A Stuff article claims:

The world – particularly the wealthiest and developed nations – has failed to take meaningful action on emissions. Since the release of the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2014, there has been little progress in limiting global emissions. From 2010-2019, average yearly emissions were higher than ever before (producing 17 per cent of all cumulative carbon emissions since 1850).

Let’s look at the data and see if this so called fact stacks up. Here’s the top 10 carbon emitters in 2010, and what has happened since then to 2020:

1. China 8616 to 10667 = +2,051
2. US 5675 to 4712 = -962
3. EU-28 3937 to 2928 = -1,009
4. India 1677 to 2441 = +764
5. Russia 1613 to 1577 = -35
6. Japan 1214 to 1030 = -186
7. South Korea 595 to 597 = +2
8. Iran 569 to 745 = +176
9. Canada 558 to 535 = -23
10. Saudi Arabia 517 to 625 = +108

So this assertion stated as a fact is clearly wrong. In fact the US and EU have reduced their CO2 emissions by 2,000 or so while China and India have increased by 2,700 or so.

And this is why trust in media keeps declining.

Stuff reports:

The Government is being urged to step up its sanctions effort and send lethal military equipment to Ukraine, as Russia is accused of committing war crimes. …

National Party foreign affairs spokesman Brownlee said there was a “mismatch” between the sanctions levelled by the Government and the actions of New Zealand’s traditional partners, a gap which needed to be “urgently” remedied.

He said the vast majority of the 488 Russians sanctioned by the Government so far had only been subject to irrelevant travel bans, and he questioned why the Government had so far only placed sanctions on one Russian bank, Promsvyazbank.

“It’s not even Sberbank, which is the biggest bank in Russia … There’s absolutely no clarity here about what process is being used by MFAT to determine who is an associate of Mr Putin.”

He said the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and European Union had frozen the assets of Russia’s major banks, institutions and individuals, hampering Russia’s ability to finance its war.

Travel bans in response to horrific war crimes. It’s beyond pathethic.

Labour’s promise of 100,000 affordable Kiwibuild houses was their most iconic 2017 policy. How are they doing, nearly halfway through their second term.

They promised that by now they would have built 24,000 houses. They have in fact delivered 1,304 which is 5.4% of what they promised – so they have underdelivered by 94.6%.

Overall they are only 1.3% of the way to the 100,000 they promised.

They told voters that their ability was so awesome that by now they would be building 1,000 Kiwibuild houses each and every month. In the last three months they have built 8 Kiwibuild houses vs the 3,000 they promised.

Shane Reti released:

The botched $20 million measles vaccine catch-up programme is worse than it appears, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“The other week it was revealed that $8 million of measles vaccines were left unused and had expired.

The level of waste in this Government is unbelievable.

“However, information shows that only 11,206 people of the targeted 300,000 received the vaccine – representing a cost of nearly $1900 per person and reaching only 3 per cent of the targeted population.

They spent $20 million and ended up vaccinating just 3% of unvaccinated people for an average cost of almost $2,000 each.

“It was also revealed that Labour spent $1.8 million on public relations to frame a campaign ‘with a particular focus on Māori and Pacific people’, yet only 1181 Māori received the vaccine – a PR cost of $1,500 per person.

“Worse still, to date the programme costs show that $2.2 million has been spent on public relations while only $1.61 million was spent on actually delivering the vaccine to Māori.

Sums up the Government – all spin, no delivery.

Stuff reports:

With that in mind, she said the council’s new preferred model was one with three Māori ward seats, three general ward seats and four at large seats – 3-3-4.

It allowed voters on both wards the same number of seats to influence and equalised the number of Māori ward and general ward seats.

However, the model was unlawful under the Local Electoral Act as the law has a strict formula that limits the number of Māori ward seats based on population sizes.

There were 21,700 people on the Māori roll and 55,600 people on the general roll in Rotorua, her report said.

So we now have this in the open. The Rotorua Council no longer believes in one person one vote. It believes that if you are not Maori, you should get only get 40% of a vote. They think 22,000 people should get the same number of ward Councillors as 56,000 people – because those 22,000 people have the right ancestors.

Their model breaks the law around equality of votes, but hey lets just change the law.

Rotorua-based Labour list MP Tāmati Coffey is the bill’s sponsor. It seeks an exemption from the Local Electoral Act’s requirements preventing the 3-3-4 model.

So a Labour MP is introducing a bill so the vote of non-Maori will be just 40% of those of Maori in Rotorua. Welcome to our future.

