so I was doing a bit of thinking about how the Government could better protect NZ Superannuation from the rising costs without changes to the age of eligibility nor sacrificing universal entitlement.
The Government could bring in a ‘pension levy’ on high-income earners. It could be a marginal rate of 2% on incomes between $75,000 and $150,000 and 4% on incomes above $150,000. This would raise about $650million per year.
That $650m could go directly into the NZ Super (Cullen) fund.
Based on continuing contributions, wage inflation, and the Cullen fund rate of return, by 2030 the Cullen fund would have an extra $30 billion to pay for superannuation, a number that’d continue increasing as the levy continues to be paid. The Government is planning to begin withdrawing from the fund around this time.
This is almost like a reverse-means test: it asks the top 10%, and especially top 1% of income earners to make a special contribution to the cost of NZ super whilst protecting universal entitlement to NZ super at age 65.
This is probably the most progressive way of protecting this entitlement, as 90% of people would see no change in their working-age living standard nor their old-age living standard.
Start hitting owned wealth, corporate super profits and financial capital
Thanks
PS by seriously discussing means testing of Super, the NZ Labour Party has shown that it is not fit for purpose, and that it does not understand “the future of work” in the fucking slightest.
IMO Labour probably lost the 2017 election there and then. One of the reasons why Labour is losing election is because they cannot be trusted on super. Little can back track all he likes, the damage is already done.
This is a Labour Party that we will have to work hard to keep in line.
They knew that raising the Super age was an election loser. Took them two elections to figure that one out. Then they progressed to discussing putting a means test on Super instead? Utterly moronic. At this moment I’m calling advantage NATs to win a fourth term.
A blip? Thats not a blip – it just show that stuff is being made up on the spot, and that he dosnt have either the support for his ideas, or he dosnt know what he was talking about.
CR+100….totally agree …re:.”PS by seriously discussing means testing of Super, the NZ Labour Party has shown that it is not fit for purpose, and that it does not understand “the future of work” in the fucking slightest”
It is almost as if this Labour Party does not want to win an Election!…austerity on its own constituency!
….there are many super age people who still work but earn a pittance…..for the New Zealand Labour Party to deny those still working their super is pitiful!
..it is a PR gift to jonley Nact!…at very least the Labour Party should be matching Nactional on this issue …they just dont learn do they?
….the NZLP shows a lack of understanding of its own constituency …( imo the corporate Labour Party MPs of Labour Party Inc should have their salaries halved for this mistake)
Robinson said “that little was asked a question about fairness around super and little said its because we need to have a conversation about it”
Or words to that effect.
Littles right of course but you mess with peoples money at you’re peril.
I have to disagree. Those of us who pay our taxes (and I have paid mine for many years), have had an understanding with the government, that a portion of the taxes we have paid will fund our pension when that time comes. We have paid our money up front, on the promise of a pension later in life.
I can only speak for myself, but I have paid my dues. I began work as a young teen, still at school, in the mid sixties. I worked right through high school – book shop, paper run, department store. I’ve never been on the dole, on the DPB, on the sickness benefit, never been sick in hospital, never had a student loan, never needed to be subsidized in any way. I’ve been an employee, and an employer, creating jobs for others. I raised my kids to be good, contributing citizens who now pay their taxes. I’ve earned my pension. I’ve kept my part of my bargain with the government and more besides. I expect my government to honour it’s part of the bargain it has with me.
that a portion of the taxes we have paid will fund our pension when that time comes.
There’s never been anything in NZSuper about paying up front. It’s always been paid from current taxes and that makes it the countries money and not yours.
I’ve been an employee, and an employer, creating jobs for others.
You’ve never created a job for others in your life – the community did and you just capitalised on that.
I agree with most of what you say Scotty. I, too, am now on the pension and I’ve earned it – every penny of it. But something that perhaps is not fully understood by Labour is that… while our parents could live comfortably on the pension many people no longer can do so because of exorbitant rates, insurance and power bills – to name just the most obvious. We are forced to supplement our income by taking on part-time work just to be able to make ends meet.
I suspect Andrew Little didn’t have us in mind when he made his comment, but rather those who have been able – or lucky enough – to acquire a fortune over the years and don’t need a pension. If that was the case then he should have been more explicit. I hope he has learned a lesson not to expect the MSM to fairly or accurately report him.
…..didn’t someone just ask him if it was on the agenda, and he tried to remain open and calm, saying it was a good question??? or did I actually miss something important, not just a media stitch up. (Nat plan working well, and Labour go into “eating their young” when under stress mode)
If we don’t have a Labour Party willing to defend the inviolability of key foundations of our democratic social welfare state, then what good are they.
+ zillion. Labour’s big issue is regaining trust, this isn’t the way to do it.
On the other hand, let them settle into being a centrist party (better them than UF or the Peters party), and the Greens will take the left and leave room for a new party to take the radical left. We don’t have time to wait for Labour to sort its shit out.
Labour’s big issue is factions/division, against a National machine as organised as Hitler’s Panza divisions.
It’s all very well telling the leaders what people in Labour want, but if we don’t get into power by finding about what the “vast majority of Nuzilland” want, we will continue to watch National stripping the country of any values, cohesion, connection etc.
I’m a GP voter, the core values have to stand, otherwise it’s just about the power. The idea that getting power is the most important thing is why we no longer have a left at the party political level.
I agree about the factions, and that’s something that’s only going to be solved internally within Labour if enough people want it. Having core values and sticking to them would help.
We don’t need to know what that vast majority want in order foe the left for form govt, we just need 50% of voters. That’s not enough to to run a country though, for that you have to know what you believe in and gain the trust of voters to support you.
It’s all very well telling the leaders what people in Labour want, but if we don’t get into power by finding about what the “vast majority of Nuzilland” want
Labour prides itself on being a “broad church”, inclusive and there for the 99%. How can it be that they don’t understand what NZers in general want?
Unless of course, they are socially, culturally and economically disconnected from the people they say they serve.
“disconnected from the people they say they serve.”
The relationship is not that simple, it goes both ways.
Labour caucus has to organise/galvanise people with less power into a big enough group to gain power over those with financial/economic power.
Not an easy task, and made harder if they are expected to be looking behind them all the time. at the fighting factions.
My personal opinion is that investment income and earned income should be taxed completely equally and that there should be no distinction. So I’d apply the levy to both in my ideal world. So I definitely agree with you there.
I think a levy on high incomes (both earned and unearned) that goes directly into the Super Fund makes sense because it is essentially the rich paying extra for the Super that they’ll be claiming as part of the universal entitlement to Super at 65.
Universal entitlements are powerful expression of socialist thought. What are you going to do next? Put a surcharge on rich people who go to GPs and use A&E?
Shall we start asset testing the dole and the DPB?
You may be able to get Sole Parent Support if you’re a single parent or caregiver with one or more dependent children aged under 14 years.
