Democalypse 2017 - The Election Thread

it's not really though, National bought it and played it, its a bit like receiving stolen goods, you can be prosecuted for that.

They do have themselves to blame a bit as apparently someone did notice the similarity but the Nats only got advice on it from advertising and music professionals and didn't get any legal advice about it

there is compensation to pay $600k but no way will it be paid for by the tax payer, it was a party thing and they'll pay for it. Although they had a list of related parties n their court documentation and no doubt will be attempting to recover the 600k from those that sold them the licence in the first place

The Party have a big involvement in advertisements in election season, so it is a bit of a copout to suggest they just relied on agencies to do it for them.  Also, the court found "the National Party wanted the sound of Lose Yourself or an equivalent" so they went in seeking to get the song without licensing it.

Finally, previously they did the same thing and used "not Coldplay's Clocks, but sounds enough like ColdPlay's Clocks" to have to pull a whole issue of getting to know John Key DVD's for potential copyright infringement, so they should have been pretty aware of copyright issues.

Having said they, they definitely have a potentail claim against some of the professional agencies they used if they were given bad advice to recover some of the damages.

The professional agencies should go into coalition to defend themselves!

I thought Robertson was rugby through and through?  The story is that he and his husband met while playing for the same club.

IIRC he has a strong interest in football also.

Was / is a Nix season ticket holder

if it is anything like in his electorate he will do f all

Check the dollar and the markets.

It's down against USD but up against Australia? It's also only fallen to what it was a few months ago.

Seeing as it's up against AUD I'm more inclined to think that the fall is more to do with US rather than NZ. Also, NZD is in the top ten most traded currencies in the world, the government is only a part of what it's worth. 

I remember a few years ago the reserve bank tried to use some of it's foreign currency reserves to halt the growth of NZD but that made barely a blip.

But, we're an exporting country - ultimately it's good for our economy for the dollar to sit a little lower than our partners.

The problem you are going to have is that you have a donkey as Deputy   PM and the same as Foreign Minister.Of course you then have the Greens who could upset the apple cart at any time.

I have? I think you have as well.

Doesn't seem relevant to the previous comment though.

The Greens are also probably the most forward thinking and sane party in parliament, they'll only upset the apple cart if it's worth it.

A dumb arse promise out of the coalition agreement

Plant a billion trees over the next 10 years.  100,000,000 trees a year.

Sounds lovely and green, but a look at the numbers.

That requires the planting of 385,000 trees a day based on a 5 day week. It requires around 100,000 ha of land on which to plant those trees.

Pie in the sky stuff

More like the looney party. 

Ok fella stand down 

Better then a Don Key. 

He's a smart fella isn't he. Rooted the majority of kiwis so his rich prick friends got richer.

Inflated house prices then sold his house, left his job because he saw his time coming, now has been rewarded by the bankers whom he made rich with a cushy job. No doubt he is also being paid in Ausi dollars so is benefiting from the exchange rate. Now his dick head son is threatening to run for PM 

NZ is better off without that type. Fudge yes, upset the apple cart 

Dick head Winston is a better bet.                      Funny how JK was the most popular PM ever. 

I like traffic lights...

IBTL

It's roughly doubling the amount planted a year, currently 40k ha/annum.

https://pfolsen.blob.core.windows.net/productionmedia/1958/replanting-trend.png

1 billion trees will sequester about 25mt of co2/annum with our co2 output being around 80mt/annum.

What else do you propose to improve the situation? (I have one idea that most won't like but will be great for many things)

Key more popular than Clark in their first terms, Clark more popular in 2nd and 3rd terms. Key did reach higher fav rating in first term:
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-03-2017/a-statistical-analysis-of-john-keys-legacy/

I have no problem with the idea per se. I work in the forestry sector so need no convincing of the qualities of trees and wood, but it is the absolute bollocks of plucking numbers like that out of the air that gets my back up.

We have never planted 100,000ha in a year. We got close in the 1990s  when vast tracts of shark house land on the east coast of the North Island were planted. There is some doubt that some of this will ever be harvested due to the terrain but that is a different story.

It takes around two years for a seedling to be ready for planting so it is unlikely many additional trees will be planted n the first two years. AT present we harvest approx 40,000ha a year of plantaton forrests.  Assuming this is all replanted ( and it won't be) as large areas in the Central North Island and the South Island are being converted to other uses. Pine Forests south of North Canterbury have a very low yield compared to what happens further North. This means a minumum of say 60,000ha of land per annum, a total of 600,000 ha, an area about half the size of Northland, will need to be "found" to plant these forests.

This is before you even start on the issue of finding the Labour to plant trees. The industry as a whole, from Planting to Harvesting to Processing is desperate for good workers.  They are very difficult to find. Very Difficult.

So as I say,No problem with the idea, but when you actually look at the numbers it is just pie in the sky stuff.

Alternative solutions? Reducing Levels of Carbon. Use more wood, The concrete industry is one of the greatest producers  of man made Carbon, reducing vehicle emissions and probably knocking 2 0r 3 billion off the worlds population.

so easy just to knock 2 or 3 billion off the world's population - who would that be?? If it were those most destructive then you can start with the world's wealthiest nations, NZ included.

The way the North Korean and Trump are going, your last sentence could well come true!

we should just stop exporting food then