Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

Prime Minister Bill English has announced this year’s General Election will be held on Saturday, 23 September.

“As we have done in previous election years I am announcing the election date early as I believe it’s important to provide the country with some certainty and that it’s in everyone’s best interest to have plenty of notice.”

National will be campaigning on its strong record in Government and will go into the election with a positive and ambitious programme that will back New Zealanders to succeed.

“I am proud of what we are achieving for New Zealanders,” says Mr English.

“Our economy continues to grow and diversify, more kids are staying at school longer and getting better qualifications, more people are getting faster and more efficient healthcare, we are investing at record levels in key infrastructure projects like schools, roads and ultra-fast broadband and we are supporting our most vulnerable by increasing benefit rates and investing in programmes to support them into work.

“New Zealand is well placed compared to many other countries. That’s down to the hard work of households and businesses across the country, backed by the National-led Government’s clear and successful plan for our future.

“The challenge for our country now is to sustain that growth and build on it to deliver more again for all New Zealanders.”

Mr English has contacted the Governor-General to advise her of the election date.

The Government’s intention is that the House will rise on Thursday, 17 August and Parliament will be dissolved on 22 August.

Writ day will follow on 23 August, and nominations will close at noon on 29 August. The last day for the return of the writ will be 12 October.

|  A Beehive release  |  February 1, 2017  ||

Under fire for misguided hand-outs, government dithered instead of issuing instant public health warning

When Muhammad Ali visited New Zealand even boxing aficionados failed to recognise his traveling companion Jimmy Ellis (pictured) the former champ. Ellis shrunken in size and bent over we know now was then in the grip of dementia pugilistica.

Muhammad Ali was shortly afterward himself to start succumbing to the effects of his pugilistic career.

The willingness at the end of last year for government cabinet members even to entertain the notion of public funds being devoted to a professional boxing spectacle in Auckland implicitly supported the promoters.

It gave tacit encouragement to an activity dedicated to causing human injury and so also creating an unnecessary drain on public health funds.

It was announced that the Joseph Parker heavyweight boxing match was “borderline” for government funding according to economic development minister Steven Joyce ..

The National Government is under constant assault from the well-funded whistle-blower Taxpayers Union for unnecessary or frivolous spending.

Boxing spectacles obviously fall into this category. This should have been stated at the outset.

Boxing is the only permitted activity in which one participant deliberately seeks to inflict injury upon the other.

Frank Bruno another former champ and suffering from the effects of repeated blows to his head has had this said of himself:-

“Bruno was known for his excellent punching power: he won 40 of his 45 bouts and 38 by knockout, giving him a 95% knockout rate from the fights he won; his overall knockout percentage is 84.44%.”

These “knockouts” amount to an impact paralysis and seizure of the brain, the body’s most delicate component, and which in a free state cannot support its own weight.

The failure of the government to swiftly state that no public funds under any circumstances would be devoted to this activity only added to an increasing suspicion that the government is unable to say no to anyone on anything at all.

A government events panel assessed the boxing spectacle donation.

This involved a group of ministers, including Mr Joyce, sports minister Dr Jonathan Coleman and arts minister Maggie Barry.

Jonathan Coleman is a medical doctor.

The promoters had said they needed a decision in a few weeks. Normally the Government would take a couple of months to assess an application, but it had moved more quickly in a couple of cases, Mr Joyce obligingly indicated.

With its immense public relations apparatus at its disposal none of these appears to have weighed up the pros and cons of some supporting materials for the benefit of the public at large.

A background communique could have said for example that the American Association of Neurological Surgeons claims that 90 percent of boxers suffer some kind of brain injury while boxing.

Because of these brain injuries, the surgeons claim, boxers are more prone to mental deterioration during their later years that can lead to Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.

This was an opportunity for the government to issue a cigarette packet style of warning

Instead the burden of the government’s argument against dedicating public money to the boxing spectacle was that it was a private enterprise corporate promotion and therefore run for profit and therefore did not qualify for a hand-out.

Petrified into silence for fear of being seen as remotely anti sport, the mainstream media stood aside from deliberations.

