Too little and too much

Phone calls to friends in Australia last night reinforced the tragic irony of  toom little water in one area and too much in another.

A family in Victoria is waiting anxiously as fire, albeit slow burning, approaches one of their properties.

While other friends who farm in northern New South Wales are dealing with floods after several years battling the dry.

The ABC reports that these are drought breaking rains.

Further to the north and west in Bourke, authorities are tallying up the damage bill after three quarters of the towns annual rainfall came down in 15 hours on the weekend. This in a town that just recently saw an exodus of a fifth of its population because of the drought.

Our  friends haven’t lost stock and are grateful the flooding round them is not nearly as bad as that in Quensland.

Thousands of kilometres away in Queensland, the towns of Normanton and Karumba have been cut off for six weeks and may have to tough it out for another month. Emergency services are ensuring people get the basics like food and medicine, but industries are struggling.
. . . In Karumba, businesses can’t get the goods they need to keep the local economy going and they’re warning job losses are on the way.

The local council estimates that stock losses may run to 100,000 and some graziers may have lost up to two years’ profits.

. . . Further up the river, people shifted 20,000 head out of the floodwaters and up onto higher ground. But then, a lot of that higher ground has gone underwater.

Break out the champers

The affront to democracy that was the Electoral Finance Act was repealed this evening.

It was consigned to the dust bin by 112 votes to 9 when only the Greens continued to blindly support the misguided and badly drafted peice of legislation to the bitter end.

DHB fraud fallout highlights stupidity of Clayton’s democracy

Otago District Health Board chairman Richard Thomson didn’t accept the invitation to jump so Health Minister Tony Ryall has pushed him

No-one is saying Thomson is responsible for the $17 million fraud for which former ODHB employee Michael Swann and his and business associate Kerry Harford were found gulty last year.

But Ryall is holding him accountable  and had he understood his role and responsibilities as chair he’d have resigned before he was sacked.

David Farrar Kiwiblog explains the requirement for accountability at Kiwiblog and in his NBR column.

The letters page of the ODT has had a lot of correspondence on the issue, some of those in support of Thomson point out he was elected to the board, not appointed.

That is irrelevant and just highlights the stupidity of the Clayton’s democracy surrounding DHB elections because, elected or appointed ,health boards and their members are accountable not to their communities but the Minister.

Because he’s elected, Thomson could choose to stay on as a board member now he’s been sacked as chair. But if he didn’t understand why, although he was neither to blame nor responsible for the fraud, he should still have been accountable for it; he’s shown he doesn’t understand the role of the board and to whom it’s answerable.

Why do my dove trees die?

My mother told us she’d like her ashes put under a dove tree when she died and gave me some money to buy one . I planted it, as she requested, in a paddock with a view but it died.

A tree expect said it might have been because it had been too exposed so I bought another one and planted it in a sheltered spot in the garden. My father died shortly afterwards and we put his ashes round it but by the time Mum died nearly two years later that tree too had died.

The funeral director said that wasn’t unusualy but he didn’t know if that was because of the ashes or just coincidence. In case it was the former, when I I bought another tree, this time not a baby but a teenager, and planted it in a different place and for five years it grew happily, but now it’s died too.

I’m planning to buy another, but before I do, I’d like to know why they die and what I can do to ensure the next one survives.

Should we be worrying about Fonterra?

The Sunday Star Times is concerned about Fonterra’s plans to stockpile milk powder.

Fonterra’s managing director of global trade, Kelvin Wickham, last week pointed the finger at the US Department of Agriculture for buying up more than 100,000 tonnes of surplus milk powder from US producers and stockpiling it in limestone caves near Kansas City.

What Wickham did not mention was that Fonterra was already well advanced in its plans to begin doing the same thing here, but not in limestone caves. Instead Fonterra will be stockpiling excess milk powder in modern, high stud warehouses up and down the country.

Maybe he didn’t, but there is a difference between a government stockpile and a supplier owned co-operative one. The former is a taxpayer subsidy which might encourage more production, any costs for the latter will be carried by farmers.

 Frenemy  is also concerned and if I’m reading the post correctly seems to think Fonterra was trying to hide something.

I don’t think that’s the case. The ODT reported last November on the company’s plans to use the former Fisher & Paykel site at Mosgiel for storage and I’ve read other references in shareholder communications and/or the media.

And what’s the alternative? You can’t turn the milk supply off overnight if  it starts outstripping demand and, when cow numbers are dropping in Europe and the USA, the medium to long term outlook is still pretty positive.

Farmers cranked up production in response to last season’s record payout but supply usually peaks in November, it’s been dropping since then and tanker pick ups are down to alternate days on many farms.

Some farmers are planning to dry cows off early rather than milking to the end of the season to conserve feed in response to the high cost of winter grazing and because they’d have to pay $5.50 for extra shares for any increased production.

But in spite of that, and the gloomy headlines, this is market reality and we are all going to have to focus on our cost structures.

Meanwhile on the positive side while the payout is down from the record high, $5.10 isn’t too bad when the three biggest costs – fuel, fertiliser and interest are dropping. 

If Fonterra was actively encouraging farmers to produce more milk than the company can sell I’d be worried, but stockpiling the surplus from what they’re already getting in response to falling international demand looks like a sensible response to market signals.

Greenmail or compensation?

When is money paid by the applicant for resouce consent to an individual or body objecting to the consent greenmail and when is it compensation?

The question has come up as the story (three posts back) about Meridian Energy paying DOC has developed.

John Key says the payments would be okay if it was to offset environmental impacts  but not if it’s hush money.

Director-General Al Morrison said a suggestion DOC accepted money in a secret deal to remain quiet over the windfarm proposal is totally inaccurate.

“In this case an agreement was reached which resulted in $175,000 being set aside to improve public access to nearby conservation land and for a series of plant and birdlife issues to be addressed,” Mr Morrison said. . .

. . . “Clauses were specifically entered into the agreements to ensure the details could be publicly released once signed and they have already been fully tabled, including the amount agreed, before the Environment Court,” he said.

Trust Power spokesman Graeme Purches says it  also had an agreement with DOC but:

Mr Purches said some people are calling these deals bribery but that is wrong.

“It’s about working with stake-holders to get a win-win. It’s not about bribery. I think anyone who suggests you can bribe a Government department like DoC has got rocks in their head,” Mr Purches said.

The Resource Management Act allows for payments to be made to mitigate or compensate for adverse effects of any development.

What raised hackles with this example was the suspicion DOC had accepted the payment to remain silent and had done that because of a decision by the previous government to take a whole of government approach in support of the application.

P.S.

Kathryn Ryan had extended interviews and also covered the issue in this morning’s political slot on Nine to Noon;  and Mary Wilson interviewed Al Morrison on Checkpoint.

Alf Grumble  asks, what’s up Doc?

Farmgirl joins blogosphere

Agricultural journalist and broadcaster Nadine Porter brings another rural woman’s voice to the blogospehre with Farmgirl.

Nadine is also a director in a mid-Canterbury cropping farm  and will be a regular guest on The Farming Show. Her first contribution was today and you can hear her here.

When should she go?

Helen Clark is looking for other jobs, and who can blame her?

When you’ve been Prime Minister you’re not going to get the same job satisfaction when you’re demoted to former leader in Opposition.

So the question isn’t if she’s going but when?

Clark is an electorate MP rather than a list one so she’ll have electorate responsibilities.

But are the people of Mount Albert best served by a woman on her way out of politics who’s eyes and energy are firmly set on another job or a new MP who will be working hard to cement her/his place in the affections of her/his constituents?

Don Brash was criticised for staying on as an MP over the summer break after he’d stood down as National’s leader but a month or two to tie up loose ends is acceptable.

Much longer than that begins to look like seat-warming on the public purse.

Apropos of Mount Albert, list MP Phil Twyford appears to be the likely one to stand as Labour’s candidate in a by-election and Kiwkblog posts on the battle within Labour for the seat.

DOC accepts greenmail payment from Meridian – Updated

RadioNZ  National reports that the Department of Conservation accepted $175,000  from Meridian Energy in return for not opposing Meridian Energy’s Project Hayes windfarm in Central Otago.

Morning Report’s news quoted DOC’s Otago Conservator Jeff Connell saying it would have been inappropriate to oppose the project when the previous government supported it.

Excuse me?

A government department took $175,000 from a State Owned Enterprise for not doing something it felt would be inappropriate?

Isn’t accepting a greenmail payment at least as inappropriate especially when it is basing its view on political considerations not environmental ones?

UPDATE: The Morning Report story is now on-line here

The New Zealand Week

The New Zealand Week , an on-line review of national and international media, was launched last week.

 

Edited by Paul Corrigan, it summarises stories from New Zealand and overseas media on current events, politics, science and technology, people, business and consumer news, sport, art and literature, film and theatre and travel.

It looks classy, like a quality magazine with a clean, clear layout,  and it’s easy to navigate – you just click on the top corner of each page to get to the next one.

It aims to provide a one-stop catch up on what’s happened in the previous week and I think it succeeds.

Most people would have come across the major news stories already, but not the summary of views on them, and although I think I’m a news junkie it covered several stories which were new to me.

It credits all sources thought doesn’t link to them, however when I wanted to read more on a story I got to the original in a couple of clicks via Google.

My only criticism is that it doesn’t appear to have any archives which meant when I went back to read something I’d only skimmed in last week’s copy it was no longer available.

If you subscribe you’ll get an email every Friday morning with a link to the new edition.

Declaration of potential interest: Late last year I got a phone call asking if I’d be interested in contributing to The New Zealand Week. It was tempting because I liked what it was aiming to do but I didn’t want to commit to a weekly deadline so turned down the offer, however, we’re still discussing the possiblity of an occasional contribution.

Recipe for success of Oamaru Wine & Food festival

Take 36 purveyors of fine food and wine, pour into the beautiful Oamaru public gardens .

Heat to optimal temperature with sunshine, tempered by a gentle easterly breeze. 

Pour in plenty of people and allow to mellow under blue sky.

Add chef’s secrets from Bevan Smith of Riverstone Kitchen  and Fleur Sullivan of  Fleurs Place seasoned with wine producers’ tales from Jim Jerram of Ostler Vinyard.

Spice with music from  Boh Runga , Barry Saunders, The Rollicks, The Eastern and Spotless.

Relax, enjoy and thank those who made another  Oamaru Wine & Food Festival  such fun.

Passive maintenance threatens high country

Whether this  is iconic New Zealand landscape which should be in public ownership and under public control is a matter of opinion.

The previous government thought so and took an aggressive approach to retiring much of the South Island high country from pastoral farming and putting it under the care – and I use that term loosely – of DOC.

This property is privately owned by people who graze it and undertake extensive weed and pest control. A lot of the neighbouring property was surrendered during the tenure review process and instead of being actively managed by pastoral lessees it’s being passively managed by DOC.

That means pest control is largely left to hunters who are given licences to shoot given areas. Their aim is sport not the good of the land, so many selectively cull to ensure enough pigs, deer and other animals will survive to breed so they have something to kill next time rather than aiming to eradicate them.

Weed control doesn’t seem to be happening at all as the land is left to revert back to its natural state.

But natural now isn’t the same as natural before people arrived so introduced species like gorse, broom and hyracium are winning the battle with tussock and other native plants and also increasing the risk of fire.

The photo above was taken in North Canterbury last Wednesday and it was very dry but grazing and weed control have kept the growth down. The growth on the neighbouring land has gone unchecked and it’s a significant fire hazard.

Misguided regulations on tree planting and conservation are thought to be party responsbile for the dreadful loss of life and property from the Australian bushfires.

There are fewer people and animals in the South Island high country, but they, the buildings and the land are also at risk  because of policies based on emotion and politics not science.

P.S. In related posts on the Australian fires  Not PC  found a house that was saved when the law was ignored and one which was lost because it was obeyed; Poneke says green lobby demands were partly to blame for the fires and Solo asks can we get angry now?

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be commercial – updated

Year by year the commercial hype around Valentine’s Day – and all the other days which have joined the calendar of celebrations – increases.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, you can show the one you love that you love him/her without spending a cent.

My farmer reckons it’s better to know you’re loved every day rather than have a fuss made of you just once a year – although given it’s also my birthday there may be some degree of self interest in his philosophy

Apropos of the day Quote Unquote displays a fractual Valentine, Monkeywithtypewriter has a history lesson, The Hand Mirror talks about the tempest   and the suckiness  , Bitsonthe side has uncovered a chocolate shrinkage  in sweets and if it’s Cactus Kate you’re trying to impress, don’t do it by text.

Update:

Anti-Dismal has found 20 reasons it’s okay to hate Valentines Day and reckons it’s better to just give money. While not averse to receiving money, giving love has greater value at no cost

Aussies put ETS on hold

The Australian government has put its Emissions Trading Scheme on hold.

A parliamentary committee has been asked to inquire into the effectiveness of emissions trading as a means to reduce carbon pollution.

How very sensible.

Whether or not the climate is changing there is no point inflicting an expensive exercise on people and businesses if it’s not going to reduce carbon pollution.

Hat Tip: Dear John

Where have all the flowers gone?

Not wanting to let accuracy get in the way of a headline with a musical allusion, I’ve asked the wrong question.

This isn’t a case of where have all the flowers gone, but why haven’t they come?

I planted the sweet pea seedlings at the end of November and they’re usually covered in blooms by early January, but here we are half way through February and there’s only a few flowers.

The seedlings did have a bit of a difficult start thanks to the rabbits, but they recovered once I covered them in bird netting. I removed the netting once they were established and the rabbits have left them alone, though it looks like they’re still nibbling the lobelia edging.

We’ve been away often, but I’ve neglected sweet peas in dry years in the past and they haven’t sulked so I don’t think lack of water is to blame.

Normally if I keep picking them they give me blooms well into May, but some of the plants are already beginning to look a wee bit past it before they’ve even started flowering.

So what have I done wrong and what should I do to ensure next year’s sweet peas bloom in profusion as they normally do?

Not interested but . . .

Like Reasonable Ray  and Inventory 2 I think it’s far too early for rugby.

