Will Technology Solve Climate Change?

Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, February 14th, 2021 - 87 comments
Categories: climate change, sustainability - Tags: ,

This recent essay from Powerdown author Richard Heinberg, states the dilemma in which we find ourselves in the clearest and most succinct and well argued form I have seen: to prevent global catastrophe from climate change and the concurrent ecological crises, we have to drop GHG emissions, and fast. Low carbon tech is part of that, but trying to replace current tech with renewable powered tech, within a perpetually growing economy, will increase emissions. Heinberg also proposes solutions. – weka


Cross posted from postcarbon.org

Will Technology Solve Climate Change? – Post Carbon Institute

Richard Heinberg

January 27, 2021

The following is Richard Heinberg’s contribution to a two-way discussion with Adam Dorr, an environmental social scientist at the nonprofit think tank Rethinkx. The exchange was hosted by Pairagrapha platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals. For the entire exchange, click here.

When humanity started using fossil fuels, it gained access to tens of millions of years’ worth of stored sunlight. The result was a Great Acceleration of everything we had been doing—including growing food and harvesting renewable and nonrenewable resources from the natural world and turning them into technology, products, and waste. Our population grew eight-fold (from one billion to nearly eight billion) in a mere two centuries.

But then the consequences appeared: climate change, resource depletion, soil erosion and salinization, species extinctions, plastic pollution, and more. It’s tempting to think of these as mere technical glitches that we can solve with more technology. After all, we’re accustomed to using energy and technology to solve every imaginable problem, and many people have grown rich in the process. But it’s hard to escape the perception that a massive energy boost has enabled our species to proliferate too quickly, and to use too much of nature, to its own long-term detriment.

Zeroing in on climate policy, essentially the same message shouts through the data. Yes, we can substitute low-carbon energy sources for fossil fuels, but each alternative has a drawback. Solar and wind are intermittent sources, requiring energy storage and redundant generation capacity to balance out daily and seasonal peaks and troughs. Nuclear is expensive and produces radioactive waste.

Then there’s the 20 percent challenge: only a fifth of final energy used globally is in the form of electricity. That means we will have to change how we use energy—replacing an enormous amount of infrastructure for transportation, building HVAC, manufacturing, and agriculture in order to electrify these activities. And we will have to create infrastructure to make low-carbon fuels for technologies that will be especially hard to electrify. Altogether, it’s by far the biggest manufacturing and construction project in human history.

The trouble is, that project will require an enormous amount of energy and materials, entailing mining, smelting, other high-heat processes, transport, and waste. And, at least in the early stages, roughly 85 percent of the transition energy will come from fossil fuels. With low-carbon technologies like solar panels and e-cars, emissions are front-weighted, occurring mostly during manufacturing. So, a big pulse of emissions will result from the transition itself. We could fix that with technology by building machines to extract CO2 from the atmosphere, but, once again, in the manufacturing stage these will simply add to the emissions. And it’s unclear who would pay for them.

When energy analyst David Fridley and I did a months-long deep dive into the opportunities and costs of the energy transition, we concluded that scale was the biggest challenge. If we assume that energy usage will continue its growth trajectory in nations like the US, then there’s no realistic way through. It’s only if we assume a substantial reduction in energy usage that the project becomes feasible. But that requires us to question human behavior and expectations about economic growth.

Low-carbon technology is good. But by itself it will not resolve humanity’s ecological dilemma.

*          *          *

Our environmental crisis is often framed just in terms of climate change. But resource depletion, destruction of wild habitat, and pollution also lead to collapse—just by other means. All result from economic over-expansion.

A useful metaphor for what we must do is, “take our foot off the accelerator.” If you’re headed toward the wrong destination, it doesn’t help to get there faster; instead, slow down and change direction.

In recent decades, there have been only two significant periods when greenhouse gas emissions declined: the global financial crisis of 2008-9 and the economic shutdown associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. During both periods, energy usage fell. In other years, despite record levels of solar and wind installations, emissions grew anyway, because economic growth stoked increased energy usage, and most of that increase came from fossil fuels. Yes, both of these periods entailed pain and suffering that no right-minded person would wish to repeat. But neither event was planned for the purpose of reducing energy usage while improving human lives.

Ecological economists understand that aiming for perpetual growth on a finite planet is a ticket to tragedy. They’ve spent years designing strategies to make life more enjoyable and secure while minimizing consumption. These strategies include sidelining GDP in favor of economic indicators that emphasize quality of life, and focusing on policies to create jobs rather than hoping profit-seeking corporations will prioritize job creation. What if we actually planned to reduce energy usage significantly while revamping the economy to promote happiness and well-being? Then it would be far easier to replace our remaining energy usage with renewable sources.

Taking our foot off the accelerator won’t do anything to repair damage already done; it just keeps us from doing more damage in the meantime. So, what to do about all the carbon we’ve already shot into the atmosphere, that will keep the climate destabilized for centuries or millennia?

Building machines to suck CO2 out of the air is a reflex response for people hooked on technofixes, but there’s almost no market for carbon dioxide; the effort would have to be subsidized and it serves no other useful purpose.

However, there are ways of capturing and sequestering CO2 that would help solve many ecological problems at once. Reforestation would provide habitat for species we’re currently driving toward extinction. Carbon farming (i.e., farming in ways that sequester carbon in soil) would increase soil fertility, improve water retention, and reduce chemical pollution. And anything we do to protect and restore ecosystems—including the oceans—will help nature take care of the increased load of carbon dioxide that we have imposed upon her.

These solutions could sequester gigatons of carbon each year. And they move us toward a destination, in terms of health and security, worth inhabiting.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

87 comments on “Will Technology Solve Climate Change? ”

  1. Robert Guyton 1

    Do we fear forests?

    Are we afraid, deep down, of the Dark Woods?

