The strange HoS editorial:

Consumers of tomatoes, which means almost all of us, are about to face a test of our trust in science. The tomato bins in shops and supermarkets will soon be replenished with stock imported from Australia and, as we disclose today, it will have been decontaminated by radiation.

Oh, no radiation. The same killer force which is used in microwaves, cellphones, and also exists in the environment.

Irradiation was hotly debated in this country more than 10 years ago, when our regulator of food standards, a joint authority for Australia and New Zealand, rejected 1000 submissions against the process and declared it safe.

Science won over hysteria.

Since then, the only irradiated fresh fruit and vegetables approved for sale here have been mangos, papaya and lychees. Lovely as they are, those tropical fruits are not exactly standard consumer items. They are not tomatoes.

Oh, so is there some science the HoS knows of which suggests irradiation has a different impact on tomatoes than mangos? On mangos, it has no harmful effect, but maybe on tomatoes it causes them to mutate and grow feet??

Irradiation does not sit well with New Zealand’s attitude to nuclear physics in other applications, especially weapons, ship engines and electric power stations.

What a stupid thing to say. It is not nuclear physics. The only thing in common is they both involve radiation – which includes x-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet light, radio waves, microwaves,

I like some of the comments on the editorial:

Sorry, but almost any processed food (tins, jars etc) passes through at least one beam of radiation these days. Many flow gauges monitoring density of product being piped around factories use a radioactive source. Scaremongering by Kiwi growers methinks.

“Gamma Radiation”? Like what we get everyday from Microwave Ovens, Light Bulbs, & the SUN???
Fear-mongering at it’s worst IMAO.

You can either trust science or be irrational.
The overwhelming consensus of the scientific community is that irradiation produces safe and nutritious food. The World Health Organization and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, and the International Atomic Energy Agency accept the safety and usefulness of food irradiation. The process is also endorsed by the American Medical Association, the Scientific Committee of the European Union, and the American Spice Trade Association among others.

Much ado about nothing. I was a principal partner in California’s first wholesale distributor and retail chain of organic foods and we imported irradiated organically grown mangoes, papayas and pineapples from Hawaii. It’s the residues from pesticides we should be worrying about.

Good to see some people will call bullshit on the nonsense.

The Herald asks the main Ikaroa-Rawhiti candidates for their views on some issues:

Meka Whaitiri: Until we have some sound research that says [mining] doesn’t have any environmental impact, I can’t support that.
Marama Davidson: Ban it! Risky off-shore drilling, mining and fracking are all industries we want to get away from. Today we are releasing a package of green jobs for Ikaroa-Rawhiti that don’t ruin our environment.
Na Raihania: I am absolutely opposed to mining and drilling our Mother Earth. And this idea it will provide jobs for everybody is stretching it.
Te Hamua Nikora: As far as mining goes, we say frack off. No thank you.

So all four candidates want the entire mining and oil industry in New Zealand closed down, putting close to ten thousand people out of work and knocking more than two billion dollars off NZ’s GDP.

Biggest issue in the electorate
Meka Whaitiri: Jobs.
Marama Davidson: Jobs and protecting the environment and wanting jobs that don’t ruin the environment.
Na Raihania: Mortality rates are high, education … but employment, I guess, and our social status.
Te Hamua Nikora: Poverty, stemming from unemployment, and a lot of health issues coming from poverty and poor housing.

So in one sentence they all say they are against all mining, fracking, drilling and in the next they all says jobs and unemployment is the major issue. Idiots, all of them.

The Press reports:

Online polls have offered few clues to the early favourite in Christchurch’s mayoral race.

Incumbent Bob Parker and outgoing Labour MP Lianne Dalziel are locked in a head-to-head battle to lead a new-look city council from October.

Three unscientific surveys have given conflicting pointers to ratepayers’ preferred candidate.

Of course they have. That is because they are unscientific. How is this newsworthy? This is like saying that the astrology forecast in The Press and the Dominion Post differed this week, and writing a story about it.

