TVNZ reports:

But the apology comes after years of calls from the a brave group of teenage Polynesians, called the Pacific Panthers, who got together at the time to fight the injustices they were experiencing.

So what was it like growing up at as a Pacific person at that time?

“I think [it was] horrific for the children and for the parents to be attacked like that at that time of the morning, that time of the night with no warning,” Ness said.

“I would liken it to what happened to the Jewish people in the Nazi era, yeah, it’s like that. So here in New Zealand, and we’re living like that, it reminds me also of what it would be like in South Africa during the apartheid era because we’ve seen a lot of the coverage from what happened there.”

Comparing the deportation of illegal overstayers to the Holocaust is at best highly insensitive and at worst trivialising genocide.

Norm Kirk may not have been a great Prime Minister, but we can all agree that comparing him to Hitler is ludicrous.

This shows the amount of coal used for electricity since 1999. The 2021 data is for April 2020 to March 2021.

We are actually importing record amounts of coal. In 2017 we only imported 550,000 tonnes. In the last 12 months it was around 1.4 million tonnes. I wonder what happened that meant we had to start importing so much coal?

Had a look at the latest Covid-19 vaccination data. We are now officially last in the OECD with just 10% vaccinated six months after the vaccine became available.

Australia is double us at 20%, US at 52%, UK at 61% and Canada at 63%. Even Mexico is double us at 20%.

There has been fierce competition for the most woke statement of 2021, but I am confident in proclaiming we have a winner, even with six months to go.

The School Strike 4 Climate Auckland have announced they are disbanding because they are racist.

This is a feat of woke purity that reminds me of The Life of Brian with the Judean People’s Front.

Some aspects of their statement that make them the winner for 2021 include:

• Declaring they have been a racist space
• They need to decolonise themselves
• The repeated use of the US term BIPOC
• Their failure to pay reparations to BIPOC groups
• Their declaration that all future climate change groups must be BIPOC led and any Pakeha led groups should be discouraged

This is a level of self-flagellation that can’t be beat.

HDPA writes:

Of course ordinary voters were going to hate the Boomer Bike Bridge to Birkenhead. You’d struggle to find a project that does a better job of screaming “middle class indulgence” to people struggling to make ends meet.

When you’re stuck in congestion for close to two hours driving into the city from Pōkeno every morning because that’s the only place you could afford to buy a house, that bridge looks like an indulgence.

When the median price of a house in your suburb is $875,000, you are going to resent paying for a bridge that connects Takapuna to Herne Bay with its $3m median price.

When you’re in one of the 170,000 cars on the Harbour Bridge each day and the Government won’t build another harbour crossing for cars to free up congestion, you are going to be pissy at it building a bridge for 3000 cyclists a day to use.

The boomer bike bridge will no doubt end up costing around a billion dollars, as we know costs always come in well above budget.

It may be used by 3,000 cyclists so that is around $300,000 per cyclist they’ll be wasting taxpayers money on.

When you’re in Ashburton and you’ve been begging for a second bridge for years so that your town doesn’t get cut in half like it did last week during the rain storms, you are going to resent being told no, while the Government spends 21 times that money on a luxury bike lane.

It really is insulting.

Stuff reports:

Kiwis will pay roughly a $3000 penalty for their favourite utes from 2022 under new government rules, the Automobile Association (AA) says.

The penalty under the Clean Car Discount package will apply to the likes of the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger – two of the top selling cars – and will come into effect in January 2022.

AA national policy manager Simon Douglas said the penalty would occur at the point vehicles were first registered in New Zealand, whether they were second-hand cars that had been imported or new cars.

The new penalty was questioned by Motor Trade Association (MTA) strategy manager Greig Epps, who said we could end up with “country folk who need larger vehicles paying penalties that fund discounts for city folk to use on a low emission run-about”.

Labour’s $3,000 car tax will hit many families hard.

And it won’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one iota. We have a cap and trade system and transport is part of that. Even if this policy does accelerate the uptake of electric cars, then those emissions quotas will be used in other sectors.

