Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Climate change report recommends major changes to land use and policy, Westland hit by heavy flooding, and St John in trouble with paramedics over donations call.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has released a major new report into New Zealand’s approach to greenhouse gas emissions. There’s one big takeaway from it all, reports Radio NZ. While tree planting is great for a whole lot of reasons, and everyone should be planting more trees, it’s a poor and risky solution for actually combatting climate change if the main approach taken is to plant trees to offset emissions.

Why? Because trees aren’t a credit card by which emissions can be spent and then paid off later. Yes, they help take carbon out of the atmosphere. But they only hold onto it for decades or centuries, rather than the millennia that the carbon will stick around for. They are also themselves susceptible to the changed weather patterns climate change will bring – for example hot dry conditions. When California was hammered by wildfires at the end of 2018, it was estimated that the burning trees released the same quantity of carbon as the entire state produced through electricity generation over the whole year.

That’s not to say that trees aren’t valued by the report – far from it. PCE Simon Upton recommended that a ‘landscape approach’ be taken to NZ’s climate action, on the basis that changes in land use have been New Zealand’s main contribution to climate change. “More than 3 billion tonnes of carbon have been shifted to the atmosphere from the land, largely as the result of forest clearance to make way for agriculture. The approximate scale of warming associated with these changes is estimated to be around seven times larger than our contribution of fossil emissions,” he said. Making any sort of dent in that would require land use changes to go back the other way.

One idea that mooted by Mr Upton was to radically reshape the emissions trading scheme, so that only biological gases (methane, nitrous oxide) could be offset by tree-planting. Interest reports that general carbon emitters are treated more harshly in the report than farmers. This is because biological gases stay in the atmosphere for a similar amount of time as a pine forest might be expected to be around for. It’s considered to be a highly debatable point by many, including Greenpeace, because the warming effects of methane and nitrous oxide are far stronger in the short term than carbon, and there’s an increasing awareness that human society making it through the to the end of the century amid climate change will be difficult anyway.

But changes to the ETS were ruled out immediately by climate change minister James Shaw, reports Stuff. Mr Shaw said the window to act was so narrow that tree planting was highly necessary, and agreed that the goal should be cutting emissions rather than trying to offset them. But he also noted that the ETS as it stands provides predictability and stability, and as such forestry would continue to be used as an offset for all gases.

It could be seen as setting a bit of a precedent, as to how climate change politics could go in the future. Under the Zero Carbon Act (which we assume will one day, eventually, be presented to the public) a climate change commission will be set up, though it is unclear if they’ll work in an advisory role, or actually have power. Mr Upton described his proposals as a “more ambitious approach to reducing fossil emissions” than current policy settings, and arguably the most climate focused minister New Zealand has ever had didn’t go for them. If a hypothetical Climate Change Commissioner told the government – from a position of an advisory role – that progress was too slow, would they be listened to?

Finally, two more crucial points to remember about all of this: Firstly, any sort of cut in global carbon emissions isn’t currently happening. New Scientist reports that a new high from energy emissions were recorded in 2018, to go with general records in emissions for the year. And secondly, carbon dioxide emissions contribute to ocean acidification, which is in and of itself a nightmarish problem to grapple with. Regardless of how many trees are planted, sooner or later there’s going to be a hefty bill from all the carbon we’ve been spending, and the more we emit now, the more interest we’ll have to pay.

Raging floodwaters have taken out a Westland bridge, leaving much of the region isolated, reports this Stuff live updates page. It is considered a once in 100 year flood for Haast, and a state of emergency has been declared. There’s expected to be a lot of wild weather around the country generally this morning, so do be careful out there.

St John is in trouble with paramedics after a call for donations was put out in the wake of the Christchurch attacks. Newshub reports many paramedics were furious about it, because of the implication that the money would be going to the paramedics, who are currently locked in a bitter and entrenched pay dispute. The appeal was later pulled by St John, with a spokesperson saying it was never something the organisation had promoted – rather it was just in response to interest from the public.

The question of cyber-surveillance has come up a lot since the Christchurch terror attack. Security analyst Paul Buchanan has made a rather dramatic intervention into it all, by telling Radio NZ that failure to prevent the attacks had nothing to do with technological capability. His comments come after it was suggested by National Party leader Simon Bridges that Project Speargun should be reinstated – for those who don’t remember that was one of the things discussed at the ‘Moment of Truth’ event back in 2014. Mr Buchanan was against the idea, and said the reality was that the security services were more than capable of doing their work – the fault was in his opinion all to do with misplaced priorities.

A Muslim group is urging a massive donation towards the Christchurch attack victims raised by associates of businessman Zhang Yikun to be returned, reports Newsroom. The Khadija Leadership Network say the treatment of Muslims in China (covered in yesterday’s Bulletin) is an example of the Islamophobia and persecution Muslims face. The money was pledged at a gathering of business delegates from China.

The Wairarapa Free Budget Advisory Service is under severe funding pressure. The information comes from this excellently written report in the Wairarapa Times-Age by Eli Hill, who went along to a public meeting about the challenges the service faced. It was unanimously voted at that meeting that the service should continue, on the grounds that it had turned so many lives around, but quite how it can be paid for remains up in the air. A meeting has been set up between the service and MSD for April.

The PR tactics of the National Rifle Association have been revealed in an Al-Jazeera sting. Their story was in relation to the One Nation party in Australia, who have pushed for Australian gun laws to be relaxed, and were seeking a big money donation from people linked to the NRA. Among the tactics included that in the wake of a mass shooting, gun advocates should go on the offensive and smear people calling for tighter controls.

The Bulletin is The Spinoff’s acclaimed, free daily curated digest of all the most important stories from around New Zealand delivered directly to your inbox each morning.

Right now on The Spinoff: Teuila Fuatai writes about the road toll lessons from Gothenburg in Sweden, and what Auckland should learn. Samuel Te Kani offers a challenging perspective on some of the recent Christchurch commemoration events in Auckland, in light of criticism that they have become ‘too political’.

Meanwhile Maria Slade speaks to an AI expert about bots that can read and write, and how we’ve only scratched the surface of where the technology could go – in a scary way that is. Oskar Howell comments on whether more scrutiny needs to be put on how games are classified and censored. And I spoke to Stuff’s editor in chief Patrick Crewdson about why the site is getting rid of huge swathes of their notoriously nasty comments sections.

Here’s a topic that has been getting an increasing amount of attention recently – why is hospitality work viewed as unskilled labour? In New Zealand, advocate Chloe Ann-King has been doing a lot of work in this area, particularly with regards to money in hospitality not compensating for poor workplace conditions in much of the industry. But this feature below from The Outline tackles a similar, but slightly different question in an American context – the job is obviously demanding, stressful and requires extremely strong interpersonal skills. Why isn’t it treated as valuable? Here’s an excerpt:

Waiting tables can be more stressful than being a neurosurgeon, but one of the most chaotic of all restaurant positions happens out of view. Working “expo” — being the person who stands opposite the line cooks in the kitchen to expedite every order and make sure each meal goes to the right table, while also fielding complaints and requests from servers — is one of the most intense jobs in any restaurant. Dominique Giovannelli, a 28-year-old who is in charge of quality assurance at a sports bar outside Nashville, works expo every weekend.

An aspiring restaurant owner, Giovannelli told The Outline has worked in the service industry since she started scooping ice cream at 15. She’s been a hostess, server, bartender, and sous chef. She loves the adrenaline rush she feels when the kitchen reaches peak insanity — “It’s like a party without the party,” she said — but is less in love with the customers who regularly ask condescending questions like, “What do you really want to do?” and “What’s your main job?”

Remember the St Kents rugby poaching saga? There’s been something of a resolution to it all, with the school agreeing to not use some of their poached players for the first six weeks – which seems like a harsh outcome for the kids themselves, but the schools seem satisfied. The NZ Herald’s Gregor Paul has a good take on it all though, saying that the schools that accused St Kents of crossing the line now have to take a good hard look at themselves. Paul has a great line in particular about King’s College, “which has sat through this whole escapade like some guilt-ridden ghost at the feast”.

From our partners: Climate change has already affected how electricity gets delivered to customers, and it’s only going to get more challenging. Vector’s Chief Networks Officer Andre Botha outlines what the lines company is doing to respond.

That’s it for The Bulletin. If you liked what you read, and know other people who would find it useful, pass on this signup form to them.

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: PM’s visit to China finally confirmed, privacy commissioner heaps criticism on Facebook, and police minister indicates support for gun register.

PM Jacinda Ardern will be visiting China after all, she announced to reporters yesterday afternoon. The NZ Herald reported her saying the visit, to formally open the new embassy, has been in the planning for some weeks. But the intended length of it has been scaled back in the wake of the Christchurch attacks – the PM says under the circumstances, a longer visit would not have been appropriate. The PM will be meeting both President Xi Jinping, and Premier Li Keqiang.

