Thirty million dollars to guarantee 3000 jobs, a third of them high paying, for three years? Only a fool, or someone blinded by the childish religion of free market ideology, would see that as a bad out come.
So step right up John Roughan (and it is John, you can pick up the stink of his writing style a mile off) in the NZ Herald’s editorial this morning.
Hell, if we could build an aircraft factory that provided 3000 jobs in Hawkes Bay and an ship building industry in Northland that provided 3000 jobs and 3000 more jobs in railway workshops in Wellington and Dunedin for another ninety million over three years I’d say go for it. Forty million a year in the midst of a downturn to keep 12,000 jobs ticking along? A bargain! That fact that it took the political imperative of a flagship government policy of blind adherence to market doctrine to show some common sense is so mind bogglingly ironic you don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
And the way in which the decision to offer the $30,000,000 has been promptly attacked by every right wing commentator in the country, is neat evidence of the sterile thinking and lack of imagination that dominates our economic debate or, as it was neatly put by the Chinese the other day, how “…hostage to a blinkered devotion to laissez-faire market ideology…” that debate is.
Additionally, there is the Government’s $30 million, which it says is the price that had to be paid to provide “greater certainty” for the smelter workers, the Southland region and the electricity industry. In each case, it does nothing of the sort. New Zealand Aluminium Smelters will be able to terminate the contract from January 2017 provided it gives 15 months’ notice. In effect, the earliest closure date for the smelter has been moved back just one year. It would have taken a longer-term deal to offer anything approaching greater job security for its workers.
So in effect the 30million is for a guaranteed 12 months work for the approxiamately 800 staff at the plant.
The start of a closure package for the smelter possibly with this govt bias to doing what the money masters overseas decree .How much more will it cost ?
Add in the rumored job restructuring, and that in interviews, govt ministers arent moving the discussion away from the meridian share float and i think we can safely call this for what it is
It has announced it will hold onto its struggling aluminium business, Pacific Aluminium, which it has been trying to sell.
Mr Walsh said the company had been unable to sell the business.
“Following a comprehensive review we have also determined that the divestment of Pacific Aluminium for value is not possible in the current environment and it will be reintegrated into the Rio Tinto Alcan group.”
Despite crying poor, Rio Tinto’s profit for the six months to the end of June was $US1.7 billion dollars.
What the 30 million dollars has brought is 4 years for the Southland economy and the smelter workers to transition away from the smelter and into other areas.
Every one knows the smelter’s going, but now people can see a time line and plan for it’s closure.
That’s what the 30 million dollars is all about and really it’s a very small price to pay .
It’s more the unofficial line.
No one is going to come out and say the smelter will close in exactly 4 years time, that would just cause a lot of short term pain for no reason at all.
What they’re doing is giving Southland time to develop other areas before they announce the closure.
Sudden change is not good for people and especially politicians.
your ignoring all evidence and focusing on how it sounds inside your head.
Its no big secret that the smelter will close and close soon – this deal only pushes the first possible closure date out by about a year
very little of the commentary is about helping southland
quite a bit of the commentary is about providing stability to the market for the upcoming share float
we now hear rumors that the workforce is being massively restructured
and the plant is likely to be sold and sold soon
as a said – if it was really about helping southland, shit, if it was even about pretending to help southland to distract from the share float, then that is what we would be hearing from ministers via the media
Yes framu I agree with you – very little about this is related to jobs or Southland – the share float is the real issue for them. Rio Tinto will pull out as soon as they want to, they have the weight to basically choose what is best for them and I don’t imagine they’ll give Southlanders too much consideration in that.
What the 30 million dollars has brought is 4 years for the Southland economy and the smelter workers to transition away from the smelter and into other areas.
No it hasn’t. That would have occurred if Rio Tinto said that they would be closing the smelter down over the next four years.
Every one knows the smelter’s going, but now people can see a time line and plan for it’s closure.
No they can’t as the smelter has been “saved” by taxpayer money for another year. Southland will probably expect another handout in 2017.
That’s what the 30 million dollars is all about and really it’s a very small price to pay .
No, it was just a waste of money made so as to boost Rio Tinto’s profits.
This site has just been launched to encourage people to have their will done and create a “bucket list” to maximise their remaining time in their current body.
Looks good. I thought it might be like the Public Trust who, in exchange for assisting you in writing a free will have themselves appointed executor and thus are able to extract large amounts of money in “expenses”. But this site doesn’t do that so I’m looking into it.
Two charities who will benefit from both my life and any dying I do will be Wellington Rape Crisis and the Beneficiary Education and Advisory Service as they both embody my moral and political values (although neither is actually a political organisation). I also know people in both organisations so feel confident any donation will be used with integrity and the upliftment of the wider community.
To create a will using our simple will creation tool, it costs only $NZ49.95. You then own the Will you create, and can be rest assured your family is protected. Live the day!
What you get:
Access to our easy 6 step Will creation tool
A PDF version of your Will for you to Print, Sign and have Witnessed.
Download your Will whenever you need to
Instruction sheet explaining what the clauses in your Will mean
Information explaining how to validate your Will
Comsumer NZ have a guide to making wills which seems to be available free online without needing to subscribe. Basic, but a good starting point.
I note that it was updated in August 2012, after Public Trust discontinued its freely available service (they still do some in very restricted circumstances.)
The first (using the Public Trsutee I wanted to leave half a lifetime’s earnings and expertise to a first son and family. WHAT a fucking hassle!
Still – I’m living out that will to this day: whereby my attempts to give a lifetime to date was to son, his wife and gradnson with I hoped was his due before I actually karked it. (i.e. so I could actually be assured that they would not have to encounter the struggle of student debt, neo-liberal inspired ugliness of greed and selfishness, and witness it whilst still alive)
The second (firstly by way of Ugly Trust, then money making solicitor – now I understand the true meaning of the term), my daughter and second born – to be left by former partner – wife and subsequent.
WHAT a complicated messs of bullshit and kakabeans.
It seems that when wants to live frugally, to live in minimalist lifestyle, to hand on one’s wealth to the next generation (ESPESCIALLY having witnessed most of my contemporaries having left a load of death, desperation and baby boomer debt and aspiration – with a lik and a promise), one can’t easily.
Instead, one has to hope that what a first child is given by me – hoping to give a start, is replicated by an estranged wife to the second. Thankfully it now has and will be.
I/we both (i.e. myself and an ex) CANNOT easily be leave the next generation an entitlement to the wealth of our lifetimes UNTIL we ekshly kik the proverbial. Far easier a foreigner or alien to come hither, lay claim to some form of ‘property’ at the expense of fellow nationals, jet in once a year (or less even), and leave their legacy.
Oh well – the best we can hope for is that the assholes won’t come near to any overflow from my wealth – until …. well let’s just say hopefully death is quick and easy, and if not , down to an undetected BIG BIG OD, whereby a first born gets mine, and the second gets my ex, AND any overflow benefits a local community (and anonymously, and those I hold dear).
But truely – easier said than done!
It’s a hard life being a once high earner, latterly and suddenly reduced to SFA when one identifies with the left rather than the right.
Things really are designed for the bullshit artists and the Jellybeans – the Keysters, the charletans, the aspirational rent seeker, contribute-nothing/collect-all Phil Steins.
They’re designed for the Keys, the En-tree-pren-ooooo-ers, the “Oim-so-great” money fuckers, rentiers and traders in misery and debt (seems I can’t easily just leave wealth anonymously for example)
…… still, that figures looking at a Natzi front bench with dishonestly earned wealth.
Best thing is it’s an incentive to stay alive!
Even better thing is that in the overall scheme of things, they won’t come out tops.
Never mind though – might have to be a grandson/daughter that pisses on graves rather than me
Yes, I’ve been thinking dying is too much hassle. Actually, the Mai Chen Will, for $50.00 looks like it will suit my needs – don’t have a spouse or children, but need to ensure I leave enough for my rels to pay my funeral and other death expenses.
Without a Will, I’m told it can take for ever for the rels to get the money to pay for me having been so inconsiderate as to die.
The blond hair has thinned and receded, the face, beaten by 60 years of the Queensland sun, is lined. But the toothy grin is still there.
Why, said Peter Beattie, this was the political battle of his life. It would take a 1.6 per cent swing to deliver the seat of Forde to his grasp. ”I am the underdog,” he insisted, keeping a straight face.
Ah, yes, but had he done any deals with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a frontbench seat, should he step over that 1.6 per cent barrier and get to Canberra … and did he have ambitions of replacing Mr Rudd as leader, he was asked? ”I’m happy to be a backbencher,” said the former nine-year premier of Queensland.
Key has no problem with using his mate Fletcher and others in the Police/Intelligence community to protect and extend his grip on power. Eagleton and his office can command theses forces at will.
Has Key used theses agencies to spy on Labour and the media?
Has Shearer been kept in his leader position (unwittingly) by theses manipulating pricks?
“Has Key used theses agencies to spy on Labour and the media?”
When (because of his track record with the truth) you can’t trust your PM a suggestion like this can’t be laughed at. Could even explain the Lab. “caucus leaks”.
What would Robertson do if he was offered ill gotten info and/or assistance by conduits of theses players?
Would Robertson find the opportunity to secure his succession to Shearer too tempting?
Adrian, look at the names of the board and bear in mind the links between board and hollowmen is likely golf/dinners/bbq’s etc all nice and social with no electronic records.
Though he was killed four years ago, Troy Kastigar of Minnesota remains an articulate recruiter for al-Shabab, al Qaeda’s franchise in Somalia that has been part of a long-running Islamic insurgency against the internationally backed but very weak central government in the capital, Mogadishu.
IntelCenter, a private firm that tracks extremist media, providedproduced the video and an accompanying analysis tofor The Washington Times.
From the we control the production line of terrorists home made videos……
Learn what is behind the drive by the government, by the Ministry of Social Development and Work and Income, to usher or push sick and disabled beneficiaries into open employment on the already competitive job market:
“Medical and Work Capability Assessments – Based on the controversial bio psycho-social model, aimed at disentitleing affected from welfare benefits and accident compensation: The Aylward Unum Link”:
‘An article summarising comprehensive, revealing research results’
As we know by now, WINZ are contracting out services to private, non-government operators, who will be paid handsome fees to place people with mental and other illlnesses, with disabilities, and also sole parents into jobs. The fact that such fees are paid on performance will in itself lead to the affected persons being pressured to take on jobs they get offered. Whether they may like such probably just casual, part time, unfulfilling, undemanding and low paid jobs or not, and whether they may cope or not, the expectation will be put onto them, so most will give in and accept being pushed into whatever jobs. It will be a risky experiment, likely to cause harm to at least some, and it will certainly not solve much, as most employers will only take on sick and disabled for the attractive fees they may also get. Once that subsidy is taken and pocketed, the incentive to keep the sick and disabled workers on will vanish.
There are some key players involved, and of course, the whole ideas stem from persons like a Professor Mansel Aylward from a department at Cardiff University, who also did nicely out of payments by controversial private disability insurer Unum Insurance from the US, who sponsored his work.
Key persons that promote his ideas in New Zealand include a Dr David Beaumont, who “advised” both ACC and MSD on policies, and he happens to run his own business called “Pathways To Work”, down on the South Island, earning from the government to place disabled and incapacitated into work.
The New Zealand government and Social Welfare Minister Paula Bennett have fallen for the disputed and perverted “bio psycho-social model” approach by Aylward and his colleagues (e.g. Gordon Waddel), and as it offers them an opportunity to rid WINZ off long term beneficiaries with health and disability issues, they just love the idea to outsource and have private agencies do the difficult jobs for them, similar to what has been going on in the UK for some years now.
National really don’t care if the systems they put in place work or not, for them, it’s all about profit and how they can divert taxpayer money to them and their rich mates.
I am getting a bit fed up with kweewee. Every time you turn round he is off complaining to the cops to get him out of hot water.
he is like the school yard creep who has found a way of keeping the troops in line but it all turns to crap when it is exposed to reality.
what a crybaby.
This may be of interest to some, the teachers union write to an aspiring charter school operator and his response.
Now about the clip telling Shearer…at first glance I thought it was done by someone from the right because the production values look quite high whereas something from the left would look cheap
However if you’re clued up enough to produce this then you’d know that Shearer is who the right want as leader so, on the balance of probabilities, I’d say its someone from the left
This is the version that right wing fan Sean “Plonkit” has been raving on about on his Radio Live show this morning. It appears to be the same clip that ‘The Daily Blog’ already published a week or so ago. It shows how slow mainstream media is these days, to catch on with what is happening.
We’ve had the debate – reality shows us that they’re a waste of time and money. Which brings us to the conclusion that National are destroying our education system for a reason.
Well no you’re wrong charter schools are not a waste of time or money, the reality is that the teachers unions (not the teachers) are trying to protect their racket
BS, the teachers and the teacher union (can’t have the latter without the former) are trying to protect our children from the destructive systems that NACT are putting in place.
Bollix the union is there to protect its members…teachers. Once you give parents choice you break the monopoly and thats what the union is scared of
Actually, the union is there to provide organised resistance to privatising and corporate forces.
“Protecting its members” is just a single aspect of that, because privatising and corporate forces benefit from attacking teachers, their families (and workers in general).
A lot of parents want the choice of a largely public education system – anyone who wants a private system can always choose to pay for it. Entirely. Without tax payer subsidies. By themselves.
What racket? The one where they work long hours, contribute to extracurricular activities without pay, deal with disruptive kids, endure idiot Tory parents who know everything, cop shit from all sides, and all for ridiculously low pay? Funny sort of racket. Nothing like the rackets enjoyed by PERFed out coppers who get contracts to drug test beneficiaries and sit on their asses raking it in, for example.
If teaching was as much a racket as these idiot Tories claim, they’d all be lining up to do it. Why aren’t they?
MO
I was just talking to a long-term teacher about how she has advocated for a part-time teacher aide which she has never been granted before.
She has a number of behavioural problems with ADHD etc and one boy who has never been managed by the other teachers so she was asked to take him on and has broken through and gained his interest and the ability to control his erratic behaviour.
She used her methods of being firm, setting standards of behaviour and insisting on them, giving direction and not standing over the negative one, and taking the recalcitrant ones through their behaviour faults so they understand what the problem is, and she is ready to encourage and praise and facilitate them. All this takes time, experience, fortitude, positive thinking, planning, intelligence, teacher learning and understanding etc.
And also you may not be well supported by your school management system even when you are successful and know you are a good teacher by the good results you have. And there is so much superior ignorant bullshit coming from either parents who don’t manage their own role well, or superior upper class types who want their moneys-worth of education and more, and the pollies sneer when they want to deflect attention from their own failures. And yet the teachers keep on because they are dedicated and they keep winning, eventually, and the class achieves and they know they have Done Good. It surely is not easy.
I was looking at some National Party people today and thinking about ones I know.
What would be a profile of them compared to the profile for Labour. These perceptions of themselves then drive the perceptions they have of the other party/ies.
National to me seem to be the sort who dye their hair (women) because its part of conforming to the stereotype of a well-dressed and presented woman, women would 99.5% wear makeup, dress fashionably. Men suits, smart casual, good cars. They see themselves as go-getters, no-nonsense, hard workers getting on with life, aiming to earn good money and spend it on attractive objects and items. Individualistic. Superior. Not highly principled.Vaguely concerned about international connections but mainly as to where they can gain most advantage. Not much principle. Snobbish, I’m better than you and them (the benes), feeling deserving so when they become benes in some way that’s different and fair to them as more useful citizens than other benes.
Labour is regarded by them as incompetent and full of wish lists and supporters are regarded by them as not highly principled, unlike National Partyites, well most of the time. Labour is for either the lower classes or for academics or professionals who have a serious lack of reality and judgment and want things for the country only available in lala land. The reasons behind most people voting for Labour is because they haven’t got the gumption to go for a party that is leading a group who ‘are going places’.
The National-drawn people are unable to analyse and critically and objectively view the politics we live under and methods. They don’t have a higherstandard that they will work towards, if they do have a vision it is kept for slogans alone, not to be implemented. They are not introverted, or thoughtful, or interested in studying history except to pick on certain events that illustrate that might is right or noting failures of power and control in the past, and noting how to avoid that recurring. In other words anything they learn will be selective and skewed to their future advantage.
Nicely put Rosetinted. In short: they’re selfish, self centred and shallow thinkers who don’t care about anyone outside their closed insular circles. They assuage their feelings of guilt by supporting charities and attending charity balls. Their ultimate ambition is to be considered a member of the Beautiful People. (sarc.)
Trying to point out politely (maybe too politely) that this is as big a piece of steaming cow dung as I’ve ever read on here and thats saying something
Its as accurate as me saying all lefties are pseudo-communist, envious, dole bludging, ne’er do wells
Who cares whether the paras were excellent. What about the content? Are voters like this or not? Are they driven by these perceptions or not? Why? How come we can’t run the country better than we do? Who is influential the pollies or the voters?
If you vote in a party because they seem overall to be better but have one really bad policy how does one stand against that mandate whitewash? I am government , therefore I have a mandate.
What’s the use of making silly patronising comments. If anyone makes silly comments they should be trying to be funny or satirical or something. If not they should go outside and stand on their head and let some blood rush into their brain. That’s how humans recharge themselves, I think I read it in a report from Russia or maybe China. Probably one of them that are on the other side of the world. They probably want to see things from our perspective../sarc
Agreed. It also looks like it will be a long session at the slow rate the answers are coming up (and not in question order). Still, some good questions from some good people, so Dunne is probably having trouble working out his spin.
EDIT – or his non-answers such as that to #4 that has just come up! LOL – how thick is he? And now #5 and #9.
I just got a letter from David Shearer … that’s nice … except it was paid for by me which is a long standing bone of contention be it Labour or National or whoever from the beehive. Tells me he will save me hundreds of dollars with my power bill … that is a laugh since the balance of probabilities is that it won’t and might cost me … but whatever these politicians have their funny ideas.
What really disturbed me was the ‘argument’ quotes from an old lady at a Grey Power meeting who said she was afraid to turn on a light or her electric blanket becuase of the effect on her power bill … shocking … that nobody bothered to explain power consumption and how little such things use …. shocking becuase nobody told her to think about the things which really eat up the power such as heater, water heating, and ovens, about drawing curtains as soon as the sun goes behind the hill and so on ….
So thankyou David for adding to my belief that Labour are a hopeless bunch.
My view is that besides setting up by Legislation a single desk ‘buyer’ of wholesale electricity the Labour/Green electricity reforms should take one more step,
Labour/Green should also set up a nationwide retailer charged with offering the cheapest price possible to consumers without incurring a financial loss…
They should go the whole hog and renationalise electricity, make it so that it’s supported by taxes and that every household gets a free amount of power – enough to run the basics. Anything above that free amount is charged for.
They should go the whole hog and renationalise beer, make it so that it’s supported by taxes and that every household gets a free amount of beer – enough to run the basics. Anything above that free amount is charged for.
That’s the lolly-water brewed by jafas, not the original recipe.
On an unrelated note, I can’t abide Export. But when they did that original recipe production run a few years back, I loved the depth of flavour. It’s almost as if going into uniform high-volume mass production somehow lowers the quality of the product…
Beer, is not essential infrastructure, nor is it an example of market failure.
It is also not reliant on large scale networks, the capital costs to start a brewery are not huge and you can brew plenty of your own, if the supply fails…
Cheaper power however. will also mean cheaper beer :-).
There’s a couple of differences that you seem incapable of realising:
1.) There are many types of beer that anyone can make, there is only one type of electricity
2.) The necessary integrated smart grid to bring about the best possible distribution of power is a natural monopoly. Having more of them just adds unnecessarily to the cost.
3.) Having the state, and thus the people, owning the generators and running them at cost is much, much cheaper than having private competing firms running them for a profit due to all the added bureaucracy that such competing firms introduce (which is cheaper? 1 CEO for $200k or 5 for $2m each) and the dead weight loss of profit.
Basically, what it comes down to is that you’re an ideological idiot.
Silly billy, Govt doesn’t have to grow and sell all food, the statutory producer boards did very well thank you, and have created giants like Fonterra.
You really are a bit ignorant of the socialist reality of NZ, aren’t you?
and you think that the Government running the generators at cost with no market will result in less bureaucracy?
I think red meat exporters and Fonterra quality control could have done with a bit MORE bureaucracy in recent times, from what we’ve seen reported, eh?
and you think that the Government running the generators at cost with no market will result in less bureaucracy?
Yep. Don’t need anywhere as much of it:-
1.) Don’t need advertising
2.) Don’t need multiple duplication of managers all doing the same job just for different companies
3.) Don’t need multiple office space and so freeing buildings for other uses
The market is supposed to be there so as to determine how much supply is needed. This rather remarkable outcome is determined through statistics and planning which a monopoly will actually be better suited to doing (comes down to their being only one type of electricity only). What competition does in this gathering data and planning is make it so that the information that one company gathers isn’t shared with the other companies which must result in the individual companies making the wrong decisions. We, the consumers, end up paying for those mistakes usually in the form of government handouts and guarantees.
Competition adds costs for no purpose and the market brings about failure. This is what we see in telecommunications. Twenty years of privatisation has left us with a network far below the standard it should be at and would be at if Telecom hadn’t been sold and the government having to put in extra taxpayer money to bring it up to that standard. The full costs to the public, once dividends are taken into account, are over $17 billion dollars and that’s just telecom – add Telstra, Vodafone, 2 degrees and it goes up even further.
didn’t you tell me the Government should grow and selll food?
Yep, just like farmers who own multiple farms do – they go out and hire managers.
“Labour/Green should also set up a nationwide retailer charged with offering the cheapest price possible to consumers without incurring a financial loss…”
Yes because around the world Government owned monopolies usually provide such excellent service.
Maybe the RMs can nationalise the supermarkets too. “NZ Food.” or “Kiwi Eat”
jcuknz
It’s a pity that Labour tend to bring up examples such as the one you mentioned as though it is a reflection of most of us. Is the old lady supposed to be representative for their constituents.
I remember someone from Auckland being quoted on how expensive electricity was. She was spending $300 a month. That was a hell of a lot and could not be given as an example of the average person in difficulty. What could have been said was that people who were finding electricity too dear could have an 0800 number to phone and be given assistance on how power could be saved, through a number of ways. Just making sure that she wasn’t heating the kitchen from turning on the stove might be one.
Picking on the saddest little story-with-photo to act as a mascot for a policy does not impress. The idea of Labour having no idea of what to do and just responding with a knee-jerk reaction to the poor and needy is not going to galvanise the population who think they know what they’ve got to try somebody who is making up policy as he goes. Of course that is what NACTs are doing really with their focus groups, but perception is everything these days.
Today’s ‘golden turd award’ for efforts to Jonolism goes to the Heralds economics editor Brian Fallow for this quote,
”4.3 billion dollars in profits due to ‘market inefficiencies’ during dry years, the exercise of unilateral market power imposes little cost on consumers when there is plenty of water”, unquote,
The above quote appears to be the ‘work’ of Professor Frank Wolak and can be found in the Herald article by Fallow in the economics section of the Herald on line,(click on the business section first), the headline for this spurious piece of Jonolism is titled, ”Setting the record straight on power” and it’s contents are about all we can expect from another of the card carrying Fifth Column Herald journalists who cannot bring themselves to address any issue truthfully,
Putting aside the term ‘market inefficiencies’ as who in their right mind knows what Fallow supposes Wolak means with it’s use it is simple to see the absolute LIE inherent in both the Professor’s words and Fallow’s repetition of them,
It’s simple, in ‘a market’ if the amount of water available to generate electricity was effected by ‘a dry year’ and this provoked ‘price increases’ then it is obvious to even the most dull that in the years when there is plenty of water there would be ‘price decreases’,
That of course is how a ‘real’ market is supposed to work, in a market where the consumer is in effect ‘trapped’,(how many of us can live without electricity), price ‘fixing’ will occur, and that is exactly what has occurred in the wholesale and retail of electricity pricing in New Zealand,
Price fixing occurs when during the dry years the wholesale price of electricity rises and the retail price charged then increases,
Price fixing becomes apparent when in the wet years the wholesale price either does not drop back to the level of the last wet year, or, the wholesale price of electricity drops for the retailer but the retailer does not pass on that wholesale price decrease to the consumer,
i would challenge that Jonolist Brian Fallow to create for us a chart of all the wholesalers and all the retailers showing everybody both the wholesale and retail prices of electricity by year and indicating dry and wet years,
Brian Fallows pathetic excuse of an excuse for the New Zealand electricity market’s Price Fixing over the past decade earns Him a coveted Golden Turd Award…
Interesting how Wolak’s words have changed. Here’s his first reference to the 4.3 billion:
By comparing the actual wholesale prices with hypothetical competitive benchmark prices, Professor Wolak estimated that the wholesale prices charged over the period 2001 to mid-2007 resulted in an extra $4.3 billion in earnings to all generators over those that they would have earned under competitive conditions. This suggests that wholesale prices were, on average, 18 per cent higher than they would have been if the wholesale market had been more competitive, and the gentailers had not been able to exert market power. Less competition was especially evident in the wholesale market during the dry years of 2001 and 2003, when additional earnings attributable to the exercise of market power are estimated at $1.5 billion in each of those years.
So we have an extra $4.3 billion being charged because of monopoly powers and then an extra $1.5 billion charged in each of the dry years.
”Setting the record straight on power” and it’s contents are about all we can expect from another of the card carrying Fifth Column Herald journalists who cannot bring themselves to address any issue truthfully, (bad12)
I don’t know these jonos but it sounds as if they couldn’t part their hair straight. (Is that why so many men shave their heads now?)
quite right bad12.
dont let him wrigle off the hook either.
too many posters here are busy with irrelevant minutae when the substantive issues, policies and the cretins that dreamed them up are never brought to book.
I dont give a shit about the market.
the question is who got the money?
A while ago, years, there was a OZ film about a Autistic kid, who would go into a fit when loud noises occurred. So now there’s adverts on late night TV for a noisy car, that its a branded as the thing to be seen driving. Now, living in a street with an excessive number of these extra noisy cars passing by, sometimes late at night, I was wondering wtf. Its like a local auction or car dealer has a range of these motors and has to drive them around the town at all hours.
The point here is that it is possible for companies to pay their workers a living wage, make money, and give their customers an excellent product, all at the same time. The idea that we have to choose between paying workers well and having successful businesses is just false. That choice only exists when the owners insist on squeezing billions out of their workers.
The low wages that John Key promised our businesses are solely to boost profits for the few. The lowering of wages is a process that’s been in place since 1984 and the Rogernomic Revolution and it is not doing our country, our society, any good.
That’s what I thought. It’s like if he was talking about Hone and said “You lost three debates, each time to a Maori” and then claimed it was OK because he was just being accurate.
The biggest politic mystery of my lifetime is why Goff didn’t join ACT with his mates. He could go out riding his midlife crisis machine with John Banks, with a lycra clad duck following along behind.
A new study showing the inequality within our health systems
The Burden of Disease study, which was released yesterday by the Ministry of Health, measured “health loss” or how much healthy life was lost due to premature death, illness or impairment.
Amongst the report’s findings was that Maori had about a 75 per cent higher rate of health loss than non-Maori.
The data confirmed research that Maori experienced higher exposures to risk factors for poor health, more injury, more disability and poorer outcomes when they interact with health services, the New Zealand Medical Association said.
“The fact health loss in Maori is almost 1.8 times higher than in non-Maori and that this occurs earlier on in life is unacceptable.
“Addressing these issues must be a priority for us all – government, society, industry and health professionals,” Dr Peterson said.
A priority for us all. I agree with that – it’s about time we took our collective heads out the sand and addressed this real and important issue – it will take us all making it a priority to make progress.
I think that the issues are systemic and therefore any solutions must come at the system level. There have been good initiatives that have encouraged Māori to interact with health services in better ways, those initiatives have broken down some barriers on both sides a bit. Until we reduce the risk factors for poor health, have fewer injuries and disability for Māori then these trends will continue. A big factor in those issues is poverty. All that iwi and whānau can do is keep encouraging their people to seek health assistance and knowledge. If we as a country made it a priority then we would be addressing all of the issues raised above, holistically and historically.
I’m not sure if I understand what you mean by ‘systemic issues’.
I certainly agree with you on the reduction of risk factors for poor health and I’d like to see iwi and the DHBs work more closely together on issues around cardiovascular disease in particular and ensuring vaccinations are offered and up to date.
While I agree that poverty is a factor in health amongst Maori even after adjusting for incomes via the decile ratings within the various DHBs the Maori population is doing worse health wise than they deserve to.
Farrar’s bulls**t, echoing Wolak’s bulls**t, ‘it will reduce competition’, that presupposes that there is any meaningful competition in the market as it is now,
I dunno, but not that. Sure, fishing’s fun, but unless you are catching and releasing, (which is just torturing animals as far as I can tell) then it’s not just recreation.
The recreation/commercial split makes it looks like games vs work so of course the working people should get first dibs. Fuck that.
It’s all of our fish and if people want fish for dinner then they should be able to go and catch it.
If they can’t, or don’t want to, then yeah, people should be able to buy fish at the shop. As long as that doesn’t mean people who want to fish, can’t.
Calling it ‘recreational fishing’ implies that a NZer catching fish for the family dinner, is a less worthy use of the resource than selling it. And that’s just fucking daft.
Actually how about just “Fishing”? It’s the commercial fishers who are going beyond what ought to be anyone’s ordinary right, so they get the extra descriptor.
What’s confusing about it? Seemed pretty clear to me. It’s a law blog more than a news site, and it isn’t really explaining the case so much as the trial, and how it went for Wishart, he lost big time.
For legal types their attention to (spelling) detail is poor:
The jury found that the material published about former Wellington Treasury official and diplomat Lindsay Smallbone that related to matters of sexual perverion and more was also published recklessly.
The confusion was that at first I thought Wishart must have written the book, then wondered if Mrs London was his wife – had to ponder:
The 10 day trial related to material published in the book published by Wishart’s company and co-written by himself and his wife, Paulette London, regarding the abduction of Mrs London’s children off a London street decades ago.In the course of telling their story, which Mr Wishart considered to be essentially a biography, they described various activities that characterised Mr Smallbone as sexually perverse, voyeuristic and otherwise deviant.
Excuse me, I am having to beg here, for this to be copied in, aye?
I spent half an hour to get this loaded! It a a centenary for the Communist Party of Chile to celebrate, but that is not what we want in NZ, right, or wrong?
Anyway, I offer, music and dance to the occasion. I also observed some jihadist videos tonight, so just out of curiosity, dear John Key, dear SIS and GCSB, I must now be put onto your WATCH list, please, if you may have missed me so far. I am an ENEMY of the nation, and count me in, please!
That is because you lazy layabouts sucking the tax payer dry have nothing better to do. Fuck YOU all SIS, GCSB and hangers on that stupify and dumb down people. If you want to shut me out, you have to KILL me, thank you!
The Herald showing how to frame a question to change the debate.
No longer….an investigation in why we are dropping are standards.
Instead …’unrealistically high expectations”
Channeling Tory speak.
The Herald’s leading question
Should the 100% Pure slogan go?
Yes – it’s setting an unrealistically high expectation
No – it is still an important part of New Zealand’s image
Not sure
Where are these options?
Yes – being clean and green adds value to our exports, gives us a point of difference, preserves the environment for our grandchildren, provides healthier food for our population and creates better quality jobs for New Zealanders
No – the government needs to raise its game on environmental matters
Not sure
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. 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 ...
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 ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
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 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 ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
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 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
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 ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
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While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
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Thirty million dollars to guarantee 3000 jobs, a third of them high paying, for three years? Only a fool, or someone blinded by the childish religion of free market ideology, would see that as a bad out come.
So step right up John Roughan (and it is John, you can pick up the stink of his writing style a mile off) in the NZ Herald’s editorial this morning.
Hell, if we could build an aircraft factory that provided 3000 jobs in Hawkes Bay and an ship building industry in Northland that provided 3000 jobs and 3000 more jobs in railway workshops in Wellington and Dunedin for another ninety million over three years I’d say go for it. Forty million a year in the midst of a downturn to keep 12,000 jobs ticking along? A bargain! That fact that it took the political imperative of a flagship government policy of blind adherence to market doctrine to show some common sense is so mind bogglingly ironic you don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
And the way in which the decision to offer the $30,000,000 has been promptly attacked by every right wing commentator in the country, is neat evidence of the sterile thinking and lack of imagination that dominates our economic debate or, as it was neatly put by the Chinese the other day, how “…hostage to a blinkered devotion to laissez-faire market ideology…” that debate is.
To quote from the editorial:
So in effect the 30million is for a guaranteed 12 months work for the approxiamately 800 staff at the plant.
The start of a closure package for the smelter possibly with this govt bias to doing what the money masters overseas decree .How much more will it cost ?
well that didnt take long
Rio tinto rumored to fast track tiwai point sale.
Add in the rumored job restructuring, and that in interviews, govt ministers arent moving the discussion away from the meridian share float and i think we can safely call this for what it is
I wonder if they actually can sell it.
Despite crying poor, Rio Tinto’s profit for the six months to the end of June was $US1.7 billion dollars.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-08/rio-tinto-profit-result/4874382
What do zombie movies tell us about capitalism?
http://www.readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/zombies-in-utopia.html
Everything. Never be a debtor be, as one cut, one chance encounter, and you become a zombie too.
What the 30 million dollars has brought is 4 years for the Southland economy and the smelter workers to transition away from the smelter and into other areas.
Every one knows the smelter’s going, but now people can see a time line and plan for it’s closure.
That’s what the 30 million dollars is all about and really it’s a very small price to pay .
then that would be the official line – but its not
It’s more the unofficial line.
No one is going to come out and say the smelter will close in exactly 4 years time, that would just cause a lot of short term pain for no reason at all.
What they’re doing is giving Southland time to develop other areas before they announce the closure.
Sudden change is not good for people and especially politicians.
your ignoring all evidence and focusing on how it sounds inside your head.
Its no big secret that the smelter will close and close soon – this deal only pushes the first possible closure date out by about a year
very little of the commentary is about helping southland
quite a bit of the commentary is about providing stability to the market for the upcoming share float
we now hear rumors that the workforce is being massively restructured
and the plant is likely to be sold and sold soon
as a said – if it was really about helping southland, shit, if it was even about pretending to help southland to distract from the share float, then that is what we would be hearing from ministers via the media
we arent
What is agenda 21’s primary aim again – Oh yes, that’s right, it’s about driving people from the rural areas, and herding them into larger cities!
