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NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for September 9, 2015

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Newsroom Digest

This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 7 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Wednesday 9th September.

NEWSROOM_MONITOR

Top stories in the current news cycle include concerns about accommodation pressures and poor housing conditions for renters in Queenstown, a group of Christchurch homeowners taking a class action against EQC and an end to the temporary occupation of Kaitaia Airport by iwi protesters – which coincided with the third reading of the Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill.

Note: As well as providing a precis of leading broadcast bulletins each day, our NewsRoom_Monitor service does a daily paper round with succinct ‘news picks’ from the main metropolitan papers emailed by 9am each morning. If you’re interested in a free trial please email monitor@newsroom.co.nz

POLITICS PULSE

Media releases issued from Parliament by political parties today included:

Government: Bright-line Bill passes first reading; New Zealand Ambassador to Chair WTO Agriculture Negotiations; Speech: Louise Upston – Utilising women’s skills in the workforce report; Appointment of Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal Adjudicator; Suicide prevention plans in place for all DHBs; Te Kawerau ā Maki Bill passes third reading; Appointment to New Zealand Symphony Orchestra board; Minister thanks departing NZVIF chief executive; Treaty settlements passed for four Te Hiku iwi; More practical swimming pool fencing law proposed; NZ support for Pacific to reach $1 billion; Increased uptake of free GP visits for under 13s

Greens: McCully’s refusal to act on West Papua shameful & embarrassing; Govt should honour Pacific Leaders’ call for climate action 

Labour: Govt focuses on 2020 while rural internet stagnates in 2015; Cutting financial advice for students doesn’t add up; Minister must mediate EQC lawsuit

Māori Party:Increased uptake of free GP visits for under 13s

New Zealand First: Government must get Kaitaia airport open; Fishing Families Miss Out As National Ignore Promise

LINKS OF THE DAY

Links of the day have been a feature of NewsRoom_Digest since we first started production in August 2014 at newsroom-nz.tumblr.com. We are currently building an archive of these at:http://newsroomplus.com/resources/resourceful-links/

COROMANDEL OUTSTRIPS NZ ECONOMIC GROWTH: The Coromandel has seen strong economic growth over the last year. The District’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 4.0% in the year to June, outstripping national economic growth of 3.1%. The Infometrics report is available on our website at:http://www.tcdc.govt.nz/economicdata

F.A.S.D AWARENESS: Since its beginning in 1999, New Zealand has been the first country to mark Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Awareness Day on 9 September. Symbolising the nine months of pregnancy, the ninth day of the ninth month is marked by a ‘Moment of Reflection’ at 9.09am, as it makes its way across the different time zones. Further information on FASD and the Awareness Day: http://www.fan.org.nz/fasd_awareness_day

MORTALITY AMONG CHILDREN: The rate of decline in mortality among the world’s youngest children has more than doubled over a generation, and an additional 38 million lives could be saved by 2030 if progress accelerates further, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) world leaders are set to approve later this month. The relevant report is available here: http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_83078.html

NEW IMPORTER MARGINS MONITORING: The Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment has revised its weekly monitoring of importer margins on petrol and diesel prices to reflect discounting activity. For further information and to access the monitoring reports click here: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/energy/liquid-fuel-market/weekly-oil-price-monitoring

NZIER CALLS FOR OCR CUT: NZIER’s Monetary Policy Shadow Board recommends the Reserve Bank cuts the interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent this Thursday. Read more here: http://nzier.org.nz/publication/nziers-shadow-board-calls-for-the-ocr-to-be-cut-to-275 

RWC TRADING RULES: Resources to help businesses and organisations understand temporary changes to alcohol trading laws during the 2015 Rugby World Cup are now available under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2015 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Act 2015. This is available for view at:http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/sale-and-supply-of-alcohol

TREATY SETTLEMENTS: Four Te Hiku iwi will have their Treaty settlements enacted into law following the successful third reading of the Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill. The Deeds of Settlement are available athttp://www.govt.nz/office-of-treaty-settlements/

And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Wednesday 9th September.

Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

FONTERRA OPENS NEW MANUFACTURING FACILITY IN INDONESIA

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NewsroomPlus.com

Contributed by Fonterra

Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited has officially opened its new blending and packing plant in Indonesia – its first manufacturing facility in the country.

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Chairman John Wilson said the plant is Fonterra’s largest investment in ASEAN in the last decade and will support the growth of Fonterra’s brands – Anmum, Anlene and Anchor Boneeto – in Indonesia.

“Fonterra has been supplying high quality dairy nutrition to Indonesia for more than 30 years and today it is one of our most important global markets. The opening of our new plant is an exciting step forward in our relationship with the country and local dairy industry,” he said.

Fonterra Managing Director Asia, Middle-East, Africa (AsiaMEA) Johan Priem said the investment strategically positions Fonterra to help meet Indonesia’s continuous growing demand for dairy nutrition.

“The country’s large and increasingly affluent population is looking for highly nutritious foods for all ages. This is fuelling dairy demand growth which is expected to increase by five per cent every year to 2020.

“Our new plant has the capacity to pack around 16,000 MT of dairy ingredients a year – that’s a pack of Anlene, Anmum and Anchor Boneeto every second, or 87,000 packs every day, which will go a long way in helping Fonterra meet this growing demand for dairy.”

Mr Priem said the plant located in Cikarang, West Java is already having a positive impact on the local community.

“We used local partners for the construction and, when running at full capacity, our new site will employ a team of 160 local employees meaning the investment will continue to flow through the local community.

“The site also utilises Cikarang’s dry port, allowing us to ensure all of our operations are located in one area. This will help us drive logistical efficiencies,” he said.

New Zealand Minister of Local Government, Social Housing and State Services Paula Bennett said this new facility reflects the strength of the relationship between New Zealand and Indonesia.

“On behalf of the New Zealand government, I wish to congratulate Fonterra on today’s official opening – it reflects the increasingly interconnected nature of global value chains, and more closely links our economies together.

“Our governments have set a target to grow two-way trade to NZD4 billion by 2024 and dairy continues to be a critical part of this relationship,” Ms Bennett said.

The plant received an A grade rating from regulators during its final stages of testing and commissioning, and has been in commercial operation since June 2015.

Mr Wilson was joined at the official opening of the site by Indonesia’s Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture and Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, Ibu Ir. Musdhalifah Machmud, New Zealand’s Minister of Local Government, Social Housing, State Services Paula Bennett and senior executives from Fonterra.

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Invasive ants found to carry novel virus and honey bee pathogens

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NewsroomPlus.com Contributed by Victoria University of Wellington A group of scientists, led by Victoria University of Wellington’s Professor Phil Lester, has discovered that invasive Argentine ants frequently carry a previously undescribed virus. These exotic ants also host a virus widely associated with honey bee deaths. image003 Argentine ants (Linepthema humile) are an invasive pest spread throughout most of New Zealand. They are listed in the 100 of the world’s worst invasive species, with abundant and widespread populations found on every continent except Antarctica. The ants negatively impact on crops and are a household problem in urban areas. The research team includes biologists from Victoria University’s School of Biological Sciences and a group known as “Virus Hunters” from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR). The team spent three years collecting and analysing genomic data of Argentine ant populations in New Zealand, Australia and Argentina. Professor Lester says the results revealed nearly all of New Zealand’s Argentine ant populations carried the Deformed Wing Virus, a pathogen associated with colony collapse of honey bees. “This discovery tells us that Argentine ants are much more of a problem than we previously thought. They host the same Deformed Wing Virus strain found in bees and wasps in New Zealand, and this virus has contributed to declines in honey bee populations around the world. Argentine ants are known to raid beehives and also forage in the same environment as honey bees. Such close contact is bad for bees, as their association promotes pathogen exchange,” he says. The presence of this honey bee virus brings a new dimension to concerns over invasive species. The ants’ abundance and wide distribution, together with their ability to carry devastating viruses, means that such invasive species may have much more of a negative impact than previously thought. But the researchers also discovered an entirely new virus in the invasive pest species that could assist the ants’ own population decline. “This virus hasn’t been seen before, but it’s related to other viruses that can devastate populations of other insect species. If managed correctly it could be used as a biopesticide both in New Zealand and overseas,” Professor Lester says. Victoria’s commercialisation office Viclink is supporting the group translate its finding into a marketable product. “This is an exciting opportunity to develop a naturally-derived species-specific insecticide that could reduce reliance on chemical products, which often indiscriminately kill all insects,” says Viclink senior commercialisation manager Jeremy Jones. “It could be a game-changer for our fruit and wine industries where controlling this ant is a growing problem.” The research team, comprises Victoria University postdoctoral research fellow Monica Gruber, PhD student Alexandra Sébastien, and ESR’s Dr Richard Hall, Jing Wang and Nicole Moore. The team has already begun the next phase of research investigating the novel virus as a biopesticide and its potential to be used for the control of Argentine ants. Their research can be read in full in the latest issue of the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters –]]>

Keith Rankin’s Chart for this Week: New Zealand Weekly Wages 1926 Census

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Analysis by Keith Rankin. [caption id="attachment_6988" align="aligncenter" width="965"]Pay Inequity 1926-style. Pay Inequity 1926-style.[/caption]

This week’s chart shows what nominal wages were like in 1925, as reflected in the 1926 census, the first to collect income data. It shows that 50 percent of male workers and 90% of female workers earned less than £3.80 ($7.60) per week. It could have been worse; wages were quite a bit lower 10 years later.

According to this 1926 census data, the median female wage was £2 ($4) per week, just over half of the median male wage.

While of course most products are different today, in essence a wage of £2 in June 1925 is equivalent to $190 in June 2015, thanks to an annual average inflation rate of 4.4%. (And thanks to the Reserve Bank’s inflation calculator, it’s easy to work this out.) Thus a typical woman today would be earning $190 per week if wages only kept up with inflation, and equal pay had not been introduced in 1972.

For June 2015, the median female weekly wage is about $900, nearly five times higher in real (ie purchasing power terms than the 1925 wage). At least in some parts of our history over the last 90 years, wages were enabled to rise more quickly than prices. Just two Ministers of Finance oversaw most of our real wage increases: Walter Nash and Robert Muldoon.

Imagine if a typical woman today had to live on less than $200 per week, such a tiny sliver of GDP. Just imagine how much more unequal our society would be than it actually is. Yet since the 1980s workers have considered themselves fortunate if they’ve gained wage increases that just match inflation. Indeed it is since the 1980s that inequality – between rich and non-rich households, if not between men and women – has become our dominant economic reality.

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Rainbow Warrior bombing ‘should have led to French Watergate’, says saboteur

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This article was first published on Café Pacific ANALYSIS By David Robie THE unmasked French bomber who sank the Rainbow Warrior 30 years ago had some revealing comments during his interviews with the investigative website Mediapart and TVNZ’s Sunday programme, none more telling than “the first bomb was too powerful, it should have ended as a Watergate” for French President François Mitterrand”. Mitterrand stayed in office for 14 years – a decade after the bombing and before he finally stepped down when his second presidential term ended in May 1995, the year that nuclear tests ended. The bomber, retired colonel Jean-Luc Kister, added that had Operation Satanique involved the United States, “more heads would have rolled”. But while the “innocent death” of Portuguese-born Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira has clearly played on his conscience for all these years, Kister’s sincere apology wasn’t without a hint of trying to rewrite history. The claim that the secret sabotage operation never meant to kill anybody is unconvincing for anybody on board the Rainbow Warrior on that tragic night of 10 July 1985 when New Zealand lost its political innocence. Kister told Mediapart’s editor Edwy Plenel: “Thirty years after the event, now that emotions have subsided and also with the distance I now have from my professional life, I thought it was the right time for me to express both my deepest regret and my apologies.” His apology was to the Pereira family, Greenpeace and the “people of New Zealand”. Plenel broke the expose of the “third team” bombers for Le Monde in September 1985 and his recent book La troisième équipe comprehensively tells the story. From on board Rainbow Warrior III, where Pete Willcox – who was skipper of the bombed ship – is currently captain on a tuna fisheries campaign in the Pacific, the message was to accept the apology as a sincere one. “But Mr Kister must now stand as an admitted murderer, and there can be no quibbling on this. This includes [the late] President François Mitterrand and the rest of the team that both planned and executed the crime.” Willcox says he will never forget how this event tore a hole in the life of the Pereira family in the Netherlands. His statement to Pacific Media Watch:

Mr Kister wants us to believe that they were incompetent when they planted the bombs on the Rainbow Warrior, and that they never meant to kill anyone.  I believe they were indifferent, not incompetent. What did they think would happen?  They blew a 2 x 2.5 metre hole in the hull below the waterline.  The boat sank in about 45 seconds. About one minute later, the second bomb that killed Fernando went off.  This was a highly trained military team.  Could they really have been that bad at their job?  They could have used, and I am guessing here, one quarter of the explosives, and sunk the boat, giving us time to get off. There is no doubt in my mind that had the bombs gone off 30 minutes sooner, we would have lost the dozen or so persons who were left from the meeting of the Peace Fleet crews in the cargo hold.  They would have never have had time to get off. While Mr Kister has apologised last night, the government of France never has.  Not to Greenpeace, not to the Pereira family.  We are done asking.  It up is to them.
Among the comments from Kister were revelations around other harebrained options – thankfully all rejected for the various risks involved – the French secret service were considering, such as: •    Targeting the Rainbow Warrior in Port Vila, Vanuatu, where the vessel visited immediately before arriving in New Zealand. (In fact, such was the support of the founding Vanuatu Prime Minister Walter Lini, that his government sent an “anti-nuclear” envoy on board, Charles Rara, who was on a diplomatic passport. He shared Pereira’s cabin. Rara later said before he died prematurely from cancer he had been unfairly treated as a “suspect” by the NZ police). •    Sabotaging the ship’s water supply with “bacteria”. Kister also claimed that the DGSE thinking at the time – at the height of the Cold War –  as a pretext for the sabotage was that Greenpeace had been “infiltrated” by the Soviet Union’s KGB. As a journalist on board the Rainbow Warrior for more than 10 weeks on the last voyage, I find such a claim that an state intelligence organisation could have seriously flirted with such a notion as unbelievable. No. Clearly the bombing of the ship was to protect the French nuclear arsenal and its continued and undisputed control of Moruroa Atoll in Polynesia as a testing ground for the French nuclear weapons. In the TVNZ Sunday programme and other New Zealand media reports it is not made clear that in spite of France ending nuclear tests by signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1996, it still ranks as the world’s third major nuclear power. According to monitoring by the Arms Control Association, France currently has the world’s third-largest nuclear warheads stockpile – 300 (admittedly far behind Russia, which has 7700 and the US with 7200). Most of the French nuckear warheads are designed for delivery by the submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM). France currently operates four Triomphant class nuclear submarines. The other nuclear warheads are designed for delivery by missiles (ASMP) arming the Mirage 2000N, Super Étendard and Rafale aircraft. Also, France is the world’s third-largest conventional arms supplier. Between 2007 and 2011, France made nearly $11 billion in arms trade agreements with the developing world. Jean-Luc Kister’s apology is a frank and candid one trying to come to terms with Fernando Pereira’s death being on his conscience. His apology is welcome even three decades later – as he says, it is never too late to apologise. However, history can’t be rewritten. This was a blatant act of outright terrorism, not just state-sponsored terrorism, by France against a friendly nation and a peaceful environmental organisation, Greenpeace, committed under orders. All the highest level perpetrators who gave the orders – right up to the president’s office in Paris – did this callously and with impunity. I don’t believe there was the slightest concern about the possible casualties and it was a miracle more people didn’t die on board that night. This terrible crime ranked with some French colonial atrocities happening in New Caledonia at the same time and will always be remembered painfully in the South Pacific.   –]]>

NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for September 8, 2015

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Newsroom Digest

This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 10 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Tuesday 8th September.

NEWSROOM_MONITOR

Top stories in the current news cycle include the Government looking at ways to speed up the Overseas Investment Office after a number of complaints from applicants, announcement of a review of New Zealand’s telecommunications sector and a signal the Government will definitely extend the duration of paid-parental leave for eligible parents of pre-term babies as part of changes being progressed as part of the Employment Standards Legislation Bill.

Note: As well as providing a precis of leading broadcast bulletins each day, our NewsRoom_Monitor service does a daily paper round with succinct ‘news picks’ from the main metropolitan papers emailed by 9am each morning. If you’re interested in a free trial please email monitor@newsroom.co.nz

POLITICS PULSE

Media releases issued from Parliament by political parties today included:

Government: Telco Review to support changing technology; Bennett to attend ASEAN and APEC meetings; Closely held companies tax rules examined; Over half a million patients receive specialist assessments; Regional Research workshops begin; PPL extended for parents of pre-term babies; Businesses gain by utilising women’s skills

ACT Party: Successful talks bring fairer PPL to pre-term babies

Greens: Wellington is worth saving climate change campaign event; Greens appoint new Communications and Policy Director; Green Party Calls On Govt To Support Introduction Of Refugee Quota Bill; Govt must reverse its position on junk food in schools; Government is preparing to take huge dividend from Housing NZ; Manufacturing down further despite lower dollar

Labour: Whanau Ora evaluation too late; Joyce must explain Taratahi fiasco; Taranaki in recession due to Govt inaction; National breaks another promise over paid parental leave

NZ National Party: Speech- New Zealand to take 750 more Syrian Refugees

LINKS OF THE DAY

Links of the day have been a feature of NewsRoom_Digest since we first started production in August 2014 at newsroom-nz.tumblr.com. We are currently building an archive of these at:http://newsroomplus.com/resources/resourceful-links/

CONSUMER PRICE INDEX CORRECTED: Statistics New Zealand has today corrected some consumers price index (CPI) figures for the March and June 2015 quarters. See the corrected statistics for the Consumer Price Index here:http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/economic_indicators/CPI_inflation/info-releases.aspx

A SWAG OF TREASURY PAPERS: The Treasury has published five new Working Papers today, covering analysis of fiscal policy, retirement income, labour supply responses to tax and transfer changes, and the Living Standards Framework. These Working Papers can be viewed on the Treasury website athttp://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/research-policy/wp.

EARTHQUAKES IN TARANAKI: Hundreds of earthquakes shook Taranaki in the 2014/2015 year, the latest seismic activity report shows – the same pattern as in previous years. There were 251 earthquakes in the 12 months to June 30, says a report by Volcanologist Brad Scott, from GNS Science. Read the GNS seismic report at :http://www.trc.govt.nz/assets/Publications/taranaki-cdem-publications/GNS-seismicity2015.PDF

GREENS REFUGEE QUOTA BILL: The Green Party is calling on the Government to honour New Zealanders’ outpouring of goodwill for refugees, and not block the introduction of the Green Party’s Bill today, that would give Parliament a say in setting a better, long-term refugee quota. The bill can be viewed at: http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/legislation/proposed-bills/51HOH_MEMBILL153_1/immigration-refugee-quota-amendment-bill

MANUFACTURING SALES DOWN: The value of manufacturing sales fell in the June 2015 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. See the Economic Survey of Manufacturing here:http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/manufacturing_and_production/EconomicSurveyofManufacturing_HOTPJun15qtr.aspx

TAX RULES EXAMINED: A paper released today for public feedback aims to make the current tax rules for closely held companies more workable. The issues paper Closely held company taxation issues is available athttp://www.taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz.

TELCO REVIEW: A discussion paper was launched today to look at ways to future-proof New Zealand’s communications regulation. The discussion document can be found at: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/telcoreview

REGIONAL RESEARCH WORKSHOPS: The first opportunity for businesses, researchers, private investors and Government to collaborate on establishing new Regional Research Institutes, with a series of workshops begins this week. More information about Regional Research Institutes and dates for the workshops can be found here:http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/regions-cities/investigating-regional-research-institutes/?searchterm=regional%20research%2A

WASTE MANAGEMENT: Inadequate waste management has become a major public health, economic and environmental problem, with 7-10 billion tonnes of urban waste produced each year and 3 billion people worldwide lacking access to controlled waste disposal facilities. Read the full report here:http://apps.unep.org/publications/index.php?option=com_pub&task=download&file=011782_en

UTILISING WOMEN’S SKILLS: A new report detailing how employers can make the most of women’s talents in their workplace. Getting it done: Utilising women’s skills in the workforce is available at:http://www.women.govt.nz/documents/getting-it-done-utilising-womens-skills-workforce-2015

And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Tuesday 8th September.

Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

Tomorrow’s agriculture leaders finalise declaration for United Nations Committee on World Food Security

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NewsroomPlus.com Contributed by Bayer Cropscience Young agriculture leaders from across the world have created the Canberra Youth Ag-Declaration, a global call for action to help solve the pressing issues facing modern agriculture and food security. _MG_0105 copy The Canberra Youth Ag-Declaration will be presented at the United Nation’s Committee on World Food Security in Rome in October by Australian delegate and Murdoch University honours student, Laura Grubb and Kenyan delegate, Samba Ouma Zablon, Bachelor of Commerce student and initiator of the Kenyan-based Uwezo Youth Development Program. From 24-27 August in Canberra, Bayer and the Future Farmers Network brought together 100 young thought leaders, aged 18-25, from 33 nations for the Youth-Ag Summit to discuss the role science and modern agriculture play in feeding a hungry planet. Delegates voted on their priority themes all week to form the basis of the Declaration with education, communication, responsible and sustainable consumption, innovation and personal leadership selected as the highest priorities for the delegates during the week. The themes of the Declaration are underpinned by solutions and actions, with delegates assigned specifics roles to motivate industry change. These solutions include:

  • Develop a fair and open multi-channel platform for formal and informal educators in the agricultural industry to build greater skills
  • Globally promote and enhance the image of farmers and the breadth of opportunities in the agricultural industry
  • Enhance socially acceptable and responsible consumption through better education and utilization of current resources
  • Create a global network that links young innovators to agricultural needs to drive information sharing, funding and solutions
  • Develop a global youth platform to build a movement and develop youth leaders through mentorship and education via youth groups
The actions – which include, for example, the launch of a global agriculture awareness day – will be finalised in the coming weeks and presented to the United Nations in October. Tobias Marchand, Chairman and Managing Director, Bayer Australia and New Zealand said the Declaration showcased the potential of youth in solving tomorrow’s biggest challenges. Dan Walker CSIRO “Today’s youth have the potential to solve local and global food challenges and the declaration provides a clear path for industry change. The Youth Ag-Summit in Canberra has focused on capturing the ideas of young leaders and I believe this declaration will be significant step in feeding a hungry planet.” Scarborough (Western Australia) resident Laura Grubb, one of the Australian delegates in attendance this week, said the opportunity to present to the UN is significant and she believes it is rare for a conference to have such a strong outcome. “It’s a huge opportunity; normally at conferences the information and ideas shared stay within the body of people that attended, but we have a unique opportunity to spread this around the globe to both developed and developing countries, across a range of different ecosystems, production systems, and cultures. That means we can really put the goals we’ve developed at this conference into practice and make a difference,” Laura said. During the Summit, delegates were challenged to individually develop “3 Little Things” which will see them set goals to make a difference in their home countries . As Samba Ouma Zablon from Kenya looks back on his week spent at the Youth Ag-Summit, it’s clear the discussion and knowledge transfer has had a big impact, particularly the concept of “3 Little Things”. “My number one priority is to keep the conversation going, especially on social media because that’s where most of the young people are, that’s where we can tap the potential. “My second priority would be to use the next four Saturday’s after the Summit, because I happen to work in a youth group in Mombasa in Kenya, to use the foresight of this to teach them, to share with them what I learnt so that I can also empower them. “Finally, I want to work closely with the other delegate from Kenya and my country mentor, to ensure that we come up with one very awesome initiative that will bring the entire nation on-board,” Samba concludes. The delegates will stay connected through the Youth Ag-Network, an exclusive online platform to help these young leaders connect, support and continue learning from each other. About the Youth Ag-Summit The Youth Ag-Summit is a global youth conference to inspire and connect the next generation of young leaders in agriculture and related disciplines. At the Summit, 100   young leaders aged 18 to 25 from all around the world will meet to share perspectives and create an open dialogue on one of the world’s most challenging questions: how to feed a hungry planet? The Youth Ag-Summit forms part of the Agricultural Education Program and aims at raising awareness for food and farming all over the globe. Find more information about the summit on the website www.youthagsummit.com About Future Farmers Network Future Farmers Network (FFN) is Australia’s only national youth agricultural network that connects and supports young Australians involved in rural industries. Operating since 2002, FFN connects youth involved in all facets of agriculture and provides members with access to the latest news, events, scholarships, awards and information from across all aspects of the Australian agricultural sector. To learn more about FFN visit: http://www.futurefarmers.com.au/ About Bayer CropScience Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 9,494 million (2014) and is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 23,100 and is represented in more than 120 countries.
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NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for September 7, 2015

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Newsroom Digest

This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 8 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Monday 7th September.

NEWSROOM_MONITOR

Top stories in the current news cycle include Silver Fern Farms’ reluctance to reveal how far along its capital raising process is or whether it’s about to announce a deal with a foreign firm, commencement of a resource consent hearing into how dealing with the remains of the Rena shipwreck will be resolved, and the Government’s well-flagged announcement that New Zealand will welcome 750 Syrian refugees over the next two and a half years ias well as providing additional funding of $4.5 million to help refugees displaced by fighting in the war-torn region.

