Mr Australia waves goodbye

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:46 am, May 25th, 2012 - 170 comments
Categories: budget2012 - Tags:

In his Budget speech, David Shearer labelled John Key ‘Mr Australia’. Because that’s where he’s pushing us. The zero hope budget offers a thousand and one nasty little cuts for students, for kids, for low-income workers, for schools, for community groups, for your public services. All to – if rosy growth forecasts come true – barely achieve a micro-surplus in 2014/15 for purely political reasons.

What’s the difference between $74,912,000,000 and $75,105,000,000? 0.26%, $197m. That’s how much National says it will reach surplus by in 2014/15. It’s such a marginal surplus that it doesn’t matter in any real sense. It’s just a political goal.

But to make sure they achieve that goal, what have they done? Cut ECE funding, increased class sizes, cut student allowances, increased student loan repayments – and that’s just the education cuts!

And when the rosy growth projections don’t come off? More cuts. Maybe they’ll call it the ‘sub-zero budget’.

Watching Key rant and rave in Parliament yesterday, it occurred to me that he still doesn’t realise he’s Prime Minister. Every broken promise was someone else’s fault and everyone suggesting a solution was just crazy; he is both unable to change anything and an awesome manager of the economy. He doesn’t seem get that, no matter what causes a problem, it’s his job to provide a solution.

Either Key doesn’t realise he’s Prime Minister, or he’s given up trying and knows this is his last term.

This Budget didn’t even attempt to offer any solutions to the fact that quarter of a million Kiwis are jobless, or that we have send $10 billion a year in profits overseas, or that we will soon owe $200 billion to foreigners, or that we spend $8 billion a year importing oil, or that our families are getting poorer, or that our formerly second-largest city is still a disaster-zone, or that our environment is in decline, or that over 200,000 kids live in poverty, or to Labour’s ‘4, 50s’ – 50,000 more unemployed National, 50,000 a year to Australia, $50 billion government debt, worst growth record in 50 years.

All that stuff, all that hard stuff that it is the business of government to address, was ignored by Key and his gang in this budget. Instead, they fixated on the meaningless goal of spending 0.26% less.

They’re so desperate to ensure they get over that arbitrary line without doing anything brave that would tax capitalist leeches (like a capital gains tax) that they’re pinching the pocket money of paper-boys. 68,000 children will no longer get the child tax rebate that is worth up to $250, another 100,000 low-income earners will no longer get the under $9,880 rebate that is worth up to $600 a year, and more families will lose out on a rebate of up to $300 a year for childcare and help for the disabled.

It’s actually worse than that. The National Party – crammed full of people who have made tax-free fortunes off capital gains on farms and investment property – suspended the budget debate so that, under urgency, they could retrospectively debate the law to repeal those rebates and take a few hundred dollars a year off kids, low-income workers, and families. If that’s not scrapping the barrel, I don’t know what is.

The budget was so pathetic that TVNZ didn’t even lead the news with it.

The only question now seems to be will how many of us will wave goodbye to NZ before NZ waves goodbye to Mr Australia.

170 comments on “Mr Australia waves goodbye ”

Comments are now closed

burt 1

25 May 2012 at 7:51 am

Is the line that that this is a budget to make people go to Australia a recycled National slogan after one of Cullen’s budgets ?
- Matthew Whitehead 1.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 1:29 pm
  
  Are you kidding? It’s a recycled campaign marketing line that National used to secure their first term.
  
  National has failed on its own criteria, making everything worse, and if it can’t fix things by now, it doesn’t deserve any more time in government.
- mike e 1.2
  
  25 May 2012 at 5:23 pm
  
  stick to sesame st burt Cullen got 9 yrs of growth averaging over 3% per annum volume in 4yrs nactional has not reached 1 % in volume growth thats averaging less than .25% per annum the Nactional govt figures don’t include inflation adjustment or population growth which bring Nactionals figures well into decline not growth BURT,
  - burt 1.2.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 11:37 pm
    
    Yes I know mike e, just like the 90’s when Labour rooted the economy and handed a basket case to National. What was it that time, oh that’s right the BNZ bailout…. It’s all National’s fault that in 2008 Labour handed them a stagnant economy with empty cupboards, increasing unemployment and a decade of deficit forecast.
    - mike e 1.2.1.1
      
      26 May 2012 at 9:23 am
      
      Roger Douglas and Ruthenasia burt it was Roger Douglas who deregulated banking and allowed the BNZ to lend to ponzi schemers.
      Labour Had a better financial solution to recession than a brighter future.
    - Treetop 1.2.1.2
      
      26 May 2012 at 1:19 pm
      
      Burt what Muldoon handed Labour in 1984 (high inflation/high interest/ballooning deficit) is nothing compared to what Labour left in 1990.
      
      I wonder what Key will leave Labour to clean up in 2014?
      - Colonial Viper 1.2.1.2.1
        
        26 May 2012 at 1:31 pm
        
        Burt what Muldoon handed Labour in 1984 (high inflation/high interest/ballooning deficit) is nothing compared to what Labour left in 1990.
        
        Labour decimated its ethos, the industrial base of our economy and its party membership over those years. As well as opening the neoliberal gates of hell through which Ruth Richardson passed the Mother of All Budgets.
        
        Treetop 1.2.1.2.1.1
        
        26 May 2012 at 2:16 pm
        
        I am agree with you about what Rogernomics did.
        
        Was there a better way at the time?
        
        I agree with Burt to as National are following the same failed economic paradigm. At least Labour has learnt the lesson, this is why I asked “I wonder what Key will leave Labour to clean up in 2014?”
        
        Treetop …
        
        26 May 2012 at 2:26 pm
        
        I dont have edit, two errors:
        
        I agree with (first line) and Draco not Burt (third line).
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 2:42 pm
        
        Was there a better way at the time?
        
        Removal of tarriffs could have been transitioned in allowing exporters to adapt and add more value, not just closed down.
        
        Currency controls could have been relaxed but movement of capital still limited. NZD should have been printed causing massive devaluation.
        
        The banking sector under state control could have been used to provide capital for new start up enterprises.
        
        Thousands of public sector workers could have been transitioned to private sector work, early retirement or otherwise retrained in an orderly manner.
        
        And state assets like Telecom should have been kept and made into profit making enterprises for the NZ public, not for private shareholders.
      - burt 1.2.1.2.2
        
        26 May 2012 at 7:18 pm
        
        Treetop
        
        Burt what Muldoon handed Labour in 1984 (high inflation/high interest/ballooning deficit) is nothing compared to what Labour left in 1990.
        
        Sure, Muldoon was a disgraceful socialist under a blue flag. Hell he wanted to nationalise everything. Wanted the state to control the provision and funding of large state assets and industries. His wage control and pricing initiatives were truly interventionist and his high income tax rates make Labour today look right wing.
        
        You know when you are honest about it, the current Labour party ideology would make Muldoon proud of his lasting legacy.
        
        You know it’s not about the colour of the flag eh… National today are kinda like Labour mid 80’s, Labour today like National from the 70’s. The one thing we do know is that a program of continually increasing public spending, increasing the hand of the state in peoples lives and continue to increasing taxation the economy stagnates irrespective of the colour of the party flag holding the levers.
        
