Hard News: The back of a bloody envelope
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Geologist says Brownlee making shit up.
The Stewart Island figure was "misleading" because it was "wildly optimistic" and had not been backed by exploration, he said. "The numbers they're throwing around, the value of the mineral wealth in Stewart Island and Great Barrier Island – it's basically just made up," Leary said.
"People might go, `Well, maybe it's worth mining Stewart Island because $7b is a lot of money', whereas in fact there's basically no way there's $7b worth [of minerals] there. What it's doing is misleading the public."
He said there was probably nothing of economic value on Stewart or Great Barrier islands. "There might be $7b of minerals there, but New Zealand might win the next soccer World Cup – but we're not going to. It's just fantasy."
Leary said that without open-pit mining on Stewart Island it would be "physically impossible" to extract $7b of minerals.
A spokesman for Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee said the Government would not enter a "tete-a-tete between geologists".
Evidence, schmevidence
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A spokesman for Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee said the Government would not enter a "tete-a-tete between geologists".
So one day it's only about the Geologists Survey, next, it's not worth discussing with Geologists? WTF!
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Hmmm. More public support than opposition, says SundayStarTimes poll (though no details provided about margin of error, questions asked, etc).
Older men seem more into digging shit up. Of Nat voters, 31% say it's put them off and 18% enough to not vote for them if an election were held now.
- 79% of those questioned believed mining in general could boost New Zealand's economy to some extent. Male respondents were more likely to take this line than women (85% of men; 73% of women)
- Support for opening conservation land to mining was fairly evenly split (43% in favour versus 35% against it).
Men were much more likely to "strongly support" this than women (28% men, 14% women). Support was also stronger in people aged 60+ (53% support it either a little, or a lot).
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Sorry if someone got to this before me, can't be arsed reading 8 pages...
...being used as a metonym for the NZ government.
A metronym, surely.
"Metronym"?
- Literal rhythm of the city perhaps? -
Welli already has that big orange one near the airport, but the gales stop it swinging back the other way
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The missus has had an interesting idea about trying to start some sort of letter writing campaign from overseas - playing on the 'loss of tourist revenue' angle: 'dear sir, I was going to come to NZ and spend lots of hard currency, but now I'm not going to because I've realised you're not clean and green after all. Yours, disgusted of the UK'.
Maybe try to get a few o/s papers to pick it up and run with it, like the economist did?
Dunno how you'd go about organising it. Just planting the seed, really...
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The missus has had an interesting idea about trying to start some sort of letter writing campaign from overseas
Dear Gerry,
We were going to come to New Zealand for our Holidays but in light of recent events have decided that the Rhondda Valley would offer a more scenic experience.
Yours, Maynard Keynes.
................................................................Dear Ms Tolley,
Thank you for your letter of the 15 March.
In reply to your question about our previous policy I regret to inform you that the outcome was not as good as expected.
Yrs. Myfanwy Evans
Aberfan school district administrator. -
Seeing as Stephen Fry's already been to NZ and oohed and ahhed about the kakapo and our awesome work in increasing population numbers (see last week's Last Chance to See) I was thinking we could try to get his attention via Twitter and tell him what's going on - he's good for a million or so pairs of eyes getting behind him on the Issue of Teh Day...
Oh - and check this out - National's now admitting they "may" have told the mining industry they intended pursuing mining as an economic development policy two years before the 2008 election. What a surprise! National admits dropping nugget to mining firms before election
Brownlee said National "probably" held discussions with miners before the election, but said he was "unaware of any campaign contributions to National from mining companies before the 2008 election".
Hmmmm. Anyone feel like digging into National's campaign contribution information to see what they can find?
Funny that they forgot to mention any of this during the election campaign, isn't it?
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I'd want to see a really well thought out campaign before someone like Fry is approached - you only get one chance.
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Yup that's a good point Sacha.
If anyone's interested - there's a big demo planned at Parliament tomorrow (Tuesday) 12.30-1.30pm to protest against National's mining plans.
It's being organised by 2precious2mine, which is an umbrella group representing all the groups campaigning against mining in National Parks - Coromandel Watchdog, Environment and Conservation Organisations (ECO), Federated Mountain Clubs, Forest and Bird, Green Party, Greenpeace, Save Happy Valley Coalition and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Seems to me that it's a heck of a lot easier to nip these crazy policies in the bud, rather than wait until we're having to chain ourselves to the bulldozers. In order to do that, we need BIG NUMBERS in any demonstration opposing mining in National Parks.
Please - if you're in Wellington on Tuesday and this matters to you, come along and show your support.
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I'll be there.
I told my daughter that I was going to protest, and what it was about.
Her only question was 'Will you get arrested?" to which I replied, "I hope not."
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Hooray! See you there James - I'm bringing extra placards if you want one...
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I like that last one
.. and the second one -
More placards...
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Paula and Gerry
(aka Gawd 'n' Bennett)
social-engineering
for your future...
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The dream is over
work will set you free...
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Don't dream it, dig it!
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MINE KAMP
The Brownlee Shirts
are coming!
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Life is sweet in the
Sugarbag years... -
Someone needs to give James Weir a good fisking.
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Someone needs to give James Weir a good fisking.
Is it worth a full fisking? It may be reasonable to assume the rest of the NZIER/Weir analysis and numerical awareness is on par with that happily stating NZ has 1.24 square kilometres of protected land per person - cf total NZ land area c.270,000 sq km. So our population must be two thirds of five eigths of SFA.
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One time, at Mine Kamp..
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It's being organised by 2precious2mine,
Thanks webweaver for that heads up. Wont make Wellington ( being in Auckland) but have forwarded my submission opposing mining. Best of luck today. Loud and Proud!!
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Oooh you're way ahead of me Sofie - I haven't written mine yet.
We had a great demo - lots of chanting, awesome speeches (especially Metiria Turei - and Phil Goff wasn't bad either) - plus some very cool folks from F&B, Greenpeace, Coromandel Watch and others.
At least 500 people there as far as I could tell (I couldn't see everyone cos I was at the front) - "the first ripple in a wave of protest"
Oh - and me and my banner made the paper. Tee hee.
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Oh - and me and my banner made the paper. Tee hee.
I suspect you'll make the news tonight too. I'll watch out for it :) Good stuff, thanks to you all.
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So excellent webweaver! You (and the Na'vi) have been front page - it's all getting the message that a lot of ANZers really *hate* the idea of mining conservation land - out there-
-have made views known via RFB, and will make a written submission re - naturally opposing- mining within the week- kia kaha tatou!
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There was a good turn out all right. Not bad considering -- I only heard about it within the last day. Seems like a really grass-roots success to me.
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Protests outside National MPs offices tomorrow, just announced by Greens. This is regarding the sacking of the Canterbury Regional Council.Undemocratic. 4 different Electorate Offices if anyone is interested.
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For those wanting detail on the abrogation of democracy in Canterbury, Idiot/Savant links to both the Bill and associated regulatory impact statement (RIS) by the Ministry for the Environment.
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Darth Margaret Bazely has been sent in by Darth Creech to secure the newly formed Gallonic Empire. The clones will soon be on their way.
I believe the exact words to Darth Margaret Bazelys by a member of Ecan was:
“I'm a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan.”
“You are part of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor. Take her away!”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yM_Wa9X8Frk/R5_vEEkzH5I/AAAAAAAAB1c/uPgK3ayDk1M/s320/DARK%2BSITH.jpg
Darth Creech
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