Take a look around small town NZ, both main islands, and see it in action on a daily basis!
Yes framu I agree with you – very little about this is related to jobs or Southland – the share float is the real issue for them. Rio Tinto will pull out as soon as they want to, they have the weight to basically choose what is best for them and I don’t imagine they’ll give Southlanders too much consideration in that.
edit @risi- yes 4 billion US
You missed the 4 BILLION $ profit margin they made clown
No it hasn’t. That would have occurred if Rio Tinto said that they would be closing the smelter down over the next four years.
No they can’t as the smelter has been “saved” by taxpayer money for another year. Southland will probably expect another handout in 2017.
No, it was just a waste of money made so as to boost Rio Tinto’s profits.
Hey hey fellow lefties,
This site has just been launched to encourage people to have their will done and create a “bucket list” to maximise their remaining time in their current body.
https://www.willtolive.co.nz
Looks good. I thought it might be like the Public Trust who, in exchange for assisting you in writing a free will have themselves appointed executor and thus are able to extract large amounts of money in “expenses”. But this site doesn’t do that so I’m looking into it.
Two charities who will benefit from both my life and any dying I do will be Wellington Rape Crisis and the Beneficiary Education and Advisory Service as they both embody my moral and political values (although neither is actually a political organisation). I also know people in both organisations so feel confident any donation will be used with integrity and the upliftment of the wider community.
I’m interested. But writing up the Will on their site is not free: costs $50.00
PS: Courtesy of Mai Chen.
Comsumer NZ have a guide to making wills which seems to be available free online without needing to subscribe. Basic, but a good starting point.
I note that it was updated in August 2012, after Public Trust discontinued its freely available service (they still do some in very restricted circumstances.)
http://search.consumer.org.nz/search?p=R&srid=S2-USCDR02&lbc=consumeronline&w=making%20a%20will&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.consumer.org.nz%2freports%2fwills&rk=1&uid=39883584&sid=2&ts=custom&rsc=BON%3at%3aq%3aa6jetiFc&method=and&isort=score
Wills are frought! Is that the word?
The first (using the Public Trsutee I wanted to leave half a lifetime’s earnings and expertise to a first son and family. WHAT a fucking hassle!
Still – I’m living out that will to this day: whereby my attempts to give a lifetime to date was to son, his wife and gradnson with I hoped was his due before I actually karked it. (i.e. so I could actually be assured that they would not have to encounter the struggle of student debt, neo-liberal inspired ugliness of greed and selfishness, and witness it whilst still alive)
The second (firstly by way of Ugly Trust, then money making solicitor – now I understand the true meaning of the term), my daughter and second born – to be left by former partner – wife and subsequent.
WHAT a complicated messs of bullshit and kakabeans.
It seems that when wants to live frugally, to live in minimalist lifestyle, to hand on one’s wealth to the next generation (ESPESCIALLY having witnessed most of my contemporaries having left a load of death, desperation and baby boomer debt and aspiration – with a lik and a promise), one can’t easily.
Instead, one has to hope that what a first child is given by me – hoping to give a start, is replicated by an estranged wife to the second. Thankfully it now has and will be.
I/we both (i.e. myself and an ex) CANNOT easily be leave the next generation an entitlement to the wealth of our lifetimes UNTIL we ekshly kik the proverbial. Far easier a foreigner or alien to come hither, lay claim to some form of ‘property’ at the expense of fellow nationals, jet in once a year (or less even), and leave their legacy.
Oh well – the best we can hope for is that the assholes won’t come near to any overflow from my wealth – until …. well let’s just say hopefully death is quick and easy, and if not , down to an undetected BIG BIG OD, whereby a first born gets mine, and the second gets my ex, AND any overflow benefits a local community (and anonymously, and those I hold dear).
But truely – easier said than done!
It’s a hard life being a once high earner, latterly and suddenly reduced to SFA when one identifies with the left rather than the right.
Things really are designed for the bullshit artists and the Jellybeans – the Keysters, the charletans, the aspirational rent seeker, contribute-nothing/collect-all Phil Steins.
They’re designed for the Keys, the En-tree-pren-ooooo-ers, the “Oim-so-great” money fuckers, rentiers and traders in misery and debt (seems I can’t easily just leave wealth anonymously for example)
…… still, that figures looking at a Natzi front bench with dishonestly earned wealth.
Best thing is it’s an incentive to stay alive!
Even better thing is that in the overall scheme of things, they won’t come out tops.
Never mind though – might have to be a grandson/daughter that pisses on graves rather than me
Yes, I’ve been thinking dying is too much hassle. Actually, the Mai Chen Will, for $50.00 looks like it will suit my needs – don’t have a spouse or children, but need to ensure I leave enough for my rels to pay my funeral and other death expenses.
Without a Will, I’m told it can take for ever for the rels to get the money to pay for me having been so inconsiderate as to die.
The blond hair has thinned and receded, the face, beaten by 60 years of the Queensland sun, is lined. But the toothy grin is still there.
Why, said Peter Beattie, this was the political battle of his life. It would take a 1.6 per cent swing to deliver the seat of Forde to his grasp. ”I am the underdog,” he insisted, keeping a straight face.
Ah, yes, but had he done any deals with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a frontbench seat, should he step over that 1.6 per cent barrier and get to Canberra … and did he have ambitions of replacing Mr Rudd as leader, he was asked? ”I’m happy to be a backbencher,” said the former nine-year premier of Queensland.
Fyi,
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/comeback-hope-on-a-swing-and-a-prayer-20130808-2rkxy.html
Key has no problem with using his mate Fletcher and others in the Police/Intelligence community to protect and extend his grip on power. Eagleton and his office can command theses forces at will.
Has Key used theses agencies to spy on Labour and the media?
Has Shearer been kept in his leader position (unwittingly) by theses manipulating pricks?
“Has Key used theses agencies to spy on Labour and the media?”
When (because of his track record with the truth) you can’t trust your PM a suggestion like this can’t be laughed at. Could even explain the Lab. “caucus leaks”.
What would Robertson do if he was offered ill gotten info and/or assistance by conduits of theses players?
Would Robertson find the opportunity to secure his succession to Shearer too tempting?
Some say Robertson us the ultimate Machiavellian!
Who are these some?
Who knows, but it would be nice to know if there were any emails or telrphone messages between members of the Meridian board and Keys office?
Adrian, look at the names of the board and bear in mind the links between board and hollowmen is likely golf/dinners/bbq’s etc all nice and social with no electronic records.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/8/martyred-american-muslim-extremists-still-recruit/
From the we control the production line of terrorists home made videos……
Learn what is behind the drive by the government, by the Ministry of Social Development and Work and Income, to usher or push sick and disabled beneficiaries into open employment on the already competitive job market:
“Medical and Work Capability Assessments – Based on the controversial bio psycho-social model, aimed at disentitleing affected from welfare benefits and accident compensation: The Aylward Unum Link”:
‘An article summarising comprehensive, revealing research results’
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15188-medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-bps-model-aimed-at-disentiteling-affected-from-welfare-benefits-and-acc-compo/
As we know by now, WINZ are contracting out services to private, non-government operators, who will be paid handsome fees to place people with mental and other illlnesses, with disabilities, and also sole parents into jobs. The fact that such fees are paid on performance will in itself lead to the affected persons being pressured to take on jobs they get offered. Whether they may like such probably just casual, part time, unfulfilling, undemanding and low paid jobs or not, and whether they may cope or not, the expectation will be put onto them, so most will give in and accept being pushed into whatever jobs. It will be a risky experiment, likely to cause harm to at least some, and it will certainly not solve much, as most employers will only take on sick and disabled for the attractive fees they may also get. Once that subsidy is taken and pocketed, the incentive to keep the sick and disabled workers on will vanish.
There are some key players involved, and of course, the whole ideas stem from persons like a Professor Mansel Aylward from a department at Cardiff University, who also did nicely out of payments by controversial private disability insurer Unum Insurance from the US, who sponsored his work.
http://unumusinsurance.blogspot.co.nz/2010/12/florida-appeals-court-rules-public_31.html
Key persons that promote his ideas in New Zealand include a Dr David Beaumont, who “advised” both ACC and MSD on policies, and he happens to run his own business called “Pathways To Work”, down on the South Island, earning from the government to place disabled and incapacitated into work.
http://www.pathwaystowork.co.nz/dr-david-beaumonts-message-to-doctors-conference-medical-certification-can-be-fraught-with-problems-for-gps
http://www.pathwaystowork.co.nz/contact-us
The New Zealand government and Social Welfare Minister Paula Bennett have fallen for the disputed and perverted “bio psycho-social model” approach by Aylward and his colleagues (e.g. Gordon Waddel), and as it offers them an opportunity to rid WINZ off long term beneficiaries with health and disability issues, they just love the idea to outsource and have private agencies do the difficult jobs for them, similar to what has been going on in the UK for some years now.
