Create money out of thin air.Lend it at interest to hard workers,when they default reclaim the security and do it all over…again.
Best game in…town.
The agricultural sector currently has about $63 billion of debt and the Federated Farmers six-monthly banking surveys have shown that while most farmers are satisfied with their banks, satisfaction has been slipping and the number of farmers feeling under pressure has been rising.'
America's toxic obsession with by-your-bootstraps individualism, and specifically how it relates to poverty.
…
In addition to Manifest Destiny, these Puritans believed that hard work was the only promise of salvation, which eventually evolved into the whole "rugged individualism" idea that consumes so many American conservatives and Evangelicals. While [philosopher Elizabeth] Anderson acknowledges that this ethic is rooted in a very pro-worker mindset, it's clearly been secularized over time into a highly partisan hatred of the poor, with a nod towards its religious roots:
There is a profound suspicion of anyone who is poor, and a consequent raising to the highest priority imposing incredibly humiliating, harsh conditions on access to welfare benefits on the assumption you’re some kind of grifter, or you’re trying to cheat the system.
I'd hazard a guess almost all goods and services cost us more than they might; and this is in order to pay for the extravagant lifestyles of upper management. Whether they're highly skilled or useless is on a case by case basis, whether they're paid too much is practically every case.
I've seen huge money spent on poor results my entire life. Every time some noddy with a business degree and no practical experience starts calling the play. Efficiencies are for cutting workers pay, cutting corners, cutting health and safety, but never CEO salaries. I could walk into any outfit, make a spreadsheet, do some systems analysis, and find money hemorrhaging out the top. But the analysts wont do an honest job, they cut everything else and give themselves hefty fees for reinforcing the problem. These types are very much part of the problem.
It's a self-propagating, self-perpetuating self-above else culture and it's damning the bulk of us to live paycheck to paycheck while we pay for executive incompetence and extravagance.
I like the model where the top earner of any entity is only allowed x times the bottom earner. I reckon 10 x minimum wage is more than fair.
What bugs me even more is the haughty better-than-thou bullshit attitude so many of the so-called leadership adopt. These people do not serve their workplace or their customers well. The word is parasites, and we got a heavy load of them.
Those at the "top" will see that their salaries are pumped higher and higher which gives excuse to increase the salaries of the next level down to justify their own salary increase so that the next level down must be increased to justify their own further increase….
Galbraith, in one of his books (Economics and the Public Purpose), suggested that corporations should be regulated once they reach a certain size. This would seem to be a possible solution to the problem.
If the upper managements wage can only be raised if the lowest paid get a raise (CEO wage = x times lowest paid) we'd see CEO's attempting to raise the game over the entirety of their organisations, rather than fudging numbers to buy another yacht. It is the gutlessness of governments having these parasites as bed partners that sees little oversight/regulation at top level. We see CEO pay go through the roof, taxes avoided, criminal negligence, back hand deals – as a matter of course – not anomalies to be scrutinised. In a just and fair society we'd all be under scrutiny if it were warranted, not just the poor who, let's face it, are mere distractions to hate on while the real crooks run rampant.
Ethical investing is on the rise. The term usually relates to the industry a particular corporation is involved with. Perhaps it's time for the term to include how employees are remunerated.
Actually this is normal procedure in many areas. Problem seems to be the big ones seem to have so much influence that the regulations are often more lenient the bigger the corporation.
For example ANZ got to use its own risk models by virtue of size while smaller banks have to use standard ones. We know that ANZs was more lenient though they were appropriately pulled up for it.
indeed it is more insidious than that…the regulation (often at the behest of the corporates) removes much of the competition and the ever increasing senior salary packages are designed to avoid any linkage and to provide the ability to buy off any likely opposed opinion
Edit
The Peter Principle about capable/incapable upper management was put forward in 1968 after a lot of research.
The Peter Principle is an observation that the tendency in most organizational hierarchies, such as that of a corporation, is for every employee to rise in the hierarchy through promotion until they reach a level of respective incompetence.
That related to people who rose up the hierarchy within a business or group, till they achieved senior status. These days top management is 'helicoptered' in and not necessarily with relevant information on the company's business. Generic approaches meet the focussed requirements of the wealth creators, increasingly inclined to use conformist people thinking within a template, and then replacing those people with machines high on algorithms!
