Pure clear water

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, February 21st, 2020 - 44 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, Environment, local government, nz first, Shane Jones, supercity, uncategorized, water - Tags:

It’s probably time to notice why Jones’ Provincial Growth Fund had to step in and provide several million of funding to patch up the water supply emergency in Northland.

We are in the most serious drought the upper North Island has had in recorded history, so it’s no surprise the entire system is showing strain alongside the land, the people and the animals.

In a small country with poor resources such as ours, it is nothing short of a miracle that we have such massive water storage facilities that have been built up over a century.

The dams formed in the previous century are now in the hands of corporations and are used largely for electricity generation and irrigation. They will enable that the South Island effectively never runs dry, never runs out of electricity, and will always be agriculturally productive.

Not so in the North Island.

By a long, long way, we are learning the hard way that there is not enough water storage nor facilities to process that water for human consumption. The Provincial Growth Fund is having to step in time and again to get water storage going where the planning and public investing should have been done decades earlier.

Now let’s contrast and compare Auckland’s water situation with that of Northland.

Auckland put out a discussion document on the future of water for the Auckland region. It showed that Aucklanders are on average pretty efficient in water use even when compared to some of the major Australian cities. It also forecast that Auckland’s increase growth – and growth in demand for water – would likely be sourced from further take from the Waikato River.

So in terms of proximity to a massive water source, Auckland is simply lucky.

It was also lucky to inherit through amalgamation the dams that had been built in the Waitakeres and Hunuas built in the 20th century.

But the amalgamation of Auckland also amalgamated all the local water retailers and the bulk water supplier into one entity. This amalgamation has enabled comprehensive planning for well into the future. Also the water is metered and priced, so it’s really easy to let consumers do the job of minimising use.

Northland has one regional council and a good few smaller councils. They don’t appear to cooperate that much, and they are poor because they represent mostly poor areas. They don’t have the rating base to think up and execute major projects.

Until such an extreme event as this drought occurred, there just wasn’t much need to look over the fence and cooperate together on water supply.

So now there is, and after this drought there always will be.

At the end of January, $12.7 million was allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to the Northland Regional Council to really explore future water storage options. For intensive agriculture in the Kaipara.

That’s just not going to assist in drinking water for the good people of Dargaville – even though the announcement was made in Dargaville by Winston Peters who did all his High School there, and by Shane Jones who is from the Far North.

The Kaipara District Council is still struggling to pay for its disastrous but slowly recovering wastewater facility in Mangawhai Heads. Kaipara Mayor Dr Jason Smith said that while the PGF funding was hugely significant for Kaipara’s economy, it would not help municipal supply.

Smith said water storage for Dargaville homes could cost up to $15 million, which was too expensive for a ratepayer base of just 7,000 and was already struggling to pay off the $63 million Mangawhai wastewater scheme.

As Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta observed in 2018 there’s no agenda to require local councils to amalgamate their water entities to get a bit more scale. However, she noted that it was part of a longer conversation needed with local government which owns most of the water assets and which faces wide-ranging funding challenges and capability issues, particularly in rural and provincial areas, and that “councils in a number of areas have voluntarily been looking at the pros and cons of collaborative arrangements in Hawkes Bay, Wellington, the Waikato and top of the south.”

A while back there was loose talk of Watercare taking over management of Kaipara’s water system – or indeed the whole of Northland. It’s a very small set of reticulated networks compared to what Watercare operates across the Auckland region already.

This drought certainly makes those in New Zealand who criticised Australia for lack of preparedness due to climate change just last month look pretty damn arrogant and stupid.

This could be a hinge moment for climate change effects and their response in New Zealand. It looks like there’s nothing in the forecast for the first two weeks of March either. This is big.

You won’t see any public water storage sold off under this government.

Nor will you see forced amalgamations of Council water entities.

Nor will you see water priced, nor compulsory metering.

Nor any banging of heads of some compulsory regional-plus-local forecasting and planning and doing. Leastways not yet.

You will see more funding for industrial storage, and some patch-up funding for emergency supply because Councils failed to plan, and then just simply failed.

With so many options ruled out, the solutions to durable water supply for Northland’s towns is getting narrower by the day.

And this doesn’t yet have an end.

44 comments on “Pure clear water ”

  1. dv 1

    AND yet we give water away to bottle companies!!!

    • Andre 1.1

      The amount of water that bottling companies take is trivial on the scale of water supplies for communities.

      To be sure, the perception of clean and pure that the bottling companies use to sell that water derives from the commons environment belonging to us all. So the bottling companies should be obliged to share some of that value back towards maintaining what gives it value. By way of a hefty royalty. But that really is a separate issue to bulk water supplies running short.

  2. WeTheBleeple 2

    'South Island will never run dry'

    What absolute nonsense.

  3. Adrian 3

    Dry Januarys and dry Februarys are not unusual in Marlborough having two back to back is circumstance and has happened many times before., for instance the Wine Festival day was chosen because no record of rain ever falling on the 2nd Saturday in February could be found even going back as far as 100 years.. That relativly high average is the result of stray ex-tropical cyclones that pass through in some late Dec/Jan/Feb years. Our summer rain predominately comes from the north. Quite a few have already gone through east of the country and the first one of the season has only just passed through the Tasman, hopefully more will come but as it is a generally mild El Nino/ La Nina year maybe not.

    If you want a good overview of why this is a difficult year for the Aust/NZ region look up boma.govt.au and search the Indian Ocean Dipole, the Indian Oceans EL/LN cycle and see why our weather is affected by even what is happening in the Arabian Sea and the also Southern Annular Mode which is central to our weather and responsible for all those bloody cold wet souwesters out of the Southern Ocean.

    All three are in a phase that is least conducive to "nice"weather. All 3 are ocean currents or in the case of SAM driven by them.

    Janruary rainfall average here 10kms or so from The Pryamid is only about 40-45 mm and Feb not much more.

    • RedLogix 3.1

      Thanks for this, it lines up with everything else I've read.

      It's important that climate change activists don't fall into the same error the deniers frequently exploit, cherry picking weather events to make claims about climate.

    • Robert Guyton 3.2

      Grapes are a crop that needs to be irrigated. There are other crops that grow in drier environments that don't require irrigation. There are management practices that result in moister soils year-round. Grape-growing doesn't appear to be one of those practices. Increasingly dry areas would benefit from a change from irrigation-requiring cropping to those that don't. In my opinion.

      • tc 3.2.1

        Chatting with an Ozzie farmer who's over currently.

        He's aghast at our dairying footprint and what it's done to water use etc in areas not actually suited to dairy. That and the debt levels in dairying had him wondering WTF is going on here.

        • Lettuce 3.2.1.1

          Tell him it's the same thing that's going on with the Adani coal mine in Queensland – naked greed with fuck all thought for any environmental implications past making supernormal profits for the owners.

      • Adrian 3.2.2

        With all due respect Robert knowing a bit more about soils than lovely Southland loams might change your take on that. Most of the Marlborough soils are very very shallow clay based top soils ( less than 100mm in places ) over metres and metres of glacial loess which has no waterholding potential at all.

        Visiting Aussies are astounded here when they see gum trees dying, "Mate, gum trees dont die in droughts! ' BTW, big droughts happen here around every 20 years or so or about every 3 El Nino cycles, the last one was in 1999-2001, this one isn't even that nasty, the 1958-59 one was pretty bloody bad.

        Ironicly, the soils in Marlborough vineyards are better than they have been for centuries. We mulch in all our prunings, use lime and local gypsum ( from the salt works ) to break down the clay and along with companion planting and all sorts of other little tricks there is now tilth that never existed before.

        Water is very well managed and there is lots of it down deep or stored from winter run off.

        Come and have a look sometime.

    • Adrian 3.3

      I should have added that our small river in the hills here is holding up better and better every year as every new reservoir goes in. They seem to lift the water table when used for irrigation and can only be filled when runoff is well in excess of winter acquifier requirements.

  4. RedLogix 4

    And Wellington itself looks likely to struggle with it's own ageing infrastructure issues. I suspect part of this is a couple of councillors looking to raise their profile, but the city does have an expensive problem looming.

    Wellington has an especially difficult geography for water supply/waste, the hills create quite high pressure zones that are expensive to manage. This plus a landscape prone to movement means that an ageing system is in need of a dramatic capital replacement program no-one wants to put a number on.

    • ianmac 4.1

      My older sister is restricted to her house with serious mobility problems. She lives on Waiheke Island and depends on her rainwater tank. It is empty with a big backlog of weeks for home tanker delivery. No showers and basin washing.

      Normally Auckland has 185 rain days per month with an average of 103mm per month. Record 40 days without rain. Some rain on Saturday.

      Just putting this up as the effect on the less able can be overlooked.

    • adam 4.2

      FFS redlogix do you get how bad it is in the far north? It's not an aging infrastructure – it's a failed infrastructure and the drought is breaking the back of the region. Talk about wellington and other regions is the distraction game as usual, and this is the usual crap that far north has to put up with.

      Is it because there lots of maori up here? Do we not count because we brown and so far from wellington?

      The drought and infrastructure are failing now! But no, let's do the normal and talk about wellington because its way more fucking important.

      P.S. It's hot, it's been hot for a bloody long time and I'm watching everything die around me – please, just once can people stay on topic – it's bad up here – it's worse than you are being told. And I'm a bit grumpy – so please don't take this as a personal attack.

      • RedLogix 4.2.1

        I hear you … I was only pointing out that water infrastructure problems exist everywhere albeit in different forms and severities. Right now Northland has an acute drought induced shortfall as well as a lack of decent resourcing long term.

        By contrast Wellington, while reasonably well served on the supply side has encountered an unfortunate series of major leaks on the sewerage side.

        In my 8 year experience working in the industry Ad nails it when he references the failure of govt to force mergers, smaller councils really struggle to fund and retain the people needed to run a modern water system, so they finish up contracting out a lot of specialist services which in my view is often poor value for money. (Some contractors are great, but all too often the bid goes to the sucker who made the biggest cockup in pricing the tender.)

        NZ has literally dozens of water supply entities for a population of 5m, while the UK has only 14 last time I looked. Here in NZ they should have been rolled up into the Regional Council scale, but almost always parochial local interests vociferously objected and little was achieved.

        • tc 4.2.1.1

          +100 "….but almost always parochial local interests vociferously objected and little was achieved…."

          Keep going, sewage, roads, services and a system that allows egocentric mayors/councillors to hide behind closed door flipping the bird.

          Waikato DC mayor Allan Sanson take a bow.

        • adam 4.2.1.2

          I'm all for watercare taking over the far north, as they have done a reasonably decent job in auckland.

          I think this might be the point where merger of water management has to happen, in the far north at least.

          Lip service has gotta stop being paid to this region.

          The hospital is going to make the press next, the way this drought is putting pressure on the whole hospital system. They are in trouble. Soon, a very sad headline will be coming from the hospital. The doctors, nurses and other support staff are just looking worn out, and budget restrictions are being felt on the service delivery end of things.

        • veutoviper 4.2.1.3

          From you far offsite position in Queensland, RL, it may seem that "Wellington seems likely to struggle with it's own ageing infrastructure issues" and has "an expensive problem looming" – but from my position in the midst of it in south Wellington the problems are not in the future, they are very much in the here and now and have been evident for years.

          My property, which I have owned for over 25 years and has been in family ownership for over 65 years, has had several instances over that time of breaks in the water mains etc affecting many properties in the street.

          I have been in dispute with Wellington Water for months now in relation to my latest problem – a swimming pool under my house for almost a year where it used to be bone dry. This has been put down to a leak/break in the water mains outside my property at the juncture of services from a private street immediately opposite my property joining the mains in my street.

          Wellington Water are in complete denial of this problem despite evidence from plumbers and others who have inspected the situation – no broken pipes etc on my property and my water table has risen considerably over the period. When fibre was being put in a couple of months ago, pumping equipment had to be brought in as the escavations continually filled with water – which the contractors had not expected. While some of us have too much water, others in the street have the opposite – periods of no water etc etc.

          These problems are not looming as you suggest – they have existed for years and in many areas around the city where the aging infrastructure has been neglected for years/ decades.

          In respect to your comment that you suspect that "a couple of councillors" may be "looking to raise their profile" – do you actually know any of them? I suspect not, but for those of us in the midst of this they are actually doing what we voted them in to do – helping us sort out problems with issues such as this.

          • adam 4.2.1.3.1

            veutoviper ffs, like I said above you have an infrastructure which is working, allbe it pitifully, but it is working.

            Don't you get the far north has not got that luxury?

            This is region where the underfunding is historically chronic, and is at the point of cataclysmic collapse because of this drought. I know my usual hyperbole, but this time I'm really worried that what is left might just all collapse.

            p.s. please note hot, grumpy and please don't take it as a personal attack – it's not. Just hot, grumpy. That said, on a personal note – I hope the muppets from wellington water get that pool out from under your house, that is not healthy.

          • RedLogix 4.2.1.3.2

            Up until the 2013 earthquake the water supply side loss rate was about the same as most comparable cities. I don't know for certain what the numbers are now, but I strongly suspect that quake created a lot of long term damage that is taking years to show up.

            • veutoviper 4.2.1.3.2.1

              We had plenty of problems in south Wellingotn long before 2013 – eg had a major one in my street just after I moved back in about 1994 and can recall problems elsewhere in the suburb continually since I've been back. Local plumbers (there are many) reckon there have been problems since about the 1960s on, many of which have been ignored. The earthquakes over recent years have added to this, but are not the only cause, according to those (plumbers etc) who have been around for decades. The older plans for the area (both for overall infrastructure and individual properties) are also abysmal which does not help.

              • RedLogix

                I'm sorry to read that. I was never directly involved in the residential distribution side of the business, but from experience interfacing with WCC's water people it doesn't surprise me much that they would have problems with some of the older parts of the city most remote from the bulk supply sources.

                Part of the problem with aging infrastructure is not just the physical deterioration with time, but that engineering standards and documentation suffer from entropy as well. Then you have to factor in the many dozens of engineering staff involved, hundreds of contractors, thousands of road works and diggings, and endless repairs that have been undertaken over many decades. In the era before computer aided engineering and documentation systems, maintaining accurate paper records was a herculean task.

                Somewhere in the system will be a plan to eventually upgrade the distribution system in your area, but it could be decades away. And sometimes sub-optimal decisions are made for all sorts of stupid 'political' reasons that frustrate the hell out of the tech staff.

                It sounds like you do have a real problem and it needs fixing. If it's water supply leak the water under your house may still have some residual chlorine in it, and it's pretty easy to take a sample and get it tested. Bear in mind if the water has seeped through a lot of ground, then the chlorine content may be all gone, but if you do find some residual (probably <0.2ppm) then it's proof positive you have a leak and they're much more likely to act.

        • veutoviper 4.2.1.4

          Wellington Water is an amalgam at basically Regional Council level as you talk about in your last para. Not sure that I would hold them up as a shining example of anything quite frankly … https://www.wellingtonwater.co.nz/about-us/history-of-wellington-water/

        • Alice Tectonite 4.2.1.5

          Agree way to many water supply entities, especially when 3 cover around half the population (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch).

          Can only think of two recent examples where a small poorly resourced district has voluntarily merged its water operations with larger neighbour – Waikato District (with Auckland/Watercare) & South Wairarapa District (with Wellington Water), both happened last year.

          Maybe Northland's issues will force it up there. Certainly need to sort something out.

      • veutoviper 4.2.2

        adam

        Just wanted to say that I was not trying to also divert from Northland's problems which the post is about. I just was not prepared to let the remarks about Wellington's problems being "looming" go. Our problems down here are very much in the 'here and now' also but of a different nature etc. I love Northland and would love to live there, but too late in life now.

        Kia kaha to Northland and I am just pleased that the Jonesy funds are there and hope more can be used to help Northland – after all that is what they are for.

        • adam 4.2.2.1

          I replied to your post in my usual usual hyperbolic tone, then saw this one.

          Again – that water under you house needs to be sorted. It's really unhealthy, and as I know your health is not 100%, I'm now pissed off and grumpy about that water under your house.

          These people take out taxes (rates money) and need to do their job. They have the equipment, fiber optic cameras etc, they should get off their bums and use it.

          And yes the far north is lovely, I think is why this is so damn maddening and sad.

      • Ad 4.2.3

        I was tempted for a second to make it a nationwide post, then decided discretion was the better part of valor.

  5. WeTheBleeple 5

    Water Water Everywhere (remix).

    i.

    2019: In the drought-stricken regions of India, well over a hundred people were killed by heat and a quarter a billion had little to no water. The monsoon season was late; off-season rainfall had dropped; and this is a repeating, while increasing in severity, phenomenon.

    New Zealand is not immune to drought. Recent (2019) calls for Aucklander's to reduce water consumption in mid-winter clearly illustrates the potential exacerbation of water shortages here. While we have no monsoon season there are similarities in water cycles worldwide: after a major rain event, much is lost to surface flow straight back into the ocean. Adding to this: after a period without rain, arable land becomes less permeable to water; and so, the longer the period between rain events, the more water goes back to the ocean.