David Boot, owner of Christchurch’s EV City, said the rebate would not be the best thing for the EV industry in New Zealand long term.

The money would just end up in Japan or other countries where EVs were imported from.

People selling the cars in the offshore markets would know the New Zealand Government was paying a rebate and that combined with a big increase in demand caused by the rebate would push the price up, Boot said.

Importers were going to be put under pressure to buy as many EVs as possible and they would all be competing against each other.

“It will not be me making the extra money. It will be the Japanese.”

This is very possible. It’s like when they increased student allowances by $50 a week and surprise surprise rents in university cities went up by $50 a week.

So NZ families may end up paying $3,000 more for a car and that money will go to Japanese car makers!

Newshub reports:

The Government approved a policy at BP petrol stations allowing beneficiaries to misuse their Work and Income (WINZ) Payment Cards to buy cigarettes, Lotto tickets and other banned items, Newshub can reveal.

Under Ministry of Social Development (MSD) rules, WINZ cards can only be used to buy approved items like food, petrol or clothing, while purchases of alcohol, cigarettes, vouchers, Lotto tickets and electronics are expressly prohibited.

But Newshub has learned the MSD signed off on a BP policy in December 2019 that lets beneficiaries buy items they hadn’t been approved for.

So MSD has a rule but agreed not to enforce it!

Stuff reports:

Many have also expressed frustration at a lack of consultation on the film. International reports said They Are Us had been developed in consultation with the mosques affected by the attacks; the film’s New Zealand producer, Philippa Campbell​, told Stuff she couldn’t give any detail on the consultation “out of respect for the people with whom we’ve consulted”.

Considering almost everyone involved has said they do not know anyone who was consulted, one has to take the claim of consultation with a grain of salt.

NIYA is also calling on the prime minister to “strongly denounce the film and make it clear that the New Zealand Government will not provide any support to enable it to go ahead”.

Ardern saidon Friday that her office had had no involvement with the film, with Campbell confirming she had not been consulted.

But the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) said it understood the production “does intend to apply for the New Zealand Screen Production Grant (NZSPG)”.

So that will be $6 million of taxpayer money which will go on the Divus Jacinda film.

During the 2017 – 2020 term Hon. Nikki Kaye had a Bill drawn from the ballot. It was called: Education (Strengthening Second Language Learning in Primary and Intermediate Schools) Amendment Bill.

“A bill that would have required all primary and intermediate schools to offer second language tuition from among 10 priority languages has been torpedoed by Labour despite the party originally supporting the bill.

The Labour-led parliamentary committee examining the bill, originally proposed by ex-National MP Nikki Kaye, oppose making 10 languages a priority. It says that te reo Māori and sign language should be the priority languages because they are both official languages.”

That KILL BILL article was published on the 3^rd of June.

Here is what the Minister for Pacific Peoples (Sio) said on the 8^th of June:

“If you look to Europe, some European countries have policies where students have the right to be taught in the language of their choosing.

You look at Europe and the way they value languages. They are some of the wealthiest countries. In Asia, they recognise bilingualism and multilingualism as a competitive edge in the economy. So, for us, this is so fundamental.”

Clearly, he either disagrees with his Prime Minister, Minister of Education and Labour’s Maori caucus … or has missed the latest memo. His comment is highly accurate though – for improving our academics – language learning is imperative. His party has been stupid and very short-sighted.

Unfortunately for Sio his accuracy stopped there as he showed the classic “soft prejudice of low expectations”. He praised Pacific youth as being:

“a new generation that are proudly brown, beautiful, brainy, bi-lingual, bi-cultural and bold.”

They could be that. We are seeing exactly that within our Villa Education Trust schools. But praising a NZ wide situation where Pacific students are 30% behind UE for Asian students in Year 13 cohorts and 47% behind Asian students at UE for school leavers can only mean he thinks that situation is not only acceptable but a great achievement!