Note: As well as providing a precis of leading broadcast bulletins each day, our NewsRoom_Monitor service does a daily paper round with succinct ‘news picks’ from the main metropolitan papers emailed by 9am each morning. If you’re interested in a free trial please email monitor@newsroom.co.nz

POLITICS PULSE

Media releases issued from Parliament by political parties today included:

Government: Sustainable forest management report to be launched at World Forestry Congress ; Deed of Settlement signed with Taranaki Iwi; New partnership highlights positive link between sport and rehabilitation; High teacher satisfaction great news for kids;Patient portal uptake reaches 75,000 milestone; New Zealand to take 750 more Syrian refugees; NZ ups humanitarian support to Syrian refugees

Greens: 100 extra refugees a meager half measure; Green Party Will Still Seek Leave To Introduce Refugee Quota Bill

Labour: Dangerous environment supports Commissioner’s report; NZ response must reflect scale of humanitarian crisis; Government knew but didn’t act on building rorts; Emergency refugee bill will be pulled if Govt response is meaningful; Treasury’s downside scenario becoming reality; Fishing parks floundering under Nick Smith; OIO must be tough over Silver Fern Farms sale

United Future Party: Peter Dunne – A Positive First Step on Refugees 

LINKS OF THE DAY

Links of the day have been a feature of NewsRoom_Digest since we first started production in August 2014 at newsroom-nz.tumblr.com. We are currently building an archive of these at:http://newsroomplus.com/resources/resourceful-links/

ANALYSIS OF PHASE ONE WHĀNAU ORA RESULTS: The first phase of Whānau Ora (2010 – 2015) has focused on strengthening provider capability to design and deliver whānau-centred approaches. A report of this phase’s research and monitoring results is available at: 

http://www.tpk.govt.nz/documents/download/1025/Whanau%20Ora%20Full%20Report%202015.pdf

CHINESE LANGUAGE WEEK: New Zealand Chinese Language Week was launched today. The week is about encouraging more New Zealanders to try their tongue at Chinese and seeks to bridge the cultural and linguistic knowledge gap between China and New Zealand. To see what’s happening at a location near you visit:http://nzclw.com/events

DEED OF SETTLEMENT SIGNED: The Crown has signed a deed of settlement with Taranaki Iwi settling all their outstanding historical Treaty claims at Pukeiti Gardens, Taranaki. A copy of the deed of settlement is available at:http://www.govt.nz/treaty-settlement-documents/taranaki-iwi/

DRAFT DECISION FOR CUSTOMISED PRICE PATHS: The Commerce Commission has today published draft amendments that would provide more flexibility for gas and electricity distributors when applying for a customised price-quality path (CPP). Further information on the input methodologies review can be found here:http://www.comcom.govt.nz/regulated-industries/input-methodologies-2/input-methodologies-review/

GENDER-BASED DISCRIMINATION: A new initiative to help end gender-based pay discrimination is being launched today. ‘We’re relying on you’ is a website that asks women MPs to sign a pledge to support pay based on the job, not the gender, and to never support gender-based discrimination of pay. The “We’re relying on you” page can be viewed at: http://www.equalpay.org.nz/ and Politicians Pledge can be viewed at :http://www.equalpay.org.nz/politicians_pledge

PATIENT PORTAL: There has been a significant increase in the number of patient portal users. The secure online portal site enables patients to manage aspects of their own healthcare such as booking appointments, requesting repeat prescriptions and messaging clinical staff directly. For more information on patient portals visithttp://www.patientportals.co.nz

SEAWEEK 2016: The New Zealand Association for Environment Education (NZAEE) Seaweek 2016 will take place from Saturday 27 February to Sunday 6 March 2016 and will be Seaweek’s 25th anniversary. The theme will be “Toiora te Moana – Toiora te Tangata – Healthy Seas, Healthy People”. More information is available at:http://www.seaweek.org.nz

WHOLESALE TRADE SALES DOWN: The value of wholesale trade sales was $21.8 billion in the June 2015 quarter, down $71 million (0.3 percent) from the June 2014 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. More information is available at:http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/wholesale_trade/WholesaleTradeSurvey_HOTPJun15qtr.aspx

And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Monday 7th September.

Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

Nurses all aboard the Pink Caravan

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NewsroomPlus.com Contributed by the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation The Pink Caravan starts its national tour tomorrow, Tuesday September 8, wending its way from Whangarei to Balclutha on its mission to provide breast health information to women in New Zealand’s smaller towns and provincial centres. Two breastcare nurses will be on board the retro-styled NZ Breast Cancer Foundation-owned caravan. Their job is to answer questions about breast cancer and advise women about how to be breast aware, lowering their risk, and how to get help if they have any worries. Past experience suggests family history, mammograms and breast cancer symptoms will be popular topics. The 32 towns on the 2015 itinerary are different from the destinations visited during last year’s inaugural tour. Some, like Whanganui and Whakatane, asked the caravan to visit after hearing about its work in nearby towns last year. Others were chosen because they lack specialist breast health resources. The Pink Caravan will attend two A&P shows (Hawke’s Bay and Christchurch) and will travel as far south as Baclutha, before finishing its tour in Mosgiel on November 26. (See the complete itinerary below) “Thousands of women visited the Pink Caravan to talk to our nurses last year, so we know there’s a real need for this kind of personal and unintimidating opportunity to ask important health questions,” said Evangelia Henderson, chief executive at the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation. “We also received reports of women being diagnosed with breast cancer after being encouraged by our nurses to have a mammogram or see their doctor – we’re so grateful to have the opportunity to help women in our smaller towns.” Visitors to the caravan can check out models of breasts – female and male – to feel what a breast lump is like, and can see photos of some of the less common signs of breast cancer. The NZBCF is also asking locals to visit the caravan to sign its petition, asking the government to extend free mammogram screening to age 74, up from the current limit of 69. New Zealand lags behind countries like Australia and Britain in this area, and a woman’s breast cancer risk is higher in her 70s than it was at 50. The Pink Caravan 2014 Chris Nuttall photo credit Taradale MG_0524 The NZBCF Pink Caravan is grateful for the support of the many volunteers involved in the project. Local community groups help spread the news of its visit to each town, and members of the NZ Motor Caravan Association have volunteered to tow it on the many legs of its journey. Many of the MCA members have a connection to breast cancer, like the two West Coast sisters who’ve both had breast cancer, but others just have a deep appreciation of the cause and the job the Pink Caravan is doing. “It’s like a giant relay, powered by goodwill and tow-bars!” said Mrs Henderson.  “Our nurses had a wonderful time in the Caravan last year, and they can’t wait to get on the road again.” FIND OUT WHICH REGIONS THE PINK CARAVAN WILL BE TRAVELLING TO About the NZBCF: The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that depends on donations and fundraising for its work in breast cancer education and awareness, medical research and training grants, advocacy, and supporting women with breast cancer. The NZBCF’s programmes are evidence-based, overseen by its medical advisory committee. The pink ribbon symbol is a trademark of the NZBCF in New Zealand. –]]>

Keith Rankin on The Economy: What’s it for?

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Analysis by Keith Rankin. This article was also published on Scoop.co.nz.

I re-watched the Q+A ‘immigration debate’ screened (parts one and two) by TVNZ on 23 August. In light of recent events, the discussion already seems very dated. The underlying assumptions – especially by the two macroeconomists on the panel – Don Brash and Shamubeel Eaqub – were that the economy is a system in which production growth is pretty much the sole objective, and that migration policy must serve this end of output maximisation.

Today we appreciate much better that migration is a humanitarian issue. It’s about people seeking better lives. In an unequal global economy, labour will always find a way to migrate to capital if capital does not sufficiently migrate to labour, as I noted last week.

In the first half of any first year economics course, students learn that the economy is a welfare system. And that is precisely what the economy is. The problem is that, the nature of economics subtly changes as these courses progress. By the end of a first-year course students see economies as production-oriented systems rather than as being welfare-oriented. Most economists continue to maintain that mutated perspective, conveniently putting to one side the ‘unhappiness minimisation’ assumption of their discipline. For these macroeconomists, economic growth becomes the single goal of economic activity; though this belief is often cloaked through the ambivalent word ‘productivity’ (which most economists use to mean economic growth per person). This is reinforced by The Economist magazine – from where politicians learn their economics – which evaluates all policy proposals against a growth criterion.

For non-economists – especially mainstream journalists – it’s worse. They see the purpose of economic activity as being to ‘make money’; a term even more ambivalent than ‘productivity’. Making money – in the collective rather than individual sense of this layman’s term – means economic growth; evermore production, evermore money being made.

A welfare system is a system that balances benefits against costs; happiness against unhappiness. (Sadly, it’s hard to even discuss the economy as a welfare-system, because the word ‘welfare’ has been co-opted into a narrower meaning, that of ‘social security’.) In the public mind, ‘welfare economics’ today has a quite different meaning from what it had in, say, the 1920s.

Under many (but not all) circumstances, increasing production – inasmuch as production adds to happiness – serves as a means to increase welfare. This is true especially in materially poor societies. But, even when more production can add to welfare, output growth is by no means the only component of increased welfare. Consumable output is not the only source of happiness, and the emphasis on economic output doesn’t even begin to address the other side of the welfare equation, cost. Cost is about the use of inputs (such as labour, and the physical environment). Welfare is as much enhanced by the reduced use of inputs as it is by increased outputs.

Most economists know – in their heart of hearts – that economies are welfare systems. They however talk and act ‘as if’ they believed economies were production systems. This approach tends to serve their careers, but not the greater good. Economists, especially academic economists, come in many shades – and I’m not just talking about Marxists or anything like that.

A standard economics toolbox can be thought of as rainbow; a rainbow with seven colours. But, later, in our careers, most of us (in our profession) only tend to see the blue, indigo and violet. We inform our analyses with a biased subset of the underlying conceptual tools of our discipline.

There is discontent about this within the profession, of course. Thus we do get groups of economists, and publications, which focus on ‘well-being’ and ‘happiness’ rather than ‘output’. But it’s a hard road for the profession to open up to those other colours – red, orange, yellow, green – in Pandora’s economic toolbox. And it’s a hard road for the mainstream media to frame an economic debate in any colour other than blue, indigo or violet.

In a welfare system, production growth represents an important means to improved welfare, especially in materially poor societies. Increased production is an economic means, not an end in itself. We work to live; we do not live to work. Migrants, like the rest of us, want to work to live. Life is the end, not the means; good life, not output, is the criterion of economic success. Production and work are mere means to that end, and by ‘no means’ the only means.

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Keith Rankin on Labour – Pay Equity and Paid Parental Leave

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Analysis by Keith Rankin. This article was also published on TheDailyBlog.co.nz. I sometimes wish that we had a People’s Party on the political left, and not a narrowly focussed Workers’ Party. Two current matters for legislation that Labour is inclined to support are extensions to paid parental leave and pay equity, with midwives as the first test case for pay equity (eg NZ Herald 1 Sep 2015, Midwives file fair-pay claim). The pay equity proposal is to provide price floors on wages for certain occupations deemed to be underpaid because these occupations are female dominant, and because “structurally sexist” employers allegedly discriminate against women. Remuneration for a profession is determined by a mix of supply scarcity (which can be created through unionisation), the value that the buyers place on the service provided, and the capacity of the buyers to pay high prices. For midwives the principal employer is the government (an effective monopsonist), and the government argues that it has a strictly limited capacity to pay for the services it purchases. Indeed the cause of the male-female pay disparity is much more likely to be because relatively more females are government employees (or contractors), not because the market is sexist. In this case then, the solution lies in empowering governments to pay higher wages, and to pay more for services such as those offered by midwives. Maybe there is a case for governments to increase the price they pay for maternity services more than they increase the price they pay for police services? Certainly I don’t think anyone is arguing that the government should pay police less so that they can pay midwives more. (One service they might want to spend less on is ‘means-testing services’. A universalist approach to social welfare substantially decreases the monopsony demand – by the government – for these services. Like midwifery, means-testing is a female-dominated service industry. And, as the Ashburton tragedy a year ago showed, it’s a dangerous job. I am sure that we can find alternative income streams for these women when a more humane and equitable approach to social welfare makes this particular service occupation redundant.) The argument really has little to do with sexism. Good on midwives if they can gain higher remuneration through more effective unionisation; but don’t make it a demarcation dispute between different groups of workers. The matter of what people in other occupations earn should not come into it. It’s about whether the public wish their governments (central and local) to pay more for a number of services, including maternity care, and are willing to backup that wish by paying more taxes and/or incurring more public debt. So it’s mainly an issue about taxes and public debt. It’s also an issue about which services we undervalue, rather than which workers we undervalue. So, once we resolve the issue about the need to increase government spending, then we can address the issue of priority services to fund. Librarians are another group of skilled mainly female workers, whose services I certainly value. Private sector (corporate) libraries pay more than public sector libraries do for librarians’ valuable professional services. It reflects the differing capacities (to pay salaries) of two different sets of employers. I would be interested to know if women working in corporate libraries believe that they are underpaid, and if so, is it because they, as women, are discriminated against. I suspect that there are many men – indeed male graduates – who would be happy to receive the salary that a librarian in a big law firm receives. While gender discrimination is not the only reason why women on average earn less per hour in their lifetimes of paid work, it is one reason. But, even then, gender discrimination is not necessarily sexism. The cost calculus that employers must engage in is the same for female employers as for male employers. Think of employment costs in the way an insurance actuary must think. What is the likelihood of an employer facing an adverse outcome with any given employee or prospective employee? An obvious adverse outcome is the resignation or extended absence of an employee. So, the way to achieve gender equity in the workplace is for society to ensure that the likelihood of an adverse outcome (and the extent of the adversity) for a male employee is the same as for a female employee. One of the principal such adverse outcomes – from an employer’s point of view – is parental leave; not only leave to have children but also leave to care for them when they are sick. Another is the need for some parents to manage their hours of work around their duties of care for their children. The solution is conceptually very simple, though the accompanying cultural changes might take a while to take full effect. Employers need to perceive that men will be as committed to the care of children (and the care of others such as elderly parents) as are women. Part of this requires that paid parental leave be equal for fathers as for mothers, along with the cultural change that would see fathers actually taking as much parental leave as mothers take. In order to achieve the required culture-shift, it might even be necessary to positively discriminate (with a sunset clause of, say, 10 years) in favour of paternal leave over maternal leave. I’m in favour of extended parental leave. But I would like to see the discussion focus especially on the use of much more paternal leave as a means to increase gender equity in the workplace. I would like all parents to be able to properly care for their children. Time poverty is one problem; financial poverty is another. Many parents face both. The emphasis might need to go away from paid parental leave for well-paid professionals, and into a public equity approach which does not discriminate against people on account of their employment status. We do follow a public equity approach in supporting our over-65s. In the good version of our future society, this public equity approach to income support will need to be extended. If all parents are buying good food and good-quality services for their families, then good labour-market outcomes follow. And when good labour market outcomes follow, then government coffers are replenished, enabling governments to pay more for collectively consumed services such as public education and public health-care. The Labour party should set its sights higher than it does at present; good welfare outcomes for the people, not just for fulltime paid workers. –]]>

