10/06/21 | View email in browser | Read time: 9 mins 30 secs
Mōrena, today in 8 Things, Climate Commission's painful admissions of where it went wrong shouldn't undermine its bold ambitions, independence of children's care watchdog threatened, and hospitality leaders turn up heat on work visas.

Climate Change Minister James Shaw wasn’t going anywhere last night. The House was sitting until late, so he had to remain within earshot of Parliament’s bells. Speaking with him, he maintained his typically upbeat tone – but it would be easy to feel that the country, too, was going nowhere fast on the crisis closest to his heart. Yes, he acknowledged, he was disappointed with some of the Climate Change Commission's findings of fact.

The Commission delivered its final report to Parliament yesterday and, on balance, it seems to have taken a couple of chastened backward steps. In particular, the Commission admits:

It would be easy to focus on the Commission’s painstaking and sometimes painful admissions of where it got things wrong. But there are also respects in which it initially erred on the side of conservatism – and it now believes there’s room for more emissions cuts. For instance,  the commissioners now reckon more gas can be captured from landfills, and more organic waste can be diverted from landfills.

As part of our comprehensive coverage, senior journalist Marc Daalder argues that the goals the commission has set the Team of 5 Million are bold ones.

They include driving less and walking, cycling and taking public transport more. They mean no longer building new houses with fossil gas pipes or buying new cars that run on fossil fuels. They mean having fewer sheep and cows, with a corresponding 4 percent decrease in milk production. So let it not be said the commission lacks ambition.

As Marc concludes, the commission clearly has a vision of a what a low-carbon Aotearoa might look like. That's something we can all agree on. What we might tear each other to pieces over is the way to get there.

– Jonathan Milne, managing editor
 @JonoMilne
1. From our newsroom
 // Climate change

Don’t bet the climate on a coin toss


Yesterday the Climate Change Commission unveiled updated limits for NZ's greenhouse gas emissions for the next 14 years. Climate activists are right to note that these proposed budgets are not the best we can do – but they are still ambitious and meeting them is no foregone conclusion. It will require significant changes to the way we live our lives; in the commission's words, "transformational and lasting change across society and the economy".

Unfortunately, the commission relies in part on unproven carbon capture technology, creating a risk of overshooting the 1.5 degree of global temperature rises – with dire implications. So whenever an opportunity arises to reduce emissions further and faster, we must seize it, or we risk leaving that all-important 1.5 degree target to a simple coin toss.
By Marc Daalder  Read more
// Taken by the State

Challenge to independence of children's watchdog


Cabinet's decision to changed course on an independent monitor of Oranga Tamariki's care standards is being criticised by Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft, who questions whether the role will be truly independent.

“It seems to me that the work of the Royal Commission looking at abuse while in state care, if nothing else, has shown the need for a strong independent and well-resourced watchdog for children," Becroft told Newsroom. "And it has to be a watchdog, where appropriate and necessary, that can bark.”
By Sam Sachdeva  Read more
// Opinion

Philip Hill: This vaccine is even better than we hoped


When vaccines are rolled out, the population may have few or no cases of Covid-19, almost everyone is targeted for vaccination, and those who are not vaccinated benefit from those who are.

While we can be excited about the fact that our Government has secured for us what looks to be a truly outstanding vaccine, we need to be intentionally and proactively part of the global fight. We can even send our vaccinated, and often more than willing, health professionals into the middle of the storm.
By Prof Philip Hill  Read more
Also on Newsroom.co.nz 

Minister returns donation from terror conspiracy theorist
Phil Twyford says he didn't know about the donor's public anti-Semitic rhetoric about the March 15 attacks, despite a long-standing relationship with him.
By Pete McKenzie  Read more

Mental health units must offer more than ‘meds and beds’
Activities and therapies are key to good inpatient care, making change urgent.
By Oliver Lewis  Read more
 
Students want personal finance skills, amid NCEA cuts
As accounting is merged into commerce, a survey reveals what students want.
By Matthew Scott  Read more
2. Business & investing

Hospitality leaders turn up heat on work visas


Renowned restaurants like Auckland's Saan are cutting back their hours, as their owners grapple with severe shortages of chefs and wait staff. "There is no hospitality industry without migrants," says restaurateur Krishna Botica. "It is far less rich in culture, educated in palate, knowledgeable in trends and far less people-oriented."

This morning, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi has announced six month extensions to working holiday visas and supplementary seasonal employment visas, to manage ongoing labour shortages, but declined to extend the essential skills work visa. That has disappointed the hospitality sector, as about 15 percent of the workforce were on essential skills work visas.
By Anuja Nadkarni  Read more
Also on Newsroom business

Headline
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By Xxx Xxx  Read more
3. Chart of the day

Shortage of secondhand EVs keep prices high


A Newsroom Pro analysis of light vehicles being advertised for sale on Trade Me indicates Kiwis still face a long wait for a supply of affordable EVs. There are 665 secondhand EVs advertised on the site this morning, including 162 plug-in hybrids.

