Archive for February, 2009

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  More rushed legislation under urgency - by frog

  
  
  
  Yesterday, the government decided that once again, it was important to run rough shod over parliamentary scrutiny by passing a motion for urgency and introducing new Bills and asking for debate before anyone had even seen the legislation. The Clerk of the House advises that urgency be accorded the introduction and first reading of the [...] read more
  February 11, 2009 1:06 pm - 48 Comments
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  Is the Dunedin Stadium a financial risk? - by Metiria Turei

  
  
  
  While it will never likely get the same kind of press that the Auckland Waterfront Stadium did, It nevertheless raises all the same questions about the transparency of local council and central government involvement in these massive infrastructure projects. I oppose the stadium, and the more I read the more questions I have. Probably the [...] read more
  February 11, 2009 11:12 am - 27 Comments
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  Irish government unveils insulation scheme - by frog

  
  
  
  While our government prevaricates and even cancels our shovel ready Green Homes Insulation fund, the Australians and the Irish have announced ambitious plans of their own. The Irish Times reported today: HOW TO cut heating bills, reduce carbon emissions and create thousands of jobs in the construction sector in the process? The Government, through its [...] read more
  February 10, 2009 5:08 pm - 17 Comments
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  Government tells those on minimum wage to tread water - by frog

  
  
  
  Very conveniently, at 4pm on the eve of parliament re-convening, the government has tried to quietly announce that they will raise the minimum wage by 50 cents, in line with inflation. It’s not good enough, given that the current minimum wage is not a living wage. Our lowest paid citizens, already up to their gunwales [...] read more
  February 9, 2009 4:48 pm - 104 Comments
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  Minister of Discrimination? - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  It was pretty bizarre hearing Rodney Hide, Minister of Local Government, encouraging a business to discriminate against employees who might have impairments. Between Rodney and the builder we heard pretty much all the classic arguments that reinforce negative attitudes towards removing the disabling barriers. In case you missed it, a business was planning to put [...] read more
  February 9, 2009 4:13 pm - 25 Comments
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  Coalergy: Smudge - by frog

  
  
  
  I suppose this could just as well star Gerry Brownlee, the way he goes on about sexy coal and carbon capture and storage…. read more
  February 9, 2009 3:34 pm - 1 Comment
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  Stimulus Reality: Spending creates VASTLY more jobs than tax cuts - by frog

  
  
  
  That is the title of a very thought provoking post over at OpenLeft. The author, Paul Rosenburg, takes data from Moody’s economy.com and combines it with research from the Center for Economic Policy and Research to create the following chart: It lends credence to Treasury’s call for tax cut’s to be delayed or reduced if [...] read more
  February 9, 2009 1:59 pm - 10 Comments
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  Curio Bay submissions close tomorrow - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  For those of you who haven’t seen the proposed Curio Bay dairy conversion, we have a webpage about it here. This is totally the wrong place to introduce industrial dairy – putting effluent, nutrients, and sediment into a Bay which currently has clean water, good surfing, rare Hectors Dolphins, the rarest penguin in the world [...] read more
  February 8, 2009 9:19 pm - 3 Comments
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  Harry Kroto lights up Kim Hill - by frog

  
  
  
  It is not my usual habit to listen to RadioNZ on a Saturday morning, but my host for the long weekend does so. I was rapt to listen to Kim Hill interview Harry Kroto. The Nobel Prize winning chemist talked at length about many issues dear to a Green’s heart, such as nuclear disarmorment, the [...] read more
  February 7, 2009 7:01 pm - 9 Comments
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  Reflections on Waitangi Day - by frog

  
  
  
  There seems to me to be a change of tone, or tenor today compared to Waitangi days past. Lot’s of people are saying that it is a love fest between John Key and the Maori Party, but I think it goes deeper than that. Chris Trotter, in today’s DomPost but not online, suggests that it [...] read more
  February 6, 2009 4:32 pm - 108 Comments
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  Iceland’s Government – Greens to the rescue? - by frog

