Tuesday, 18 June 2024 14:12

Special cases

Written by  The Hound

OPINION: The old saying ‘Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die’ seems to apply to the wailing coming from public service entities facing cuts under the new Government’s belt tightening.

Having enjoyed massive growth within their little empires over the previous six years, ministerial bosses are working hard to avoid any cutbacks, arguing that, while savings are important, they’re so special that they should be exempt.

The Hound notes, for example, the PSA claims a 30% cull at the Ministry for Environment will ‘jeopardise work on combating climate change’.

Unless the MfE staffers being cut were on the cusp of convincing China and India to stop burning coal, it seems unlikely their absence will affect global change one iota.

More like this

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

Editorial: Indian FTA is great news

OPINION: Trade Minister Todd McClay and the trade negotiator in government have presented Kiwis with an amazing gift for 2026 - a long awaited and critical free trade deal with India.

National

Free herbicide resistance testing

Arable growers worried that some weeds in their crops may have developed herbicide resistance can now get the suspected plants…

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

The bow-tie effect

OPINION: If the hand-wringing, cravat and bow-tie wearing commentariat of a left-leaning persuasion had any influence on global markets, we'd…

Famous last words

OPINION: With Winston Peters playing politics with the PM's Indian FTA, all eyes will be on Labour who have the…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter