Probably not worth arguing the difference - there are plenty of NZ people working for offshore companies and bringing money into the local economy, and paying tax locally. The digital nomad really just appears to be freeloading on services and infrastructure paid for by taxpayers. How much money are they really going to contribute and how many of them would be needed to make a difference to the economy? Great if you enjoy travel, but not really a great headline policy from a clueless government.

Every bit of money spent by residents is money entering the economy. Residents pay tax to fund public services and infrastructure. A nomad living in the country for months is using many of those services and infrastructure. Our health system is funded by taxes; if you get sick and aren't contributing by paying taxes, then why should you get access for free?

The same Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins in 2018: "Hydrogen has very serious limitations at this stage. It's extremely flammable. There's a reason there's a hydrogen bomb. So far the technology is not there to make it a safe alternative."

Short sighted doesn't begin to describe our current government. “godDAMN this stupid milkloving piece of shit dumbass mean spirited sale at briscoes racist sexist 40% off deck furniture piss country”.

These folks and anti vaxxers and anti gun control and pro driving ever larger murder SUVs are the dumbest motherfuckers alive.

These folks and anti vaxxers and anti gun control are the dumbest motherfuckers alive.

The intent of golden rice is to sell gmo seed. And Greenpeace have a valid perspective on this. Before the sort of crispr gene editing tech available now it was a wild west - modifying seeds to allow them to be drenched in pesticides and herbicides. That is still a disaster. Now the discussion can be more nuanced but there is still a need to avoid the sort of bullshit approach of the big ag companies intent on locking in farmers to their shitty products.

Seriously, we're worried about asteroids? We are the biggest threat to life on this planet and we're doing a pretty good job at making our home uninhabitable. Maybe NASA could please start addressing real issues and not some fantasy with a geological time frame that is irrelevant to our current predicament.

E-bikes are easily the best hybrid ever created. We bought one last year so my exercise-averse wife could be encouraged and not feel disadvantaged when going for a family bike ride. It worked as expected. What was unexpected was how much I enjoyed using it for errands that would otherwise have fired up a tonne and a half of SUV to travel a couple of km's for a handful of groceries or a box of screws or a new water filter. Just fun. I still ride my fake commute most days on an unassisted mountain bike for the thrills and occasional spills. But the e-bike is epic for almost every other local journeys.

You are armed because you're a scared little baby, freedom is for grownups

Yeah that would be BS. Tourism was a foundation of New Zealand's economy with comparatively large numbers of foreign tourists, many from China. Education also a big earner with foreign students, also many from China, attending university here. Which studies are you referring to?

Here in NZ our cows for the most part are pasture fed. However a boom in dairy has resulted in cows being farmed in places that are environmentally sensitive resulting in degradation of the environment and untold damage to the native flora and fauna displaced by that activity. We have irrigated and fertilised flood plains that have free draining soils resulting in high nitrate levels in our aquifers. We have rivers and lakes that have high nitrate levels from both the runoff of artificial fertilisers and the cows urination, resulting in high bacteria levels and toxic algal blooms. In a period of 50 years we have so degraded our waterways that we can no longer swim safely in many of them. More cows are not the answer.

Slashdot article causes spontaneous abortion, in mice.

The consequences of not having children vaccinated are only realised if the children catch the diseases. Do you vaccinate your children against all diseases for which vaccines are available? The reality is there is insufficient verifiably independent information available publicly for people to make informed decisions. When we were looking for information to support our intention to vaccinate our children we found lots of hyperbole and graphic images of the effects of disease from our public health system while there was an endless supply of "information", some credible and some not, from those against vaccination. Our children are vaccinated against some diseases but we do not vaccinate just because of "death rates from the diseases".

I'll see your experts and raise you my experts. Which experts do you trust implicitly? Maybe the experts in the oil companies who knew about climate change and didn't inform us? Maybe the doctors who promoted smoking back in the day? The doctors who prescribe opioids for minor pain despite the epidemic of opioid abuse? What about Bayer which says Roundup doesn't cause cancer, despite two current cases where the jury found that it does? Perhaps the experts that said Sadam had WOMD resulting in a war we are still feeling the effects of today. Your informed decisions are only informed if you have all the information. I try to avoid letting "experts" make my decisions for me unless I'm confident in their expertise.