Seeing as affordable housing is their leading policy, one would assume they would have a strong position, utilizing the opportunity, maintaining the momentum, and capitalizing by showing decisiveness and unity with the Greens..
Unfortunately, when a strong and clear position is required, they’re indecisive.
What comes to my mind is Wales where there was an ‘unfortunate’ spate of house fires in the 80s and for ‘some strange reason’ those houses that ‘caught’ fire all seemed to be second homes/holiday houses owned predominantly by English people. (It may be continuing, I don’t know).
But do you imagine for one moment that if all of the English owners of second houses in Wales had quit their housing investments that prices would have dropped and the availablity of homes risen for Welsh people and others living in Wales? Well, of course not. And even if the housing stock was reserved for only those people living in Wales, then simple market dynamics would have yet again concentrated ownership in the hands of a relative few.
And it’s the same here, whether we’re talking houses or farms or whatever. And so I tend to agree with those charges of xenaphobia when they are directed against those who would niavely hold that everything would be okay if only those pesky foriegners – and disturbingly – especially those pesky foreigners we can readily identify by sight, and who come from a different cultural tradition, and who just happen to be associated with a nationality that is fast becoming the ‘official’ enemy of western (ie, our) states.
If property prices are being ramped up because richer people are buying multiple houses then the solution doesn’t lie in vilifying one identifyable section of those owners of muliple houses but in dooing something concrete that is aimed fairly and squarely at every single last one of them regardless of their cultural or national origins.
The Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey rates housing as ‘severely’ unaffordable at 5.1 times annual household income.
Auckland is the least affordable market, with a median multiple of 6.7.times annual household incomes..
It’s not NZ low incomes that are sustaining these ‘severely’ unaffordable prices
Supply and demand. The amount of local wealth is limited. Opening NZ up to affluent offshore investors increases buyer demand., pricing locals out of the market.
Concentration of wealth rather than the over-all amount of wealth is the problem. And while I can understand an argument that holds prices have gone up even further than they otherwise would have due to wealthy over seas investors/buyers, that doesn’t mean that a market accessable only by domestic buyers would make much of a toss of a difference.
There is a demographic that can afford to buy houses and who can use previous purchases as collateral on further purchases. They exist and would persist even in the absence of foreign buyers and the market would merely be concentrated in their hands rather than the hands of them and foreigners.
The difference is the exchange rate. The Brits were buying land were at one stage and easily outbidding the locals, and thus the property prices went up, quite massively in some cases. That was with immigrants, but you can see the same dynamic in places like Queenstown, where large amounts of houses are owned offshore. Stewart Island is another place where foreign buyers changed property pricing exponentially.
So, sure, there are problems anyway, and only certain NZers could afford to buy property. But now houses are too expensive for even those people.
If I lived in Auckland instead of the SI I’d no doubt be talking about the Chinese more than the Brits or Americans đ It’s a tricky conversation to be had, because obviously there are distinct racism against Asians issues in NZ. And yet, the overseas ownership issue, and immigration issues are real.
Vast inequality and the negative implications of the concentration of wealth is a global phenomenon.
The problem with the local demographic that you highlighted is further exacerbated by allowing unrestricted foreign ownership of houses.
Moreover, the much needed investment returns (rents) largely leave our economy and head offshore, further adding to our fiscal shortfall and economic slowdown.
Supply and demand. The amount of local wealth is limited. Opening NZ up to affluent offshore investors benefiting from economies where money printing is occurring increases buyer demand., pricing locals out of the market.
If I may?
basically NZers are stupid enough to exchange our real local wealth for overseas printed fiat currency. Not a good deal.
On November 14, Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce announced the renaming of the Advanced Technology Institute as Callaghan Innovation.
Callaghan Innovation is one of the Governmentâs key priorities to build a stronger, more competitive economy, and was a major recommendation of the independent Powering Innovation report, which looked at how to boost the growth of firms in the manufacturing and services sector.
The purpose of Callaghan Innovation is to help get New Zealandâs most innovative ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace more quickly.
Callaghan Innovation will have operations in Auckland, Wellington (including Hutt Valley) and Canterbury regions.
It will help high-tech firms become more competitive by better connecting them with the expertise and facilities that exist both within Callaghan Innovation and across New Zealandâs Crown Research Institutes, universities, polytechnics, and other research organisations.
TG – Exactly! (Maybe they will be paid, but it will be a pittance I am sure).
Rehabilitation? How is it that National got to hear that word? Kind of rolls around their tongue, feels good. National knows and understands only one word on prisoners (and beneficiaries) and that is Punishment!
The Herald: (quoting Key)
– Up to 1400 inmates will be working 40 hours a week – without pay
– Inmates at Rolleston Prison had already begun 40-hour weeks in response to a demand for labour for the rebuild of Christchurch.
-Asked whether working prisons were a form of cheap labour, Mr Key said: “Not really. There already are work programmes which are … sometimes controversial because they take work … off the private sector
From Stuff: (quoting Tolley)
– The scheme is already under way in Christchurch’s Rolleston prison, which has a contract with Housing New Zealand to refurbish earthquake-struck properties.
-denied prisoners would be providing cheap labour for Corrections, pointing out that Release to Work participants get market wages.
Not singing from the same hymn sheet it seems, and it looks like Tolley is the one who has the briefing notes.
More on Timbuktu. The BBC and other news outlets are reporting that it now seems possible that staff from the two libraries may have hidden substantial parts of the collections during the occupation. Here’s hoping.
but wait, there’s more-
(sadly air pollution in Beijing is “beyond index” and that is all that was clear in the Herald today)
Dom (inic Crossan) Rules Daily (well, maybe not the editorials, but that’s a matter of opinion…)
(yet that former school teacher and i, we see eye to eye, whats a dignified way to live, and die; me and you and a dog named Blue)
on the subject of Education; “Govt funding not enough to provide even the basics”
Principles? “struggling to meet 21st C expectations”, cos “IT-man that sucks up money” (maybe MS are really making vacuum cleaners)
MoBIE- workplace health and safety rules not working-Play http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_play (The- Everlasting- Sky is Broken; My Weakness? Natural Blues) Ministry of Primary Industries finally advises of warmer climate change predicting
More Floods-More Droughts-and Productivity Pests
and, and, Cancer is mutating from a “terminal” to “chronic” dis ease; can now “carry on” business “for a good decade or more”. (resistance to drugs will be a Major Growth industry Pharmacy) while the U.S economy vital stats are Banking, Building and Auto Ambulances.
A military vizier to the pharoah advises that the Egyptian State may collapse (Spinxcters clenched)
Holy Moses! (Travelin’ Soldier; now there’s some Southern candy.man!)
Peter Calder in the NZHerald today speaks of why it is so necessary not to get rid of libraries.
I like all the gadgets, but my home library and study is my analogue retreat from the world. I am aprt of the long tail of those who will never give up analogue preference for reading in long form.
Is it just me, or do all major corporations that could suffer from pirating repeatedly screw their customers to the point that pirating is the only option?
fatty, Excellent work squeezing the pseudo-“righteousness” out of the “priest”; they clearly had not heard there is sin and didn’t seem benevolent to their compatriots (their thoughts were revealed, maybe someone slipped them a roofie in their Jungle Juice to cloud their future draping)
The world exists through three things- The Law, worship and beneficence.
-Simeon The Just (Descended into sublime curved-Space)
Slippery the Prime Minister spends up large on money He aint got and has a laugh at the Supreme Court while He is at it,
Missed due to the enthralling tantrum befitting a 4 year old as Slippery the Prime Minister lost His rag going from making a ‘State of the Nation’ speech to yelling a torrent of abuse at the combined opposition,(brought about so rumor has it by an opposition MP taunting the Prime Minister on His way into the Chamber yesterday over whether or not the dead piece of animal fur that covers Slippery’s bald spot is really made from the soft hairs gently plucked from the anal crevice of a blind donkey called Brucie),
The little gem that He,(Slippery), plans this year to spend 800 million bucks from the sale of Mighty River Power into the economy,
What a grand economic vision, spending money that you aint got from assets that aint sold and where there’s every chance that the Supreme Court will rule against you in a case involving the small fact that someone else might have prior rights to the water flowing down that Mighty River,
Some might call that confidence, more to the point tho it looks like a confidence trick being played by the Slippery little Shyster on us all,
I suppose that when the Supreme Court in it’s wisdom rules that yes Maori do have prior existing rights to the waters of that Mighty River the Slippery little Shyster will simply borrow the 800 million He plans on spending from the sale proceeds to add to the 42 billion His Government has already borrowed in 4 years as a tax against future generations…
What did having me sitting up and watching with interest yesterday during the ‘State of the Nation’ speeches was John Banks when the cameras caught Him ‘in shot’ while focusing on the Prime Minister,
I have to ask, is He(Banks), clinically dead and medical science is keeping some form of resemblance of life apparent???
Banks gave every impression of being the ‘wooden indian’, not a facial tic,neither a smile nor grimace and nary a hear here as the Prime Minister gave the nation His impression of a 4 year old in the midst of a toy tossing episode,
Banks tho seems to have taken to a very good display of anal retention perhaps fearful of spraying something putrid like fear into His diapers at the thought of His upcoming date with the judiciary in the form of a private prosecution laid at the Wellington District Court,
More to the point i believe tho would be that the word He(Banks) got from Slippery the Prime Minister was that of ‘dear john’ if that private prosecution in the Wellington District Court enters a conviction against you, bye bye,
Hey i know,how bout ‘Banksie’ for Mayor of Auckland, any takers??? ha ha ha didn’t think so…
Lolz they must have done a Lance Armstrong on Him, He was wheeled out befor PrimeNews to blather on about something forgettable tonight his mouth appeared to be moving tho i cannot say the same about His brain…
Paula Bennett’s and the Key led government’s most draconian, mean spirited and punitive welfare reforms in New Zealand’s recent history, are now increasingly being taken note of at the other side of the globe.
Yes, ‘Black Triangle’ organisation and others there, who have been and are fighting the ruthless benefit regime put in place there, just having been tightened even further under the Cameron led government, have taken note of the concerns agencies and advocates here in NZ raise.
New Zealand is being watched, and this is good.
See the newest on CCS, what amongst others stuff.co reported, and what is being quoted and shared there:
So Professor Mansel Aylward and his promoted tough work capacity testing, that Bennett seems to be so fond of, is going to be scrutinised “internationally”, while Bennett claims there is “international medical evidence” for the new approach to push sick and disabled back into work being justified and good.
Her speech is full of one sided propaganda and pseudo science, referring to this bizarre “bio-psycho social model” Prof. Aylward and a handful other UK “experts” thought out, and are presenting as “international scientific evidence” (strangly almost only from them, in the UK):
Growing Up Poor (2012)
A two-part documentary from the BBC following teenagers dealing with the pressures of growing up with one similarity – they are all surviving on under ÂŁ10 a day
LPrent, earlier today (11ish), when moving between posts at the Standard, I twice ended up back in time with the Standard as of the 24th of January. Just as I was about to tell you the phone rang, and then life intervened, so it has taken me until now to mention it.
The reason I do is that the last time I was transported back in The Standard time, there was something quite serious wrong. It seems like everything is fine, so hopefully that won’t be the case today.
It is an imaginary debate between the major modern economists: Keynes, Marx, Friedman, and Schumacher. Each offers their perspective on the present world economy. It also applies to the NZ economy and our politicians.
Who do you agree with? Disagree with? Where do our leaders seem to be?
Keynes: Shit, this going nowhere
Friedman: This is working…I was right when I said it’d be more efficient than slavery.
Schumacher: Oh dear…they went with greed. I told them it would end like this.
Marx: You fuckin morons, I told you this would fail 100 years ago
I get the impression that the respondent made a half-hearted attempt at an “intent” defense, but didn’t want a massive fine to result from a full denial.
True. It might be a strategy to scare and intimidate, or get some “per song” case history before cracking down on massive pirates (if they really exist, of course).
Certainly does seem to be something not quite right about the case. What it’s all really about though is provability…
If you want to use content that’s not yours, it’s a bit of a no-brainer that you shouldn’t go and search for it using google and then download it from a public site with poker adverts or what not…
Most sharing apps aren’t accessible to tracking and despite what the government wants you to believe, ISP’s aren’t very well set up to track P2P data sharing.
She has claimed that Ministry of Education staff losing their wages through server problems is “karma”. Obviously in her flea sized National issue brain it is the whole department’s fault that Novopay has stuffed up and she has no responsibility.
She can now be described as the best communicator of reasons why we have to get rid of this Government. I do not think that Crosby Textor’s consultants can spin this around.
Yes barely a day into the Parliamentary year and Parata is snidely at it again, it’s the one reason why i was hoping that Slippery the Prime Minister would keep Her in His Cabinet,
Hekia an opposition asset every-time She chooses to open Her mouth…
well strung shiny one.
May be up to 3000 Samuels “humanely” put down at the NZP; SOE gotta make a profit; that’s M-C
law. Now, of course (Not Guaranteeing Officially) there will be a Variety of “administrative costs” sponsoring these wee deserving dears; I know, how about we just help our neighbour (and their children) directly, be our sister and brothers’ keeper as Metiria so biblically put it. At our Station on the Way a garage sale is held and the items donated are, wait for it, Free, yes Free (a once in an Autumn offer, annually).cos in A Forest A Play For Today is Primary.
Global and Local? Power to The People, Right On! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtvlBS4PMF0
And yesterday Turei included climate change in her debate speech – particularly the support needed for our Pacific Island neighbours taking the brunt of the changes.
Shhh don’t tell anyone the Green Party have a specific set of policies to address climate change, they are just waiting for Jenni’s permission befor they release them,
That’s a bit cruel ae??? come back jenni your attitude to the Green Party is ok…
Thanks for bringing this to my attention Qot. Much appreciated.
You are right this is a damn good speech. Keep up the good work Russel.
The only thing is, Key skewered him over the Emissions Trading Scheme. The fact of the matter is that the Pollution Trading Scheme, as it should rightly be called, is a Labour Party and National Government supported scheme to let the polluters off the hook. If I remember the debate properly, (and I do), at the time the Green Party had severe reservations about the PTS. Reservations that have been proved correct.
Now is the perfect to rip the veil off who really supports this dirty scheme.
Key in his reply, threatened Russel Norman that if the climate debate comes up in the election he will use the Pollution Trading Scheme to flay the Green Party.
The Green Party need to answer fire with fire.
And expose the Nats for their support for this scheme, that lets polluters off the hook to freely pollute at will. And dumps the bill on the taxpayers.
I call on the Green Party to put up private members bill calling for the complete repeal of the falsely named, Emissions Trading Scheme.
That should do it.
Then we can have the real debate on how to concretely cut back on our CO2 emissions. Instead of being a “fast follower” let’s be a shining example to the world.
The bill: The Green Party calls on parliament to completely abolish the Emissions Trading Scheme. the purpose of this bill to clear the ground for parliament to discuss a more proper and equable way to concretely cut our CO2 emissions.
Let’s have this debate out. Right here. And ritght now, and during the elections. Without this terrible charade, clouding the issue.
Whether it is the National, or Labour Party version of the Pollution Trading Scheme both versions permit Business As Usual to carry on regardless. (Which was the intention).
Such an initiative if taken up by the Green Party caucus will earn them banner headlines and the respect of all sections of society. (Except probably the fossil fuel industry barons, who love this scheme.)
Politics especially for those who do it in parliament is not easy. They are beset from all sides by all sorts of pressures from colleagues and from lobbyists and advisors and experts andn media and make over artists and flatterers and glad handers, all leaning on them not to make a fuss and to ignore their ideals and go with the flow, to not break from the herd. It is not easy to resist this pressure, even in your own interests. This pressure is so intense and relentless that some politicians are often left wondering. even to themselves Why on earth did I let myself go along with that?
Fletcher Building pop Slippery’s bubble tonight on OneNews, of course WE can says the Fletcher Building spokesperson when asked if it can build the houses the Labour party say will cost 300 grand,
There are savings that WOULD be made from the economies of scale of building such houses under one contract says the bloke from Fletchers,
Theres further savings that WOULD be made from designing out of such buildings unnecessary materials and being able to swap cheaper materials for more expensive ones in the design,
Cannot build 300,000 dollar houses Slippery??? i call bullshit on that and Slippery on tonight’s OneNews was forced to make a sniveling back down on His previous statements when shown the tape of Fletcher building saying that such a build on such a budget was entirely possible…
While i am on the subject great work from Labour’s Annette King in defending the “KiwiBuild” program +1 for making the Slippery little Shyster we have as Prime Minister eat humble pie for earlier having shot His mouth off that ‘KiwiBuilt’ couldn’t be built on those numbers,
The piece on OneNews tonight was great on a number of levels as well as for the Kiwibuild, and i think that as a campaign piece you only need show that news clip over and over in every town-hall in New Zealand,i would tho ask you Annette to compare what You said on the news this evening with what Dave Shearer said on the same subject the other day,
Draw your own conclusions but please consider that it is just that which has got most of the commenters here at the Standard fired up about Dave Shearer…
Just watched David Cunliffe on tv in the parliament debate, he was articulate,spoke with
meaning and sincerely, Labour under Cunliffe would streak ahead in the next election,if
only he was given a chance,but i guess those within the clique inside caucus have the
last say, an opportunity lost.
You reckon? I don’t think he will, he’s been very clear that he’s not challenging. Time back in the home electorate with his young family, no pressure to prepare and present policy shit, out of the media scrum, sounds like a good career shift to me.
A great speech. My only reservation, where once hot on the topic, Cunliffe never once mentioned the words “climate change”.
Surely the government’s inability to address this issue is the biggest failing of all. And in fact is the policy where National is most weakest.
My question to David Cunliffe is this;
I know that in your speech you alluded to the government’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Accord, but why did you only hint at the matter?
Why did you never mention the words “climate change”?
David, are you constrained in your comments on this issue?
Why couldn’t you say those two words? maybe include them in a short paragraph?
“This government’s lack of action in the face of climate change, which surely is the single most threatening calamity to affect the future of our grandchildren and the world they will inherit, is climate change. This National Government by refusing to act against this existential threat is condemning our children and children’s children to a severely degraded environment where the safety and stability and beauty of this world which we all enjoy today will be forever denied. A world in which the natural climate necessary to sustain human society will be denied to our grandchildren forever, by the selfish inaction of our political leaders today.
I hope I am wrong and that you are not constrained from challenging the government over their role in continuing with polices that worsen climate change. Or for that matter your own party for contemplating continuing the same polices when they are again the government of this country.
He was toeing the Shearer Labour Party lines, but doing it so much better. That’s how a leader SHOULD speak. He was doing the “hands on” line, and “change”. And he had some little extras in there: talking about listening to the people, and a bottom up government, not top down as under Key’s government.
The speech started off low key, then wound up to something sounding very prime ministerial. Cunlifffe is such a sharp, clear and articulate speaker… and passionate.
CV-Real Labour’s attempt to trivialise the threat of climate change, is of course, being carried out with a deadly serious purpose.
Not being able to defend the Labour Party policy for doing nothing and continuing with BAU. CV-RL attempts to make it all a big joke. A cover for political irresponsibility and cowardice.
It is not the activists that need to reunite it. It is the politicians that need to start listening to the people
then based on what they hear from the people put together a short,medium and long term plan that can capture peoples imagination. A plan that shows them a vision for the future. A plan that they can see working themselves. Once in power (if they get they get there) they need to be bold and be brave they actually need to lead the country to a happier future.
Demand policy. Democratising the leadership is the beginning of the process, not the end.
What are our priories in Government? How do we convince enough of the middle to move left without significant compromise?
For mine, it will also come down to what we can afford after Dunnokeyo has finished skinning us alive. It simply may not be affordable to get our assets back in the short term, short of a Chavezian popular movement. Key will blight this country the way Muldoon did; handing over the keys to a husk of an economy.
Speaking of the asset sales, its not to late to get signatures and it would be good to have a few extra to cover double ups and non-registered voters. Take enrolmernt forms with you, too. That’s the next big challenge; getting ’em on the roll. The Nats do not want the rolls to get any larger and the exodus to Oz hurts our (LP, GP, Mana) vote.
Sorry ’bout the tone of the earlier comment, but I thought it was worth noting. Great speech. I reckon Cunliffe is going to have a bit of licence over the next two years to help mobilise the troops.
I’d be interested to see Standardistas policy ideas (and funding models?). What’s in, what’s out.
btw C.V đ , There is only one Law giver and Judge; the One who is able to save (Seek) and Destroy.
Now Listen (Oh we’re Steppin Out, We’re gonna turn around, Gonna turn around once) you who say, Today or Tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why? You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
11:26 People curse the man who hoards grain, yet blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.
