Fact checking John Key’s budget speech

Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, April 3rd, 2014 - 144 comments
Categories: david parker, john key, national, Politics, same old national - Tags:

John Key gave a pre budget speech yesterday with a number of startling claims about the economy. David Parker has done some quick fact checking and following are his conclusions. I wonder if the Media will now report on these discrepancies as some of them are rather startling …

David’s findings are set out below.

“John Key has yet again twisted the figures and selectively chosen his statistics, a fact check by Labour shows, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker.

“John Key has a long history of getting away with misstatements that range from an honest mistake to worse. Today Labour is calling him out with a list of the misrepresentations in his speech.

“Labour is determined to hold John Key and his spin doctors to account ahead of election year,” says David Parker.

Key: Over the past year, for example, 66,000 more people have got a job.

Over the past two years, unemployment has fallen by only 4000 (from 151 thousand  to 147 thousand)

Key: Average weekly wages have gone up 2.8 per cent, compared to inflation of only 1.6 per cent.

Under the Labour Cost Index – the measure of wage rates, Salary and ordinary time wage rates increased by 1.6% – an zero increase in real terms.

Key: And the economy as a whole has grown 3.1 per cent – one of the faster growth rates in the developed world.

The annual growth rate is 2.7 per cent – Key is misleading the public by using the quarter-on-quarter annual growth rate. Annual year-on-year growth is a much more robust measure of growth as it covers a broader time period (a year, rather than three months).  This is the measure that Treasury uses in its forecasts.

Key: We have had an on-going commitment to discipline around government spending and that will continue this year, next year and for as long as we lead the Government.

National has increased debt by $60 billion in office, the worst of any in government (in nominal terms) and the worst since Muldoon as a percentage of GDP.

Key: One way to illustrate our approach is this – in the last five years of the previous Labour government, new operating spending each budget averaged $2.7 billion a year.

Every year Labour posted large surpluses and paid down debt.  National has yet to do this once, after more than five years in office.

Key: In the last five years of Labour, government spending in total went up 50 per cent.

In the last five years of Labour we introduced Working for Families, interest free Student loans and Kiwi Saver – all paid for out of growth. None of which National has repealed .

Total Government expenses

Labour:

$55.2b to $75.8b from Budget 2003 to Budget 2008: Increase of $20.6b (37 per cent)

National:

$75.8b to $91.0b from Budget 2008 to Budget 2013: Increase of $15.2b (20 per cent)

Total Government Revenue

Labour:

$57.0b to $81.5b from Budget 2003 to Budget 2008: Increase of $24.5b (43 per cent)

National:

$81.5b to $86.7b from Budget 2008 to Budget 2013: Increase of $5.2b (6 per cent)

Net government debt (excluding Super Fund):

Labour:

$17.6b to $10.3b from Budget 2003 to Budget 2008 (-43 per cent)

National:

$10.3b to $55.8b from Budget 2008 to Budget 2013 (+442 per cent)

144 comments on “Fact checking John Key’s budget speech ”

  1. Enough is Enough 1

    I am no fan of National but that is a rubbish fact check from David Parker.

    Apples and Oranges sometimes, for example.

    “Key: Over the past year, for example, 66,000 more people have got a job.

    Over the past two years, unemployment has fallen by only 4000 (from 151 thousand to 147 thousand)”

    The size of the workforce and the number of unemployed are two different things. Key’s statement was not incorrect. Nether was Parkers, so the conparason is silly.

    Parker needs to be doing better than this

    • One Anonymous Bloke 1.1

      Parker exposes that which Key’s statement is designed to obscure. That doesn’t seem silly to me.

      • Enough is Enough 1.1.1

        Well it is a spin check then. Not a fact check.

        This Cunliffe led Labour party already has credibilty issues with policy announcement cock-ups and silly trust issues.

        It shouldn’t be releasing bullshit like this which the Nats will dismiss and drive a truck through (e.g Hooton has below).

        • One Anonymous Bloke 1.1.1.1

          All Hooton does is demonstrate that Key’s figure is slightly out. He doesn’t substantively challenge Parker’s statement at all.

        • Bearded Git 1.1.1.2

          +1 OAB. Enough you are struggling with the real facts.

          When Hooton comments you know Nats are in trouble.

          My question is how do we turn these facts into snappy election slogans that the public at large will pick up on.

          • Enough is Enough 1.1.1.2.1

            They are both facts BG. There is nothing to struggle over.

          • Will@Welly 1.1.1.2.2

            And therein lies the nub of the problem. Labour needs to rely less on long elongated answers, but more on brief short sharp pointed ones to get its message across.
            Key wins every time when he says “Cunliffe is tricky”. 3 words. People remember that. No one stops and thinks, “Is he?”
            At the last election, whoever was the campaign manager for Labour needed a right bollocking, a 2 year old kid could have done better. If you’re not aware, it’s game on already – the Nats are out of the starting boxes – this race is underway, and sorry folks, the tortoise doesn’t win.
            The one thing I knew before the start of this election, was that the Opposition – Labour, Greens, Mana, and even perhaps old Winston had to be squeaky clean. National will be out digging up muck, no matter how little, and trying to make it stick.
            David Cunliffe and his trusts gave John Key a superb opening – tricky. How many time have we tried to get mud to stick to John Key – nothing does.
            And the question those in the Labour caucus have to ask themselves, how badly do they want to win this election, because right now, too many of them appear to be hanging on for the free ride.
            At the the Greens and Mana appear to be taking their role seriously.

            • Bearded Git 1.1.1.2.2.1

              +1 Will. New Labour War Room needs immediate brainstorming session on snappy messages.

              Or how about Standardistas making some suggestions?

            • SpaceMonkey 1.1.1.2.2.2

              How about 2 words… “Key lies”.

    • geoff 1.2

      Disagree.

      I assumed (as I’m sure that many others did/will) that Key’s statement was saying that unemployment has fallen by 66,000 people. Key knows how it will be taken by most people and has given himself the wriggle room to get out of any responibility if he’s questioned. It’s the kind of dis-ingenuity that he lives and breathes.

      But hey, JK said it, the servile MSM report it, therefore it must be true. So for all intents and purposes, it is true. It’s fucking bullshit.

      • alwyn 1.2.1

        Why don’t you assume that John Key’s statement means exactly what it says?

        “Key: Over the past year, for example, 66,000 more people have got a job.”

        He wasn’t saying that unemployment had dropped, was he?
        If you can’t read why should it be his problem? He wasn’t your primary schoolteacher I assume.

        • thatguynz 1.2.1.1

          That’s just being cute Alwyn. You’ve watched enough “news” broadcasts to know full well that it will be interpreted as a reduction in unemployment, irrespective of what was actually said – and that’s what the intent of couching it in those terms is.

        • Tracey 1.2.1.2

          what about when he said this?

          ” Mr Key cited Labour’s promise to increase early childhood education from 20 free hours a week for three and four years old to 25 hours a week.