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: NZ is part of the refugee problem

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Political Roundup by Dr Bryce Edwards. [caption id="attachment_4808" align="alignleft" width="150"]Dr Bryce Edwards. Dr Bryce Edwards.[/caption] Is New Zealand part of the refugee problem or the solution? For decades New Zealand has been a willing participant in wars and interventions in the Middle East, which have been central in causing the current refugee crisis. Why, then, does this country continue to refuse to play a tiny part in responding to the crisis we helped create?  Rather than thinking of the refugee crisis as one which this county needs to be charitable about, New Zealand actually needs to take refugees in order to make amends for its own actions. The best explanation for why we should be taking thousands of refugees at the moment, is put by Alan Gamlen, a lecturer in human geography at Victoria University in his opinion piece, Why NZ should raise the refugee quota. Here’s his crucial point: “New Zealand should act because it has helped create a world in which there are more refugees than ever before. Our involvement in Western military interventions in North Africa and the Middle East stretch much further back than the invasion of Iraq, right back into the era of the British Empire, whose post-World War One officials drew the arbitrary borders that ISIS is now fighting to erase. We are part of the problem and we have a moral duty to help to fix it”. Veteran leftwing activist Mike Treen argues something similar in a very thoughtful blog post, Peoples Power starts to assert our basic humanity in refugee crisis. He also points out that “The latest surge of human debris across the globe is a direct consequence of Western intervention in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan are the most recent to have been bombed into failed states”. On the political right, Peter Cresswell seems to agree: “The basic fact is that many of the world’s new refugees come from war zones in which we bear some responsibility. We should then, along with others, take some responsibility for the people displaced” – see: Talking refugee “quotas”. Cresswell argues that “we have no moral reason to exclude these people” and he points out how the economic arguments against accepting refugees don’t stack up. Others believe New Zealand needs to make amends for failing refugees in the past – as Heather du Plessis-Allan puts it: “If only to make up for our miserable effort last time around” – see her column, New Zealand needs to let in more refugees. She’s referring to New Zealand’s shameful response to the aftermath of World War II: “we didn’t pull our weight in rescuing refugees. The US, England and even Australia opened their doors to Jews fleeing the Holocaust and we sat like a child with crossed arms at the end of the world refusing to participate.  Back then our immigration policy was aimed at keeping New Zealand white”. Of course, New Zealand continues to intervene in the Middle East, and when it does so, uses all sorts of humanitarian language to underpin or justify its military actions. Most notably the Prime Minister made a strongly expressed speech in Parliament against those opposing the latest foray into Iraq, shouting that the Opposition need to “Get some guts and join the right side”. But that has now made Key and his government vulnerable to accusations of hypocrisy because they were willing to show strong moral leadership and rhetoric when siding with a US military campaign, but now refuse to do so faced with a humanitarian crisis. For the best account of this, see Andrew Geddis’ Guts, guts, got no guts. He asks: “So where is our moral leadership now?” Of course there have been times when New Zealand has been more compassionate – see, for example the 1966 National Film Unit’s nine-minute documentary, The Story of Seven-hundred Polish children. And for detailed and authoritative information about New Zealand’s history of taking in refugees, the Te Ara online Encyclopedia of New Zealand has two very good entries – Ann Beaglehole’s Refugees and Mark Derby’s Migrant and refugee organisations. The Tide is turning  Opinion leaders everywhere are rallying behind the need for a big refugee response from New Zealand. When I last wrote on this issue, I noted that the growing crisis wasn’t being taken seriously and there seemed to be overwhelming opposition to letting more refugees in – see: Why won’t New Zealand save more refugees? Months later the situation appears to have changed. Newspaper editorials have been unambiguous on the issue. Today’s Herald says that New Zealand’s position on refugees “invites scorn” at a time when the country “should be setting an example to the international community” – see: Crisis is tragic, and we have a duty to help. Furthermore the editorial admonishes Key for his history of scaremongering on “the prospect of boatloads of Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans washing up on our shores”. Similarly, the Dominion Post editorial declares “Our pitifully small intake is a stain on our international reputation” – see: We have a duty to offer a home to more than 750 refugees. The international media is picking up on New Zealand’s non-response – see the Chinese news agency Xinhuanet’s New Zealand PM under fire for inflexible refugee stance. Political columnists, broadcasters and commentators everywhere are almost in a consensus about the need for radical action. Long-time refugee advocate Rachel Smalley says this week that Our country must share the burden. Here’s her strongest point: “We are on the UN Security Council. It is hypocritical of us to talk about the need to restart peace talks in the Middle East and to find a resolution to ease the humanitarian crisis that’s gripping Iraq and Syria right now. If we shut the door here and say ‘not in our back yard’.” Other broadcasters are equally blunt. Here’s Duncan Garner: “You are inhumane if you don’t feel something. And we as humans must act.  The Prime Minister has surely run out of excuses on his refusal to increase refugee numbers.  He must move and he must act… The longer the PM digs his heels in the longer he looks out of touch.  It is time to move. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But now” – see: The Prime Minister must increase refugee numbers. Sean Plunket has been arguing for action and has run a poll, with 82% of those voting currently in agreement with him – see: Should New Zealand take more refugees? Even Willie Jackson – not a big fan of immigration – is forthright: “It is about whether we are decent human beings or not. If we come across a car accident or somebody drowning, our natural impulse is to try and save those people… What about our duties to toddlers drowning on the beach? Just sometimes, I wish John Key would drop the pragmatism and show himself a conviction politician” – see: It’s not a matter of quotas, it’s about saving lives. Academics, too, have become more outspoken on the issue. For the best account see Libby Wilson’s Waikato academic calls John Key out on refugee quota. In this report, the University of Waikato’s Al Gillespie criticises Key for his “untenable excuse” on the topic, saying taking 1000-2000 extra refugees would be “a drop in the bucket…. But at least it’s something. And at the moment to do nothing is just unconscionable”. Of course, all the political parties – National, aside – are now advocating for New Zealand to take more refugees – see Aimee Gulliver’s Increase NZ’s refugee quota, Government’s support partners say. Opposition to refugees coming to NZ Not everyone is on board the growing pro-refugee consensus. Some on the political right are still citing financial – and other – reasons not to act. This is best encapsulated in Mike Hosking’s 2-minute video, Who will pay for more refugees? And today Judith Collins justified the National party position on the Paul Henry breakfast show – see Refugee quota boost may not help Syrians – Collins. John Key has also been outlining the reasons why the Government doesn’t want to act – see Simon Wong’s Upping refugee quota easier said than done – Key. In response to this, Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei calls Key, “spineless, heartless and gutless”. However National is now beginning to change its tune. This is best dealt with by Rachel Smalley in her latest column, Why John Key has got it wrong on refugees. Smalley bluntly asserts: “I think the party’s strategists thought their centre-right voter base would support them when it came to the refugee crisis… National will have been polling behind the scenes on this issue, and I think we can read between the lines as to what the results of that poll were – when faced with the biggest humanitarian crisis on the planet today, our government got it very, very wrong”. Smalley predicts that the Government will shift slowly so as not to appear to be capitulating to popular demand. But Key’s response might only be just enough to quieten his critics, but achieve little: “It could be that he allows a small emergency intake. 100 or 200 people, perhaps. And that will take the pressure off the government for the moment, and appease the growing chorus of critics”. Much is being made of Key’s own mother having been a refugee – see, for example Brian Rudman’s Smart money is on opening doors to refugees. For a short history of Ruth Key, see Eugene Bingham’s 2008 article, Survivor who escaped the Holocaust. He reports that she has undoubtedly had the biggest impact him. In that case Gordon Campbell says Key’s “inaction is particularly surprising. His own family history might have been expected to induce him to reach a different conclusion” – see: On the government’s response to the refugee crisis in Europe. Furthermore, Campbell notes “Given that history, Key is not in a strong position to tell other refugees to wait their turn, go through proper channels, and delay their arrival until the recipient country has the ideal reception procedures in place”. For an even more sceptical take on Key’s lack of action, see Danyl Mclauchlan’s blog post, Nothing will come of nothing. He simply sees a cold-hearted pragmatism behind it all, saying that Key’s “instincts are to help those who can help him and then extract maximal benefits from the exchange. And this mentality works for him personally, obviously, but it points to the nihilism in the dark heart of the transactional politics Key is such a master of: impoverished refugees have nothing to offer him, so they get nothing”. Perhaps the strongest criticism of Key’s inaction and justifications comes from political journalist Andrea Vance – see: John Key shifts stance on refugees as hospitable Kiwis make a point. She labels it shameful and says: “There but for the grace of God go you, or I, or John Key.  That you are not one of the hopeless millions joining the largest migration crisis in living memory is only an accident of birthplace”. Key’s excuses have been laughable according to Jane Clifton. Writing in the latest Listener, she says Key’s “latest shocker was to try to convince us that the United Nations would be put out if we upped our refugee quota in order to accept some Syrians. As if UN functionaries would be thumping their desks, fuming, ‘Unbelievable. We have to do all our flow charts and discussion papers all over again because bloody inconsiderate New Zealand is taking 250 more’.” As for the prime minister’s argument that the situation is too big for New Zealand to respond to, Amnesty International New Zealand director Grant Bayldon has been scathing: “If you see a house that’s burning down and there are 10 people inside, you don’t stand out on the footpath and say we can only save two, what difference will it make? You do what you can” – see Amelia Langford’s PM cold on upping refugee quota. What can be done? Many people feel so strongly about it that they are committing to bring refugees into their own homes. For example, Professor Bronwyn Hayward –Head of the Politics Department at the University of Canterbury – has made her own personal commitment: “next year we will have children away at university and we too can make room too… Our spare rooms not flash and the curtains are not sorted out, but we could also make room for a couple or parent and child” – see: Raise the Refugee Quota: expanding our empathy, one spare room at a time. Likewise, blogger John Palethorpe reflects on the extraordinary displays of compassionate banners at football games in Europe welcoming refugees, and says “I’ve got a bedsheet and some paint ready” – see: Refugees Welcome. For more on how the public is responding, see Scott Yeoman’s Hundreds of Kiwis pledge to help refugees. In relation to this, see the Facebook group: Open homes – Open borders – We will host a refugee – Aotearoa. See also, Josie Pagani’s We can do something right now – refugee crisis and Tracey Barnett’s Would you host a refugee? There are also online petitions to sign – see Amnesty International’s Petition to Double the refugee quota and Action Station’s Doing Our Bit: Welcome More Refugees to NZ. There will be plenty more heat put on the Government over its response to the crisis. And it’s not just about the numbers of refugees, but also how well the government deals with those we do let in.Tomorrow on TV3’s The Nation there will be a report on the services provided, and whether we do enough. One of the people who is most responsible for highlighting New Zealand’s inadequate response is Murdoch Stephens, the lead researcher and spokesperson for Doing Our Bit. You can watch a 5-minute TV3 interview with him: Murdoch Stephens – extended interview. He has written two very good opinion pieces: They’re not migrants, double the refugee quota now and No defence for keeping NZ’s refugee quota so small. And you can find out more at the Doing Our Bit Facebook page. Finally, there are some truly cutting images being produced by New Zealand cartoonists about this country’s non-response to the crisis – see: Cartoons about New Zealand’s “response” to the Refugee crisis. There are also some informative GIF-cartoons in Toby Manhire and Toby Morris’ What to do about the world refugee crisis? That is the question. And if you’re in the mood for biting parodies, see local satirist Scott Yorke’s blog posts, Keep your dead children off our beaches! and A statement from John Key.]]>

NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for September 4, 2015

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Newsroom Digest This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 8 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Friday 4th September. NEWSROOM_MONITOR Top stories in the current news cycle include Z Energy engaging in a $71 million standoff with the Customs Department over excise duties dating back to 1986, Nauru accusing New Zealand of undermining the Pacific island’s sovereignty after the New Zealand Government has cut $1.2 million of aid to Nauru’s justice system and a gathering of hundreds of Cantabrians on New Brighton beach this morning to mark five years since the September 2010 earthquake. Note: As well as providing a precis of leading broadcast bulletins each day, our NewsRoom_Monitor service does a daily paper round with succinct ‘news picks’ from the main metropolitan papers emailed by 9am each morning. If you’re interested in a free trial please email monitor@newsroom.co.nz POLITICS PULSE Media releases issued from Parliament by political parties today included: Government: Parents confident in ECE services; New video to help push Healthy Families NZ; Marking International Day of Charity tomorrow; Minister praises huge progress since 2010; NZ electricity market well-placed to drive innovation and efficiency; Family violence review submissions closing soon; $120k to fund social enterprise projects for young people; Trade Minister to co-chair UAE-New Zealand Joint Economic Commission; Minister to attend APEC Ministerial Meeting; High school student triumphs at science awards; New Auckland premises for Framework Trust; Reports shows success of Whānau Ora approach; Students dig deep to get results Greens: Has Minister instructed officials to refuse OIAs?; Green Party Will Seek Leave To Introduce Bill To Increase Refugee Quota Labour: Cable failure on Great Track walk huge potential risk; Emergency bill could save 750 refugees; NZTA blows a year of roading funding on flyover New Zealand First: Speech: New Zealand First Is The Party For Small Business; Silver Fern Farms Has New Zealand First Drafting Bill NZ National Party: Minister congratulates talented youth of Porirua; MP looking for young person to represent Maungakiekie; Young Hutt social entrepreneurs encouraged to go for $120K LINKS OF THE DAY Links of the day have been a feature of NewsRoom_Digest since we first started production in August 2014 at newsroom-nz.tumblr.com. We are currently building an archive of these at:http://newsroomplus.com/resources/resourceful-links/ FAMILY VIOLENCE: New Zealanders have two more weeks to have their say about ways to strengthen family violence laws. The public consultation is open at https://consultations.justice.govt.nz/policy/family-violence-law until Friday, 18 September. GREEN CLEANERS: Manufacturers of laundry balls market them as an “environmentally friendly” cleaning option. But a Consumer NZ test has found you’d be better off saving your money and just using water to do your laundry. For more information, visit http:www.consumer.org.nz/articles/laundry-balls HEALTHY FAMILIES: The Healthy Families NZ video has been launched, encouraging people in their communities to take action against the rising rate of preventable chronic disease. The video was co-created by the communities taking part in Healthy Families NZ and the Ministry of Health. You can watch the video on Youtube athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB2dRqDgEkE or on the Healthy Families NZ website,http://ww.healthyfamilies.govt.nz NZ ELECTRICITY MARKET: An experts’ electricity forum has endorsed the Government’s market-led approach to regulating the electricity sector. Read the Smart Grid Forum Report here: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/energy/electricity-market/nz-smart-grid-forum/publications/first-year-report-to-minister-june-2015.pdf/view PARENTS CONFIDENT IN ECE SERVICES: The 2014 Kiwis Count survey dataset released yesterday by the State Services Commission shows that parental satisfaction in ECE service overall is high. The survey results are available at: http://www.ssc.govt.nz/kiwis-count PROJECTS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE: $120,000 is available to young entrepreneurs under the Opportunities for Young People fund. Read more here: http://www.myd.govt.nz/funding/youth-enterprise-initatives-fund.html And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Friday 4th September. Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

Red Cross needs your support to help refugees

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New Zealand Red Cross is offering concerned Kiwis some practical ideas for how they can help make a difference in the refugee crisis. “It’s difficult to know what we can do so far away from the terrible scenes we are seeing in the Mediterranean. Red Cross is there on the ground and our links with the international response mean that New Zealanders can directly support the people working on the beaches and areas where the need is greatest,” Secretary General, Tony Paine, said. “This terrible crisis is bringing out the best in people all around the world, and New Zealanders can stand alongside the rest of humanity as we work together to ensure everyone on the planet has somewhere safe they can call home.” He said Kiwis can help by: • Donating to the Red Cross Mediterranean refugee Crisis Appeal – with the guarantee that 100% of funds donated will go to the Red Cross response on the ground in the worst affected countries and areas • Donating through New Zealand Red Cross website to support the organisation’s work with new refugees in New Zealand. • Become a refugee resettlement support volunteer who helps newly arrived ‘Kiwis’ settle into their new lives. • Donating small household goods (i.e. not furniture, but things for setting up kitchens, bedding etc.) that will help turn houses into homes for refugee families who resettle in New Zealand. Donations of goods can be made at any New Zealand Red Cross Shop. • Give someone from a refugee background a job, which is a key part of the resettlement process. This can be organised through the Red Cross’s Pathways to Employment programme. To help refugees visit www.redcross.org.nz. Mr Paine said New Zealand Red Cross was being inundated by requests from people asking how they can assist. “Kiwis have always been generous in the face of global tragedies and we’ve always welcomed refugees fleeing violence. Sadly, the scale of the crisis means it’s time to say ‘we need to do more’.” –]]>

Leaving a legacy for the future

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NewsroomPlus.com – Contributed by Heart Foundation

With Include A Charity Week fast approaching, now is a perfect time for Kiwis to think about supporting the Heart Foundation’s life-saving work.

Heart disease is New Zealand’s biggest killer of both men and women, claiming the lives of more than one Kiwi every 90 minutes.

Next week is Include A Charity Week and the Heart Foundation – New Zealand’s leading heart health charity – is asking Kiwis to help continue its life-saving work by leaving a gift in their will.

Karen Miller, Heart Foundation Bequest Specialist, says despite huge advances in treatment and prevention, heart disease continues to devastate thousands of Kiwi families each year.

“But it doesn’t have to be this way. By leaving a gift in your will to the Heart Foundation you can help improve the heart health of all New Zealanders, ensuring the reduction in heart disease continues well into the future,” she says.

“Legacy funds help keep New Zealand families together for longer, for generations to come.”

Karen says leaving a gift in your will is not something reserved for just the rich and famous.

“Every little bit helps, whether it is a sizeable gift or not. Anyone can do it and it’s easy to draw up a will and include a gift to charity.”

One Kiwi leaving a gift to the Heart Foundation in his will is Waiuku farmer, Lawrie Coe.

Lawrie Coe

Lawrie, who has had heart issues for 30 years, says it was a natural choice for him and wife Rae to make a bequest.

Rae & Lawrie Coe

“The reason we did this was due to my ongoing heart problems,” Lawrie says. “It doesn’t affect our current standard of living but we know it will make a real difference to the lives of others. It’s one way of giving back to those who’ve helped me.”

Another reason the couple want to support the Heart Foundation is because of the excellent care Lawrie has received from his cardiologist Dr Ivor Gerber.

“The Heart Foundation, through its supporters, played a major role in Dr Gerber’s early training by providing him with research grants and an Overseas Training Fellowship. We want to help the Heart Foundation fund more important research and cardiology training.”

Lawrie says setting up a will was simple; through their solicitor they made provisions for family and then allocated funds to the Heart Foundation.

“We feel good knowing that the life-saving work of the Heart Foundation will carry on and that we have played a part in helping future generations.”

Include A Charity is a movement to encourage more Kiwis to include a gift in their will to their favourite charity, once they’ve looked after family and friends.

If you have not yet drawn up a will, contact your solicitor to ensure your wishes are carried out as intended. Remember to include your friends and family, and then consider leaving a legacy to the Heart Foundation.

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Carolyn S: Back to the source – From Windows to Linux

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Looking for alternatives to Microsoft’s Windows OS Last week, I wrote about how my brief acquaintance with Windows 10 operating system (OS) triggered concerns that my dependence on Microsoft was leading me to places I didn’t agree with: too much corporate dominance and control over my most private digital activities and concerns with the way users were being unwittingly delivered to advertisers, marketers, and other profiteering corporates. Apple Macs My first response was to start looking at buying a Mac laptop, which use Apple’s own OS. I cruised some local shops, and was getting close to making a selection. But I also have some reservations about Apple: it’s poor record of employment conditions in China,and it’s approach as a competitive, corporate, with intensive marketing strategies, though somewhat less aggressively monopolistic than Microsoft. Between these 2 corporations they have been a bit of a duopoly dominating computing operating systems. Open Source and Free Software Movements Then I started to think about Linux. At that stage my knowledge of it was limited. I have the time and motivation. Windows is like the ready-made-meals option: very convenient and easy to use without a lot of effort. However, the small print on the package contains lots of potential unhealthy contents, masking the actual contents with e-numbers. The alternative to ready-made, highly processed foods, is to make an effort to shop regularly at fruit and veges shops, or farmers markets. And it’s maybe a small step towards something like the digital equivalent of growing your own veges – and some control over the OSes people are using. I associated Linux with the Open Source movement, which I associated with collaborative, non-profit-seeking development of computing software. In the 1980s, and 1990s, I was hopeful that the collaborative ethos was going to maintain a strong presence in computing and its development. Many had an ethos of contributing to the social good taking priority over competition and personal gain. However, I could already see that commercial interests were gathering, exploring ways to make money out of people’s voluntary efforts. And I was aware of the gathering momentum in popular culture towards individualism and profit-seeking. There has been some tension between the Free Software and Open Source movements. Open Source focuses on the practical benefits, with better systems being developed through collaborative efforts. The Free Software movement focuses more on a “freedom” ethos, with the “free” being more like “free speech” than “free beer”.

For the free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, essential respect for the users’ freedom. By contrast, the philosophy of open source considers issues in terms of how to make software “better”—in a practical sense only. […]

For the free software movement, however, non-free software is a social problem, and the solution is to stop using it and move to free software.

However, Open Source advocates say the “Free Software” term is ambiguous, and that Open Source stresses the “availability of source code”, as argued here. The debates are laid out on  Oxford Privacy, the source of the accompanying featured image.

Linux OS

Linux began with an ethos of providing a free operating system and software. In more recent times, it has become more of a paid enterprise, with the majority of people who work on it being paid. It is also used in many current applications, such as automated systems in people’s homes: Since I wrote my Windows 10 piece I have started investigating the possibility of using a Linux OS in order to wean myself off my Microsoft dependency. There are several version of the OS, each being developed by a team. They are called “distributions” or “distros”. Ubuntu I chose to go with the Ubuntu system, because it is the most well known, and it is claimed that it is a good distro for beginners. I was a bit nervous about doing this, so bought some hardware for this purpose, rather than risk downloading Ubuntu onto my laptop that currently runs Windows 7. Ubuntu seems quite familiar to this long time Windows user, while also having many unfamiliar features. There have been some frustrations and wrong turns, as happens when learning something new, and it has required some effort and time on my part. I still have much to learn, but feel the effort I will be rewarded with more control over the computing devices I use, and less dependent on the intrusive and manipulative market ethos of Microsoft. This article has been drafted on LibreOffice Writer, the default system on Ubuntu, and I have used the OS for some of the research. My next piece will be about my journey into Ubuntu.]]>

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: Jacinda Ardern and the “pretty little thing” debate

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New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.

