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6:00 am, September 16th, 2016 - 80 comments
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Nicholas Jones shows he is just another Tory shill.
What a patsy piece on Parata.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11710547
History will show Hekia is right on this and the left…well they tried their best I suppose
Is that your crystal ball or your navel you’re gazing into, Pucky? Either way, dust or lint is causing poor reception.
I suppose that’s the thing about history is that we’ll have to wait a couple of decades to see I was right
In ten years will have far more pressing and physical issues to worry about, like global avg temps climbing over 2 deg C.
Well when you put it like that
Our economy is performing brilliantly … so are we better off?
Simple answer for 90% of us, Liam.
No.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11710745
A couple of articles he should read.
Economic lies about the “rock star economy”
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/09/13/economic-lies-about-the-rock-star-economy/
We have a rock star economy addicted to meth
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/09/15/we-have-a-rock-star-economy-addicted-to-meth/
“Strip out the student/worker visa scam immigration and rebuilding from a natural disaster and our actual growth rate is a mere .6%”
– But you can’t strip it out, its already there. May as well say without the 3.6% growth we’d have 0% growth
Population growth of 2.1% and annual growth of 3.6% should produce per capita growth of 1.5%. So I am a bit skeptical about the Westpac economist analysis which produced the 0.6% figure.
A fair bit of the population growth is in people with temporary and student visas. Many of them, especially students, will be in relatively low paid jobs, so i would wonder if they really increase per capita growth, as opposed to just matching population growth.
I appreciate the actual increase in activity might be concentrated in certain sectors such as construction, but it is invariably the case certain sectors grow faster than other. A few years ago the high growth sector was dairy. In fact you can have declining sectors even in a period of high growth.
Probably the best thing about current growth is that it will reduce unemployment, especially among younger people with limited skills. In fact construction generates quite a few moderate and low skilled jobs. It gets them on the ladder to better jobs.
In North Shore (nearly 10% of the NZ population and a reasonable reflection of much of New Zealand – though I accept North Shore as a whole is better off than say South Auckland) the effects of growth are pretty evident, and seem widespread.
Really great growth in the poverty area too Wayne. Food banks are creaming it and the Salvation Army et al are having a prolonged growth spurt. Prison growth must hold you in awe and it must be heartening to see your brighter future blossoming.
🙂
Growth in our community food bank has been an astonishing 100% over the past year. I wonder if Bill will crow about that?
Poverty ? What’s poverty ? Wayne doesn’t see poverty. Wayne is a perennial ‘Young Nat to Old Nat’ trougher. Wayne’s acknowledgment of such ‘horridness’ is to the scandalously temeritous mention of it, rather than the fact of it.
Actually, you can. If the bits keeping the aggregate high are outliers, then yeah, it’s misleading to keep them in.
If everywhere in the country was in recession, but wgtn had gdp increase of 1000%, then the figures would say “healthy growth” when the facts for almost everyone on the ground are “recession”.
Is this the way to solve Auckland’s traffic woes?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11710710
No.
This is.
Here is a list of cities that currently provide public transport for free.
https://farefreepublictransport.com/city/
At the same time you have to massively ramp up the cost of using personal car transport on Auckland’s motorways, otherwise as the roads empty out it will become more appealing and more convenient to get back into cars.
At the same time you have to massively ramp up the cost of using personal car transport…
No you don’t. You can give the petrol away for free and reduce its availability at something like 15% per annum and we get to be fossil free (ie – car free) by around 2030.
If you insist on looking at in terms of $$$, then maybe the prospect of a stranded asset – that 4WD that’s destined to be junk and impossible to re-sell would be a good enough incentive to get off the personal transport gravy train (sorry for the mixed metaphor 😉 )
edit – should edit to add that the initial cost of giving petrol away for free would be less than $2 billion and that we currently subsidise the fossil industry to the tune of about $2.5 billion per annum.
