The airport is looking to double its capacity by 2040.

Veteran councillors Iona Pannett and Sarah Free, along with three first time councillors Teri O'Neill, Tamatha Paul, and Laurie Foon, have put a motion asking the council to oppose the $1B expansion of the airport into the Miramar Golf Course.

"We want to see action on carbon zero. I haven't seen an ounce of good work for genuine climate justice from Wellington Airport," said O'Neill.

However Councillor Nicola Young is calling the move an abuse of council processes.

"Pannett and Free lost their Green Party endorsement this year and it is just a way to remind voters they're Green", she said.

Councillor Simon Woolf called the motion "inflammatory" and says it is "activism instead of governance."

He warns that the approach "causes instability and reputational damage."

Reinforcing the claims of the inflammatory motion, posturing and activism, Wellington's DomPost indicates its research suggests the motion will fail.

On Friday, Wellington Airport lost its case in the High Court for an interim injunction stopping the installation of a pedestrian crossing across State Highway 1, north of the airport.

O'Neill said the airport's suing Waka Kotahi over Let's Get Wellington Moving - a sustainability-focused transport project - went against climate action.

Source: DomPost

Commenting on advice he received, Shaw says the current target is too weak to match the Government's commitment to helping save the world and keep the world's heating within 1.5 degrees celsius.

Shaw says conclusive advice from the independent Climate Change Commission will not hit his desk until February, however he is expecting to be told we need to do better.

Shaw says the independent Commission's advice is not binding on the Government but that he is "absolutely committed" to following their advice.

"If there's anything Covid taught us, it's to follow the advice of the scientists. That's why we pay them in the first place."

Shaw said that with the election of Joe Biden, China, the EU and now the USA would soon have net zero emissions targets for greenhouse gases and their net-zero goals for all gasses are more ambitious than New Zealand's' 2050 target which allows emission of methane primarily from agricultural emissions.

Shaw described Chinese President Xi Jinping's commitment to getting China's carbon dioxide emission to net-zero by 2060 as "massive".

As part of New Zealand doing better Shaw says the independent Climate Change Commission will suggest a firmer 2050 target for methane.

The Zero Carbon Act allows for a wide range of methane cuts by 2050 - anywhere between 24 and 47 percent.

New Zealand makes three major greenhouse gases: methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.

The Government's Paris pledge bundles them as a single target, however, the independent Commission may also recommend unbundling methane from other gasses.

Unbundling the gasses could take the pressure of methane emissions, placing more New Zealand emphasis carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide; however, Stuff reports the split target might be a tough sell to our international trading partners who have all-gas targets.

Greenpeace's Russell Norman remains critical of New Zealand's efforts.

Norman says New Zealand was on trance to cut gross emissions by just 7% by 2030, which is much less than required to keep the world inside its safety zone.

He is calling on the Government to give the independent Climate Change Commission Reserve Bank-like powers to set binding carbon budgets similar to the power has over the official cash rate.

"Surely climate change is at least as important as inflation," said Norman.

Source

• Stuff

Anti-Greens flyers have been attached to Catholic school newsletters across the state.

The campaign is targeting school communities in marginal seats, electorates where members are retiring or where the Greens have a strong winning chance.

All in all, the pamphlet was distributed in about 100 schools.

The pamphlet noted that both major parties in the election have committed to fund the Catholic school system.

"Unfortunately, Catholic schools don't have the same commitment from the Greens."

Currently, 62 cents in every dollar of funding comes from government.

The Greens' funding proposals would consider a school's resources and its capacity to generate income from other sources including fees and contributions.

The impact on fees would "undermine our ability to welcome disadvantaged students and their families into our educational community", the pamphlet warned.

The Catholic Education Commission's Stephen Elder also criticised the Greens for seeking to "abolish our ability to hire staff on religious grounds".

"Their education policy explicitly applies this proposal by linking government funding for Catholic schools to 'non-discrimination in the hiring of staff'," he said.

He said this could lead to Catholic principals being forced to employ staff who were critical of their faith.

Their plan was an "affront to the religious liberties currently exercised by the Church and our schools".

Mr Elder said there was a "real chance" the Greens could hold the balance of power after the election.

The Greens argued that under their plan, Catholic schools would actually be better resourced than they would be under the Liberal-National Coalition.

Sources

• Herald Sun
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: Sky News

Former Australian cabinet minister Senator Eric Abetz put up the motion in the senate on Thursday.

This was on the same day as it was confirmed that Tasmania's anti-discrimination commissioner is to conduct an investigation into the pamphlet.

The pamphlet, which is a letter from Australia's Catholic bishops, was distributed to Catholic schools throughout the nation earlier this year.

It outlines the Church's stance against changing Australia's Marriage Act to include same-sex couples.

The senate motion by Mr Abetz was brought with some crossbench support.

The motion stated that: "The senate, while not expressing a view on the contents of the booklet issued by the Australian Catholic bishops conference entitled ‘Don't Mess with Marriage', fully supports the rights of members of the Catholic Church, including Archbishop Julian Porteous [of Hobart], to distribute it."

Labor and the Greens joined forces to block the motion before it got put to a vote.

Mr Abetz said that the two parties shut down the basic right of freedom of speech.

"Free speech is a key pillar of our society and the tricky tactics used by Labor in an effort to shut down debate and run a protection racket for the extreme Greens flies in the face of the open discussion we should be having about marriage," he said.

Labor senator Claire Moore said it was "simply not appropriate for the senate to determine a position on this matter", while a case was being decided.

Greens senator Robert Simms said: "The Australian Greens support free speech in this country, but we recognise that freedom of speech is a limited concept in any democracy.

"We believe that the right to express a view should be balanced against the rights of members of our community to feel safe and secure from persecution and discrimination."

Mr Abetz has promised to bring back the motion to the senate.

Sources

• Guardian Australia
• Guardian Australia
• Sydney Catholic
• Image: Sydney Morning Herald

Victorian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale moved on February 13 that the prayer be replaced with the following words: "Senators, let us in silence pray or reflect upon our responsibilities to the people of Australia, to the states and territories which we represent, and to all future generations."

But the 76-member Senate overwhelmingly rejected the move when senators from the governing Liberal-National coalition and the Opposition Labor Party failed to support the motion.

Senator Di Natale, who had described the prayer as "an anachronism", told Parliament that Australia had a clear separation between Church and state.

"We live in a country of many different faiths - in fact, a country where many people have no faith - and a modern Australian parliament should reflect that," he said.

"We do say that there should be some opportunity for reflection or, indeed, prayer, if people feel that way, and that is why we would like to see a minute at the start of each day in this place being offered for that reason."

The Government's upper house leader, Senator Eric Abetz of Tasmania, said the move was "the latest Green attack as part of their ongoing attempt to rewrite our history and deny our heritage", while Queensland Labor Senator Claire Moore said her party did not support the motion because the place of the Lord's Prayer was part of a review already being conducted by the Senate's Procedure Committee.

A petition from the Presbyterian Church of Australia in 1901, the year the six Australian colonies formed a federation, led to the inclusion of a prayer at the commencement of each sitting day.

The Senate President precedes the Lord's Prayer with the words "Almighty God, we humbly beseech Thee to vouchsafe Thy special blessing upon this Parliament, and that Thou wouldst be pleased to direct and prosper the work of Thy servants to the advancement of Thy glory, and to the true welfare of the people of Australia".

Sources

• The Tablet
• Christian Today Australia
• Image: Lifesitenews

Based on the present budget, 10 percent would amount to 21 million US dollars.

Kalosil became Vanuatu's and the region's first Greens prime minister when he came to power last month after former Prime Minister Sato Kilman resigned just ahead of a no confidence motion.

Kalosil is known for his radical green policies. Soon after, he released a list of 100 achievements for himself and his new government.

They include changing the constitution, major changes to ministries, review of foreign affairs, including the termination of some diplomatic appointments, and ending a defence cooperation agreement with Indonesia.

Born to a Tahitian mother and French-born father from Carcassonne in Southern France, Kalosil is the first non ni-Vanuatu to become Prime Minister.

He entered politics in Vanuatu in 2003 when he became foreign affairs minister under then Prime Minister Edward Natapei, now deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs.

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Radio Australia
• Island Business
• Image: FaceBook

Lewis said an inquiry he made, many months ago, to the Associate Education Minister John Banks, "was simply to gather information about charter schooling and the Government's plans in that direction, particularly for South Auckland."

Destiny already operates a bilingual pre-school and a composite primary and secondary school of 190 pupils at Mt Wellington. It has been running for 8 years.

The School says that in 2011 there were 21 pupils in its senior class. All the students entered five subjects each for Cambridge International Examinations and there was a 71% percent pass rate.

Lewis said that school would be moving to Wiri at the end of the year when the church shifted its operations there.

Destiny's plan was to expand the school, particularly for Maori and Pacific children in South Auckland.

The Green Party has expressed concern that so many religious organisations are interested in setting up charter schools.

The party says it has been told by Banks that 18 groups have consulted him about setting up the schools. That number included the Destiny Church, a United States-based profit-making school chain, the New Zealand chapter of the Maharishi Foundation, which practises transcendental meditation, trustees of the former Maori schools St Stephen's and Queen Victoria.

Charter schools would get government funding and be free from many of the rules that bind state schools.

Source

• The New Zealand Herald
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: Destiny church

Mr Hague said he had watched members of the church on Auckland's Queen Street target vulnerable people.

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The Maori Party and the Greens are also sending the money back. They have rejected donations from the Todd Corporation. Todd Corporation owns Todd Energy and Todd Capital and has significant oil and gas mining interests.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the Todd Corporation had offered the Green Party $5000, which was rejected by the party under its "major donations" policy.

Dr Norman said although the Green Party approved of some of Todd's initiatives in energy, the party was opposed to some of its mining practices. "They also do some things we don't agree with. So we said `no thank you'. It wasn't acrimonious."

The Maori Party has followed the Green Party's lead by rejecting a $5000 donation from Todd Corporation, saying the company's mining interests were against its beliefs.

Source

• Auckland Now
• Otago Daily Times
• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Inksinct Cartoons