Greens don’t shy from promoting a candidate’s queerness but are quiet about govt announcement on clean energy

There was a time when a political party’s publicity people would counsel against promoting a candidate as queer.

No matter which of two dictionary meanings the voting public might choose to apply – the old meaning of odd, strange, weird, or aberrant, or the more recent meaning of gay, homosexual or LGBT – “queer” would be regarded as a dubious attribute to promote for winning popular support.

Nowadays, clearly, the word is no longer shunned for vote-winning purposes and the Green Party today has injected an element of gay pride into its news that:

Green Party Announces Gina Dao-McLay As Candidate For Mana Electorate

The Green Party is proud to announce Gina Dao-McLay as their candidate for Mana. Gina is a queer young person living in Porirua, the Co-Convenor of the nationwide Young Greens network and the former Co-Director of  of Make It 16, the campaign to lower the voting age which won their case against the Government in the Supreme Court.

Mind you, geography probably plays a part in the extent to which queerness should be promoted on the hustings.

According to Time magazine, Republican lawmakers in Florida appear likely to expand provisions in the Parental Rights in Education Act, or so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law, with a host of new restrictions on what teachers can and cannot say in their classrooms about gender, sex, and sexual orientation.

Bills currently being debated in the Florida state House would make it a statewide school policy to define sex as “an immutable biological trait.” Teachers would be banned from addressing students by pronouns that differ from those they were assigned at birth. Staff would also be unable to share their own preferred pronouns if they do not “correspond to his or her sex.”

The bills would also heavily restrict in-school discussions about sexual orientation or gender identity until ninth grade when most students are 14 or 15. The current “Don’t Say Gay” law bans such discussions through third grade.

Point of Order’s attention was drawn to Gina Dao-McLay’s candidacy during a search on the Scoop website for something else from the Greens.

We were looking for their response to more environmental news from the government which might have helped to mollify them after the PM’s scrapping of a slew of climate change and emission-reducing policies.

As we reported earlier this week,  the Greens were chuffed with one government policy announcement  – indeed, they claimed responsibility for it.

This was the proposed change to the fringe benefit tax regime to exempt bicycles, electric bicycles, and other low emissions transport from fringe benefit tax when used for commuting.

They were not so chuffed about the government’s decision to stop work on a beverage container return scheme and have pledged this will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government.

Moreover…

The Greens will seek to have a Minister for Zero Waste in the next government to focus on avoiding waste to landfill and increasing materials reuse and recycling.

Since then, Energy Minister Megan Woods has announced the government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project as part of its long term-plan “to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand”.

The Greens have yet to register their response.

Woods’ announcement was one of five posted on the Beehive website since Point of Order’s last check on what our ministers are up to (besides resigning).

The announcements included the usual cheery welcoming of economic news, good or bad, by the Minister of Finance.  Whatever the latest data show, the New Zealand economy is always resilient.

Another announcement was that the government has set up an emergency coastal shipping service for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawke’s Bay and the East Coast.

The Rangitata has been chartered for a route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for the route to be extended to Tauranga and the South Island, using funding approved by Regional Economic Development Ministers.

The Government is providing a $500,000 grant and $2.25 million underwrite to Eastland Port for the charter of the ship for the next three months.

The latest Beehive posts are –

NZ still well placed to meet global challenges

The economy has continued to show its resilience despite today’s GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment.

Western Ring Route Complete

Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-ki

Teaming up for a stronger, more resilient Fiji

Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi.

Investment in blue highway a lifeline for regional economies and cyclone recovery

The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti.

Next steps developing clean energy for NZ

The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Government’s long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand.

 The NZ Battery Project was established in late 2020 to find innovative solutions to the ‘dry year problem’, when hydro-electricity lakes run low, leading to the burning of more fossil fuels to cover the electricity shortfall, and often higher power bills.

“Until we address the dry year problem, we will continue to rely on burning expensive and polluting fossil fuels to produce our electricity. That’s bad for the climate and our power bills,” said Megan Woods.

“Pumped hydro is an ingenious way of storing energy in a big reservoir, which is released into a lower reservoir when more power is needed, like a giant battery. A dry year solution would be a huge step towards our mission to move towards more renewable energy generation and power more of New Zealand in New Zealand.”

The Government has also agreed to continue looking at alternatives to the scheme including a combination of comparator technologies and scoping a possible smaller pumped hydro scheme in the central North Island, subject to agreement with Māori tribes.

Biomass, flexible geothermal energy, and hydrogen have been identified as the possible alternatives to pumped hydro, as they have the most potential collectively to store enough energy to help solve the dry year problem.

Phase 1 investigations show a pumped hydro scheme at Lake Onslow would take approximately seven to nine years to build, with an estimated building cost of $15.7 billion.

Initial estimates for the capital element of the portfolio option are about $13.5 billion, but with significantly higher ongoing operating costs, Woods said.

A detailed business case is expected to be developed by the end of 2024, followed by a final investment decision, which is expected to take a further two years.

For more information, visit www.mbie.govt.nz/nzbattery