Well it might be worth having a reasonable estimate on how many farms are in danger of passing into foreign hands, and what the effect might be of failures on rural/provincial unemployment.
If you don’t give a sh*t about either of things because you essentially don’t govern with the interests of every citizen and future generations in mind, then you shrug it off like Key.
No, get the message through that they’ve been bullshitted continually about the riches to be found in dairy farming, and get them onside. Convert the farms into wetlands and forests at the expense of the grossly over-subsidised pollutive industries. The absurd increase in land value gets redistributed to pay for the clean up. No one loses, we all win.
You can also have wetlands within forests, and forest wetlands. Many places in the South Island had wetlands alongside forests. No reason why that couldn’t happen in Canterbury again even with climate change. We’re just not used to thinking they can be there because we’ve fucked with the land so much that in many places it doesn’t hold water any more (doesn’t Canty have something like 1% of the plains as native ecosystems now?). Replacing forests with pasture is a pretty sure way to get rid of wetlands as well as draining specific sites.
So right. For years the greens have been saying nz is reliant on dairy. Dairy is wrecking the environment. Need to half the dairy stock. Now they want to prop them up. Does this include the corporate farmers based in parnell.
Probably from James shaw in the house today, he seemed very concerned about the number of dairy farmer who will lose their farms. I thought he would be celebrating
The Greens have never been anti-dairy farmers, what are you on about?
Listening to Shaw’s questions in the House, it’s clear that the GP is concerned about rural communities and the risks to the NZ economy, which is consistent with its kaupapa and policies.
Nobody should be celebrating as Dairy farmers losing their farms because the new buyers will probably be off shore and not give a F about NZ, our exports or our environment.
If enough farms get sold then the new buyers could get the majority voting rights of Fonterra and our main export of NZ will be out of NZ control and probably the co operative approach destroyed and then NZ Dairy will be controlled by finance companies and wall street.
Of all the nutty comments the Greens could make, this takes the tofu. Who would know how many farmers will fail? And if he knows that, why doesn’t he tell them so the poor buggers can have a sleep in and not worry about getting up for milking.
I’m happy to admit that the Nats can be poor but like a low grade, mid week horse race, the winner doesn’t need to be a champion if it’s up against hopeless competition.
You know that Treasury is able to do modelling to work out estimates of the number of farms that will fail, right? National should be aware of the forecasts and the consequences coming in the next 12 months. If they are not, they are incompetent.
No if about it mate – we didn’t get $120 billion in debt by National knowing what they were doing. $150 billion this year – IMF’ll be stepping in before very long.
He’ll know how many are at risk of failing, and he can have a reasonable guess at which are most likely to with the current facts. I don’t think anyone is asking him to be exactly right, just to put some sort of scope on the problem using the government’s resources.
There is a fundamental difference: casinos suck money from their locality, like vampires.
Farming, of whatever type, injects money into the regions. Sure, our waterways will be cleaner, but it could result in a rural disaster.
Rather than waiting for bubbles to burst and market corrections to evolve, the government can help manage the transition towards more diverse production.
With a view to knowing what is going on in your own economy. Anticipating the likely consequences. Mitigating the ones you want to mitigate. You know – governing.
Favours to dairy farmers is one possible outcome – it makes a hell of a lot more sense than favours to SkyCity.
Unlike corruption, farming can actually be done in a sustainable fashion, lol.
This is the problem with some of our friends on the left- we still need to have some room for nuance. Just because dairy farmers as a whole pollute too much and have lobbied national to destroy local government in Canterbury shouldn’t mean we want their individual businesses to fail. We should be supporting them to do better, if they’re willing.
(ie. better on not polluting things. If people overspecialise in dairy and overleverage, we may just have to let them fail, unfortunately. Hopefully we can stop them from selling our farmland at cut rates to overseas buyers if they do. =/)
I think the phrase ‘ex Tory dairy farmers’ is closer to the mark, Bruce. That’ll be why National are crapping themselves over the issue. Yesterday Key reckoned ten percent were going to be going bust, today … he has no fucken clue how many. Of course, he may be lying. It could be because the figure is way higher than 10% and he actually knows that.
It’s not often we see Key blindsided, but this one has got him stumped. If he can bail out his bankster mates, why doesn’t he give a shit about National Party loyalists? He’s looking more and more like a typical JAFA out in the heartland.
Direct assistance might be complicated by various free trade bullshit, but what about this:
1) declare a climate emergency in some of the hardest hit areas in order to enable relief efforts
2) target longer term relief efforts at transitioning towards crops and animals that are more approriate to the expected regional climates, rather than sucking water from strained aquifers. Olives and that sort of thing, maybe.
3) a coherent regional development plan, from infrastructure to moving people away from cities (with actual financial encouragement, not just to juggle declining state houses). Real wealth is produced in the regions, and moves towards the financial centres. Service sector money just travels in circles between corporations in the cities.
Coffee. Definitely need coffee. And from what I can make out it may actually grow quite well in some parts of Te Waipounamu (Once we start to feel the effects of AGCC – oh, wait).
a coherent regional development plan, from infrastructure to moving people away from cities
Building up the infrastructure to develop our economy – I like it. R&D on electronics, aeronautics industry, developing our full resources, recycling, etc, etc.
Could probably do that Space Program that I think we need.
It’s about using the land for what it is best suited to, and diversity in produce.
