Reading Melanie Reid’s incredible coverage of Peter Ellis’s obscene miscarriage of justice case reminds you of her longevity as a Journalist and her excellence at it.
It’s so hard to believe that a modern city, Christchurch, in the 1990s would have become so obsessed and convinced that a Satanic cult was sexually molesting and murdering children.
How could that have happened?
How could people convince themselves of that lie?
Melanie Reid captures that moment with this amazing review of her time covering the case…
It was June 1993 and the night before the verdict in a case that had consumed the nation with its far-fetched claims of satanic rituals and children being sexually abused with needles and sticks.
Accused childcare worker Peter Ellis spent it with young reporter Melanie Reid. They sat in his flat recording the very last of their remarkable clandestine interviews, hours from finding out whether he would be locked away.
Most of these secret recordings have never been seen, until now.
Right up to the moment of the verdict he staunchly believed he would be found not guilty, “I’ve got no concerns. I know there’s going to be a good result,” he told Reid.
Surrounded by a circus of media, families, lawyers, witnesses, cops, Ellis looked straight ahead when the verdict was read out. His mother left the court room and took the long walk down the three flights of stairs. A group of creche parents shouted “Witches!” at his four female co-workers, and in the week before sentencing one of the top police detectives shared his support for anti-homosexual activists. It was, in every sense of the word, a total fiasco.
…they were screaming ‘witches’, in broad daylight, on the street in 1993.
Jesus wept.
That moment captured by Melanie Reid had me thinking about another time when NZ on reflection bordered on the insane.
As the climate meltdown continues around us, and as we pay $20million to start compensating for the destruction the climate crisis is doing to the poorest, I thought about National’s original ‘Groundswell’ movement and their response to emissions targets 19 years ago by driving a tractor up the steps of Parliament…
Nineteen years after the ‘fart tax’, New Zealand’s farmers are fighting emissions
Almost 20 years ago, hundreds of furious New Zealand farmers jumped into their tractors, farm bikes and trucks and ploughed up Wellington’s main street towards parliament to kick up a stink against the so-called “fart tax” – a levy on livestock methane gases, proposed by the then-Labour government to reduce emissions.
A cow named Energy was led up the building’s granite steps and left an unwelcome mess in her wake. In doing so, she provided the opposition movement with a powerful, if indelicate, visual metaphor: rural New Zealand was ready for a mudslinging match with the capital. Just months later, the government abandoned the tax.
…despite all the evidence proving global warming is here and impacting us, how much has changed since this madness 19 years ago?
Look how in NZ the Corporate Quisling Farmers run NZ politics so much so that the merest hint of them being forced to pay for their own pollution is met with howls of persecution!
Farmers are 1.16% of the population, represent 5.5% of GDP, make 48% of greenhouse gas emissions and create 70% of NZ’s contribution to global warming yet they are able to run roughshod over any legislative reigning in because the have such enormous political and economic power!
They have structured the entire industry for their benefit in the form of a Monopoly and National sold 49% of our Hydro Assets to set up a $400million irrigation slush fund for dairy intensification!
They could still drive a tractor up the steps of Parliament and get away with it because they still hold enormous sway over the political and economic infrastructure.
I wondered if the Peter Ellis allegations had first surface now on Social Media whether he would have faced the same fervour, and you only have to look at how the Woke Lynch mobs operate to know he would have.
We are not learning from the mistakes of our past.
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Hmm.
So it makes sense to tax NZ sheep and beef farmers – who are amongst if not the lowest emitting in the world https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/11/study-finds-new-zealand-beef-and-lamb-among-lowest-carbon-footprints-in-the-world.html
such that we lose 20-25 percent of them, and that same food then has to be made overseas with approximately double the carbon footprint?
All while planting farmland in toxic fire prone pine trees so overseas companies can buy credits and continue emitting? While the Paris Accord specifically warned against food production being compromised by any measures.
I think the farmers aren’t the ones in moral hysteria here…
That’s the plan! Isn’t it great? Please clap.
You hit the nail on the head with taxing animal product farmers. While not all the land animal products are produced on can be used to grow plant products for human consumption we could still grow more than enough food to feed ourselves & export high-value food & still allow some animal products which will be even higher value as the carnivorous among us will pay any price to get their fix of animal protein.
The science is clear enough regarding Carbon emissions so it is smarter to work with the knowledge we have instead of wanting to live in the 50’s.
That’s the thing about the so called science Bonnie….We do not know how much co2 is naturally absorbed by Mother Nature in New Zealand by our natural greenery. We seem to put a lot of effort into measuring our co2 output but very little to measure absorption…..We could be carbon neutral now for all we know…..There seems to be an idea that our forests are carbon neutral and this idea Is paraded about by dedicated Greens to hide the fact that their own engineering of climate science is just not fit for purpose and this includes the dodgy ETS scheme. One thing New Zealand can lead the world in is , how not to react to the so called climate change debate…..
“so called” this and “so called” that.
It’s science Robby dear, science. Not “so called” science.
And you obviously can’t cope with it nor understand how this sciencey thing all works.
The science tells us that methane from cows breaks down into CO2 and water after about 10 years, and returns to the grass where it re-enters the cycle
The science behind ruminant methane is completely different to that of CO2 from fossil fuel burning.
“The science tells us that methane from cows breaks down into CO2 and water after about 10 years, and returns to the grass where it re-enters the cycle”
That is a deliberate misrepresentation of the consequences of generation and release of methane into the atmosphere. Andy, first get your head around the differences generation of greenhouse gases and the consequences of greenhouse gases and stop throwing shit at the wall.
“The science behind ruminant methane is completely different to that of CO2 from fossil fuel burning.”
And for that one you just get a slow hand clap for understanding methane isn’t carbon dioxide.
In terms of its greenhouse heating effect methane is a very more potent gas than CO2.
https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/causes-of-climate-change/0/steps/13584
The science community isn’t a priesthood bringing stone tablets down from a mountain. The science is far from “settled” in many respects. We understand and have measured the effect of CO2 in the upper atmosphere so that gets a tick, but the interaction of atmosphere, soil, ocean and the multitude of feedback mechanisms is far from understood.
Meanwhile ten times more people die of cold than heat every year.
“Meanwhile ten times more people die of cold than heat every year.”
At the moment.
For a given herd size and assuming no external inputs, such as fertilizers, the methane stock in the atmosphere is NOT increasing.
The science states this.
I’m still waiting on you Richard to explain the science on why only newly planted pine trees are included in the ETS , but existing native trees and greenery are not included in our co2 absorption count….Science please…..
The difference between growing and grown?
Have a look around the country side Mark….Go into the bush and native forests and you will be surprised at the young growth every where…I’m surrounded by it where I live…Not much is actually full grown , but it’s easy to give the smug , talk down to someone answer….It seems to be the standard reply from the dedicated Green person….I guess it’s the academic superiority complex coming through….I live in a university city…We see it all the time….Perhaps you live in an apartment ….
I guess it comes down to if he gets his science from social media or not.
Interestingly Bonnie the land used to grow plant products are high emitters of carbon but nobody talks about that. We target the livestock farmers and conveniently forget the arable farming. High carbon emissions from tractors to put crops in and 3-4 tonnes of carbon released per hectare every time they plough. Seems plant based products aren’t so clean after all.
Sorry but I am not sure you can say all sales of farm land for forestry is all due to an unknown omissions tax (if that is what you mean) It sounds more like people are offering good money for land because after planting the owners can make money selling credits under the ETS. That needs to be looked at as well obviously
Farmers do provide food and are generally a lot better than other subsets of NZ that do nothing good at all – but are heavily subsidised in NZ aka meth dealers, 80% of government advisors, gangs crims.
Only a small amount of farmers protested so not all farmers.
Many farmers are organic and sustainable.
Get tired of everyone being put into identity groups in NZ and the assumption that all groups have the same ideas. Farmers can be in totally different camps – just like all the other identify groups.
Yes, Save NZ but at the moment it is the farmers who are the ones protesting and yet many of us can’t even afford to buy their products despite them polluting our waterways and getting many governments handouts something has to give and it needs to be them (the farmers)
Yes the price of grass hasn’t gone up yet mince and other meat prices are exorbitant, seems like price gouging to me.
Gus just the cost of seed alone for a 20 hectare paddock can 5000 and getting the paddock cultivated and ready for sowing another $4000.. Grass can last for five years without replacing but can be less in order to keep production up. It isn’t a cheap commodity.
Thanks New view for your sensible reply to a silly question.
I read the thread and didn’t see a question at all. What question Bob? Another idiotic and illiterate reply by Bob.
That comes as no surprise.
Yes Gus, it comes as no surprise either by Bob’s idiocy and illiteracy.
He even admits to it.
Anything, any trumped up argument at all will do to facilitate the on-going and ever widening gap between the people who eat in the cities, and those who grow that which they eat in the country to ensure the on-going exploitation of our farmers for the private wealth creation of the now nine multi-billionaires and their multi-millionaire underlings.
You’re correct in your views to a certain extent but you still miss the point @ Martyn Bradbury.
Farmers must continue to manufacture their goods, at any cost. That, is the nature of AO/NZ farming. I don’t need to explain that one can simply not switch a farm off on Friday afternoon. And those same farmers must be made to look like they’ve abandoned their responsibilities to tenderly and regeneratively care for their land and their animals so that a steady stream of demonising misinformation comes from Auckland’s and Wellington’s water front high rise office and bank buildings to hide what I term The Great [AO] New Zealand multi-generational and MSM Institutionalised Lie.
Makes good coin though, and you don’t have to lift a finger, Aye Boys?
By quoting the GDP figures the article seems to belittle the contribution agriculture makes compared to the pollution it produces. Figures and statistics can be made to support anybodies argument. I prefer to quote the
$52.2 billion agriculture contributes. That’s $52.2 billion earned in export receipts by 1.16% of the population. Not a bad effort I would have thought.
That’s $52 billion from the food and fibre sector 2022.
Yes not important but critical to our economy.
When they have us all eating insects for essential proteins, I can’t wait to see how farting bugs is a the next existential issue. This insanity will not stop until people push back, and acknowledge that ALL modern progress has been made possible with cheap energy (carbon-based) and that there are no immediate alternatives to it. Regardless if you worship at the altar of climate change or not (I don’t), the fact is billions of people will starve to death if the IPCC gets its way. You can be all for that (like the WEF), but I won’t ever support it.
I must admit… If I wasn’t made aware of climate change, I wouldn’t be aware of it. I literally can’t tell the difference in the climate. Clearly, I must be a luddite because scienceie stuff an’ that an’ what not say’s stuff and things like ” Oooooooo, it’s warmer now, so we’re fucked. ” But are we?
I think the structure of capitalism has made a boo boo. Capitalism’s crushed us into ‘cities’ where we beetle about doing junk stuff which our efforts have made fortunes for the very, very, very, very few while we, are just a wee bit fucked now, I’m thinking.
Time to spread out then. Go twenty minutes out of any AO/NZ city and you’re going to find yourself in the middle of fucking nowhere. What’s a paddock? It’s a flat green thing, why? ” But where’s the fucking disco Man!? I’m in a party mood. ”
Humans have a tendency to look at their feet while trying to find the universe.
“Regardless if you worship at the altar of climate change”
Sigh. No Nitrium. Worship is for religion.
Science is not a religion.
The scientific consensus on causes of recent heating of the planet being the result of human activity is rock solid.
“the fact is billions of people will starve to death if the planet continues burning carbon as it currently does”.
A free correction service for you.
Brilliantly said Richard.
Well said Nitrium.
Foolishly said, Bob.
What utter bollocks. “Billions will starve”. Some of the screaming makes no sense whatsoever. It’s easy to see what happened to Peter Ellis.
Bob was probably on the jury.
What an an anti-farmer rant! Farmers just respond to demand for food. You can slap an emmissions tax on farmers or you could add an extra couple of percentage points gst on meat milk cheese butter to cover the consumers demand for the emmissions their food generates. Both taxes increase the price of food. You single out farmers as being a small percentage of the population and producing minor percentage of gst and neglect the powerful reality they earn over 80% of the nations foreign income. Climate change has been on scientists and economists radar since the early eighties. Any politician with an ounce of nous has known since the early nineties. You can’t expect the market failure embracing right to do anthing about this. The left has had 40 years to develop some clean green export industries but havent because its too easy to blame farmers. Farmers are just growing food. May be consumers could stop eating that would stop agricultural emmissions over night 😉
Changes in customer demand and supply technologies (in this case cow genetics) and regulation seem to be the best solutions to pollution. Taxes and cap and trade bs is just a financialistion rort.
“The left has had 40 years to develop some clean green export industries but havent because its too easy to blame farmers.”
non sequitur , not that it was ever any particular political sector’s job to do that in any case.
