Message from Andrew Little about TPPA

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, January 29th, 2016 - 278 comments
Categories: Andrew Little, labour, trade - Tags:

From an email sent out to members.

Over the summer, I’ve been reading the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement — and one thing’s become clear: as it stands, New Zealand shouldn’t sign this agreement.

Labour has always supported free trade and we always will. But the TPPA does more than just deal with trade. It undermines our democracy and our sovereignty.

It prevents future governments passing laws in the best interests of New Zealanders, under the threat of being sued by overseas corporations. It means we won’t be able to stop non-resident foreigners from buying Kiwi homes. And it also means that people who don’t even live here have the right to have a say on many of our laws.

Over the coming months, Labour will continue to raise these issues about the TPPA as National tries to ram it through.

But  our opposition will be much stronger with tens of thousands of Kiwis standing with us.

In Government, we’ll go back to the TPPA partners and renegotiate the deal to make sure New Zealand’s sovereignty is protected. And as Prime Minister I will never back down on making laws in the interests of New Zealanders.

Stand with me now — add your name against the TPPA. Click here to sign.

Thanks,

Andrew Little
Labour Leader

278 comments on “Message from Andrew Little about TPPA ”

  1. Matthew Hooton 1

    “It means we won’t be able to stop non-resident foreigners from buying Kiwi homes.”

    That’s a straight out lie, and Little knows it.

    • weka 1.1

      Please explain how Matthew.

      • Matthew Hooton 1.1.1

        The TPP allows NZ to introduce a stamp duty on the purchase of Kiwi homes by non-resident foreigners. This would be set at, say, 1000%, so that someone who wanted to but a Kiwi home for, say, $750,000, would have to pay a $7,500,000 tax to the government. Personally, I would think we should let that deal go ahead. But if a Labour-led government felt that the 1000% tax wasn’t high enough to stop all foreigners buying property, it could increase the tax to 10,000%, 100,000% or whatever it wanted.

        Given this is the only one of Labour’s “bottom lines” which Little said wasn’t met, it means Labour is opposing this deal over the SOLE ISSUE of wanting to use an outright ban rather than a stamp duty to “stop non-resident foreigners from buying Kiwi homes”.

        This is the point many Labour MPs made at the caucus retreat and that Phil Goff made to the media this week.

        Little knows this is the situation but he prefers to lie to party members.

        • Mike 1.1.1.1

          And also, Labour was claiming last year that the Korean FTA (which has already been signed and ratified) would prevent a house-buying ban on Korean or Chinese nationals (through the MFN clause in the China FTA). So even if the TPP does not come into force, no house buying ban can be imposed on citizens of those and other countries that we have an FTA with (that has an MFN clause).

          Also, Labour’s own policy on overseas buyers already specifically exempts Australia due to CER.

        • mac1 1.1.1.2

          Matthew. Is it possible that a litigious foreigner could challenge a government’s very high stamp duty set at the levels you write of on the grounds that the intent of the duty was to circumvent the intent of the TPPA?

          Such an out clause, if legitimate, makes a mockery of so-called binding agreements. Clearly, a stamp tax just makes for an instance of ‘one rule for the rich”.

          • weka 1.1.1.2.1

            Who came up with the stamp duty out?

            • Matthew Hooton 1.1.1.2.1.1

              MFAT. They were informally instructed to negotiate to meet all of Labour’s five bottom lines. They believed they had done so, and did in fact do so, and Labour was kept informed of what was going on. So MFAT staffers are now furious that Labour is saying they did a bad job and telling lies about the TPP for political reasons.

              • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                More BS from Hooten. Grosser deliberately tried to put Labour in a difficult position by only giving Labour a dishonest way to ban foreign buyers.

                Also Grosser and MFAT were useless in negotiating benefits -what did Gnats farming constituents get again Mathew?

                People from all around NZ, almost certainly a majority, are angry with MFAT and Grosser for being such poor negotiators, especially the fact they are willing to throw away our hard fought sovereignty to foreign corporates for what? Not even 30 pieces of silver.

                • Markm

                  What a load of BS.
                  Where do you get your ridiculous idea that a majority of people in NZ are angry at MFat and Groser?

                  I certainly dont know anyone who is , and a few hundred at Tuesday nights protest , say otherwise

                  • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                    Chris Trotter has discussed a survey late last year showing the majority of kiwis did not support the TPPA.

              • Lanthanide

                Given that Australia were able to negotiate an outright ban on foreign owners, I don’t see why NZ couldn’t have.

                If MFAT did truly go with this silly stamp duty work-around as a favour to Labour, they only have themselves to blame.

          • Bill 1.1.1.2.2

            Individuals cannot use the ISDS process. They could only take their case to the NZ courts.

            Corporations buying tracts of land is a different matter. They could launch an ISDS (and probably win).

            I’m thinking Labour ought to have somebody read their mail-outs before the ‘send’ button is hit.

          • Matthew Hooton 1.1.1.2.3

            No, see Annex II:

            “New Zealand reserves the right to adopt or maintain any taxation measure with respect to the sale, purchase or transfer of residential property (including interests that arise via leases, financing and profit sharing arrangements, and acquisition of interests in enterprises that own residential property).”

            • mac1 1.1.1.2.3.1

              So, why not just allow a sovereign government the right to restrict sales to residents or citizens along lines which it decides rather than resort to what is a subterfuge (I mean, really, a stamp tax of 1000% per cent of the value of the property? 10,000%? 100,000%?). It seems other sovereign nations did in the TPPA.

              Why does a MFAT instructed by our government. led by a Minister of the Crown, get into such ridiculous subterfuge? To me it seems explicable only to allow what most NZers do not want- lack of sovereignty, foreign ownership- by a government aligned to the interests of foreign individuals and businesses and foreign capital, to the 1%ers.

              Such a stamp tax subterfuge points to a loss of sovereignty, is cincumventable, does not apply to non-residential properties, and would be seen as ridiculous. Why, a reasonable person would ask, should New Zealand set a 1,000-100,000% stamp tax as a mechanism if it doesn’t want to allow sales of New Zealand land to foreign ownership?

              Are we not able to set our own standards here? Are we in the hands of foreign individuals, companies, corporations or even foreign governments here? How easy is it to circumvent stamp tax if NZ taxpayers can successfully avoid paying $7 billion in tax per annum? What is the difference between a home and a farm? How easy is it for a smart lawyer to argue that a lakeside station is actually a home with grounds? How easy will it be for New Zealand land to be sold to foreign buyers anxious to build themselves a bolt-hole here?

              • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell

                If Labour agrees with you and ever again forms a government, they can simply leave the TPPA.

                • mac1

                  Ok, gormless, but my point is that what National has ‘negotiated’ is a good enough reason to have done with them.

            • Tricledrown 1.1.1.2.3.2

              Machevelian Henchman the louder you doth protest the more I smell a rat.
              Last time you doth protested so loudly was when John Key was caught with his firery pants down up to his very long in dirty politics.

            • whateva next? 1.1.1.2.3.3

              “reserves the right to adopt or maintain any taxation measure with respect to the sale, purchase or transfer of residential property ” and who will decide when we exercise this right? RIGHT AGAIN.

        • weka 1.1.1.3

          What about rural land sales?

          And it’s still true that a NZ govt would have difficulty passing legislation that controlled overseas land sales and other things, right? Which is what Little said.

          Given this is the only one of Labour’s “bottom lines” which Little said wasn’t met, it means Labour is opposing this deal over the SOLE ISSUE of wanting to use an outright ban rather than a stamp duty to “stop non-resident foreigners from buying Kiwi homes”.

          Wow Matthew, within five minutes of calling Little a liar you are lying yourself. Have you no shame at all? Go read the post again, it’s pretty clear that that this isn’t the sole issue.

          • Matthew Hooton 1.1.1.3.1

            Andrew Little said when the text was issued:

            “The TPP is here. The National Government has signed up to it. That’s not going to change. We had five bottom lines that we were going to measure it against. We haven’t been through the 6000 pages of text in detail, but we’ve been through enough to know that four of our bottom lines have been met. There’s one, a pretty serious one, that hasn’t been, and that’s the one that concerns restrictions on land sales. We don’t think that it’s acceptable that other countries should dictate to us whether or not we can pass laws to stop non-resident foreign buyers buying our homes and farms, and we reserve the right to do that. And there’s a second aspect to it as well, which is the fact we have an international agreement that tries to prevent our parliament doing what it might think is right for New Zealanders, and we’re opposed to that, and so we will fight very hard against that.”

            Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/transcript-labour-party-leader-andrew-little-2015110712#ixzz3ya28kGKL

            • weka 1.1.1.3.1.1

              1. land sales (residential and rural, still waiting for you to address the rural land issue).

              2. The NZ govt’s ability to make laws for the good of NZ.

              That’s two things Matthew, not a SOLE thing. Two things from your own quote.

              And now that they’ve had more time to look at the TPPA, they’ve seen the job loss issue, which is obviously huge for the Labour party. So that’s 3 things (or 4 if you count the land issue as two), all of which you will be well aware of. Yet you have the gall to call Little a liar in virtually the same breath as you completely misrepresent Labour’s position.

          • Matthew Hooton 1.1.1.3.2

            Rural land is covered by the OIO rules.
            The MFAT summary of this is:
            “Under TPP, the threshold above which an investor must get approval to invest in New Zealand will increase from $100 million to $200 million for investors from TPP Parties. No changes will be made to the way New Zealand approves investments relating to ‘sensitive land’ or fisheries quotas. New Zealand also retains the flexibility to make the approval criteria under the Overseas Investment Act more or less restrictive.”

            • weka 1.1.1.3.2.1

              So same thing, the NZ govt couldn’t bring in new legislation but can manipulate existing legislation? Again, this is a restriction on sovereignty.

            • mickysavage 1.1.1.3.2.2

              So because one particular thing that Andrew said in an interview may not have been breached he is bound to support it even though on other occasions when he used slightly different language and the breach was clear?

              Cherry picking too much?

        • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal 1.1.1.4

          Australia negotiated that they can ban foreign buyers, Grosser forgot to ask if NZ can too, despite that being the position of Labour, Greens and NZ First. As you say a stamp duty would achieve almost the same but it would be dishonest, because the intent is to ban not tax. Of course, John Key is used to hiding his intent and being dishonest that he thinks this sort of behaviour is normal.

          Mathew you are trying the usual Gnat trick of not addressing the full argument -the loss of sovereignty – by picking on only a small part of Little’s argument and then distorting the argument until you have reframed the discussion in a way that is better for the right.

          I think everyone here is clever enough to see that.

          The TPPA is a dog of deal and quite rightly now that people have seen it -they are not impressed.

          • weka 1.1.1.4.1

            How tory-proof would the stamp tax be?

            • Bill 1.1.1.4.1.1

              Obviously, not at all. And as Molly indicates, loop-holes will be found and exploited (I’d say) before the ink has dried on any tax legislation.

            • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal 1.1.1.4.1.2

              Exactly as stamp duty is not designed to ban it would at a later date be easy to water down and change.

              • weka

                as opposed to say legislation that Labour introduces that National would find much harder to repeal.

              • Matthew Hooton

                Yes, it would. So would a ban be able to be changed. You aren’t against parliaments being able to change the laws of their predecessors are you?

                • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                  Again you are trying slimy PR tricks -obviously it is easier to waterdown a stamp duty tax with loopholes etc than it is a honest law like a ban which has a clear intent -it does what it says.

                  Also I am a believer in Parliamentary sovereignty -whose history dates back to the Glorious Revolution of 1688? This cemented Parliament as the highest court in Britain and NZ has inherited this constitutional principle. I don’t see why an alternative court for non-sovereigns such as corporates should be higher than our Parliament.

                  When New Zealand was debating setting up a new Supreme Court in New Zealand it was discussed whether it would have any authority over Parliament. Michael Cullen successfully argued that it should not in his speech titled -‘Parliament Supremacy over Fundamental Norms’.
                  http://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/parliament-supremacy-over-fundamental-norms

                  So why are we giving corporations power over our Parliament?

                  • weka

                    Plus watering down tax policy is likely to bypass most people’s concern, whereas repealing a law to protect NZ land would be a much harder sell.

                    • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                      Yes that is the point I was trying to make. Grosser was playing domestic politics because it is Labour policy to ban foreign buyers and it is not National’s. I don’t believe that MFAT couldn’t negotiate the foreign buyer ban like Australia has, as an opt out option.

              • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell

                So Brendon, you want the government of the day to be able to bind future parliaments? How democratic of you.

                • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                  WTF -how do you conclude that from what I have written?

                  • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell

                    Exactly as stamp duty is not designed to ban it would at a later date be easy to water down and change.

                    Why should a future, democratically-elected government not be free to change the stamp duty? Or the ban?

                • crashcart

                  You do realise Gorm that you are arguing in favour at the moment of the current government binding future governments from being able to legislate as they see fit?

                  What Brendon and others are arguing for is the ability for a future Government to be able to legislate and have a requirement, that for that legislation to be changed or removed, it have to go through full and proper process. I think they call that Democracy.

                  • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell

                    I see what’s happened, crashcart. You have misunderstood what I am arguing in favour of. And what Brendon is arguing in favour of.

                    Entry into the TPPA does not bind a future government to legislate as it sees fit. A future government could simply withdraw from the TPP.

                    Brendon (who claims to be a liberal) wants a ban instead of a stamp duty because (he claims) a stamp duty would be easier to water down and change. To me, that sounds like he wants a ban because a ban would be harder for a later government to change. That he is just plain wrong about that does not preclude me from pointing out that his purpose his undemocratic.

                    • crashcart

                      Oh I thought you were in favour of the TPP which specifically prevents a government from legislating in the manner desired. Unless as you say we remove our selves from the agreement. This is done via a negotiation which does not require a vote from the democratically elected parliament to ratify.

                      Brendon has argued he would rather we retain the ability to introduce through parliament legislation which would ban non resident sales of land or property. This could be removed in the same manner by an elected government via a standard democratic parliamentary process. This could have been negotiated into the agreement as it was for Aus.

                      It is a great trick to try and switch a position with someone else so it seems you are in the right. However when someone can point out that you are actually in the other position you have essentially admitted that your real position is in the wrong.

                    • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell

                      Removing yourself from the TPP doesn’t require a negotiation. Article 30.6 says you just give notice. And you’re out six months later.

                      Brendon looked to me like he wanted a ban so it would be harder to change. I got this from him saying about a stamp duty:

                      it would at a later date be easy to water down and change.

                      As I say, he is wrong. But I am only observing that he was trying to find a way to stop a future democtratically-government from legislating as it wanted.

                    • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell

                      Removing yourself from the TPP doesn’t require a negotiation. Article 30.6 says you just give notice. And you’re out six months later.

                      Brendon looked to me like he wanted a ban so it would be harder to change. I got this from him saying about a stamp duty:

                      it would at a later date be easy to water down and change.

                      As I say, he is wrong. But I am only observing that he was trying to find a way to stop a future democratically-elected from legislating as it wanted.

                    • crashcart

                      We all understand that we could remove ourselves from the TPP. That doesn’t change the fact that whilst in it we are restricted. Something you are well aware of.

                      Also I think you are deliberately misinterpreting a single line. That statement meant that if we could introduce a punitive stamp duty (which has been pointed out that we can’t) it would not require any form of legislation or public consultation to reduce it. The government could essentially change the duty as part of a budget proposal. If a legislative ban were in place then you would have to go through the full process of having the law changed and or removed.

                      Yes that is more difficult but nothing like un-democratic as you tried to paint it.

                    • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell

                      That doesn’t change the fact that whilst in it we are restricted.

                      So, you want to be in it?

          • Matthew Hooton 1.1.1.4.2

            No, the problem was that Australia was able to grandparent such powers, but we were not, so we needed to try another approach and were successful with the stamp duty approach.

            The sovereignty issue is so absurd and dishonest it’s not worth addressing. Phil Goff did so well earlier this week.

            • Kevin 1.1.1.4.2.1

              Groser couldn’t negotiate a hand job in a whore house.

              Other countries have managed to protect issues that the electorate wouldn’t stomach but NZ seems to have just rolled over on everything. And the proof is in the economic expectations as have been shown here and elsewhere.

              The Government probably knows all to well that Stamp Duty is bound to end up in an ISDS dispute with an overseas corporate and would then blame Labour for ‘forcing’ them to include it.

            • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal 1.1.1.4.2.2

              So MFAT didn’t successfully meet Labour’s condition of being able to ban foreign buyers. They found a fudge that they would be acceptable only if Labour was dishonest.

              • Matthew Hooton

                It’s not a fudge. It is specifically written into Annex 2:

                “New Zealand reserves the right to adopt or maintain any taxation measure with respect to the sale, purchase or transfer of residential property (including interests that arise via leases, financing and profit sharing arrangements, and acquisition of interests in enterprises that own residential property).”

                • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                  Yes it is a fudge -Labour condition is they want to be able to ban foreigners buying land or houses. They didn’t ask for a tax. Grosser didn’t do what he was asked to do and National are trying to fudge their way out of it by saying if Labour is willing to be dishonest about their intent then they can ban foreign buyers.

                • Lanthanide

                  It’s a fudge in the sense that it’s a “ban-in-all-but-name” to introduce an exorbitant stamp duty.

                  Given that an outright ban was apparently impossible to negotiate in the TPPA, I don’t see why a ban-in-all-but-name would somehow be seen by other TPPA parties as abiding by the spirit of the agreement.

                  • Matthew Hooton

                    I think it has something to do with that allowing us to legislate for a ban would be seen as us making our laws more restrictive, whereas allowing us to maintain our current ability to have a stamp duty would at least be seen as maintaining current regulatory framework. Who knows what complications there were over this point. It was necessary to get 11 other countries to agree in order to ensure a future Labour government could stop foreign investment in residential property. This is where things landed.

                    • Lanthanide

                      “whereas allowing us to maintain our current ability to have a stamp duty”

                      Ok, let me get this straight.

                      Our “current ability to have a stamp duty” is by passing legislation in Parliament to do so, correct? So they’ll let us pass legislation to do that.

                      Also our “current ability to” ban foreign ownership is by passing legislation in Parliament to do so. So they won’t let us pass legislation to do that.

                      It was necessary to get 11 other countries to agree in order to ensure a future Labour government could stop foreign investment in residential property. This is where things landed.

                      Or, this current National government, could have passed the law last year, or whatever other “current ability” you want that somehow falls short of passing the law, and thereby gotten the clause into the TPPA negotiations.

                      Alternatively, they could have met with Labour and proposed the stamp duty as an alternative arrangement. John Key then could have publicly announced the result of that discussion – either to say Labour had come to an agreement, or to say that Labour hadn’t (and therefore make Labour look bad). National chose not to do that.

                      Either way, National failed. Instead of constructively working with Labour to ensure the TPPA would be able to get super-majority support in Parliament for its enabling legislation, they dropped the ball.

            • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal 1.1.1.4.2.3

              Hooten the following found the sovereignty issues of ISDS and the TPPA not absurd:

              http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21623756-governments-are-souring-treaties-protect-foreign-investors-arbitration

              http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/01/18/TPP-Foreign-Investors/

              http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/01/18/TPP-Foreign-Investors/

              Yet, the arbitrary, non-transparent, corporate-favoured and public policy chilling nature of the system has made ISDS “a very toxic issue,” Cecilia Malmström, the EU’s Trade Commissioner, has said.”
              http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/76114721/Rod-Oram-Dark-clouds-on-the-horizon

              Brazil doesn’t negotiate any trade agreements that contain ISDS

              Mathew there really is a worldwide backlash against ISDS provisions. So why should NZ rush into the TPPA? Why is it absurd to worry about loss of sovereignty?

              • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                Winner of a Nobel prize Joseph Stigliz discusses US trade agreements and investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in his book “Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy, in a chapter titled;

                Restore balance to global trade agreements

                While it is essential that the United States work with global partners to establish rules for international trade and investment, the kind of rules that we’ve been making through trade agreements increasingly set the terms in favour of businesses and against workers and the public interest in both the United States and among our economic partners. These rules determine who will benefit from an increasingly globalized world, but trade agreements -written behind closed doors, with the active participation of firms but no other stakeholders -are failing to deliver the rules we need for managing globalization in a way that benefit all.

                One set of provisions that increasingly balances the odds against ordinary Americans is the protection for investors that US negotiators insist other countries must adopt in the so-called investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms. These provisions create private international arbitration panels in which investors can sue governments, and parties have no recourse to legal review and appeal. While investors should be protected against rogue governments seizing their assets or formulating policies that discriminate against specific firms, this is not what the provisions are about; investors can already buy insurance against such outcomes from the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency as well as some US government programs for insuring investment. Rather, the real intent of these provisions is to impede health, environmental, consumer safety, and even financial regulations meant to protect the public interest from egregious business practices. That’s why the US negotiators insisted on including such investor protections in an agreement with the European Union -where the rule of law and protection against expropriation are already on par with the United States. By limiting the scope for policy in the public interest, investor protections actually make it harder for trading-partner countries to raise their own standards and make it easier for companies to move production offshore or extract wage concessions with such threats.

                Trade agreements with true high-road standards for the global economy -be they in labour rights or environmental, consumer, and public health protections -would have rules where the benefits of an agreement are only made available contingent on certified compliance with standards. In other words, businesses wishing to trade with businesses in the United States under the terms of an agreement should be audited and certified by a credible, independent third party such as the International Labour Organization; certification then buys the company a right to trade under the preferential treatment of a trade agreement. This requirement has been shown to work to raise standards -for example, among Cambodian garment exporters -in contrast to the enforcement model of other US agreements covering trade from Bahrain to Bogota on which the Trans-Pacific Partnership is based.

                Getting the rules right on trade begins by not exporting to other countries the economic rules that have led to skyrocketing inequality in income, wealth, and political influence. While much of the “trade policy” agenda focuses on technical legal aspects of international economics, we also know that international agreements don’t create trade, people do. Policies outlined elsewhere in this report aiming to establish true equality of opportunity and to tame the excesses of market power for a more open and broadly beneficial market competition will also be key to ensuring that people in the US economy can seize on and create the opportunities made possible by a world with deepening globalization.

                • Wayne

                  Brendan,

                  Your argument in these two posts is that TPP should not include ISDS provisions. However, it does and all 12 countries agreed to them. So if it was bottom line forLabour, that would mean NZ could not be a party to TPP at all. But Labour is clearly not against ISDS as such. They are in many trade agreements that Labour has not taken exception to.

                  Labour’s prime point is the residential sales issue. Despite your insults, Matthew Hooton has addressed that point quite precisely.

                  The reality is this is all political posturing by Labour. They know National has the numbers (including Goff) to pass any enabling legislation.

                  They have not said they will withdraw from TPP. Instead they would go back to the other 11 nations to get a carve out to ban sales of residential property. Fat chance; no state party is going to agree to unravel an agreement that by then will be in force. Where would it end? Instead they will point Labour to the stamp duty provision that already exists and tell them to use that.

                  And at that point can you really imagine Labour withdrawing from TPP. Obviously the Greens would, but they will not be the core of the alternative govt.

                  • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                    Wayne if you read Andrew Little’s conditions he has a catch-all condition of not giving away our Parliament’s sovereign ability to make decisions for the public good. Worldwide it seems the ISDS provisions are going rogue and putting corporate interests above the wider public interests. Thus there is all sorts of backlashes. This is what you are seeing in NZ.

                    ISDS provisions may need to restricted not necessarily removed -this could be negotiated.

                    The TPPA may be signed soon but it is not ratified -not yet in NZ and certainly not by all countries. The treaty needs to be ratified by all 12 partner countries or something like 6 partner countries including Japan and the US, before it comes into force.

                    Given the state of US politics it may never be ratified in the US. So why are we in such a rush?

                    Whether to go with the TPPA as it currently exists is an important move by New Zealand and we should consider the full implications with care. Really it should be properly debated in Parliament, although that will be a challenge for Key and Carter.

                    A small 50% majority in Parliament agreeing with a treaty with such long term implications is quite inadequate.

                    Wayne this National approach of making the TPPA a fait accompli is really disrespectful to NZ and its long history of democracy.

                    My wife is Finnish, her country is really struggling due to loss of sovereignty -the ability to control interest and exchange rates. When the country joined the Euro -the political elite made all sorts of reassurances that the benefits would exceed the costs. Events changed, there was the GFC. Now it seems the loss of sovereignty was important after all.

                    Countries should be very careful when signing away sovereign rights.

                    • Matthew Hooton

                      The Euro Treaty really did involve a loss of sovereignty because it had no withdrawal provisions. It was designed to be irrevocable.

                    • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                      So Mathew could NZ declare its Parliament is sovereign if the TPPA as it exists comes into force? Could Parliament declare it is through constitutional tradition and because of natural justice -given it is the most representative and democratic body in NZ -that it has the power to overrule ISDS tribunal decisions if Parliament finds the public interest exceeds the corporate interest?

                      Or in practice do we throw away an important aspect of our sovereignty if the TPPA comes into force?

                    • Wayne

                      Why would New Zealand be an early ratifier?

                      Because New Zealand has consistently (at least until the Andrew Little U turn) argued the case for free trade.

                      We were the pioneers of the TPP when it was a P4. We (under Labour with Goff as Trade Minister) helped get the US into the negotiations. We are the depositary for the agreement. We are seeking to be the home of the TPP secretariat.

                      We therefore have to be an early ratifier.

                      As Margaret Thatcher once said, at a key time in her Prime Ministership, “You turn if you want to, but the Lady’s not for turning.”

                    • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                      Wayne Labour has no trouble with free trade agreements -past agreements have had benefits. But now we can read the full text of the TPPA it can be see this is a corporate power grab not a free trade treaty. That the large loss of sovereignty issues versus the small gains from trade mean that there is nothing in the agreement for Labour constituents. So why should Labour support the TPPA?

                  • Stuart Munro

                    No, Labour is trying to catch up. ISDS is electoral poison to Labour, and it will cost National too, if they are stupid enough to bring it in. And National has enormous reserves of stupid.

                    • Matthew Hooton

                      Little is not really concerned about ISDS. If he was, he would be promising to renegotiate chapter 11 of the NZ-China FTA with the Chinesa, but he is not. And he is certainly not suggesting invoking the withdrawal procedures from the NZ-China FTA under Article 213(3). His only concern is this ban v stamp duty issue over residential property.

                    • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                      Mathew is the ISDS chapter in the TPPA the same as the FTA we have with China? How many ISDS court cases have Chinese companies pursued vs. US companies (in other trade agreements)?

                  • Tricledrown

                    Goff has impress National voters in Auckland Shearer has to make shure aunty Helen gets Ban Ki Moons job at the UN.
                    Their are dangerous hooks in the TPPA that’s why China and Europe don’t want anything to do with this agreement.
                    I will be for a free trade agreement that doesn’t have hooks and has good access for our agriculture exports.
                    Hooten and Mapp are distracting us with minor details.
                    Canada and Japan will never ratify such a Deal.
                    The US will probably change its strategy to reopen the European free trade deal and will have to change to bring China Japan and Canada on board.
                    The Devil is in the detail.

        • Molly 1.1.1.5

          Stamp duty was utilised in the UK, but failed to stop the speculative trading of houses there.

          Residential properties were put into companies, and those companies were traded – leaving the ownership intact – so no stamp duty collected.

          Consider, those wishing to speculate and trade housing have incentives to hop, skip and jump over any such hastily considered impediments to them making money.

          BTW – there was a group of UK house sellers that paid the required stamp duty on 100% of their sales.

          They were the one-house owners who lived in their own properties and had to sell for whatever reason.

          • weka 1.1.1.5.1

            Thanks Molly. The whole stamp duty thing as a replacement for sovereignty smacks of a set up.

          • savenz 1.1.1.5.2

            +1 Molly – stamp duty and CGT have not stopped property speculation. The rich avoid the taxes and it just gets the middle class. The class dying in the West is the middle class, they are losing their jobs, job security, housing and so forth.

            If you have a look at journalists for example – being paid less and less, if they don’t get into PR and sell their souls they too are on short term contracts, their IP is sold to corporations and if they don’t tow the party line they are terminated.

            John Campbell most popular guy on TV gone, current affairs gone, Rachel Glucina in.

            The current system does not support the smart and the ethical, it supports the brainwashed, trivial and the weak minded and the below average.

            Soon our more esteemed journos might turn into this pulitzer winning photographer who drives a taxi and rents his house out to make ends meet in between contracts in the US. (http://www.salon.com/2015/12/29/the_sharing_economy_partner/) Or maybe in court with their computers seized illegally like Nicky Hager.

            Look at the farmers. Is it a dream milk pay out or have they been lured down this ‘free market’ path that helps the Fonterra CEO get millions while they lose their farms and create products that cost more to make than what they can sell them for under the CEO?

            Many multinational corporations don’t pay at all, and certainly not locally and TPPA is keeping this rout going AND on steroids such as the opportunistic play by Phillip Morris in OZ and the TransCanada pipeline ISDS claim.

            We see corporations threatening to sue in Wellington if the council try to put in a ‘living wage’. Ethics is gone and Greed is in.

            The TPP should be renegotiated to give more power to local government and to protect the environment which is a shared resource. Unfortunately it is been written by corporate lobbyists to do the opposite, increase inequality not reduce it and stifle innovation and wage conditions by Corporate Lawfare.

        • framu 1.1.1.6

          you kind of shoot your own feet when you use 1000%

          why not 1,000,000%

        • BlueSky 1.1.1.7

          Stamp duty could easily be avoided and not prohibitive and more than likely litigious under TTP.

        • DH 1.1.1.8

          “The TPP allows NZ to introduce a stamp duty on the purchase of Kiwi homes by non-resident foreigners. This would be set at, say, 1000%, so that someone who wanted to but a Kiwi home for, say, $750,000, would have to pay a $7,500,000 tax to the government. ”

          Mathew. can you point to the TPPA text that permits member nations to discriminate against non-resident foreigners in such a fashion. Any discriminatory act must be written into the agreement as a specific exemption. If there is no exemption permitting such a stamp duty then the TPP does not allow it.

          When John Key mentioned this he qualified it by saying we could charge ‘costs’ in the form of a stamp duty. Those costs would, of course, need to be quantified and certainly could not be any amount we please.

          Quote here from Key….

          http://www.interest.co.nz/property/78095/pm-says-tpp-carved-out-ability-nz-impose-land-tax-or-stamp-duty-non-resident-buyers

          “I wouldn’t say we were actively looking at that (a land tax or stamp duty on non-residents) today, but certainly TPP allows us, if we want to, to apply taxes — or costs would be a better term — to non-residents,”

          Thanks.

          • Matthew Hooton 1.1.1.8.1

            See Annex 11 of the TTP:

            “New Zealand reserves the right to adopt or maintain any taxation measure with respect to the sale, purchase or transfer of residential property (including interests that arise via leases, financing and profit sharing arrangements, and acquisition of interests in enterprises that own residential property).”

            Quite clear really.

            • weka 1.1.1.8.1.1

              But not rural land?

              edit, no it doesn’t, and of course you left that bit out.


              Investment

              New Zealand reserves the right to adopt or maintain any taxation measure with respect to the sale, purchase or transfer of residential property (including interests that arise via leases, financing and profit sharing arrangements, and acquisition of interests in enterprises that own residential property).

              For greater certainty, residential property does not include non-residential commercial real estate.

              Annex II New Zealand (not Annex 11)

              https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/about-us/who-we-are/treaty-making-process/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp/text-of-the-trans-pacific-partnership-annexes/

            • DH 1.1.1.8.1.2

              “Quite clear really.”

              That is not clear at all Mathew. That does not say we can tax only non-resident foreigners, so where is the text that says we can.

              • Matthew Hooton

                It’s an exception to the National Treatment rules Article 9.4. Go and read the text yourself.

                • DH

                  Can’t find it can you Mathew.

                  • DH

                    Well here’s all I could find so far…..

                    “(h) the adoption or enforcement of any new taxation measure aimed at ensuring the equitable or effective imposition or collection of taxes, including any taxation measure that differentiates between persons based on their place of residence for tax purposes, provided that the taxation measure does not arbitrarily discriminate between persons, goods or services of the Parties;[11]”

                    My interpretation of that is we can charge foreigners any reasonable costs incurred in the process collecting taxes, in the form of stamp duties, but if the stamp duty exceeded the actual cost we’d be discriminating against foreigners and breaching the TPP.

                    So that says we can’t charge foreigners whatever tax we like. Where’s the text that says we can?

                    And btw here’s what an exemption looks like;

                    “9. Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent Singapore from adopting taxation measures no more trade restrictive than necessary to address Singapore’s public policy objectives arising out of its specific constraints of space.”

                    Where’s our one?

                    • Lanthanide

                      That’s pretty much what I expected.

                      Hooton is spinning this and John Key was (unusually) specific in what he said about the ‘costs’ we could apply to foreigners.

                    • weka

                      Good work DH!

                    • Nick Nack

                      Hi DH. Doesn’t the sentence “that differentiates between persons based on their place of residence for tax purposes,” mean that NZ could impose a stamp duty on, eg, individuals tax resident in China? Or are you suggesting the ‘arbitrary discrimination’ wording trumps that? Not taking sides here, just following the debate.

                    • crashcart

                      Nah Nick, what it is saying is that you can impose a stamp duty specifically on non residents. However that stamp duty can only be used to recover costs that would be incurred.

                      That is why Key even specifically stated that yes they could introduce a stamp duty however it can’t be any amount we want so as to be punitive. Puts the lie to Hoot’s 1000% claims.

                    • DH

                      Would need a resident English teacher to confirm or deny that Nick but my recollection of grammar lessons was you can remove the section between the commas and it will still hold its meaning;

                      “(h) the adoption or enforcement of any new taxation measure aimed at ensuring the equitable or effective imposition or collection of taxes .. provided that the taxation measure does not arbitrarily discriminate between persons, goods or services of the Parties;[11]”

                      I’d gauge my reading comprehension as being reasonably good but it’s not perfect and legal wordings only need one to miss a comma to misinterpret their true meaning. I don’t think I’ve misread that one though.

                    • Tricledrownl

                      All for a paltry .3% GDP growth and an expected 5 to 6,000 jobs loss.
                      Pharmac undermined.
                      Bernie’s Sanders quote why does it cost $ 750 for a pill in the US when it only costs 66cents in the UK.
                      Pharmac won’t be aloud to purchase generic medicines = corporate welfare.
                      This trade deal in its present form.!

                      Key has lied to us Hooton has lied to us Grosser has lied to us about Pharmac.
                      The Pharmac costs alone will wipe out any benefit the TPPA.
                      New advanced expensive Medicines which be far more advanced than we’ve had will have to stay under patent protection for years longer at much higher prices.
                      Big Pharma monopolizes medical research their are very few pharmaceutical companies left now.
                      Free trade in Pharmacy is a joke any company that comes out with a new medicine is gobbled up by big Pharma.
                      Medicines are pushed down consumers throat at much higher rates than necessary by the publishing of false research .
                      Pharmac will have to keep its independence if I am going to support the TPPA.
                      Key and Grosser know full and well those costs are going to blow out as they keep referring to the statement that the cost now is such and such.
                      While their is whole new wave of genetically modified life lengthening medicines coming through.

                • Colonial Viper

                  Matthew, you really think you can pull out a couple of sentences from a 1600 page document which is deliberately designed to be interpreted as an integral whole?

                  You wouldnt read even a bog standard contract in that way.

                  Get serious mate and stop treating us like idiots.

                  • Scott M

                    Matthew/Wayne

                    Talk about dancing on the head of a pin. The whole concept of ISDS is outrageous. Why would NZ – with a competent and independent judiciary need to be subject to ISDS.

                    And why would COUNTRIES have a concern about NZ carving out of ANY ISDS provisions.

                    This is about extreme US corporations and their undemocratic demands.

                    Simple as that.

                    • Scott M

                      Take out ISDS and the TPPA would be just another boring trade agreement no body cated about.

        • Whateva next? 1.1.1.9

          Basically Mathew, I look at Andrew Little’s back story, and I look at yours………And it comes down to this:
          Andrew Little has bucketfuls more integrity, and is interested in others. You have no integrity and only signs are of self- interest, self aggrandisement, whilst looking after yours hares interest.
          I trust what Andrew Little says, whilst being too busy working and caring for a family etc to scrutinise all the documents.
          I do not trust you or others who display obvious values so far from what we need to govern a country.

    • Pasupial 1.2

      Hooton

      Speaking of; “straight out lie[s]”, you would seem to have experience there.

      In this TDB piece, a tweet of yours represents an offer by Kelsey and Wallach to brief the Labour Party staff on the TPPA while in Wellington as; “Internal Labour email shows… TPPA policy being driven by Jane Kelsey & loony left”. Bradbury was most interested in how you got a copy of the email in the first place. Myself, I am more interested in whether you are; blinded by ideology, or simply manipulatively representing the facts. Of course, it could be both.

      http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/01/29/who-inside-labour-leaked-to-matthew-hooton/

    • savenz 1.3

      @Matthew Hooton

      zzzzzzzzzz

    • Keith 1.4

      But of all people we should believe John Key and or any Nat MP or any PR firm that have so faithfully gone into bat for this bunch of dodgy pricks? Seriously? That is laughable!

    • whateva next? 1.5

      Apart from your efforts to undermine Mr.Little, could I ask why haven’t the US signed up yet if it’s the TPPA is so great? and why are we all rushing to sign it before?
      I am asking for the real answer not the spinned, technical answer before you rattle off the rhetoric

    • Paul 1.6

      Anyone else noticed that this was a sufficiently important message that Hooton felt he had to get his spin right at the top of the thread?
      I sense the Nats are very nervous about the public’s perception of TPPA.

  2. Matthew Hooton 2

    “And it also means that people who don’t even live here have the right to have a say on many of our laws.”

    That is the current position with our Select Committee process and the usual convention of consulting those, including other governments, who may be affected by law changes.

    What the TPP does is give NEW ZEALANDERS the right to do this with respect to the 11 other TPP countries.

    Little knows this too.

    • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal 2.1

      BS Mathew, TPP if it is ratified gives corporations the power to sue governments, it doesn’t give power to people and certainly not ordinary kiwis -with the result that governments sometimes stop doing things they should, like plain packaging cigarette cases, very few NZ companies are big enough to try that elsewhere but there are thousands of corporates, especially litigious US corporates who are big enough to try it in NZ.

      This ISDS process has gone rogue because the corporates believe they have a veto over democracy. They need to be put in their place. There is a backlash against these provisions across the world -In Europe, Brazil, South Africa and even in the US itself.

    • Bill 2.2

      The ISDS process is a completely different kettle of fish Matthew, and you know it. A foreign corporation can launch an ISDS. The ISDS is independent of any national laws. It can – and probably will, given that its judgments are made by a small clique of corporate lawyers – find against a government on the ground that some legislation or other has affected current or future profits.

      Nothing to do with select committee processes and a process not open to governments or individuals.

    • Sacha 2.3

      “the usual convention of consulting those, including other governments, who may be affected by law changes”

      Do we consult foreign *corporations*?

      And can they sue our government if they do not like the outcome?

      • framu 2.3.1

        and claim profits that are yet to be earned and are projected of the companies own predictions

    • Mike 2.4

      Andrew Little was quite happy to have a say on Australia’s immigration laws last year. He went over and submitted to a Select Committee on the issue in fact.

      And Labour enthusiastically cited the ‘foreign’ opinions of Google, Microsoft etc regarding the Telecommunications Interception legislation in the previous Parliament.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 2.4.1

        Yes, because that’s exactly the same as giving a secret panel of unelected corporate lawyers a say in our democracy.

        Go and practice your curtsy.

        • Matthew Hooton 2.4.1.1

          “secret panel of unelected corporate lawyers”

          What on earth are you talking about? Go read the TPP text about how the ISDS process works.

          • whateva next? 2.4.1.1.1

            and you think they would state that the lawyers switch around, being the judge and defense? Have you ANY knowledge of the ISDS actually works, or you are blindly following the manual? Would they put the dodgy stuff in the manual???? c’mon you’re not that naive are you?

            • One Anonymous Bloke 2.4.1.1.1.1

              Of course they put the dodgy stuff in the manual: you think they couched it in plain English?

              For example: all the people who were paying attention figured out what “collateralised debt obligation” was. And then they all got paid.

              Hooton is pretending that he understands the morass of clauses the TPP contains: otherwise he’d link to a rebuttal rather than urging me to “read the text”. Guess what: I read the text: it’s full of weasel words.

          • Tricledrown 2.4.1.1.2

            Countries sovereignty undermined by ISDS.
            Latest news the guardian UK.

    • savenz 2.5

      @Matthew Hooton

      Obviously mind reading is also part of your PR Skills

      … variation on ‘Labour did it too”
      to
      ….. Little knows this too.

      zzzzzzz

      • Matthew Hooton 2.5.1

        if he doesn’t know what is in the TPP, that is almost worse than telling lies about it.

        • Stuart Munro 2.5.1.1

          Whose fault is it if anybody doesn’t know what’s in the TPP? Why, the lying Tim Groser and the treacherous Key ‘government’ of course. Even utter scoundrels like the Gnats were ashamed to let NZ see the full extent of their betrayal.

          • Matthew Hooton 2.5.1.1.1

            Everyone knows what’s in the TPP if they bother to look: https://tpp.mfat.govt.nz/text

            • savenz 2.5.1.1.1.1

              What about all the confidential side agreements?

              And the US can change it anyway.

              Do we trust Groser’s skills?

              I can just see the public trawling through 6000 pages of legalese with pleasure as likely as I can see a PR or lazy politician doing the same.

              How’s the 11 million Saudi bribe going?
              Or the Sky City Convention centre?
              Or the Chch rebuild?
              Or the 5.2 million Charter school recently closed?
              Or the Serco prisons?
              Or the economy under the Natz?

              Seems to me, that the Natz are not really very good at negotiating anything apart from Corporate welfare.

  3. weka 3

    The link in the post appears to be wrong, it shows the page after you sign. I can’t find the right one (ffs Labour, you really need to sort this kind of shit out).

    • Bill 3.1

      Very odd. Attempted to edit a fix for the link in the post, but the url for the post signing page is exactly the same as the one for the pre-signing page. Meaning that although I cut and pasted the url from an open pre-sign page, the link still goes to the post sign page.

      Here it is in long form. Suspecting it will do the same as the one in the post though.

      http://go.labour.org.nz/tppa?utm_campaign=150128_tppa&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nzlabour

      edit. yup. Goes to the post-signed page

      • weka 3.1.1

        Turns out it’s an old petition and I’m guessing we’ve both signed it. I just dumped all the Labour cookies from my browser and now your link goes to the right page. Still annoying though and I wonder how many people will be put off sharing the link.

        It has close to 24,000 signatures.

  4. Bill 4

    …our opposition will be much stronger with tens of thousands of Kiwis standing with us.

    A little humility would have gone a long way duntyathink? Maybe something like, “Now that we are standing with you….”.

    Really irks when the ‘Johnny come lately’s’ seek to set the narrative and position themselves as some kind of vanguard.

    • Molly 4.1

      I had the same reaction Bill.

      I would have preferred a narrative that says something along the lines of “we will use our political presence to reflect those amongst you who have quite rightly shown concern over the TPPA, and will vehemently oppose it in parliament”.

      And he could have added his name to the itsourfuture campaign, clarifying the reasons for doing so.

  5. fisiani 5

    The TPP allows NZ firms to trade in the US and Japan and 9 other countries. Our wine makers will have more cases of wine in Tokyo. Our software will be used in Silicon Valley etc. Our NZ firms will be able to take legal action in the other 11 countries if we are somehow denied access.
    It seems clear that https://www.tpp.mfat.govt.nz/ our potential for growth and jobs and income is immense.
    How dare Andrew Little lie about the efforts of our MFAT negotiators who brought us this great deal. Does he not realise as MH has so clearly demonstrated that his lies are being laid bare? Does he really think he can pull the wool over our eyes. Honest John will have him for breakfast.

    • Sacha 5.1

      “It seems clear that https://www.tpp.mfat.govt.nz/ our potential for growth and jobs and income is immense.”

      Funny that’s not how anybody other than chief govt spinner Joyce is describing it. Words like ‘modest’ or ‘insignificant’ are way more common, even from those who support the thing.

      • Pasupial 5.1.1

        Well “immense” can technically mean; “unable to be measured”. So fisiani may not be completely wrong about that. It does usually imply that whatever is called immense is; so great that it can’t be defined in any unit, rather than; so small that you’d need to be a forensic accountant to even guess at it’s meagre impact on the economy amongst all the spun numbers used to conceal that reality.

    • dv 5.2

      Yippee .7% by 2030 now means immense!!!!

    • Bill 5.3

      Think ‘agricultural produce’. Now think ‘environmental standards and safety regulations’.

      With ‘free trade’, the producer with the lowest production costs enjoys a certain advantage over heavier regulated domestic producers. Lower production costs go hand in hand with lax or absent environmental/food processing regulations.

      So if US milk or chicken or pork starts to flood the NZ market, and if that produce is cheaper, at least in part, due to weaker legislation in the US, then local producers will petition the government to have NZ legislation weakened or scrapped in order to re-establish a level playing field.

      But sure, NZ companies will be free to trade in countries they already trade in.

    • Tricledrown 5.4

      Fishy your full of it.
      Out software already has free access to silicone valley.
      Japan will never allow open markets the conservative govt will protect its voter base at all costs.
      No mention of Dairy ,Meat or farm exports in your comments.
      Fishy.

    • Tricledrown 5.5

      China and Europe are not having anything to do with this free trade agreements until all the hooks on sovereignty are removed.
      Hooten is shouting out loud the master of spin.
      Canada Japan and other countries are already getting cold feet.
      As Rod Oram pointed out not until China and European needs are met will the TPPA be ratified .

    • Keith 5.6

      We already trade with those countries, which may astound you and plenty, what rock on Planet Key did you crawl out from?

      And how dare John Key treat us like idiots.

      • fisiani 5.6.1

        These countries have huge tariff barriers and we manage to trade. With lowered tariffs we could trade easier. God I wish the Left had some economic literacy.

        • Colonial Viper 5.6.1.1

          Huh? TPPA has almost nothing to do with trade and everything to do with Japanese and US corporations having the upper hand over sovereign governments.

          It is also an attempt by the US to sideline China and Russia as growing powers on the Pacific rim.

    • Ch-ch Chiquita 5.7

      “Our software will be used in Silicon valley” do you mean those IT companie that our government said didn’t have the required skills to implemet the new IRD system?

  6. savenz 6

    A stamp duty is clearly not a ban on foreign ownership (it is a tax!).

    But foreign ownership is one of many overwhelming problems for dog of an agreement of TPP with negligible benefits. What about the 6000 projected job losses, the copywrite issues, patents, environment, climate change etc etc

    People in the US do not even have the right to water in cities under this corporate greed. Taxpayers are bailing out banks! Where will it end!

    The TPP deal should be about having more corporate controls and international tax agreements that actually make corporates have to pay taxes in their location as well as more hefty penalties for environmental damage.

    Now that is a TPP agreement I would like to see negotiated!!

  7. fisiani 8

    http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/transcript-labour-party-leader-andrew-little-2015110712#axzz3ya0puhLZ

    Just have read at this link then try to convince me that Andrew Little is now telling the truth.

  8. BM 9

    In Government, we’ll go back to the TPPA partners and renegotiate the deal to make sure New Zealand’s sovereignty is protected. And as Prime Minister I will never back down on making laws in the interests of New Zealanders.

    If no one is willing to renegotiate, will Andrew Little remove NZ from the TPPA.

    • Matthew Hooton 9.1

      Of course he won’t. But it is academic. He will never be prime minister. Labour’s lurch to extreme left means it is now unelectable.

      • BM 9.1.1

        Looks that way.

        Having said that I’d still like to see some one in the media actually get the truth out of the guy.

        • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal 9.1.1.1

          So the right is still pushing the anti-democratic fait accompli line.

          What about the lies that John Key said that we wouldn’t sign the TPPA before the country had access to the full treaty and it was fully debated in Parliament.

          Also signing doesn’t equal ratification -the treaty may not be in force by the time Little is PM, so he may not have to remove NZ from the treaty.

          • Matthew Hooton 9.1.1.1.1

            John Key never said that. He said it wouldn’t be ratified before it had been debated by parliament. And we have seen the text for many months before it has been signed. Which is unusual: usually process is signed and then text released.

            • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal 9.1.1.1.1.1

              So this signing thing really is meaningless as we discussed earlier. The critical points are when NZ completes its task to ratify the TPPA and more importantly when sufficient other partner countries do their bit. Which in the US case doesn’t look like soon.

          • BM 9.1.1.1.2

            I’m more interested in knowing,

            If Andrew Little can’t renegotiate the treaty will he pull NZ out of the TPPA.

            If he can’t state a simple yes or no then he’s full of shit and trying to play the public for fools.

            • weka 9.1.1.1.2.1

              I can’t recall Labour even hinting that they would pull out, so your question is odd. But even if they were considering that, they probably don’t have enough information currently to form a policy on it.

              • BM

                What?

                If Labour has no intention of leaving the TPPA then what the hell is Little on about.

                Some quotes from the bull shit at the top of this post

                It undermines our democracy and our sovereignty.

                It prevents future governments passing laws in the best interests of New Zealanders

                It means we won’t be able to stop non-resident foreigners from buying Kiwi homes

                also means that people who don’t even live here have the right to have a say on many of our laws.

                The way Little is carrying on the TPPA is the worst thing that could ever happen to NZ yet has no intention of actually removing NZ from the TPPA.

                What a full of shit, blow hard, do the left enjoy being treated like gullible fools.

                Christ, at least you know where you stand with John Key.

                • weka

                  🙄

                  If you can’t understand their strategy it’s not their fault.

                  • BM

                    What strategy is that?
                    Talk nonsense, hopefully fool enough people to get elected and then do nothing.

