New Fisk

The remembrance poppy is becoming a weapon against immigrants to Canada. We need to remember everyone’s contribution to the war
I talked to everybody I could in Syria, controversial or otherwise. That's how you find out the truth

Climate Change: Europe declares an emergency

The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to declare a climate emergency:

The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” as it urged all EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The vote came as scientists warned that the world may have already crossed a series of climate tipping points, resulting in “a state of planetary emergency”.

Intended to demonstrate Europe’s green credentials days before a crucial UN climate conference in Madrid, the vote also ratchets up pressure on Ursula von der Leyen, the incoming president of the European commission, who declared this week that the EU would lead the fight against “the existential threat” of the climate crisis.

The next step of course is to follow this up with action: more ambitious targets, and tougher policies to reach them. Most of Europe has agreed to phase out coal, which is a good start, but they need to do a lot more.

Meanwhile, I'm once again asking: what about New Zealand? Where's our emergency? Because while its symbolic, symbols matter. They drive action, say "we are going to take this seriously", and enable the government to be held to account for failing to do so. So, why isn't prime Minister who famously declared climate change to be "my generations' nuclear free moment" pushing this here?

Leaving us with the bill

Two weeks ago, Malaysian-owned oil company Tamarind declared it was insolvent and went into administration after a failed offshore drilling campaign. Tamarind apparently specialises in buying oil fields at the end of their life and trying to squeeze out the last few drops of pollution. But part of their scam may also be leaving us with the cleanup bill:

The $155 million bill to decommission an oil field off the coast of Taranaki may end up being covered by taxpayers.

Tamarind Taranaki, which owns the Tui Field, went into voluntary receivership earlier this month, meaning the government could be responsible for plugging and abandoning its wells.

[...]

But the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment said in a statement that if the company was not able to cover the costs of abandoning the field, the entire bill may fall to the Crown.

There's an obvious parallel here with climate change (where the fossil fuel industry is also leaving up with the cleanup bill, despite having created the problem), and it ought to be a warning about the dangers of allowing these companies to operate in New Zealand. At the least, before they drill a single well, they should be required to deposit a bond covering the entire cost of cleanup with the government, to prevent them from pulling this sort of scam in future.

Climate Change: The task before us

Two weeks ago, the Zero Carbon Act became law. Right this moment, the Climate Change Commisison will be working on its initial budgets for 2022-25 and 2026-2030, and the UN has just given them a very clear steer:

Countries must make an unprecedented effort to cut their levels of greenhouse gases in the next decade to avoid climate chaos, the UN has warned, as it emerged that emissions hit a new high last year.

[...]

Global emissions must fall by 7.6% every year from now until 2030 to stay within the 1.5C ceiling on temperature rises that scientists say is necessary to avoid disastrous consequences. The only time in recent history when emissions have fallen in any country at a similar rate came during the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the financial crisis and recession, emissions in the US and Japan fell briefly by about 6% but soon rebounded.

[...]

Postponing action could no longer be an option, said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP. “Our collective failure to act early and hard on climate change means we must now deliver deep cuts to emissions [of] over 7% each year, if we break it down evenly over the next decade. This shows that countries simply cannot wait.”

Without such urgent action the world’s fate would be sealed within the next few years as carbon would rise to such a level as to make dangerous levels of warming inevitable, she said. “We need quick wins to reduce emissions as much as possible in 2020, then stronger [commitments under the Paris agreement] to kickstart the major transformations of economies and societies. We need to catch up on the years in which we procrastinated.”

This is the yardstick by which the first emissions budgets under the Zero Carbon Act are going to be measured. If they're compatible with this trajectory, then all is good. If they're not - if they propose weaker cuts, action considered inadequate by the experts - then the Act will be a failure from the outset, and the Minister and the Commission can expect to have their budgets challenged in the courts and on the streets. It is that simple.

Giving the finger to Beijing

Hong Kong has been protesting for six months for, demanding democracy, human rights, and an end to police violence. Today, they went to the polls in district council elections - a low-level of government with virtually no power, similar to community boards in New Zealand. But while the positions themselves were fairly powerless, they could still be used to send a message and give the finger to Beijing. And that's exactly what voters did:

The anti-establishment reverberations from almost six months of street protests swept through polling stations across Hong Kong on Sunday, as voters in record numbers roundly rejected pro-Beijing candidates in favour of pan-democrats.

The tsunami of disaffection among voters was clear across the board, as pan-democrats rode the wave to win big in poor and rich neighbourhoods, in both protest-prone and non protest-afflicted districts and, in downtown areas as well as the suburbs.

Less immediately obvious was whether there was a generational divide in the way the people voted, but ousted pro-establishment district councillors suggested that young, first-time voters had been instrumental in dislodging them from their perch.

By 7am, the pro-democracy camp had gained a majority in at least 12 of the 18 district councils, taking 278 seats.

All councils were previously under pro-establishment control from the 2015 elections.

More recent results are saying the democrats have 333 seats to the establishment's 37, with less than a hundred seats to go. Its a very clear message from voters to their government, and to Beijing. The only question is whether the latter will listen.

National supports slavery

Meanwhile, while the government is planning to restore voting rights to prisoners, National is promising to turn our prisons into US-style slave-labour camps:

The Opposition is proposing compulsory education, training or employment for prisoners who are serving sentences of two years or more.

[...]

On Sunday, National Party Leader Simon Bridges said his was a party of law and order and would release its full discussion document on the law on Tuesday.

Part of that would include making the current opt-in system of working prisons becoming compulsory.

Compulsory work or you get punished? There's a name for that: slavery. And its illegal everywhere in the world, including New Zealand.

And lest anyone think this is hyperbole: prisoners in New Zealand are paid just 20 cents an hour. They have no labour rights, cannot join unions or strike, and their "employer" is not subject to the usual health and safety regime. This is not "employment" as normally understood, with contracts, rights, and transparent deductions for expenses, but a regime which uses the coercive environment of the prison system to extract forced labour from prisoners, while undercutting real businesses and driving free workers onto the dole queue. And the New Zealand government recognises this for foreign prisons, banning the importation of goods produced by prison labour. We need to recognise it domesticly as well.

National's policy is one part Trumpian performative cruelty, and one part keeping wages low for the benefit of their business cronies. It is abhorrent and immoral, and they should be ashamed of themselves for advocating it.

Erasing the infamy

Last year, the Supreme Court confirmed that National's prisoner voting ban - a law so shoddily passed that it brought Parliament into disrepute - breached the Bill of Rights Act. This year, the Waitangi Tribunal added that it also breached the Treaty of Waitangi. And now, the government has finally got the message and will reverse it:

Justice Minister Andrew Little has revealed some prisoners will be allowed to vote in next year's general election.

People sentenced to less than three years in prison will have their voting rights restored.

This will return the law to the way it was pre-2010, before the National-led government removed voting rights from all sentenced prisoners.

"We plan to make this change in an Electoral Amendment Bill before the next election, so that people sentenced to less than three years imprisonment can participate in the 2020 election," Little said.

Which is good, and what should happen when the courts find Parliament has breached its duty to follow the Treaty and the BORA. At the same time, it raises a number of questions. Most obviously, why they're not going the whole way, and restoring voting rights to every prisoner, rather than just going back to the status quo ante? Because the arguments for short-term prisoners being able to vote apply just as powerfully to long-term ones. But Labour is the government of half-measures, so I guess that's all we'll ever get from them.

And while we're at it, if the government is willing to use the Electoral Amendment Bill - pitched as an administrative tidy-up - to do this, why won't it also use it to reform the electoral finance regime and impose greater transparency? Or begin the process to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote? Both have powerful democratic arguments in their favour, and have also been demanded by submitters on the Bill. Or is the unjust status quo all we can ever expect from Labour?

New Fisk

I witnessed my first real battles and saw my first corpses in Belfast. It prepared me for the Middle East
Mike Pompeo scorns the law because powerful men like him never have to follow it

Climate Change: Submit!

The Environment Committee has called for submissions on the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Reform) Amendment Bill. Submissions are due by Friday, 17 January 2020, and can be made online at the link above.

The bill makes a number of changes to the ETS, including linking it to the carbon budget framework in the Zero Carbon Act. It also brings agriculture into the scheme in 2025 and continues to subsidise it for a century after that, while continuing free industrial allocation for another four decades. It also includes another secrecy clause for the auction monitor, because the government does not trust the withholding provisions of the OIA, despite them working well for almost 40 years. I urge people to submit specifically to ask that:

• Agricultural emissions be brought into the ETS immediately, with an identical free allocation and phase-out regime to industrial emissions;
  
• The free allocation baselines for industrial emissions be reduced to 82% and 52% respectively to align them with present levels, and that these free allocations be phased out within a decade;
  
• If the free allocation baseline is not reduced, then the allocation regime needs to be amended to prevent industrial polluters getting windfall credits for previous years;
  
• Carbon prices are up against the price cap, so the carbon price needs to rise. The fixed price option should be immediately raised to $50, and by $25 a year thereafter, so that prices can find their true level (this will become irrelevant in 2023, when the cost-containment reserve kicks in);
  
• The secrecy clause in s30GF and 30GG should be removed, as the OIA is sufficient;
  
• The secrecy clause in s99 of the Act should be amended in accordance with the Ombudsman's advice on the issue given to the committee when hearing the Zero Carbon Act.
  

The current bill favours polluters and farmers while keeping carbon prices low. Which is exactly the opposite of what we need at this stage of the climate crisis. Instead, we need prices to rise, and for farmers and polluters to face the full prices of their emissions. That's how economic instruments are meant to work, and the government's continued subsidies undermines any chance of real emissions reductions.

If Shane Jones isn't corrupt, he is trying very hard to look it

Last week we learned that New Zealand First had apparently tried to enrich itself from public office, with a dodgy forestry company linked to a number of NZ First figures sticking its hand out repeatedly for government money. Today in Question Time Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had his first opportunity to answer questions for himself on the issue (previously, others had been answering on his behalf). But when asked simple questions about what he knew and when, he did his utmost to cloud the issue:

CHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South) to the Minister for Regional Economic Development: On what date was N.Z. Future Forest Products Ltd's application to the Provincial Growth Fund lodged, and when did he first become aware that N.Z. Future Forest Products Ltd had applied to the Provincial Growth Fund?

Hon SHANE JONES (Minister for Regional Economic Development): I am advised the application was lodged on 8 April. I found out that the application was coming to Ministers for consideration on 14 October.

He was rightly pulled up for not answering, so refined it to saying that he "became aware that the company had applied to the Provincial Growth Fund on 14 October." Which seems like a straight answer. Except when asked whether he had not been aware of the application at any time over the 6 month interval in between, he refused to give a straight answer, and talked only of when he became "formally" aware. And he clung to that when asked repeatedly whether he was informally aware, or aware in any way of the application whatsoever.

At any time, Jones could have ended speculation over his guilt by simply saying that no, he was not aware. His repeated refusal to do so invites the conclusion that he was, and that he behaved corruptly by not immediately declaring a conflict of interest and recusing himself. If he's not corrupt, he is working very, very hard to look that way, and he has no-one to blame but himself for the conclusions the public draw from his non-answers.

Climate Change: We need to end fossil fuels

Finally, governments seem slowly to be beginning to act on climate change. But its not enough. While they're publicly signing up to targets, they're planning to destroy the world by continuing fossil fuel extraction:

The world’s nations are on track to produce more than twice as much coal, oil and gas as can be burned in 2030 while restricting rise in the global temperature to 1.5C, analysis shows.

The report is the first to compare countries’ stated plans for fossil fuel extraction with the goals of the Paris climate agreement, which is to keep global heating well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, and to aim for 1.5C. It exposes a huge gap, with fossil fuel production in 2030 heading for 50% more than is consistent with 2C, and 120% more than that for 1.5C.

[...]

“We’re in a deep hole – and we need to stop digging,” said Måns Nilsson, executive director of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), which was part of the analysis. “Despite more than two decades of climate policymaking, fossil fuel production levels are higher than ever.”

Its not enough to target fossil fuel demand with carbon prices and electric car policies and phase-outs of power stations: we need to directly target supply as well, and cut it off. New Zealand has begun this process by ending offshore oil exploration, but that doesn't go nearly far enough: we need to end extraction as well, and not just for oil and gas, but for coal too. And its not just New Zealand; we need a global fossil fuels non-proliferation treaty to manage this industry down to a level consistent with human survival.

Of course, that means bursting the carbon bubble, and admitting that fossil fuel companies are valueless, because their balance sheets are based on "reserves" which can never be extracted and sold. And that means a lot of rich people (and suckers) will lose a lot of money, which in turn will mean a lot of screaming and lobbying to prevent it. But its going to happen one way or another, either by planned government action or when the markets finally admit it to themselves. And on that front, planned is almost certainly better, but it means politicians get directly blamed for it. And to be honest, I just don't think our establishment, Status quo parties are up for that. Which means if we want to save ourselves, we need to get rid of them first.

As bad as we expected

Stuff has begun interviewing NZ First's secret donors, and it turns out that its as bad as we expected. They start with racing industry figure Garry Chittick, who is predictably grumpy about NZ First's coalition choices. Meanwhile, I'm looking at the list of pork NZ First has effectively given its secret donors - tax breaks, grants, more gambling money - and thinking that this is an influence that needed to be declared. Because it looks like a bunch of people in the racing industry invested in a politician to get government kickbacks, and that stinks. And then there's this bit:

But there were other large donations, many of which are from companies and individuals who work in industries that have benefited from the $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund. Stuff is not suggesting any wrongdoing on the part of the donors, and it may be that those industries would have benefited regardless.

Sure, they might have. But the fact their donations were kept secret gives it a certain odour of corruption.

Meanwhile, the government has ruled out any real change to election finance laws [audio, 55s in], and are quite happy with the status quo. But as Andrew Geddis pointed out the other day, if the status quo permits this, we have a real problem. And if the government is refusing to fix it, then that invites the conclusion that the problem extends further than NZ First, and that we need to fix them too.

Winston is the PM's problem

In Question Time today the Prime Minister was naturally facing questions about Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and his dubious party financing arrangements, which seem to violate electoral finance law. Her response was to pretend that it was nothing to do with her, and that she is not responsible for Peters' conduct in that capacity. But she's lying. As Prime Minister, Ardern is responsible for the conduct of her Ministers. And the rules on that conduct are pretty explicit:

A Minister of the Crown, while holding a ministerial warrant, acts in a number of different capacities:

a. in a ministerial capacity, making decisions and determining and promoting policy within particular portfolios;
b. in a political capacity as a member of Parliament, representing a constituency or particular community of interest; and
c. in a personal capacity.

In all these roles and at all times, Ministers are expected to act lawfully and to behave in a way that upholds, and is seen to uphold, the highest ethical standards. This includes exercising a professional approach and good judgement in their interactions with the public and officials, and in all their communications, personal and professional. Ultimately, Ministers are accountable to the Prime Minister for their behaviour.

[Emphasis added]

...and the Prime Minister is accountable to Parliament, and to the people.

Its fine for the PM to say that the Electoral Commission is investigating, and to withhold judgement until then. But its not fine for her to pretend its not her problem. And the longer she does, the more crooked she looks. But hey, if she wants to bleed out like Helen Clark defending the indefensible, then that's her problem.

Australia's secret prisoner

A prisoner stripped of their name, imprisoned for a secret crime after a secret trial, with all details legally suppressed for secret reasons. A story by Kafka or Dumas? China? No, its just the latest stage of Australian tyranny:

An Australian citizen was prosecuted, convicted, and jailed in the ACT last year in a process completely hidden from public scrutiny.

It is understood the prisoner, given a pseudonym of Alan Johns, was a military intelligence officer, but details about his crime and background have been kept secret.

The very existence of his case remained hidden until earlier this month, when a dispute between him and prison authorities about a draft memoir he had written found its way into the ACT supreme court.

He is apparently now free (and tweeting, though he's clear that what he can say is limited by law). But the fact that this even happened is appalling. It violates the fundamental value of open justice, and comes close to being a forced disappearance (a crime in international law).

If this can happen once, it can happen again. Australians should be very, very worried about the direction their country is taking.

Bridges should put his money where his mouth is

Stuff has more details on what New Zealand First's slush-fund has been funding, with much of the spending directly benefiting the party. Which makes it look a lot like hidden donations, rather than the completely-innocent-giant-pile-of-cash Winston is trying to portray it as. The Electoral Commission is now investigating, but Simon Bridges doesn't think its enough:

Bridges was highly critical of both Peters and Ardern over the saga.

He said the Prime Minister needed to show leadership on this issue, and make sure it was thoroughly and independently investigated because it goes to the heart of New Zealand's democracy.

The Electoral Commission is looking into the allegations, but Bridges said that body was a "toothless tiger".

"It ultimately does not have anything like the powers to deal with this."

Which sounds like he supports change. Which is great, because there's an Electoral Amendment Bill before the Justice Committee right now which could be amended. If Bridges wants greater transparency and more enforcement powers for the Electoral Commission, he should put his money where his mouth is and publicly suggest appropriate amendments. The government will be basicly backed into a corner on this and be forced to either support them, or taint themselves with the public by backing the obviously broken status quo. But of course Bridges won't, because the last thing any establishment party wants to do is let the public know who is bribing them...

The APEC police state enabling bill

I've joked before about how hosting international summits effectively turns part of your country into a police state for the duration. Well, New Zealand is hosting APEC in 2021, with events throughout the year in Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland. And the government has put up a bill to give itself police-state powers for those events. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC 2021) Bill allows the government to put the army on the streets as "police" with full arrest and search powers, let foreign security staff bring pistols and automatic weapons into New Zealand and use them, arbitarily close buildings, roads and public places, require proof of identification ("papers, please") from anyone wanting to enter, jam WiFi and any other radio communications. Appeals against these decisions are strictly limited, with no appeal against closures, removals or most other decisions permitted. And of course the government will not compensate anyone for the disruption or any abuse of rights.

(Coincidentally, unless Winston explodes prematurely, this will all be happening smack-bang in the middle of an election campaign, with the potential to disrupt access to advance polling places. Oh joy).

But what about the Bill of Rights? The bill overrides it, along with every other Act. There's no BORA vet on the bill available yet, but I expect our supine Attorney-General will rubberstamp it in the name of "security", just like he did for control orders. But we've hosted such events in the past without this sort of statutory violence to our constitution and way of life, so you really have to ask why it is all necessary.

More generally, if the security requirements of hosting such meetings require this sort of sustained violation of of human rights, the price is not worth paying and we should not host them. If Jacinda Ardern wants to wear a silly jacket and hob-nob with the elite, she should do it somewhere else, somewhere which doesn't require her to impose a police state on New Zealanders for the duration. Because the elite's networking and photo opportunities are not worth a single compromise to our human rights, and anyone who tells you they are is simply pushing feudalism.

Still denying responsibility

Stuff's story on NZDF's negligence around its Afghan firing ranges has produced a result, with a commitment from the Prime Minister for an urgent cleanup. But this doesn't mean NZDF is accepting responsibility for the deaths and injuries that have occured - they're still refusing compensation. Which given that the sums involved are so trivial on a government level, just seems petty, a further effort to deny responsibility. But it is our responsibility: we accepted it when we sent troops to Afghanistan and took over those ranges. And even if it was someone else's grenade which killed those children, its still our fault for not cleaning it up, and we have accepted as much by accepting the full cleanup costs. This just smacks of the usual NZDF arse-covering and reluctance to acknowledge responsibility.

Unfortunately, its also looking like NZDF has engaged in its usual behaviour towards Ministers, their bosses. NZDF has said they received a report from Human Rights Watch about deaths and injuries on the firing ranges last year, which apparently spurred some action and resulted in a briefing to the PM on the issue. But she said on Morning Report this morning that she was not informed of any possibility of deaths. Did NZDF bullshit her, massaging the truth to equivocate away civilian casualties, as they did over Operation Burnham? I expect Stuff already has an OIA in for that briefing (if they don't already have it), so we'll find out eventually. Unless NZDF tries to hide it under "national security", of course.

But I'm also wondering why Ministers continue to tolerate NZDF, given that all they seem to do is leave these stinking messes around for people to tread in. Whenever they go overseas, they fuck up, and Ministers are left to deal with the fallout. Which suggests keeping them on a short leash, at home, is necessary to keep them under proper supervision.

A corrupt practice

Last week RNZ broke the news on NZ First's mysterious "foundation" and its dodgy-looking loans. The arrangement seemed to be designed to evade the transparency requirements of the Electoral Act, by laundering donations. But now Stuff has acquired some of their financial records, and it gone from dodgy to outright criminal:

Almost half a million dollars in political donations appear to have been hidden inside a secret slush fund controlled by a coterie of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters' trusted advisers.

The secretive New Zealand First Foundation collected donations from wealthy donors and used the money to finance election campaigns, pay for an MP's legal advice, advertising, fund a $5000 day at the Wellington races and even pay an IRD bill.

[...]

Stuff has seen records for the foundation that suggest there have been breaches of the Electoral Act and that the foundation is being used to obscure political donations to the NZ First Party.

Donors to the foundation are primary industry leaders, wealthy investors and multi-millionaires.

One legal commentator, public law expert Graeme Edgeler who also saw the records, believes there would be different consequences under the Electoral Act depending on whether the party and foundation are separate entities or connected.

In either scenario, Edgeler concluded the Electoral Act had likely been broken.

The big offence here is making a false electoral donation return - a corrupt practice if done knowingly, but merely an illegal practice if the result of negligence and other people's lies. And with that on the line, you can see why their party president suddenly quit rather than sign the financial statements.

Stuff appears to have evidence that funds were given to the foundation as "donations", and then used to directly pay party expenses. Some of these donations were split up to avoid the declaration threshold - suggesting a belief they were going to a political party (not to mention corrupt intent on the donor's part). Which suggests other criminal offences as well. But because politicians write the law to suit themselves, there's an extraordinarily short time window for prosecution, and many of the offences may not be able to be prosecuted. Still, the Electoral Commission needs to investigate, and bring charges if it finds anything. Anything less would simply be a betrayal of our democracy.

Corruption as usual

Next year is an election year, and Labour needs money to fund its campaign. So naturally, they're selling access:

Labour is charging wealthy business figures $1500-a-head to lunch with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at its annual conference later this month.

[...]

On the weekend beginning November 29th, around 800 delegates will gather at the Whanganui War Memorial Centre, for the convention.

Also on the guest list are a select number of business guests, who will spend the day at a business conference and lunch with Ardern.

Eight MPs will give presentations and all MPs are invited. Stuff understands Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi are expected to attend.

Officially, they're all attending in a "personal capacity" of course. But the only reason anyone is interested in talking to them is because they hold public office. They are exploiting that office for party profit. Their "excuse" that they're only selling themselves a little compared to the previous government is unacceptable. What they are doing is corrupt and wrong, and any politician who engages in it should be prosecuted for soliciting a bribe.

Fairer rentals

Yesterday the government announced its changes to tenancy laws, including an end to no-cause evictions, limits on rent increases, and anonyminity for tenants who defend their rights against bad landlords (sadly necessary because landlords are scum who maintain blacklists of "uppity" tenants). They're all good moves, and have resulted in the usual squeals from landleeches, who think it will be the end of the world if they are required to treat people with basic fairness and dignity. And they're making the usual threats of people "leaving the industry", which they seem to think is a Bad Thing. Its not. Every house owned by a landleech is a hoarded house. If they sell, then those hoarded houses will end up in the hands of people who want to use them as homes, not investments - pushing house prices lower in the process. And I don't see how society loses at all by that.

Another NZDF coverup

In 2003 New Zealand sent a Provincial Reconstruction Team to Afghanistan to support America's doomed war there. While there, they conducted regular weapons practice on local firing ranges, littering the landscape with unexploded ammunition. These ranges weren't secure - they're on land used by locals for animal herding - so the inevitable tragedies occurred. And re-occurred. And kept occurring. And NZDF did... nothing:

Seven children were killed in an explosion caused by a device left behind on a New Zealand firing range in Afghanistan, a Stuff Circuit investigation has revealed.

The children are among 17 civilians killed or injured in incidents connected to unexploded ordnance on New Zealand's firing ranges.

[...]

The Defence Force refused to be interviewed, but in a statement said it "takes its responsibility to ensure areas used by New Zealand forces are free of unexploded ordnance very seriously".

Defence was in talks with the Afghan government to clear the ranges, and had set aside $10 million to do so, the statement said.

But locals point out it is now six years since New Zealand left Afghanistan and question why the work hasn't been carried out already.

NZDF's statement is the usual arse-covering, saying their negligence was all within the rules, and trying to point at the finger at others (again: so much for the supposed military ethos of taking responsibility). But as the article points out, the clearance was clearly inadequate, and there was a spike in injuries and deaths after NZDF had used the ranges. And frankly, its their responsibility, our responsibility, and they have failed. Its also appalling that we're only learning about this now, and it just smacks of the institutional behaviour currently under examination in the Operation Burnham inquiry: keep the public in the dark, shuffle everything under the carpet, and deny, deny, deny (next they'll no doubt be attacking the journalists as well). If NZDF is wondering why people don't trust them, and look at them as liars and criminals, then they simply need to look in the mirror.

As for what to do about it, there needs to be an immediate cleanup, and compensation for the victims. Anything less is simply failing our responsibilities.

A loss for the Greens

Green MP Gareth Hughes has announced he will retire at the election. Its understandable - he's been there ten years, and wants to actually see his children grow up rather than miss it while drowning in the toxic parliamentary sewer. But his departure is also a huge loss for the Greens, stripping them of parliamentary experience and energy.

Hughes has also made it clear that one of the reasons for his departure is frustration at the failure of this government to rise to the challenges we face and be transformational. That was always a doomed hope, and not just because of NZ First: Labour is an establishment party, so it reflexively supports the status quo, no matter how unjust, unequal, and unsustainable it is. And yet, the need for transformation to deal with climate change and inequality is clear. Sadly, convincing our sclerotic establishment of that is simply banging your head against a brick wall. That's useful in the long-term - it wears down the wall, so that eventually, someday, your successors can smash it - but frustrating and pointless in the short-term. And its perfectly understandable that people don't want to waste their time doing that, especially when they have better things to do with their lives.

New Fisk

Michael Lynk’s UN report on Israeli settlements speaks the truth – but the world refuses to listen

Unacceptable

That's the only response to the findings of the Ombudsman's investigation into LGOIMA practices at the Christchurch City Council:

My investigation identified serious concerns about the Council’s leadership and culture, and its commitment to openness and transparency. In particular, Council staff raised concerns with me about various methods employed by some members of the Executive Leadership Team to keep negative information about the Council from the public and/or elected members. These methods allegedly included manipulating or removing information from reports, project reporting not occurring, staff being told not to record information or to keep information in draft form. This has caused a perception to develop among staff that some members of the Executive Leadership Team wished to manipulate any messaging about the Council that might be negative.

The then-Chief Executive was in total denial about this, refusing to see any problem. The good news is that they've now left the job, and their replacement seems a lot more interested in transparency. Still, the Ombudsman has taken the unusual step for a practice investigation of issuing a formal recommendation to prevent this from happening again, which the council has accepted. Its a huge change from the previous situation, where the chief executive tried to ignore formal recommendations and had to be taken to court.

Which I guess shows how one rotten person at the top can undermine transparency in an entire organisation, and how important it is to keep an eye on them to stop that from happening.

This is what corruption looks like

NZ First seems to be nakedly trying to enrich itself from public office:

A powerful New Zealand First figure helped establish a forestry company that then pushed for money from two key funding streams controlled by a New Zealand First Minister.

An RNZ investigation has found Brian Henry, lawyer for Winston Peters and judicial officer for the New Zealand First party, became a founding director of NZ Future Forest Products in March.

The company immediately began its bid for money from the Provincial Growth Fund and also sought funding from the One Billion Trees programme - both overseen by New Zealand First Minister Shane Jones.

The Billion Trees funding bid was rejected by officials at Te Uru Rākau, Forestry New Zealand, on 22 August.

Less than a week after that rejection, Future Forest Products appointed the partner of New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters as a director of the company.

[...]

Ms Trotman was made the fourth director of the forestry company on 27 August, when the company bid for at least $1 million from the Provincial Growth Fund was still live.

They were turned down for that as well, fortunately, but its more than a little disturbing that they tried, and got the Deputy Prime Minister's partner on board for it. What's also disturbing is that the ultimate ownership of this company is unknown, hidden behind a "limited partnership" designed (by National) to give secrecy. Is it more politicians? NZ First's mysterious foundation? Or the Deputy Prime Minister himself? We simply don't know, and thanks to National's love of corrupt foreign money, we can't. But here we see how the foreign money laundering regime can potentially be used to cover up domestic corruption. Its a perfect example of why we need a public beneficial ownership register, to ensure that the rich and corrupt can't hide their dodgy financial dealings.

Escape from Manus Island

Behrouz Boochani is an award winning author and journalist. He is also a refugee, who for the past six years has been detained in Australia's offshore gulag on Manus Island, and in Papua New Guinea. But last night, with the cooperation of the WORD Christchurch festival and Amnesty International, he finally escaped to New Zealand. As for what he was escaping from, The Guardian has the litany of horrors:

Over the six years he was held on Manus Island and in Port Moresby, Boochani witnessed friends shot, stabbed and murdered by guards on Manus Island, saw others die through medical neglect, and watched others descend into mental anguish and suicide.

He was twice tortured for several days in the notorious Chauka solitary confinement block, in the now-demolished Manus detention centre. He was jailed for eight days for reporting on a hunger strike in the centre, which was put down by force by PNG police.

This is basicly nazi stuff. And its our "closest friend" Australia doing it. But countries who run concentration camps, who deliberately leave people to die, who torture, can never be our friends. Which is why you should never buy Australian.

