Northland electorate teams who were very smart working together with Labour & NZF during the 2014 election campaign. The local Greens was never in doubt supportIng Peter’s for a collective win.
Now watch the crafty Peters slowly but surely lance the NACT abscess and let NZ see the pus ooze out over the remainder of this term. Payback for 2008 just begun.
So much material to work with, starting with the former member for northland.
‘Waaaahh they all ganged up on us’ probably, be good to see some real journos in Oz get in his face.
CT will have the lines are prepared however the fact remains they just lost one of the safest rural national seats after throwing the kitchen sink at it in terms if on the ground presence and pork barrelling.
This happened to me yesterday as well, Lynn. The edit link was available, but clicking on it said I didn’t have permission. This was when the timer was at about the 7 min mark. Refreshing the page, the edit link had vanished.
This has sporadically happened in the past, as well. I wonder if it’s related to moderator activity happening elsewhere in the comments?
My problem of late has been that my comments often just disappear until the 10 minute editing window has expired (at which point I notice some obvious typos I would have corrected). Yestereve, I just put that down to the elevated amount of site traffic, but it’s been happening sporadically for the past week.
Ah. That one is due to some kind of combination of server and client side caching.
Try doing a Shift+F5 or Shift+Refresh when you next see it. And get back to me if it doesn’t fix it.
What that does is force the local cache to be flushed and a new request to load to be sent to server. The problem is that there are several layers of caching going on.
The closest one is your browser cache that shows when you use the back button.
The next is the signature that your browser sends to the server based on its cache info. The server uses that to determine if it has a “new” copy of that page, if not it tells your browser to reload the existing copy on your system. Sometimes the page hasn’t ‘changed’ after you async save a comment because it hasn’t ‘stored’ that update yet.
In those cases it may tell your browser to reuse the stored copy of the page, or it may send you one that has been cached on the server side.
Then there is the database cache that keeps track of updates. That sometimes doesn’t update immediately after a change is made because the database is still async processing it.
Nett effect is that sometimes, usually under heavy load you won’t get the page displaying with your comment on it. Doing a forced refresh will usually get it for you.
I’ll have a review of the current cache settings. But they are optimized for readers rather than commenters for the obvious reason – more than 95% of the page loads are from pure site reads. What I am wondering is if the memcached signatures are set to clear when a comment is made, but are reloaded by something else while the comment is being saved.
That has happened to me quite often. Sometimes I have been away from the post or even to another blog and when I have returned and want to edit and improve? my comment I am not allowed back in though plenty of time is available still. And refreshing wipes out the time available.
And I did wonder if it relates to activity in other areas of the blog, big downloads, new posts, etc. It’s still possible to put a separate amending note – it’s not being locked out – just from your own original comment.
trying to correct a loaded one to edit it with 7min’s plus remaining on it and I’ve never seen this message before.
It was on a first gen iPad which is just about ready for the technology scrapheap….imac is fine but the android pad has always had issues with the site and while I’m on the subject the iPhone never shows a ‘reply’ button for any comments in safari.
I’m on the subject the iPhone never shows a ‘reply’ button for any comments in safari.
On the usual desktop site? Or the mobile one?
The mobile site doesn’t have a reply button per comment. It is a problem with the theme.
The desktop theme shouldn’t do that. I wonder what the Shift-F5 equivalent is on a tablet…
BTW: I just splashed out $120 and grabbed the “Agency” version of WPTouch so I could get the developer documentation so I can correct issue properly. Lyn in Vietnam for a few weeks so I should have some extra spare time.
BTW2: The Agency version of the mobile theme has a pile of speed enhancements. Seem to do great things on my android phone. What about others?
I have logged in using my Android phone looks like a good deal for your $$$ speed is way better. BUT.. Sorry to say no reply button in Android even after logging in.
“Has the current PM made any statements too his media puppies?”
……..you mean since he said Winston had “no chance”? is his radar malfunctioning? will he be having a serious think about his future after last night, like he did after the cup of tea debacle? I think he should.
As a Northland electorate voter, all I can do is give thanks as well – to Winston for standing, to Andrew Little and Willow-Jean for giving us “permission” (“approval” ?) to vote for Winston, and to the Nats for giving us almost six weeks of constant entertainment and amusement as evidenced by these cartoons –
Agree with your sentiments, except that the party organisations do not give permission to anyone to vote. The enlightened voters make that choice, and there were still over 1000 who do not understand first-past-the-post up there.
And as an aside, National took two on the chin yesterday. Hope Slater recovers from that headache quickly, andthat it may have knocked some sense into him. Wonder if he will change his attitude to “bullying”
It’s actually a shame to see you go this time. Twitter seems to have engendered more conciseness to your comments. I’ve only just caught up on last night’s conflageration and see why you feel that a boycott is required in this instance.
I don’t know what “quite literally” means. Something like “pretty legal”?
Meh, ban who you like. Bit rich though to ascribe a view to him that he quite definitely didn’t literally write, after warning him for ascribing views to other parties.
However, I think the Pigman has the best solution when he says:
Personally, I think it makes participating in discussions on her [Stephenie Rodgers’] posts a tense and unpleasant experience akin to walking on eggshells.
Of course, the easiest way to avoid it is simply not to comment on anything she posts, a practice I’ll be adopting forthwith.
(For the record, until her derailing on Bill’s Assange post, served with scattershot derision for ma[l]e commenters on ts generally, and subsequent excessively controlling discussions in another post this week, I regarded her as a good author whose views I often accorded with.)
It seems a shame to have lost the commentary of; yourself, marty mars, rawshark –
yeshe, & greywarshark, all over the needless banning of Murray Rawshark on a night when those opposed to NACT should have been celebrating their ability to work together. Especially since at the time he was banned, he had already announced:
I’m taking a holiday from here. I can’t handle the approach taken by a couple of authors in their moderation. It feels too much like abuse of power and suppression of debate to me. See you all sometime. Maybe.
Therefore until at least the 12th of next month, I will join the Pigman in not commenting on any of the posts of Stephenie Rodgers. I see no reason to boycott the Standard as a whole as other authors have shown no similar tendancies to abuse their powers of moderation. Perhaps those in voluntary exile might consider doing the same and not depriving TS of your viewpoints?
Let her speak only with; the trolls, and her own echos, for a while.
Yep, I’ll be boycotting Stephanie’s posts from now on. Her aggressive stance towards any sort of criticism is an on-going problem for The Standard. A mix of self-martyrdom and control-freakery. Needs to be confronted once and for all.
