Archive for April, 2009

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  Dozy bulls bear down on Auckland

  
  
  
  Aucklanders are getting a raw deal when they try to oppose NACTs propose changes proposed to environmental protection laws as reported in Granny Herald today. The problem, say interested groups, is no one contacted them to let them know when or where the hearings were to be held, or when their submissions were scheduled to be [...] read more
  April 30, 2009 5:19 pm - 11 Comments
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  Black Drain Revisited

  
  
  
  The pulp and paper mills of Kawerau are once again applying for a licence to pollute! After 53 years of maintaining a river in a state of semi blackness and invisible degradation they now want to apply for new consents for thirty five years of business as usual. Business as usual in this community means [...] read more
  April 30, 2009 12:11 pm - 16 Comments
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  Jeanette questions Salinger sacking

  
  
  
  By hiding behind the public service rules the minister of Research, Science and Technology has shot himself in the foot. What seemed like the safest path to a new minister may in the end prove the most embarrassing. Tuesday, with my question in the House, I tried to give Wayne Mapp an opportunity to express [...] read more
  April 30, 2009 10:55 am - 33 Comments
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  Salvation Army & Law Commission support rational alcohol laws

  
  
  
  On Tuesday the Salvation Army released their submission to the Sale of Liquor Bill currently before the Justice and Electoral select committee, calling for the bill to be scrapped. They said that the bill simply tinkered with the issues and didn’t deal with the almost complete cultural acceptance of the harm this highly [...] read more
  April 30, 2009 8:30 am - 25 Comments
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  Divine retribution?

  
  
  
  Since we’ve had a few negative posts on developments in Happy Valley recently, here’s one to cheer up those of you who, like me, think coal sux and wetlands are cool. It’s been raining on the Coast - not just cats and dogs but tigers and seals! The rain has apparently caused a massive slip on the Stockton mine [...] read more
  April 30, 2009 7:01 am - 9 Comments
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  New Vikings Now Green Vikings

  
  
  
  We’re baaa-aack! The Green Party in Iceland is back in the business of trying to pick up the pieces. Iceland, the world’s canary in the coalmine of catastrophic economic failure, has just returned the Left Greens to power as Iris Erlingsdottir explains over at Huffington Post: The voters of Iceland decisively repudiated the 18-year rule of the conservative [...] read more
  April 30, 2009 5:57 am - 32 Comments
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  Mt Albert and me

  
  
  
  Tonight I’ve been selected as the Green Party’s candidate for Mt Albert so I thought I should explain to everyone why I’ve decided to stand. Green issues are Auckland issues, and as a Green Party candidate I’ll have the opportunity to stand up for Mt Albert issues in a way that the National and Labour are [...] read more
  April 29, 2009 10:56 pm - 10 Comments
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  The happs in the RMA Select Committee

  
  
  
  After two 12-hour marathon days of submissions, last week and yesterday, it looks like the National-led Government’s attempt to “simplify and streamline” the Resource Management Act – New Zealand’s primary environmental protection law – by removing the “non-complying” consent category is full of holes and sinking fast. Green Co-Leader and MP on the Select Committee, Russel Norman, said [...] read more
  April 29, 2009 5:30 pm - 15 Comments
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  The Mother of All Mergers

  
  
  
  I am going to go out on a limb here. I am going to do something that I rarely ever do, and make a prediction about politics. I predict that in the same way that Ruth Richardson’s Mother of All Budgets was the death knell for Jim Bolger, Rodney Hide’s Mother of All Mergers in Auckland [...] read more
  April 29, 2009 4:56 pm - 28 Comments
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  When is fair fair in the ETS?

  
  
  
  Yesterday’s select committee hearings on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) were a lesson on how to do it. We had invited all the iwi submitters to present in the early afternoon, just as we have grouped other like-minded submitters. But instead of each taking their individual 15 minutes for presentation and questions, they organised themselves [...] read more
  April 29, 2009 2:15 pm - 14 Comments