11:28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, yet the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
JACINDA Ardern goes on only about the lack of jobs being the issue with the draconian, punitive, hostile and totally unreasonable welfare reforms that Bennett and the Key led government push for:
So it is the lack of jobs that is the issue? That is where National is supposed to be criticised and blamed? So nothing about truly sick and disabled going to be forced into harsh, severe, inhumane work capacity testing, like they have done in the UK for years now?
It is not relevant what UK advocates and support organisations of beneficiaries and disabled have to say, shouting it out loud???
Just one bloody example, dear JACINDA, how fancy your name sounds!? What do you stand for, where do you really stand, what is your position, where is your bloody voice? Is this for bloody real? We are going to get work tests introduced under Bennett that led to over 1,100 deaths in the UK in much of 2011 alone. So Jacinda just distracts again and talks about child welfare issues, as if sick and invalids and others suffering have no voice, or justification to be heard?
What about Dr David Bratt, the Labour introduced madcap hardline fan of Dr Mansel Aylward, the hard line inventor of the draconian work ability tests in the UK? Is it a TABU for anyone to raise this? That Labour hired a total hardliner, comparing beneficiaries to drug addicts?
So maybe you will be happy to work with Bennett and the Nats, create a Grand Coalition, bring in eugenics and also some day the good old work camps?
I hear Key wants prisoners to work 24/7 for a start, so that is a goal of sorts, is it not?
I am sure it will catch on with the large number of Kiwi rednecks and “battlers”, so they will vote Nats or a hard line Labour lot in, to get this implemented. Bring in forced Labour, that is what “Labour” may mean in future, for those that cannot comply?!
JACINDA Ardern goes on only about the lack of jobs being the issue with the draconian, punitive, hostile and totally unreasonable welfare reforms that Bennett and the Key led government push for
Not quite.
She was pointing out that the finance minister is an idiot because he thinks welfare reforms will lead to fiscal recovery, when the macro-scale growth problem we have is that 7% of the workforce is officially unemployed. God knows what the true rate is.
Agree that there is not enough focus on the dreadful impacts of the reforms, but in a short press release Jacinda did try to cover a bit of this ground:
âIt seems then that Mr Englishâs stated priority of âbedding inâ these reforms basically hinges entirely around reducing access to support, an approach that is not only wrong but that has been discredited in the UK where Paula Bennett seems to be gleaning most of her ideas from.
…
âNational is prepared to spend at least $520 million on these harmful welfare reforms rather than on job creation and removing barriers to getting work. That, in my book, is a mis-directed spend,â Jacinda Ardern says.
‘wrong’, ‘discredited’ and ‘harmful’ reforms. In the context of a 6-sentence press release from the spokesperson for social development and children it’s not enough focus, but it’s not terrible either.
I’m not sure her name has anything to do with anything.
The most left wing social democratic humanitarian I’ve ever known was Farquar Hubert Muddlethorpe Billingsworth Trotsky Smithe.
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The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
 Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for âfast trackâ consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill â currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes-Â The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you arenât wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said âSince we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that âNew Zealandâs economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerfulâ. They also believe that âNew Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerfulâ. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
âYou talking about me?âThe neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hallâs âGlide Timeâ caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Our two-tiered system for veteransâ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veteransâ affairs spokesperson Greg OâConnor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxonâs management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
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 yearâs 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, Labourâs 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 countryâs 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 Governmentâs Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a âget out of jail freeâ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
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 Zealandâs good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National governmentâs 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. ...
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 TÄmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Governmentâs democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Governmentâs proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change thatâs great for the planet and great for consumers after her memberâs bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the countryâs books after Teanau Tuionoâs membersâ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his memberâs bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Todayâs advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Governmentâs newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealandâs urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
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. âOur 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 Zealandâs hydrogen future, with the opening of the countryâs first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. âI 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 Zealandâs own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealandâs 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. âThe report shows that New Zealandâs emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,â Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where heâll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Governmentâs work to restore law and order. âAttending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealandâs human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the worldâs largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. âThe reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealandâs 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  NgÄ 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. âOur 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 Zealandâs overseas missions.  âOur diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealandâs interests around the world,â Mr Peters says.  âI 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. Â âOver 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. âIt is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. âOur coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
âChina remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,â Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says.  Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. âRecently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachersâ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul.  âThe Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. âScience, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During todayâs meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. âThe Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in TaupĹ as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the TaupĹ International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. âAnticipation for the ITM TaupĹ Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. âThe coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. âThis project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sectorâs productivity,â Mr Jones says. âThe project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Governmentâs plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. âBenefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Governmentâs commitment to doubling New Zealandâs renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealandâs latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. âOur Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. âNew Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Governmentâs intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. âThe introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Todayâs announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Governmentâs plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. âInflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sectorâs role in the export-led recovery of the economy. âI am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Governmentâs support for the revitalisation the sector.  "New Zealandâs wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. âThe inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. âMy meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australiaâs University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourneâs Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australiaâs inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and itâs now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this weekâs Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealandâs coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Leeâs spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammageâs Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australiaâs forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmersâs third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief â beyond the tax cuts â although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Leeâs recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmannâs defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Leeâs âforensicâ and ânuancedâ application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Itâs one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayersâ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of âsix decades of treacheryâ over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazineâs 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish Iâd writtenIf I wish Iâd written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
âThree Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.â ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunalâs report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallaceâs debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that heâs always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe itâs something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. Sheâs ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whÄnau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says âoutlook not greatâ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoffâs morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, itâs not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The âfinancial sustainability targetâ, which was âallocatedâ to Waitaha, is consistent with whatâs happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous governmentâs affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: Whatâs KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertsonâs valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 24 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. Itâs not as if we havenât done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didnât say: âOh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.â No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer âyesâ to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if theyâre experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
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By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
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There are no official figures kept on foreign ownership of houses and there are currently no restrictions.
Estate agents, developers and buyers have complained that wealthy Chinese buyers are ramping up property prices..
The Greens and NZ First have called for restrictions. Key accused them of racism.
What’s Labour’s position?
ummm, ask Labour?
Seeing as affordable housing is their leading policy, one would assume they would have a strong position, utilizing the opportunity, maintaining the momentum, and capitalizing by showing decisiveness and unity with the Greens..
Unfortunately, when a strong and clear position is required, they’re indecisive.
It seems they need to talk about it.
Poor form.
I dont know any other country that allows unfettered overseas ownership to the extent that we do..
Perhaps Somalia?
Hmm. I don’t know of any country that doesn’t.
What comes to my mind is Wales where there was an ‘unfortunate’ spate of house fires in the 80s and for ‘some strange reason’ those houses that ‘caught’ fire all seemed to be second homes/holiday houses owned predominantly by English people. (It may be continuing, I don’t know).
But do you imagine for one moment that if all of the English owners of second houses in Wales had quit their housing investments that prices would have dropped and the availablity of homes risen for Welsh people and others living in Wales? Well, of course not. And even if the housing stock was reserved for only those people living in Wales, then simple market dynamics would have yet again concentrated ownership in the hands of a relative few.
And it’s the same here, whether we’re talking houses or farms or whatever. And so I tend to agree with those charges of xenaphobia when they are directed against those who would niavely hold that everything would be okay if only those pesky foriegners – and disturbingly – especially those pesky foreigners we can readily identify by sight, and who come from a different cultural tradition, and who just happen to be associated with a nationality that is fast becoming the ‘official’ enemy of western (ie, our) states.
If property prices are being ramped up because richer people are buying multiple houses then the solution doesn’t lie in vilifying one identifyable section of those owners of muliple houses but in dooing something concrete that is aimed fairly and squarely at every single last one of them regardless of their cultural or national origins.
The Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey rates housing as ‘severely’ unaffordable at 5.1 times annual household income.
Auckland is the least affordable market, with a median multiple of 6.7.times annual household incomes..
It’s not NZ low incomes that are sustaining these ‘severely’ unaffordable prices
Supply and demand. The amount of local wealth is limited. Opening NZ up to affluent offshore investors increases buyer demand., pricing locals out of the market.
Concentration of wealth rather than the over-all amount of wealth is the problem. And while I can understand an argument that holds prices have gone up even further than they otherwise would have due to wealthy over seas investors/buyers, that doesn’t mean that a market accessable only by domestic buyers would make much of a toss of a difference.
There is a demographic that can afford to buy houses and who can use previous purchases as collateral on further purchases. They exist and would persist even in the absence of foreign buyers and the market would merely be concentrated in their hands rather than the hands of them and foreigners.
The difference is the exchange rate. The Brits were buying land were at one stage and easily outbidding the locals, and thus the property prices went up, quite massively in some cases. That was with immigrants, but you can see the same dynamic in places like Queenstown, where large amounts of houses are owned offshore. Stewart Island is another place where foreign buyers changed property pricing exponentially.
So, sure, there are problems anyway, and only certain NZers could afford to buy property. But now houses are too expensive for even those people.
If I lived in Auckland instead of the SI I’d no doubt be talking about the Chinese more than the Brits or Americans đ It’s a tricky conversation to be had, because obviously there are distinct racism against Asians issues in NZ. And yet, the overseas ownership issue, and immigration issues are real.
Did the GP mention the Chinese specifically?
The only thing google news spits out is this, from our friend Patrick Gower –
http://www.3news.co.nz/Housing-affordability-Key-accuses-Greens-NZ-First-of-racism/tabid/1607/articleID/284683/Default.aspx
Nothing on the GP website press releases.
Looks like and out and out dog whistle from Key, or perhaps orchestrated by Gower.
Vast inequality and the negative implications of the concentration of wealth is a global phenomenon.
The problem with the local demographic that you highlighted is further exacerbated by allowing unrestricted foreign ownership of houses.
Moreover, the much needed investment returns (rents) largely leave our economy and head offshore, further adding to our fiscal shortfall and economic slowdown.
Additionally, Bill.
There are numerous issues driving up the price of property.
Limiting foreign investment, hence immensely reducing buyer demand, would vastly slowdown the price increase.
The reasons behind the problem with the local demographic that you highlighted are varied.
Investor distrust in the sharemarket drives many investors into property
With interest rates staying low and around $110b invested in bank deposits, that problem is compounded with investors seeking higher yields
Bank lending, that finances many investors, also comes under the spotlight.
Addressing foreign investment is merely one in a list of required initiatives to genuinely deal with the problem. But where is Labour on the matter?
If I may?
basically NZers are stupid enough to exchange our real local wealth for overseas printed fiat currency. Not a good deal.
Key accused them of racism.
Key is subject to both federal capital gains and Hawaiian non resident property tax of property tax of 15%.
‘Callaghan Innovation’ comes into being on Friday…
Anyone know what it is supposed to do?
Good Question:
Another grand scheme by Innovation Minister, Steven Joyce: Callagahan innovation.
More on it at the above link.
There used to be a word for forced unpaid workâslavery. Rehabilitation should be an automatic part of the prison system not an exploitative add on.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10862190
TG – Exactly! (Maybe they will be paid, but it will be a pittance I am sure).
Rehabilitation? How is it that National got to hear that word? Kind of rolls around their tongue, feels good. National knows and understands only one word on prisoners (and beneficiaries) and that is Punishment!
The Herald: (quoting Key)
– Up to 1400 inmates will be working 40 hours a week – without pay
– Inmates at Rolleston Prison had already begun 40-hour weeks in response to a demand for labour for the rebuild of Christchurch.
-Asked whether working prisons were a form of cheap labour, Mr Key said: “Not really. There already are work programmes which are … sometimes controversial because they take work … off the private sector
From Stuff: (quoting Tolley)
– The scheme is already under way in Christchurch’s Rolleston prison, which has a contract with Housing New Zealand to refurbish earthquake-struck properties.
-denied prisoners would be providing cheap labour for Corrections, pointing out that Release to Work participants get market wages.
Not singing from the same hymn sheet it seems, and it looks like Tolley is the one who has the briefing notes.
Close enough to have radio rantland applauding and that swinging centre being dog whistled into shape.
Rosy, that Herald link didn’t work. Was this it?
Interestingly, Greg Newbold was not quick to write it off and saw some positives in it.
Be nice to have more details on this.
Sorry, always issues working from a mobile device…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10862240
More on Timbuktu. The BBC and other news outlets are reporting that it now seems possible that staff from the two libraries may have hidden substantial parts of the collections during the occupation. Here’s hoping.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/01/29/heres-what-was-in-the-torched-timbuktu-library/
Gutsy brave librarians (HEH!), fingers crossed indeed đ
but wait, there’s more-
(sadly air pollution in Beijing is “beyond index” and that is all that was clear in the Herald today)
Dom (inic Crossan) Rules Daily (well, maybe not the editorials, but that’s a matter of opinion…)
(yet that former school teacher and i, we see eye to eye, whats a dignified way to live, and die; me and you and a dog named Blue)
on the subject of Education; “Govt funding not enough to provide even the basics”
Principles? “struggling to meet 21st C expectations”, cos “IT-man that sucks up money” (maybe MS are really making vacuum cleaners)
MoBIE- workplace health and safety rules not working-Play
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_play (The- Everlasting- Sky is Broken; My Weakness? Natural Blues) Ministry of Primary Industries finally advises of warmer climate change predicting
More Floods-More Droughts-and Productivity Pests
and, and, Cancer is mutating from a “terminal” to “chronic” dis ease; can now “carry on” business “for a good decade or more”. (resistance to drugs will be a Major Growth industry Pharmacy) while the U.S economy vital stats are Banking, Building and Auto Ambulances.
A military vizier to the pharoah advises that the Egyptian State may collapse (Spinxcters clenched)
Holy Moses! (Travelin’ Soldier; now there’s some Southern candy.man!)
Timbuktu Name of the Rose redux!
Peter Calder in the NZHerald today speaks of why it is so necessary not to get rid of libraries.
I like all the gadgets, but my home library and study is my analogue retreat from the world. I am aprt of the long tail of those who will never give up analogue preference for reading in long form.
Got your library on Kindle? Did you know Amazon can burn it down at the click of a button from 5000km away?
