At a predicted 3.1% headline unemployed (out tomorrow morning), travellers now pouring in and lots of staff flying out, we need people off long term benefits and out of jails to get to work. There's so much to do.
Disincentive to move to high inflation,high energy cost,high rent market as the RBA says they will do what is necessary to curb inflation (forecasts 7.75 inflation) with an increase of .5 today.
There will be a slowdown in residential construction here as developments of dubious quality are put into storage.The RB quite correctly stated that the over utilized construction sector was at about 130% of capacity,a contraction is required for a sustainable sector (to smooth the boom bust cycle) and for companies to look for productive gains,and not cost plus profits.
If a restaurant can't offer consistent shifts at a decent wage, then people with families and commitments can't afford to do that work. Travellers on working holidays who are happy to take whatever shifts for low wages will undercut local workers every time. They also drive wages down.
We know this caused problems in hort. We see it less with tourism and hospo because they were struggling to get customers.
The job seeker benefit is too attractive. 100,000 people that could work. Around 60,000 people on it for longer than a year! There are plenty of other full time jobs offering 40 plus hours a week but they prefer job seeker benefit. Almost every shop has a sign "staff wanted".
These are advertising for full time people. I guess the only thing it tells us about the motivations of people on the dole is, they would rather stay on the dole than work 40 hours in a shop!
We have record low unemployment…if they would rather work in a factory or supermarket there are plenty of positions available there too…..but NZ’s don’t want to.
As I said, minimum wage is around $670/wk after tax. Dole is $315. The number of people that can live on the dole is relatively small. It's not a lifestyle choice for most people.
Then tell me why 100.086 people as per the article choose to stay on job seeker benefit when there are numerous full time jobs available out there? They are obviously happy living on $315 a week. They probably also receive other benefits as well such as accommodation.
Another mindless jester speaks from a wealth of their ignorance. I’ll take your lack of definition of what you’re referring to as just a symptom of your inherent laziness and apparent inability to do work. So I will explain what you should define.
Try reading the stats about the location of people on jobseeker benefits. Firstly I suspect that you’re looking at the number of people on the whole of Jobseekers.
Jobseekers consists of people who are deemed not ready for work. This includes people with disabilities, medical problems, sick family members and other issues that largely preclude them from working. Last time I looked, that this is the main body of people on jobseekers.
The people on jobseekers who are “ready for work” (literally the phrase used) are the only people you should be referring to. These days this probably the minority of people on job-seekers
Because of a lack of jobs and extremely high living costs in locations with jobs, people on jobseekers tend to concentrate in areas with low cost structures – especially rents. These are usually also the areas without high numbers of jobs or high numbers of new jobs.
This can be readily observed if you read the detail of the general locations of jobseekers ready for work. They’re concentrated in semi-rural areas like Northland. If you dig into the detail they’re also concentrated in small towns with low rents.
There is little to no support for helping jobseekers to move from places with no work to places with work, which invariably have higher cost structures. Neither the the state nor private companies offer virtually any usable support to relocate. So Jobseekers take the economically rational inaction that doesn’t involve risk to their precarious finances. They stay put.
The most notable and obvious case of this is to do with eternally whining orchardists wanting fruit pickers. Most don’t provide accommodation or relocation expense support. So they don’t attract people on Jobseekers who don’t have any money to relocate to work on minimal wages for short-term jobs.
But the same applies in job meccas like Auckland. If you are living in a low rent area of Auckland – it is likely to be many kilometres from available work. Employers don’t pay for the commute, nor do they subsidise people to be able to get started to travel to them. Even if there is a decent wage that covers commuting costs. New employees coming off jobseekers don’t have the cash to be able to get to work if it involves hour long trips even on public transport.
This is exacerbated by the stand-downs and time to to get back on to Jobseekers. if your new employer fires you for virtually any reason, it can take months to get back on to a benefit. This particular bit of stupidity is due to the moralistically and short-sighted arseholes like yourself who appear to want to make as many people homeless as possible.
The whole point about a unemployment benefit is to to help the economy by making the job market fluid and seamless. After decades of moralistic stupidity by National led governments, the dumb arse rules on unemployment benefits appear to be deliberately designed to increase friction in the job market. It has stand down periods to make sure that people don’t improve their situation by taking new jobs. It provides no assistance in helping people move to get to jobs. The private sector employers do even less – presumably they want others to pick up the cost of providing them with employees.
Jester: The basic problem here isn’t that job seekers choose to stay on the $315pw. That is a rational economic response to a real issue.
The problem appears to be that (like many whining employers) you’re too stupid to understand the constraints on job seekers being able to get to jobs offered. Like them you’re probably also too stupidly short-sightly tight fisted as well as too lazy to actually deal with the problem.
Instead you’d probably prefer to throw the problem on the rest of NZ by advocating for unfettered immigration – regardless of the costs to the rest of our society and our economy.
"55 percent increase in the number on jobseeker for more than a year compared to 2017." And yet we have the lowest unemployment rate. There has never been a better or easier time to get work.
Perhaps it is you that are too stupid and short sighted.
Tourism job shortfall: Call for campaign to attract young foreign workers
The government should be encouraging young people from around the world to spend a working holiday in New Zealand, he said.
Immigration New Zealand approved 16,904 Working Holiday Visas between 14 March and 19 July, and so far just over 2000 of those people have arrived in the country.
Chris Trotter is either trialing some powerful medicinal hemp or he has discovered that hidden Hokonui moonshine still. I suspect that if it were the early 1980’s and he was PM he would be calling an early election.
I think it's less Ardern's repositioning, more Luxon's remarkable incompetence.
The bad news for Labour is that National MPs could solve that problem any time they want, and it's highly probable that they will before election day. I hope they're stupid enough to stick with Luxon, but I doubt it.
National MPs could solve that problem any time they want
Not sure about that – National have scraped the bottom of the leadership barrel so often they've gone right through into the crude clay it was resting on.
Positive news for Jacinda in the RM poll, but I must add that Chris Trotter really is doing a great job at "holding the govt to account" by soliciting comments and finding out how the anti Labour voters really think react to his kite flying blog musings.
It looks liken there is a bit of volatility at the moment. Not surprising given the level of angst over various issues – not helped by so much mis and disinformation floating around.
AUSTIN, Texas — When viral lies harm private people, are the courts their best refuge? A trial to decide how much the conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones must pay a Sandy Hook family for defaming them attempts to answer that question.
Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Jesse Lewis, 6, who died at Sandy Hook, are requesting $150 million in compensatory damages for years of torment and threats they endured in the aftermath of Mr. Jones’s lies about them on Infowars, his Austin-based website and broadcast. They are suing him in the first of three trials in which juries will decide how much he must pay relatives of 10 people killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., for spreading lies that they were actors in a “false flag” operation, planned by the government as a pretext for gun control.
Causes significant crisis with intended visit to Taiwan .China has responded with first order sanctions on Taiwan food exports.The Chinese spokeswoman has been invoking fire and ice for the last 1/2 (bloomberg live blog) markets starting to respond ( currency and treasury)
My daily news diet is not what it once was.It was the TV news that lost me first. Too infantilising, too breathless, too frustrating.The Herald was next. You could look past the reactionary framing while it was being a decent newspaper of record, but once Shayne Currie began unleashing all ...
Hit the road Jack and don't you come backNo more, no more, no more, no moreHit the road Jack and don't you come back no moreWhat you say?Songwriters: Percy MayfieldMorena,I keep many of my posts, like this one, paywall-free so that everyone can read them.However, please consider supporting me as ...
This might be the longest delay between reading (or in this case re-reading) a work, and actually writing a review of it I have ever managed. Indeed, when I last read these books in December 2022, I was not planning on writing anything about them… but as A Phuulish Fellow ...
Kia Ora,I try to keep most my posts without a paywall for public interest journalism purposes. However, if you can afford to, please consider supporting me as a paid subscriber and/or supporting over at Ko-Fi. That will help me to continue, and to keep spending time on the work. Embarrassingly, ...
There was a time when Google was the best thing in my world. I was an early adopter of their AdWords program and boy did I like what it did for my business. It put rocket fuel in it, is what it did. For every dollar I spent, those ads ...
A while back I was engaged in an unpleasant exchange with a leader of the most well-known NZ anti-vax group and several like-minded trolls. I had responded to a racist meme on social media in which a rightwing podcaster in the US interviewed one of the leaders of the Proud ...
Hi,If you’ve been reading Webworm for a while, you’ll be familiar with Anna Wilding. Between 2020 and 2021 I looked at how the New Zealander had managed to weasel her way into countless news stories over the years, often with very little proof any of it had actually happened. When ...
It's a long white cloud for you, baby; staying together alwaysSummertime in AotearoaWhere the sunshine kisses the water, we will find it alwaysSummertime in AotearoaYeah, it′s SummertimeIt's SummertimeWriters: Codi Wehi Ngatai, Moresby Kainuku, Pipiwharauroa Campbell, Taulutoa Michael Schuster, Rebekah Jane Brady, Te Naawe Jordan Muturangi Tupe, Thomas Edward Scrase.Many of ...
Last year, 292 people died unnecessarily on our roads. That is the lowest result in over a decade and only the fourth time in the last 70 years we’ve seen fewer than 300 deaths in a calendar year. Yet, while it is 292 people too many, with each death being ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob HensonFlames from the Palisades Fire burn a building at Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The fast-moving wildfire had destroyed thousands of structures and ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Regulatory Standards Bill, as I understand it, seeks to bind parliament to a specific range of law-making.For example, it seems to ensure primacy of individual rights over that of community, environment, te Tiriti ...
Happy New Year!I had a lovely break, thanks very much for asking: friends, family, sunshine, books, podcasts, refreshing swims, barbecues, bike rides. So good to step away from the firehose for a while, to have less Trump and Seymour in your day. Who needs the Luxons in their risible PJs ...
Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the Auckland City Centre Advisory Panel and a director of Greater Auckland In 2003, after much argument, including the election of a Mayor in 2001 who ran on stopping it, Britomart train station in downtown Auckland opened. A mere 1km twin track terminating branch ...
For the first time in a decade, a New Zealand Prime Minister is heading to the Middle East. The trip is more than just a courtesy call. New Zealand PMs frequently change planes in Dubai en route to destinations elsewhere. But Christopher Luxon’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 5, 2025 thru Sat, January 11, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The decade between 1952 and the early 1960s was the peak period for the style of music we now call doo wop, after which it got dissolved into soul music, girl groups, and within pop music in general. Basically, doo wop was a form of small group harmonising with a ...
The future teaches you to be aloneThe present to be afraid and coldSo if I can shoot rabbits, then I can shoot fascists…And if you tolerate thisThen your children will be nextSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Do you remember at school, studying the rise ...
When National won the New Zealand election in 2023, one of the first to congratulate Luxon was tech-billionaire and entrepreneur extraordinaire Elon Musk.And last year, after Luxon posted a video about a trip to Malaysia, Musk came forward again to heap praise on Christopher:So it was perhaps par for the ...
Hi,Today’s Webworm features a new short film from documentary maker Giorgio Angelini. It’s about Luigi Mangione — but it’s also, really, about everything in America right now.Bear with me.Shortly after I sent out my last missive from the fires on Wednesday, one broke out a little too close to home ...
So soon just after you've goneMy senses sharpenBut it always takes so damn longBefore I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smokeDrifting in our roomSo easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisperWith a careless memorySongwriters: Andy Taylor / John Taylor / ...
Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest?Nine of Trump’s closest advisers are billionaires. Their total net worth is in excess of $US375b (providing there is not a share-market crash). In contrast, the total net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet was about $6b. (Joe Biden’s Cabinet ...
Welcome back to our weekly roundup. We hope you had a good break (if you had one). Here’s a few of the stories that caught our attention over the last few weeks. This holiday period on Greater Auckland Since our last roundup we’ve: Taken a look back at ...
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partnerSometimes I feel like my only friendIs the city I live in, The City of AngelsLonely as I am together we crySong: Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Flea, John Frusciante.A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area. ...
Open access notablesLarge emissions of CO2 and CH4 due to active-layer warming in Arctic tundra, Torn et al., Nature Communications:Climate warming may accelerate decomposition of Arctic soil carbon, but few controlled experiments have manipulated the entire active layer. To determine surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Over the holidays, there was a rising tide of calls for people to submit on National's repulsive, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, along with a wave of advice and examples of what to say. And it looks like people rose to the occasion, with over 300,000 ...
The lie is my expenseThe scope of my desireThe Party blessed me with its futureAnd I protect it with fireI am the Nina The Pinta The Santa MariaThe noose and the rapistAnd the fields overseerThe agents of orangeThe priests of HiroshimaThe cost of my desire…Sleep now in the fireSongwriters: Brad ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkGlobal surface temperatures have risen around 1.3C since the preindustrial (1850-1900) period as a result of human activity.1 However, this aggregate number masks a lot of underlying factors that contribute to global surface temperature changes over time.These include CO2, which is the primary ...
There are times when movement around us seems to slow down. And the faster things get, the slower it all appears.And so it is with the whirlwind of early year political activity.They are harbingers for what is to come:Video: Wayne Wright Jnr, funder of Sean Plunket, talk growing power and ...
Hi,Right now the power is out, so I’m just relying on the laptop battery and tethering to my phone’s 5G which is dropping in and out. We’ll see how we go.First up — I’m fine. I can’t see any flames out the window. I live in the greater Hollywood area ...
2024 was a tough year for working Kiwis. But together we’ve been able to fight back for a just and fair New Zealand and in 2025 we need to keep standing up for what’s right and having our voices heard. That starts with our Mood of the Workforce Survey. It’s your ...
Time is never time at allYou can never ever leaveWithout leaving a piece of youthAnd our lives are forever changedWe will never be the sameThe more you change, the less you feelSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan.Babinden - Baba’s DayToday, January 8th, 2025, is Babinden, “The Day of the baba” or “The ...
..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...
Everything is good and brownI'm here againWith a sunshine smile upon my faceMy friends are close at handAnd all my inhibitions have disappeared without a traceI'm glad, oh, that I found oohSomebody who I can rely onSongwriter: Jay KayGood morning, all you lovely people. Today, I’ve got nothing except a ...
Welcome to 2025. After wrapping up 2024, here’s a look at some of the things we can expect to see this year along with a few predictions. Council and Elections Elections One of the biggest things this year will be local body elections in October. Will Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Canadians can take a while to get angry – but when they finally do, watch out. Canada has been falling out of love with Justin Trudeau for years, and his exit has to be the least surprising news event of the New Year. On recent polling, Trudeau’s Liberal party has ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Much like 2023, many climate and energy records were broken in 2024. It was Earth’s hottest year on record by a wide margin, breaking the previous record that was set just last year by an even larger margin. Human-caused climate-warming pollution and ...
Submissions on National's racist, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are due tomorrow! So today, after a good long holiday from all that bullshit, I finally got my shit together to submit on it. As I noted here, people should write their own submissions in their own ...
Ooh, baby (ooh, baby)It's making me crazy (it's making me crazy)Every time I look around (look around)Every time I look around (every time I look around)Every time I look aroundIt's in my faceSongwriters: Alan Leo Jansson / Paul Lawrence L. Fuemana.Today, I’ll be talking about rich, middle-aged men who’ve made ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 29, 2024 thru Sat, January 4, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Hi,The thing that stood out at me while shopping for Christmas presents in New Zealand was how hard it was to avoid Zuru products. Toy manufacturer Zuru is a bit like Netflix, in that it has so much data on what people want they can flood the market with so ...
And when a child is born into this worldIt has no conceptOf the tone of skin it's living inAnd there's a million voicesAnd there's a million voicesTo tell you what you should be thinkingSong by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour.The moment you see that face, you can hear her voice; ...
While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky. When ranking our prime ministers, retired professor of history Erik Olssen commented that ‘neither Holland nor Nash was especially effective as prime minister – even his private secretary thought ...
Baby, be the class clownI'll be the beauty queen in tearsIt's a new art form, showin' people how little we care (yeah)We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fearLet's go down to the tennis court and talk it up like, yeah (yeah)Songwriters: Joel Little / Ella Yelich O ...
Open access notables Why Misinformation Must Not Be Ignored, Ecker et al., American Psychologist:Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of the claim that misinformation is not a significant societal problem. We argue that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as suggesting ...
What I’ve Been Doing: I buried a close family member.What I’ve Been Watching: Andor, Jack Reacher, Xmas movies.What I’ve Been Reflecting On: The Usefulness of Writing and the Worthiness of Doing So — especially as things become more transparent on their own.I also hate competing on any day, and if ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by John Wihbey. A version of this article first appeared on Yale Climate Connections on Nov. 11, 2008. (Image credits: The White House, Jonathan Cutrer / CC BY 2.0; President Jimmy Carter, Trikosko/Library of Congress; Solar dedication, Bill Fitz-Patrick / Jimmy Carter Library; Solar ...
Morena folks,We’re having a good break, recharging the batteries. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday period. I’m not feeling terribly inspired by much at the moment, I’m afraid—not from a writing point of view, anyway.So, today, we’re travelling back in time. You’ll have to imagine the wavy lines and sci-fi sound ...
Completed reads for 2024: Oration on the Dignity of Man, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola A Platonic Discourse Upon Love, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Of Being and Unity, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola The Life of Pico della Mirandola, by Giovanni Francesco Pico Three Letters Written by Pico ...
Welcome to 2025, Aotearoa. Well… what can one really say? 2024 was a story of a bad beginning, an infernal middle and an indescribably farcical end. But to chart a course for a real future, it does pay to know where we’ve been… so we know where we need ...
Welcome to the official half-way point of the 2020s. Anyway, as per my New Years tradition, here’s where A Phuulish Fellow’s blog traffic came from in 2024: United States United Kingdom New Zealand Canada Sweden Australia Germany Spain Brazil Finland The top four are the same as 2023, ...
Completed reads for December: Be A Wolf!, by Brian Strickland The Magic Flute [libretto], by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder The Invisible Eye, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Owl’s Ear, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Waters of Death, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Spider, by Hanns Heinz Ewers Who Knows?, by Guy de Maupassant ...
Well, it’s the last day of the year, so it’s time for a quick wrap-up of the most important things that happened in 2024 for urbanism and transport in our city. A huge thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and supported us in our mission to make ...
Leave your office, run past your funeralLeave your home, car, leave your pulpitJoin us in the streets where weJoin us in the streets where weDon't belong, don't belongHere under the starsThrowing light…Song: Jeffery BuckleyToday, I’ll discuss the standout politicians of the last 12 months. Each party will receive three awards, ...
Hi,A lot’s happened this year in the world of Webworm, and as 2024 comes to an end I thought I’d look back at a few of the things that popped. Maybe you missed them, or you might want to revisit some of these essay and podcast episodes over your break ...
Hi,I wanted to share this piece by film editor Dan Kircher about what cinema has been up to in 2024.Dan edited my documentary Mister Organ, as well as this year’s excellent crowd-pleasing Bookworm.Dan adores movies. He gets the language of cinema, he knows what he loves, and writes accordingly. And ...
Without delving into personal details but in order to give readers a sense of the year that was, I thought I would offer the study in contrasts that are Xmas 2023 and Xmas 2024: Xmas 2023 in Starship Children’s Hospital (after third of four surgeries). Even opening presents was an ...
Heavy disclaimer: Alpha/beta/omega dynamics is a popular trope that’s used in a wide range of stories and my thoughts on it do not apply to all cases. I’m most familiar with it through the lens of male-focused fanfic, typically m/m but sometimes also featuring m/f and that’s the situation I’m ...
Hi,Webworm has been pretty heavy this year — mainly because the world is pretty heavy. But as we sprint (or limp, you choose) through the final days of 2024, I wanted to keep Webworm a little lighter.So today I wanted to look at one of the biggest and weirdest elements ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 22, 2024 thru Sat, December 28, 2024. This week's roundup is the second one published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, ...
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KP continues to putt-putt along as a tiny niche blog that offers a NZ perspective on international affairs with a few observations about NZ domestic politics thrown in. In 2024 there was also some personal posts given that my son was in the last four months of a nine month ...
I can see very wellThere's a boat on the reef with a broken backAnd I can see it very wellThere's a joke and I know it very wellIt's one of those that I told you long agoTake my word I'm a madman, don't you knowSongwriters: Bernie Taupin / Elton JohnIt ...
.Acknowledgement: Tim PrebbleThanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work..With each passing day of bad headlines, squandering tax revenue to enrich the rich, deep cuts to our social services and a government struggling to keep the lipstick on its neo-liberal pig ...
This is from the 36th Parallel social media account (as brief food for thought). We know that Trump is ahistorical at best but he seems to think that he is Teddy Roosevelt and can use the threat of invoking the Monroe Doctrine and “Big Stick” gunboat diplomacy against Panama and ...
Don't you cry tonightI still love you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightDon't you cry tonightThere's a heaven above you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightSong: Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so”, said possibly the greatest philosopher ever to walk this earth, Douglas Adams.We have entered the ...
The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...
Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...
Work is set to get underway on a new bus station at Westgate this week. A contract has been awarded to HEB Construction to start a package of enabling works to get the site ready in advance of main construction beginning in mid-2025, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“A new Westgate ...
Minister for Children and for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour is encouraging people to use the resources available to them to get help, and to report instances of family and sexual violence amongst their friends, families, and loved ones who are in need. “The death of a ...
Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says people with diabetes and other painful conditions will benefit from a significant new qualification to boost training in foot care. “It sounds simple, but quality and regular foot and nail care is vital in preventing potentially serious complications from diabetes, like blisters or sores, which can take a long time to heal ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour is pleased to see Pharmac continue to increase availability of medicines for Kiwis with the government’s largest ever investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the government,” says Mr Seymour. “When this government assumed ...
Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora e mua - Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead. Māori recipients in the New Year 2025 Honours list show comprehensive dedication to improving communities across the motu that ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is wishing all New Zealanders a great holiday season as Kiwis prepare for gatherings with friends and families to see in the New Year. It is a great time of year to remind everyone to stay fire safe over the summer. “I know ...
From 1 January 2025, first-time tertiary learners will have access to a new Fees Free entitlement of up to $12,000 for their final year of provider-based study or final two years of work-based learning, Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Targeting funding to the final year of study ...
“As we head into one of the busiest times of the year for Police, and family violence and sexual violence response services, it’s a good time to remind everyone what to do if they experience violence or are worried about others,” Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Cornell, PhD Candidate, UNSW Beach Safety Research Group + School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney byvalet/Shutterstock Australia is considered a nation of beach lovers. But with all this water surrounding us, drownings remain tragically common. At least 55 people have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Sergii Gnatiuk/Shutterstock Over the past two years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has captivated public attention. This year signals the beginning of a new phase: the rise of AI agents. AI ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dorina Pojani, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Queensland shisu_ka/Shutterstock A wide range of voices in the Australian media have been sounding the alarm about the phenomenon of “forever-renting”. This describes a situation in which individuals or families ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liz Giuffre, Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology Sydney Originally known as 2JJ, or Double Jay, when it launched in Sydney at 11am on January 19 1975, Triple J has since become the national youth network. The station now encompasses broadcast ...
Currently, under 18s are legally allowed to buy Lotto tickets. That’s about to change, explains The Bulletin’s Stewart Sowman-Lund. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The anonymised database is crucial to the government's social investment approach to funding programmes - but was incapable of doing so without extra investment. ...
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At a predicted 3.1% headline unemployed (out tomorrow morning), travellers now pouring in and lots of staff flying out, we need people off long term benefits and out of jails to get to work. There's so much to do.
Disincentive to move to high inflation,high energy cost,high rent market as the RBA says they will do what is necessary to curb inflation (forecasts 7.75 inflation) with an increase of .5 today.
https://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2022/mr-22-21.html
We have 1200 vacancies in NZ alone.
Benefit abatement rates and higher minimum wage, living wage and WFF increases are keeping the margibal advantage of work strong.
The .5% RBA increase isn't targeting that marginal choice.
There will be a slowdown in residential construction here as developments of dubious quality are put into storage.The RB quite correctly stated that the over utilized construction sector was at about 130% of capacity,a contraction is required for a sustainable sector (to smooth the boom bust cycle) and for companies to look for productive gains,and not cost plus profits.
here's hoping that people aren't pouring in from overseas and we don't revert to the cheap labour in hospo and tourism that locks locals out of jobs.
All the locals that want to work are already working.
If a restaurant can't offer consistent shifts at a decent wage, then people with families and commitments can't afford to do that work. Travellers on working holidays who are happy to take whatever shifts for low wages will undercut local workers every time. They also drive wages down.
We know this caused problems in hort. We see it less with tourism and hospo because they were struggling to get customers.
The job seeker benefit is too attractive. 100,000 people that could work. Around 60,000 people on it for longer than a year! There are plenty of other full time jobs offering 40 plus hours a week but they prefer job seeker benefit. Almost every shop has a sign "staff wanted".
Jobseeker benefit numbers down on previous year | RNZ News
I don't believe you. Minimum wage is around $670/wk after tax. Dole is $315. The number of people that can live on the dole is relatively small.
Walk through any large shopping mall and read the number of "Staff Wanted" signs in the windows of shops.
that's not going to tell us anything about the motivations of people on the dole.
We're in a pandemic, lots of staff shortages are to do with that because people are off sick, or are off looking after people that are sick.
These are advertising for full time people. I guess the only thing it tells us about the motivations of people on the dole is, they would rather stay on the dole than work 40 hours in a shop!
We have record low unemployment…if they would rather work in a factory or supermarket there are plenty of positions available there too…..but NZ’s don’t want to.
As I said, minimum wage is around $670/wk after tax. Dole is $315. The number of people that can live on the dole is relatively small. It's not a lifestyle choice for most people.
Then tell me why 100.086 people as per the article choose to stay on job seeker benefit when there are numerous full time jobs available out there? They are obviously happy living on $315 a week. They probably also receive other benefits as well such as accommodation.
There’s a job for everyone and it is conveniently just around the corner or a bus ride away, so the choice is easy, isn’t it?
Simplistic thinking always results in simplistic ‘answers & solutions’. RWs always seem to think it is a choice and that it is an easy one to boot.
Another mindless jester speaks from a wealth of their ignorance. I’ll take your lack of definition of what you’re referring to as just a symptom of your inherent laziness and apparent inability to do work. So I will explain what you should define.
Try reading the stats about the location of people on jobseeker benefits. Firstly I suspect that you’re looking at the number of people on the whole of Jobseekers.
Jobseekers consists of people who are deemed not ready for work. This includes people with disabilities, medical problems, sick family members and other issues that largely preclude them from working. Last time I looked, that this is the main body of people on jobseekers.
The people on jobseekers who are “ready for work” (literally the phrase used) are the only people you should be referring to. These days this probably the minority of people on job-seekers
Because of a lack of jobs and extremely high living costs in locations with jobs, people on jobseekers tend to concentrate in areas with low cost structures – especially rents. These are usually also the areas without high numbers of jobs or high numbers of new jobs.
This can be readily observed if you read the detail of the general locations of jobseekers ready for work. They’re concentrated in semi-rural areas like Northland. If you dig into the detail they’re also concentrated in small towns with low rents.
There is little to no support for helping jobseekers to move from places with no work to places with work, which invariably have higher cost structures. Neither the the state nor private companies offer virtually any usable support to relocate. So Jobseekers take the economically rational inaction that doesn’t involve risk to their precarious finances. They stay put.
The most notable and obvious case of this is to do with eternally whining orchardists wanting fruit pickers. Most don’t provide accommodation or relocation expense support. So they don’t attract people on Jobseekers who don’t have any money to relocate to work on minimal wages for short-term jobs.
But the same applies in job meccas like Auckland. If you are living in a low rent area of Auckland – it is likely to be many kilometres from available work. Employers don’t pay for the commute, nor do they subsidise people to be able to get started to travel to them. Even if there is a decent wage that covers commuting costs. New employees coming off jobseekers don’t have the cash to be able to get to work if it involves hour long trips even on public transport.
This is exacerbated by the stand-downs and time to to get back on to Jobseekers. if your new employer fires you for virtually any reason, it can take months to get back on to a benefit. This particular bit of stupidity is due to the moralistically and short-sighted arseholes like yourself who appear to want to make as many people homeless as possible.
The whole point about a unemployment benefit is to to help the economy by making the job market fluid and seamless. After decades of moralistic stupidity by National led governments, the dumb arse rules on unemployment benefits appear to be deliberately designed to increase friction in the job market. It has stand down periods to make sure that people don’t improve their situation by taking new jobs. It provides no assistance in helping people move to get to jobs. The private sector employers do even less – presumably they want others to pick up the cost of providing them with employees.
Jester: The basic problem here isn’t that job seekers choose to stay on the $315pw. That is a rational economic response to a real issue.
The problem appears to be that (like many whining employers) you’re too stupid to understand the constraints on job seekers being able to get to jobs offered. Like them you’re probably also too stupidly short-sightly tight fisted as well as too lazy to actually deal with the problem.
Instead you’d probably prefer to throw the problem on the rest of NZ by advocating for unfettered immigration – regardless of the costs to the rest of our society and our economy.
"55 percent increase in the number on jobseeker for more than a year compared to 2017." And yet we have the lowest unemployment rate. There has never been a better or easier time to get work.
Perhaps it is you that are too stupid and short sighted.
It looks like you’re wilfully ignorant. Educate yourself before you comment on something you so obviously don’t know nothing about. You could start here: https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-04-08-2022/#comment-1903684.
Right on cue:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/472121/tourism-job-shortfall-call-for-campaign-to-attract-young-foreign-workers
thanks. I should do a post on this.
Chris Trotter is either trialing some powerful medicinal hemp or he has discovered that hidden Hokonui moonshine still. I suspect that if it were the early 1980’s and he was PM he would be calling an early election.
He'll love the Roy Morgan today: Labour up.5, Maori on 4%, National down 4%.
Ardern's repositioning through international travel is working well. Today: Samoa and its massive core Labour vote. Ka-ching.
I think it's less Ardern's repositioning, more Luxon's remarkable incompetence.
The bad news for Labour is that National MPs could solve that problem any time they want, and it's highly probable that they will before election day. I hope they're stupid enough to stick with Luxon, but I doubt it.
They can't dump Luxon. No chance. They are backing him for a win. Nicola will have to wait. Consequently, the Left are in a great position.
National MPs could solve that problem any time they want
Not sure about that – National have scraped the bottom of the leadership barrel so often they've gone right through into the crude clay it was resting on.
Positive news for Jacinda in the RM poll, but I must add that Chris Trotter really is doing a great job at "holding the govt to account" by soliciting comments and finding out how the anti Labour voters really
thinkreact to his kite flying blog musings.Would be nice if someone linked to this poll. I can't find it anywhere.
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9034-nz-national-voting-intention-july-2022-202208012359
Thanks joe90
It looks liken there is a bit of volatility at the moment. Not surprising given the level of angst over various issues – not helped by so much mis and disinformation floating around.
According to this RM poll women still prefer Labour which is at odds with the "leaked" Curia poll. Why am I not surprised.
Dare I suggest the Curia poll was tweaked to ensure more men than women were polled. Easily done. 😮
Dare I say we are likely to see more such provocative manipulation leading up to the election………….
I heard yesterday that the right's mis and disinformation won't be an issue this election, thank goodness.
https://thestandard.org.nz/why-stick-more-fingers-in-the-donations-dyke/#comment-1903270
Perhaps Trotter has his finger on a very disturbing pulse?
We may have been painted into a rather nasty corner ……
Yes the pulse of some of the comments is very disturbing, but predictable…
The paint eventually dries, just have to have patience before walking on it…….
I can tell you exactly where Trotter has his finger and while my anatomical studies are a little rusty, I'm pretty sure there's no pulse up there.
Muscovites go home.
https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1551822084850040832
https://freenationsrf.org/en.html
Here's hoping the shit stain pays.
https://twitter.com/NYTLiz/status/1553941267809189888
AUSTIN, Texas — When viral lies harm private people, are the courts their best refuge? A trial to decide how much the conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones must pay a Sandy Hook family for defaming them attempts to answer that question.
Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Jesse Lewis, 6, who died at Sandy Hook, are requesting $150 million in compensatory damages for years of torment and threats they endured in the aftermath of Mr. Jones’s lies about them on Infowars, his Austin-based website and broadcast. They are suing him in the first of three trials in which juries will decide how much he must pay relatives of 10 people killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., for spreading lies that they were actors in a “false flag” operation, planned by the government as a pretext for gun control.
NYT
He might have to take up a new career
This is a better song:
I like it!
Well known share trader
https://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-pelosi-stock-trades-congress-investments-2022-7
And Tippler
https://twitter.com/DoombergT/status/1553065863988879360?cxt=HHwWgIC9_ZfLzI0rAAAA
Causes significant crisis with intended visit to Taiwan .China has responded with first order sanctions on Taiwan food exports.The Chinese spokeswoman has been invoking fire and ice for the last 1/2 (bloomberg live blog) markets starting to respond ( currency and treasury)
https://twitter.com/business/status/1554365399172521985?cxt=HHwWgoCxzYvGm5IrAAAA