It’s true that Stephanie comes in for an unusual amount of flak. But I’d ask her defenders (like, for example, Weka) – those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender – to consider the stark contrast between reactions to Karol and Stephanie.
Karol is a woman and a feminist but received very little criticism. Why ? Because she dealt reasonably with anyone who took issue with her arguments. Typically, she’d reply with something like: “Show me the evidence”.
Stephanie, on the other hand, seems to regard any criticism or disagreement as some sort of vicious attack upon her person. It really is Hyper-sensitivity gone mad. Unlike Karol, Stephanie’s reply would usually be along the lines of either:
(1) Don’t you dare tell me what to think or say !
or
(2) Don’t you dare demonise me !
Trigger-happy aggression dressed-up as self-defence.
And she’ll never have to stand back and objectively scrutinise her own behaviour because, of course, she has “200 years of feminist scholarship” to reassure her that it’s all about “men not being able to deal with a strong, decisive woman” rather than her own deeply controlling personality.
All of which may cop me a lifetime ban, but, as I say, it’s a problem that needs to be confronted once and for all. The shame of it is that Stephanie does, in fact, contribute some very important and interesting posts.
“those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender”
I haven’t said it’s all about gender. Neither has Stephanie (and none of us know what Stephanie is thinking). The only person who has run that line is felix, and now yourself. Please don’t misrepresent what I say.
Myself, I think there is room on ts for a range of moderation styles. I could criticise every moderator here, or praise them. But I don’t because I believe that the moderation here is set to protect the site and the authors not to suit the ideals of the commenters. That keeps the place functional and vibrant.
Unfortunately the comparison with karol just buys into the whole women/feminists have to behave in certain ways thing. It’s ok for Lynn to be rude and abusive when he moderates, but Stephanie has to behave like a well behaved feminist.
I would also point out that Stephanie is in a completely different situation than karol with regards to being a feminist blogger and what that means, and that those things need to be taken into account (i.e. context has meaning).
I’m gobsmacked to see you psychoanalysing an author and moderator. I think your characterisation of Stephanie is off and it’s really disappointing to see people thinking they can use their own characterisations of her to criticise her moderation.
+100…and I feel that Murray Rawshark, Colonial Rawshark and others have also come in for some quite unwarranted, personal, distasteful and vicious attacks at times eg…”rape apologists” with extras ( check out the posts on Julian Assange issue)
…sexism in reverse?
… or disguised trolling ie their arguments (and in fact the whole initial Post) was illegitimately hijacked , overturned and twisted into something they never meant
Greens have gone from 1 seat to 4 seats in the NSW Lower House. They’ve taken the 2, formerly safe North Coast seats of Ballina and Lismore off the Nationals as the issue of Coal Seam Gas extraction became a major election issue. They held Balmain and gained the adjacent newly created inner Sydney seat of Newtown. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-28/nsw-election-greens-balmain-newtown-ballina-lismore/6356098
Where are all the headlines reporting this tremendous rout?
Where is John key putting in his usual two cents worthless worth?
Where is the pig?
Useless media!!
Great win and a fantastic nights celebration. Have shaken the hangover, helped by the shock of our little dog befriending a kiwi when I let her out for a pee. Taken her for a walk along the water front. The media are intviewing Peters now, ha some lady just yelled out go Winston you beauty! which really does sum things up nicely.
I’ve turned on Q & A late, so far seen an interview with Joyce, and now one with Marama Fox from the MP. First time I’ve seen Marama do anything, and she appears a very capable politician – I’d say better than some of the government ministers when it comes to explaining their position and interviews.
It’s still going on now on TV1, or you can catch it at 10am on 1 + 1.
In the latest ruling he has lost an estimated $67 million to the US. Im not sure if this means assets held in NZ and HK as yet. He seems to think that this wont be touched, but then again he has not been right for some time.
nice to see the slug hit the canvass so swiftly in his ‘fight’ with Ryder.Maybe the useless loudmouth should hand in his ‘man card’,he fought like a woman!
He keeps his Idiot Card for doing it at all. I don’t think he ever had a “man card” and trying to punch people in the head while wearing your undies is no way to get one.
physically it was an even match…Ryder is an over weight cricketer who is not toned or quick and I was expecting the slug,given his macho verbosity to actually fight.He did get up after being knocked over ,but offerred about as much resistant as a brightly coloured punching bag.
Agreed. I don’t want to open up any jokes about intelligence or whether he has a brain or not, even a few blows to the head can cause concussion and brain damage, which can have a lasting effect on your life.
Mind you, some people get brain damage and become better people for it. I’m not wishing brain damage on him, but maybe it’ll be for the better in the long term.
Those according him courage for self promoting himself in a boxing ring are the kind of people that mean we struggle to get justice for many vulnerable in this county, they perpetuate a dangerous and outdated definition of “man”. Being prepared to fight someone for personal gain (be it financial or publicity) is not manly.
Nah, the problem is: A couple of weeks back, Fisi suddenly changed his tune and covered his ass by predicting a Winnie win. (And I see he’s turned up today on another thread).
A leaked copy of the report, led by University of Auckland research fellow Dr Glenn Simmons, estimated that over 60 years, 40.4 million tonnes of catch was taken. That was roughly 2.9 times the 14 million tonnes reported officially during the period.
Government officials are braced for the impact of the report, acknowledging that New Zealand’s data on historic catch levels are poor.
Since the quota management system was introduced, Simmons “conservatively” estimated that the actual catch was 2.2 times official reported data.
Simmons, who could not be reached for comment on Friday, blamed the “vast majority” of the unreported catch on industrial catch and discards, in large part pointing the finger at foreign flagged vessels.
This is why we need better reporting and oversight of fishing. We need to know how much is being taken so that we can set quotas so that the fish in our seas get back to historic levels. We can’t do that if catches are being misreported.
Also note that the report was leaked by the fishing industry in what appears, IMO, to be an attempt to attack it before it’s official release.
Talking to both commercial and recreational fishermen the days of plenty are well in the past with some recreational outings yielding nothing.
We also need to factor in the non NZ fishing fleets who take advantage of our lack of enforcement and plunder what they can and the damage bottom trawling has done to the ecosystem.
Naturally our government introduced voluntary self-reporting for fishing vessels rather than having MAF inspectors on each one as previously. Though these figures suggest maybe that made little overall difference either.
This is effectively a black market twice the size of the official one. You’d think any state might want to do something about that in their own territory.
Anagrams from ‘one lout in that side of the house’.
Come to mind – tools, snide, hades, deus, nest, nose, tint, foist, nous, haste, lost, etc
and funny all have relevance to some or all of our parliamentarians.
Here is a link to making a submission to Parliamentary select committee on Inquiry into the 2014 general election
This is particularly essential for all those people – especially in the Northland electorate – who think they were unjustly turned away from voting in last year’s general election.
The closing date for submissions is Tuesday, 31 March 2015
By convention, a select committee inquiry is conducted following a general election into the legal and administrative aspects of that election. This process provides a multi-party approach to the review and any reform of the law and administration relating to Parliamentary elections.
The terms of reference for the inquiry are: “To examine the law and administrative procedures for the conduct of Parliamentary elections in light of the 2014 general election”.
The committee requires 2 copies of each submission if made in writing. Those wishing to include any information of a private or personal nature in a submission should first discuss this with the clerk of the committee, as submissions are usually released to the public by the committee. Those wishing to appear before the committee to speak to their submissions should state this clearly and provide a daytime telephone contact number. To assist with administration please supply your postcode and an email address if you have one.
And is there a business waiting to take off building furniture out of the pine they have planted in the past which I think is still abundant, and barging it south from Opua or a suitable port nearbuy to the big markets elsewhere in NZ though presumably mainly Auckland? The barges would also carry other produce. Another local business looking to the future when road making and vehicle costs are affected badly by high oil prices.
Juken wood treatment company has had a plant in Kaitaia for years connected with the MDF board industry. And there are a number of businesses working with this material but I don’t know how many are fully in NZ and NZowned. http://www.paneltec.co.nz/ (An Australian firm with sales office in Dargaville) http://www.applefurniture.co.nz/ (A NZ enterprise based in Kaiwaka)
Jim Anderton in 2005 launched this book on the growth of MDF board. http://www.beehive.govt.nz/node/24157
Another site is hotfrog that is listing businesses and promoting them which gives an extra boost to small businesses.
It listed Make Enterprises Dargaville connected with Paneltec.
BBS Timbers NZ owned timber firm providing a range of species.
Juken have a big plant in Wairarapa and this item refers to the amount of wood available there. So perhaps Northland needs to keep up its plantings to get the right mass of wood to enable the local business to be ongoing.
Some comments in a stuff article on the business. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/9411743/Juken-primed-for-growth-with-founders-added-value-strategies While over half the timber logged in New Zealand leaves the country in this “primary” form, Juken focuses on tertiary production, which is only around 15 per cent of the country’s timber output, he said.
“There’s enough wood in Wairarapa to have another 10 mills. We have the single largest ownership, 15,000ha – but that’s only 20 per cent of what’s available in Wairarapa.”
Volatile prices and exchange rates have sent many domestic mills to the wall, such as Rotorua’s Tachikawa Forest Products which went into receivership last month with the loss of 120 jobs.
But Juken has insulated itself against the worst impacts by buying its logs for milling from its own forests, at a long-term average price.
Juken appear to have brains and foresight. Perhaps we should just throw out our politicians and contract out much of the business side of NZ to them. That however sounds suspiciously like an ACT idea so there is bound to be a worm in the apple.
The spokesperson refers to volatile prices which NZ must adjust to, but this difficulty is worsened by the exchange rates affected by the mafia protection system we are locked
into. Something that a government for NZ with guts, and explanations to the citizens of our true economic state, needs to do something about. Particularly the volatility of casino-like overseas financial entities playing with our money as if it was casino chips.
I noticed that my fingers produced nearbuy for nearby. I am wondering if there isn’t something of a Freudian slip here. Maybe nearbuy is going to be a new useful word that indicates local trading and business?
Northland produces higher-density timber that is too valuable to be chipped into MDF. Making solid furniture from it locally would create skilled jobs and better export revenues.
Well well:
“NZ First leader Winston Peters says NZ First may decide not to bring an extra MP into Parliament after his Northland byelection win because his party supports a smaller Parliament.”
Interesting. Won’t make any difference to the Government power. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424888
@ianmac I’m sure Winston will resign his list seat and bring in another NZF member.
What people are missing here is the fact that the public of Northland knew this was going to happen if they elected Peters (or if they didn’t they don’t may attention-no excuse) yet they elected Peters with a stonking great majority.
People who whinge about this outcome need to accept that a democratic process has taken place where the electorate knew the consequences of their vote, rather than focusing on the effect on the result of an election 6 months ago.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that everyone who voted for Winston on Saturday fully expected him to resign his seat and that NZF would be up a seat afterwards. For him to now not do that would be against those expectations and thus against democracy.
This is a problem with our democracy in that our ‘representatives’ can go off and do what they like once they’ve been voted in no matter what their policies or the expectation of the populace was when they were voted in.
It is actually a very complicated legal situation, as no explicit legal provisions exist for the current situation. Too tired tonight to try to explain but suggest you read Graeme Edgeler’s latest post on Public Address; together with his earlier post there and Philip Lyth’s earlier post there today. Links are included in Edgeler’s latest post.
. Let us be quite definite about this. Any Democratic politician who thinks this is a bad situation — or, worse, will not stand by a Democratic colleague in this situation — is not worth the hankie to blow Joe Lieberman’s nose.
Representatives from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, have met to discuss ways to urge Democrats, including Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, to soften their party’s tone toward Wall Street, sources familiar with the discussions said this week. Bank officials said the idea of withholding donations was not discussed at a meeting of the four banks in Washington but it has been raised in one-on-one conversations between representatives of some of them. However, there was no agreement on coordinating any action, and each bank is making its own decision, they said.
My god, what a prodigious bluff. Also, my god, what towering arrogance? These guys own half the world and have enough money to buy the other half, and they’re threatening the party still most likely to control the White House because they don’t like the Senator Professor’s tone?Her tone? Sherrod Brown’s tone? These are guys who should be worried about the tone of the guard who’s calling them down to breakfast at Danbury and they’re concerned about the tenderness of their Savile Row’d fee-fees? Honkies, please.
So now Yemen joins Syria, most of Iraq, northern Jordan, northern Lebanon, and northern Saudi Arabia into social chaos.
The United States is aligned alongside Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and against them in Yemen. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, who have joined in the Saudi offensive in Yemen, are bombing factions in Libya backed by Turkey and Qatar, who also support the Saudi offensive in Yemen. The Syrian conflict has been fueled by competition among all regional powers to outmaneuver one another on battlefields far from home.
Neither the US nor Saudi Arabia have any consistency, and even Iran is beginning to look coherent in its positioning.
This is going to get broader and much, much worse before it gets better.
There was a well attended and very noisy protest outside Sky City this afternoon where the
“New Zealand’s premier annual upstream event- featuring the government’s launch of block offer 2015-the exclusive tender for exploration permits”, was taking place.
Topics include-expert speakers presenting with NZ context,
-insights into NZ regulatory system,
– best practice local community engagement.
I guess we were helping inform them about the last topic. All protesters had been invited to bring a drum and were entertained by Michael Franti before marching from Victoria Park to Sky City.
One major sponsor is Halliburton. Another is Fragomen which is a global corporate immigration law firm. This doesn’t indicate jobs for locals to me.
KiwiRail are saying that ‘no final decision has been made’, but when someone says that, it is pretty much always a done deal.
New Zealanders paid a lot of money for that electrification, plus interest, and it is madness for it to be ripped out only about 30 year later and sold for scrap. Fuel prices may be low, but that doesnt mean that they will be low forever…
When Lab VI bought Toll Rail back in 2008, it was supposed to be a new era for rail in NZ. Unfortunately since National won the election that year, their attacks on the rail system have been more savage than ever before.
Why don’t the nats go the whole hog and go back to steam trains , we could hire the unemployed on contracts to cut all those pesky trees down in the central north island to fuel them.
Where does Key get off?
The Northland-safe-as-houses seat for National was lost for no other reason than the usual die-hard Nat voters were actually not sure what sort of National Party is running the country – its complexion appears to have changed over the last couple of months and they couldn’t be convinced enough to get out and vote. I don’t think they are actually impressed by the likes of Bennett, Bridges, Woodhouse sitting on or near the front benches. They want stability and substance, not flash Harrys.
Perhaps the issues of the TPPA, RMA were not as important to them to motivate them to get out and vote. Surely they don’t need the presence of a campaign to get them to the polling booth.
They must have known that their government’s programme was under threat if Winston Peters rested the seat from them. That surely should have been motivation enough.
So Mr Key needs a bit deeper analysis than blaming the opposition for this defeat.
I’m happy for the nats to stay in denial with “the left and winnie ganged up on us” excuses.
The longer they take to lose their hubris, the better it’ll be for everyone else in 2017 (or earlier).
If dunnokeyo lives up to the form roughan confirmed, in a very short while our glorious pm will be reconsidering whether he wants to stay in the job. And mr didn’t-fix-it fucking up again leaves an opening for the minister for oravida, petulent bean, woodhead, mcshouty, and whoever else to battle for the iron throne…
If Saturdays 4,000 majority to Winston is combined with a National majority of 9,000 (last general election night) there is a loss of 13,000 to National.
How many National supporters chose not to vote last Saturday?
The spy agency probably has the answer to my question.
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Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
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Thank you Northland. 🙂
+100
As an unashamed righty – this was far from the result I was wanting. But Nation ran a terrible campaign – and lets face it Winston (Love or loath him) really does have that “X” factor.
Personally I hope that this does not impact the RMA reforms, but I can see that this is going to be an issue now.
Oh well, lets hope the cricket goes well. On that at least most of us will agree.
Why do you want the RMA reforms? The current system does not prevent development, provided it is environmentally sustainable. And conversely, the proposed reforms were simply a return to colonial times of greed, slash and burn and fuck the environment. The proposed reforms were indicative of Neanderthal thinking.
I’m glad you answered your own question because there was fuck all chance that James was going to.
The beginning of the end of an evil dishonest RW era of Key. Well done Winston, Well done NZF, Well done Willow-Jean, Well done Labour, Well done Andrew Little, Well done all the Opposition of NAT/ACT, Well done Northland and Well done New Zealand!
And so say all of us!
+100
Thanks especially to; Clendon and his Northland team, for convincing the Wellington GP strategists that contesting this byelection would be a waste of time and money. His 3639 voters from last election certainly helped make Peters’ victory an emphatic one.
+I
Actually I would credit both the Whangarei and Northland electorate teams who were very smart working together with Labour & NZF during the 2014 election campaign. The local Greens was never in doubt supportIng Peter’s for a collective win.
Well done Mora and the GT!
+100…great to hear the co-operation Skinny….
+1000
Now watch the crafty Peters slowly but surely lance the NACT abscess and let NZ see the pus ooze out over the remainder of this term. Payback for 2008 just begun.
So much material to work with, starting with the former member for northland.
Oh Doctor please do! Bring your healing fingers. Goodness gracious me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03DKl3lOY4k
+100 tc …yes I would love to see this…in fact I think most of New Zealand is waiting to see Winston play this…
Well done Winston,a real David and Goliath performance.Has the current PM made any statements too his media puppies?
‘Waaaahh they all ganged up on us’ probably, be good to see some real journos in Oz get in his face.
CT will have the lines are prepared however the fact remains they just lost one of the safest rural national seats after throwing the kitchen sink at it in terms if on the ground presence and pork barrelling.
Worm turning….tick.
Would like correct my dodgy typing but it says I have no permission to edit.
That is odd unless the time has expired. Is this when you save an edited comment?
This happened to me yesterday as well, Lynn. The edit link was available, but clicking on it said I didn’t have permission. This was when the timer was at about the 7 min mark. Refreshing the page, the edit link had vanished.
This has sporadically happened in the past, as well. I wonder if it’s related to moderator activity happening elsewhere in the comments?
My problem of late has been that my comments often just disappear until the 10 minute editing window has expired (at which point I notice some obvious typos I would have corrected). Yestereve, I just put that down to the elevated amount of site traffic, but it’s been happening sporadically for the past week.
Ah. That one is due to some kind of combination of server and client side caching.
Try doing a Shift+F5 or Shift+Refresh when you next see it. And get back to me if it doesn’t fix it.
What that does is force the local cache to be flushed and a new request to load to be sent to server. The problem is that there are several layers of caching going on.
The closest one is your browser cache that shows when you use the back button.
The next is the signature that your browser sends to the server based on its cache info. The server uses that to determine if it has a “new” copy of that page, if not it tells your browser to reload the existing copy on your system. Sometimes the page hasn’t ‘changed’ after you async save a comment because it hasn’t ‘stored’ that update yet.
