Is this planet Labour?

Planet with no star found.

Word of the day

Debouch – to emerge, or march from a narrow or confined space into a wide, open area; to issue.

New raw milk regs ok

When proposed changes to raw milk regulations were announced earlier this year Fonterra and many shareholders were less than impressed.

However, the proposals were just that and open to consultation which has produced changes most in the industry will accept as okay.

Primary Industries Minister David Carter today announced amendments to the Raw Milk Regulations, the rules by which independent milk processors can access raw milk from Fonterra.

“The Regulations ensure dairy processors can access raw milk when they are starting up and aim to support competition in domestic dairy products,” Mr Carter says.

“The changes follow an extensive consultation and review process on how best to achieve a fair and efficient dairy market in New Zealand.”

The key amendments are:

• Large independent processors who collect a significant quantity of milk directly from farmers will have a three-season limit for accessing regulated milk;
• The total quantity of milk available under the Raw Milk Regulations will be set at approximately five per cent of Fonterra’s milk supply, as provided for in the legislation;
• A range of maximum quantities will apply to processors accessing milk under the Raw Milk Regulations in different months of the season to reflect the seasonal nature of milk production;
• Processors who do not take much, or any milk, directly from farmers will be able to pay a fixed price for milk accessed under the Raw Milk Regulations and will not be subject to the “wash-up” process at the end of the season.

The aim of the changes was to foster competition without being unfair to Fonterra and I think that’s been achieved.

Thursday’s quiz

Busy day, no time to set questions so it’s up to you.
Anyone who stumps us all will win an electronic chocolate cake.

With friends like these . . .

In light of the enemies within sharpening their knives and those without adding to the calls for David Shearer to step down as Labour leader, he needs all the friends he can get.

But perhaps not these friends:

Saying it doesn’t make it so

In an interview which paints a very unflattering picture of the factions in Labour, Josie Pagani also says:

Labour needs to reclaim the debate about welfare reform, which has been wholly owned by the right. “They don’t believe in it and we do.

She’s right that Labour is losing the welfare reform debate but she is wrong that the right, or at least the part of the right occupied by National, doesn’t believe in welfare.

The left like to paint the right as heartless and opposed to any form of welfare but saying it doesn’t make it so.

It’s not heartless nor is it uncaring to expect those who can look after themselves to do so while providing help for those who can’t.

And the people most likely to be upset by low expectations for beneficiaries are the ones Labour likes to think of as their voters – low paid workers who, like the mythical neighbour of the mythical roof painter, used by David Shearer, take exception to working hard to pay taxes to support those who could be supporting themselves.

Some people will always require assistance and I don’t think any of the parties in parliament deny that.

Where there is a difference between right and left, is that the ones with hearts wants people who could help themselves to do so, rather than letting them languish on long term welfare with all the poor outcomes to which that leads.

Helping those who could support themselves to do so is not just better for them, it’s better for those who can’t help themselves. The more people in work, the less call there is for tax payer assistance, which makes it much easier for those who really need help to get it.

Canterbury A&P’s 150th show

 

Canterbury’s 150th A&P Show opened yesterday.

This is a significant milestone for the event which shows the importance of agriculture in the province’s early days and that it has endured.

Other commitments have to take priority this week so we won’t be among the thousands who will be going. I’m sorry to miss it because it’s always enjoyable, not least for the number of friends with whom we catch up.

The show, like most others went through a rocky period after the ag-sag of the 80s. But a change of venue and a revamped programme has helped regenerate it.

Those changes haven’t lost sight of the A & P in the show’s name. There is still a strong foundation of rural attractions on which the shopping, side shows and other events stand.

However, I got a reminder this week that not everyone understands what it’s all about.

A set of minutes for a meeting referred to a stand at the AMP Show and it wasn’t a typo. The minute writer, and several others who read them, didn’t know that A&P stood for Agricultural and Pastoral and misheard A&P as AMP,  in the mistaken belief the show was sponsored by the company.

