It's In the Stars
No fuel savings, no Environment Ministry, and no Fees-Free.
It's in the stars, it's our destiny
It's in the stars, written you and me
It's in the stars, it's no mystery, yeah
It's in the stars, written you and me
Song: The Rolling Stones.
No Fuel Savings
MBIE, the mega ministry built by the National Party and the largest of our government departments, responded to the current fuel crisis by writing to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to ask about people working from home, as Christopher Luxon did in January.
The PSC's response to their suggestion to reduce fuel use was a big, “Yeah, Nah”. They said there was “no reason at this stage”, with our current fuel supply, to make working arrangements more flexible.
Much like the government, the PSC fails to understand that we take such measures to avoid a crisis; rather than wait until it’s too late to act.
“Having public servants work from home full‑time is very unlikely to ease fuel supply or reduce prices, and it would also be hard to justify when schools, hospitals, courts and other essential services remain open,” the PSC said.
Which missed the point that, by taking a range of measures, we can reduce our fuel use, and that these measures are worth considering, even if, in isolation, they won’t solve the problem. We want to avoid impacts on essential services, and non-essential work being done from home makes sense.
It’s as if the PSC, like the government, are in denial, heads in the sand, and confident that if we just pretend nothing is happening, it will all be ok.
For example, last week we reached the government-defined threshold for a stock drop that should have moved us to stage two of the fuel crisis plan, but the government did nothing.
Having one of our fuel type stock levels fall by 3 days was supposed to trigger the alert change, but despite drops across the board, the government have chosen to assume it will all come right without taking action.
If we never have to raise our level, that would be ideal. However, not doing so because you don’t want to ask for community support for the kind of measures your predecessor took, and you have relentlessly criticised after the fact, is a potential recipe for an even larger disaster.
It makes you wonder how this government would respond if a cruise ship carrying people infected with a deadly virus were to arrive in our waters.
Intermission
I’ve had a few people ask me about discounts for those on superannuation or a fixed income, where money is tight, so for this week, I’m happy to make April’s 30% discount available again. This works out at $56 for a year, basically a dollar a week, or you can pay $5.60 monthly if that works better for you. Thanks very much for your consideration. If you can subscribe, that would be greatly appreciated. 🙂
The coalition vs the environment
Speaking of our waters and our lands, the coalition, with its insatiable appetite to flog off our precious home to mineral companies, is now going the whole hog and proposing the end of the Ministry for the Environment altogether.
I find it terribly sad that our precious natural environment is not valued by this government.
The Environment Select Committee has recommended disestablishing the Ministry for the Environment despite the fact that all but 5 of the 588 submissions made were opposed to the plan.
The Green Party members said this was “yet another action by the most anti-environment government that Aotearoa New Zealand has ever had.”
While the Labour members said they were “appalled by the constant attacks on the environment by this government.”
Unfortunately, those parties each have 2 members on the Select Committee, whereas National and ACT have 5 between them, voting on partisan lines without regard for the public’s submissions.
“This government is pushing to bury that Ministry inside a mega-ministry focused on development and economic growth, despite no party campaigning on this and overwhelming opposition from experts, iwi and communities,” said Greens environment spokesperson Lan Pham.
The Greens said there was:
No clear justification for such a rushed process
No evidence or Regulatory Impact Statement to support any clear rationale
No sound understanding of the implications for Māori and Te Tiriti obligations
No regard for the near-complete lack of support for it, nor the expert submission, which showed that the Cabinet was provided with incorrect or misleading information about the failure of similar mergers undertaken overseas.
The bill goes to parliament for a second reading tomorrow.
Discouraging Education.
Last week, in the ongoing competition between NZ First and National, Winston Peters let slip, whoops, on ZB that the coming budget would see the cancellation of the Fees-Free support, which Labour had introduced for the first year, and National had moved to the final year.
Peters said, “We are going to reshape and repurpose it for the trades and all sorts of industries where we do need it and where we can get a far better payback for our money and pay far less money doing it.”
This government likes to pit one group against another: Māori vs non-Māori, town vs country, and an old favourite: university students vs the trades. The truth is, we need both, and I find it a bit rich that people who had their tertiary education paid for are so glib about making life harder for students.
Funnily enough, Nicola Willis didn’t seem that angry with the leak. I mean, who wants to be the bearer of bad news, and she said, “Ongoing coalition negotiations have led to good budget policy decisions that further the immediate and long-term interests of New Zealanders.”
There you go, students. Don’t think of it as a cut to your funding and a larger student loan. Please think of it as a “good budget policy decision” and a sacrifice you’re making in the country’s interests, because things are grim and we’re struggling to afford the tax cuts for landlords that we pay for each year.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said, “This is absolutely outrageous - another kick in the guts for our generations of young people, particularly and anyone who wants to dream about giving back to their community.”
Marama pointed out that 14% of our young people are not in work or education.
With the changing nature of work and the current economic downturn, this is the ideal time for governments to encourage people to study and invest in our long-term future. But instead, they choose penny-pinching and taking what support there is to keep taxes low for the most wealthy, many of whom will have received substantial support as students.
So it’s heads in the sand over the risk of disruption to our fuel supplies, tough luck for the environment, and a kick in the guts for students we need for the future.
Hope you have a good Monday, and take care, all you lovely people. 🙂
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
To end today, you might have seen a report about the Rolling Stones releasing a new album, Foreign Tongues. I watched the 1 News article with my son, who plays guitar and drums, and we both thought it sounded pretty good - classic Stones. Here’s the first single, “In The Stars”.
The coalition is on track to burn this country to the ground by destroying the NZ image in the world stage and the fuel crisis is the perfect excuse to limit our movement so the 15minute cities will become more palatable. Now we have media ramping up fear of movement on cruise ships. It’s managed media hysteria to herd humans. “Their” agenda is still on course
In 1936, NZ was the first country in the world to establish free tertiary education across the board - Universities, Polytechs, Nursing & Teacher training, all Apprenticeships, professional accounting qualifications, etc. We were coming out of the Great Depression & heading into a World War. If we could afford free tertiary education then, I'm bloody sure we can afford it now. When Winston Peters says that the money 'saved' will be put into trade training, he's just a lying, senile old hypocrite who was happy to receive a free law degree back in the day & happy to make this generation of students pay for their education.