    We've certainly armed ourselves well enough to keep them at bay: chainsaws, fire, arborcides, bulldozers and grazing animals to prevent their return.

    In Vietnam, defoliants were rained-down onto the jungle to strip them of their insurgent-concealing leaves: do civilised humans suspect that Outlaws lurk in the dappled shade of forests, threatening to sweep into town at any moment?

    Now, people* claim that planting trees in response to climate change WON'T WORK, because, FIRE!!!

    I don't think it's fire they're afraid of.

    * The non-outlaws I've debated this issue with 🙂

    • RedLogix 1.1

      Are we afraid, deep down, of the Dark Woods?

      Not me. I visit them reverentially and treat them as treasures.

    • weka 1.2

      There's a theme that runs through much of NZ culture about this, it's in early and then later poetry and literature, and it still exists today in many forms. Got to beat back the bush. Some of it is pragmatics (if you truly want a paddock the bush next door will perpetually try to thwart you), but I also suspect fear. Imagine arriving in NZ in the 1800s from the UK and seeing all that unadulterated and unconstrained life. I know some early Pākehā loved it, but I suspect that many, and increasingly, couldn't handle the intrusion into the civilised mind. The wild having been long put in its place back home, it would have been wild seeing so much wild. Some people's hearts opened, other's hardened.

      Seems like there is fear of powerdown for the same reason. Those of us already acquainted with the wild and not afraid of being part of nature are largely not worried about a life with less accoutrements. What to do about the fear is an interesting thing to consider, given the seriousness and timeframes.

      • Robert Guyton 1.2.1

        Yes, weka.

        If we had the time (maybe we do…) we could write new stories and tell them to our children; stories that replace Hansel & Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Baba Yaga etc. which tell of terror in the forest. Even Sleeping Beauty and the over-vigorous roses champion the champion who can slash back the undergrowth!

        • weka 1.2.1.1

          No time like the present! (I suspect we do have time. Even as we're running short of linear time, there are other kinds to work with).

          The stories of the evil forest, are they teaching stories of how to manage our fears?

      • shanreagh 1.2.2

        Agree Weka & Robert Guyton……I have long said that at heart many NZers are tree haters and this started, as you said, right from the early times. 'Beat back the bush' sounds less confronting. With the over stocking and intensification of land for dairying particularly in muddy Southland we could say some of us are 'earth' or 'land' haters. We have a history of being reliant on, and attracted, to extractive industries……gold, coal etc. Our subdivisions are wrought from artificially flattened tracts of land.

        A psyche change really.

        A big picture from Govt with little step changes for a population that has to be won over.

        I must admit that having at last been able to acquire, through Freecycle a late model gas/electric stove, my long term dream, that the powering down of gas options including gas BBQs that were for so long touted as safer in terms of fire in summer, has really caught me.

        I am a fiendish recycler working for years to persuade others to minimise wastage, recycle, upcycle and over use in the textile industries so I feel a bit put off. There will be 100s of others with the big noise about gas BBQs who are wondering is that the biggest and best target to achieve early runs and the greatest buy in.

        This is why this is attractive

        However, there are ways of capturing and sequestering CO2 that would help solve many ecological problems at once. Reforestation would provide habitat for species we’re currently driving toward extinction. Carbon farming (i.e., farming in ways that sequester carbon in soil) would increase soil fertility, improve water retention, and reduce chemical pollution. And anything we do to protect and restore ecosystems—including the oceans—will help nature take care of the increased load of carbon dioxide that we have imposed upon her.

        If carbon farming has the same effect as regenerative farming then I am all for it.

        Agree too with this Weka

        I definitely see the major problem right now is the lack of imagination and ability to see how things can work differently. Or maybe it's just that power is in the wrong hands, there are plenty of people who can see how to make it work.

  2. Stuart Munro 2

    The technologies that can 'solve' our carbon problems are mostly out there already, and a fair proportion of them are biotechnologies. But little or no effort is going into developing even the simplest of them, things like hemp panels for housing, which ought to be being used to soak up Fonterra's sneaky nitrate discharges even now.

    Big ones that remain are steel and cement – major coal users – and aluminium, a reduction assisted electrolytic process. Solar steel and cement are quite possible, and the combination of no carbon emissions with a reduced raw material and transport cost ought to make that adaptation palatable.

    The thing that concerns me is that when such obvious low-hanging fruit in climate terms, are blatantly being ignored, just how much faith can we repose in strategists who, not so long ago, asserted the benefits of pushing our population up willy nilly, as if they actually wanted to make our climate commitments unattainable.

    • weka 2.1

      I definitely see the major problem right now is the lack of imagination and ability to see how things can work differently. Or maybe it's just that power is in the wrong hands, there are plenty of people who can see how to make it work.

      The steel one is interesting. Where's the sweet spot between powering down and retaining the best of our tech used in ultra efficient and wise ways?

      • Stuart Munro 2.1.1

        I think the answer is almost an aesthetic – a conscious preference for gracile design. Things that should have marked our patterns of living long since had not corporate advertising driven desire down less elevated paths.

        The heavy industrial route is by no means efficient, and many processes are greatly improved by a light-footed approach. But that will require wresting control from the failed demiurges of the market, and setting them to work constructively. Cue interminable whining.

        • weka 2.1.1.1

          do you mean gracile design of industrial processes?

          I was wondering about aesthetics too, but more so in lifestyle terms. Does the powerdown worry people because they think they'll have to wear sandals and homespun?

          • Stuart Munro 2.1.1.1.1

            I think more industrial processes could be lightened than many proponents expect – goes into some of that quality stuff that Imae was getting into – that the perfect factory is not stuffed with machinery but as close to empty as you can make it. Hard news for those who have barely assimilated the production mentality.

            But a lot of gracility can be worked into everyday life. A 3litre SUV is not required except in pretty exceptional circumstances. A well made lightweight bike can handle a lot of commuting.

            The connectivity ought to be sustainable, but driving long distances ought to be less frequent. Mind, with the gig economy, asking folk to give up their way to work is no small thing.

            I don't sense enormous resistance to locally produced garments – except on price. But relative consumption may become an issue – high carbon lifestylers may attract resentment or erode the patience of moderate users.

            • RedLogix 2.1.1.1.1.1

              I think more industrial processes could be lightened than many proponents expect – goes into some of that quality stuff that Imae was getting into – that the perfect factory is not stuffed with machinery but as close to empty as you can make it.

              So I’m curious – how many heavy industrial plants have you designed, built, commissioned or operated?

              • Stuart Munro

                Never had the capital of course – have you?

                But I've worked in quite a number of them. There are tropes affecting their efficacy that are largely psychological "the way we do things here" sort of thing.

                It's particularly pernicious in deepsea fishing because boats are often bought second hand, with what design there is having been tweaked for other circumstances, and the managers making the decisions never having set foot aboard an operating vessel.

                If you've studied the failure of Detroit and read a bit of Deming you'll know the patterns.

                • RedLogix

                  Apart from a handful of major dairy sites like Whaheroa Rd, the Tiwai Point and Glenbrook smelters, Kawerau and Tokoroa papermills, the refinery at Marsden Pt, and some gold processing plants in Otago – there really aren't all that many heavy industrial plants left in NZ.

                  As a result I suspect many kiwis really haven't much first hand sense of what role they play, how they work – and how very entwinned into their modern lives they are. Literally every single built item or service in your life has a major part of it's life story in such a plant.

                  I'm at a bit of a loss to convey this accurately – but since leaving NZ I've had the privilege of working alongside seriously talented engineers, process and mechanical people who opened up a view of the world I just couldn't see in NZ. I've worked within teams of people designing, building and commissioning several substantial new plants – and trust me it's an amazing experience.

                  The sheer scale and detail, the subtle tradeoffs and brute energy being tamed. The sheer elegance of some of the solutions and the depth of experience these people have often made me feel like the village idiot in the room, or at the very least made me wish I'd done Process Engineering at uni instead of Electrical. And my personal experience was but a tiny sliver of a view into a global system of immense complexity and interdependence.

                  However the one topic I always enjoyed the most was Thermodynamics – and I guess that's why I place energy at the deep core of the human civilisational narrative. The distinctive feature of humanity is our ability to create technologies which decouple us from a total dependence on the natural world – at least to some degree. And all technologies can be regarded as exquisitely directed and controlled forms of energy as it interacts with materials.

                  Seeing some of it in action at world scale has definitely expanded my view. And why I tend to react to poorly specified terms like 'de-power' with considerable skepticism.

                  • Stuart Munro

                    If you say so – and you'll note de-power has never been part of my line.

                    The heavy former soviet vessels however, are not a path to sustainable fisheries, the lighter Tomi Maru style craft achieving much more with less crew and lower fuel consumption. But the charter exercise always prioritized externalizing cost, not developing best practice fisheries, and the result is much as you'd expect.

                    We are however headed into the crunch of some furious efforts to reduce carbon. If our government has not the stomach to develop alternatives at the heavy industrial end, as they have not for agriculture, the burden of the Paris commitments will fall disproportionately on consumers.

                    Alternative processes offer some benefits beyond the direct savings on coal or emission costs – there are a number of companies that might pay a premium for solar refined metals to construct a narrative of sustainability around their products.

                    The original cryolite process for aluminium refining is nearly a century old, and the main contemporary industrial process deriving from it makes heavy use of sacrificial carbon electrode reduction. In a world where carbon reduction is undesirable, an alternative process is worth examining. But NZ could live without the smelter – steel and cement production not so much. And steel and cement are more amenable to process revision – a decent heat source will do most of the work.

                    • RedLogix

                      Yes industrial plants do evolve in the general direction of 'more efficient, less capital, less waste' etc over time. A competitive market alone ensures this is the case.

                      The plant I was involved in up in Canada was a prime example of exactly this trend at work. A small agile company achieved something two much larger corporates had attempted and failed at. But the tradeoff with the lighter footprint was that it was more difficult to operate – it had much less process buffering (almost none) which made the automation and control aspect absolutely critical and it proved difficult to maintain high availabilities.

                      The takeaway point I'd like to make here, is that all the compromises we were forced into were ultimately dictated by the relatively small and expensive energy source we were dependent on in this incredibly remote location. (I used to sit in the morning meeting with my back to a wall, it was -40degC outside and dark – and comtemplate that past that 100mm or so of sytrene the next significant item of civilisation was around 500 km south of my butt.)

                      But if we'd had an energy source – say hypothetically an order of magnitude larger – all of the compromises and limitations we encountered would have been so much less onerous. The energy, water and mass balances could have been done at a more robust and ultimately more efficient scale.

                      The actual machines and process units you can physically see in an industrial plant are only a surface manifestation of something else more fundamental – the flow of energy and it's complex interactions with materials and mass flows – that's invisible to an eye not trained to see it. And the basic law that governs this interaction, is that the more energy you can economically bring into the system – the more efficiently you can make the mass flows operate.

                      Before industrialisation for example metals smelting mainly consisted of crudely breaking up the ore, then heating it with charcoal and maybe some primitive chemical processing. It was incredibly inefficient and often wasted more metal than it recovered. It was dangerous, labour intensive work with seriously toxic impacts on the men who did it and the local environment they dumped the waste into.

                      A modern ore processing plant by comparison has at least three or four orders of magnitude more energy available to it – and their efficiencies and safety are by every measure dramatically better. And this trend is only set to continue.