The Indian solar panel thing was interesting – it was overruled on the basis that it stipulated using local parts. We don’t need to do that if we’re just talking about regional recovery. Think agresearch being better funded and more diverse.
Making it easier to decentralise some tech jobs into the regions by developing infrastructure is a way to diversify the regional income streams – the fibre rollout is definitely A Good Thingtm
It’s not so much the ongoing use of the land, but rather the immediate effect of a very large (10-40%) of one of our largest industries going tits up. The capital loss from this is going to affect the capitalisation of every farm and rural business in the country. And in the very short term.
The immediate issue is to get some control over the implosion to try and limit the loss of equity of operations that have positive EBIT. Something like Crown Asset Management after GFC, or using Landcorp to manage the disbursement in a controlled way.
I’d almost bet there’s frantic work going on along these lines to try and stave off the coming implosion in the Tory heartland.
“Relief efforts” is just code for removing money from the public purse (whether its cutely called tax breaks or whatever), and i can guarantee it will be a lot more than the 28m for the flag that raised so much ire.
If anything this shows that primary production is a shit way of making money, unless you are adding value significantly. And we aren’t doing that because, more or less, our farmers are dumb hicks. We’ve struggled to do it with our logs too. And finally, the service sector isn’t necessarily inferior to hard production – after all not everything people want and need is material.
What this situation shows is that leaving primary production purely to the markets creates bubbles.
People will always need food and raw materials. Not everyone needs an accountant, or a convoluted and hedged stock trading plan.
The difference between money for economic management and money for a fucking flag is that economic management improves people’s lives and produces a net benefit to the nation. A flag does neither.
Ever heard of “holidays” on mortgage repayments? Lowering interest rates on loans? The major banks have been sucking Billions out of NZ over the past few years . They are partly responsible for the crap the dairy industry finds itself in right now – so being partly to blame – the Banks – as much as the farmers should be taking some of the pain. Of course banks structure their lending so that they loose as little as possible should things go belly up. But this is where the Government can step in and direct banks to moderate their behaviour towards those farmers who are in dire straits wrt loan repayments. Remember the GFC and Banks needing guaranteed funding from govt – too big to fail. Well now its the turn of the banks to behave in a manner that is beneficial to society. They can take a cut in their profits for a while,a s farmers struggle to get back on their feet.
Of course those who can only see the market as the solution to every problem are those with very little brain and very little learning. A managed economy out-performs a market economy every single time. ( there is in fact no such thing as a purely free- market economy). But just suppose the government continues to ignore the plight of farmers over their heads in debt. What will be the outcome?
a. Farmer suicides will continue to increase.
b. Land values will drop as more and more farmers are forced off their land and farm mortgage sales will increase.
c. As land values drop even more farmers will find the equity in their land diminishing and their gearing increasing meaning that they in turn will be finding pressure from banks desperate to not loose money on their “investment”.
d. Those farmers who have not suicided and who are now off their farm will be adding to a growing rural unemployment.
e.Rural towns which are essentially service towns to farming will also be closing down. (this is a particularly strong trend in Australia where many rural towns have vanished in recent years following the long term drought and the down turn in the farming industry in those areas such as southern NSW).
Of course if this is the wish of the RWNJ that is what they want. One has to question why they desire this sort of outcome – but that is for them to justify.
Sounds like a normal economic cycle to me. People who overreach and make malinvestments losing money. The role of the taxpayer is not to insure against business failure.
Land values dropping is exactly what needs to happen, to return what has been a bubble, to real and sustainable values. Given the amount of talk about the need for this to happen in the Auckland property market, i thought more people here would get it.
You really do expect a lot from the PM, don’t you. It’s not like he’s Nicolas Maduro, who understands the inner workings of all parts of the economy that he can manage it all in concert for the best.
Well he’s paid handsomely for not doing this job – and has the whole of Treasury to help him with the math. But all he wants to do is schmooze the spooks and daydream about spying. Useless tosser.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 7.1.1
He is paid to have a handle on the impacts of the policies his government promotes.
He’s an accountant. for goodness sake. He knows the importance on numbers (to the exclusion of all else usually). I don’t believe he doesn’t know these numbers – lying and incompetent.
He’s paid to govern in the public interest and he’s never done it. He should be thrown in jail and every cent he’s been paid taken back, while the damages are calculated. The asset thefts alone cost NZ billions.
I’m sure that if someone tried really hard to be a one-eyed zealot who insists on thinking the absolute worst of any plan not their own, then the words “The regions need to be supported” could translate only into “financially supporting dairy farms”.
In the real world, however, many other activities can fall under the umbrella of “regional development”. Some of them have already been mentioned in this very comment thread, That makes it much more difficult to assume that “The regions need to be supported” means “financially supporting dairy farms”. But I’m inspired that you keep reaching for that rainbow, CV.
A bit of history. In the 80s there was a drought bailout for farmers. For a fact I know two farmers who lied and were proud of the handout they received. Further back in time there was “Sheep Retention scheme” where there was a payout of dollars per head of sheep to encourage the sheep-farming industry. Local farmers recounted their flocks to discover overnight a 15-20% increase in their numbers. Funny that.
Nowdays it would become very public on the net.
And I’m sure these cheat farmers were voting National in a few years, and applauding Bolger and Richardson as they ‘got stuck into those lazy welfare bludgers!!’
The dairy industry, fronted by Fonterra has pushed New Zealanders to pay global prices for their products. Why should the consumer care if a certain number of dairy farmers hit the wall? However, we need to make certain, written in law, that none of our land goes, again, into foreign ownership. Be like some African countries that lease portions of land.