In some ways, it’s another small step in a long story about the relationship between the two countries. There have been tensions reported all year about China putting the screws on New Zealand in subtle (and less subtle) ways – including the previous postponement of a high profile tourism promotion event. The trip was originally intended to include a significant business engagement component, but that too has now been scaled back because of the shorter nature of the trip.

One aspect of the timing though adds an entirely new development to the relationship. PM Jacinda Ardern is currently being lauded in much of the world – particularly the Muslim world – for leading an inclusive and conciliatory response to the Christchurch terror attacks. But right now, China is holding up to a million Uyghur people – who are Muslim – in internment camps. According to many reports, conditions are utterly totalitarian within the camps, to the point where some describe what is happening to the minority group as “cultural genocide.” It is an issue that has caused serious ructions in Muslim majority countries, such as Turkey and Indonesia.

It’s not an issue outside of New Zealand’s remit either. As this Radio NZ podcast reported last year, Uyghur New Zealanders exist, and they are deeply concerned about their families back in Xinjiang. China admits that re-education camps exist, but denies that they are concentration camps, saying they are necessary for combatting terrorism and extremism. They also deny that the families of New Zealanders are being held in them.

At her post-cabinet press conference, the PM said she had raised human rights topics with China before, but was non-committal about whether they’d be raised this time – just saying that those were things to be worked through and generally some human rights issues were raised in meetings. As the Australian Financial Review reported before the dates were nailed down, the attacks are being reported on in a curious way by Chinese state run media. “Some observers are questioning whether the ruling Communist Party is using the massacre as a propaganda tool to deflect from international condemnation over the mass detention of Uighur Muslims in the country’s west.”

But anyway, the embassy will get opened up. And as always when relations with China are considered, there’s one key detail that should never be overlooked – they’re New Zealand’s biggest trading partner. It is almost certain that if the topic of the Uyghur detention camps is raised, it will be raised in such a way that will do nothing to jeopardise that trade.

The privacy commissioner has heaped criticism on Facebook for their platform allowing the Christchurch attacks to be streamed to a wider audience. Speaking to Newstalk ZB, John Edwards said the social media company had undermined their own credibility, and reassurances that they take criticism along these lines seriously. 

The Spinoff broke the story of the attack being live streamed on Facebook, and subsequently our editor Toby Manhire has argued that their response has been nowhere near good enough. This morning, Duncan Greive has analysed just why Facebook Live won’t be going anywhere, despite repeated evidence that it just isn’t safe as a platform.

Police minister Stuart Nash has indicated to Q+A that he’s in favour of a gun register. That would be a significant change from the current situation, whereby the gun owner is registered and licensed, but no information is held about how many guns each owner holds. He has also indicated that there could be changes to the ‘fit and proper person’ test, so that in future people will have to prove they are, rather than the police having to prove they’re not. Finally in the wide ranging interview, he denied that police would now be armed routinely.

On these points, significantly tighter gun control has been backed by Tim Ashton, the police officer who shot David Gray to end the Aramoana massacre. He told The Spinoff he’s firmly in favour of a gun register, as currently police have no idea what sort of guns are in which hands.

The inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attack will now be a Royal Commission, reports Radio NZ. That comes after it was suggested by the National Party yesterday. In terms of the questions that will need to be asked, this was written a few days ago but holds true – the main questions will be whether the attack could have been prevented, whether the security services have the right tools to monitor extremist communication online, and whether they were looking in the right direction. The Royal Commission will focus entirely on the events leading up to the attacks, rather than the aftermath.

The Tenancy Tribunal has come down against a landlord withholding a bond for unfair cleaning costs, reports Stuff. The actual dollar amounts in question are relatively small – less than $200 – but it does raise the question of how often these sorts of claims are made, and how often tenants are simply paying up rather than going to the Tribunal – or in fairness, vice versa from landlords. The tenant in the case of this story said he was “fortunate to be in a position to argue his case.”

Vector has been ordered to pay a $3.5 million fine, for breaches of network quality standards, reports the NZ Herald. The fine was handed down on account of too many power outages taking place, and was set at a high level in part to act as a deterrent to both Vector and other power distributors. Vector has accepted the judgement, saying it had worked constructively with the Commerce Commission, and acknowledged the inconveniences that outages can cause. In a statement, they also noted that the judge’s comments indicated that “these breaches were not cynical or designed to extract maximum profit.”  (Disclosure: The Bulletin is presented in partnership with Vector)

A significant world news story that has largely gone under the radar here is Cyclone Idai. It has devastated Mozambique and other parts of Southern Africa, and CNN reports the death toll has now topped 750 – an is expected to rise further. The port city of Beria was hit especially hard, and cholera cases have been reported amid the stagnant water.