What an an anti-farmer rant! Farmers just respond to demand for food. You can slap an emmissions tax on farmers or you could add an extra couple of percentage points gst on meat milk cheese butter to cover the consumers demand for the emmissions their food generates. Both taxes increase the price of food. You single out farmers as being a small percentage of the population and producing minor percentage of gst and neglect the powerful reality they earn over 80% of the nations foreign income. Climate change has been on scientists and economists radar since the early eighties. Any politician with an ounce of nous has known since the early nineties. You can’t expect the market failure embracing right to do anthing about this. The left has had 40 years to develop some clean green export industries but havent because its too easy to blame farmers. Farmers are just growing food. May be consumers could stop eating that would stop agricultural emmissions over night 😉
Changes in customer demand and supply technologies (in this case cow genetics) and regulation seem to be the best solutions to pollution. Taxes and cap and trade bs is just a financialistion rort.
Nothing to see here folks, deny, deny, deny unless of course you are flooded or in drought then you blame the government and look for handouts
And pray tell climate doom-mongers, how much has the sea risen in the last 19 years?
Look it up if you need to know.
JAQing off isn’t making an argument.
Same as the previous 19 years, as far as I know
And what do you know?
What I know is that SLR hasn’t increased in NZ over the last century. It’s been around 1.8-2.mm per year or thereabouts.
Labour and Greens seem to have a hatred of farmers and their constant attempts to undermine their work is causing them to leave the land they have farmed for generations and selling to tree growers . This will lead to a decline in small town NZ and making or large cities less able to cope with the problems they bring. Hopefully the voters of NZ will remove this government and farmers will be able to do what they do so well which is feed both NZ and millions off shore. If this lot stay in power it will be bad for the Worlds climate as our farmers cause less pollution than most overseas countries
Trevor like many others as usual you have your head in the sand wringing your hands at the injustice of it all. To say a NACT government is the answer to climate change is beyond ridiculous but not surprising coming from the conspiracy theorists and climate change denier’s, “ two peas in a pod”
Three coins in a fountain.
One Bob short of a dollar.
Got your currencies mixed up?
Even a simpleton could read between the lines, I gather your not at that level yet Bob.
What utter bullshit, Labour and the Greens don’t hate farmers. People like you have this belief that the right are pro gamers and the left aren’t. It’s very lazy thinking on your behalf.
If you read Countryboy’s posts you’ll realise you are so far from the truth you are embarrassing.
And a do nothing Nact combination on climate change will be the end of us as a trading nation.
Nact must never be elected again, the intelligent voters know this.
Seems 44 . 5 % say differently
Which means 55.5% agree.
BTW. That guy on that tractor’s lucky it didn’t do a backward flip and crush his arse. It’s a geometry thing.
When I was a kid I saw a very large woman get squashed under a similar tractor. She survived, amazingly.
Wasn’t he some dipshit National Party MP?
You know the type, the alphas who don’t need life jackets, seat belts or bike helmets.
@Nitrium with disrupted food + fertiliser supply chains and sharp decline in production is already in the pipe (Ukraine war, disrupted supply chains, export bans etc). I think starvation will become a very real issue for tens of millions 2023-2024 once last years harvest has been consumed.
In that environment I can see NZ farmers ramping up crop production over the next few years, to make dent in global shortfall (also because of higher international market prices).
Then they will be heroes again.
Pastoral farms are responsible for huge amounts of sequestration that they are not compensated for and they rightly are kicking up a stink about it. If you want to hit them for polluting then you should compensate them for reducing otherwise you can forget any agreement at all and watch everything undone every time there is a change in government.
The denial of many on this subject reeks of conspiracy theorists–it’s all a plot by leftist greenies to attack our economy and farmers. Why would the leftist greenies under the bed want to do this? Maybe the foreign owners of vast amounts of our agricultural industries are happy to have found a country where the farming lobby has such a strong influence?
Seems likely, I can’t see any rational reason for shutting down farms and replacing them with pine plantations, unless it’s to enrich transnational corporations
Andy throwing his usual strawmen full of shit against the walls.
“Strawman”? Huh?
This is exactly what is happening
ask the aussies who are not having floods as we speak…yeah yeah yeah not as bad as 1920plonk but it’s every year now not an occasional occurance.
And here we are 19 years later where the rest of NZ is paying it while farmers still continue to whine.
They tell us they’re the bread basket of NZ but nearly everything they produce goes overseas.
Sure, so if we shut down farms and replace them with pine forests, how is this going to help anything except international grifters rorting the system?
Thats being narrow minded Andy. Farmers are going to go in whatever direction they make the most money from hence why we have a dairy problem right now.
Goes overseas Mark because the domestic market is too small to consume the volume and that’s a good thing as it provides over 80% of our export receipts.