    2019: After 5 years of drought in Queensland, Australia, farmers rejoiced to finally see rain. What followed was a flood so devastating it killed more than 650 000 cattle, 48 000 sheep, and left a 2-billion-dollar mess in its wake. Topsoil was stripped. Freshwater, estuarine and coastal areas inundated with silt, carcasses and debris. Many farmers lost everything except their mortgages.

    The Great Artesian Basin is a 1.7 million square kilometre sandstone aquifer that lies mostly beneath Queensland. Its springs have supplied water to Aboriginal communities for dozens of millennia. Its discovery only a century ago enabled bore drilling and farming on a scale unprecedented in this semi-arid region. Soon canals criss-crossed the land with water flowing freely from the myriad of bores that had sprung up. By 1999 a sustainability initiative was granted Federal and State funds to help stop the decline of this aquifer.

    What followed was a game of whack-a-mole. As one lot of bores was capped, other previously dried out boreholes opened up. The restoration work continues, but the free-flowing water of Queensland's Farmers no longer flows so freely. Mound springs, paperbark swamps and wetlands have begun to dry up, while water usage continues to increase.

    Roughly two thirds of all rain that falls on land originates from the land. Transpiration of plants and evapotranspiration from terrestrial surfaces account for this. The oceans contribute the rest, which is the same volume that flows back out to sea. This balance (one in one out) changes where the land has become dry &/or plant cover is absent; as is often the case following drought. With plant transpiration and evapotranspiration severely curtailed, rainfall might drop considerably.

    It is predicted that both drought and rainfall events will increase in severity for NZ's climate, thus setting the stage for more flooding, yet less water returned to the land. What we require are mitigation strategies that address drought, flooding and aquifer recharge at once.

    "Nor dim nor red, like God's own head,

    The glorious Sun uprist:

    Then all averred, I had killed the bird

    That brought the fog and mist." – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

    ii.

    New Zealand's hydrological cycles are intrinsically linked to our power supply. Where weather patterns are altered due to climate change, our power supply (and waterways) may likewise be altered.

    In dry periods, rivers and streams are fed by groundwater flow, that portion of rain that penetrates the surfaces it falls on. Groundwater flow is orders of magnitude slower than overland flow, and so, after extended periods of drought, one might still observe rivers and streams with running water. The total aboveground storage of freshwater (rivers, lakes, wetlands) is only about 1% of total freshwater; while groundwater storage accounts for 25%.

    Aquifers are groundwater storage replenished via groundwater flow percolating down through soils and the base of aboveground water storages. Recharge rates are dependant on levels of rainfall, ground permeability, and rates of aquifer depletion. Wherever pumping of aquifer water exceeds recharge rates, aquifers are depleted.

    Mitigation of both drought and flood requires the slowing down and capture of rainfall. A portion of the rain returning to sea needs to be slowed and/or trapped: allowing it to percolate down into groundwater flow and aquifers. This replenishes aquifers and maintains steady flows for our streams, rivers and hydro generation. Using whole catchment methods involving tree planting and incorporating small, but multiple earthworks and above ground storages slows and trap rain.

    A decrease in overland flow reduces severity of flood events in lower catchments. Additionally, the transpiration of trees has the potential to mitigate damage from multiple rain events through increasing the volume/time required for saturation of a landscape to be achieved. Added to this are the valuable products, aesthetics and ecosystem services generated with the creation of such systems.

    Where plant cover and sufficient water are present on the land plant productivity and carbon storage are increased simultaneously. The carbon pathway from atmosphere through plants to soil organisms and ultimately soil humus turns the soil into a giant sponge capable of retaining water and excess nutrients further increasing fertility and subsequent production. Current agricultural practises including tilling, applications of salt fertilisers, and the wide variety of poisons that come with these systems destroy soil microbiology and leave the land weak and exposed to the vagaries of weather.

    "And every tongue, through utter drought,

    Was withered at the root;

    We could not speak, no more than if

    We had been choked with soot." – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

  6. adam 6

    Thanks for the post Ad.

    It's bad up here. Hard to put into words what it's been like looking around the region, the only word I have is sadness. And a hope we don't get heavy rains, as that will do a lot of damage.

    The one positive seems the councils are actually working together better, and Whangarei Council has been shipping out drinking water from it's dams up north as of last week.

    Been hard going to the farmers markets, you can see the stress written all over people faces.

    If you don't get how bad this climate change thing is going to be, come up north and get a taste.

