I’m sure that John Key would have been quite happy having Shane jones as Labour leader as it would have turned Labour into a party almost as right-wing as National.
Corporate and political corruption is raising its ugly head more than ever before. Sad for New Zealand, the supposedly least corrupt country in the world. Perhaps the corruption in high places is better hidden here than in other countries!
I enjoy Shane Jones as a funny man, but in my opinion, he should resign from the Labour party or be sacked, irrespective of any adverse consequences for the party. It is better to take a stand and stop these kinds of evil stuff permeating the party or the country.
Let us not allow the left wing parties and principles be tainted. Leave the right wingers to wallow in such sewers.
Clem
It’s been there for years (corrupt practices and the moral hazards that encourage them). We have just been too naive and trusting to note it. Everything that has come to light has been regarded as an exception (that proves the rule). Then it was noticed that the rule was being flouted more than followed. The age of innocence has had to end. Older and wiser now?
If, as they say, explaining is losing, then both Collins and Key were losing big time on Morning Report today. Her denials and justifications are becoming more and more ludicrous by the day and Key was forced back to his default talking points, namely dancing on the head of a pin and trying to blame it all on Labour.
Listening to the TricKey one this morning, I could have sworn he’s been on the sauce, or is still shickkered from the night before. And this is not the first time he’s sounded like this, Hmmm Shades of Muldoon.
Dunno about being on the sauce, but he is making a mess of it. He could be highly stressed. To me, he sounds like he’s on the verge of a bad panic attack, the sort where your tongue swells up in your mouth and you think you’re going to suffocate. Once he’s been through the challenging bits and can get back to where he’s comfortable – which is attacking Labour – he becomes relaxed again. I’m doubting his mental and emotional competence at the moment. I always doubted his ethical, technical, and political competence, but Kiwis love a fast talker in an expensive suit.
One point is unclear to me. Collins had said that she just popped in for a cup of tea on her way to the airport. Now she says after the dinner, she just went to bed. So, my question is, what happened to the airport destination plan?
The Opposition, Labour particularly, should keep Collins enquiry bubbling but say they have important changes planned for NZs betterment and are determined to do better than this shoddy government and just get a dig in while they are talking about their new direction and policies. It’s a mistake to concentrate on digging out all the dirt. To use modernspeak ‘This is not core business for Labour’.
So don’t get deflected Labour or you confirm my occasional irrational, frustrated description of politicians – being morons.
I haven’t listened to the links, however your summary of Key’s comments sound so familiar to any comment he ever makes – I believe you have summed up the comments I haven’t heard of his, now and in the future, very well indeed!
I don’t have much free time today, but if you want to carry on from yesterday here’s something to consider.
If a Universal Basic Income was introduced (I’m interested in the concept) and was set at a level that ensured most people could live reasonably comfortably:
– How many people would choose it over paid employment?
– How much would the number of people not in paid employment increase?
– What would this cost the Government/taxpayers?
– How would this be funded?
Ah, Petey… Thanks for providing a clear illustration of one of your strategies – don’t answer the question, but ask us to go researching for more questions. Do you ever do any real research yourself? Why are you so lacking in information and knowledge of these topics that you give your opinions on?
Since you are so very busy today, answering weka’s questions is the priority.
but if you do have some time this week …….
freedom:
How’s that weekly budget for poor people coming along Pete ?
I realise it is a complex thing to engineer without looking like a $2 shop tool but you are Pete George, the man with the plan! Where is the budget Pete?
You are Editor in Chief at the fact checking site called Politicheck.
Are facts not an essential item for your researchers to have on hand?
How do you plan to check the veracity of Government statements about poverty, incomes and expenditure if you do not have a clear understanding of the weekly budgets required of people who inhabit the lowest levels of our economy?
PG: “What would this cost the Government/taxpayers?”
To answer this question you will need some base data to set the UBI expenditure at an adequate level. Base data like budgets.
felix didn’t fully quote (himself) in his response. This is what he said:
What’s relevant is creating a society where where young people have faith that their lives are meaningful and worth living, and where adults find enough stimulation and satisfaction in their activities that they don’t feel like wiping themselves out at the end of every week.
The legality or otherwise of different substances then becomes a non-issue.
I responded “I think that’s idealistic and unrealistic”. That was in reference to the whole statement.
I think “creating a society where where young people have faith that their lives are meaningful and worth living” is a great ideal and worth working towards.
I think “where adults find enough stimulation and satisfaction in their activities that they don’t feel like wiping themselves out at the end of every week” is a fine aim but idealistic and I doubt we can ever get close to to that. For example being a parent wipes you out daily, it’s the nature of the job. It’s not uncommon for parents to want a drink or a smoke at the end of another busy day.
“The legality or otherwise of different substances then becomes a non-issue.” I took that as meaning that people wouldn’t use drugs any more. That’s naive and unrealistic. Many poor people don’t have the time or money to do drugs much if at all, and most have more sense than to waste their money and minds.
Drug use and abuse happens across the income spectrum. A wealthy person can be stressed about their money like a poor person stressed about their lack of money.
And no matter how ideal we can make our society I think there will always be a significant number of people who keep using drugs, so the legalities will remain issues. It’s idealistic to think that it could become a non-issue.
Can you show me where I ever said anything about having a drink or a smoke at the end of the day being a big deal Pete?
How about addressing what I actually asked you. I’ll paraphrase for your benefit as apparently you haven’t followed a fucking word so far:
If you don’t think we can create a society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough that they don’t try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend, then what is the point of any of your political efforts?
I mean that’s a really, really low bar for a decent society. I’m not talking utopian ideals Pete. I’m talking about large numbers of human beings not trying to self destruct on a regular basis, and regularly succeeding.
Because essentially you’re right Pete. If nothing ever changes much from what we do now, then we’ll pretty much always have the same or worse issues to deal with as we have now. If we’re lucky.
We can’ ‘create a society’, there’s too much history for that, but we should always be looking for ways to improving our society.
Most people don’t “try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend”. I think that most people who try drugs do so for some sort of enjoyment although there’s quite a bit of attempted stress relief too.
The people who develop drug problems, the drug abusers and the addicts, don’t just wait for the weekends.
I’m talking about large numbers of human beings not trying to self destruct on a regular basis, and regularly succeeding.
How many people regularly try to self destruct? Large numbers? And how many succeed? Too many do, but large numbers?
And if “we can create a society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough” how much less of a drug problem will we have?
Please repeat this phrase thrice daily,
then perhaps you won’t have such difficulties understanding an issue that others are openly discussing and you are openly obfuscating.
“Most people don’t “try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend”. I think that most people who try drugs do so for some sort of enjoyment although there’s quite a bit of attempted stress relief too.”
Hands up who thinks PG is qualified to have an opinion on why and how people take drugs?
Research has shown that people generally take drugs to either feel good (i.e., sensation seekers or anyone wanting to experiment with feeling high or different) or to feel better (i.e., self-medicators or individuals who take drugs in an attempt to cope with difficult problems or situations, including stress, trauma, and symptoms of mental disorders).
That’s along the lines of what I suggested but in more detail (limited time so I kept it very brief).
There’s other factors too, like peer pressure, bravado, curiosity, accidental addiction (prescriptions), spiking and so on. And it’s often a combination of factors.
So felix’s “society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough” has a lot to try and address and rectify.
weka I know you can’t see me but I am putting both my hands firmly on the floor.
Pete not only knows fuck all but he’s also just shat all over every A&E doctor, nurse, ambulance officer, police office and firefighter in the country.
That’s a pretty generalised list with limited consideration of context and life circumstances. Though it does include this:
an attempt to cope with difficult problems or situations, which would include people struggling on low incomes, and/or with unbearable jobs.
There’s been quite a bit of sociological research on drug use and abuse. This looks at patterns in various contexts, over time and in different kinds of communities/circumstances.
Some of the early research by Bingham Dai (1930s US),
recognized that his drug addicts lived in disorganized neighborhoods, in which crime, delinquency, mental disorder, and suicide prevailed—drug addiction was in fact yet another variety of [deviant and criminal behaviour]
Other considerations that impact on drug use and abuse are availability and supply.
Others have argued that high levels drug abuse in a community is the result of inequalities. There is more drig abuse in lower income groups than in higher income ones – part of the use of drugs to escape from dreadful conditions.
The biggest survey of drug was the US national survey 2004. It found the reasons differed for different demographic groups and between use of legal and illegal drugs:
Use of illicit drugs
Experimental; irregular use more commonly episodic;
Use of legal drugs
– way more common than use of illegal drugs – and more likely to keep doing it; people who use legal drugs a lot, are more likely to use illegal ones;
Psychoactive use
– is more common among young people; plus people more likely to use psychoactive drugs are male, unmarried but co-habiting and not planning to go to college, the unemployed,.
Drug us can also be a rebellion against conventions.
Get fucky or get lucky – I know I prefer the latter.
And don’t forget to hear the Awkward Russian police sing daft Punk Get Lucky.
Just put the keywords and go for the middle video. Good marching music.
for some reason gw, a link to Prosperity Theology ( the, long undiscovered Pastor’s Cave Prosperity Gospel) I put up has remained in moderation, twice. Suffice to say, I recently attended a church where in the willing congregation were persuasively asked for money four times, across two services, eftpos at the back of the hall, i o u ‘s accepted.
Why did you attend TWO services on the same day?
What Church was it?
What were the reasons/cause given for the FOUR money collections?
Were the congregation obliged/compelled to pay or was it voluntary?
I think after a short adjustment period, employment would go up, as a result of people actually having money to spend into the economy.
UBI is a redistribution from those at the very top to the rest at the bottom. Naturally the people at the bottom will spend the money in ways that the people at the top never would have. This spending will create more economic activity, which means (generally) more jobs.
Lanthanide +100
Slides through the mishmash like a knife through soft butter. Says it all really. Should be printed out in little strips of paper and dropped over NZ like confetti similar to the flour bombing in the 1981 protest.
(excerpt from those unanswered-questions..addressed to pete george..)
“..That disqualifies you from having any opinion on beneficiaries until you answer the question: how many beneficiaries are not required to seek/gain employment?
Then you will have to answer how many people are now required to see work, despite previously being exempt.
Then come back and explain how those people are supposed to live. And why those people aren’t entitled to a livable income.
Then explain why you think that beneficiaries are all unemployed.
And then explain how unemployed beneficiaries are supposed to raise their income via employment when there aren’t enough jobs.
Then, when youve done all that, retract your statement that NACT don’t keep people poor…”
(can i suggest that when pg pops up with his daily-dissemble..
..that the only responses afforded him be requests for him to answer the above..first..?
..and as he is the editor (stuffs fist into mouth to stop uproarious guffaw of laughter)..of that politichek rightwing pressure-group..
If you did 5 minutes of checking instead of endless drinking you would know that the stuff story is a propaganda piece by a green party activist. Of course many companies pay workers $18 per hour. Gee some even pay 40. It is called a market. I have no sympathy for anyone on minimum wage. Up skill. The only thing that surprises about the mw is that it is so high.
Did you know that the woman interviewed was a green party activist? It should have been disclosed by the journalist.
On related topic. Just returned from Napier. As usual every up market cafe / bar/ spa was staffed by European travellers because there are no suitable nz workers. I drove past a huge orchard with a sign out front “workers desperately wanted”. So get down there.
so chalmers doesnt own that business and doesnt pay everyone above minimum wage by some margin. of course the part about how its aspirational and practical and will hurt not help isnt propaganda cos you agree with it.
“On related topic. Just returned from Napier. As usual every up market cafe / bar/ spa was staffed by European travellers because there are no suitable nz workers. I drove past a huge orchard with a sign out front “workers desperately wanted”. So get down there.”
No “suitable” NZ workers who want to do the work while getting paid a pittance in bad conditions. European travellers, also known as backpackers, will do whatever job is going to get money to fund their continued travels – that’s hardly the same as holding a long-term job to pay for food, rent, electricity, petrol, car registration, doctors visits etc.
Similarly for orchard work – it’s hard back-breaking labour with minimal pay.
Your reply is an excellent example of the problem. You seriously think it is oj for healthy unemployed people to take a benefit instead of working in an orchard?!!
Actually, you ignorant twat, a lot of Hawkes Bay people go off benefit to work in the fruit industry during the season. As do folk in the BOP, Otago etc. They work for, surprise, surprise, the minimum wage., so with travel costs factored in, they are little better off financially. The answer to that conundrum is obvious. Lift the minimum wage.
The horticultural and food processing industries rely on dormitories of casual labour, usually brown, returning to income support in their off seasons.
So your plan seems to be to ship unemployed people from other parts of New Zealand to Napier where they can work in the orchard, because the orchard “desperately wants” workers. For a couple of months.
What are all of these people that you’ve moved to Napier going to to do for the rest of the year?
See, it turns out, these are difficult problems that don’t have quick obvious solutions – because if they did, they already would have been applied.
Orchard work is only ever going to work for a small proportion of the community, simply because it is only available for a small proportion of the entire year.
I reckon if such a sign existed srylands would have stopped, photographed it and posted it here whilst quoting from Bush’s Mission Accomplished speech 😉
last time you ran this crap i posted a job offer which specifically excluded nz residents. of course you ignored that and ran away to a new thread with your old crap.
Sit down and tell us a story srylands. Now when you were very young you used to work on your father’s uncle’s farm/do seasonal work in an orchard picking/ work on the wharves/ work in the meatworks/ prune grapevines / pick and pack tobacco. Those were the days. People knew how to work then and be happy with their lot. blah blah. The great bum sitter with the enormous brain who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing – when it comes to people.
I saw a bit of a film called Snowpiercer with a cocoon of humans in an enclosed ecosystem being managed by a megalomaniac who knew how to manipulate people and who had no respect for them at all. Chilling. And it ended with the system being destroyed and two survivors stepping out into a frozen world, being viewed curiously by a polar bear. Back to nature. People like srylands would lead us to that very tipping point without questioning their own preconceptions.
“Similarly for orchard work – it’s hard back-breaking labour with minimal pay”
Not necessarilyt. I’ve done a lot of orchard work since I was about ten and it wasn’t hard or backbreaking. Sure it was a bit physical but easy enough for anyone with average fitness levels.
My three children (two female, one male) all did seasons of orchard work and were very good workers. They financed education and bought cars with what they earned. I know a lot of other people who have managed orchard work and have benefited from it.
I’ve known a lot of people who have lived on it. Wages aren’t high (relatively) but are above minimum for good workers, especially as they become experienced, improve productivity and take on responsibilities.
And there’s usually quite a bit of free food involved.
never has the phrase “comparing apples and oranges” been so apt 🙂
Some orchard work is by the hour
Some is by the bin
Some is casual hours only
Some is done for kin
Some depends on weather
Some is months at a time
Some means moving here and there
Some is just a lie
this nursery rhyme was brought to you by Pete George’s Handy Hints for Happy Homes
(Q: What decade was all this orchard work? I am guessing pre millennium, I am guessing the 1980’s actually)
p.s. Pete, maybe you forgot you have a list of questions from weka to answer, you have also said you were short on time today, so why are you even commenting on other posts? Please go answer weka’s questions
+1 freedom. Not all orchard work is the same (depends on the kind of fruit being grown and how), and as far as I can tell, the people that do well are those that get the more responsible, better paid, more stable hours jobs. That’s not everyone. The people I know that do it alot and are ok either have jobs higher up the chain, or they’ve managed to set their lives up so they have low living costs (usually no rent) and they have other ways of making a living when there is not orchard work. It’s generally not a job if you have a mortgage or kids.
I get a very strong sense that Pete hasn’t experienced much at all for 20 years or so. He seems utterly unaware of the everyday realities of life in NZ for most people.
He doesn’t think there’s much of a problem with unemployment or underemployment.
He doesn’t think there’s much of a problem with poverty.
He doesn’t even acknowledge a cultural binge-drinking issue ffs. Doesn’t affect most of us, he reckons.
Worst part is, he doesn’t think there’s much point doing anything about it either.
You’re making things up felix. From you that seems more likely to be deliberate lies rather than ignorance. Your ‘argument’ has turned to attempted discrediting with blatant bull. That’s telling.
All your claims (at 6.03 am) about what I think are incorrect nonsense.
Every time he comes on this site, we must ask him to deal with weka’s questions.
And if he won’t, we should boycott him.
Same policy for all the other RWNJs who come here to divert, distract and denigrate.
Their input ruins this site at times.
he is tired. he visited every up market bar cafe spa in napier. before easter he cared e about the poor now he has no sympathy for minimum wage workers who must somehow work enough hours to survive and pay to upskill.
he also knows who all green party activists are which is strange for a mere tax something or other from kapiti coast.
Responding to all those discussing the problems of being employed for seasonal work in orchards, vineyards etc, I suggest you look at the latest list (2014) of employers who are part of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Policy and the spread of employers across the country from Katikati to Otago. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/employers/employ/LinkAdministration/ToolboxLinks/rse.htm
While I think the policy is excellent for the Pacific Island communities, because it provides regular work, skills training and money for their communities, I think it is wrong that New Zealanders don’t make themselves available for this type of work. Effectively those of you who are saying that it is better to be unemployed that earning the minimum wage to do physical work in the orchards and vineyards are saying you are better than the Pacific Island people who are very happy to do this work. That attitude doesn’t seem respectful to the Pacific Islanders.
Also, as taxpayers, we are all contributing to funding both the RSE scheme and the unemployment benefit because New Zealanders wont do this type of work. That doesnt seem fair to me either.
I talked to a woman in west Auckland who was looking for such work – in desperation. But, she is a single parent, and there weren’t any such jobs going near her home, and that would also enable her to carry out her child care responsibilities.
for e.g. those foresty workers who work 10 hours a day in shite conditions on $16 an hour! i earn more than that at my comfy desk sitting on my bum with heating & a roof & heaps of coffee. thats plainly not fair, not fair at all.
& orchard work is indeed back breaking work!, i’ve done kiwi fruit, grape vine work & asparagus picking (in my teens, & travelling in my 20s), asparagus was a lot harder because you had to bend down for 6-7 hours a day, only young ppl can do that kind of work. so if you think orchard work is not back breaking then i actually doubt you have done any orchard work at all (unless you are the inevitable slow mo simpleton who just goes gets to do all the gopher type work around the property coz you can’t be trusted to do anything else).
No one wants sympathy from the likes of you, SSLands. I see the person using the login today is not the polite one. My guess is that there are three of you. All your posts are propaganda pieces by an ACT party activist. You should disclose that.
Sir Ian McKellen has a deeper understanding of New Zealand than most visiting stars. He talks about playing Gandalf again – and about Helen Clark’s startling confession.
“I find your society genuinely admirable in many ways. For example, I met Helen Clark while I was in Wellington. I was invited to her official residence, and waved in by a lone policeman who didn’t even check who I was, then I had a barbecue with her. I congratulated her on the public’s enlightened attitudes towards racial issues, but she disagreed. She said to me that New Zealand was really a very racist country, and she was determined to do everything she could as prime minister to change that. I thought that was a very bold, honest statement to make to a foreigner, and I really respected her for that.”
I prefer Queen Victoria owns the foreshore and seabed and (better still) all the land leased from Queen Victoria so Queen Victoria can use the money for her armies, hospitals roads etc (for the benefit of her brown boys and girls and white and banana boys and girls). Queen Victoria rarely rides her steed down the beach (whereas Maori frequently show up). But that’s beside the point.
Evolutionary psychology makes good argument that humans are (by nature) racist in so far as they have an initial preference for people like themselves. Talking up your own group is healthy. Listen to any after game conversation when the local school creamed the visitors.
In his review article Discovery and Confirmation in Evolutionary Psychology (in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Psychology) Edouard Machery concludes:
“Evolutionary psychology remains a very controversial approach in psychology, maybe because skeptics sometimes have little first-hand knowledge of this field, maybe because the research done by evolutionary psychologists is of uneven quality. However, there is little reason to endorse a principled skepticism toward evolutionary psychology: Although clearly fallible, the discovery heuristics and the strategies of confirmation used by evolutionary psychologists are on a firm grounding.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_evolutionary_psychology
Results show that oxytocin creates intergroup bias because oxytocin motivates in-group favoritism and, to a lesser extent, out-group derogation. These findings call into question the view of oxytocin as an indiscriminate “love drug” or “cuddle chemical” and suggest that oxytocin has a role in the emergence of intergroup conflict and violence.
To survive and prosper, individuals need groups whose members contribute information and resources. Because contributing resources and information makes oneself vulnerable to exploitation by others, group members need to know who to trust or to distrust, who can be expected to also contribute to the group and to reciprocate cooperation, and who may abuse in-group generosity and free-ride on others (1). A key mechanism facilitating such in-group cooperation is ethnocentrism, the tendency to view one’s own group as centrally important and as superior to other groups. Ethnocentrism manifests itself in positive valuation of (members of) one’s in-group. Such in-group favoritism signals loyalty and positive commitment to the group, thus rendering the ethnocentric individual a reliable and trustworthy partner. Ethnocentrism may also show up in negative valuation of (members of) out-groups. Such out-group derogation signals to in-group members who should be excluded from in-group resources and exchanges, and reduces the probability that in-group resources are inadvertently extended to out-groups (1–6).
If in-group favoritism and out-group derogation have adaptive value and sustain in-group functioning, coordination, and cooperation, it follows that (i) throughout evolution those individuals who displayed in-group favoritism and out-group derogation and who detected such tendencies in others were more likely to spread than individuals lacking these capacities (5–8) and (ii) the human brain may have evolved to sustain ethnocentrism through yet-unknown neurobiological systems
A Zoologist For A Financial Shitstorm And A Wall Street Banker As Our Prime Minister. No Wonder We’re Tanking. My take on the housing bubble denial saga
From the Herald’s online version: ”Prison alone wont deter crims” says break-in victim,
”Gavin” who has been done over 5 times in the past 3 years by burglars gets my vote for Kiwi of the week, for this:
”I’m not sure prison is the ultimate answer, but it could be part of it, they definitely need some sort of decent education, some rehabilitation”,
He thought the bigger issue politicians should be addressing was, ”the separation of wealth between rich and poor, which he believed was one of the key drivers of burglary”
Wise words from a five time victim of burglars which will probably be ignored by the politicians he addresses as they continue the revolving door imprisonment policy, using the blokes taxes to build more of them and in effect re-victimizing Him all over again…
my take is if prisons worked, why is there still crime? & also this thing that some laws are acceptable to break, like opening hours in wanaka over easter. did you also read that thing where the police have had to pay out over $500,000 this year to ppl because of police fuck ups.
+2
Both None to Noon and Afternoons are much better when a locum is in place – but in particular, Lyn Freeman is great. Nine to Noon probably should have gone to her in the first place
personally I find Lyn Freeman too nicey nice and watered down to be a really great interviewer ( probably becase she doesnt eat meat..let alone go for the jugular or gnaw the bones) …..and I fear she lacks the intellectual range of Ryan…..she doesn’t ask the hard questions…she is better for the arts….i am sure she is a lovely person however
I reckon she’s a closet carnivore (Freeman I mean). I just find the work-life-balanced, regular gal with issssyooos, and her in depth (once was) knowledge of ‘the beltway’ (Ryan) a bit bloody nauseating at times. Plus she’s a total 3rd-wayer with a (no doubt, very balanced) portfolio. But …. different strokes for different folks I guess.
I’m only glad she seems to have negotiated a substantial leave entitlement.
RNZ though – still far better than anything else going
As a politically-independent anti-corruption campaigner, who is not aligned to ANY political party I fully support this Green Party initiative, and look forward to ALL parties who genuinely support ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’ doing the same.
Greens push for disclosure policy to reveal MP’s ‘private interests’ (3:45)
Just as NZ Prime Minister John Key exhibited wilful blindness in his continued support for dodgy John Banks, his defence of the indefensible Minister for Corruption (sorry – ‘Justice’) Judith Collins will not endear him to the voting public – in my considered opinion.
You are wrong in saying they are asking for more transparency from all MP’s, they are only proposing more transparency from ministers.
Not saying that there’s anything wrong with that, but i would respect it a lot more if it came from them when they were actually in power because this reeks of an empty pre-election talking point with little actual relevance.
ER
Yea Thanks .I missed it. Winston not quite as eloquent as before but still able to mock the Gowers of this world (Paddy.. let me answer from my experience, rather than your inexperience -love it). And his response to entrapment ‘questions’ like…. ” What you’re saying is…..”.when that’s not what they’re saying at all.
I don’t vote for Winston but he’s good and I hope he’s part of the Labour coalition.
Winston is clear in terms of protecting the retirement age @ 3’50” – 4’23”
Question: “.. if Labour tries to change the retirement age, you’d go to the cross benches again”
Winston: “… I think they can be persuaded if that was the issue , I think they can be persuaded that that fatally cost them the election ..”
…
Winston: “… what’s a priority in the context that there is no fiscal reason when it is near 4.3 per cent of GDP to be panicking as Jenny Shipley and Financial Services Council are trying to get (?you) to do so, they can get to control the industry and take out (?biddings) and favours …”
And at the Herald. Joyce changing university boards to be dominated by businessmen. Universities as free trainers for corporates funded by the kids borrowing.
So now we are going to have our young people borrowing money to fund their studies to save companies having to invest in training them.
How about a market solution from the corporates, they can provide paid internships to give work experience and fund the study costs of graduates in the disciplines they are short of and they need to be doing this before they can scream skill shortages.
Listening to Williams and Holton this morning and the subject of Cunliffe not fronting up to Campbell live was brought up. Well on seeing the little bit that I could stomach of the key family at home(snigger) item I wouldn’t of turned up either. It is documented knowledge, stated by key himself that he hardly ever goes to that derelict looking place he call a bach. So why would he choose to use it as the destination for the interview. Campbell made a right toady of himself with the gushy bit about Obama la la la la.etc. That’s when I turned off, so possibly it got better. ?? or not. So key is being his usual devious self but Cunliffe would be expected to have his interview or whatever you might call it at his actual home because people might think he is trying to hide his wealth and he’ll get caned by the media again. I don’t see the problem with Cunliffe delaying his ‘at home’. He had genuine reasons which have been reported, Campbell made to much of it, and he looks like he was played by key. Don,t think much of him at the moment.
+100 ffloyd….Cunliffe should take control of his media appearances not the other way around( if he doesn’t want to be interviewed in his home for family privacy reasons then good on him!)
….lets hope Campbell gets back into the real hard question journalism of which he is capable
….not the frothy ‘Women’s Weekly’ and ‘House and Garden ‘ variety
…this is what is wrong with the msm at the moment ….concentration on trivia rather than the Hard questions
…hard questions involving
affordable housing for young New Zealanders
education
corruption
the issues Xtasy brings up ie support for those most in need …(in fact I suggest John Campbell does an in interview with Xtasy…this is the real side of NZ….not John Key’s mansions…sick making)
Listened to a bit of Williams/Hooton until I got tired of Hooton’s Foxdistortion-monologues. Admit to being disappointed in Williams, a man that I once admired. No fire left?
..and one of my favourite williams’ recent quotes..
..was his sneering at the activists returning to labour…as all the mad people having come back to labour..
..(these he is sneering at are those who left labour because of labour losing its’ way up that neo-lib dead-end road..that tells you’ll you need to know about williams..
i agree, that home piece was appalling but nearly all the media pundits all gave it glowing reviews! dunne & peters both garnered a little respect from me by them declining. keys one was all about him being ‘normal’ & how awesome he is at talking to children! & playing with some little girls pony tail which was a bit creepy imo. if campbell didnt know he was being used by a master manipulator (key) then hes a tool.
Shonkey is a highly staged media event full stop. He knows it’s his medium to play like that guitar he refers to but that was a private conversation apparently.
Absolutely no unscripted questions allowed and the best spin available from your mates like Hooton, O’Shillivan etc when you go off the ranch and put your foot in it by doing crazy stuff like inviting the opposition to a debate.
Bet the backers and minders told John Phillip to STFU and stick to the smile and wave, leave the messaging to us. The only debate he’ll do is one where sympathisers like Hoskins can protect him from himself.
Campbell is lightweight with the occasional burst of enthusiasm but it’s sugar rush jonolism, once the high’s gone they go looking for another.
RNZ Midday Report. CTU to take legal action over deaths of two of the 32 forestry staff killed since 2008.
The television news showed Worksafe climbing all over crews, with RNZ reporting 25 crews instructed to stop immediately; entrenched “non-compliance concerns”.
meanwhile Jones states he “wouldn’t call Gardiner a friend…”. hmm, must just be an uninterested admirer of his posture then…
A worker at the coal-face of addictions claims the impact and extent of synthentic cannabis abuse is greater than that of metamphetamine; children as young as nine…deep sigh…
The Queensland Fruit-fly makes fruit and vegetables inedible! Cabbage Fight! (ducks).
“Our lives end the day we become silent about things that matter”. Martin Luther King.
for greywarbler – I visited a church recently rolling in a non-canonical gospel for ‘spiritual’ success. Across two services on the same Sunday, much the same congregation were persuasively asked four times for money- eftpos at the rear of the hall, IOU’s accepted. 😎
This from the article is interesting: ”The complex plan change, setting tougher nutrient leaching limits in the catchment and requiring farmers to implement individual enviromental management plans, raised fears at the Council that farming in the area would become uneconomic”,
Whoever is raising such fears deserves the dunce award, scientific soil mapping, paddock by paddock in places where soils are apt to change types frequently has been shown to boost production,
Along with such boosted production comes less use of both water and nutrients as soil mapping also identifies the optimum time for the use of water and nutrients on the proposed crops, SO, with intensive soil mapping we can tell exactly what can be grown where while producing NO off farm leaching of water or nutrients and NO leaching of the same into the water table,
Instead of just dumping water and nutrient on paddocks and crops because that is the way its always been done soil mapping will be the next revolution in farm management and i am pleased to see this irrigation scheme has attached to it individual management plans that will likely mean the farmers have to soil map all their farms,
Now all we need is the body with the resources and the will to rigidly Police such management plans and i don’t think that this can be simply left in the hands of Regional Councils…
Bernard Hickey Shows Himself The Ignoramus I Always Thought He Was And Here Is Why:
In an article today Bernard Hickey actually made an attempt to counter Jesse Colombo’s 12 point list as to why we were not heading for an economic bubble bust of epic proportions and in doing so showed once again how NZ economists really haven’t got a clue about what is going on globally and I will show this by taking his talking points and show them for the misleading uniformed trash they are.
NZ has a floating exchange rate and flexible interest rates
There are plenty of candidates to generate a shock to New Zealand’s economy that could cause our house prices to start falling. The IMF warned in March that a sharp slowdown in China could do the trick.
In this point he is arguing that the IMF predicted the same possible down turn but they mitigated the prediction by stating:
Hickey says: However, the IMF rightly points out in the very next sentence that New Zealand has some automatic stabilisers (SIC) to deal with just such a shock.
The authorities have monetary and fiscal policy space to respond to shocks. The RBNZ has scope to adapt monetary conditions to help buffer against a downside scenario, and the free-floating New Zealand dollar provides an additional cushion against terms of trade and other external shocks. New Zealand’s modest public debt gives the authorities scope to delay their planned deficit reduction path in the event of a sharp deterioration in the economic outlook.
My response: First of all Hickey is not denying the possibility of a down turn and that is wise. What he argues is that in order to delay a planned deficit reduction path (read austerity for the 99% but more for the 1% like in Greece, Ukraine, to name a few) there is space to borrow more.
This is not a sensible response to the risk of a global cascading financial down turn. This is just more of the global bankster kicking the can down to road fraud. And while it may postpone the inevitable collapse of an unsustainable collapse of the fiat currency system which at the moment has to print money by the trillion to keep going.
What is equally misguiding is his notion that we can cut the interest rates which unlike the rest of the Western world are being raised making it more difficult for people to pay their mortgages.
So far it hasn’t materialized in higher interest on bank savings for example.
The real reason why interest rates in the US, UK and other Western countries are next to zero is that they are so for the rich. Those of us who have to buy a kitchen appliance on a credit card or GE pay 20% – 30%. The interest is not a tool which is used for the betterment of New Zealanders but to make a whole sale wealth transfer of the 99% to the 1% possible by preventing deflation and encouraging inflation. The only people suffering under this are those on fixed incomes. The rich, the bankers and others close to the reserve banks lending spigot sea their incomes rise with the money creation level. A very comfortable lace to be to be sure but the rest of us will find it harder and harder to make ends meet and that includes the mortgages that keep the bubble going.
Our Government has room to borrow to cushion the blow
Jesse diplayed (SIC) an alarming chart showing a tripling in the Government’s overseas debt in nominal terms between 1993 and 2012. Unfortunately, that didn’t show the net and real value of that debt in relation to our economy, which is the most important thing.
New Zealand’s net government debt has risen from less than 10% of GDP to under 30%. US Government debt is over 100% of GDP, Britain’s public debt is over 70% and Ireland’s debt to GDP ratio is over 120% of GDP.
As the current government proved from 2008 to 2012 when it kept…
At first, this seems just a very dull article about golf, a sport I don’t much appreciate. But scratch the surface, ignore the headline and you’ll find hidden within details that show that NZ’s middle classes are now being impacted by the depression and austerity policies of the government.
One quote in particular show the new unequal New Zealand. A NZ where wealthy foreigners buy up our land, the rich 1% of NZers travel round the world to play their favourite golf courses and the rest of NZ go backwards.
Mr Stuart said many British clubs were closing and the same changes were affecting the sport in this country.
“The dynamics are interesting because at the top end, there’s no problem, with people who want to go around the world and play golf. It’s in the middle that we’re all fighting for members,” he said.
2 other interesting points…the Nat M.P. involved and the US and Chinese money taking over our country.
If only the NZ Herald knew how to frame a story and write a headline.
They have missed the real story here.
Jones quits…..good riddance, fair weather friends are not what Labour needs. My initial reaction to the excuse that he could never become leader due to the new way of electing a leader was soft cock. Did he ever realise he would have to earn it? Now off to work for National, theres loyalty, not!
“He has been in talks with Foreign Minister Murray McCully for some time about a possible role in an international fisheries management role and expected that to go through.”
I was just wondering, how come Pete George’s ban was lifted?
[lprent: He got banned in August 2012 for (yet again) trying to tell us how we should run our site – something that we give fair warning about being dangerous to do in the policy.
We lifted all outstanding bans in a well publicised amnesty in March 2013. This gets done periodically because most humans do have this facility to be able to learn from experience, so we give them a chance to rejoin the noisy and robust arguments going on here.
His absence after that was purely voluntary.
He has been mostly been following the policy guidelines he started commenting again a month or so ago. Despite all of the moaning about his comments, he hasn’t really overstepped the bounds since. ]
Ummm. Must look at a amnesty again. It really has to be soon so we can eliminate the ones who are too dumb to read the policy before full-blown election season arrives. Or after the election.
There are a few still serving out long bans and about ten or twelve previous regulars who picked up permanent bans since March last year. Most bans of the latter were banned for trying diversion trolling at the top comments in posts. Haven’t really had to do any of those that I can remember since early this year.
That is a very dangerous sport that as who knows when we have time to bump their preferred posts to OpenMike. If we’re short of time, then we stop warning and start banning to reduce the workload. We find this kind of semi-random sentencing risk helps to ensure people are very cautious about their exposures to the edges of the policy.
Then there are a pile of simple trolls who got booted off the site after a couple of comments for being stupid trolls (we rather like playing with the smarter ones). We’d have to cull the ones who haven’t picked up the capabilities to survive here out again. Saw quite a few “first-timers” come through today who didn’t manage to write anything intelligent for any viewpoint in several comments and didn’t make it past first moderation.
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 cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
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 ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
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. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
how about that shane jones..?..eh..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/paratas-husband-funded-the-labour-leadership-challenge-from-shane-jones-ed-whoar-eh/
(excerpt:..)
(and john keys’ reactions to this news..?)
“..You’re joking!..”
(ed:..but wait..!..there’s more..!..)
I’m sure that John Key would have been quite happy having Shane jones as Labour leader as it would have turned Labour into a party almost as right-wing as National.
shaking head. he will keep shooting them in the foot
Corporate and political corruption is raising its ugly head more than ever before. Sad for New Zealand, the supposedly least corrupt country in the world. Perhaps the corruption in high places is better hidden here than in other countries!
I enjoy Shane Jones as a funny man, but in my opinion, he should resign from the Labour party or be sacked, irrespective of any adverse consequences for the party. It is better to take a stand and stop these kinds of evil stuff permeating the party or the country.
Let us not allow the left wing parties and principles be tainted. Leave the right wingers to wallow in such sewers.
Clem
It’s been there for years (corrupt practices and the moral hazards that encourage them). We have just been too naive and trusting to note it. Everything that has come to light has been regarded as an exception (that proves the rule). Then it was noticed that the rule was being flouted more than followed. The age of innocence has had to end. Older and wiser now?
metiria turei just made an efficient/credible appearance on tvone breakfast..
..the vid will be worth hunting down..(tvnz ondemand..)
If, as they say, explaining is losing, then both Collins and Key were losing big time on Morning Report today. Her denials and justifications are becoming more and more ludicrous by the day and Key was forced back to his default talking points, namely dancing on the head of a pin and trying to blame it all on Labour.
Robertson:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20140422-0637-labour_says_judith_collins_has_misled_parliament-048.mp3
Collins:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20140422-0714-collins_says_oravida_affair_has_turned_into_a_witch_hunt-048.mp3
Key:
“mumble, mumble, slur, incomprehensible…….
….”let’s take a step back….”
“…. at the end of the day…”
convoluted avoiding of questions
attack Labour
divert to other issues
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20140422-0718-pm_says_labour_is_playing_politics_over_collins-048.mp3
Listening to the TricKey one this morning, I could have sworn he’s been on the sauce, or is still shickkered from the night before. And this is not the first time he’s sounded like this, Hmmm Shades of Muldoon.
Dunno about being on the sauce, but he is making a mess of it. He could be highly stressed. To me, he sounds like he’s on the verge of a bad panic attack, the sort where your tongue swells up in your mouth and you think you’re going to suffocate. Once he’s been through the challenging bits and can get back to where he’s comfortable – which is attacking Labour – he becomes relaxed again. I’m doubting his mental and emotional competence at the moment. I always doubted his ethical, technical, and political competence, but Kiwis love a fast talker in an expensive suit.
“Mike Pero, Mortgages!”
One point is unclear to me. Collins had said that she just popped in for a cup of tea on her way to the airport. Now she says after the dinner, she just went to bed. So, my question is, what happened to the airport destination plan?
Two different events. See here. I would guess on different days.
Also worth knowing that it was 35 miles in the direction opposite to the airport, not “on the way”.
Key himself is deeply involved in this.
The opposition should go to the bottom of this, explore it all relentlessly and not let these dodgy corrupt ways go unexposed and unpunished.
The Opposition, Labour particularly, should keep Collins enquiry bubbling but say they have important changes planned for NZs betterment and are determined to do better than this shoddy government and just get a dig in while they are talking about their new direction and policies. It’s a mistake to concentrate on digging out all the dirt. To use modernspeak ‘This is not core business for Labour’.
So don’t get deflected Labour or you confirm my occasional irrational, frustrated description of politicians – being morons.
@ Karol 3.1,
LOL
I haven’t listened to the links, however your summary of Key’s comments sound so familiar to any comment he ever makes – I believe you have summed up the comments I haven’t heard of his, now and in the future, very well indeed!
Well done!
weka’s (so far) unanswered questions.
A few of the many that are avoided, partly by changing the topic, not answering and/or or asking Standardistas further questions.
Pete George, please come on the site prepared to answer these questions, not waffle on.
Otherwise go chat with your friend Slater.
I don’t have much free time today, but if you want to carry on from yesterday here’s something to consider.
If a Universal Basic Income was introduced (I’m interested in the concept) and was set at a level that ensured most people could live reasonably comfortably:
– How many people would choose it over paid employment?
– How much would the number of people not in paid employment increase?
– What would this cost the Government/taxpayers?
– How would this be funded?
“..I don’t have much free time today..”
yay..!!
..answer the questions..
🙄
UBI issues have been covered in detail elsewhere on The Standard.
Petty George brings nothing to the table.
<i<“partly by changing the topic, not answering and/or or asking Standardistas further questions.”
Sorry to hear you don’t have much time today. How about tomorrow or Thursday?
felix, indeed. So we will just keep asking him the questions he hasn’t answered… and I have more.
Ah, Petey… Thanks for providing a clear illustration of one of your strategies – don’t answer the question, but ask us to go researching for more questions. Do you ever do any real research yourself? Why are you so lacking in information and knowledge of these topics that you give your opinions on?
Since you are so very busy today, answering weka’s questions is the priority.
but if you do have some time this week …….
freedom:
PG: “What would this cost the Government/taxpayers?”
To answer this question you will need some base data to set the UBI expenditure at an adequate level. Base data like budgets.
And there’s this one from felix. – important question about underlying values.
felix didn’t fully quote (himself) in his response. This is what he said:
I responded “I think that’s idealistic and unrealistic”. That was in reference to the whole statement.
I think “creating a society where where young people have faith that their lives are meaningful and worth living” is a great ideal and worth working towards.
I think “where adults find enough stimulation and satisfaction in their activities that they don’t feel like wiping themselves out at the end of every week” is a fine aim but idealistic and I doubt we can ever get close to to that. For example being a parent wipes you out daily, it’s the nature of the job. It’s not uncommon for parents to want a drink or a smoke at the end of another busy day.
“The legality or otherwise of different substances then becomes a non-issue.” I took that as meaning that people wouldn’t use drugs any more. That’s naive and unrealistic. Many poor people don’t have the time or money to do drugs much if at all, and most have more sense than to waste their money and minds.
Drug use and abuse happens across the income spectrum. A wealthy person can be stressed about their money like a poor person stressed about their lack of money.
And no matter how ideal we can make our society I think there will always be a significant number of people who keep using drugs, so the legalities will remain issues. It’s idealistic to think that it could become a non-issue.
Can you show me where I ever said anything about having a drink or a smoke at the end of the day being a big deal Pete?
How about addressing what I actually asked you. I’ll paraphrase for your benefit as apparently you haven’t followed a fucking word so far:
If you don’t think we can create a society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough that they don’t try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend, then what is the point of any of your political efforts?
I mean that’s a really, really low bar for a decent society. I’m not talking utopian ideals Pete. I’m talking about large numbers of human beings not trying to self destruct on a regular basis, and regularly succeeding.
Because essentially you’re right Pete. If nothing ever changes much from what we do now, then we’ll pretty much always have the same or worse issues to deal with as we have now. If we’re lucky.
We can’ ‘create a society’, there’s too much history for that, but we should always be looking for ways to improving our society.
Most people don’t “try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend”. I think that most people who try drugs do so for some sort of enjoyment although there’s quite a bit of attempted stress relief too.
The people who develop drug problems, the drug abusers and the addicts, don’t just wait for the weekends.
How many people regularly try to self destruct? Large numbers? And how many succeed? Too many do, but large numbers?
And if “we can create a society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough” how much less of a drug problem will we have?
Dear Pete
“Alcohol is a drug”
Please repeat this phrase thrice daily,
then perhaps you won’t have such difficulties understanding an issue that others are openly discussing and you are openly obfuscating.
kind regards
still pretending, pretending, pretending
“Most people don’t “try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend”. I think that most people who try drugs do so for some sort of enjoyment although there’s quite a bit of attempted stress relief too.”
Hands up who thinks PG is qualified to have an opinion on why and how people take drugs?
I doubt anyone here is qualified to have an informed opinion on what qualifications I have.
But why not check with who should clearly be qualified, like the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
That’s along the lines of what I suggested but in more detail (limited time so I kept it very brief).
There’s other factors too, like peer pressure, bravado, curiosity, accidental addiction (prescriptions), spiking and so on. And it’s often a combination of factors.
So felix’s “society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough” has a lot to try and address and rectify.
weka I know you can’t see me but I am putting both my hands firmly on the floor.
Pete not only knows fuck all but he’s also just shat all over every A&E doctor, nurse, ambulance officer, police office and firefighter in the country.
god save us all from the days when pete george has time to post
I’m sure that some people say the same about me.
PG @ 3.40pm.
That’s a pretty generalised list with limited consideration of context and life circumstances. Though it does include this:
an attempt to cope with difficult problems or situations, which would include people struggling on low incomes, and/or with unbearable jobs.
There’s been quite a bit of sociological research on drug use and abuse. This looks at patterns in various contexts, over time and in different kinds of communities/circumstances.
This 2006 article gives an overview of some of the research
Some of the research finings and theories:
Some of the early research by Bingham Dai (1930s US),
Other considerations that impact on drug use and abuse are availability and supply.
Others have argued that high levels drug abuse in a community is the result of inequalities. There is more drig abuse in lower income groups than in higher income ones – part of the use of drugs to escape from dreadful conditions.
The biggest survey of drug was the US national survey 2004. It found the reasons differed for different demographic groups and between use of legal and illegal drugs:
Use of illicit drugs
Experimental; irregular use more commonly episodic;
Use of legal drugs
– way more common than use of illegal drugs – and more likely to keep doing it; people who use legal drugs a lot, are more likely to use illegal ones;
Psychoactive use
– is more common among young people; plus people more likely to use psychoactive drugs are male, unmarried but co-habiting and not planning to go to college, the unemployed,.
Drug us can also be a rebellion against conventions.
Pete is still pretending that when we talk about drugs we’re not including alcohol.
yep.
Get fucky or get lucky – I know I prefer the latter.
And don’t forget to hear the Awkward Russian police sing daft Punk Get Lucky.
Just put the keywords and go for the middle video. Good marching music.
for some reason gw, a link to Prosperity Theology ( the, long undiscovered Pastor’s Cave Prosperity Gospel) I put up has remained in moderation, twice. Suffice to say, I recently attended a church where in the willing congregation were persuasively asked for money four times, across two services, eftpos at the back of the hall, i o u ‘s accepted.
Why did you attend TWO services on the same day?
What Church was it?
What were the reasons/cause given for the FOUR money collections?
Were the congregation obliged/compelled to pay or was it voluntary?
being a polite guest
Apostolic / Acts / Equippers
Tithe, Love Offerings, Speakers fees
Voluntary with copious encouragement to do so.
I think after a short adjustment period, employment would go up, as a result of people actually having money to spend into the economy.
UBI is a redistribution from those at the very top to the rest at the bottom. Naturally the people at the bottom will spend the money in ways that the people at the top never would have. This spending will create more economic activity, which means (generally) more jobs.
Lanthanide +100
Slides through the mishmash like a knife through soft butter. Says it all really. Should be printed out in little strips of paper and dropped over NZ like confetti similar to the flour bombing in the 1981 protest.
loks like you havetime for everything except these
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21042014/#comment-801587
(excerpt from those unanswered-questions..addressed to pete george..)
“..That disqualifies you from having any opinion on beneficiaries until you answer the question: how many beneficiaries are not required to seek/gain employment?
Then you will have to answer how many people are now required to see work, despite previously being exempt.
Then come back and explain how those people are supposed to live. And why those people aren’t entitled to a livable income.
Then explain why you think that beneficiaries are all unemployed.
And then explain how unemployed beneficiaries are supposed to raise their income via employment when there aren’t enough jobs.
Then, when youve done all that, retract your statement that NACT don’t keep people poor…”
(can i suggest that when pg pops up with his daily-dissemble..
..that the only responses afforded him be requests for him to answer the above..first..?
..and as he is the editor (stuffs fist into mouth to stop uproarious guffaw of laughter)..of that politichek rightwing pressure-group..
..answering simple questions like that..
..should be a breeze for him..eh..?..)
great idea @ only response be to re ask these questions.
in the meantime companies implementing living wage arent collapsing… but how can that be. good article in stuff today. slylands head will explode.
chalmers organics..makers of tonzu tofu..
..went from just above minimum-wage to living wage..in one step..(about a 25% increase..)
..and i intend to promote them relentlessly..
..buy their stuff..!
..’when thinking of tofu..buy tonzu..!’..
If you did 5 minutes of checking instead of endless drinking you would know that the stuff story is a propaganda piece by a green party activist. Of course many companies pay workers $18 per hour. Gee some even pay 40. It is called a market. I have no sympathy for anyone on minimum wage. Up skill. The only thing that surprises about the mw is that it is so high.
Did you know that the woman interviewed was a green party activist? It should have been disclosed by the journalist.
On related topic. Just returned from Napier. As usual every up market cafe / bar/ spa was staffed by European travellers because there are no suitable nz workers. I drove past a huge orchard with a sign out front “workers desperately wanted”. So get down there.
Oh it is a miracle. In the last 10 minutes tbe journalist has added the disclosure that Chalmers i s a green party official.
so chalmers doesnt own that business and doesnt pay everyone above minimum wage by some margin. of course the part about how its aspirational and practical and will hurt not help isnt propaganda cos you agree with it.
whooooooooooosh
“On related topic. Just returned from Napier. As usual every up market cafe / bar/ spa was staffed by European travellers because there are no suitable nz workers. I drove past a huge orchard with a sign out front “workers desperately wanted”. So get down there.”
No “suitable” NZ workers who want to do the work while getting paid a pittance in bad conditions. European travellers, also known as backpackers, will do whatever job is going to get money to fund their continued travels – that’s hardly the same as holding a long-term job to pay for food, rent, electricity, petrol, car registration, doctors visits etc.
Similarly for orchard work – it’s hard back-breaking labour with minimal pay.
Your reply is an excellent example of the problem. You seriously think it is oj for healthy unemployed people to take a benefit instead of working in an orchard?!!
Actually, you ignorant twat, a lot of Hawkes Bay people go off benefit to work in the fruit industry during the season. As do folk in the BOP, Otago etc. They work for, surprise, surprise, the minimum wage., so with travel costs factored in, they are little better off financially. The answer to that conundrum is obvious. Lift the minimum wage.
The horticultural and food processing industries rely on dormitories of casual labour, usually brown, returning to income support in their off seasons.
Go jump in the lake srylands, employers are not willing to pay a person a decent days pay for a decent days work, so tough fucking luck.
I have no sympathy whatsoever.
More people should tell employers to jump, and go on a benefit. Bludgers is what these employers are, nothing less. Bludgers.
So your plan seems to be to ship unemployed people from other parts of New Zealand to Napier where they can work in the orchard, because the orchard “desperately wants” workers. For a couple of months.
What are all of these people that you’ve moved to Napier going to to do for the rest of the year?
See, it turns out, these are difficult problems that don’t have quick obvious solutions – because if they did, they already would have been applied.
Orchard work is only ever going to work for a small proportion of the community, simply because it is only available for a small proportion of the entire year.
I reckon if such a sign existed srylands would have stopped, photographed it and posted it here whilst quoting from Bush’s Mission Accomplished speech 😉
last time you ran this crap i posted a job offer which specifically excluded nz residents. of course you ignored that and ran away to a new thread with your old crap.
Sit down and tell us a story srylands. Now when you were very young you used to work on your father’s uncle’s farm/do seasonal work in an orchard picking/ work on the wharves/ work in the meatworks/ prune grapevines / pick and pack tobacco. Those were the days. People knew how to work then and be happy with their lot. blah blah. The great bum sitter with the enormous brain who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing – when it comes to people.
I saw a bit of a film called Snowpiercer with a cocoon of humans in an enclosed ecosystem being managed by a megalomaniac who knew how to manipulate people and who had no respect for them at all. Chilling. And it ended with the system being destroyed and two survivors stepping out into a frozen world, being viewed curiously by a polar bear. Back to nature. People like srylands would lead us to that very tipping point without questioning their own preconceptions.
+1
+1
“Similarly for orchard work – it’s hard back-breaking labour with minimal pay”
Not necessarilyt. I’ve done a lot of orchard work since I was about ten and it wasn’t hard or backbreaking. Sure it was a bit physical but easy enough for anyone with average fitness levels.
My three children (two female, one male) all did seasons of orchard work and were very good workers. They financed education and bought cars with what they earned. I know a lot of other people who have managed orchard work and have benefited from it.
So it’s a job for children and teenagers.
Thanks for making my point.
I didn’t say that and it doesn’t prove your point of it being back breaking.
It’s easy enough for teenagers but there are many adults doing it as well, probably mostly adults.
My point was more that it doesn’t pay enough to live on.
Children and teenagers typically don’t need much money to live on.
I’ve known a lot of people who have lived on it. Wages aren’t high (relatively) but are above minimum for good workers, especially as they become experienced, improve productivity and take on responsibilities.
And there’s usually quite a bit of free food involved.
can you answer these questions now that you more time than you originally thought
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21042014/#comment-801587
never has the phrase “comparing apples and oranges” been so apt 🙂
Some orchard work is by the hour
Some is by the bin
Some is casual hours only
Some is done for kin
Some depends on weather
Some is months at a time
Some means moving here and there
Some is just a lie
this nursery rhyme was brought to you by Pete George’s Handy Hints for Happy Homes
(Q: What decade was all this orchard work? I am guessing pre millennium, I am guessing the 1980’s actually)
p.s. Pete, maybe you forgot you have a list of questions from weka to answer, you have also said you were short on time today, so why are you even commenting on other posts? Please go answer weka’s questions
+1 freedom. Not all orchard work is the same (depends on the kind of fruit being grown and how), and as far as I can tell, the people that do well are those that get the more responsible, better paid, more stable hours jobs. That’s not everyone. The people I know that do it alot and are ok either have jobs higher up the chain, or they’ve managed to set their lives up so they have low living costs (usually no rent) and they have other ways of making a living when there is not orchard work. It’s generally not a job if you have a mortgage or kids.
“I am guessing the 1980′s actually”
I get a very strong sense that Pete hasn’t experienced much at all for 20 years or so. He seems utterly unaware of the everyday realities of life in NZ for most people.
He doesn’t think there’s much of a problem with unemployment or underemployment.
He doesn’t think there’s much of a problem with poverty.
He doesn’t even acknowledge a cultural binge-drinking issue ffs. Doesn’t affect most of us, he reckons.
Worst part is, he doesn’t think there’s much point doing anything about it either.
You’re making things up felix. From you that seems more likely to be deliberate lies rather than ignorance. Your ‘argument’ has turned to attempted discrediting with blatant bull. That’s telling.
All your claims (at 6.03 am) about what I think are incorrect nonsense.
You have questions to answer Pete: http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-23042014/#comment-802409
You didn’t deliberately lie to try and bait me did you felix? Once again it didn’t work
I thought you were busy today and that’s why you couldn’t answer weka’ questions.
…perhaps he was too busy asking other questions and for links – in other words busy in the sense of avoiding answering Weka’s (and other’s) questions…
Every time he comes on this site, we must ask him to deal with weka’s questions.
And if he won’t, we should boycott him.
Same policy for all the other RWNJs who come here to divert, distract and denigrate.
Their input ruins this site at times.
+1 Good idea
he is tired. he visited every up market bar cafe spa in napier. before easter he cared e about the poor now he has no sympathy for minimum wage workers who must somehow work enough hours to survive and pay to upskill.
he also knows who all green party activists are which is strange for a mere tax something or other from kapiti coast.
Responding to all those discussing the problems of being employed for seasonal work in orchards, vineyards etc, I suggest you look at the latest list (2014) of employers who are part of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Policy and the spread of employers across the country from Katikati to Otago.
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/employers/employ/LinkAdministration/ToolboxLinks/rse.htm
While I think the policy is excellent for the Pacific Island communities, because it provides regular work, skills training and money for their communities, I think it is wrong that New Zealanders don’t make themselves available for this type of work. Effectively those of you who are saying that it is better to be unemployed that earning the minimum wage to do physical work in the orchards and vineyards are saying you are better than the Pacific Island people who are very happy to do this work. That attitude doesn’t seem respectful to the Pacific Islanders.
Also, as taxpayers, we are all contributing to funding both the RSE scheme and the unemployment benefit because New Zealanders wont do this type of work. That doesnt seem fair to me either.
sigh
I talked to a woman in west Auckland who was looking for such work – in desperation. But, she is a single parent, and there weren’t any such jobs going near her home, and that would also enable her to carry out her child care responsibilities.
dont give christine real life contradictions.
That’s a new RWNJ definition of racist, Christine – someone who thinks the minimum wage is too low. Wow.
“I have no sympathy for anyone on minimum wage.”
Everyone knows you are a piece of shit, there’s no need to keep providing evidence on a daily basis.
So why do you continually promote policies that hurt the poor? Plus you are rude.
“So why do you continually promote policies that hurt the poor?”
I’ve never voted National/Act, doubt I ever will.
Isn’t it time you mentioned you don’t know how to feel sympathy for anyone, or what sympathy actually is, or that kids with cancer somehow deserve it?
lol
What is rude is employers who do not pay enough for a person to live on, that is what is rude.
It costs less to pay the minimum wage than to keep a slave.
You live in la la land
for e.g. those foresty workers who work 10 hours a day in shite conditions on $16 an hour! i earn more than that at my comfy desk sitting on my bum with heating & a roof & heaps of coffee. thats plainly not fair, not fair at all.
& orchard work is indeed back breaking work!, i’ve done kiwi fruit, grape vine work & asparagus picking (in my teens, & travelling in my 20s), asparagus was a lot harder because you had to bend down for 6-7 hours a day, only young ppl can do that kind of work. so if you think orchard work is not back breaking then i actually doubt you have done any orchard work at all (unless you are the inevitable slow mo simpleton who just goes gets to do all the gopher type work around the property coz you can’t be trusted to do anything else).
they need to upskill and become a tax something or other from kapiti coast/wellington/australia, cos we need those.
No one wants sympathy from the likes of you, SSLands. I see the person using the login today is not the polite one. My guess is that there are three of you. All your posts are propaganda pieces by an ACT party activist. You should disclose that.
I agree Murray.
Sir Ian McKellen has a deeper understanding of New Zealand than most visiting stars. He talks about playing Gandalf again – and about Helen Clark’s startling confession.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/3751531/Acting-giant-reflects-on-NZ-society
So what did Helen Clark mean? More racist on average than other societies?
What (if anything) did she do about it? Multiculturalism?
I know there’s pay dirt here (people who have studied the right stuff!).
so clark obviously wouldn’t have thought of/spoken of maori as ‘haters and wreckers’..eh..?
..and how about that foreshore and seabed brouhaha..?..eh..?
.and those nine long years of grinding the poors’ noses in their miseries..
..with of course..a very high number of those families living in grinding poverty..are/were maori..
..yeah..she really ‘did a lot’…
..a ‘lot’ of neglect/institutional-racism..
I prefer Queen Victoria owns the foreshore and seabed and (better still) all the land leased from Queen Victoria so Queen Victoria can use the money for her armies, hospitals roads etc (for the benefit of her brown boys and girls and white and banana boys and girls). Queen Victoria rarely rides her steed down the beach (whereas Maori frequently show up). But that’s beside the point.
Evolutionary psychology makes good argument that humans are (by nature) racist in so far as they have an initial preference for people like themselves. Talking up your own group is healthy. Listen to any after game conversation when the local school creamed the visitors.
just so stories.
people not people
In his review article Discovery and Confirmation in Evolutionary Psychology (in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Psychology) Edouard Machery concludes:
“Evolutionary psychology remains a very controversial approach in psychology, maybe because skeptics sometimes have little first-hand knowledge of this field, maybe because the research done by evolutionary psychologists is of uneven quality. However, there is little reason to endorse a principled skepticism toward evolutionary psychology: Although clearly fallible, the discovery heuristics and the strategies of confirmation used by evolutionary psychologists are on a firm grounding.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_evolutionary_psychology
Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3029708/
Tooby or not To Be. ;). Its been a while since I read this. I certainly agree that Mind is adapted and selected for. Handy tool, the computer.
A Zoologist For A Financial Shitstorm And A Wall Street Banker As Our Prime Minister. No Wonder We’re Tanking. My take on the housing bubble denial saga
Mr Joyce / Mr Bubble-and-squeak potato-head.
😆
From the Herald’s online version: ”Prison alone wont deter crims” says break-in victim,
”Gavin” who has been done over 5 times in the past 3 years by burglars gets my vote for Kiwi of the week, for this:
”I’m not sure prison is the ultimate answer, but it could be part of it, they definitely need some sort of decent education, some rehabilitation”,
He thought the bigger issue politicians should be addressing was, ”the separation of wealth between rich and poor, which he believed was one of the key drivers of burglary”
Wise words from a five time victim of burglars which will probably be ignored by the politicians he addresses as they continue the revolving door imprisonment policy, using the blokes taxes to build more of them and in effect re-victimizing Him all over again…
my take is if prisons worked, why is there still crime? & also this thing that some laws are acceptable to break, like opening hours in wanaka over easter. did you also read that thing where the police have had to pay out over $500,000 this year to ppl because of police fuck ups.
some good news..
..kathryn ryan is on leave from nine to noon..
..and lyn freeman has taken her place..
..and what i really like about freeman..is that interviewing with/for her is not a gladitorial-struggle..
..she actually lets people answer the questions she has asked…
..and freeman is about the most skilled around at letting her interview-subjects breath..
..and to let them get to say their piece..
..and so they get to stand or fall on their own merits..
..and thus providing the best experience for the listener..
..whereas ryan is often unlistenable to..
..she has this propensity to sit there..hovering..looking for something to challenge/nitpick on..
..and she just rides over the interview-subject..
..so as the listener you are left with a clutch of half/unanswered questions…
..and yes..if an interview-subject is talking absolute utter shite..pull them up/challenge..
..the skill is clearly knowing when to and when not to do this..
+1
I like Kathryn Ryan…she is fantastic!…i miss her every time she takes a holiday from radio
Lynn Freeman is good …but not as good as Kathryn Ryan!.
….but then again Lyn Freeman is a Vegan is she not?…or at least a Vegetarian…. a wee bit of bias there Philip Ure?
just my personal ‘bias’ for interviews where you come away with the sum total of yr human-knowledge increased..
..with stuff to think about/maybe temper/nuance yr own views
..otherwise…why bother..?..
..everything else is just shades of jerry springer/that english twerp..jeremy someone..
+2
Both None to Noon and Afternoons are much better when a locum is in place – but in particular, Lyn Freeman is great. Nine to Noon probably should have gone to her in the first place
personally I find Lyn Freeman too nicey nice and watered down to be a really great interviewer ( probably becase she doesnt eat meat..let alone go for the jugular or gnaw the bones) …..and I fear she lacks the intellectual range of Ryan…..she doesn’t ask the hard questions…she is better for the arts….i am sure she is a lovely person however
I reckon she’s a closet carnivore (Freeman I mean). I just find the work-life-balanced, regular gal with issssyooos, and her in depth (once was) knowledge of ‘the beltway’ (Ryan) a bit bloody nauseating at times. Plus she’s a total 3rd-wayer with a (no doubt, very balanced) portfolio. But …. different strokes for different folks I guess.
I’m only glad she seems to have negotiated a substantial leave entitlement.
RNZ though – still far better than anything else going
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11241874
You can tell that these were designed by a non-Maori, they are real Pakeha colours.
Not the colours this Pakeha would choose – pretty naff. Interesting how they match the shirts of the 2 guys in the photo.
Wow i didnt notice this thanks for the update
‘bargain-basement prices, a fire-sale, or, a steal’.
Shouldn’t be selling state assets.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11241501
Now this is what will reverse the polls 🙂
do you only get paid to work office hours..?
..this was covered over the easter break..
..but..fill yer boots..!
do you only get paid to work office hours..?
Well I’m not on a benefit so if I don’t work I don’t get paid
this might tickle your fancy, Pre-employment drug testing : 1/100 ‘positives’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11241897
a “deterrent” or, a “smokescreen” of ‘anecdotal’ (read prejudicial) claims from Paula.
More BS from Ms Bennett.
too many of them fucking up their heads on legal-high crap..
..it’s an upside down world..alice…
..and steel yrslves for the legal-high versions of heroin/opiates…eh..?
..coming soon..
..that’ll get them queuing..
..and we come back to that irrefutable fact:..
..that cannabis is the safest of all intoxicants..(not to mention the multiple curing-properties researchers/people are finding..)
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/meet-teen-who-beat-terminal-brain-cancer-cannabis
As a politically-independent anti-corruption campaigner, who is not aligned to ANY political party I fully support this Green Party initiative, and look forward to ALL parties who genuinely support ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’ doing the same.
Greens push for disclosure policy to reveal MP’s ‘private interests’ (3:45)
http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/greens-push-disclosure-policy-reveal-mp-s-private-interests-video-5937690
What’s the problem with this long-overdue increase in transparency NZ Prime Minister?
“Nothing to hide – nothing to fear?”
http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/green-s-disclosure-regime-ridiculous-pm-video-5937797
Green’s disclosure regime ‘ridiculous’ – PM (5:15)
Just as NZ Prime Minister John Key exhibited wilful blindness in his continued support for dodgy John Banks, his defence of the indefensible Minister for Corruption (sorry – ‘Justice’) Judith Collins will not endear him to the voting public – in my considered opinion.
There is a LOT more to come on this story ……
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ANTI-CORRUPTION-WHITE-COLLAR-CRIME-CORPORATE-WELFARE-ACTION-PLAN-Ak-Mayoral-campaign-19-July-2013-2.pdf
+100…Go Girl!
You are wrong in saying they are asking for more transparency from all MP’s, they are only proposing more transparency from ministers.
Not saying that there’s anything wrong with that, but i would respect it a lot more if it came from them when they were actually in power because this reeks of an empty pre-election talking point with little actual relevance.
How about dodgy Penny not very Bright bludging from the Auckland rate payers.
Russia slashes North Korean debt by 90%
http://time.com/69790/russia-agrees-deal-to-slash-north-korean-debt-by-90/?
Isis and Iraq
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/foreign-suicide-bombers-kill-thousands-and-bring-iraq-to-the-brink-of-civil-war-9272391.html
Airline safety.
Is it a fact that in its bid to improve its bottom line, Air New Zealand decided to move some of its aircraft maintenance offshore?
Major engine overhauls have been done in china awhile now, a local engineer would accompany and oversee some years back not sure about today.
AirNZ is a budget airline in everything except its airfares.
Yes. The news of it came out some years ago. IIRC, there was something about it a few months back as well but can’t find anything.
Just a thought.When do we get to see Winston interviewed by Gower? or have I missed it?
Yes, last month:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Winston-Peters-Asset-buy-back-a-priority/tabid/1348/articleID/336025/Default.aspx
ER
Yea Thanks .I missed it. Winston not quite as eloquent as before but still able to mock the Gowers of this world (Paddy.. let me answer from my experience, rather than your inexperience -love it). And his response to entrapment ‘questions’ like…. ” What you’re saying is…..”.when that’s not what they’re saying at all.
I don’t vote for Winston but he’s good and I hope he’s part of the Labour coalition.
Cheers.
Winston is clear in terms of protecting the retirement age @ 3’50” – 4’23”
Question: “.. if Labour tries to change the retirement age, you’d go to the cross benches again”
Winston: “… I think they can be persuaded if that was the issue , I think they can be persuaded that that fatally cost them the election ..”
…
Winston: “… what’s a priority in the context that there is no fiscal reason when it is near 4.3 per cent of GDP to be panicking as Jenny Shipley and Financial Services Council are trying to get (?you) to do so, they can get to control the industry and take out (?biddings) and favours …”
[feel free to improve on the above transcript]
And at the Herald. Joyce changing university boards to be dominated by businessmen. Universities as free trainers for corporates funded by the kids borrowing.
So now we are going to have our young people borrowing money to fund their studies to save companies having to invest in training them.
How about a market solution from the corporates, they can provide paid internships to give work experience and fund the study costs of graduates in the disciplines they are short of and they need to be doing this before they can scream skill shortages.
Joyce telling universities what to teach
I find myself in vague agreement with the Herald
thanks, Herald just disappeared on me. Great summary, right there.
Listening to Williams and Holton this morning and the subject of Cunliffe not fronting up to Campbell live was brought up. Well on seeing the little bit that I could stomach of the key family at home(snigger) item I wouldn’t of turned up either. It is documented knowledge, stated by key himself that he hardly ever goes to that derelict looking place he call a bach. So why would he choose to use it as the destination for the interview. Campbell made a right toady of himself with the gushy bit about Obama la la la la.etc. That’s when I turned off, so possibly it got better. ?? or not. So key is being his usual devious self but Cunliffe would be expected to have his interview or whatever you might call it at his actual home because people might think he is trying to hide his wealth and he’ll get caned by the media again. I don’t see the problem with Cunliffe delaying his ‘at home’. He had genuine reasons which have been reported, Campbell made to much of it, and he looks like he was played by key. Don,t think much of him at the moment.
+100 ffloyd….Cunliffe should take control of his media appearances not the other way around( if he doesn’t want to be interviewed in his home for family privacy reasons then good on him!)
….lets hope Campbell gets back into the real hard question journalism of which he is capable
….not the frothy ‘Women’s Weekly’ and ‘House and Garden ‘ variety
…this is what is wrong with the msm at the moment ….concentration on trivia rather than the Hard questions
…hard questions involving
affordable housing for young New Zealanders
education
corruption
the issues Xtasy brings up ie support for those most in need …(in fact I suggest John Campbell does an in interview with Xtasy…this is the real side of NZ….not John Key’s mansions…sick making)
he is doing ok on the legal-highs question..
..and he seems to be coming around to a gupta-moment..
..and he may well start arguing soon for decriminalisation/regulation/taxation of cannabis..
..’cos of course..you do know that legal cannabis would see the legal-high problem disappear in a puff of bong-smoke..eh..?
..how much further will we let dunne lead us down this dead-end alley..
..where we have police/health-professionals..all screaming to do something..!
..the ‘something’ is the decriminalisation/regulation/taxation of cannabis..
..anything else is just pg-fretting/auto-eroticism..
..and this will just get worse and worse..
..how bad will it have to get..?
..(and dunnes’ most recent answer on the cannabis question..was to say..
“..two wrongs don’t make a right’..
..could he be more of a simplistic-fool..?
..plus he is deeply fucken corrupt..