 

 

November 15 in history

655 – Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia was defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria.

1315 – Battle of Morgarten the Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushed the army of Leopold I.

1515 – Thomas Wolsey was invested as a Cardinal.

1532 – Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto met Inca leader Atahualpa for the first time outside Cajamarca.

1533 – Francisco Pizarro arrived in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire.

1708 William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was born (d. 1778).

1769 The British flag flew in New Zealand for the first time.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation.

1791 – The first U.S Catholic college, Georgetown University, opened its doors.

1854 – The Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, was given the necessary royal concession.

1859 – The first modern revival of the Olympic Games in Athens.

1861 The first issue of the Otago Daily Times was published.

1864 – American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burned Atlanta, Georgia and started Sherman’s March to the Sea.

1889 – Brazil was declared a republic by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca and Emperor Pedro II was deposed in a military coup.

1891 Erwin Rommel, German field marshal, “The Desert Fox”, was born (d. 1941).

1903 – Stewie Dempster, New Zealand cricketer, was born (d. 1974).

1905 Mantovani, Italian-born composer, was born (d. 1980).

1920 – First assembly of the League of Nations was held in Geneva.

1923 – The German Rentenmark is introduced in Germany to counter Inflation in the Weimar Republic.

1926 – The NBC radio network opened with 24 stations.

1932 Petula Clark, English singer, was born.

1935 – Manuel L. Quezon was inaugurated as the second president of the Philippines.

1939 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.

1942 Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born conductor and pianist, was born.

1942 – First flight of the Heinkel He 219.

1942 – The Battle of Guadalcanal ended in a decisive Allied victory.

1943 – Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered that Gypsies be put “on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps”.

1945 Roger Donaldson, Australian- born New Zealand film producer/director, was born.

1945 Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad, Norwegian (By Birth) singer (ABBA) was born.

1948 – Louis Stephen St. Laurent succeeded William Lyon Mackenzie King as Prime Minister of Canada.

1949 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were executed for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.

1951 – Greek resistance leader Nikos Beloyannis and 11 resistance members, were sentenced to death.

1966 – Gemini 12 splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

1966 – Pan Am Flight 708 crashed near Berlin, killing the three people on board.

1967 – The only fatality of the X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams lost control of his aircraft which was destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert.

1968 – The US Air Force launched Operation Commando Hunt, a large-scale bombing campaign against the Ho Chi Minh trail.

1969 – The Soviet submarine K-19 collided with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.

1969 – 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War, including a symbolic “March Against Death”.

1969 – In Columbus, Ohio, Dave Thomas opened the first Wendy’s restaurant.

1971 – Intel released world’s first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

1976 – René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois took power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favour of independence.

1978 – A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashed near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183.

1979 – A package from the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski began smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.

1983 – Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was founded. Recognised only by Turkey.

1985 – A research assistant was injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor exploded.

1985 – The Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.

1987 – Continental Airlines Flight 1713, a Douglas DC-9-14 jetliner, crashed in a snowstorm at Denver, Colorado Stapleton International Airport, killing 28 occupants, while 54 survive the crash.

1987 – In Braşov, Romania, workers rebelled against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu.

1988 – In the Soviet Union, the unmanned Shuttle Buran was launched on her first and last space flight.

1988 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An independent State of Palestine was proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.

1988 – The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, was launched in the Netherlands.

1989 – Sachin Tendulkar made his debut as an international cricketer.

1990 – Space Shuttle Atlantis launched with flight STS-38.

2000 – A chartered Antonov An-24 crashed after takeoff from Luanda, Angola killing more than 40 people.

2003 – The first day of the 2003 Istanbul Bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, killing 25 people and wounding about 300.

2005 – Boeing formally launched the stretched Boeing 747-8 variant with orders from Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines.

2007 – Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5000 people and destroyed the world’s largest mangrove forest, Sundarbans.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia