The Daily Blog Open Mic – Thursday 14th December 2017

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.  

13 COMMENTS

  1. …young New Zealanders especially need hope…and they need jobs

    ( if we are to avoid poor mental health ,high suicide rates and drug addictions)

    Free Community Night Education Classes need to resume around the country ….for the sake of community social and generational cohesion…learning new skills…arts, photography,languages, history ,social and health skills, yoga, ethnic cooking classes etc.

    ..in many cases Evening Community Classes led on to new careers and life long friends ( eg one now aclaimed New Zealand potter had his first experience with pottery by attending a Community Education night pottery class with his mother)

    the Nactional Government was evil in axing Community Night Education classes

    …and giving the money to private schools ie from those at the bottom of the socioeconomic heap and from communities that could least afford to further their lifelong education hopes to those who were the wealthiest and could afford private schools

  2. TO; Ministers, message sent today. 14/12/17.

    At the ‘One Planet Climate Change Summit’ this week in Paris 12-15th December 2017.

    NZ is cited as investors in our ‘Superfund’ among big investors pressuring climate polluters.

    NZ Government must now use Rail freight as it will greatly reduce our use and dependence on fossil fuels that cause climate change, and will save our cost of paying for “carbon credits” also.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/arctic-climate-change-report-sea-temperature-rise-melting-ice-caps-polar-environment-global-warming-a8106161.html
    1. Environment
    ‘Arctic climate ‘report card’ reveals ‘rapid and dramatic changes’ to the polar environment.’
    The latest warnings on this link above must be taken seriously now as time is short for saving our planet.

    Please respond to our request for press coverage as government is close to shutting down for two months shortly please,

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/346052/nz-super-among-big-investors-pressuring-climate-polluters
    Radio New Zealand

    BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
    13 Dec 2017
    NZ Super among big investors pressuring climate polluters
    7:06 am on 13 December 2017

    Anusha Bradley, Journalist
    @AnushaBradley anusha.bradley@radionz.co.nz
    The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is among a group of powerful investors putting pressure on the world’s biggest polluters to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

    Campaigners in Paris urge companies at the summit to phase out fossil fuels. Photo: AFP

    The global campaign, dubbed Climate Action 100 plus, was launched at the One Planet Summit in Paris marking two years since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement.

    The summit brings together 225 of the world’s largest institutional investors which have more than $US26 trillion invested in 100 of the world’s largest emitters.

    They include ExxonMobil, General Electric, and Rio Tinto.

    Investor Group on Climate Change chief executive Emma Herd said investors were trying to force these companies to clean up their act by engaging with them.

    “It would be a pretty brave company that would say ‘no’ to $26 trillion of assets under management.”

    Companies’ performances in this area would be reported on each year so their improvements could be tracked, she said.

    “We’ll be able to see just how effective investor engagement is.”

    But New Zealand climate change lobby group 350 Aotearoa doubted engagement would work.

    “We’ve had decades of shareholder engagement with the fossil fuel industry and we’ve seen very little result,” its executive director, Niamh O’Flynn, said.

    The failure to include agriculture and livestock emissions into the campaign was also a lost opportunity, she said.

    New research published last month showed livestock was directly responsible for about a quarter of industrial-age warming – and that did not include emissions from crops grown to feed them.

    The New Zealand Super Fund has already quit or substantially reduced its investments in 300 fossil fuel companies as part of its own climate change strategy announced last year.

    But it still has just over $1bn invested in 86 of the companies being targeted by the new campaign, and while it was ditching fossil fuels, it’s was buying up beef and dairy farms in New Zealand and Australia.

    NZ Super Fund chief investment officer Matt Whineray said the 100 campaign was about “getting the largest emitters to get serious about climate change”.

    The fund was still reducing its carbon footprint even if it continued to invest in livestock, he said.

    “They’re a relatively small part of the portfolio and what we’ve found in our analysis is that the biggest impact we can make is through our listed equities, which is why we’ve started there.”

    Ms Herd believed agriculture and livestock emissions would increasingly come under the microscope, especially as fossil fuel divestment became the norm.

    Photo: 123RF

    No internationally binding commitments will be made at Tuesday’s “One Planet” summit.

    In focus is how public and private financial institutions can mobilise more money and how investors can pressure corporate giants to shift towards more ecologically friendly strategies.

    On Tuesday, the European Commission unveiled 9 billion euros worth of investments targeting sustainable cities, sustainable energy and sustainable agriculture for Africa and EU neighbourhood countries.

    Some 50 world leaders and ministers are in Paris, including Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and leaders of states at the sharp end of climate change such as Chad, Bolivia and Haiti.

    The United States has sent only an official delegation from the Paris Embassy, but California Governor Jerry Brown, leader of the world’s sixth largest economy, and celebrities Leonardo Di Caprio and Arnold Schwarzenegger, are championing more action.
    – RNZ / Reuters

  3. Family Package Bill now in debate, Parliament TV live:
    https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/

    Some good news, certainly for those with kids, i.e. families with lower incomes, but stuff all for those on benefits as singles, and who have health and disability issues.

    But let us see and wait, there may be more to come, so I do hope at least! NOT ONLY those on benefits and low incomes with kids struggle and suffer, there are many who may not have kids, and struggle, neither Nats nor Labour have done much for them.

    • By the way, I watched and listened to speeches by Bill English and now David Carter, all going on how ‘generous’ this Labour led government is to them, as it will offer free tertiary education for their kids, thus leaving them thousands of dollars better off (not having to support their kids to get an education).

      That is the absolute proof, that is where this government is failing badly, it is too scared to tax the high income earners and rich, and that is what a damned tax working group should have worked out, but income tax will not be within scope.

      FFS, that is so damned stupid, and the government has shot itself into the foot with such a failure, not to tax the rick pricks.

      Only by doing so will we get social justice and fiscal affordability of policies.

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