    • WeTheBleeple 6.1

      I have a friend up north observing key species dying off in the forests. It's really bad. She's had to outsource her nursery (to many helpful locals) just to keep the wee trees alive. A tray or two each, receiving household grey water, it's all they got to spare.

      • adam 6.1.1

        I stopped walking in the forests a few weeks ago, it was just too bloody depressing.

        I've been saving grey water to throw on what is left of my garden, I had been planning on getting some chickens, but that will not be happening soon.

        Last time mowed lawn was in the middle of December – won't even try as I think will kill what lawn we have left.

        I hope the nursery can survive, good on her thinking to outsource for grey water, and well done to the people helping her out – that is some good news.

        • Brigid 6.1.1.1

          Ah that grey water. Bless it.

          It's all that's keeping my plants alive. Bloody hard work though.

          Funny thing is I get quite excited when the kids come to stay as that increases the amount of grey water I can use.

    • Rosemary McDonald 6.2

      Hi Adam. We headed south from Kaitaia about 10 days ago…just when the Level 4 restrictions kicked in.

      Things were getting pretty feral around the campervan dump station…for a wee while they'd even turned off the flushing water.

      And while the good folk of Kaitaia are having to 'let it mellow', the Waiharara and Motutangi Water Users Group are happy as, bathing in the bounty of the Te Aupuori aquifer.

      And it is very likely the NRC, hard arse as they have been over the water take from the Awanui River for Kaitaia's needs, are seriously considering further applications to take water from the Te Aupuori aquifer…a mere 6.2 million cubic meters…if you please.

      Gotta love those avos.

      Here in the Waikato it is not only dry, but hot, hot hot. And very humid.

      And I'm betting those neighbours whose bores dried up in the summer of 2008 will be getting pretty nervous.

      (And the last time they tried sucking water for Kaitaia from the aquifer at Sweetwater…local legend has it the the neighbouring properties lost their bores.)

      • WeTheBleeple 6.2.1

        I think council type mindset may be counting on avocados to bring 'financial relief' (tax income) and save the day – as they are ecologically illiterate bean counters. Where success is measured by such standards catastrophic failure often follows.

  7. Robert Guyton 7

    But we daren't even hint that the dry in the North is connected with anthropogenic climate change, global heating, call it what you will, for fear we'll be decried as ALARMISTS!

  8. WeTheBleeple 8

    Centralised water should be a user pays back up scheme for times like these. Earthworks have seen me garden most of the way through this drought, and other friends are also in a reasonable position, some drawing on town supplies only recently, and only sparingly. Grey water goes on the garden. I'm the only person I know except permies and the drought stricken desperate who use grey water in this, a record drought. Cities and towns full of IMBECILES who are entirely dependent on council looking after them. Roofs aren't collecting, landscapes aren't collecting. No common sense, no plan except to pump aquifers and dam rivers and write terse letters to council when their own personal circumstance is not ideal.

    Idiots with engineering degrees doing the planning, whoopdy fucking do. Soon they'll share their plans of recycling your shit for drinking. I am not kidding.

    1% of freshwater is above-ground storage. 25% is ground storage but we're depleting it rapidly. We could make dam schemes equal to all the freshwater lakes rivers and streams combined, and it would not save us from climate change induced drought. Shove that in your town planning.

    I spelled out above how we are destroying rainfall. Government can take heed or waste money on grand schemes which wont amount to a hill of beans as droughts intensify. Turn the landscape into a sponge, or get the fuck out of the way so others can do it.

    • Alice Tectonite 8.1

      "Soon they'll share their plans of recycling your shit for drinking."

      Indirectly its already happening: Hamilton's effluent discharge is upstream of Auckland's intake …

      Then there's the level of bullshit cowshit involved in water supply in (too) many cases.

  9. Brigid 9

    Yes it's dry here. Mid Northland. It's too hot after 10am to do anything outside.

    The forecast says rain on Saturday which will be the first rain since the beginning of December except for the 10 minute shower late December. The cracks in the ground are an inch wide. If the cockey next door's grass has been growing at the rate ours has I'm surprised he's still milking. Lawn's been mowed once since December.

    I've never known it like this before. However the local arbourist declares "Oh it's always hot and dry in summer". He's young – 30ish, I wonder what he'll be saying when he's 60.

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    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    7 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    9 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    10 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    12 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    23 hours ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    1 day ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    1 day ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    8 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    21 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
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