The problem with re-new able energy.

Solar - free energy from the sun, no moving parts, and no carbon emissions.

Sounds great except for the downsides as they are finding out in Germany

Eight Billion Euro a year in subsidies which are paid out for 20 years. Along with a system which generates only 3% of national demand and only works half of the time or in this case not at all during winter.

I like all the benefits of wind and solar energy but the big downside is this. A lot of the development is because super large subsidies. I hear the subsidies for solar water heating are massive and even then somebody only gets a small gain.

I hear people claiming that a wind farm will generate so many Kwatt of energy. Yer Right. Only when the wind is blowing - although we do have lots of hydro in NZ which means that we can store energy here.

In NZ we have the luxury of a small population and lots of land area to dam for electricity. If we had 40 million more people we would have a very different attitude about nuclear energy.

The thing I do not like about all the arguments from the Greenies is that often the ideas they put out will either
provide very little benefit, cost a lot, or is completly impracticable and ignores the reality. I like this quote from Speigal.

To avoid a ton of CO2 emissions, one can spend €5 on insulating the roof of an old building, invest €20 in a new gas-fired power plant or sink about €500 into a new solar energy system.

Port of Auckland

The Herald is reporting that POA is about to start mass redundancies.

This is sad for the workers who will lose their jobs, however this was going to happen. By taking on the Port and keeping on striking they ran the risk of losing their own jobs. This will now be occurring.

The Port's productivity is vital for an exporting Nation, and we can not simply just ship everything down to Tauranga (despite the benefits for Kiwirail). The council signed the Unions death warrant when they asked for increased profits. The only way of generating this is to increase productivity and when you have workers on shift even when their is no ship in the port to unload it begs the question why are they still paying them.

However it is great news that the Unions do not run New Zealand considering that in the 1950s they tried to bring New Zealand to it's knees. And as there will be fewer Union members this means that Labour will have less funding.

Teacher Performance

Oh my God the sky is falling in. This is the last straw. We must put a stop to this. To the picket lines comrades. There is no such thing as a bad teacher.

I say this should have been introduced years ago.

Port of Auckland Dispute

It is never nice when the boss and the staff are at war. Everybody loses out especially when you go on strike. But sometimes strikes and lockouts no mater how un-desirable are required.

The Port of Auckland is losing out every day this strike goes on. The offers they are making are very generous. But their problem is the Port's poor productivity and the port knows this. Something has to give.

If I were the port this is what I would do.

Tell them that in 14 days time all staff will be locked out forever.

The new offer would be terms and conditions which would make the Port more productive. It would completely ignore the current terms and conditions on the table or the current contract. Grandfather in all non-union staff and non striking staff as a good will gesture to loyal employees.

Then start taking CVs for the new positions. In addition hand out redundancy payments to the staff members who will not be required due to the losses of current contracts.

This will force the union back to the table, either they keep their jobs or find other jobs. If they do not do a deal then then the port will just send out redundancy cheques in the mail or leave them to stew on lockout (since it is cheaper to employ a previous employee rather than a new employee).

There are those who may ask will this kill the buisness. In the short term it could. But the rewards are very good, you get improved productivity and cheaper costs. New Zealand is too far away from the rest of the world to have pricey ports.

To finish I want to quote the following from CEO Tony Gibson:

Labour utilisation here is about 65 per cent compared to more than 80 per cent at Port of Tauranga, meaning that for every 40 hours a stevedore is paid, they can work as little as 26 (and let's remember that average remuneration for a fulltime stevedore is $91,000)


 This dispute can not go on it must end, New Zealand needs productive low cost ports. We are too far away from the rest of the world to have expensive ports.