We could always legislate to compensate them and nationalise the land, selling it to people who will actually do ecologically responsible stuff with it.
Would be good to see someone like Swordfish evaluate which high-capital dairy electorates could change their vote share if Labour, Greens and New Zealand First campaigned intelligently. Concentrating solely on the Party vote:
West Coast-Tasman
National 16,000
Labour 8,400
NZF 3,100
Green 4,600
Clutha-Southland
National 21,700
Labour 5,000
NZF 2,100
Green 4,600
Taupo
National 20,700
Labour 6,700
NZF 3,700
Green 2,200
Waikato
National 21,600
Labour 5,300
NZF 3,900
Green 2,000
New Plymouth
National 21,000
Labour 8,000
NZF 3,400
Greens 3,000
Waitaki
National 22,600
Labour 7,162
NZF 2,700
Greens 4,400
We should be under no illusions that any of these seats will shift as MPs. But thinking in MMP terms, the potential for a 2-3% change in overall party vote when spread across all three potential coalition parties in these dairy-dependent electorates would be a huge harvest that National would struggle with.
Seems counter-intuitive, but an MMP attack straight into dairy heartland could yield strong electoral rewards if well coordinated across the thee opposing parties.
Yeah, whoever’s nominated for those seats needs to be campaigning hard on the party vote. Arguably you could even have people very high on the list parachuted into those electorates for Labour so that it’s clear that Labour is taking the regions seriously. (although most of them love their electorate safety net, so won’t want to go…)
As you can see from the NZFirst results, their party vote base is very low in these electorates. So it would take cooperation across the Opposition to achieve a strong measurable result.
I think there’s much more likelihood of voter movement in the regions than in the cities this time.
While I don’t have much sympathy for people who have borrowed themselves into a deep hole, the knock on effects in the rural communities will be massive.
If a government was planning some form of spending to help nz through the coming pinch, a $1.50 subsidy per kilo on dairy would go a long way.
Socialism by stealth.
At no stage should we consider a bailout for the dairy industry… farming should be look upon like any other business…. if it costs a farm $500,000 (random number) a year to run, and if they only bring in $450,000 , then you would have to look seriously at your costs or your sales… seeing as they are selling milk at auction, they cant really look at sales, so can only look at costs… but there would be little room there generally (I cant see dairy farmers spending more than they have to already)…
It’s a business, and kiwis shouldn’t be subsidizing the farmers
Agree Richard however theres warehouses full of Palm Kernels in Taranaki and from what I see and hear the demand for them hasn’t diminished.
Perhaps excess stock should go and cows could eat grass and hay for their diet.
After all they have been doing that for centurys.
I remember the chortles from my farming acquaintances if not laughter every time the government tightened the screws on the unemployed and beneficiaries. I remember the whinging and outright racism every time the word Maori came up. Usually it didn’t because the subject wasn’t welcome.
Subsidizing the farmers is just a waste of time and a load of taxpayers money and if allowed once will come back to haunt us in future generations when the mistakes of the past are repeated as they will be.
Basically screw em. They are adults and are responsible for their own problems.
After all thats what the free market and true capitalism that they adhere to when things are going well is all about. Lets see how it works when things are tough.
“Basically screw em. They are adults and are responsible for their own problems.”
What about the young falla in his first job on a dairy farm that’s going to be one of the first expences pruned, or rural subcontractors whose pH has gone quiet and has a mortgage to pay, screw them to,??
Theyre still hoping the next years auction prices will rise… its possible, but then again, other countries are learning to do what we do, and while we are (were) a major player, we didnt have a monopoly on it, and we were pretty much at capacity…
Seems like people are talking farm bailouts already eh. It was predictable that bailing out massive GHG producers will be considered seriously as an option.
I’d be happy for bail outs or subsidies as long as the farm was bonded to convert to organics or other sustainable land management within 5 years. You’d need to put other supports in place via advisors etc.
You’d probably get a riot if the govt tried to pay farmers extra to keep dumping cowshit and nitrates in our rivers.
I replied to b about an ideal. But if you listen to what I am actually saying I am saying that in 2016 there shouldnt be any bailouts (unless you think that the National govt would put my kinds of conditions on them).
No idea who the ‘many others’ are, and I suspect you don’t either because there aren’t many (you could link if I am wrong). B wants a bail out in the form of a subsidy. Is there anyone else?
The last thing we need is a subsidy. It only reinforces the bad decision making.
The problem isn’t $3.90 , it’s the $8.40 and other spike payouts before that. Have a look at http://www.interest.co.nz/rural-data/dairy-industry-payout-history to see these spikes above the normal curve in the graph at the bottom. These have encouraged some poor decisions in the industry that it’s having to deal with now.
And Fontera is carrying a huge debt, is this the result of these spike payments? They are technically insolvent since they can’t pay their bill on time, so have a thought about them going tits up too.
We need to manage this to minimise the impacts and change behaviour, not reinforce bad behaviours.
I listened to question time today and think there is a danger of the opposition overplaying their collective hand. Virtually all the questions were about the dairy situation and Ron Mark asked essentially an identical question to the one Grant Robertson had just asked in the previous question.
I get this is a very big deal (im a farmer so understand the reality of the situation) but there is a danger that the opposition appear over zealous exploiting real peoples hardship for the purpose of political gain.
Labour seem to be making up policy responses on the hoof which to me seems unnecessary when it is the govt that is on the ropes over this. This issue is a slow motion trainwreck and the govt have backed themselves into a corner the opposition will have plenty of opportunity capitalise if they play their cards right.
New dairy farmers, or dairy farmers that have expanded, paid too much for just about everything. To a large extent I think that’s tough shit.
Banks not reducing interest rates as the OCR drops is sickening. They expect to make extraordinary profits regardless of both the general economic performance and to cover the gambling they have been making in an industry that has fundimental flaws.
The government has been actively making things easy for them in relation to water rights (ECAN) and subsidising irrigation when the business and environmental impacts do not justify it. Having the government as your cheerleaders probably should be regarded as a kiss of death: remember the white gold.
9% of global milk production is exported. Fonterra (with milk from NZ) accounted for 25% of the total milk production that was exported.
The production capability of farms that were not exporting needed only to rise by a couple of percent for them to swamp the demand for export milk. (A couple of percent rise in the 91% is equivalent to Fonterras total export.) This why Fonterra are extremely vulnerable. This is why high cost dairy production in New Zealand is counter to the business model that made its milk attractive overseas.
Fonterra needs to be fixed because otherwise dairy farmers will always be tettering on the edge of one type of oblivion or another.
Fixing one farmer’s debt or one hundred farmer’s debt through tax payer intervention is not going to really put the country in a better position.
The history regarding dairy farmers and working people is shocking .
Massey Cossack’s, the 1951 lockout, their anti union agenda and their disgraceful way most of them treat their workers makes it hard for me to have any sympathy for their present plight.Instead of having their overseas holidays and spending non-stop they should have done what most people try to do save a bit for hard times.
I have never heard of dairy farmers calling for action to help the unemployed or solo parents in fact just the opposite they protest with anger at any help given the underprivileged.
However despite this crisis their Tory government has got them into
they will still vote National and still bash unions .
Think about if a factory in a small town cuts its workforce – yes, the factory might have been mismanaged, or is obsolete, or is simply being swampd by other suppliers in the global market. All of that is by-the-by, none of it helps the town face the sudden problem.
Well, magnify that effect throughout the regions. Cafes, shops, garages, vehicle dealerships, all getting hit by a drop in customers…
And the regions are the areas that feed money through to real people, rather than corporations.
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From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
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So… we like dairy farmers now? They should be propped up with taxpayer dollars?
Well it might be worth having a reasonable estimate on how many farms are in danger of passing into foreign hands, and what the effect might be of failures on rural/provincial unemployment.
If you don’t give a sh*t about either of things because you essentially don’t govern with the interests of every citizen and future generations in mind, then you shrug it off like Key.
No, get the message through that they’ve been bullshitted continually about the riches to be found in dairy farming, and get them onside. Convert the farms into wetlands and forests at the expense of the grossly over-subsidised pollutive industries. The absurd increase in land value gets redistributed to pay for the clean up. No one loses, we all win.
How do wetlands make money? Are wetlands even appropriate for, eg, Canterbury? How do you “get the message through”?
I’m pretty sure that Canterbury used to pretty much be Wetland.
And our environment is far more important than money.
forest, apparently. Before humans came along.
And of course the question becomes whether past ecosystems would survive tomorrow, because climate change.
Oh, I think we should also be looking to rats, cats, mice, stoats, rabbits, possums, etc, etc…
Our ecosystem is already changed but it can still support life which is where the wetlands really shine.
+1000
the potential for the South Island to majorly restore native habitats is huge.
You can also have wetlands within forests, and forest wetlands. Many places in the South Island had wetlands alongside forests. No reason why that couldn’t happen in Canterbury again even with climate change. We’re just not used to thinking they can be there because we’ve fucked with the land so much that in many places it doesn’t hold water any more (doesn’t Canty have something like 1% of the plains as native ecosystems now?). Replacing forests with pasture is a pretty sure way to get rid of wetlands as well as draining specific sites.
You get wetlands in NZ even in dry climates.
http://www.orc.govt.nz/Information-and-Services/Wetlands-Inventory/Central-Otago-District/Chapman-Road-Inland-Saline-Wetland/
http://www.orc.govt.nz/Information-and-Services/Wetlands-Inventory/Central-Otago-District/
http://canterburymaps.govt.nz/mapping-the-wetlands-of-canterbury
http://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/habitats/wetlands/wetlands-by-region/canterbury/
http://www.wetlandtrust.org.nz/Site/Visiting_Wetlands/Wetlands_you_can_visit_in_NZ/Canterbury.ashx
“I’m pretty sure that Canterbury used to pretty much be Wetland.”
Forested, yes, wetland no. Except in pockets, such as Christchurch, which was largely a swamp.
Well then, strengthen the OIA, but don’t give them a fucking cent.
So right. For years the greens have been saying nz is reliant on dairy. Dairy is wrecking the environment. Need to half the dairy stock. Now they want to prop them up. Does this include the corporate farmers based in parnell.
Now they want to prop them up
Are you running this line because you believe it or because you think you can score points?
Or is Polly in desperate need of a cracker?
Have the Greens ever advocated abandoning New Zealanders to predation by the National Party’s owners? Why would they start now?
am I missing something? How do people get ‘the Greens want to bail out dairy farmers’ from this post?
Probably from James shaw in the house today, he seemed very concerned about the number of dairy farmer who will lose their farms. I thought he would be celebrating
Sorry “dairy farms”
Sorry again “farmers” fat thumbs.