You must also be:
aged 19 or older
not in a relationship without adequate financial support
a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident who has been here for at least two years at any one time since becoming a citizen or permanent resident, and who normally lives here.
Weka, I can assure you on every single application and review form for every type of benefit and supplement they ask about your cash and non-cash assets. There’s a limit to how much you can have before they won’t let you have certain benefits/grants. Can’t remember what it is now because I’ve never had anywhere near the amount so moot point.
Yep, and earlier I was taking means test to mean asset test only when I think Little was talking about income testing (as in means test = income and/or assets).
The ‘dole’ and Sole Parent Benefit are already examined for assets that may provide cash eg caravans, boats, bonus bonds. Housing isn’t counted unless you have more than one. You also have to declare investments and cash in the bank.
Assets affect Accommodation Supplement and TAS, afaik they don’t affect the base benefits. Investments are assets, but interest from investments is counted as income.
At least that’s what it’s been historically. Are you saying that pressure is being put in beneficiaries to sell assets? That would normally only happen if they were after one of the supplementary allowances, which let’s face it, is most beneficiaries (although I think Disability Allowance is exempt).
I am not sure about ‘pressure’ as such, mostly because I have never had anything that qualified, lol, but I know that you get the message in subtle and not so subtle ways, that realisable assets such as bonus bonds, caravans, boats etc should be the first call rather than the resources of the state.
The problem with those ideas are that they rely upon the system remaining the same and it’s actually the system that’s the problem. What we need to do is:
1. The government become the sole creator and source of NZ$
2. Full UBI
3. Comprehensive capital taxes. That means taxes on property, on capital gains and financial transaction
This will create a situation where we don’t need different rules for retired people compared to working people – everyone will get the UBI and all income and wealth will be taxed. But the most important aspect is that it will put the government in the position where it doesn’t need an income or borrowings to pay for anything thus it will always be able to afford everything.
The tax system could then be redesigned upon a more feasible understanding of the flow of money. Specifically, that money always comes from the government and that taxes destroy that money.
I do see chosen roles for private sector credit creation however.
I don’t as it always results in runaway money creation. That’s why such private money creation was made illegal 300 years ago and why crypto-currencies are also a failed system.
There was a comprehensive presentation on the UBI at the Region 4 conference earlier this month, but no remit was put forward. How do we expect the party to adopt a policy without using the democratic processes to push for one?
That’s how all those terrible progressive “identity” issues you hate so much get through, after all.
Max Rashbrooke here references some of the work Perce Harpham has done on the UBI. Perce, one of NZs first and most successful tech entrepreneurs, has done a massive amount of work on the UBI.
In regards to a ubi I just did a quick search and I came up with a total benefit spend including super and WFF of 30 billion(please correct me if my figure s are out.)
Covered by 4 million people it was about 7 thousand each so there would have to be a lot more money found to support those that can’t top this up themselves .
Do a search on the standard for UBI. There have been some good posts and lots of discussion, including what level it could be set at and how that would be paid for (there are various ideas and proposals on that).
You don’t have to “find more money” the money is already there in the current income of the people of the nation, and of the nation itself, it is simply redistributed. And if required, a small amount of additional liquidity no more than 1% of GDP can be introduced by the Reserve Bank to the government’s accounts.
Covered by 4 million people it was about 7 thousand each so there would have to be a lot more money found to support those that can’t top this up themselves .
This is actually incorrect but it’s the fear that everyone focuses upon because everyone looks at government needing an income first which it doesn’t. The government must become the sole creator and source of NZ$ in the economy. The UBI then becomes the primary funding of the economy and taxes become the drain that prevents excessive money buildup. Essentially, inflation would be controlled by taxes rather than the OCR (which doesn’t work anyway and, in fact, causes other problems).
No, in all the countries which are part of the agreed central banking system, the commercial and investment banks have a lot of power to create money/bank credit (they are not quite the same thing, but are often treated as such).
BTW countries which do not belong to this international central banking system tend to end up militarily destroyed.
A system of law can be anything from a concerted effort to establish justice in our human world, to a system of robbery and murder (Nazi law is an extreme example). When a banking lawyer described modern banking as ‘the greatest system of kleptocracy foisted upon the human race’ he was agreeing with many previous eminent and knowledgeable commentators. The American Founding Fathers were particularly vocal on the subject: banking is the enrichment of ‘swindlers at the expense of the honest and industrious part of the nation’ (Thomas Jefferson, 1813). ‘Every dollar of a bank bill that is issued beyond the quantity of gold and silver in the vaults represents nothing, and is therefore a cheat upon somebody’ (John Adams, 1809). Even more bluntly, the banking system supports a ‘tyranny of fraud’ (John Taylor, 1814).
Maintaining a ‘tyranny of fraud’ isn’t the way to maintain a prosperous economy.
This sounds like a complete overhaul of our financial system. Is there an explanation for financial dummies (like me) on how this would work on the net?
Why announce something, then turn around and denounce it on the same day? Was this ‘policy on the fly’ or actually discussed with his colleagues? I just don’t get the strategy here. Groundhog day in the Labour camp, and easily pulled to pieces by Peters and Key.
The number of older people as percentage of the population is rising.
Old people are more likely to vote and younger people are rapidly giving up doing so.
This makes the older vote important now and very likely more so in the future.
By the time they are in their middle 50s most people are starting to think about retirement and how they will cope financially in their old age.
Andrew Little”s musings on the pension are a recurring theme among Labour politicians, and despite what activists may say, are an indication of the warped ideas on fairness held by many of the technocrats who control Labour.
No older person in their right mind would trust Labour unless they were already very financially secure.
Good luck with ever winning an election in this situation – no matter how bad the opposition is.
Heaven help us if any topic raised for musing or discussion is rubbished as toxic. Surely in a democratic society, the issues such as aging population and Super must be discussed.
It is a Right wing tactic to seize on any comment from an opposition member and twist it and malign the speaker. Dirty Tricks I say. But for Lefties to put the boot in makes it worse.
i am just stating the obvious…to everyone outside the Labour Party that is…i do not believe in blind allegiance or loyalty
…Andrew Little was incompetent in what he said…dont care if you spin it as “musing” or “discussion” …it makes me wonder how well he understands Labour’s grassroots constituency
( and I was once an active member for the Labour Party…and my Mother a branch chairperson….in fact my whole family have voted Labour for generations…with emphasis on “have”)
Any party which considers taking away basic state support and services for the people must be rubbished.
Further – does the Labour Party not understand that NZ Super is paid out in NZ dollars? And that the NZ Government is the sole legal issuer of NZ dollars in the world? And that the NZ Government can therefore choose to never run out of funds for necessary and important activities?
