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6:00 am, July 12th, 2025 - 15 comments
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Today's Posts (updated through the day):
Water Done Well CCOs rarely include stormwater management. It's pipes and meters, mostly.
So all these accelerating flood risks will continue to rely on straight rates to fund and manage them.
This is a chronic wasted opportunity, a wilful ignorance of the water cycle, and a further big step towards climate change response reduced to emergency management.
This is not doing water well.
The problem with stormwater is that it just falls out of the sky. It is the one of the "3 Waters" that Councils cannot charge for. They can charge for the water they deliver to your household, and for the wastewater they remove. However, stormwater is a cost as it must be managed to prevent flooding.
The fact that it is ultimately the source of the other two seems ironic to say the least.
It can and should be integrated, by charging water supply and wastewater enough to sustain catchments at very least.
Watercare does to a degree in the Hunua and Waitakere dams, but nowhere near enough.
On a catchment scale stormwater is managed by Regional Councils and this used to be most of their spending. District Councils / cities just conveyed the stormwater from the street to the RC's river, sometimes with a bit of management along the way.
If stormwater is going to be effectively managed, Regional Councils have to be integrated into water organisations. Or killed off entirely, with catchment management / delivery going to the water entities and regulatory functions to Environment Ministry. But then we're getting back to the prescribed amalgamation structure of 3 Waters and the current lot won't like that.
Auckland as a unitary council considered integrating stormwater in Watercare and frankly Watercare lobbied hard and successfully against it.
Some local councils invest in dams, which can help in big floods.
It is completely incoherent that regional councils aren't part of Water Done Well.
Hooboy!
Photos: The Scale of China’s Solar-Power Projects
As the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” eliminates many clean-energy incentives in the U.S., China continues huge investments in wind and solar power, reportedly accounting for 74 percent of all projects now under construction worldwide.
https://www.theatlantic.com/photography/archive/2025/07/photos-china-solar-power-energy/683488
https://archive.li/OH3hp
From the Bread and Circuses department.
Although you wouldn't know it, the Men's Softball World Cup is on in Canada.
Aotearoa has emerged from pool play to the next round. This morning they had the first of their playoff games against the USA.
Highlights are up on You Tube now. If anyone knows where I can stream the games live ( without paying) I'd appreciate it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/566710/new-zealand-black-sox-keep-title-hopes-alive-after-securing-first-super-round-win
In a story about NZ Rugby withdrawing from Wellington, rugby writer Gregor Paul doesn't hold back, doesn't even hesitate:
I wish our political journalists were as honest.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/rugby/gregor-paul-beef-with-wellington-the-case-for-nzr-to-abandon-the-capital-city/IUOMVQLE75EJHD337L7FAEKERA/
Rimmer threatens to bring down the goverment unless his bill to establish his nexus for corruption is passed unmodified.
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Peters and his colleague Shane Jones have floated making changes after the bill returns from select committee and then passing it, as promised in the coalition agreement.
Sniffing a plot to water the bill down before it is passed, Seymour went public this week to remind his partners that the coalition agreement commits them to passing “the” Regulatory Standards Bill, not “a” Regulatory Standards Bill.
What Seymour has said in public is consistent with what had previously been said in private. Sources have confirmed to the Herald that he has made it clear behind the scenes that the Regulatory Standards Bill’s passage is as bottom line as it gets – and he’s willing to walk away from the coalition over it, bringing down the Government and triggering an election.
It won’t come to that (probably) – the polls are too close to risk an election, particularly one triggered by internal instability. But the fact it even needs to be said is an example of how fraught things have become.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/david-seymour-issues-regulations-bill-ultimatum-as-committee-threatens-to-break-parliament-thomas-coughlan/LSOZHGM3YJCVDCGAS63IIVWR4Y/
https://archive.li/Jlsnj
For Seymour to claim the coalition agreement commits to passing "the" RSB, not "a" RSB, "the" RSB would have to have existed at the time of the coalition agreement.
Was this the case?
Exactly!
Seymour claims that the Coalition Agreement gives him carte blanche and freedom to operate as he wishes. At best, this is Seymour’s wishful thinking. Such an ‘MOU’ between National and ACT (and NZ First?) would mean the Coalition’s political decisions circumvent the accepted norms of democratic process and even Parliament (bar getting the Bill over the line at each reading in the House) and that all the ground work, the consultation phase, and now the Select Committee phase are a huge waste of time, effort, and taxpayers’ money, and a complete charade because it’s fait accompli, in Seymour’s mind, the little Wizard from Epsom.
"…Sources have confirmed to the Herald that he has made it clear behind the scenes that the Regulatory Standards Bill’s passage is as bottom line as it gets – and he’s willing to walk away from the coalition over it, bringing down the Government and triggering an election…".
As David Seymour surely enjoys the trappings of power, the constant attention he is receiving and the societal divisions he and his ministers are creating, it seems highly unlikely he would take action to trigger an election. His party has a disproportionate level of power and he won't want to put that at risk.
@ MB^
Apparently so.
Do We Want a Regulatory Standards Act?
by Brian Easton July 13, 2023
The ACT party election manifesto will propose to introduce a Regulatory Standards Act to set a higher bar for new regulation, and test regulations against the key principles of the Regulatory Standards Act.
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/do-we-want-a-regulatory-standards-act
Meanwhile….Kahinist Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's National Security Minister and all weather hate-monger, formalises the West Bank pogrom.
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https://zeteo.com/p/breaking-israeli-settlers-kill-american
Police launched a new West Bank unit composed of Jewish volunteers from the settlements in the territory, law enforcement announced Wednesday night, a move that sparked alarm from rights groups, with some calling it a private militia loyal to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
The quasi-police force — whose stated goal is to provide an “immediate response to terror attacks” until the police and IDF troops arrive — has already equipped over 100 newly minted volunteers with weapons and tactical gear.
The new force alarmed settlement watchdog groups, who warned that the move will only worsen the burgeoning phenomenon of settler attacks against Palestinians. The trend has reached new heights over the past two years, leading many West Bank Palestinians to flee their villages en masse for fear of violence.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-recruit-settlers-for-new-west-bank-civilian-enforcement-squads/