        Treetop 1.2.1.2.2.1
        
        27 May 2012 at 2:00 pm
        
        In the 70s and 80s there was enough government housing for the most vulnerable. In the 90s National introduced market rents. Labour removed market rents in their first term post the 1999 election. In two terms of government National will decrease what is left of government housing.
        
        When it comes to the asset sales each of the four energy companies are like a Telecom so the damage will be enormous.
        
        40 % of the population over age 50 are eligible to vote and 20 % over the age of 65 are eligible to vote. When it comes to super annuation and housing National have done nothing to cater for the numbers which will require these services. A twenty year plan is urgently required.
    - Draco T Bastard 1.2.1.3
      
      26 May 2012 at 1:44 pm
      
      burt, what Labour left in 1990 is what happens when you follow that particular economic paradigm – the same paradigm that NACT is following now. Of course, what National left Labour in the 1980s was just as bad due to following Keynesianism as applied by Rob Muldoon.
      - burt 1.2.1.3.1
        
        26 May 2012 at 7:20 pm
        
        Labour in the 1980s was just as bad due to following Keynesianism as applied by Rob Muldoon.
        
        Indeed, like Cullen did heading into 2008 and it’s impact on National now.
        
        locus 1.2.1.3.1.1
        
        26 May 2012 at 7:31 pm
        
        oh dear…still trotting out that excuse for the economic policy incompetence, errors and self-interest of the past 3 years
- Georgecom 1.3
  
  25 May 2012 at 9:27 pm
  
  Might be Burt, might be. Nothing better than holding the government to account for its failures by quoting its own words back to it. Is that what you meant?
- Inventory2 1.4
  
  27 May 2012 at 6:12 am
  
  Actually, Shearer cocked that one up too; he MEANT to call John Key “Mr Australia”, but he tripped over his own lines and actually labelled Lockwood Smith with that title instead of Mr Speaker. By the time he recovered and used the line on Key, no-one was listening, because they were too busy laughing at Shearer; even many of his own caucus.
Carol 2

25 May 2012 at 8:02 am

Mr Australia! Ha!

I having been trying to think of a catchy label for John and Bill, along the lines of “Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher.” She earned that label in her pre-PM, Minister of Education days when she axed free school milk. Creaming off a percentage from kiddies pocket money, and burdening students trying to get ahead with more debt in these difficult times, is even more shameful than taking young people’s milk.

Every broken promise was someone else’s fault and everyone suggesting a solution was just crazy; he is both unable to change anything and an awesome manager of the economy.

And Key had the gall to start his speech yesterday by slamming Shearer for not presenting any solutions/policies! You’re the PM, Johnny, and it’s YOUR job to come up with solutions, not the oppositions!

What a bunch of amoral pirates we have as a government!
- Southern Limits 2.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 8:54 am
  
  Please don’t call them pirates. It’s offensive to pirates everywhere to be associated with such low lifes.
  - Sookie 2.1.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 10:29 am
    
    Somali pirates would do a better job of running the country methinks, they know how to get shit done 🙂
    - Matthew Whitehead 2.1.1.1
      
      25 May 2012 at 2:09 pm
      
      Arguably the “Somali pirates” are more like a volunteer coast guard than actual pirates.
- Fortran 2.2
  
  26 May 2012 at 1:24 pm
  
  Talking of Thatcher milk—————-
  Does anybody know how the free milk trial in Northland is going ?
  Or has it collapsed already.
- Treetop 2.3
  
  27 May 2012 at 2:51 pm
  
  John wrong by Bill
  John gone bye Bill
Jester 3

25 May 2012 at 8:06 am

Well if we are off to Australia in droves I know where we can get some passports.
- Jackal 3.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 10:05 am
  
  Mossad?
  - TheContrarian 3.1.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 11:03 am
    
    Mr. Yan?
- Fortran 3.2
  
  25 May 2012 at 1:28 pm
  
  Jester
  
  You cannot get into Australia (even for a holiday) if you do have a criminal record.
  They are even returning some of those found guilty, after serving their sentences, to New Zealand.
  - mike e 3.2.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 5:28 pm
    
    funny that footrot as it was a penal colony. you can get into Australia if you have sentence of less than 12 months or if over that amount you have to apply to their embassy before you go.
Tiger Mountain 4

25 May 2012 at 8:09 am

So accurate Eddie. Last night in Kaikohe there was a “mining pimps” public meeting. Hundreds of people turned up, and signed up, for consideration for positions in West Australian mining. 4-5 weeks on, 2-3 weeks off via flights back to NZ.

Further recruitment meetings are going to be held in Kaitaia and Ruakaka.

The situation is so poisonous here at the moment with employer militancy (Talleys, POAL etc), and a plundering government who can really blame people.
- Tom Gould 4.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 8:53 am
  
  Who can blame people indeed. With snivelling little Tory toads like Corin Dann gushing strings of hollow 9th floor bumber stickers on national TV telling them its all their own fault for living it up in the 2000s but that things will get better in a few years if their kids pay tax on their paper round so millionaires can keep their $1000 a week tax cut, who can blame sensible folks for thinking ‘sod this’ and heading across the ditch?
- Lanthanide 4.2
  
  25 May 2012 at 9:13 am
  
  They had a short piece on that this morning on Morning Report. They were offering salaries of 70-150k. Not sure if that’s NZ or AUZ.
  - Colonial Viper 4.2.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 5:39 pm
    
    It’ll be AUS I reckon. They don’t regard NZD as real money.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 5

25 May 2012 at 8:10 am

“David Shearer labelled John Key ‘Mr Australia’”

Only because he wanted to say: “Mr Speaker, Australia..” and fluffed it.
- Pascal's bookie 5.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 8:43 am
  
  oh well, many a true word spoken in fluff.
  - insider 5.1.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 9:07 am
    
    He actually called Lockwood mr Australia. Must have been checking him out in the gym mirrors
    - bbfloyd 5.1.1.1
      
      25 May 2012 at 6:50 pm
      
      oh.. THAT’s why you call yourself “insider” !
Dr Terry 6

25 May 2012 at 8:30 am

We seem to be a country in process of exile. The Government is not worrying too much, as at least it helps keep down unemployment numbers. And I guess it is easier to keep bullying and punishing those unfortunates who stick it out in New Zealand.(who have fewer powers of resistance – this government does not like “troublemakers” and will be happy enough to see them depart).
- Olwyn 6.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 8:55 am
  
  “The government is not worrying too much, at least it helps keep down unemployment numbers.”
  
  They seem to me to welcome it. After all, property in NZ will be “worth” so much more if we do not have to accommodate our low-waged and unemployed locals. The whole place could be like Queenstown, so they dream, with rich people throwing dwarfs and drinking cocktails from between some women’s boobs, while the shit jobs are done by transient foreigners, who can be sent home.
  - ChrisH 6.1.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 9:33 am
    
    I think you are onto it there Olwyn. It’s called “vacant possession.”
    - prism 6.1.1.1
      
      25 May 2012 at 9:46 am
      
      A good term ChrisH – vacant has a number of meanings and possession can also mean taken over by a blood-sucking demon. Put the two together and one gets a number of apt descriptions of members of the Act and Nat parties.
fatty 7

25 May 2012 at 8:45 am

I don’t like the term ‘increasing class sizes’…we should be calling it was it is, ‘cutting teachers’.
Nobody is creating or adding more students, there will be a cut in teachers per student ratio.
Don’t let National win the terminology war
- Tiger Mountain 7.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 8:49 am
  
  Another commenter, on FB, made the sarcastic observation that some teachers will become “crowd controllers” rather than educators. Schools will be like the old mini/phone box stuffing record attempts of the 60s/70s.
  - peter 7.1.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 10:42 am
    
    Crowd control is already the prerequisite to success as a teacher.
- Tazirev 7.2
  
  25 May 2012 at 10:46 am
  
  I agree
  - Tiger Mountain 7.2.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 11:06 am
    
    Well then pete and taz, no ‘performance’ pay for you two from Madame Parata!
Sookie 8

25 May 2012 at 8:49 am

I found myself depressed by the whole thing. No solutions to glaring problems, the usual Tory petty meanness toward people who don’t vote for them (or don’t vote) like the young, the poor, the middle class and distracted by everyday life. I’m lucky I’m in the 10% with no kids, but that doesn’t mean I lack empathy for everyone who’s doing it tough. This country is becoming swamped by an atmosphere of despair and a lack of empathy for one’s fellow citizens. I don’t need to leave, but I’m going to anyway, as I don’t want to live with that atmosphere anymore. Good thing I have never found Australians annoying, and I like hot places and freaky animals 🙂
- prism 8.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 9:50 am
  
  Sookie – Some of us are pretty freaky, can’t do hot or stop being annoying though. Wishing you good times ahead.
- Draco T Bastard 8.2
  
  25 May 2012 at 2:33 pm
  
  This country is becoming swamped by an atmosphere of despair and a lack of empathy for one’s fellow citizens. I don’t need to leave, but I’m going to anyway, as I don’t want to live with that atmosphere anymore.
  
  That atmosphere is a pre-requisite of neo-liberalism and capitalism. Australia isn’t as far down the track to that meanness and lack of community as we are but they will get there.
Sam Hall 9

25 May 2012 at 8:58 am

Planet Labour?
Planet Uranus John!

Good on John Campbell outing the nasty, fearful racists who text his programme last night.

I do not click on ads for goods or services other than free information when I use the internet.

POLICE 10-7; Young drunk man says “can I piss on your face officer?”
(policeman may have considered offer briefly.Could have “borrowed” some sunglasses I guess.

Discipline others? Discipline Self.

Push.Push Back

“government at top end of optimism” KPMG analyst on Budget.

War with Iran, supporting US-Israel 25-50% probability; Minister on Britains national security council(The Guardian)

I have found NEWSNOW and The Guardian very useful to watch events unfold in real-ish time.

PrisonPlanet is very interesting.

Dear Hekia, thought is purer than form.
Celebrating Youth Week? Throwing them on the pyre.
- prism 9.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 9:52 am
  
  Sam Hall
  What a lovely lot of enigmatic comments. Plenty to think about there if I can work out the basic idea.
infused 10

25 May 2012 at 10:19 am

god damm, cry me a river.. Yes, please go to aussie, go get your casual hour job.
- Sookie 10.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 10:25 am
  
  True believer Infused will still be around to switch off the privatised lights, mouthing party sanctioned absolute bullshit to the bitter end.
  - infused 10.1.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 10:40 am
    
    yawn.
    
    shits getting real old.
- Deano 10.2
  
  25 May 2012 at 11:58 am
  
  Australia is more heavily unionised and has an awards system.
  
  that’s why wages are better.
  
  Check out the stats on share of GDP that does to wages in both Aussie and NZ.
  
  It’s not just about being richer, it’s about how the wealth is divided up.
  - Snakeoil 10.2.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 1:30 pm
    
    Mate, no one is forcing you into a unionised industry or the (commonwealth or state) public service !
ianmac 11

25 May 2012 at 11:52 am

It grows on me. Mr Australia. Yep. Mr Australia. Mr Australia is the Key to increased migration to his favoured country. Doesn’t matter that it was a slip of the tongue. “Mr Australia” helps draw attention to Government failures.
Mind you, Mr English might be very pleased at the numbers because those leaving will not appear in our unemployment figures. Cunning plan?
- Deano 11.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 12:04 pm
  
  It was a slip of the tongue at first but then Shearer saw it s merit, adopted it and used it a couple more times in the speech.
  - bbfloyd 11.1.1
    
    26 May 2012 at 12:29 pm
    
    Will morph into “Aussie john” before too long
Gruntie 12

25 May 2012 at 12:10 pm

Just heard funding cuts to intermediate schools year 7&8 might mean some woodwork classes are canned – there is a positive effect – hopefully no more Gerry Brownlies?
- ianmac 12.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 3:50 pm
  
  Not just woodwork. Technology includes, woodwork, cooking, sewing and computer studies which are integrated with general programs. Hundreds of thousands of assets/buildings/equipment/personnel tied up. Incredibly short sighted. Another disaster.
DH 13

25 May 2012 at 12:15 pm

While not disagreeing with the vein of the post I will make the comment that the tax rebate for children was often exploited as a tax dodge by the wealthy & those who owned a business of any kind. They paid all their kids a small wage, saved 30% tax on it.
- prism 13.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 4:35 pm
  
  Someone does something wrong in NZ’s law so it get abolished. Some years later – NZ known as the law-less country.
- Draco T Bastard 13.2
  
  25 May 2012 at 7:02 pm
  
  In which case the law needs to be changed to catch those people and have them done for tax avoidance not that kids need to start paying tax.
- Murray Olsen 13.3
  
  26 May 2012 at 3:25 am
  
  Funny how stopping the rich saving 30% on what they paid their children is far more important than cutting back on property speculation and the million and one other loopholes that actually do make millions for the rich. One example is buying a house near a university, renting it out to their brats while they’re students and then flicking it on for a nice capital gain once they graduate. The only difference I can see is that this is not available to poor kids.
Snakeoil 14

25 May 2012 at 12:58 pm

Australia blasted for human rights record

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10808300
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10808300
hoom 15

25 May 2012 at 1:04 pm

The sooner Key emigrates to the rich suburbs of Sydney the better.

What a pack of complete arseholes.
Seriously, Urgency to retrospectively tax paper runs? Unbelievable.
- Snakeoil 15.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 1:06 pm
  
  Near Darling Pt., ..
- rod 15.2
  
  26 May 2012 at 5:31 pm
  
  Hhey steady on Hoom. thats where Paul Henry lives
Roy 16

25 May 2012 at 1:06 pm

The small piece of Shearer’s speech that was on TV last night impressed me. He spoke passionately and seriously, and sounded like a statesman. Jonkey, as always, behaved like a bratty smart-arsed teenager.
Kevin 17

25 May 2012 at 1:25 pm

@Roy
Shearer didn’t fire in the address and reply post budget. In comparison to Goff last year Shearer fumbled and bumbled his way through his speech and had that irritating habit of repeating statements.
- Zetetic 17.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 6:09 pm
  
  Repeating statements can be good if you’re looking for soundbites that the media can play. A second crack for a more playable version if the first comes out funny, which it often does with Shearer, although he’s improving.
Draco T Bastard 18

25 May 2012 at 2:11 pm

Either Key doesn’t realise he’s Prime Minister, or he’s given up trying and knows this is his last term.

Well, he doe know that it’s his last term but he was never looking for a solution. If he was he (and the rest of NACT) wouldn’t have put in place policies that leave NZ worse off but enriched the already rich.
- Snakeoil 18.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 2:35 pm
  
  i.e. short-term gain. Good point ..
the pinkpostman 19

25 May 2012 at 2:47 pm

Words fail,me regarding taxing young people who earn a few dollars after school.Whilst this lousy lot of Tories hand out huge sums to their rich mates they tax working class kids meagre earnings. What a bunch of toe rags,
Wasnt it Richardson who told us all to “Pull our booots up” well I would have thought that was just what these kids are doing.
My eldest son helped his university costs in the 1980s by a regular paper run and pamphelt delivery .If he was taxed on it where would the money come from.? I have said it before and say it again Tories are the scum of the earth I detest them ,everyone of them ,
- Lanthanide 19.1
  
  25 May 2012 at 5:24 pm
  
  Well in practice I think Key is right, in that a lot of kids won’t be claiming these tax credits – but probably because they don’t know about them and don’t know how easy they are to claim.
  
  So since they were already having tax deducted, they won’t actually be missing it. Those that did claim the tax back would get it back as a single lump sum at the end of the year – but likely they would still have kept doing the job throughout the year for the regular income it provided.
  
  Therefore it is rather easy for the government to go after this money. At the same time it seems to have struck rather a chord with the public, based on the emails sent in to Morning Report this morning.
  - ScottGN 19.1.1
    
    25 May 2012 at 10:24 pm
    
    The Dom Post says in its editorial this morning that the government will ‘scrape back’ 14 million dollars a year by getting rid of these tax credits so someone must be claiming them back. I’m surprised that Key and English didn’t take more notice when their mate Dave got his arse kicked with the Granny Tax and Cornish Pastie Tax in the UK budget earlier this year. It’s the little things that eventually add up.
    - Lanthanide 19.1.1.1
      
      26 May 2012 at 3:07 pm
      
      No, that doesn’t mean anyone is claiming it.
      
      Basically it means the government (via IRD) has a liability: someone can come and claim a tax refund from them. I believe the expiry for applying for a refund is 7 years. So if a refund goes unclaimed for 7 years, the liability is simply wiped from the books.
      
      Total wealth is assets – liabilities, so when a liability disappears your wealth goes up by the same amount. Basically the saying “a penny saved is a penny earned”. Therefore wiping out the liabilities from day 0 means they are ‘saving’ money going forward.
      
      The student loans are a reverse of this in accounting terms: the government counts outstanding student loans as an asset, because in the future they are going to get the money back. There’s other sorts of calculations that come into effect as well, like ‘net present value of money’, because money today is worth more than money in 3 years time, largely because of inflation but also other factors at work. Increasing the repayment rate to 12% changes those calculations a little so they can reduce the discounts applied, letting them claim a bigger asset on their books while also increasing their cashflow.
Scintilla 20

25 May 2012 at 10:23 pm

When the Nats sell off lots of shares in our major assets to Australians and when our economy tanks in the next year or two, it might seem like a jolly good idea for NZ to become a state of Australia. Giant farm, plenty of food & water, rollicking tourist playground, all serviced by a bunch of happy serfs fed on cheap booze, rubbish tv & tacky imports predestined to crap out one week after the warranty … still the old alliance will be intact even if it’s not called Anzus anymore. Things will be so shit here, we will be delighted the Aussies want to take us under their wing like the annoying, jealous little brother we’ve always been. Christ, has it come to this?
- mike e 20.1
  
  26 May 2012 at 9:25 am
  
  At least w’ell have a decent cricket team.
freedom 21

26 May 2012 at 10:11 am

Mr Key-
“If you were really going to go out and buy a country, why wouldn’t you want to buy New Zealand?
Because you reprabate, it is not for sale !
Rusty Shackleford 22

26 May 2012 at 11:35 am

“…barely achieve a micro-surplus in 2014/15 for purely political reasons.”
This is bull shit. Those countries whose govts spent recklessly over the last decade are currently in the shit. Those who didn’t aren’t (comparatively).

Aussie is also cutting the growth in it’s govt spending. So I don’t really know what Shearer is on about.
- Colonial Viper 22.1
  
  26 May 2012 at 11:41 am
  
  Cut spending on poor people, give the money saved to the rich.
  - Rusty Shackleford 22.1.1
    
    26 May 2012 at 11:45 am
    
    Exactly how much money is going to the rich? Most of the govt budget is spent on welfare, health and education. Not exactly spending targeted at “rich” folk.
    - Colonial Viper 22.1.1.1
      
      26 May 2012 at 11:47 am
      
      Cut spending on welfare and teachers, give the savings to the rich. And roading companies building highways to your investment properties.
    - Rusty Shackleford 22.1.1.2
      
      26 May 2012 at 11:48 am
      
      http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/2012/taxpayers/b12-taxpayers.pdf
      
      Almost a 1/3rd of total govt expenditure is on welfare so I don’t know what the fuck you are on about.
      - Colonial Viper 22.1.1.2.1
        
        26 May 2012 at 11:51 am
        
        cut welfare give savings to the rich. And leave Super as is (the largest component of benefits spending) because you don’t want to lose the next election.
        
        Rusty Shackleford 22.1.1.2.1.1
        
        26 May 2012 at 11:52 am
        
        Can you give an example?
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 11:55 am
        
        I can give you one. Greece. Let’s pay our teachers and public workers what ever they want and not bother to measure their performance. Should work out great. I’m sure Aussie will be delighted to bail us out to avoid having another economic basket case on its door step.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 11:58 am
        
        Greece is the perfect example, you are right.
        
        It’s what happens when you trust bankers too much. And it’s what happens when you don’t bring in enough taxes from the wealthy who can afford to pay more taxes. And it’s what happens when you open wide your economy stronger market players than yourself, too fast and too much.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 12:03 pm
        
        I don’t even disagree about the bankers part. I don’t know why the Greek people don’t just tell the banks to go get fucked and bail out their own small deposit holders. Then let the people decide what they want to use as a means of exchange.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 12:05 pm
        
        Yep.
        
        rosy …
        
        27 May 2012 at 3:28 am
        
        “And it’s what happens when you don’t bring in enough taxes from the wealthy who can afford to pay more taxes.”
        
        That’s quite a gentle observation…
        
        ‘And that’s what happens when the wealthy basically loot the country and [still] refuse give anything back in taxes’ is more like it.
        
        Rusty Shackleford 22.1.1.2.1.2
        
        26 May 2012 at 12:01 pm
        
        Or just hand out lollies like Labour did in the last decade? Record student numbers in 2005, anyone? I wonder what could have caused that? They didn’t cut Super either. I’m not sure why anyone would.
        
        As far as I know welfare hasn’t been cut anyway. And the people earning above $70,000 a year still pay most of the tax. So, I don’t know what the fuck you are on about. And it’s becoming ever evident that neither do you.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 12:07 pm
        
        And the people earning above $70,000 a year still pay most of the tax.
        
        Not nearly enough.
        
        And importantly, we need to move to asset taxes, not keep focussing on income taxes.
        
        Come now, you agree with me that the Greek govt has been shit at collecting tax revenues from the people and companies who owe them, right?
        
        Dv …
        
        26 May 2012 at 12:14 pm
        
        >>And the people earning above $70,000 a year still pay most of the tax.
        
