17 Comments

Your conversion is wrong in endnote 1. The exchange rate today is 1.65 NZD to 1 Euro, which would put that price tag at $2.45T NZ

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Yikes. Thanks Phil. You are right. I put 1.0 into my calculator for euro and not 1.5. I will correct. Thanks.

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Hope you had your breakfast before writing this Bernard. As you say, there’s work to be done, rebuilding the Ministry of Green Works, reengaging all Aotearoans in the tasks facing our community, shaking off the tied and rotting mantle of neoliberalism. Can’t do that on an empty stomach. Thanks for the great work you’re doing

😃

Maurice

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Thanks Maurice! Ha! Yes. Breakfast is a progressive thing starting around 4.30 am and dribbling through til about 8am. There's a lot of coffee and some toast. This morning with feta cheese on toast and not a little pepper.

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Last night I revisited an interview I had heard last year with Tyson Yunkaporta, an Australian writer & academic who's been called the 'settler whisper' by some Aboriginal elders. I wanted to revisit it in light of all that's happening in the world at the moment, the 'poly-crisis' as you say.

I thought I'd share it with others here and you too Bernard, as I found his vision of our dark future oddly comforting. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/tyson-yunkaporta:-looking-at-the-world-through-an-indigneous-le/13168756

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His book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, is very good too. I keep going back to it.

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Yeah, it's a great book, I might need to get it out from the library again :)

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Just finishing listening. Thanks for link. The idea of no dominant narrative is hugely appealing!

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Thanks Hamersley. I'll put that on my list for weekend listening. Cheers.

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Another great Dawn Chorus. I was feeling smug about Liz Truss’s magical thinking- until you mentioned our own. Well done! A very useful corrective.

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Thanks Anne.

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I hope someone in Treasury has read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaprojects_and_Risk

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Maybe they will now. Treasury is a very welcome subscriber. :)

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How long are we going to continue trying to fix the problems with the same thinking that created the problems in the first place?

"The Government has commissioned a "Revenue Review"". Seriously? Is Treasury going to run this review? No need to have a wild guess as to what solutions they will come up with. I don't have enough head space for the eye roll.

As for the mega projects, if the govt wasn't so he'll bent to appease the petrolheads those projects could cost a fraction of the current price tag. Who digs a tunnel for light rail? It's so frustrating I sometimes want to shout at them to grow some balls and get on with it.

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Just a thought ... I'm trying. Maybe not investing as there is nothing left for that, unless you count investing in my grandchildren with support, wisdom and homeschooling to supplement their futures and overcome their various learning problems. Two of them are in England with L.T. rather undemocratically in charge, appointing a Health Minister who doesn't believe in assisted dying nor abortion. She's a real worry with her pie in the sky talk.

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Anne Applebaum could include your work this morning as a chapter in The Twilight of Democracy. It is very well explained thank you.

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The problem is that this magical thinking has produced magical results for asset owners. This is a problem because this thinking is actually cruel and inhumane thinking that has produced cruel and inhumane results for those without assets. By choosing not to distribute wealth, our “leaders” have chosen to spread suffering. Currently, it is mainly renters who are suffering. But give it a bit of time and it’ll soon become difficult for anyone to live a happy life in this country. If only the people being paid to work for the good of our country actually worked for the good of our country.

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