Parliament has restarted after the summer recess which is bringing all sorts of headaches working in a high profile Government department. Our PM gave her state of the nation address on Tuesday which sets the agenda for the coming year.

You can read this at http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=28357

The buzz of the day was that NZ needs to have sustainability. I’m trying hard not to be deeply cynical about the Government spin and take heart that there is true intention behind these fine words. It will be great if finally NZ takes environmental issues seriously and puts some substance behind it’s clean and green image. Certainly I’ll be attending my first greening strategy meeting tomorrow to see how we’ll start to become a carbon neutral ministry.

Good job we’ve built in solar panel water heating, wet back woodburner and rain collection into our new house. All we need now is the pointy head administrators at land registry to get over themselves and give us the land title so we can start building. Yes we’re still waiting but hopeful of a solution imminently (although I’ve given up holding my breath on this – I was turning blue and it wasn’t a good look).