Posts by Tom Semmens
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Given the fate of Joel Hayward, I think Mr. Clydesdale's should fall on his knees and thank God he still has job, especially as his work is more explicitly political than Mr. Hayward's work.
-
The modern Olympics started as an amateur celebration of Corinthian values. It has now been hijacked by yet another round of butchers so their steroid laden automatons can do their bidding, then die in less than 20 years. But who cares? China's Olympic Unit 731 will have delivered their part of this modern version of bread and circuses and the dictators can engage in a bout of jingoistic chest beating about the progress of China. I loathe this exercise in corruption and hypocrisy so much I am actually actively boycotting the Olympics this year.
-
"...Would that include abolishing quotas and encouraging industrial driftnets? You know, increase supply and force the price down. :)..."
*Thread hijack*
This is just a plain dumb thing to say. Despite the self-serving assertions by the industrial-fishing complex there is little evidence that the QMS/TAC system introduced in the 1980's is sustainable managing fishing quota in New Zealand. It may be ours is amongst the least unsustainably managed, but no one would seriously argue we have successfully managed, for example, the Orange Roughie stock. The point of the QMS was to establish property rights in (yet another) ideological new right brain explosion typical of the era. Moreover, the actual implementation of the system constructively conspired to force smaller local owner operators out of business and concentrate the quota into the hands of fewer and fewer operators. This was because the whole system was implemented on a user-pays/cost recovery basis by MAF who off the record made it clear that the red tape required to manage the new QMS meant they preferred to deal with a few big players and not a plethora of minor owner operators. The fees and regulations were racked up and up and up and the temptation of selling quota was all but irresistible to smallholder coastal fishers who faced frequent cash flow problems. This all suited successive the successive governments of the time with their inclination to crony capitalism, especially if that crony capitalism could be aligned to using quota to settle Waitangi claims cheaply.
To large industrial fishing operations with significant dollar amounts invested in deep sea and coastal fishing fleets the key to profitability is getting their vessels to sea as frequently as possible and catching as much as they can in as short a time as possible. The reality of industrial fishing is its economics practically demand they over-fish and cause stock collapse, moving from one species to another in a permanent boom/bust cycle. Because estimating fish stocks is extremely difficult (I once heard it compared to flying in a helicopter over a cloud covered New Zealand, lowering a net through the cloud and trying to estimate the number of people, sheep etc from what came up again) fishing companies use a version of climate change denial tactics to "argue the science" always seeking to buy another season or three to Hoover up the ocean.
Returning the birthright of cheap seafood to the plates of New Zealanders - and given we have I think the third or fourth largest EEZ in the world I would argue its an absolute scandal that seafood is the price it is - would be easy, would benefit everyone and lead to a much more sustainable fishery. Within a 20 mile limit simply create large areas of marine reserves where no fishing (recreational included) is allowed, and combine that with restrictions on how you can fish (i.e. - speed, displacement, technology and method restrictions) together with licensing the operators who in return for accepting these restrictions would be free to sell direct to the public from their vessels and have guarantees that imported fish products were from sustainable sources. This would stimulate regional small holder fishing for the benefit of all New Zealanders. Outside that limit, the vessel and restrictions would impose a brake on the use of industrial to harvest wild stocks. The cost of catching the fish in the greater EEZ might possibly go up, but given the general shortage of seafood internationally I don't see the demand side diminishing on price.
All the bleating about the impracticality of the Green’s demand that Fonterra reduce prices is really more an illustration of how to many people have allowed themselves to have their thinking has been straight jacketed by a new right, TINA paradigm that holds all of New Zealand’s primary productive sectors exist only to serve the vested interests that now control them. Surely, the solution to high dairy prices (and surely, any sane and reasonable person in our land of milk and honey would hold that cheap and high quality milk products should also be seen as a birthright for all Kiwi’s) is to allow small holders to be licensed to produce for purely for the local market, effectively create a two-step dairy industry and leave Fonterra and its open air milk factory farming solely to concentrate on the export market.
-
Oh no! Not Rachael Raye! I had a (very) mild infatuation on her relentless enthusiasm and happily not size zero figure for a while there... She is about as Apple Pie self-made infomercial girl next door middle America as they come. If she sends coded messages of her support for the war on freedom, what hope have we got?
-
The problem isn't that Sky has a monopoly on sports coverage. the problem is Sky KNOWS it's a monopoly and behaves accordingly, with customer 'options" designed to screw you over, and that they change arbitrarily. I guess it's the sort of company you'd expect from Craig Heatley.
-
Errrr... CUSTOMS not CUSTOMERS.
-
Speaking of being to good to be true, does anyone know who paid for the recent Research NZ poll that found 36% of NZer's "favoured Nuclear Power?" The whole thing, complete with the annointed "expert" the media appeared to be steered toward being the well known climate change denier and all round scientific fruit cake Bryan Leyland stank to high heaven in my view.
If you wanted to stamp out drug use, the evidence is pretty clear on how to do it. Introduce the death penalty for possession of all but tiny amounts of drugs. Give the police, customers and education authorities sweeping powers of surveillance. Remove many of the safeguards in the legal system against the abuse of state power, like the right not to self-incriminate. And introduce widespread and compulsory drug testing in the workplace, schools and - hell, why not - across society in general.
Otherwise, just legalise it all and treat it as a health problem like smoking, because anything less won't work. The problem is though that the proscribed cure is worse than the disease.
-
Here is a serious question: Do people think this virulent anti-Labour thing is a one off from the Herald, or has the toxic yellow press finally caught up with Godzone?
-
You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to link this bit of political deflection with National's gaffe over Kiwisaver and wonder how much comparing of notes there actually is between the Herald and the National Party these days.
-
Its election year. By November Ron Mark will be publicly seen in a tin helmet studying a map of Poland. The tragedy is, Labour and National will feel compelled to make sure everyone knows they've directed MFAT to print maps of the USSR.