Daily Review 07/03/2017
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5:30 pm, March 7th, 2017 - 50 comments
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- Atlas Network Makes Australian Mainstream
Australia Shows The WayAustralian media and their investigative journalists have published two articles on the Atlas Network’s modus operandi in recent weeks:‘Copied the MAGA model’: The ‘grassroots’ lobby group funded by some of Australia’s richestHow Atlas Network amassed a global network of free market think tanks and reached into Australia ...44 minutes ago - Australia’s defence readiness—a critical assessment
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...1 hour ago - The Suspicious Death of Virginia Giuffre
The news of Virginia Giuffre’s untimely death has been a shock, especially for those still seeking justice for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Giuffre, a key figure in exposing Epstein’s depraved network and its ties to powerful figures like Prince Andrew, was reportedly struck by a bus in Australia. She then apparently ...3 hours ago - Bernard’s Dawn Chorus & Pick ‘n’ Mix for Monday, April 28
An official briefing to the Health Minister warns “demand for acute services has outstripped hospital capacity”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāThe key long stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, April 28 are: There’s a nationwide shortage of 500 hospital beds and 200,000 ...3 hours ago - Deep sea mining is the new front in Pacific competition
We should have been thinking about the seabed, not so much the cables. When a Chinese research vessel was spotted near Australia’s southern coast in late March, opposition leader Peter Dutton warned the ship was ...4 hours ago
- 2025 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #17
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Let’s rip the shiny plastic wrapping off a festering truth: planned obsolescence is a deliberate scam, and governments worldwide, including New Zealand’s, are complicit in letting tech giants churn out disposable junk. From flimsy smartphones that croak after two years to laptops with glued-in batteries, the tech industry’s business model ...19 hours ago
- In Loving Memory Of Kyle Whorrall
When I first saw press photos of Mr Whorrall, an America PhD entomology student & researcher who had been living out a dream to finish out his studies in Auckland, my first impression, besides sadness, was how gentle he appeared.Press released the middle photo from Mr Whorrall’s Facebook pageBy all ...1 day ago - National’s Betrayal of Renters and First-Time Buyers
It's definitely not a renters market in New Zealand, as reported by 1 News last night. In fact the housing crisis has metastasised into a full-blown catastrophe in 2025, and the National Party Government’s policies are pouring petrol on the flames. Renters are being crushed under skyrocketing costs, first-time buyers ...1 day ago
- Would I Lie to You?
Would I lie to you? (oh yeah)Would I lie to you honey? (oh, no, no no)Now would I say something that wasn't true?I'm asking you sugar, would I lie to you?Writer(s): David Allan Stewart, Annie Lennox.Opinions issue forth from car radios or the daily news…They demand a bluer National, with ...1 day ago - Fact brief – Do the 31,000 signatures of the OISM Petition Project invalidate the scientific c...
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- A culture of cruelty.
In the 1980s and early 1990s when I wrote about Argentine and South American authoritarianism, I borrowed the phrase “cultura del miedo” (culture of fear) from Juan Corradi, Guillermo O’Donnell, Norberto Lechner and others to characterise the social anomaly that exists in a country ruled by a state terror regime ...2 days ago - Northern Australia: fortress, gateway and resource powerhouse
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- Bernard’s Saturday Soliloquy for the week to April 26
Chris Bishop has unveiled plans for new roads in Tauranga, Auckland and Northland that will cost up to a combined $10 billion. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from Aotearoa political economy around housing, poverty and climate in the week to Saturday, April 26:Chris Bishop ploughed ahead this week with spending ...2 days ago - Debt Is A Form Of Government Control
Unless you've been living under a rock, you would have noticed that New Zealand’s government, under the guise of economic stewardship, is tightening the screws on its citizens, and using debt as a tool of control. This isn’t just a conspiracy theory whispered in pub corners...it’s backed by hard data ...2 days ago
- The 2025 Budget in a World of Trade Warfare
The budget runup is far from easy.Budget 2025 day is Thursday 22 May. About a month earlier in a normal year, the macroeconomic forecasts would be completed (the fiscal ones would still be tidying up) and the main policy decisions would have been made (but there would still be a ...3 days ago - EGU2025 – Presentation about our translation activities
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- The drums of war revisited
On 25 April 2021, I published an internal all-staff Anzac Day message. I did so as the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for Australia’s civil defence, and its resilience in ...3 days ago
- Cameron Slater’s New Website: Same Old Defamation
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- David Seymour’s Atlas Network Receiving Unwanted Attention
The Atlas Network, a sprawling web of libertarian think tanks funded by fossil fuel barons and corporate elites, has sunk its claws into New Zealand’s political landscape. At the forefront of this insidious influence is David Seymour, the ACT Party leader, whose ties to Atlas run deep.With the National Party’s ...3 days ago
- Nicola Willis To Blame For Family Boost Debacle
Nicola Willis, National’s supposed Finance Minister, has delivered another policy failure with the Family Boost scheme, a childcare rebate that was big on promises but has been very small on delivery. Only 56,000 families have signed up, a far cry from the 130,000 Willis personally championed in National’s campaign. This ...3 days ago
- Editors’ pick: ‘On the value of military service’
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- Rest easy, my friend.
He shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningI will remember him.My mate Keith died yesterday, peacefully in the early hours. My dear friend in Rotorua, whom I’ve been ...3 days ago - The Hoon around the week to April 25
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Hi,In case you missed it, New Zealand icon Lorde has a new single out. It’s called “What Was That”, and has a very low key music video that was filmed around her impromptu performance in New York’s Washington Square Park. When police shut down the initial popup, one of my ...3 days ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #17 2025
Open access notables Internal variability effect doped by climate change drove the 2023 marine heat extreme in the North Atlantic, Guinaldo et al., Communications Earth & Environment The year 2023 shattered numerous heat records both globally and regionally. We here focus on the drivers of the unprecedented warm sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies which started in ...4 days ago
- Military denial: the basis of deterrence, and of response if deterrence fails
A strategy of denial is now the cornerstone concept for Australia’s National Defence Strategy. The term’s use as an overarching guide to defence policy, however, has led to some confusion on what it actually means ...4 days ago
- Fiscal failure
The IMF’s twice-yearly World Economic Outlook and Fiscal Monitor publications have come out in the last couple of days. If there is gloom in the GDP numbers (eg this chart for the advanced countries, and we don’t score a lot better on the comparable one for the 2019 to ...4 days ago - Climate Change: Fucking the ETS again
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- Today’s Headlines: David Seymour’s ECE Risks & Coalition Government Lies
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- When in Rome
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- Inside my quest for a climate-friendly bank
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- The one who left
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The National Party’s Minister of Police, Corrections, and Ethnic Communities (irony alert) has stumbled into yet another racist quagmire, proving that when it comes to bigotry, the right wing’s playbook is as predictable as it is vile. This time, Mitchell’s office reposted an Instagram reel falsely claiming that Te Pāti ...5 days ago
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Between 1950 and 1993 the New Zealand government tortured and abused up to 250,000 children in residential care facilities. They then proceeded to cover it up in order to minimise their liability, dragging out cases, slandering their victims and ultimately denying redress. In its final report, the Inquiry into Abuse ...5 days ago
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- What’s on the Label -vs- What’s in the Tin.
Would our political parties pass muster under the Fair Trading Act?WHAT IF OUR POLITICAL PARTIES were subject to the Fair Trading Act? What if they, like the nation’s businesses, were prohibited from misleading their consumers – i.e. the voters – about the nature, characteristics, suitability, or quantity of the products ...5 days ago - Simeon Brown Doesn’t Consider Abortion To Be Healthcare As Services Scaled Back
Rod EmmersonThank you to my subscribers and readers - you make it all possible. Tui.Subscribe nowSix updates today from around the world and locally here in Aoteaora New Zealand -1. RFK Jnr’s Autism CrusadeAmerica plans to create a registry of people with autism in the United States. RFK Jr’s department ...5 days ago - Another Munich crisis? Understanding the limits of policymaking by analogy
We see it often enough. A democracy deals with an authoritarian state, and those who oppose concessions cite the lesson of Munich 1938: make none to dictators; take a firm stand. And so we hear ...5 days ago
- Wednesday 23 April
370 perioperative nurses working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre will strike for two hours on 1 May – the same day senior doctors are striking. This is part of nationwide events to mark May Day on 1 May, including rallies outside public hospitals, organised by ...5 days ago
- Auckland character rules stop building on 20,000 sections
Character protections for Auckland’s villas have stymied past development. Now moves afoot to strip character protection from a bunch of inner-city villas. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest from our political economy on Wednesday, April 23:Special Character Areas designed to protect villas are stopping 20,000 sites near Auckland’s ...5 days ago - AI is changing Indo-Pacific naval operations
Artificial intelligence is poised to significantly transform the Indo-Pacific maritime security landscape. It offers unprecedented situational awareness, decision-making speed and operational flexibility. But without clear rules, shared norms and mechanisms for risk reduction, AI could ...5 days ago
- What is a Man?
For what is a man, what has he got?If not himself, then he has naughtTo say the things he truly feelsAnd not the words of one who kneelsThe record showsI took the blowsAnd did it my wayLyrics: Paul Anka.Morena folks, before we discuss Winston’s latest salvo in NZ First’s War ...5 days ago - Britain recasts AUKUS for a new era
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- Australia’s basic-metals problem: old plants and subsidised Chinese competition
Australia’s ability to produce basic metals, including copper, lead, zinc, nickel and construction steel, is in jeopardy, with ageing plants struggling against Chinese competition. The multinational commodities company Trafigura has put its Australian operations under ...6 days ago
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There have been recent PPP debacles, both in New Zealand (think Transmission Gully) and globally, with numerous examples across both Australia and Britain of failed projects and extensive litigation by government agencies seeking redress for the failures.Rob Campbell is one of New Zealand’s sharpest critics of PPPs noting that; "There ...6 days ago - RB spending: the Board and the Minister
On Twitter on Saturday I indicated that there had been a mistake in my post from last Thursday in which I attempted to step through the Reserve Bank Funding Agreement issues. Making mistakes (there are two) is annoying and I don’t fully understand how I did it (probably too much ...6 days ago
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- The “perfect storm” National can use to consolidate slash’n’burn policy is here…
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A man on telly tries to tell me what is realBut it's alright, I like the way that feelsAnd everybody singsWe are evolving from night to morningAnd I wanna believe in somethingWriter: Adam Duritz.The world is changing rapidly, over the last year or so, it has been out with the ...1 week ago - My Food Bag’s Cecilia Robinson Courts Your Money For Health
MFB Co-Founder Cecilia Robinson runs Tend HealthcareSummary:Kieran McAnulty calls out National on healthcare lies and says Health Minister Simeon Brown is “dishonest and disingenuous” (video below)McAnulty says negotiation with doctors is standard practice, but this level of disrespect is not, especially when we need and want our valued doctors.National’s $20bn ...1 week ago - The Case Against Chris Luxon Remaining PM
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This Anzac Day, Labour recognises veterans and the service they have given to our country. ...3 days ago - Education Should be Led by Experts-Not Economists
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After promising $250 a fortnight to many families, the Government has been forced to admit just a couple hundred families are receiving it. ...4 days ago
- Release: Transparency needed on changes to early childhood education
The Government is putting children at risk in early childhood education (ECE) by proposing to loosen the requirement for qualified teachers. ...4 days ago
- Release: Govt funding needed to combat invasive seaweed
The Government must support Northland hapū who have resorted to rakes and buckets to try to control a devastating invasive seaweed that threatens the local economy and environment. ...6 days ago
- New Zealand First Introduces Bill Defining ‘Woman’ and ‘Man’ in Law
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill that would ensure the biological definition of a woman and man are defined in law. “This is not about being anti-anyone or anti-anything. This is about ensuring we as a country focus on the facts of biology and protect the ...6 days ago - Release: Labour marks the passing of Pope Francis
Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins joins those mourning the passing of Pope Francis. ...7 days ago
- Release: Boot camps blog post fails to provide clarity
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Inflation rises and families feel the squeeze
Inflation is rising again and it’s landing hardest on families already stretched thin. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Govt doesn’t know how to fund new hospitals
The Government’s health infrastructure plan is big on promises but coy on where the money is coming from. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: $10 million for only 215 students in charter schools
David Seymour is pouring $10 million into charter schools that only have 215 students enrolled. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Food prices further stretching the family budget
Families already stretched by rising costs will struggle with the news food prices are going up again. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Mental health staff and patients at risk without plan
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Driver licensing proposal doesn’t put safety first
The Government’s proposal to change driver licensing rules is a mixed bag of sensible and careless. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Students struggling as Govt sits on hands
The Government is continuing to sit on its hands as students struggle to pay rent due to delays with StudyLink. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: More must be done to stop children going hungry
