Milking a Land of Plenty?
NZ milk production has apparently risen by 30% since 2005. And, according to sources used by frenz.co.nz, back in 2006 over 14 billion […]
Environment
Brownlee’s head in the sand, looking for cheap oil
Rookie Green MP Julie Anne Genter, a transport planning expert before entering Parliament, gave Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee, whose qualification for the job is that he used to teach kids to make wooden toy cars, a sharp lesson in transport policy in the House yesterday. It’s rare for a newbie to show up an old tusker like that. With petrol prices at record levels, I hope someone in the government’s listening.
Earth Hour
OK – so we’re a bit late with this – but it’s Earth Hour, 8:30 – 9:30pm NZ time.
Cost of the Ports of Auckland fiasco
Apparently the Auckland Council doesn’t know how much the POAL fiasco is costing. Rough estimates suggest that the cost is at least $400,000 a day, probably significantly more. No wonder the Council doesn’t want to know.
Workers’ victory over incompetent PoAL management
Ports of Auckland must pay the permanent workers among the union members it had illegally locked out. It’s only a partial victory for workers who want to work and have long-term job security, not just get paid for two weeks. But it’s yet another costly defeat for management. How long will they keep burning ratepayers’ money like this before the council acts?
Stormy weather
Give Way
As we all should know by now, the road rules for giving way have changed.
John Key: Aussie miners’ stooge
John Key was busy last night working for the causes of Aussie miner Bathurst, “officiating” at the opening of their lobbying office, and pressuring DoC to give them concessions to the Denniston plateau and help them destroy a unique ecosystem. How much more of him can NZ’s “clean, green” image take?
Farrar discovers peak oil, nearly
Barack Obama will be breathing a sigh of relief after David Farrar endorsed his call to end oil subsidies. It seems the 3rd oil price spike in 5 years is getting the attention of even the Right. Something, they’ve got an inkling, is wrong and rising petrol prices are here to stay. Pity that, on the cusp of revelation, Farrar opts for the security blanket of neoclassical economics.
Foresight
There’s no rental properties in Christchurch. Impossible for builders to move there and for families to move while their houses are being repaired. Who warned of a mass housing shortage a year ago and called for action? What did the government provide? A few over-priced caravans and a handful of temporary houses far short of the 10,000 promised.
Speak out for the last 55 Maui’s dolphins
With just a few clicks of your mouse you can help send a message to the government in support of helping the world’s rarest dolphin – our own Maui’s dolphins.
King salmon, stealing our future
Imagine taking your children down to the park to find an overseas had set up a dairy farm in one corner. The shit builds up and flows onto the playground. You complain, but are told the farm is under no obligation to treat or retain their waste and the council has no powers to do anything about it. That’s what’s happening with aquaculture thanks to the EPA.
Ministry of National Significance?
The trailers for John Key’s Thursday speech are calling it for a ” new super-Ministry” under the command of Steven Joyce. Merger isn’t the issue – the policy direction is. If Joyce just stays focussed on roads of national significance, mines and oil wells of national significance, and casinos of national significance it will be another waste of time reshuffle. If it becomes genuinely high quality export focussed, then it may prove worthwhile. Fingers crossed.
Overseas investment must show real gains
David Shearer’s private member’s Bill on foreign investment is pure common sense: unless foreign ownership actually adds something substantial to the economy that cannot be supplied by local owners then all foreign investment brings is higher land prices, locking out Kiwis from ownership. Overseas buyers must bring something real to the table. A good first policy.
Meeting a need
Can anyone tell me why the Nats are spending $300m to build and $36m pa to run a 960-bed PPP prison when there are 2000 spare beds in the system and prisoner numbers are projected to fall? Or why Joyce is cutting a dirty ‘convention centre for pokies’ deal when international convention numbers are falling? Or why they’re spending $1b a year on low BCR highways when vehicle numbers are falling?
Management incompetence costs POAL millions
Ports of Auckland wants to increase profits by slashing pay-packets by 20% – $6m. So far, the process has cost them at least $28m. Add $9m for redundancies. Add the cost of continuing interruption as the contractors are established. Add the cost of blacklisting. Add the cost of customers that have shifted ports. Len Brown should sack the POAL management for incompetence.
Let a garden grow
Christchurch is changed forever and there’s no going back. Let the heart of the old city become its memorial.
Weather bomb
Keep safe during the “weather bomb”. It will be good practice for the future.
National’s transport priorities revealed
Louise Upston had a patsy for Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee about a bridge replacement in her electorate (the Nats have big achievements to crow about, eh?). Upston asked about the project’s benefits. Brownlee responded “First, I would expect re-election of the local member”. Now we know what National sees at those end of those highways to nowhere – swing votes.
Roads to nowhere
There never was a good business case for holiday highways. Now it’s even worse.
Righties cutting themselves on Occam’s razor
The Left has its fair share of conspiracy theorists – who think that, for reasons tenuously explained at best, various, often opposing, organisations are secretly carrying out massive cons and not being discovered. But we’ve got nothing on the Right. Belief that climate change is world’s most enormous conspiracy, engineered for no good reason, is an article of faith for these guys. If it weren’t so serious, it would be hilarious.
Fabians in Auckland and Wellington Tuesday 28th
Rick Boven in Auckland – Global environmental trends Global environmental trends will affect New Zealand’s future. In his forthcoming lecture to the Fabian […]
The courage of their convictions
While most of us talk about “saving the world” some people act.
34 hours to help Australians save their oceans
In 48 hours, Australia could save one million square kms of ocean forever — setting up the largest marine reserve in the world and preserving thousands of delicate species. But they will need an global outcry to beat out commercial fishing and mining companies hoping to destroy the plan.
Tales from Christchurch
As a followup to the “big media” coverage of Christchurch yesterday, there are plenty of people posting on their experiences of life in the quake-ridden city. One that I follow is the blog of award winning Kiwi author Helen Lowe.
Quake anniversary
The thoughts of the whole country are with Christchurch today.
Another ‘aggressive recovery’?
Key upbeat about quake recovery work – Headline
Here’s a couple of numbers that might sober Mr Smile and Wave:
- 28,200 fewer jobs in Canterbury now than a year ago. 1 in 11 jobs lost.
- Net international emigration from Canterbury, 3,634 by December.
- 5,086 building consents in Canterbury in 2011. 100,000 houses damaged or destroyed.
Behind the hockey stick
There have been several interesting pieces on the politics of climate change recently, including some reflections (and a new book) from Michael Mann (the scientist behind the “hockey stick”), and leaked documents from the denier industry.
Key’s ‘sell, sell, sell’ mantra out of touch with NZ
The Crafar Farms decision is sensible and a correct interpretation of the law. Foreign buyers must add something that a local buyer can’t, other than a higher purchase price. Otherwise, our farmers will continue to be out-bid for our land by foreign government-backed companies that can afford a lower rate of return, and NZ will gain nothing. So, why is National rushing to change the law?
Billions down the drain on roads to nowhere
Gerry Brownlee has weakly attempted to fob off the decline in benefit:cost ratio of highway projects under National. ‘Sure’ he says ‘we’ve been […]
Political orthodoxy and economic reality
Capitalism is good. Globalisation is good. It’s political orthodoxy. But is it matched by economic reality? Perhaps not. Recent pieces by Bernard Hickey and Gordon Campbell give us plenty to think about…
ImperatorFish: Each Time We Say “Protect The Environment” Steven Joyce Eats A Baby
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here
Steven Joyce writes in the Herald that the answer to our economic woes is to open up resources to entrepreneurs, and to hell with the social cost or environmental impact.
A sustainable future
The UN High Level Panel on Global Sustainability has delivered a report about creating a future that’s sustainable economically, socially and environmentally. Our government and political parties should be looking at it and measuring themselves against it.
MoT reveals massive budget shortfall from peak oil
Almost missed among all the blacked out paragraphs of the Transport Briefing to the Incoming Minister are 2 interesting graphs. While not explicitly mentioning peak oil, the graph of the National Land Transport Fund shows a massive shortfall in revenue in a ‘high oil price, low growth’ scenario. The other shows how low-quality National’s highway spending is.
NRT: Climate change: Cross-purposes
No Right Turn has a look at two of the incoming minister briefings impacting on climate change. They are incoherent and it is clear that neither ministry talks to the other. If it wasn’t affecting a important long term issue, it’d be as funny as a Yes Minister episode. But since it does, it just highlights the growing incoherence of this incompetent government and their increasing politicization of the civil service.
Treachery
Fran O’Sullivan is an enemy of the people. Her article in this morning’s Herald will forever brand her as a traitor to this […]