        Now I wonder who earns most of the income, so of course they will pay most of the tax.
        
        Tiger Mountain …
        
        26 May 2012 at 12:48 pm
        
        Get it right Dv, the capitalist mode of production is substantially based on unearned income via “surplus value” as Marx put it. A worker will typically create enough value to fund their hourly rate well before the whole working period is done. The boss grabs the rest, that is capitalism’s dirty little secret.
        
        Think about it-a hospitality worker on minimum wage ($13.50) serving up multiple eggs bennie orders @ $12 to $17 say, in a busy cafe. The worker is on for 4 hrs maybe, use your imagination. One table order and there is your wage for the day. Boo hoo, the boss took the risk… well actually nothing happens in society without human physical and intellectual labour being applied to natural and digital resources. Not too many orders go out if all the workers stay home.
        
        Finance capital, banking, insurance, stockX’s however are totally based on unearned income. Hedge, futures derivatives etc.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 4:09 pm
        
        If it’s that easy, why don’t you set up a restaurant? Last I heard profit margins in restaurants were razor thin but, if you have some inside knowledge you had better not let the cat out of the bag on a public forum.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 4:41 pm
        
        Restaurants are dead ends. Huge upfront capital costs, and high risk of failure within 12 months.
        
        And in a declining economy, even more of a risk.
        
        Low wages simply help prop up uneconomic, badly run businesses.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:06 pm
        
        erm… serving a plate of eggs isn’t exactly rocket science. Could there not be more at play than simply the business being “uneconomic”? I could probably serve a good plate of eggs out of my conservatory for 5 bucks a plate and make a good profit, but what would happen to me if I put a sign outside and tried?
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:09 pm
        
        damned big government, insisting that your cafe meals be prepared cleanly and are free of salmonella and botulism.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:13 pm
        
        How does the govt stop salmonella and botulism from spreading? Do they go into every house in NZ and check the place is up to scratch every night before mum or dad cooks dinner?
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:17 pm
        
        Nope, but commercial food businesses are regulated by the Food Act. You are actually in NZ, aren’t you? I mena, you think that under a democracy people can’t complain about the government, and you are oblivious to the health certificates that every cafe needs to prominently disply.
        
        You’re not posting from Minerva Reef, are you?
        
        
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:24 pm
        
        “Nope, but commercial food businesses are regulated by the Food Act. You are actually in NZ, aren’t you?”
        I was merely pointing out why a plate of eggs is so expensive and why restaurant profit margins are so thin. Personally, I don’t care who cooks my eggs as long as they are good at the right price. The Food Act takes that choice away from me.
        
        “I mena, you think that under a democracy people can’t complain about the government,”
        I never said that. All I did was follow your line of reasoning to it’s logical conclusion. I stand by a persons right to complain in any context. Democracy or not.
        
        “and you are oblivious to the health certificates that every cafe needs to prominently disply.”
        Where did you get this from? And last I heard, people were still getting dodgy guts from restaurants. Certified or not.
        
        “You’re not posting from Minerva Reef, are you?”
        I now know what Minerva Reef is (after looking it up on Wikipedia), but I still have no idea what the fuck it is you’re on about.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:33 pm
        
        I was merely pointing out why a plate of eggs is so expensive and why restaurant profit margins are so thin.
        
        Profit margins are thin because communities are poor and half of the country can’t afford to eat out more than once or twice a month, if at all.
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:34 pm
        
        “Personally, I don’t care who cooks my eggs as long as they are good at the right price. The Food Act takes that choice away from me.”
        
        Nope, the Food Act dramatically decreases the probability that the plate of eggs you buy will kill you.
        
        Damned government.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:40 pm
        
        I don’t care who cooks my eggs as long as they are good at the right price. The Food Act takes that choice away from me.
        
        How are you going to make sure the eggs are good from the hospital ED the next day?
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:44 pm
        
        I have eaten thousands of eggs. Some even from places not covered by the Food Act such as duck nests, farms and road side stalls and haven’t even died once! People before me even did it for literally thousands of years!
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:47 pm
        
        Food Act such as duck nests, farms and road side stalls and haven’t even died once!
        
        Of course this holds true. Until it doesn’t.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:52 pm
        
        That sounds like a pretty crap way to lead your life. Don’t do anything until it’s signed off by someone from Wellington.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:53 pm
        
        http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/6693383/Cockroach-problem-closes-restaurant
        
        Rusty’s kind of restaurant
        
        Gengy’s Restaurant in Henderson was closed on February 10 after the infestation was found by an Auckland Council environmental health officer.
        
        edit – hopefully Rusty, the cockroaches were at the “right price” for you.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:41 pm
        
        I lived in a country with identical GDP per person to NZ (with much higher inequality) for 4 years and it was largely cheaper to eat out than to cook for yourself.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 4:07 pm
        
        No, because taxation doesn’t lead to prosperity.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 4:44 pm
        
        Yes it does. Taxation leads to a prosperous society.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 4:54 pm
        
        How? You can’t actually have taxation until you have a prosperous society.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 4:58 pm
        
        If there’s economic activity and economic wealth, tax it. Then use those taxes to build and fund things which encourage more economic activity.
        
        It’s not rocket science, seriously.
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 4:58 pm
        
        “Prosperity” is a relative term, toryboy.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:03 pm
        
        It is indeed and their are probably as many definitions for it as there are people. Which is why each person should get to choose. Not someone in a city a couple of thousand K’s away.
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:07 pm
        
        It’s called a “vote”.
        
        Try living in a society sometime, rather than pretending the world would be better if everyone was as smart and asocial as you.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:11 pm
        
        What does that even mean?
        
        The people of NZ have obviously “voted” for the current regime. By your reasoning, you yourself have nothing to complain about.
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:14 pm
        
        Shoot, you really have no idea how democracy works, do you?
        
        
        Complaining is fine. So are having opinions different from the government. Deal with it.
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 4:51 pm
        
        Nice categorical statement based purely on a religious belief in the market and not on the real world.
        
        Taxation is simply redistribution of money around society outside of the market system. Where that redistribution contributes to the general economic wellbeing of the nation in a manner greater than if the funds had not been redistributed, then taxation could indeed be regarded as having led to prosperity.
        
        Roads, power stations and other infrastructure projects all count, as do “welfare” transfers – other wise they wouldn’t need government expenditure at all, because the market would have provided.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:01 pm
        
        You aren’t doing much better in the religious stakes. Try taxing a populous that doesn’t actually produce anything. You need the prosperity before the govt can levy taxes. The prosperity always comes first.
        
        Why don’t you and CV debunk to a desert island and fend for yourselves. After a few years I’ll come along and start “taxing” you and redistributing whatever you produce to people on the island who don’t produce anything. It should work out quite well. I’ll even be benevolent and refrain from regulating what goes on in CV and your bedroom.
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:05 pm
        
        Whoa there, toryboy – you forgot about democracy. You might be the philosopher-king in your own mind, but even on CV and my island democracy is the dominant system.
        
        But why did you never emigrate to the small-government paradise of Somalia?
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:09 pm
        
        Why don’t you go and live in North Korea? Let’s not forget the carnage wreaked on Somalia was done so by a “scientifically socialist” regime.
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:10 pm
        
        They don’t vote in NK – try to keep up…
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:15 pm
        
        We aren’t talking about voting with regard to living in a high taxation economy. NK effectively has a 100% tax rate and Somalia did for a long time. How do you rationalise that? Too much of a good thing?
        