More children are going hungry and statistics showing children in material hardship continue to get worse. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens continue to call for Pacific Visa Waiver
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...2 weeks ago - More children going hungry under Coalition govt
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Longer wait for treatment under National
New Zealanders have waited longer to get an appointment with a specialist and to get elective surgery under the National Government. ...2 weeks ago
- Ka mate te Pire- Ka ora te mana o Te Tiriti o Waitangi me te iwi Māori
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...3 weeks ago
- Chris Hipkins speech: Treaty Principles Bill second reading
Normally, when I rise in this House to speak on a bill, I say it's a great privilege to speak on the bill. That is not the case today. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: End to the Treaty Principles Bill, but challenges remain ahead for Aotearoa
Ka mate te pire I te rā neiThe bill dies today ...3 weeks ago
- Ka mate te Pire, ka ora Te Tiriti o Waitangi – Treaty Principles Bill dead, Te Tiriti o Waitangi m...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...3 weeks ago
- Member’s Bill an opportunity for climate action
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Bill to make trading laws fairer passes first hurdle
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Reserve Bank acts while Govt shrugs
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Property Law Amendment Bill pulled from ballot
A Bill to protect first home buyers and others from bad faith property vendors has been drawn from the Member’s Ballot. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: More children at risk of losing family connections
Karen Chhour is proposing to scrap Oranga Tamariki targets which aim to connect more children under state care with family and their culture. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: David Parker made a difference – Hipkins
The Labour Leader today acknowledged and celebrated David Parker’s 23-year contribution to the Labour Party and to Parliament. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: David Parker to step down from Parliament
Long-serving Labour MP and former Minister David Parker has today announced his intention to leave Parliament. ...3 weeks ago
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As New Zealanders marked Anzac Day, Italians commemorated 80 years since the country was liberated from fascism. Have celebrations changed in the shadow of Italy’s first postwar far-right government? Nina Hall writes from Bologna. For Italians, April 25 is very different to New Zealand’s Anzac Day. It’s the day to ...10 minutes ago - Everything you need to know about Shortland Street’s new season
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Approved building firms, plumbers, and drainlayers will now be able to sign off their own work, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced. ...19 minutes ago - Vancouver SUV attack exposes crowd management falldowns and casts a pall on Canada’s election
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Asgary, Professor, Disaster & Emergency Management, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies & Director, CIFAL York, York University, Canada A car attack at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver just two days before Canada’s federal election has killed at least ...38 minutes ago - Government announces $53m boost for teacher registrations, practising certificates fees
From 1 July, teachers will save up to $550 when applying for registration or renewing their practising certificate, Education Minister Erica Stanford announced. ...43 minutes ago
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I liked this from Jacinda Ardern. The new no nonsense Jacinda who challenges the media:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/watch-you-worried-jacindas-popularity-overtake-yours-terse-andrew-little-ardern-desperately-try-shut-down-reporters-curly-questions
As for the terminology used to head the item… garbage in… garbage out. Little and Ardern called the smart-arse reporter out and they didn’t like it?
Did any smart arsed reporter ask English what he would do if Bennett out-polled him for the PM stakes? NO.
Isn’t that the Gower boy, being the smart arse reporter continually asking the same question? He certainly does get the knives out for some Labour MPs!
I don’t think it’s Gower, he’s a bit dazzled by Jacinda. That was good work though from her.
Must have been Corin Dann, then. TV1 news does seem to be cheerleading for Bling this week.
Not his voice. Possibly Lloyd Burr from mediaworks?
Well Lloyd Burr’s interviews with Ardern today, as on the Newshub site, are very positive about/with Ardern. So, don’t see him as a smart arse trying to pressure her.
It was a post caucus press stand-up so could have been a reporter from one of the newspapers or radio stations. It wasn’t Corin Dann or Paddy Gower. Their voices are well known and recognisable.
Ta. So that’s both Lloyd and Paddy in the positive column so far.
Love her to bits. Easily shut that smart arse down.
Yep – the silly journos will start getting used to that answer, and it will become a non-question after a while – it’ll get boring.
media bias agree Anne in the last 2 elections the tories have had an unfair advantage the media did there lobbying and were an important part of there election team and this needs to stop
Bill English is not on 7 pc that’s the big difference
Bill English is not on 7 pc that’s the big difference Also simply denying what is quite probable ( the ostrich strategy) will not happen is not really and answer
“Labour supports a call from the Māori Party to have the superannuation age lowered for Māori because their live expectancy is lower the non-Māori.”
https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/politics/should-maori-receive-superannuation-lower-age
Good call and lots of evidence to back this up.
Working together??? Start off with some shared values and see how we go eh…
+1
Personally I believe Labour has a lot more in common with MP than NZF …
Voting record in parliament supports that.
I worry that presenting it this way will be vulnerable to “one law for all” style attacks. I think Henare’s comment about investing in Maori health to lift Maori life expectancy is on target, and couple that with early superannuation for those unable to continue in their occupation through disability. Which would hopefully provide the same outcome for Maori that have spent their lives in demanding manual occupations, as well as including non-Maori in the same situation.
Despite Ministers laying red herrings before journos this week, research shows that Maori have shorter life expectancy even after accounting for factors like their health and the type of work they undertake. Rangi the factory worker is a figment of Joyce’s overactive imagination.
Those attacks come what may – cannot and must not adjust for those racists.
The facts are well known.
And why those facts exist are also well known – just one of the unhappy coincidences for most indigenous peoples colonised – lower life expectancy, higher mental health issues including suicide and self harming, higher prison population, lower incomes throughout their working life, less home ownership, over populated on all deprivation statistics and so on and on and on…
That won’t get addressed by this but it is worthwhile pointing it all out imo.
anyway I wrote this a few years ago
http://mars2earth.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/lower-maori-retirement-age.html
also Marty mars bad and unfair treatment from the state a sector that is suppose to help. For example we were more likely to be offered state flats in the bronxs the same areas the gnats have knocked down and built 500k houses for who not our people racist pigs
Women can look forward to longer careers due to their higher life expectancy. Will smokers and drinkers get to retire early as well?
Pity you are so scornful gabby – you could have made a contribution to the discussion instead of your usual sour comment.
Pity you’re so grumpy, marty. You could have thought the thing through a bit less narrowmindedly couldn’t you.
why chuck smokers and drinkers in gabby – were you trying to be provocative or just couldn’t think of much to say and wanted to say it anyway?
Smokers and drinkers don’t live as long marty. It might get a bit tricky working out just how smoky or drinky they are though.
yep sure is funny that one ha ha
“…Māori because their live expectancy is lower the non-Māori”
that isn’t funny though, is it gabby?
‘men because their live expectancy is lower the non-men’
that’s just hilarious is it marty.
Lol no but you are – just say what you want to say, don’t fluff around with the bullshit gabby or are you not that brave
Get a grip marty. Stay off the piss and ciggies and you’ll be fine.
Lol gabby – better luck next time eh
Smokers and drinkers get to die early. Think of all those savings ..
Race-based super is an absolutely terrible idea
I suspect however, that wiser heads within Labour will prevail and this idea will be quickly shut down…
A.
I’m sure it will be shut down with ill-informed and ignorant commentary like yours out there.
I agree.
A.
PS Anyway NZ 1st would never agree to it
With all the big data stuff, surely we can fit retirement age to the background of the retiree?
I think that is exactly what is eventually going to happen dv. After the age of 60 when a person wishes to retire from full time work, they will have to apply to a special agency set up for the task of investigating applicants’ circumstances. If they qualify under a set of reasonable criteria – such as in injuries caused by years of heavy manual labour – then they will be able to begin receiving super at an earlier age.
When (and its only a matter of time before it happens) they reach the age of 67 they will automatically receive the super. That does not mean others cannot start receiving it at 65 but they will have to fulfill the criteria laid down by legislation which could include anything from physical or mental impairment making it impossible for them to be able to continue earning a living.
No one automatically gets super now. Everyone applies for it if they think they are eligible.
The great thing about NZ’s system is that it’s universal. You just need to prove age, ID and years lived in NZ.