So making bold changes is in, often for the sake of appearances, and usually results in sackings to boost profits in the initial stages and other 'smart' and fashionable moves and economies will give the appearance of dynamism and a lot of time is spent in supporting the brand as a front for customers and the general public, while the back is stripped down to its bare essentials, possibly by more sacking and sending the work overseas.
This has happened with Spark, stripping its back office NZ employees and going off-shore (also happened with Fairfax Newspapers). Employees in NZ can be sacked on the whim of a customer's perception, when they reply to questions about satisfaction, with 8 out of 10 being considered bad. This is an excuse to send jobs offshore; in January 2019 the 'change' team had 98 staff in NZ, 23 overseas. End of October, 75 NZ, 120 overseas. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/117059307/angry-spark-staff-say-kiwi-jobs-being-replaced-by-outsourcing
I just had to mention Theo again as he is the best example (I could think of) of someone so over paid its obscene. (probably some good examples of bank executives also). And the really annoying thing to me is that the remuneration is not remotely performance based.
Yes he is a classic example of why we need to curb this nonsense. It's hurting everyone except the out-of-touch via poor payouts to suppliers, pricey goods and services, distrust in business, feeling comparatively useless/poor… And the gouging of once decent entities for profits as GWS outlined above. Within the government sector, gouging and stripping are the perfect prelude to calling a thing broken and thus an excuse to privatise. Then the gall they have to tell us how the business world know how to run things better, and the subsequent shittifying of once-were-commons.
The Peter Principle is alive and well @grey, unfortunately. In fact it’s become worse than it ever was.
As I was trying to point out somewhere (maybe TDB) in relation to some of the immigration changes, skills and competence are not necessarily directly proportional to income/wages/salary.
What's worse since the neo-liberal religion or faith took hold in Nu Zull, the ability to spin and speak the [management-speak] lingo will likely get you further up the food chain than anything else. Right now, I’m waiting for 'Kaizen' to be recycled.
A good bullshit artist (especially one from one of the Empires, parachuted in, OR with SFA understanding of the lowkill kulcha) will get you a long way.
And unfortunately, some in the Labour Party have bought into it all. They may well have just had another close shave too with Iain Lees-Galloway now telling 'officials' to investigate resolving ways of pacifying the Indian community.
If they'd thought about things a little less superficially – there was a way of neutering Shane-Shane-Hold-the-Ladder-Steady's ego and bluster. It' seems Jacinda (J1) might really be in need of a J2 if things don't start happening soon (and that's coming from someone who thinks she really needs to stick around a while!)
I tend to separate what Tim is talking about from the Peter principal. Too many of the best examples seem to thrive in these new speak management positions with all the right lingo and jargon and none of the competence. The problem is often with the accepted standards of people in the roles. This also means often enough the people who are more capable can't occupy these positions effectively either, as overperforming reflects badly for the rest of the team.
I don't disagree @ Nic. The two observations/experiences are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
I think you'd probably have to agree tho' that the GOOD bullshit artist/used-car-salesman/senior public servant comes with an ability to look his Munster directly in the eye, and 'lie' (spin/obfuscate/be frugal with the truth/pretend to be "onside"/'mis-speak'/shift blame to the likes of "junior staffers" or other peons and worker-bees), convincingly with a straight face.
It's quite effective really, especially where the Munster doesn't have a particularly good bullshit detector, or even if he/she is basically a nice 'glass half full' kinda guy..
But let's not get too deep though eh? or I’ll be force to clutch my crystals and beads and start stressing.
I think the best excuses are of the form of ignorance. Oh, executives should know about that, I think that department over there is rewriting our policy now in wake of these unforseeable circumstances.
I don't know how you could regulate for it but I'd like to some exec salary increases pegged at 1/5th of any general increase.
For example union negotiates 5 percent under a collective exec's gets 1 percent.
This does two things, makes it advantageous for mamagement to negotiate in good faith and secondly it will slow runaway salaries up top and narrow inequality slowly.
For example if you get a five percent increase on 50k you gain 2.5k whilst an exec on 100k would only gain 1k.
Currently if they both get 5 percent the exec gains 5k and the wage gap continues to grow… I feel this is a practical step to help close some of those gaps in society little by little.
Second Whistleblower Emerges from Investigation into Douma Chemical Attack
Caitlin Johnstone flags a report about another member of the OPCW investigation who says his findings, which contradicted the official conclusions, were suppressed.
Funny I haven't seen RNZ take up this story, even though they were happy to give headline news space to the original now largely debunked claims…seems fake news only applies in one direction.
The police response to the CHCH attacks was rapid and effective – and I doubt would have been different if armed response teams were floating about (what is the chance they would have been at Deans Ave right then…?). I have not heard that a problem with the South Auckland violence issue is slow armed police response time. The ART's are just an implied threat of violence and can go wrong in so many ways. Police would do much better by gaining trust of communities.
Americanisation and militarisation of the police is not the right direction for Aotearoa.
I don't know if people have referred to previous get-tough teams set up by police that have had to be disbanded for becoming constantly more violent and OTT action-oriented. Someone may remember the details or find them on google and put up the link. I have to goooo…
" I doubt would have been different if armed response teams were floating about "
No quite . The terrorist was able to move unhindered to another Mosque to kill more worshippers and was on his way to a third when stopped by an ordinary police patrol….it was 18 min from first call to the sucessful stop.
No one is suggesting that a Aos Team had to be outside Masjid Al Noor at Deans Ave
The shooting started at 1:40, reported to police a minute later – the AOS arrived at 1:47 and only missed the offender by chance – a bus was blocking their view of his departure.
The problem wasn't the police, the problem was the man with the rapid fire gun.
But the reason for the quick response from the AoS, normally it could be up to half an hour as they leave their normal duties and gather in the main police station.
"Thanks to a police training course the same day as the Christchurch terrorist attack, specialist staff from overseas, as well as New Zealand's Defence Force, were on hand to help.
Personnel taking part in the course in the city centre were already wearing their gear when the first 111 call was received at 1.41pm on Friday, March 15.
China and the ongoing torture, organ harvesting, sexual abuse and ultimately genicide – they can't speak up any louder…can you at least click on the story in the hope it is kept in the press?
NZ first and the coalition need to look at how many elections Shane Jones has actually ever won. Being abrasive isn't much of a vote winner, if you're not also a charmer like Winnie.
Here is a list of think points as the Brexit story continues. There is always something new to ponder about, latest is Trump sticking his trunk into it, and denying that NHS forms part of the agenda, although he himself brought it up some months ago.
Also from Radionz this morning a very interesting discussion from an informed UK political analyst. Trump is so different and brazen about forcing through his agenda, this guy thinks the precedents he sets may result in permanent change to the political culture and rules. And Johnson is following the same path.
…Although democracy in the west is in a precarious state, Prof Runciman [professor of politics at Cambridge University, David Runciman]does not believe analogies with the rise of Facism in the 1930s are correct – he believes our present era more resembles the 19th century.
The end of the 19th century was the last great age of populism in Britain, France in America, he says.
…"It was a time of technological revolution; electricity, transportation and so on, a time of great inequality, the Gilded Age, the people who'd capture the wealth of the great technology revolution were then unbelievably rich and seemed powerful and untouchable, deep suspicion of banks and Wall Street, of the city of London, rising suspicion of foreigners, racism, anti-semitism. It has those echoes to me of a populist age, not of a proto-fascist age….
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
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Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
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The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
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Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
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Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
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Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
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National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
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Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
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Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
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Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
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The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
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It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
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Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
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Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
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span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
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The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Create money out of thin air.Lend it at interest to hard workers,when they default reclaim the security and do it all over…again.
Best game in…town.
The agricultural sector currently has about $63 billion of debt and the Federated Farmers six-monthly banking surveys have shown that while most farmers are satisfied with their banks, satisfaction has been slipping and the number of farmers feeling under pressure has been rising.'
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/117062995/cut-farmers-extra-slack-in-farm-debt-mediation-law-select-committee
Where some harmful political ideas the Nats are importing are culturally rooted: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/31/how-americas-hatred-of-the-p.html
Thought this article would be of interest to Standardistas.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/117019238/executive-pay-is-out-of-control–here-are-six-steps-to-fix-it#comments
I'd hazard a guess almost all goods and services cost us more than they might; and this is in order to pay for the extravagant lifestyles of upper management. Whether they're highly skilled or useless is on a case by case basis, whether they're paid too much is practically every case.
