Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, August 5th, 2011 - 49 comments
Fisheries workers bearing a 12,000 signature told a select committee yesterday the horror stories of abuse of foreign workers on fishing vessels, whose low wages displace Kiwi workers, how the focus on low-cost, low-quality that is wasting our fish stocks, and how this is caused by Kiwi corporates putting a quick buck ahead of their people and their environment.
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, August 3rd, 2011 - 44 comments
120 jobs per weekday lost but nothing to worry about. The market will right itself.
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, August 3rd, 2011 - 52 comments
The “free market” exists to make profit. It does have some advantages when everything is running smoothly. But the free market is hopeless in tough times. It never wants to pay out or clean up the mess.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, August 2nd, 2011 - 20 comments
I/S reviews the ETS so far. It has worked, as Labour promised, to bring down emissions – helped by the recession. But don’t forget there are still massive subsidies for the emissions that are happening thanks to National’s changes. It’s nuts that you and I are forking out so that foreign-owned factories can spew out carbon dioxide on a more profitable basis.
Written By: - Date published: 12:44 pm, August 1st, 2011 - 40 comments
It is one of the failures of our society that far too many young people are politically disengaged or apathetic. Many – but not all! Meet Generation Zero. Please go visit their website, join up, or spread the word…
Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, July 28th, 2011 - 16 comments
The government has put out a new policy statement on transport. Total funding is unchanged. But cost of the RoNS is rising before they’re even built. So, it’s more money into white elephant highways. Less money for road safety, local roads, road policing, and public transport. Stupid myopic policy.
Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, July 26th, 2011 - 27 comments
There is a long and sordid relationship between National governments and developers. Just how many favours have National done for developers over the years? Are the so-called ‘Roads of National Significance’, especially the Holiday Highway, just a continuation of this practice? Is it any coincidence that Nicky Hager’s Hollow Men are all Shore Boys?
Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, July 24th, 2011 - 34 comments
I think our exploration of space is effectively over. The end of the shuttle programme is the end of that era.
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, July 22nd, 2011 - 13 comments
Another big fall in dairy prices overnight. Yet the dollar keeps breaking record highs.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 pm, July 21st, 2011 - 89 comments
Should we be more angry or scared? Just read the first official government presentation on peak oil. The IEA says conventional oil peaked in 2006 but our government offers only crude denialism and, paradoxically, blithe assurances that they’re ready. This is the kind of crap we used to see before we had 2 oil shocks in the past 4 years.
Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, July 21st, 2011 - 56 comments
Were a group of Israeli spies operating in Christchurch? The question has emerged as a result of the death or an Israeli national and the events that followed in the aftermath of the February quake. In the name of “national security” we’ll probably never be told the truth.
Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, July 17th, 2011 - 74 comments
Local climate change deniers want to organise a debate featuring visiting “celebrity” Christopher Monckton. I’m all for scientific debate of course. But you can’t have such a debate with Monckton, because he’s a serial liar.
Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, July 16th, 2011 - 30 comments
I’ve been impressed with Labour on both sides of the ditch lately. Here of course Phil Goff’s Labour party has moved very boldly on the CGT. But across the ditch in Oz, Labor leader and PM Julia Gillard is fighting an even tougher battle on carbon pricing. Go Gillard!
Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, July 14th, 2011 - 36 comments
A former chief inspector of coal mines yesterday told the Pike River inquiry that the underlying cause of the disaster was the weakening of mining regulations in the 1990s. Yet another example of the frequent and costly failures of deregulation. RIP the Pike River miners.
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, July 12th, 2011 - 112 comments
A feasible plan to power 100 percent of the planet with complete renewables exists. This plan excludes Nuclear and Biofuels, which the Scientific American authors of this plan also considered to be ultimately unsustainable technologies as well. Instead this plan revolves around Wind, Water and Solar – WWS
Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, July 9th, 2011 - Comments Off on Climate change laffs
Comedy duo Armstrong and Miller (who has a degree in quantum physics) take on climate change deniers and do-nothingers with disarming humour.
Written By: - Date published: 5:10 pm, July 7th, 2011 - 4 comments
Te Tai Poutini Polytechnic is receiving an additional $750 million funding from Minister Steven Joyce after changing its name to the South Western Motorway.
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, July 6th, 2011 - 18 comments
There’s an odd contradiction in right-wing ‘thought’. On the one hand, they’re Randian heroes, the wealth creators, modern day Atlases who support the world while ‘parasites’ try to take their wealth and bring them down. On the other hand, they’re victims who need subsidies and special treatment. Fed Farmers CEO Conor English embodies the contradiction.
Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, July 3rd, 2011 - 41 comments
Bravo France, the first country in the world to ban fracking. But for every step forward in this world, we seem to take two steps backwards…
Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, June 30th, 2011 - 81 comments
Two years ago, this government sparked the biggest protests in a generation when it tried to open up the most precious parts of our conservation estate to mining. The policy got canned but the agenda has continued below the surface. Now, 100 DoC staff have been sacked while the MED unit for oil drilling and mining will nearly double its staff.
Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, June 30th, 2011 - 31 comments
National thinks more roads will fix the economy. Problem is: traffic volumes are falling. It’s called Peak Oil. Means they can’t come up with any projects that make sense. Puhoi to Wellsford would cost $1 for every 80 cents of benefit. The next 4 National wants to add to the build list will be even more worthless. Their solution? Weaken the rules.
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, June 27th, 2011 - 30 comments
Brownlee has known for months about the fishhooks in the red-zone buyout plan. Incredibly, he has done nothing to address them. The rules of the bailout package aren’t even written. It was rushed out unfinished for political reasons. How can it take so long to write these simple rules? Only explanation is a lazy, useless, incompetent minister.
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, June 25th, 2011 - 61 comments
The weaknesses in govt’s Christchurch buyout plan were pretty obvious. Option 1: GV for land & property, would not be enough to buy replacement for most. Option 2: GV for land – activate replacement clause in insurance contract for house, would only work if insurer agreed house was a complete write-off. Option 2 failing already.
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, June 25th, 2011 - 18 comments
The snows haven’t come and the ski industry is in trouble. Is it a “cruel blow” from mother nature?
Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 10 comments
Amazing what political pressure can do. Christchurch package was clearly put together in the space of a couple of days. Buy-out at GV the obvious basic solution but will see many out of pocket. Option 2 is an admission of that but only open to some. None of the fish-hooks have been worked out. What’s Gerry been doing all this time?
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, June 24th, 2011 - 70 comments
The buy out offer comes as a relief for many (but not all) of the red zone residents. Twice as many are still in limbo. The fate of the uninsured will be a major issue. Is an uninsured resident of Avonside any less deserving of government help than an investor in a dodgy finance company?
Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, June 23rd, 2011 - 77 comments
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, June 23rd, 2011 - 57 comments
The main details of the government’s plan for the worst affected Christchurch suburbs have been release via TV3. Partly good, partly bad, partly ugly. While some families will be relieved and happy, others will be angry, and still more will remain in limbo. This is only the start of what is going to be a hugely complicated process.
Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, June 22nd, 2011 - 18 comments
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, June 22nd, 2011 - 62 comments
After another terrible night in Christchurch, guest poster Andy-Roo writes about life on the ground in East Christchurch.
Recent Comments