Sure, there is plenty of debate about whether the levels being treated as requiring remediation are right or not, but BM’s basic point is entirely valid – it doesn’t get there by itself.
& then they bill you $30,000+ for the test! Add it up, 600 houses tested, 200 ‘infected’, is that $20,000,000 for the testing? 600 x 30,000 equals 20,000,000? Jeebus, someone is making a pretty penny out of misery.
Yep and that’s all that National need to know to consider it a success. Their actions have nothing to do with the health and well being of the country but are solely for the further enrichment of their rich mates.
HNZ making money from Meth testing – now thats a silly assertion.
Seriously Gangnam Style, so you think that HNZ went to the tenant and said “Hey lady. hey dude, theres traces of Meth in your house so can you kindly flick $30,000 from one of your term deposits to cover it?
And the tenants said “sure, we have so many term deposits that I will break one today and fix you up.”
Get real.
What actually happens is that HNZ gets no money, and then wastes a further chunk of money setting lawyers onto the ex tenant who has no money.
And then HNZ have to fix or demolish the house, and lose more money.
No independent oversight into the tests, real estate agents performing the tests, using the same swab over the whole house to get the result, same chemicals used in some cleaning solvents & fly spray, plus the desired need from HNZ to get people out of their houses. The amount of money involved is obscene & does not smell right, it’s basically “blank cheque policy”, I thought righties were against that kind of thing? Ecept when it’s punish the poor, then there is an endless money flow.
“plus the desired need from HNZ to get people out of their houses.”
That’s the one that interests me. Is there a clear chain of command coming from the people that want houses vacated and sold? Or is it that it’s just now entrenched in the culture of HNZ that houses are assets to be realised, so this is the shit they do as a matter of course? Not so much intentionally (we’ll get rid of tenants and sell the houses), but the idea being that the housing stock is more important than the people.
HNZ making money from Meth testing – now thats a silly assertion.
That wasn’t the assertion. It was pretty obvious that HNZ was spending lots of money resulting in profiteers making lots of money. This means that everything you said was a lie.
Congratulations to Venezuela’s Socialist rulers. They have now reached the stage of forced labour to combat the food shortages that their rule has brought about.
Congratulations to the US and their band of EU comrades – as declared many years ago, they have defeated Afghanistan and Iraq and ended the war on terror.
A war that nobody even knew existed, (the main terrorists from 9/11 were from Saudi, the West’s BFF in the region). Go figure!
Well-placed sources in the Government say the Land Information survey on foreign buyers was delayed while Ministers re-wrote the survey questions, says Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford.
“I’m told the survey was delayed by Cabinet while Ministers – including Steven Joyce –interfered with the way the questions were framed.
“This is pure political manipulation and it has all the hallmarks of a Steven Joyce special.
“It would have been so easy to simply ask home buyers if they were citizens or residents. But instead the Government produced a convoluted set of questions that made nine months of data collection effectively useless.
“National has got itself into another housing fiasco by deliberately designing a survey to muddy the water and confuse the public debate about the impact of foreign buyers in the real estate market.
Then the entire National Party caucus needs to be placed in jail now. We simply cannot allow this level of corruption.
The thinking of the more Machiavellian liars and deceivers is essentially egotistical and focused on their wants and needs. They tend to think that they are entitled to do whatever is in their interests, regardless of the consequences on others. When caught out, they often shrug off the lies they use to cover-up what they have done, with the excuse that “everybody lies”. This argument assumes that all lies are the same; and if all lies are the same and everybody lies, then effectively this argument implies that the truth doesn’t matter.
The problem Draco, if this is true, that Steven Joyce has manipulated survey questions to suit his own needs, to paint a rosier picture of foreign investment in property, then nothing will happen.
For eight years, after fiasco, after false reporting, after denial of scientific fact and academic reasoning, after questionable to put it mildly, corrupt to put it more succinctly “deals” such as the Saudi sheep farm, the granting of millions of $$$ of “Pacific aid money” to a wealthy National Party donor, after turning a blind eye to the families of the victims of Pike River mine, after walking away from hurting Cantabrians, after pulling funding from essential health services such as Women’s refuge, after introducing cruel sanctions to suffering vulnerable beneficiaries whose children pay the price, after our PM not only getting away with but being supported in his physical and psychological assault of a woman – and all of this in front of an international media to watches on in horror (Remember “Il Cretino!!! The Italian papers cried)……….
Nothing will happen.
I’m sorry to be pessimistic. It’s why I no longer comment as much as I used to. All ideas come to nothing – or at least they are stewing and building while our country is on hold, hopefully the latter.
Watch and wait and we will see that nothing will come of this, like everything before it.
S. Most readers will be familiar with your approach: Act all innocent about a topic you are fully aware of, bait the reader by asking a question and then go into an attack on the reader whilst defending the indefensible.
Couldn’t agree more Rosie. Don’t worry about being pessimistic , it’s perfectly logical with the way things are being run in this world. It’s a bloody uphill battle when the majority of our dumbed down population are actively coerced to accept that…. war is peace…..freedom is slavery …. ignorance is strength.
What I’ve found particularly disturbing lately is joining faceblab for the first time, and seeing just how disconnected from NZ’s and the world’s current state of affairs some folks are. It’s like there is a concrete wall between them and the most basic knowledge about the seriousness of our socio-political problems. Maybe they like it this way. I don’t know.
Listening to Nick Smith avoiding the simple question was rather amusing. He thinks we are all stupid and don’t know the difference between a tax resident and an actual resident. My parents are tax residents only because they have a savings account here (and they pay tax on it) so they will not need to bring cash with them when they come to visit. Still doesn’t turn them into a NZ resident.
I don’t know what the questions are but how difficult can it be to ask ‘are you holding a: a. Student visa b. Temporary work visa c. NZ permanent resident d. None of the above’
He was also saying many got it wrong or didn’t answer at all! Well then, get back to them and demand an answer.
On Tuesday Richard Hanna, a three-term Republican became the first Republican in Congress to say he will vote for Hillary Clinton.
Referring to Trumps attacks on the Khan parents..Hanna asked, “Where do we draw the line? I thought it would have been when he alleged that U.S. Sen. John McCain was not a war hero because he was caught,”. . . ..
I believe Trump evaded joining the armed forces because of a foot defect but when questioned later couldn’t remember which foot.
I believe Trump evaded joining the armed forces because of a foot defect but when questioned later couldn’t remember which foot.
He’s lost track of his lies.
For many years, Mr. Trump, 70, has also asserted that it was “ultimately” the luck of a high draft lottery number — rather than the medical deferment — that kept him out of the war.
Continue reading the main story
But his Selective Service records, obtained from the National Archives, suggest otherwise. Mr. Trump had been medically exempted for more than a year when the draft lottery began in December 1969, well before he received what he has described as his “phenomenal” draft number.
Because of his medical exemption, his lottery number would have been irrelevant, said Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, who has worked for the agency for three decades.
[..]
In a 2011 television interview, Mr. Trump described watching the draft lottery as a college student and learning then that he would not be drafted.
“I’ll never forget; that was an amazing period of time in my life,” he said in the interview, on Fox 5 New York. “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers, and I got a very, very high number.”
But Mr. Trump had graduated from Wharton 18 months before the lottery — the first in the United States in 27 years — was held.
Oh dear. Trump has got a memory that is just as defective as poor old Kris Faafoi. I’m sure people recall his remarkable ability to remember things that happened when he was only a few months old.
Trump remembers things before they happened. Still what can one expect. They are both politicians.
Its just like getting people to understand that they and the time in their life is of the same value as the time of the persons life next to them.
20 hrs from my life is 20 hrs from my life.
20hrs from your life is 20 hrs from your life
20hrs from the coffee ladies life is 20 hrs from the coffee ladies life.
20 hrs from the guy who cleans toilets life is 20 hrs from the guy who cleans toilets life.
20hrs is 20 hrs
Once we strip away the false value system and understand that money is in many ways a false value system then we can start to build a world that enables people to live their life in the best way possible. One where we make the best use of technology to enable them to do so……
Consider that our current system is – you have to work in order to earn tokens (money) so that you can pay to survive. That’s what our system is.
Consider that the majority will not have enough to retire.
Consider that taking into account getting ready for work and travelling to and from work most people spend 60 – 70 hrs per week on work related activities. Over a lifetime that’s 60 or 70 hrs per week x 48 weeks per year (taking out 4 weeks for holidays – consider that in ours system too out of 52 weeks in a year you get to have 4 of those where you don’t have to work. WOW 4 weeks!!!!! Thankyou so much for my 4 weeks out of 52 where I don’t have to work). Lets say you live to 80 but like most people you can’t afford to retire so you spend 60 years doing that and we wont even factor in things like relationship break ups or losing your job and the fact that if those things happen to you then shit gets a lot harder for you or anyone else in that position.
Right so you have 60 hrs x 48 weeks x 60 years
So in the current system you are going to have to work 172,800 hrs of your life so that you can pay to live on this planet.
If you like we can add school onto that too. With school you get about 11 weeks off per year and you spend say an 1.5 hrs getting ready, travelling to and from school but lets just make it 2hrs in case you get homework.
Your at school from 9 – 3.30 so that’s 6.5 hrs per day plus 2hrs or 42.5 hrs per week.
So 42.5 hrs x (52 weeks – 11 weeks you get off is 39 weeks) x lets say 13 years for school
So 13 x 42.5 x 39 = 21 547.5hrs
Then lets add in sleep cause athough its nice you’re not really living you’re at best having a cool dream so if you life for 80 years lets say 8rs sleep (cause that’s what you’re supposed to get
Which is 8 hrs x 365 days of the year x 80 years = 233,600 hours sleeping.
So to recap
Work 172,800 hrs
School 21 547.5hrs
Sleep 233,600 hours
Total 427,947.5 hrs of your life doing those activities
In a life of 80 years your total hours on the planet is 700,800hrs
Minus 427,947.5 hrs
Then out of 700,800rs you get a grand total of 272,852.5 hrs to actually experience and live the life you want to…….
But that doesn’t take into account cooking cleaning and all the other stuff you have to do to live
So 272,852.5 hrs – cleaning cooking going to the supermarket etc. etc. to live the life you want to live…….
If you have enough money…..
But that’s ok because at least your worth more than the coffee lady and the toilet cleaner right?
Or we could have a system where we use IT to enable the human experience here on this planet by ensuring that everyone has a smartphone and/or tablet and can connect to product hubs and service hubs (which already exist) and you could maybe need to work
Then we still have sleep 233,600hrs
We still have school (but without the homework because who really wants homework!!!???). 16,477.5hrs
Work say 20 hrs per week for say 20 years of your life and be able to work from home in many cases or at least not have the levels of peak hour traffic we have now and you could work (including an 1.5 hours travel time and getting ready) 26,400 hrs
So then the equation becomes 276,477.5hrs of your life spent working sleeping or at school (and 233,600 hrs is spent sleeping)
Out of your 700,800hrs of life.
Leaving you to 424,322.5 hrs of your life where you can experience and do whatever you want to do…….
And in this world with technology as an enabler, money no longer has to be a barrier to overcome.
But you do have to give up the notion that the hours of your life are more valuable that the lady who makes your coffee or the guy who cleans your toilets…..
if your wondering wtf at the above.
its basically that by changing the system and using technology in far better ways you could get 17 years of your life back that 99% of people wont get with the current system.
what worries me Scott is your saying it took 12 minutes to read what coffeeconnoiseur wrote …………… and unlike porn you probably don’t even understand it.
Good on you for spending the hour and a half to type your reply though ……
He took bribes from a firm and gave preference in contracts to that firm in return.
Is there any possibility that the firm offering the bribes and taking the bribe-induced contracts is guilty of wrong-doing and can also be brought before a court?
Stephen James Borlase, who had run private contractor Projenz, faces eight charges of bribing George and Noone and four of doctoring the number of hours claimed to have been worked in invoices to Council.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, “Auckland Transport boss pleads guilty to corruption charges”.
The reason there is no public transport in Auckland is that there is a toxic corrupt and incompetent culture in AT supported by the toxic culture from the Super City of fiefdoms at the council.
My guess is that they got a small fish, in a very large pond of corruption.
The types of decisions AT loves making… thanks for destroying our city AT!
Auckland transport is planning to build a massive road in South Auckland that would destroy hundreds of our homes, cut a swathe through communities and destroy irreplaceable native bush known as ‘Grahams Bush.’ Auckland Transport wants to build this road to improve traffic congestion and make roads for yet to be built houses – at the cost of existing houses and communities!
But The Tree Council has lodged an appeal with the Environment Court against the decision by Auckland Transport to accept the Notices of Requirement recommended by Commissioners on behalf of the consent authority for the Redoubt Road-Mill Road corridor upgrade. Now they need your help: http://bit.ly/1y7VQoJ
Looks like Corbyn might not be such a shoe-in in the UK if 25% of his 25Gbp supporters are banned. On the bright side – Labour will keep their money thank you very much.
Isn’t the question on leader really about who might stand the best chance of helping the party to win an election?
The current Labour MPs are in a good position to judge who helps their electoral chances, and are motivated by self-interest to do so. By contrast the membership may enjoy having a leader who says things they like to hear, but that is hardly going to help reach out to the middle voters who decide elections. Preaching to the converted can only get you so far.
Labour have the same problem here with Little, and the selection method that put him in his job.
Except polling suggests that the Leaders favoured by the Blairite/Brownite sections of the PLP have proven no more popular (and often demonstrably less popular) with both Labour voters and voters in general than Corbyn. Whether it be Eagle and Smith this year or Cooper and Kendal last year.
Corbyn has certainly received some very poor personal ratings from voters over the last year – it’s just that the PLP plotters’ candidates are held in even lower regard.
Hmm Shamubeel is the same economist that has told Kiwis for the last 10 years that there was going to be a housing crash each year, renting was a better investment than owning your own home (as homes in Auckland increased $1000 per week) and that immigration has nothing to do with the property boom.
Yep, have to go with Little on this one, there is not going to be any affordable houses for Kiwis with the unitary plan, the affordable options were deleted, they are designed for new arrivals as the new migrants, as they don’t like old Kiwi villas and bungalows and want new apartments and McMansions and gardens are not popular as clearly a waste of space that you can cram some more people into.
Gotta give the punters what they want!
Lucky the council planners have left a few streets free of intensification for the prominent New Zealand rich listers, so they don’t have to have their leafy large waterfront sites, decimated.
I mean with supply and demand – has anyone looked at how many people in the world there are to buy our houses? We allow anyone to buy here from Russia, to the middle east to the EU.
Thanks for the supply and demand lesson Shamubeel. sarc.
“Lianjia, which has more than 6000 branches in over 25 cities in China, will co-list Ray White’s New Zealand and Australian and properties in Mandarin on its websites.
The exposure to Lianjia’s audience – about 260 million Chinese buyers – will provide Ray White with the leverage into China and, more importantly, fulfil the organisation’s strategy of becoming more diverse and a brand that is more attractive to the Chinese community. …”
That NZ real estate companies are now direct marketing to cheap Chinese money makes me think there will never be a soft correction in NZ housing.
No matter what happens with the continuation of stagnant wages, a slower economy, further job losses, interest rate rises, there will always be direct marketing by the likes of Ray White to cheap Chinese money, and those people will delight in picking at the bones of of New Zealand society.
More and more New Zealanders want to live in smaller houses and apartments, especially in the younger and older age groups. People want to live within walking or cycling distance of the places that they travel to most often. Most people are happy with mixed-use development, putting homes close to offices, shops, parks, schools and public transport routes.
So, giving the people what they want is the complete opposite of what you think that they want.
Read how a recent Democratic House Rep’s net worth has gone up by millions in the last 6 years
While we have often heard that members of Congress, who are not only exempt from insider trading oversight, are also ardent daytraders we had never seen it in action.
Until now.
The following publicly filed monthly Periodic Transaction Report by Democrat Congresswoman, Judy Chu, shows us just how pervasive daytrading is not only for algos, but for those who supposedly are paid to serve their constituents. What is interesting is the size of the trades – between $1,000 and $15,000 each, this is not some novice, penny pincher; what is even more interesting are the underlying securities of choice: volatile, and levered, calls and puts on not only the S&P500, but also on some of the most volatile securities out there, such as the VIX.
Good. Fucking NIMBYs opposing everything except their own activities.
… the proposal drew the ire of nearby neighbours, who said property prices, quality of life and even, possibly, health would be negatively affected by the installations.
I guess we should be grateful they at least put the word “possibly” in there – if it was cellphone towers the health-destroying woo would pretty much be taken for granted.
Mr Pickford, whose Pryde Rd property would be about 800m from the turbines, said he had “had a gutsful”.
That’s one motherfucker of a wind turbine, if it can be “intrusive and visually dominant” over a property 800 meters away. Are we building them the size of Auckland’s Sky Tower now?
I was just looking at that as well. The change on the weekend was to shift it from not working due to a problem with the fragment part of the cache not working. So I shifted it to using jQuery to fetch it,
It is odd. Had a query this morning about it still not appearing. First time I looked at it this evening it didn’t show. Now it is showing.
As Draco says @13.1 maybe after I have left a comment.
I’ll have a look at it ‘soonish’. But since I haven’t left work yet, soonish may be the weekend.
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike because it has nothing to do with trade. Banned for 4 weeks for simple diversion trolling. I’m trying to make myself the most disliked moderator by trolls and the most beloved by anyone who has ascended above your grunting level. BTW: How am I doing in this popularity contest? You can answer in 4 weeks. ]
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
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A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
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:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track 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 publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
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 publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
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Such an admirable leader.
Owen Jones meets Jeremy Corbyn again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGXVHHxxnZQ
Parallels for NZ Paul?
Hardly, very bland, career politician it’s the medias fault, missing millions will save me , same script different country
HNZ knows its meth test are not fit for purpose, but will still evict tenants, in fact it will increase testing. Wankers, complete & utter wankers.
Don’t smoke meth or let other people smoke meth in your state house, problem solved.
If you can’t do that, go live on the street.
Grow a brain mate, think a bit harder, the tests are proven to be flawed, just as much meth are on your banknotes in your wallet.
Sure, there is plenty of debate about whether the levels being treated as requiring remediation are right or not, but BM’s basic point is entirely valid – it doesn’t get there by itself.
I would place as much faith in your problem solving ability as I would Nek Minut Smith.
or HNZ could insist on proper testing guidelines that actually mean something
christ BM – use your brain for a damn change – stop sticking up for scammers
& then they bill you $30,000+ for the test! Add it up, 600 houses tested, 200 ‘infected’, is that $20,000,000 for the testing? 600 x 30,000 equals 20,000,000? Jeebus, someone is making a pretty penny out of misery.
Yep and that’s all that National need to know to consider it a success. Their actions have nothing to do with the health and well being of the country but are solely for the further enrichment of their rich mates.
HNZ making money from Meth testing – now thats a silly assertion.
Seriously Gangnam Style, so you think that HNZ went to the tenant and said “Hey lady. hey dude, theres traces of Meth in your house so can you kindly flick $30,000 from one of your term deposits to cover it?
And the tenants said “sure, we have so many term deposits that I will break one today and fix you up.”
Get real.
What actually happens is that HNZ gets no money, and then wastes a further chunk of money setting lawyers onto the ex tenant who has no money.
And then HNZ have to fix or demolish the house, and lose more money.
“And then HNZ have to fix or demolish the house, and lose more money.”
If every p contaminated place in the country had to be fixed or replaced i would bet that every motel and hotel in the country will need work.
No independent oversight into the tests, real estate agents performing the tests, using the same swab over the whole house to get the result, same chemicals used in some cleaning solvents & fly spray, plus the desired need from HNZ to get people out of their houses. The amount of money involved is obscene & does not smell right, it’s basically “blank cheque policy”, I thought righties were against that kind of thing? Ecept when it’s punish the poor, then there is an endless money flow.
“plus the desired need from HNZ to get people out of their houses.”
That’s the one that interests me. Is there a clear chain of command coming from the people that want houses vacated and sold? Or is it that it’s just now entrenched in the culture of HNZ that houses are assets to be realised, so this is the shit they do as a matter of course? Not so much intentionally (we’ll get rid of tenants and sell the houses), but the idea being that the housing stock is more important than the people.
“HNZ making money from Meth testing – now thats a silly assertion.”
i dont think that assertion was ever made – reads to me like GS is pointing the finger at the testing industry
That wasn’t the assertion. It was pretty obvious that HNZ was spending lots of money resulting in profiteers making lots of money. This means that everything you said was a lie.
Where is all the meth coming from??? What happened to JK’s war on P?
Bit the dust like all his ideas that could be helpful to society.
Congratulations to Venezuela’s Socialist rulers. They have now reached the stage of forced labour to combat the food shortages that their rule has brought about.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/07/venezuela-new-regime-effectively-amounts-to-forced-labour/
I guess many of them would starve if Venezuela had a more “free market” economy. Would that be preferable?
Congratulations to Somalia’s free market Libertarian government. The civil war is now in its thirtieth year.
Congratulations to communist China, propping up western ‘free market’ countries, party time!
Congratulations to the social democracies in Europe and Scandinavia, demonstrating how false Gosman’s premise is, and it’s the only one he’s got 😆
Congratulations to New Zealand whose rock-star economy is dependent on immigration and an out of control property boom.
Congratulations to the US and their band of EU comrades – as declared many years ago, they have defeated Afghanistan and Iraq and ended the war on terror.
A war that nobody even knew existed, (the main terrorists from 9/11 were from Saudi, the West’s BFF in the region). Go figure!
Congratulations to Gosman – wannabe Ahmadinejad of the Key kleptocracy.
What a brilliant “Congratulations” thread there. It must be a ‘device’ with a special name or something.
Was about to add some Cliff Richards……..
If this is true:
Then the entire National Party caucus needs to be placed in jail now. We simply cannot allow this level of corruption.
EDIT:
Categories of Lies – White Lies, Grey Lies, and Black Lies
Describes National to a ‘T’.
The problem Draco, if this is true, that Steven Joyce has manipulated survey questions to suit his own needs, to paint a rosier picture of foreign investment in property, then nothing will happen.
For eight years, after fiasco, after false reporting, after denial of scientific fact and academic reasoning, after questionable to put it mildly, corrupt to put it more succinctly “deals” such as the Saudi sheep farm, the granting of millions of $$$ of “Pacific aid money” to a wealthy National Party donor, after turning a blind eye to the families of the victims of Pike River mine, after walking away from hurting Cantabrians, after pulling funding from essential health services such as Women’s refuge, after introducing cruel sanctions to suffering vulnerable beneficiaries whose children pay the price, after our PM not only getting away with but being supported in his physical and psychological assault of a woman – and all of this in front of an international media to watches on in horror (Remember “Il Cretino!!! The Italian papers cried)……….
Nothing will happen.
I’m sorry to be pessimistic. It’s why I no longer comment as much as I used to. All ideas come to nothing – or at least they are stewing and building while our country is on hold, hopefully the latter.
Watch and wait and we will see that nothing will come of this, like everything before it.
“the granting of millions of $$$ of “Pacific aid money” to a wealthy National Party donor”
I must have missed this. Who is this person you are referring to?
S. Most readers will be familiar with your approach: Act all innocent about a topic you are fully aware of, bait the reader by asking a question and then go into an attack on the reader whilst defending the indefensible.
You know perfectly well who I’m talking about.
looking for another sugar daddy?
😀
Couldn’t agree more Rosie. Don’t worry about being pessimistic , it’s perfectly logical with the way things are being run in this world. It’s a bloody uphill battle when the majority of our dumbed down population are actively coerced to accept that…. war is peace…..freedom is slavery …. ignorance is strength.