I thought he would be celebrating
Why, what’s wrong with you? Blinded by hate much.
The Greens have never been anti-dairy farmers, what are you on about?
Listening to Shaw’s questions in the House, it’s clear that the GP is concerned about rural communities and the risks to the NZ economy, which is consistent with its kaupapa and policies.
http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/42053
The Greens think that Dairy farmers get some unfair subsidies from the government and need to use clean farming techniques if they don’t already.
That’s not the same thing as wanting farmers to fail. I want farmers to do better, not sell up to overseas interests.
Nobody should be celebrating as Dairy farmers losing their farms because the new buyers will probably be off shore and not give a F about NZ, our exports or our environment.
If enough farms get sold then the new buyers could get the majority voting rights of Fonterra and our main export of NZ will be out of NZ control and probably the co operative approach destroyed and then NZ Dairy will be controlled by finance companies and wall street.
Of all the nutty comments the Greens could make, this takes the tofu. Who would know how many farmers will fail? And if he knows that, why doesn’t he tell them so the poor buggers can have a sleep in and not worry about getting up for milking.
I’m happy to admit that the Nats can be poor but like a low grade, mid week horse race, the winner doesn’t need to be a champion if it’s up against hopeless competition.
You know that Treasury is able to do modelling to work out estimates of the number of farms that will fail, right? National should be aware of the forecasts and the consequences coming in the next 12 months. If they are not, they are incompetent.
No if about it mate – we didn’t get $120 billion in debt by National knowing what they were doing. $150 billion this year – IMF’ll be stepping in before very long.
The banks will know which of their borrowers are in danger of default. And I suspect John Key does know but the number isn’t a good one.
He’ll know how many are at risk of failing, and he can have a reasonable guess at which are most likely to with the current facts. I don’t think anyone is asking him to be exactly right, just to put some sort of scope on the problem using the government’s resources.
Greens have now done a press release pointing out the issues:
https://www.greens.org.nz/news/press-release/prime-minister-%E2%80%9Cdoesn%E2%80%99t-have-clue%E2%80%9D-dairy-farm-downturn
This government doesn’t expect to have to manage. That’s what the market is for.
Exactly
The problem being, of course, is that the market doesn’t manage either resulting in collapse.
The Standard implicitly calling for bailouts of Tory dairy farmers – i think i’ve seen it all.
Next thing those wildly excreting bovines will be flying past my window.
No, an author on The Standard is explicitly calling for the government to show some interest in the economic troubles facing the regions.
With a view to doing what?
Have a read of TRP’s nonsensical post and thread.
There is functionally no difference between favours to Sky City and favours to Dairy Farmers.
There is a fundamental difference: casinos suck money from their locality, like vampires.
Farming, of whatever type, injects money into the regions. Sure, our waterways will be cleaner, but it could result in a rural disaster.
Rather than waiting for bubbles to burst and market corrections to evolve, the government can help manage the transition towards more diverse production.
With a view to knowing what is going on in your own economy. Anticipating the likely consequences. Mitigating the ones you want to mitigate. You know – governing.
Favours to dairy farmers is one possible outcome – it makes a hell of a lot more sense than favours to SkyCity.
Unlike corruption, farming can actually be done in a sustainable fashion, lol.
This is the problem with some of our friends on the left- we still need to have some room for nuance. Just because dairy farmers as a whole pollute too much and have lobbied national to destroy local government in Canterbury shouldn’t mean we want their individual businesses to fail. We should be supporting them to do better, if they’re willing.
(ie. better on not polluting things. If people overspecialise in dairy and overleverage, we may just have to let them fail, unfortunately. Hopefully we can stop them from selling our farmland at cut rates to overseas buyers if they do. =/)
“Hopefully we can stop them from selling our farmland at cut rates to overseas buyers if they do.”
Unfortunately it’s the banks who get to make that decision under current arrangements. Gee, wonder what they’ll do?
Exactly – thank you McFlock.
I think the phrase ‘ex Tory dairy farmers’ is closer to the mark, Bruce. That’ll be why National are crapping themselves over the issue. Yesterday Key reckoned ten percent were going to be going bust, today … he has no fucken clue how many. Of course, he may be lying. It could be because the figure is way higher than 10% and he actually knows that.
It’s not often we see Key blindsided, but this one has got him stumped. If he can bail out his bankster mates, why doesn’t he give a shit about National Party loyalists? He’s looking more and more like a typical JAFA out in the heartland.
No. An actual JAFA would be taking an interest in what’s happening. Key just doesn’t give a shit.
Perhaps we can repurpose it Just Another F****** American-wannabe.
Or maybe he’s keeping that inside knowledge to allow,say, someone’s blind trust to make a killing picking up some cut price land….
Can’t see any implication that anyone is calling for farmers to be bailed out.
Direct assistance might be complicated by various free trade bullshit, but what about this:
1) declare a climate emergency in some of the hardest hit areas in order to enable relief efforts
2) target longer term relief efforts at transitioning towards crops and animals that are more approriate to the expected regional climates, rather than sucking water from strained aquifers. Olives and that sort of thing, maybe.
3) a coherent regional development plan, from infrastructure to moving people away from cities (with actual financial encouragement, not just to juggle declining state houses). Real wealth is produced in the regions, and moves towards the financial centres. Service sector money just travels in circles between corporations in the cities.