There is no need to include some means test. Actually, 60 years for all to apply would be better. Then properly pre-fund the super fund, and use the tax system to take back a high tax from those 60yrs + on a high income.
Means testing involves too much surveillance of individuals, and always results in some people trying to cheat the system, by using false info.
Or better still. Basic income for everyone, cradle to grave.
“use the tax system to take back a high tax from those 60yrs + on a high income.”
High wealth would be better – many of our richest manage their affairs to show hardly any income. Tax their capital and transactions.
wealth tax? Capital gains tax?
Seen several proposals discussed but not really my area. Financial transaction taxes seem hard to avoid. Taxing capital accumulation seems more useful than income to achieve distributional equity.
My accumulated capital already gets taxed: that’s my savings’ interest. But I do not own property, and property owners do not get taxed on their gains from rising house prices.
But I would think you are talking about capital accumulation in all kinds of investments, not just my little savings accounts.
Nothing to do with today, but Danyl MacLauchlan’s dimpost seems to have basically shut up shop. Does everyone else have trouble accessing: https://dimpost.wordpress.com/
Or did my IP/wordpress account just get banned? T^T
Would make sense if he was planning on publishing some of his posts in book format and wanted to pull it from online, but sad all the same if it’s gone.
I think he is “taking a break” from blogging. He intimated it was temporary due to other commitments – or whatever.
Interesting phenomenon. Blogging is a marathon. Danyl was really good at it. But it is not easy to keep it up for ever …
Isn’t he involved somehow with official Green party policy work now? Missed the announcement, just noticed missing site.
“If they qualify under a set of reasonable criteria – such as in injuries caused by years of heavy manual labour – then they will be able to begin receiving super at an earlier age.”
But surely Anne, these injured workers will be on ACC 80% of there present earnings till they are 65 which will be far better than the miserable amount National Supper will pay. What ever the age of retirement ACC will turn off the insurance payments then anyway.
I know this to be true, as I went through this recently with a friend.
No. Those are called “gradual process injuries”, or “age related degeneration” and you are put on the laughably called, “job seekers benefit.
I have several acquaintances who have obvious long term impairment related to jobs such as fishing, machine shop, or building, who are incapable of sustained work.
They all have to go with the WINZ torture monthly, for, what was, the “sickness benefit”, Including applications for jobs they will never get, due to their physical condition and age.
Which is why I am implacably opposed to raising the retirement age, means testing and any form of trying to adjust for individual disability or condition.
It doesn’t work. Universal is effective, fair and well understood.
It also stops the wealthy from getting rid of it. As they get it to.
We already have ample proof that “Austerity” and “tax cuts” are a failure.
The fact is, super, and other forms of welfare are becoming unaffordable because successive Governments have cut tax levels below that required for a functioning country.
US states are instructive, because you can see the effect of less or more socialist policies side by side with similar populations. The recent success of Minnesota where a State Government has raised minimum wages and business and State taxes has resulted in the opposite to the predicted decline. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/opinion/campaign-stops/the-path-to-prosperity-is-blue.html?_r=0 Note, Blue States in the USA are Democrat.
+1. Timeforacuppa has no idea at all about the outcomes of the ACC claims processor manual workers. Needs to be outed as a right wing troll.
The year zero reference has me WTF….
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/838910359994056704
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_(political_notion)
edit:
https://twitter.com/hashtag/Vault7?src=hash
Lesson number 1 for Bill English.
When contemplating significant changes to Government Policy in relation to superannuation (which affects everyone) best not to come out the blue with a prescriptive change to be set in concrete.
Guaranteed to get everyone’s backs up, highlight previous little known social divisions, and likely to give easy fodder to your political opponents.
What he should have done:
1 Acknowledged that he wasn’t bound by the same pledge as Key.
2 Make a new pledge that he would not make any wholesale changes to the NZ Super scheme without cross party support.
3 State that he supports setting up a cross party inquiry (after the election) into the future of NZ super in which input from all parties and the public would be taken into account.
4 State that any final outcome would not be proposed in Parliament without at least 66% support. This would allow Nat/Labour to figure out a reasonable plan for the future without giving Peters too much power.
Outcome: Frees English from Key’s foolish pledge AND removes it from being a lightening rod for discontent at the 2017 election.
Think before you stink is a wonderful saying.