                    • Stuart Munro

                      There is a diminishing return on so-called economies of scale, not least of which is the cost of change in monolithic processes.

                      For all such talk, Fonterra, for example, does better by medium sized distributed plants than by overcentralisation.

                      But metals are a funny game – the old saw about market pricing still holds for the raw metal – that price is set by the second cheapest cost of production.

                      But the world is complicated by things like carbon costs, they open the door to niche or localised production changes that Rio Tinto, processing offshore where ground rent and labour is cheap, cannot necessarily access.

                      The best bang for the carbon buck is likely in things like hemp – a reasonably readily processed sink to soak up the carbon mischief of poor design processes. These work without whatever goto cheap energy you'd prefer – so it is not the constraint it might be.

                    • RedLogix

                      There is a diminishing return on so-called economies of scale, not least of which is the cost of change in monolithic processes.

                      Maybe I wasn't clear – yes more energy is often accompanied by a larger scale, but not necessarily, and it's not what I'm really trying to get at. Every mature industry will have a core of larger base units that produce the bulk of the commodity – and then have a constellation of smaller, diversified producers operating at smaller scales to deliver specialisation and innovation.

                      It's energy intensity that drives productivity, efficiency and safety more than anything else. The argument about 'how much' energy is a different thing.

                      Another example – talk to anyone in the recycling industry, which in the past decade has developed quite remarkably. They'll all tell you that the limit on what they can achieve in terms of they materials they can work with, and their recovery rates is almost totally governed by the cost (and therefore intensity) of their energy inputs.

                    • Stuart Munro

                      recovery rates is almost totally governed by the cost (and therefore intensity) of their energy inputs.

                      Recovery rate is a function of the production paradigm – the quality paradigm pursues different ends. Though the process design of the recycling is pretty poor in this clip (lots of labour devoted to reversing poor mixing), the high end product is a function of order, not energy. How Plastic Bottles Are Recycled Into Polyester – YouTube

                    • RedLogix

                      Stuart.

                      If you care to watch this short video it will give you an exact picture of what I do for a living and where I'm coming from with my thinking here.

                      As I've outlined above – all technological processes are the interaction of energy and mass flows – and the control system component shown in this video is the one of the key tools we use to precisely manage and direct this interaction. Note carefully – the expressed goals are efficiency, recovery, quality, water management and safety – all of which I think you've correctly alluded to above.

                      Well this is how it's done.

  3. Pat 3

    Whatever strategy is adopted to move our societies away from carbon emitting practices it needed to start yesterday and that means there is no time to wait for years /decades of R+D and rollout and it also means that reduction in fossil fuel use needs to decline rapidly so it is evident that energy reduction is a critical component of any strategy.

    If we are to reduce energy consumption then the obvious place to start is 'nice to haves' and excesses rather than the necessities of life….and to date we dont even appear willing to consider that.

    Dosnt bode well for our species.

    • Robert Guyton 3.1

      Is the spread of humanity across the face of the planet comparable to a bacterial colony on an agar-filled Petri dish?

      The bacterial colony will eventually die through consuming all available food and drowning in its own waste because the dish is a closed space and the agar a finite resource.

      Is this the case for us humans though. Is the planet and it's "stuff" finite?

      The technologists seem to believe that there's no end to it, and that going deeper is the way forward: mine more of the physical world but also "mine" ideas/technologies, even down through molecular and atomic levels, which seem limitless.

      Others believe that such an approach is reckless and following it thus far has brought us and the other-than-human world to the brink of collapse, as per the bacteria in the Petri dish and the idea of doubling-down on technology is more than foolish.

      • Pat 3.1.1

        Curious you should use the bacteria analogy….so did Al Bartlett.

        And it is a good one

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O133ppiVnWY

      • RedLogix 3.1.2

        Is the spread of humanity across the face of the planet comparable to a bacterial colony on an agar-filled Petri dish?

        A very biological analogy. Yet humans are not unthinking bacteria – we adapt with intelligence and technology, we literally re-invent ourselves all the time.

        Yes we will tend to consume much of the Petri dish, but we have the chance to re-shape into a new form, one that rears up, steps outside the dish and thrives in it's new world.

        Consider an infant growing in it's mother's womb – at some point it reaches the limits of that miraculous space and must move on. Yet it always retains another deeper kind of connection to it's parent.

        • Robert Guyton 3.1.2.1

          RedLogix – agreed; we re-invent ourselves, but does that change the resource on which we depend; air, water, soil/food etc. We may be clever little devils, but there's only one earth 🙂

          You talk of "moving on" as per a newborn baby and that gives me no comfort; escapist fantasies don't move me at all.

          I do think though, that the planet's replenishing capabilities are encouraging; self-healing system, it seems, and that by following the guidelines it works to, we humans might be able to ride the wave.

          All in all though, we're not showing the sense of urgency or appropriate focus I think is necessary. I'm banking on something from out of the blue to get us over the line.

          No idea what that is, only I suspect evolution of thinking/feeling will reveal something…

          • RedLogix 3.1.2.1.1

            You talk of "moving on" as per a newborn baby and that gives me no comfort; escapist fantasies don't move me at all.

            Yet arguably it's an entirely real and biological analogy – and much more pertinent to complex and high order creatures than bacteria are.

            And here's an interesting way to extend the analogy. In the womb the infant develops eyes – but there is only dim light to see. We develop lungs – but there is no air to breath. We develop arms and legs – yet there is nothing to lift and nowhere to run. It would seem from the perspective of the infant that it is doomed – all this potential and growth yet the world it inhabits is so terribly finite.

            Yet in our emerged adult form the purpose of this growth is obvious to us.

            • Robert Guyton 3.1.2.1.1.1

              Ha! Not so, good RedLogix!

              Inside of the womb, the unborn babe is communicated-with constantly by their mother, receiving encouraging messages that tell of a welcoming, viable world. Sounds and other impressions from without, signal to the unborn child, a world of liveliness and other beings who are clearly able to live outside of the womb.

              The cold depths of space provide no such communications.

              I think there's a lesson in that 🙂

              • RedLogix

                Yes within the next few centuries or more we may evolve past our planetary origins – but honestly that wasn't my primary thought here. If we're going to do spaceships we need to get it right on this one first.

                And all good spaceships need lots of energy to run.

                • Robert Guyton

                  The Earth is a spaceship that runs on sunlight.

                  Some people underestimate that resource 🙂

                  • RedLogix

                    Sunlight is well understood in great detail. But as I've explained before you cannot get around the basic physics of solar irradiation – it's diffuse (which means you need a lot of land to capture a decent quantity), it's intermittent (which means you need a storage mechanism to cover the daily, seasonal and weather related variance), and it arrives at only a modest quality (which means you need a fair bit of thermodynamically inefficient technology to turn it into a useful form like electricity or work.)

                    In the pre-industrial photosynthesis era we got around the first limitation by invasion, conquest and empire. We got around the storage problem by turning sunlight into food and wood. But we never had the technology to turn sunlight directly into high quality forms – and this inhibited industrialisation dramatically.

                    In the industrial era we're not so keen on empire anymore, but the amount of land required to fully power a prosperous and efficient world is still dramatically more than most people imagine. The storage problem is solvable, but it does introduce substantial technological costs – and the closer you get to 100% the more expensive it gets. And finally yes we now have solar panels and wind generators, but again at the scale necessary to power the world and the relatively short lifecycle of these devices – demands a huge amount of material resource that needs continuously replacing on a prodigious basis.

                    So in this respect I agree with the idea that SWB tech, while useful and may well yet surprise us with what it can achieve, cannot support a BAU case that is just a status quo projection of our current trajectory. Or to put it simply – I'm skeptical that SWB will ever be a 100% drop in replacement for fossil fuels. I could be proven wrong, but that's my bet for the time being.

                    • Adrian

                      In the future according to my son the alt energy researcher, the vast majority of process manufacturing will occur about 15degrees either side of the equator as that is where solar is most efficient and therefore cheap. Solar is not really that efficient in NZ as we straddle the 40s latitudes. Is it a loss jobs wise for us ? Not really as future factories will be pretty autonomous.

                      When it comes to enough for us there is already 50 years of consented wind projects ready to go as soon as we need them and the price of production drops a little more. He is confident that when the change comes it will be remarkably quick, as history has always shown us when demand, availability and price intersect.

                      Real estate hint, buy land in northern Australia.

    • weka 3.2

      "and to date we dont even appear willing to consider that."

      Getting there I think. Five years ago there was a lot of rejection of the idea that climate action would require any sacrifice. Seems like we're more able to have that conversation now. Not enough by any means, but there is a definite shift. The onus now is on the people that know how to make life better while we reduce excess consumption to step and show the way. Would be nice if politically there was more support (20 Green MPs in 2023 would change a lot), but I still think there's going to need to be a big push from outside parliament.

      • Pat 3.2.1

        I submit gas BBQs….the push is going to need to be monumental

        • weka 3.2.1.1

          it remains to be seen if NZ will throw its toys out of the cot over BBQs in lieu of climate action and the lives of their grandchildren. But I take your point. The mahi there is to find out why the BBQs matter so much and show people how to replace the experience while giving up the gas. I'd guess there is also work to be done in educating people about the seriousness of climate change and ecological collapse.

          • Rosemary McDonald 3.2.1.1.1

            …find out why the BBQs matter so much… giving up the gas.

            Here in the Far North we pay the highest rates in NZ for our electricity.

            https://figure.nz/chart/Kx2boXoRyZYpLWBb

            We have frequent power cuts, and many of us live in bach- type homes where even if there is electricity available the wiring is of such a standard that simply turning on an electric stove ring when the oven is on blows fuses.

            Ditched the electric stove and purchased a two ring gas burner set up on an alumnium camping table. Purchased small electric toaster oven for small baking and roasting work. The little electric hot water cylinder is at least twenty years old….but this system does the two of us just fine for now…

            However, when whanau are staying or friends arrive it is the hooded gas bbq that steps up. Entire meals for numerous people can be cooked on the grill as well as stuff stir fried or boiled on the side burner. And this can be done outdoors as it is way too hot to be cooking inside.

            We filled two gas bottles up in late October…cost of $60…and despite many extras at our table we've only used $30 worth of gas up to last week.

            The old electric hot water cylinder was going to be replaced with a gas system…as is the norm up here…but that plan has now been shelved.

            Not sure what to do long term now. Solar hot water might be a plan but we'll also have to think about cooking without gas. Perhaps a woodburner with wetback might be the plan.

            Getting just a little bit hoha with the narrative that cooking with gas is a 'lifestyle choice'…and this is usually from those who live with cheaper and more reliable electricity supplies.

            And no…this is not going to fix the price issue…https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/green-business/124224899/new-zealands-largest-solar-farm-proposed-for-top-of-country. This massive enterprise is literally just down the road and while no doubt it ticks a few green boxes, it promises nothing in the way of more reasonable power prices.

            The Far North also has the highest wholesale electricity prices in the country, allowing the company to get a good price for its power, Andrews said.

            The solar farm may help bring down the price of power in the Far North, “although we don't want it to lower too much, of course”, he said.

            • Pat 3.2.1.1.1.1

              your suggested solution?

              • Rosemary McDonald

                As I said…perhaps solar hot water. But cooking? Electricity costs too much and is too unreliable. We laugh in a power cut up here as most of us have some form of gas cooking. We have to.

                You want us to go 100% electricity?

                Re-nationalise all aspects and areas of electricity generation and supply. Remove profit motive and bring prices down to where they are affordable by all.

                In the meantime, I'm going to give serious thought to woodfired outdoor cooking options.

                https://www.woodburnerstoves.co.nz/

                • shanreagh

                  You want us to go 100% electricity?

                  Re-nationalise all aspects and areas of electricity generation and supply. Remove profit motive and bring prices down to where they are affordable by all.

                  I'll support that. The two aspects (withdrawal of gas and rejigging the energy industry) should have gone hand in hand.

                  As for the solar chappie and others of his ilk, I would support some sort of investigation and if there is any sort of Govt support $$$$- wise or regulation-wise for any part of his programme then it should be beholden on this company to be guided by prices that are set by Govt pricers and not by other energy dealers.

                • Pat

                  Id suggest that there are two main causes of the dilemma you face….poor housing stock (wiring) and supply of reliable electricity at a reasonable price,….gas isnt the solution to either of those,

                  The housing issue needs to be addressed anyway and it would be foolish to install gas in any new or ungraded property so we dont do it (as per CC report) and we develop additional (preferably local) electricity generation…the differential pricing issue I think should be addressed with a single public transmission entity that equalises the cost country wide.

                  And woodfired (charcoal) options were typical until about 30 or so years ago as far as I recall

                  • shanreagh

                    we develop additional (preferably local) electricity generation…the differential pricing issue I think should be addressed with a single public transmission entity that equalises the cost country wide.

                    If there was a seriousness and concern for people in the plans put forward, these mitigation measures would have been part and parcel of the CC.

                    I was expecting something like Grant Robertson's profound meeting of all concerns during the first responses to level 4 lockdown.

                    The breadth of the vision as to who might be affected by what the Govt was doing and how they planned to mitigate it took my breath away. They had thought of everything, tax ,unemployment, higher electricity use by those confined to home, help for charities etc.

                    By contrast CC documents seem like thin bitter gruel with little sign of a person at the beginning, middle and end. We are here, now.

                • The Al1en

                  All electric – cooker and water heater here, and a daily average usage of 6kw.

                  On the West coast since September, it's been under $3 per day, so $80 to $85 per month.

                  House has a wood burner with wetback connected, so actually expecting those prices to drop in winter.

                • Brigid

                  Solar hot water and a wetback. Borosilicate glass vacuum tubes with a stainless steel storage tank is the most efficient system I believe.

                  Then that's your hot water sorted for the whole year and you can cook on your woodstove/fireplace during the winter.

                  The system I designed for my sister in Waipu circulates hot water from the wetback through the solar tank in the winter and the sun does the same in the summer. Hot water is delivered by way of the heat exchanger in the tank.

            • shanreagh 3.2.1.1.1.2

              Getting just a little bit hoha with the narrative that cooking with gas is a 'lifestyle choice'…and this is usually from those who live with cheaper and more reliable electricity supplies.

              Agree with this comment. Mine may be a bit of a lifestyle choice but I have twice had to use gas BBQs when we had electricity outages including when a fuse on the power pole outside exploding in pouring rain. Those with fragile electricity supplies, and some parts of Southland also have these, rely on having an alternative source for cooking and boiling water, for washing people mainly, to keep healthy.

              • Pat

                and what will you do when the gas is no longer available?

                • shanreagh

                  And when will that be Pat? Apart from the imposed Govt deadlines when would the gas have naturally run out?

                  Actually I wonder at the focus on this as a way to get the electorate behind and supporting the Govt in the climate change scenario. I suspect push back will delay this and allow a change of focus from the whole climate change programme. And we will all be the losers.

                  I already have gas connected and I will install my gas/electric stove. Once domestic piped gas is pulled it will not be my problem or I will cross that bridge later.

                  I have already down sized from a 4 burner gas BBQ and have a selection of camping stoves, including what was called a Benghazi burner in our household (not the sand and petrol and half gallon drum of the Western Desert) running on other types of fuel in my civil defence kit.

                  • Pat

                    at current rates of consumption (and the use is increasing) around 50 years but in NZ about 8years….and as the the supply decreases and if demand increases there is likely to be a bidding war for what remains…so when (not if) gas is not available what will you do?

                    • shanreagh

                      I have already told you that. I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

                      I am hoping that electricity renationalised or the prices re-jigged.

                      If solar comes with its own set of prices that are not artificially linked to electricity costs then that will be a preference also. NZ domestic energy planning, is & has been, in my view predicated on fads……little or no govt support for changing to things like solar or wind power as they have done in Germany or Australia.

                      As far as my one remaining small single burner gas BBQ perhaps we could have a Govt buy back as we did for the guns. If the damage to all of us as a nation by continuing is as bad for us & the world as guns then this seems fair to me.

                  • Pat

                    why would the government buy back gas appliances ?…especially when weve known for years the gas is limited

                    • shanreagh

                      Why would Govt have bought back guns when we have known for years it was a matter of time before some nutter would go bad again. And we have had them all through our history right from the policemen on the West Coast to Aramoana to 15 March.

                  • Pat

                    Youre seriously comparing gas BBQs to guns?….the scrappy will probably give you a couple of bucks for it

                    • shanreagh

                      I think the damage that unaltered unaddressed climate change will make the loss of human life by guns pale into insignificance.

                      We will have species loss, people loss, global warming, sea level rises. We need to make the punters see the big picture and we don't want to stumble at the first fence by making a big bad thing out of a small but important way of life for some NZers.

                      You seem to think I am personalsing this. I'm not. I actually use my alt sources of outdoor cooking more than my tiny gas BBQ.

                      I've been around Govt circles to know that unless you expect and counter the unexpected right from the beginning it will rise up and bite you on the bottom.