Yes, you could potentially do it the ‘free but reducing volume’ way. However a population trained to think in terms of electronic dollars and not physical reality could end up pretty confused with how to correctly anticipate and appropriately act.
meh – fill the tank. Bowsers cut out when pre-programmed trajectories of delivery volumes are exceeded and back on again when trajectories are back in range. (Have current and likely availability prominently displayed in a user friendly format in every forecourt)
In essence, getting petrol would be no different to the present, where motorists drive to the station that lets them cash in that supermarket docket or to the one that has a slightly lower price.
As for buying a $40 000 hunk of metal (or whatever it might cost in 2020 or 2025) with the expectation that some of the outlay will be recouped further down the line, well…the world’s full of thems that does stupid.
Keith Olbermann – Hillary was Wrong. All of Trump’s Supporters Are “Deplorable”
https://youtu.be/lctYermoe-o
Promises promises….
.
Donald Trump has made it clear he will nominate Peter Thiel to the Supreme Court if he wins the presidency, Thiel has told friends, according to a source close to the PayPal co-founder.
Trump “deeply loves Peter Thiel,” and people in the real estate mogul’s inner circle are talking about Thiel as a Supreme Court nominee, a separate source close to Trump told The Huffington Post. That source, who has not spoken to Trump directly about Thiel being nominated to the Court, cautioned that Trump’s offers often fail to materialize in real life.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-peter-thiel-supreme-court_us_57d80d57e4b09d7a687f9b03
…salmonella….listeria…..what could possibly go wrong…
http://thehill.com/regulation/healthcare/296152-trump-says-he-would-eliminate-food-safety-regulations
Ahhh yes the elitist superiority of the lefty commentariat.
In other news, latest CBS/NY Times 4 way national poll including Stein and Johnson: Clinton and Trump are TIED on 42% each.
The Democrats should have picked Bernie, the stronger, untainted, more left wing candidate, instead of going with the Wall St bankster backed candidate.
i have just listened to an apologist for human trafficking responding to allegations from a labour department investigation.
foreign fruit picker being paid $10 an hour and ‘housed’ in an unsuitable caravan.
he suggested id cards for workers amongst other things.
how about a card for the exploitative employer?
i see a direct link from this, to dear leaders pontifications on kiwi workers being lazy, stoned and lacking ambition.
Beneficiaries were drug-tested some time last year… of the 8,000 tested, 22 failed.
Let’s test 8,000 employers and see what the result is …. addled like they are by ‘p’ and coke and speed and pot ….
spot on, vto.
not that you will read that in too many papers.
some of these emplyers appear to be addled by $ and the need to accumulate more $.
Joseph Stiglitz Says Standard Economics Is Wrong. Inequality and Unearned Income Kills the Economy
It always surprises me that so many people are fooled into thinking that making the rich richer will help them. We have the evidence, it’s been around for centuries and even millennia, that having rich people actually destroys entire societies.
Of course, Stiglitz is still stuck in the delusion that we need growth. Development yes, growth no.
Buyer’s remorse, with bells.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/brexit-eu-referendum-people-regretting-leave-vote_uk_5770e6b3e4b08d2c56397a46
More like complete dumb arses
More mainstream media bullshit. The corporate MSM always wanted REMAIN to win.
Yep. In 10 years everyone within the UK will be thanking the leave vote.
Within about 5 years I think. That migrant flood from Africa and the ME is only going to intensify.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/09/bottom_decile_better_off_now_than_under_labour.html
“with the top 10 per cent of households forecast to pay 37.2 per cent of income tax in 2016/17, compared with 35.5 per cent in 2007/08.”
“the 30 per cent of households with the lowest incomes are forecast to pay just 5.4 per cent of income tax, compared with 6.3 per cent in 2007/08.”
So if you want a fairer NZ where the richer households pay more tax and the poorer households pay less tax then the answer is obvious: vote National 🙂
The top 10% own 60% of all wealth and should, therefore, be paying 60% of all taxes.
@ Draco agreed, except possibly it is more than 60% that the top 10% now own??
The survey completely ignores GST paid and any other taxes such as rates.
The survey should look at the change in disposable income: top 10% versus bottom 30% and disposable income after housing costs (especially rent) top 10% versus bottom 30%, since the Gnats came to power. That will tell a completely different story.
We are being softened up for tax cuts before the election by the childish simplistic Seymour.
Hey Draco the richer are paying more tax under National then they did under Labour which means the trend is going in the right direction
Give your vote john Key so the trend continues 🙂
when you have less you pay less tax. Assuming that there’s no shenanigans with juking the figures on who pays how much tax, e.g. gst vs paye… lol oh wait, exactly that…
well according to Gareth Morgan no?
http://morganfoundation.org.nz/new-zealand-income-tax-unfair-favours-rich/
you know the guy who is on record for not paying taxes as is his son?
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/business/only-half-of-nz-s-most-wealthy-paying-top-tax-rate-6200604
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/6295855/Morgan-I-should-be-taxed-more
lol, mate, no money in the world could entice me to vote for the Hairpuller in Chief. He is just that disgusting.
They worked to what the system allowed them to do. They didn’t do anything criminal.
And good of them for highlighting issues with the NZ tax system and remarking on how unfair it is.
Your attitude exemplifies why trying to get on with the left wing is a useless, thankless task.
Some of us on the left appreciate Gareths honesty CV.
Well there is plenty of corporate welfare for Hollywood in NZ. Millions on the legal case on Dotcom…. the irony of the money laundering charges against Dotcom from Hollywood when Hollywood and actors are one of the biggest users of tax havens shown up in the Panama papers (after politicians).
Oh well, we all know that once you become super rich, you are not only exempt from paying normal taxes, but you can also buy politicians and use tax payer funds to hunt out any rivals and make them pick up your legal bill.
Meanwhile on the Dotcom case apparently illegal US behaviour is not relevant to the case????
“Mr Van der Kolk and Mr Ortmann’s lawyer, Grant Illingworth, told the High Court that, crucially, the court had not let the men present evidence of unlawful US behaviour.
“[That includes] a massive search and seizure, manufacturing a situation of urgency in order to get procedural shortcuts … covering up the unlawful activities that preceded the [arrests], downstream attempts to cover that up including a police officer giving incorrect information to this court, [and] unlawfully sending clones of hard drives overseas.”
They had also been prevented from presenting evidence from US extradition law experts that would have shown the charges were not extraditable crimes, defence lawyers said.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/313289/extra-evidence-would-not-have-helped-dotcom-crown
And the US is keeping that money they raided illegally.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/310864/us-courts-refuse-to-release-dotcom's-assets
Maybe Dotcom should have gone with Joyce’s defence of ‘pretty legal’…
Not sure what you’re talking about has any relevance but that’s ok, send this into Grant Robertson and you’ll probably get a job on his media team 🙂
why are you trying to talk taxes while not including all forms of taxation and share of income/wealth?
its completely dishonest –
questioned and answered 🙂
yes, quite – questioned and answered multiple times over several years even
i just cant believe that the net tax lie keeps coming back to life. – Either people are very gullible or very deceitful for it to keep being used time and again
kind of staggered that people wont see the giant hole in the argument and just go back to the start – rinse and repeat
PR, thats just farkin abart wiv pissentichers.
Maybe the bottom 30% have had a reduction in their share of overall income commensurate with the reduction in share of direct income taxes paid…… and conversely the top 10% have had a much larger increase in their income which has led to an increase in their overall share of direct tax paid.
So if you want to make out that the rich are getting hit, give them shitloads more and they end up paying more tax.
Just saying that in comparison to Labour National are doing a better job of taxing the rich and the poor 🙂
but you’re using nonsense to say it – that doesnt actually work
DPF is only talking income tax – which isnt all tax.
He’s engaging in a deliberate lie
Will he “stick it to Wall Street”? Probably by crashing it again.
Meanwhile, the racism and misogyny he’s sponsoring continues to take its toll:
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/30/trump_supporters_first_pepper_spray_then_yell_nr_lover_to_15_year_old_protester_in_paul_ryans_hometown/
If you’re supporting Trump, these are the people standing at your side. Did you ever think that you’d make common cause with them?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11710932
Men, your country needs you! Time to stand up (or sit or lie, however your prefer) and take this issue in both hands and do it for NZ! 🙂
I hear Shane Jones is already getting warmed up and Len Browns bursting at the seems 😉
Should Len Brown’s DNA be spread about in such a way ?
It would only serve to fill the population with (more) numpties, retard dancers and face self-slappers.
Aw c’mon, its a Friday so lighten up a little 🙂
Hey, Pucky. Could you take a peek into your crystal ball and or navel and tell me what you see ahead for Chester Burrows?
I’m not sure, hes been under the radar for a while now, I’ll send out my little birds and see what comes up
Unless you have some information perhaps..?
NZ First?
With a high number of Maori in the lower social economic group and with a large number continuing to smoke, is the Māori Party advocating for the Government to double the tobacco tax increases putting their support at risk?
Moreover, are they risking putting their people into further fiscal hardship, exacerbating all the problems that come along with that?
I believe so. What say you?
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/maori-party-mp-marama-fox-wants-cigarettes-banned-2016091420
This hardly feels like news given my utter lack of surprise:
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/health/hospital%E2%80%99s-facilities-crumbling
I take this to mean that there will be increasing outsourcing to “Dunedin’s only private surgical hospital” (which, perhaps coincidentally, had the now National Party cabinet minister Woodhouse as CEO immediately preceding his entry to parliament). They certainly have not had any problems coming up with the money for building work, and just two months ago opened an expansion to their facilities (on the understanding that work would soon be coming their way?):
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/hospital-day-stay-facility-opened
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/health/public-heart-surgery-mercy-hospital
That “next year while the ICU was upgraded” may somewhat protracted by the fact that when it comes to construction the Southern Partnership Group chairman says (from first link):
Thanks for sharing.
Mercy Hospital Cabinet Club rewards.
Pasupial,
In respect of ICU, that unit is being rebuilt, in the same part of the ward block, to be finished in early 2018.
It is however expected to be redundant in 7-10 years, because a new ICU will likely be part of the $300m rebuild.
There’s a bit more detail here:
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/date-set-start-new-icu
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/intensive-care-plan-revealed
Pasupial,
In respect of the ICU, that unit is being rebuilt, in the same part of the ward block, to be finished in early 2018.
It is expected to be redundant in 7-10 years, because a new ICU will likely be part of the $300m rebuild.
There’s a bit more detail here:
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/date-set-start-new-icu
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/intensive-care-plan-revealed
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/84243686/poor-polls-sensitive-issue-as-labour-mps-brace-for-genderbalanced-list
Will Labour keep its pledge to gender balance its caucus by 2017 ? This will be interesting.
wasnt that only ever a goal and not a fixed line in the sand?
you know – aspirational stuff
No – they actually passed it by the looks:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9357211/Labours-gender-quota-gets-go-ahead
Well, this could be awkward for a few MP’s
I see that Phil Goff and James Shaw are demonstrating yet again why The New Zealand Super Fund should be wound up and the money spent or returned to the taxpayer, and why politicians shouldn’t have anything to do with people’s investment decisions.
Goff, if I heard this morning’s Morning Report correctly thinks that the Super Fund should invest in Auckland’s more useless, unprofitable, investments.
The aim of the Super fund was to invest in profitable ventures in order, in 20-30 years time it will be able to afford National Super. Phil seems to think it is a great grey green greasy lump of cash to throw at things that will never pay off. Light rail to the airport seems to be one of his favourites.
Shaw seems to believe that the state should decide where people are allowed to invest their own super savings. Ban any Kiwsaver fund from investing, no matter how indirectly, in anyone involved in supplying goods or services to a company in the nuclear industry. No doubt he will expand the rules to any company that makes sugar which is, to a Green, evil, Evil, EVIL. To hell with the fact that people are trying to provide for their retirement. James knows best.
Politicians should never be allowed to get involved in business. They don’t give a damn about benefit to the population they dominate. They just want to give themselves a warm fuzzy feeling.
Shaw is advocating to clear the grey area in our current law.
Apparently, trading shares between shareholders (in unethical investments) isn’t seen as investing in unethical investments, even though the end result is the same. One ends up owning shares in an unethical investment.
Keep pumping that sugar Alwyn. It’s good for shortening your life.
Much better to have fraudulent business models like merrill lynch and tax dodge artists like john key to rip off tax payers and investors in the ‘free market’ ????…
It appears most likely american tax payers paid for keys bank of american shares …… it’s a fascinating story and involves merrill lynch being among the worst of the worst and almost bringing down the u.s.a financial system at the start of the GFC ….
And it’s Information I came about thanks to you Alwyn ………..
Key should have his own little pirate flag …………… you’d kiss it 😉
Announced today in Australia: TPP Senate Inquiry welcomed by community group
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1609/S00034/tpp-senate-inquiry-welcomed-by-community-groups.htm
No such luck here in NZ.
Mr Trotter on the Polls and the UMR release…
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2016/09/a-better-poll.html
Love the opening …
Bogus? So devastating was the latest One News/Colmar Brunton poll result for Labour that the Opposition leader, Andrew Little, declared it “bogus”. In desperation, Labour released its own – vastly more encouraging – internal poll data from UMR Research. Unfortunately, in political terms, this is a bit like presenting an affidavit testifying to your beauty and intelligence, signed by your Mum.
Clinton will lose the election, either by resigning due to Parkinsons disease (rumour) or simply trumped……maybe Bernie will replace her?
Brownlee’s being accused by New Zealand First of “spending like a drunken sailor” over the purchase of a new Naval tanker.
Deputy leader Ron Mark claims the new ship is costing the taxpayer twice as much as it should, citing the costs of similar vessels purchased by the Royal Navy and the Norwegian Navy.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/new-navy-ship-a-rip-off-nz-first-claims-2016091216
National’s economic (mis)management coming to the fore again.
To be fair, NZ has a somewhat questionable history when it comes to defence procurements.
True but I don’t think that there’s been a case where they’ve paid twice as much for the same item.
I can neither confirm nor deny offhand.
However, I’ve yet to hear Brownlee’s side of it.
He may have a legitimate excuse. Then again, he may not.
It’s been estimated Japan’s population could fall by half in just 24 years.
On average, a country needs a birth rate of 2.2 children per woman just to hold the population steady – what’s known as “replacement fertility”.
Japan’s at 1.4
New Zealand is also below that line, at 2.04
Australia’s got it worse – just 1.77
The world’s worst is Singapore – 0.81.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/nz-among-countries-with-a-sex-problem-2016091420?ref=ves-nextauto
so the url: nz among countries with a sex problem? Really, no dear Newshub, NZ has not sex problem, they just don’t get pregnant cause its expensive to have a child, especially if one has no secure tenancy, has no secure job, has no stable income. And that also applies to those that still think they are firmly in the ‘middle class’.
Newshub, stupid shite as always.
No sex problem?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/84167679/new-zealand-is-no-paradise-is-it-the-most-sexist-place-on-earth
Reducing population sounds like a bloody good thing to me – bring it on and spread it around a lot more.
Sub-replacement human fertility is a problem for some humans; supra-replacement fertility is a problem for all humans, and the planet. Neither is sustainable indefinitely, but localised corrections like these are overdue.