          The policy doesn’t take effect until July 2017 but Labour has costed it at $57 million in the first year and about $60 million after that.

          Mr Key said the cost was more likely to be $600 million, $700 million or $800 million.”

          and it turned out there arent enough early chilhood aged kids to make it even close to true?

        • lprent 1.2.1.3

          What type of jobs were they? Mostly part-time based on the stats.

          • thechangeling 1.2.1.3.1

            Yeah I somehow think most of them will be in at least one of the categories of:
            Part-time,
            casual,
            temporary,

            Very few of Keys ‘66,000 jobs’ if they really do exist will be full-time, permanent jobs as the 350,000+ under-employed category seems to get either completely ignored or glossed over when references to unemployed statistics get published anywhere in New Zealand. This group just gets bigger and bigger under this crony capitalist government.

            • Te Reo Putake 1.2.1.3.1.1

              I can’t eat your ghost jobs, John.

            • Sabine Ford 1.2.1.3.1.2

              and this is the only question that needs to be asked.

              You are saying that 66.000 people have found jobs? Next, how many of those 66.000 jobs were taken by people entering the workforce? Are these People that have just changed jobs? How many of these 66.000 jobs are full time/partime/casual? How many of these jobs are paid above minimum wage? How many of these jobs need to be supported by a housing benefit etc from WINZ?

              And than, one could point out, that while there might be 66.000 people that have found jobs the unemployment figures have only decreased by about 4000 people in paid employment.

              a. Question the Quality of jobs that were found by 66.000 people
              b. Let JK answer why the unemployment numbers are not going down.

              and then ask Cunliffe if he wants to win, and when he will start leading the labour party

              He wanted to be leader….now lead.

            • alwyn 1.2.1.3.1.3

              That is n interesting figure you quote. “350,000+ under-employed”.
              I would love to see a source for it.
              The Stats Dept, on page 4 of the December 2013 HLFS says –

              “Over the year, the total number of underemployed people increased by 27,200 to 122,600.”

              You wouldn’t happen to be making it up would you?

          • freedom 1.2.1.3.2

            One hour of paid work a week is now counted as being employed. If a journalist wanted to be honest in their reporting, they would include that fact in every press release they regurgitate.

            • freedom 1.2.1.3.2.1

              (oops, the above was actually meant to be a reply to alwyn at 1.2.1)

            • alwyn 1.2.1.3.2.2

              The Household Labour Survey has been going since 1985. As far as I am aware the definition of one hour/week has always been used. I’m only aware of a single change to the survey, in 1990 when they started looking at “underemployment”.

              Thus when you say “is now counted as being employed” you are implying the methodology has changed when it hasn’t.

              Have you any good reason to believe that the results suddenly changed in 2013 and we have now got a whole lot of people who didn’t use to work but are now working an hour a week?

              • freedom

                Fair call alwyn, that was a clumsy sentence, (inaccurate spin must be catching). However, the underlying reality remains. One hour of work a week is a ridiculous measure for describing employment, let alone calling an hour of work a week a job.

        • Stuart Munro 1.2.1.4

          Key is deliberately trying to mislead people into thinking that the numbers of unemployed are falling, as they would be if his government were not worse than useless.

          And you are trying to cover for the deception that has been exposed. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?

          • alwyn 1.2.1.4.1

            I think it is you who have more reason to be ashamed.

            You are trying to put words, or thoughts into Key’s mouth that he never said, and that you have no way of knowing that he ever thought. He stated a very simple fact. There are 66,000 (or 67,000) more people who have jobs at the end of 2013 that there were at the end of 2012. That is what he said. If you try and pretend he said something else you are dissembling at best.
            “Trying to cover for a deception”? That is solely in your imagination.

            • Stuart Munro 1.2.1.4.1.1

              Nonsense – Key was not forced to talk about these numbers, they were all he could come up with that could be spun into a vaguely positive result out of the long record of gross and unrelenting economic failure that characterises his government.

              And you misrepresent the facts even as you try to cover for him – this is not 67000 more people with jobs, this is 67000 people who worked two or more hours a week – a pitiful, shambolic result, nothing to be proud of at all.

              These lies will not make the economy grow, we cannot eat them or export them, you will have to do much better to persuade the people of NZ that National are anything but a pack of thieves, and inept ones at that.

        • geoff 1.2.1.5

          Alwyn, you’re a complete load of steaming bullshit too. You’re only kidding yourself.

          • lurgee 1.2.1.5.1

            Noope, she is showing you how Key is making gold out of straw. You should actually take heed and come up with a better response than vague waffle about statistics, or personal attacks.

            • geoff 1.2.1.5.1.1

              How exactly is Key making ‘gold out of straw’? Whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean. By talking shit? Is that a quality you admire?

    • Draco T Bastard 1.3

      That would, surly, be part of National’s spin. The ever increasing size of the population is something that most people won’t think about. Sure, 60,000 more people have jobs but unemployment hasn’t come down.

    • ianmac 1.4

      So if we say 100 people lost their jobs but 66 of them got a new job we can safely say that 66 more people got a job. Can’t argue with those stats.

      • Matthew Hooton 1.4.1

        That’s not what is being said at all. You are talking about labour market churn which is another thing entirely.

    • Person of Interest 1.5

      I agree Parker must do better if Labour is to ever gain the Treasury benches. He must know, as almost every thinking person does, that we had to keep the monetary system going through the global financial crisis, and we had to do that by borrowing. But the GFC has been overcome, so we now have to focus on balancing the books. Let’s have some positive policy and sensible criticism, not this nonsense stuff.

  2. alwyn 2

    His attempt to disprove the figure for average wage increases by talking about the entirely different labour cost index is also b.s.
    Stephen Joyce explained all this in Parliamentary Question time to Russel Norman, who wants the job Parker is dreaming about getting for himself.

    As Joyce said

    “the labour cost index does not measure changes in wages, salaries, and earnings over the period. It mentions (sic) the pure inflation in the labour market for somebody who does not get any pay increases from improved productivity or anything like that. The quarterly employment survey is actually the method via which changes in employment, total weekly gross earnings, total weekly paid hours, and average hourly and average weekly earnings are reflected”.

    Luckily for New Zealand neither of these economic illiterates will ever get near the doors of the Finance Minister’s office.

    • One Anonymous Bloke 2.1

      😆 Oh well if Mr. Fuxit said it it must be true.

      It must be hard to be a wingnut, and know that per capita GDP is always higher under Labour led governments, debt is always driven up by National, paid off by Labour, and then have to parrot transparent lies in public.

      Just another partisan hack.

      We need better wingnuts.

      • alwyn 2.1.1

        You will, I hope, post citations for these claims you are making?
        I would love to see the one that proves that

        ” per capita GDP is always higher under Labour led governments”.

        The evidence for the one that says the following gem will also be a bit difficult to find.

        “debt is always driven up by National, paid off by Labour”

        I gave the quote from Joyce because it explains, in very simple terms which would suit the person it was addressed to what the index is. It saved me the trouble of expressing the concept in words that you probably wouldn’t be able to follow.

          • View Balanced 2.1.1.1.1

            Those links report just one national and labour government, so that doesn’t really substantiate your claim.
            Besides, the first link doesn’t really prove your point at all.

            • One Anonymous Bloke 2.1.1.1.1.1

              Set the start date to 1980. Note the dips on the graph as National takes office.

          • alwyn 2.1.1.1.2

            Very selective years you have picked.
            Your claim was much, much broader than what those graphs show of course.

            ” per capita GDP is always higher under Labour led governments”.

            Even with your careful selection of years there was only ONE year of a Labour Government when the GDP/Capita at PPP was greater than it was in 2013.
            We have had a total of 35 years of Labour Governments in NZ and there was only ONE that qualifies for your statement.

            As for your second comment

            “debt is always driven up by National, paid off by Labour”

            I suggest you look at the period 1984 to 1999. That will illustrate a period when Debt was driven up by Labour and paid of by National.

            You really shouldn’t make such extreme claims using words like “always”. They simply aren’t true when the claim is so completely over the top. I wouldn’t disagree with a statement that claimed something like the following.
            “During the 1999 – 2008 period GDP/capita steadily increased and Debt/Capita steadily fell”. Why didn’t you restrain yourself to something that is in fact true?

  3. Matthew Hooton 3

    I only got to the first one, but it is Parker that is spinning.
    According to Stats NZ, in the Dec 2012 quarter there were 2,230,000 people employed in New Zealand.
    In the Dec 2013 quarter, there were 2,297,000 people employed.
    See http://www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/Browse%20for%20stats/HouseholdLabourForceSurvey/HOTPDec13qtr/hlfs-Dec13qtr-all-tables.xls
    So Key was wrong: it wasn’t “66,000 more people [who] have got a job” but 67,000.
    I expect the rest of Parker’s so-called “fact checking” is equally bogus.

    • dv 3.1

      So what about these then?

      Total Government expenses

      Labour:

      $55.2b to $75.8b from Budget 2003 to Budget 2008: Increase of $20.6b (37 per cent)

      National:

      $75.8b to $91.0b from Budget 2008 to Budget 2013: Increase of $15.2b (20 per cent)
      So what about these figures?

      Total Government Revenue

      Labour:

      $57.0b to $81.5b from Budget 2003 to Budget 2008: Increase of $24.5b (43 per cent)

      National:

      $81.5b to $86.7b from Budget 2008 to Budget 2013: Increase of $5.2b (6 per cent)

      Net government debt (excluding Super Fund):

      Labour:

      $17.6b to $10.3b from Budget 2003 to Budget 2008 (-43 per cent)

      National:

      $10.3b to $55.8b from Budget 2008 to Budget 2013 (+442 per cent)

      • David H 3.1.1

        And Hooton Pisses off in a cloud of self belief and angst, to scrawl the NBR’s next instalment of Hooton’s Horseshit. A column where he figuratively kisses TricKey’s Ass.

    • ffloyd 3.2

      Are these jobs full time employment?

      • McFlock 3.2.1

        well, looking to Table 9 in his linked document, december quarter seasonally adjusted weekly hours increased by 1,006,000. Divide that by the 67,000 increase in employed people, gives us 15h/w. On average.

        edit – feck it, I hate trying to do math and multitasking, I think I screwed something up.
        working….

        ….. edit: right first time 🙂

        • alwyn 3.2.1.1

          I have just noticed this comment, and the calculation, and I love the approach.

          I tried it on some figures for the wealthiest people in the world.

          At the end of 2012 the ten richest people in the world were worth in total $420 billion.
          At the end of 2013 those ten, plus me, were worth $515 billion.
          When I follow your approach I can assume that the wealth of the ten people who are in both samples hadn’t changed. That is like you assuming that the increase in hours worked is all to be attributed to the extra 67,000 and there is no difference in the hours of the lot who were working at both dates isn’t it?

          Anyway this shows that I must be worth $95 billion and am the richest man in the world. The only problem I have is that the Bank Manager doesn’t believe me and won’t let me have $500 million to buy a super yacht.

          ps. Please don’t bother to object to the 420 and 515 figures. I really don’t know what they are and I just made them up but they give a great conclusion.

    • alwyn 3.3

      Desist immediately Mathew. You are not allowed to introduce annoying facts that show that John Key is telling the truth and that Parker’s rather laughable attempts to denigrate him are merely a man who is spinning like a Catherine Wheel.

      • Draco T Bastard 3.3.1

        John Key may be telling the truth but he’s still spinning. Key knows, and so does MH, that most people will assume that unemployment has dropped by 66000 when it hasn’t.

        • Melb 3.3.1.1

          Maybe you just need to work on your comprehension.

          • Draco T Bastard 3.3.1.1.1

            My comprehension is fine. Perhaps you should work on yours. You could start by reading this entire thread and comparing numbers between increased population, greater numbers with jobs and the number unemployed staying the same.

    • So Key was wrong: it wasn’t “66,000 more people [who] have got a job” but 67,000.

      So Key presented a true-but-irrelevant figure in a way that would lead people to assume there’s been a significant fall in unemployment when there in fact hasn’t. The word “Tricky” springs to mind.

      I expect the rest of Parker’s so-called “fact checking” is equally bogus.

      Really? You mean, you reckon National hasn’t run up $60 bil of debt? That it has posted surpluses and paid down debt? That it didn’t continue funding that public spending Key was complaining about? Do tell…

    • lprent 3.5

      So Key was wrong: it wasn’t “66,000 more people [who] have got a job” but 67,000.

      So what are you saying? National can barely keep the economy running fast enough to deal with population growth.

      Secondly, how many of these “new” jobs part-time jobs? Most of them I suspect.

      Basically you’re spinning. National are useless at running the economy for the people living in this country…

      • Tamati 3.5.1

        More likely people returning to the workforce. People often give up trying to find work and undertake other activities. Some are full time parents, some go into education and some go overseas.

        • lprent 3.5.1.1

          Which is why the household unemployment rate looking at underemployment is so much more useful than the nominal unemployment rate

        • McFlock 3.5.1.2

          Indeed, like a friend of mine who’s only just popped a sprog and is looking to get back into work because money’s tight on one income.

          number in labour force increased 3.9% dec-dec, working age population increased 1.2%, and “employment” numbers increased 4.8%, and average number of hours worked per week increased only 1.3%.

          • lprent 3.5.1.2.1

            Yeah. That is why National are so cautious about what figures they like to use. If the looked at gross total wages paid or ‘hours’ or average dollars per hour, then it’d reflect that the only types of jobs that their economic management produces in any quantity are part time low wage jobs. They also don’t like comparisons at any level with any gross employment stats from 2006/7 because that would make them look pathetic

      • alwyn 3.5.2

        According to the Stats Department population clock the New Zealand population increases by about one person every 7 minutes and 4 seconds. That works out at about 74,000 per year.

        From the figures that Hooton quotes only about one in every two people in the country are employed. The number of people employed is therefore increasing at nearly DOUBLE the percentage rate that the population is. I think one would have to agree that National is doing a lot better than just matching population growth.

        • framu 3.5.2.1

          you have accounted for the fact that population is different to workforce?

          • alwyn 3.5.2.1.1

            Alright I will explain it in a rather simpler manner.
            In 2012 the population grew by about 74k from an initial level of about 4,433k
            That is an increase of around 1.7%
            The number of people employed grew by 67k from a base of 2,233k
            That is an increase of about 3%.
            In other words employment grew at a rate that was about 76% FASTER than the rate at which the population grew.
            OK?

            • freedom 3.5.2.1.1.1

              “Alright I will explain it in a rather simpler manner.”

              ONE OF HOUR OF WORK A WEEK IS NOT EMPLOYMENT !

              ONE HOUR OF WORK A WEEK IS NOT ‘A JOB’ !

              It is a simple enough reality alwyn, why do you consistently fail to comprehend it?

              • alwyn

                And you have no reason at all to claim that these extra 67,000 people are only working one hour per week, as far as I can see. The survey does, and as far as I know has since it started in 1985, used that number as the definition of “employed”. If you don’t approve of the methodology I suggest you take it up with the ILO. Try complaining to Helen Kelly.
                Do you have any evidence that there are large numbers of people who are really working an hour a week and are picked up by the survey.

                • One Anonymous Bloke

                  No reason at all, other than the reported rise in underemployment. Please try and keep up.

                  • alwyn

                    A very delayed response but still, maybe you will see it.

                    According to the Stats Dept, in the December 2013 HLFS the number of people who were underemployed rose by 27,000 for the year while the total number of people who were employed rose by 67,000.
                    27,000 is a lot but, given it is less than 67,000, one cannot possibly argue that all the extra people working can all be in the “underemployed” category.

                    Actually it is technically possible that they are, provided that the people who were working in Dec 2012 AND Dec 2013 and who were “underemployed” dropped by at least 40,000.
                    Sounds rather far-fetched to me but there is no possible way to disprove the theory.

            • framu 3.5.2.1.1.2

              well thats fine – but its not what you said initially is it

        • lprent 3.5.2.2

          Not exactly. I don’t have time to dig into it right now. But the majority of the growth in employable people is coming from the under-employed. If you look back since 2007 to now, what you will find is that there was a hell of a drop in employable people.

          They didn’t go off to be on welfare. They just stopped working in the wage economy. They went off to raise kids or help their elderly parents or just live off their partners income.

          Anyone who has dealt with WINS even before the heartless arsehole Paula Bennett took over knows that it is a pain dealing with them.

          You are better off looking at the household underemployment stats. If you did then you’d find out that National has a hell of a long way to go before they even get close to the employment levels of 2006/7.

          At their current rate I’d say that they’d need close to a decade because they’re pretty bloody useless at running an economy.

        • wtl 3.5.2.3

          I think one would have to agree that National is doing a lot better than just matching population growth.

          No, I don’t agree. It is completely meaningless to take the population growth numbers at the current time*, multiply it by an average rate** of employment and compare it to the increase in the number of people employed***.

          *this number which would include a lot of individuals who won’t be in the workforce for ~18 years, as well as immigrants who may be likely to have jobs already lined up already before entering NZ.

          ** this rate is applicable to the current population, the correct rate to use is the rate applicable to the new individuals in the NZ population, you cannot assume that the two rates are the same.

          *** you are still ignoring a change in the workforce unrelated to population growth, i.e. individuals already in the population entering the workforce because of changes in circumstances.

          • alwyn 3.5.2.3.1

            I suggest that you have a look at my reply to “framu” remark just up the blog.

            • wtl 3.5.2.3.1.1

              I suggest you reread my comment. I already knew exactly how you derived your numbers. I’m saying the way you derived your numbers is meaningless.

              • alwyn

                The original way I derived, or at least explained that the growth in employment was more than the growth in population was, I agree, extremely confused. I was in hurry to go out and botched it up. The simpler way I put in in the reply to Framu was accurate.
                Lprent was claiming that the increase in employment did no more, at best, than match the growth in population. It was more than enough to do that.

                If you really want to sit down and work out the exact structure of the New Zealand population and how it altered between 2012 and 2013 good luck to you. I, like everyone else here, is making the simple assumption that the general structure is the same in 2013 as it was in 2012. Unless you can explain, and demonstrate, that there was something exceptional about the population structure in 2013 you can’t really object to that.

                • McFlock

                  nope.
                  Working age population is a formal statistic.

                  • alwyn

                    I’m sorry but I don’t see what you mean by this comment, which appears to be addressed to me. If you expand your meaning I may be in a position to reply.

                    • McFlock

                      I, like everyone else here, is making the simple assumption that the general structure is the same in 2013 as it was in 2012.

                      No. Working age population doesn’t make that assumption. One might speculate whether retirees are all able to be in the workforce, but many have part time jobs (such as my mum, in her 70s).

                    • Tracey

                      “Mr Key cited Labour’s promise to increase early childhood education from 20 free hours a week for three and four years old to 25 hours a week.

                      The policy doesn’t take effect until July 2017 but Labour has costed it at $57 million in the first year and about $60 million after that.

                      Mr Key said the cost was more likely to be $600 million, $700 million or $800 million.” 3 april 2014

                      You seem good with numbers and accessing stats etc. Could you tell us if Mr Key was right or wrong when he made the above statement?

                      Mr Hooton has chosen to cherry pick his fact checking and has ignored this one. Hopefully you can help.

                    • alwyn

                      A reply (rather late) to McFlock.

                      OK. I compared the increase in the New Zealand Population (1.7%) to the increase in employment (3%) for the year 2013, using the material in the December 2013 HLFS.
                      If we look at the numbers for the working age population things look even better for people who were unemployed.
                      Again using the December 2013 LFS we find that the working age population rose by only 1.2% for the year so the 3% increase in the employment result is 150% greater.
                      I fear that this is probably posted to late for anyone to see.

                    • McFlock

                      Apart from the fact that the new jobs are only 15 hours er week on average. And, of course, WAP != “employed+unemployed”.

                    • alwyn

                      Average 15 hours/week the man says.
                      Why don’t you have a look at my comment on this at 3.2.1.1
                      I have used exactly the same method that you used to get this ridiculous number of 15 hours/week to prove that I must be the richest man in the world.
                      It is a completely ridiculous calculation.
                      As for the proclamation that WAP = employed + unemployed.
                      What is that supposed to have to do with anything?
                      I have shown. quite unambiguously that the number of people in employment is rising faster than the WAP, just as it is rising faster than the population as a whole.
                      It doesn’t change the original argument of course. Parker, and most of the people contributing to this claim that Key was lying whan he claimed that people in work have risen by 66,000.
                      Well they have and he wasn’t lying at all

                    • alwyn

                      McFlock, again.
                      You have commented here that WAP! = employed + unemployed along with the statement “Of course” I assume you mean “equal”, of course
                      I suggest that you have a look at the HLFS and you will discover that “Of course” it isn’t.
                      They estimate the WAP. They get a figure, from the sample that they interview for the number employed and for the unemployed. They take these two figures away from the WAP and they get a (very large) residual which is those “Not in the Labour Force”. That is a group that includes all the people who are in the WAP but are retired, in full time study, not looking for work, doing household duties etc, etc. In the December 2013 survey it was about 1.1 million.
                      Unless you have some strange meaning for WAP !, which you haven’t explained, your formula is silly.

                      I suppose if this is an odd way of representing “not equal” it makes sense in a general way, although theoretically they could be equal. I suggest you say that is what you meant and then you won’t look quite so silly.

                      I don’t think the normal use of “!” meaning “factorial” could be what you are trying to say.

                      You have also remarked that your mother “in her 70s” has a part time job. She wouldn’t be counted and wouldn’t even be interviewed as far as I know. At that age she isn’t in the “working age population” so she wouldn’t be part of the survey.

                    • McFlock

                      Where to start…

                      You have also remarked that your mother “in her 70s” has a part time job. She wouldn’t be counted and wouldn’t even be interviewed as far as I know.

                      She’s over 15. If she is in a household that’s involved in the HLFS, she’d be interviewed. She would also count as “employed” in John Key’s claim.

                      Why don’t you have a look at my comment on this at 3.2.1.1
                      I have used exactly the same method that you used to get this ridiculous number of 15 hours/week to prove that I must be the richest man in the world.

                      My, you have been belatedly busy, haven’t you?

                      Okay, so 1.006M/67k = 15.
                      If currently employed people had increased their hours by 500k, thats 506000/67000 = 7 hours per week, on average, for the newly “employed”.

                      So to argue that, on average, the 67k newly-employed were employed on average for 25 hours a week, the 2.23M working in dec2012 would have had their hours fall by about 3.3hours per week.

                      The only way you can argue that the 67k new jobs are anything other than shitty part time work insufficient to live on without a benefit is to claim that current jobs have cuts in hours.

                      The fact is that when peole hear “in jobs”, they think solid work that provides enough money for food, shelter, clothing, and maybe a family or the occasional treat. Not a part-time mcjob that means you’re still on a benefit. Key knew that, and you know it. He was deliberately trying to tell people that the country is better off, and so are you, and you’re both lying.

                      Oh, and !=, dipshit.

                    • alwyn

                      Where to start?

                      Your mother.

                      You don’t understand how the HLFS works.
                      They do not interview everyone in a household, which you seem to be assuming with your remark about
                      “She’s over 15. If she is in a household that’s involved in the HLFS, she’d be interviewed”.
                      They interview specific, named, people. Those are the only ones they question and they don’t talk to anyone else. I know because I got caught up in their net about 1998. Just me, not my wife. They talk to the people chosen once every three months and go through the questionnaire. You are on the panel for about 3 years if my memory serves me. (I don’t guarantee the “3” as it was a long time ago). Luckily the time required each quarter was fairly short as I was retired and had no intention of taking another job so they could leave out about 50 questions.
                      So NO, they would not have quizzed you mother as she would never have been picked for the panel if she was “over 70”.

                      Hours worked for the additional 67,000 people.

                      I fear you need a new calculator. You have some of the numbers you quote being out by a factor of about 10.
                      Consider December 2012. 2,230,000 people 74,736,000 hours/week. The average is 33.514 hours/person/week.
                      December 2013. 2,297,000 people 75,742,000 hours gives 32.974 hours/person/week

                      If we assume, as you do that 67,000 average 25 hours/week the other 2,230,000 will average (75,742,000 – (67,000 * 25)) /2,230,000.

                      This works out at 33.214 hours/person/week for those people which is a drop of 0.3 hours/week. That is NOT the 3.3 hours/week you claim.

                      Would it require cuts in hours for the already employed? Sure it would, but the fall would only be about long enough to have a cup of coffee.

                      There is no way to work out what any individual really did. The numbers are of course from a SURVEY, not a CENSUS where everyone is counted.

                      By the way didn’t you like the bit about wealth. And do you agree that that is essentially what your calculation was doing?

                      I am no wiser about what you mean by != When I click on it all I get is the Standard home page. Surely you don’t mean that all the primary contributors to this blog are dipshits? They will not be impressed.

                      TRACEY. I don’t know what Key actually said, or meant. I notice the Herald article didn’t put “” “” around it so it may not be a recorded direct quote. As written by the journalist it seems extremely high. I’m not volunteering to fact check it though. I do things like this attempt by Parker criticising KEY’s numbers where it is easy to get factual proof that what Key was saying was correct rather easily.

                    • McFlock

                      Yes, I fucked up a zero.
                      I was still correct that to argue that most or even many of the newly “employed” are actual jobs rather than supplements to benefits, you’re arguing that some currently employed people are worse off. Because even if it’s on average a cup of coffee, for some people it will be dipping them back onto other sources of income.

                      I also think you’re missing the point about the example of my mum: if she were at an HLFS address, and if she were one of the sample, she’d be counted as one of those 67,000 new jobs.

                      By the way didn’t you like the bit about wealth. And do you agree that that is essentially what your calculation was doing?

                      Nope. Because your calculation of you being rich relied on the other billionaires remaining the same, rather than improving. In order to make it look like the newly employed have a living wage, you needed to demonstrate that everyone else was worse off than they had been.

                      != for the dipshit who never thinks about the links he clicks on.

    • Once was Tim 3.6

      FFS Mathew …. give it up while the giving’s good or be on “the wrong side of history”. If you do, maybe you can still cobble together some sort of earn when the party’s over – either 2014, OR sometime before 2017
      Are you REALLY that dim or just oiling the wheels while the oil is still available?

      (No need for a hissy fit, and pass on my condolences to wifey and kuds)

    • Craig Glen Eden 3.7

      Mathew Hooten do your job you are meant to be a Journalist at least thats what you tell people. You know very well Key has used the “66,000 more people” to imply that unemployment has gone down, so tell us Mathew what has the unemployment rate changed by in the same period.

      Of coarse a real Journalist would be seeing through the spin and explaining this for the public, a spin Doctor on the other hand would just keep quoting his master!

    • blue leopard (Get Lost GCSB Bill) 3.8

      FFS Labour’s response is excellent and National Hooton is applying a distraction technique towards analyzing the distraction and manipulative misinformation technique employed by Key-the-Craven.

      This government and their spinners sole talent is that of creating an infinite loop of misinformation and in so doing manage a complete and utter dearth – a vacuum – of information.

      Key saying (or slurring as the case may be) that 66 000 have got jobs deflects people from the unemployment stats which Parker kindly relays has only dropped by 4000 people [no doubt some of which is due to making it so difficult to qualify for unemployment that some are simply finding help privately].

      Like Draco mentions above, when I hear 66 000 (or should that be 66,666) jobs have been gained I think ‘oh the unemployment rate must be improving drastically’ …and then when I hear the unemployment rate has only dropped by 4000 I realise any improvement is very slow and could well be affected by people simply not qualifying anymore rather than real improvements in NZ.

      I would prefer a Labour/left government because I feel that the information the left relays has a great deal more relevance to reality than the complete disconnect National appear to have with reality. National are a pack of airheads judging by the misinformation they continue to spin and believe.

      I think that you have to be a bit of a drongo not to have started to realise by now that Key’s National are untrustworthy, incompetents whose only talent is that of lying. I sincerely hope I am not living in a Drongoland. Time will tell. I will find out on election night.

      The Labour press release is informative. Key’s speech is full of shit

      Thanks Labour Party greatly appreciated – good work
      No thanks to Key & co – go away you bunch of incompetents.

      • Bearded Git 3.8.1

        +1 bl

      • Once was Tim 3.8.2

        +1
        Case in point the supposed 21K that were on benefits who supposedly had enough money to leave the country temporarily – the implication being a holiday on the ‘taxpayer’

        how long were they gone?
        what were the reasons given?

        seeing parents or children perhaps?

        and who actually paid the fares?

        in search of work elsewhere perhaps?
        attending a funeral or wedding perhaps?

        Apparently poor people under Natzis are not allowed to be normal functioning citizens trying to maintain family relationships..

        21K seems like a very small number given the unemployment/underemployment rate; the number of family members who’ve already left and crossed the ditch or gone even further yonder.

        • blue leopard 3.8.2.1

          I just caught the end of that news item, where Paula Bennett was saying how people say they can’t survive on the benefit and yet go on overseas trips and implying that these people are getting so much on a benefit that they can afford to take overseas trips.

          This is National, yet again showing what a complete lack of a grasp on reality they have. With utter certainty I can say that people doing this have some form of financial backing – yet Bennett is too much of a disingenious airhead to think of anything other than spinning, yet again, to convey utter misinformation and foment common held prejudice based on ignorance.

          Someone would have to have given a person on welfare the money for a trip overseas or, more likely they had savings. These stats Paula is citing do not prove that someone with $240 income per week with, say, $100 rent – so have $140 per week for groceries, electricity and any other expenses that it takes to survive can then save $1000’s for overseas holidays – this is simply impossible and yet true to form National don’t let facts get in the way of what they convey to the general public and this is yet again a case of absolute misinformation emanating from National.

          National are craven and the only people voting for them will be either a) die hard supporters or b) extremely ill informed and gullible people who have a very poor grasp on what is really occurring in this country; that it is being degenerated and ruined by a bunch of incompetent, thieving and lying airheads.

          • Tracey 3.8.2.1.1

            yup

            Economy number one
            Law and order number 2
            Beneficiary bashing number 3

            It’s business as usual for the right wing.

            The truth is irrelevant.

    • Tracey 3.9

      given your access to stats nz, could you fact check this for us mr hooton

      “Mr Key cited Labour’s promise to increase early childhood education from 20 free hours a week for three and four years old to 25 hours a week.

      The policy doesn’t take effect until July 2017 but Labour has costed it at $57 million in the first year and about $60 million after that.

      Mr Key said the cost was more likely to be $600 million, $700 million or $800 million.” 3 april 2014

  4. captain hook 4

    Its like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland.
    (Malice in Blunderland).
    A fact is what we say is a fact.
    Welcome to the Monkeyhouse.

  5. TightyRighty 5

    So David Parker is really saying is it’s good, but not quite as good as John Kent might want you to believe. Ok, I’ll settle for good. Given the global climate if probably settle for ok as long as it was national on charge and not the coalition of the feckless and indignant.

  6. ianmac 6

    I reckon that this is the most compelling:
    National:$10.3b to $55.8b from Budget 2008 to Budget 2013 (+442 per cent)
    How much debt have they landed on every man woman a child and even that new baby born into New Zealand today?
    $100,000 each perhaps?

    • Tamati 6.1

      Nah, you’re off by a factor of 10. Assuming the $55.8b in debt is correct, and Stats NZ estimates our population at 4,523,498 then that’s debt of $12,335.59 per person. Not that scary when you look at it that way. Private debt is much higher.

      • Matthew Hooton 6.1.1

        Also on the debt issue, events since 2008 need to be seen in the context of the forecast decade of deficits that Labour was planning to borrow had it been re-elected: see http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/forecasts/prefu2008/prefu08-pt4of9.pdf

        The amount borrowed by National (once earthquake rebuild costs are excluded) is less than what Labour planned to borrow according to the 2008 PREFU. And there will be a small fiscal surplus for 2014/15, whereas Labour’s 2008 PREFU forecast deficits every year into the future.

        So while it is true, National has borrowed a great deal, it would be just as accurate to talk about the gap between what Labour planned to borrow and what National has (excluding earthquake costs) and have a totally different talking point.

        • mickysavage 6.1.1.1

          “Decade of deficits” is of itself pure spin. What happened Matthew is that a bunch of shyster merchant bankers in the United States through sheer greed managed to almost destroy the world’s economy. The “decade of deficits” was the money planned to be spent by Labour to shield NZ from the worst effects. It had nothing to do with Labour’s management of the economy and everything to do with that bunch of shyster crooks otherwise known as Merchant Bankers.

          • Matthew Hooton 6.1.1.1.1

            Well I am glad you concede that, for whatever reason, after the Cullen recession that began in Q1 2008 and then the GFC which followed, Labour planned a decade of deficits. National then proceeded with most of the borrowing Labour planned, in order to shield people from the worst of the Cullen recession and the GFC, although has moved back into surplus faster than Labour planned, despite the earthquakes. So struggling to understand your point.

            • Tracey 6.1.1.1.1.1

              gfc started in the usa in dec 2007 didnt it?

            • mickysavage 6.1.1.1.1.2

              So do you concede Matthew that the “decade of deficits” was not of Labour’s making?

              • Matthew Hooton

                Not entirely, had it not been for the big spend up between 2005-2008 (WFF, interest-free student loans etc), then the fiscal impact of the Cullen recession and the GFC would not have been as severe. Also true that National has failed to cut the big spending Labour policies. My point is that Labour can’t credibly attack National for borrowing so much 2008-2014 when Labour planned to borrow more over the same period, and keep borrowing for at least another four years.