As for Boochani, he will be appearing at the WORD festival in Christchurch tonight, and plans to enjoy his freedom in New Zealand. While he has no plans to apply for asylum here, that could (and should) change if the US withdraws its acceptance. Because what's clear is that he has been persecuted by Australia and its PNG patsies, and would suffer further persecution of returned there. Which gives him a slam-dunk case for refugee status in New Zealand should he need it.

Climate Change: We need more trees, not less

Farmers held a hate-march on Parliament today, complete with MAGA hats, gun-nut signs, and gendered insults. While supposedly about a grab-bag of issues - including, weirdly, mental health - it was clear that the protest was about one thing, and one thing only: climate change. And specifically, forestry "destroying" rural communities. They want the latter to stop, with land-use restrictions to prevent sales for forestry.

Think about that for a moment. If at any other time a Labour government proposed preventing farmers selling their land to the highest bidder or putting it to the most profitable use, these rednecks would be screaming "communism!" Now they're demanding it, to protect their unsustainable, unprofitable way of life.

But the blunt fact is that these conversions happen because they are a more profitable use for the land than existing uses. Now that carbon costs are internalised in the non-agricultural economy, the market has shifted, and these farmers are on the short end. And the best thing that can happen, both economically and for emissions, is for them to be planted out.

Cows emit greenhouse gases. Trees absorb them. Any tree, anywhere, is better than a cow. So the faster this transition in rural land use happens, the better, for us, and for the planet. It is that simple.

The IGIS annual report: Dead letters and secret law

The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security released their annual report today, and I've been busy reading through it. In amongst the usual review of what they've been doing all year, there's a few interesting bits. For example, a discussion on "agency retention and disposal of information", which points out that the clause of the Intelligence and Security Act which requires the destruction of "irrelevant" information is basicly a dead letter:

The application of s103 is more problematic, because judging when information collected for intelligence purposes is no longer relevant is not straightforward. If s103 means that information may only be retained so long as it is necessary, rather than merely desirable, to keep it, that is still a difficult test to apply in practice. The practical effect of s103 remains under discussion between our office and the agencies.

Reading between the lines, it appears that the current test for keeping irrelevant information - that is, information about people of no interest to the spies whatsoever, with no justification for retantion - seems to be whether it is "desirable" (that is, whether the spies feel like it, or feel they may be able to use it, somehow, in the future, despite no apparent use today). Which is a long way from what we were told when the law was passed, and basicly renders the clause meaningless. And that in turn creates an incentive for over-collection and mass-storage, just in case information becomes useful in future.

There's worse. One of the key safeguards in the Act is that any collection of intelligence about a New Zealander requires a Type 1 warrant, with enhanced safeguards. But (as mentioned in the IGIS's earlier report on warrants) the spies have been playing language games over anticipated "incidental" collection of New Zealanders' communications under less stringent, foreign intelligence Type 2 warrants - and they now have a legal opinion from the Solicitor-General backing up their view that this is OK. Which is part of the legal process and the back and forth of oversight, but as the IGIS points out, government agencies are bound to follow such opinions, so where they are issued, they are for all practical purposes the law. Which then raises a significant issue of there being a body of effectively secret law, shielded by legal professional privilege, which may differ significantly from the public understanding. Even more disturbingly, the spy agencies have "come close" to trying to use legal privilege to prevent the Inspector-General from stating their position on the law - effectively trying to keep it completely secret from the public.

But in a democratic society, the very idea of "secret law" is a nonsense. The law is, by definition, public. The government has to tell you what it is. And they should do exactly that with their interpretations of the spy laws. Otherwise, there will always be public suspicion that they mean one thing to the public, and something very different to the spies. And that is simply not sustainable in a democracy.

(If someone has the appetite for an OIA shitfight, there's a past Ombudsman's opinion supporting openness for such internal interpretive advice, so it may be worth trying to request it.

A referendum on bigotry

The End of Life Choice Bill passed its third reading last night, 69 - 51. Thanks to a compromise with NZ First - which looks to have been necessary on the final numbers - the commencement of the bill will be subject to a referendum.

Given the ugliness of the "debate" over the bill, which saw bigots equating the terminally ill being able to choose to die on their own terms when they are ready for it - something they already do illegally - with the mass murder of the old and disabled, it is likely to be a very ugly campaign. The same tiny clique of well-funded fundamentalist nutjobs who have opposed gay rights, women's rights, equal marriage, and pretty much any progress in this country forever are going to spew hate into our political system for months, because that is all they know how to do. And the biggest effect of it is likely to be to make people turn off, walk away and not vote.

I urge people not to do that. We simply can not let the bigots win, on this, or on anything. Instead, we have to crush them at the ballot box. This won't change their minds - bigots are incapable of learning - but it should teach them not to inflict themselves on us in this way, and go back to just bothering MPs instead.

Irony

Since 2013, the Australian government has detained refugees without trial in Pacific gulags, where they are abused, tortured, and driven to suicide. The policy is not just an abuse of human rights and possible crime against humanity; it has also had a corrosive effect on the states Australia uses as hosts. Nauru in particular has turned into a dictatorship, banning the media, evicting the opposition from parliament, and ending freedom of speech in an effort to stop criticism of the flow of Australian gulag money. And now, some of the victims of that regime are applying for asylum in Australia:

A former Nauruan politician is seeking political asylum in Australia as a retrial of anti-Government protestors kicks off in the island nation today.

Squire Jeremiah is a member of the so-called Nauru 19, a group of former opposition MPs and their supporters who were charged with rioting and disrupting the legislature over protests outside the nation's Parliament in 2015.

Mr Jeremiah and his cousin, Rutherford Jeremiah, fled to Australia in September.

He says the Government is determined to have them convicted.

And he's right. Nauru has conducted a campaign of persecution against these people, and then when the courts finally ruled it was illegal, abolished them. Now, they've bought in a Fijian judge, whose claim to fame is purportedly legalising a coup, to hear the trial. As the former chief justice says, this is simply an abuse of the judicial process.

The irony here: Australia's anti-refugee policies in the Pacific are now creating refugees in the Pacific. Its appropriate that they clean up their mess, and give sanctuary to those who they are having persecuted. If not, New Zealand should offer to help.

Another captured agency

Last month, Greenpeace head Russel Norman surrendered his speaking slot at an EPA conference to student climate activist Sorcha Carr, who told the EPA exactly what she thought of them. It was a bold move, which confronted both regulators and polluters (or, as the EPA calls them, "stakeholders") with the voices they were ignoring. The EPA's reaction was astounding:

“[EPA CEO] Allan Freeth publicly chastised her [the student] for lack of ‘politeness’ and the inappropriateness of the speech – seemingly more concerned about the offence caused to other ‘invited guests’. From what I witnessed, I believe he was particularly acknowledging a rep from the oil and gas industry, who not only shouted at Sorcha during and after her speech, but immediately stormed out and accosted senior EPA staff to express his outrage at the ‘ridiculousness’, inappropriateness and ‘bad taste’ of her speech.”

The event was described as an annual update where central and local government, industry and community groups were invited to hear what the EPA had been doing and an opportunity for the EPA to understand "what is of concern and interest to our stakeholders". Norman was a guest speaker.

Freeth later sent a letter to attendees apologising for “a person’s poor and disrespectful behaviour”. He was referring to either Norman or Carr, not the oil industry representative who spoke over Carr.

What this shows is a regulatory agency which is completely and totally captured by the industry it purports to regulate. It shares their values, and their sense of offence at being confronted with a message they do not want to hear. And by doing so, it has ceased to be a neutral, professional public service agency, and has effectively become an industry lobby group within government.

Such unprofessional and corrupt conduct should not be tolerated. Freeth needs to resign or be sacked. As for the EPA, if they are this captured and this compromised, they need to be disbanded. Raze it to the ground and start again from a clean slate, because clearly they're no fucking good to anyone but the polluters they protect.

NZ First's dodgy loans

The core principle supposedly underlying New Zealand's electoral finance regime is transparency: parties can accept large donations from rich people wanting to buy policy, but only if they tell the public they've been bought. Most parties abide by this, so we know that TOP was wholly-owned by Gareth Morgan, and that ACT is basicly the pawn of a couple of rich arseholes in Auckland. The exception to this is NZ First, which has never declared a single donation by anyone, ever. They do however declare lots of "loans":

Records show New Zealand First has disclosed three loans from the New Zealand First Foundation. In 2017, it received $73,000. Then in 2018, it received a separate loan of $76,622, in what the Electoral Commission says was a loan executed to "replace the first loan". In 2019, it received another loan for $44,923.

Those giving money to the foundation are able to remain anonymous because under electoral law, loans are not subject to the same disclosure requirements as donations.

Both of the foundation's trustees refused to answer any questions about what the foundation did and how it operated, and New Zealand First's party secretary, Liz Witehira, said she knew nothing about it.

"I don't know and I don't need to know," Mrs Witehira told RNZ.

The natural suspicion here is that they are simply laundering their donations. And of course, its all "within the rules". But when those rules were written by self-interested politicians for their own benefit, that doesn't fly very far with the public. Electoral law expert Andrew Geddis says that this isn't the level of transparency we expect to see from a political party, and he's right. As for how to stop it, we busted trusts on donations, requiring the true contributors to be identified; clearly we need to do this for non-commercial "loans" as well.

But that's just plugging the current loophole, and dodgy politicians wanting to hide their corrupt dealings will soon find (or create) another. So in the long-term, we need to insist on total transparency, with every non-trivial donation disclosable, while shifting to public funding to get the rich out of politics. The rich have their outsized influence because the parties need their money. Remove that need, and politicians might actually start working for voters for a change.

Member's Day: The choice on End of Life Choice

Today is a Member's Day, probably the second-to-last one of the year, and its a big one, with the Third Reading of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. last Member's Day it was reported back from committee, after MPs voted narrowly to make it subject to a (rules TBA) referendum. This week, we get to see if enough of them are happy with that compromise. Polling from Stuff suggests they are, and that the bill will pass comfortably with 70 votes. Its a two-hour debate, so we should find out just before 6pm.

After that, the House will move on to the third reading of Todd Muller's Companies (Clarification of Dividend Rules in Companies) Amendment Bill and the second reading of Ian McKelvie's Dog Control (Category 1 Offences) Amendment Bill. Neither of these should be especially contentious, so I expect they'll make a start on the second reading of Rino Tirikatene's Electoral (Entrenchment of Māori Seats) Amendment Bill as well. There is unlikely to be a ballot tomorrow, and looking at the order paper, there probably won't be one till next year.

Contemptuous

The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from select committee today. But there's no report on it. Instead, the bill has been bounced back to the House under Standing order 295(3) because the Committee didn't bother to produce one.

They probably tried. But given the membership of the committee (which includes 4 National MPs), and National's opposition to the bill, they couldn't pass one. Oddly though they couldn't even produce a "we could not agree, but let's fix the typos" report which is usual in such circumstances.

The net result: if you submitted on this bill, congratulations: you wasted your time. I'm not especially annoyed about this personally, because my submission was a lightweight thing done at the last minute. But if I'd put actual work into it - and many submitters will have - I'd be feeling pretty pissed off right now. This failure to report treats submitters with contempt. And it is another perfect example of how MPs earn their reputation and the contempt the public holds them in.

Meanwhile, each member of this Committee is paid $160,000 a year (plus $16,000 a year slush fund). We're paying them to not do their jobs. Maybe we should be looking at some mechanism to dock their pay for this sort of bullshit in future.

New Fisk

Only ‘believers’ can sell their soul to the devil and expect justice

Climate Change: What happens next?

Now the Zero Carbon Bill is law, what's next? Obviously, the ETS changes currently before select committee are going to be the next battleground. But we're also going to get a good idea of where we're going, and if the progress the Zero Carbon Act promises is good enough, during the Act's first budget process next year.

Under the Act (s5U), the Minister must ensure there are emissions budgets for the 2022-25, 2025-30, and 2031-35 periods in place by 31 December 2021. But they don't get to just make them up: the Climate Change Commission must advise the Minister on the budgets in advance, with a legislated deadline of 2021 (they must also provide advice on the first emissions reduction plan, basicly what they recommend doing to achieve the targets in the budget). And before they do that, they must make their advice public, and run a public submissions process on it. Meaning that we are likely to be seeing those preliminary budgets sometime around the middle of next year (unless they go early to try and get it all in before the election).

So, before the middle of next year we are going to find out how the Commission thinks we should get to a net-zero by 2050 target: whether it will allow business as usual to continue for "just a little bit" (inviting failure), whether it will recommend immediately going for a straight linear cut (which basicly means slicing ~17% off net emissions every five years), or whether it will aim for going harder so as to make it easier to meet a stronger target if we need to. We'll also see whether that pathway is consistent with the government's (weak) international promise of a 30% cut by 2030 (which isn't enough to meet the 1.5 degree Paris target). And we'll see from its methane targets where in the (again, weak) 24 - 47% target range it is aiming for.

And more importantly, when the report lands on the Minister's desk, we'll see whether any of it means shit. There's an election between now and then, and National has already promised to gut the Act if they win; I doubt they'll be willing to accept strong budgets and plans. And even if the current government stays in power, there's the danger that NZ First will refuse to accept the outcome of the scheme they have supposedly signed up for, and demand any budgets and plan be watered down to protect polluters. Of course, there's the prospect of judicial review, but that's not guaranteed to force a Minister to accept the expert advice.

All of which is a long way of saying that we will have no idea whether this thing will work until 2022. In the interim, we should assume it won't, that the politicians will continue to drag their feet just like they always have, and keep up the pressure.

Climate Change: Thank Winston

The Zero Carbon Act is inadequate, with a weak methane target designed to give farmers a free ride. But it turns out it could have been worse: Climate Change Minister James Shaw was so desperate to get National on board, he wanted to gut that target, and leave it in the hands of the Climate Change Commission. And we have Winston to thank for stopping him:

Shaw negotiated with the party over many months and was very keen to get bipartisan support for the landmark climate change law.

The minister is generally of the opinion that if the Commission were to set the target it would not be much different to the one the range the bill sets, which is based on the overall goal to limit the temperature climbing by 1.5C by 2050.

Talks between Shaw and National leader Simon Bridges restarted in recent weeks, and it's understood Shaw was receptive to removing the target - but wouldn't be able to get that to Cabinet thanks to opposition from NZ First.

It's understood NZ First have generally rejected the idea of the Commission setting the target, as it believes that politicians need to own the decision.

The problem here is that while the Commission might have recommended a similar target, they could simply be over-ruled by the Minister. And with National planning to gut the law anyway, they could have simply removed the provision and left us with no methane target at all. Thanks to Winston, they will have to explicitly own that decision, and pay for it at the ballot box.

Meanwhile, this shows the dangers of compromise for compromise's sake. A compromise for failure is not worth making. A compromise for failure means we all drown. And by supporting such a compromise, Shaw has shown that meeting basic targets is not a bottom line for him, and that he can no longer be trusted on this issue.

This is not what armed police are for

Last month, the police announced a trial of specialist roaming armed units, which would drive round (poor, brown) areas in armoured SUVs, armed to the teeth. When they announced the trial, they told us it was about having armed police "ready to attend major incidents at any time if needed". What it actually means is armed police doing traffic stops:

Residents and politicians fear new armed police teams are being used for lower-risk responses and "preventative patrolling" after an arrest in suburban Hamilton over the weekend.