Shame on Paula Bennett and her consorts!
It’s shameful that the neo-liberals are still blindly adopting failed experiments from other countries.
A quick search on The Guardian site reveals a long list of documented problems with the English scheme. And now it is going to be foist on NZ
http://www.theguardian.com/society/atos
National really don’t care if the systems they put in place work or not, for them, it’s all about profit and how they can divert taxpayer money to them and their rich mates.
+1 So true
I am getting a bit fed up with kweewee. Every time you turn round he is off complaining to the cops to get him out of hot water.
he is like the school yard creep who has found a way of keeping the troops in line but it all turns to crap when it is exposed to reality.
what a crybaby.
Cosgrove slays English on Nine to Noon:
Government deal on Tiwai Point aluminium smelter
The clip is quite long because a fair proportion of it is English saying “umm, ahh, umm”
I am not a great Cosgrove fan, but that was a good interview by him, particularly his critique of English’s spin.
Loved Cosgrove’s comment at the end that English “could not run the bathwater, never mind a business …”
Yes cosgrove sorted english out in that interview and I too smiled at that bathwater comment veuto
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/08/union-bullying-target-responds/
This may be of interest to some, the teachers union write to an aspiring charter school operator and his response.
Now about the clip telling Shearer…at first glance I thought it was done by someone from the right because the production values look quite high whereas something from the left would look cheap
However if you’re clued up enough to produce this then you’d know that Shearer is who the right want as leader so, on the balance of probabilities, I’d say its someone from the left
Whoever it is they did a good job
What clip is that?
Maybe it is this one, that was published on TDB not long ago?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUArGWZ3A7w
That is, unless there is a newer one out by now.
In any case, the pressure on Shearer is not getting less.
Sorry but I won’t be going to that shit-hole theatre to see any clip, can you do an honest review?
This is the version that right wing fan Sean “Plonkit” has been raving on about on his Radio Live show this morning. It appears to be the same clip that ‘The Daily Blog’ already published a week or so ago. It shows how slow mainstream media is these days, to catch on with what is happening.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/VIDEO-Whos-behind-this-video/tabid/504/articleID/37188/Default.aspx
It appears to have been loaded onto YouTube on 24 July already.
You’re not interested in the charter school debate then?
Debate starts.
Charter schools are bad and evil.
Debate ends.
Succinct and accurate. Thanks BM.
We’ve had the debate – reality shows us that they’re a waste of time and money. Which brings us to the conclusion that National are destroying our education system for a reason.
Well no you’re wrong charter schools are not a waste of time or money, the reality is that the teachers unions (not the teachers) are trying to protect their racket
Wrong, every count.
Here’s what charter schools are about:
http://www.alternet.org/search/site/charter%20school
Read some of those articles and learn how they work in practice. Once you done some reading, you might be ready for a debate.
I can’t be arsed adding links where charter schools are shown to be good (to close to knock off time)
lol
can’t be arsed spouting tory propaganda unless you’re on the clock, eh? Don’t blame you.
BS, the teachers and the teacher union (can’t have the latter without the former) are trying to protect our children from the destructive systems that NACT are putting in place.
Bollix the union is there to protect its members…teachers. Once you give parents choice you break the monopoly and thats what the union is scared of
Yeah, teachers don’t give a crap about children. Duh.
Actually, the union is there to provide organised resistance to privatising and corporate forces.
“Protecting its members” is just a single aspect of that, because privatising and corporate forces benefit from attacking teachers, their families (and workers in general).
A lot of parents want the choice of a largely public education system – anyone who wants a private system can always choose to pay for it. Entirely. Without tax payer subsidies. By themselves.
+1
Well said. And if the government stopped subsidising the private schools in the country most would close.
What racket? The one where they work long hours, contribute to extracurricular activities without pay, deal with disruptive kids, endure idiot Tory parents who know everything, cop shit from all sides, and all for ridiculously low pay? Funny sort of racket. Nothing like the rackets enjoyed by PERFed out coppers who get contracts to drug test beneficiaries and sit on their asses raking it in, for example.
If teaching was as much a racket as these idiot Tories claim, they’d all be lining up to do it. Why aren’t they?
MO
I was just talking to a long-term teacher about how she has advocated for a part-time teacher aide which she has never been granted before.
She has a number of behavioural problems with ADHD etc and one boy who has never been managed by the other teachers so she was asked to take him on and has broken through and gained his interest and the ability to control his erratic behaviour.
She used her methods of being firm, setting standards of behaviour and insisting on them, giving direction and not standing over the negative one, and taking the recalcitrant ones through their behaviour faults so they understand what the problem is, and she is ready to encourage and praise and facilitate them. All this takes time, experience, fortitude, positive thinking, planning, intelligence, teacher learning and understanding etc.
And also you may not be well supported by your school management system even when you are successful and know you are a good teacher by the good results you have. And there is so much superior ignorant bullshit coming from either parents who don’t manage their own role well, or superior upper class types who want their moneys-worth of education and more, and the pollies sneer when they want to deflect attention from their own failures. And yet the teachers keep on because they are dedicated and they keep winning, eventually, and the class achieves and they know they have Done Good. It surely is not easy.
I was looking at some National Party people today and thinking about ones I know.
What would be a profile of them compared to the profile for Labour. These perceptions of themselves then drive the perceptions they have of the other party/ies.
National to me seem to be the sort who dye their hair (women) because its part of conforming to the stereotype of a well-dressed and presented woman, women would 99.5% wear makeup, dress fashionably. Men suits, smart casual, good cars. They see themselves as go-getters, no-nonsense, hard workers getting on with life, aiming to earn good money and spend it on attractive objects and items. Individualistic. Superior. Not highly principled.Vaguely concerned about international connections but mainly as to where they can gain most advantage. Not much principle. Snobbish, I’m better than you and them (the benes), feeling deserving so when they become benes in some way that’s different and fair to them as more useful citizens than other benes.
Labour is regarded by them as incompetent and full of wish lists and supporters are regarded by them as not highly principled, unlike National Partyites, well most of the time. Labour is for either the lower classes or for academics or professionals who have a serious lack of reality and judgment and want things for the country only available in lala land. The reasons behind most people voting for Labour is because they haven’t got the gumption to go for a party that is leading a group who ‘are going places’.
The National-drawn people are unable to analyse and critically and objectively view the politics we live under and methods. They don’t have a higherstandard that they will work towards, if they do have a vision it is kept for slogans alone, not to be implemented. They are not introverted, or thoughtful, or interested in studying history except to pick on certain events that illustrate that might is right or noting failures of power and control in the past, and noting how to avoid that recurring. In other words anything they learn will be selective and skewed to their future advantage.
Nicely put Rosetinted. In short: they’re selfish, self centred and shallow thinkers who don’t care about anyone outside their closed insular circles. They assuage their feelings of guilt by supporting charities and attending charity balls. Their ultimate ambition is to be considered a member of the Beautiful People. (sarc.)
You certainly are wearing rose-tinted glasses in your perception of both National and Labour voting people.
Uh huh…no generalisations there at all
Lolz Winston, it was clearly written specifically as a generalisation.
th’ fuck are you on about?
Trying to point out politely (maybe too politely) that this is as big a piece of steaming cow dung as I’ve ever read on here and thats saying something
Its as accurate as me saying all lefties are pseudo-communist, envious, dole bludging, ne’er do wells
But to criticise a piece clearly intended to be written as a broad generalisation by calling it a generalisation?
That makes no sense. I might as well criticise your comment by saying it’s been typed into a browser.
W#inston
generalising ! Obviously you fit part of the profile – that you can’t coolly analyse.
Thanks for that. I thought the first three paras were excellent.
Who cares whether the paras were excellent. What about the content? Are voters like this or not? Are they driven by these perceptions or not? Why? How come we can’t run the country better than we do? Who is influential the pollies or the voters?
If you vote in a party because they seem overall to be better but have one really bad policy how does one stand against that mandate whitewash? I am government , therefore I have a mandate.
What’s the use of making silly patronising comments. If anyone makes silly comments they should be trying to be funny or satirical or something. If not they should go outside and stand on their head and let some blood rush into their brain. That’s how humans recharge themselves, I think I read it in a report from Russia or maybe China. Probably one of them that are on the other side of the world. They probably want to see things from our perspective../sarc
Ooops, managed to put the following on yesterday’s OM instead of todays.
This could be interesting at 1pm today
Dunne Tweet
“I am doing NBR ASK ME ANYTHING session 1pm today. Leave a question now: nbr.co.nz/ask-peter-dunne”
http://www.nbr.co.nz/ask-peter-dunne
Hes not off to a good start.
Couldn’t address the first question honestly.
Agreed. It also looks like it will be a long session at the slow rate the answers are coming up (and not in question order). Still, some good questions from some good people, so Dunne is probably having trouble working out his spin.
EDIT – or his non-answers such as that to #4 that has just come up! LOL – how thick is he? And now #5 and #9.
I just got a letter from David Shearer … that’s nice … except it was paid for by me which is a long standing bone of contention be it Labour or National or whoever from the beehive. Tells me he will save me hundreds of dollars with my power bill … that is a laugh since the balance of probabilities is that it won’t and might cost me … but whatever these politicians have their funny ideas.
What really disturbed me was the ‘argument’ quotes from an old lady at a Grey Power meeting who said she was afraid to turn on a light or her electric blanket becuase of the effect on her power bill … shocking … that nobody bothered to explain power consumption and how little such things use …. shocking becuase nobody told her to think about the things which really eat up the power such as heater, water heating, and ovens, about drawing curtains as soon as the sun goes behind the hill and so on ….
So thankyou David for adding to my belief that Labour are a hopeless bunch.
My view is that besides setting up by Legislation a single desk ‘buyer’ of wholesale electricity the Labour/Green electricity reforms should take one more step,
Labour/Green should also set up a nationwide retailer charged with offering the cheapest price possible to consumers without incurring a financial loss…
They should go the whole hog and renationalise electricity, make it so that it’s supported by taxes and that every household gets a free amount of power – enough to run the basics. Anything above that free amount is charged for.
Cannot disagree with you about nationalizing the whole ugly little soap opera that the ‘electricity market’ was always going to and has become,
That seems as easy as it being a matter of ‘will’, how to keep it that way tho i would dare suggest would take a one party state to achieve…
They should go the whole hog and renationalise beer, make it so that it’s supported by taxes and that every household gets a free amount of beer – enough to run the basics. Anything above that free amount is charged for.
Depends on the beer, do you want lion red, rheineck etc etc that lefties tend to drink…
You haven’t been allowed out for quite some time, have you?
In the people’s republic, everyone will have access to Speights (original recipe), bud.
Will it be compulsory?
What, the stuff that makes you fancy hoary old shepherds instead of nice young barmaids.
Yech!
There is an Aussie sheep joke in there somewhere.
Roll all the Lion Red, Waikato and Speights brewing into one operation (if it isn’t already) and repackage it as Victory Draught.
That’s the lolly-water brewed by jafas, not the original recipe.
On an unrelated note, I can’t abide Export. But when they did that original recipe production run a few years back, I loved the depth of flavour. It’s almost as if going into uniform high-volume mass production somehow lowers the quality of the product…
Who’da thunkit?
Thats a policy I can agree with
Drink black Mack and chardonnay myself.
Or a nice vibrant little Merlot.
Beer, is not essential infrastructure, nor is it an example of market failure.
It is also not reliant on large scale networks, the capital costs to start a brewery are not huge and you can brew plenty of your own, if the supply fails…
Cheaper power however. will also mean cheaper beer :-).
Sorry about srylands.
It assumes everyone is driven by ideology and incapable of considering the merits of a proposal against any other measure.
There’s a couple of differences that you seem incapable of realising:
1.) There are many types of beer that anyone can make, there is only one type of electricity
2.) The necessary integrated smart grid to bring about the best possible distribution of power is a natural monopoly. Having more of them just adds unnecessarily to the cost.
3.) Having the state, and thus the people, owning the generators and running them at cost is much, much cheaper than having private competing firms running them for a profit due to all the added bureaucracy that such competing firms introduce (which is cheaper? 1 CEO for $200k or 5 for $2m each) and the dead weight loss of profit.
Basically, what it comes down to is that you’re an ideological idiot.
“There are many types of beer that anyone can make, there is only one type of electricity”
Well, two really 😉 But that’s just splitting electrons
you’re a bright spark 🙂
Oh I’m a shocker 😀
Anymore bad puns and you know where you’re heading …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgVScdkUtWI
Hah!
lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwxcRlqQg2Y
You are the ideological idiot. You ignore the role of markets. But you dismiss markets. Because you are an idiot.
That guy Wolak didn’t really work for you did he?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuYs6miJEZY&feature=youtu.be
and you think that the Government running the generators at cost with no market will result in less bureaucracy? You ever worked in Government?
Oh damn I just remembered – didn’t you tell me the Government should grow and selll food?
Enough said.
You deserve to be ridiculed. Fortunately your state control wet dream will never happen.
Silly billy, Govt doesn’t have to grow and sell all food, the statutory producer boards did very well thank you, and have created giants like Fonterra.
You really are a bit ignorant of the socialist reality of NZ, aren’t you?
I think red meat exporters and Fonterra quality control could have done with a bit MORE bureaucracy in recent times, from what we’ve seen reported, eh?
Yep. Don’t need anywhere as much of it:-
1.) Don’t need advertising
2.) Don’t need multiple duplication of managers all doing the same job just for different companies
3.) Don’t need multiple office space and so freeing buildings for other uses
The market is supposed to be there so as to determine how much supply is needed. This rather remarkable outcome is determined through statistics and planning which a monopoly will actually be better suited to doing (comes down to their being only one type of electricity only). What competition does in this gathering data and planning is make it so that the information that one company gathers isn’t shared with the other companies which must result in the individual companies making the wrong decisions. We, the consumers, end up paying for those mistakes usually in the form of government handouts and guarantees.
Competition adds costs for no purpose and the market brings about failure. This is what we see in telecommunications. Twenty years of privatisation has left us with a network far below the standard it should be at and would be at if Telecom hadn’t been sold and the government having to put in extra taxpayer money to bring it up to that standard. The full costs to the public, once dividends are taken into account, are over $17 billion dollars and that’s just telecom – add Telstra, Vodafone, 2 degrees and it goes up even further.
Yep, just like farmers who own multiple farms do – they go out and hire managers.
“Labour/Green should also set up a nationwide retailer charged with offering the cheapest price possible to consumers without incurring a financial loss…”
Yes because around the world Government owned monopolies usually provide such excellent service.
Maybe the RMs can nationalise the supermarkets too. “NZ Food.” or “Kiwi Eat”
jcuknz
It’s a pity that Labour tend to bring up examples such as the one you mentioned as though it is a reflection of most of us. Is the old lady supposed to be representative for their constituents.
I remember someone from Auckland being quoted on how expensive electricity was. She was spending $300 a month. That was a hell of a lot and could not be given as an example of the average person in difficulty. What could have been said was that people who were finding electricity too dear could have an 0800 number to phone and be given assistance on how power could be saved, through a number of ways. Just making sure that she wasn’t heating the kitchen from turning on the stove might be one.
Picking on the saddest little story-with-photo to act as a mascot for a policy does not impress. The idea of Labour having no idea of what to do and just responding with a knee-jerk reaction to the poor and needy is not going to galvanise the population who think they know what they’ve got to try somebody who is making up policy as he goes. Of course that is what NACTs are doing really with their focus groups, but perception is everything these days.
Today’s ‘golden turd award’ for efforts to Jonolism goes to the Heralds economics editor Brian Fallow for this quote,
”4.3 billion dollars in profits due to ‘market inefficiencies’ during dry years, the exercise of unilateral market power imposes little cost on consumers when there is plenty of water”, unquote,
The above quote appears to be the ‘work’ of Professor Frank Wolak and can be found in the Herald article by Fallow in the economics section of the Herald on line,(click on the business section first), the headline for this spurious piece of Jonolism is titled, ”Setting the record straight on power” and it’s contents are about all we can expect from another of the card carrying Fifth Column Herald journalists who cannot bring themselves to address any issue truthfully,
Putting aside the term ‘market inefficiencies’ as who in their right mind knows what Fallow supposes Wolak means with it’s use it is simple to see the absolute LIE inherent in both the Professor’s words and Fallow’s repetition of them,
It’s simple, in ‘a market’ if the amount of water available to generate electricity was effected by ‘a dry year’ and this provoked ‘price increases’ then it is obvious to even the most dull that in the years when there is plenty of water there would be ‘price decreases’,
That of course is how a ‘real’ market is supposed to work, in a market where the consumer is in effect ‘trapped’,(how many of us can live without electricity), price ‘fixing’ will occur, and that is exactly what has occurred in the wholesale and retail of electricity pricing in New Zealand,
Price fixing occurs when during the dry years the wholesale price of electricity rises and the retail price charged then increases,
Price fixing becomes apparent when in the wet years the wholesale price either does not drop back to the level of the last wet year, or, the wholesale price of electricity drops for the retailer but the retailer does not pass on that wholesale price decrease to the consumer,
i would challenge that Jonolist Brian Fallow to create for us a chart of all the wholesalers and all the retailers showing everybody both the wholesale and retail prices of electricity by year and indicating dry and wet years,
Brian Fallows pathetic excuse of an excuse for the New Zealand electricity market’s Price Fixing over the past decade earns Him a coveted Golden Turd Award…
Interesting how Wolak’s words have changed. Here’s his first reference to the 4.3 billion:
So we have an extra $4.3 billion being charged because of monopoly powers and then an extra $1.5 billion charged in each of the dry years.
Source: http://www.comcom.govt.nz/the-commission/media-centre/media-releases/detail/2009/commercecommissionfindsthatelectri
Yes Wolak obviously has 2 faces, perhaps He has been reminded by the Government that it is they who ultimately control His pay packet,
The real, and only question that needs be asked is ”has anyone had their electricity retailer lower the price they charge per kilowatt hour, ever”…
”Setting the record straight on power” and it’s contents are about all we can expect from another of the card carrying Fifth Column Herald journalists who cannot bring themselves to address any issue truthfully, (bad12)
I don’t know these jonos but it sounds as if they couldn’t part their hair straight. (Is that why so many men shave their heads now?)
quite right bad12.
dont let him wrigle off the hook either.
too many posters here are busy with irrelevant minutae when the substantive issues, policies and the cretins that dreamed them up are never brought to book.
I dont give a shit about the market.
the question is who got the money?
A while ago, years, there was a OZ film about a Autistic kid, who would go into a fit when loud noises occurred. So now there’s adverts on late night TV for a noisy car, that its a branded as the thing to be seen driving. Now, living in a street with an excessive number of these extra noisy cars passing by, sometimes late at night, I was wondering wtf. Its like a local auction or car dealer has a range of these motors and has to drive them around the town at all hours.
If a Business Won’t Pay a Living Wage, It Shouldn’t Exist
The low wages that John Key promised our businesses are solely to boost profits for the few. The lowering of wages is a process that’s been in place since 1984 and the Rogernomic Revolution and it is not doing our country, our society, any good.
Naughty old Goff, eh
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9023655/Phil-Goff-slammed-for-sexist-comments
Weird thing to say. Even weirder that he doesn’t think it’s weird.
That’s what I thought. It’s like if he was talking about Hone and said “You lost three debates, each time to a Maori” and then claimed it was OK because he was just being accurate.
Well to be fair, for a guy to be beaten by a women is pretty embarrasing because women are obviously inferior to men
Hope that clears it up 🙂
Or teasing Paul Foster-Ponyclub for losing to a chubby gay. Just being accurate.
Yes but at least he lost to a man and not a woman…
Yes, if I remember correctly ,the list goes something like this
worst:
– a Gay Woman
– a Woman
– a Gay man
– a Maori Man
– every one else fairly much equal
– White Man top of the heap obviously.
I’d like to think you were being ironic, but that’s not far removed from the tripe you usually post here.
The biggest politic mystery of my lifetime is why Goff didn’t join ACT with his mates. He could go out riding his midlife crisis machine with John Banks, with a lycra clad duck following along behind.
A new study showing the inequality within our health systems
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10910616
A priority for us all. I agree with that – it’s about time we took our collective heads out the sand and addressed this real and important issue – it will take us all making it a priority to make progress.
Do you have any suggestions at to how iwi and whanau might address this along with the health sector ?
I think that the issues are systemic and therefore any solutions must come at the system level. There have been good initiatives that have encouraged Māori to interact with health services in better ways, those initiatives have broken down some barriers on both sides a bit. Until we reduce the risk factors for poor health, have fewer injuries and disability for Māori then these trends will continue. A big factor in those issues is poverty. All that iwi and whānau can do is keep encouraging their people to seek health assistance and knowledge. If we as a country made it a priority then we would be addressing all of the issues raised above, holistically and historically.
I’m not sure if I understand what you mean by ‘systemic issues’.
I certainly agree with you on the reduction of risk factors for poor health and I’d like to see iwi and the DHBs work more closely together on issues around cardiovascular disease in particular and ensuring vaccinations are offered and up to date.
While I agree that poverty is a factor in health amongst Maori even after adjusting for incomes via the decile ratings within the various DHBs the Maori population is doing worse health wise than they deserve to.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/08/fallow_on_power.html
Just in case anyone missed this
See 17 above. Wolak was misquoted in the Herald article (17.1)
Farrar’s bulls**t, echoing Wolak’s bulls**t, ‘it will reduce competition’, that presupposes that there is any meaningful competition in the market as it is now,
As a consumer i see none…
So you don’t think generators compete?
Oh Farrar is your channel…..
So has Phil Goff apologize yet?
Hi Brett.. You’re obviously busy to be trolling here…
justasking if mr temper is man enough to say sorry.
He won’t, it seems. But it shows how backward some of the attitudes are among some of the senior Labour MPs.
Russians.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/58649/russia-s-anti-gay-law-spelled-out-in-plain-english
http://www.policymic.com/articles/57373/russian-neo-nazis-are-torturing-gays-on-youtube
George weighs in.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/08/george-takei-explains-why-we-need-to-learn-from-history-and-not-hold-the-winter-olympics-in-russia/
Pretty swish advocacy website about the future of what’s wrongly called ‘recreational fishing’:
http://www.legasea.co.nz/index.php
Beaut astro-turfing.
Who for? this guy made it:
https://twitter.com/Scorz_/status/365730398375919616
Big game/charter operators I reckon.
“wrongly called ‘recreational fishing’”
What should it properly be called?
I dunno, but not that. Sure, fishing’s fun, but unless you are catching and releasing, (which is just torturing animals as far as I can tell) then it’s not just recreation.
The recreation/commercial split makes it looks like games vs work so of course the working people should get first dibs. Fuck that.
It’s all of our fish and if people want fish for dinner then they should be able to go and catch it.
If they can’t, or don’t want to, then yeah, people should be able to buy fish at the shop. As long as that doesn’t mean people who want to fish, can’t.
Calling it ‘recreational fishing’ implies that a NZer catching fish for the family dinner, is a less worthy use of the resource than selling it. And that’s just fucking daft.
Yeah I get you now. Food Fishing?
Actually how about just “Fishing”? It’s the commercial fishers who are going beyond what ought to be anyone’s ordinary right, so they get the extra descriptor.
+1
It all seems to be about the commercialisation of every resource we have and then the transfer of those resources into private hands.
Here’s a bit of friday news:
http://lawfuel.co.nz/news/944/major-defamation-loss-for-wishart
That news item is badly written and confusing. This is a better explanation of the case as of July 29.
.
What’s confusing about it? Seemed pretty clear to me. It’s a law blog more than a news site, and it isn’t really explaining the case so much as the trial, and how it went for Wishart, he lost big time.
For legal types their attention to (spelling) detail is poor:
The confusion was that at first I thought Wishart must have written the book, then wondered if Mrs London was his wife – had to ponder:
The US dictatorship is flexing its muscles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23627656
“Snowden link to encrypted email service closes”
This may appear trivial to some, it is damned serious!
Excuse me, I am having to beg here, for this to be copied in, aye?
I spent half an hour to get this loaded! It a a centenary for the Communist Party of Chile to celebrate, but that is not what we want in NZ, right, or wrong?
Anyway, I offer, music and dance to the occasion. I also observed some jihadist videos tonight, so just out of curiosity, dear John Key, dear SIS and GCSB, I must now be put onto your WATCH list, please, if you may have missed me so far. I am an ENEMY of the nation, and count me in, please!
That is because you lazy layabouts sucking the tax payer dry have nothing better to do. Fuck YOU all SIS, GCSB and hangers on that stupify and dumb down people. If you want to shut me out, you have to KILL me, thank you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd8-FPLY6Ao
Viva Chile, viva la revolution, via Novo Zelandia, por favor!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhpSwSBbdxM
Fuck Key, Natzional, fuck the government and the brainwashing crap society imposed on people that should be free and speak freely!!!!
Celebrating 100 years of the Communist Party of Chile is worth this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd8-FPLY6Ao
But since posting this my browser and internet connection is going crazy, I do not wonder more as to why!
We live in a SURVEILLANCE DICTATORSHIP! Get it, or keep on slumbering!
Good night, I better sign off, and keep on the fight and struggle, they hate you for doing so!!!
The Herald showing how to frame a question to change the debate.
No longer….an investigation in why we are dropping are standards.
Instead …’unrealistically high expectations”
Channeling Tory speak.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10910755
The Herald’s leading question
Should the 100% Pure slogan go?
Yes – it’s setting an unrealistically high expectation
No – it is still an important part of New Zealand’s image
Not sure
Where are these options?
Yes – being clean and green adds value to our exports, gives us a point of difference, preserves the environment for our grandchildren, provides healthier food for our population and creates better quality jobs for New Zealanders
No – the government needs to raise its game on environmental matters
Not sure