Gosh, politics is a nasty business, and the MSM can be even nastier.

Absolutely Kim Dandy,

NatZ commandeered the public media without a shot fired in a media cue and opposition Parties must take the government takeover as illegal as half belongs to the voter’s who voted for opposition parties it’s that simple injustice here has been done!!!!!!

Truck numbers increased 12% all up the East Coast/HB during the previous year 2014-5 as Government deliberately forced the closure of rail.

So we are heading for a dead NZ future country and planet.

These clowns don’t see NZ Rail policy as it is the best policy to save the planet.

NZ First have the best rail policy on their website of any political party. Called RONI
quote,

TRANSPORT POLICY

RAILWAYS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

· New Zealand First will ensure that none of New Zealand’s railway lines and other strategic railways infrastructure will be privatised, and will remain under state control and ownership to ensure that public service rather than commercial objectives is the paramount consideration.

· New Zealand First’s vision includes passenger train services along all rail routes between the main centres, with connecting coach services linking outlying areas or running services between centres which don’t have a railway line. These services would provide a mixture of accommodation standards and fares to make rail services more affordable for New Zealanders to use e.g. half the carriages to be high standard premium fare similar to that provided on current KiwiRail tourist focussed trains such as the Northern Explorer and Tranz Alpine services, and the other half of the carriages being basic, affordable economy fare intercity market, e.g. railcars would have one premium carriage and one economy carriage. The Silver Fern railcars, former Overlander carriages and Silver Star carriages could be appropriately refurbished and upgraded locally in railway workshops to operate daytime regional Intercity services. Fast modern railcars and new carriages, New Zealand built where possible, could later be purchased for certain routes.

· As a state-owned enterprise, KiwiRail is currently heavily constrained because it is required to pay for the maintenance, renewal and upgrade of rail infrastructure through the revenue generated from its freight and other businesses.

· New Zealand’s rail network is a national asset that must be developed to optimise its long term role in support of New Zealand’s economy and of an efficient and cost effective multi-modal and well integrated transport system.

· New Zealand First will develop a programme of railways of national importance (RONI) to ensure that better use of our railway network and services are achieved, with improvements and extensions where there is opportunity to significantly reduce dependence on the roading network, especially for heavy freight and bulk freight services, but also where passenger services can be redeveloped to attract sufficient demand over time.

· To this end New Zealand First will not require the whole cost of development of new railway tracks and services, and of electric reticulation, to be met by revenue generated by railway service charges; and these will instead be met in whole or in part by a combination of Land Transport Fund funding and crown grants.

· The Land Transport Fund funding will be achieved by reallocating funding from the current RONS $12 billion plus programme. An initial budget of $400 million would be created by reprioritising Roads of National Significance (RONS) projects that have low or marginal benefits.

· The rail routes listed below would form the basis of the core transport network between the main centres with daily passenger and freight services, and with the tracks being upgraded or new lines built as required, together with new transport interchanges between trains and buses, and freight hubs in all the main centres:

Auckland-Whangarei-Opua

Auckland-Pokeno-Paeroa-Te Aroha-Tauranga-Whakatane

Auckland-Hamilton-Tokoroa-Rotorua-Taupo

Auckland-Wellington

Wellington-New Plymouth

Wellington-Gisborne (via the Wairarapa line)

Nelson-Blenheim

Christchurch-Greymouth

Picton-Christchurch-Dunedin-Invercargill.

· The following are the proposed RONI projects to be considered in the long – medium term, subject to detailed cost and benefit analysis to confirm their value:

1. North Auckland and Marsden Point Line.

Northland needs good rail connections to the rest of New Zealand if it is to grow. That means upgrading the Auckland to Whangarei line. Good rail links to Northland means developing a rail link from the main line to Marsden Point port, which has great advantages as a deepwater harbour that does not require dredging. There is also plenty of land for expansion. There is great scope for it to serve as a container port and take pressure off Auckland and Tauranga. The potential of the Port of Northland for the region, as well as for the country as a whole, is being strangled by lack of an effective rail link.

2. Rolling Electrification Programme.

New Zealand First proposes an on-going rail electrification programme to use the skills and expertise built up in the current Auckland suburban rail electrification project. The first project will be to extend electrification from Papakura to Pukekohe. Other potential projects to be investigated include electrification between Auckland and Hamilton, Hamilton and Tauranga, and extending electrification north from Waikanae and from Upper Hutt to Masterton. Many other projects for electrification would follow in later years:

Lyttelton-Christchurch-Greymouth.

Christchurch suburban area.

Picton-Christchurch-Dunedin-Invercargill.

3. Regional Opportunities.

Funds will be made available for smaller capital investment opportunities that KiwiRail is unable to fund given its current funding constraints

In particular, $4m will be used reinstate the Napier –Gisborne line as soon as possible.

4. Cook Strait Ferries.

The Cook Strait Ferry service and vessels will be funded for upgrades to ensure a high quality fast reliable and safe service for freight and passengers.

5. Auckland-Pokeno-Paeroa-Te Aroha-Tauranga-Whakatane.

A new line to be built along the rail formation between Pokeno-Paeroa-Te Aroha, a new line to be built between Te Aroha and the western portal of the Kaimai tunnel and a new line to be built between Awakeri and Whakatane, all combined creating a shorter and more direct rail route into the Bay of Plenty.

6. Auckland-Hamilton-Tokoroa-Rotorua-Taupo.

A new line to be built between Kinleith-Rotorua-Taupo primarily for forestry traffic, as well as for general freight and passengers.

7. Nelson-Blenheim.

A new line to be built between Blenheim and Nelson, completing this long proposed project for freight and passengers.

8. Auckland International Airport.

A new line to be built to link the Auckland International Airport with the rail system. The proposed new integrated terminal at Auckland (like that built at Christchurch International Airport) is already being designed to accommodate a rail terminal within the building.

9. Auckland City Rail Link

Build the Auckland City Rail Link tunnel project under central Auckland as soon as possible, jointly funded with the Auckland Council.

10. Northland.

New lines to be built to link the rail system with ports in Northland between Oakleigh and Northport at Marsden Point, and Otiria and Opua in the Bay of Islands.

11. New suburban services.

New suburban passenger train services will be investigated for Christchurch, Dunedin, Tauranga and between Hamilton and Auckland.

This includes an initial investigation into establishing suburban passenger train services in Christchurch, Dunedin, Tauranga and between Hamilton and Auckland using Auckland’s surplus diesel rolling stock immediately following the introduction of electric services in Auckland.

12. Rail siding grant scheme.

New Zealand First will introduce a grant scheme to encourage greater use of rail transport by industry and by distribution centres, where the cost of installing or re-commissioning rail sidings will be met 50/50 by the businesses using the rail siding and the New Zealand Railways Corporation.

· New Railways structure proposed by NZ First.

KiwiRail would be restructured by splitting it into three new organisations:

1. New Zealand Railways Corporation – owning and managing rail land, tracks and infrastructure, stations and rail-freight centres, shunting yards, workshops, train control systems, managing and maintaining the rail network, allocating access to the rail network for rail operating companies, setting rail training standards and qualifications, and acting as the rail regulator and licence agency.

2. Kiwi Rail – operating rail passenger services between all main centres, and operating the Interisland ferries.

3. Rail Freight – a new State Owned Enterprise operating a commercial rail freight business.

End

Winston has announced that the battleground for NZ First will be the provinces, so bring it on.

Today Winston also announced on RNZ that NZ First are going to run against “weak” National seats and remove them.

Hurrah – as in Gisborne, a Herald poll last week showed over 70% want our rail back and government should fix the rail washouts National admitted through Kiwirail, that after removing $200Million from the rail maintenance budget was what caused the blocked drains/washouts, so it showed folks are sick of National for killing their brail and may run against Ann Tolley and unseat her as she did nothing to save the rail at all.

We will look for Winston to take our rail back as the kingmaker.

Yes Frank.