I've seen huge money spent on poor results my entire life. Every time some noddy with a business degree and no practical experience starts calling the play. Efficiencies are for cutting workers pay, cutting corners, cutting health and safety, but never CEO salaries. I could walk into any outfit, make a spreadsheet, do some systems analysis, and find money hemorrhaging out the top. But the analysts wont do an honest job, they cut everything else and give themselves hefty fees for reinforcing the problem. These types are very much part of the problem.
It's a self-propagating, self-perpetuating self-above else culture and it's damning the bulk of us to live paycheck to paycheck while we pay for executive incompetence and extravagance.
I like the model where the top earner of any entity is only allowed x times the bottom earner. I reckon 10 x minimum wage is more than fair.
What bugs me even more is the haughty better-than-thou bullshit attitude so many of the so-called leadership adopt. These people do not serve their workplace or their customers well. The word is parasites, and we got a heavy load of them.
Those at the "top" will see that their salaries are pumped higher and higher which gives excuse to increase the salaries of the next level down to justify their own salary increase so that the next level down must be increased to justify their own further increase….
Galbraith, in one of his books (Economics and the Public Purpose), suggested that corporations should be regulated once they reach a certain size. This would seem to be a possible solution to the problem.
How could a big firm be regulated?
If the upper managements wage can only be raised if the lowest paid get a raise (CEO wage = x times lowest paid) we'd see CEO's attempting to raise the game over the entirety of their organisations, rather than fudging numbers to buy another yacht. It is the gutlessness of governments having these parasites as bed partners that sees little oversight/regulation at top level. We see CEO pay go through the roof, taxes avoided, criminal negligence, back hand deals – as a matter of course – not anomalies to be scrutinised. In a just and fair society we'd all be under scrutiny if it were warranted, not just the poor who, let's face it, are mere distractions to hate on while the real crooks run rampant.
Ethical investing is on the rise. The term usually relates to the industry a particular corporation is involved with. Perhaps it's time for the term to include how employees are remunerated.
Actually this is normal procedure in many areas. Problem seems to be the big ones seem to have so much influence that the regulations are often more lenient the bigger the corporation.
For example ANZ got to use its own risk models by virtue of size while smaller banks have to use standard ones. We know that ANZs was more lenient though they were appropriately pulled up for it.
indeed it is more insidious than that…the regulation (often at the behest of the corporates) removes much of the competition and the ever increasing senior salary packages are designed to avoid any linkage and to provide the ability to buy off any likely opposed opinion
If there is indeed any relationship between executive pay and company performance, it seems it's probably an inverse correlation.
https://cooleypubco.com/2016/07/25/new-study-shows-inverse-correlation-between-ceo-pay-and-performance-over-the-long-term/
It seems the old saying "pay peanuts, get monkeys" isn't quite accurate. "Pay more peanuts, get bigger monkeys" might be a bit closer to the mark.
Theo Spierings of Fonterra!
Edit
The Peter Principle about capable/incapable upper management was put forward in 1968 after a lot of research.
The Peter Principle is an observation that the tendency in most organizational hierarchies, such as that of a corporation, is for every employee to rise in the hierarchy through promotion until they reach a level of respective incompetence.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/peter-principle.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
That related to people who rose up the hierarchy within a business or group, till they achieved senior status. These days top management is 'helicoptered' in and not necessarily with relevant information on the company's business. Generic approaches meet the focussed requirements of the wealth creators, increasingly inclined to use conformist people thinking within a template, and then replacing those people with machines high on algorithms!
So making bold changes is in, often for the sake of appearances, and usually results in sackings to boost profits in the initial stages and other 'smart' and fashionable moves and economies will give the appearance of dynamism and a lot of time is spent in supporting the brand as a front for customers and the general public, while the back is stripped down to its bare essentials, possibly by more sacking and sending the work overseas.
This has happened with Spark, stripping its back office NZ employees and going off-shore (also happened with Fairfax Newspapers). Employees in NZ can be sacked on the whim of a customer's perception, when they reply to questions about satisfaction, with 8 out of 10 being considered bad. This is an excuse to send jobs offshore; in January 2019 the 'change' team had 98 staff in NZ, 23 overseas. End of October, 75 NZ, 120 overseas. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/117059307/angry-spark-staff-say-kiwi-jobs-being-replaced-by-outsourcing
Farmers are said to be ringing up in tears over hits to their business;the present business approach of our governments under neolib free-marketing and being treated as pawns by the moneyed and their familiars in top jobs hurts us all. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/402250/ringing-up-in-tears-canterbury-farmers-doing-it-tough
I just had to mention Theo again as he is the best example (I could think of) of someone so over paid its obscene. (probably some good examples of bank executives also). And the really annoying thing to me is that the remuneration is not remotely performance based.
Yes he is a classic example of why we need to curb this nonsense. It's hurting everyone except the out-of-touch via poor payouts to suppliers, pricey goods and services, distrust in business, feeling comparatively useless/poor… And the gouging of once decent entities for profits as GWS outlined above. Within the government sector, gouging and stripping are the perfect prelude to calling a thing broken and thus an excuse to privatise. Then the gall they have to tell us how the business world know how to run things better, and the subsequent shittifying of once-were-commons.
The Peter Principle is alive and well @grey, unfortunately. In fact it’s become worse than it ever was.
As I was trying to point out somewhere (maybe TDB) in relation to some of the immigration changes, skills and competence are not necessarily directly proportional to income/wages/salary.
What's worse since the neo-liberal religion or faith took hold in Nu Zull, the ability to spin and speak the [management-speak] lingo will likely get you further up the food chain than anything else. Right now, I’m waiting for 'Kaizen' to be recycled.
A good bullshit artist (especially one from one of the Empires, parachuted in, OR with SFA understanding of the lowkill kulcha) will get you a long way.
And unfortunately, some in the Labour Party have bought into it all. They may well have just had another close shave too with Iain Lees-Galloway now telling 'officials' to investigate resolving ways of pacifying the Indian community.
If they'd thought about things a little less superficially – there was a way of neutering Shane-Shane-Hold-the-Ladder-Steady's ego and bluster. It' seems Jacinda (J1) might really be in need of a J2 if things don't start happening soon (and that's coming from someone who thinks she really needs to stick around a while!)
I tend to separate what Tim is talking about from the Peter principal. Too many of the best examples seem to thrive in these new speak management positions with all the right lingo and jargon and none of the competence. The problem is often with the accepted standards of people in the roles. This also means often enough the people who are more capable can't occupy these positions effectively either, as overperforming reflects badly for the rest of the team.
I don't disagree @ Nic. The two observations/experiences are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
I think you'd probably have to agree tho' that the GOOD bullshit artist/used-car-salesman/senior public servant comes with an ability to look his Munster directly in the eye, and 'lie' (spin/obfuscate/be frugal with the truth/pretend to be "onside"/'mis-speak'/shift blame to the likes of "junior staffers" or other peons and worker-bees), convincingly with a straight face.
It's quite effective really, especially where the Munster doesn't have a particularly good bullshit detector, or even if he/she is basically a nice 'glass half full' kinda guy..
But let's not get too deep though eh? or I’ll be force to clutch my crystals and beads and start stressing.
I think the best excuses are of the form of ignorance. Oh, executives should know about that, I think that department over there is rewriting our policy now in wake of these unforseeable circumstances.
I don't know how you could regulate for it but I'd like to some exec salary increases pegged at 1/5th of any general increase.
For example union negotiates 5 percent under a collective exec's gets 1 percent.
This does two things, makes it advantageous for mamagement to negotiate in good faith and secondly it will slow runaway salaries up top and narrow inequality slowly.
For example if you get a five percent increase on 50k you gain 2.5k whilst an exec on 100k would only gain 1k.
Currently if they both get 5 percent the exec gains 5k and the wage gap continues to grow… I feel this is a practical step to help close some of those gaps in society little by little.
Second Whistleblower Emerges from Investigation into Douma Chemical Attack
Caitlin Johnstone flags a report about another member of the OPCW investigation who says his findings, which contradicted the official conclusions, were suppressed.
