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CPAG launches new report on student poverty

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The case of student hardship in New Zealand has long fallen under the political and media radars, and has been swallowed up in the discourse on student loan debt.

This week Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) welcomes the launch of its latest report: Laybying our future: The state of student hardship in New Zealand.

The report, written by Master’s student Max Lin, looks at the challenges of very low levels of financial support and – ever-rising associated costs – upon students today, and aims to dispel some ‘myths’ about being a tertiary student.

“The seriousness and urgency of student hardship demands a greater focus in the political agenda,” says author Max Lin.

While CPAG is largely focused on children under 18 living below the poverty line, childhood poverty can have an negative effect on those who strive to obtain higher qualifications. Policy that tightens and restricts financial support for students makes it even more unlikely that children from low-income backgrounds will access the tertiary education they need to maximise their potential.

Furthermore, some tertiary students are also parents of young children, whose Working for Families (WFF) eligibility is compromised because studying is not recognised as ‘work’.

Max has participated on the Ministry of Social Development’s Student Allowance Review Board, and seen first-hand the unfair nature of the student allowance and loan scheme.

“There will be students in hardship who come in with absolutely no parental support, but because their parents’ income is ‘too high’, they are unable receive additional support. These decisions are not the fault of the front-line workers at StudyLink who are already under-resourced when dealing with students, but arise because the system is simply broken,” he says.

“The issue is not budgeting. Students are forced to be excellent budgeters – there is simply not enough to budget. This leaves no room for students to socialise, which can have a detrimental effect on mental health, as well as denying them a fundamental part of the university experience and the ability to form networks that support them during and after their study.”

Max, who formerly sat on the Auckland University Students’ Association (AUSA) Hardship Grants committee, says that, “Demand for food parcels has increased dramatically, especially for students with children. At times we had to give out blankets and clothing and even try and find emergency accommodation.”

“Students need adequate support that is both reliable and sufficient in order to complete their degrees, and complete them well.”

The launch of Laybying our future: The state of student hardship in New Zealand will take place at 5pm on August 3, at the Auckland University School of Business Studies, and will feature a panel of guest speakers including MPs, students and student body executives. For more information, or to register to attend the event please visit the CPAG website.

The report is available for download here.

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How NSW’s new legal medicinal cannabis rules open the door for NZ patients

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From today NSW doctors can prescribe medicinal cannabis – and Kiwi patients can go over and return with one month’s “lawfully obtained” supply. So how would NZ patients lawfully obtain any?

Modern research suggests that cannabis is a valuable aid in the treatment of a wide range of clinical applications. These include pain relief — particularly of neuropathic pain (pain from nerve damage) — nausea, spasticity, glaucoma, and movement disorders. Cannabis is also a powerful appetite stimulant, specifically for patients suffering from HIV, AIDS wasting syndrome, cancer treatment, or dementia. Emerging research suggests that cannabinoids found in cannabis may protect the body against some types of malignant tumors and may be neuroprotective.

Of all the negative consequences of our insane War on Drugs, none is as tragic as the denial of medicinal cannabis to patients who could benefit from its therapeutic use.

Parliament’s Health Select Committee has twice called for medicinal cannabis to be made available, while NZ’s Law Commission recommended a compassionate scheme that would instruct the police to turn a blind eye to the use and provision of medicinal cannabis. New Zealand patients have been all over the media for the last year or so, polls show massive support for making medicinal cannabis legal, and there are at least two medicinal cannabis petitions going around now that you should sign.

Medicinal cannabis is legal in 26 US states, most of Europe, Canada, Israel, and several South American nations. Yet the New Zealand Government has steadfastly refused to make any significant changes, insisting that it’s fake review of the regulations had put the issue to bed.

The contrast with NSW could not be more stark. Peter Dunne, our Minister in charge of drug policy, and his National Party buddies use Australian progress on this issue to stall any action here. We are told we must wait for Australian trials to be conducted, then for products to be registered there, then Medsafe may consider them here, and only then might the situation change for patients who are suffering.

Meanwhile in NSW, Premier Mike Baird – who was awakened to the importance of this issue after being contacted by a patient – has made the clinical trials not a barrier to reform, but a way to enroll as many patients as possible so they can access medicinal cannabis now, and then use those results to widen access as much as possible, as quickly as possible. I was at the Sydney Hemp & Health Expo when he announced the access would be dramatically widened even before the initial trials had begun. Today Mike Baird has made good on his promise to put patients before politics, with more to come.

Peter Dunne has said that New Zealand is likely to follow Australia once it provides medical cannabis for use, but Kiwi patients don’t have to wait for his timetable: many will be eligible to go over right now.

The new regulations for prescribing medicinal cannabis in NSW are here. Some media are reporting patients must have a terminal condition and have exhausted conventional treatments, but this is not mentioned in the new regulations so I think they’ve got that wrong, and that this is not limited to terminal patients. There is also no limit to what conditions patients have, or what may be prescribed (whole cannabis plant and cannabis-based products are both allowed). It is expected that medicinal cannabis products will eventually be registered with the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration, so doctors could then prescribe them to anyone like any other medicine.

As of today, the process is:

a) medical practitioners must apply to both the TGA and the NSW Health Board for licenses to prescribe cannabis-based products;

b) medical practitioners must be involved in the patient’s “ongoing care” – but do not need to be their main doctor;

c) the medicinal cannabis product must be “lawfully imported into or manufactured in Australia”.

None are yet – but I expect several will be available soon. For example the new regulations allow doctors and pharmacists to manufacture medicinal cannabis and/or products without a license, ie they could grow some at the doctor’s surgery!

It’s now widely known that New Zealanders can travel overseas and bring back with them up to one month’s supply of legally obtained medicinal cannabis or medicinal cannabis products. This was built into the Misuse of Drugs Act when it was passed way back in 1975, but it was difficult to muster the courage to test this provision when Customs were saying it didn’t exist and they’d bust anyone who tried. Rebecca Reider put it to the test and won in court. New Zealand patients can indeed bring back a month’s worth of herbal happiness. In fact, the Ministry of Health now provides the following guidance on their website:

If you arrive in New Zealand carrying controlled drugs on you or in your luggage, you may import it provided that you:

  • declare the controlled drugs on your passenger arrival card to present to New Zealand Customs Service.
  • have no more than one month’s supply of the controlled drug with you.

prove to Customs that the drug:

  • is required for treating a medical condition for you or for someone under your care, and
    has been lawfully supplied to you in the country of origin
  • a letter from your doctor or a valid label on the container with your name and the quantity and strength of the drugs would be sufficient.

For further information for individuals arriving in New Zealand with controlled drugs, please contact New Zealand Customs Service.

One issue remains. It is not clear whether patients must be NSW residents – the Terminal Illness Cannabis Scheme (TICS) says they must be, but the new regulations do not specify this and are additional to TICS, which remains in force as well. New Zealanders have the right to live and work in Australia indefinitely, but are not technically “permanent residents” for immigration purposes. It’s possible that having a NSW address may be enough to satisfy the condition of being a NSW “resident”, or it may not even be required at all.

In summary, patients or their caregivers will need to find a licensed doctor, ask them to be involved in their ongoing care, identify a product they can lawfully import into Australia (another license required), or convince them to grow some, then buy a month’s supply and come home with it on their person, with all their paperwork, and declare it at the border.

If any patients reading this think they may qualify, please get in contact, and perhaps we can help get you over to Australia and back again with some legal medicinal cannabis. I’m certainly keen to test this out.

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Political Caption Competition

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The Daily Blog Open Mic – Monday 1st August 2016

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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.

 

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It’s official – the Unitary Plan is a scam

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Labour have produced figures that now highlight what a scam the Unitary Plan really is.

This is a war of privilege between the haves and want mores, this is not a fight between the haves and have nots. In one corner the rich baby boomer property speculators are fighting the Unitary Plan to keep their privilege, in the other corner blue-green millennials who want the privilege they feel they’ve been denied are leading the fight for it.

As for the poor, screw them. This housing crisis has been stolen by rich people.

Labour have broken down the numbers, and they show what a joke this debate has become.

In the words of Andrew Little

“The majority of these houses will be out of the reach of most Auckland families. The modelling found- that, of the 247,000 new homes planned within the existing urban area, 85 per cent will cost more than $800,000 and most will cost more than a million dollars.

“Less than 2 per cent will cost less than $600,000 and just one house is expected to be sold for under $500,000.

“If this is National’s brave new world then they are even more out of touch than anyone suspected.

“The mortgage on a $600,000 home costs nearly half of the median Auckland income (see table attached), meaning 98 per cent of these 247,000 houses will be unaffordable to the typical family.

“Lacking any credible plan of its own, National is relying on the Auckland Council’s Unitary Plan to tackle the Auckland housing crisis. But these numbers show that under the Plan very few affordable homes will be built.

…so less than 2% of houses will even be affordable for the majority of people? These rich buggers have used the plight of the tens of thousands of poor people living in over crowded garages and cars to further their own agenda, this Unitary Plan isn’t about solving the Housing Crisis for everyone, it’s about solving the Housing Crisis for the children of the rich.

How dare the poor get pimped so Blue-Green millennials and property speculating greedy boomers can all get Gold Credit Card applications in the mail.

We need a real solution, and building 85% of the  247 000 homes to only further fuel the speculative bubble is not a solution. Less than 2% of these houses will be affordable, that’s not a bloody solution!

We need a political revolution to force the interests of those paying the highest price for this speculative greed to be front and centre of any solution. Labour’s KiwiBuild that will only allow first time house buyers to buy affordable houses is a solution. The Unitary Plan is not.

 

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Rich-listers and their allergy to paying tax

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The NBR’s rich list is out again and New Zealand’s biggest bludgers are on display. There are 190 on the list this year with a combined wealth of $59.6 billion. The one thing this group has in common with each other is an allergy to tax.

Income tax:
What income tax do they pay? Buggar all.
The Inland Revenue department reported a few years back that half this group had an annual taxable income of less than $70,000 – the income which would put someone in the top tax bracket.

So while their wealth might increase by many millions each year, half of them said they earned less than $70,000! That would put their total income tax around $14,000.

Did this concern the government? When it was pointed out that many of the wealthy were using family trusts (tax rate 33c) to avoid paying the top tax rate (39c) the John Key government “closed the loophole” by reducing the top income tax rate to the family tax rate!!!

GST:
What GST do they pay? Buggar all.
It’s almost the same with GST. Those who pay the highest proportion of their income on GST are those on the lowest incomes. Here’s how it works:

Amount of GST paid as a percentage of total income, total expenditure, and disposable income

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New Zealanders on the lowest incomes pay around 15% of their income in tax. The wealthiest 10% pay less than 5% of their income on GST.

So the only thing most of know about the Rich List is that most of up pay more tax than they do.

Income tax and GST together:
Putting it all together a minimum wage worker who works a 40hr week pays about 28% of their total income in tax – 14% in income tax and 14% on GST.

Prime Minister John Key on the other hand pays about 2.8% of his total income (his salary as PM and his $5 million in unearned wealth increase) on income tax and GST.

And some people wonder why we have increasing inequality in New Zealand.

It’s morally and ethically wrong for hard-earned income from wages and salaries to be heavily taxed while unearned income from shares and investments is tax free.

And before anyone writes a comment about how wonderful and philanthropic some of these rich listers are just remembers for them it’s a piddle in the bucket.

In fact I’m willing to bet that the average New Zealander give a higher proportion of their income to charitable causes than anyone on the rich list.

The whole system is rotten to the core.

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Greens first blunder – will Mt Roskill be their second?

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I could hear the political strategists within Labour smashing their heads against walls when Metiria bewilderingly announced gradual slashing of housing prices.

The cold grim reality is that House prices are going to pop and come crashing down, but no political party in their right mind would want to be seen as the instigator of that crash.

The word is ‘stabilise’, a clever little trick word that calms those first home buying working class NZers who have only just managed to get on the property ladder and  now face 3 storey complexes built next door to them in Auckland.

If the Greens feel they need to be more honest, then talk about affordable housing that is only allowed to go to first time home buyers, you don’t need to scare the living Christ out of the 60% who do have property.

It’s a blunder and a real question mark over the capacity of the new strategy team in the back room of the Greens. I don’t want to sound like a Trolls Troll, but appeasing Twitteratti and envious blue-greens with some housing truth bombs ain’t the way to win an election. Not because they aren’t right, but because Labour and the Greens must look unified and scaring the hell out of speculators guarantees a massive war chest in donations to National. Announcing major housing policy on the hoof doesn’t help build trust.

The MoU was rushed through before the Green conference this year because the Blue-Green and Identitarian factions within the Greens wanted a neutral policy stance going into the 2017 election. This would have seen the Greens sitting on the cross benches and voting policy to policy. The Left faction of the Greens tipped Labour off to this desire and they hastily announced the MoU to quash this internal coup. So moments like these don’t help Labour feel that momentum has been stopped.

The next big test of theLabour-Green MoU will be Mt Roskill. If the Greens are mad enough to run a candidate and risk splitting the vote for a National win, then Labour go into election year with a symbolic loss and all pretence of co-operation out the window.

You can only risk antagonising the property speculators if your policy is so radical it can bring in the missing million, but policy to attract the missing million would have to be far more radical than what the Greens are suggesting. So while they get the panic of the speculators, they get none of the missing million.

And they annoy Labour.

This is a lose, lose, lose scenario.

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Paula Bennett sends 22 people on $5000 one way ticket out of Auckland – so housing crisis solved then?

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So a mere 22 desperate people took up Paula Bennett’s obscene ‘solution’ to pay the poor $5000 to leave Auckland.

Wow.

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So with 10 000 homeless in Auckland, and let’s say 22 people leave Auckland each month under this plan, Paula Bennett will have eradicated homelessness in Auckland within 37 years.

That’s not really much of a solution is it?

This Government has no interest in solving the Housing crisis or homelessness.

The homeless don’t vote for National.

Most renter’s don’t vote for National.

Most state tenants don’t vote for National.

Most Millennials don’t vote.

Property speculators DO vote and those are the ones National play to.

National are in selective denial about the housing crisis because they need the fake growth rates to make the economy look better than it really is and because the middle class illusion of wealth keeps them in power.

 

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Paul robs Hosking to pay John – RNZ surge in ratings + how much longer for MediaWorks?

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RNZ has surged in ratings, which shouldn’t be a surprise after their hiring of John Campbell.

RNZ is as stuffy as an ashtray in an oven on a hot day and desperately needed an antidote to the dreary coming of age radio plays set either in Wellington in the 1960s or colonial NZ.

It’s still the voice of bureaucratic, conservative NZ and their hardline questioning against the Government is driven more by having their egalitarian pretences pricked at dinner parties in Khandallah than left wing radicalism.

But anything is better than bloody Mike Hosking in the morning.

The website is still a bit dreary (although a thousand times better than the Scoop-like awfulness it was before) and the Wireless writers will find employment on The Spinoff later in life so a ratings spurt on top of some programming changes will releave Management.

But it shouldn’t be too much of a relief. Corporate radio is wall to wall with right wing arseholes, and this has been expanded to TV. Anyone with any progressive sentiment will have fled to RNZ. Their win is because the market is all right wing. When faced with Mike Hosking, Paul Henry, the Edge Morning Madhouse and Polly and Grant in the morning, it’s difficult not to rate.

The ratings surge driven by Campbell Live is a tad funny when you consider the stroppy and uptight EPMU threw their toys at the way Campbell was brought on board

Hirschfeld confirmed there had been some issues last week and that the EPMU had been involved but they had been resolved.

She said union involvement was not unusual at RNZ.

One well placed source confirmed there had tension over RNZ handling of the change and the status and future deployment of Wellington staff and that RNZ was intent Checkpoint with John Campbell would not include Campbell’s brand of advocacy journalism.

…precious Wellington ‘journalists’ wanting none of that populist advocacy journalism.

Ugh.

Mediaworks have helped RNZ most. Paul robs Hosking of radio audience and anyone with an education rushes off to RNZ . Matt Nippert reports that MediaWorks is close to finding a CEO, which is a bit like becoming the Mayor of Chernobyl at the moment.

MediaWorks continues to make money from its Radio arm for two reasons.

The first is that it’s bloody cheap to produce radio adverts and the second reason is that Radio still has the ratings luxury Newspapers lost. Once upon a time Newspapers could pretend 100 000 people saw their advert and that was reflected in the cost. With the internet however, advertisers can see exactly how many people see their advert and this has caused the cost to crash. Radio still uses a diary system for crying out loud so the numbers are about as reliable as a drunk in a casino.

If and when the ratings system becomes digitalised, Radio will lose it’s illusionary audience numbers and find itself in the same place as newspapers. That’s the day MediaWorks crashes and burns and will probably take RNZ down a peg or too as well.

 

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Brexit, Sanders & Trump – why spooked rich listers are here to ‘save’ Auckland and NZ from their housing crisis

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Lot’s of rich people rushing to the corporate media to breathlessly tell us that they have the solutions to NZs Housing Crisis.

Recently Ex- Governor Don Brash, Ex-Chair of the Reserve Bank Arthur Grimes,  right wing Warlord and neoliberal stormtrooper Stephen Jennings and the CEO of ANZ NZ David Hisco have all appeared to warn us the housing bubble will burst, and in the mind of Stephen Jennings, the solution is to privatise the education system.

Jennings comes to this conclusion I assume because education takes up a significant chunk of Government expenditure and he’s thinking ahead to try and find solutions for the societal nightmare that will explode in NZ when the pop bursts.

Some, like the Spinoff see this as Capitalists acknowledging its shortcomings and wanting atonement for their 30 year experiment that has enriched them and impoverished us.

I think that’s a very generous characterisation.

These greedy few who have feasted on deregulation and their sudden concern now is no acknowledgement, it’s driven by a deep seated fear that the masses will turn on them and elect a political class who will stymie their power and blame them.

BREXIT and the rise of Trump and Bernie have spooked the rich in NZ into realising they need to appease the rabble lest that rabble over throw their regime.

These words being spoken by the rich are not bourn by concern for us, they are given because of their concern for themselves.

Real solutions to NZs Housing Crisis would require 300 000 affordable homes and 30 000 new state houses. To do this would require massive Government intervention and a tax system that leashes corporations. The rich will not allow the crisis to give a solution that challenges their hegemony, and that’s why they are suddenly full of concern and on our screens.

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New Zealand represented on Women’s Boat to Gaza

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This year the Freedom Flotilla Coalition will launch an all-women fleet to challenge the nearly 10-year-old blockade of Gaza. In late September two boats, the Amal-Hope and Zaytouna-Oliva, will leave Italy and set sail for the coast of besieged Gaza to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade of the Palestinian territory. The Flotilla will aim to arrive in Gaza on October 1st, visiting other Mediterranean ports along the way to raise awareness and collaborate with local organisations, inviting local boats to sail with them for some legs of the trip. The flotilla boats will then be donated to the people of Gaza.

According to Women’s Boat to Gaza website, the blockade of the densely populated Gaza strip “is a form of collective punishment”, which violates the Geneva Conventions and denies the 1.8 million inhabitants “the possibility to support themselves, security of food supplies, medical care, education, drinkable water and cultural exchange”.  To add salt to the wound, Gaza is still suffering from the effects of the brutal 2014 attack by the Israeli military, which lasted 51 days and, according to the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry, killed 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, of whom 551 were children. Over 11,000 Palestinians were injured, 1,500 children orphaned, 18,000 homes destroyed and half a million people displaced.

Another UN report  published last year predicts that Gaza will be uninhabitable by 2020. Homes, schools and hospitals have been destroyed. 90% of the water is not drinkable and electricity is only available for a few hours a day. There is over 30% unemployment, 75% of the population are dependent on international aid, 35% of agricultural land and 85% of fishing waters are inaccessible due to restrictions imposed by the Israeli military and navy. Around half the population are under the age of 18.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition supports the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice based on international law, which includes: an end to the occupation and dismantling of the apartheid wall, equal rights for Palestinian citizens under Israeli law, and the right of return for refugees to their homes and property. Its aim is to end the blockade of Gaza completely and permanently. Another aim of the women’s mission is to highlight the important role of women in the struggle for human rights in Palestine.

Organisations in Norway, Canada, Italy, South Africa, Spain, USA, New Zealand and Australia are participating in the Women’s Boat to Gaza campaign, with more to be announced. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition organised the previous Freedom Flotillas in 2010, 2011 and 2015 and this is the first all-women Flotilla to sail to Gaza. The Flotilla will be crewed entirely by women, with prominent women participants confirmed from several participating countries (more to be announced), including Nobel Laureate and peace activist from Northern Ireland Mairead Maguire, Naomi Wallace (US), our own Marama Davidson, who is the New Zealand Green Party spokesperson on Human Rights, and Gerd von der Lippe (Norway). Also on board will be Cigdem Topçuoglu, whose husband was killed on the Mavi Marmara in 2010.

The 2010 Flotilla gained significant international attention when one of the ships, the Turkish Mavi Marmara, was attacked by the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF), killing nine passengers  (a tenth died four years later, never recovering from a coma caused by injuries sustained in the attack). This was a turning point for the campaign, sparking large international protests. Subsequent Freedom Flotillas have not suffered any deaths, although the response from the IOF is still violent, with reports of tasers being used on intercepted vessels. In 2011 the second Freedom Flotilla suffered sabotage to its ships, only one of which managed to approach Gaza, but was boarded and redirected to an Israeli port. Among those on the 2015 Flotilla were two MaoriTV journalists, Ruwani Perera and Jacob Bryant, who made a two-part documentary about the Flotilla. Their boat was intercepted and they were detained in Israel before being sent back to New Zealand.

 

 

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Kia Ora Gaza Fundraiser

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Kia Ora Gaza have launched an appeal to contribute $25,000 to the Flotilla from New Zealand. Kia Ora Gaza have supported previous  flotillas, and also been involved in international land convoys in 2010 and 2012. They donated three ambulances in 2010, and co-sponsored two ambulances for Gaza in 2015.

Kia Ora Gaza, in association with The Umma Trust, is hosting a dinner and cultural performances to raise funds for the Women’s Boat to Gaza Flotilla. This is on Sunday 28th August at 6pm at Mt Albert War Memorial Hall, with performers Moana Maniapoto, Tigi Ness and Palestinian dabke dancers, among others. One of the participants on the Women’s Flotilla, Marama Davidson, will speak and Ruwani Perera, who took part in last year’s Flotilla will MC. Tickets are $30 waged/$20 unwaged, available through the facebook event. Donations to the Flotilla can be made through Kia Ora Gaza. Fundraising efforts are also supported by the umbrella organisation NZ Palestine Solidarity Network.

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National’s Wellington Mayoral candidate, Jo Coughlan – four lanes to nowhere

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Wellington mayoral candidate, Jo Coughlan, standing in front of one of her election billboards.

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Right-wing mayoral candidate, and current Wellington City Councillor, Jo Coughlan, has ducked answering questions relating to her campaign policy advocating for a four-lane motorway from Transmission Gully to Wellington airport.

Coughlan has been a city councillor since 2007, as well as Director for PR firm, Silvereye Communications. Amongst her PR company’s clients are the Ministry for Education, Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (EECA), Department of Building and Housing, NZ Post, and ACC.

As well as a Director to Silvereye Communications, Coughlan is (was?) a Director of Life Flight Trust – which also happens to be a client of the same PR company.

From 1996 to 1999, she was  Press Secretary  for then-Foreign Affairs Minister, Don McKinnon.

Coughlan is also wife to Conor English, brother to current Finance Minister, Bill English.

On 2 April this year, Coughlan announced her intentions to run for the Wellington mayoralty. She also declared her support for a four land highway to Wellington’s international airport, located in the eastern suburns;

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“We need to double-tunnel the Terrace and Mt Victoria tunnels and see four lanes along Ruahine St to the airport. Wellington’s mayor must lead on this, and that is my commitment.” – Jo Coughlan, 2 April 2016

Coughlan’s election pamphlet, “My Road Map for Wellington’s future“, reiterated her desire to expand Wellington’s roading system;

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Coughlan linked expanding the roading network with electric cars, even though currently there are only about 150 of the vehicles in the region.

In the same pamphlet, Coughlan also conflated building more roads with making “public transport more reliable”;

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There is no other  mention of public transport, except  in relation to “fixing our roads“, in any of  Coughlan’s other election material (seen by this blogger). Her website also makes only a brief reference to “public transport options”.

On 25 July, this blogger contacted Coughlan through Facebook, asking if she would be available to answer questions on her policy.

Coughlan replied the same day and in an email said;

“Happy to discuss.

The four laning can be achieved by four laning Ruahine St as planned by NZTA.

That way you essentially get (Inc the one way systems ) four lanes  to the planes.”

Since initial contact, Coughlan’s “happy to discuss” response has been met with evasiveness to pin down and arrange a time for a series of questions to be put to her. Requests for a set time to put eleven questions, plus follow-ups, have been ducked. (Which raises questions about her role in  the communications industry.)

The questions which merited answers were;

Q1: In your pamphlet, “My Road Map for Wellington’s future”, you linked building of more roads to public transport stating, “Fix our roads to make public transport more reliable”? What did you mean by “fix our roads”? How does that relate to public transport?

It is well known that building more roads attracts more cars. In one year alone, 43,000 more cars have been added to Auckland’s congested roads;

There are 43,000 more cars on Auckland’s roads than this time last year, with nearly 11,000 of those vehicles registered in January alone.

It’s no wonder the city’s traffic congestion has worsened over that time, national roading authority New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) says.

[…]

An average 168,500 vehicles now cross the Harbour Bridge every day, compared with 17,000 in 1960 shortly after it opened.

“You’re reaching a point where you can’t add any more traffic to the Harbour Bridge,” Pant said.