Political Roundup by Dr Bryce Edwards. [caption id="attachment_4808" align="alignleft" width="150"]Dr Bryce Edwards. Dr Bryce Edwards.[/caption]Could Jacinda Ardern lead the Labour Party, and even be NZ’s next female prime minister? Her swift rise in popularity is provoking debate about the political direction of the Labour Party, it’s leadership and sexism in politics. No one is seriously suggesting that Andrew Little is about to step down or be rolled as the Labour Party leader. But if speculation starts to arise, there is now a prominent name being bandied around as his replacement. Jacinda Ardern is currently grabbing people’s imagination as a potential prime minister – see Audrey Young’s report, Jacinda Ardern’s star still rising. This is reported in the latest Herald DigiPoll which put Ardern as the fourth most popular candidate for prime minister, and showed that she has a similar level of support to Annette King as a potential replacement for Little as leader. In another article, Young reports that Ardern “would be a popular choice as deputy leader in November when Ms King is due to step down” – see: Labour’s support recovers to 30s. Such positive coverage for Ardern comes in the wake of the Herald’s Mood of the Boardroom report that showed her to be the favourite Labour MP of CEOs. Others rate her highly too – Simon Wilson of Metro magazine pronounced that she is “practically worshipped among the urban young” in Auckland, and she was rated #35 on Metro’s list of most influential Aucklanders – see: Who really runs this town. Ardern is also getting plenty of attention in the other parts of the mainstream media. Her recent cover-star role in Next magazine – titled “Why she’s our prime minister in waiting” – caused a stir. For another example of Ardern’s appearances in women’s magazines, see the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly article, Jacinda Ardern’s country childhood. Despite the hype, some question whether Ardern has enough substance or sufficient track record to be a serious contender for greater leadership roles. Symbolic of this, it has been noted that the Wikipedia entry on Jacinda Ardern has her “Political Beliefs” section left blank. The “Pretty little thing” debate Then came the infamous “Pretty little thing” remark, in which Graham Lowe, the well known rugby league figure declared Jacinda Ardern a ‘pretty little thing’, would ‘look good’ as PM on the Paul Henry Show. Lowe also said she came across as “smart” and had a “good television image” like Key – see the original video: Panel: Jimi Hunt and Graham Lowe. The NBR’s Rob Hosking later pointed out that “anyone expecting enlightened social and political comment from a rugby league coach approaching his 70th birthday is always going to be doomed to at least a degree of disappointment”. Nonetheless Lowe’s comments drew an outpouring of condemnation. And for another sympathetic reading of Lowe’s comments, see Pete George’s “Pretty little thing”. Grant Robertson issued a furious defence of Ardern online saying “I am sick to death of the ignorant, sexist bullshit” – see his Facebook post. Or see the NBR’s coverage, Robertson defends Ardern against ‘sexist bulls**t’. Others have also rallied to Ardern’s defence – see Rachel Smalley’s Not so pretty: Sexism and Jacinda Ardern. She asks “would political commentators ever describe a male MP as “vapid” or “pretty vacant”? That sort of language is only ever applied to women”. See also Pearl Going’s article, If John Key were a ‘pretty little thing’. She asks “Would we tolerate Key’s hijinks from a female PM?” Vernon Small couldn’t fathom why we still have to even debate “the appropriateness of male media mouths calling senior politicians – or anyone else for that matter – “a pretty little thing”? – see: Jacinda Ardern: Much more than a ‘pretty little thing’. Small argued that the fact that Ardern is now ranking so high in the preferred prime minister stakes and is favourite to succeed Annette King as Labour’s deputy leader “makes her a political heavy weight” as of right. Fellow Labour candidate, Deborah Russell took issue with the notion that Ardern invites comments on her appearance because of her willingness to take part in glamorous photo shoots. She points out that the accompanying articles are generally serious in nature and Ardern uses them “to make a series of points about what she values, what she wants to see happening in New Zealand society, women in the workforce, women in politics, what she hopes to achieve” – see: Pretty little things. Russell also notes that the prevailing political attitude towards “women’s magazines” is condescending and dismissive. She says that by appearing in these publications Ardern “connects with a whole group of people who may not read the Serious Journals That Men Read Which Are Therefore The Most Important Ways of Communicating… By working with women’s magazines, Jacinda Ardern is making a big effort to connect with a much wider community than just the standard political circles”. Danyl Mclauchlan echoes this last point when he notes that Ardern’s popularity subsequent to her coverage in women’s magazines “tells us something very interesting about the power of that type of media, which is something that political nerds like me are usually oblivious to” – see: Hang on a second. But Mclauchlan radically diverges from his left-wing brethren when he asserts that it is undeniable that Ardern is getting a high level of coverage in these publications partly “because she’s really pretty”. Mclauchlan insists “there’s something problematic about insisting politicians shouldn’t be judged on their looks when they do appear to be succeeding specifically because of their appearance”. For Mclauchlan it’s the reasons for Ardern’s popularity that “complicates” the matter: “She isn’t popular because she’s an effective campaigner, or because she’s been breaking big stories or landing hits on the government in the House. She’s popular because she’s gotten glowing coverage in the women’s magazines over the last few months”. See also, Mclauchlan’s follow-up blog post, Lost in the forest of Ardern. He says he remains an “Ardern skeptic”. Matthew Hooton makes the same point: “In any case, Ms Ardern must know the [Mood of the Boardroom] accolade is unearned: she can point to no great achievements in her portfolio work… Much more important to Ms Ardern’s rise, as for Mr Key’s, are her regular appearances in the likes of the Women’s Weekly and Next and on Back Benches and Breakfast. She has well over 35,000 Twitter followers while Mr Little has yet to break 8000, and an army on Facebook and Instagram. We know her first cat was called Norm. It was this activity – not her endorsement by chief executives or any portfolio work – that saw her enter DigiPoll’s preferred prime minister list” – see: Ardern emerges as Key’s natural successor (paywalled). Hooton says that the DigiPoll result is significant as this poll does not offer prompts, and “polling firms who do provide a menu will now include her in their surveys.” He pointedly mentions that Ardern “has never had a job outside politics” and says that while she may yet achieve her goal of following in her mentor Helen Clark’s footsteps and becoming prime minister, if she does so it will be because she is a politician more in the mold of Key “who has successfully turned the prime ministership into a subset of the entertainment industry”. You can also listen to the 24-minute discussion about this and other issues in: Politics with Mike Williams and Matthew Hooton. Modern superficial politics Hooton’s NBR colleague Rob Hosking finds this picture of modern politics depressing and agrees that Ardern’s “rise is not due to any political achievement. There aren’t any. She has risen largely because she comes over well in the fluffier media”. The title of Hosking’s paywalled column encapsulates his view – see: ‘Vote for me, I’m one of the cool kids’ – the Ardern appeal. Note, also that the digital editor gave the story the controversial URL (derived from the Sex Pistols song): http://www.nbr.co.nz/pretty-vacant   On Hooton’s comparison between Ardern and Key, Hosking points out that prior to becoming PM Key did win his electorate and was capable of out-debating Michael Cullen. He contrasts this with Ardern’s failure to win Auckland Central or to score any notable hits on the Government. Hosking concludes that contrary to Clark’s women’s magazine appearances, which made strategic sense in tempering her dour image, Arderns have simply reinforced her lightweight image. Hosking believes this image may not be deserved but Ardern has “provided nothing to show she is a heavyweight. If she is to rise further – and she very much wants to – she will need to do so”. In a follow up column Hosking concedes that Ardern is routinely subject to comments – including Lowe’s – that are “ugly and dismissive” but he doubles down on his earlier assessment of Ardern saying the politics she had displayed so far were “vapid” and “substance-free” and “we are entitled to query whether someone so often and frequently touted as a future prime minister has any substance to offer, or whether it is all image” – see: Jacinda Ardern: substance, not sex appeal, is the problem (paywalled). Chris Trotter is in some agreement with Hosking, saying Ardern is talented but  “One can listen to her speeches, and be impressed by the strength of their delivery, and yet, when they’re over, find it difficult to say with any certainty what they were about” – see: Woman Interrupted: Some thoughts on the Jacinda Ardern controversy. Trotter attributes this lack of substance to Ardern’s ideological inheritance – “Not one of Savage’s children, like Clark, but a child of Rogernomics and Ruthanasia” and a career thus far guided by “Third Way theorists”. Trotter seems optimistic that Ardern will develop more ideological substance, and believes leadership speculation has simply come too soon for this “work-in-progress”. Finally, see what social media have been saying about the debate – see my blog post, Top tweets about Jacinda Ardern and the “pretty little thing” debate. –]]>

Which emissions scenarios are best for kiwi farmers?

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NewsroomPlus.com – Contributed by Motu

New Zealand farmers have more at stake than most kiwis when it comes to how agriculture is included in global climate change policy. Researchers at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research found that what is good for New Zealand is not always good for our farmers. Motu is a not-for-profit, non-partisan research institute.

“In NZ, 48% of greenhouse gas emissions are from agriculture of which methane is 30 percent and nitrous oxide makes up 18 percent. This is a very high proportion compared with the rest of the developed world,” said Suzi Kerr, Senior Fellow at Motu.

“In the lead up to the upcoming Paris talks on national emissions targets, it is worthwhile for New Zealand to push for effective global mitigation for agriculture. This will lower the global costs of limiting warming to 2 degrees and lower the costs to New Zealand. It will also raise commodity prices for dairy and meat, which provides benefits for our farmers, though not enough to make farmers want global regulation if they would face the full emissions price.” said Dr Kerr.

Recent modelling by Stroombergen and Reisinger explored the impact of three different global policy scenarios on New Zealand as a whole:

  • All in this together – where all emissions (including agriculture) face the same price,
  • Agricultural conundrum – all emissions are priced except those from agriculture, but countries are still accountable for those emissions,
  • Agriculture out – all emission are priced, except those from agriculture and countries are not accountable for those emissions.

Relative to a world with no climate policy, meeting a 2 degree target without mitigating agricultural emissions (Agricultural Conundrum and Agriculture Out) would raise livestock commodity prices by around 14 percent in 2020 because less agricultural land would be available globally. Agriculture would compete for land with the forests which are needed to store carbon. Including agricultural emissions in global climate policy (All in this Together) cuts the global CO2 price in half. It also raises livestock commodity prices (dairy and meat) by an additional 4 percent in 2020.

Motu has extended this analysis to explore the impacts on New Zealand farmers assuming they face either 10 percent or 100 percent of the emissions price in the first two scenarios but no emissions price in the third.

Across the scenarios that meet the global target, New Zealand benefits most in the All in this Together scenario as do New Zealand farmers under the previously proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS) rules – with farmers initially facing only 10% of the emissions price. However, despite the higher livestock commodity prices in All in this Together, New Zealand farmers slightly prefer Agriculture Out if they face a 100 percent emission liability. Livestock commodity prices do not rise enough to match the higher costs with an emission liability and farmers do not benefit much from the lower CO2 price. The worst outcome for both New Zealand and New Zealand farmers is if we are responsible for agricultural emissions but other countries do not act to mitigate them.

The way methane is measured is also important. The most commonly discussed metrics are Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Global Temperature Change Potential (GTP).

GWP with a time horizon of 100 years has been adopted as the standard climate change metric under the UNFCCC. GWP now assigns methane a value of 28 times CO2 whereas GTP assigns methane a value of just 7 times CO2 for the same 100-year time horizon. This has little effect on New Zealand’s preferences but a large effect on what scenario farmers will prefer.

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Figure 1 Change in profitability of two model farms compared with baseline in 2020 (left axis) alongside change in New Zealand’s real gross net disposable income (right axis). This figure illustrates the differences between three global policy scenarios and two greenhouse gas metrics.

The GTP metric is better for NZ farmers than GWP simply because they would face a lower emissions cost. While GTP leads to higher global CO2 prices and lower livestock prices, the fact that it puts much lower weight on methane relative to CO2, more than offsets the differences. This contrasts with the impact on NZ’s real gross national disposable income, for which GWP is always slightly preferred due to the lower global CO2 prices. Overall though, which policy scenario the globe is in is still more important than which metric is chosen, even for farmers.

“Recent dairy prices illustrate that farmers face volatile international commodity prices – these prices do affect New Zealand as a whole but farmers bear the brunt. Similarly our modelling shows that farmers may see much larger gains or losses from international agricultural greenhouse gas policy than the country as a whole,” said Dr Kerr.

“However, global climate policies on agriculture, and on forests, could lead to higher commodity prices for NZ’s farmers. In the run up to COP21 in Paris, our Government will need to be mindful of these factors when negotiating an agreement, when deciding how to focus our efforts to support mitigation in developing countries, and also when deciding how large an emissions liability individual farms can bear,” said Dr Kerr.

The Motu working paper Methane and Metrics: From global climate policy to the NZ farm by Motu researchers Suzi Kerr and Zack Dorner, was funded under the “Coordination and Cooperation for Effective Climate Policy Design and Implementation” programme funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change programme. All opinions, errors and omissions are the responsibility of the authors.

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NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for September 3, 2015

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Newsroom Digest This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 8 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Thursday 3rd September. NEWSROOM_MONITOR Top stories in the current news cycle include the suspension of New Zealand’s funding to Nauru for its justice system due to ongoing concerns about civil rights abuses, a report that highlights a sharemarket crash is the biggest economic risk to the country and would cost Auckland alone $5.5 billion and PM John Key signalling the Government could consider lifting the current 750 annual refugee quota before the scheduled review next year. Note: As well as providing a precis of leading broadcast bulletins each day, our NewsRoom_Monitor service does a daily paper round with succinct ‘news picks’ from the main metropolitan papers emailed by 9am each morning. If you’re interested in a free trial please email monitor@newsroom.co.nz POLITICS PULSE Media releases issued from Parliament by political parties today included: Government: New research on financial capability in schools; New container terminal to boost regional growth in Whanganui; Community groups receive $918,000 in War on Weeds funding; New plan for Waimakariri residential red zones; $13.5m redevelopment for Ohope Beach School; Guardians Kaitiaki of the Alexander Turnbull Library Appointments; Library and Information Advisory Commission Appointments; First certificate issued under new UAV rules; $96.5 million for new science research programmes; Feedback sought on Disability Action Plan; Crown-iwi agreement on Auckland housing programme; Crown land agreement to boost social housing; Debt remission changes get green light; Safer ePharmacy system for Midland’s patients Greens: Animal health at stake if HT swede sales continue; Yes we can! Green climate plan shows 40% target by 2030 is achievable; Key’s lack of compassion is appalling Labour: John Key – where is your conscience?; Charter application skew assists rich American; PM must stop making excuses for offensive MP; More housing humiliation for Nick Smith NZ National Party: Bishop opens Youth MP nomination process United Future Party: Dunne Speaks -The future of Environment Canterbury LINKS OF THE DAY Links of the day have been a feature of NewsRoom_Digest since we first started production in August 2014 at newsroom-nz.tumblr.com. We are currently building an archive of these at:http://newsroomplus.com/resources/resourceful-links/ $96.5 MILLION FOR NEW SCIENCE RESEARCH: Funding for 48 new science research programmes, for a total investment of $96.5 million over the next four years. The funding has been allocated through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) 2015 science investment round. For more information on the successful research programmes can be found at: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/science-innovation/investment-funding/current-funding/science-investment-round-2015-successful-proposals BANKS STEP UP FOR DAIRY: Banks are providing much needed support to New Zealand’s dairy industry during this period of desperately low prices, a survey from Federated Farmers has revealed. The Federated Farmers Banking Survey was completed by 1,300 farmers around New Zealand (over half of them in the dairy industry). Click here for a breakdown of results by region and farming industry: http://www.fedfarm.org.nz/files/Banking%20Survey%20-%20Sep%2015.pdf BUILDING ACTIVITY: Over $4 billion worth of building work was put in place in the June 2015 quarter, up nearly 8 percent on the June 2014 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. This was the highest quarterly value recorded in the 50 years since the series began, and represents almost $900 worth of building work per person. Click here for more:http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/Construction/ValueOfBuildingWork_HOTPJun15qtr.aspx DEBT REMISSION CHANGES: Cabinet has given its approval to a set of proposals intended to address the current inequitable situation where debt remission between related parties can, under certain circumstances, result in an incorrect taxation outcome. For examples and technical details refer to : http://www.taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz DISABILITY ACTION PLAN: The first annual update of the Disability Action Plan 2014-2018 will help government agencies work together on actions that are important to disabled people. More information on the Disability Action Plan update process can be found at: http://www.odi.govt.nz/disability-action-plan FINANCIAL CAPABILITY: A study undertaken by the Commission for Financial Capability has shown that many teachers think students’ money management skills are low, while in contrast students are confident they know how to manage their money. The Commission for Financial Capability’s Report can be found at: http://www.cffc.org.nz/the-commission/research-and-reports/financial-capability-research/ NEW ZEALAND’S BIGGEST RISK: A report on the global impact of catastrophes says a share market crash is the biggest economic risk to New Zealand and would cost Auckland alone $5.5 billion. Lloyd’s City Risk Index 2015-2025 looks at the economic exposure from 18 man-made and natural threats in 301 cities. Read more here:http://cambridgeriskframework.com/wcr PLANT ANALYSIS: The results from analysis of Southland swede plants collected last season is backing up DairyNZ advice to farmers that feeding maturing swede crops increases the risk of ill-health in cows. DairyNZ’s full farmer advisory on the plant analysis is available here : http://www.dairynz.co.nz/farm/adverse-events/southland-swedes/ And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Thursday 3rd September. Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