It comes as the Climate Change Commission backs away from its optimistic projections around EV uptake, acknowledging there will likely be constraints on supplies of secondhand EVs for the next 10 years. Transport Minister Michael Wood is expected soon to announce details of a $300m EV subsidy scheme.

On Trade Me, the range of EVs starts at asking prices of around $6000 with 10-year-old Mitsubishi iMiEVs and first generation Nissan Leafs with their notoriously short range and battery life. It ranges through to the latest Porsche Taycan, Jaguar iPace, Tesla Model X and Audi e-Tron super e-cars, being advertised for nearly $290,000. Some of the EVs advertised are near-new Japanese imports – but it is that supply that the Climate Commission seems least optimistic about.

Mike Bennetts, the chief executive of fuel company Z Energy, tells me he has just ordered his first electric car – a moonlight grey MINI Cooper EV, which has an entry level ticket price of $60,000. He expects to wait a couple of months for it to arrive in the country. His wife is already driving a hybrid – and he believes EVs, hybrids and biofuels would all be part of the emissions solution for the country's light vehicle fleet.
By Jonathan Milne  Read more
4. Question time

Will agriculture be asked to do the heavy lifting?


Methane, the powerful, short-lived greenhouse gas, has experienced something of a pile-on of late. The United Nations Environment Programme, with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, reported that human-caused methane emissions, including agricultural methane, could be reduced by 45% this decade, helping to avoid nearly 0.3°C of global warming by 2045.

Yet NZ’s Climate Change Commission has not radically changed its biogenic methane reduction targets, suggesting a widening discrepancy between NZ and the rest of the world. The most obvious way to reduce NZ methane emissions is fewer animals, and a switch to less intensive farming, like horticulture. DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle says farmers  are willing to do their fair share, but he is concerned agriculture might be asked to do the “heavy lifting” if the rest of the country fails to urgently cut carbon dioxide emissions.
By David Williams  Read more
5. What our readers are saying
On Don Brash's article, "Rogernomics: Non, je ne regrette rien":
 

Geoff Prickett
Don Brash and most of the commentariat miss the essential point. The revolution of the 1980s was a response to a particular set of circumstances and an economic model that had failed. 40 years later we are in exactly the same situation we are living with a model that has – with absolute clarity – failed. There should be no surprise at that: economics is a social construct. Economic models change behaviours and societies. Today's solution carries the seeds of tomorrow's problems.
      The new model must address the issues of :
1/ The growing disconnect between the creation of wealth and the financialisation the modern economies;
2/ The growing gap between rich and poor which under today's model is set to continue ad infinitum. 
3/ Most of all, the consumption of planet Earth to fuel economic growth.
      Today's model is based on cheap resources specially energy. We suck them out of the ground, destroy forests, mine the natural resources of land and sea and dispose of the trash in landfills , oceans or the atmosphere. We pay a fraction of the true cost and we defend the model as rational and responsible economics. The price will be paid by our descendants and it will be a bitter harvest. What will they think of the views of the Don Brash?

 

6. Milestones
New border exemptions - Border exemptions have been approved for 200 dairy workers and 50 vets, and their families, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. It is to help workers in management roles on farms, up to 50 workers in dairy assistant roles, and up to 50 general practice vets.

Trio busted - Three people have been moved to managed isolation after it was discovered they had travelled from Melbourne to Sydney and then on to Auckland last week. Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the trio would remain in MIQ for 14 days.

The number one spot - Auckland has been named the world's most liveable city, bumping Vienna from the top spot in the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual ranking. Not only that, but Wellington also shot up the list to number four.
7. Links worthy of your time
News here and overseas ...

Paula Bennett speaks out about suffering 'incredibly tough' treatment after National's leadership coup
(
NZ Herald)

Search for justice over the 'monsters' in NZ's Alcatraz
(NZ Herald)

Nurses' pay: What's on offer, what they get, and what they want
(Stuff)

Inquiries into unsafe building designs not published, as complaints rise
(RNZ)


Lunchtime leanbacks
Mysterious brain syndrome grips Canada
(The New York Times via NZ Herald - $)

Foreign asset managers are eyeing China’s vast pool of savings
(The Economist - $)
 
Quote du jour

“My advice to the shipping lines is they need to think about long term rather than short term profit.”

8. One fun thing 
A herd of wandering Asian elephants take a hard-earned nap near a village in Xiyang township, China. The herd has walked about 500km across the country in the past 15 months, captivating audiences around the world
Newsroom Daily Quiz

What is the main ingredient in a Welsh rarebit?

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Today's newsletter was produced by Stacey Rangitonga and Jonathan Milne
 
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