Neither group has “white privilege” so surely our Minister for Pacific Peoples NEEDS to have much higher hopes, expectations and aspirations for the youth under his oversight?

Mike Kardley writes:

By any measure, it’s a big fat fail grade.

The Christchurch City Council’s annual residents survey has plumbed new depths on the organisation’s performance, with just 49 per cent of surveyed residents satisfied with the services delivered by the council.

The entire residents survey programme involved gauging the sentiments of more than 6100 people.

Unsurprisingly, the standard of our roads was the dissatisfaction king, outranking water supply woes and concerns about the council’s decision-making and financial management.

The state of the roads adjoining recently rolled-out cycleways serve as a striking metaphor for the entrenched mood of discontent. Rutland St and Antigua St are star exhibits. How is it acceptable that the cycleway is a velvety smooth carpet of asphalt, while the general roadway remains a rutted, dishevelled patchwork quilt of rough and ready repairs? Motorists feel like they’re being contemptuously treated by a rabidly anti-car council.

The left seem to have a view that that the way to get more people onto public transport isn’t to improve public transport but to make driving on roads as horrible as possible.

On the centre-right, Cr James Gough has long harboured ambitions of pursuing the top job, but with another baby on the way, the growing demands of fatherhood may well kick into touch his mayoral pursuits until later in the decade.

That would leave the path clear for Cr Phil Mauger, who would be a formidable flag-bearer for the centre-right. He’s not ideologically enslaved, but a proven pragmatist.

Given his enormous admiration on the east side of Christchurch for getting things done, Mauger’s mayoral pulling power has huge potential to transcend the traditional West/East voter battle lines.

His earthy, grassroots appeal is a potent attribute, as are his business smarts and demonstrable disdain for red tape’s strangulating impact on communities, impelling him to undertake his own repairs to roads and footpaths.

I like Mauger. After the Council did nothing to stop flooding on a street for ten years, he went and dug a trench for the residents to stop the flooding. The Council of course filled the trench in as it was unauthorised.

Stuff reports:

Auckland dairies are selling cut-price cigarettes imported and distributed by gangs as part of a vast and growing tobacco black market.

By increasing the taxation on tobacco to such high levels, successive Governments have succeeded in giving the gangs an additional income stream to complement P.

A smattering of dairies across the city, particularly in the east and south, are embroiled in the illicit trade.

Along with legal, taxed tobacco, they’re also offering packets of Asian-origin cigarettes to customers in the know, distinctive because they lack the plain packaging mandated by law in New Zealand.

What’s interesting about the black market is all three segments of it are booming. They are:

• Theft: Every week a dairy gets robbed of cigarettes by organised crime
• Illegal Imports: There are container loads of cigarettes being illegally imported by gangs and others
• Local Growers: A boom in local growers who are selling on the black market

What these all have in common is no excise tax is paid on them. and no health warnings.

It is understood the dairy would likely have bought the packets for about $17 each, giving a margin of $5 profit per pack sold, compared to the margin of about $1-$2 made from legal cigarettes.

Gangs take less of a cut than the Government! The tax take is around $24 and gangs are wholesaling for $17.

Customs investigations manager Bruce Berry does not mince words when asked about the state of the tobacco black market.

“Yes, the scale … of the illicit tobacco market appears to be growing, and yes, there are common drivers to that.”

The size and sophistication of the market has increased dramatically in recent years, driven in part by skyrocketing cigarette prices thanks to rising taxes.

The tax increases worked up until they reached a level when they didn’t. They went that little bit too high, and the black market expanded massively.

Stuff reports:

Members of Christchurch’s Muslim community were “blindsided” by news of an upcoming film about the aftermath of the 2019 mosque attacks.

Aya Al-Umari​, whose brother, Hussein​, was among the 51 people killed in the attacks on March 15, 2019, said she learned about the film on Twitter.

”I was surprised, to be honest,” she said.

“Without knowing the context of the movie I’m not sure I can put a positive spin to it. It seems like it’s just capitalising on what happened here and I don’t think it will be well received in New Zealand.”

The film, entitled They Are Us, is being billed as an “inspirational story about the young leader’s response to the tragic events” that will follow Jacinda Ardern as she helped rally the government and the New Zealand public behind a message of compassion and unity in the weeks following the attacks.

It will be directed, and was written, by Kiwi Andrew Niccol​ (Gattaca), who, according to The Hollywood Reporter, developed the script “in consultation with several members of the mosques affected by the tragedy”.

Al-Umari said nobody in her circle had been consulted, and she had not heard of the production approaching anyone at all.

”Given the statement did say that it was in consultation with several members of the mosque tragedy [families], I would have expected to know.”

Tony Green, a member of the An-Nur mosque​ who acted as a media spokesperson for the Muslim Association of Canterbury after the attacks, said he was also unaware of any consultation and had spoken with at least one family member of a March 15 victim who was angered by news of the project.

The Prime Minister has distanced herself from the film, telling Stuff neither she nor the Government had any involvement with the production, but Mire said that wasn’t good enough.

He called on her to denounce the film.

“I understand the Prime Minister can’t control who decides to depict her or write about her, but what she can do is speak out and say this is insensitive and in her view not appropriate,” he said. “To be silent indicates that she herself is comfortable with this sort of movie.”

There are two issues here. The first is whether any sort of film at all is appropriate, and the second is whether the focus should be on Jacinda, rather than the victims or those who confronted the terrorist at the risk of their own lives.

But they have already cast Rose Byrne as Jacinda. Byrne played a handmaiden to Padme in Attack of the Clones and was the voice of Jemima Puddle-Duck in Peter Rabbot.

Josh Cameron writes at Conservative Home:

For free trade advocates who have chaffed as the UK stood mired in the bog of EU protectionism, witnessing the ‘sprint to the finish’ for trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand is a thrilling experience.

While both antipodean nations have used the decades since they lost meaningful access to the British market to carve out remarkable export opportunities elsewhere, it will still be welcome to see the UK reopen door.

It is that history that makes the feverish opposition from the UK’s most recent proponents of ‘Project Fear’ – the National Farmers Union and their political outriders – so aggravating. With a flair for melodramatic self-pity that could rival Prince Harry in an Oprah interview, the NFU and chums have spent the post-referendum years churning out predictions of doom as they attempt to stop the UK’s agricultural sector facing any new domestic competition.

Love the Prince Harry comparison!

The British public has been told that trade deals with Australia and New Zealand will lead to agricultural Armageddon. Emotive claims predict food security catastrophes, a countryside of factory farms, increased farmer suicides, the end of ‘Wales being Wales’ and, most recently, the UK’s landscape being turned into a new Australian outback.

No reasonable observer could believe that increasing imports of antipodean protein from ‘tiny’ to ‘incredibly small’ could turn the Lake District into a desert or cause Wales to disappear. The main impact of these claims is to fuel the belief that the British agricultural sector is headed into a period of terminal, if managed, decline. This needn’t be the case.

The worst part of the NFU’s ‘Project Fear’ isn’t the denigration of antipodean agriculture or the entitled disregard for the interests of the British consumer. It is their complete lack of faith in their own member’s ability to adapt and thrive in a globally competitive market.

NZ farmers are the living proof that you thrive when you don’t have subsidies and tarriff barriers.

A great valedictory from Nick Smith that reminded us how substantive his contribution to New Zealand has been. Some extracts:

One of my first duties as a 25-year-old MP was attending the Waimea College prize-giving, where I was dutifully asked to present the academic awards. All miked up, I made the standard congratulatory comments as each student crossed the stage: “Well done. Good effort.” It started to feel tedious, so I changed my message: “What uni are you thinking of attending?” I asked an attractive young woman, “What are you doing after school?” Quick as a flash and loud enough for everyone to hear, she responded, “It depends what you had in mind, young man.” I have since kept my congrats to the safe and boring in the hundred or so prize-givings I’ve attended since.

Heh classic. I can imagine how red faced Nick went, which reminds me of another story I heard about Nick being rather embarrassed while doing official duties. This is second hand but based on my recollection of being told when it happened.

In the late 1990s as Minister of Corrections, Nick of course visited all the prisons, including Paremoremo. He was accompanied by one of his staffers, a young woman. After the main tour, it was time to visit the notorious D Block. The prison warden suggested to the staffer she not come along for this part. She asked why not and would it be unsafe. The warden assured them it was physically safe, but that the prisoners would yell out some uncouth things, especially as some may not have seen a woman in there for years.

The staffer asserted she was a professional and would accompany the Minister, as she could handle any verbal slings. So they went in and sure enough the prisoners howled and catcalled and yelled out all sorts of profanities. Mostly it all became background noise. But they got to one section where there was an extremely extremely large prisoner who yelled out very loudly something along the lines of “Would you look at the arse on that, I’d love to stick my c**k up there”. The warden turned to the staffer and apologised for the comment, noting he did warn her that such things might be said.

The prisoner then yelled out again, very loudly, “I’m not talking about her, I’m talking about the Minister” and at this the entire D Block burst into howls of laughter while the Minister turned very bright red!

Anyway back to the valedictory.

I’ve subsequently been involved in creating 17 marine reserves around New Zealand in special places like Kaikōura, Akaroa, Punakaiki, and the sub-Antarctic. I am disappointed the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, covering an area twice the landmass of New Zealand and 10 percent of our ocean, has not progressed. The commercial fishing there is negligible. The history of customary fishing is minimal. This is about New Zealand—Māori and Pākehā stepping up and doing our bit globally to better care for the world’s oceans. My original Government bill got through to the second reading stage and then, post-Election 2017, transferred to Minister Parker but has since gone nowhere. I created a further member’s bill for the sanctuary that I’ll pass on to Scott Simpson. I urge progress on either or both bills.

The Kermadecs Sanctuary should be created without further delay. It is a no brainer.

I’ve introduced 50 bills to this Parliament, and 45 have passed. Two members’ bills I’m particularly proud of are the Royal Society of New Zealand Act and the Chartered Professional Engineers of New Zealand Act. Science and technology are key to improving productivity and our environment.

Few other MPs could claim to have had 45 bills passed.

I also want to challenge this Parliament, and particularly the Greens, on their reversion to biotechnology. The GE-free campaign was a con. None of the scary scenarios predicted 20 years ago have occurred. Our outdated laws are holding back opportunities for innovation on climate change and pests and weed control and also in health treatment.

Absolutely. They should follow the science, which is beyond dispute that it is safe.

There is an issue I got wrong. In 2013, I voted against gay marriage. The error is all the more personal, with my 20-year-old son being gay. I want to put on the record today my apology to New Zealand’s LGBT+ community. I pay tribute to Louisa Wall, Fran Wilde, and Amy Adams for their leadership that has improved the lives of my son and thousands of other New Zealanders. I also acknowledge Jenny Shipley’s courage as the first PM to attend a gay pride parade in 1999.

Nice personal touch.

The year I was born, he founded a small construction company. Learning to drive heavy trucks, bulldozers, and cranes was just part of my teenage life. I’m proud of the nationwide contribution my siblings have made to our nation’s infrastructure in each of their businesses, with projects like the wind turbines at Scott Base, the Arthur’s Pass viaduct, the Waikato water pipeline to Auckland, and dozens of bridges and walls around New Zealand. My brother Tim did not sleep for three days in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake so he could ensure that every one of his cranes were assisting the rescue effort. He booked to join us today but had to cancel yesterday due to doing emergency bridge repairs in Temuka. It will be good to re-join the family business, doing more and talking less. I’m looking forward to projects like the Turitea wind farm that will help us meet our Paris climate change commitments.

Nick is of course a qualified engineer,

The most notable change for the worse is how lame select committees have become today. They’ve become perfunctory rubber stamps. Worthwhile inquiries are blocked. It’s got worse with the distraction of iPhones and laptops. Select committees need revamping to be more collegial, with Government and Opposition MPs genuinely holding Government departments to account for their spending and performance.

That would be a great thing, rather than Labour MPs voting time and time again to block health officisl from being able to brief the Health Select Committee during a global pandemic!

There is one last difference I celebrate in signing off from this 53rd Parliament. This morning I woke to the birdsong of tūī from my Hill Street flat, and, on my walk here, saw a beautiful kererū in Parliament’s trees, something you would have not seen or heard 30 years ago. It’s this stunning wildlife, whether you are Māori or European, Pasifika, Asian, or whatever, that helps define who we are as New Zealanders. May the birdsong forever be heard here at Parliament and across our land, to remind us how blessed we are to call these islands home.

Go well Nick.

The NCEA Summary for 2020 was released today.

Credit (excuse the pun) where credit is due – with the give away of standards and plenty of hard work by NZ teachers and students the overall results have been – maintained and in many cases improved.

The very big deal is still equity with the ethnicity, regional and decile gaps remaining huge and very hard for the future.
Please keep in mind that this is not inevitable – grads for outlier schools such at South Auckland Middle School – get NCEA L1 at 86% – very counter trend for Maori/Pasifika/Decile 1.

Also keep in mind – these results measure students that remain in schools and do their assessments. In a range of NZ schools they have lost up to 40% of their Year 9 cohort by the age of 17 – where others have nearly 95% left. Analysis on a school leaver basis – more important that measuring the survivors – comes later in the year and tends to give an even graver picture on inequity and progress that needs to be made.

With the decline in our University standings internationally, TIMMS, PISA and the trend for Labour politicians to talk “appropriate pathways” for sectors of our system I have this horrible picture of Ardern and Hipkins holding hands and knocking at the door of the third world and asking for our future generations to be let in.

ps – sorry for the slightly misshapen formatting below – it all lined up in the editor.

Quick response at UE level (our most important school qualification)
Year 13 UE Asian          2020   64.1%            2019  59.3%
Year 13 UE European    2020  59%               2019 55.1%
Year 13 UE Maori          2020  34.1%             2019  29.9%
Year 13 Pacific Peoples 2020   33.7%            2019  30.3%

– Asian – Maori gap 2019 = 29.4%      2020 = 30%- Asian – Pasifika gap 2019 = 29%     2020 = 30.7%

Quick Response L2
Level 2 Asian          2020   80%            2019  78.3%
Level 2 European    2020  83.2%           2019 81.1%
Level 2 Maori          2020  71.9%           2019  68.9%
Level 2 Pacific Peoples 2020   77.1%          2019 77.1%

Quick Response L1
Level 1 Asian          2020   73.1%          2019  73.9%
Level 1 European    2020  75.8%          2019 76%
Level 1 Maori          2020  60.8%        2019  57.7%
Level 1 Pacific Peoples 2020   68.2%          2019 61.8%

Quick Response By Decile
Decile 1 – 3
Level 1        2020   64.7%          2019  58.6%
Level 2        2020  73.7%           2019 69.7%
Level 3        2020  66.9%           2019  59.4%
UE              2020   32.7%          2019 29.8%

Decile 4 – 7
Level 1        2020   76.5%          2019  73.7%
Level 2        2020  83.9%           2019 80.2%
Level 3        2020  73.1%           2019  67.5%
UE              2020   51.6%          2019 46.6%

Decile 8 – 10
Level 1        2020   75.5%          2019  78.8%
Level 2        2020  86%             2019 84.2%
Level 3        2020  80.9%          2019  76.9%
UE              2020   69.9%%      2019 65.4%

Northland vs Auckland
Northland
Level 1  2020 58.8%               2019  58.3%
Level 2    2020 79.4%              2019  77.4%
Level 3    2020  66.2%            2019  60.7%
UE           2020   40.7%            2019  38.3%
Auckland
Level 1  2020 69.9%               2019  69.2%
Level 2   2020 79.7%              2019  76.6%
Level 3   2020  76.1%            2019  69.7%
UE          2020   57.3%            2019  52.5%

A guest post by Owen Jennings:

Yesterday Prime Minster Ardern claimed action on the Climate Commission’s recommendations was “a matter of life and death”.  There is zero truth in that statement.  It is outrageous and dangerous.  All the evidence shows that climate related deaths – from heat and cold – are continuing to fall.

The only weather events that the IPCC says show even a minor likelihood of occurring are higher rainfall in limited regions and increased drought in others.  All manageable. Sea level rise can easily be mitigated if it ever becomes an issue.  After 15 years can Al Gore point to even one “climate refugee” from the Pacific?  Four new international airports on the Maldives??  Tuvalu bigger today than it was in 2006 when Gore lied to the world to get an Oscar.

According to Ardern and her sidekick Shaw our biggest problem is agriculture.  It is supposed to contribute 48% of our emissions problem – mostly burped methane.  What are the known facts about methane?

All methane is 0.00018% of the atmosphere.  All ruminants contribute just 14% of the methane emissions. That means the world’s bison, giraffes, antelopes, cows, sheep together are responsible for 0.000000252% or .2 of one part per millionof the atmosphere.  NZ has 1% of the planet’s ruminants and somehow cutting them back 15% – slaughtering 1 million cows and 4 million sheep – as the Government intends, is going to make a difference. What are those numbers in some recognisable manner? 

Imagine the whole atmosphere was the 12 hour, 10,000 km trip from Auckland to Los Angeles.  All methane is just a fraction of the pushback at the airport – 18 metres.  NZ’s contribution is 180 mm.  Our required reduction is the equivalent 27 mm.  Or an inch for you old buggers like me. 

How can seemingly intelligent people stand up and keep a straight face while telling you 27 mm of a 10,000,000 metre trip makes any difference?

Ah, but you say “methane is a powerful greenhouse gas”.  Is it?  I can wheel in dozens of highly credible scientists, most of them “warmists” who say NZ’s interpretation of methane’s potency is overstated by 400%.  That overstatement is the difference between us having to slaughter a million cows or not.  It is the difference between decimating the sector that is the standout export earner and that is maintaining the remaining strength of the economy, or not.  It is the difference between us slashing production with the world’s lowest carbon footprint and watching another higher “polluting” country take up the slack making a mockery of our butchering our sheep and cattle.  It is the difference between us acting on only part of the Paris Accord or us responding to Part 2 that says “no measure taken to reduce emissions should limit food production”.

If you want to discuss potency of greenhouse gases I give you water vapour.  Take a breath.  Only 1% of that air is a greenhouse gas.  Of that 1%, 96% is water vapour.  For every molecule of methane in your breath there are 8,000 molecules of H2O.  That’s potency. 

On the Electromagnetic Spectrum where atmospheric radiation (ultra-violet, visible light and infrared) occurs Methane absorbs and re-emits very little radiation (heat) – almost zero. Its role is insignificant because water vapour already dominates over the entire range (over 70%) compared to Methane (less than1%). Methane is a minnow beside water vapour. Utterly unable to impact temperature in any meaningful, measurable way.

Note that agriculture’s share of the emissions reduction is away ahead of those required for fossil fuel “polluters”.  That is the worst of being a small voting bloc hammered and cowered by the dirty rivers campaign, the GHG villains, the evil meat and milk producers.

Spare a thought for farmers today. Just like you are attached to your cat or dog they are attached to their animals.  Sending cows to be butchered is desperately heartbreaking at any time.

Killing them when the logic is flawed, the science is wrong, the reasoning is faulty and the rationale is unjust increases the pain exponentially.

Gaia must be appeased.

Owen Jennings is a former National President of Federated Farmers.

The University of Virginia has put out this statement on free speech. It is excellent, as befits a university founded by Thomas Jefferson. Some extracts:

The University of Virginia unequivocally affirms its commitment to free expression and free inquiry. All views, beliefs, and perspectives deserve to be articulated and heard free from interference. This commitment underpins every part of the University’s mission. Free and open inquiry is the basis for the scientific method and all other modes of investigation that produce, expand, and refine knowledge. It is at the heart of the principles of academic freedom that protect faculty from interference with their research and their views. Likewise, the educational endeavor for students requires freedom to speak, write, inquire, listen, challenge, and learn, including through exposure to a range of ideas and cultivation of the tools of critical thinking and engagement. These tools are vital not only to students’ personal intellectual development but also to their futures as citizen leaders equipped to assess contending arguments and to contribute to societal progress. For all of these reasons, expression of ideas should be given the widest possible latitude.

We endorse principles of free expression and free inquiry not because every idea is equally good. To the contrary, universities test and assess ideas every day, through myriad processes of research and inquiry. These processes identify errors and generate breakthroughs of immense value for local, national, and global communities. Indeed, the University has endeavored to acknowledge its own complex legacy while promoting the free exchange of ideas that creates future advances and progress. Academic commitment to free inquiry reflects the view that every idea must be heard so that it may be subjected to the rigorous scrutiny necessary to advance knowledge. This process requires deep critical engagement, as well as humility in the recognition that many commonly accepted views have proved mistaken, while many ostracized views have illuminated the path toward truth.

A great statement.

Free and open inquiry inevitably involves conflicting views and strong disagreements. Indeed, some ideas may be offensive, noxious, and even harmful. We act as responsible members of a shared community when we engage as empathetic speakers and generous listeners. We further our common project of academic inquiry with mutual respect and intellectual openness. Even as the University affirms values of mutual respect, however, both the First Amendment and principles of free inquiry forbid these values from becoming a basis for closing off discussion. The University must not stifle protected expression, permit others to obstruct or shut down such expression, or regulate the tone or content of responses that stop short of interfering with others’ speech or violating the law. Rather than seek to control speech or countenance its silencing, the University must promote values of mutual respect, while emphasizing that their vitality rests with the self-governance of speakers and listeners.

I so wish universities here would come out and say the same.

Business Insider reports:

A right-wing writer crowdfunded over $100,000 after launching a campaign for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s grandmother.

Matt Walsh, a writer with conservative outlet the Daily Wire, began the GoFundMe on Friday after criticizing Ocasio-Cortez for “allowing” her grandma to live in dire conditions.

Ocasio-Cortez earlier this week tweeted out that her grandma is ill and hasn’t yet received hurricane relief in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which hit the US territory more than three years ago. In her tweet slamming former President Donald Trump over delayed relief in Puerto Rico, the New York lawmaker shared photos showing bare living quarters with ceiling tiles peeling off and buckets set up around a room to catch dripping water.

“This is her home. Hurricane María relief hasn’t arrived. Trump blocked relief $ for PR,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

So AOC tried to use her grandmother’s leaky house as an attack weapon and people pointed out that as she is on US$174,000 (NZ$241,000) she could help her grandmother out.

Walsh targeted Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, by accusing her of “virtue-signaling” and living large while her family needs help.

“Shameful that you live in luxury while allowing your own grandmother to suffer in these squalid conditions,” Walsh tweeted in response to Ocasio-Cortez.

Within hours of going live, Walsh’s campaign reached its goal of $48,990. Ocasio-Cortez’s grandmother has declined to accept the money, according to Walsh, who spoke with Insider. The campaign raised over $104,000 before GoFundMe shut it down, he said, and the money will be returned in full to each donor.

But even better they then launched a fundraiser for her grandmother and raised over $100,000 in a few hours for her, so she could could fix her leaky house.

AOC of course got the fundraiser cancelled, but I doubt she will use her family as props for an attack again.