It’s utterly idiotic to promote austerity measures because you think you are about to run out of electronic numbers in computerised account scorecards.
well I would if I could ….(cos unfortunately i have jumped ship)
…good luck with turning the tanker Labour around before it hits the rocks and beaches…with people with the smarts like you steering Labour, it could form a very viable coalition with the Greens and NZF and Mana/Int and defeat jonkey Nactional
Labour needs some think tanks pre-plotting the coordinates and steering policy so the captain doesnt run amok..imo
Further – does the Labour Party not understand that NZ Super is paid out in NZ dollars? And that the NZ Government is the sole legal issuer of NZ dollars in the world? And that the NZ Government can therefore choose to never run out of funds for necessary and important activities?
It’s not just the Labour party who gets that wrong – it’s everybody and we get it wrong because we’ve been taught over the generations, but especially over the last 40 years, that wealth comes from rich people rather than the community.
Universal entitlement is a pretty core left wing value. It’s not so much a topic being slammed as Labour yet again proposing centrist values instead of left wing ones. If Labour were discussing lots of policy that made left wing people feel better about the party they might get away with discussing superannuation means testing, but in the very large void that has been left on the left, it’s just going to turn people away to do it now.
The utmost priority for Labour should be regaining trust and remedying the damage done by Labour’s betrayal in the 80s. That stuff’s not going to go away.
It’s not so much a topic being slammed as Labour yet again proposing centrist values instead of left wing ones.
?
Centrist values? You are being very generous. You want to show me a group of centre voters, or even a mid-right voters, anywhere in NZ who would support means testing on NZ Super?
neocentrist/kind austerity ones then. It’s Labour saying, we only have so much money, we want to create a fair society and that means not paying out the limited pie to people who don’t need it. That’s fair right? etc. I don’t agree with that, but I can see that they could pitch it to ‘middle nz’ so long as the means test was high not middle. I think they’re wrong, but it is part of that whole lets be left and centrist at the same time thing.
btw, base benefits aren’t means tested, but Accommodation Supplement and the hardship grant are. That was true under Labour as well.
I think Labour are pitching to a centrist voting constituency that they don’t understand in the slightest. No one in the centre of NZ politics wants to see Super turned into just another means tested asset tested benefit.
Phew, someone else saying it, I responded above but wrong place..
“…..didn’t someone just ask him if it was on the agenda, and he tried to remain open and calm, saying it was a good question??? or did I actually miss something important, not just a media stitch up. (Nat plan working well, and Labour go into “eating their young” when under stress mode)
Don’t fall for it guys!!!!!
whateva next
You are correct. It is a media stitchup just like wotsisname (The reporter who looks like Alfred E Neumann) trying to engineer answers so he can create his own news. I heard the interview and what is reported is nothing like what was said.
Little agreed that the issue had to be confronted. I would have told the reporter to F**k off and stop trying to make news where none existed…or maybe just told him to cut the crap.
yep, the same with MSM (National) picking up on ONE of the issues Young Labour raised, “gender reassignment ops being provided free”
Same trap (abyss) Cunliffe fell into, defending yourself against rabid hounds of the press, backed against a wall with nowhere to go.
ianmac – I agree it is disheartening and demoralising when the left starts attacking itself – particularly in this period when there is so little traction being made in focussing on the right – but Little made it a whole lot worse yesterday.
You are right to raise the point that a healthy democracy should be encouraging debate.
A healthy democracy is not one where a political philosophy can be foisted on a nation just as a result of a ballot box every three years. A healthy democracy is one where nearly 100 percent of eligible voters cast their votes and at least 51 percent (a clear majority) give a mandate to a party to govern. (not cobbled together coalitions).
Of course there is a huge discussion to be had around that.
Our problems in New Zealand and for most democracies is the power of the Multinationals and the growing lack of sovereignty (if we ever had it completely).
You will remember the period of Thatcher (and followed here by Douglas a few years later) – their biggest anti-left action was to remove exchange controls. With a stroke of the pen, the multinationals and big business could shift their monies at will and with that potential radical left-wing policies could never be included in manifestos.
You will also remember Thatcher say to the great unwashed – do not worry about the short term affects of our decisions – there will be a trickle down affect. And you will enjoy the opportunities that the service industries will offer.
She also promised that the new technologies would provide us all with greater leisure time. The new technologies have certainly created a huge pool of unemployed who have subsequently be labelled as lazy by the right. And, of course, who controls the new technologies that are creating the massive pool of “unwashed” – yep and creaming off the profits. The multinationals – e.g. the banks for starters.
A healthy democracy is one where nearly 100 percent of eligible voters cast their votes and at least 51 percent (a clear majority) give a mandate to a party to govern. (not cobbled together coalitions).
If you want a healthy democracy, then party based politics is probably not the way to go. If it has to be party based politics, then coalitions of parties are more likely to reflect the will of the people rather than single party rule by decree terms.
Logie97 – “I agree it is disheartening and demoralising when the left starts attacking itself ”
Really I thought it was our greatest strength – robust debate and thrashing out of ideas. Not some stalinist wet dream of following the party line. The overbearing weight of the old left was what crushed the left in the west – the blind obedience and dogmatism – were a heavy blow for aspirations and new thinking. Indeed freedom and fraternity were crushed under strict adherence to one set of ideas. Did you miss 1968 and the questions raised?
Liberalism as the dominant economic idea is back in force and is very destructive. Both locally and globally. Everyone here gets that basic premises – well maybe not the usual suspects of liberals like Gossy and Hotts .
There is no magical left solution to the damage, and destruction wrought by liberal economics. There are some very good ideas on how to deal with a world postliberalism – and we need to trash those out.
GP Super policy, in case anyone is looking for someone else to vote for (or another party to join)
4. Supporting Older People
The Green Party will:
Maintain universal New Zealand Superannuation for all New Zealanders 65 years and older, adjusted annually in accordance with movement in the Consumer Price Index, and within the constraints that:
The rate for a couple cannot fall below 65% of the average ordinary time weekly earnings (after the deduction of standard tax and the earner premium payable on those earnings) as determined by the Department of Statistics.
The rate for a couple cannot exceed 72.5 % of the average ordinary time weekly earnings (after the deduction of standard tax and the earner premium payable on those earnings) as determined by the Department of Statistics.
The rate for a single person living alone is 65% of the rate for a couple.
The rate for a single person not living alone is 60% of that for a couple.
Identify ways to allow flexibility in the age a person may receive New Zealand Superannuation.
There is no looming funding disaster FFS. the NZ government can simply choose not to run out of the electronic one’s and zero’s that it uses to pay superannuitants with.
This “looming crisis” is a fucking neoliberal/orthodox monetary fiction.
Exactly like Labour/National in the past declaring that ACC is severely underfunded just because they put their own stupid discretionary requirements on ACC, and they trying to use that as justification to fuck with ACC.
Their general economic policy is based on changing how we measure and create wealth, and changing the tax system to take the burden off individuals (esp those who earn less), make all income taxable, and put the onus on polluters and waste creators via ecological taxes (which makes sense in the transition to a post-carbon world).
But what CV said. I don’t believe there is a crisis in the way conventionally presented. The real crisis is going to be around physical resources, not unlimited ones like ones and zeros.
as Weka intimates, real resources: energy, materials, the quality of our people and our infrastructure, thats the stuff which really matters. Not electronic ones and zeroes manufactured by keyboard strokes. All our politicians have been entranced by the BS that it is electronic spreadsheet bookkeeping entries which constrain it all.
“A replacement show, with two yet-to-be-cast co-hosts, is understood to be shaped by these criticisms and will have more of an ENTERTAINMENT focus and more OVERSIGHT by MediaWorks executives.”
Currently at the Region 5 Labour Party conference. The basic message is very good so far – party vote is critical, the party needs to modernise, and be unified, disciplined and, most importantly, win.
This is just the usual motherhood and apple pie “our values are Labour values” rhetoric. Labour have very little room to move or modernise at the moment because of the short 3 year electoral cycle and resulting concerns that any real upheaval will negatively effect the chances of being elected in 2017. Don’t expect any dead wood MPs to go.
…and working on it with the Greens and NZF and Mana/Int
( who loudly opposed sending NZ troops there in the first place!)…our NZ troops lives should not be put on the line or wasted for this mess…they are too valuable!
Chicken hawks like TRP within the establishment Left and Right are responsible for supporting our troops off into an Iraqi civil war which the US has stoked for years and years.
Andy Burnham being touted as the ‘Left’/Union candidate in UK Labour’s leadership contest, with Liz Kendall the most conspicuously Blairite (after her fellow carrier of the ‘moderniser’ torch, Chuka Umunna, suddenly pulled out) .
Despite a general assumption that the Blairites will retake control of the Party, indications are they’re well and truly on the back foot. Polls suggest Burnham leads amongst both Labour voters and the British public in general, albeit with a relatively high Don’t Know factor. Yvette Cooper second, with Kendall well behind (admittedly, some early polls also recorded considerable support for Umunna and David Milliband before they ruled themselves out). Burnham and Cooper also have the lion’s share of nominations from decided Labour MPs, in the process upsetting a number of leading Blairites who can see power slipping away.
With an up-coming contest to replace Labour’s leader in Scotland and the race for the Party’s London Mayoral candidate, UK Labour faces three simultaneous power struggles.
More proof that the market system just doesn’t work:
French supermarkets will be banned from throwing away or destroying unsold food and must instead donate it to charities or for animal feed, under a law set to crack down on food waste.
The French national assembly voted unanimously to pass the legislation as France battles an epidemic of wasted food that has highlighted the divide between giant food firms and people who are struggling to eat.
One of the ideas of the market system is that it always clears the produce from the shelves and yet it creates this waste where huge amounts of edible food is thrown away amongst hunger and starvation.
There was a recent news item (TV3 I think) on Ron Mark using the F word in Parliament. The translator for the deaf in the background did a remarkable translation. Any chance someone could upload the small section for wider enjoyment. It is classic.
But imagine the fury which would be visited on an Opposition Party in NZ if they had the courage to suggest UBI for consideration. The spite and ridicule would spew out at any such spokesman.
“Meanwhile, Labour’s Grant Robertson denied party leader Andrew Little wants to means test superannuation, saying Mr Little was only answering a question about fairness in the system.”
So the outrage pointed at Andrew for the “reported” comments was not quite fair. Funny that.
Means testing superannuation is not Labour Party policy and, although Andrew Little should have been a bit more careful in how he responded to questioning, he at no time said he wanted it to become Labour Party policy.
Tried to click an interesting article titled, “Why current affairs matter”: Without good journalism, Aotearoa will never become the nation it has the potential to be.
When I clicked the link it asks for your login details just to read the thing, i.e., Stuff want to know who is reading it, or they’ve been told they must…
Ironic much?
Anyone else been asked for authorisation to read a Stuff article before?
3 Associate college degrees -Awesome feeling- completed my first few baby steps to my BIG goal- @NobelPrize med doctor/researcher & @POTUS— Tanishq Abraham (@iScienceLuvr) May 21, 2015
That was my first fleeting thought too. However, he has brilliant, highly educated parents who seem to be comfortable about their son. Besides, I think the boy himself is smart enough to figure all that for himself and knows what is important for him. Also, he seems to have a bevy of friends and admirers from all walks of life.
Yeah, people should get ahead the old fashioned way.
//
LEWIS: Tell us a little bit about you and your business experience and how you got here.
RAESE: I made my money the old-fashioned way, I inherited it. I think that’s a great thing to do. I hope more people in this country have that opportunity as soon as we abolish inheritance tax in this country, which is a key part of my program.
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Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
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so I was doing a bit of thinking about how the Government could better protect NZ Superannuation from the rising costs without changes to the age of eligibility nor sacrificing universal entitlement.
The Government could bring in a ‘pension levy’ on high-income earners. It could be a marginal rate of 2% on incomes between $75,000 and $150,000 and 4% on incomes above $150,000. This would raise about $650million per year.
That $650m could go directly into the NZ Super (Cullen) fund.
Based on continuing contributions, wage inflation, and the Cullen fund rate of return, by 2030 the Cullen fund would have an extra $30 billion to pay for superannuation, a number that’d continue increasing as the levy continues to be paid. The Government is planning to begin withdrawing from the fund around this time.
This is almost like a reverse-means test: it asks the top 10%, and especially top 1% of income earners to make a special contribution to the cost of NZ super whilst protecting universal entitlement to NZ super at age 65.
This is probably the most progressive way of protecting this entitlement, as 90% of people would see no change in their working-age living standard nor their old-age living standard.
Great ideas
But stop hitting wage and salary earners
Start hitting owned wealth, corporate super profits and financial capital
Thanks
PS by seriously discussing means testing of Super, the NZ Labour Party has shown that it is not fit for purpose, and that it does not understand “the future of work” in the fucking slightest.
Don’t worry it was just an annoying blip by Andrew. It’s now off the agenda
Amazing what a little public backlash will do
…well if the idiots have changed their minds it is too late ….it has already been broadcast widely…damage done ….and they look incompetent and flakey
IMO Labour probably lost the 2017 election there and then. One of the reasons why Labour is losing election is because they cannot be trusted on super. Little can back track all he likes, the damage is already done.
This is a Labour Party that we will have to work hard to keep in line.
They knew that raising the Super age was an election loser. Took them two elections to figure that one out. Then they progressed to discussing putting a means test on Super instead? Utterly moronic. At this moment I’m calling advantage NATs to win a fourth term.
you write like you aren’t part of labour
A blip? Thats not a blip – it just show that stuff is being made up on the spot, and that he dosnt have either the support for his ideas, or he dosnt know what he was talking about.
CR+100….totally agree …re:.”PS by seriously discussing means testing of Super, the NZ Labour Party has shown that it is not fit for purpose, and that it does not understand “the future of work” in the fucking slightest”
It is almost as if this Labour Party does not want to win an Election!…austerity on its own constituency!
….there are many super age people who still work but earn a pittance…..for the New Zealand Labour Party to deny those still working their super is pitiful!
..it is a PR gift to jonley Nact!…at very least the Labour Party should be matching Nactional on this issue …they just dont learn do they?
….the NZLP shows a lack of understanding of its own constituency …( imo the corporate Labour Party MPs of Labour Party Inc should have their salaries halved for this mistake)
Robinson has just said that means testing super is not part of there policy revue. On the Nation
So where did Little get the idea from?
Robinson said “that little was asked a question about fairness around super and little said its because we need to have a conversation about it”
Or words to that effect.
Littles right of course but you mess with peoples money at you’re peril.
It’s not their money but that of the country.
I did think that after I put that up that I should of said ‘what they believe is there money”
I have to disagree. Those of us who pay our taxes (and I have paid mine for many years), have had an understanding with the government, that a portion of the taxes we have paid will fund our pension when that time comes. We have paid our money up front, on the promise of a pension later in life.
I can only speak for myself, but I have paid my dues. I began work as a young teen, still at school, in the mid sixties. I worked right through high school – book shop, paper run, department store. I’ve never been on the dole, on the DPB, on the sickness benefit, never been sick in hospital, never had a student loan, never needed to be subsidized in any way. I’ve been an employee, and an employer, creating jobs for others. I raised my kids to be good, contributing citizens who now pay their taxes. I’ve earned my pension. I’ve kept my part of my bargain with the government and more besides. I expect my government to honour it’s part of the bargain it has with me.
There’s never been anything in NZSuper about paying up front. It’s always been paid from current taxes and that makes it the countries money and not yours.
You’ve never created a job for others in your life – the community did and you just capitalised on that.
Nick Hanauer “Rich people don’t create jobs”
I agree with most of what you say Scotty. I, too, am now on the pension and I’ve earned it – every penny of it. But something that perhaps is not fully understood by Labour is that… while our parents could live comfortably on the pension many people no longer can do so because of exorbitant rates, insurance and power bills – to name just the most obvious. We are forced to supplement our income by taking on part-time work just to be able to make ends meet.
I suspect Andrew Little didn’t have us in mind when he made his comment, but rather those who have been able – or lucky enough – to acquire a fortune over the years and don’t need a pension. If that was the case then he should have been more explicit. I hope he has learned a lesson not to expect the MSM to fairly or accurately report him.
Little is NOT right at all.
Labour is gutless going after individual Kiwis instead of the foreign corporations who take $10B or more per year out of NZ.
…..didn’t someone just ask him if it was on the agenda, and he tried to remain open and calm, saying it was a good question??? or did I actually miss something important, not just a media stitch up. (Nat plan working well, and Labour go into “eating their young” when under stress mode)
If we don’t have a Labour Party willing to defend the inviolability of key foundations of our democratic social welfare state, then what good are they.
+ zillion. Labour’s big issue is regaining trust, this isn’t the way to do it.
On the other hand, let them settle into being a centrist party (better them than UF or the Peters party), and the Greens will take the left and leave room for a new party to take the radical left. We don’t have time to wait for Labour to sort its shit out.
Labour’s big issue is factions/division, against a National machine as organised as Hitler’s Panza divisions.
It’s all very well telling the leaders what people in Labour want, but if we don’t get into power by finding about what the “vast majority of Nuzilland” want, we will continue to watch National stripping the country of any values, cohesion, connection etc.
I’m a GP voter, the core values have to stand, otherwise it’s just about the power. The idea that getting power is the most important thing is why we no longer have a left at the party political level.
I agree about the factions, and that’s something that’s only going to be solved internally within Labour if enough people want it. Having core values and sticking to them would help.
We don’t need to know what that vast majority want in order foe the left for form govt, we just need 50% of voters. That’s not enough to to run a country though, for that you have to know what you believe in and gain the trust of voters to support you.
Labour prides itself on being a “broad church”, inclusive and there for the 99%. How can it be that they don’t understand what NZers in general want?
Unless of course, they are socially, culturally and economically disconnected from the people they say they serve.
but not a federation of separatist interest groups?
“disconnected from the people they say they serve.”
The relationship is not that simple, it goes both ways.
Labour caucus has to organise/galvanise people with less power into a big enough group to gain power over those with financial/economic power.
Not an easy task, and made harder if they are expected to be looking behind them all the time. at the fighting factions.
My personal opinion is that investment income and earned income should be taxed completely equally and that there should be no distinction. So I’d apply the levy to both in my ideal world. So I definitely agree with you there.
I think a levy on high incomes (both earned and unearned) that goes directly into the Super Fund makes sense because it is essentially the rich paying extra for the Super that they’ll be claiming as part of the universal entitlement to Super at 65.
They already do a great job by adding halides to the water supply.
You know it’s a plan right?
What is the argument by rich pensioners that they should receive full taxpayer funded super?
That they paid their taxes?
That they built the country?
That they just, um, want it?
That they deserve it?
It all just seems incredibly hypocritical and greedy. Always has.
Universal entitlements are powerful expression of socialist thought. What are you going to do next? Put a surcharge on rich people who go to GPs and use A&E?
Shall we start asset testing the dole and the DPB?
CR +100 …that should bring Labour down to under 20% of the Electorate vote i would think
The NZ Labour Party should engage a few consultants and advisors from Scottish Labour, I’m thinking
Um … we *do* asset-test the DPB (or as it is now called, Sole Parent Support):
http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/individuals/a-z-benefits/sole-parent-support.html
You may be able to get Sole Parent Support if you’re a single parent or caregiver with one or more dependent children aged under 14 years.
You must also be:
aged 19 or older
not in a relationship
without adequate financial support
a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident who has been here for at least two years at any one time since becoming a citizen or permanent resident, and who normally lives here.
Pretty sure that’s an income test not an asset test.
Weka, I can assure you on every single application and review form for every type of benefit and supplement they ask about your cash and non-cash assets. There’s a limit to how much you can have before they won’t let you have certain benefits/grants. Can’t remember what it is now because I’ve never had anywhere near the amount so moot point.
Weka is correct. Its an income test. The asset test is for any extra things like accommodation supplement etc.
I responded here Kay,
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-23052015/#comment-1019263
Good point, I was reading asset-test in the wider sense of means-test.
ETA: The wider point being that the DPB is not a universal payment to parents the way superannuation is a universal payment to over-65s.
Yep, and earlier I was taking means test to mean asset test only when I think Little was talking about income testing (as in means test = income and/or assets).
The ‘dole’ and Sole Parent Benefit are already examined for assets that may provide cash eg caravans, boats, bonus bonds. Housing isn’t counted unless you have more than one. You also have to declare investments and cash in the bank.
Assets affect Accommodation Supplement and TAS, afaik they don’t affect the base benefits. Investments are assets, but interest from investments is counted as income.
At least that’s what it’s been historically. Are you saying that pressure is being put in beneficiaries to sell assets? That would normally only happen if they were after one of the supplementary allowances, which let’s face it, is most beneficiaries (although I think Disability Allowance is exempt).
I am not sure about ‘pressure’ as such, mostly because I have never had anything that qualified, lol, but I know that you get the message in subtle and not so subtle ways, that realisable assets such as bonus bonds, caravans, boats etc should be the first call rather than the resources of the state.
The problem with those ideas are that they rely upon the system remaining the same and it’s actually the system that’s the problem. What we need to do is:
1. The government become the sole creator and source of NZ$
2. Full UBI
3. Comprehensive capital taxes. That means taxes on property, on capital gains and financial transaction
This will create a situation where we don’t need different rules for retired people compared to working people – everyone will get the UBI and all income and wealth will be taxed. But the most important aspect is that it will put the government in the position where it doesn’t need an income or borrowings to pay for anything thus it will always be able to afford everything.
The tax system could then be redesigned upon a more feasible understanding of the flow of money. Specifically, that money always comes from the government and that taxes destroy that money.
Largely agree. I do see chosen roles for private sector credit creation however.
But we see where Labour’s head is at. They won’t agree to a UBI because there are “fairness” issues with rich Kiwis getting it along with poor ones.
The whole concept of an “unconditional” or “universal” benefit seems to be beyond Labour’s comprehension.
That would certainly solve quite a few problems in NZ 😈
hmm, weird, that’s supposed to be a reply to,
“The NZ Labour Party should engage a few consultants and advisors from Scottish Labour, I’m thinking”
Well, you’re right, that would solve a few roadblocks for the Left heh
I don’t as it always results in runaway money creation. That’s why such private money creation was made illegal 300 years ago and why crypto-currencies are also a failed system.
There was a comprehensive presentation on the UBI at the Region 4 conference earlier this month, but no remit was put forward. How do we expect the party to adopt a policy without using the democratic processes to push for one?
That’s how all those terrible progressive “identity” issues you hate so much get through, after all.
Is there any way of accessing that presentation?
Max Rashbrooke here references some of the work Perce Harpham has done on the UBI. Perce, one of NZs first and most successful tech entrepreneurs, has done a massive amount of work on the UBI.
http://www.inequality.org.nz/universal-basic-income-how-it-could-work-in-nz/
In regards to a ubi I just did a quick search and I came up with a total benefit spend including super and WFF of 30 billion(please correct me if my figure s are out.)
Covered by 4 million people it was about 7 thousand each so there would have to be a lot more money found to support those that can’t top this up themselves .
Do a search on the standard for UBI. There have been some good posts and lots of discussion, including what level it could be set at and how that would be paid for (there are various ideas and proposals on that).
You don’t have to “find more money” the money is already there in the current income of the people of the nation, and of the nation itself, it is simply redistributed. And if required, a small amount of additional liquidity no more than 1% of GDP can be introduced by the Reserve Bank to the government’s accounts.
This is actually incorrect but it’s the fear that everyone focuses upon because everyone looks at government needing an income first which it doesn’t. The government must become the sole creator and source of NZ$ in the economy. The UBI then becomes the primary funding of the economy and taxes become the drain that prevents excessive money buildup. Essentially, inflation would be controlled by taxes rather than the OCR (which doesn’t work anyway and, in fact, causes other problems).
“””The government must become the sole creator and source of NZ$ in the economy.””
Is there any country doing this and does it work?
No, in all the countries which are part of the agreed central banking system, the commercial and investment banks have a lot of power to create money/bank credit (they are not quite the same thing, but are often treated as such).
BTW countries which do not belong to this international central banking system tend to end up militarily destroyed.
”BTW countries which do not belong to this international central banking system tend to end up militarily destroyed”
Is that what Giddarfi was up to.
No there isn’t and yes it does.
EDIT: You should probably also read this:
Maintaining a ‘tyranny of fraud’ isn’t the way to maintain a prosperous economy.
This sounds like a complete overhaul of our financial system. Is there an explanation for financial dummies (like me) on how this would work on the net?
Modern Monetary Theory.
Stephanie Kelton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbM3crOcmR0
Also Randall Wray:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=949JLYr2L90
Warren Mosler
Cheers, got a bit of watching to do now :).
There’s a number of systems proposed. The most well known would probably be the Chicago Plan and Positive Money.
“But we see where Labour’s head is at. They won’t agree to a UBI because there are “fairness” issues with rich Kiwis getting it along with poor ones.”
Where did you get that from specifically?
“The whole concept of an “unconditional” or “universal” benefit seems to be beyond Labour’s comprehension.”
Little seems to be in favour.
Yeah except the closest thing we have to a UBI now – NZ super – he reckons we should consider questions of means testing
That tells me that he doesn’t understand the concept of the universality of benefits.
DTB….sounds good…definitely on capital gains and financial transaction tax…and full UBI
Just some screendumps of the daily dose of war propaganda from the Daily Mail site.
Bugger, Screendumps here
Andrew Little is attacked by Grey Power because of his super slip-up
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/top-stories/a/28199670/pension-comments-not-so-super-grey-power/
Three hit and run comments this morning, facetious.
I really admire people who write on behalf of the powerful….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/budget-2015/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503822&objectid=11452961
Why announce something, then turn around and denounce it on the same day? Was this ‘policy on the fly’ or actually discussed with his colleagues? I just don’t get the strategy here. Groundhog day in the Labour camp, and easily pulled to pieces by Peters and Key.
An utter fucking mess
Just a point.
Super is taxable, so there is some claw back (means testing)
Lab introduced a surcharge back in the late 80s. That did NOT go well.
Labour is attracted to austerity; National keeps spending on the poor and disadvantaged even in the face of government deficits.
The number of older people as percentage of the population is rising.
Old people are more likely to vote and younger people are rapidly giving up doing so.
This makes the older vote important now and very likely more so in the future.
By the time they are in their middle 50s most people are starting to think about retirement and how they will cope financially in their old age.
Andrew Little”s musings on the pension are a recurring theme among Labour politicians, and despite what activists may say, are an indication of the warped ideas on fairness held by many of the technocrats who control Labour.
No older person in their right mind would trust Labour unless they were already very financially secure.
Good luck with ever winning an election in this situation – no matter how bad the opposition is.
+100 lefty…the NZLP Inc is gobsmackingly inept
Heaven help us if any topic raised for musing or discussion is rubbished as toxic. Surely in a democratic society, the issues such as aging population and Super must be discussed.