In those cases it may tell your browser to reuse the stored copy of the page, or it may send you one that has been cached on the server side.
Then there is the database cache that keeps track of updates. That sometimes doesn’t update immediately after a change is made because the database is still async processing it.
Nett effect is that sometimes, usually under heavy load you won’t get the page displaying with your comment on it. Doing a forced refresh will usually get it for you.
I’ll have a review of the current cache settings. But they are optimized for readers rather than commenters for the obvious reason – more than 95% of the page loads are from pure site reads. What I am wondering is if the memcached signatures are set to clear when a comment is made, but are reloaded by something else while the comment is being saved.
That has happened to me quite often. Sometimes I have been away from the post or even to another blog and when I have returned and want to edit and improve? my comment I am not allowed back in though plenty of time is available still. And refreshing wipes out the time available.
And I did wonder if it relates to activity in other areas of the blog, big downloads, new posts, etc. It’s still possible to put a separate amending note – it’s not being locked out – just from your own original comment.
Nope. What I am wondering about is how it determines that time. Maybe there is a absolute UTC time transmitted as part of the Javascript.
trying to correct a loaded one to edit it with 7min’s plus remaining on it and I’ve never seen this message before.
It was on a first gen iPad which is just about ready for the technology scrapheap….imac is fine but the android pad has always had issues with the site and while I’m on the subject the iPhone never shows a ‘reply’ button for any comments in safari.
I get the missing reply button as well. I find that logging in solves the problem. but it is random.
Umm…
On the usual desktop site? Or the mobile one?
The mobile site doesn’t have a reply button per comment. It is a problem with the theme.
The desktop theme shouldn’t do that. I wonder what the Shift-F5 equivalent is on a tablet…
BTW: I just splashed out $120 and grabbed the “Agency” version of WPTouch so I could get the developer documentation so I can correct issue properly. Lyn in Vietnam for a few weeks so I should have some extra spare time.
BTW2: The Agency version of the mobile theme has a pile of speed enhancements. Seem to do great things on my android phone. What about others?
I usually use the desktop site, and can leave a couple or 3 computers logged at once maybe that’s it???
I have logged in using my Android phone looks like a good deal for your $$$ speed is way better. BUT.. Sorry to say no reply button in Android even after logging in.
I still have to write that. Part of the package was the documentation and the barebones framework.
Except Winston was the Goliath.
When Winston ran his first electorate campaign in the north, Mark Osborne was 3 years old.
He still is?
Shouldn’t say that.Sorry Mark.
“Has the current PM made any statements too his media puppies?”
……..you mean since he said Winston had “no chance”? is his radar malfunctioning? will he be having a serious think about his future after last night, like he did after the cup of tea debacle? I think he should.
The FBI used to recommend encryption. Now they want to ban it! What?
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/28/the-fbi-used-to-recommend-encryption-now-they-want-to-ban-it
a p.s…before my two-week absence/protest in support of murray kicks off..
..see you all in a couple of weeks..
..but first i have to give thanks..
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/comment-whoar-those-we-need-to-thank-for-the-victory-in-northland/
As a Northland electorate voter, all I can do is give thanks as well – to Winston for standing, to Andrew Little and Willow-Jean for giving us “permission” (“approval” ?) to vote for Winston, and to the Nats for giving us almost six weeks of constant entertainment and amusement as evidenced by these cartoons –
http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2015/03/cartoons-about-the-northland-by-election.html
Agree with your sentiments, except that the party organisations do not give permission to anyone to vote. The enlightened voters make that choice, and there were still over 1000 who do not understand first-past-the-post up there.
And as an aside, National took two on the chin yesterday. Hope Slater recovers from that headache quickly, andthat it may have knocked some sense into him. Wonder if he will change his attitude to “bullying”
JK Thanks. Those cartoons are priceless. I think Emersons ‘morepork’ was no. 1.
And what will the cartoons be like when they find out why it was that there was a by-election, as Tremain’s cartoon refers ?
pu
I thought your thank qus were very well said. You summed it up pretty well.
phillip ure
It’s actually a shame to see you go this time. Twitter seems to have engendered more conciseness to your comments. I’ve only just caught up on last night’s conflageration and see why you feel that a boycott is required in this instance.
Comment 31 & associated replies on:
http://thestandard.org.nz/winston-takes-northland/
Comment 28 & associated replies on:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28032015/
Felix’s responses are good:
However, I think the Pigman has the best solution when he says:
It seems a shame to have lost the commentary of; yourself, marty mars, rawshark –
yeshe, & greywarshark, all over the needless banning of Murray Rawshark on a night when those opposed to NACT should have been celebrating their ability to work together. Especially since at the time he was banned, he had already announced:
Therefore until at least the 12th of next month, I will join the Pigman in not commenting on any of the posts of Stephenie Rodgers. I see no reason to boycott the Standard as a whole as other authors have shown no similar tendancies to abuse their powers of moderation. Perhaps those in voluntary exile might consider doing the same and not depriving TS of your viewpoints?
Let her speak only with; the trolls, and her own echos, for a while.
Yep, I’ll be boycotting Stephanie’s posts from now on. Her aggressive stance towards any sort of criticism is an on-going problem for The Standard. A mix of self-martyrdom and control-freakery. Needs to be confronted once and for all.
It’s true that Stephanie comes in for an unusual amount of flak. But I’d ask her defenders (like, for example, Weka) – those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender – to consider the stark contrast between reactions to Karol and Stephanie.
Karol is a woman and a feminist but received very little criticism. Why ? Because she dealt reasonably with anyone who took issue with her arguments. Typically, she’d reply with something like: “Show me the evidence”.
Stephanie, on the other hand, seems to regard any criticism or disagreement as some sort of vicious attack upon her person. It really is Hyper-sensitivity gone mad. Unlike Karol, Stephanie’s reply would usually be along the lines of either:
(1) Don’t you dare tell me what to think or say !
or
(2) Don’t you dare demonise me !
Trigger-happy aggression dressed-up as self-defence.
And she’ll never have to stand back and objectively scrutinise her own behaviour because, of course, she has “200 years of feminist scholarship” to reassure her that it’s all about “men not being able to deal with a strong, decisive woman” rather than her own deeply controlling personality.
All of which may cop me a lifetime ban, but, as I say, it’s a problem that needs to be confronted once and for all. The shame of it is that Stephanie does, in fact, contribute some very important and interesting posts.
+100…yes come back karol!
“those who agree that it’s all to do with her gender”
I haven’t said it’s all about gender. Neither has Stephanie (and none of us know what Stephanie is thinking). The only person who has run that line is felix, and now yourself. Please don’t misrepresent what I say.
Myself, I think there is room on ts for a range of moderation styles. I could criticise every moderator here, or praise them. But I don’t because I believe that the moderation here is set to protect the site and the authors not to suit the ideals of the commenters. That keeps the place functional and vibrant.
Unfortunately the comparison with karol just buys into the whole women/feminists have to behave in certain ways thing. It’s ok for Lynn to be rude and abusive when he moderates, but Stephanie has to behave like a well behaved feminist.
I would also point out that Stephanie is in a completely different situation than karol with regards to being a feminist blogger and what that means, and that those things need to be taken into account (i.e. context has meaning).
I’m gobsmacked to see you psychoanalysing an author and moderator. I think your characterisation of Stephanie is off and it’s really disappointing to see people thinking they can use their own characterisations of her to criticise her moderation.
+1 Weka.
+100…and I feel that Murray Rawshark, Colonial Rawshark and others have also come in for some quite unwarranted, personal, distasteful and vicious attacks at times eg…”rape apologists” with extras ( check out the posts on Julian Assange issue)
…sexism in reverse?
… or disguised trolling ie their arguments (and in fact the whole initial Post) was illegitimately hijacked , overturned and twisted into something they never meant
Greens have gone from 1 seat to 4 seats in the NSW Lower House. They’ve taken the 2, formerly safe North Coast seats of Ballina and Lismore off the Nationals as the issue of Coal Seam Gas extraction became a major election issue. They held Balmain and gained the adjacent newly created inner Sydney seat of Newtown.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-28/nsw-election-greens-balmain-newtown-ballina-lismore/6356098
NSW still loses its power network tho.
Fark, those North Coast wins for the Greens are amazing. That’s true-blue territory. (Lismore in particular).
A massive 32% swing in Ballina and 26% in Lismore.
Where are all the headlines reporting this tremendous rout?
Where is John key putting in his usual two cents worthless worth?
Where is the pig?
Useless media!!
As expected, please John stay the F away from the black caps and keep your losing touch where it belongs….around Steven Joyce’s neck.
Great win and a fantastic nights celebration. Have shaken the hangover, helped by the shock of our little dog befriending a kiwi when I let her out for a pee. Taken her for a walk along the water front. The media are intviewing Peters now, ha some lady just yelled out go Winston you beauty! which really does sum things up nicely.
Hope you guys enjoyed my babbling last night 🙂
Yep glad your karma? gave you little hangover. Shane Jones with NZF next time ?
Commented on Jones under mickeys recent post, go there cobbah.
Thanks saw that
+100 ..yup…on the spot commentary …cant beat it!
I’ve turned on Q & A late, so far seen an interview with Joyce, and now one with Marama Fox from the MP. First time I’ve seen Marama do anything, and she appears a very capable politician – I’d say better than some of the government ministers when it comes to explaining their position and interviews.
It’s still going on now on TV1, or you can catch it at 10am on 1 + 1.
Apparently Peter Dunne has made an urgent appointment at the hairdressers and can’t take a call from John just now …
I see Dotcom has had another setback. Its been a while since he had any good news in the courts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424752
In the latest ruling he has lost an estimated $67 million to the US. Im not sure if this means assets held in NZ and HK as yet. He seems to think that this wont be touched, but then again he has not been right for some time.
Maybe if he had gone there he could defend himself. Hopefully he will be gone soon.
nice to see the slug hit the canvass so swiftly in his ‘fight’ with Ryder.Maybe the useless loudmouth should hand in his ‘man card’,he fought like a woman!
He was outclassed, and out skilled. But he actually got in there. He keeps the “man card”. Anyone who has boxed would agree.
He keeps his Idiot Card for doing it at all. I don’t think he ever had a “man card” and trying to punch people in the head while wearing your undies is no way to get one.
physically it was an even match…Ryder is an over weight cricketer who is not toned or quick and I was expecting the slug,given his macho verbosity to actually fight.He did get up after being knocked over ,but offerred about as much resistant as a brightly coloured punching bag.
Doubt it. Cam looked like shit. He had shit cardio. He was puffed after 30s.
He was happy that he could now run 8km, when at the start of his training he couldn’t run at all.
I doubt Ryder would have much trouble running 16km.
the fat feral fucker got his head smashed into the ground…
how apt
what goes around comes around… every time
🙄
There is nothing man about Slater as it was for self promotion, if you think other wise you have been suckered by the biggest coward in NZ.
Not so tough without a laptop to hide behind…
WhaleOil – I know hes not the most liked here, but regardless takes stones to get into a boxing ring (More so on television).
So all credit for raising the $$$ for charity. But I wouldn’t think he will be stepping into the ring again. Simply seriously outclassed on the night.
I agree with tc (at cmnt 15 below); “slater is all about self promotion”. I fail to see why we should celebrate his macho posturings here.
+1
Not enjoying the confluence of politics and violence either. Boxing match, Peters giving National a bloody nose analogy etc.
“Man card”? “stones” ? “fought like a woman”?
Hey this is the 21st century.
+1
+1
Also boxing is stupid. If Slayer has to express himself through a violent one-on-one competition then why can’t the gun freak make it pistols at dawn?
Can you confirm that he didnt receive any recompense at all, with documented proof. Thanks.
A little Sunday humor, http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/jesse-ryder-knocks-cameron-slater-video-6272354
Was that a left hook or a right one?
resplendent in red …knocked out by Ryder in the blue corner…says he may fight again…must like lying on the canvass!
Stones or stupidity either way the slater is all about self promotion and this was an opportunity to do so without expensive lawyers or govt MP’s.
Boxing is pure stupidity.
Agreed. I don’t want to open up any jokes about intelligence or whether he has a brain or not, even a few blows to the head can cause concussion and brain damage, which can have a lasting effect on your life.
Mind you, some people get brain damage and become better people for it. I’m not wishing brain damage on him, but maybe it’ll be for the better in the long term.
Those according him courage for self promoting himself in a boxing ring are the kind of people that mean we struggle to get justice for many vulnerable in this county, they perpetuate a dangerous and outdated definition of “man”. Being prepared to fight someone for personal gain (be it financial or publicity) is not manly.
where is the Key-sucker fisiani today I wonder?
Even Key is speechless and has gone into hiding! Winston had Zero chance of winning, he had said!
I think Key has gone to get his photo taken with Abbot at the cricket. They can share exit strategies together.
Abbott is not in Melbourne for the cricket. He is in Singapore for Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral – which is where Key should also be IMO.
+1
Nah, the problem is: A couple of weeks back, Fisi suddenly changed his tune and covered his ass by predicting a Winnie win. (And I see he’s turned up today on another thread).
NZ fishery catch may be three times more than reported
This is why we need better reporting and oversight of fishing. We need to know how much is being taken so that we can set quotas so that the fish in our seas get back to historic levels. We can’t do that if catches are being misreported.
Also note that the report was leaked by the fishing industry in what appears, IMO, to be an attempt to attack it before it’s official release.
the sea is rapidly being depleted of fish.
just like the kauri, the seals, the whales and now the rivers and waterways, the greed of primary sector takers has no limits.
we have idiots in government so what do we expect?
Talking to both commercial and recreational fishermen the days of plenty are well in the past with some recreational outings yielding nothing.
We also need to factor in the non NZ fishing fleets who take advantage of our lack of enforcement and plunder what they can and the damage bottom trawling has done to the ecosystem.
Naturally our government introduced voluntary self-reporting for fishing vessels rather than having MAF inspectors on each one as previously. Though these figures suggest maybe that made little overall difference either.
This is effectively a black market twice the size of the official one. You’d think any state might want to do something about that in their own territory.
Feeling a bit sorry for the hostage in Northland, there’s no way Joyce will release him now that his face has been all over the tv.
They’re going to have to kill him.
Hapless suitor of female reporters stirs up a hornet’s nest
Steven Joyce, the campaign manager from Hell, is not the only right wing politician suffering massive ridicule at the moment….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/67527214/Peter-Dunne-takes-on-New-Zealand-comedians
Oh god what a wally. What’s that old line about not getting into a war of words with anyone who buys ink by the barrel?
It also applies to “people who take the piss for a living”
never go into a war unarmed… and in a war of humour he is most definitely unarmed.
Would he rather be lightly roasted by Sandy Tosksvig? I don’t think so…
Which National MP is out?
Did you mean to write: “Which National MP is a lout?”
Answer:
Jonathan Coleman
There is more than one lout in that side of the house.
stout?
Anagrams from ‘one lout in that side of the house’.
Come to mind – tools, snide, hades, deus, nest, nose, tint, foist, nous, haste, lost, etc
and funny all have relevance to some or all of our parliamentarians.
The answer is no change since Sabin resigned.
Here is a link to making a submission to Parliamentary select committee on Inquiry into the 2014 general election
This is particularly essential for all those people – especially in the Northland electorate – who think they were unjustly turned away from voting in last year’s general election.
The closing date for submissions is Tuesday, 31 March 2015
By convention, a select committee inquiry is conducted following a general election into the legal and administrative aspects of that election. This process provides a multi-party approach to the review and any reform of the law and administration relating to Parliamentary elections.
The terms of reference for the inquiry are: “To examine the law and administrative procedures for the conduct of Parliamentary elections in light of the 2014 general election”.
The committee requires 2 copies of each submission if made in writing. Those wishing to include any information of a private or personal nature in a submission should first discuss this with the clerk of the committee, as submissions are usually released to the public by the committee. Those wishing to appear before the committee to speak to their submissions should state this clearly and provide a daytime telephone contact number. To assist with administration please supply your postcode and an email address if you have one.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/business-summary/00DBSCH_INQ_59471_1/inquiry-into-the-2014-general-election
Thinking about Northland and one of its industries – timber. Does that work well for them? Does it create lots of permanent jobs? A bit of background around the MDF (medium density fibreboard or squashed bits of timber making large panels of uniform strength and size.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard
An alternative view of MDF. http://www.joshuakennon.com/why-i-avoid-mdf-and-furniture-built-with-mdf-and-think-you-should-too/
And is there a business waiting to take off building furniture out of the pine they have planted in the past which I think is still abundant, and barging it south from Opua or a suitable port nearbuy to the big markets elsewhere in NZ though presumably mainly Auckland? The barges would also carry other produce. Another local business looking to the future when road making and vehicle costs are affected badly by high oil prices.
Juken wood treatment company has had a plant in Kaitaia for years connected with the MDF board industry. And there are a number of businesses working with this material but I don’t know how many are fully in NZ and NZowned.
http://www.paneltec.co.nz/ (An Australian firm with sales office in Dargaville)
http://www.applefurniture.co.nz/ (A NZ enterprise based in Kaiwaka)
Jim Anderton in 2005 launched this book on the growth of MDF board.
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/node/24157
Another site is hotfrog that is listing businesses and promoting them which gives an extra boost to small businesses.
It listed Make Enterprises Dargaville connected with Paneltec.
BBS Timbers NZ owned timber firm providing a range of species.
Juken have a big plant in Wairarapa and this item refers to the amount of wood available there. So perhaps Northland needs to keep up its plantings to get the right mass of wood to enable the local business to be ongoing.
Some comments in a stuff article on the business.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/9411743/Juken-primed-for-growth-with-founders-added-value-strategies
While over half the timber logged in New Zealand leaves the country in this “primary” form, Juken focuses on tertiary production, which is only around 15 per cent of the country’s timber output, he said.
“There’s enough wood in Wairarapa to have another 10 mills. We have the single largest ownership, 15,000ha – but that’s only 20 per cent of what’s available in Wairarapa.”
Volatile prices and exchange rates have sent many domestic mills to the wall, such as Rotorua’s Tachikawa Forest Products which went into receivership last month with the loss of 120 jobs.
But Juken has insulated itself against the worst impacts by buying its logs for milling from its own forests, at a long-term average price.
Juken appear to have brains and foresight. Perhaps we should just throw out our politicians and contract out much of the business side of NZ to them. That however sounds suspiciously like an ACT idea so there is bound to be a worm in the apple.
The spokesperson refers to volatile prices which NZ must adjust to, but this difficulty is worsened by the exchange rates affected by the mafia protection system we are locked
into. Something that a government for NZ with guts, and explanations to the citizens of our true economic state, needs to do something about. Particularly the volatility of casino-like overseas financial entities playing with our money as if it was casino chips.
I noticed that my fingers produced nearbuy for nearby. I am wondering if there isn’t something of a Freudian slip here. Maybe nearbuy is going to be a new useful word that indicates local trading and business?
