At a time when we are inundated with news of the end of the world, ideas of the way through are crucial. This one is brilliant – legislation that would enable all the things we need for Transition to happen. The great potential here is for change in a climate-meaningful timeframe.
Polly Higgins was a British lawyer who did extensive work on getting ecocide codified as a crime. Here Transition Towns founder Rob Hopkins shares Higgins’ idea of a Transition Enabling Act. – weka.
Why it’s time to revisit the idea of the Transition Enabling Act
Sometimes the very best ideas need to bide their time before they get picked up and adopted. I want to share one such idea which I was reminded about the other day and which I really think deserves renewed attention and focus. I think it could be one of the seminal and transformative ideas of our time. I’m posting it here to see what you think, for your reflections.
First, a short bit of history. In December 2010, Transition Finsbury Park and Transition Highbury organised a great event called Confronting Change, at the South Bank Centre in London. The speakers were Michael Meacher MP, the lawyer and originator of the concept of Ecocide Polly Higgins (both since sadly lost to us), and myself. In the conversation that followed our talks, Polly suggested the idea of what she called a ‘Transition Enabling Act’, a kind of yin to Ecocide’s yang, if you like, focusing on accelerating the good stuff rather than just stopping the bad stuff.
You can see the moment that the idea first came to her at 3:30 in the video below [2mins]:
She then goes on to elucidate the idea further at 5:45 in this video [1 min] and from 8:02 in this one [1 mins 30]
I love it when she describes it as “the biggest job creation scheme in world history”, because that’s exactly what it would be. The Transition Enabling Act (TEA) is a brilliant idea whose time, I think, has come. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
“Polly suggested that, in the same way that certain key pieces of enabling legislation have led to great advances in the past, perhaps the time is right for a Transition Enabling Act, designed not to ban lots of things, but positive legislation that enables all that needs to happen in order for Transition to scale up rapidly over the next 5 years”.
The idea was, as Polly explained, inspired by the Canal Enabling Acts of the Victorian times, which set out everything that needed to be changed in order to remove all of the obstacles to the rapid creation of the canals.
It is clearly possible to use legislation to unlock different approaches to development and economic change. The UK government’s current legislation on how to rapidly accelerate the creation of Freeports is one example of identifying the obstacles to something and creating legislation that removes all of those obstacles (enabling, in the case of the Freeports, a really dreadful thing to happen).
The morning after the Confronting Change event, Polly wrote to me. “My head has been spinning all night on this! How an umbrella ET Act could open the door to food/community land trusts, guerilla gardening/incredible edible, education/ transition universities, training, jobs – oh just oodles of things”.
I was reminded of these conversations with Polly about the TEA (as I will now call it) when last I week, in France, I was sat in a meeting in Muzillac in France with local officials and the local MP discussing Transition and how to accelerate it in their area. The local MP said something to the effect that “these are great ideas, and we’d love to do them, but there is so much regulation in place that stops these things from happening, so I’m not sure how possible it is”.
The meeting with local officials in Muzillac.
I replied that it would be so so tragic if our civilisation were to destroy itself simply because it didn’t have the regulations in place that would enable it to save itself. It was then that the idea of the TEA came back to me, and as I talked about it, I could see the MP scribbling furiously, inspired by the idea of being the one who brought such an idea before parliament.
Polly’s idea was that this law should be Open Sourced. She felt that all of the movements already trying to change things, community energy groups, sustainable food campaigns, land rights activists, community-led development groups, new economists, etc etc, should be asked two key questions:
1. What have you been unable/hindered in doing to create successful transitioning in your community?
2. If you are able to say, what would enable your proposal to happen?
(You can see how readers of my blog at the time answered those questions here).
The core question with a TEA, she wrote, is “whose rights take supremacy? Big business or the wider earth community (which includes humanity) … . our existing laws, which are predicated primarily in property not trusteeship laws, protect the rights of those who have the money to buy land and property over and above community use and stewardship”.
She added, “What I am doing here with the TEA is shifting the balance of rights in favour of the community so that the community can then determine what they want over and above the might of corporate and council decisions. At the moment, the onus is still on the community to prove their case each time. With a TEA … the shoe is placed firmly on the other foot – instead a council would have to justify why a supermarket should open if it could not satisfy the overarching principle of guaranteeing the good health and well-being of the community, i.e. why it is not sourcing all its food locally etc; a building development that was not using locally sourced energy and locally sourced materials etc would have to justify why it was failing to use local and sustainable materials that are low carbon etc. In other words, the unsustainable businesses/developments would suddenly become the exception, not the rule”.
A month later, she came back to me having given it more thought, with a more fleshed-out idea
Transition Enabling Act Overview
1. Ecological well-being for current and future generations is primary obligation
Welfare of the community:
Transition by communities to a cleaner, non-polluting lifestyle requires more than the proposed rights set out in the forthcoming Localism Bill (Rob’s note: the Localism Act was passed in 2011) the LB sets out, amongst other things, the community right to express an interest in decision-making (which can be rejected), the right to bid and the right to engage in referenda. To transition a community to a non-fossil fuel dependent, resilient and flourishing economy will require certain enabling provisions to be put in place, thereby embedding certain presumptions and prioritizing certain determinants that favour the transitioning community. For true resilience to be achieved, the intrinsic values of ecological and community well-being are the bedrock of a Transition Enabling Act.
By setting the highest standards for energy requirements, transport infrastructure, food and building materials etc. transitioning communities can be enabled to take action in a resilient direction when faced with times of crisis.
We do not yet have embedded in international law the freedom of a clean and healthy environment, which is a freedom that arises out of two rights: 1. the right not to be polluted, 2. the right to restorative justice. When both rights are applied, the result is the freedom of a healthy and clean environment. Many lawyers now increasingly believe that such rights should apply not only to people; they also apply equally to the natural environment as a whole. Some countries, such as the Philippines, have specified as a duty of the State to uphold the citizen’s rights to well-being, to health and a balanced and healthful ecology.
Philippines Constitution
Section 15, Article II: The State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them.
Section 16, Article III: The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.
Governance:
Statements of rights are not in themselves sufficient to protect and ensure adherence. Leverage is required to ensure governance over those who fail to uphold the rights of another. For instance, high costs and the threat of vexatious litigation mounted by corporations can easily silence many eco-whistle blowers and citizens who would otherwise speak out when there is a failure to uphold standards. In April 2010 the Philippines implemented their Environmental Rules of Procedure. In so doing, they put in place various provisions to protect their citizen’s rights to ecological and community well-being. These include Environmental Protection Orders (EPO’s), waiving of court fees for those who act as Environmental Guardians ad litems and protection of the citizen against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (anti-SLAPP provisions). All of these provisions and more could be enacted under a Transition Enabling Act to enable transitioning communities in the UK to embed and provide protection of both their rights as well as local council and local business responsibilities to ecological and community well-being.
The UK Environment Agency will not take cases to court to prevent and/or halt and/or seek damages for environmental damage and destruction where it amounts to less than £0.5 million. Thus, without the ability for the community to self-police, this opens the door to accelerated damage, destruction and pollution. By enabling the community to police the situation on their territory, the government can effectively decentralize governance to the people (and save money). The above provisions and others listed below will open that door.
2. Local production of food is a necessity.
Current laws (e.g. international world trade rules, anti-competition laws) have created a legal presumption in favour of large-scale corporate production and supply. This has to be challenged if local communities are to be empowered to create their own supply networks and infrastructure to build resilience for the future. Local communities must have the right to self-determine how their food should be supplied in accordance with the primary obligation to ensure ecological and community well-being.
3. Transport and energy for community use and public well-being.
Transport and energy policy currently favours private ownership; e.g. single ownership of car and centralized supply of energy into homes. The shift of presumption from being in favour of private ownership to community stewardship enables shared use of resources especially important at times of scarcity. It also encourages the creation of community assets, such as community energy initiatives whereby the community can collectively bid for renewables to be bought in for the community as a whole.
Infrastructure for heating, lighting and movement within communities who are at risk of being adversely affected by fossil-fuel shortages has to be prioritized. Current legal presumptions favour centralized and private ownership, to the detriment of community ability to self-determine projects to protect their well-being. Nordic countries have laws that provide for decentralized energy systems to be put in place for communities; such mechanisms can be adopted here.
4. Land and buildings for community use and public well-being.
Provisions to enable communities to use land and buildings for the greater good of their community e.g. land for food growth, buildings for skill workshops etc. Land and buildings that are unused or infrequently used (e.g. empty office space, empty warehouses, churches) to be requisitioned/used part-time for community use. Community and ecological use and protection take precedence over and above commercial considerations.
Rental value of land (Land Value Taxation) can be implemented for community use buildings and land, thereby providing stable rent whilst creating an incentive for the community to create added value from the land and/or buildings. This would mitigate and may even eliminate chronic local economic problems by regenerating local economies and incentivizing relevant job creation schemes.
5. Enabling provisions checklist:
The Rights & Freedom
1. the right not to be polluted
2. the right to restorative justice
3. the freedom of a healthy and clean environment
The Responsibilities
4. duty of care by local councils for their communities’ health and ecological well-being
5. obligations to ensure ecological justice and provision for future generations.
Other
6. Communities to self-determine collectively by referendum (under new powers set out in the Localism Bill) whether to apply the Transition Enabling Act.
Enabling legislation required
7. Land Value Taxation for rental of land used for community purpose;
8. provision of services by local councils for transitioning communities, such as priority access to suppliers of low carbon sourced building materials and priority access to suppliers of local renewable energy schemes;
9. low carbon food incentives, such as priority procurement and subsidies for local low carbon food growing initiatives;
10. community first refusal over land and property use for food and energy purposes;
11. 10% tithe tax on local business for transition community purposes and for creating food and transport infrastructure;
12. Environmental Rules of Procedure to include Environmental Protection Orders, waiving of court fees, anti-SLAPP provisions and application of the Precautionary Principle;
13. simplification of setting up Community Land Trusts (see recent Scottish reform provisions for land use), Community Interest Companies and Charitable Incorporated Organisations (due late Spring 2011);
14. Community Training and Assistance Orders.
Bizarrely instead of removing barriers to action what seems to be being proposed here is more heavy handed regulation that would restrict people doing things that could actually lead to less environmentally damaging activity.
Take this notion of encouraging local food production as if this is a better approach to large scale global integrated food supply chains. NZ is a prime example of how many of the food that we produce has a lower carbon footprint EVEN taking in to account the cost of transporting to markets half way across the World. However the "Local is better" approach that would be part of this Transition Enabling Act would likely mean it would be difficult (if not impossible) to allow people in places like Europe to buy our products.
Lower carbon isn't enough Gosman. Consider a house fire and whether using 'more' water to put it out is sufficient, if the whole house is on fire and you decided to use buckets instead of a fire fighting hose connected to the mains water supply.
That we can produce beef with less climate/eco impact than US CAFOs is fairly meaningless if we still can’t put the fire out. (and the CAFO standard isn’t hard to beat).
We have targets, they give us a % chance of averting disaster. We need to meet those targets not hand wave vaguely towards them.
We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels.
The big conversation there is how can NZ run an economy to keep us with a decent standard of living as well as meeting climate targets? And what is a decent standard of living in a climate emergency world?
The other factors here are food shortages. If we grow our own food in ways that are resilient, we can survive. If we instead rely on the global food supply system then we risk going hungry if/when it collapses. This is not fringe theory, this is mainstream concern now about climate impacts on crops, as well as the interruptions we have seen recently from pandemics and war.
None of that means we can't export anything. It means we need to rethink what food security is and how to build it in a climate world.
We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels.
So what happens about food supply to Africa? We've already seen food shortages/famine as a result of the disrupted Ukraine wheat supply. Local agriculture there is problematic for a whole host of reasons (climate and political instability – both likely to get worse – among them).
If NZ no longer exports agricultural products – that's a huge swathe of our export economy gone. What do we use for foreign exchange for the stuff that we need – and can never produce/supply locally?
[I heard a snippet on the radio the other day, saying that NZ grows and supplies the vast majority of the carrot seed used worldwide – the inter-connectedness of our economies continues to astound me]
NZ is (or can be) reasonably self-sufficient in food terms (we might be eating more potatoes than pasta – but we will have something to eat). Meat and 3 veg might well be returning to our base menus.
It's all of the other things that we need to be a first world economy that we can't supply locally. Many of them we will never be able to produce (we lack the raw materials).
No-one is going to have a first world economy the way we conceive of it now. It's just not possible. This doesn't mean we become third world economies, it means we change how we do the whole thing. See Doughnut Economics for how that might work.
I didn't say NZ can't export anything. In fact I specifically said in the last paragraph we can.
Food for Africa should come from:
local food
regional food
food that can be transported longer distances with low emissions
Local and regional food increase food security even in continents like Africa. One of the problems some of the places in Africa have is they have been economically forced into cash cropping for the global supply chain instead of growing their own food. This means if the crop fails they have no money to pay to buy in food. This is absolutely insane. Consider what is going to happen when crops fail in a mass scale, do you think people being able to grow their own food are going to be better or worse off? Again, this isn't fringe theory, this is mainstream understanding of what is about to happen. The UN is promoting local food.
If NZ no longer exports agricultural products – that's a huge swathe of our export economy gone. What do we use for foreign exchange for the stuff that we need – and can never produce/supply locally?
Exactly, this is the conversation we need to have pronto. What would transition look like for NZ? How can we make more the things we need locally? How can we afford the imports of things we can't provide ourselves? This isn't an insurmountable problem once one gets past TINA and the way the global economy works now.
[I heard a snippet on the radio the other day, saying that NZ grows and supplies the vast majority of the carrot seed used worldwide – the inter-connectedness of our economies continues to astound me]
Imagine then what happens in a bad year, or a bad five years, if the NZ carrot see crops fail. It's a madness to put all eggs in one basket.
"We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels."
Is this still current? I remember reading that about 20y ago, before the adoption of vertical orchards and forests, and advances in aquaculture. We don't just want the lesser of two evils, we want the actively good.
Behaviour also has something to do with it too – out of season food (that is necessarily organic, sunshine-fed, spring-watered etc) is as a fundamental right to many.
Gosman's thinking of BAU and comparing one polluter with a somewhat lesser polluter. We have so many ways of producing food regeneratively now. Making money out of it beyond people making a living and feeding that into the local economy is a different matter (one which I suspect drives Gosman's thinking).
I like this,
We don't just want the lesser of two evils, we want the actively good.
There is no such thing as actively good human activity. EVERYTHING we do has an negative impact on the environment at some level. The question is really is can the effects be mitigated and minimised to the extent it can be decreed to be sustainable.
Although that's a good point, does that always have to be the case? Are you saying there's no possibility of leaving the place better than we found it (better in terms of ecological/biodiverse value)?
The definition of "better" is a value judgement. Who decides what is environmentally better? Removing all people from NZ and allowing the countryside to revert back to nature might be regarded by some as better than doing what we are doing but it isn't really practical. Even the concept of regenerative farming is vague and open to criticism that it doesn't do what is promised (see: https://thecounter.org/regenerative-agriculture-racial-equity-climate-change-carbon-farming-environmental-issues/).
the people complaining about there being no definition of regenag, don't actually do regenag. There are some issues of accounting and research, but in terms of the actual growing, people just got on with it. And they know what it means.
Who decides what is environmentally better?
I don't know what you are getting at here. Do you accept that we (humans) know what climate change is, what is causing it, and what would slow it down and avert the worst disaster?
We will improve on what we have now and our limits for improvement will be up to us. Some injuries have been inflicted and can't be healed, but a great deal can be restored, revitalised and made more dynamic than ever before, because we are clever and can increase the speed at which nature "turns over" to the benefit of all. Case in point, coppicing.
There is no such thing as actively good human activity. EVERYTHING we do has an negative impact on the environment at some level. The question is really is can the effects be mitigated and minimised to the extent it can be decreed to be sustainable.
This is an incredibly cycnical pov. But also, it suggests that you don't understand what regenerative or sustainable is. This is enlightening for me, because now I get why the attachment to BAU is so strong. If you can't conceive of humans living as part of nature and being a benefit, then all that leaves is the death cult. This is sad.
(mitigating negatives effects doesn't make something sustainable)
Good and bad are not terms that serve discussions well. I prefer "energised" or "vital", maybe even "active" in discussing what to do and by those words I mean the sort of energy pollinating insects exhibit as they go about their activities, the behaviour of electrons as they whizz in orbit of nuclei, the sound water makes as it flows over the scales of a fast-swimming salmon, the sum of the percussions made by hail falling onto the surface of a lake, and so on. We need to break the deadlock language has set on our thinking and imaginations, in order to be able to create new ways of being, behaviours to recommend and pathways to follow 🙂
The suggestions would be more useful if they related to what we are already doing here.
As the EU has shown, the modern state can legislate all it likes but even in aggregate form it's not strong enough to manage a 'disorderly decarbonisation', which is what the EU looks like and it is the most prepared for the energy challenge of any set of states.
Just to focus on energy for a moment, in the next 48 hours we are about to go through a cold snap that Transpower is saying will test the grid.Vector in mid September also warned about expanding power from solar and wind without also investing in digital tech to manage peak time demand – for example when everyone is charging vehicles.
By mid December this year we will know whether New Zealanders are ready for accelerated renewables in large zones. In their absence and in a lack of demand-side measures the network isn't going to cope. All of those costs of transition are currently going to be found added to your power bills.
By 2023 there is mandatory reporting on climate risk by large companies, banks, insurers, Fonterra, you name it. It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth.
We certainly need an Energy Transition Ministry to do what the EA can't do. But I'd struggle to see which politicians other than Shaw would have the ability to lead it. At the moment we are struggling to merge two public media entities.
By election 2023 we will see whether NZ business can really report so that everyone with investment in the outcomes ie pension fund holders can really see real change occurring. At that point Polly should pop over and take notes.
The suggestions would be more useful if they related to what we are already doing here.
I agree. I'll probably do a post about the NZ situation, this one was about the idea, and it was conceived of and written about by Brits. I hope you join in with some proactive ideas because you have a lot of experience and knowledge in the pragmatics of NZ's economy.
Just to focus on energy for a moment, in the next 48 hours we are about to go through a cold snap that Transpower is saying will test the grid.
In a sane climate response, the government and local authorities would be putting put public messaging for the past week advising people to save power and how to do that. This is not rocket science, and it's not difficult. It does conflict with profit making models and the current mindset about how things have to work.
Vector in mid September also warned about expanding power from solar and wind without also investing in digital tech to manage peak time demand – for example when everyone is charging vehicles.
Limits of growth. We can learn a new set of skills. Instead of trying shoehorn BAU capitalism and growth into a fantasy of green tech climate response. We don't have to let personal EVs drive the transition, it can be a smaller part.
By 2023 there is mandatory reporting on climate risk by large companies, banks, insurers, Fonterra, you name it. It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth.
this really is an incredibly ignorant statement. Local food is backyard, growing for one's neighbours, town wide box schemes, urban farms, regional food growing and distribution systems, the Longwood Loop. Fonterra exists to support our planet destroying standard of living. We don't need Fonterra to eat. We do need resilient food systems, and we need to set them up now rather than waiting for the food shortages.
By election 2023 we will see whether NZ business can really report so that everyone with investment in the outcomes ie pension fund holders can really see real change occurring. At that point Polly should pop over and take notes.
Polly Higgins died in 2019. Which you would know if you had read the post properly.
Tax high earners, use that to replace the relentless commercial advertising of crap with more positive pROpAgNDa? It feels like there's plenty of will, but it's difficult for the disparate elements to cohere amid the grotesque consumerism reinforced by advertisement overload.
Is that why we have kids who really want to make a difference, but can't live without the latest phone or Tikitok, or that climate girl flying to Fiji. We want out but can't find the exit.
"It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth."….disagree……sure initial outlay but you let some of your crop seed……you plant seed inside to get going…and you water and weed and rotate the crops………..instead of sitting in front of the goggle box……and you can preseve….freeze…….dehydrate and eat fresh…..grow your own and you won't a commercial vege again…….tomatoes that taste ….well… like tomatoes and as the song goes……"teach your children well"……
Do I garden? Yes. Does my garden contribute significantly towards my food intake over a year? Not really.
Yes, I grow fruit and veges (and have a very nice herb garden). And supplement my diet with those, rather than buying them.
Is it cheaper? Probably not. When I have tomatoes in season, they're also at their cheapest at the greengrocer. But, I agree, home-grown do taste good.
Can I freeze, dry, preserve them? Yes. But I also recognize that I come from a place of privilege there: I can afford a large freezer, can afford the electricity required to process and store, have the knowledge about how to water-bath preserve, etc., have space to store the preserved results.
Do I have the time? Yes. Again, that's a privilege. I have the time (and so far) the physical fitness required to spend time in the garden planting, weeding and harvesting. It's also preference. Gardening isn't everyone's cup of tea, and/or idea of how to spend their time well.
Do I have the space? Yes. A real privilege, here in Auckland – where most new townhouse developments have a 'garden' consisting of a pocket-handkerchief-size lawn. And, of course, apartments don't even have that.
Backyard gardening can be a nice supplement to your diet – but, for most people, and certainly most city people, it's very unlikely to be a significant contributor.
The days of the 'quarter-acre paradise' are gone.
Backyard gardening's supplementing of your diet is a minor consideration, it's the transforming of your thinking that's to be valued.
The message plants carry to the observant gardener is the one needed for transforming your thinking, outside of the complex.confusing, contradictory exchanges of ideas we are seeing on this thread 🙂
Given that I've been gardening for over 30 years – it seems to be taking a long time to kick in!
Reality is that people garden for a whole lot of reasons: family heritage (my mum would kill me if I bought lemons); convenience (I love my herb garden, and just being able to have thyme on hand, when I want it); taste (home-grown raspberries); curiosity (I wonder what these heritage beans taste like, and if I can grow them here); mental health (being outside, hands in the earth – even weeding is therapeutic – 'take that! oxalis'); contributing to the table (smug satisfaction of growing your own); educating kids (look what happens when we plant our peas, we can eat the strawberries when they're red, we can scrabble for new potatoes); even one-upping the neighbours! (yes, of course you can have some rosemary)
I agree that anyone pushing backyard gardening as if it is a viable and significant plank in what needs to happen in the next 5 years is barking up the wrong tree.
I just got it! I think it's the people who can't see the unwaged economy. If you can't count it in conventional economic terms, then it's just some marginal thing we shouldn't bother with.
They're probably also not aware of the very large movement in NZ of home gardening, community gardens, school gardens, small scale market gardens, farmers markets, and food forests! So many people I know produce excess from their garden and they give it away. Invisible economy.
I'm so grateful to have grown up on a 1/4 acre with most of the land not occupied by a house/shed/garage either in trees, shrubs or a large vegetable garden. Definitely bigger than the lawn we had to play on. Deep body memory of how it works.
I agree that anyone pushing backyard gardening as if it is a viable and significant plank in what needs to happen in the next 5 years is barking up the wrong tree.
Think about the resources needed to ship lettuces internationally compared to being able to harvest from one's garden, or neighbourhood. This is quite simple to understand. Run the whole process in your mind:
Growing
fertiliser (imported)
seed (imported)
ploughing (direct GHG emissions)
water use
Refrigerated storage
Packaging (including the whole process used to create that plastic)
Shipping
Domestic transport
Waste (of embodied energy, and waste to be disposed of)
It's bonkers that we think this is secure, viable, and not damaging to the environment.