It is a Right wing tactic to seize on any comment from an opposition member and twist it and malign the speaker. Dirty Tricks I say. But for Lefties to put the boot in makes it worse.
i am just stating the obvious…to everyone outside the Labour Party that is…i do not believe in blind allegiance or loyalty
…Andrew Little was incompetent in what he said…dont care if you spin it as “musing” or “discussion” …it makes me wonder how well he understands Labour’s grassroots constituency
( and I was once an active member for the Labour Party…and my Mother a branch chairperson….in fact my whole family have voted Labour for generations…with emphasis on “have”)
Any party which considers taking away basic state support and services for the people must be rubbished.
Further – does the Labour Party not understand that NZ Super is paid out in NZ dollars? And that the NZ Government is the sole legal issuer of NZ dollars in the world? And that the NZ Government can therefore choose to never run out of funds for necessary and important activities?
It’s utterly idiotic to promote austerity measures because you think you are about to run out of electronic numbers in computerised account scorecards.
+100 CR…I would vote for you!
😀 yours is the vote I need!!!
well I would if I could ….(cos unfortunately i have jumped ship)
…good luck with turning the tanker Labour around before it hits the rocks and beaches…with people with the smarts like you steering Labour, it could form a very viable coalition with the Greens and NZF and Mana/Int and defeat jonkey Nactional
Labour needs some think tanks pre-plotting the coordinates and steering policy so the captain doesnt run amok..imo
It’s not just the Labour party who gets that wrong – it’s everybody and we get it wrong because we’ve been taught over the generations, but especially over the last 40 years, that wealth comes from rich people rather than the community.
yep, the BS “wealth creators” meme. Labour in NZ refers to them as wealth generators.
Universal entitlement is a pretty core left wing value. It’s not so much a topic being slammed as Labour yet again proposing centrist values instead of left wing ones. If Labour were discussing lots of policy that made left wing people feel better about the party they might get away with discussing superannuation means testing, but in the very large void that has been left on the left, it’s just going to turn people away to do it now.
The utmost priority for Labour should be regaining trust and remedying the damage done by Labour’s betrayal in the 80s. That stuff’s not going to go away.
?
Centrist values? You are being very generous. You want to show me a group of centre voters, or even a mid-right voters, anywhere in NZ who would support means testing on NZ Super?
neocentrist/kind austerity ones then. It’s Labour saying, we only have so much money, we want to create a fair society and that means not paying out the limited pie to people who don’t need it. That’s fair right? etc. I don’t agree with that, but I can see that they could pitch it to ‘middle nz’ so long as the means test was high not middle. I think they’re wrong, but it is part of that whole lets be left and centrist at the same time thing.
btw, base benefits aren’t means tested, but Accommodation Supplement and the hardship grant are. That was true under Labour as well.
I think Labour are pitching to a centrist voting constituency that they don’t understand in the slightest. No one in the centre of NZ politics wants to see Super turned into just another means tested asset tested benefit.
That’s probably true and true.
Phew, someone else saying it, I responded above but wrong place..
“…..didn’t someone just ask him if it was on the agenda, and he tried to remain open and calm, saying it was a good question??? or did I actually miss something important, not just a media stitch up. (Nat plan working well, and Labour go into “eating their young” when under stress mode)
Don’t fall for it guys!!!!!
whateva next
You are correct. It is a media stitchup just like wotsisname (The reporter who looks like Alfred E Neumann) trying to engineer answers so he can create his own news. I heard the interview and what is reported is nothing like what was said.
Little agreed that the issue had to be confronted. I would have told the reporter to F**k off and stop trying to make news where none existed…or maybe just told him to cut the crap.
yep, the same with MSM (National) picking up on ONE of the issues Young Labour raised, “gender reassignment ops being provided free”
Same trap (abyss) Cunliffe fell into, defending yourself against rabid hounds of the press, backed against a wall with nowhere to go.
ianmac – I agree it is disheartening and demoralising when the left starts attacking itself – particularly in this period when there is so little traction being made in focussing on the right – but Little made it a whole lot worse yesterday.
You are right to raise the point that a healthy democracy should be encouraging debate.
A healthy democracy is not one where a political philosophy can be foisted on a nation just as a result of a ballot box every three years. A healthy democracy is one where nearly 100 percent of eligible voters cast their votes and at least 51 percent (a clear majority) give a mandate to a party to govern. (not cobbled together coalitions).
Of course there is a huge discussion to be had around that.
Our problems in New Zealand and for most democracies is the power of the Multinationals and the growing lack of sovereignty (if we ever had it completely).
You will remember the period of Thatcher (and followed here by Douglas a few years later) – their biggest anti-left action was to remove exchange controls. With a stroke of the pen, the multinationals and big business could shift their monies at will and with that potential radical left-wing policies could never be included in manifestos.
You will also remember Thatcher say to the great unwashed – do not worry about the short term affects of our decisions – there will be a trickle down affect. And you will enjoy the opportunities that the service industries will offer.
She also promised that the new technologies would provide us all with greater leisure time. The new technologies have certainly created a huge pool of unemployed who have subsequently be labelled as lazy by the right. And, of course, who controls the new technologies that are creating the massive pool of “unwashed” – yep and creaming off the profits. The multinationals – e.g. the banks for starters.
If you want a healthy democracy, then party based politics is probably not the way to go. If it has to be party based politics, then coalitions of parties are more likely to reflect the will of the people rather than single party rule by decree terms.
+1
Logie97 – “I agree it is disheartening and demoralising when the left starts attacking itself ”
Really I thought it was our greatest strength – robust debate and thrashing out of ideas. Not some stalinist wet dream of following the party line. The overbearing weight of the old left was what crushed the left in the west – the blind obedience and dogmatism – were a heavy blow for aspirations and new thinking. Indeed freedom and fraternity were crushed under strict adherence to one set of ideas. Did you miss 1968 and the questions raised?
Liberalism as the dominant economic idea is back in force and is very destructive. Both locally and globally. Everyone here gets that basic premises – well maybe not the usual suspects of liberals like Gossy and Hotts .
There is no magical left solution to the damage, and destruction wrought by liberal economics. There are some very good ideas on how to deal with a world postliberalism – and we need to trash those out.
yep
the Labour MPs with their property portfolios, generous parliamentary Kiwi Saver schemes and top 2% income musing on ways to cut back NZ Super.
Disgusting.
+100
GP Super policy, in case anyone is looking for someone else to vote for (or another party to join)
https://home.greens.org.nz/policy/income-support-policy
thanx…seems like a good policy….generally the Greens are more intelligent than Labour ( smirk)
No surprise so many Labour supporters and activists have switched Green over the last decade.
What’s the greens plans on how to fund what’s said to be the looming disaster wlth funding super?
There is no looming funding disaster FFS. the NZ government can simply choose not to run out of the electronic one’s and zero’s that it uses to pay superannuitants with.
This “looming crisis” is a fucking neoliberal/orthodox monetary fiction.
Exactly like Labour/National in the past declaring that ACC is severely underfunded just because they put their own stupid discretionary requirements on ACC, and they trying to use that as justification to fuck with ACC.
b waghorn, one thing they want is to put Super investments into ethical and safe investments.
https://home.greens.org.nz/press-releases/super-fund-should-divest-140-million-high-risk-coal
Their general economic policy is based on changing how we measure and create wealth, and changing the tax system to take the burden off individuals (esp those who earn less), make all income taxable, and put the onus on polluters and waste creators via ecological taxes (which makes sense in the transition to a post-carbon world).
https://home.greens.org.nz/policysummary/economic-policy-summary
https://home.greens.org.nz/policy/economic
But what CV said. I don’t believe there is a crisis in the way conventionally presented. The real crisis is going to be around physical resources, not unlimited ones like ones and zeros.
Cheers yes government should be leading the charge on environmental issues coal is so 1800s
as Weka intimates, real resources: energy, materials, the quality of our people and our infrastructure, thats the stuff which really matters. Not electronic ones and zeroes manufactured by keyboard strokes. All our politicians have been entranced by the BS that it is electronic spreadsheet bookkeeping entries which constrain it all.
Its a kind of collective delusion.
+ 1
You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth.
It appears the right can’t
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11453375
You want the truth?, but you can’t handle the truth.
It appears the right can’t
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11453375
Well, who would of guessed..
“A replacement show, with two yet-to-be-cast co-hosts, is understood to be shaped by these criticisms and will have more of an ENTERTAINMENT focus and more OVERSIGHT by MediaWorks executives.”
Currently at the Region 5 Labour Party conference. The basic message is very good so far – party vote is critical, the party needs to modernise, and be unified, disciplined and, most importantly, win.
How would they do those things?
This is just the usual motherhood and apple pie “our values are Labour values” rhetoric. Labour have very little room to move or modernise at the moment because of the short 3 year electoral cycle and resulting concerns that any real upheaval will negatively effect the chances of being elected in 2017. Don’t expect any dead wood MPs to go.
Maybe, but it would be good to hear from someone who was actually there.
Smarter volunteer management
Better packaging of policy
Fewer headline policies
Better candidate selection
Better use of existing resources
Policy is tomorrow.
Don’t have a very good feeling about this, we’ve sent our troops into a quagmire. Looks like they’ll immediately be on the front line.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/68761120/kiwi-troops-deployed-to-iraq-face-any-number-of-threats–david-shearer
Anyone know of any movement/protest to try and bring our troops back earlier?
Labour Party should be demanding this!
…and working on it with the Greens and NZF and Mana/Int
( who loudly opposed sending NZ troops there in the first place!)…our NZ troops lives should not be put on the line or wasted for this mess…they are too valuable!
Chicken hawks like TRP within the establishment Left and Right are responsible for supporting our troops off into an Iraqi civil war which the US has stoked for years and years.
Andy Burnham being touted as the ‘Left’/Union candidate in UK Labour’s leadership contest, with Liz Kendall the most conspicuously Blairite (after her fellow carrier of the ‘moderniser’ torch, Chuka Umunna, suddenly pulled out) .
Despite a general assumption that the Blairites will retake control of the Party, indications are they’re well and truly on the back foot. Polls suggest Burnham leads amongst both Labour voters and the British public in general, albeit with a relatively high Don’t Know factor. Yvette Cooper second, with Kendall well behind (admittedly, some early polls also recorded considerable support for Umunna and David Milliband before they ruled themselves out). Burnham and Cooper also have the lion’s share of nominations from decided Labour MPs, in the process upsetting a number of leading Blairites who can see power slipping away.
With an up-coming contest to replace Labour’s leader in Scotland and the race for the Party’s London Mayoral candidate, UK Labour faces three simultaneous power struggles.
Canon Media awards serving as a balance against the NZ Radio awards?
More proof that the market system just doesn’t work:
One of the ideas of the market system is that it always clears the produce from the shelves and yet it creates this waste where huge amounts of edible food is thrown away amongst hunger and starvation.
There was a recent news item (TV3 I think) on Ron Mark using the F word in Parliament. The translator for the deaf in the background did a remarkable translation. Any chance someone could upload the small section for wider enjoyment. It is classic.
For your pleasure
Brilliant! Many thanks.
The Swiss have a referendum on UBI due next year 2016. The Swiss Government oppose UBI but referendum will still go ahead. Many people believe that it would work.
http://www.basicincome.org/news/2014/08/switerland-government-reacts-negatively-to-ubi-proposal/
But imagine the fury which would be visited on an Opposition Party in NZ if they had the courage to suggest UBI for consideration. The spite and ridicule would spew out at any such spokesman.
“Meanwhile, Labour’s Grant Robertson denied party leader Andrew Little wants to means test superannuation, saying Mr Little was only answering a question about fairness in the system.”
So the outrage pointed at Andrew for the “reported” comments was not quite fair. Funny that.
Yep, this is another media beat up.
Means testing superannuation is not Labour Party policy and, although Andrew Little should have been a bit more careful in how he responded to questioning, he at no time said he wanted it to become Labour Party policy.
Tried to click an interesting article titled, “Why current affairs matter”: Without good journalism, Aotearoa will never become the nation it has the potential to be.
http://www.preview.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/11826323/Opinion-Budget-Live-National-hit-two-birds-with-one-stone
When I clicked the link it asks for your login details just to read the thing, i.e., Stuff want to know who is reading it, or they’ve been told they must…
Ironic much?
Anyone else been asked for authorisation to read a Stuff article before?
Tanishq Mathew Abraham
An astonishing 11 (or 12?) year old prodigy!
Read all about this fascinating child below!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanishq_Abraham
Brilliant kids. But what about their socialisation? It is pretty hard for a kid to be different.
And probably more so if that difference isn’t recognised.
That was my first fleeting thought too. However, he has brilliant, highly educated parents who seem to be comfortable about their son. Besides, I think the boy himself is smart enough to figure all that for himself and knows what is important for him. Also, he seems to have a bevy of friends and admirers from all walks of life.
A simple illustrated story about how the wealthy get to stay rich while the poor get poorer no matter how hard they work.
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate
It’s very good, getting attention on social media, maybe it could go up as a post on ts?
http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/toxic_lobby_edc.pdf
How the chemical lobby blocked action on hormone disrupting chemicals
Apply to [name the industry]
Karen your link is simply a cartoonist with a political bent, doesn’t make it true unless stereotype is the test for truth
It is true. There’s been a number of studies that prove it to be true. Piketty is probably the most detailed such study but there are others as well.
Capitalism doesn’t work the way you believe. It’s essentially feudalism.
Yeah, people should get ahead the old fashioned way.
//
LEWIS: Tell us a little bit about you and your business experience and how you got here.
RAESE: I made my money the old-fashioned way, I inherited it. I think that’s a great thing to do. I hope more people in this country have that opportunity as soon as we abolish inheritance tax in this country, which is a key part of my program.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/09/24/120661/raese-money-inheritanc/