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/10/30/second-whistleblower-emerges-from-investigation-into-douma-chemical-attack/
Funny I haven't seen RNZ take up this story, even though they were happy to give headline news space to the original now largely debunked claims…seems fake news only applies in one direction.
Postol's report on Khan Sheikoun was also suppressed for the same reason.Namely because it would give succour to the Assad "regime"
Forget about the integrity of scientific institutions
I just signed the petition against police Armed Response Teams.
The police response to the CHCH attacks was rapid and effective – and I doubt would have been different if armed response teams were floating about (what is the chance they would have been at Deans Ave right then…?). I have not heard that a problem with the South Auckland violence issue is slow armed police response time. The ART's are just an implied threat of violence and can go wrong in so many ways. Police would do much better by gaining trust of communities.
Americanisation and militarisation of the police is not the right direction for Aotearoa.
If you agree, consider signing the petition!
I don't know if people have referred to previous get-tough teams set up by police that have had to be disbanded for becoming constantly more violent and OTT action-oriented. Someone may remember the details or find them on google and put up the link. I have to goooo…
" I doubt would have been different if armed response teams were floating about "
No quite . The terrorist was able to move unhindered to another Mosque to kill more worshippers and was on his way to a third when stopped by an ordinary police patrol….it was 18 min from first call to the sucessful stop.
No one is suggesting that a Aos Team had to be outside Masjid Al Noor at Deans Ave
The shooting started at 1:40, reported to police a minute later – the AOS arrived at 1:47 and only missed the offender by chance – a bus was blocking their view of his departure.
The problem wasn't the police, the problem was the man with the rapid fire gun.
yes the rapid fire gun was the real issue.
But the reason for the quick response from the AoS, normally it could be up to half an hour as they leave their normal duties and gather in the main police station.
"Thanks to a police training course the same day as the Christchurch terrorist attack, specialist staff from overseas, as well as New Zealand's Defence Force, were on hand to help.
Personnel taking part in the course in the city centre were already wearing their gear when the first 111 call was received at 1.41pm on Friday, March 15.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/111404324/global-expert-sharpshooters-were-training-in-the-city-just-as-the-christchurch-mosque-shooting-unfolded
Remind me again, what is it called when you try to put cash in the hands of those that are about to sit in judgement of you? (Probably).
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-richard-painter-impeachment-felony-bribery_n_5dbb5316e4b09d8f97988a05
Umm ….business as usual?
Lol trite but true and funny sort of.
China and the ongoing torture, organ harvesting, sexual abuse and ultimately genicide – they can't speak up any louder…can you at least click on the story in the hope it is kept in the press?
Worst parts are in last third of the page with links to other coverage like this one https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-a-million-people-are-jailed-at-china-s-gulags-i-escaped-here-s-what-goes-on-inside-1.7994216
NZ first and the coalition need to look at how many elections Shane Jones has actually ever won. Being abrasive isn't much of a vote winner, if you're not also a charmer like Winnie.
Some men equate abrasiveness with being a honest to god bloke that they can warm to and be on the same wavelength.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/oct/31/general-election-latest-news-brexit-labour-tory-real-change-is-coming-says-corbyn-at-labours-campaign-launch-live-news
Here is a list of think points as the Brexit story continues. There is always something new to ponder about, latest is Trump sticking his trunk into it, and denying that NHS forms part of the agenda, although he himself brought it up some months ago.
Also from Radionz this morning a very interesting discussion from an informed UK political analyst. Trump is so different and brazen about forcing through his agenda, this guy thinks the precedents he sets may result in permanent change to the political culture and rules. And Johnson is following the same path.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018720269/where-power-stops-politicians-and-the-limits-of-power
…Although democracy in the west is in a precarious state, Prof Runciman [professor of politics at Cambridge University, David Runciman] does not believe analogies with the rise of Facism in the 1930s are correct – he believes our present era more resembles the 19th century.
The end of the 19th century was the last great age of populism in Britain, France in America, he says.
…"It was a time of technological revolution; electricity, transportation and so on, a time of great inequality, the Gilded Age, the people who'd capture the wealth of the great technology revolution were then unbelievably rich and seemed powerful and untouchable, deep suspicion of banks and Wall Street, of the city of London, rising suspicion of foreigners, racism, anti-semitism. It has those echoes to me of a populist age, not of a proto-fascist age….