Actually, I’m waiting for a party that has the novel approach of identifying the CAUSE of ANYTHING!

It will never happen, of course, because politics is entirely about AVOIDING discussion of causes and entirely about feeble or inappropriate responses to the symptoms of dysfunctional systems. And most of the time politicians promote ‘solutions’ to one set of symptoms that make another set of symptoms worse.

1. Global Financial unsustainability: causes -fractional reserve banking, creation of money out of thin air and charging of interest. Inappropriate response of governments: ever-greater injections of fiat money to stimulate growth, lowering of interest rates (towards zero or even negative) to prevent sovereign debts becoming unmanageable, bail-outs, bail-ins and subsidies to keep dysfunctional organisations in business.

2. Energy crisis: causes -overconsumption of fossil fuels and failure to decouple from them. Inappropriate response of governments: promotion of fracking, deep-sea drilling, processing of bitumen from tar sands, opening up of conservation areas to mining etc.

3. Environmental collapse and planetary overheating: causes -too many people using too much stuff. Inappropriate response of governments: increase population and promote greater consumerism.

We could examine any aspect of modern societies and get exactly the same picture, e.g. traffic congestion, cause too many people and too many vehicles: the inappropriate response of governments is to encourage road construction and purchase of vehicles.

‘The number of new vehicles sold in the past 12 months to August was an all-time record.

More than 98,000 new cars and more than 42,000 commercial vehicles were added to our roads in that 12 months, both records.

And that does not count the 144,000 used imports in the same period (not a record, but the highest in over ten years).’

And the utter madness will continue because NO mainstream political party will address ANYTHING fundamental. Fundamental truths are taboo for the Greens (at one time referred to as the Greeds, because they promote industrialism and consumerism).

Each day that passes NZ (and the word) gets made less sustainable, less liveable, and more toxic, and the populace gets made less capable of coping with what is clearly on the horizon to anyone who bothers to look (0.5% of the population?).

That is why western societies are on a trajectory that leads directly to ‘crash and burn’. The ‘crash and burn’ is now not far off.

This article, which suggests half of life on Earth will be gone by 2050, is very optimistic:

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/358053-earth-humans-geological-age-danger/

(i’ll just fix the headline for you..)

shouldn’t it be ‘deception perception @ convention’..?

(there ya go..!..)

and on the eve of driverless cars – the ‘big-idea’ is to teach schoolkids how to drive cars..

(always/ever the futurists – eh..?..)

..and peters trying it on with some sort of antipodean bernie sanders schtick is just knee-slappingly funny..

(it’d be like sanders saying he couldn’t say yet if he would prop up trump – peters is truly fucken delusional with that one..)

It’s just a name and has no meaning, of course. The party might as well be called Me First for all the good these clowns are going to do. Mutually exclusive is mutually exclusive, and there’s no getting round it.

If NZ First were to ever gain any power or control the balance of power we could be sure of two things:

1. betrayal of those who vote NZF.

2. support for business-as-usual policies that make matters worse.

It happens every election and whichever party or combination of parties hold power!

People seem to have such short memories. Think back to the Winston Peters who was true-blue National, then left in a huff. Then declared he’d never go with National. Then went with National. And was so useless as Minster of Finance he was thrown out.

Just wait, we are heading into the “right” direction already, with the cracking down on crime obsession, while over the years crime is supposed to have decreased, and only recently increased again.

The day may come where we have similar approaches as Mr Duterte is now dishing out in the Philippines.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/02/deadly-blast-philippines-night-market-davao

The MSM has laid the fertile ground work for it, the increase in rhetoric and dramatic, sensationalist reporting will take is there, at last, where it will be shoot first and ask questions later.

New Zealand is heading into the “brighter future” for vigilante groups, who will be presented medals after each incident, by our Esteemed Leader for Eternity, the Grand Master John Key.

The coming coalition between Nats and NZ First will take us there.

Indeed, Xray.

I’m waiting for a novel approach; being tough on the causes of crime. Wouldn’t that be an amazing new angle (not new to the Greens, admittedly)?