Jerry Coyne reports that 70 Fellows of the Royal Society have filed an effective motion of no confidence in the Academy Executive and Council of the (NZ) Royal Society. They state:

The Fellows, listed below as cosignatories, wish to express their deep concern about what has been happening within the Royal Society of New Zealand over the last year, by moving and seconding the motions below for discussion at the at the 56th hui ā-tau o Ngā Ahurei Annual Fellowship on 28th April.

Many of us have lost confidence in the current Academy Executive and Council, whose actions seemingly have brought the society into disrepute, shutting down useful debate and bringing international opprobrium from leading scientists. We are further concerned about the lack of agency that Fellows have following the many restructures of the Society over the last several years, and the spending of fellowship fees to cover lawyers’ costs and, presumably, public relations consultants to defend the Society’s very poor processes and actions.

In particular:

1. We believe that the content of the initial statement posted by the RSTA on its website in August 2021 about the controversy generated following the Listener letter on the relationship between mātauranga Māori and Science was ill-conceived, hasty and inaccurate in large part.

2. We are appalled at the mishandling of the formation of the initial committee set up by RSTA to investigate the complaint, the length of the process, and the handling of the publication of the outcome, which suggests both that the RSTA cannot decide whether mātauranga Māori is or is not Science, and impugned the integrity of two eminent Fellows.

No less than 70 Fellows have signed the letter. Incredibly brave of them. Also many others support the motions, but are (understandably) too scared to say so publicly:

Sadly several other Fellows have also indicated they will vote in favour,  but because of the potential harassment and bullying they believe they would receive (from some current and former members of the Academy and the RSNZ Council, and from colleagues in senior and other positions within their University), they do not wish to disclose their names in this document, especially if it becomes public.  Many younger Fellows and others have said (again in writing) that their jobs would be at risk signing this letter.  Two Fellows (major RSNZ Medalists) said this: “Better not (sign) at this stage – … I agree with all the statements – but you can’t imagine the pressure being put on us. I will vote for the motion though.”, and “In confidence I am disillusioned with RSNZ and I am too scared to sign anything for fear of what may happen to me at UoA if I do so”.  This is a startling indictment of the situation in the research community in NZ at the moment, and of the way in which the RSNZ handled and exacerbated the controversy over the letter to the Listener.

It is good to see this push back against cancel culture where top scientists faced disciplinary expulsion from the Royal Society because they dared to defend science.

There has been much mocking of this claimed e-mail, as it is such an obvious fake written by parliamentary staff.

First of all the MP forgot to delete one of rent/mortgage. You are paying one or the other.

Secondly spelling out what toiletries are in e-mail to an MP is the second sign it is fake, and an obvious rehash of a talking point memo.

Thirdly it swaps from first to third person and the list of items it may help with is far too long.

Finally the Thank You Labour! is so sycophantic that only a party staffer or activist would have written it.

What shocks me isn’t that Labour MPs are so insecure that they feel the need to tweet fake letters to make themselves feel better. It is that the fake e-mail is so badly done. A third former could do a better fake letter.

Barry Soper writes:

What’s happening to democracy in this country, let alone the promised transparency of this Government?

Labour is abusing its absolute power and it seems those opposing it are powerless to do anything about it because majority rules.

A couple of weeks ago National wanted Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to appear before the Justice Select Committee to answer questions about the three-week occupation of Parliament’s grounds by protesters.

The Labour majority of MPs on the committee blocked their request, arguing the Independent Police Conduct Authority was the “appropriate place for the review of police operational activities”.

The IPCA this week complained they are overloaded with work. Not surprising considering close to 2000 complaints have been lodged against the police by the protesters.

And by any logical reasoning that’s not the body that should be inquiring into the protest anyway.

The request by parliamentary security to the police to remove the first tents erected is unlikely to be covered by the IPCA and neither is the actions of Speaker Trevor Mallard who many believe exacerbated the situation by turning sprinklers on the occupiers and blaring the worst music he could find at them.

So not only won’t Labour agree to an independent inquiry into what happened and how, they won’t even allow a select committee to talk to the Police about it.

And if featherbedding Andrew Coster isn’t bad enough, get a load of what they are doing when it comes to questions being asked about its $1.9 billion spend on mental health which has come under fire from the Government’s own Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.

The majority of Labour MPs on the Health Select Committee have blocked National’s attempt to ask questions about the commission’s first damning report.

National’s mental health spokesman Matt Doocey says it’s bizarre. Not long ago they legislated to set up the commission, and now they’re blocking MPs to ask questions of it.

They care so much about mental health they don’t want MPs to be able to talk to the Mental Health Commission about their damning report.

This goes beyond simply controlling the message. Like they say, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Only 18 months to go!

Stuff reports:

A French family is waiting to hear if they can remain in New Zealand after being told their business didn’t perform as expected during the pandemic.

Last month Julien Debord, his wife Sophie and their two young children were told by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) that they wouldn’t get visas because their business, Cafe Tennyson, hadn’t met revenue and staff targets set before the pandemic.

How ridiculous. They face being deported because during a period where the entire country was locked down and businesses were unable to open, their case didn’t meet pre-pandemic revenue targets!

The Herald reports:

The National Party will shortly declare millions of dollars of donations from some of the biggest names in New Zealand business.

The list of donors includes New Zealand’s wealthiest man, Graeme Hart, as well as Murray Bolton, and Nick Mowbray, who each chipped in $250,000.

The donation drive is actually the work of one of the biggest names in the National Party, former deputy prime minister and former deputy leader of National, Paula Bennett, who has been rattling the tin for National over the past three weeks as a volunteer.

Isn’t that amazing? Paula, as a volunteer, managed to raise $1.8 million in three weeks.

Tina Morrison at Stuff writes:

Frustrated with useless software that didn’t allow efficient sharing of financial data, two Kiwis revolutionalised accounting around the world by creating Xero, a Wellington startup now worth $15 billion.

Xero is not only the most successful new company in New Zealand, but possibly Australasia also.

With just 100 customers under their belt, many of them Edwards’ clients, and 27 staff, Xero succeeded in raising $15m selling shares at $1 each to smaller investors to fund their expansion for the next three years.

I was one of them, and it was the best financial decision I have made by a wide margin. Last year I sold some Xero shares for A$150 which cost me NZ$1.

I invested in the company on the basis of belief in Rod Drury. I knew his record, but I was also lucky that I knew Rod himself.

Otago University Associate Professor of Accountancy and Finance Helen Roberts says Xero has revolutionised financial accounting.

“It’s been one of those golden start-ups,” she says. “It’s brought financial accounting functionality into the operating space of all small and medium-sized businesses worldwide.”

She says the transformation in accounting is incredible. Small business owners who used to bundle up their bits of paper together and ship them off to the accountant every six to 12 months, and then wait four or five weeks for a set of financial statements to be prepared that they could discuss with their accountant now have real time access to their daily, weekly or monthly revenues at their fingertips.

“You don’t have this pressure to keep paper records any more,” she says. “It allows owners to have a better understanding of how their firm is doing and make good strategic management decisions because of that information being so readily available to them.

“It makes managing the business much more efficient when you don’t have all this stress on recording and reporting information.”

I am also a customer and fully endorse this. I used to hate the hours and hours I would have to spend on the monthly accounts. Now it takes just minutes.

ACT said last week:

“National and Labour’s deal to stick it to ‘NIMBYs’ and allow three three-storey homes on every residential section will change the face of our cities without building more homes,” says ACT Deputy Leader and Housing spokesperson Brooke van Velden.

“Council documents obtained by the Weekend Herald show nearly a third of Auckland’s historic villas and bungalows “could be flattened for high-density housing.”

“The ACT Party wants more homes to be built in New Zealand. We want people to have access to warm, dry, affordable homes so that all New Zealanders feel like they can have a future in this country.

“While we know that there is a problem in housing, National and Labour’s housing deal was not the solution. It won’t deliver the houses that it promised to a generation.

“That’s because it focused on changing our planning laws when we know it’s not the planning laws that are the issue.

I know that no party is always ideologically consistent, but one of the things I have liked about ACT is they generally are. But it is depressing to see a classically liberal party argue against a law change that gives greater rights to property owners to develop their own land. Sure I understand David Seymour is MP for Epsom, but ACT should stand for more than Epsom.

ACT said “we know it’s not the planning laws that are the issue.”

Well let’s look at what ACT said in 2019:

“Fundamental changes to our planning rules are long overdue. The 900-page RMA is the single biggest obstacle to housing affordability in New Zealand.

ACT correctly said that planning rules were the biggest obstacle to housing affordability in 2019. Now they argue that planning laws are not even an issue!

ACT are right that the Government needs to do more than just change the planning laws, and also change infrastructure funding. But that doesn’t mean that the RMA changes are not also incredibly necessary.

They should stop campaigning against property rights of home owners.

Newshub reports:

Before landing on the lottery as their chosen system, internal briefings obtained by Newshub show officials tried to develop a waitlist or automated booking system but found it would cost several million dollars and take several months and “the most difficult part” was “creating clear rules… to determine who is eligible”.

A simple waitlist system would not take months to develop. There are already huge number of booking systems out there for accommodation providers.

Ultimately though, they went with a lottery system, or as Newshub can reveal, a lolly scramble. Documents from a workshop show the system’s architects using the analogy of “lollies at a party” to describe the scenario of thousands of New Zealanders trying to get home.

“We used to have enough lollies for everyone… Now there’s sugar supply issues… Suddenly we get a lolly, so we drop it on the floor and everyone dives at it” which means “attendees think our party is terrible”.

Rachel Bradley described it as “disgusting”.

Hipkins also wasn’t impressed. 

“It didn’t come to me, and had it come to me, I would have objected at the time,” Hipkins said. “Ultimately, I think it was inappropriate.”

But that is exactly what they did implement – the online equivalent of a lolly scramble.

Newshub reports:

Labour MP Helen White has shared her concerns about “an increase in gang activity” just days after Police Minister Poto Williams denied a rise in gang violence. 

White, who unsuccessfully ran for the Auckland Central electorate in 2020 against the Green Party’s winner Chlöe Swarbrick, was elected to Parliament on Labour’s list due to its massive 50 percent of the party vote. 

Writing for the NZ Herald on Friday, White shared her concerns about how Auckland Central was once “a city full of international students and tourists” but “now we are faced with an increase in gang activity in the city”. 

The Police Minister denying a rise in gang violence is about as credible as Russia claiming they are achieving their goals in Ukraine.

Stuff reports:

An Auckland man found guilty of threatening to kill Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her family has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.

Michael Christopher Cruickshank previously denied sending three emails on January 21, 2020 having already sent 89 emails between October 2019 and January 2020.

Court documents said the emails amounted to harassment and to “cause Jacinda Ardern to fear for her safety (or) the safety of her family”.

On Thursday at the Auckland District Court, Judge Brooke Gibson sentenced Cruickshank to 12 months imprisonment.

Good. We should have zero tolerance for death threats against MPs.

In a dramatic announcement today, TVNZ issued a Press Release stating that they will be pulling the Six O’Clock News in it’s current format, to be replaced by more popular programmes such as Married at First Sight (MAFS).

Head of programming at TVNZ, Jane Wilson, was upbeat, stating that the merger with RNZ was going to bring with it earth shattering changes to the media landscape. “The advent of the Internet, blog sites, and citizen journalism, meant that news is available as it happens, every second of the day. The Six O’Clock news is now ‘old news'”, she said. “We must move with the times, and to maintain our advertising revenue, we will move to more entertaining formats at that time of the day to ensure our future going ahead.”

In another shock announcement, Simon Dallow will leave TVNZ at the end of this month, to pursue his legal career again. It was expected that the merger of RNZ and TVNZ would see a massive restructure of staffing, and he said that it was appropriate to leave while at the top of his career as a journalist.

Dallow as not available for further comment, and neither were TV3, who it is understood, were considering a similar move.

Sent in by a reader:

Adernity

noun

ader·ni·ty | \ u-ˈdər-nə-tē  \

1: the quality or state of being seemingly unable to make a decision (or captains call)

2: infinite time lasting throughout multiple focus groups and cabinet meetings

3: the state of presiding over the slow death of hospitality and tourism

4: a seemingly endless or immeasurable series of bureaucratic of delays

Transmission Gully is now open, 103 years after it was first proposed by the Otaki MP in 1919. After decades and decades of Governments that did almost nothing about it, Steven Joyce made it happen, announcing it in December 2009. Thank you Steven.

Every election I can recall (so 1975 to 2008) local candidates and MPs talked about Transmission Gully and how they wanted it to happen. The previous Labour Government approved a route for it, but no money for it (which is a very Labour thing to do). It was Steven Joyce and the Key Cabinet who actually funded it, and without funding a road is a just a piece of paper.

Honourable mention should also go to Peter Dunne who pushed tirelessly for both Labour and National Governments to make it happen.

The cost is around 20% more than the original quote, but to be honest that isn’t too bad as construction projects go. Consider the Town Hall refurbishment that was meant to be $46 million and ended up as $150 million.

This means we now have four lanes from The Terrace Tunnel to Pekapeka, and soon to Otaki. This will make a huge difference, On a two lane road traffic moves at the speed of the slowest car. On a four lane road, traffic flows closer to the speed limit. And no more huge queues as traffic merges into one lane.

The road also provides greater resilience for Wellington in case of earthquake. And it makes life more pleasant for residents of Pukerua Bay and other coastal suburbs who will have less traffic flowing through.

Now we just need to sort out the Terrace Tunnel, the Basin Reserve and the Mt Vic tunnel and we’ll finally have what is so badly needed – four lanes from the airport to Otaki.