It is unclear how more roads would “make public transport more reliable“.

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on this unanswered question.

Q2: In pamphlet, you stated, “We need roads that keep us moving. Electric cars need roads”? What do you say to those who say it is disingenuous to link environmentally-clean electric cars with the building of more roads?

With only 150 electric vehicles in Wellington, there seemed no apparent need to build more roads at a cost of billions, for such a small, insignificant number of alternative-fuel cars.

The possibility exists that Ms Coughlan was being willfully disingenuous, and attempting to “green wash” an environmentally unfriendly policy.Was that Coughlan’s intention?

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on this unanswered question.

Q3: Along with your advocating for a four-lane motorway from Transmission Gully to the airport, you’ve stated you want to “work with Government to accelerate building of the city’s infrastructure and roading to keep the city moving”. Bearing in mind that the planet’s temperature continues to rise according to latest data from NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and also bearing in mind that fossil fuels like oil and petrol are prime producers of greenhouse gases, isn’t a four-lane motorway of the kind you are suggesting irresponsible?

Coughlan attempted to mitigate her support for building more roads by stating on her election “pledge” card that she would “protect the greenbelt and natural environment”;

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However, nowhere in her election material does Coughlan refer to the effects of climate change on our natural environment.

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on this unanswered question.

Expanding on the previous question, I wanted to put to Coughlan the following;

Q4: Are you aware of NASA’s latest findings that ” the six-month period from January to June was also the planet’s warmest half-year on record, with an average temperature 1.°C warmer than the late nineteenth century”; that “Arctic sea ice at the peak of the summer melt season now typically covers 40% less area than it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s” and that “Arctic sea ice extent in September, the seasonal low point in the annual cycle, has been declining at a rate of 13.4% per decade”?

Q5: Are you aware that the NOAA recently confirmed NASA’s data, stating, “The average global temperature across land surfaces was 2.33°C above the 20th century average of 3.2°C, the highest March temperature on record, surpassing the previous March record set in 2008 by 0.43°C and surpassing the all-time single-month record set last month by 0.02°C”?
More specifically, the NOAA reported that “New Zealand reported its sixth warmest March in a period of record that dates to 1909, at 1.3°C above the 1981–2010 average. The entire country had above or well-above average temperatures for the month. Parts of Northland, Waikato, Manawatu-Whanganui, and Westland were each more than 2.0°C above their March average”. What is your comment on those latest findings?

New Zealand is not immune to climate change effects as mentioned in this CNN report;

The first six months of 2016 were the hottest ever recorded, NASA announced on Tuesday, while Arctic sea ice now covers 40% less of the Earth than it did just 30 years ago.

Temperatures were on average 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than average between January and June this year, compared to the late nineteenth century.
In total, the planet has now had 14 consecutive months of the hottest temperatures seen since records began in 1880, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.
Australia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Spain were some examples of places where temperatures soared more than a degree above average, as New Zealand had its hottest January to June period since records began.

The CNN report was based on the NOAA/NIWA findings, referring to New Zealand;

New Zealand reported its sixth warmest March in a period of record that dates to 1909, at 1.3°C (2.3°F) above the 1981–2010 average. The entire country had above or well-above average temperatures for the month. Parts of Northland, Waikato, Manawatu-Whanganui, and Westland were each more than 2.0°C (3.6°F) above their March average.

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NASA sees temperatures rise and sea ice shrink

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Was Coughlan aware of this latest information? She should be: it has been well document in recent local media.

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on these unanswered questions.

The next question  underscored the critical impact  of climate change on our country,

Q6: To underline the effects of climate-change on our country, the Royal Society said in April this year,

“Changes expected to impact New Zealand include at least 30cm and possibly more than one metre of sea-level rise this century – the report finds it likely that the sea level rise around New Zealand will exceed the global average, which will cause coastal erosion and flooding, especially when combined with storm surges.

Professor James Renwick, Chair of the Expert Panel who wrote the report, warned; “Many New Zealanders live on the coast and two-thirds of us live in flood-prone areas so we are vulnerable to these projected changes.”
Professor Renwick warned that even small changes in average conditions can be associated with large changes in the frequency of extreme events, pointing out;

“With a 30cm rise in sea level, the current ‘1 in 100 year’ extreme sea event would be expected to occur once every year or so in many coastal regions. Along the Otago coast for example, the difference between a 2-year and 100-year storm surge is about 32cm of sea level.”

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on this unanswered question.

