Briefly in the news in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Tuesday, October 28:

* Almost a third of dairy farmers in Otago and Southland are still without power to their milking sheds this morning, five days after extreme gusts of wind flattened power poles, shelter belts and pine forests across the region. (RNZ)

* Farmers, water treatment plant operators and cell-tower maintenance workers are scrambling to bring in and share diesel generators, just as Metservice issued new orange rain, wind and snow warnings across both islands.

* Southland’s Mayor Rob Scott said the region wasn’t prepared for the extreme weather, with 8,000 homes still without power and a state of emergency still in place in the Southland and Clutha regions. As of 4am, 18 cell towers in the region were still offline, albeit down from as many as 130 being offline over the weekend. (RNZ)

* Again, there was no mention in any of the reports of the extreme weather this morning, or from officials surprised at the ongoing extreme weather, that such extreme weather events are expected to be more extreme and frequent because of climate change. That’s because carbon dioxide and methane emissions have already warmed the climate by around 1.5 degrees, with much, much more extreme weather likely over the next next 20-30 years, given some forecasters see warming of 2-3 degrees by 2050.

* There’s also few signs that dairy farmers, cell-tower operators, power lines companies and councils are preparing for this change by investing heavily, or much at all, in resilience measures such as widespread solar panel and battery installations able to operate off the grid, let along reducing their own emissions.

* Elsewhere in the news this morning, RNZ’s Craig McCulloch reported shortly before 7.30 am that Labour had agreed to campaign on a capital gains tax (CGT) covering just property, excluding the family home and farms, to help fund three free doctor visits for everyone. The abrupt announcement came after a leak.

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The Lead: Where’s the climate resilience?

It’s as if no one had ever heard or believed warnings from climate scientists that extreme weather events will become more extreme and frequent because fossil fuel and livestock emissions are warming the climate.

Southland mayor Rob Scott said overnight the orange wind warning in place on Thursday turned red very suddenly, the storm hit more widely than expected, and it exposed the need for more starlink satellites in provincial area.

“There wasn’t enough time to really even let people know it had reached that level and when that storm hit it certainly hit hard as well. You could say kind of took everyone by surprise.

“When it takes out the whole region, like you can be prepared, have back up stocks for generators and those sorts of things when you’d normally just get a particularly part or a particular town that runs into grief, but if you count Clutha as well you’ve got quite a large section of the South Island that’s been hit.

“The power network is going to be as resilient as the powerlines and when you’ve got trees coming down left right and centre onto the lines. You can’t really prepare for that, short of putting all the lines underground which is impossible, so you’ve got that kind of vulnerability there with the lines, same with the cellphone network.” Southland Mayor Rob Scott via RNZ.

Similar things were said after Cyclone Gabrielle took out a single power line over one bridge and plunged the Wairoa-Gisborne region into blackouts that lasted weeks for some remote properties.

The ‘surprises’ again raise questions about:

* what regional and local councils and the central Government are doing to fund and build better extreme weather warning systems, as recommended again last week by the United Nations (Reuters);

* what local and central Government, Fonterra, Spark, One NZ, 2 Degrees, Transpower and lines companies have done to encourage and/or subsidise the installation of solar and battery arrays able to store power to operate off sheds, power plants off the grid for extended periods; and,

* what regional and local councillors, ministers, MPs, farm leaders are doing and saying about preparing for climate change and addressing the causes of climate change, including their own emissions from transport and livestock.

The Sidebar: Labour goes for CGT-lite

Shortly after a leak to RNZ this morning, Labour announced its caucus had decided to campaign at next year’s election for a more limited version of a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) than it had previously campaigned for, and that revenues would pay for a new Medicard system that would mean everyone got three free doctor’s visits per year.

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins described the CGT as ‘targeted’ and only applying to capital gains on profits made after July 1, 2027 on sales of commercial or residential property, excluding the family home. It would be set at a rate of 28% to align with the company tax rate.

The CGT would exempt:

* the family home;

* farms;

* KiwiSaver;

* shares;

* business assets;

* inheritances; and,

* personal items.

Hipkins said nine out of 10 New Zealanders wouldn’t pay tax on the property they own.

“Right now, our tax system rewards property speculation instead of the people creating jobs and growing the economy. We will change that.

“Our simple, targeted tax changes will make sure those profiting from property pay their fair share, leveling the playing field for Kiwi businesses and innovation.

“Every dollar raised will go straight into the health system, including funding three free doctor’s visits a year for everyone with a new Medicard. This will save New Zealanders money every year.” Labour Leader Chris Hipkins in a statement.

Cartoons: Paving Paradise with head-filled sand

Timeline-cleansing nature pic

Ka kite ano

Bernard

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