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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

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

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

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

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

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. –]]>

Radio Live’s Sunday Morning Panel: Mark Sainsbury Rodney Hide & Selwyn Manning

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Radio-Live Sunday PanelDo have a listen to the Sunday Panel on Radio Live (here’s the link to the player, or click on the image). On Radio Live’s Sunday Morning Panel Mark Sainsbury Rodney Hide & Selwyn Manning get stuck into the big issues and explore solutions:

  • The kicking machine puts the boot in to Labour’s rising star Jacinda Ardern.
  • Is former Australia PM Kevin Rudd positioning to take on Helen Clark for the UN secretary general position? Does he have the credentials?
  • A Warrant of Fitness for State Houses surely must be a part solution to the mouldy, drafty, toxic homes that are making far too many children sick in this country.
  • We debate the public/private running of this country’s prisons. What are the solutions to the country’s massive challenge over private running of prisons in New Zealand. Surely the Serco experience shows this private model does not work. 
  • CYFs, should the state have a part in running this vital social service? Has the state done a good job in the past? Should we have a system that equips those with the skills to advocate a regional solution to a regional problem?

Let the debate continue.

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Keith Rankin on The Future of Income

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

We are starting to hear, again, more discussion about the ‘future of work’, and about robots taking over. This was a fashionable topic in the 1820s (the machinery question), the 1920s (automated production lines), and the early 1980s (computers). It’s a misguided concern, because its premise is that there will not be enough work for our workforce in the future.

It’s a bit like being concerned that we will not have enough pollution in future, and certainly more pollution creates more work; so, more pollution must be a good thing. Yeah right?

Work is unambiguously a cost (not a benefit), and we should never ever forget that. The real concern is the future of income, not the future of work.

In the late 1920s there was a substantial process of automation. A good example in New Zealand was the introduction of milking machines, and the migrations to the larger urban centres on account of less labour required on the farm. In Germany and the United States it was a time of huge investment in fixed capital, ramping up the global mass-production system just when markets for wage goods were collapsing. It was the era of Taylorism and Fordism; time and motion studies of workers doing repetitive tasks, and then assembly-line production.

Aggregate income, by definition, is the same as economic output. But we use the word ‘income’ most when we are emphasising the distribution of output rather than its composition. The really important concept, that of ‘wage goods’, captures both the idea of income and the idea of output. It was a commonly used phrase in the 1920s, rarely heard today.

In the early 1930s – the depression years – the world economy was ramped up to produce lots of wage goods, but workers’ earnings were so low (in large part because so many were unemployed or on short-time) that the market demand for wage goods collapsed. So, capital became as unemployed as labour was. Indeed Keynes was as concerned about unemployed factories and machines as he was about unemployed workers. Under these conditions, economic investment made no sense.

If, in the future, robots take over much of our work, then not only do workers stand to become unemployed, but so do robots.

The central structural crisis in the world economy today is that we have a productive structure based on pumping out masses of wage goods – ie the goods and services that wage workers buy – at a time when ordinary workers are paid too little to be able to afford them in the quantities we want to produce. At least Henry Ford understood that, if he was to create a great company and a great automobile industry, his own workers (and other workers like them) would need to be able and willing to buy automobiles. So he paid his workers more. Ford understood that, if the car was to have a great future, it would be as a wage good, not an elite good that only the rich would buy.

This system, where workers are not paid enough to buy the wage goods they make, may be called ‘scrooge capitalism’.

Debt is the short- and medium-term solution to scrooge capitalism; when the system requires the mass consumption of wage goods, but does not pay ordinary consumers sufficient income to buy them. If we won’t pay workers enough, we instead lend them the difference, so that the workers can buy the wage goods that the scrooge capitalists make. Indeed this system does work, so long as these capitalists never insist on the repayment of these credits. That can actually work for a long time, because it’s in the nature of scrooges that they do not wish to be repaid; rather they like to simply accumulate credits. (When one debtor repays a scrooge, the scrooge invariably looks for other debtors to lend to, rather than spending the repaid debt.)

