Wednesday, 20 November 2024 10:55

Review SOEs!

Written by  The Hound

OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of transparency by the Crown-owned entity - spurred by its refusal to release information under the OIA about its conduct around Cyclone Gabrielle and the Hawke's Bay flooding.

Now it is at the centre of a Media Council complaint after state-owned TVNZ and RNZ reported a questionable and alarmist NIWA social media post - claiming Dunedin had its "wettest day in more than a century" - without bothering to fact check it.

TVNZ says it's not required to verify NIWA statements.

Well, this old mutt reckons the taxpayers not required to keep propping up underperforming SOEs like TVNZ, RNZ and NIWA.

What's happened to those state-owned enterprise reviews the Government promised?

More like this

SOE on the block?

OPINION: Did the Prime Minister hint last week that the sale of Landcorp assets could be part of the manifesto for the next election?

Wrong focus

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.

Drill baby, drill!

OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.

Featured

Mark Dillon Does It Again!

Southland crop farmer Mark Dillon took out his fifth New Zealand conventional ploughing title at the NZ Ploughing Championships held over the weekend at Methven.

Feds Label New Farmer Group 'Bad News'

A verbal stoush has broken out between Federated Farmers and a new group that claims to be fighting against cheaper imports that undermine NZ farmers.

National

Machinery & Products

Mark Dillon Does It Again!

Southland crop farmer Mark Dillon took out his fifth New Zealand conventional ploughing title at the NZ Ploughing Championships held…

Chinese Tractors Eye Western Europe

Having caused quite a stir at last year’s Agritechnica, Chinese manufacturer Zoomlion is reported to be conducting large-scale field trials…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

What A Choice!

OPINION: If you ask this old mutt, the choice at the next election isn't shaping up as a contest of…

Your Call!

OPINION: A mate of yours says we're long overdue for a reckoning on what value farmers really get for the…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter