This chart from The Facts shows how coal imports have almost quadrupled under Labour.

Maybe banning new natural gas exploration was a bad idea?

Nick Smith announced:

I appointed Rohan O’Neill-Stevens as my deputy. It is a deliberate decision to build a more united council by appointing a Councillor of a different political persuasion and generation. Rohan shares my ambition for a more collegial Council, has a sharp mind and good understanding of Council processes. The combination of experience and pragmatism with youth and idealism will be good for Nelson.

This moved surprised some as Rohan stood against Nick for Mayor (was a credible 3rd), is only 22 and his politics are on the left.

But Nick has shown great sense with the appointment, as people want their Councils to work together, despite having some different philosophies.

I think it stands in contrast to Wellington where new Mayor Tory Whanau could have united the Council by appointing an experienced Councillor such as Nicola Young as Deputy Mayor, but instead she chose a relatively new Green Party Councillor in Laurie Foon.

The Herald reports:

One of New Zealand horse racing’s biggest names has been left stunned after being turned down by Starship Children’s Hospital for a free charity partnership to the tune of more than half a million dollars.

Mark Chittick is the owner of the thoroughbred nursery Waikato Stud and also owns the majority of 4-year-old galloper I Wish I Win, even though the horse now races in Australia.

I Wish I Win won the A$10 million Golden Eagle race at Rosehill in Sydney on Saturday and the race came with a A$520,000 ($570,000) donation to a charity of the winning owner’s choice.

Cambridge-based Chittick wanted to donate that money to Starship but was turned down last week before the race was run. …

“They rang me back an hour later and declined. They were really polite about it but said they didn’t want to take money associated with racing or gambling.

“I couldn’t believe it and now that is A$520,000 which will never come to New Zealand and help Kiwi kids.”

What an appalling decision.

Do they turn down money from Lotto?

This isn’t about sponsorship or partnership – simply a donation.

Kids at Starship will be penalised due to this decision. It is putting ideology over patients.

UPDATE: They now claim they don’t have a policy against accepting such donations and they just didn’t have enough time to say yes to it. Sounds like spin to me, after realising how badly this reflects on them.

Stuff reports:

An attempt by Inland Revenue to make Halloween a chance to teach children about tax by taking away a third of their treats has been criticised as mean-spirited.

The tax department’s Tweet was deleted and Inland Revenue apologised.

“Gearing up for Halloween?” the post began.

“Fun Fact: Parenting trends like a lollies tax teach kids responsibility by taking some of their lollies and taxing their trick-or-treat haul.

“The tax can be as much as one-third of the lollies ‘earned’ on Halloween. Will you be celebrating?”

This was in fact a brilliant idea.

If you want to have a generation of New Zealanders grow up hating taxation, then yes parents should tell all their kids they are confiscating a third of their candy as tax. The Taxpayers’ Union would have to set up a new membership category for pre-schoolers and students.

Stuff reports:

Health Minister Andrew Little was ambushed by Tertiary Education Union (TEU) members, including his party’s own newly announced candidate for Hamilton West, at the University of Waikato on Wednesday morning.

Instead of an innocuous ministerial announcement lauding a spending package aimed at bettering students’ mental health, Minister Little was met with cries of: “We lament your 2%! 2% won’t pay the rent!”

Also in attendance was a member of the Labour Party’s own – Georgie Dansey.

The party’s candidate in the upcoming Hamilton West by-election, was seen alongside union members, sporting a TEU pin.

She left after being approached by Stuff.

Dansey was announced only the day before as the party’s candidate to take on expelled member Gaurav Sharma next month.

So let’s see if we have this right.

On Tuesday she was selected as the Labour Party candidate to go out there and sell what a great job Labour is doing.

And on Wednesday she takes part in a stealth protest ambush against one of her own Ministers.

When do we stop laughing? 🙂

I count Mike King as a good friend. He has spoken a number of times in schools I have been associated with and is always brilliant. The kids recognise the message and the person as TREASURE. He lifted some of our students out of trauma that we had not seen.

His message is carried by his remarkable humour. Three years back we were both speaking at a conference with around 400 guests – mostly adults involved in education. Two things struck me; firstly I was deeply grateful to have spoken before Mike – following his act would be a nightmare. Secondly – although this was an education conference about better teaching/learning – Mike spoke to the adults about their mental-health. Sixty minutes of laughing, crying and changed lives.

Two years ago we hosted Mike in the Bay of Islands for three events. Again – simply brilliant.

For all of this government’s (including the MoH) failures – their treatment of Mike King and therefore 1000s of needy young people is the worst I know of. Especially disgusting with all of the need over the last three years. National/ACT should be declaring far and wide a huge commitment to assist Mike’s work.

Here is the link to the Gumboot Friday event. It is this Friday but you can donate anytime – plus do Gumboots at work on Friday.

Here is Mike talking on The Rock earlier this week. You need to know how bad things are – and the appalling behaviour of the bureaucrats. It is a tough watch.

The Gumboot Friday organisation works with 1000s of kids with their trained counsellors. They need your help and I can guarantee it will be the most effective donation you have ever made.

Claire Trevett writes:

As Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gazed around Shackleton’s hut in Antarctic on Thursday and reflected on Ernest Shackleton’s leadership style, she quipped: “I don’t think I can quite compare government with the hardship and endurance of Antarctic exploration. But some days …”

It was only half a joke.

On the same day Ardern was reflecting on her childhood hero, Shackleton, the man who poses the greatest risk to ending those days in government was reflecting on his own apparent childhood hero – Ronald McDonald.

National’s leader, Christopher Luxon, popped into the Merivale McDonald’s where he had worked at a school student.

After slapping mustard onto some buns and pouring a soft-serve, he waxed lyrical about the value of a first job at McDonalds and what it had taught him. …

None of this fazed National at all. The point of the Maccas visit was to highlight to people that Luxon came from humble-ish beginnings and worked his way up from when he was 15.

I think one of the best things you can do for kids is to have them do part-time work while at school. It teaches the value of work, thrift and saving. While at intermediate school I did a paper run (sometimes three), and then at age 14 worked nights and Saturday mornings at Woolworths.

The Luxon photo op, to me, worked well as that reminder of him coming from relatively humble beginnings, and it contrasted well with Ardern being in Antarctica (which I have no problem with, but the timing during a cost of living crisis is unfortunate).

A great graphic showing how terrible Labour are at delivering. My only criticism is that it is too generous to Labour as I would say there is a 0.001% chance construction on Auckland Light Rail would begin in 2026.

National announced:

On Sunday, local National Party members will select a candidate from the following shortlist:

Rachel Afeaki-Taumoepeau Frances Hughes Tama Potaka

This will be a damn hard choice, from three great candidates.

Rachel is one of the leading Pacific businesswomen in New Zealand having chaired the NZ Tonga Business Council and taken up governance roles with many businesses and organisations.

Frances is globally recognised as a leader in health. She has been the CEO of the International Nursing Council and is the current  Group General Manager Clinical and Care services for a major healthcare provider.

Tama is the CEO of an Iwi, has been an investment advisor at the NZ Super Fund and the former head of corporate services for Tainui.

I don’t know who will win, but I hope the two who don’t make it look at other seats, and/or the party list.

Stuff reports:

Nearly 600​ people have applied to access assisted dying since it was made legal in New Zealand late last year, and 214​ have been assisted to die.

Dying is sad, but I am very pleased that we now allow those with a terminal illness who are suffering to choose to end things on their terms.

Stuff reports:

Auckland’s mayor Wayne Brown has teamed up with his Christchurch counterpart to try to launch a new version of the Government’s proposed Three Waters reforms.

Brown and Christchurch’s Phil Mauger have gained the backing of Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon, and are seeking further support for how local body water supply operations should be reformed.

A key feature of their plan for Regional Water Organisations (RWO) is that they would be owned and governed by the participating councils, and not by a co-governance body, as in the Government plan.

The new plan would allow regions to decide how big their new entities would be, rather than the four regional entities proposed nationwide.

This is similar to what I have mooted:

• Regulator sets standards for water companies
• Councils decide between themselves the boundaries for each (possibly the Govt could set a minimum population size of say 500,000)
• Councils own (not fake own) and appoint boards of water companies

“The new proposal would maintain crucial aspects of central government’s existing plan, including the new water regulator, Taumata Arowai, while maintaining local ownership, control and accountability and allowing for meaningful roles for mana whenua,” the two mayors said in a statement.

A meaningful role is good. Control is not good. Control must be through democratic accountability.

National announced:

David MacLeod (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Porou) has been selected by local party members as National’s New Plymouth candidate for the 2023 General Election.

Mr MacLeod owns and runs Linepower, a Taranaki electricity network maintenance business. He served on the Taranaki Regional Council, including as Chair since 2007, until stepping down at this year’s local elections.

So he is a small business owner and has a successful electoral record in Taranaki, having won eight elections. He’s also been a director of Fonterra and Port Taranaki and was appointed by the current Minister of Conservation to chair Predator Free NZ earlier this year.

He is an incredibly substantive candidate.

Please feel free to chip in. Would love your ideas.

With a change of government looking increasing likely the Labour/Green government is really starting to ramp up their cancel list.

Latest manifestations of such.

a) Significant achievement for low decile, Maori and Pasifika students has been banned. This has been demonstrated by the huge slump in NCEA/UE statistics in he last three years, completely ineffectively policies to have more than 22% of decile 1 students fully attending, teaching and learning programmes that see decile 1 students passing basic writing tests at 2%.

b) Regulating alcohol (not entirely bad) while wanting free-play on other drugs.

c) Free and robust speech.

I am sure there is more to come so I thought I would create my top ten list (respect to Letterman).

10. Across the world golfers with handicaps less that 24 should be banned from all pro tournaments. Weekend hackers, like me, need their chance, and experts like Ryan Fox have had the opportunity of hitting many more golf balls in practice and that isn’t fair. He has been far too dedicated.

9. Pedestrian crossings must go. As far as I know there are no road user charges for pedestrians. They are effectively trespassing. We could hugely reduce congestion in our cities by insisting pedestrians simply have to take their chances (and improve their fitness and skills sets). There could be flow on positives from this – e.g. less need for retirement saving, housing….

8. The Daily Blog must go. I go there once a day and read what Bomber Bradbury (and others) have to say. At times it is appalling – he is arguing for robust debate, he is challenging the woke orthodoxy, he even makes occasional economic sense and insists people should be talking. Appalling.

7. Similarly Chris Trotter. What on earth is he doing? He holds traditional Labour values and clearly cares for the needy. And yet he believes deeply in free speech and the qualities this should bring to a 2022 society. Weird. A one way ticket to Ukraine (with a sawn off spud-gun) needed.

6. The “River of Filth”. Sure anyone, even tangentially connected to the Wellington protests, need to know that they should purchase cheap rubber boats and paddle for South America. When someone like the highly esteemed Michael Wood (Minister of Potholes and Ridiculous Train Transport), who publicly declares his Christian faith calls you “filth” it must be clear that he has adjudicated that even Jesus would not stand up for you. Time to paddle.

5. Any political party who lack so much creativity that they can only call themselves after a colour. The Greens have to go. The precedent has too much risk. A Purple party for re-incarnated royalty? An Orange party for Dutch immigrants? A Red party for people with orange hair? A Yellow party for nervous people? There is no end to this. It must be cancelled.

4. Fitness and exercise must be removed from society in all ways. It those trends deeply caught on they would render much of the health system as superfluous. Also, if you are overweight (as I currently am) it is simply embarrassing that other people have not been so slovenly. Shame on them. Cancelled or shot – not sure which.

3. Reading and other broad intellectual pursuits need to be removed from society – along with any form of critical thinking and the probing asking of questions (such should be criminal for media -if it isn’t already). There is no way in the world our coming generations should be able to think for themselves – bowing at the “podium of truth” is an exemplary practice. Can you imagine how awful it would be for one of our “investigative journalists” or “explainers” to ask a politician or a bureaucrat for a “reference”? I always ask Year 7 – 10 children for references but it would be appalling to ask privileged/resources adults for the same.

2. All satirists and comedians MUST be banned and their legacy performances removed. My list so far is – Dave Chappell, Norm MacDonald, Ricky Gervais, John Clarke, Stephen Fry, John Gadsby & David McPhail, Bill Burr, Mike King, Robin Williams, Joe Rogan, Billy T. James. They are often “inappropriate” and that is enough for me. Norm MacDonald even lampooned teachers – “how dare he??!!”

1. Government must go. The very great Douglas Adams summed it up so superbly.

“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

(Darn it – I forget to add in EV’s, hybrids, cubes, and anything that takes an hour to get to 100km, chews up heavy metals, and requires massive amounts of coal fire electricity.)

Stuff reports:

Stats NZ says it doesn’t have the funding or resources to provide monthly inflation figures, after the Reserve Bank and a top accounting body said more frequent reporting could help ensure interest rates were set at the right level.

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (Caanz) said the Reserve Bank would be less likely to make a mistake by setting interest rates higher or lower than was necessary if it had more regular information on how inflation was tracking.

In this era of high inflation, we should be reporting more frequently than quarterly.

Vial said there could be a lag of up to about five months between a swing in inflation occurring and the Reserve Bank resetting interest rates after that was picked up in Stats NZ’s quarterly statistics.

That lag would be greatest if the swing began at the start of a quarter and there was long gap between Stats NZ reporting it and the Reserve Bank’s next scheduled OCR review.

The Government could stop wasting money in other areas and give some more money to Stats NZ so we get monthly inflation stats.

The Herald reports:

National has announced its candidate to compete in Christchurch’s Ilam electorate as it seeks to win back the previously long-held blue seat it lost in the red tidal wave of 2020.

Dr Hamish Campbell, a medical researcher, was selected today by local party delegates from a shortlist of five contenders.

The Ilam electorate was established in 1996 and held by National MP Gerry Brownlee until the 2020 election when he lost to Labour’s Sarah Pallett.

Brownlee announced in August he would go list only at the 2023 election, giving a strong indication he wants to be Speaker should National win in 2023.

Given that history of support for National in the electorate, it was a popular choice for candidates, and Campbell was up against James Christmas, Dale Stephens, Tracy Summerfield and Vanessa Weenink.

That is a great line up of candidates, and it says much about Hamish that he managed to win the nomination in such a quality field.

I know Hamish and he will be a great MP, if he wins Ilam (which is likely).

He has a PhD in molecular biology and has been the deputy head of research for Multiple Sclerosis Australia.

The Herald reports:

After years of debate over whether New Zealand should have a law more explicitly banning hate speech, the Government is on the verge of announcing legislation.

That’s a “promise”, according to Justice Minister Kiri Allan, who also told TVNZ’s Q+A today that she is taking a hard look at New Zealand’s often-criticised name suppression laws.

“I will be making announcements on hate speech by the end of this year,” the MP said as she briefly addressed the issue during her first appearance on the current affairs programme since taking over the justice portfolio in June.

“I guarantee that I’ll be introducing a law that I intend to have concluded and put into law by the next election.”

So there we have it. The Government will change the law next year to criminalise more speech.

If implemented, I have no doubt that it will be used to report numerous people on the center right to the Police on the grounds that their views on race or gender constitutes hate speech. They already try to get people banned from campuses for having non-woke views and sacked by employers, and now they will have an extra weapon with the Police.

To fight against this, join the Free Speech Union today. It is the only trade union in NZ that defends free speech, and it will lead the fight against the so called hate speech law.

Science Focus reports:

Do coal-fired power stations produce radioactive waste?

Yes – and the waste contributes far more radiation to the environment than nuclear power stations. The radioactivity comes from the trace amounts of uranium and thorium contained in coal. These elements have been trapped in the Earth’s crust since its formation and are usually in concentrations too low to pose any serious threat. But the burning of coal produces fly ash, a material in which the uranium and thorium are much more concentrated.

The exact amounts depend on the source of the coal, but are usually in the range of a few parts per million. That might not sound a lot until you realise that a typical gigawatt-capacity coal power station burns several million tonnes of coal per year. That means every such station creates fly ash containing around 5-10 tonnes of uranium and thorium each year. Multiply that by the number of such stations worldwide and the total amount of radioactive waste produced is truly astonishing.

According to estimates by the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the world’s coal-fired power stations currently generate waste containing around 5,000 tonnes of uranium and 15,000 tonnes of thorium. Collectively, that’s over 100 times more radiation dumped into the environment than that released by nuclear power stations.

True environmentalists would be embracing nuclear power.

Hannah Pick-Goslar has died aged 93.

Why this is noticeable is she was a close friend of Anne Frank. The Holocaust seems so very distant, but it is a reminder we still have survivors with us.

Her death made me reflect how Anne may have lived another 80 years if she had survived the Holocaust.

AP reports:

The husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was attacked and severely beaten with a hammer by an assailant who broke into the couple’s San Francisco home early Friday, searching for the Democratic leader and shouting, “Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?”

The assault on the 82-year-old Paul Pelosi injected new uneasiness into the nation’s already toxic political climate, just 11 days before the midterm elections.

Attacks on politicians are bad enough, but attacking the 82 year old spouse of a politician in a home invasion is terrifying and chilling,