                • mickysavage

                  Interesting that an effective tax cut (WFF) is considered to be a big spend up. I thought you would approve of tax cuts Matthew?

                  • Tracey

                    communism by stealth according to key, who has kept it.

                    mr key has no principles matthew, thats the point of the thread, no matter how much you want it to be otherwise.

                    rationalise and justify away, doesnt change the misleading manipulation of the electorate of mr key over the last two days and 7 years.

                    any luck fact checking keys calculation on ece yesterday?

                  • Enough is Enough

                    Labour also promised tax cuts in 2008!

                    • Tracey

                      cuts which are generally recognised to stimulate the economy during down times, unlike cuts to the very top

                  • Weepu's beard

                    Not to the lower-middle class, he doesn’t.

                • Tracey

                  did labour plan a tax cut for the highest earning bracket with no corresponding economic stimulus?

                  pretty sure parker is attacking key for misleading kiwis about the true state of our nation… it is you who is trying to excuse the deception by blaming labours alleged planned borrowing.

                  how are you going fact checking mr keys statement about how much labours ece spend will cost?

                  gfc began in july/august 2007.

                • mickysavage

                  the Cullen recession

                  You mean the farming recession caused by drought. Or is Cullen responsible for the weather as well?

                • This is how Treasury describe the 2008 recession:

                  Between 2000 and 2007, the New Zealand economy expanded by an average of 3.5% each year as private consumption and residential investment grew strongly. Annual inflation averaged 2.6%, comfortably within the Reserve Bank’s 1% to 3% target range, while the current account deficit averaged 5.8% of GDP over this period.

                  The New Zealand economy entered recession in early 2008, before the effects of the global financial crisis set in later in the year. A drought over the 2007/08 summer led to lower production of dairy products in the first half of 2008. Domestic activity slowed sharply over 2008 as high fuel and food prices dampened domestic consumption while high interest rates and falling house prices drove a rapid decline in residential investment.

                  The outlook for the New Zealand economy deteriorated sharply following the intensification of the global financial crisis in September 2008.

                  http://www.treasury.govt.nz/economy/overview/2010/04.htm

                  There’s been valid claims of both positive and negative economic legacies from Cullen’s/Labour’s three terms.

                  • mickysavage

                    Can you outline the negative economic legacy of Cullen/Labour’s 3 terms? From reputable sources and not the slogan type analysis that we have been subject to repeatedly?

                    • As touched on in the above quote, “private consumption and residential investment” – overspending and property inflation – caused significant problems, masked by the good economic times.

                      Social spending – student loans and Working For Families – limited options for dealing with the Global Financial Crisis. It would have been political and economic suicide to have reversed them but they were major spending commitments at a time the country could not afford them.

                      Every Government has positive and negative economic legacies. Managing the economy, especially when influenced by political ambitions, will never have perfect outcomes.

                    • Tracey

                      Does that mean Key was or wasn’t misleading people with his pre budget speech, cos that’s the point of the thread. It’s Hooten with his cherry picking that has turned it into whether labour can criticise National for borrowing.

            • xtev 6.1.1.1.1.3

              The decade of deficits was CONDITIONAL of all labours tax cuts being indroduced.
              National repealed all those – problem fixed then. but we have had $60 billion of deficit anyway

              • framu

                “had it been re-elected:”

                it was also conditional on them being in govt in the first place – and thats straight from the hoots mouth

          • View Balanced 6.1.1.1.2

            So you would have to agree then that National have managed the destruction of the worlds economy better than Labour had planned to.

            • Stuart Munro 6.1.1.1.2.1

              Yes – no-one is faster at destroying economies than the Gnats. This is why they consider Christchurch a success – but the people living there don’t.

            • Mike S 6.1.1.1.2.2

              The “destruction of the worlds economy” has nowhere near happened yet. I’d say it’s not too far away though. If anyone thinks the last 6 years have been bad then they’re going to be in for a massive shock when the world economy really collapses. And it will collapse, that is simply a statement of fact whether we like it or not. It is a mathematical certainty. One need only understand the exponential function to realize this.

        • Tracey 6.1.1.2

          could you fact check john keys statement yesterday for us?

          Mr Key cited Labour’s promise to increase early childhood education from 20 free hours a week for three and four years old to 25 hours a week.

          The policy doesn’t take effect until July 2017 but Labour has costed it at $57 million in the first year and about $60 million after that.

          Mr Key said the cost was more likely to be $600 million, $700 million or $800 million.

  7. Tracey 7

    that isnt really fact checking. once i saw it was david parker doing the fact checking… its hardly impartial and without spin.

    what a shame hoots and the others werent here yesterday doing their fact checking, or over at farrars site

  8. George 8

    There is no GDP growth, and has not been for some time. Auckland is stagnant, the rest of the country is in slight decline.

    The only growth that is being seen is the rebuilding of Christchurch – a necessary activity that gets us back to where we started.

    http://rebuildingchristchurch.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/we-built-this-city-on-rock-n-roll-rockstar-economy-edition/

    • Tracey 8.1

      gdp growth is not a panacea. think of the growth in gdp over the last forty years and compare to rise in poverty and gap between rich and poor.

  9. Ad 9

    It’s what’s not said that bugs me most about Key’s presentation.

    Not in his entire reign has Prime Minister Key generated one deal that has turned into sustaining an industry. Instead it’s a series of sugar-ruch fixes that we all know of: The Hobbit, the National Convention Centre, the massive motorways. All provide great short term largely low wage employment gains. 6% unemployment was merely rebuild labour absorption.

    The one exception of a programme that he could have been memorialised for, is the Christchurch rebuild. Something astonishing, inovative, groundbreaking, or failing that, communitarian, generous, and embracing. Napier on a grandly proud scale where we look back for generations to come. We now know the result.

    Key in New Zealand will be remembered in much the same way as Obama: his good deeds were disaggregated, his crisis management uninspiring and forgettable, his international portfolio consisting of apologies and botched stillborn trade deals, his education policy just wreckage, the dairy industry driving a national strategic vulnerability worse than oil had became, his promise overall a whole bunch better than his delivery.

    We’ll look back in October at the end of his reign, give him a 4.5 on his political tombstone – 2 points of which was getting us through the GFC, and another 1 point for popularity and jokes.

    • Will@Welly 9.1

      Too generous. He’d be in the negative. He stalled the rebuild, by not giving training incentives in the first couple of years, while businesses were adjusting and waiting for the rebuild to kick in.
      Everything else has been short-term fixes, no term legacies, I can think of any Prime Minister so short-sighted. The only long-term legacy Key will leave is the mountain of debt, fueled primarily by the tax-cuts to the rich. Even Muldoon wasn’t that stupid.

      • Bearded Git 9.1.1

        So, so good Will-turn this into some snappy slogans pls.