Scrooge capitalism crashes when the scrooge capitalists stop lending to the communities of workers and to the workers’ communities. (We saw such a crash in 2008 with the temporary cessation of sub-prime lending.) Workers’ households must buy the wage goods; it’s central to industrial capitalism that they do so. Captains of industry live by making and selling wage goods. (The remaining rich mostly live by selling financial and business services to these industrialists, or by selling such services to each other.)

Is there another way? Yes, it involves distributing income in such a way that the ‘plebs’ – the 99% in recent parlance, but better thought of as the 75% – receive as of right bigger income shares than they presently do, despite this being a time when there is less need the labour.

So, if capitalism is to survive, the future of income has to involve a much more equitable distribution of aggregate income. It cannot be through higher payrolls, because wages are a cost to individual capitalists, just as labour is a cost to individual workers. (Capitalists, like workers, are cost minimisers.) What is required (in addition to present forms of income) is a return on collective equity; the recognition of the social need for a form of income that is more equal than wages.

By its very nature, private equity income is the most unequal form of income. Public equity income can compensate, by being the most equal form of income. Just as high wages helped Ford and his workers, public equity income can help today’s budding Fords sell their wares, can help ensure their workers are able to enjoy what capitalism offers, and can help those many people who are worse off than fulltime wage workers.

Further, once the plebs get a bigger share of the cake – both as an equity right and as a pragmatic means to maintain a market for the capitalists’ robots’ outputs – the working plebs can choose to work fewer hours, happily passing up the overtime (which I regard as anything more than 30 hours a week of wage work) to the robots and to the unemployed. The result can be substantial productivity gains, bearing in mind that labour productivity is total output divided by the total hours of labour supplied.

All society gains when we are able to choose to work less, while continuing to enjoy the same amounts of wage goods as before. Further it’s sustainable; the demographic transition to permanently low birth rates occurred in advanced and emerging economies once there was widespread income security. When we have income security, the production system responds to genuine consumer needs, rather than overloading us with the needs that its marketing machine requires of us. It’s no longer ‘profit or perish’.

In Economics 101, the production system (supply) is our servant, not our master. It can be so.

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NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for August 28, 2015

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Newsroom Digest

This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 9 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Friday 28th August.

NEWSROOM_MONITOR

Top stories in the current news cycle include a prediction the New Zealand economy will get a $100 million boost with the announcement of direct year-round flights between Christchurch and China, the Prime Minister acknowledging a strong link between children who have been in state care and crime and the death of a Waikato farm worker in an accident just a day after Parliament passed legislation that deems farms to be a low-risk workplace.

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: Bay of Plenty place names corrected; Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway begins; Minister welcomes Canterbury Regional Economic Development Strategy; Cook Islands to benefit from Tropic Twilight; Minister opens South Island’s first Urban Cycleways; Manukau Court’s $51m court upgrade complete; Healthy Families NZ launched in Waitakere 

ACT Party: Auckland Council must stop coveting neighbours’ assets

Greens: Ihumatao should be protected; Minister needs to follow overseas examples; dump SERCO; Kiwis lose $871 million from power company privatisations; Kiwis lose $871 million from power company privatisations

Labour: Time for inquiry into petrol margins

New Zealand First: Seven Years On And National Is In No Rush To Help Children; We Say It Again – Serco Must Go

NZ National Party: Bishop to hold public meeting on family violence

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/

ALCOHOL & PREGNANCY: The Social Policy Evaluation and Research Unit (Superu) has released new research on drinking during pregnancy using data from the longitudinal study Growing Up in New Zealand. Read more here:http://www.superu.govt.nz/alcoholandpregnancy

ALPS 2 OCEAN CYCLE TRAIL: John Key has announced a further $935,000 will be invested to help complete the Alps 2 Ocean cycle trail. Go here for more: http://www.alps2ocean.com/trail-map

CANTERBURY DEVELOPMENT : Minister for Economic Development Steven Joyce has welcomed a report from Environment Canterbury which will provide the building blocks for a strong and vital economic future across the Canterbury region. A copy of the report can be found at http://www.ecan.govt.nz/CREDS

COUNCIL SUPPORTS FARMERS: Waikato Regional Council says it’s keen to help where it can when it comes to farmers and related agricultural businesses weathering the stresses caused by the current low dairy payout. More information on council rules relating to farming is available at www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/Community/Your-community/For-Farmers/

EMPLOYMENT LAW BREACHED: The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ordered Pro-Build Canterbury Limited to pay more than $58,000 in penalties and arrears to workers for breaching employment laws. Read more here: http://employment.govt.nz/workplace/determinations/PDF/2015/2015_NZERA_Christchurch_111.pdf

FMA RELEASES REPORT: The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) today published its enforcement and investigations report for the year ending 30 June 2015. The full report is available here:http://fma.govt.nz/news/reports-and-papers/monitoring-and-compliance-reports/investigations-and-enforcement-report/ 

HEALTH AND SAFETY LAWS: The much anticipated Health and Safety at Work Act was passed by Parliament yesterday following a fortnight of debate and last minute “tweaks” to further clarify the new requirements. Click here for more: http://www.bellgully.com/resources/resource.04049.asp

NAMES CORRECTED: Land Information Minister Louise Upston has today announced her decision to correct the spelling of 12 place and feature names in the Opotiki District. The full list of Waiotahe place names are available at:http://www.linz.govt.nz/regulatory/place-names/recent-place-name-decisions-and-place-names-interest/nzgb-decisions-august-2015.

UNDP LAUNCHES STORYTELLING CONTEST: UNDP has launched a global storytelling contest, Voices2Paris, to contribute to raising public awareness on the negative impacts of climate change as well as on the opportunities and solutions seen in actions by individuals and governments alike across vulnerable developing countries worldwide. Read more here: http://www.europe.undp.org/content/geneva/en/home/partnerships_initiatives/climate-stories.html

And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Friday 28th August 2015.

Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

A little bit of ‘Whim Wham’ for National Poetry Day

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NewsroomPlus.com Wellington-based online news agency NewsRoom_Plus has chipped into National Poetry Day by recording a reading of two satirical and whimsical newspaper verses from the days of ‘Whim Wham’. WhimWham “What better way to celebrate the joy of the written and spoken word – the real essence of poetry – than by recalling the marathon efforts of Allen Curnow to marry the poetic form with every day news events,” says NewsRoom_Plus journalist Stephen Olsen. “Our team decided we would record two poems from a collection of his newspaper work edited by Auckland professor Terry Sturm in 2005 and put them up on Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/newsroom_monitor/newsroom-on-national-poetry “As detailed in the foreword to that collection of 200 pieces – simply called Whim Wham’s New Zealand – Curnow’s astonishing output mounted up to more than 2000 verses spanning five decades. Apparently the first verse was written as a gently mocking account of an all-night sitting of Parliament, and was only intended as a space-filler when Curnow was working at the Christchurch Press. As noted by Professor Sturm, Curnow’s work under the pseudonym of Whim Wham went on to be a mix of ‘light’ pieces on commonplace topics and ‘serious’ poetic pieces designed to challenge readers. Olsen said he was struck by how lively and topical the verse remains, and left the last word to Professor Sturm, who sadly passed away in 2009:

Terry Sturm – “The personnel might have changed, the spin merchants might go under different names and use different languages of deception … but the issues remain the same”.
–]]>

Radio: New Zealand Report – Maori Party Accuses Govt of being Slum-Landlord + Complaint Against Witch-Doctor

New Zealand Report: Selwyn Manning joins FiveAA’s breakfast team Jane Reilly, Dave Penberthy and Mark Aiston to deliver New Zealand Report. This week: Maori Party Accuses Government of being Slum-Landlord + Complaint Against Witch-Doctor Ads – Recorded live on 28/08/15. Opening video image: Mouldy State Houses – Image courtesy of Lauren Baker Radio New Zealand.

ITEM ONE The co-leader of the Maori Party has delivered a stinging attack on the National-led Government, criticising it as a “slum landlord”. Marama Fox – whose political party actually props up the Government with a confidence and supply agreement – said Thursday that until the Government brings its state housing stock up to liveable standards it is “the biggest slumlords of this country”. A recent study of state houses found over 95 per cent of state owned homes would fail a warrant of fitness. The findings back up news of a surge in hospital admissions for respiratory illnesses that have driven even large hospitals, like Auckland City Hospital, to operate beyond capacity. A pattern has been in evidence where children and the elderly living in state houses have fallen ill due to damp, drafty, mouldy, and at times toxic living conditions. Last year the coroner found the death of an Auckland toddler, Emma-Lita Bourne, was “entirely possible” that the cold, damp, state house where her family lived had contributed to her death. And UNICEF’s Deborah Morris Travers – who was once our youngest ever government minister as Minister of Youth Affairs in the National-New Zealand First coalition between 1996-99 – said yesterday: “With outgoings for rental housing costs at a historic high, families up and down the country are struggling to provide even minimum shelter to their children.” She added: “Likewise, when housing is of such poor quality that it makes children sick, it breaches their right to the highest attainable standard of health.” Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox said: “The standard of rental housing in this country is appalling and our children are getting sick, and we cannot afford to let that happen.” However, the Prime Minister John Key said in Parliament on Wednesday that the Government had insulated 280,000 homes, 48,000 of which were state houses. He added that the Government had spent $30m providing heating and housing, and was spending $300m a year maintaining homes. The politics of this issue suggests the Government is attempting to avoid state houses becoming subject to a warrant of fitness. It appears committed to minimising maintenance costs prior to offloading thousands more state homes onto private ‘social housing’ providers. ITEM TWO A complaint has been laid with the Advertising Standards Authority after it was revealed “witch doctors” healers and astrologers had been charging fortune seekers thousands of dollars for promises of prosperity and a fabulous love-life! It may surprise few to know, nothing tangible resulted from the promises. A former Fijian newspaper publisher, Ranjit Singh, has laid a formal complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority over the ads placed in the Indian Newslink newspaper, the Fairfax-owned Manukau Courier, and on Apna TV. According to Mr Singh the adverts claimed to provide lifelong protection and even a solution to Lucky Lotto! Unfortunately it does sound too good to be true. New Zealand Report broadcasts live on FiveAA.com.au and webcasts on EveningReport.nz, LiveNews.co.nz and ForeignAffairs.co.nz. –]]>

NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for August 27, 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 27th August.

NEWSROOM_MONITOR

Top stories in the current news cycle includes the Children’s Commissioner releasing a report on the welfare of children in state care, the Financial Services Council (FSC) disputing the Treasury’s view that KiwiSaver is not helping boost retirement savings and the extension of Mt Eden prison investigations due to the high number of complaints from prisoners and their families.

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: Organ Donors Bill passes first reading; Minister welcomes State of Care report; Govt launches Green Paper to explore digital convergence; Views sought on 21st century content regulation;War on Weeds begins; Competing interests balanced in changes to anti-dumping laws; Good progress continuing under Housing Accord; Minister announces investigation; Traders benefiting from online registration; Next Ambassador to Argentina announced; Rheumatic fever rates drop 24 percent; Original waiata wins Supreme Award; Māori Technology Scholarship to change lives

Greens: Commissioner’s findings on CYFS require emergency response; SERCO review extension a clear signal for Final Warning; Landcorp’s ‘dairy at all costs’ strategy is not working; Greens To Prioritise Fixing Health And Safety Law; First new houses at Fenchurch opened; CYFS state must not be used to justify privatisation

Labour: Bleak report on the state of our children; Dodgy data used to justify axing KiwiSaver kickstart; Serco inquiry extended; Truck Shops ignore consumer laws; Taihoa at Ihumatao says Labour; Figures suggest National deliberately excluded farming

New Zealand First: Merchandise exports sharply down; Minister’s Rheumatic Fever Claims Undermined By Figures

United Future Party: Dunne Speaks- Sometimes the Silly Stuff Gets in the Way

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/

EUTHANASIA INQUIRY: Public submissions are invited into the inquiry by Parliament’s Health select committee into “ending one’s life in New Zealand”. More details are available at: http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/make-submission/0SCHE_SCF_51DBHOH_PET63268_1/petition-of-hon-maryan-street-and-8974-others

FIRST STATE OF CARE REPORT: Children’s Commissioner Dr Russell Wills today released his Office’s first public annual report on the service Child, Youth and Family provides to our most vulnerable children. The report is available on-line at http://www.occ.org.nz/state-of-care

FIRSTBORN WOMEN OBESE: The study led by New Zealand’s Liggins Institute, in collaboration with Swedish scientists, shows firstborn women are more likely to be overweight or obese than their second-born sisters. The report is available here: http://press.psprings.co.uk/jech/august/jech205368.pdf

GREEN PAPER TO EXPLORE DIGITAL CONVERGENCE: Communications and Broadcasting Minister Amy Adams today launched a Green Paper and work programme outlining the Government’s response to the challenges and opportunities of a converged world. More information on the Green Paper and associated work programme can be found at : 

http://convergencediscussion.nz/

HOUSING PROGRESS: Eleven new Special Housing Areas (SHAs) that will provide up to 1600 new homes across Auckland were announced today by Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith and Mayor Len Brown. Further information on the Auckland Housing Accord is available from:www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/ratesbuildingproperty/housingsupply/Pages/aucklandhousingaccord.aspx andhttp://www.hnzc.co.nz/housing-development/developments-overview/auckland/northern-glen-innes-redevelopment-1

REPORT ON MOBILE TRADER INDUSTRY: The Commerce Commission has today released a report detailing the findings of its year-long project looking at mobile traders, commonly known as truck shops. The full report on mobile traders can be found on the Commission website: http://www.comcom.govt.nz/the-commission/consumer-reports/mobile-trader-201415-project/

TAIC RECOMMENDATIONS: The Transport Accident Investigation Commission has this morning published a report setting out urgent recommendations to address three safety issues for pedestrians using level crossings within the Auckland and Wellington metropolitan rail networks. The report is available at:http://www.taic.org.nz/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ixbzWWtOa54%3d&tabid=36&mid=613&language=en-US

WAR ON WEEDS: “It’s time to declare War on Weeds”, says Conservation Minister Maggie Barry as she encouraged New Zealanders to roll up their sleeves and join forces to fight against invasive weeds in a new campaign launched today. More information on the campaign can be found at: http://www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/war-on-weeds/ andhttp://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/all/files/War-on-Weeds.pdf

And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Thursday 27th August 2015.

Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

Across The Ditch: Petrol Prices Cheaper But Not Cheap Enough + RWC Law Will See Bars Open 24/7

Selwyn Manning and Peter Godfrey deliver Across The Ditch. This week: Petrol prices are cheaper in New Zealand but not cheap enough when compared to petrol pump prices in Australia + Rugby World Cup Law passes in the NZ Parliament making it possible for bars to remain open 24/7 which the World Cup is played in the UK – Recorded live on 27/08/15.

ITEM ONE Petrol prices in New Zealand are dropping after global oil commodity prices sank this week. Prices in Auckland fell below NZD$1.90 per litre of 91 unleaded petrol. As a comparison, the NZ Dollar is currently tracking the Aussie Dollar at around NZ$1 to Australia $0.91. Or to look at it from the other side of the equation for every Australian dollar you get around $1.098 NZ dollars. The Automobile Association has predicted the slump in global oil prices per barrel will cause prices at the petrol pump down below 1.80 per litre of 91 unleaded petrol. Already this week, it appeared a competitive war among outlets was in evidence. GULL service station outlets in Auckland led the market down to $1.86 per litre. Fairfax reported Thursday that three Z service stations were offering 91 octane for $1.829. Those stations were located on the North Shore of Auckland and one outlet in South Auckland. Most outlets played the market conservatively with prices between $1.91 to $1.99. ITEM TWO As you have probably realised over the past few weeks, Rugby is a religion in New Zealand. So much so, the politicians have forced legislation through Parliament so that pubs and bars can stay open all night during the Rugby World Cup tournament. The World Cup tournament will be contested in England and kicks off on September 18. The new law is designed to ensure Rugby fans and punters will be able to drink and watch the Rugby World Cup games, irrespective of what time the games will be screened. The New Zealand Herald’s political editor Audrey Young reports there will be some restrictions however…

• There must be no outdoor speakers; no discarding of empty bottles and no use of outdoor courtyard areas. • The police have to be given seven days’ notice. • Premises which have had their licenses varied or suspended in the previous 12 months will not be able to extend their hours to show Rugby World Cup games.

Excluding those three points, the pubs and bars throughout the land will be the winner on the day. That outcome caused Green Party MP Kevin Hague some discomfort, especially as Parliament in his view was forcing a liberal booze law on local councils. He argued that councils not parliament ought to decide whether bars and pubs could stay open. The Greens also were against pubs and bars being able to remain open when they were located near schools and kindergartens. At the end of the day, it looks like politicians have found a remedy for hangovers, at least in delaying the inevitable.

Across The Ditch broadcasts live on FiveAA.com.au and webcasts on EveningReport.nz, LiveNews.co.nz and ForeignAffairs.co.nz.

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In the horse’s mouth: Windows 10

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Concerns for my Microsoft dependence My name is Carolyn, and I’m a long time Windows OS (Operating System) user.  Recently I began to see how it might be impacting negatively on my, and maybe all our lives.  I upgraded to Windows 10, used it for a couple of weeks, then began to have second thoughts.  I reverted back to Windows 7 as offered in the first month after the upgrade. All seems well on the most visible surface of the new OS, but it is the less visible operations that require more investigation. My biggest concerns are with the ways Windows 10 may violate users’ privacy, and/or delivers users up to Microsoft’s other money-making services, and to other marketers. In this Microsoft seem to be taking a step beyond such incursions by others into social media, especially on Facebook, and delivering them to the most private spaces where we live. My worries are that, not being a tech-head, and having gone along with the ongoing developments of operating systems, I now have very little control over what Microsoft is doing with the systems I use for my most personal data. It is also a major step along the way to the commercialisation of computing and the internet, once seen as a revolutionary open source system that would promote grassroots, citizen democracy: a free, sharing, gift economy. Windows 10, as a (possibly desperate) move by Microsoft to protect and expand its market monopoly/dominance, in the face of increasing competition. It just seems to be a step too far for me. Windows 10: the pros and cons Generally Windows 10 has been getting good reviews as regards its usability, and the capabilities it offers. A few reviewers recommend that Windows 7 users stay with it.  However, many also say 10 is a better option than Windows 8, which is considered to have been a pretty mediocre system: it took on a lot of features of touch screen mobile devices, but when used for a device focused on the keyboard and mouse, it seems a bit chaotic and confusing. For instance Woody Leonhard at infoworld says:

Windows 10 is what Windows 8 should have been, but it has too many rough edges to attract Windows 7 users. Continuous upgrades could change that as early as this fall.
He does not seem to have concerns about Windows 10 and privacy issues, praising the security features, which
… proudly offers a bundle of new features, including improved security, a new browser, and the voice-activated intelligent assistant Cortana. You might even call Windows 10 the most revolutionary version of Windows ever, mainly because it will be continually upgraded as part of Microsoft’s “Windows as a service” effort.
In the gift horse’s mouth: enticement to revenue-generating capabilities “Windows as a service” makes the OS free to non-business users, in order to shift the costs to businesses (they will have to pay for it), and to accessing add-on services such as games and apps. Search capabilities also aim to encourage the generation of revenue. Gregg Keiser explains:
Microsoft’s strategy is to go low on consumer Windows licenses, hoping that that will boost device sales, which will in turn add to the pool of potential customers for advertising, services and apps. In other words, what Microsoft gives up in selling each Windows license it figures to make up in volume elsewhere.
Leonhard is glowing about most of the new features in Windows 10, although he also does point out some flaws.  His claim for increased security does seem to relate to a built in anti-virus and to security breaches by those outside of Microsoft’s sphere of influence:
This includes “… multifactor security techniques tied to accounts where you simply log in once and do nearly anything.
It also aims to make private data secure when using public networks, and more. Windows 10 and privacy Online there are arguments for and against Microsoft on privacy.  The pro-Microsoft arguments tend to say that there are similar features in earlier Windows OS’s, and that the 10 version is just a continuation of that.  They also argue for such features being necessary, and against them being a bad invasion of privacy. WheezyJoe outlines some of the privacy concerns, with a link to an article on Verge article on the privacy policy for Windows 10. WheezyJoe argues that Verge’s piece takes a “Microsoft-friendly” approach. There is also a link to the Windows’ privacy policy: Alex Hern writes in the Guardian, on 1 August:
Hundreds of commenters on sites such as Hacker News and Reddit have criticised default settings that send personal information to Microsoft, use bandwidth to upload data to other computers running the operating system, share Wi-Fi passwords with online friends and remove the ability to opt out of security updates.
Windows 10 includes embedded personalised adverts, gives the user a unique advertising ID, which is linked to the users’ email address. The latter is linked to other services.
Using that information, Microsoft is able to personalise ads to the user, during both web surfing and, for newer apps downloaded from the Windows Store, app usage.
For instance, Windows 10 turns Microsoft’s previously in-built Solitaire card game into an app that has unskippable ads. Some articles provide advice on how to switch of the 12 or 13 features that could enable privacy breaches: However, others claim the OS will continue to send data to Microsoft even after the data-sharing features have been turned off. Beyond privacy to loss of control, & spying potential This leads to suggestions of Windows 10 (possibly inadvertently) enabling spying on users – invoking the likes of the NSA/5 Eyes keystroke digital spying capabilities. Since I have reverted back to Windows 7, every time I logon, I get a pup op message saying Microsoft recommends that I upgrade to Windows 10, or that my Windows 10 Upgrade is waiting for me.  Such a desperate hard sell just makes me feel resistant. Leonhard also points out that people like me, who have had second thoughts about Windows 10, will be locked from further upgrades for Windows 7 – he gives a step by step guide as to how to disable the lock. It puts me in mind of Doctor Who’s Cybermen and their refrain, ‘You must be upgraded” – to the free system, promising a higher level of humanity; but  where people will become an integral part of the machine, and lose their humanity and freewill. The alternative to being upgraded, is being deleted [see Merovee on WordPress, site of the feature image]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQs3gVobcfg In the next part I will look at some of the alternatives to Microsoft. Also: Check out this thought provoking article: 8 Ways Technology Is Improving Your Health.]]>

NewsRoom Digest: Top NZ News Items for August 26, 2015

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Newsroom Digest

This edition of NewsRoom_Digest features 8 resourceful links of the day and the politics pulse from Wednesday 26th August.

This is the first birthday for NewsRoom_Digest (or ‘ND’ as it’s known to the NewsRoom team) since it first commenced appearing on 26 August 2014. Happy Birthday ND!

NEWSROOM_MONITOR

Top stories in the current news cycle include Air New Zealand making a record profit of $327 million in the year ending June, Finance Minister Bill English says the risk of recession in New Zealand is greater if China has a hard landing, and the 2015-2020 National Drug Policy has been launched at Parliament today.

Featured content on our news-log today includes an interview with Anton Oliver about a new exhibition that opened at the weekend to commemorate a set of rugby-related personal stories from the First World War, and a contribution from the UNDP Pacific Centre about their Continuing Market Business Education (CMBE) programme in Fiji. See:http://newsroomplus.com/the-journal/

POLITICS PULSE

Media releases issued from Parliament by political parties today included:

Government: Law Society gets it wrong; Better information for Judges making family violence bail decisions; Consultation on steps to ozone recovery and asbestos ban; NZ aid to assist Timorese coffee and cocoa farmers;Free weather forecasts for recreational pilots; Release of 2015-2020 National Drug Policy; Review aims to optimise palliative care services

ACT Party: Nanny state retreats;..

Greens: Green Party Bill Will Bring NZ Rental Laws Into The 21st Century; Greens to vote down bad World Cup booze law;Gambling Commission Reappointments; Social Sector Trial helping Dunedin youth into work

Labour: Takahe massacre supposed to get all New Zealanders involved in conservation; Waiver cost still a mystery; Housing New Zealand dividends could save children’s lives; China exports fall 27 per cent in a year; National should support all families for 26 weeks; National’s health and safety shambles puts school camps at risk; National’s asset stripping agenda hits schools; Democracy still the loser in Canterbury; Unsecure website risks Ashley MoBIEson hack

Māori Party:Māori Party Congratulates Hon Dr Sir Pita Sharples

New Zealand First: English caught out over official information act responses; First home buyers in the Hutt taking advantage of HomeStart; The facts on immigration and parent reunion for the uninformed; Evidence Doesn’t Back Up Cut To Limited Service Volunteers

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/

2015-2020 NATIONAL DRUG POLICY: The 2015-2020 National Drug Policy has been launched at Parliament today by Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne. The Policy sets the Government’s approach to minimise harm from alcohol and other drugs for the next five years. The policy is can be viewed at : http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/mental-health-and-addictions/drug-policy/national-drug-policy

DEMENTIA: A global study predicts the number of people with dementia will nearly triple by 2050, with the numbers in New Zealand to increase to more than 150,000 in the next 35 years. Go here for the World Alzheimer Report 2015:http://www.alz.co.uk/research/world-report

DONOR COMPENSATION: Improving compensation for live organ donors is a rare opportunity to save both lives and healthcare dollars, according to a report released yesterday by The New Zealand Initiative. Read the report here:http://nzinitiative.org.nz/site/nzinitiative/files/Organ%20Donors%20Final.pdf

FRUIT AND MEAT EXPORTS RISE: The value of total goods exported was $4.2 billion in July 2015, up $514 million (14 percent) compared with July 2014, Statistics New Zealand said today with fruit and meat leading the rise. More information is available at :http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/imports_and_exports/OverseasMerchandiseTrade_HOTPJul15.aspx

KIWIS MORE FRUGAL IN WAKE OF GFC: A newly released University of Otago study of consumer lifestyles suggests many Kiwis have become thriftier and more closely aligned with traditional values in the wake of the global financial crisis (GFC). A PDF of the report is available here: http://www.otago.ac.nz/marketing/otago121778..pdf

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS): The head of the United Nations Development Programme, former NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark, says Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to halve extreme poverty have been met, overwhelmingly because of changes in China. Read more here: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/

RBNZ CONSULTS ON OUTSOURCING: The Reserve Bank has today released a consultation paper with proposals for an updated outsourcing policy for banks. The consultation will run for 10 weeks and closes on 4 November 2015. See the consultation document here:http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/regulation_and_supervision/banks/consultations/consultation-review-outsourcing-policy-registered-banks.pdf

REGIONAL TOURISM INDICATORS: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment released the Regional Tourism Indicators (RTI) for July 2015. Click here for more: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/tourism/tourism-research-data/regional-tourism-indicators

And that’s our sampling of “news you can use” for Wednesday 26th August 2015.

Brought to EveningReport by Newsroom Digest. –]]>

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