Perhaps something with a longer shelf life than lettuces would be a better example. I've never bought (or even seen) an internationally shipped lettuce in NZ.
But, setting that aside. The only way to prevent off-season crops being imported would be to ban the import. No more California cherries in May.
No more bananas, ever (apart from the tiny % grown here).
Which runs into Trade deal issues. And risks reciprocation against our own agricultural produce being exported (not really 'risks' it would be just about guaranteed).
The alternative is to load on the $$$ for every stage of the 'carbon' process. Making imported goods so prohibitively expensive that only the truly wealthy can afford them.
I can't say that that's a scenario that I feel comfortable with (even if I was one of the people who could afford off-season cherries)
Part of the problem, I think, is that our international trade connections are so widespread. And, there are plenty of figures showing that NZ lamb (for example) uses less carbon (even when shipping is counted) than local production.
My point weka is that focussing on backyard gardening in particular, in the next 5 years, is a misallocation of resources.
Community or other wider gardening exercises is a different issue, because those things can actually scale to provide a meaningful amount of food.
My parents manage to provide probably about 1/2 of their vegetable needs, averaged over a year, from their garden – a significant feat. But they've been at it for 30+ years, they have all the skills, tools, experience, land and time to do it.
NZ produces such a huge amount of food – and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future – that spending time fussing about at the margins with backyard gardening is a waste of time. In other countries like the UK and the US, and large Australian cities, it's a sensible and important thing to do. But NZ isn't those countries (thankfully).
In NZ we need to focus on sustainable farming methods, permaculture etc.
I think you are missing the point here Belladonna. Look at the whole systems. If 20% of people in a city grow half their own food, there are multiple benefits for them personally but it also means that that amount of food doesn't have to be grown and transported in highly carbon polluting ways. Now multiply that across NZ.
Now, put that alongside all the other things happening: community gardens and orchards and food forests, school gardens, urban farms. Then market gardening on the outskirts of the city. Compare that to shipping all that food long distances and the packaging and waste, power and water consumption.
I seriously doubt that anyone in a city is going to grow half their own food (well, I suppose if you count the rural areas of Auckland – but really, that's not 'city' or 'suburb')
I don't have an issue with buying local (though defining 'local' is a bit of a challenge – there is no such thing as a real farmers market in Auckland, for example – we're just too far away from actual market gardens). But expecting any significant contribution from backyard gardens (or community gardens – which only seem to operate in the wealthiest of suburbs), or school gardens (more of an education/science project than actual food contribution) – is not something that I can see working.
I guess, that you're saying that even a tiny contribution is better than nothing…. But I don't see it as transformational.
I can see Robert's point of personal gardening changing people's perspective as being more realistic.
I seriously doubt that anyone in a city is going to grow half their own food (well, I suppose if you count the rural areas of Auckland – but really, that's not 'city' or 'suburb')
Totally agree. As I said in a comment above, my parents can grow about 1/2 of all of their vegetable needs, averaged over a year, from their surburban garden. But they've been doing it for 30+ years, and have the experience, time and land to do it.
Note that I said vegetables. They still have to buy meat and fruit. And that's also averaged over a whole year – in Christchurch in winter there isn't a lot of edible food coming from the garden.
I can see Robert's point of personal gardening changing people's perspective as being more realistic.
exactly AND you grow it and control what goes into it with the result tastier and healthier food and you can go have a cup of tea with ya neighbour and give them a cauli
Unless you are on a quarter acre and own the property and are mostly retired, gardening for vegetables is just a very long virtue signal.
All those endless covers and pages of women's magazines with smiling bougies holding their baskets of greens and telling how they are changing the world is just a fat lie.
Annabelle Langbein for example, queen of all that homemade faux-working class chambray-shirted nonsense, lives on five acres with a full view of Lake Wanaka on title over $6m with a multimedia empire worth millions.
Just because you are irritated by wealthy celebrities who garden, or retirees on a certain square-meterage of land doesn't mean that your claim that gardening is "a very long virtue signal" is correct.
It is not.
Real food is produced by real people for real reasons, all over the motu.
Even people without gardens of any outdoor sort, can grow valuable food to supplement that which they have to buy. Sprouting seeds (sunflower, mung, lentils, peas etc.) on the kitchen bench then eating them fresh or processed in hummus and so on, is a real action that benefits those who take it and the carbon-wasting networks they don't use as a result.
Now it's just wilful ignorance. Maybe a reflection of your social circles. I know so many people that grow some or a large part of their fresh produce. Probably the majority of people I know, certainly too many to count. This includes people who rent and people who work. People garden for all sorts of reasons, including health, financial, and yes climate/ecology.
But sure, if the people you are following are Langbein, I can see why you don't understand what is going on. Don't want to diss AL, anyone who gardens is helping the world. Even wealthy upper middle class people.
I know people who provide a significant amount of the food from their own garden also. And I know that that is simply not achievable for 80%+ of the population.
Noting that this isn't the only example in this thread of people arguing against things that haven't been said.
So, to clarify (and I have said this already more than once), local food isn't only gardening, it's all the things,
home gardening
community gardens/orchards
school gardens
urban farming
small scale market gardens
large scale market gardens
cropping around cities
None of that precludes transporting food over greater distances, what it does is take the weight off those larger, more cumbersome and less resilient systems. People in Southland can still eat avocado, just get it from Nelson rather than Australia. People in Auckland can still eat oats, just get it from Otago rather than Canada.
For home gardening the skillset / knowledge has almost been entirely lost to the most recent generation especially in our cities.
Crop rotation, Variety selection, Seed collection and storage, Planting timing and even the means to preserve crops post harvest.
For most people a productive garden at home costs more than buying from the supermarket etc.
Small scale market gardens are in a similar situation with generational change, rapidly increasing capital / input costs combined with increasing crop losses (severe weather) making it less and less viable by the year.
I think the simplistic message is to eat seasonally.
Based on the current performance, if they had 1 billion to spend, they'd shut down the whole network while they upgraded it….for about 5 years or so…..
Auckland has had literally years of rolling stoppages – while Kiwirail and AT try to get their act together over train and track quality and maintenance. And now, train users are about to have another couple of years worth. It beggars belief that AT couldn't have been upgrading this piecemeal over the last 5 years – and now want to shut down the line, so they can do it in one operation.
It's very difficult to build support for a train network with this sort of continual disruption.
The destruction of much of the inner city business environment due to the CRL – has also informed a lot of the resistance to the government's light rail proposals. People see up close just what that kind of major disruption looks like – and don't want a bar of it.
The law (as discussed) seemed to be enabling legislation rather than prevention legislation. So my guess would be 'no'
The answer would be 'no'.
So let me get this straight
The law (as discussed), would ‘enable’ more wind turbines, more PV power stations, and more electric cars. But the law as discussed) would not prevent more coal mines being dug, or more fossil fuel industries being commissioned, or more oil wells being drilled, and more fossil fuels being burnt.
….perhaps the time is right for a Transition Enabling Act, designed not to ban lots of things, but positive legislation that enables all that needs to happen in order for Transition to scale up rapidly over the next 5 years”.
The idea was, as Polly explained, inspired by the Canal Enabling Acts of the Victorian times, which set out everything that needed to be changed in order to remove all of the obstacles to the rapid creation of the canals.
Unfortunately reading the above, I would have to agree with Belladonna that 'no' – the law as discussed) would not prevent more coal mines being dug, or more fossil fuel industries being commissioned, or more oil wells being drilled, and more fossil fuels being burnt.
With respect Weka, if you have any other interpretation, I would like to hear it;
She added, “What I am doing here with the TEA is shifting the balance of rights in favour of the community so that the community can then determine what they want over and above the might of corporate and council decisions.
At the moment, the onus is still on the community to prove their case each time. With a TEA … the shoe is placed firmly on the other foot – instead a council would have to justify why a supermarket should open if it could not satisfy the overarching principle of guaranteeing the good health and well-being of the community, i.e. why it is not sourcing all its food locally etc; a building development that was not using locally sourced energy and locally sourced materials etc would have to justify why it was failing to use local and sustainable materials that are low carbon etc.
In other words, the unsustainable businesses/developments would suddenly become the exception, not the rule”.
This seems a key point of the Act. To set a framework of values for transition. The Greens have been pushing the idea that each piece of legislation must be parsed through a climate emergency lens. This is a step further.
To go back to your original question about the government bailing out AirNZ, we have to bear in mind how critical it is to have a national airline given how far away from other countries we are (I assume this doesn't need explaining, I'm not talking shopping trips to Sydney). There is an obvious public good in keeping the airline going.
But I think what we can do is look at the concept and initial framework of the TEA and put out ideas on how it could be created. It's not set in stone, Higgins didn't write it for NZ, that's for us to decide how it would work here.
It's been interesting watching the response in this thread, the amount of naysaying effort that has gone into comments instead of looking at how it might work.
Even if you taxes the bejeesus out of international travel, it would only affect cattle class volumes a bit. For international travellers it's a rounding error.
Also if Kiwirail didn't teach you anything over the last 24 hours, it's throwing billions of dollars into an irreversibly sick industry. Every ticket you buy to get from Henderson to Auckland central is 70% paid for by everyone else, more if you count the CAPEX.
The transport bailouts per citizen on rail could buy AirNZ every year.
Also, I can't think of any price increase which would stop the super-rich flying their private jets (a much greater per-person impact than the poor slobs in cattle class).
After all, price is the capitalist way of rationing things.
The regional fuel tax for example was imposed as a disincentive to private car use.
The age of mass passenger air travel only really began in the '70s with introduction of the first wide body jets. Before that time, air travel was expensive.. As a result most people still used surface transport.
The amount of passenger air travel compared to today was miniscule. As was it's carbon footprint.
'The Jet Set'
Stop subsidising air travel, bring back the Jet Set, it's the capitalist way
The term 'Jet Set' once referred to that tiny minority of rich people with enough money to be able to afford to fly. You don't hear the term 'Jet Set' anymore, because of course millions of us fly. The term 'Jet Set' sounds oddly quaint and old fashioned almost from an other age, yet it is within living memory. Austin Powers generation would have used it.
(Yeah I know, fictional character and all that. But you get the meaning).
Yeah. Not greatly happy with entrenching privileges for the wealthy (or for politicians – who would still get their freebies, no doubt. Currently, the Speaker is on a junket through Latin America, with Ricardo Menéndez March from the Green Party in tow)
I don't know that we do a lot of ongoing subsidising of air travel. The 2 issues you've quoted were for crisis points – where (I understand) the Government bought a stake in the company, which was then repurchased over time.
So not a gift, or an ongoing subsidy (when the airline made profits, the Government got dividends, just like all other shareholders).
NZ governments seem to have believed that it's critical to the country to have an airline which is guaranteed to fly into NZ. That certainly paid dividends during the Covid disruption of air freight – when it was only Air NZ which was flying in and out of Auckland.
The regional fuel tax had zero success in reducing private car use (because most people don't have alternatives). Nor, do I believe that that was it's intended purpose. It was (and is) purely a cash cow for local government to use in funding transport projects.
A regional fuel tax provides a way for regional councils to raise revenue to fund transport projects in their region that would otherwise be delayed or not funded.
what!!….Kiwirail is more virtue singing huh?……..you would be appalled at what our roads would be like without rail and with carbon reduction big on the menu it is a necessity ….not to mention the heart and soul its employess put into it.
“We know the virus in New Zealand is a genetic match to a virus which caused illness in Sweden in 2020 and 2021. That illness had a possible link to frozen berries from Serbia.
The incidence of monkey pox in NZ is entirely due to the movement of people around the globe.
I was pointing to the equivalence of your "Global food supply" in the outbreak of HepA
HepA, Global food supply = Monkey pox, Global people supply.
Regardless of whether it's a food-borne infection, or a people-transmitted infection, our global world will see intercontinental spread of disease (as we all have recent familiarity with Covid)
It wold be an unusual multicellular animal that didn't travel with a few (trillion) "mostly harmless" passengers. The original Survivors series was gripping, with a great title sequence – the less long-lived 2008 'not a remake' wasn't bad either.
It seems like a really good idea to me. All those unadopted sustainable technologies – hemp & harakeke fibre, aquaculture & aquaponics, najeon chilgi, flood zone riparian crop trees & bushes, impact absorbing roadside planting – that have languished from want of interest for generations until we are well behind what were once much more degraded ecologies, could finally be brought to fruition.
Wait though, for the non-performing economists whose idea of growth is low quality mass migration and real estate inflation squeal that it can never work.
It's a nice, skilled, sustainable industry (paua shell & lacquer work for the non-Korean speakers – though turban shell is also used) – we can grow the trees, and it's a logical avenue of expression for some Maori art. Got a depressed area with no decent paying work? This might help – no greenstone required.
It demonstrates, once again, that there are answers but a lack of political will.
By political will, I mean individually as well as our employees in Wellys. Every dollar anyone spends is a political decision.
The notion that the supermarket is preferred over locally grown produce is all about convenience and turning a big blind eye to the diesel miles embedded in all that they sell. Also being willfully ignorant of the duopoly's treatment of the primary producers that sell through them.
The middle class needs to overcome it's addiction to convenience for us to rebuild economies.
Property rights – which enable decisions over tangible and intangible assets – are critical to an economy as Why Nations Fail pointed out. Not just private property rights for, as we shall see, they are more complicated than that. Neoliberals argue that private property rights lead to the maximum economic ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with: on the US Presidential elections, Israel vs Gaza/Iran/Lebanon, Ukraine/Nato vs Russia/North Korea and whether NZ now joins AUKUS;Special guest Helen Clark on the issues above, ...
The gift that keeps giving: David Seymour has now opened a split in the coalition over the future of National’s promise to build a new medical school. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / TheKakaKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...
It’s another Friday and we’re inching closer to the end of the year. Here’s some of the stories that have caught our attention this week. This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers and ...
Record Numbers: The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, which began at the tip of the North, and the tail of the South, on 11 November, culminated outside Parliament on Tuesday, 19 November 2024, in one of the largest demonstrations in New Zealand’s political history.ACCORDING TO TE ARA, the Ministry of Culture ...
Activists are such easy scapegoats. The right and center have been conditioned for decades to roll their eyes at all protests. The left are easily aggravated over students leading movements they see as belonging to grownups, who have more important concerns like the economy and whether the trains come on ...
Hi,Watching New Zealand from afar offers a strange perspective. It can be a good thing — distance from Aotearoa helped keep me sane while I reported on abuse at New Zealand’s biggest megachurch over the course of a year. It helps fuel my silly podcast. But it can also be ...
The speech yesterday by Treasury’s Chief Economic Advisor warning that the books are in worse shape than forecasted looks like it’s part of a softening-up process for either more cuts or a longer wait to get back into surplus. The speech was a highly unusual public preview of Treasury’s Half-Yearly ...
Open access notables Projected increase in the frequency of extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons, Lopez et al., Science Advances:Future changes to the year-to-year swings between active and inactive North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) seasons have received little attention, yet may have great societal implications in areas prone to hurricane ...
Chatting in the supermarket this morning, I found I needed to lunge for the chicken drumsticks.Coping mechanisms: who hasn’t felt a greater need for them lately?When it all gets too much, I turn to demonstrating handy butchery hacks.It wasn’t that she’d said anything wrong, our friend, not at all. We ...
Back in 2022, RNZ took an in-depth look at the "Independent" Police Conduct Authority and its handling of killings by police. These are the most serious test of oversight, and you would expect the police's use of lethal force to receive the most severe scrutiny. But despite the police regularly ...
The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti arrived at Parliament on Tuesday – the size is being debated but estimates range from 42,000 to 100,000. The Prime Minister is defending not attending due to some of the organisers being affiliated with Te Pāti Māori. The national gang patch ban came into force ...
I spoke to former Productivity Chair Nana this morning about the letter he and a group of other economists sent to PM Christopher Luxon to urge the Government to urgently suspend cuts to spending and investment for the sake of the economy, struggling businesses and the wellbeing of vulnerable ...
Unity on the Streets / Unity at the TableAfter the Hīkoi, all three right wing Coalition leaders came together to push the idea that the 42,000 - 50,000 + strong Hikoi was somehow less potent and brave, and more illegitimate than the energy and crowd displayed.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon 20-November: ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkThe world is emitting over 40 gigatons of CO2 per year, contributing to an accelerating warming of the planet. The world needs to cut emissions rapidly to be remotely on track to meet our Paris Agreement goals of limiting warming to well-below 2C, and we ...
I wear my leather jacket like a great big hugRadiating charm - a living cloak of luckIt's the only concrete link with an absent friendIt's a symbol I can wear 'till we meet againOr it's a weight around my neck while the owner's freeBoth protector and reminder of mortalityIt's a ...
Nicola Willis’ budget cuts are under fire from economists for having no clear rationale and worsening the recession. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, November 21: The news at ...
National has appointed a new police commissioner. And he explicitly rejects policing by consent: Asked if he subscribed to policing by consent, he said he did not. “I don’t talk about policing by consent. I talk about trust and confidence, and it is fundamentally important that the police have ...
David Horatio Waterbed SeymourFringe politician and dweeb transformed successfully by ThinkTank money into a well-oiled soundbite robot.Currently programmed to say: Equal rights for all New Zealanders Equal rights for all New Zealanders Equal rights for all New Zealanders Was previously programmed to say:I am a proud libertarian andI am a ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is calling on the Government to deliver an economic and industrial strategy for regional manufacturing, rather than just expressing sympathy for job losses, following the announced closure of Kinleith mill in Tokoroa. “The closure Kinleith mill in Tokoroa is not just devastating for ...
One in four Kiwi children live in households where food runs out often or sometimes. Photo: Getty ImagesKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, November 20: The lead: The official annual Health Survey found sharp ...
This guest post by Tim Adriaansen, an advocate for accessibility and sustainable transport, originally published on LinkedIn and cross posted here with permission. People prefer cars, right? Probably not. Here’s why. Granted, most people in English-speaking countries use a car to get around. This simple reality underpins our transport ...
Neither Wellington nor Parliament has ever seen anything like it before. The Police said there were more than 40,000 but however many there were, yesterday’s Hikoi to Parliament was a monumental event. It was almost three times the Foreshore and Seabed martch of 2004 and many,many times bigger than ...
The euphoria from yesterday’s hikoi may be transitory, but is no less valuable for that. It is pretty rare for the left to feel itself to be in the overwhelming majority, and speaking as the voice of the people. Lest that momentum be lost, the organisers will no doubt be ...
Mr David Seymour crawling up to the ceilingThe sun don't shine the sun don't shine the sun don't shine at allMamma Pappa say you should go to school, I don't know what forNow that I've grown up and seen the world and all its liesSong: Southside of Bombay"Ake, ake, ake" ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on National's racist and constitutionally radical Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. Submissions can be made at the link above or by post, and are due by Tuesday, 7 January 2025. But I'd get in quick, in case National grows a spine ...
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family has a Drunk Uncle Kevin in there somewhere. If your Kevin is anything like the ones I know, he was getting along happily enough without having to think too much about the Treaty Principles Bill apart from bloody good job, onya guys ...
Like everyone else (everyone who wasn't there, anyway), I've spent the morning watching the hikoi march on Parliament. The pictures are astounding: parliament grounds and the surrounding streets are full, and there are still people backed up along Lambton Quay. The police are estimating 35,000 people, and that's a floor ...
The CEOs of Westpac NZ and Kiwibank say Facebook is rife with fraud but reporting scam ads gets no response. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, November 19: The ...
A better world isn’t just possible, it’s desirable. And that’s how we should frame a lot of our conversations around making a greater Auckland. As an example take urban climate action. A climate friendly Auckland: Is free from congestion Enables people to travel how they choose Is filled with ...
Hi,It’s AMA time again — so anything that’s on your mind that you wanna ask, ask away in the comments. This is one of my favourite things to do with full Webworm members, who are the heart of this community of Worms. Journalism? Documentary making? Short Poppies? Cats? Podcasting? What ...
There were urgent moves yesterday at Parliament to try and defuse the tension building up over ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill. The Bill’s author, ACT leader David Seymour, told reporters that he understood the Justice Select Committee met yesterday to discuss how long it should take to consider submissions on the ...
This morning I discovered a post I’d written 10-11 months ago, lamenting how New Zealand’s ACT Party and their foreign and local surrogates would play out anti-Māori propaganda - which I believe they have long prepared for.At the time, it was a plea for action and readiness from my fellow ...
Politicians like to bang on all about the need to heal society’s racial/economic divisions, but in their actions they’re more keen on stoking those divisions, with the Treaty Principles Bill being the classic example. The Bill seeks to dilute the Crown’s responsibilities to Māori at the same time as it ...
Nearly two weeks on from the US election, and we are still mentally wrangling with the results. How did this happen? Which voter demographics went where? What did the Democrats do wrong? Meanwhile here in New Zealand, we’re left wondering how this will apply to us and what this means ...
I appreciate that A Phuulish Fellow has been fairly quiet recently. That’s a combination of two things – comparatively little in the way of relevant material to discuss (at least until The War of the Rohirrim comes out next month), and my general work on The Secret Non-Fiction Writing Project. ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Governments around the world face a conundrum. Virtually none are on track to meet their Paris climate commitments. That includes the United States, which committed to cut its emissions at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 but is only on track for 32-43% cuts ...
Too Big To Fail: Forty-three years after the 1981 Springbok Tour protests, Maori defenders of te Tiriti, by their own efforts, and using their own resources, are poised to descend on the capital with upwards of 100,000 followers at their back, and no force in front of them even remotely ...
The era of neoliberalism has been destructive on so many levels, with a huge growth in wealth and privilege for the one percent. A hollowing out of the state; fraying of the safety net; inadequate government investment in infrastructure; and continued environmental degradation has resulted in damage on a vast ...
In a manner of speakingI just want to sayThat I could never forget the wayYou told me everythingBy saying nothingOh, give me the wordsGive me the wordsThat tell me nothingOh, give me the wordsGive me the wordsThat tell me everythingSongwriter: Winston TongNext Tuesday, the subscription price for Nick’s Kōrero will ...
The NZNO have announced a nationwide strike for December over its pay dispute with Health NZ, who have put a 1 per cent cap on pay rises. The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti and Treaty Principles Bill remain front and centre in the media, with the impacts of the Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke-led ...
The divisive Treaty Principles Bill is not just a risk for the National Party, it’s a risk to civil order and unity, warns a National Party grandee. Photo: Getty ImagesKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on ...
This post was originally published on Linked In by Nicolas Reid. It is republished here with permission. Auckland is now just a year or so away from having the keystone of its urban rail network complete. As I wrote about here, the City Rail Link will be a literal game changer for ...
If ACT leader David Seymour intended the Treaty Principles Bill to drive a wedge into National’s support base, he may well already be succeeding. By midnight on Thursday after the Maori Party haka in Parliament, National MPs were being deluged with emails and messages from their members calling them out ...
A listing of 33 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, November 10, 2024 thru Sat, November 16, 2024. Story of the week Our Story of the Week is completely "meta" (no, not that Meta). It's about our exploring how ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Self-appointed “Bishop” and proto-fascist, Brian Tamaki was at it again on 16 November, blocking Auckland’s southern motorway, SH1.This time, the target of his ire wasn’t the Civil Unions Act; covid lock-downs; mask mandates; or ...