Yeah, That may not work.
Coffee. Definitely need coffee. And from what I can make out it may actually grow quite well in some parts of Te Waipounamu (Once we start to feel the effects of AGCC – oh, wait).
Building up the infrastructure to develop our economy – I like it. R&D on electronics, aeronautics industry, developing our full resources, recycling, etc, etc.
Could probably do that Space Program that I think we need.
coffee is a good one.
It’s about using the land for what it is best suited to, and diversity in produce.
The Indian solar panel thing was interesting – it was overruled on the basis that it stipulated using local parts. We don’t need to do that if we’re just talking about regional recovery. Think agresearch being better funded and more diverse.
Making it easier to decentralise some tech jobs into the regions by developing infrastructure is a way to diversify the regional income streams – the fibre rollout is definitely A Good Thingtm
You’re getting ahead of things there.
It’s not so much the ongoing use of the land, but rather the immediate effect of a very large (10-40%) of one of our largest industries going tits up. The capital loss from this is going to affect the capitalisation of every farm and rural business in the country. And in the very short term.
The immediate issue is to get some control over the implosion to try and limit the loss of equity of operations that have positive EBIT. Something like Crown Asset Management after GFC, or using Landcorp to manage the disbursement in a controlled way.
I’d almost bet there’s frantic work going on along these lines to try and stave off the coming implosion in the Tory heartland.
“Relief efforts” is just code for removing money from the public purse (whether its cutely called tax breaks or whatever), and i can guarantee it will be a lot more than the 28m for the flag that raised so much ire.
If anything this shows that primary production is a shit way of making money, unless you are adding value significantly. And we aren’t doing that because, more or less, our farmers are dumb hicks. We’ve struggled to do it with our logs too. And finally, the service sector isn’t necessarily inferior to hard production – after all not everything people want and need is material.
🙄
What this situation shows is that leaving primary production purely to the markets creates bubbles.
People will always need food and raw materials. Not everyone needs an accountant, or a convoluted and hedged stock trading plan.
The difference between money for economic management and money for a fucking flag is that economic management improves people’s lives and produces a net benefit to the nation. A flag does neither.
Ever heard of “holidays” on mortgage repayments? Lowering interest rates on loans? The major banks have been sucking Billions out of NZ over the past few years . They are partly responsible for the crap the dairy industry finds itself in right now – so being partly to blame – the Banks – as much as the farmers should be taking some of the pain. Of course banks structure their lending so that they loose as little as possible should things go belly up. But this is where the Government can step in and direct banks to moderate their behaviour towards those farmers who are in dire straits wrt loan repayments. Remember the GFC and Banks needing guaranteed funding from govt – too big to fail. Well now its the turn of the banks to behave in a manner that is beneficial to society. They can take a cut in their profits for a while,a s farmers struggle to get back on their feet.
Of course those who can only see the market as the solution to every problem are those with very little brain and very little learning. A managed economy out-performs a market economy every single time. ( there is in fact no such thing as a purely free- market economy). But just suppose the government continues to ignore the plight of farmers over their heads in debt. What will be the outcome?
a. Farmer suicides will continue to increase.
b. Land values will drop as more and more farmers are forced off their land and farm mortgage sales will increase.
c. As land values drop even more farmers will find the equity in their land diminishing and their gearing increasing meaning that they in turn will be finding pressure from banks desperate to not loose money on their “investment”.
d. Those farmers who have not suicided and who are now off their farm will be adding to a growing rural unemployment.
e.Rural towns which are essentially service towns to farming will also be closing down. (this is a particularly strong trend in Australia where many rural towns have vanished in recent years following the long term drought and the down turn in the farming industry in those areas such as southern NSW).
Of course if this is the wish of the RWNJ that is what they want. One has to question why they desire this sort of outcome – but that is for them to justify.
Sounds like a normal economic cycle to me. People who overreach and make malinvestments losing money. The role of the taxpayer is not to insure against business failure.
Land values dropping is exactly what needs to happen, to return what has been a bubble, to real and sustainable values. Given the amount of talk about the need for this to happen in the Auckland property market, i thought more people here would get it.
“Sounds like a normal economic cycle to me.”
Yes, unstable and damaging boom-busts have become the new normal of bankster/hot credit/irresponsible lending driven economic cycles.
“Yes, unstable and damaging boom-busts have become the new normal of bankster/hot credit/irresponsible lending driven economic cycles.”
Pretty much not sure why anyone is surprised by this – oil has been bouncing around wildly and will be just about due to spike upwards anytime now.
Yup, indeed, and the oil market has been manipulated in the past year.
You really do expect a lot from the PM, don’t you. It’s not like he’s Nicolas Maduro, who understands the inner workings of all parts of the economy that he can manage it all in concert for the best.
Well he’s paid handsomely for not doing this job – and has the whole of Treasury to help him with the math. But all he wants to do is schmooze the spooks and daydream about spying. Useless tosser.
No. He is not paid to run dairy farms. He should leave that up to dairy farmers. And, if they fuck it up, that’s their look out, not the government’s.
“He is not paid to run dairy farms”
He is paid to have a handle on the impacts of the policies his government promotes.
He’s an accountant. for goodness sake. He knows the importance on numbers (to the exclusion of all else usually). I don’t believe he doesn’t know these numbers – lying and incompetent.
He’s paid to govern in the public interest and he’s never done it. He should be thrown in jail and every cent he’s been paid taken back, while the damages are calculated. The asset thefts alone cost NZ billions.
🙄
Smilies – for the tr0lls who find language just too difficult.
🙄
And they wonder why people think rwnj are morons 😉
🙄
‘preciate your call.
Cows are major emitters of GHGs. Time to halve the NZ dairy herd, not prop up its numbers with tax payer subsidies.
Who’s saying dairy farms should be propped up?
The regions need to be supported. And we need information about the likely extent of the dairy collapse before that can happen.
And that won’t involve financially supporting dairy farms, which are massive emitters of GHGs?
who is saying that dairy farms should be propped up?
Don’t care who. I’m asking if politicians are about to throw money at GHG producing dairy farms.
why do you think politicians are about to do that?
Don’t think any of the parties are proposing bailing them out at this stage, CV.
I’m sure that if someone tried really hard to be a one-eyed zealot who insists on thinking the absolute worst of any plan not their own, then the words “The regions need to be supported” could translate only into “financially supporting dairy farms”.
In the real world, however, many other activities can fall under the umbrella of “regional development”. Some of them have already been mentioned in this very comment thread, That makes it much more difficult to assume that “The regions need to be supported” means “financially supporting dairy farms”. But I’m inspired that you keep reaching for that rainbow, CV.
A bit of history. In the 80s there was a drought bailout for farmers. For a fact I know two farmers who lied and were proud of the handout they received. Further back in time there was “Sheep Retention scheme” where there was a payout of dollars per head of sheep to encourage the sheep-farming industry. Local farmers recounted their flocks to discover overnight a 15-20% increase in their numbers. Funny that.
Nowdays it would become very public on the net.
If you did it on a per kilo of solids supplied it couldn’t be fudged.
And I’m sure these cheat farmers were voting National in a few years, and applauding Bolger and Richardson as they ‘got stuck into those lazy welfare bludgers!!’
In the 80s farmers also had their land confiscated by banks. Deja vu.
The dairy industry, fronted by Fonterra has pushed New Zealanders to pay global prices for their products. Why should the consumer care if a certain number of dairy farmers hit the wall? However, we need to make certain, written in law, that none of our land goes, again, into foreign ownership. Be like some African countries that lease portions of land.
Losing the land to foreign ownership is a major risk if this is left to the market.
We could always legislate to compensate them and nationalise the land, selling it to people who will actually do ecologically responsible stuff with it.
Fat chance of that under National, though.
I would support that 100% Mathew W
How is it that “global prices” seem higher in NZ supermarkets than in just about every other western country that Kiwis live in?
Would be good to see someone like Swordfish evaluate which high-capital dairy electorates could change their vote share if Labour, Greens and New Zealand First campaigned intelligently. Concentrating solely on the Party vote:
West Coast-Tasman
National 16,000
Labour 8,400
NZF 3,100
Green 4,600
Clutha-Southland
National 21,700
Labour 5,000
NZF 2,100
Green 4,600
Taupo
National 20,700
Labour 6,700
NZF 3,700
Green 2,200
Waikato
National 21,600
Labour 5,300
NZF 3,900
Green 2,000
New Plymouth
National 21,000
Labour 8,000
NZF 3,400
Greens 3,000
Waitaki
National 22,600
Labour 7,162
NZF 2,700
Greens 4,400
We should be under no illusions that any of these seats will shift as MPs. But thinking in MMP terms, the potential for a 2-3% change in overall party vote when spread across all three potential coalition parties in these dairy-dependent electorates would be a huge harvest that National would struggle with.
Seems counter-intuitive, but an MMP attack straight into dairy heartland could yield strong electoral rewards if well coordinated across the thee opposing parties.
very smart thinking Ad.
Yeah, whoever’s nominated for those seats needs to be campaigning hard on the party vote. Arguably you could even have people very high on the list parachuted into those electorates for Labour so that it’s clear that Labour is taking the regions seriously. (although most of them love their electorate safety net, so won’t want to go…)
With only one electorate between their many MPs, Greens and NZFirst would be free to campaign and reap the rewards.
You’d lose easily that 2-3% from the urban poor and middle class.
Leave the regions to the Muldoonists in NZF.
You get my logic clearly.
As you can see from the NZFirst results, their party vote base is very low in these electorates. So it would take cooperation across the Opposition to achieve a strong measurable result.
I think there’s much more likelihood of voter movement in the regions than in the cities this time.
While I don’t have much sympathy for people who have borrowed themselves into a deep hole, the knock on effects in the rural communities will be massive.
If a government was planning some form of spending to help nz through the coming pinch, a $1.50 subsidy per kilo on dairy would go a long way.
Socialism by stealth.
At no stage should we consider a bailout for the dairy industry… farming should be look upon like any other business…. if it costs a farm $500,000 (random number) a year to run, and if they only bring in $450,000 , then you would have to look seriously at your costs or your sales… seeing as they are selling milk at auction, they cant really look at sales, so can only look at costs… but there would be little room there generally (I cant see dairy farmers spending more than they have to already)…
It’s a business, and kiwis shouldn’t be subsidizing the farmers
Agree Richard however theres warehouses full of Palm Kernels in Taranaki and from what I see and hear the demand for them hasn’t diminished.
Perhaps excess stock should go and cows could eat grass and hay for their diet.
After all they have been doing that for centurys.
I remember the chortles from my farming acquaintances if not laughter every time the government tightened the screws on the unemployed and beneficiaries. I remember the whinging and outright racism every time the word Maori came up. Usually it didn’t because the subject wasn’t welcome.
