The politics of gun control
National and NZ First are frustrating the passage of the Arms Legislation Bill by raising issues that may appeal to extremists but will not make the country a safer place after the Christchurch massacre.
Economy
farming
Happy cows and land restoration
The point here isn’t to go ‘boo vegans’, it’s to point starkly to the problems with the current food and environment debate, and show case the pathways beyond the meat/no meat binary.
Federated Farmers launches petition against its business model
Federated Farmers has started a petition against an educational resource that teaches about climate change and activism because it does not present their industry in a sufficiently positive way.
The Government’s Economic Development Plan
Last week the government launched its Economic Development Plan, arguably late but with lots of useful initiatives.
Fonterra, again
Why New Zealand – and its government – need to engage much harder about Fonterra.
The NZIER Report on dairying and fresh water
“New Zealand does not face stark choices between having a dairy sector versus having clean waterways. Experience shows that, by focusing on profits, not production, farms can increase their economic returns and reduce their impact on the environment.”
Fonterra failure and Government failure
Fonterra is dragging New Zealand down, faster and faster. What is this Government going to do?
Police – ignoring their job in Southland
“Allegations of trespassing and intimidation as Southland winter grazing protest escalates” yesterday. The reporter completely missed the most important salient point – the police don’t seem to be doing their job. Leaving a pissed lynch mob of farmers trying to force people out of their house to ‘talk’ to them is pretty clearly an act of intimidation. And that doesn’t even cover the original idiot farmer who is alleged to have rammed someone’s car.
Brian Easton on methane
Brian Easton has put up a interesting post at Pundit which looks at how we should measure and constrain in our methane emissions. My initial impression is that his approach defeats the purpose of trying to reduce the effects of climate change over the coming century.
The hard change of forestry
Forestry is forcing an important tilting point between mitigating climate change and land use, and it’s going to affect the viability of some North Island towns.
Zero carbon bill – let the battle commence
The Zero Carbon bill is already being attacked by farming groups who are clearly concerned at the implications for their industry. And National is already showing signs that it will play politics with the issue.
Westland Dairy sale
Westland Dairy has done a deal to sell out to Yili industrial Group of Mongolia. This company is the third largest dairy company in New Zealand.
New Zealand needs a Government that understands climate change
In an opinion piece in Stuff National Spokesperson on climate change Todd Muller has cast doubt on National agreeing to a political consensus on climate change.
No sense, nonsense and a dearth of common sense.
We wouldn’t tie a rope to a heavy load and then push on the rope with the expectation of achieving anything, right? So why is the Guardian’s Environment Editor entreating that we do just that? Is he merely stupid? Or is there something more cynical at play?
What does it take for bosses not to get their bonus?
Why is it that all risk lies with the shareholders? Why does poor performance by a company not result in CEO and top management bonuses being clawed back?
Fonterra’s loss
Fonterra has just reported an after tax loss of $196 million for the 2018 year. It’s never had an annual loss in its history.
No Waimea dam
With the change in Government and ever increasing costs of construction it appears that the Waimea dam project in Tasman District is going to be scuppered.
Steaming cow poo.
Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth according to a Guardian headline.
Yeah. No it’s not.
It’s Time for a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Dairy Farming
Not just, ‘we’ve got to make the good outweigh the bad’. I mean: why should dairy farming exist here?
Bio-fuels.
Biofuels and fossil. The difference?
Fonterra a failure in concept and in practice
New Zealanders 17 years ago accepted the idea of a national dairy monopoly on the condition it would deliver outstanding returns. The cost has been high — filthy and unswimmable rivers. Now it turns out the result has been a financial fiasco – the whole thing is literally bullshit, or more correctly, cowshit.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership
The positive aspects of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership.
Labour and rural voters
In recent years Labour has allowed National to dominate rural politics. Maybe it is time for Labour to think about reaching out to rural voters and suggest to them that a progressive vote is in their interests.
Overseas land sales, Landcorp land sales, and the environment
Our land needs threefold protection.
A Sugar Coated World
Yum! That would make for generations of ecstatic kids, no?
ETS is useless, scrap it
I suspect that ETS has become a political football in the next parliament, but probably not part of a coalition agreement with either National or Labour. My guess is that both NZ First and the Greens will want it off the table unless it is agreed that it will go. That leaves them able to vote against further stupid patches being added to it.
The Future of Food
A short film about a Wairarapa organic farm using Community Supported Agriculture to bypass agribusiness control of the market and sell direct to customers.
Good work if you can get it
During the election campaign elements of the farming community protested the possibility of a water tax and of farming being in the ETS on the basis the sector could not afford it. In awkward news it has since come to light that the Chief Executive of Fonterra and senior executives are being paid huge salaries.
Farm protest mad cows and climate change
The farmers’ protest in Morrinsville today unfortunately shows that we have made no progress in the 15 years since Bill English attacked the wrong PM with his “mad cow” insult. Meanwhile the effects of climate change have got worse, our options for dealing with it have got fewer, and the Nats don’t want you to know about $19bn of NZ property at risk.
Fear and loathing in Aotearoa
It is difficult to understand National’s election campaign. Instead of campaigning on what they have achieved and what they plan to do they are using fear of Labour to try and win the election. And saying some palpably untrue things on the way.
National intends to sell another strategic asset
National again intends to sell off publicly owned assets for its own ideological reasons. This time it’s Landcorp farms, thus depriving the government of another avenue for leading the way on environmental protection for farmers and climate change action.
A meeting in Wanaka
Ad reports on a recent meeting in Wanaka where David Parker addressed farmers face to face on Labour’s water policy.
The Government is misrepresenting the effect of the Ruataniwha Dam decision
The Government has responded to the Supreme Court decision which puts a halt on the Ruataniwha Dam by claiming wrongly that the protected land was of low quality and by stating that a law change, possibly retrospective, will occur.
No one owns water, apart from corporations who sell it …
The Herald has reported that ordinary New Zealanders are paying 500 times as much for water as corporations who export it.
Protecting our biggest export income earner
Tourism Export Council: “The National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) in its current form is nothing more than a PR-stunt from Government who continue to ignore scientists and expert opinion re the state of our freshwater. The NPS-FM does not address the serious problems facing our waterways and, in fact, will make them worse.”
Another reason for water pricing
The Government will be embarassed by another example of a corporation planning to extract ten billion litres of fresh water a year essentially at no cost which has arisen.