I then wanted to put a seemingly obvious question to Coughlan;

Q7: Instead of building more roads that inevitably lead to more traffic; more congestion; more fuel-consumption; and production of more greenhouse gases, wouldn’t advocating for more expenditure on public transport make better sense, from an environmental aspect?

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on this unanswered question.

I also planned to ask Coughlan about a glaring omission from any of her election material;

Q8: Aside from your one statement linking “Fix our roads to make public transport more reliable” your election material makes no mention or reference to public transport. Why is that?

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on this unanswered question.

Coughlan put great weight on Wellington’s needs for the next one hundred years;

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jo coughlan - election pamphlet (1)

jo coughlan - election card (2)

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One has to admire Coughlan’s confidence in being a mayor for the next one hundred years.

Looking ahead for the next century is something that environmentalists and climate scientists are doing. The long-term effects of climate change on our planet are slowly building;

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scientific american - Earth Will Cross the Climate Danger Threshold by 2036

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Which raises the key question as to where Coughlan’s long-term priorities lay;

Q9: Which is more pressing for Wellington’s needs for the next 100 years; taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or planning on more roading? Which would have greater priority fror you, if you were Mayor?

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on this unanswered question.

The last two questions were also self-explanatory;

Q10: President Obama has said that “And no challenge — no challenge — poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change”. What is the responsibility of individuals to address this threat to our future?

Q11: What is your responsibility in this, Ms Coughlan?

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on these unanswered questions.

It could be said that Ms Coughlan, as one person, has minimal effect on our increasingly violent weather patterns and rising sea-levels,  brought on by anthropogenic-induced global warming.

Throughout history, single people have been the instigators of momentous change and upheaval. Not always for good.

If Jo Coughlan were to become mayor – a distinct possibility based on the considerable amount of money spent on her election advertising – her plans to advocate for a four lane motorway would be instigating momentous change and consequential upheaval.

Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on these unanswered questions.

Coughlan’s evasiveness makes a mockery of her finger-pointing at other mayoral candidates. On 28 July Coughlan issued a press release accusing them of “hidden agendas”;

“However it is amazing that some candidates are not prepared to state clearly their real intention for standing and don’t seem to understand the STV voting system used in the Capital.

I am making it very clear that I am standing for the Mayoralty, not as a ward councillor and not to raise my profile for a tilt at parliament. I call on all other candidates to publicly state their real intentions.

So far we have a number of candidates standing with various agendas including increasing their chances of re-election to Council, election to parliament and even to gain profile to look at establishing a new centre-left political party.

Wellington voters deserve a Mayor who will lead the City and is 100% committed to running for the right reasons.

The other candidates need to come clean otherwise their intentions might seem a bit ‘murky’.”

A month earlier, Finance Minister Bill English, endorsed Jo Coughlan for her mayoralty bid;

“It’s because I think that she’s the best candidate for a city that needs this kind of candidate; someone who understands growth; someone who understands communities and someone who understands families.” – Bill English, 28 June 2016

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bill english - jo coughlan

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“Hidden agendas”?

No wonder Coughlan has avoided answering questions.

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References

Wellington City Council: Jo Coughlan

Linked-In: Jo Coughlan

Silvereye Communication: About Us

Silvereye Communication:  Silvereye Communications Clients (current and former)

NZ Herald:  Being English

Dominion Post: Councillor Jo Coughlan enters the race to be Wellington’s mayor

Scoop media: Three days of free rides in electric cars

Jo for Mayor: Environment

Fairfax media: 43,000 more cars on Auckland’s roads leads to increased congestion

US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):  Global Analysis – March 2016

NASA: 2016 Climate Trends Continue to Break Records

CNN:  NASA – Hottest June on record continues 14-month global heat wave

NIWA: Climate Summary for March 2016

Royal Society of New Zealand: New Zealand vulnerable to the threats of climate change – report finds

Scientific American: Earth Will Cross the Climate Danger Threshold by 2036

The White House: Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address | January 20, 2015

Scoop media: Coughlan says ‘I can win,’ accuses other candidates of hidden agendas

Jo for Mayor: Mayoral Candidate Jo Coughlan – candidates should come clean

Politik: English breaks with National Party convention and endorses Mayoral candidate

Previous related blogposts

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As predicted: National abandons climate-change responsibilities

National ditches environmental policies

ETS – National continues to fart around

National – what else can possibly go wrong?!

National’s moving goalposts on climate change targets

Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett revealed

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