  
  
  
  Should I be happy? The glass is half full: a fellow Green Party has helped form a coalition government at the national level. The glass is half empty:  it’s in Iceland, a very small country with a very large economic crisis.  Iceland’s financial meltdown is of biblical proportions.  Cue the locusts. And cue the Greens, [...] read more
  February 5, 2009 4:36 pm - 67 Comments
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  ECNZ: gold plated or robust? - by frog

  
  
  
  One of the biggest arguments in favour of our failed electricity market reforms was the assertion that it was run by bureaucrats and engineers, and was thus gold plated. Flowing from that was the assertion that thus, we were paying far too much for our energy and that breaking it all up and letting business [...] read more
  February 5, 2009 10:18 am - 52 Comments
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  RMA reform roundup - by frog

  
  
  
  Yesterday the government announced its proposed reforms for the Resource Management Act (RMA). Personally, I was unimpressed, as it seemed to me that many of the so called reforms were mechanisms that already existed in the current legislation. It looked like a re-branding exercise. Most of the changes were actually tweaks to the existing regime, [...] read more
  February 4, 2009 4:02 pm - 39 Comments
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  Waitakere Hospital leads the way with cloth nappies - by frog

  
  
  
  If I had any young tadpoles myself they’d be wearing cloth nappies. Green MP Catherine Delahunty was thrilled to learn that her new grandson was introduced to cloth nappies from day one and continues to use the Waitakere Hospital’s cloth nappy service. As of this month, last year’s trial becomes a permanent programme at the [...] read more
  February 3, 2009 5:12 pm - 11 Comments
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  Nothern Busway; Success story or not? - by frog

  
  
  
  Auckland’s Northern Busway celebrated its first birthday over the weekend. But you wouldn’t know it. Other than a piece in the North Shore Times talking about free rides on the 1st of February, there has been scarcely a murmur in the press. Why not? The Busway has been an overwhelming success. So overwhelming in fact [...] read more
  February 2, 2009 7:12 pm - 30 Comments
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  Twenty years of pollution - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  NIWA have put out a release summarising the trends from 20 years of monitoring river water quality. The National Rivers Water Quality Network collects data from 77 sites across the country. The dataset they have is the longest and most wide reaching water quality data set in the country. What is shows is not a [...] read more
  February 2, 2009 5:06 pm - 4 Comments
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  National’s two-faced approach to Australian harmonisation - by frog

  
  
  
  I laughed out loud as I read the National Business Review’s article about how keen National is to fast track the development of a single market. Apparently Gerry Brownlee didn’t get the memo, as he has summarily torn up a long standing, well developed standards agreement with Australia in his first few weeks. The article, [...] read more
  February 2, 2009 11:32 am - 25 Comments
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  Waste free year - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  I’ve just been to the party to mark the end of the waste free year for Christchurch couple Matthew and Waveney. You can see their website to track the challenges over the year. It’s quite an achievement to live waste free for a year and Matt and Waveney are to be congratulated. They had a [...] read more
  February 1, 2009 5:40 pm - 12 Comments
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  Waituna Wetland in Southland under threat from industrial dairy - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  As part of my ongoing look into the impact of industrial dairy on Southland, I went to have a look at the Waituna Wetland when I was down there on Thursday and Friday. The world’s first wetland recognised under the 1971 Ramsar Convention to protect wetlands was the Waituna Wetland in Southland – about 20 [...] read more
  February 1, 2009 11:31 am - 10 Comments
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  Mataura River fecal load dangerously high in Gore - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  I wrote on Friday about the current situation in Gore regarding water supplies – ie that industrial dairy has sucked so much water out of the aquifers that Gore is short of water and restrictions are in place. So I thought I would check out the situation with the Mataura River at Gore – after [...] read more
  February 1, 2009 12:15 am - 4 Comments