Keith Rankin on the Migration Crisis in Europe, Africa and Asia

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Analysis by Keith Rankin. This article was also published on Scoop.co.nz. The flood of immigrants into Europe this year represents something quite separate from traditional refugee settlements that spring up near to borders of conflict zones. This is globalisation in action, not simply refuge from conflict, and it reminds us of the migration waves of the nineteenth century. ‘Globalisation’ is a loaded word. To some it’s a project, a kind of conspiracy of kindred capitalists the world over to exploit 90% of the world’s population in order to facilitate the aggrandisement of the richest percentile. It is in fact a reality facilitated by increased connectedness through cheaper transport and telecommunications, and by higher per capita incomes. Globalisation may also represent a philosophical commitment to cosmopolitan over nationalist living spaces. In capitalist terms, it’s the extent to which global markets replace national markets, in goods and services, in finance, and in labour. It is exemplified by the ‘law of one price’. In truly global markets there is one price for milk powder, one price for pork bellies, one price for cappuccinos, one price for gold, one interest rate for low-risk inter-temporal trade, and one global wage for unskilled (commodity) labour. Economists are attracted to the Wilsonian post-WW1 division of the world (referring to Woodrow Wilson) into 200 nation states; states defined by the literal and metaphoric fences their governments erect. In an economists’ ideal Wilsonian world, an unskilled worker would be paid the same in any of these 200 countries. Likewise a doctor or nurse would earn the same wherever she or he lived. Richer countries would be richer because they have more skilled workers and employ more skilled workers, not because they pay unskilled workers more. In a first-best economists’ world, trade and finance would be the main equalising ingredients; people would stay in their countries of origin. Freely-flowing finance – unspent income from the richest countries – would be invested in other countries, raising their productivity levels. Large-scale migration would not take place simply because there would be no benefit; the benefits of global capitalism would come to the people in their own countries, rather than people migrating to the centres of capital. Capital migrating to labour. In a second-best (and more realistic) globalised world, labour migrates to capital. Indeed capital may be invested in that migration. This is the globalised real-world, and it sits uneasily with fenced nation states. Such globalisation is far from new. Migration of labour to land or capital has always occurred, especially but not only within polities such as empires or confederations. Where polities were small – usually because of geographical constraints – migration created new polities; tribes or island settlements. Thus New Zealand was settled 800 years ago as a migration process where incomes elsewhere (New Zealand was a classic ‘elsewhere’) were likely to be significantly enhanced, and it was worth a high-risk venture to achieve such higher living standards. And there was undoubtedly an ‘expulsion’ element; those remaining in emigrant societies gained also from reduced population pressure. By the early nineteenth century, the European capitalist world was going to hell in a handcart of inequality and (especially in Britain) deforestation. Evangelical movements signalled that Revelation was imminent. It didn’t happen, thanks to both the seemingly empty ‘new world’, and to those fossil fuels that we had learnt to exploit. It was an unparalleled century of global relocation. Labour moved to wherever capital gave it opportunity, within polities and between them. Six hours in a leaky boat in the Mediterranean is tough and risky. So was six months in slightly-less-leaky boats, for the most part in the roaring forties of the Southern Ocean. Even fear of being eaten by carnivores or cannibals could not keep aspirant labour away. James Belich showed in Replenishing the Earth (2009) that the first explosive migration west in America took place mainly after war, not during war (especially in the decade after 1815). This was driven by intensified economic competition and the deployment of new technology that significantly lowered the financial cost of travel. Capitalists needed other activities (other than war) to finance. Migration became an industry in itself. Capital would not simply come to the people and make them prosperous where they were. Capital came to the people, enabling the people to move. In those migrations labour moved to land, which is another form of capital. We know that economic growth has been strong in Africa this century (see my chartAfrican Economy). Growth has also been strong in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, countries with emigrant pressure. Likewise in Britain and Europe in the nineteenth century, growth was as much a feature of the emigrant counties as it was of the immigrant destinations. But growth during industrialisation (eg the British industrial revolution) was a disruptive growth, as I think we can assume that African and south Asian growth is today. Even in Iraq and Syria, for the parts unaffected by IS, the conflicts this year are not as devastating as in previous years. The people coming into Europe clearly have greater financial means than traditional refugees. These countries are fertile territory for the growth of a credit-driven emigration industry. Investors in emigrants and emigration networks get their returns when enough of the emigrants earn enough in places like Germany to service their debts. Of note are the huge financial surpluses in the north of Europe. Last decade, these surpluses fuelled growth in consumption and government spending in the south of Europe. Now, the south of Europe is not running these deficits – the north will not allow them to. So clearly the northern European surpluses are now going elsewhere. Africa, for sure, is one of those elsewheres. My chart of African growth and balance of payments shows that some parties are lending Africans lots of money. Those same financial channels will be operating in southwest Asia. Markets, taken together, are ecosystems. What goes around comes around. I’m guessing that the flood of immigration into Europe this year is largely facilitated by European investment (much of it indirect, through multiple intermediaries) into the growing emigration industries of Africa and Asia. Migration can be good business, on the fringes of legality. Can the rich-country governments stop it through fences and the like? I don’t think so. They would be better off facilitating investments in social services, income security and opportunities to lead fulfilling and interesting lives in Africa. Rich-country savings will be invested somewhere and somehow. There are alternatives to the emigration industry as outlets for European investment. –]]>

NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for September 2, 2015

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Newsroom Digest This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 5 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Wednesday 2nd September. NEWSROOM_MONITOR Top stories in the current news cycle include Immigration NZ saying the government is considering whether it should take more people from Syria as 14 refugees from Libya arrived in the country, Fonterra clarifying that it is not stockpiling milk powder to help boost GlobalDairyTrade auction prices which rose 11% overnight, and MPI closing down blackmarket fishing operations involving paua and crayfish in Napier, Hastings and Mahia. Note: As well as providing a precis of leading broadcast bulletins each day, our NewsRoom_Monitor service does a daily paper round with succinct ‘news picks’ from the main metropolitan papers emailed by 9am each morning. If you’re interested in a free trial please email monitor@newsroom.co.nz POLITICS PULSE Media releases issued from Parliament by political parties today included: Government: Speech – Opening of Turkish Embassy Photo Exhibit on Canakkle; Fraud initiatives keep people out of debt traps; Speech: Peter Dunne – Launch of 2015 Children’s Health Stamp; Whanganui Community Corrections opened; Government Committed To Cycle Safety; New Hospice Waikato extension opened; Parapets and facades prioritised in revised earthquake building law; New rules bring double-deckers to our cities Greens: Coromandel says No Way to TPPA; PM must ensure NZ takes in full 825 refugee allocation Labour: Government wakes up to Opotiki Harbour Māori Party: Why Māori need an independent political voice in Parliament New Zealand First: Lady Emily Latimer; Dairy Price Spring Reflects Lower Volumes And El Nino Fears; Dumping of cheap imports will hit jobs and business LINKS OF THE DAY Links of the day have been a feature of NewsRoom_Digest since we first started production in August 2014 at newsroom-nz.tumblr.com. We are currently building an archive of these at:http://newsroomplus.com/resources/resourceful-links/ CPAG SUMMIT: A Child Poverty Action Group summit in Auckland next week will look at what needs to change for New Zealand’s welfare and child policy to support all children and families in the 21st Century. For more information, click here: http://www.cpag.org.nz/the-latest/cpag-summit-welfare-fit-for-families-in-a/ CYCLE SAFETY: Government is delivering many of the Cycling Safety Panel’s recommendations as part of its commitment to making cycling a safer, more attractive choice for personal travel. Click here for the Cycling Safety Panel Final Report and Recommendations: http://www.saferjourneys.govt.nz/assets/Panel-Report-Safer-cycling.pdf LARGEST EXPORT EARNERS: New Zealand earned $2.3 billion more from exports than was spent on imports during the year ended June 2015, Statistics New Zealand said today. Read more:http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/imports_and_exports/GoodsServicesTradeCountry_HOTPYeJun15.aspxSeel aslo the interactive map, New Zealand’s Goods and Services Trade, for more information:http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/imports_and_exports/GoodsServicesTradeCountry_HOTPYeJun15.aspx MOBILISING THE REGIONS: LGNZ has released Mobilising the Regions, its major transport study which highlights the economic and social impact of strategic transport decisions nationally and in the regions, and the direct link between regional development, national prosperity, social well-being and cohesiveness. See here:http://www.lgnz.co.nz/assets/Mobilising-the-regions-paper-August-2015.pdf PROPOSED ENGINE FUEL CHANGES: MBIE has released a discussion document proposing a range of changes to the Engine Fuels Specifications Regulations 2011. Click here to find out more: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/energy/liquid-fuel-market/reviewing-aspects-of-the-engine-fuel-specifications-regulations-2011 And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Wednesday 2nd September. Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

Keeping up with the neighbours and happiness

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NewsroomPlus.com Contributed by Motu It’s not just individuals who get a burst of happiness from doing better than their neighbours, it’s true across countries as well. Researchers at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research found that countries that raise their national per capita income also raise their average life satisfaction. Motu is a not-for-profit, non-partisan research institute and received funding for this work from the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand. “We examined data encompassing nearly 80,000 people across 27 countries and 19 years and found very clear results that if your income increases so does your satisfaction with your life,” said Arthur Grimes, Senior Fellow at Motu. “Interestingly, however, if your income rises at the same rate as the people surrounding you, then you don’t get the same lift in happiness. So we looked into whether people from rural areas or cities were happier and if it mattered what sort of country you live in. We also looked at whether people compared themselves with people in other countries,” said Dr Grimes. The study looked at OECD founding (developed) countries and countries that are transitioning into developed countries. The work did not have access for statistics in New Zealand. “Life satisfaction in most transitional countries (which commonly have lower gross national disposable incomes) is below that of most founder OECD countries (which tend to have higher gross national disposable incomes). Mean Life Satisfaction across Countries: image007 In developed countries town and small city dwellers tend to be happier than those living in large cities. However, in transitional countries, people were happiest in large cities, followed by towns, rural areas and finally small cities. Mean Life Satisfaction by Settlement Type: “Our results indicate that people in relatively immobile areas, like ‘Old Europe’ and rural areas in transitional countries, worry about doing better than the people around them, while the larger population areas in transitional countries are more up and coming and worry less about how their neighbours are doing,” said Dr Grimes. The study shows that individuals’ life satisfaction rises as their personal income rises and falls as the incomes of similar individuals within their own country rise. “Most importantly, however, our findings imply that for any individual country, a rise in per capita income does raise average life satisfaction in that country. This means government can increase citizens’ wellbeing through supporting policies that increase the national income,” said Dr Grimes. The Motu working paper Relative Income and Subjective Wellbeing: Intra-national and Inter-national Comparisons by Settlement and Country Type by Motu researcher Arthur Grimes and University of Auckland student Marc Reinhardt, was made possible by grants from the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Resilient Urban Futures programme of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. –]]>

Keith Rankin’s Chart for this Week: African Economy

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Analysis by Keith Rankin. The flood of immigration into Europe is becoming the number one news story; and once again a story that few people seem to have a clue about. There are two main streams of immigrants, one from Sub-Saharan Africa by way of Libya and Italy. The other from south-western Asia – Syria through to Bangladesh – by way of Turkey and Greece. We tend to always assume negative images of African poverty and violence. This assumption seems to be affirmed by so many more Africans than ever before migrating to Europe in perilous circumstances. Who would choose to endure six hours in a leaky boat? At best their future is uncertain. At worst it is death. There are particular issues at present of civil war in South Sudan, and who-knows-what in Eritrea. And organisations with some affiliation to Islamic State have been active in Mali and in pockets of Nigeria and Cameroon. More importantly, Libya is no longer a place for people from south of the Sahara to wait and work. But that’s been so for three years. Yet these particular factors can only explain a portion of the growing flood of African migrants. This week’s Chart shows annual economic growth in what we once called “Black Africa”. It’s high, between 4% and 8% every year this century, much higher than in the west. From 2005-07 we see the high growth associated with large current account surpluses, indicating high export commodity prices. Since 2012 the balance of payments has been showing significant and increasing deficits. 5% annual growth has been funded by financial inflows from places like Europe and China, not by exports. The money is coming into these countries via different channels, and as debt rather than as income to the elite rich. It looks to me as if ordinary people in Africa are borrowing money to much a greater extent than in the past, and that this borrowed money may be financing, among other services, a migration industry. (Also, the migrants from southwest Asia also clearly have money; albeit borrowed money in many cases.) The African economic picture suggests that a combination of demand and supply is driving the new migration; not demand alone. Desperation for a better life is nothing new. The economic means in Africa to actualise a perceived better life – on a large scale – is new. –]]>

Fonterra Activate: Bringing tech innovation to dairy farms

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NewsroomPlus.com Contributed by Fonterra Fonterra is pushing on with a business relationship with digital innovation start-up company Job Done after they won an idea pitch yesterday at GridAKL, in Auckland’s innovation precinct. Seven teams representing Icehouse, Spark Ventures and BBDO spent a month developing prototypes at their own cost with a view to securing future services with the Co-operative to help farmers save time and money. The seven ideas were pitched to a judging panel made up of Fonterra farmers and staff, and consisted of:

  • Job Done, mentored by the Icehouse: a workforce management and productivity focused app under development by farmers for farmers. .
  • Pastoral Robotics, mentored by the Icehouse: aims to transform unwanted, environmentally harmful nitrate leaching and greenhouse gas emissions into more grass and more profit for dairy farmers. .
  • Old Yellow, mentored by the Icehouse: optimises feed inputs for dairy farmers and create a farmer to farmer marketplace that provides easy access to best quality feed at competitive prices. .
  • Senapps Technologies, mentored by the Icehouse: a smart monitoring service that collects data on traditional farm systems and devices and then uses analytics to understand the trends, patterns and anomalies. .
  • Proximity NZ, BBDO: absorbs the day-to-day challenges and processes for farmers, with particular focus around automation, knowledge and resources. .
  • Spark Ventures: Qrious pasture growth is a web application driven by climate input data. .
  • Map of Agriculture: building software to be able to create insights from collaborative benchmarking to create real actions from it.
Pitch winner Job Done was mentored by Icehouse and founded by Manawatu farmer Nigel Taylor.
Farmer Nigel Taylor of Job Done with Fonterra Group Director Co-operative Affairs Miles Hurrell
They presented their new workforce management and productivity app that allows farmers to track their workers’ location in real time using GPS. This helps with compliance and replaces the need for paperwork such as timesheets. Each venture worked alongside a Co-operative farmer who gave practical and honest feedback to guide and shape the ideas and concepts. Fonterra farmer Olin Greenan said the winning app had great promise. “Having more instant information and data available for my farm will definitely help me run a more efficient operation,” says Mr Greenan. “Some of the really important things such as compliance, environmental and employment regulations take a lot of time to track and manage. Time is very precious for farmers.” Judge and Fonterra Group Director Co-operative Affairs Miles Hurrell welcomed the opportunity to bring more innovation to the farm. “Our brief was simple, look for new ways to help farmers with their businesses by reducing input costs, improving profitability and saving time,” says Mr Hurrell. “Fonterra Activate is about exploring solutions that deliver benefits to all Co-operative farms, quickly and cost effectively.” “Job Done has a really strong idea that looks incredibly promising for helping our farmers save time and money.” All attendees were also invited to vote in a People’s Choice Award, won by Proximity with their Dairy 360 smartphone app. Their solution connects with Fonterra’s existing app Fencepost and helps farmers manage workflow and chip away at the overwhelming tasks such as paperwork. Fonterra is hoping the Fonterra Activate initiative will become a regular event, bringing continuous innovation to the farm. “I’m up for getting my hands on anything which provides more assurance that dairy products made from my milk are made to highest industry practices,” says Mr Greenan. Read more about Fonterra Activate here: fonterraactivate.com –]]>

NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for September 1, 2015

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Newsroom Digest This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 13 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Tuesday 1st September. NEWSROOM_MONITOR Top stories in the current news cycle include the four designs for the alternative New Zealand flag being revealed- three feature a silver fern and one a koru, new $5 and $10 bank notes being set for circulation next month and Prime Minister John Key deferring any move for New Zealand to revisit its refugee intake until a scheduled review next year . Note: As well as providing a precis of leading broadcast bulletins each day, our NewsRoom_Monitor service does a daily paper round with succinct ‘news picks’ from the main metropolitan papers emailed by 9am each morning. If you’re interested in a free trial please email monitor@newsroom.co.nz POLITICS PULSE Media releases issued from Parliament by political parties today included: Government: Bids open for Ultra-Fast Broadband expansion; Update on recovery in storm-affected regions; Extra $2.6m support for storm-affected regions; New chiefs of Army and Navy announced; Fifth Children’s Team goes live in Hamilton; Government Grant For East Coast Stream Restoration; Appointment of Judge of the Court of Appeal; Key to unlocking Tauranga congestion underway; Red tape reduced for veterans; Court rules changed to support family violence information sharing; Air New Zealand – Air China alliance authorised Greens: Protect bees from pesticides this spring; John Key once again wrong on refugee numbers Labour: Government must do more to help global refugee crisis; New figures show speculators rampant New Zealand First: Goodbye Publicly Funded R&D As Chinese Eye Silver Fern Farms; Apology accepted; Barriers to Salisbury School enrolment must come down United Future Party: Dunne Speaks – Government has got Refugee Stance Wrong LINKS OF THE DAY Links of the day have been a feature of NewsRoom_Digest since we first started production in August 2014 at newsroom-nz.tumblr.com. We are currently building an archive of these at:http://newsroomplus.com/resources/resourceful-links/ 4 ALTERNATIVE FLAGS FOR REFERENDUM: The Flag Consideration Panel announced today the four flag designs that eligible voters will rank in the first binding postal referendum this year, between 20 November and 11 December. Go here to view the four flags: https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/the-nz-flag-your-chance-to-decide/ ANTI-DUMPING LAWS: The New Zealand Government has announced that it intends to amend the Dumping and Countervailing Duties Act 1988, to introduce a bounded public interest test but not an automatic termination period. Read more here: http://www.bellgully.com/resources/resource.04051.asp DAIRY LIFTS TERMS OF TRADE: The merchandise (goods) terms of trade rose 1.3 percent in the June 2015 quarter, due to export prices rising more than import prices, Statistics New Zealand said today. This rise follows a 1.2 percent rise in the March quarter. More information is available at:http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/imports_and_exports/OverseasTradeIndexesPricesAndVolumes_HOTPJun15qtr.aspx EAST COAST STREAM RESTORATION: An $89,700 grant from the Community Environment Fund for the restoration of the Whangawehi stream on the Mahia Peninsula was announced today by Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith during a visit to the catchment. Further information on the Fund is available at:www.mfe.govt.nz/more/funding/community-environment-fund KIWISAVER: A survey of New Zealanders approaching retirement has found one in four people are unsure of how to manage the money in their KiwiSaver funds when they reach 65. Click here for the survey:http://fma.govt.nz/news/reports-and-papers/research-papers/fma-and-cffc-survey-into-older-nzers-planning-and-expectations-for-and-experiences-of-retirement/ MĀ TE REO FUNDING ROUND EXTENDED: Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, the Māori Language Commission, is extending this year’s Mā te Reo Funding Round for another week, with applications now closing Monday, 14 September 2015 at 10am. Language funding is provided across the three categories: Community events; Language resources; and Language courses. Registration to the Fund can be completed at:http://ww.funding.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz MAUNGATAPU UNDERPASS PROJECT IN TAURANGA: The first sod on the $45 million Maungatapu underpass project in Tauranga today, bringing the $100 million Hairini Link one step closer to completion. For more information on the project click here: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/hairini-link/ MONETARY POLICY: From next year, the Reserve Bank will let go one chance each year to meet and set interest rates. That means the Reserve Bank could easily fall behind the run rate on the interest rate settings required to manage the economy. Read more on what NZIER (New Zealand institute of Economic Research) has to say here:http://nzier.org.nz/publication/speed-dating-central-bank-style-nzier-insight-52 NEW BANKNOTES LAUNCHED: The Reserve Bank today launched the first two denominations in a series of new banknotes that include new security features. Take the banknote for a spin at this interactive websitehttp://www.brightermoney.co.nz SPECIAL LICENCES REGIME: LGNZ and its member councils across New Zealand have confirmed support for the intent of the Bill passed in Parliament last week, to extend the licensing hours of businesses during the 2015 Rugby World Cup. A copy of LGNZ’s submission on the Bill is available here: http://www.lgnz.co.nz/assets/Uploads/LGNZ-Submission-RWC-Bill.pdf TOP SAFETY PICKS FOR USED CARS: Kiwi motorists have a fresh set of information to assist them in assessing the safety of their next used vehicle with the release of the 2015 Used Car Safety Ratings guide today. The report is available at : http://www.aa.co.nz/assets/motoring/pdf/individual-pages-2015-16.pdf?m=1440993851%22%20class=%22type:{pdf}%20size:{353%20KB}%20file VETERANS RECEIVE SUPPORT: Veterans will soon find it easier to claim their recreational travel concession. From December 7, eligible veterans can claim up to $200 per year for travel costs by filling out a statutory declaration, rather than keeping track of numerous receipts. For more information:http://www.veteransaffairs.mil.nz/resources/information-sheets-and-forms/claiming-for-travel-concession-html/ WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES: An international research team led by University of Otago scientists has documented prehistoric ‘sanctuary’ regions where New Zealand seabirds survived early human hunting. The team’s findings have been published this week in the leading international journal Molecular Ecology available at:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.13338/abstract And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Tuesday 1st September 2015. Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

Did you know it was the 25th Anniversary of the NZ Bill of Rights Act last week?

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NewsroomPlus.com Contributed from Parliament.nz

The US has their Constitution, the UK the Magna Carta. For New Zealand one of our most important laws is the NZ Bill of Rights Act, which was 25 years old last week. 

The Act, passed in 1990, affirms, protects and promotes our human rights and fundamental freedoms. It was designed to protect New Zealanders against the actions of the State.

Today the NZ Bill of Rights Act is considered to be one of our constitutional documents. Others include the Treaty of Waitangi, other Acts such as the Constitution Act 1986, decisions of the court and constitutional conventions. Together these key sources make up our constitution.

The Act was brought to Parliament by Geoffrey Palmer, who was the Minister of Justice at the time.

Screen Shot 2015-08-31 at 5.23.41 pm
Full photo credit: http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23108017

Here are some of the many rights and freedoms that are set out in the Act:

  • the right to peaceful assembly (which includes the right to protest peacefully)
  • the right to freedom of expression (the right to say what you want, within certain legal limits, without punishment from the State)
  • the right to not be discriminated against
  • the right to vote in general elections
  • the right to justice.

Although these and other rights were commonly understood to be already recognised, this Act confirmed those rights. An easy to read explanation has since been published, so everyone can understand what these rights mean.

How the NZ Bill of Rights Act protects human rights today

Here are two examples of how the Act (known as BORA) helps to protect human rights today.

  1. The first relates to the making of new laws in Parliament. When a proposed law (a bill) is introduced in Parliament, the Attorney-General must check to see whether it is consistent with BORA. If it seems likely to breach people’s rights under BORA, the Attorney-General must write a report so that MPs can understand the problem before deciding whether to support the proposed law.
  2. The second protection relates to the courts and the way they interpret certain laws. Courts are required to prefer interpretations that protect people’s human rights, in line with BORA.
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NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for August 31, 2015

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Newsroom Digest

This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 6 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Monday 31st August.

NEWSROOM_MONITOR

Top stories in the current news cycle include Jetstar’s selection of four new regional destinations it will be flying to, concerns from the Aotearoa Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) about any privatising of Child, Youth and Family functions following on acknowledged weaknesses, and figures showing the the highest monthly rise in consents for new houses and apartments in more than three years.

Note: As well as providing a precis of leading broadcast bulletins each day, our NewsRoom_Monitor service does a daily paper round with succinct ‘news picks’ from the main metropolitan papers emailed by 9am each morning. If you’re interested in a free trial please email monitor@newsroom.co.nz

POLITICS PULSE

Media releases issued from Parliament by political parties today included:

Government: Minister opens papakāinga near Tauranga; Worldwide reputation at the border recognised; Minister welcomes Money Week 2015; Tonga Language Week celebrated; Regional airline competition welcomed; Auckland housing consents top 1000 in July; Residential property withholding tax proposed for offshore sellers; PM to attend 46th Pacific Islands Forum; Progress being made in Pacific health

Greens: Govt needs to rule out Serco buying our state houses; National’s empty economic complacency failing today and for the future

Labour: Govt must make most of Jetstar competition; Privatising CYF about ideology not care; Labour Celebrates Tongan Language And Diversity; Key’s threat to veto premature

New Zealand First: National’s empty economic complacency failing today and for the future

NZ National Party: MP Foss welcomes win for Hawke’s Bay growers; Foss welcomes competition in Hawke’s Bay

LINKS OF THE DAY

Links of the day have been a feature of NewsRoom_Digest since we first started production in August 2014 at newsroom-nz.tumblr.com. We are currently building an archive of these at:http://newsroomplus.com/resources/resourceful-links/

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Money Week is a nationwide week of events which runs from 31 August to 6 September. For a range of digital tools and useful information about Money Week 2015 visit http://www.moneyweek.org.nz

MONTHLY ECONOMIC INDICATORS: The August Monthly Economic Indicators (MEI) report was published today by the New Zealand Treasury. Read more here: http://www.treasury.govt.nz/economy/mei/aug15

NEW DWELLING CONSENTS INCREASE: There were 2,824 new dwellings consented nationally in July 2015, up 24 percent compared with July 2014, Statistics New Zealand said today. For more, go here:http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/Constructio/BuildingConsentsIssued_HOTPJul15.aspx

RESIDENTIAL LAND WITHHOLDING TAX: An officials’ issues paper released today seeks public feedback on proposals for a residential land withholding tax. Revenue Minister Todd McClay welcomed the release and says the proposed tax would apply only to offshore sellers. He says it is an important part of the Government’s residential property tax compliance work and will ensure tax is paid under the Bright-line test legislation. Submissions close on 2 October 2015. You can access the paper here: http://taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz/publications/2015-ip-rlwt/overview

TONGAN LANGUAGE WEEK: A national programme of activity is underway for Tongan Language Week – with details at http://www.mpia.govt.nz/assets/01-FINAL-280815-National-Tonga-Language-Week-Events.pdf and on the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/MinistryofPacificIslandAffairs

WORKPLACE SURVEY: This morning the second Wellness in the Workplace survey – a nationwide study of 113 employers (with 116,000 employees) by Southern Cross Health Society and BusinessNZ was released. The full Wellness in the Workplace 2015 survey can be found athttp://www.businessnz.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/108400/Wellness-in-the-Workplace-Survey-Report-2015.pdf

And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Monday 31st August 2015.

Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

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