                    • Pat

                      Gas BBQs are a distraction by those seeking to delay any action on CC just as were energy saving bulbs and showerheads….if we are too stupid not to see that then we dont deserve saving…and offering buybacks makes them look even more foolish.

                • gsays

                  You could try this on for size…

                  https://www.motherearthnews.com/renewable-energy/other-renewables/biogas-generator-zm0z14aszrob

                  My horticultural father-in-law did some research on this to provide energy for his yam processing sheds. I don't know why he didn't proceed.

            • shanreagh 3.2.1.1.1.3

              And no…this is not going to fix the price issue…https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/green-business/124224899/new-zealands-largest-solar-farm-proposed-for-top-of-country. This massive enterprise is literally just down the road and while no doubt it ticks a few green boxes, it promises nothing in the way of more reasonable power prices.

              The Far North also has the highest wholesale electricity prices in the country, allowing the company to get a good price for its power, Andrews said.

              The solar farm may help bring down the price of power in the Far North, “although we don't want it to lower too much, of course”, he said.

              The phrase used by my teenage self seems an appropriate comment for the above quote….'far out'.

              Are we all going to miss the boat as far as reasonable energy costs are concerned with no commitment from those promoting new sources of energy to bring price competition to market and being a part of lowering energy costs, to consumers?

            • weka 3.2.1.1.1.4

              I hear you Rosemary, and the primary issue there is whether NZ will do a just transition or not. We know who's going to get the short end of the straw, so I think highlighting the issues you raise is bloody useful right at the start.

              Afaik, LPG will remain available for existing gas appliances for quite some time. The ban is on new installs and appliance from 2025 ish. So for people already relying on gas, there's that. Over time I would expect some supply issues (just a bit more work to buy), but not in the short or even medium term.

              But the issue will be for people needing those options from 2025. Not the people who prefer to cook on gas than electricity, but those that need a cheap and easy way to set up a way to cook.

              Ideally we'd see a range of new tech coming on board that helps in that situation. Some of the solar cookers are starting to look good beyond the alt tech crowd, but this is still a massive cost issue. Maybe WINZ should subsidise them 😈

              Down south it's easier in some ways, because the climate means we're all used to burning firewood (there's going to be some regret at all the woodburners that got pulled out in the past decade). But also, power supply is pretty good albeit expensive. Totally support nationalising the industry. Fuck Max Bradford and the mates he rode in with.

          • gsays 3.2.1.1.2

            The answer to non gas BBQs is here. Charcoal. When you make it, in a well designed retort, it is virtually emissions free.

            Here is a design.

            https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RXMUmby8PpU

            The leftovers can be turned into biochar, by treating with a liquid tea (comfrey, chookpoo, seaweed).

            A unit I would like to get my mitts on:

            httpsps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ML-xGY6an8Q

            • shanreagh 3.2.1.1.2.1

              The one positive for gas is that it is/was able to be used in high fire risk times. Many people moved from charcoal to gas as they found that the times when you felt like sitting and eating outside coincided with the times you were not allowed to use your charcoal BBQ. If this could be overcome with better designed BBQs, sparkless and perhaps better charcoal then much plus a small hand-in payment for the old gasburners then all the concern about BBQs would disappear I suspect. We may not even need the payment.

              I used to put my charcoal in the compost.

              • weka

                Can none of the charcoal BBQs be used in a fire ban? (i.e. there is no tech that is currently suitable).

                • shanreagh

                  Back in the day the advice was that there were none. Now perhaps there will be better closed charcoal BBQ designs coming on that would mitigate the possibility of sparks causing fires.

                  I would have loved to have seen a Grant Robertson 'we've though of everything' statement here that NZG is investigating sources of closed charcoal burners.'

                • gsays

                  I have a drum smoker. The charcoal basket can be raised to use as a bbq/grill.

                  https://www.bluemoose.co.nz/store/p135/Oklahoma_Joe_Bronco.html#/

                  • weka

                    that is seriously cool. So it's completely contained and the airflow comes from the top?

                    Can you preserve meat with that?

                    • gsays

                      Yes to self contained, but grilling is usually done with lid up.

                      The airflow intake is the pipe on the right, just below the height of the lid. The exhaust is the pipe on the lid.

                      One of the great features is the airflow. The intake and exhaust have a wee disc on top of them so air can be shut off or fully opened.

                      With good charcoal I can have a 10 hour cook at about 65-80 degrees celcius- low and slow.

                      I have tried to do jerky in it but the temp got away from me a couple of times and rendered some venison crispy.

                      For any food based diet folk out there, I have smoked mushrooms, tomatoes, cabbage and tried marrow jerky. Jacket spuds and kumera come out irresistable.

            • gsays 3.2.1.1.2.2

              Oops, that link should be:

              https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ML-xGY6an8Q

              Interesting fact: the term collier used to apply to charcoal makers back in the day. In the 1800s the coal miners took it. I understand the charcoal makers have it back now.

        • shanreagh 3.2.1.2

          Predicating the seriousness of the need for measures around Climate Change on gas BBQs (and bearing in mind that for many Joe & Jane Public this will be the extent of what they know about NZ's response to Climate change) was a mind bogglingly silly place to start. If they wanted a ‘hearts and minds’ approach as opposed to/ or as well as a rules and regulations approach then mitigations and the 'how to live without your gas BBQs’ should have been part & parcel.

          I am concerned that we may lose the impetus for change as we fight battles because we have not read our constituency.

          Where were the 'Emperor has no clothes' people who said 'Ah hey boss we might unleash a blow-back that could lose us any credibility and buy-in if we don't look carefully at the gas BBQ concept?'

          • Pat 3.2.1.2.1

            Id suggest that if the 'constituency' is that mind numbingly self interested then no matter what it is proposed its a lost cause.

            • shanreagh 3.2.1.2.1.1

              This is a sad statement.