I cannot stop grabbing people by the lapels, or shoulders, or similar, and raving at them about the tiny miracles in my ears.I can hear again! There could not be a more satisfied customer in all the world.In a noisy cafe I am even catching words that Karren cannot, she ...
Take the baitYou pay the priceIt's much too lateFor good adviceYou know and I know that our good things' throughBecause there's consequences for what we doConsequences for me and youWriters: Kevin Robert Hayes, David Nagier, Bonnie Adele Hayes.Fallout from the first readingOne News began last night by saying that tens ...
Hi,If I was to accurately sum up my mental state over the week, I’d just say that I got a huge fright from my own shadow.I’d nipped out for an 11pm neighborhood stroll, just to calm down after a day of stress and screens. The Cure and Fazerdaze’s new record ...
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
On Tuesday, sick of government stonewalling, the Waitangi Tribunal issued a rare court order, ordering the Minister of Health to release unredacted documents within 48 hours showing its reasoning for disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. The government's response to the lawful order of a court? Yeah, ...
Yesterday, under cover the the biggest political fight of the year, National quietly - covertly, even - introduced anti-foreign interference legislation. The bill is the product of a years-long work-program aimed at countering shit like this and this, and there's unquestionably a need to do something to counter foreign states' ...
A few months ago, I was in an audience watching a Haka-Kapa and as I watched children dance and sing and sway and shout and beat, I couldn’t help but think “The Haka represents the best of us.”Yes, yes - there will be a thousand voices that rush forth to ...
St Mary’s Bay housing left hanging: Climate risk is systemically underestimated in the climate scenarios used by central banks, and a new report warns 10,000 houses are set to become uninsurable in Aotearoa. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in ...
One of the major problems the Government has in implementing its ‘going for housing growth’ strategy is that it isn’t giving much funding help to councils. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...
The Treaty Principles Bill continues to dominate political news, with it passing its first reading in the House. Parliament was briefly suspended and Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke suspended for 24 hours after leading a haka that was joined by opposition MPs and the public in the gallery. Willie ...
Happy Friday, welcome to another round-up of interesting stories about what’s happening in Auckland and other cities. Feel free to add your links in the comments! This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers ...
And screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingAnd screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingForget me nots, second thoughts live in isolationHeads or tails and fairy tales in my mindAre we we are, are we we are the waiting unknownThe rage and love, the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate news, including from COP29 this week; on the US Presidential elections, Israel vs Gaza/Iran/Lebanon, Ukraine/Nato vs Russia/North ...
Only two months ago, Nicola Willis had to step in to stop Health New Zealand cutting tea and toast for post-birth parents, and now Lester Levy is riding to the rescue with a welcome message for all: our health workers can once again drink Milo, and will no longer need ...
Day One of the Treaty Principles Bill…and everyone got what they wanted, and did what they liked. Heated words were exchanged. Culturally appropriate acts of outrage were performed. David Seymour got to play the victim card. Willie Jackson got kicked out of class. A comically red-faced Mr Speaker bellowed “Order, ...
Open access notables Microbial solutions must be deployed against climate catastrophe, Peixoto et al., Nature Communications [comment]:The climate crisis is escalating. A multitude of microbe-based solutions have been proposed, and these technologies hold great promise and could be deployed along with other climate mitigation strategies. However, these solutions have ...
You can pay a great deal of money for the services of a KC. So just what would some peerless legal writing from 40 or so of them be worth, do you reckon?Priceless, that’s what. It’s not even the half of it, but this is my favourite part of the ...
The government's Treaty Principles Bill is up for its first reading today - bought forward in a rush in a desperate effort to avoid the hikoi which is currently marching on Wellington. But the Prime Minister won’t be there for it – he’s literally running away to Peru! But he ...
Good morning, and I’m sorry I’ve been away for a couple of days.I’ve been focusing on the Hikoi, and also testing out sentiment on the Treaty Principles Bill. It’s complicated, and the Treaty Principles Bill will be debated in the House today. The Government’s own lawyers have told them the ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is calling on the Government to vote down an ACT Party Members Bill that would undermine workers’ rights by making it easier for employers to fire workers. Last week ACT MP Laura Trask’s Employment Relations (Termination of Employment by Agreement) Amendment Bill was ...
As the weight of the world Hangs on your shoulders The weight of the world Starts to take over again And over again All that you once loved, now you hate So slowly relearn how to meditate To have and to hold And never let go Can you feel it ...
The Treaty Principles Bill is set to have its First Reading in the House today, as the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti continues. More than 40 KCs have written to the Prime Minister and Attorney-General outlining their “grave concerns” about the substance of the Treaty Principles Bill, while an academic and ...
The Government has passed legislation to remove agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) while Aotearoa’s reputation on climate action plummets. ...
As legislation to set up boot camps passed its first reading, the Green Party urged the Government to abandon this failed policy experiment for the good of our rangatahi. ...
The Ministry of Health has today released an evidence brief regarding the use of puberty blockers in gender-affirming healthcare, amid moves by the government to limit access. ...
Louise Upston has revealed her diminished vision for vulnerable youth against a backdrop of snubbed advice, scrapped priorities, shifted goal posts and thousands more children projected to fall into poverty. ...
National Government’s backward-looking climate policy has seen New Zealand fall seven places on the Climate Change Performance Index to 41 out of 63 countries measured. ...
When the Government says it has reduced the number of people in emergency housing, what it means is it is stopping people from accessing it in the first place. ...
The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. ...
A group of prominent economists has released an open letter to the Government, raising grave concerns about the far-reaching consequences of its fiscal policy. ...
Parliamentarians from Australia, Canada and New Zealand have written an open letter to their respective Prime Ministers calling on them to recognise Palestine. ...
Te Whatu Ora’s bill for contracting and consulting staff has ballooned by nearly 20 percent under the National Government, breaking a promise they made during the election campaign to cut contractors. ...
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our country’s founding document. It forms the basis of the relationship between Māori and the Crown – and the Aotearoa New Zealand we live in today. ...
As the hīkoi to Parliament continues, Labour has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in a last-ditch attempt to get him to kill the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Labour joins with the Government in unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long. ...
The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...
For tomorrow’s apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care to hold any water, the Government must not pursue the same policies that drove the abuse in the first place. ...
Concerns about the tobacco industry’s ability to interfere in government policy making remain, despite the inability of the Office of the Auditor-General to investigate the Government’s decision to halve the excise tax on heated tobacco products. ...
Break out the punchlines and dust off your meme folder: Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter’s Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill was pulled from the Ballot yesterday. ...
Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...
A new Child Protection Investigation Unit is being established to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children in care, Minister for Children Karen Chhour says. “The report released by the Royal Commission into abuse in state care shows us all the risk of not acting immediately when there are serious ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Ka mihi ki te mana whenua ko Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Kia ora and good morning everyone. Thank you Fran and Simon for inviting me here today, and importantly your leadership of this forum over several years now. I want to acknowledge David Gehrenbeck, Deputy ...
Nearly 2,000 submissions have been received on the Government’s proposals aimed at making it easier to build a granny flat of up to 60 square metres without a resource or building consent, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk say. “This is the highest number ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Rebecca Guthrie as a District Court Judge. Judge Guthrie was admitted to the bar in 1997 following her graduation from the University of Canterbury in 1996 (LLB, BA). She commenced her legal career in Hastings in 1997 before moving to London in ...
The latest Predator Free 2050 Board appointments will help to strengthen biodiversity efforts across Aotearoa New Zealand, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says. Mr Potaka today announced two appointments to the Board of Directors of Predator Free 2050 Limited, a key player in the wider Predator Free 2050 Programme. “The Predator ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey today opened Kahurangi, an innovative and much-needed facility for Canterbury’s Child, Adolescent, and Family Mental Health Services. “The new state of the art outpatient facility opened today will be a gamechanger for the way mental health is delivered for young people in Canterbury,” says Mr ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news from the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) that bus driver protection screens will be installed across Auckland’s bus fleet by 2026.“The Government is committed to improving the safety of working environments for bus drivers, and Budget 2024 allocated $15 million of Crown funding over ...
The Government is taking action to ensure Southland farmers and growers are not affected by unreasonable regional farm plan deadlines, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard say.“Cabinet has agreed to provide more time for farmers and growers to comply with regional rules ...
The Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Bill had its first reading at Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Government’s commitment to crack down on serious youth offending, Minister for Children Karen Chhour says. “In recent years we have seen an unacceptable spike in youth offending. “This Bill makes ...
Fairer, more sensible rules about managing earthquake risks are a step closer with the passing of legislation and the appointment of an independent chair to provide expert advice, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The Government is committed to reinvigorating our cities and regions to support economic growth, ...
People in Northland and Auckland will benefit from a new machine for cancer treatment installed at the Regional Cancer and Blood Service at Auckland City Hospital. The MV5 linear accelerator, or LINAC machine, officially opened today targets cancer tumours with pinpoint accuracy. Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says this new, ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Europe for high-level talks with France, Germany and the United Kingdom next week. "Since taking office almost a year ago, the Coalition Government has emphasised the importance we place on New Zealand's traditional and likeminded diplomatic and ...
Police have made their first arrests under the new gang patch legislation, with two gang members arrested, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. “Just before 11 this morning, Police in Wairoa apprehended a gang member for wearing a patch to the supermarket. He has been arrested and will now face enforcement ...
The Government is proposing two major changes to name suppression laws that will put the views of victims of sexual violence first, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “We are committed to restoring law and order and these two proposed changes will help ensure the victims of crime are put at ...
Cabinet has agreed to invite all regions to submit proposals for Regional Deals between central and local government that drive economic growth and deliver the infrastructure our country needs, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop say. Inviting all regions to propose a Regional Deal that boosts ...
One of the ten young men selected to participate in the Military-Style Academy Pilot has allegedly reoffended. Children’s Minister Karen Chhour is disappointed but says it would be naïve to think that none of these young men would reoffend. “I’m saddened that this young person has not taken this opportunity ...
Delivered at Auckland Trade and Economic Policy School Good morning and thank you Deputy Vice Chancellor Lithander for your warm welcome and for inviting me to open Auckland Trade and Economic Policy School today. A Special thanks to the University of Auckland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says that school attendance is continuing to rise. In Term 3 of 2024 51.3 per cent of students attended school regularly, an increase of 5.3 percentage points from 46 per cent in Term 3 of 2023. “This Government has prioritised student attendance and it is ...
Ensuring New Zealand is the best place in the world for children and young people is the vision at the heart of the Government’s new Child and Youth Strategy, Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston says. “Childhood represents a huge opportunity to set people on a positive path towards living ...
The Government is reinstating the trade of livestock exports by sea while ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare, says Associate Minister of Agriculture Andrew Hoggard.“The Government will introduce legislation changes to reinstate the trade, enhance oversight, and strengthen requirements for exporters to identify risks and manage the welfare of ...
Tēnā koutou katoa – it is a pleasure to be here today. I would like to begin by acknowledging the important leadership role you all play in ensuring a quality health system New Zealanders can trust. There is enormous clinical expertise in this room covering a wide range of disciplines. ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Mr President, Excellencies, Delegates. New Zealand, and all nations represented here today, are already dealing with the impacts of climate change. Our households, businesses, and economies are bearing the costs of its effects. The choices we make now will shape the severity of these impacts for generations ...
The Government has released its second Quarterly Investment Report (QIR) which shows substantial work still to be done by agencies to improve investment reporting and meet the Government’s expectations, Infrastructure and Acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “New Zealand has significant infrastructure and investment needs. The Government is determined to get ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced New Zealand will contribute NZ$10 million to the new Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage while at the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan. “New Zealand is joining the global effort to address the significant challenge of responding to ...
The free ride for gangs is over when the clock strikes midnight tonight, with tough new laws officially coming into effect, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell say. “Gang patches will no longer be able to be worn in public. To earn the right to wear a ...
The Government is welcoming the decision by the Local Government Funding Agency to increase access to financing tools for fast growing councils to support greater investment in critical infrastructure, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.“Communities across the country are facing an infrastructure deficit and significant population growth is projected in ...
The Government has revealed that over the past three years, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has spent an eyewatering $786 million of taxpayers’ money on road cones and temporary traffic management (TTM), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“When I became Minister, I was surprised to learn that that NZTA did ...
Legislation that will double the financial jurisdiction of the Disputes Tribunal from $30,000 to $60,000 has passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith. “We need to improve court timeliness and access to justice so that Kiwis and get on with their lives. Court delays affect everyone, the ...
Legislation that will specifically criminalise foreign interference and strengthen espionage offences has passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “It is normal and appropriate for states to interact and work to influence one another. This encourages cooperation and can have mutually beneficial outcomes. “However, the reality ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news that the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board has approved funding towards pre-implementation and early works on the State Highway 1 (SH1) Belfast to Pegasus Motorway and Woodend Bypass Road of National Significance (RoNS). “Reaching this significant milestone is a reflection of our Government’s ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says findings from the annual Health Survey highlight the need to continue driving better health outcomes for New Zealanders. The New Zealand Health Survey is an annual snapshot of key metrics measured from July 2023 – July 2024. Findings released this morning include: In 2023/24, ...
A renewed effort to get people to quit smoking will build on what has worked to date and target the groups who most need support, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said today. “The latest New Zealand Health Survey results show the daily smoking rate at 6.9 per cent and we ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced four new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has today announced the next steps in the Government’s plan improve the quality of regulation by opening consultation on a proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. “New Zealand's low wages can be blamed on low productivity, and low productivity can be blamed on poor regulation,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Minister for Regulation David Seymour has today announced that the Ministry for Regulation’s Red Tape Tipline is now live. “We want to hear about your red tape horror stories. From today, New Zealanders will have a say on how they are regulated through an online portal,” says Mr Seymour. The ...
The Minister for Youth Matt Doocey has today announced the eleventh Youth Parliament will be taking place in 2025. “Youth Parliament offers a unique youth development opportunity to young people from across New Zealand to experience the political process and learn about how government works,” says Mr Doocey. “The two-day ...
After nearly a year in Government, Kiwis have seen significant change across law and order with promising early results shown across some Police statistics, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. “In August 2023, I told New Zealanders that if they had not started to see a change in public safety within ...
With the launch of Fraud Awareness Week, the Government is committing to new coordination efforts across industry and government to combat online scams, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Online financial scams are a growing problem for New Zealand. New data released today shows that Kiwis lost nearly ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour will consider the recommendations made by the Social Services and Community Committee in its report back to Parliament on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill. “I want to thank the people who made submissions and those who appeared before the committee in ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Vientiane, Laos. “We need to take every opportunity to engage with our international partners, given the increasingly unstable geo-political situation,” Ms Collins says. “New Zealand has a long-standing commitment to this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Grantham, Lecturer in Communication, Griffith University Shutterstock The federal government’s proposed social media ban for under-16s has sparked widespread debate, affecting millions of young Australians, their families and educators. But will it actually work? While the aim behind this ban ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Robinson, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland AG-PHOTOS/Shutterstock With the start of summer just days away, many of us will be looking forward to long sunny days spent at the beach, by the pool, out ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Crosby, Professor, Monash University Chichimaru/Shutterstock Australia has a seriously big “nest egg”. The Future Fund – our sovereign wealth fund set up in 2006 – now manages about $230 billion. Specifically, its remit is to “invest for the benefit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Stokes-Parish, Assistant Professor in Medicine, Bond University Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock If someone’s heart suddenly stops beating, they may only have minutes to live. Doing CPR (cardiopulmonary resusciation) can increase their chances of survival. CPR makes sure blood keeps pumping, providing oxygen to ...
A new poem by Art Nahill. Boyhood I hate the way the dog cowers when I raise my voice. After all this time together she’s still not sure what I’m capable of. As kids with too much time we sprinkled salt on slugs plucked from summer gardens watched them shrivel ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, $26) The slight, superb winner of the Booker Prize ...
Democracy Now!NERMEEN SHAIKH: In The Hague, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Israel’s assault on Gaza.In a statement, the ICC said the Israeli leaders had, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Celeste Rodriguez Louro, Chair of Linguistics and Director of Language Lab, The University of Western Australia Rroselavy / Shutterstock Earlier this year, a Hong Kong finance worker was tricked into paying US$25 million to scammers who had used deepfake technology to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Hanaghan, Senior Research Fellow in Latin Christianity in Late Antiquity, Australian Catholic University Warning: this article contains mild spoilers. When Gladiator I was released in 2000, I was a high school Classics student and the film brought Classical literature to life ...
“We are waiting for our government to announce it will arrest Netanyahu and Gallant immediately if they set foot in Aotearoa New Zealand” says PSNA National Chair John Minto. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Winter, Associate Professor in Political Theory, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images When Prime Minister Christopher Luxon stood in Parliament last week to apologise to survivors of abuse in care, his words were among many fine speeches by ...
Eddie Redmayne’s globe-trotting assassin thriller on TVNZ is worth putting your phone down for.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. This is a vulnerable thing to say as someone who often writes about television for a job, but boy am I really ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne IoanaB/Shutterstock The United States Food and Drug Administration has just approved the first-ever clinical trial that uses CRISPR-Cas13 RNA editing. Its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Lee, PhD Candidate, Dermatology Research Centre, The University of Queensland Karolina Grabowska/Pexels Summer is nearly here. But rather than getting out the sunscreen, some TikTokers are urging followers to chuck it out and go sunscreen-free. They claim it’s healthier ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keller Kopf, Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Charles Darwin University Laxmikant Ameenagad, Shutterstock In humans and other animals, ageing is generally associated with a decline in biological function. But scientists are now discovering older animals perform vital roles in populations and ecosystems. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matej Lipar, Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University Author provided/Google Earth Earlier this year, a caver was poring over satellite images of the Nullarbor Plain when he came across something unexpected: an enormous, mysterious scar etched ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney Once located 250 metres to the east of the Art Gallery of South Australia, the grand beaux-arts style Jubilee Exhibition Building was constructed to house the ...
Treasury likely to downgrade economic forecast while Chris Bishop says the government won’t be ‘a slave to a surplus’, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Recession will be deeper and last longer — Treasury At a recent Spinoff ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Gomes-Ng, Senior Lecturer of Psychology, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Former New Zealand prime minister John Key has three white rabbits painted on his helicopter, a nod to his “massively superstitious” habit of repeating “white rabbits” three times at ...
Labour claims Government is ‘cherry-picking’ smoking trends data to hide decade-first increase in daily smokers The post Smoke and mirrors in tobacco debate appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There is plenty yet to play out, but the next election is at this rate shaping up as trio versus trio, writes Toby Manhire.A subplot of this week’s historic hīkoi mō te Tiriti has been the sight of the three opposition parties presenting a unified front. Te Pāti Māori ...
From the low lows of abandon empires to the high highs of a mall done just right.This is the second in the Malls of New Zealand series, where we rank the malls in major centres. Next week: Wellington.A note from the editor: This is the hardest ranking we’ve ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a 27-year-old apartment-dwelling marketing exec explains her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female. Age: 27. Ethnicity: Pākehā. Role: Marketing exec at ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 22 November appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Perhaps this is the (hidden/not given) reason for the Government's movement toward reforming local government/TAs/regional councils?
Preparation for transition.
Bizarrely instead of removing barriers to action what seems to be being proposed here is more heavy handed regulation that would restrict people doing things that could actually lead to less environmentally damaging activity.
Take this notion of encouraging local food production as if this is a better approach to large scale global integrated food supply chains. NZ is a prime example of how many of the food that we produce has a lower carbon footprint EVEN taking in to account the cost of transporting to markets half way across the World. However the "Local is better" approach that would be part of this Transition Enabling Act would likely mean it would be difficult (if not impossible) to allow people in places like Europe to buy our products.
Lower carbon isn't enough Gosman. Consider a house fire and whether using 'more' water to put it out is sufficient, if the whole house is on fire and you decided to use buckets instead of a fire fighting hose connected to the mains water supply.
That we can produce beef with less climate/eco impact than US CAFOs is fairly meaningless if we still can’t put the fire out. (and the CAFO standard isn’t hard to beat).
We have targets, they give us a % chance of averting disaster. We need to meet those targets not hand wave vaguely towards them.
We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels.
The big conversation there is how can NZ run an economy to keep us with a decent standard of living as well as meeting climate targets? And what is a decent standard of living in a climate emergency world?
The other factors here are food shortages. If we grow our own food in ways that are resilient, we can survive. If we instead rely on the global food supply system then we risk going hungry if/when it collapses. This is not fringe theory, this is mainstream concern now about climate impacts on crops, as well as the interruptions we have seen recently from pandemics and war.
None of that means we can't export anything. It means we need to rethink what food security is and how to build it in a climate world.
So what happens about food supply to Africa? We've already seen food shortages/famine as a result of the disrupted Ukraine wheat supply. Local agriculture there is problematic for a whole host of reasons (climate and political instability – both likely to get worse – among them).
If NZ no longer exports agricultural products – that's a huge swathe of our export economy gone. What do we use for foreign exchange for the stuff that we need – and can never produce/supply locally?
[I heard a snippet on the radio the other day, saying that NZ grows and supplies the vast majority of the carrot seed used worldwide – the inter-connectedness of our economies continues to astound me]
NZ is (or can be) reasonably self-sufficient in food terms (we might be eating more potatoes than pasta – but we will have something to eat). Meat and 3 veg might well be returning to our base menus.
It's all of the other things that we need to be a first world economy that we can't supply locally. Many of them we will never be able to produce (we lack the raw materials).
No-one is going to have a first world economy the way we conceive of it now. It's just not possible. This doesn't mean we become third world economies, it means we change how we do the whole thing. See Doughnut Economics for how that might work.
I didn't say NZ can't export anything. In fact I specifically said in the last paragraph we can.
Food for Africa should come from:
Local and regional food increase food security even in continents like Africa. One of the problems some of the places in Africa have is they have been economically forced into cash cropping for the global supply chain instead of growing their own food. This means if the crop fails they have no money to pay to buy in food. This is absolutely insane. Consider what is going to happen when crops fail in a mass scale, do you think people being able to grow their own food are going to be better or worse off? Again, this isn't fringe theory, this is mainstream understanding of what is about to happen. The UN is promoting local food.
Exactly, this is the conversation we need to have pronto. What would transition look like for NZ? How can we make more the things we need locally? How can we afford the imports of things we can't provide ourselves? This isn't an insurmountable problem once one gets past TINA and the way the global economy works now.
Imagine then what happens in a bad year, or a bad five years, if the NZ carrot see crops fail. It's a madness to put all eggs in one basket.
"We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels."
Ummm…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/2018843682/a-milestone-marked-for-meat-industry
Is this still current? I remember reading that about 20y ago, before the adoption of vertical orchards and forests, and advances in aquaculture. We don't just want the lesser of two evils, we want the actively good.
Behaviour also has something to do with it too – out of season food (that is necessarily organic, sunshine-fed, spring-watered etc) is as a fundamental right to many.
Gosman's thinking of BAU and comparing one polluter with a somewhat lesser polluter. We have so many ways of producing food regeneratively now. Making money out of it beyond people making a living and feeding that into the local economy is a different matter (one which I suspect drives Gosman's thinking).
I like this,
There is no such thing as actively good human activity. EVERYTHING we do has an negative impact on the environment at some level. The question is really is can the effects be mitigated and minimised to the extent it can be decreed to be sustainable.
Although that's a good point, does that always have to be the case? Are you saying there's no possibility of leaving the place better than we found it (better in terms of ecological/biodiverse value)?
https://www.boredpanda.com/brazilian-couple-recreated-forest-sebastiao-leila-salgado-reforestation/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
https://sea.mashable.com/social-good/15087/indonesian-man-plants-a-forest-with-11000-trees-all-by-himself
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/26/572421590/hed-take-his-own-life-before-killing-a-tree-meet-india-s-forest-man
Farm based on respecting the ecosystem is sheltered from the changing market amid global food insecurity. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/3/the-lebanese-farm-regenerating-soil-for-a-healthier-future
The definition of "better" is a value judgement. Who decides what is environmentally better? Removing all people from NZ and allowing the countryside to revert back to nature might be regarded by some as better than doing what we are doing but it isn't really practical. Even the concept of regenerative farming is vague and open to criticism that it doesn't do what is promised (see: https://thecounter.org/regenerative-agriculture-racial-equity-climate-change-carbon-farming-environmental-issues/).
"EVERYTHING we do has an (sic) negative impact on the environment at some level."
Surely that's a value judgement as well, Gosman?
"Who decides what is environmentally better?"
You, it seems, decides what's "negative", yes?
Tricky discussion.
the people complaining about there being no definition of regenag, don't actually do regenag. There are some issues of accounting and research, but in terms of the actual growing, people just got on with it. And they know what it means.
I don't know what you are getting at here. Do you accept that we (humans) know what climate change is, what is causing it, and what would slow it down and avert the worst disaster?
We will improve on what we have now and our limits for improvement will be up to us. Some injuries have been inflicted and can't be healed, but a great deal can be restored, revitalised and made more dynamic than ever before, because we are clever and can increase the speed at which nature "turns over" to the benefit of all. Case in point, coppicing.
This is an incredibly cycnical pov. But also, it suggests that you don't understand what regenerative or sustainable is. This is enlightening for me, because now I get why the attachment to BAU is so strong. If you can't conceive of humans living as part of nature and being a benefit, then all that leaves is the death cult. This is sad.
(mitigating negatives effects doesn't make something sustainable)
Good and bad are not terms that serve discussions well. I prefer "energised" or "vital", maybe even "active" in discussing what to do and by those words I mean the sort of energy pollinating insects exhibit as they go about their activities, the behaviour of electrons as they whizz in orbit of nuclei, the sound water makes as it flows over the scales of a fast-swimming salmon, the sum of the percussions made by hail falling onto the surface of a lake, and so on. We need to break the deadlock language has set on our thinking and imaginations, in order to be able to create new ways of being, behaviours to recommend and pathways to follow 🙂
The suggestions would be more useful if they related to what we are already doing here.
As the EU has shown, the modern state can legislate all it likes but even in aggregate form it's not strong enough to manage a 'disorderly decarbonisation', which is what the EU looks like and it is the most prepared for the energy challenge of any set of states.
Just to focus on energy for a moment, in the next 48 hours we are about to go through a cold snap that Transpower is saying will test the grid.Vector in mid September also warned about expanding power from solar and wind without also investing in digital tech to manage peak time demand – for example when everyone is charging vehicles.
By mid December this year we will know whether New Zealanders are ready for accelerated renewables in large zones. In their absence and in a lack of demand-side measures the network isn't going to cope. All of those costs of transition are currently going to be found added to your power bills.
By 2023 there is mandatory reporting on climate risk by large companies, banks, insurers, Fonterra, you name it. It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth.
We certainly need an Energy Transition Ministry to do what the EA can't do. But I'd struggle to see which politicians other than Shaw would have the ability to lead it. At the moment we are struggling to merge two public media entities.
By election 2023 we will see whether NZ business can really report so that everyone with investment in the outcomes ie pension fund holders can really see real change occurring. At that point Polly should pop over and take notes.
I agree. I'll probably do a post about the NZ situation, this one was about the idea, and it was conceived of and written about by Brits. I hope you join in with some proactive ideas because you have a lot of experience and knowledge in the pragmatics of NZ's economy.
In a sane climate response, the government and local authorities would be putting put public messaging for the past week advising people to save power and how to do that. This is not rocket science, and it's not difficult. It does conflict with profit making models and the current mindset about how things have to work.
Limits of growth. We can learn a new set of skills. Instead of trying shoehorn BAU capitalism and growth into a fantasy of green tech climate response. We don't have to let personal EVs drive the transition, it can be a smaller part.
this really is an incredibly ignorant statement. Local food is backyard, growing for one's neighbours, town wide box schemes, urban farms, regional food growing and distribution systems, the Longwood Loop. Fonterra exists to support our planet destroying standard of living. We don't need Fonterra to eat. We do need resilient food systems, and we need to set them up now rather than waiting for the food shortages.
Polly Higgins died in 2019. Which you would know if you had read the post properly.
How do we generate enough action?
Tax high earners, use that to replace the relentless commercial advertising of crap with more positive pROpAgNDa? It feels like there's plenty of will, but it's difficult for the disparate elements to cohere amid the grotesque consumerism reinforced by advertisement overload.
Is that why we have kids who really want to make a difference, but can't live without the latest phone or Tikitok, or that climate girl flying to Fiji. We want out but can't find the exit.
The exit has a large sign that's been flashing for quite a while now!
"It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth."….disagree……sure initial outlay but you let some of your crop seed……you plant seed inside to get going…and you water and weed and rotate the crops………..instead of sitting in front of the goggle box……and you can preseve….freeze…….dehydrate and eat fresh…..grow your own and you won't a commercial vege again…….tomatoes that taste ….well… like tomatoes and as the song goes……"teach your children well"……
The change will happen first, inside of our skulls.
Gardening is one of the most likely activities to bring on this in-skull change.
Until that happens, little valuable progress will be made, therefore, gardening is critical to our shared futures.
Do I garden? Yes. Does my garden contribute significantly towards my food intake over a year? Not really.
Yes, I grow fruit and veges (and have a very nice herb garden). And supplement my diet with those, rather than buying them.
Is it cheaper? Probably not. When I have tomatoes in season, they're also at their cheapest at the greengrocer. But, I agree, home-grown do taste good.
Can I freeze, dry, preserve them? Yes. But I also recognize that I come from a place of privilege there: I can afford a large freezer, can afford the electricity required to process and store, have the knowledge about how to water-bath preserve, etc., have space to store the preserved results.
Do I have the time? Yes. Again, that's a privilege. I have the time (and so far) the physical fitness required to spend time in the garden planting, weeding and harvesting. It's also preference. Gardening isn't everyone's cup of tea, and/or idea of how to spend their time well.
Do I have the space? Yes. A real privilege, here in Auckland – where most new townhouse developments have a 'garden' consisting of a pocket-handkerchief-size lawn. And, of course, apartments don't even have that.
Backyard gardening can be a nice supplement to your diet – but, for most people, and certainly most city people, it's very unlikely to be a significant contributor.
The days of the 'quarter-acre paradise' are gone.
Backyard gardening's supplementing of your diet is a minor consideration, it's the transforming of your thinking that's to be valued.
The message plants carry to the observant gardener is the one needed for transforming your thinking, outside of the complex.confusing, contradictory exchanges of ideas we are seeing on this thread 🙂
Goodness! Has my thinking been transformed by backyard gardening?
How would I know?
You would know.
Seems it hasn't 🙂
Don't give up!
Given that I've been gardening for over 30 years – it seems to be taking a long time to kick in!
Reality is that people garden for a whole lot of reasons: family heritage (my mum would kill me if I bought lemons); convenience (I love my herb garden, and just being able to have thyme on hand, when I want it); taste (home-grown raspberries); curiosity (I wonder what these heritage beans taste like, and if I can grow them here); mental health (being outside, hands in the earth – even weeding is therapeutic – 'take that! oxalis'); contributing to the table (smug satisfaction of growing your own); educating kids (look what happens when we plant our peas, we can eat the strawberries when they're red, we can scrabble for new potatoes); even one-upping the neighbours! (yes, of course you can have some rosemary)
Then is seems obvious it has kicked in…
…only you don't know it 🙂
Ah, so because I grew up gardening, I came into it with those attitudes already in place – no wonder I don't notice anything different 🙂
On a side note, you never dared complain that you were 'bored' in our house growing up – my Mum had a list of garden jobs just waiting to go!
The only thing the old man ever gave me was something to do.
I agree that anyone pushing backyard gardening as if it is a viable and significant plank in what needs to happen in the next 5 years is barking up the wrong tree.
"a viable and significant plank"
Whatever do you mean?
Backyard gardening's great value lies in empowering, encouraging and, in part, feeding, the gardener and their family.
Why are you so dismissive?
I just got it! I think it's the people who can't see the unwaged economy. If you can't count it in conventional economic terms, then it's just some marginal thing we shouldn't bother with.
They're probably also not aware of the very large movement in NZ of home gardening, community gardens, school gardens, small scale market gardens, farmers markets, and food forests! So many people I know produce excess from their garden and they give it away. Invisible economy.
I'm so grateful to have grown up on a 1/4 acre with most of the land not occupied by a house/shed/garage either in trees, shrubs or a large vegetable garden. Definitely bigger than the lawn we had to play on. Deep body memory of how it works.
Think about the resources needed to ship lettuces internationally compared to being able to harvest from one's garden, or neighbourhood. This is quite simple to understand. Run the whole process in your mind:
Growing
Refrigerated storage
Packaging (including the whole process used to create that plastic)
Shipping
Domestic transport
Waste (of embodied energy, and waste to be disposed of)
It's bonkers that we think this is secure, viable, and not damaging to the environment.
Perhaps something with a longer shelf life than lettuces would be a better example. I've never bought (or even seen) an internationally shipped lettuce in NZ.
But, setting that aside. The only way to prevent off-season crops being imported would be to ban the import. No more California cherries in May.
No more bananas, ever (apart from the tiny % grown here).
Which runs into Trade deal issues. And risks reciprocation against our own agricultural produce being exported (not really 'risks' it would be just about guaranteed).
The alternative is to load on the $$$ for every stage of the 'carbon' process. Making imported goods so prohibitively expensive that only the truly wealthy can afford them.
I can't say that that's a scenario that I feel comfortable with (even if I was one of the people who could afford off-season cherries)
Part of the problem, I think, is that our international trade connections are so widespread. And, there are plenty of figures showing that NZ lamb (for example) uses less carbon (even when shipping is counted) than local production.
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/52447-Carbon-Footprint-of-New-Zealand-Beef-and-Sheep-Exported-to-Different-Markets-public-summary
How is is better to protectively legislate for a local product which uses *more* carbon?
My point weka is that focussing on backyard gardening in particular, in the next 5 years, is a misallocation of resources.
Community or other wider gardening exercises is a different issue, because those things can actually scale to provide a meaningful amount of food.
My parents manage to provide probably about 1/2 of their vegetable needs, averaged over a year, from their garden – a significant feat. But they've been at it for 30+ years, they have all the skills, tools, experience, land and time to do it.
NZ produces such a huge amount of food – and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future – that spending time fussing about at the margins with backyard gardening is a waste of time. In other countries like the UK and the US, and large Australian cities, it's a sensible and important thing to do. But NZ isn't those countries (thankfully).
In NZ we need to focus on sustainable farming methods, permaculture etc.
I think you are missing the point here Belladonna. Look at the whole systems. If 20% of people in a city grow half their own food, there are multiple benefits for them personally but it also means that that amount of food doesn't have to be grown and transported in highly carbon polluting ways. Now multiply that across NZ.
Now, put that alongside all the other things happening: community gardens and orchards and food forests, school gardens, urban farms. Then market gardening on the outskirts of the city. Compare that to shipping all that food long distances and the packaging and waste, power and water consumption.