The episode again starkly reveals the need for a samizdat boom-lowering voice such as that of the Taxpayers’ Union, an organisation whose disclosures consistently stand up, unrefuted.

|  From the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  |  Thursday 2 February 2017  ||

Ξ   State of the Nation Speech from Bill English

Ξ  Dairy cow shipment leaves for China

Garage Project to open new brew site in Hawke's Bay

Trump suddenly stops talking to Malcolm Turnbull

PM English dangles $503M crime-busting package with early intervention, more cops

Resurgence of nationalism and protectionism threaten global trade - Fonterra

Tuatara deal shows anything's possible, says Chamber

Doubt over second term for Reserve Bank Governor

While you were sleeping: Apple stock rallies

Employment stats baffle NZ analysts

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare appoints new VP for ICT

The NZ General Election date is set for: September 23, 2017

Sacked for falling asleep on the job, Auckland welder wins $11K compensation

Lyttleton Port strike action for 11 an 12 February is allowed to proceedstrike action for 11 an 12 February is allowed to proceed

3M Food Safety has responded to the needs of the food safety industry with its latest luminometer, now available in Australia and New Zealand and offering greater sensitivity, more powerful and intuitive software, wireless connectivity and a rugged, user-friendly ergonomic industrial design.

Advances with the company’s latest Clean-Trace Hygiene Monitoring and Management System include the use of photomultiplier technology to amplify any luminescence and boost the likelihood of detection.

This is an important element in the luminometer’s re-engineering, and applies techniques used in cutting-edge medical devices, medical imaging and aerospace engineering.

The second area of improvement is the system’s upgraded software. The Clean-Trace Hygiene Management Software has a new user interface, with a streamlined and more intuitive dashboard to make navigation easier, minimize the amount of clicking between displays and allow reports to be generated more quickly.

Thirdly, the new-generation luminometer offers users wireless connectivity, with the capability of transferring data via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technology to the device or computer where it will be analysed by the system software.

Finally, the housing and structure of the 3M Clean-Trace luminometer has been redesigned to be tougher and more ergonomic in use.

The improved system is being made available at a time where public health authorities worldwide are starting to take a much firmer, more consistent line when it comes to food safety and how it is monitored.

“Certainly, there is a heightened public sensitivity for food quality, resulting in more internal and external controls and reporting, and there’s been an abundance of new regulations,” said Tom Dewey, 3M Food Safety global marketing manager.

In New Zealand, for example, March 2016 was the deadline for compliance with the Food Act 2014 which, among other provisions, requires food businesses of all sizes to have a food control plan. For higher-risk food categories, the plan needs to be customised and to show evidence of how hazards are controlled through the manufacturing process.

In many ways, the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) 2011 Food Safety Modernisation Act set the international trend for regulation to help prevent food contamination rather than simply respond to it.

The ATP hygiene monitoring system can be used to provide evidence that relevant controls have been implemented and continual monitoring is taking place to meet these new legislated requirements.

As Tom Dewey explained, 3M consulted closely with customers in order to develop a system which was effective in automating and streamlining often time-consuming testing procedures, while sacrificing nothing in terms of precision or consistency.

Based on years of hard-edged research, as well as valuable feedback from those in food safety and hygiene management, the improved luminometer provides a rapid and dependable alternative to more time-consuming microbial testing methods.

With many manufacturers expanding the range and variety of their products, more changeovers are required. Despite this, downtime still needs to be kept to an absolute minimum, meaning that potentially high-risk decisions about food safety and cleanliness need to be taken quickly. Hence the need for technology offering the requisite speed and reliability of results.

While many of the features on the latest 3M Clean-Trace luminometer have been improved, its reputation for consistent accuracy was already established with the previous-generation model. When tested by a third-party lab, the precision and consistency of results across time and temperature, and between swabs, outperformed several major competing brands.

The 3M Clean Trace luminometer is one of many innovative solutions from 3M Food Safety for managers requiring efficient and reliable answers to the challenges generated by today’s fast-moving food and beverage industry.

|  A 3M release  |  February 01, 2017  ||

Air New Zealand has made its first foray into the field of artificial intelligence (AI) unveiling its new chatbot, Bravo Oscar Tango – Oscar for short.

Oscar will initially assist customers with commonly asked queries, saving them time and offering a more personalised experience than searching a traditional Frequently Asked Questions section online. As with other AI technology, Oscar will learn based on the conversations people have with him, becoming more user friendly and more helpful the more he interacts.

Air New Zealand Chief Digital Officer Avi Golan says Oscar has been launched as a beta product allowing customers to play an active role in training him.

“This is a new approach for us, getting Oscar out fast and in the early-development stages so that we can build and co-create with our customers. Given Oscar learns natural language it makes sense he learns directly from our customers the types of information they want to know and the language they use, rather than airline jargon.

“The world’s best digital companies foster a culture of customer-led design and collaboration and for the airline to meet its big digital ambitions we must embed this culture of thinking, acting and doing as leading digital companies do.”

Oscar has initially been launched as a help chatbot to assist with Air New Zealand Lounge, Airpoints™ and baggage queries but the airline has big plans for him, including integration with the Air New Zealand Mobile app, via both voice and text, and with other chat platforms and in-home digital assistants.

“Over time we want Oscar to become a virtual travel assistant helping customers across every stage of the journey, with the ability to recognise who you are, inform you about your flights, make or change a booking, select seats, check you in, and offer to help sort you a taxi to the airport,” says Mr Golan.

“There’s no doubt that AI is the future, allowing customers to better self-serve within their channel of choice, further improving the customer experience.”

Customers with queries about Airpoints, baggage or Air New Zealand lounges are encouraged to put Oscar to the test. He can be found in the Help & Contact section of the airline’s New Zealand website.

| An Air New Zealabnd release  |  February 2, 2017  ||

Over 600 players and more than 3,000 fans had a new experience at one of the USA’s largest junior rugby tournaments, thanks to one of a kind portable Junior Rugby Packaposts designed by New Zealand company Packaworld International.

The Rhinos Rugby Stomp was hosted by Rhinos Rugby Club on Sunday 29 January at Great Park in the city of Irvine, California. The tournament featured Under 14 age group teams from nine clubs across California.

Junior rugby is often played without posts, particularly in the US, where many sports fields are set up for other sports.Rhinos Rugby Program Director Elvis Seveali’i, a former Manu Samoa rugby star, said the free-standing inflatable Junior Rugby Packaposts brought an extra dimension to the tournament, and had massive potential to help grow grass-roots rugby in the USA.

“These are the perfect size for children. It gives the effect that they’re playing in the real game, and this will be a major factor in attracting new players to the game of rugby.”

Mr Seveali’i said it was important for junior players to build up basic skills, create good habits and establish solid fundamentals.

The lack of posts at junior level meant kicking was not introduced to the game until around the age of 16 or 18, when senior rugby posts could be used. The portable Packaposts could be transported in a small car, did not damage artificial fields and had the potential to enable kicking and make the junior game closer to senior rugby, he said.

“These posts are going to make such a difference. I think it’s a great idea.”

Mr Seveali’i said the turnout at this year’s Rhinos Rugby Stomp had been excellent thanks to a major influx of players over the past year in the growth sport of rugby.

“A lot of the rugby community was there. The kids had a great time and it was fantastic to see so many supporters on what turned out to be a huge day for junior rugby in California.”

This year’s honours in the Under 14 division went to the Belmont Shore Under 14s team from Long Beach, with Irvine Rhinos, Belmont Shore Under 10s and Souths Rhinos from Santa Margarita victorious in the Under 12, Under 10 and Under 8 divisions respectively.

The air freight market saw rare growth of more than 3% last year, according to figures released today.

IATA’s freight tonne kilometre (FTK) measure shows growth of 3.8% – nearly double the average rate of 2% over the past five years.

WorldACD shows chargeable weight growth at 3.1%, with direct tonne kilometres (DTK) up 3.4% in 2016.

And the consultant noted that, excluding Q1 – distorted by 2015’s transpacific boom caused by the west coast ports crisis – weight growth rose 4.4%, while DTKs grew 5.2%.

Q4 saw the best quarterly performance seen since 2010, with chargeable weight up 7.5% and DTKs up 8.3%.

WorldACD explained: “In other words, the average distance between origin and final destination of the shipments carried, increased slightly (DTK-growth outpacing weight growth).”

One of the key measures, yields, rose some 6% in Q4 16 over Q3 – a rise which was just 1% in the previous two years.

IATA shows all regions except Latin America seeing growth last year, with Europe’s airlines picking up nearly half the additional demand, the majority of which came in the second half after a weak first half.

In December, Europe’s carriers enjoyed a 16.4% rise in air freight demand against a capacity increase of 5.9%, while Asia Pacific airlines saw volumes grow 9.8%, year-on-year, while capacity grew 5.7%. North American carriers saw demand grow 3.7% while capacity fell 1.4%.

In the Middle East, where things are not as glowing as they once were, volumes rose 11.2% in December and capacity increased a (relatively) meagre 5.9%. Total demand for those carriers in 2016 rose 6.9% – the region’s slowest pace of growth since 2009 and well below the 12% average. IATA suggests the carriers lost volumes to Asia and Europe.

According to WorldACD, weighted average yields (including charges) for the year on westbound origin and destination routes fell $1.75, a drop of 12.5%. Easterly, it fell 15.5% to $1.63.

IATA attributed some of the overall growth in demand to a rise in shipments of silicon materials and greater export orders, plus an early Chinese new year holiday.

CEO Alexandre de Juniac urged airlines to become more competitive through digitisation, warning : “Looking ahead, strong export orders are good news. But there are headwinds. The most significant is stagnant world trade which also faces the risk of protectionist measures. Governments must not forget that trade is a powerful tool for growth and prosperity.”

|  An IATA release  |  February 1, 2017  ||

US bungling must not be repeated

A National Front victory in the pending presidential/general election in France shows every sign of wrong-footing the New Zealand government in the same way that the United States presidential outcome did, writes our European correspondent.

Now rated as the front-runner a National Front victory will also see France quit the EU which in turn will signal the end of the entire EU project.

The New Zealand Foreign Ministry must now forcibly and unambiguously direct its officials to now actively consider a National Front victory in the elections in France---and to adjust their own forecasts around this possibility.

On Wednesday, 25 January 2017 MSC Newswire forecast:-France’s Marine Le Pen is Looking Increasingly Presidential—Likely to pick up Socialist Party Votes in Runoff.

Since then the main challenger to the National Front, the Republican Party’s Francois Fillon has become enmeshed in a high profile corruption case in which his wife appeared to receive a substantial public salary for doing work that has still to be defined.

New Zealand’s foreign service officials should now receive a directive to the effect that they must contemplate an outcome that they passionately and personally abhor - - a National Front electoral victory.

On this occasion the closed-loop elitist nature of foreign service practitioners, far removed from the cares and fears of ordinary people, must be prevented from igniting the same partisanship that unreservedly forecast a victory for Hillary Clinton.

These saw New Zealand taxpayers enmeshed in the Clinton fund, and in taking at the United Nations an unnecessary stance on Israel designed to put New Zealand in an unfavourable light with the unanticipated incoming administration.

The directive to officials should accommodate the understanding that, yes, they may have to reveal their misgivings about the National Front.

But that in operational terms they must be prepared on this occasion for an outcome that horrifies they and the people they professionally associate with.

In short, foreign service officials who tend to be cut from the same rather exquisite cloth, must recall in the words of the French saying that though they talk to the captains “it is the crew that does the voting.”

The outcome of the recent primaries of France’s ruling Socialist Party have been more of an upset than most had imagined.

Manuel Valls, until recently France’s young and tough prime minister was swept out of any party presidential flag bearing role by a much lesser-known outsider Benoit Hamon (pictured) advocating a 32 hour week and a capitation tax on robots.

Wellington, on this occasion, must make it clear to its foreign service and trade representatives that it wants facts rather than hopes.

| From the MSCNewsWire reporters' desk  |  Wednesday 1 February 2017  ||

Le Pen article

Most of the smart factory discussion has centred around discrete manufacturing, but modern smart sensing technologies can also be applied to improve many aspects of the food and beverage industry, particularly for food safety and track and trace, improved packaging and new product opportunities.

The concepts of Industry 4.0, IIoT and ‘smart manufacturing’ have been gaining much press in recent times, particularly in relation to discrete manufacturing. Those working in an industry such as food and beverage — overwhelmingly driven by batch manufacturing processes — may find it difficult to see how such technologies could assist and improve their business. There are, however, definite areas in which these modern technologies can help modern food manufacturers improve efficiencies, market share and food safety.Food recalls and traceability

A food or beverage product may be recalled for a number of reasons: complaints from consumers or customers, or by order of retailers or government. It might also be recalled as a result of testing and auditing at a food business or in the upstream supply chain (raw ingredients). Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)1 classifies the types of problems that can occur as including:

Microbial contamination: Pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses or parasites.Labelling errors: Non-compliant labelling, incorrect food ingredients on the ingredient list, incorrect date markings or other food labelling errors.Foreign matter: Contamination with material such as glass, metal or plastic objects.Chemical or other contaminants: Contamination with substances such as cleaning products, pesticides, machine oil, etc.Undeclared allergens: Due to incorrect labelling, incorrect packaging or contamination of the product by an allergen.Biotoxins: Contamination with biological toxins such as histamine in fish and paralytic shellfish toxin in oysters.Other faults: Those not covered above, such as packaging faults or unsafe levels of additives.

In recent times there has been mounting pressure on food and beverage manufacturers to initiate and achieve product recalls in ever decreasing time frames, making effective product track-and-trace imperative.

Continue to full article > > >  

Innovative Machinery Group (IMG) announced today that the company will formally change its name to “Tsugami Automation” beginning February 1, 2017.

IMG specializes in the design, fabrication and integration of Precision Tsugami machine tool optimization products, including robotics, vibratory feeder systems, parts collection systems and custom machine tool accessories. The company designed and built the world’s first LaserSwiss machine, which combines Swiss style CNC machining and laser cutting into one machine with a single shared software platform.

“We’re rebranding the company to help manufacturers more easily understand what we do,” IMG President Graham Noake explained. “When they hear ‘Tsugami Automation’ they should immediately recognize that we are entirely focused on customizing and optimizing Tsugami machines.”

The renamed organization is a sister company of Tsugami/Rem Sales, the exclusive North American importer of Precision Tsugami machine tools. Both companies are divisions of Morris Group, Inc., one of North America’s largest machine tool distributors. Tsugami Automation products are distributed through Tsugami/Rem Sales.

“Tsugami Automation has a uniquely wide range of experience and skillsets in custom tooling, integrated laser cutting and laser welding and the development of mechanical and robotic loading, marking, cleaning, measuring, and unloading systems for Tsugami machine tools,” Noake said. “We are completely focused on expanding the capabilities of these machines and optimizing their performance.”

Tsugami Automation and Tsugami/Rem Sales expect to launch their newest LaserSwiss, an SS207-5AX LaserSwiss with an integrated welding system, at the MD&M West show in Anaheim, CA in February. The 20 mm, seven-axis CNC machine integrates two SPI laser systems, one for cutting operations and a second one for welding.

“It’s the first machine of its kind,” Noake noted, “and we expect it to provide significant competitive advantages to manufacturers of small precision parts.”

About Tsugami Automation

Tsugami Automation is a division of Morris Group, Inc. of Windsor, Connecticut. The company specializes in the design, manufacture, and delivery of Tsugami machine tool optimization products, including robotics, lasers, vibratory feeder systems, parts collection systems, and custom machine tool accessories.

About Morris Group, Inc.

Morris Group, Inc. (http://www.morrisgroupinc.com/), whose history dates to 1941, is one of the largest machine tool distribution networks in North America. Based in Windsor, Connecticut, the family-owned and operated company has 14 business units throughout the United States.