..he has been bought/owned by the tobacco/booze-pushers since forever..
..and guess what..?..guess which drug-pushers don’t want pot legalised..?
..yep..!..the booze industry..
..the man is a pox on the land..
..that his son earns from/works for this new bunch of poisonous/legal-muck pushers..
..is kinda beyond irony..
Listened to a bit of Williams/Hooton until I got tired of Hooton’s Foxdistortion-monologues. Admit to being disappointed in Williams, a man that I once admired. No fire left?
re williams..he sold out..a long time ago..
..he is now a full-time neo-lib apologists..
..and one of my favourite williams’ recent quotes..
..was his sneering at the activists returning to labour…as all the mad people having come back to labour..
..(these he is sneering at are those who left labour because of labour losing its’ way up that neo-lib dead-end road..that tells you’ll you need to know about williams..
..he is a rightwing trout..)
i agree, that home piece was appalling but nearly all the media pundits all gave it glowing reviews! dunne & peters both garnered a little respect from me by them declining. keys one was all about him being ‘normal’ & how awesome he is at talking to children! & playing with some little girls pony tail which was a bit creepy imo. if campbell didnt know he was being used by a master manipulator (key) then hes a tool.
Shonkey is a highly staged media event full stop. He knows it’s his medium to play like that guitar he refers to but that was a private conversation apparently.
Absolutely no unscripted questions allowed and the best spin available from your mates like Hooton, O’Shillivan etc when you go off the ranch and put your foot in it by doing crazy stuff like inviting the opposition to a debate.
Bet the backers and minders told John Phillip to STFU and stick to the smile and wave, leave the messaging to us. The only debate he’ll do is one where sympathisers like Hoskins can protect him from himself.
Campbell is lightweight with the occasional burst of enthusiasm but it’s sugar rush jonolism, once the high’s gone they go looking for another.
RNZ Midday Report. CTU to take legal action over deaths of two of the 32 forestry staff killed since 2008.
The television news showed Worksafe climbing all over crews, with RNZ reporting 25 crews instructed to stop immediately; entrenched “non-compliance concerns”.
meanwhile Jones states he “wouldn’t call Gardiner a friend…”. hmm, must just be an uninterested admirer of his posture then…
A worker at the coal-face of addictions claims the impact and extent of synthentic cannabis abuse is greater than that of metamphetamine; children as young as nine…deep sigh…
The Queensland Fruit-fly makes fruit and vegetables inedible! Cabbage Fight! (ducks).
“Our lives end the day we become silent about things that matter”. Martin Luther King.
for greywarbler – I visited a church recently rolling in a non-canonical gospel for ‘spiritual’ success. Across two services on the same Sunday, much the same congregation were persuasively asked four times for money- eftpos at the rear of the hall, IOU’s accepted. 😎
Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11241616
The plug may yet be pulled.
This from the article is interesting: ”The complex plan change, setting tougher nutrient leaching limits in the catchment and requiring farmers to implement individual enviromental management plans, raised fears at the Council that farming in the area would become uneconomic”,
Whoever is raising such fears deserves the dunce award, scientific soil mapping, paddock by paddock in places where soils are apt to change types frequently has been shown to boost production,
Along with such boosted production comes less use of both water and nutrients as soil mapping also identifies the optimum time for the use of water and nutrients on the proposed crops, SO, with intensive soil mapping we can tell exactly what can be grown where while producing NO off farm leaching of water or nutrients and NO leaching of the same into the water table,
Instead of just dumping water and nutrient on paddocks and crops because that is the way its always been done soil mapping will be the next revolution in farm management and i am pleased to see this irrigation scheme has attached to it individual management plans that will likely mean the farmers have to soil map all their farms,
Now all we need is the body with the resources and the will to rigidly Police such management plans and i don’t think that this can be simply left in the hands of Regional Councils…
Bernard Hickey Shows Himself The Ignoramus I Always Thought He Was And Here Is Why:
In an article today Bernard Hickey actually made an attempt to counter Jesse Colombo’s 12 point list as to why we were not heading for an economic bubble bust of epic proportions and in doing so showed once again how NZ economists really haven’t got a clue about what is going on globally and I will show this by taking his talking points and show them for the misleading uniformed trash they are.
NZ has a floating exchange rate and flexible interest rates
There are plenty of candidates to generate a shock to New Zealand’s economy that could cause our house prices to start falling. The IMF warned in March that a sharp slowdown in China could do the trick.
In this point he is arguing that the IMF predicted the same possible down turn but they mitigated the prediction by stating:
Hickey says: However, the IMF rightly points out in the very next sentence that New Zealand has some automatic stabilisers (SIC) to deal with just such a shock.
The authorities have monetary and fiscal policy space to respond to shocks. The RBNZ has scope to adapt monetary conditions to help buffer against a downside scenario, and the free-floating New Zealand dollar provides an additional cushion against terms of trade and other external shocks. New Zealand’s modest public debt gives the authorities scope to delay their planned deficit reduction path in the event of a sharp deterioration in the economic outlook.
My response: First of all Hickey is not denying the possibility of a down turn and that is wise. What he argues is that in order to delay a planned deficit reduction path (read austerity for the 99% but more for the 1% like in Greece, Ukraine, to name a few) there is space to borrow more.
This is not a sensible response to the risk of a global cascading financial down turn. This is just more of the global bankster kicking the can down to road fraud. And while it may postpone the inevitable collapse of an unsustainable collapse of the fiat currency system which at the moment has to print money by the trillion to keep going.
What is equally misguiding is his notion that we can cut the interest rates which unlike the rest of the Western world are being raised making it more difficult for people to pay their mortgages.
So far it hasn’t materialized in higher interest on bank savings for example.
The real reason why interest rates in the US, UK and other Western countries are next to zero is that they are so for the rich. Those of us who have to buy a kitchen appliance on a credit card or GE pay 20% – 30%. The interest is not a tool which is used for the betterment of New Zealanders but to make a whole sale wealth transfer of the 99% to the 1% possible by preventing deflation and encouraging inflation. The only people suffering under this are those on fixed incomes. The rich, the bankers and others close to the reserve banks lending spigot sea their incomes rise with the money creation level. A very comfortable lace to be to be sure but the rest of us will find it harder and harder to make ends meet and that includes the mortgages that keep the bubble going.
Our Government has room to borrow to cushion the blow
Jesse diplayed (SIC) an alarming chart showing a tripling in the Government’s overseas debt in nominal terms between 1993 and 2012. Unfortunately, that didn’t show the net and real value of that debt in relation to our economy, which is the most important thing.
New Zealand’s net government debt has risen from less than 10% of GDP to under 30%. US Government debt is over 100% of GDP, Britain’s public debt is over 70% and Ireland’s debt to GDP ratio is over 120% of GDP.
As the current government proved from 2008 to 2012 when it kept…
Read more
Bye bye, Tariana.
It was nice getting to know you …
At first, this seems just a very dull article about golf, a sport I don’t much appreciate. But scratch the surface, ignore the headline and you’ll find hidden within details that show that NZ’s middle classes are now being impacted by the depression and austerity policies of the government.
One quote in particular show the new unequal New Zealand. A NZ where wealthy foreigners buy up our land, the rich 1% of NZers travel round the world to play their favourite golf courses and the rest of NZ go backwards.
Mr Stuart said many British clubs were closing and the same changes were affecting the sport in this country.
“The dynamics are interesting because at the top end, there’s no problem, with people who want to go around the world and play golf. It’s in the middle that we’re all fighting for members,” he said.
2 other interesting points…the Nat M.P. involved and the US and Chinese money taking over our country.
If only the NZ Herald knew how to frame a story and write a headline.
They have missed the real story here.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11241885
Labour MP Shane Jones to step down
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11242350
Jones quits…..good riddance, fair weather friends are not what Labour needs. My initial reaction to the excuse that he could never become leader due to the new way of electing a leader was soft cock. Did he ever realise he would have to earn it? Now off to work for National, theres loyalty, not!
“He has been in talks with Foreign Minister Murray McCully for some time about a possible role in an international fisheries management role and expected that to go through.”
Ennui +1000
Well, well,well. Shane Jones has gone!!!! Kelvin Davies? stepping in. Immediate. Got to be a good thing. Maybe settle things a little bit.
TV3 saying tonight Jones is to resign from the Parliament, now that’s what i call a good idea…
Lolz a game of snap going on here…
Just seen a photo of key in my fish and chip wrapping newspaper and his hair looks ginger. Does he dye his hair or wear a rug?? Just wondering.
lol..he is getting balder….so maybe he is wearing a ginger cat skin?
I was just wondering, how come Pete George’s ban was lifted?
[lprent: He got banned in August 2012 for (yet again) trying to tell us how we should run our site – something that we give fair warning about being dangerous to do in the policy.
We lifted all outstanding bans in a well publicised amnesty in March 2013. This gets done periodically because most humans do have this facility to be able to learn from experience, so we give them a chance to rejoin the noisy and robust arguments going on here.
His absence after that was purely voluntary.
He has been mostly been following the policy guidelines he started commenting again a month or so ago. Despite all of the moaning about his comments, he hasn’t really overstepped the bounds since. ]
There was an amnesty for all bans a while back.
Ummm. Must look at a amnesty again. It really has to be soon so we can eliminate the ones who are too dumb to read the policy before full-blown election season arrives. Or after the election.
There are a few still serving out long bans and about ten or twelve previous regulars who picked up permanent bans since March last year. Most bans of the latter were banned for trying diversion trolling at the top comments in posts. Haven’t really had to do any of those that I can remember since early this year.
That is a very dangerous sport that as who knows when we have time to bump their preferred posts to OpenMike. If we’re short of time, then we stop warning and start banning to reduce the workload. We find this kind of semi-random sentencing risk helps to ensure people are very cautious about their exposures to the edges of the policy.
Then there are a pile of simple trolls who got booted off the site after a couple of comments for being stupid trolls (we rather like playing with the smarter ones). We’d have to cull the ones who haven’t picked up the capabilities to survive here out again. Saw quite a few “first-timers” come through today who didn’t manage to write anything intelligent for any viewpoint in several comments and didn’t make it past first moderation.
He’s like a weed choking the oxygen out of a waterway.