Northland produces higher-density timber that is too valuable to be chipped into MDF. Making solid furniture from it locally would create skilled jobs and better export revenues.
Well well:
“NZ First leader Winston Peters says NZ First may decide not to bring an extra MP into Parliament after his Northland byelection win because his party supports a smaller Parliament.”
Interesting. Won’t make any difference to the Government power.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424888
@ianmac I’m sure Winston will resign his list seat and bring in another NZF member.
What people are missing here is the fact that the public of Northland knew this was going to happen if they elected Peters (or if they didn’t they don’t may attention-no excuse) yet they elected Peters with a stonking great majority.
People who whinge about this outcome need to accept that a democratic process has taken place where the electorate knew the consequences of their vote, rather than focusing on the effect on the result of an election 6 months ago.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that everyone who voted for Winston on Saturday fully expected him to resign his seat and that NZF would be up a seat afterwards. For him to now not do that would be against those expectations and thus against democracy.
This is a problem with our democracy in that our ‘representatives’ can go off and do what they like once they’ve been voted in no matter what their policies or the expectation of the populace was when they were voted in.
It is actually a very complicated legal situation, as no explicit legal provisions exist for the current situation. Too tired tonight to try to explain but suggest you read Graeme Edgeler’s latest post on Public Address; together with his earlier post there and Philip Lyth’s earlier post there today. Links are included in Edgeler’s latest post.
http://publicaddress.net/legalbeagle/what-next-for-winston/
Charles Pierce says what he really thinks.
.
Let us be quite definite about this. Any Democratic politician who thinks this is a bad situation — or, worse, will not stand by a Democratic colleague in this situation — is not worth the hankie to blow Joe Lieberman’s nose.
My god, what a prodigious bluff. Also, my god, what towering arrogance? These guys own half the world and have enough money to buy the other half, and they’re threatening the party still most likely to control the White House because they don’t like the Senator Professor’s tone? Her tone? Sherrod Brown’s tone? These are guys who should be worried about the tone of the guard who’s calling them down to breakfast at Danbury and they’re concerned about the tenderness of their Savile Row’d fee-fees? Honkies, please.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a33971/the-senator-professor-has-some-interesting-enemies/
Hate fueled pricks can’t take a trick.
Sarah LeavittVerified account @sarahleavittcbc
Hard to estimate but 3-10 people identified themselves as being sympathetic to #Pegida #cbcmtl
https://twitter.com/sarahleavittcbc/status/581915649150181376
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/pegida-cancels-anti-islam-demonstration-in-little-maghreb
The unforgettable photo of the winner and the vanquished:
http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1823/821/original.jpg?w=600&h
The Herald is not even trying to hide its bias with a headline like this.
“Greenies say ‘frack off’ to drilling.”
Roughan on duty, I’d guess.
Unbelievable.
What an awful rag.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11424932
Sharing economy gets shared.
http://gizmodo.com/stolen-uber-accounts-are-on-sale-for-a-dollar-on-a-dark-1694273240
So now Yemen joins Syria, most of Iraq, northern Jordan, northern Lebanon, and northern Saudi Arabia into social chaos.
The United States is aligned alongside Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and against them in Yemen. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, who have joined in the Saudi offensive in Yemen, are bombing factions in Libya backed by Turkey and Qatar, who also support the Saudi offensive in Yemen. The Syrian conflict has been fueled by competition among all regional powers to outmaneuver one another on battlefields far from home.
Neither the US nor Saudi Arabia have any consistency, and even Iran is beginning to look coherent in its positioning.
This is going to get broader and much, much worse before it gets better.
Been following this bloke.
https://twitter.com/alialahmed_en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_al-Ahmed
There was a well attended and very noisy protest outside Sky City this afternoon where the
“New Zealand’s premier annual upstream event- featuring the government’s launch of block offer 2015-the exclusive tender for exploration permits”, was taking place.
Topics include-expert speakers presenting with NZ context,
-insights into NZ regulatory system,
– best practice local community engagement.
I guess we were helping inform them about the last topic. All protesters had been invited to bring a drum and were entertained by Michael Franti before marching from Victoria Park to Sky City.
One major sponsor is Halliburton. Another is Fragomen which is a global corporate immigration law firm. This doesn’t indicate jobs for locals to me.
Meanwhile, Kiwi Rail is going to chop the NIMT electrification
OMGWTF.
KiwiRail are saying that ‘no final decision has been made’, but when someone says that, it is pretty much always a done deal.
New Zealanders paid a lot of money for that electrification, plus interest, and it is madness for it to be ripped out only about 30 year later and sold for scrap. Fuel prices may be low, but that doesnt mean that they will be low forever…
When Lab VI bought Toll Rail back in 2008, it was supposed to be a new era for rail in NZ. Unfortunately since National won the election that year, their attacks on the rail system have been more savage than ever before.
Why don’t the nats go the whole hog and go back to steam trains , we could hire the unemployed on contracts to cut all those pesky trees down in the central north island to fuel them.
Where does Key get off?
The Northland-safe-as-houses seat for National was lost for no other reason than the usual die-hard Nat voters were actually not sure what sort of National Party is running the country – its complexion appears to have changed over the last couple of months and they couldn’t be convinced enough to get out and vote. I don’t think they are actually impressed by the likes of Bennett, Bridges, Woodhouse sitting on or near the front benches. They want stability and substance, not flash Harrys.
Perhaps the issues of the TPPA, RMA were not as important to them to motivate them to get out and vote. Surely they don’t need the presence of a campaign to get them to the polling booth.
They must have known that their government’s programme was under threat if Winston Peters rested the seat from them. That surely should have been motivation enough.
So Mr Key needs a bit deeper analysis than blaming the opposition for this defeat.
I’m happy for the nats to stay in denial with “the left and winnie ganged up on us” excuses.
The longer they take to lose their hubris, the better it’ll be for everyone else in 2017 (or earlier).
If dunnokeyo lives up to the form roughan confirmed, in a very short while our glorious pm will be reconsidering whether he wants to stay in the job. And mr didn’t-fix-it fucking up again leaves an opening for the minister for oravida, petulent bean, woodhead, mcshouty, and whoever else to battle for the iron throne…
I reckon that Collins is sorry that she did not have the Orivida Kauri milled.
If Saturdays 4,000 majority to Winston is combined with a National majority of 9,000 (last general election night) there is a loss of 13,000 to National.
How many National supporters chose not to vote last Saturday?
The spy agency probably has the answer to my question.