Subsidizing the farmers is just a waste of time and a load of taxpayers money and if allowed once will come back to haunt us in future generations when the mistakes of the past are repeated as they will be.
Basically screw em. They are adults and are responsible for their own problems.
After all thats what the free market and true capitalism that they adhere to when things are going well is all about. Lets see how it works when things are tough.
“Basically screw em. They are adults and are responsible for their own problems.”
What about the young falla in his first job on a dairy farm that’s going to be one of the first expences pruned, or rural subcontractors whose pH has gone quiet and has a mortgage to pay, screw them to,??
Theyre still hoping the next years auction prices will rise… its possible, but then again, other countries are learning to do what we do, and while we are (were) a major player, we didnt have a monopoly on it, and we were pretty much at capacity…
Any “bailout” should only be considered to stop the land going overseas, IMO.
Seems like people are talking farm bailouts already eh. It was predictable that bailing out massive GHG producers will be considered seriously as an option.
Why not just tighten the OIA if that’s the problem?
I’d be happy for bail outs or subsidies as long as the farm was bonded to convert to organics or other sustainable land management within 5 years. You’d need to put other supports in place via advisors etc.
You’d probably get a riot if the govt tried to pay farmers extra to keep dumping cowshit and nitrates in our rivers.
I would settle for them excepting a carbon tax and a cgt .
not enough. We’re already going to be picking up the pollution clean up bills for farmers, it’s unethical to pay them to keep polluting.
You asked me who was considering dairy farm bail outs; it seems that you and many other people are mulling over it at least.
I replied to b about an ideal. But if you listen to what I am actually saying I am saying that in 2016 there shouldnt be any bailouts (unless you think that the National govt would put my kinds of conditions on them).
No idea who the ‘many others’ are, and I suspect you don’t either because there aren’t many (you could link if I am wrong). B wants a bail out in the form of a subsidy. Is there anyone else?
The last thing we need is a subsidy. It only reinforces the bad decision making.
The problem isn’t $3.90 , it’s the $8.40 and other spike payouts before that. Have a look at http://www.interest.co.nz/rural-data/dairy-industry-payout-history to see these spikes above the normal curve in the graph at the bottom. These have encouraged some poor decisions in the industry that it’s having to deal with now.
And Fontera is carrying a huge debt, is this the result of these spike payments? They are technically insolvent since they can’t pay their bill on time, so have a thought about them going tits up too.
We need to manage this to minimise the impacts and change behaviour, not reinforce bad behaviours.
And the big new flash offices Downtown Auckland which are yet to be completed?
I listened to question time today and think there is a danger of the opposition overplaying their collective hand. Virtually all the questions were about the dairy situation and Ron Mark asked essentially an identical question to the one Grant Robertson had just asked in the previous question.
I get this is a very big deal (im a farmer so understand the reality of the situation) but there is a danger that the opposition appear over zealous exploiting real peoples hardship for the purpose of political gain.
Labour seem to be making up policy responses on the hoof which to me seems unnecessary when it is the govt that is on the ropes over this. This issue is a slow motion trainwreck and the govt have backed themselves into a corner the opposition will have plenty of opportunity capitalise if they play their cards right.
I am a farmer, but not a dairy farmer.
New dairy farmers, or dairy farmers that have expanded, paid too much for just about everything. To a large extent I think that’s tough shit.
Banks not reducing interest rates as the OCR drops is sickening. They expect to make extraordinary profits regardless of both the general economic performance and to cover the gambling they have been making in an industry that has fundimental flaws.
The government has been actively making things easy for them in relation to water rights (ECAN) and subsidising irrigation when the business and environmental impacts do not justify it. Having the government as your cheerleaders probably should be regarded as a kiss of death: remember the white gold.
9% of global milk production is exported. Fonterra (with milk from NZ) accounted for 25% of the total milk production that was exported.
The production capability of farms that were not exporting needed only to rise by a couple of percent for them to swamp the demand for export milk. (A couple of percent rise in the 91% is equivalent to Fonterras total export.) This why Fonterra are extremely vulnerable. This is why high cost dairy production in New Zealand is counter to the business model that made its milk attractive overseas.
Fonterra needs to be fixed because otherwise dairy farmers will always be tettering on the edge of one type of oblivion or another.
Fixing one farmer’s debt or one hundred farmer’s debt through tax payer intervention is not going to really put the country in a better position.
The history regarding dairy farmers and working people is shocking .
Massey Cossack’s, the 1951 lockout, their anti union agenda and their disgraceful way most of them treat their workers makes it hard for me to have any sympathy for their present plight.Instead of having their overseas holidays and spending non-stop they should have done what most people try to do save a bit for hard times.
I have never heard of dairy farmers calling for action to help the unemployed or solo parents in fact just the opposite they protest with anger at any help given the underprivileged.
However despite this crisis their Tory government has got them into
they will still vote National and still bash unions .
Thing is, it’s not just about them though, is it?
Think about if a factory in a small town cuts its workforce – yes, the factory might have been mismanaged, or is obsolete, or is simply being swampd by other suppliers in the global market. All of that is by-the-by, none of it helps the town face the sudden problem.
Well, magnify that effect throughout the regions. Cafes, shops, garages, vehicle dealerships, all getting hit by a drop in customers…
And the regions are the areas that feed money through to real people, rather than corporations.