Colony cages are no better than battery hen cages, despite the spin, argues former Green MP Sue Kedgley. Two years ago, I was invited by the Egg Producers Federation to have a look at some new ''colony'' cages that Mainland Poultry had installed in its huge facility outside Dunedin.
The demise of our bees would be ruinous to our agricultural nation. I've been contacted recently by several beekeepers who are worried about what is happening to our nation's honey bees. A Bay of Plenty beekeeper recently lost 230 of his beehives - or half of his operation. He's been beekeeping since 1981, and has never had losses like this before. He says other beekeepers have experienced similar losses. A Northland beekeeper recently lost 900 of his 1000 hives; another has lost 400 hives, and others last year lost half of their hives.
After being on the back burner for decades, Transmission Gully is now on the fast track. It's been given the green light by a fast track consenting process, and work on the motorway is to begin in 2015. The Government is intending to fund the $1.3 billion motorway through a public private partnership. Under this arrangement, a private consortium will finance, build and operate the motorway for 25 years, and the Government will pay the consortium $130 million a year, or $356,164 every day, for the next 25 years.
Ever since the 1990s, when successive governments tossed out regulations with reckless abandon, regulation has been unfashionable in New Zealand. The word "regulation" has become almost a term of abuse, implying excessive government interference in people's lives. Government policy stipulates that regulation should be a last resort, and almost any attempt to regulate is ridiculed as "nanny state".
In a few weeks' time, the governments of Australia and New Zealand will decide whether to introduce a new system on food labels that will enable consumers to see at a glance whether food is healthy. At the moment, it's almost impossible for shoppers to work out from a label, whether food is healthy or laden with fat, sugar and salt. This makes shopping difficult for people who want to buy healthy food for their families, especially when there are so many foods to choose from in the supermarket.
Imported supplements threat to tropical rainforests and a concern for consumers and export trade. News that New Zealand cows are being fed genetically modified soy and cottonseed meal has come as a shock to many consumers who imagined our dairy cows were happily chomping away on an exclusive diet of lush green grass.
The Lord Mayor of Wellington. It has a certain ring to it - of gold chains, status, sexism and ancient privilege. But why would we want to import an ancient English title that originates in medieval England, into Wellington? Does Sir Geoffrey Palmer imagine this title would make people think our Mayor was more important than Auckland's Mayor? There are other facets of Sir Geoffrey's report on the review of local government in Wellington that are questionable as well.