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Logging truck roll overs meeting: Otaika Valley Hall tomorrow night!

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, May 9th, 2016 - 19 comments

A fully laden logging truck tears up the road like thousands of cars. And when they keep rolling over around the corner, locals get very nervous and upset for themselves and their kids.

It’s time to reform Fonterra

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, March 25th, 2016 - 49 comments

Fonterra was formed to give New Zealand an economic advantage.  Instead it is looking like the country’s biggest achilles heel.  Time to reform?

Key is on top of the dairy crisis

Written By: - Date published: 3:28 pm, March 15th, 2016 - 107 comments

Or not.

Safe As Milk

Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, March 14th, 2016 - 110 comments

Labour is calling for an urgent summit of the dairy industry players to avoid the looming bankruptcy of one in ten farmers. National’s response? Crisis, what crisis?

Who is ultimately responsible for NZ’s massive dairy farm debt?

Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, March 12th, 2016 - 82 comments

People talk of excessive borrowing in the dairy sector. Of course, the real problem is that of excessive lending.

The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 27th, 2016 - 79 comments

How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.

National’s vision for New Zealand’s future

Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, January 12th, 2016 - 94 comments

Stephen Joyce has had published an opinion piece in this morning’s Herald which extolls the virtue of free trade and ignores the pitfalls.  Such as those shown this week when TransCanada sued the US Government for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline contract.

On Shooting the Messenger

Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, December 14th, 2015 - 214 comments

Over the past decade we have seen sophisticated attacks against academics and NGOs who challenge government or industry. These attacks often appear organic in nature, but many times are in fact concerted efforts by the powerful.

As we bind ourselves with the TPP, so other countries will fill the need

Written By: - Date published: 5:58 pm, December 4th, 2015 - 112 comments

Reeling from tough produce sanctions, Russia will pursue a strategy as the world’s largest supplier of ‘ecologically clean’ food. And where is NZ?

Climate and Trade

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 pm, October 10th, 2015 - 41 comments

The proposed TPP is a protection racket – not a trade deal.

Groser: an arrogant git with a tin ear

Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, August 15th, 2015 - 36 comments

I’m amazed about how ignorant Tim Groser is in his costly pursuit of the TTP. But his completely weird and idiotic remarks on how the ICT industry runs really do reach a new level of mindless – even for a fool from MFAT. The TTP will bring us no advantages, and are likely to cause major disruptions to the innovation that is driving the ICT export sector.

Doledrums

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, July 18th, 2015 - 33 comments

C’mon people, sing along!

‘The benefit arrives and life goes on, the benefit arrives and life goes on …’

National have failed and they have no idea what to do about it. But I do.

Election now, please.

Bill English’s groundhog decades

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, July 6th, 2015 - 45 comments

Bill English is a strange denizen of National’s Wellington groundhog set. He keeps repeating the wet dreams that have been tried three times now and come up as failures each time. On Q&A yesterday he played with some silly numbers about dairy, ignoring the damage that it and National’s obsessive focus on the past has done on the resilience of our  export economy.

Nick Smith; Thick as a Short Plank?

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, July 3rd, 2015 - 25 comments

National’s Nick Smith appears to have misled Parliament over the illegal export of Kauri logs. Thankfully for Smith, it’s nothing to do with the rumours swirling around who is responsible for the loss of our irreplaceable heritage timber, but more to do with the Minister’s inability to understand a clear and explicit piece of legislation.

Money for nothing and the sheep are for free

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, May 29th, 2015 - 38 comments

The legal suit offered as part justification for the Government paying $11 million to a Saudi businessman was apparently “off the table” at the time that Cabinet agreed to the payment.  So why was the payment made?  And why didn’t Murray McCully tell this to Cabinet or to Parliament earlier?

Sheepgate

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, May 28th, 2015 - 103 comments

It has emerged that the New Zealand Government has paid money to a Saudi businessman allegedly to settle a legal dispute that does not exist but more probably to persuade the Saudi Government to enter into a free trade agreement.  Update – and maybe there was a threat of legal action but because of the actions of National, not Labour.

Dollar Parity

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, April 7th, 2015 - 309 comments

As New Zealand’s dollar approaches parity with Australia’s a responsible Government should be pondering the implications and acting in the country’s best interests.  No such luck in Aotearoa …

Screaming left-wing conspiracy theorist shocked at spying on Diplomats

Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, March 24th, 2015 - 84 comments

In the NZ herald today, Terence O’Brien has been questioned about the recent revelations of spying to get Minister’s jobs after politics. Despite a Press Corp being with the PM in ROK, none has yet bothered to as the Koreans, or the former Foreign Minister GCSB spied upon, for their comment, instead relying on Honest […]

Written in a deep summer haze

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, January 5th, 2015 - 94 comments

I was astonished by an anonymous NZ Herald editorial on New Years day – “NZ economy is in a good place and thriving”. Obviously an inferior intellect was slow cooked in the warm holiday weather. It turned to mush and regurgitated one of Bill English’s wet dreams. Dairy prices are unlikely to rebound any time soon.

Losing money

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, December 2nd, 2014 - 26 comments

exports trading partners 2012

The economic news is depressing for NZ at present. After riding a dairy commodity boom for the last few years, the payout for farmers looks like it will drop from a high of $8.50/kg last season to $4.85/kg this coming season. Meanwhile National has neglected our most sustainable resource – people. So expect a busted economy for the next few years.

“Marching in the streets”

Written By: - Date published: 5:15 pm, November 8th, 2014 - 129 comments

Thousands of people protested and marched around the country against the secret and anti-democratic TPPA negotiations. Reports & pics. Updated

NZ Inc

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, September 14th, 2014 - 119 comments

David Cunliffe has announced his final big policy. It’s called NZ Inc and it’s a bloody smart move.

Parker nails English on economic policy

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, August 25th, 2014 - 32 comments

Labour has the bold set of policies to take New Zealand forward into the 21st century – National’s “same old same old” tinkering will see the Kiwi skiff swamped. That was the clear conclusion from the debate between David Parker and Bill English on National Radio this morning.

Greens: Falling milk prices highlight danger of National’s economic strategy

Written By: - Date published: 7:11 pm, August 6th, 2014 - 39 comments

This press release from the Greens pretty well sums up the situation that National have left the economy in. Once you remove the rebuild effects from the Christchurch earthquakes, our increasingly undiversified economy is looking in pretty poor shape for the decade ahead.

Positive Labour policy for meat industry

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 pm, July 27th, 2014 - 4 comments

In the late 1980’s I worked on the establishment of the Meat Industry Tradesmens Agreement, bringing eight  awards into one. My lasting memory is how the meat companies hated each other more than they hated the unions, and they were no union-lovers. 25 years later, the companies still can’t get their act together, and it is the country as well as the farmers who are hurting. It may surprise some, but it’s the Labour party who is putting forward policy to bring in the necessary change to the $8billion industry. Good work from Damien O’Connor and the Labour leadership.

Phil Goff: Contemporary China Research Centre

Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, July 2nd, 2014 - 9 comments

It isn’t that often that we put up speeches by politicians. They’re usually aimed at the general public and don’t really get into the guts of the issues in the way that our activist commenters like to argue at – they tend to be political and in this site preaching to the converted.  However this speech by Phil Goff is exceptional. It was made at a centre looking at China, and looks at the benefits and risks of our current and future relationships with that country. Worth reading

Dairy prices keep dropping

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, July 2nd, 2014 - 90 comments

Dairy prices have resumed their slide, falling 4.9 per cent at the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction overnight. The drop was the ninth fall out of the last 10 auctions. It looks to me like the boom is over. Looking at the rise in production for whole milk powder in China, and increased exports from other countries, I think that it will continue to decline. In the meantime National have been allowing our other export industries to stagnate.

Polity: Free trade fundies

Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, June 19th, 2014 - 2 comments

The great tragedy in New Zealand trade policy came in the 1990s when we almost literally gave away the farm, dismantling most of our tariffs unilaterally to “demonstrate” how much fun life is with no tariffs. You can’t get much more fundie than that.  And now – quelle surprise – we have basically no cards to play when negotiating with other countries. Who would have thought it?

National’s exports – how to lose value and jobs

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, April 30th, 2014 - 77 comments

Manufacturing exports dropped by 3.3% over the last year. Manufacturing businesses and their jobs disappeared with them. Meanwhile the National MP’s with dairy farms and interests will today be proclaiming a buoyant economy based on them selling barely processed milk-powder to China. It is good for them but as they gut the manufacturing jobs few other kiwis will reap any benefits.

Obama’s TPPA bid to over-ride democracy

Written By: - Date published: 6:47 pm, January 10th, 2014 - 16 comments

There’s a tussle going on as Obama pushes to seal the deal and to limit Congress’s say on TPPA deals.  But, Congress would still have more say about the deals than NZ MPs. It’s about democracy & sovereignty.  It could slip under the radar over summer.

All hail RBNZ independence! – Armstrong

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, October 5th, 2013 - 94 comments

Old man Armstrong’s out on the Herald’s front lawn this morning, shaking his fist and telling those bloody kids in Labour to stop questioning whether the Reserve Bank is doing the right thing. They should sit quietly and accept whatever the Bank decides to do. This is called ‘consensus’, apparently. Problem is, Armstrong provides no justification for complete RB independence.

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