        • Tracey 9.1.1.1

          Judtih Collins Husband is better off under this government
          Pansy Womg’s husband is better off under this government
          Brownlee’s Christchurch properties have higher rental value more under this government
          Williamson’s domestic violence friend is better off under this government
          Amy Adam’s family is wealthier under this government
          Craigs Investment brokerage has made more profit from this government
          IRD consultants are wealthier under this government

    • jeremy 9.2

      It is not his reign. He is not a ruler. He is elected to govern not to rule.

  10. Clemgeopin 10

    Mr Parker has clearly demonstrated with actual facts and figures that Key and his government is a den of liars, spinners and bull shitters!

  11. Richard@Down South 11

    Even Bob Jones, who people must consider one of NZ’s most… hardened financial persons, who tends to lean righter than most… admits the economy does better under Labour… he says there is just more opportunity for people with a lot of cash, to make it rich, under a National Govt

  12. alwyn 12

    Bob Jones says that the Commercial Property Industry does better.

    If you own a lot of office buildings in Wellington, and you observed that Labour boosts the number of Public Servants in Head Offices you would agree.
    As Bob put it “It’s no secret the commercial property industry, numbering over 100,000 people in all of its ramifications, favour Labour governments”.

    At the time Bob was getting very peeved at Bill English’s clamp down on building depreciation.
    I hate to think what he would say about the CGT proposals. One thing he did say in the Herald was.
    “The recent clamour for capital gains tax, like so many cries from the mob throughout history, stems from envy and ignorance.”

    • Red Hand 12.1

      The envious and ignorant mob is crying for a just sharing of wealth and for their children to escape Bob’s ignorance.

    • vto 12.2

      People make money in all sorts of ways.

      Some make it in a wage, some make it in a business selling things, some make it by building and selling a business, some make it by salary, some make it by luck, some make it by inheritance, some make it by rising values of things like property, some make it by welfare ……

      Not sure why only some of those ways are taxed and not others… especially when it is the hard workers on wage and salary, who do the grunt work in the economy, get hit while those riding rising values get off scot free. Sends some odd message it does …..

      but you know, self-justification is a sight to behold ….

  13. feijoa 13

    The “Cullen recession” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Hoots, you’re a hoot..

  14. Foreign Waka 15

    I belief that the measure of “jobs” should be obtained from the IRD via the PAYE contributions by each person. This would allow to measure actual jobs and income bracket. Combined with the benefit payments by individual it would be possible to get some very solid stats. Instead of that gobbledegook on job advertising – OMG how idiotic is that. The question is, does anybody really wants to know or is the rhetoric on that subject just being used to have a spin which ever way.

  15. captain hook 16

    +1
    you got it foreign waka. the media is the massage!

  16. Philj 17

    Xox
    John Keys legacy? Half baked, miserly funded cycle ways. On yer Bike Johnny boy!

    • Enough is Enough 17.1

      Bigger legacy than that.

      The sale of New Zealand to his rich mates and the Chinese.

  17. anker 18

    O.k.

    Why am I voting Labour. Why do I find this Govt morally bankrupt. Because THIS Govt, gave the wealthiest NZders tax cuts, when they didn’t need it. Some of them IMO already have obscene amounts of money. Yet they tell us we can’t afford a living wage for the people who are doing jobs that most of us wouldn’t want to do. They have not shown the brains or the will to deal with this.

    I could go on and on about all the other things that repulse me about this govt, but I rather keep it simple.

    David C has said the rich will get taxed more and that their will be a capital gains tax. He has a plan around the living wage, a better increase for the minimum wage and policy around creating more jobs in forestry. And he’s smart, really, really smart. I would trust his figures (and I know the above were Parkers) over Key’s figures any day of the week.

    Who am I? Well I am very very comfortably off, but by no means rich. I am not a beneficiary or a solo mum. I am have been lucky. But not so lucky as a child when my mum had to leave my alcoholic dad before there was a DPB. We had to rely on the kindness of relatives a lot.
    So you can talk figures all you like and don’t get me wrong, I believe it is an important debate.
    But the above is what drives me to get rid of this wretched and uncaring govt and I invite anybody to give me a justification as to why already exceedingly wealthy people should have to pay less tax and have more money to waste on whatever these people spend their money on. And please don’t give me the BS about trickle down!!!! It never does.

  18. felix 19

    Sorry but this is not real fact-checking.

    The correct way to fact-check John Key’s speech is to send him an email asking if everything in the speech was true.

    That’s how the Fact-Checker General does it.

    • Tracey 19.1

      Stop it! 🙂

    • Murray Olsen 19.2

      I think you’re giving Fact Checker General too much credit. I have it on good authority (voices in my head) that he asks Key if he would find it acceptable for him to state that he had been assured that, given the externalities of the situation, and in the interests of fairness, and taking all things into consideration, from all possible angles, that everything was true and factual, accepting that there is always a different way of looking at things.

  19. Kevyn 20

    One major omission in Parker’s fact checking.
    Key stated “Yes, we have taken on more debt to protect the most vulnerable families, to maintain living standards and to support the rebuilding of Christchurch.”

    Sure, National is borrowing $4.8bn, but it is also reducing it’s debts by the $3.6bn of Government bonds held by EQC in 2010 (currently down to $1.25bn). 4.8 – 3.6 = 1.2. So the Government’s contribution to repairing Christchurch has added $1.2bn of the $45bn increase in Government debt under National. But the bonds owned by EQC were paying 6% interest whereas the Earthquake Kiwibonds are paying only 3%. That suggest a total change in Government debt financing costs of roughly $450 million. The GST on the rebuild is in the order $6bn. Add that to the $6bn from the National Disaster Fund and $1bn in insurance payouts for damage to Crown assets (Hospitals, schools, universities, State Houses, etc) and the total Government assistance to the Canterbury recovery is $2bn…and $1bn of that was already signalled in budgets before the earthquakes began (NZTA approved the bus exchange funding in December 2009, Tony Ryal received the hospital redevelopment business case in December 2010, greater Christchurch’s per capita share of the 21st Century Schools Fund is $700m, and the remaining Christchurch RoNS have all been delayed three years freeing up $200m towards NZTA’s $250m assistance towards the $930m road repair bill.)

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  • At a glance – Does CO2 always correlate with temperature?
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    4 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 hours ago
  • Relentlessly negative
    Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 hours ago
  • Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    Bryce Edwards writes –  It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 hours ago
  • Promiscuous Empathy: Chris Trotter Replies To His Critics.
    Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played. “Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
    7 hours ago
  • Don’t run your business like a criminal enterprise
    The Detail this morning highlights the police's asset forfeiture case against convicted business criminal Ron Salter, who stands to have his business confiscated for systemic violations of health and safety law. Business are crying foul - but not for the reason you'd think. Instead of opposing the post-conviction punishment and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 hours ago
  • Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.
    Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I - Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
    8 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    8 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    9 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    12 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    12 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    13 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    13 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    14 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    15 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    17 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    2 days ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    2 days ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    6 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    11 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
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