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/10/23/why-did-amazon-close-a-womans-account-and-delete-all-her-kindle-books/
Is it just me, or do all major corporations that could suffer from pirating repeatedly screw their customers to the point that pirating is the only option?
Not consuming their product is always an option.
good idea…tell that woman to get in her time machine, go back and not buy a Kindle.
Hang on, time machines don’t exist…bad idea
It’s the way of the future, as you have correctly identified, KK
fatty, Excellent work squeezing the pseudo-“righteousness” out of the “priest”; they clearly had not heard there is sin and didn’t seem benevolent to their compatriots (their thoughts were revealed, maybe someone slipped them a roofie in their Jungle Juice to cloud their future draping)
The world exists through three things- The Law, worship and beneficence.
-Simeon The Just (Descended into sublime curved-Space)
it was an Excellent article ad, imho
From yesterdays tragedy, to todays hope!
That’s the name of a book by Carroll Quigley – Maybe read it some time!
Here’s a BBC documentary about Timbuktuâs libraries, including the one that was burned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Heh_91lhenA
Slippery the Prime Minister spends up large on money He aint got and has a laugh at the Supreme Court while He is at it,
Missed due to the enthralling tantrum befitting a 4 year old as Slippery the Prime Minister lost His rag going from making a ‘State of the Nation’ speech to yelling a torrent of abuse at the combined opposition,(brought about so rumor has it by an opposition MP taunting the Prime Minister on His way into the Chamber yesterday over whether or not the dead piece of animal fur that covers Slippery’s bald spot is really made from the soft hairs gently plucked from the anal crevice of a blind donkey called Brucie),
The little gem that He,(Slippery), plans this year to spend 800 million bucks from the sale of Mighty River Power into the economy,
What a grand economic vision, spending money that you aint got from assets that aint sold and where there’s every chance that the Supreme Court will rule against you in a case involving the small fact that someone else might have prior rights to the water flowing down that Mighty River,
Some might call that confidence, more to the point tho it looks like a confidence trick being played by the Slippery little Shyster on us all,
I suppose that when the Supreme Court in it’s wisdom rules that yes Maori do have prior existing rights to the waters of that Mighty River the Slippery little Shyster will simply borrow the 800 million He plans on spending from the sale proceeds to add to the 42 billion His Government has already borrowed in 4 years as a tax against future generations…
What did having me sitting up and watching with interest yesterday during the ‘State of the Nation’ speeches was John Banks when the cameras caught Him ‘in shot’ while focusing on the Prime Minister,
I have to ask, is He(Banks), clinically dead and medical science is keeping some form of resemblance of life apparent???
Banks gave every impression of being the ‘wooden indian’, not a facial tic,neither a smile nor grimace and nary a hear here as the Prime Minister gave the nation His impression of a 4 year old in the midst of a toy tossing episode,
Banks tho seems to have taken to a very good display of anal retention perhaps fearful of spraying something putrid like fear into His diapers at the thought of His upcoming date with the judiciary in the form of a private prosecution laid at the Wellington District Court,
More to the point i believe tho would be that the word He(Banks) got from Slippery the Prime Minister was that of ‘dear john’ if that private prosecution in the Wellington District Court enters a conviction against you, bye bye,
Hey i know,how bout ‘Banksie’ for Mayor of Auckland, any takers??? ha ha ha didn’t think so…
I think he may have overdone the botox.
Lolz they must have done a Lance Armstrong on Him, He was wheeled out befor PrimeNews to blather on about something forgettable tonight his mouth appeared to be moving tho i cannot say the same about His brain…
Paula Bennett’s and the Key led government’s most draconian, mean spirited and punitive welfare reforms in New Zealand’s recent history, are now increasingly being taken note of at the other side of the globe.
Yes, ‘Black Triangle’ organisation and others there, who have been and are fighting the ruthless benefit regime put in place there, just having been tightened even further under the Cameron led government, have taken note of the concerns agencies and advocates here in NZ raise.
New Zealand is being watched, and this is good.
See the newest on CCS, what amongst others stuff.co reported, and what is being quoted and shared there:
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/01/11/new-zealand-british-style-work-tests-concern-tests-were-developed-by-disability-expert-prof-sir-mansel-aylward/
http://www.politicus.org.uk/news/new-zealand-%E2%80%98britishstyle-work-tests-concern%E2%80%99-tests-were-developed-by-disability-%E2%80%98expert%E2%80%99-prof-sir-mansel-aylward_1833
Also of interest soon:
http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/tt5jz/panorama–the-great-disability-scam—panorama
So Professor Mansel Aylward and his promoted tough work capacity testing, that Bennett seems to be so fond of, is going to be scrutinised “internationally”, while Bennett claims there is “international medical evidence” for the new approach to push sick and disabled back into work being justified and good.
Her speech is full of one sided propaganda and pseudo science, referring to this bizarre “bio-psycho social model” Prof. Aylward and a handful other UK “experts” thought out, and are presenting as “international scientific evidence” (strangly almost only from them, in the UK):
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech-medical-professionals
Growing Up Poor (2012)
A two-part documentary from the BBC following teenagers dealing with the pressures of growing up with one similarity – they are all surviving on under ÂŁ10 a day
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pwyvx
Ok, so the trools are out in force today, but do we really have to give them a place at the dinner table?
LPrent, earlier today (11ish), when moving between posts at the Standard, I twice ended up back in time with the Standard as of the 24th of January. Just as I was about to tell you the phone rang, and then life intervened, so it has taken me until now to mention it.
The reason I do is that the last time I was transported back in The Standard time, there was something quite serious wrong. It seems like everything is fine, so hopefully that won’t be the case today.
A very interesting read and possible Standard conversation:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics-blog/2013/jan/27/ultimate-davos-debate-marx-keynes
It is an imaginary debate between the major modern economists: Keynes, Marx, Friedman, and Schumacher. Each offers their perspective on the present world economy. It also applies to the NZ economy and our politicians.
Who do you agree with? Disagree with? Where do our leaders seem to be?
interesting…
Here’s a summary of what they would say…
Keynes: Shit, this going nowhere
Friedman: This is working…I was right when I said it’d be more efficient than slavery.
Schumacher: Oh dear…they went with greed. I told them it would end like this.
Marx: You fuckin morons, I told you this would fail 100 years ago
i ackshully read that article the day it came out in The Guardian (ya know I agree)
swoon, before spitoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLBgmbXBOb8
đ
lol true
Weird. The first Skynet copyright decision…. fined for illegally downloading/uploading 3 songs!
I get the impression that the respondent made a half-hearted attempt at an “intent” defense, but didn’t want a massive fine to result from a full denial.
But such small fry. I was somehow expecting the first decisions about someone who has uploaded/downloaded massive amounts.
True. It might be a strategy to scare and intimidate, or get some “per song” case history before cracking down on massive pirates (if they really exist, of course).
McFlock
Certainly does seem to be something not quite right about the case. What it’s all really about though is provability…
If you want to use content that’s not yours, it’s a bit of a no-brainer that you shouldn’t go and search for it using google and then download it from a public site with poker adverts or what not…
Find one of the well known file sharing applications and use it, particularly those apps that retain anonymity.
Most sharing apps aren’t accessible to tracking and despite what the government wants you to believe, ISP’s aren’t very well set up to track P2P data sharing.
I’d believe that when I see it.
They might just have been testing the waters before going through their main target lists.
He, Parata is in trouble.
She has claimed that Ministry of Education staff losing their wages through server problems is “karma”. Obviously in her flea sized National issue brain it is the whole department’s fault that Novopay has stuffed up and she has no responsibility.
She can now be described as the best communicator of reasons why we have to get rid of this Government. I do not think that Crosby Textor’s consultants can spin this around.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/parata-blames-karma-after-ministry-education-staff-miss-pay-day-5329868
Oh yes what a great communicator this brainless woman is, she’s gotta go!
Yes barely a day into the Parliamentary year and Parata is snidely at it again, it’s the one reason why i was hoping that Slippery the Prime Minister would keep Her in His Cabinet,
Hekia an opposition asset every-time She chooses to open Her mouth…
well strung shiny one.
May be up to 3000 Samuels “humanely” put down at the NZP; SOE gotta make a profit; that’s M-C
law. Now, of course (Not Guaranteeing Officially) there will be a Variety of “administrative costs” sponsoring these wee deserving dears; I know, how about we just help our neighbour (and their children) directly, be our sister and brothers’ keeper as Metiria so biblically put it. At our Station on the Way a garage sale is held and the items donated are, wait for it, Free, yes Free (a once in an Autumn offer, annually).cos in A Forest A Play For Today is Primary.
Global and Local? Power to The People, Right On!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtvlBS4PMF0
-John Lenin
Interesting coincidence: Russel Norman asks Key a primary oral question on climate change; Jenny doesn’t comment on the Open Mike of the day.
I’m pretty sure that Norman was ordered by his coal industry sponsors to do this in order to throw us off the scent.
And yesterday Turei included climate change in her debate speech – particularly the support needed for our Pacific Island neighbours taking the brunt of the changes.
Shhh don’t tell anyone the Green Party have a specific set of policies to address climate change, they are just waiting for Jenni’s permission befor they release them,
That’s a bit cruel ae??? come back jenni your attitude to the Green Party is ok…
Thanks for bringing this to my attention Qot. Much appreciated.
You are right this is a damn good speech. Keep up the good work Russel.
The only thing is, Key skewered him over the Emissions Trading Scheme. The fact of the matter is that the Pollution Trading Scheme, as it should rightly be called, is a Labour Party and National Government supported scheme to let the polluters off the hook. If I remember the debate properly, (and I do), at the time the Green Party had severe reservations about the PTS. Reservations that have been proved correct.
Now is the perfect to rip the veil off who really supports this dirty scheme.
Key in his reply, threatened Russel Norman that if the climate debate comes up in the election he will use the Pollution Trading Scheme to flay the Green Party.
The Green Party need to answer fire with fire.
And expose the Nats for their support for this scheme, that lets polluters off the hook to freely pollute at will. And dumps the bill on the taxpayers.
I call on the Green Party to put up private members bill calling for the complete repeal of the falsely named, Emissions Trading Scheme.
That should do it.
Then we can have the real debate on how to concretely cut back on our CO2 emissions. Instead of being a “fast follower” let’s be a shining example to the world.
The bill: The Green Party calls on parliament to completely abolish the Emissions Trading Scheme. the purpose of this bill to clear the ground for parliament to discuss a more proper and equable way to concretely cut our CO2 emissions.
Let’s have this debate out. Right here. And ritght now, and during the elections. Without this terrible charade, clouding the issue.
Whether it is the National, or Labour Party version of the Pollution Trading Scheme both versions permit Business As Usual to carry on regardless. (Which was the intention).
Such an initiative if taken up by the Green Party caucus will earn them banner headlines and the respect of all sections of society. (Except probably the fossil fuel industry barons, who love this scheme.)
“That should do it”
Yes, politics is as easy as you say it is.
Politics especially for those who do it in parliament is not easy. They are beset from all sides by all sorts of pressures from colleagues and from lobbyists and advisors and experts andn media and make over artists and flatterers and glad handers, all leaning on them not to make a fuss and to ignore their ideals and go with the flow, to not break from the herd. It is not easy to resist this pressure, even in your own interests. This pressure is so intense and relentless that some politicians are often left wondering. even to themselves Why on earth did I let myself go along with that?
Fletcher Building pop Slippery’s bubble tonight on OneNews, of course WE can says the Fletcher Building spokesperson when asked if it can build the houses the Labour party say will cost 300 grand,
There are savings that WOULD be made from the economies of scale of building such houses under one contract says the bloke from Fletchers,
Theres further savings that WOULD be made from designing out of such buildings unnecessary materials and being able to swap cheaper materials for more expensive ones in the design,
Cannot build 300,000 dollar houses Slippery??? i call bullshit on that and Slippery on tonight’s OneNews was forced to make a sniveling back down on His previous statements when shown the tape of Fletcher building saying that such a build on such a budget was entirely possible…
While i am on the subject great work from Labour’s Annette King in defending the “KiwiBuild” program +1 for making the Slippery little Shyster we have as Prime Minister eat humble pie for earlier having shot His mouth off that ‘KiwiBuilt’ couldn’t be built on those numbers,
The piece on OneNews tonight was great on a number of levels as well as for the Kiwibuild, and i think that as a campaign piece you only need show that news clip over and over in every town-hall in New Zealand,i would tho ask you Annette to compare what You said on the news this evening with what Dave Shearer said on the same subject the other day,
Draw your own conclusions but please consider that it is just that which has got most of the commenters here at the Standard fired up about Dave Shearer…
Just watched David Cunliffe on tv in the parliament debate, he was articulate,spoke with
meaning and sincerely, Labour under Cunliffe would streak ahead in the next election,if
only he was given a chance,but i guess those within the clique inside caucus have the
last say, an opportunity lost.
Thanks for the heads up. And it’s on YT now.
Ta. Watched it.
Yup, he’ll stand for leader if caucus calls for a vote on Monday.
You reckon? I don’t think he will, he’s been very clear that he’s not challenging. Time back in the home electorate with his young family, no pressure to prepare and present policy shit, out of the media scrum, sounds like a good career shift to me.
Yup. Subtext.
May need to be called on ….in the unlikely event that the caucus votes for sanity….
Yeah maybe his arm could be twisted if push came to shove…we will see.
Thanks for putting it up Karol; a very heartening speech.
Thanks Karol. Yes – that speech was well worth listening to.
A great speech. My only reservation, where once hot on the topic, Cunliffe never once mentioned the words “climate change”.
Surely the government’s inability to address this issue is the biggest failing of all. And in fact is the policy where National is most weakest.
My question to David Cunliffe is this;
I know that in your speech you alluded to the government’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Accord, but why did you only hint at the matter?
Why did you never mention the words “climate change”?
David, are you constrained in your comments on this issue?
Why couldn’t you say those two words? maybe include them in a short paragraph?
“This government’s lack of action in the face of climate change, which surely is the single most threatening calamity to affect the future of our grandchildren and the world they will inherit, is climate change. This National Government by refusing to act against this existential threat is condemning our children and children’s children to a severely degraded environment where the safety and stability and beauty of this world which we all enjoy today will be forever denied. A world in which the natural climate necessary to sustain human society will be denied to our grandchildren forever, by the selfish inaction of our political leaders today.
I hope I am wrong and that you are not constrained from challenging the government over their role in continuing with polices that worsen climate change. Or for that matter your own party for contemplating continuing the same polices when they are again the government of this country.
“My only reservation”
Blow me down.
I noted the line about David Shearer’s Labour Party. No doubt now the phoney war is over.
Edit: Phonies war?
He was toeing the Shearer Labour Party lines, but doing it so much better. That’s how a leader SHOULD speak. He was doing the “hands on” line, and “change”. And he had some little extras in there: talking about listening to the people, and a bottom up government, not top down as under Key’s government.
The speech started off low key, then wound up to something sounding very prime ministerial. Cunlifffe is such a sharp, clear and articulate speaker… and passionate.
Yes Cunliffe does pretty well for a backbencher. Certainly a potential prospect for future promotion to an Associate portfolio spot??
Only, if he keeps up the self censorship.
You sorta need to relax. The end of the world may be coming but you’re allowed to sit back with a G&T and just enjoy the spectacle.
Is this Labour Party policy, or just your own personal view?
Yes I get sign off on all Labour Party policy, what do you want done next?
Also I should add that Labour Party policy specifies a good working class bourbon and coke as the drink of choice, not a G&T.
CV, defines what he sees as the difference between Labour and National.
As CV becomes more silly and irrational.
‘
CV-Real Labour’s attempt to trivialise the threat of climate change, is of course, being carried out with a deadly serious purpose.
Not being able to defend the Labour Party policy for doing nothing and continuing with BAU. CV-RL attempts to make it all a big joke. A cover for political irresponsibility and cowardice.
Personally:
“I’d Rather Fight Like Hell”
He was toeing the Shearer Labour Party lines
karol
I agree, particularly in letting the government off the hook on their record over climate change.
So TRP how do you propose that activists sort this out? Your comment was rather cheap. How do the activists reunite the party?
It is not the activists that need to reunite it. It is the politicians that need to start listening to the people
then based on what they hear from the people put together a short,medium and long term plan that can capture peoples imagination. A plan that shows them a vision for the future. A plan that they can see working themselves. Once in power (if they get they get there) they need to be bold and be brave they actually need to lead the country to a happier future.
Demand policy. Democratising the leadership is the beginning of the process, not the end.
What are our priories in Government? How do we convince enough of the middle to move left without significant compromise?
For mine, it will also come down to what we can afford after Dunnokeyo has finished skinning us alive. It simply may not be affordable to get our assets back in the short term, short of a Chavezian popular movement. Key will blight this country the way Muldoon did; handing over the keys to a husk of an economy.
Speaking of the asset sales, its not to late to get signatures and it would be good to have a few extra to cover double ups and non-registered voters. Take enrolmernt forms with you, too. That’s the next big challenge; getting ’em on the roll. The Nats do not want the rolls to get any larger and the exodus to Oz hurts our (LP, GP, Mana) vote.
Sorry ’bout the tone of the earlier comment, but I thought it was worth noting. Great speech. I reckon Cunliffe is going to have a bit of licence over the next two years to help mobilise the troops.
I’d be interested to see Standardistas policy ideas (and funding models?). What’s in, what’s out.
I could just about weep for that loss of talent. He speaks what I believe, with greater vision and skill than anyone else on the Labour benches.
+1
btw C.V đ , There is only one Law giver and Judge; the One who is able to save (Seek) and Destroy.
Now Listen (Oh we’re Steppin Out, We’re gonna turn around, Gonna turn around once) you who say, Today or Tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why? You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
11:26 People curse the man who hoards grain, yet blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.
11:28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, yet the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
-D.C (wonder if they’re ski-ing Unturnwasser?)
đ
So it is clear, here we go AGAIN!
JACINDA Ardern goes on only about the lack of jobs being the issue with the draconian, punitive, hostile and totally unreasonable welfare reforms that Bennett and the Key led government push for:
http://jacinda.co.nz/index.php/2013/01/english-desperate-if-failed-welfare-reforms-are-his-answer/
So it is the lack of jobs that is the issue? That is where National is supposed to be criticised and blamed? So nothing about truly sick and disabled going to be forced into harsh, severe, inhumane work capacity testing, like they have done in the UK for years now?
It is not relevant what UK advocates and support organisations of beneficiaries and disabled have to say, shouting it out loud???
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/01/11/new-zealand-british-style-work-tests-concern-tests-were-developed-by-disability-expert-prof-sir-mansel-aylward/
Just one bloody example, dear JACINDA, how fancy your name sounds!? What do you stand for, where do you really stand, what is your position, where is your bloody voice? Is this for bloody real? We are going to get work tests introduced under Bennett that led to over 1,100 deaths in the UK in much of 2011 alone. So Jacinda just distracts again and talks about child welfare issues, as if sick and invalids and others suffering have no voice, or justification to be heard?
What about Dr David Bratt, the Labour introduced madcap hardline fan of Dr Mansel Aylward, the hard line inventor of the draconian work ability tests in the UK? Is it a TABU for anyone to raise this? That Labour hired a total hardliner, comparing beneficiaries to drug addicts?
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/GP%20CME/Friday/C1%201515%20Bratt-Hawker.pdf
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/2012/Fri_DaVinci_1400_Bratt_Medical%20Certificates%20are%20Clinical%20Instruments%20too%20-%20June%202012.pdf
So maybe you will be happy to work with Bennett and the Nats, create a Grand Coalition, bring in eugenics and also some day the good old work camps?
I hear Key wants prisoners to work 24/7 for a start, so that is a goal of sorts, is it not?
I am sure it will catch on with the large number of Kiwi rednecks and “battlers”, so they will vote Nats or a hard line Labour lot in, to get this implemented. Bring in forced Labour, that is what “Labour” may mean in future, for those that cannot comply?!
Oh, I hate you all, I hate you!!!
JACINDA Ardern goes on only about the lack of jobs being the issue with the draconian, punitive, hostile and totally unreasonable welfare reforms that Bennett and the Key led government push for
Not quite.
She was pointing out that the finance minister is an idiot because he thinks welfare reforms will lead to fiscal recovery, when the macro-scale growth problem we have is that 7% of the workforce is officially unemployed. God knows what the true rate is.
Agree that there is not enough focus on the dreadful impacts of the reforms, but in a short press release Jacinda did try to cover a bit of this ground:
‘wrong’, ‘discredited’ and ‘harmful’ reforms. In the context of a 6-sentence press release from the spokesperson for social development and children it’s not enough focus, but it’s not terrible either.
” dear JACINDA, how fancy your name sounds!”
I’m not sure her name has anything to do with anything.
The most left wing social democratic humanitarian I’ve ever known was Farquar Hubert Muddlethorpe Billingsworth Trotsky Smithe.
đ
always been a storm (in a green tea cup)
Edit: sea-cup