What I’ve found particularly disturbing lately is joining faceblab for the first time, and seeing just how disconnected from NZ’s and the world’s current state of affairs some folks are. It’s like there is a concrete wall between them and the most basic knowledge about the seriousness of our socio-political problems. Maybe they like it this way. I don’t know.
It’s been an eye opener for sure.
Good to read you again Rosie !
Kia ora North 🙂
Listening to Nick Smith avoiding the simple question was rather amusing. He thinks we are all stupid and don’t know the difference between a tax resident and an actual resident. My parents are tax residents only because they have a savings account here (and they pay tax on it) so they will not need to bring cash with them when they come to visit. Still doesn’t turn them into a NZ resident.
I don’t know what the questions are but how difficult can it be to ask ‘are you holding a: a. Student visa b. Temporary work visa c. NZ permanent resident d. None of the above’
He was also saying many got it wrong or didn’t answer at all! Well then, get back to them and demand an answer.
There is hope….
On Tuesday Richard Hanna, a three-term Republican became the first Republican in Congress to say he will vote for Hillary Clinton.
Referring to Trumps attacks on the Khan parents..Hanna asked, “Where do we draw the line? I thought it would have been when he alleged that U.S. Sen. John McCain was not a war hero because he was caught,”. . . ..
I believe Trump evaded joining the armed forces because of a foot defect but when questioned later couldn’t remember which foot.
Disney couldn’t write this script.
” couldn’t remember which foot.”
The one that’s always in his mouth would be my guess.
Ha! No it was just one foot, not two.
He’s lost track of his lies.
For many years, Mr. Trump, 70, has also asserted that it was “ultimately” the luck of a high draft lottery number — rather than the medical deferment — that kept him out of the war.
Continue reading the main story
But his Selective Service records, obtained from the National Archives, suggest otherwise. Mr. Trump had been medically exempted for more than a year when the draft lottery began in December 1969, well before he received what he has described as his “phenomenal” draft number.
Because of his medical exemption, his lottery number would have been irrelevant, said Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, who has worked for the agency for three decades.
[..]
In a 2011 television interview, Mr. Trump described watching the draft lottery as a college student and learning then that he would not be drafted.
“I’ll never forget; that was an amazing period of time in my life,” he said in the interview, on Fox 5 New York. “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers, and I got a very, very high number.”
But Mr. Trump had graduated from Wharton 18 months before the lottery — the first in the United States in 27 years — was held.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/us/politics/donald-trump-draft-record.html?_r=2
Oh dear. Trump has got a memory that is just as defective as poor old Kris Faafoi. I’m sure people recall his remarkable ability to remember things that happened when he was only a few months old.
Trump remembers things before they happened. Still what can one expect. They are both politicians.
Aww, alwyn has a Labour done did it too moment….
/
what Labour did it in the States too?
damn that party is coming around.
Actually, it’s more that he’s got a memory just Like John Keys – it changes in relation to what he thinks is in his best interests.
Otherwise known as lying.
Brill’ !
Maybe alwyn is suffering from Keyzheimers disease …………. it’s like Alzheimer ……. but allows the infected person to choose what they forget.
Its just like getting people to understand that they and the time in their life is of the same value as the time of the persons life next to them.
20 hrs from my life is 20 hrs from my life.
20hrs from your life is 20 hrs from your life
20hrs from the coffee ladies life is 20 hrs from the coffee ladies life.
20 hrs from the guy who cleans toilets life is 20 hrs from the guy who cleans toilets life.
20hrs is 20 hrs
Once we strip away the false value system and understand that money is in many ways a false value system then we can start to build a world that enables people to live their life in the best way possible. One where we make the best use of technology to enable them to do so……
Consider that our current system is – you have to work in order to earn tokens (money) so that you can pay to survive. That’s what our system is.
Consider that the majority will not have enough to retire.
Consider that taking into account getting ready for work and travelling to and from work most people spend 60 – 70 hrs per week on work related activities. Over a lifetime that’s 60 or 70 hrs per week x 48 weeks per year (taking out 4 weeks for holidays – consider that in ours system too out of 52 weeks in a year you get to have 4 of those where you don’t have to work. WOW 4 weeks!!!!! Thankyou so much for my 4 weeks out of 52 where I don’t have to work). Lets say you live to 80 but like most people you can’t afford to retire so you spend 60 years doing that and we wont even factor in things like relationship break ups or losing your job and the fact that if those things happen to you then shit gets a lot harder for you or anyone else in that position.
Right so you have 60 hrs x 48 weeks x 60 years
So in the current system you are going to have to work 172,800 hrs of your life so that you can pay to live on this planet.
If you like we can add school onto that too. With school you get about 11 weeks off per year and you spend say an 1.5 hrs getting ready, travelling to and from school but lets just make it 2hrs in case you get homework.
Your at school from 9 – 3.30 so that’s 6.5 hrs per day plus 2hrs or 42.5 hrs per week.
So 42.5 hrs x (52 weeks – 11 weeks you get off is 39 weeks) x lets say 13 years for school
So 13 x 42.5 x 39 = 21 547.5hrs
Then lets add in sleep cause athough its nice you’re not really living you’re at best having a cool dream so if you life for 80 years lets say 8rs sleep (cause that’s what you’re supposed to get
Which is 8 hrs x 365 days of the year x 80 years = 233,600 hours sleeping.
So to recap
Work 172,800 hrs
School 21 547.5hrs
Sleep 233,600 hours
Total 427,947.5 hrs of your life doing those activities
In a life of 80 years your total hours on the planet is 700,800hrs
Minus 427,947.5 hrs
Then out of 700,800rs you get a grand total of 272,852.5 hrs to actually experience and live the life you want to…….
But that doesn’t take into account cooking cleaning and all the other stuff you have to do to live
So 272,852.5 hrs – cleaning cooking going to the supermarket etc. etc. to live the life you want to live…….
If you have enough money…..
But that’s ok because at least your worth more than the coffee lady and the toilet cleaner right?
Or we could have a system where we use IT to enable the human experience here on this planet by ensuring that everyone has a smartphone and/or tablet and can connect to product hubs and service hubs (which already exist) and you could maybe need to work
Then we still have sleep 233,600hrs
We still have school (but without the homework because who really wants homework!!!???). 16,477.5hrs
Work say 20 hrs per week for say 20 years of your life and be able to work from home in many cases or at least not have the levels of peak hour traffic we have now and you could work (including an 1.5 hours travel time and getting ready) 26,400 hrs
So then the equation becomes 276,477.5hrs of your life spent working sleeping or at school (and 233,600 hrs is spent sleeping)
Out of your 700,800hrs of life.
Leaving you to 424,322.5 hrs of your life where you can experience and do whatever you want to do…….
And in this world with technology as an enabler, money no longer has to be a barrier to overcome.
But you do have to give up the notion that the hours of your life are more valuable that the lady who makes your coffee or the guy who cleans your toilets…..
if your wondering wtf at the above.
its basically that by changing the system and using technology in far better ways you could get 17 years of your life back that 99% of people wont get with the current system.
What worries me is that I just spent 0.2 hours reading that. This is 0.2 hours I’m never getting back.
what worries me Scott is your saying it took 12 minutes to read what coffeeconnoiseur wrote …………… and unlike porn you probably don’t even understand it.
Good on you for spending the hour and a half to type your reply though ……
Someone gets it!
Radio news and the Herald (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11686368) both say today that an employee of a public authority has pleaded guilty to charges of taking bribes.
He took bribes from a firm and gave preference in contracts to that firm in return.
Is there any possibility that the firm offering the bribes and taking the bribe-induced contracts is guilty of wrong-doing and can also be brought before a court?
Yup.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, “Auckland Transport boss pleads guilty to corruption charges”.
The reason there is no public transport in Auckland is that there is a toxic corrupt and incompetent culture in AT supported by the toxic culture from the Super City of fiefdoms at the council.
My guess is that they got a small fish, in a very large pond of corruption.
The types of decisions AT loves making… thanks for destroying our city AT!
Auckland transport is planning to build a massive road in South Auckland that would destroy hundreds of our homes, cut a swathe through communities and destroy irreplaceable native bush known as ‘Grahams Bush.’ Auckland Transport wants to build this road to improve traffic congestion and make roads for yet to be built houses – at the cost of existing houses and communities!
But The Tree Council has lodged an appeal with the Environment Court against the decision by Auckland Transport to accept the Notices of Requirement recommended by Commissioners on behalf of the consent authority for the Redoubt Road-Mill Road corridor upgrade. Now they need your help: http://bit.ly/1y7VQoJ
yep Grahams Bush has been fighting for a while now.
Small potatoes here, but maybe the main course will be even tastier.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11686355
A tax-evading tradie has been banned from practising because of his tax-evasion practices. Now for the big cheeses in the tax evasion menu. Yum!
Looks like Corbyn might not be such a shoe-in in the UK if 25% of his 25Gbp supporters are banned. On the bright side – Labour will keep their money thank you very much.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/02/labour-leadership-jeremy-corbyn-quarter-supporters-barred-voting
Isn’t the question on leader really about who might stand the best chance of helping the party to win an election?
The current Labour MPs are in a good position to judge who helps their electoral chances, and are motivated by self-interest to do so. By contrast the membership may enjoy having a leader who says things they like to hear, but that is hardly going to help reach out to the middle voters who decide elections. Preaching to the converted can only get you so far.
Labour have the same problem here with Little, and the selection method that put him in his job.
Except polling suggests that the Leaders favoured by the Blairite/Brownite sections of the PLP have proven no more popular (and often demonstrably less popular) with both Labour voters and voters in general than Corbyn. Whether it be Eagle and Smith this year or Cooper and Kendal last year.
Corbyn has certainly received some very poor personal ratings from voters over the last year – it’s just that the PLP plotters’ candidates are held in even lower regard.
Shamubeel Calls Bullshit #2: on Andrew Little’s problem with the Unitary Plan
http://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland-2016/01-08-2016/shamubeel-calls-bullshit-andrew-littles-affordable-housing-complaint/
Hmm Shamubeel is the same economist that has told Kiwis for the last 10 years that there was going to be a housing crash each year, renting was a better investment than owning your own home (as homes in Auckland increased $1000 per week) and that immigration has nothing to do with the property boom.
Yep, have to go with Little on this one, there is not going to be any affordable houses for Kiwis with the unitary plan, the affordable options were deleted, they are designed for new arrivals as the new migrants, as they don’t like old Kiwi villas and bungalows and want new apartments and McMansions and gardens are not popular as clearly a waste of space that you can cram some more people into.
Gotta give the punters what they want!
Lucky the council planners have left a few streets free of intensification for the prominent New Zealand rich listers, so they don’t have to have their leafy large waterfront sites, decimated.
I mean with supply and demand – has anyone looked at how many people in the world there are to buy our houses? We allow anyone to buy here from Russia, to the middle east to the EU.
Thanks for the supply and demand lesson Shamubeel. sarc.
“Lianjia, which has more than 6000 branches in over 25 cities in China, will co-list Ray White’s New Zealand and Australian and properties in Mandarin on its websites.
The exposure to Lianjia’s audience – about 260 million Chinese buyers – will provide Ray White with the leverage into China and, more importantly, fulfil the organisation’s strategy of becoming more diverse and a brand that is more attractive to the Chinese community. …”
That NZ real estate companies are now direct marketing to cheap Chinese money makes me think there will never be a soft correction in NZ housing.
No matter what happens with the continuation of stagnant wages, a slower economy, further job losses, interest rate rises, there will always be direct marketing by the likes of Ray White to cheap Chinese money, and those people will delight in picking at the bones of of New Zealand society.
+ 100% save nz.
Exclusive: The Greens unveil new urban design policy
So, giving the people what they want is the complete opposite of what you think that they want.
Read how a recent Democratic House Rep’s net worth has gone up by millions in the last 6 years
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-02/something-strange-emerges-when-looking-congresswomans-daytrading-records
Hillary was years ahead of that curve
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_cattle_futures_controversy
Dunedin’s Blueskin Bay wind farm set to appeal to the Environment Court:
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/wind-farm-appeal-opponent-leaving
Good. Fucking NIMBYs opposing everything except their own activities.
… the proposal drew the ire of nearby neighbours, who said property prices, quality of life and even, possibly, health would be negatively affected by the installations.
I guess we should be grateful they at least put the word “possibly” in there – if it was cellphone towers the health-destroying woo would pretty much be taken for granted.
Mr Pickford, whose Pryde Rd property would be about 800m from the turbines, said he had “had a gutsful”.
That’s one motherfucker of a wind turbine, if it can be “intrusive and visually dominant” over a property 800 meters away. Are we building them the size of Auckland’s Sky Tower now?
” Are we building them the size of Auckland’s Sky Tower now?”
At Blueskin Bay the answer is no. They will be less than125 metres high to the tip of the blade. Sky Tower is, I think about 220 metres.
On the other hand it won’t be very long before the largest towers will be greater in height than that. The highest I am aware of at the moment are planned to be 200 metres high. That is a bloody big tower.
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/09/15/hartlepool-highest-wind-turbine-scheme-proposed/
@lprent
Is the ‘Replied’ function still disabled? Not been working for me since the week-end.
The ‘Replies’ tab is working for me but not until after I’ve commented.
I was just looking at that as well. The change on the weekend was to shift it from not working due to a problem with the fragment part of the cache not working. So I shifted it to using jQuery to fetch it,
It is odd. Had a query this morning about it still not appearing. First time I looked at it this evening it didn’t show. Now it is showing.
As Draco says @13.1 maybe after I have left a comment.
I’ll have a look at it ‘soonish’. But since I haven’t left work yet, soonish may be the weekend.
Thanks lprent. No hurry.
Yeah, it’s after you leave a comment that it starts working.
Works after commenting, but stops again if I close / open browser.
JK still the most popular PM in NZ History?
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike because it has nothing to do with trade. Banned for 4 weeks for simple diversion trolling. I’m trying to make myself the most disliked moderator by trolls and the most beloved by anyone who has ascended above your grunting level. BTW: How am I doing in this popularity contest? You can answer in 4 weeks. ]