Late last week, The Press emailed a survey to 1700 readers asking them whether they would vote for Dalziel or Parker if they had to immediately cast a vote.

Some 597 readers responded and 377 (63 per cent) said they would support Dalziel, while 149 (25 per cent) said they would support Parker.

The remaining 71 readers (12 per cent) said they would support neither candidate.

A readers survey is perhaps the least worst unscientific survey. The sample is not representative, but people can only vote once and had to be pre-registered.

A running press.co.nz poll with more than 11,000 votes has Parker leading on 50.5 per cent and Dalziel well back on 38.8 per cent.

This sort of poll is akin to astrology – worthless. People can vote multiple times if they want to, and candidates e-mail their supporters encouraging them to vote. These polls are entertainment, not a scientific poll.

Political forecasting website iPredict suggests Parker has a 65 per cent probability of retaining the job, and Dalziel a 37 per cent chance of claiming it.

iPredict has a good track record, but the fuel for it tends to be public scientific polls. In the absence of such, people are investing in a vacuum.

Polls in the last local body election had Parker lagging well behind his opponent, Jim Anderton, throughout most of the campaign but on election day he walked away the victor, with a nearly 17,000-vote majority.

Umm, probably relevant to mention the earthquake that occurred! All those polls were prior to the earthquake.

I only discovered Down the List today as I do not normally listen to Radio NZ on weekends.

If this week’s episode is typical, it is well worth listening to. Involves two Labour List MPs talking about what is going wrong.

Otago Uni have announced:

Critical developments and issues in the Pacific will be closely scrutinised at next weekend’sUniversity of Otago Foreign Policy School, which is gathering leading academics, diplomats, politicians and development experts for a weekend that promises insightful presentations and fruitful debate.

Former Fijian Prime Minister Major-General Sitiveni Rabuka is among several speakers who will address the current Fiji Coup, the prospects for a successful return to democracy and what the wider implications for the region may be.

Other national and international experts will focus on themes including the US and China’s growing engagement with the Pacific, the uphill struggle the region faces in meeting millennium development goals, and the emergence of sub-regional groupings such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group that are challenging traditional voices such as the Pacific Islands Forum.

This year’s School, which runs from Friday 28 June to Sunday 30 June at St Margaret’s College, Dunedin, is co-directed by Associate Professor Jenny Bryant-Tokalau (School of Maori, Pacific & Indigenous Studies) and Dr Iati Iati (Department of Politics).

The OFPS often has several interesting stories emerge from them. Well worth attending if you are in Dunedin and interested in foreign affairs.

Jody O’Callaghan at Stuff reports:

Meanwhile, teacher unions have launched a campaign to boycott the trial of a computerised national standards assessment tool.

This is a tool designed to mitigate the very issue that some critics of national standards have complained about – inconsistent moderation. A computerised tool to guide teachers (not force, it just suggests where a student is at) seems like a no brainer.

It could be used to introduce performance pay that could see teachers paid according to their pupils’ achievement levels.

So this is what is really motivating them? They will boycott a tool that will improve assessment of pupils, purely because it could be used one day to introduce performance pay.

Is that not the most selfish thing you’ve seen?

Matthew Hooton writes at NBR:

In the 1960s and ’70s, Norway’s mainly left-wing governments decided to make their country of four million rich.  In 1963, they asserted sovereign rights to North Sea natural resources; exploration began in the mid-’60s; a state-owned petroleum company, Statoil, was launched in 1972; and the profits, taxes and royalties later put into the government’s petroleum fund, set up in 1990.

The fund is now worth approximately NZ$860 billion, or around $172,000 per Norwegian.  By 2030, it is forecast to be worth as much as NZ$4 trillion, or around $800,000 per Norwegian, and exists primarily to pay generous superannuation.

Meanwhile, Statoil has evolved into a classic mixed-ownership model company, with the government owning two thirds and the remainder trading on the Oslo and New York stock exchanges.  It is now the world’s 38^th largest public company with a market value of NZ$98 billion and profits of $15.6 billion.  This is more than the entire NZX.

The thinking behind Norway’s approach is that a country’s natural reserves are intergenerational property, they are worth nothing under the ground, and the industries are inherently unsustainable: eventually, even if far in the future, the field will run dry.

The best strategy, therefore, is to get it out of the ground as soon as possible, monetise it, but avoid an economic sugar rush by investing the money for future generations.

As opposed to the competing strategy of never ever dig anything up or drill for anything.

Oil is already New Zealand’s fourth largest export earner, after dairy, meat and wood. The government collects around $400 million in royalties each year, plus another $300 million in company tax.  The present value of future royalty income alone, just from known reserves, is an estimated $3.2 billion.

Relatively conservative MBIE studies suggest that, if exploration continues to grow at current rates, royalties could yield another $5.3 billion in present value terms.  If there is faster growth in exploration, the estimate is $9.5 billion.

Even that may be conservative.  It has been suggested the value of our offshore oil reserves could be in the trillions.  Solid Energy isn’t a very good precedent right now, but New Zealand could choose the Norwegian Statoil model to secure that wealth.

Currently, oil royalties just go into the consolidated fund, to pay for everything from welfare payments to Wellington arts festivals.

The risk Mr Weake identifies is that, if large oil deposits were found, the temptation for a government would be to put the money into something to help it through the next election.  He argues we should establish cross-party agreement now on what we would do with that wealth.

He is surely right.  God knows what decisions a desperate John Key and Bill English would make – let alone a desperate David Shearer and Russel Norman – if we struck oil in the lead up to a close 2017 re-election campaign.

I am sure Russel Norman would refuse to spend any money earnt from dirty oil!

So here’s some friendly advice to the minister: have a chat with Mr Weake and his industry colleagues, take a trip to Oslo and the North Sea, face down the crypto-anarcho-neosyndicalist Greens, achieve consensus with Labour, and get New Zealand’s equivalent of Norway’s oil fund and even Statoil up and running before the election.

One could call it Kiwioil!

Vernon Small at Stuff reports:

Ngai Tahu manager James Caygill, the son of former Labour finance minister David Caygill, has thrown his hat in the ring for the Christchurch East seat and in the process taken a swipe at his main rival.

Caygill, 35, yesterday confirmed he would seek Labour’s nomination for the seat to be left vacant by Christchurch mayoral hopeful Lianne Dalziel, saying he represented “renewal” for the party – a clear comparison with list MP Clayton Cosgrove who is tipped to stand but has so far refused to confirm or deny that.

 

Cosgrove, who lost the Waimakariri seat to National’s Kate Wilkinson in 2011, is seen as to the right of Labour and his election would clear the way for the next candidate on its party list, Northland-based Kelvin Davis, to return to Parliament.

 

Caygill yesterday described himself as “reasonably Left-wing”. He was the chair of the environment sector and “you won’t find me disagreeing with our stances on social policy or individual rights or the fact that we need to build a more sustainable economy”.

“Clayton’s a sitting MP and a senior frontbench MP. No-one could dream that counts as renewal. He’s a senior MP and he deserves his shot if that’s what he wants to do but I don’t think he would run under a banner of renewal.”

Caygill said if he won the nomination he would step down from his role as a senior manager with Ngai Tahu where he is responsible for environmental policy work, regional economic development, education policy, research and development and the iwi’s savings scheme.

NY Times reports:

A working group assigned by the Federal Aviation Administration to research the use of electronics on airplanes is expected to recommend relaxing the ban on portable devices during takeoff and landing.

But the group has postponed its final report until September, two months after its original deadline.

The group is expected to endorse permitting a wider use of devices during takeoff and landing, including tablets and smartphones used only for data, said a member of the panel, who declined to be named because members are not permitted to speak publicly about internal discussions. Talking on cellphones will still be prohibited during all phases of flight, the person said. These recommendations are outlined in a draft document that the panel member has seen.

News of the draft document was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.The panel hopes to allow “gate-to-gate” use of electronics, the person said, meaning devices could be left on in a limited “airplane mode” from the moment the gate door closes on the tarmac until the plane arrives at the gate of its destination.

This is long overdue. An iPad in flight mode (ie no wireless, mobile or bluetooth) can not interfere with flight devices, anymore than a hearing aid could.

Personally I’m even dubious that they can interfere if in non-flight mode, but one battle at a time.

I used my iPad on flights to read books. It is frustrating that you have to stop reading for up to a third of the flight due to these silly rules.

Stuff reports:

Christian schools say it’s hardly surprising they think students should have a burping contest instead of having sex.

Christian Schools Australia CEO Steve O’Doherty says horse riding, eating something new, blowing bubbles and playing ball without the ball are all better options than doing the deed.

They were among a “101 things to do instead of doing it” pamphlet which was recently given to out to students at Caloundra Christian College in Queensland.

I’m all for burping contests, but I don’t think most people see them as a substitute for sex. You could however combined them with sex, but best to make sure all parties agree first 🙂

SOME SUGGESTIONS A QUEENSLAND CHRISTIAN SCHOOL GAVE STUDENTS TO DO INSTEAD OF SEX:     

*Blow bubbles in the park

*Pretend you’re six again

*Look at clouds and see what you can make them into

*Surprise your parents by cleaning the house

*Have a water fight

*Go fruit picking

*Go to Macca’s in formals

*Make lunch for the elderly

*Share a drink with two straws

*Visit the RSPCA

*Have a burping contest

If I was a student at a school that gave me this, I think we’d turn it into a challenge to see how many of them can be done (barring the 2nd one)  at the same time as sex. I could just see students ticking them all off to see who can do all 101.

The HoS reports:

Former shock jock Michael Laws – once an MP and mayor of Wanganui – is thought to be considering a rerun for his old mayoral job.

A source told the Herald on SundayLaws has been sending more emails recently about civic affairs.

Laws was weighing up the position, but would not announce he was standing until the last minute, the source said.

“It certainly wouldn’t surprise me.”

Well that will liven things up if he does stand.

The HoS reports:

Horticulture NZ chief executive Peter Silcock says irradiated food is a concern for consumers.

“The primary concern is what impact has radiation had on the product and what impact will it have on my body when I eat it.”

No it isn’t a concern. What is concerning is Horticulture NZ trying to use science as a cover for protectionism.

Australian sterilisation and decontamination company Steritech said it would treat New Zealand consignments.

“Tomatoes and capsicums will be treated, in accordance with specified standards which produce food that is safe and nutritious, in Steritech’s Narangba facility in Queensland,” said chief executive Murray Lynch. Irradiation was a safe, non-invasive alternative to methyl bromide and other chemicals used post-harvest, he said. Some irradiated tropical Australian fruit, including mango, papaya and lychees, is already sold in New Zealand.

I’m going to make it a point of principle to buy Australian tomatoes, so as to not reward NZ growers for their scare-mongering.

They are using the same tactics Australian orchardists used to block NZ apples for scores of years. We fought against that and should be better than that.

NZ and Australian tomatoes should compete on taste, quality and price. Not on scare-mongering.

Stuff reports:

The range of services New Zealanders can access online is set to expand dramatically with the launch of a new Government-backed identity verification scheme that could let people get a mortgage and exchange contracts on properties without ever leaving their couch.

The RealMe service is due to be rolled out to businesses like banks next month and proponents say the benefits for consumers could be huge.

The Government is also investigating initiatives like allowing travellers to fill out departure cards online before leaving the country.

That would be good. Such a hassle to do at the airport when you just want to get through as quickly as possible.

The service builds on the iGovt identity verification service, which aims to let users log into a range of government websites with a single username and password.

From July, businesses will be able to sign up, and users will prove their identity using the same user name and password.

The advantage for users is the high level of security – a code will be texted to their mobile phone every time their RealMe identity is used.

The advantage to businesses like banks is that it provides a higher level of identity verification than is currently available because of the hook up with the government.

Sounds a useful service.

Sent in by a reader!

Chris Trotter writes:

“Why has Russel Norman abandoned the Greens attempt to legitimate QE as a sensible means of stimulating the New Zealand economy?”  

With this thoroughly retrograde decision, Russel has brought to a needless and sudden halt his near faultless eighteen month performance as the Opposition’s most astute economic critic of the National Government.  

By abandoning QE, Russel has also deprived himself, the Greens, and any sort of useful ‘Centre-Left’ coalition government, of one of the very few means of mobilising the indigenous capital resources necessary to fund the job-rich, socially-just and “green” economic development New Zealand needs.  

Both the Greens’ and Labour’s promises: to put New Zealanders back to work; on a living wage; in clean, green and innovative export industries; while guaranteeing them and their families an affordable home; effective health services; and a progressive, child-centred education system; can only be achieved at the cost of billions of NZ dollars-worth of new state spending.  

What Chris Trotter is saying is that the policies of Labour and Greens are unaffordable, unless you printed more money to pay for them.

Russel’s QE proposal: Requiring the Reserve Bank to purchase government issued Earthquake Recovery Bonds to a sum equivalent to 1 percent of GDP (approximately $NZ2 billion) to both assist the Canterbury rebuild and bring down the value of the punishingly over-valued NZ Dollar; was one of the very few practical and non-inflationary funding options available to an incoming progressive government. By taking it off the table, what Russel is really telling us is that the Greens’ and Labour’s promises can no longer be paid for.   –

Trotter is right that their promises can no longer be paid for. What he is absolutely wrong on is saying QE is non-inflationary.

The Greens have always made it a point of political honour to be absolutely straight with the New Zealand electorate. If they intend to keep faith with that tradition, then their co-leader and chief economic policy spokesperson needs to step forward now and admit that, with QE off the agenda, the Greens’ promise to give New Zealand a clean, green and innovative economy can no longer by paid for and, therefore, will no longer be included in the Greens’ 2014 Manifesto. And, while he’s at it, Russel should also foreswear any ambition to be Minister of Finance in a Labour-Green government.  

I doubt they will do either. They’ll just hope the public don’t care of promises are affordable or not.

NZ Herald quiz here.

The Government Administration Committee has reported back the Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Services) Bill which was to transfer some expense decisions away from the Speaker to the independent remuneration Authority, which is a good thing.

The Herald reports the major changes:

A committee of MPs has recommended tougher financial penalties for themselves and their colleagues when they are away from Parliament without leave.

But MPs on the Government Administration Committee say decisions about MPs’ travel perks should remain with Parliament’s Speaker while the Remuneration Authority should decide on the level of their accommodation allowances.

The Government’s Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Services) Bill – drafted in response to the regular public anger over MPs’ remuneration – lifted the penalty for MPs absent without leave for more than nine days each year to about $270 a day from the current $10.

However, the committee has recommended that the penalty kicks in after just three days and is effectively increased by setting it at 0.2 per cent of the individual MP’s gross salary.

That works out to $289 a day for a backbench MP, $525 a day for Crown Ministers and the leader of the Opposition and $838 a day for the Prime Minister.

That is much better.

While the Prime Minister, other ministers and MPs are frequently away from Parliament on sitting days, they generally have a leave of absence. New rules setting out the criteria under which MPs are deemed to be absent without leave will be formulated by parties in consultation with the Speaker.

Hone may not end up getting paid much! He’s almost never there.

I’m disappointed however that the committee did not take up (or even mention) my proposal that MPs remuneration should only be reviewed every three years, with any changes to take place after an election. This would have avoided the public backlash around MPs getting pay rises, as no MP would get a pay rise during their term of Parliament. So when they get a backlash at the next pay increase, well they’ll have no one but themselves to blame.

Martin van Beynen at The Press reports:

Get ready to pick up the tab for an $11 million insurance mistake by Christchurch City Council.

The error arose when council staff failed to insure the new $21m composting plant in Bromley when it opened in 2009.

An investigation by The Press into council’s insurance shortcomings has confirmed ratepayers will pick up the tab for the plant’s repair as no government subsidy is available.

The problem comes to light as a raft of insurance difficulties with council assets emerge, including questions over crucial valuations.

General manager corporate services Paul Anderson said the mistake was a “straightforward clerical error in my team so I’m responsible for that”.

The plant was insured while it was built but it was omitted from a schedule of completed assets.

“My team didn’t pick it up; our brokers didn’t pick it up,” Anderson said.

Asked whether disciplinary action was taken against the staff members responsible, he said the “insurance team” was now “not the same as it was at the time”.

So no one will be held accountable. Hey its only $11 million.

NIWA report:

• NIWA has been measuring wave height from a buoy two kilometres off Baring Head, Wellington, since 1995. Last night’s waves are the largest seen in that record.
• Last night, the highest waves measured were typically 15 metres, from peak to trough, for the period around midnight last night.
• Anecdotal information records the wave height at the time of the Wahine disaster at 12 to 14 metres.

Now I understand how the wall at Island Bay was destroyed.

• These measurement show that last night’s storm is in the same category as five other major storms recorded in 1961, 1965, 1967, 1974, 1977 and 1985.
• The maximum 10 minute average, sustained wind reading during the Wahine disaster was measured at 144 km/hour and stand out by far as the strongest in the 50 years of the record.
• So this was an extreme event, but still not as intense as the Wahine storm.

But not as windy as Wahine.

• The largest snow storm on record in the central South Island was registered in 1973.
• Snow depth recorded by NIWA staff at Methven yesterday was 99mm compared with 610mm snow depth measured in 1973.
• At Lake Tekapo, the snow depth of 600mm measured yesterday was similar to the 670mm measured in 1973.
• The snow depth recorded on the inland road near Waiau yesterday was 229mm, slightly more than the 161mm recorded last year.

And still some way to goon the snow front.

Lianne Dalziel has confirmed on Twitter that she will resign as an MP before the results of the Mayoral election are known.

This is the right thing to do, and Lianne deserves credit for that call.

She says she wants to have the by-election as far away as the Council election as possible. She could achieve that by resigning immediately and having a by-election in August. Of course that means no salary and no parliamentary resources (such as phones) while campaigning, so I suspect she is not keen on that option.

The local elections have the votes counted 12 October 2013. So let’s assume Lianne resigns on 11 October 2013.

This means the Governor-General must issue the by-election write by Friday 2 November 2013. the writ must be returned within 50 days which is 22 December 2013.

You need to allow 11 days for special votes, 3 working days for a recount application and estimate 3 days for a recount, so really the election day must be at least 17 days before 22 December, so the latest possible date for the by-election would be Saturday 30 November.

If Dalziel resigns on 11 October, then the earliest day would be Saturday 9 November for the by-election. Every week earlier she resigns then that week could move earlier.

I’m hoping for any date except Saturday 30 November, as I’ll be tramping that weekend, so out of cellphone and Internet coeverage!

I blogged previously on the Green party policy to ban all television advertising of food, unless they deem that food to be part of a balanced nutritious diet.

A reader has sent me a list of the top 50 TV advertisers in 2012. They include the companies below. It is a fair bet that if the Greens get to implement this policy in Government that it won’t just be Mediaworks in receivership, but also TVNZ. It would destroy free to air broadcasting as it is funded by advertising. It would be good for Sky TV though!

The top 50 TV advertisers include:

• Foodstuffs (1)
• Progressive (2)
• McDonalds (11)
• Restaurant Brands (21)
• Antares Restaurant Group (23)
• Coke (28)
• Sanitarium (38)
• Cadbury (39)
• DB (44)
• Lion Nathan (45)
• Fonterra (46)
• Subway (49)

How many of them will meet the Green Party litmus test to allow them to advertise on TV?