I’ll go further than them and say I’m sick of it already because:

* there’s too much, too often.

* I hate the way it dominates so many other things so we have to arrange functions round it or provide a TV then have people divided into those who watch and object to other things or people who  interfere with the watching, those who sort of watch but can converse as well and those who don’t watch at all.

* I’m bored with games against Australia and South Africa.

* I need an emotional connection to enjoy watching and I know too little about most of the players to have one.

So I’d made a deliberate decision not to watch tonight’s game. But I happened to be cooking dinner at 7.30 and having seen a teaser on the news thought I might as well watch the opening minutes until the meal was ready.

My farmer was late so having started watching I kept on – not properly with undivided attention, I ate and cleared up from dinner, read the ODT & NBR, and wrote a couple of emails too. But I kept an ear on the commentary and every now and then I’d watch what was happening.

So there you are, even though I’m sick of  rugby, could only name a couple of players and not really interested, I still watched and oh how I hoped that Otago would win.

For the record they didn’t: Brumbies 33-  Otago 31.

Uh oh18

When I couldn’t find a phone number on Monday I used the whitepages and got it immediately.

On my way to Christchurch the following day I needed the number again so rang 018.

I gave the operator the surname and first names of the couple and then explained I didn’t know the exact address but they lived at Clearwater.

She asked if that was an area, I replied it was a resort and she told me they didn’t have a number for anyone of that name at Clearwater.

The names I’d given her aren’t rare but they aren’t very common either so I asked if there was a number for any couple with the combination of names I was asking for anywhere in Christchurch.

She said there was one so I asked for the address and when she gave it to me I recognised it as being the one I needed.

Not giving the exact address makes finding a number harder, but given I gave the two first names and surname of the people whose number I wanted and there was only one with that combination in the whole of Christchurch, why didn’t she offer it as an alternative rather than just giving me the we -don’t -have -anyone -at -that -addreess response?

This isn’t the first time I’ve gone through a similar teeth-pulling exercise to get a number, even when I know it’s in the phone book and/or internet whitepages and I’ve got the right address.

It happens often with country people because rural delivery addresses usually go through a postal centre some distance from the phone exchange, so for example the postal address might be Oamaru but the phone exchange will be one of several other wee townships such as Enfield, Windsor or Duntroon which most people don’t know.

But it also happens with addresses in towns and cities and others tell me they have similar problems with the 018 service.

If it’s this bad when staff appear to be New Zealanders, imagine how much worse it will get if Telecom moves this service to an overseas call centre too.

I Love You

 Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day so this Friday’s poem had to be a love one.

I Love You, by Roy Croft comes from Poems and Readings for Weddings edited by Julie Watson, published by Penguin.

I Love You

 

I love you,                                           

Not only for what you are,                  

But for what I am                                 

When I am with you.                            

                                                             

I love you,                                            

Not only for what                                

You have made of yourself,                 

But for what                                         

You are making of me.

                                                              

I love you                                              

For the part of me                                 

That you bring out;                              

I love you                                             

For putting your hand                           

Into my heaped-up heart                       

And passing over                                   

All the foolish, weak things

That you can’t help                                

Dimly seeing there,                                

And for drawing out                              

Into the light                                           

All the beautiful belongings                   

That no one else had looked                  

Quite hard enough to find.                      

                                                                

                                                                

I love you because you

Are helping me to make

Of the lumber of my life

Not a tavern

But a temple,

Our of the works

Or my every day

Not a reproach

But a song.

 

I love you

Because you have done

More than any creed

Could have done

To make me good,

And more than any fate

Could have done

To make me happy.

 

You have done it

Without a touch,

Without a word,

Without a sign.

You have done it

By being yourself.

Perhaps that is what

Being a friend means

After all.

 

 - Roy Croft –

Which are the animals?

The SPCA has noted an increase in animal abuse and after reading this I was left thinking the lack of humanity makes the perpetrators sound more like animals than the victims.

Three Black Fridays

Today is the first of the three Black Fridays we’ll have this year.

Feel free to inundate me with black cats, force me to walk under ladders and spill salt if I’m wrong, but I think this is a fairly rare occurence which happens only when the 13th falls on a Friday in February and not in a leap year.

The days and dates in February, March and November match every year except leap year when March and November get pushed forward a day by Febraury 29th. February, like January, then leaps a day the following year to catch up.

April and July match days and dates (both start on Wednesday this year); so do September and December (both have Tuesday the 1st this year) and October and January also match up (the 1st falls on Thursday for both this year). The first day of every other month falls on a different day.

When February 13th falls on a Friday in leap year, August 13th is also a Friday.

Wikipedia explains the history of the date and explains there is no statistical evidence to back up fears of something amiss happening on Black Friday, in fact it might even be safer because people take more care.

That means you don’t have to touch wood today.