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Open mike 10/04/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 10th, 2025 - 26 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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Step up to the mike …

26 comments on “Open mike 10/04/2025 ”

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  1. PsyclingLeft.Always 1
    10 April 2025 at 7:40 am

    NAct1 musical chairs

    National MP James Meager leaves Justice Committee chair role

    So Andrew ("fuck you loser") Bailey was in position when the music stopped ? Seemingly yes. Obviously not too many recriminations against him. Maybe the Mt Everest trip was atonement enough….

    Justice Committee chair James Meager has left the role, replaced on the committee by Andrew Bayly.

    Bayly resigned as a minister in February after gripping a staffer's arm during an animated discussion. He remains an MP.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/557658/national-mp-james-meager-leaves-justice-committee-chair-role

  3. PsyclingLeft.Always 3
    10 April 2025 at 8:01 am

    I have been following the latest news on Lake Ellesmere…and the sad death toll of NZ Native eels.

    Call for more to be done to stop mass death of migrating eels in Canterbury

    The Department of Conservation is calling for more to be done to prevent the mass death of thousands of migrating eels at Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere.

    Eels estimated to weigh a total of one tonne died at Taumutu last Thursday during a failed heke (migration) from the lake, which is one of the country's most polluted with no natural outlet to the sea, to the Pacific Ocean to breed.

    A number of different takes on same.

    Canterbury Regional Council's general manager of hazards Leigh Griffiths said the tuna (eel) deaths were "a natural event which could occur at this time of year during the tuna migration or heke – when the tuna try to migrate to the ocean overnight".

    And this guy…maybe wears at least 2 hats?

    Te Taumutu rūnanga representative David Perenara O'Connell, who was also on the regional council's executive leadership team, mirrored Griffiths' comments in a video posted to social media.

    He said there was an estimated 20 tonnes of tuna migrating on the night of the stranding, with most making it out to sea.

    "As we know with the tuna heke, it's not always successful. That's mother nature – that's what's happened here for generations, for mai rānō (since long ago)" he said.

    "It's sad we know, but it's just what our taiao (environment) does, and the way the circle of life happens."

    Personally I go with Dr Mike Joy. A NZ freshwater Expert. I have followed his work and greatly respect him !

    Victoria University freshwater scientist Dr Mike Joy said he was angry about the council's response.

    "I'm disgusted. Trying to blame the eels for a problem that's been caused by the failure of [the regional council] Environment Canterbury to protect that lake is the lowest of the low – I can't believe it," he said.

    Joy said the lake and surrounding landscape had been drastically altered by intensive dairying, wetland drainage and lowered lake levels.

    "There's nothing natural about that lake now, so referring to natural events is meaningless." he said.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/557681/call-for-more-to-be-done-to-stop-mass-death-of-migrating-eels-in-canterbury

    Anyone got any local knowledge/Input?

    • Cricklewood 3.1
      10 April 2025 at 9:13 am

      There were some pretty cool vids of the migration from Lake Forsyth, someone had been live streaming the number of eels building up against the embankment was amazing as was the footage when they went up and over towards the sea.

      Can imagine many more will have been waiting to go over at Lake Ellesmere wonder if the eels had died waiting to go over before been washed out into the sea seems bizarre they would die on the last hurdle. They travel so far overland sometimes I remember been lucky enough to see them on the move as a child at Forest Lakes down by Otaki hundreds of them going overland in the wet grass to the next waterway leading towards the sea.

    • Hunter Thompson II 3.2
      10 April 2025 at 11:31 am

      I'd back Mike Joy's views any day. His book "The Fight for Freshwater" is an enlightening story.

      The bureaucrats are simply trying to cover their butts and get away with "monitoring the situation" ie doing nothing.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 3.2.1
        10 April 2025 at 8:22 pm

        Agree totally HT II. I met him some years back, he was a speaker at a Climate change meeting ( I also chatted to Eugenie Sage : )

        Mike struck me as very down to earth,Interesting, Informed and Informative guy. With an ability to explain Science facts..to any listener. Still remember his description of "Koura as the canaries of fresh water"

        A Newsroom article on him also notes his book…

        Mike Joy’s grave new world

        I certainly relate to this part….(sadly didnt then become a Freshwater Ecologist : )

        He has worked as a sheep musterer and a truck driver. He’s always had a machinist’s mind, always keen to take something apart to see how it works and put it back together – hopefully better than he found it.

        And yes, pinning hopes on some Planet future tech fix? Just false dreaming…We need to pay heed to people who care so much about our Earth !

        In his lecture earlier that day, Mike told his students why green technology wouldn’t save them. He used to believe a techno-fix was over the horizon, but has increasingly doubted technology’s ability to save us. As he writes in his memoir, even if somebody could invent cold fusion and transition the entire planet’s energy infrastructure to accommodate it, we’d still be burdened by overfished oceans and polluted rivers.

        https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/09/10/mike-joys-grave-new-world/

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 3.3.1
        10 April 2025 at 8:03 pm

        Thanks for that Weka. I mostly cant read facebook, but Dr Mike Joy must have enabled public viewing? Certainly a lot of agreement with him.

    • Pingao 3.4
      10 April 2025 at 6:33 pm

      I used to follow what was happening around Te Waihora and although I have a lot of time for Mike Joy, I also think the ECAN council worker is worth listening to but the people I whose opinion I would trust and value the most is the local hapu, i.e. Te Taumutu rūnanga representative.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 3.4.1
        10 April 2025 at 7:59 pm

        i.e. Te Taumutu rūnanga representative.

        Who is also on…(did you actually read my comment and its link?)

        Te Taumutu rūnanga representative David Perenara O'Connell, who was also on the regional council's executive leadership team

        And Dr Mike Joy, Expert Freshwater Scientist….

        "I'm disgusted. Trying to blame the eels for a problem that's been caused by the failure of [the regional council] Environment Canterbury to protect that lake is the lowest of the low – I can't believe it," he said.

        Joy said the lake and surrounding landscape had been drastically altered by intensive dairying, wetland drainage and lowered lake levels.

        "There's nothing natural about that lake now, so referring to natural events is meaningless." he said.

        "It's loaded with nutrients, the flows have been affected, the catchment is over allocated for irrigation water, which means the water table is lowered, the lake level is altered, the wetlands are gone. It's a completely human-modified lake now."

        Joy said the council had a responsibility to protect the region's waterways.

        "By not doing their job to protect this lake, Environment Canterbury has made the conditions where something like this is much more likely to happen," he said.

        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/557681/call-for-more-to-be-done-to-stop-mass-death-of-migrating-eels-in-canterbury

        Dr Mike Joy actually knows what he is talking about. No coverup BS from him..ever.

        Victoria University freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy told the Herald that ECan’s original claim of the cause being natural is “impossible”.

        “To blame the eels is like blaming the victim, absolutely absurd,” Joy said.

        “The triggers for eel migration, the natural water quality and flow volumes have been completely altered due to ECan’s failure to limit intensification of agriculture and its associated harms.”

        ECan’s explanation distracted from the harm done to the lake, which has been happening for decades, Joy said.

        “With the man-made alterations to that lake, it’s impossible to claim it’s natural, there is nothing natural about it.”

        Joy said ECan had allowed the catchment of Te Waihora (Lake Ellesmere) to become polluted to the point where it was now classed as one of the most polluted in New Zealand.

        “There are many other factors including the fact that the lake levels have been altered and almost all the surrounding wetlands crucial to lake health and eels’ habitat have been drained for dairy farming,” he told the Herald.

        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/dead-canterbury-eels-mistimed-migration-theory-labelled-impossible-by-scientist-mike-joy/6JFYAA4OT5D7FC2MVWAEEVQRXE/

        • Obtrectator 3.4.1.1
          10 April 2025 at 11:43 pm

          "The triggers for eel migration, the natural water quality and flow volumes have been completely altered due to ECan's failure to limit intensification of agriculture and its associated harms."

          Not disagreeing in the least with Dr Joy's assessment, but …. didn't ECan try once to impose limits on irrigation take (and thus limit intensification), only to find themselves fired and replaced by a farmer-friendly commissioner?

          • PsyclingLeft.Always 3.4.1.1.1
            11 April 2025 at 8:44 am

            ECan…..literally have a reverse Midas touch.

            Eugenie Sage a very sad loss. Not likely to be any Environment healing going on..esp under NAct1

            (

          • weka 3.4.1.1.2
            11 April 2025 at 9:05 am

            yes, thanks National, but they've had elections since then.

  4. gsays 4
    10 April 2025 at 8:16 am

    While not strictly my home town, there is pride none the less.

    I often criticize National and Labour for leaving the migration tap running full bore. That's because of neo-liberalism's dictim of sub contracting out the training that business has embraced.

    Once they are here however, welcome.

    https://www.pncc.govt.nz/News-Events/News/Palmerston-North-recognised-as-one-of-New-Zealand%E2%80%99s-most-Welcoming-Communities

  5. weka 5
    10 April 2025 at 11:09 am

    Conservative media outlet The Australian headlined this in their frontpage. Two things to note:

    1. the judgement is damning of the medical care in the case of this particular child.
    2. the judge makes coherent arguments for their judgement. Let's see if those get addressed in the debate, or if the pro-child transition people use dismissive techniques instead that avoid the substantive points being made
    3. the judge pushes back on a previous judgement that claimed the Cass Review was politically biased.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GoH7q9ZaoAAE0Ya?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

    Full article via https://x.com/Bernard_Lane/status/1910084871743209883

    Archived version https://archive.is/tiBRz

    • SPC 5.1
      10 April 2025 at 5:38 pm

      The affirmation approach was indicated in the DSM 1980.

      (not the same as medical practice, as this is the psychiatric care model).

      Moving to accept homosexuality within the spectrum of being human and then onto the issues of dysmorphia and dysphoria.

      It would provide affirmation support for the "patient" to assist them as to their (gender) identity and sexuality.

      This ultimately came to influence health treatment for children, as puberty blockers had already been used with early onset of maturation (in accord of their biological sex) for child developmental reasons. The problem then being for how long this was safe as it was always done on a short term basis.

      The problem would be misdiagnosis (dysmorphia can result from abuse and the child fleeing to a new identity to feel safe, as well as some females finding becoming of an adult women body image wise challenging).

      The other is confusing the diversity of male (artistic) and female (sporty) children with a wrong gender explanation – we are supposed to know better in a gender equality democracy.

      And here the case is parental division over the course of health treatment, mummy wants a girl and daddy wants a boy.

      In this case the judge has to decide it.

      He had no authority to declare that gender change affirming care could only occur if both parents agreed.

      But as family court judge, he could award custody to the parent opposing such care and that he did.

      But he went further, to oppose treatment of children.

      “At this stage in the child’s life, all options should be left open, without any unacceptable risk of harm to the child.”

      In his decision, Justice Strum declared gender dysphoria was not “immutable” but could be influenced by external factors, placing him at odds with the Australian Standards of Care, which back a gender-affirming treatment model.

      The one legally pertinent part of the judgment is this. Treatment had occurred without any diagnosis of gender dysphoria. That may have informed the custody decision, but it also should be a factor in health treatment.

  6. joe90 6
    10 April 2025 at 2:28 pm

    AI generated propaganda but it’s good propaganda.