I seriously doubt that anyone in a city is going to grow half their own food (well, I suppose if you count the rural areas of Auckland – but really, that's not 'city' or 'suburb')
I don't have an issue with buying local (though defining 'local' is a bit of a challenge – there is no such thing as a real farmers market in Auckland, for example – we're just too far away from actual market gardens). But expecting any significant contribution from backyard gardens (or community gardens – which only seem to operate in the wealthiest of suburbs), or school gardens (more of an education/science project than actual food contribution) – is not something that I can see working.
I guess, that you're saying that even a tiny contribution is better than nothing…. But I don't see it as transformational.
I can see Robert's point of personal gardening changing people's perspective as being more realistic.
Totally agree. As I said in a comment above, my parents can grow about 1/2 of all of their vegetable needs, averaged over a year, from their surburban garden. But they've been doing it for 30+ years, and have the experience, time and land to do it.
Note that I said vegetables. They still have to buy meat and fruit. And that's also averaged over a whole year – in Christchurch in winter there isn't a lot of edible food coming from the garden.
Agreed.
exactly AND you grow it and control what goes into it with the result tastier and healthier food and you can go have a cup of tea with ya neighbour and give them a cauli
Unless you are on a quarter acre and own the property and are mostly retired, gardening for vegetables is just a very long virtue signal.
All those endless covers and pages of women's magazines with smiling bougies holding their baskets of greens and telling how they are changing the world is just a fat lie.
Annabelle Langbein for example, queen of all that homemade faux-working class chambray-shirted nonsense, lives on five acres with a full view of Lake Wanaka on title over $6m with a multimedia empire worth millions.
Get real.
Nonsense!
Just because you are irritated by wealthy celebrities who garden, or retirees on a certain square-meterage of land doesn't mean that your claim that gardening is "a very long virtue signal" is correct.
It is not.
Real food is produced by real people for real reasons, all over the motu.
Even people without gardens of any outdoor sort, can grow valuable food to supplement that which they have to buy. Sprouting seeds (sunflower, mung, lentils, peas etc.) on the kitchen bench then eating them fresh or processed in hummus and so on, is a real action that benefits those who take it and the carbon-wasting networks they don't use as a result.
Now it's just wilful ignorance. Maybe a reflection of your social circles. I know so many people that grow some or a large part of their fresh produce. Probably the majority of people I know, certainly too many to count. This includes people who rent and people who work. People garden for all sorts of reasons, including health, financial, and yes climate/ecology.
But sure, if the people you are following are Langbein, I can see why you don't understand what is going on. Don't want to diss AL, anyone who gardens is helping the world. Even wealthy upper middle class people.
I know people who provide a significant amount of the food from their own garden also. And I know that that is simply not achievable for 80%+ of the population.
Who said the goal was 80%+? I certainly didn't and I haven't seen anyone in this thread say that (might have missed it).
Noting that this isn't the only example in this thread of people arguing against things that haven't been said.
So, to clarify (and I have said this already more than once), local food isn't only gardening, it's all the things,
None of that precludes transporting food over greater distances, what it does is take the weight off those larger, more cumbersome and less resilient systems. People in Southland can still eat avocado, just get it from Nelson rather than Australia. People in Auckland can still eat oats, just get it from Otago rather than Canada.
For home gardening the skillset / knowledge has almost been entirely lost to the most recent generation especially in our cities.
Crop rotation, Variety selection, Seed collection and storage, Planting timing and even the means to preserve crops post harvest.
For most people a productive garden at home costs more than buying from the supermarket etc.
Small scale market gardens are in a similar situation with generational change, rapidly increasing capital / input costs combined with increasing crop losses (severe weather) making it less and less viable by the year.
I think the simplistic message is to eat seasonally.
live in the city??….use the roof…….planters on the balcony…..guerilla gardening in green spaces,…………..
"gardening for vegetables is just a very long virtue signal",,,,,,then i am indeed most virtuous ….
My question is this;
Would the proposed TEA make it illegal for the government to 'lob' $1 billion to high emitting Air New Zealand?
Would the proposed TEA encourage the government to 'lob' at least a similar amount to rebuild the passenger rail transport network?
Would the proposed TEA incentivise passenger rail, and other low emitting forms of national and international transport?
Would the proposed TEA discourage long distance car trips and short haul commuter flights?
Based on the current performance, if they had 1 billion to spend, they'd shut down the whole network while they upgraded it….for about 5 years or so…..
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/475963/auckland-train-lines-to-close-for-network-track-upgrades-ahead-of-city-rail-link-opening
Auckland has had literally years of rolling stoppages – while Kiwirail and AT try to get their act together over train and track quality and maintenance. And now, train users are about to have another couple of years worth. It beggars belief that AT couldn't have been upgrading this piecemeal over the last 5 years – and now want to shut down the line, so they can do it in one operation.
It's very difficult to build support for a train network with this sort of continual disruption.
The destruction of much of the inner city business environment due to the CRL – has also informed a lot of the resistance to the government's light rail proposals. People see up close just what that kind of major disruption looks like – and don't want a bar of it.
But would such a law forbid a government subsidising a high emitting company like Air New Zealand?
The law (as discussed) seemed to be enabling legislation rather than prevention legislation. So my guess would be 'no'
The answer would be 'no'.
So let me get this straight
The law (as discussed), would ‘enable’ more wind turbines, more PV power stations, and more electric cars. But the law as discussed) would not prevent more coal mines being dug, or more fossil fuel industries being commissioned, or more oil wells being drilled, and more fossil fuels being burnt.
Is that correct?
Do I have that right?
No you don't. Did you read the post Jenny?
I did read the post.
Unfortunately reading the above, I would have to agree with Belladonna that 'no' – the law as discussed) would not prevent more coal mines being dug, or more fossil fuel industries being commissioned, or more oil wells being drilled, and more fossil fuels being burnt.
With respect Weka, if you have any other interpretation, I would like to hear it;
This bit seems relevant,
This seems a key point of the Act. To set a framework of values for transition. The Greens have been pushing the idea that each piece of legislation must be parsed through a climate emergency lens. This is a step further.
To go back to your original question about the government bailing out AirNZ, we have to bear in mind how critical it is to have a national airline given how far away from other countries we are (I assume this doesn't need explaining, I'm not talking shopping trips to Sydney). There is an obvious public good in keeping the airline going.
But I think what we can do is look at the concept and initial framework of the TEA and put out ideas on how it could be created. It's not set in stone, Higgins didn't write it for NZ, that's for us to decide how it would work here.
It's been interesting watching the response in this thread, the amount of naysaying effort that has gone into comments instead of looking at how it might work.
Even if you taxes the bejeesus out of international travel, it would only affect cattle class volumes a bit. For international travellers it's a rounding error.
Also if Kiwirail didn't teach you anything over the last 24 hours, it's throwing billions of dollars into an irreversibly sick industry. Every ticket you buy to get from Henderson to Auckland central is 70% paid for by everyone else, more if you count the CAPEX.
The transport bailouts per citizen on rail could buy AirNZ every year.
Also, I can't think of any price increase which would stop the super-rich flying their private jets (a much greater per-person impact than the poor slobs in cattle class).
So what, it would stop most of us.
After all, price is the capitalist way of rationing things.
The regional fuel tax for example was imposed as a disincentive to private car use.
The age of mass passenger air travel only really began in the '70s with introduction of the first wide body jets. Before that time, air travel was expensive.. As a result most people still used surface transport.
The amount of passenger air travel compared to today was miniscule. As was it's carbon footprint.
'The Jet Set'
Stop subsidising air travel, bring back the Jet Set, it's the capitalist way
The term 'Jet Set' once referred to that tiny minority of rich people with enough money to be able to afford to fly. You don't hear the term 'Jet Set' anymore, because of course millions of us fly. The term 'Jet Set' sounds oddly quaint and old fashioned almost from an other age, yet it is within living memory. Austin Powers generation would have used it.
(Yeah I know, fictional character and all that. But you get the meaning).
Yeah. Not greatly happy with entrenching privileges for the wealthy (or for politicians – who would still get their freebies, no doubt. Currently, the Speaker is on a junket through Latin America, with Ricardo Menéndez March from the Green Party in tow)
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2209/S00176/diversity-and-inclusion-in-focus-for-upcoming-latin-american-delegation.htm
I don't know that we do a lot of ongoing subsidising of air travel. The 2 issues you've quoted were for crisis points – where (I understand) the Government bought a stake in the company, which was then repurchased over time.
So not a gift, or an ongoing subsidy (when the airline made profits, the Government got dividends, just like all other shareholders).
NZ governments seem to have believed that it's critical to the country to have an airline which is guaranteed to fly into NZ. That certainly paid dividends during the Covid disruption of air freight – when it was only Air NZ which was flying in and out of Auckland.
The regional fuel tax had zero success in reducing private car use (because most people don't have alternatives). Nor, do I believe that that was it's intended purpose. It was (and is) purely a cash cow for local government to use in funding transport projects.
https://www.transport.govt.nz/area-of-interest/revenue/regional-fuel-tax/
what!!….Kiwirail is more virtue singing huh?……..you would be appalled at what our roads would be like without rail and with carbon reduction big on the menu it is a necessity ….not to mention the heart and soul its employess put into it.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/10/04/pams-frozen-berries-recalled-after-7-hospitalised-with-hep-a/
Global food supply.
The meningitis outbreak seen in Norway and NZ in the 90's has a genetic match to the Somali outbreak in refugee camps.
Monkey pox.
Global people supply….
would you mind using whole sentences because I don't understand what you are trying to convey.
Likewise Poission.
The incidence of monkey pox in NZ is entirely due to the movement of people around the globe.
I was pointing to the equivalence of your "Global food supply" in the outbreak of HepA
HepA, Global food supply = Monkey pox, Global people supply.
Regardless of whether it's a food-borne infection, or a people-transmitted infection, our global world will see intercontinental spread of disease (as we all have recent familiarity with Covid)
It wold be an unusual multicellular animal that didn't travel with a few (trillion) "mostly harmless" passengers. The original Survivors series was gripping, with a great title sequence – the less long-lived 2008 'not a remake' wasn't bad either.
It seems like a really good idea to me. All those unadopted sustainable technologies – hemp & harakeke fibre, aquaculture & aquaponics, najeon chilgi, flood zone riparian crop trees & bushes, impact absorbing roadside planting – that have languished from want of interest for generations until we are well behind what were once much more degraded ecologies, could finally be brought to fruition.
Wait though, for the non-performing economists whose idea of growth is low quality mass migration and real estate inflation squeal that it can never work.
You got it! So much is waiting for us to wake up.
I have to ask, Stuart, why you included najeon chilgi in your list???
It's a nice, skilled, sustainable industry (paua shell & lacquer work for the non-Korean speakers – though turban shell is also used) – we can grow the trees, and it's a logical avenue of expression for some Maori art. Got a depressed area with no decent paying work? This might help – no greenstone required.
It fits nicely with contemporary tech https://mystickorea.com/products/najeon-cell-phone-case or art furniture https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1280949258/amazing-korean-traditional-mother-of?click_key=15e65e2d5f177f264ef74cdd986a0e8798681d51%3A1280949258&click_sum=48b30d8c&rec_type=ss&ref=landingpage_similar_listing_top-1&cns=1&sts=1
It has health properties too: https://www.shokunin-japan.com/blogs/news/the-antibacterial-properties-of-lacquer#:~:text=One%20of%20its%20advantages%20is,as%20a%20healthy%20alternative%20dishware.
Great post weka, thanks.
It demonstrates, once again, that there are answers but a lack of political will.
By political will, I mean individually as well as our employees in Wellys. Every dollar anyone spends is a political decision.
The notion that the supermarket is preferred over locally grown produce is all about convenience and turning a big blind eye to the diesel miles embedded in all that they sell. Also being willfully ignorant of the duopoly's treatment of the primary producers that sell through them.
The middle class needs to overcome it's addiction to convenience for us to rebuild economies.