A correction: Eric Watson is most definitely not NZ’s richest man, as I said in yesterday’s Bulletin. I appreciate the generosity of readers who assumed that it must have been a typo, but no, it was actually just an early morning brain-melt on my part. Clearly I need to read the NBR more to keep up with who’s where on the Rich List.

The Bulletin is The Spinoff’s acclaimed, free daily curated digest of all the most important stories from around New Zealand delivered directly to your inbox each morning.

Right now on The Spinoff: Fair warning, there’s a lot. 

Firstly, we’ve released a documentary about the wāhine of Hikurangi Cannabis, the cooperative looking to revitalise the town of Ruatōria. That video is produced for The Spinoff by Wrestler and funded by NZ on Air, with the feature article by Don Rowe. They’re both very good pieces.

Elle Hunt has put together an excellent piece of media commentary, focused on Islamophobia. She’s worked as a journalist in all of NZ, Australia and Britain, and says while it’s not non-existent here, the climate of Islamophobia in both of those other countries is far more alarming. The article strongly backs up the points with sources and citations, and some of the examples from those other countries are just sickening.

Sam Brooks has been going to Auckland Arts Festival events, and wrote about how they can keep the world out, or be a constant and vulgar reminder of that world all the way through. It’s a really good reflection piece about the place of art in the wake of a national tragedy.

Finally, we’re doing a article and podcast series in partnership with the Auckland Zoo which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. This piece, by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy, looks at how the zoo helps children come to understand climate change. This piece looks at the role of mātauranga Māori in conservation in New Zealand. And this piece, by me, is about Auckland Zoo’s contention that the animals in their care live better lives than they would in the wild – particularly in the context of extreme and widespread habitat destruction.

There has been a lot of debate about how much journalists should bother parsing the so-called manifesto of the accused Christchurch terrorist. I’m personally quite sympathetic towards the absolutist position – that there is absolutely nothing to be gained from reading it or looking further into his life – and that everything we need to know about his motivations can be found in who he chose to target. But I think this piece from the NZ Herald’s Kirsty Johnston is a really responsible and useful contribution to that debate, because there’s a lot of information in the story that could help with understanding how similar atrocities might be prevented in the future. Here’s an excerpt:

The accused gunman’s manifesto, and his Facebook feed, refer to previous mass killers, such as the Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Breivik, and from historical fascists such as Oswald Mosley. Having barely finished school he shunned university to work as a personal trainer. He sourced material online. “You will not find the truth anywhere else,” he wrote.

Devon Polaschek, joint director of the NZ Institute of Security and Crime Science, told media after analysing the manifesto: “The problem is that he is self-educated, and he is self-selecting the information that he is consuming. Reinforcing what he already thinks in a circular process.”

The accused gunman appears to have held dear a kind of Nordic, Aryan ideal. His posts are full of blonde-haired women and children, and strong-looking men, often on horseback. At first – like much of the manifesto and the message boards it’s aimed it – the imagery seems a joke. But Ben Elley, who is completing a PhD on the alt-right and online radicalisation, says some people truly believe in it.

“They idolise that Nordic stuff, it’s a cult of history, like ancestor worship. In the same way some people treat 1950s America as an ideal, they like vikings, and Ancient Rome, societies that were powerful and imperialistic,” says Elley.

This is one of the weirdest sports stories I’ve ever read. A man in Papatoetoe has been passing himself off as a champion pro boxer, but every single one of his fights appears to have either been fixed or faked. The investigation has been put together by Stuff, who loved the story so much they decided to turn it into a five part series. I’m sure I’ll be reading the next four parts today.

From our partners: Climate change has already affected how electricity gets delivered to customers, and it’s only going to get more challenging. Vector’s Chief Networks Officer Andre Botha outlines what the lines company is doing to respond.

That’s it for The Bulletin. If you liked what you read, and know other people who would find it useful, pass on this signup form to them.

This content is brought to you by Vector. If you live in Auckland, they also delivered the power you’re using to read it. And they’re creating a new energy future for all of us, as showcased by the incredible Vector Lights in partnership with Auckland Council.