              Humans generally are 'mind numbingly self interested'. We have had to be to survive .

              The trick with our Covid responses was to elevate that into a Kennedy-esque 'what you can do for your country.' (while still looking after your own self interest)

              We need to look at how to persuade and taking toys away without strong mitigation or alternatives or replacements included in the documentation seems like a poor way to start.

              • Pat

                I can see the headlines now….."Gov wasting taxpayer money to buy worthless/useless BBQs"

                • Sabine

                  Gov investing in huge buy back programme of newly banned gas bbqs to allow affected people to buy a new appliances under the new CC regulations. All the old appliances will be recycled and reused.

                  In many parts of NZ cooking on gas bbqs is not only a way of live but also often times the only means of cooking food……..

                  fixed your headline.

                  • Pat

                    I know which headline would predominate….and they are not banned.

                    • Sabine

                      No you don't know.

                      Same as with re-nationalising the power supply, or re-nationalising water supply, etc. We don't because those that tell us what to think are still making good bank on these utilities. And you and i and Rosemary pay for it, no matter how expensive or how shitty the delivery.

                      The only ones whining about the gun buy back programmes are the ones that did not want to sell their guns back to the government. Every else was actually quite happy about it.

                      So why not try first before proclaiming that it won't work, or because some schmuck complains about some people getting money to get a cooking facility that is environmentally friendly.

                    • Pat

                      Again …they are not banned.

                      And if the Government accept and implement the commission's report then we may well get the opportunity to discover what headlines predominate

          • weka 3.2.1.2.2

            Predicating the seriousness of the need for measures around Climate Change on gas BBQs (and bearing in mind that for many Joe & Jane Public this will be the extent of what they know about NZ's response to Climate change) was a mind bogglingly silly place to start.

            they didn't, the MSM did that. LPG is a fossil fuel and burning it emits GHGs that are driving climate change. Trying to remove LPG from other uses but not BBQs would be complicated when we've got better things to do.

            I get the political argument, but we're running out of time. At some point we just have to bite the bullet and get people up to speed. The BBQ issue should be an opportunity to advance climate understanding. Sadly, I don't think that Labour are on board enough yet.

            • shanreagh 3.2.1.2.2.1

              I get the political argument, but we're running out of time. At some point we just have to bite the bullet and get people up to speed. The BBQ issue should be an opportunity to advance climate understanding. Sadly, I don't think that Labour are on board enough yet.

              Agree with this 100%. I don't think Labour are on board enough either. The lack of enthusiasm walking the talk is concerning to me and others who want to Govt to be seriously on message and if this means addressing the items that some NZers have taken from this, gas BBQs, then so be it.

              It also has implications for our restaurant industry with fast flash electricity for restaurants not being available and even induction cooking is still prohibitively priced.

              It is all very well this idea of "If you built it – they will come: Field of Dreams' nirvana of waiting for clever people to improvise, invent to replace as a means of washing over of concerns. BUT……..

              So by all means let's have the CC ideas but running alongside let us have some ideas/generate some ideas of how to replace the things that are vital, economical electricity and the things that make for a quality of life and a civil defence resource…. how do we cook outdoors?

              As for the idea that we take our gas BBQs to the scrap merchants….sure but you can bet your bottom dollar that even the small return you may get now will plummet to zero once we have them there in quantity. So we will have full landfills and fly tippers and Gas BBQs in situ being used somehow.

  4. Incognito 4

    Now, more than ever, do we need a re-think and re-design the future of work. Job creation is all about joining the rat race of consumerism and chasing material wealth, which only sparks joy momentarily, but long-terms only leads to deeply unhappy and unhealthy people.

    I don’t give a rat’s arse if technology is allowing BAU and maintain status quo whilst possibly only aggravating the human condition. From what I’ve seen so far, this is the most likely (as in: preferred) scenario and it ain’t impress me much crying

    • weka 4.1

      why don't you give a rat's arse?

      Future of work, and people having a choice between wage slavery and sparking joy is one potent doorway into action. Imagine if that was presented as the actual choice? Hey, we can powerdown, work less, have more joy, spend more time with those we love, or we can keep our flatscreen TVs, latest iphones, flash new EV and break our backs and the lives of our kids maintaining that (sorry, no more overseas holidays though).

  5. Obtrectator 5

    Population, population, population ….. or, as J B Priestley once put it (I forget where): "too many bloody people".

    Too much biomass tied up in units of humanity. Why then do so many news stories about population drops (either actual or anticipated) still seem to regard them as a disaster that has to be prevented at all costs?

    Applying energy-intensive techno-fixes won't do anything to address that fundamental root cause of all our problems.

    Once we've raided everything that's around, that'll be it, folks. Mother Nature is the ultimate quartermaster, and she ain't got no secret reserve stores.

    • weka 5.1

      well to state the obvious, the global economy requires perpetual population growth doesn't it? If NZ's population dropped or became steady, wouldn't that nobble the neoliberal project?

    • Snape 5.2

      “Applying energy-intensive techno-fixes won't do anything to address that fundamental root cause of all our problems.”

      +10

  6. pdm 6

    I still reckon NATURE itself is the best bet to resolve `so called' climate change.

    It always has and always will.

  7. Snape 7

    “well to state the obvious, the global economy requires perpetual population growth doesn't it? “

    Other way around! Population growth requires more jobs (or the unemployment rate would skyrocket). More jobs is dependent on an expanding economy.

  8. weka 8

    Re LPG, maybe we should be designing for resiliency as well. This is happening in a 'first' world country and it likely to get worse the further we push GHG emissions. NZ won't be immune from this.

    https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/1361140014386659330

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  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    21 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
    Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government lowering building costs
    The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Trustee tax change welcomed
    Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
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  • Minister’s Ramadan message
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