                    Andrew Little, the left must be proud to have him as your leader.

                    • weka

                      lol, he’s not my leader. Like I said, if you can’t understand what they are doing it’s not their fault. It’s not that hard.

                    • BM

                      Apart from trying to get on the right side of the house, I have no idea what their strategy is and I doubt they do either.

                    • Tricledrown

                      So if we pulled out corporations with bigger resources wouldn’t bog us down in big legal suits.
                      Like presently happening in Canada.
                      You are very naive blinkered monetrist.
                      The TPPA will try and have its own legal resolution service rather than proper and fair international courts.
                      As we have seen with the NAFTA agreement huge corporations ate finding loopholes where they can sue the Canadian govt and companies.
                      Its becoming an industry all of its own.

                    • BM

                      @Tricledrown
                      So why isn’t Andrew Little signaling that he’ll pull out.

                      He’s just coming across like he’s trying to play both sides and failing dismally.

                    • Tricledrownl

                      Labour has never said it would pull out its said it would negotiate a better deal.
                      Other countries even congress is not happy with the Deal.
                      The financial benefits are less than the socold surplus National has promised and failed to deliver !

                    • weka

                      Ok, BM, enough with the stale strawman. You don’t have to like Labour, but ffs, why should anyone care what you think Labour should be criticsed for not doing, when them in power is something you are actively trying to prevent.

                    • weka

                      So if we pulled out corporations with bigger resources wouldn’t bog us down in big legal suits.
                      Like presently happening in Canada.

                      Apparently there is a get out of jail free card in the agreement (with 6 months notice). I don’t know if we could be sued in that case, I thought that the danger was more that the powers of greed and manipulation would feel the need to teach us a lesson for stepping out of line.

                  • weka

                    It’s also not their fault if you refuse to understand.

                    • greywarshark

                      “He’s just coming across like he’s trying to play both sides and failing dismally.”
                      BM Playing both sides is what you do when you say you’re the central party so that’s everyday politics now.
                      You seem to accept that as you pass judgment on Little’s prowess at it and say he is failing dismally.

                      You could be right about the dismally. I think the term is wanting the cake while also eating it. Sounds like quantum theory as I (don’t) understand it. And that’s my fault!! But Labour seem to be lukewarm about the TPPA. How much wiggle room have we got though, is it something that they should reject outright – who would be annoyed? Can we have a bob each way please?

                    • Bill

                      Take a simple ‘yes or no’ proposition. Triangulate it. Result? Well, no-one can quite pin that. Becoming a time worn and tedious mark of Labour Parties across the English speaking world. As to how far they have traveled, consider the following from that email.

                      Labour has always supported free trade and we always will.

                      Any one with half an ounce of knowledge knows that’s utter bullshit. Savage? Kirk? All for ‘free trade’ were they? Of course not! Labour were a statist party, not a ‘free market’ party.

                      Mind you, nice message to send to the thousands who really would appreciate some acknowledgment and form of apology from Labour for what they unleashed in the 80s.

                    • weka

                      What does “triangulate it” mean?

                    • greywarshark

                      triangulate – I imagine it means placing Labour at the apex and the other two points – one would be veering left and the other right, trying to find those with fellow feelings on both sides.
                      Perhaps Bill would explain.

                    • Bill

                      Triangulation means that ‘the third way’ is still being pursued; that Blairism is still twitching; that instead of coming down on one side or the other of an issue, a dogs breakfast is prepared and presented as cohesive positioning….lots of contradictory yapping from politicians ensues as they struggle through the dishonest smash they’ve created.

                • Brendon Harre -Left wing Liberal

                  BM when will the TPPA come into force?

                  It isn’t ratified. No one knows when it will be ratified by a sufficient number of countries. It may not be in force by the time of NZ’s next election, which means the public will get a vote of whether to join the TPPA. This time the public will have access to the full text and enough time to make a considered judgement.

                  Of course you nasty right-wingers want to rush the debating/analysing democratic participation stage with your fait accompli tactics.

                • Draco T Bastard

                  Christ, at least you know where you stand with John Key.

                  Not according to alwyn.

                  • alwyn

                    It is not really my fault that you don’t listen.
                    Were you never taught that you can’t hear when you have your mouth open?
                    Just listen to what the man says, not what you wish to hear.

                    • Draco T Bastard

                      I listened. You refused to believe the truth after it was pointed out to you.

                    • alwyn

                      You poor fellow. As the bible puts it
                      “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'”
                      Just what is this obsession you have with your insistence that John Key is Satan? The truth? You are crazy.

              • The Chairman

                “I can’t recall Labour even hinting that they would pull out…”

                Little on TPP: “I don’t support it, we don’t support it”

                If efforts to renegotiate fail, the only legitimate way to oppose the deal is to withdraw.

            • whateva next? 9.1.1.1.2.2

              I”f he can’t state a simple yes or no then he’s full of shit and trying to play the public for fools.” gawd, that applies to YOUR Leader alright

        • savenz 9.1.1.2

          @BM maybe someone in the media should try to get some truth out of our serial lying prime minister first….

      • crashcart 9.1.2

        Hyperbole is fine but calling this “a lurch to the extreme left” is more along the line of hysterical.

        • greywarshark 9.1.2.1

          crashcart
          Taking a dictionary approach to the TPPA brouhaha has brought up good words –
          hyperbole, hysterical. I add hype to the set. Any other hy-s anyone?

          It’s an interesting thought exercise and involves more searching brain work than has gone into all the political input that NZ has applied to the TPPA affaire

      • Tricledrown 9.1.3

        Bullshit Hooton .
        Labour has said it would support the TPPA but not in its present form.
        You are under direct control of Crosby Textor obviously Matthew.
        For more Bullshit call NZ office manager Crosby Textor Machiavellian Henchman M Hooton expert spin Doctor and govt grovelar.

      • Keith 9.1.4

        Wow wee, extreme Stalinst extreme left or Pol Pot extreme left. What next, “The domino effect” Senator McCathy? I realise saying utter bullshit like “extreme left” is part of the Dirty Politics smear on this one but mate, talk to the mirror!

    • The Chairman 9.2

      “If no one is willing to renegotiate, will Andrew Little remove NZ from the TPPA?”

      That’s the question he needs to be asked.

  9. Ad 10

    Swordfish or someone:
    Which political poll will cover this week and the TPPA signing?

    I’m interested in the overall favourability reaction.

  10. savenz 11

    Look what NZ can look forward to under TPPA and ISDS….

    ‘Red Alert’ In Beijing, ‘Severe’ In Delhi: Air Pollution Is Choking Us From Chandni Chowk To China

    http://newsworldindia.in/india/air-quality-delhis-pollution-level-shoot-up-to-severe-category-beijing-issues-red-alert/159459/

    • Wayne 11.1

      Savenz,

      Why do you consistently make such extreme (and frankly ridiculous) assertions about TPP, unsupported by any facts.

      For instance the US has worked hard over the last 30 years to clean up air quality. In the 1970’s when I went to LA (several times) smog was a real problem, Now California has extremely strict clean air standards, and smog is unknown.

      There is no way the US (the Obama administration remember) would agree to an agreement whereby LA would once again be subject to smog as it was in LA in the 1970’s and is in Beijing now.

      If you are going to argue against TPP, at least keep your arguments on planet earth.

      • Tricledrownl 11.1.1

        Left Wing governments in California Wayne.
        Don’t repeat clean air in California to loudly their maybe Koch brother funded freak after you.
        Your spin is of poor air quality.

        • alwyn 11.1.1.1

          “Left Wing governments in California”
          You are quite sure of that are you?
          Since 1970 there has been a Republican Governor for 29 years and a Democrat for 17.
          Care to reconsider?

          • tricledrown 11.1.1.1.1

            Arnold Swartsnigger is a green conservative.
            Looking at debt in California the Right gave taxcuts ran up huge debt.
            the left raise taxes get rid of debt.
            same as New Zealand.

            • alwyn 11.1.1.1.1.1

              Amazing. You want to adopt a Republican Governor as being of the left do you, so that you can claim that it is Right 21 years, left 25?
              Do you also plan therefore to count the deficits during those years to be the fault of the left?
              Or do you think Arnie has a split personality?
              That doesn’t sound right though. In fact it sounds quite sinister to me.

              Do you have some numbers to backup your rather wild claims about California? Who actually ran deficits and surpluses?
              Personally I don’t think if you did the sums honestly they have had a genuine surplus in at least the last 50 years. The fiction about the value of the State pension schemes is a joke. Except for the members and the residents of California of course.

              The problems in California date back to the time they passed limitations on what could happen to property taxes. That and the fact that 60% of income taxes is paid by about 3% of the people who earn over a couple of hundred thousand. It is enormously dependent on capital gains from the rich few and when the stock market goes down California doesn’t get any money.
              They fudge the numbers continually. Nobody, left or right, wants to admit that the Emperor has no clothes.

      • savenz 11.1.2

        @ Wayne – have you heard that water is not not considered a human right in the US? Yep in one of the world’s richest economies US citizens are not allowed water because a banks profits are considered more important.

        http://guardianlv.com/2014/10/detroit-judge-rules-there-is-no-basic-human-right-to-water/

      • greywarshark 11.1.3

        The point of TPPA is for the USA to be in a good position in every way that matters to the wealthy people and the corporates, and matters like smog, severe exploitation of people and other externalities are kept at a distance. Though Mexico could be their Achilles heel. Which way does the prevailing wind there flow, north or south? And there is the drug problem, that is not as visible as smog, but undermines a culture and country for longer and deeper. Already Mexico is suffering from that, Zika is drifting north. Perhaps the USA

      • greywarshark 11.1.4

        The point of TPPA is for the USA to be in a good position in every way that matters to the wealthy people and the corporates, and matters like smog, severe exploitation of people and other externalities are kept at a distance. Though Mexico could be their Achilles heel. Which way does the prevailing wind there flow, north or south? And there is the drug problem, that is not as visible as smog, but undermines a culture and country for longer and deeper. Already Mexico is suffering from that, Zika is drifting north. Perhaps the USA in the end will reneg on TPPA and become isolationist.

    • Matthew Hooton 11.2

      The TPP includes the most significant environmental protections of any trade deal in the history of the world.

      • Sabine 11.2.1

        citation needed.

        thanks

        • Matthew Hooton 11.2.1.1

          How about you bother to read the text all on your own.

          • weka 11.2.1.1.1

            Matthew, you’ve told at least two blatant lies on ts today already. Asking for citations for your claims seems reasonable in light of that.

          • Sabine 11.2.1.1.2

            I am not the one making spurious comments about what is and will be, when literally no one on this planet knows what will be in the future once that crap agreement is in force.

            So, if you make a claim/statement, be so polite as to include the link to support your claim/statement? Or is politeness something that you are not paid for?

          • Tricledrown 11.2.1.1.3

            Its got more hooks than a fishing store Matthew once again spinning little bits of truth with large amounts of Bullshit.
            Propaganda.
            Pharmacy needs to be taken out of the Deal that alone with New super expensive medicines will blow the meagre benefit.

      • savenz 11.2.2

        You missed out the word ‘corporate’.

        most significant CORPORATE environmental protections of any trade deal

        TPPA is so “revolutionary” it does not mention ‘climate change’.

        Love how the Paris climate change agreements are voluntary but the ‘trade’ deals have heavy penalties for governments that seek to curb corporate profits and help the environment.

        Not to mention how these deals rewards polluters like in the Nafta deal where The TransCanada Corporation, announced that it has filed a notice of intent to initiate a multibillion-dollar investor-state claim against the US government under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)….

        http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/26/how-nafta-could-spoil-keystone-xl-rejection

      • Tricledrownl 11.2.3

        Matthew it sounds like an add from the World Wrestling Association.
        Why is California getting sued by Monsanto.

      • whateva next? 11.2.4

        oh yeah RIGHT, lets see shall we? the cleverest thing about TPPA is the people who crafted it, and the way it has been written. You are a fool

      • Tricledrown 11.2.5

        Hooton that’s not ratified in any way yet if we get a Koch Bros govt in the US that will be most likely as they are spending US$ 880million + another billion or 2 on making sure Democracy is undermined.
        Those clauses will be thrown out.
        Just like access for our agricultural exports.
        Matthew mouth on about something relevant like how little benefit for our economy •3% in 15 years.
        Pharmac getting shafted costing more than the benefits every other countries news medias are reporting huge job losses as a result.
        Bang on Mathew your full of shit.

      • greywarshark 11.2.6

        Matthew H
        Shakespeare had Portia say in The Merchant of Venice:
        Portia: How far that little candle throws its beams; So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
        The Merchant of Venice Act V, sc. i

        I think you are trying to apply that quote to the very naughty world of the TPPA. Some environmental protections are put in so it isn’t all dire, and the light from those elevated promises and statements is supposed to blind us to the rest!

        Who is going to make the environmental promises happen? Who is going to fund them, police them, sternly ensure they are followed to the letter through strong agencies and not individuals who act as toothless observers and report to some agency?

        Who checks what is done after the reports are made? What about when the watchdogs themselves are subsumed, captured by the large rich corporates involved. Investigations show that all of the above are inclined to follow.

        Your line of defence is just a bunch of symbolic shapes with no meaning in Planet Key or wherever these power guys hang out. Probably not where you are, you aren’t really in the top echelon are you.

  11. whateva next? 12

    Mr.Hooten is hooting very loudly about Andrew Little these days, and I grow deaf.
    This is not a “free” trade agreement, but corporate welfare, strong for corporations, weak for workers, and even weaker for the environment. The offshore tribunals are a racket, why not let the market decide, rather than the “big boys” or are you a share holder by chance?

  12. Colonial Viper 13

    In Government, we’ll go back to the TPPA partners and renegotiate the deal to make sure New Zealand’s sovereignty is protected.

    How the hell does NZ think it is going to force the Japanese and United States corporations back to the negotiating table?

    • weka 13.1

      He’s talking about governments not corporations.

      • Colonial Viper 13.1.1

        I’m talking about who actually wrote and negotiated the TPP in the back rooms, and it wasn’t governments.

        • weka 13.1.1.1

          So? Little is saying they will go back to the people who signed the agreement and renegotiate.

          • Colonial Viper 13.1.1.1.1

            the people who signed the document don’t have any power to renegotiate it, just like they werent the ones who formulated it.

            • weka 13.1.1.1.1.1

              citation for that please.

              • Bill

                You want a citation for an opinion? Pu-lease!

                If you think it’s feasible to assume that governments were the real power brokers and that they all banged their heads together to come up with such great ideas as (among other things) undermining their own legal systems, then fine. I guess that would open the door for re-negotiation.

                • weka

                  He’s asserting an opinion as a fact. He can either back it up, or provide some rationale for the opinion. Saying there are evil manipulators behind the TPPA doesn’t address the point, it’s just stating the bleeding obvious without explaing what exactly would prevent Little from doing what he intends.

                  If you think it’s feasible to assume that governments were the real power brokers and that they all banged their heads together to come up with such great ideas as (among other things) undermining their own legal systems, then fine.

                  I don’t believe that, why would you think that?

                  What I’m saying is that I haven’t yet seen the evidence that Little wouldn’t be negotiating with the other governments. Sure there is a whole bunch of powermongering going on behind that, but governments aren’t nothing either. There is a reason that corporations need governments to sign the TPPA.

                  You and CV also seem to be missing the doorway that Labour’s stance at least points to, which is pulling out of the agreement.

                  • Colonial Viper

                    He’s asserting an opinion as a fact. He can either back it up, or provide some rationale for the opinion.

                    Nah fuck it weka.

                    You believe what you believe, you are welcome to it. I am not here to convince you that I am right, I am just here to state the bloody obvious:

                    Andrew fucking Little, who will be replaced as Labour leader come early 2018, is in no position to force Abe or Obama or the US Congress back into the domestic political mine field of renewed TPPA negotiations.

                    And no, there’s no citation for that apart from bloody obviousness.

                    You and CV also seem to be missing the doorway that Labour’s stance at least points to, which is pulling out of the agreement

                    You seem to continue to see shadows of hope in the foggy whispery changeable swirls of Labour PR. Good luck with that. I on the other hand don’t think that the future of the nation should rely on such tripe.

                    PS wasn’t Little saying just a month or two ago that the TPP met Labour’s much vaunted “bottom lines”???

                    • weka

                      “PS wasn’t Little saying just a month or two ago that the TPP met Labour’s much vaunted “bottom lines”???”

                      So? They finally start heading in the right direction and all you can do is condemn then.

                      “You believe what you believe, you are welcome to it. I am not here to convince you that I am right, I am just here to state the bloody obvious:”

                      No, you’re here to play out your personal crisis about the state of the world and bring everyone else down while you do it.

                      It’s a legitimate question – how would Little renegotiate? It’s a question that requires thought and debate, not expositions from people who believe they’ve seen the future. You’ve already decided the way things will be, which puts you in the same category as Robert Atack on climate change. You can’t see past your own despair to even begin to see what change might look like.

                      This subthread has nothing to do with what I believe other than that I’m open to finding solutions whereas you want to wallow in your pit of darkness and by the sounds of things take everyone down with you.

                      tl;dr, you can’t even make a half intelligent argument to support your earlier assertion. It’s a fucking political blog, it’s normal for people to describe what they mean. By all means use the comments section for your own agenda of doom, but don’t expect other people to put up with it.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      So? They finally start heading in the right direction and all you can do is condemn then.

                      Oh I see, you believe that Labour has changed its stance on the TPP because it has suddenly had a genuine change of heart and realised at last that it is a bad agreement for NZ.

                      Thing is, I don’t believe that Labour has had any such genuine change of heart.

                    • weka

                      I don’t either. Why are you making shit up about my views?

                    • Colonial Viper

                      You clearly think that Andrew Little and Labour should be given real credit for a real change in direction.

                      I don’t because I do not think that he, or Labour, are at all sincere.

                      Don’t try and back peddle.

                    • weka

                      No, I don’t think that, you just made that up. You’ve had ample opportunity to find out what I actually think but haven’t bothered and instead have put your own mistaken intepretations on it. Why is that?

                      FWIW, I think Labour has made a small but significant change that bears examination and encouragement. You on the other hand appear to think that Labour should be damned unless they become a left wing party. But we all know that that’s not possible at this time.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      FWIW, I think Labour has made a small but significant change that bears examination and encouragement.

                      You are free to put your trust in their words.

                      I for one won’t be played as a fool by them yet again.

                  • Bill

                    Weka, he stated an opinion and no-one has said anything about evil anything. Have they? (If they did, I missed it.)

                    Did corporations need governments to sign the deal? Yes.

                    That might be a bit of a heads up….that if NZ pulls out, it won’t be other governments getting all pissy, but a far more powerful conglomeration of international finance and corporations, who can inflict huge damage on the NZ economy – by way of example if they are of a persuasion to, if, for instance, they calculate that it might dissuade others from kicking the ba’ onto the slates….

                    And please, don’t ask for a definitive shopping list of potential sanctions/punishments….disinvestment, crashed currency etc.

                    Nation states are small fry compared to global finance and corporate bodies. Governments are presently only acting as a fig leaf of legitimacy for their machinations. They (nation state governments) really don’t amount to much more than that these days.

                    • weka

                      I’m talking about whether Little can partially renegotiate NZ’s part in the TPPA. You don’t appear to be talking about that at all.

                      Asking CV for some back up to his statement that Little won’t be able to renegotiate is a completely valid question given the context. That CV can’t provide any kind of real response is fine, I can now just assume his opinion is based on his hot air and he is just assuming that the corporate powers will stop this, because they’re corporate powers. In a debate forum like this, that’s just childish.

                      “Weka, he stated an opinion and no-one has said anything about evil anything. Have they? (If they did, I missed it.)”

                      You think the powers behind the TPPA aren’t evil? It’s just a short hand on my part.

                    • weka

                      “And please, don’t ask for a definitive shopping list of potential sanctions/punishments….disinvestment, crashed currency etc.”

                      Yeah, I’m going to start calling bullshit on this one. I haven’t asked for a shopping list, so let’s drop that straw man for a start. And if people want to express political opinions on a political blog about serious shit like this, but they don’t want to have to explain what they mean or how they came to their opinion, they’re likely to get called out on it. If PR or BM was running this line, they’d get lambasted. Although at the moment CV’s actions are more Pete George than RWNJ.

                    • Bill

                      You’ve previously done the ‘but precisely what measures’ game. So good. Neither of us want to play that one.

                      A change to a country’s provisions requires the consensus of all other parties. (Article 30.2 Amendments) That’s huge. In any context or situation, consensus is bloody hard – never mind one where every government is seeking market advantage for ‘their’ domestic corporate lobbyists.

                      late edit – in other words, whatever is signed into place is what will run. No fucker is going to agree that another party can shift the rules to their own advantage at the expense of others.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      yeah, I’m going to start calling bullshit on this one. I haven’t asked for a shopping list, so let’s drop that straw man for a start. And if people want to express political opinions on a political blog about serious shit like this, but they don’t want to have to explain what they mean or how they came to their opinion, they’re likely to get called out on it.

                      Seriously?

                      I’ve explained it previously: many senior and influential people in the Labour caucus are pro-TPPA, and Andrew Little has fuck all leverage in that caucus.

                      But you know what? Let’s wait until Labour get into power in 2017, and we will see who is right about whether or not Labour will pull the pin on the TPPA, or manage to renegotiate a single thing of substance while it is still in power.

                      While you keep your fingers crossed that it can, I am not so naive and my position on it is crystal, predictable and unchanged.

                    • weka

                      “You’ve previously done the ‘but precisely what measures’ game.”

                      I don’t believe I have, so feel free to point out some specific examples.

                      A change to a country’s provisions requires the consensus of all other parties. (Article 30.2 Amendments) That’s huge. In any context or situation, consensus is bloody hard – never mind one where every government is seeking market advantage for ‘their’ domestic corporate lobbyists.

                      late edit – in other words, whatever is signed into place is what will run. No fucker is going to agree that another party can shift the rules to their own advantage at the expense of others.

                      Thanks. I’m baffled why that was so hard to comment on earlier. So it begs the question of what Little and co are thinking. Maybe they’re incompetent. Or maybe they have access to different legal opinion than you and CV. I’d like to know what the thinking is.

                    • weka

                      Seriously?

                      I’ve explained it previously: many senior and influential people in the Labour caucus are pro-TPPA, and Andrew Little has fuck all leverage in that caucus.

                      But you know what? Let’s wait until Labour get into power in 2017, and we will see who is right about whether or not Labour will pull the pin on the TPPA, or manage to renegotiate a single thing of substance while it is still in power.

                      While you keep your fingers crossed that it can, I am not so naive and my position on it is crystal, predictable and unchanged.

                      You need to take a step back CV and pay attention to how little you are listening in this conversation.

                      I don’t have my fingers crossed, so please stop misrepresenting my views. But in the same way I don’t take Little’s word for it, I also don’t take yours.

                      I fail to see how what you’ve just said relates to the original thing I was asking about.

                      let’s wait until Labour get into power in 2017, and we will see who is right about whether or not Labour will pull the pin on the TPPA, or manage to renegotiate a single thing of substance while it is still in power.

                      I’m not saying I’m right, and I haven’t expressed an opinion about what Labour will do. Get that? I’m not taking a “I’m right, your wrong” position, and I’m not making claims. You are the one doing that and you’re so caught up in your own shit you can’t even recognise what the person talking to you is saying and meaning.

                    • Bill

                      I don’t have access to any legal opinion. I just read the text, which is pretty clear on amendments. Read it yourself.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      I’m talking about whether Little can partially renegotiate NZ’s part in the TPPA. You don’t appear to be talking about that at all.

                      You claim that I’m not addressing your main point.

                      I fucking well am addressing your point, clearly and directly: Little will be able to do ZERO to renegotiate anything of substance to do with the TPPA.

                      I am also adding that he likely already knows this at this stage, so he is basically throwing up populist rhetoric which he fully realises that he cannot deliver on.

                      There’s a word for that kind of behaviour, but I’ll just describe it as politically cynical on his part.

                      Don’t try and back pedal.

                    • weka

                      I don’t have access to any legal opinion. I just read the text, which is pretty clear on amendments. Read it yourself.

                      If it’s that easy, I guess Kelsey and co have been wasting their time then.

                      So do you think Little is stupid or disingenuous or what?

                    • weka

                      I’m not backpedalling CV, I’ve barely expressed an opinion about what Labour are doing, so there’s nothing to back pedal on. You are reading things into my questioning that simply aren’t there. Which you would know if you could have a decent political conversation.

                      I fucking well am addressing your point, clearly and directly: Little will be able to do ZERO to renegotiate anything of substance to do with the TPPA.

                      Yeah, that’s what you said at the start, and I asked for a citation (or even a decent theory). All I’ve got so far is that you think Little is being a populist liar. That doesn’t explain your assertion that he will have no power to renegotiate parts of the agreement. Honest to god, why is it so hard for you to put up your rationale?

                    • Bill

                      @ Weka.

                      All I’m saying is that I read the article and it’s unambiguous. All parties need to agree to any amendment. Amendments include any appendix as they, as the document states, are considered as a part of the main body text.

                      You say.

                      If it’s that easy, I guess Kelsey and co have been wasting their time then.

                      I wouldn’t say that, although yes, as I’ve said, that article is easily understood.

                      So do you think Little is stupid or disingenuous or what?

                      I have no thoughts on Andrew Little and what he’s saying. I’ve read the relevant article of the document and provided a source that backs up the original contention that Labour won’t be re-negotiating ‘jack shit’.

                      As I suggested above, go and read it for yourself. I’d be really quite genuinely surprised if you were able to conclude anything different to what I’ve said…it’s a lock down given that in seeking an amendment, any party can exercise a veto and any party seeking an amendments has, unlike in initial negotiations, no position to horse trade from.

                      Here’s the entire wording of Article 30.2 Amendments

                      The Parties may agree, in writing, to amend this Agreement. When so agreed by all Parties and approved in accordance with the applicable legal procedures of each Party, an amendment shall enter into force 60 days after the date on which all Parties have notified the Depositary in writing of the approval of the amendment in accordance with their respective applicable legal procedures, or on such other date as the Parties may agree

                      https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/TPP-Final-Text-Final-Provisions.pdf

                      edit – NZ is the Depositary

                    • Colonial Viper

                      “NZ is the depository”

                      As a FVEY nation we continue to have particular privileges in this global geopolitical club.

              • Colonial Viper

                citation??? LOL.

                Put it another way – did you review Andrew Little’s citations proving that he could force a renegotiation of the TPPA with the American and Japanese governments?

                No?

                Do you really think “citations” have anything to do with the world of geo-power-politics?

                Just going on hope then?

                • weka

                  I’m not going on hope CV, I’m going on intelligence, the intelligence that understands what to do in the face of massive powermongering instead of running round naysaying anything that doesn’t fit one’s negative and disempowering world view. When was the last time you contributed something that engenders change? I know you’re capable of it.

                  You don’t own the patent on truth. Your continual insistence that you know what is what and everyone else is deluded or inept is boring, and worse, it’s damaging our capacity to change.

                  • Colonial Viper

                    So, did you review Andrew Little’s citations proving that he can in fact force the major powers of the TPP back to renegotiate the deal like he says he can.

                    You asked me for citations, did you ask him? Or did you just take his word on it?

                    • weka

                      You just don’t get it CV. I haven’t claimed that Little is right, nor am I taking his word for it. I find his proposal interesting enough to explore. That’s all. If you claim he is wrong of course I am going to ask for something more than your assertion, not because I believe you are wrong, but because I’m interested.

                      It does look like “[citation needed]” is a trigger for some people’s annoyance and possibly intolerance. For me it’s just shorthand for please explain what your opinion is based on by using references. I would have settled for good theory also. You appear incapable of both at this time.

                      The biggest motivator for me being here is to learn and to take part in effecting change. I can’t believe I’m having to argue for political discourse over opinion posing as fact.

                      “the people who signed the document don’t have any power to renegotiate it”

                      That’s a statement as fact. I don’t know if it’s true, but I do know it’s worth finding out. This whole conversation you are basically refusing to do engage in a way that furthers understanding. You can of course state opinion as fact all you like, but it’s daft in this context to expect to not be called out on it.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      You just don’t get it CV. I haven’t claimed that Little is right, nor am I taking his word for it. I find his proposal interesting enough to explore. That’s all.

                      Little is just wasting your time. Explore it all you want, he, and Labour, are not just insincere on wanting out of the TPPA; IMO they also fully realise that they have zero grounds and zero leverage to force the United States and Japan back to the negotiating table but have decided to yank the populist chain (again).

                      I say again because they have done exactly the same on previous occasions – that they will “flout” any provision of the agreement that they do not like; that they have set unmovable “bottom lines” regarding the TPPA, etc.

                      All nonsense that they never intended to stand by.

                      And here we have more of the same from Labour and Little. Feel free to “explore” such as much as you like, though, that is your perogative.

                    • weka

                      I can certainly understand why you feel that way all things considered. I disagree, but that’s by the by. This whole subthread started because you stated that Little (or anyone presumably) would have no power to renegotiate any part of the TPPA once in power. I’ve asked for your rationale with some back up, you haven’t given it, despite a huge number of comments since. I can’t tell if you’re talking shit or being an arse or both.

                  • Lanthanide

                    Hey weka, this is pretty off-topic for your argument at hand.

                    I’m very happy that you choose to stick around at The Standard and debate with the rest of us in the comments. I don’t always agree with your positions on things, but I appreciate that you’re willing to stand up and argue for them, against myself and others here.

                    Reading that back, it comes across as a little condescending – I don’t mean it to be.

                    • weka

                      Thank-you Lanth, I appreciate that! and feel likewise about you being here 🙂

                    • Plus 1 from me, too, weka. I like your rational, logical approach to discussions, which is especially effective when you’re up against folk who aren’t debating in good faith.

                    • greywarshark

                      TRP
                      I like your rational, logical approach to discussions, which is especially effective when you’re up against folk who aren’t debating in good faith.
                      Pot – kettle with you, after reading much of your stuff.
                      You are fulsome about weka. Possibly weka doesn’t take you to task for your every word to see if it passes her standard of acceptability.

                    • weka

                      lolz gw, TRP and I have gone toe to toe a number of times where I’ve called him out on things in some pretty hard conversations.

    • Sabine 13.2

      oh c’mon a hand full of pineapple lumps out to get everyone negotiating? Maybe a sheepfarm, sheep and an abattoir would be enough?

  13. The lost sheep 14

    Labour is asking people to stand with them in opposing NZ signing this agreement, while at the same time ensuring TPPA legislation will be ratified by allowing one of it’s MP’s to vote for the TPPA.

    That MP has been given the blessing of Caucus, who “decided that his longstanding public position was such that he would be allowed to hold a differing view”, while at the same time another MP who supports the TPPA is going to face ‘consequences’ because “Everybody in caucus understands about caucus collective responsibility and it isn’t acceptable to depart from that, ever,”

    Labour is making strident noises about opposing NZ signing the TPPA, while while at the same time very quietly indicating that they will not pull out of the agreement if they became Government.

    Mixed messages anyone?
    Guess that’s inevitable when attempting to straddle the fence between the far left and centrist voters that Little knows is necessary if Labour is to rebuild voter support towards an electable level.
    Trouble with straddling the fence is that if you slip you’d better have concrete balls.

    • Colonial Viper 14.1

      are you pointing out that Labour is all over the map on this? Everyone already knows.

      Someone please remind Andrew Little that he recently said that the TPP passes Labour’s “bottom lines”.

      • Karen 14.1.1

        No he didn’t.

        • Colonial Viper 14.1.1.1

          Little clearly told Paddy Gower that the TPPA passes four out of Labour’s five bottom lines. See my comment below for more details.

          • Karen 14.1.1.1.1

            Yes, 4 out of 5. Your statement suggested all the bottom lines were met.

            It is something you do all the time – mislead in order to validate your attacks on Labour and Little. You did the same thing last year where you said Labour had supported a welfare reform bill in 2015 so that you could blame Little and not Cunliffe who was the leader in 2014 when the bill was voted on.

            I used to think you were someone worth reading CV, but now I cannot accept anything you say without having to check the details myself. Not really worth the time.

            • greywarshark 14.1.1.1.1.1

              And you are nit-picking Karen because you don’t want such close scrutiny of Labour which is bound to result in negative conclusions.

              • Karen

                WTF?
                I am often critical of Labour actually, but I don’t see why CV should not be called out when he makes misleading, inaccurate statements in order to pursue some personal vendetta he has with Labour.

                • weka

                  I’ve also generally been appreciative of CV’s comments here, but lately I feel the same, that his statements are now so loaded with Labour-hating as to be misleading and undermining good change.

                  There’s also a certain amount of irony in the reaction to questioning his authority.

          • marty mars 14.1.1.1.2

            didn’t he also say this recently,

            “Over the summer, I’ve been reading the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement — and one thing’s become clear: as it stands, New Zealand shouldn’t sign this agreement.

            Labour has always supported free trade and we always will. But the TPPA does more than just deal with trade. It undermines our democracy and our sovereignty.”

            cv your bitterness in being (or thinking you have been) disregarded and disrespected by labour (or someone in there) has distorted the lens you look through. Can people change their minds? politicians? – You have, oh ex attempted candidate for parliament for labour, but little can’t???

            anyway you know I’m not such a fan of labour but I can’t see any point putting the boot in constantly for no purpose, can you?

      • Anne 14.1.2

        I have no recollection of him saying that CV?

        • Colonial Viper 14.1.2.1

          Little clearly states that it passes four out of five “bottom lines”.

          The only significant concern he has about the TPPA is to do with land sales to foreigners. (Apparently sales of businesses, technology, the financial system etc. is OK).

          He also states that the TPPA is a done deal and you can’t “pick and choose.”

          Further he makes it clear that Labour is totally for “free trade” and is proud of its history of being pro-free trade.

          LITTLE Andrew Little: The TPP is here. The National Government has signed up to it. That’s not going to change. We had five bottom lines that we were going to measure it against. We haven’t been through the 6000 pages of text in detail, but we’ve been through enough to know that four of our bottom lines have been met. There’s one, a pretty serious one, that hasn’t been, and that’s the one that concerns restrictions on land sales.
          …..
          GOWER It is quite a simple question. All the other major parties have a position. National is for it. The Greens and New Zealand First are against it. So the question is this – the TPP is here, as you’ve said. Is the Labour Party for or against the TPP?

          LITTLE The problem with the question is I know that if I say, right, we’re for this or we’re against that— we are for free trade, we understand the importance for a country like ours of free trade to open access to markets to help our exporters generate wealth and create jobs. That’s absolutely vital.

          GOWER Sure, but—

          LITTLE But the TPP does something else. Now listen. The TPP does something else, and it does something pretty rotten, actually. It tries to tell the New Zealand Parliament and therefore the voters and citizens of New Zealand how our parliament should operate. That’s wrong, and that can never be justified and can never be defended, and we will fight against it.

          GOWER Sure.

          LITTLE But I want to be clear that fighting against that, which is what we will do – I’m absolutely committed to doing – is not anti-free trade. It is not opposing our long-standing heritage as a party in supporting free trade. I want to make that clear. So when you ask the question, it is too simplistic and too simple to simply say, yeah, we’re for this or we’re against it, because it’s too complex.
          Because it’s a deal and it’s a package, and you can’t pick and choose, and it’s here now, the time for fighting is over. It’s here.

          http://itsourfuture.org.nz/patrick-gower-interviews-labour-leader-andrew-little/

          • Karen 14.1.2.1.1

            And here is what he says having now read the whole document:

            “But the TPPA isn’t just a free trade agreement. It goes way beyond free trade. And it’s necessary to look at the non-trade parts of the deal. Two things that disturb me are, first: the restriction on New Zealand legislating to regulate land sales to non-resident foreigners (Labour’s policy is to require them to build a new house, not buy an existing one, and we would be unable to do this under the TPPA); and secondly the requirement to allow other TPPA countries, their citizens (including corporates) to have a say on changes to many New Zealand laws and regulations. For instance we would have to let Carlos Slim, the wealthy Mexican telecom company owner, vet any regulation of our telecommunications industry.

            Constraints on law-making and opening up our political system to overseas interests is unheard of. Every citizen is entitled to know their parliament is responsible only to them, not subject to the direction and influence of outside forces.”

            He has also talked about the loss of jobs.

            • Bill 14.1.2.1.1.1

              Pretty sure that the TTP has nothing to say on sales of property to individuals. Why would it? Individuals are not parties to the agreement and can’t access the ISDS process.

              Meanwhile, on land sales to corporations, Labour is being kind of silent.

              What they seem to be doing is muddying the waters by throwing residential sales out there and saying how they will ‘ignore’ the TPP on that front – as though the TPP is concerned with individual residential property sales – and as through they are the same as major land sales to corporates.

              So at some point, do we get a Labour government announcing it’s gained a win on the non-TPP matter of residential sales to individuals in the same breath as it says it couldn’t secure a change to TPP rules around corporate land sales?

              Find myself looking at Labour as pursuing as a dishonest, “We tried our best gov (now suck it up)” strategy.

              • Karen

                This is the bit that extends the concerns about loss of sovereignty past domestic home sales:

                “and secondly the requirement to allow other TPPA countries, their citizens (including corporates) to have a say on changes to many New Zealand laws and regulations. For instance we would have to let Carlos Slim, the wealthy Mexican telecom company owner, vet any regulation of our telecommunications industry.”

                I suspect some comms person has told them to talk about individuals because it is easier for those not really interested in politics to see that as a problem. I share most of your concerns about Labour because I suspect there are several members of the caucus who would happily go along with the TPPA. However, I am also relieved that Little has at last got a majority willing to oppose it and I think he should be applauded for this. It has obviously been a hard fought victory.

              • weka

                Where did Little talk about land sales to individuals? He’s talking the residential market, and any overseas corporation or business can currently buy residential housing stock in NZ. Labour’s policy is to introduce legislation to restrict that and it clearly states they are talking about speculators.

                Overseas property speculators are making it worse. Currently there are no restrictions on non-residents buying houses in New Zealand. Our lack of restrictions, stamp duty and capital gains tax make us an attractive target for speculators. Real estate agencies are actively marketing Kiwi homes to overseas speculators.2

                This adds nothing to our economy and forces New Zealanders to compete against foreign investors who are able to borrow at lower interest rates than in New Zealand.

                Figures from IRD released under the Official Information Act show that over 25,000 overseas speculators own New Zealand rental properties and this doesn’t include those who leave properties vacant.

                An estimated 2,750 houses are bought by overseas property speculators each year who have no intention of living in New Zealand.3 That’s a significant number when compared to the 6,300 new homes built in Auckland last year.4

                John Key doesn’t think overseas property speculators are a problem.5 But experts such as BNZ economist Tony Alexander and David Whitburn of the Auckland Property Investors Association have raised concerns that it is contributing to the problem of housing affordability.6

                Australia, Denmark and Iceland all restrict non-residents from buying established houses. Hong Kong, Singapore, United Kingdom, Switzerland and China have all tightened restrictions or added stamp duties for non-resident buyers in the last two years.

                Labour’s solution

                Labour will amend the Overseas Investment Act 2005 to close the loophole that makes New Zealand an easy target for overseas speculators.

                Labour will:
                apply new restrictions on the purchase of residential property by non-residents, so that they will only be granted permission to purchase a residential property if they intend to live here permanently or that purchase adds to our existing housing stock, e.g. building a new house
                These restrictions are the same as those in place in Australia. A non-resident wishing to purchase vacant land with a commitment to begin building a new dwelling within 12 months will likely have their application granted.

                https://www.labour.org.nz/sites/default/files/issues/policy-overseasinvestment.pdf

                They also want to change legislation to tighten up on rural land purchasing. See same document.

                • Bill

                  Where did Little talk about land sales to individuals?

                  I didn’t say he did. I mean, maybe he has, but I wasn’t saying that he had.

                  So, are we on the same page on the residential property front now? Houses? Yes? Okay.

                  See. Unless something like HNZ stock hits the market, I can’t see a corporation looking to buy residential real estate. Assuming I’m way wrong on that front, I don’t think it’s controversial in the slightest to suggest that most residential properties are bought by individuals.

                  And individuals are not party to the TPP… so if they had a gripe with government legislation, they (unlike corporations) would have to pursue their case through the NZ court system.

                  In other words, they (Labour) can implement their overseas investment policy and the likelihood of it affecting a corporate party to the TPP would be bloody remote. To reiterate – it is individuals who are building up portfolios, not corporations.

                  • weka

                    I just don’t think that’s right Bill. Yes, individuals buying property from offshore is an issue also, but afaik there is nothing to stop corporations/businesses either and that this already happens. That’s what they’re talking about in the policy re speculators and rentals. Businesses that buy property here to rent them out for profit from rent and from later resale. Perhaps there is a definition issue here of what is an individual and what is a business and what is covered by the TPPA. I have no doubt that if Labour passed law banning individuals then people would just set up legal structures that weren’t individuals but were businesses. This probably already happens (people using legal structures for their speculation that removes the risk from them as individuals).

                    But let’s see if we can get some confirmation either way.

                    • Bill

                      A typical business would struggle to access SDSI processes.

                      8. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO ARBITRATE?
                      Research by the OECD12 indicates that the average legal and arbitration costs for a claimant are around $8 million.

                      I’m guessing that’s US$8 million.

                      trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2015/january/tradoc_153046.pdf

                      So, some person forming a company in order to access the SDSI process had better be able to absorb an US$8 million hit in case they don’t get awarded costs. That puts many companies outta the game before kick-off.

                      And where are these figures for foreign companies/corporates buying residential properties? If it was a significant number, then why Labour’s Chinese sounding surname thing?

                      I can’t think of any situation where a foreign corporation has bought extensive holdings in a residential property market. If you know of any, please share.

                    • weka

                      what’s the minimum cost? Average would be adding the costs of all of the different ISDSs and dividing them by the number of actions. It doesn’t tell us the lower number from companies with the least costs.

                      You may very well be right. Or you may be wrong and Labour despite all their problems might actually know something about their own policy and how it would work with the TPPA ratified. Or maybe as CV believes, they’re fucking with us. Basically you and I are arguing theory from places of ignorance. Sorry, but being able to read parts of the TPPA isn’t enough and I think it’s not particularly productive to spend time debating things when we have no idea what we’re talking about. We need opinions form people who can put what we are talking about in context.

                      (that incidentally is part of why I don’t take CV’s orginal comment and subsequent refusal to back as being meaningful until he or someone else does. Not saying you are doing the same thing, obviously you’re willing to share what you are basing your opinions on, just that we’re all still guessing).

                    • Bill

                      This link http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/finance-and-investment/investor-state-dispute-settlement_5k46b1r85j6f-en#page19

                      Can be downloaded as a pdf rather than read on-line.

                      Follow on through the ‘paper trail’ of provided links, and do some reading of source (or as close to as is possible) materials. No need to opine from a position of ignorance.

                      Apply critical evaluation and, well…context and possible/likely courses of action look pretty damned obvious. And, you know, doing a bit of fairly basic google searching, if you look for closer to source documentation, means that you can wind up basically knowing what you’re talking about. Try it 😉

    • savenz 14.2

      @the lost sheep
      One thing both the left and right seem to be agreeing on is that TPPA – NO WAY.

      Only Monsanto and other lobbyists, PR people and lazy politicians seem to be keen to sign.

      There is zero economic benefit with a huge amount of risks.

      Yep the politicians know it is a dog, but too gutless to pull out and face their lobbyist backers – instead hoping that they sign in our backwater of NZ (not not in Washington for the 40% agreement of world economy says a lot), and passes the buck to the future generations to unravel this mess. Any one in business knows, don’t sign a bad deal. It is easier not to sign than to sign hoping to re negotiate downstream and find a lot of pitfalls and costs that could have been avoided AND screwing up the next generation and environment even more while they muddle around.

      TPPA is a classic case of emperor has no clothes.

    • Tricledrown 14.3

      The last sheep shager Labour has not said its against the TPPA its said its against parts that affect our sovereignty.
      And the poor Access for agricultural exports facts right f wit.

      • savenz 14.3.1

        The New Zealand Government still intends to give a $3 million abattoir to Saudi Arabia despite being concerned by the mass executions there this month.

        http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/295060/saudi-abattoir-deal-will-proceed-pm

        Ive said it before crucifixion is no barrier to Key and has trade deals! Human rights are obviously for sissys at Key’s table and he relying on ‘trickle’ down obviously as now we actually pay business people our exports and IP in their own country – kinda the opposite of business this corporate welfare.

    • Jenny Kirk 14.4

      Lost Sheep – you are actually a bit lost on this issue re Goff and TPPA. Andrew Little has said Goff has been given dispensation to differ from the Labour caucus on TPPA
      for a specific reason – Goff’s part in setting up the original deal (which is very different from the current deal apparently), and Goff is leaving Parliament for the Auckland mayoralty and he doesn’t have a spokesperson’s role in Labour – so he’s a bit irrelevant in Parliament now, isn’t he?

      But to differ does not necessarily mean Goff will be voting with the Nats on the various bits of legislation relevant to the TPPA.

      Shearer on the other hand does not have that background in the original TPPA, and is Labour’s spokesperson on trade and foreign affairs and as such has to put forward Labour’s view of the TPPA – so his situation is quite a different kettle of fish.

      • Anne 14.4.1

        to differ does not necessarily mean Goff will be voting with the Nats on the various bits of legislation relevant to the TPPA.

        Someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I read somewhere earlier today that Goff has made it clear he “respects the position of the Labour caucus” and “he will not be crossing the floor of the House “. That is a mature and acceptable response. It does not represent a “split” in the Labour caucus. David Shearer has more to answer for… but that also doesn’t represent a major “split”.

        I think the disgraceful spin on Labour’s TPP stand from a significant portion of the MSM proves beyond doubt they are nothing less than dishonest, self-serving acolytes for the Key government. The load of bullshit which passed as professional commentary on the TV1 news yesterday evening was a case in point – Josie Pagani was only a small part of the problem.

        • Naturesong 14.4.1.1

          If Goff respects the position of the Labour caucus but feels unable to vote against the TPP, he should abstain or resign.

          I’m assuming that Shearer will now resign from the foreign affairs shadow portfolio. Can’t see how his position is tenable now.

          • rhinocrates 14.4.1.1.1

            “If Goff respects the position of the Labour caucus”

            That’s the problem right there. Fucker doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘respect’.

            • Bill 14.4.1.1.1.1

              There’s bound to be some meaty positions up for grabs given that NZ is the Depositary for the TPP. Some peeps wouldn’t want to be shooting themselves in the foot now, would they? 😉

      • The lost sheep 14.4.2

        The message to the electorate is clear Jenny, anyway you spin it.
        If you are forced to give one of your senior figures dispensation to disagree, and your shadow Minister for Trade expresses open rebellion…..then it is a kettle of fish that is boiling so vigorously you are obviously struggling to keep the lid on.

        • fisiani 14.4.2.1

          Labour are the Yeah, Nah Party.

          • savenz 14.4.2.1.1

            @Fisiani
            Actually Goff and Shearer are in the wrong party. They should be National if Corporate welfare and privatisation is the ideology they believe in, and the sooner they join the party that best represents their ideals like National and ACT the sooner Labour will win the election.

          • tricledrown 14.4.2.1.2

            National the Colonial sheep lemmings follow our Colonial masters party!

            • fisiani 14.4.2.1.2.1

              Which of the other 11 countries in the TPP were our colonial master’s? Vietnam?? Chile??
              Sounds like the public clearly accept the benefits of the TPP as will become very apparent in the next lot of polls. Honest John says it will be wonderful Angry Andy claims the sky will fall. Who do expect the public to believe?
              Will the public back Mike Moore/Helen Clark/Phil Goff/David Shearer/John Key or Jane (i oppose every trade deal) Kelsey and the badly behaved mob endorsed by Chicken Little.

  14. Kriss X 15

    To Little too late. Labour did nothing to stop this when it started. Contrived appeals to popular sentiment have come too late. Labour will lose the next one. It does not please me to know this.

  15. Northsider 16

    Captain Mumblefuck rides again.

    Many/most things Shearer did a leader undermined the Labour Leadership.
    Now Shearer has gone and holed Andrew Little below the waterline AND ruined his own credibility as Foreign & Trade Spokesman.

    You couldn’t make it up.

    What a massive cock-up.

    This is the novice MP that Robertson and his crew foisted on the Party,

    We, Labour, have been in a mess ever since Captain Mumblefuck was choosen as Robertson&Co’s tool to block Cunliffe.

    Jesus wept.

    • greywarshark 16.1

      Leave Jesus out of this. He is busy trying to sweep up the world’s messes caused by us before God notices.

  16. Chooky 17

    This stance on the TPPA will be a winner for Andrew Little….the Labour Party is looking more like a real Labour Party and a real Opposition

    …and Andrew Little is looking more like the leader of a left coalition and the next Prime Minister

    • savenz 17.1

      +1 Chooky – the winner is the Labour party as a whole. Yep it was like getting blood out of a stone but Labour got there in the end.

      Interestingly the trolls on this site can only attack Labour as being supporters of TPP in secret or what they previously said, (Labour does it too) rather than actually any merits of TPP for NZ ( because there aren’t any!)

      How about a referendum on TPP to see what the public want!!!!

      I think we all know it will come back as TPPA – NO WAY.

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    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 ...
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    2 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
    2 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
    2 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
    2 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
    3 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
    3 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
    4 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
    4 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
    4 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
    4 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 ...
    5 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
    5 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
    5 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 ...
    5 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
    5 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
    5 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
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days 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
    5 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
    7 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
    7 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
    21 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
    Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government lowering building costs
    The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Trustee tax change welcomed
    Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister’s Ramadan message
    Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness.  It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister appoints new NZTA Chair
    Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
    Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.  It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Progress continues apace on water storage
    Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government agrees to restore interest deductions
    Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister to attend World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium
    Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity
    This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti.  Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

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