If you want to change the Government …
It is crunch time. The next five days may determine who is the next Government.
science
climate change
The Opportunity National Courtship
National has softened some policy positions, bringing it closer to meeting some of Opportunity’s five bottom lines. Is Luxon preparing to pull off the post-election flip-flop to end all flip-flops?
Coalition’s problem: bullshit doesn’t conceal poor performance
I had a look at the New Zealand Election Survey for the 2023 election at what voters issues were in 2023. It looks very similar in the major issues today. Economy and cost of living predominating, then health, climate change and crime. That has to be problem for the conservative coalition and especially for National. They haven’t moved the needle to anything except worse.
Green Party policy: Reconnecting Aotearoa
The Greens’ transport policy introduces a quantum leap on climate and public good.
National’s pro climate change obsession
Despite the Iranian war threatening supplies, the Methanex plant closure creating an LNG surplus for the foreseeable future, and enabling legislation still pending, National wants to rush through a construction contract for the LNG terminal before the next election.
To frigate or not to frigate
The NZ Initiative, who gave us neoliberalism, says we need to buy four to keep one at sea. Just Defence says there are a lot better uses for the money. I’m with them.
The robots are coming to get us
AI techies are sound the alarm on where AI is going and how dangerous it will be. We can and should act now to prevent that.
Labour to accelerate climate action
“Labour is fully committed to the Paris Agreement and will put New Zealand on course to meet its targets…. Walking away from it, as National and its mates are planning to do, would be giving up on our kids’ future and impose huge costs on our economy.”
The Right is winning the bullshit media narrative
Last weekend saw a continuation of right wing parties coming out with inane policy announcements that make a media splash without any hard questions being asked.
New Zealand’s Gas Panic Was Entirely Lies
Anyone remember it was just a year ago that businesses and government politicians were crying about the loss of natural gas availability?
Greenpeace: Why the 1.5°C overshoot report must be an urgent call to action on climate change
The UNEP’s new report ‘Limiting Overshoot’ outlines a pathway called “overshoot, peak and decline” to minimise and adapt to the impacts of an exceedance and an eventual return to 1.5°C.
The Government suddenly wants to limit the damage it has caused to our climate response
After spending all term undermining the Country’s climate change response the Government now wants to improve the country’s ability to meet the Country’s Paris Accord obligations.
Elon Musk would be pleased with Opportunity Party’s Data Centre policy
The Opportunities Party wishes to enrich Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison by giving them tax breaks to establish data centres in Aotearoa.
Vote Climate
When voting this year vote Climate.
The mythological climate saviour
Carbon capture and storage is bullshit, another lie from the fossil fuel industries so they can keep making money instead of reducing emissions
Fuck this shit
It’s not enough to say fuck this shit, but it’s necessary to start with. We then have to tell a different story, one that people want, that inspires hope, and opens the door to something better than denial or doom.
Labour: Solar without the Upfront Cost
This is a very impressive policy from Labour
With friends like NZ First …
This week Tama Potaka announced the Government will backtrack on a proposal that would have allowed for the sale of up to 60% of the country’s conservation land. But Shane Jones then completely undermined the announcement by talking about using Conservation land for mining.
Local Bodies: The myth of New Zealand’s economic backbone
If the farming sector is the ‘backbone of the economy’ then why is it that we are struggling to stand upright economically at the moment? Is it because agriculture is a economic drain on the rest of NZ. It provides 85% of our export revenue. But contributes just 5% of GDP, 5% of the workforce, and 1-3% of tax revenue – which effectively measures the profit to NZ.
National intends to proceed with the LNG terminal and welch on the country’s Kyoto Protocol obligations
National, a party of supposed economic geniuses, will spend billions on an LNG terminal that is not needed, billions on roads of National significance whose business cases are appalling, and attack Labour for a policy that is cheap, will help ordinary people, reduce fuel dependancy and greenhouse gas emissions.
More fishy than a bait shop
Christopher Luxon has implied that a junior staffer met major polluters and received submissions urging him to sink Mike Smith’s bid to hold them to account which were then hidden. But it was his Chief Policy Advisor.
Doing their master’s bidding
Briefing papers from two of the corporates being sued by Mike Smith for damaging the environment urging the Government to change the law to stop the case were received but allegedly lost by Luxon’s office.
Constitutional outrage
The Government’s plans to retrospectively change the law to stop a case seeking damages for climate damage caused by heavy emitters is a constitutional outrage and shows not only contempt for the rule of law but also contempt for any action taken by a citizen against climate change.
Luxon is toast
Any time a political leader has to put their position to a vote, they become a dead pigeon. David Lange knew winning the vote didn’t end the matter.
Greens’ State Of The Planet Calls For National Electrification Plan
“The plan would electrify homes, transport and industry, ending New Zealand’s dependence on unpredictable global fossil fuel markets, cutting household power bills, and building real energy security at home.”
Without pluralism within the climate movement, we risk handing the future to the far right
“As climate politics enters a critical phase, exclusion is a luxury we cannot afford. We need all hands on deck.”
What We Can Do
In absence of a concrete leadership plan from this government to address the impending oil supply crisis, this post is for us to simply note down what actions we are taking ourselves.
The oil crisis: “We live in challenging times”
The government has shifted position and is now directly talking about the need to plan and prepare for a potential crisis and doing so for the worst case scenario.
The oil crisis – What would Jacinda do?
Jacinda Ardern led the country through some of the most taxing international crises imaginable. How would she deal with the potential oil shock caused by the Iranian war and how does this compare to Christopher Luxon’s response?
The oil crisis: she’ll be right?
“Every emergency plan principle that I’m aware of says you communicate early, honestly and with a plan.” – Nathan Surendran
Why can’t Government Ministers say “climate change”?
In the midst of multiple states of emergency caused by climate change induced rainfall Mark Mitchell and Christopher Luxon have reverted to Oil Industry talking points that what is happening is “just weather” and that “weather changes.”
A comparison between the LNG Terminal deal and the NZ Steel deal
A comparison of the LNG Terminal deal and the previous Government’s deal with NZ Steel to replace its coal fired furnace with a renewable energy supplied electric arc furnace clearly shows what this Government’s priorities are.
Think Big 2.0
The Government has responded to a perceived urgency caused by dry years to the country’s power supply by proposing something that is counter intuitive. Instead of rolling out solar it wants to burn imported Liquified Natural Gas. And use enabling legislation to avoid any overview of the proposal.
Is Shane Jones really to blame?
NZ First is openly allegiant to commercial fishers, mining (fossil fuels) and tobacco companies, but is it really their fault?
Shane Jones loves fossil fuels
National has allowed Shane Jones to effectively veto the country signing up to a road map away from the use of fossil fuels supported by much of the world that was consistent with current policy settings.
What does Labour do about Winston?
Current polling suggests that we may witness something that has not happened before, a one term National Government. But this may mean Labour making a deal with Winston Peters. What should Labour do?