Video footage shows police from the newly formed Armed Response Teams pulling over a car linked to a dishonesty crime on a suburban Hamilton road.

The footage showed two officers, at least one with a Glock pistol, talking to a man sitting in a car on the side of the road. No other police cars or officers can be seen.

Police later said the stop was entirely appropriate, and resulted in the man being arrested without incident for "breaching conditions".

Basicly they're sitting by the side of the road running number plates and looking for people to pull over and point guns at - exactly the sort of shit you get in America. It is not what armed police are for in New Zealand, and it is likely only a matter of time before some twitchy, hyped-up cop machine-guns someone.

Spain's failed electoral gamble

Spain went to the polls today in the second elections this year, after the Socialists (who had come to power in a confidence vote, then gone to the polls in April) rejected the offer of a coalition with the left-wing PoDemos, and instead decided to gamble n a better outcome by forcing Spaniards to vote again. Judging from the results, that gamble has failed; the Socialists have lost a few seats, PoDemos have lost a lot more, and the "centrist" (but actually right wing) Citizens, who the Socialists saw as a better coalition partner, were wiped out. Instead, the big winners have been the Popular Party (which was founded by fascists), and the misogynistic, Islamophobic Vox (actual fascists). And the reason for that can be laid squarely at the feet of the Socialists, and their decision to run on a hate campaign against Catalonia.

Meanwhile, in Catalonia, pro-independence parties won more seats than ever before, and again saw off the Socialists to be the largest party. Despite the wishes of the Spanish parties, Catalans are not simply going to go away. If they want a government which doesn't involve fascists or the children of fascists, they need to actually sit down and talk. Sadly, I expect they'll try and beat people into submission instead.

The astroturf party

National has finally rolled out its "BlueGreen" astroturf party, fronted by an array of former nats and people who were dumped by the Greens for not being Green enough. Its initial pitch is described by Stuff as "very business-friendly", and its priorities are what you'd expect: conservation, predator-free funding, a "war on weeds". But what does it have to say about climate change, the biggest environmental problem facing the country and the planet? Nothing useful:

"We will work with rather than against our farmers and industry.

"We are not prophets of doom. We are an optimistic party."

He said New Zealand should "lead where we can" on climate change but not "suffer serious economic consequences as a result of that".

He supported agriculture going into the Emissions Trading Scheme at some point in the future, saying farmers had to be protected.

So this is basicly a climate inaction party - just like their backers. They're about watering the garden while the planet burns.

National hopes that this sort of greenwash will win enough votes from the Greens to either provide them with a new coalition handpuppet to replace David Seymour, or (their preferred option) drive both parties below the 5% threshold, removing the environmental voice from Parliament and restoring FPP by default. But either would require Green voters to like the policies on offer. And to be honest, I don't think this is going to fool anyone.

New Fisk

Everything you were told about the Syrian war was wrong – until now

Climate Change: As predicted

Yesterday, when National voted for the Zero Carbon Bill, I predicted they'd gut it the moment they regained power, just as they had done to the ETS. And indeed, they have explicitly promised to do exactly that within their first hundred days in office. What would their amendments do? Abandon the Paris Agreement 1.5 degree target. Get the Commission to review the use of forest sinks, so the Minister can ban them and protect inefficient farmers from market forces. Remove the (weak) statutory methane target and instead have it set after a review by the Commission - allowing the Minister to weaken it still further. Oh, and let the government give up because its too late to do anything - clearly National's preferred position on climate change. So, what was the point of trying to compromise again?

The government wanted "political consensus" and policy durability. They have failed, and they were always going to. National simply has too strong a denier streak for them to ever accept effective policy on this issue. The only way that is ever going to happen is if the government simply enacts strong policy, makes it reality, and dares them to repeal it - just as they did with the anti-nuclear law.

Climate Change: Passed

The Zero Carbon Bill has just passed its third reading, uanimously. In the end, National supported it - but we all know they'll turn around and gut it the moment they regain power. Meanwhile, I guess ACT's David Seymour didn't even bother to show up.

I am on record as saying the targets in the bill are inadequate. I stand by that. They were fine for 2008 when the bill was drafted, but a decade of inaction means we have to cut faster and deeper than we would have needed to if we'd acted back then. And with the way the news is going, I think that parliament will be back to shave at least a decade off that target. And the sooner it does it, the better.

Unfortunately, thanks to Green co-leader James Shaw's commitment to "bipartisanship" - making concessions to National in the foolish belief that they will not be reversed the moment the balance of power shifts - that may not be possible. At least, it may not be posisble with him. This is his bill, his deal. As with the agriculture sellout, if we want better policy, he has to go.

Earlier in the week I heard someone quote Jacinda Ardern about how she wanted the bill to settle the issue, and how she didn't want to see any more school-strikes or tractors driving up Parliament steps. Farmers are planning to do exactly that on November 14, and the next global climate strike is on November 29. So, it looks like she will have both by the end of the month. Which is what you get for selling out: you don't please your opponents, while angering your supporters. And if that sellout costs her her government in the end, then that's the judgement of the voters on her compromises.

Justice for Bomber

When the Police were trying to cover up for the National Party over Dirty Politics, they went all-in with their abuses of power. They illegally search Nicky Hager's house, violating his journalistic privilege and invading his privacy. They unlawfully acquired Hager's bank records. They did the same to left-wing blogger Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury, telling his bank he was suspected of "computer fraud" in order to obtain his records. The bank subsequently cut off his accounts, and the resulting stress caused significant hardship. But now, the Police have admitted wrongdoing, apologised, and paid damages:

An apology has been made by police to blogger Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury after officers investigating the identity of the hacker Rawshark used a loophole in the Privacy Act to unlawfully access his private information.

[...]

A letter to Bradbury from police said: "Police apologise for the stress and other psychological harm caused to you by virtue of your involvement in this investigation."Police accept that you were not involved in 'computer fraud' and that you were not involved in the hack of Mr Slater's accounts.

"Police have also agreed to pay damages as part of the settlement of your claim, and to destroy the information received from the banks."

Good. And given the harm caused, I hope the settlement is substantial. But as with Hager, damages don't seem like enough. The Police broke the law. The officers who planned and oversaw that deliberate and vindictive lawbreaking need to be fired.

Britain's climate tyranny was unlawful

Last month, in response to a wave of protests by Extinction Rebellion, the British government purported to ban their protests from the whole of London. It was a significant interference with the freedoms of expression and assembly, and another sign of the country's decline into tyranny. But now, a court has declared the "ban" unlawful:

Mr Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Chamberlain said the Met’s section 14 order that XR “must now cease their protests within London” was unlawful because it went beyond the powers granted to police by the Public Order Act 1986.

In a judicial review ruling handed down on Wednesday morning, the judges said the Met had been wrong to define Extinction Rebellion’s two-week long “autumn uprising” as a single public assembly on which it could impose the order.

“Separate gatherings, separated both in time and by many miles, even if coordinated under the umbrella of one body, are not a public assembly under the meaning of section 14(1) of the 1986 act,” Dingemans said.

“The XR autumn uprising intended to be held from 14 to 19 October was not therefore a public assembly … therefore the decision to impose the condition was unlawful because there was no power to impose it.”

Hundreds of people were arrested for breaching the "ban". Now, they're looking at suing the police for damages. I hope they do, and I hope they win, because institutions need to be dealt a financial bloody nose when they overstep the mark, to provide a strong incentive not to do it again. But there needs to be harsher consequences than that. The commissioner of the metropolitan police signed an unlawful order which significantly interfered with the freedoms they were supposed to protect. They need to be fired, with no pension, pour encourager les autres. There should be no mercy for tyranny by government officials.

More crime from the spies

Last year, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security reported on significant problems with the intelligence warrant system. While they were unwilling to declare any warrant "irregular" (meaning unlawful) due to the recent law change, they were also not willing to give the system a clean bill of health. Now, they've done a followup report, and while there have been improvements in several areas, they have also for the first time reported that a number of warrants did not meet the statutory criteria under the Intelligence and Security Act 2017:

As noted above (paragraph 10) the Inspector-General reached the view this year that one of the Bureau’s Type 2 warrants was irregular for a lack of sufficient operational detail in the application and a consequently inadequate demonstration of necessity and proportionality. We have since found that another Bureau Type 2 warrant was irregular for deficiency of information on one of the activities for which authorisation was sought. The Bureau is working to address the issues raised by this warrant.

Late last year we formally advised NZSIS that activity under one of its Type 1 warrants was irregular, as it involved a privacy intrusion beyond what was articulated in the warrant application. The Service did not agree...

The Inspector-General says they will be doing more work to bring the agencies into compliance, but shouldn't they be doing more? Because, to point out the obvious, the effect of a lawful warrant is to authorise things like the use of interception devices or the unauthorised access of a computer system, both of which are crimes. If the warrant wasn't lawful, then the activities conducted appear to be criminal. Shouldn't the spies therefore be being prosecuted? Or does the law simply not apply to them like it applies to the rest of us? And shouldn't the agencies be paying damages to the victims of their criminal interference with privacy? Instead, it seems like secrecy will let them just get away with it. With the result that no-one will be held to account, and that there is no incentive not to repeat such behaviour in the future.

This shows the toothlessness of our "watchdog". Yes, they've got quite a bark on them. But like the IPCA, nothing ever results (except perhaps law changes retrospectively legalising the spies' crimes). And that means that their net effect is to provide a veneer of accountability to unaccountable criminal agencies. Until they can prosecute people - and actually do so - they're a sham, and a waste of everyone's time.

Meanwhile, we should remember: spy Minister Andrew little approved these warrants, despite their unlawfulness. Which shows that he is aimply unfit for his position. And it should also cause severe questions about trusting this Minister and these agencies with any more powers, like the control orders they're currently trying to ram through Parliament.

11,000 employed under Labour

The labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has risen to 4.2%. There are 115,000 unemployed - 11,000 fewer than when Labour took office. In that time the minimum wage has gone up by $2 an hour, which shows that the right's fears about increases causing unemployment are simply false. Instead, it seems to boost living standards quite healthily. Why did National oppose that?

Boycott this democratic fraud

The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has called for submissions on Andrew Little's tyrannical Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill. Normally I encourage participation in the democratic process. I am not doing so in this case. Instead, I encourage all of you to boycott this submissions process, and to post publicly or email your MP to say that you are doing so and why. Why? Because the submission period is less than a week: until November 10. And people may remember that we've been here before.

Last time the government tried to ram through legislation on this topic - John Key's Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill, I encouraged people in good faith to submit on it. Several did. I found out afterwards that the committee didn't even bother reading the submissions, and that the entire process was simply a stitch-up. I and the people I had encouraged to submit had wasted our time and might as well have not bothered.

In short: a submission period this short is simply a fraud, designed to lend a veneer of democracy to tyranny. I refuse to participate in it, or lend my reputation to perpetrate it. They fooled me once, but I won't be fooled again.

Is there anything useful you can do as an alternative? Not at the moment. Like I said, its a stitch up, and it will be rammed through no matter what we think. The most we can do is express our anger, our disgust, and our distrust of a system which acts like this. But remember this at election time. We need to take our democracy back. And that means de-selecting or de-electing every MP who supports this bill. They will no longer protect our rights, so they all need to go.

Climate Change: Ban private jets

Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and within it, one of the fastest sources is elite travel: billionaires flitting around the world in their private jets, spewing excessive pollution into the atmosphere just so they can avoid mixing with us dirty peasants. But in the UK, the Labour party has a plan to deal with this source of unnecessary pollution, by banning private jets from UK airports:

Labour is exploring plans to ban private jets from UK airports from as early as 2025 should it win the election, in the party’s latest broadside against the super-rich.

After a report revealed carbon emissions from the sector equivalent to 450,000 cars each year, Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, said that billionaire users of private fossil fuel aircraft were damaging the climate and the party would consider a ban.

He tweeted on Monday: “The multi-millionaires & billionaires who travel by private jet are doing profound damage to the climate, and it’s the rest of us who’ll suffer the consequences. A phase-out date for the use of fossil fuel private jets is a sensible proposal.”

Sounds like a good idea. The average private jet journey emits ten times as much as flying economy class, and 150 times as much as using high speed rail. And it serves no useful purpose whatsoever. If billionaires want to keep doing this, then let them lead the investment in zero-emissions flight, and do something good for humanity for once.

Climate Change: Untold Suffering

That's what we face if we don't stop climate change, according to a warning from 11,000 scientists:

The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists.

“We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency,” it states. “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems.”

There is no time to lose, the scientists say: “The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity.”

The statement is published in the journal BioScience on the 40th anniversary of the first world climate conference, which was held in Geneva in 1979. The statement was a collaboration of dozens of scientists and endorsed by further 11,000 from 153 nations. The scientists say the urgent changes needed include ending population growth, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, halting forest destruction and slashing meat eating.

These changes are achievable: we have the technology. Implementing it, however, requires political will. And that is what is lacking. Worldwide, our political establishments are deeply corrupt, in hock to the polluting industries which have caused this problem, afraid to change the status quo because their backers and funders will lose out (and yes, that means you, James Shaw and Jacinda Ardern, with your chickenshit targets and sellout to farmers). But with no more time for procrastination and fudging, they need to make a choice: act, or be utterly discredited. Because we are going to solve this problem. These industries are going to be destroyed, just as the massive horse industry was with the invention of the motor-car and the tractor, or candles by electric light. The only question for the politicians is whose side they're going to be on, and whether they want to be swept away with their polluter mates.

Meanwhile, the US has begun the process to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, signalling their refusal to take action. The rest of the world should respond with a blockade and trade sanctions. In the interim, you can start reducing American emissions by voting with your wallet and not buying American.

Good riddance

National MP and former Conservation Minister Maggie Barry will not seek re-election next year. Good riddance. Because in case anyone has forgotten, barry is a bullying thug who terrorised both public servants and fellow MPs. She is one of the people who makes Parliament a toxic workplace, and our country is well rid of her. The only sad thing is that she has been allowed to quit, rather than being dumped by voters as unfit for public office.

Now, if only Meka Whaitiri would do the same...

Climate Change: D-Day

The Zero Carbon Bill is back in the House today for its second reading. While this isn't the final stage, its still effectively D-Day for the bill. Because today, at around 5pm, is when we're going to find out if it has a majority, whether National will support it or retreat forever into being the party of climate arson, and whether NZ First will still be backing it, or whether they will be sabotaging it at the last minute.

While the framework established by the bill is good, the targets it sets are inadequate. They were fine for 2008, when the bill was drafted, but there's been a decade of unchecked emissions since, meaning we now need to cut deeper and faster if we are to stay within a safe carbon budget. I told the select committee in its hearings that with the way the news was going, the present targets would simply mean that they'd be back in five years time to strengthen them. And I think that that is exactly what will happen. Rather than delivering "certainty", this bill is simply another excuse for inadequate action. And we are all going to pay the price of that.