        McFlock …
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:43 pm
        
        You asked why I don’t go and live in NK. I answered.
        
        And I think we’ve debated Somalia once or twice before – the point is that whatever its mistakes in the past, Somalia’s government now no longer interferes in the lives of its citizens very much at all.
        
        Anyway, this has been fun, but I think we’ve hogged the thread enough.
        
        Puddleglum …
        
        26 May 2012 at 11:15 pm
        
        Hi Rusty,
        
        “And the people earning above $70,000 a year still pay most of the tax.”
        
        Even with a flat tax rate that would be true, of course.
        
        More to the point, when income inequality increases dramatically through massive rises at the top of the income scale not matched by similar rises at the lower end then, guess what?
        
        The proportion of income tax paid by the highest income group rises as a percentage of the overall tax take. (Because its income has ‘taken off’, disproportionately to everyone else’s.)
        
        So, the fact that the minute percentage of people in the $150,000+ bracket pay 19% of the tax is simply an indication of the incredible rise in income inequality in New Zealand over the last 30 years. That rise in inequality has been a predictable consequence of the structural economic changes pushed through since the 1980s, and has happened everywhere they have been pursued.
        
        And you want ‘us’ to thank the high income earners for being so generous in bearing so much of the ‘tax burden’?
        
        Think again, Rusty.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        27 May 2012 at 12:08 am
        
        And someone who earns $71K pa pays fuck all more tax, percentage-wise, than someone on $69K pa.
- bbfloyd 22.2
  
  26 May 2012 at 12:34 pm
  
  ‘don’t know what shearers on about”…that’s pretty obvious rustbucket….. now why don’t you get back to your playpen before mummy finds out you’ve escaped again…
  - Rusty Shackleford 22.2.1
    
    26 May 2012 at 4:11 pm
    
    Don’t misquote me. The spelling, grammar and punctuation was correct in my original post.
    - McFlock 22.2.1.1
      
      26 May 2012 at 4:57 pm
      
      “Don’t misquote me. The spelling, grammar and punctuation was correct in my original post.”
      
      [… back to original comment…]
      
      “Aussie is also cutting the growth in it’s govt spending.”
      
      Wrong about the punctuation.
      Oh, and your argument was also shit, but that’s pretty normal for you.
      - Rusty Shackleford 22.2.1.1.1
        
        26 May 2012 at 5:16 pm
        
        haha, that’s quite funny. But, you got me.
indiana 23

26 May 2012 at 1:56 pm

Why is it that we protest against mining but are happy to leave the country to work in them?
- Colonial Viper 23.1
  
  26 May 2012 at 2:03 pm
  
  Why is it that we protest against mining but are happy to leave the country to work in them?
  
  Get generous money to spoil Australian countryside and wreck the Australian environment. Sounds like a good deal to me.
McFlock 24

26 May 2012 at 5:39 pm

btw: Republic of Minerva”
UpandComer 25

26 May 2012 at 5:58 pm

You all realise that in Greece their banks didn’t even invest in the problematic CDO’s right? Greece was actually insulated from the banking crisis, and their problems all arise from systemic fiscal problems?

I actually agree about bankers and the banking system in general. It isn’t capitalism when banks are too big to fail and thus don’t face any risk incentives. It isn’t capitalism when trillions of dollars of fiat money is created to bail out banks who bet wrong and should face the consequences of their risk, given normal people face those consequences.

But Greek banks actually weren’t a part of that, they did not buy up CDO’s backed by the sub-prime mortgages. Greece has simply borrowed money for non-productive sectors like idiots, and the inevitable consequences of their socialism have finally come home.

As for kids paying tax on their runs, well the earlier kids learn about the inequities of paying tax on earned income to support others, the better. Introducing children to financial reality at a young age is a good thing, they are part of society and need to learn the accepted rules of society. They can form their own opinion on the enterprise from a young age, and I suspect I know what it will be. Then they might start from an early age to buy capital and decide if they want a capital gains tax.

Labour’s capital gains tax wouldn’t even raise any money of substance for 4 years. You should all vote Greens if you are on the Left.

Thousands of cuts is utter hyperbolic bolviated over dramatic rubbish, only on planet Labour. National has kept every single major social welfare scheme, and added their own. The only ones they got rid of were ones that weren’t working, like the fast forward fun and the execrable push play for instance

You talk about oil imports, why won’t you allow domestic oil production and mineral exploration?Surely this would help jobs and lessen imports?

You talk about unemployed people, why won’t Labour support anything that promotes jobs?

You talk about jobs and vision? okay, here is a list of all the things Labour opposes that John key supports which are pro-growth, job creating initiatives.

Labour don’t support:

1. Future expansion and intensification of our agricultural sector;
2. Mining and oil and gas exploration, none at all;
3. Australian companies moving jobs to NZ;
4. Welfare reform and mutual obligation;
5. The 90 day probation law to encourage businesses to hire which has worked excellently;
6. No labour market reforms whatsoever and in fact what a return to 1970’s industrial law, written for them by Andrew Little’s mates in the unions;
7. The investment into ultra fast broadband;
8. Any kind of foreign investment;
9. The jobs from the freaken Hobbit movies;
10. The national convention centre, although the hypocrites accepted being guests in Skycity’s corporate box for the world cup.
11. Public sector reform of any kind, regardless of what happens to services
12. Making the emissions trading scheme less onerous so that businesses don’t have to pay high costs for their emissions rather then employ people;
13. Irrigation intensification in Canterbury, Taranaki and the Waikato;
14. Road of national significance, i.e. finally, building the damn roads we need for business, because John and Bill make the shrewd assumption that people are still going to be driving cars in the 25 years.
15. Reforming Local government. Every year, rates go up and up and up due to the huge wide ranging responsibilities given by Labour to local govt, and local govt’s similar unwillingness like Labour to stop taxing and spending. So National wants to decrease the ambit and freeze rates, so businesses don’t have to count on a 5% minimum rates rise every single year and employ less people, but Labour is opposed to this.
16. Finally Labour don’t want to support partial share asset sales which will revitalise our moribund market, and save 7 billion dollars worth of certain interest payments, it would rather borrow and spend money on.. something, we have no idea what, probably more unproductive handouts.

So there it is. 16 things which could be expanded on massively if we get more specific about smaller pro growth things, that Labour opposes.

Labour has absolutely no pro growth ideas of its own. None. They have no vision. At least the Greens have some vision. They have no idea what to do in a climate where they can’t spend other peoples money. They have no ability to stop spending. They can’t see the utility in zero spending with better services. Labour have no vision, no ideas, and oppose anything that could promote growth. The only ideas they have come from the Greens, and they are so useless at writing policy, as we’ve seen with ACC, working for families, anything related to students with massively bigger then planned for uptake and liabilities, that any ideas they do come up with, probably won’t work.

So there it is.
- Colonial Viper 25.1
  
  26 May 2012 at 6:11 pm
  
  Hilarious
  
  Right after National conclusively proves with their Budget that they have no plan, you claim that Labour has no plan?
  
  Clue to the wise: the Government proposes, the Opposition opposes.
  
  And in 2014 the voters dispose.
  
  You all realise that in Greece their banks didn’t even invest in the problematic CDO’s right? Greece was actually insulated from the banking crisis, and their problems all arise from systemic fiscal problems?
  
  Well of course you are completely wrong.
  - Rusty Shackleford 25.1.1
    
    26 May 2012 at 6:16 pm
    
    They have a plan. It’s called reigning in govt spending and reducing the govt deficit. This has worked in the past. Ramping up govt spending in the vain hope of “stimulating” the economy basically never works.
    - Colonial Viper 25.1.1.1
      
      26 May 2012 at 6:40 pm
      
      They have a plan. It’s called reigning in govt spending and reducing the govt deficit. This has worked in the past.
      
      Its never worked before.
      
      And it doesn’t take into account worsening global energy depletion.
      - Rusty Shackleford 25.1.1.1.1
        
        26 May 2012 at 6:48 pm
        
        It worked for NZ in ’91.
        http://marginalrevolution.com/?s=ruth+richardson
        
        And it worked for the states in 1921.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcUmnsprQI
        
        Your policies didn’t work for the states in 1933 and they didn’t work for them in 2008, either. These are just a few examples off the top of my head. You should be able to come up with dozens of examples where your policies worked with the help of google.
        
        Rusty Shackleford 25.1.1.1.1.1
        
        26 May 2012 at 6:49 pm
        
        “And it doesn’t take into account worsening global energy depletion.”
        By how much did world energy production drop by last year?
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 6:50 pm
        
        Wrong question.
        
        Rusty Shackleford …
        
        26 May 2012 at 6:55 pm
        
        Because the answer doesn’t jive with your world view?
        
        OK, got it.
        
        Colonial Viper …
        
        26 May 2012 at 8:36 pm
        
        Ten years of economic stagnation and/or decline mate. And I’m not starting the stopwatch from 4 years back either.
        
        Colonial Viper 25.1.1.1.1.2
        
        26 May 2012 at 6:49 pm
        
        lol
    - KJT 25.1.1.2
      
      26 May 2012 at 8:57 pm
      
      Where has it ever worked?
      Cutting taxes and Government spending has NEVER worked anywhere.
      
      Ramping up Government spending worked brilliantly for New Zealand in the 30’s. In fact it got us out of the depression faster than almost anyone else. We were not silly enough to borrow the money from banks, for tax cuts, though. We leave that to idiotic National Governments.
      
      Name one country were austerity has worked. Anytime??
- Maui 25.2
  
  27 May 2012 at 1:44 pm
  
  Is this your latest pen-name John ?
UpandComer 26

26 May 2012 at 6:27 pm

Viper

I just gave you SIXTEEN very substantial pro-growth initiatives from the National government. Sixteen. SIXTEEN pro-growth policies that encapsulate a vision for growing the economy from National. Just local reform and mineral exploration are huge things, and they are two of sixteen.

The budget delivers exactly what National promised to do, and encompasses many parts of their plan, that you can freaking see within the sixteen items I listed, and the budget itself, all of which Labour opposes. Not spending money when you can’t afford to, shows a pretty good plan in the current situation doesn’t it. You seem to think that only if you are giving hundreds of dollars of money to people for nothing as in kiwisaver, working for families or interest free student loans, or taxing high income earners at 38 percent or something, that constitutes vision. That is completely puzzling.

When you just say ‘no plan’ without any basis in reality, then I guess it’s hopeless for me to talk to you, because on planet labour everything has strange and exotic rules and whimsical notions.

Sure an opposition opposes, but they need some competing ideas. Labour have none, and can’t competently execute any of the ones they do have or have had, which all involve spending other peoples money, when now, there isn’t any.

And I am not wrong about Greece mate. It’s a fact. Some international banks operating in Greece have pulled out. But their domestic banks didn’t buy the CDO’s. You are wrong.
- Colonial Viper 26.1
  
  26 May 2012 at 6:43 pm
  
  You raise Greek CDOs as a red herring. Greek wasn’t insulated from shit during the GFC. And don’t forget the irresponsible lenders to Greece. They approved huge loans to Greece, and then helped the Greeks hide it.
  
  I just gave you SIXTEEN very substantial pro-growth initiatives from the National government.
  
  Sorry, I’ll take another look at your list. I thought it was 16 pet projects for National oriented support groups and private interests.
  - Murray Olsen 26.1.1
    
    26 May 2012 at 8:32 pm
    
    I did too. I wonder if Key knows one of his speechwriters has sneaked in here?
    - Colonial Viper 26.1.1.1
      
      26 May 2012 at 8:34 pm
      
      A pretty crappy speech writer, one who has much to learn about the craft.
      - Maui 26.1.1.1.1
        
        27 May 2012 at 12:42 pm
        
        Elsewhere he described himself as a student putting himself through by working night shifts
        in what sounded like a service station.
- Pascal's bookie 26.2
  
  26 May 2012 at 7:00 pm
  
  Hi chappie.
  
  You seem to have been pretty taken by the PMs speech, which is fair enough, but I guess it would have polite to at least have given him some credit seeing you cribbed it so heavily. But ignoring that, for the nonce, a few of the 16, (count them sixteen! gosh) are double ups, some are ‘picking winner’ type handouts, and many of the rest are just offers by the government to pick up the tab for externalities, while others drive ‘growth’ by applying downward pressure on wages. Those are the themes I see anyway.
  
  A number of them will have the effect of removing demand from the economy, which is why the budget is being described as ‘contractionary’. That means the oppposite of ‘growth’ by the way.
  
  Point 16 is the one I’d like to hear a bit more about actually, becuase apart from partisan cheerleaders and special interest groups, I’ve not seen a lot of support for the policy from people one would normally expect to see such support from. I’m thinking here of the economists who’d usually be in support of privatisation.
  
  The reasons for that lack of support are clear enough to anyone who knows the arguments, but perhaps you’d like to explain why classically liberal economists have said that Key’s MOM model is not the second best option. What that means is that they have said the the status quo is probably better than Key’s MOM. ie, Key’s MOM is a dog.
  
  Your stated arguments in support of it are of course laughable, so I’ll let them fade away behind a discrete curtain if you like, and we’ll pretend you didn’t actually make them. I mean, you are aware that treasury has said that the govt will be worse off aren’t you? And you’re aware that the argument about ‘revitalising our moribund market’ directly implies that the govt is superior than the private sector at building enterprises that the market finds worth in? Or didn’t you think about that?
- KJT 26.3
  
  26 May 2012 at 8:59 pm
  
  If you think that selling money earning assets is pro-growth then you went to the wrong business school.
- Draco T Bastard 26.4
  
  26 May 2012 at 9:12 pm
  
  No, what you listed was 16 substantial means of inducing failure.
UpandComer 27

27 May 2012 at 12:11 am

@ Pascal’s bookie.

You are right, Of course I took the points from John’s speech, and no I am not John’s speech writer… I could probably do a better job then Shearer’s however..

Where better to find out what the government is doing/has done? It is all valid, and all occuring, and all verifiable, so what? I listened to Helen Clark/Micheal Cullen and read their releases to find out what they were doing, or thought they were doing…

Please tell me which of the sixteen are double ups? Which ones remove ‘demand’ from the economy? If by contractionary you mean a contraction in spending, then yes, it is contractionary. Are any of them actually anti-growth? if so please point out how? I mean if you have expertise on the matter and can correct me I will listen and maybe change my views, for real.

Here are the arguments in favour of point 16. I note that you ignore all of the previous 15, but these are the fundamental arguments as I understand them:

– the assets are not automatic cash machines. They carry a level of risk, and future dividends are not certain. For instance, a lack of rainfall as has occurred in the past would be calamitous to those power companies. What is certain is the interest that must be paid on the 7 billion dollars which must otherwise be borrowed if the partial privatisation is not applied. The government is choosing to avoid certain liabilities on borrowing which are far in excess of the ‘possible’ future returns from the equity for sale in those four companies.

– The argument that power prices will increase due to the sale is not simply not bourne by the evidence. Prices rose steadily and steeply for the entire Labour regune under the status quo, before plateauing under National, and in fact consumer choice means that these companies will need to compete for buyers, which suggests a force on price in the opposite direction.

– The companies will be better run under private ownership rigours. From what I understand even the prospect of such ownership has the companies finding efficiencies and improving management.

– The float will provide an outlet for peoples’ savings. We saw what a disaster the finance companies were for so many thousands of people, and the ridiculous amount of money Labour’s deposit guarantee scheme has cost. The uptake in those failed companies which was enormous shows that there is a lot of investment seeking out there, and this will provide a safe outlet which will revitalise NZ’s sharemarket.

– The asset sale is not complete. The government will retain full ownership. I note the hypocrisy of Maori groups in particular protesting the float, who themselves are the most voracious vendors of NZ assets to foriegn buyers in the country.

– As a total proportion of the assets NZ owns, this is a tiny tiny percentage. Many economists are actually arguing for more privatisation in other areas which are less focussed on dividends and more on potential growth.

– You will rubbish them, but the government has put in what safeguards it can to ensure NZ retention of the shares. If kiwis decide to sell on to foreign owners, that is their choice. I note that Maori groups have a very strong interest in these sales.

– the partial floating of Air New Zealand has worked very well. Where were you people hikoi-ing when that happened? Where were you people hikoi-ing when Labour introduced it’s tax cuts, which make up the bulk of the current cuts in place?

I can think of more off the top of my head but I’ll leave it there.

Draco rather then just mouthing off a silly comment like that straight out of the VUSA, why not actually say sth worthwhile, like how those policies aren’t pro-growth, and what your obviously preferred party would do instead?

I think almost everyone else appreciates an effort to freeze rates rises and a policy to raise taxes in order to increase the size of often useless government.
- Draco T Bastard 27.1
  
  27 May 2012 at 12:34 am
  
  Why? You’re incapable of believing anything other than what NACT tell you to believe.
  
  As to my preferred (ATM) party, they have their own policies.
- Half Crown Millionare 27.2
  
  27 May 2012 at 9:28 am
  
  “- the partial floating of Air New Zealand has worked very well.”
  
  Wasn’t that after the labour government partially bailed it out?
  
  Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Air NewZealand was privatised after it was said” If it is not privatised, it will end up as a third rate carrier with debts of around $500 million. Years later after being privatised, the labour government had to bail it out as it had ended up as a third rate carrier with debts of over $600 million. So your argument of “companies will be better run under private ownership rigours.” falls well and truly on its face.
- Pascal's bookie 27.3
  
  27 May 2012 at 10:00 am
  
  Thanks for the reply U&C, i’m off out for the day but I’ll reply this evening.
- Maui 27.4
  
  27 May 2012 at 2:32 pm
  
  UpandComer: How is your Greek ?
  
  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-27/greek-crisis-sees-new-wave-of-migrants/4035548
UpandComer 28

27 May 2012 at 12:48 am

Ah Draco I see you are a Green supporter. That’s a good thing. If I was to support anyone other then National, it would be the Greens.

I hate Act because they are zealots who really don’t have a proper conception of social justice or social solidarity. National actually has this, and I know you won’t agree with me, but I think they have this, which is why they won’t get rid of WFF, and put down a flat tax etc and everything else although it would help the countries books, because it would hurt people in the short and medium term. I respect National because at least they are having a go at solving intrinsic long-standing issues in welfare, Maori underachievement and a gap between spending and service improvements. I will support someone that tries something different to sth that hasn’t been solveable for so many years which actually won’t wipe everyone out in one big explosion. And I agree with their incremental approach.

I think the conservative party are fruitcakes, who want to peer into everyone’s bedrooms and focus on irrelevant social issues like sexuality and should just disappear. But MMP means a party like that has to exist unfortunately.

Labour are the pits. Although, I think that the early Micheal Cullen at least was competent and coherent in his principles, and doing quite well with the economy until 2005, when Helen Clark decided to poke her nose into Labour’s economic policies and growth really nose-dived.

As I say I like the Greens and would vote for them if I didn’t think there was so large a gap between their rhetoric and economic realities. For instance I think that the rigourous cost/benefit analysis they place on road of national significance needs to placed on their own public transport initiatives, because the horrible white elephant Kiwirail shows just how much input these things need.

Thanks for the link.
- Colonial Viper 28.1
  
  27 May 2012 at 1:35 am
  
  lol nice positioning
Sam Hall 29

27 May 2012 at 7:34 am

Up and Comer; Very interesting and informative to read your analyses,ThankYou.

Draco T Bastard. Please keep up the good work in the Information War.
- Colonial Viper 29.1
  
  27 May 2012 at 12:01 pm
  
  His analysis? You gotta be joking. Half baked prejudices and support for the “let’s limp the economy around in ever decreasing circles National Party” is not much of an analysis.
  
  He disses rail – which is going to be the transport mode of the future, plugs for the RONs (which all show mediocre returns, not even including a $3/L price of petrol), makes a swipe at MMP, and claims that National is making moves at solving our country’s long term problems.
  
  Of course, to National, the main problem is that the poor take up too much space and money which should be owned by the rich.
Tom 30

27 May 2012 at 10:53 am

Information War ? I don’t think that quite fits .. see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_warfare
AustralAsian 31

27 May 2012 at 11:29 am

It looks as if NZers fleeing their economy will have to compete with other newcomers in Australia.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/our-richest-woman-gina-rinehart-accused-of-betraying-australians-by-importing-foreign-workers/story-e6frf7jo-1226367453853

http://www.warrenadvocate.com.au/news/national/national/general/pm-in-the-dark-on-rinehart-visa-deal/2569756.aspx

http://www.skynews.com.au/politics/article.aspx?id=754420&vId=

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/kevin-rudds-ruddites-are-back-counting-numbers-for-a-switch-from-julia-gillard/story-e6freuy9-1226367921897

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-26/gillard-hits-back-over-foreign-worker-backlash/4034860

http://media.theage.com.au/news/national-news/latest-gillard-woe-rineharts-foreign-jobs-3328817.html

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8473723/no-foreigners-in-aussie-mining-jobs-pm

http://www.smh.com.au/national/union-fury-over-rinehart-move-to-import-workers-20120525-1zaev.html
AustralAsian 32

27 May 2012 at 11:37 am

.. and while we are at it

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/the-fair-go-has-fairly-gone-20120522-1z2zz.html
Maui 33

27 May 2012 at 11:49 am

Are NZers considered ‘foreign workers’ in this context ?

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5 days ago

A pallid shade of Green III
Clearly Labour's focus groups are telling it that it needs to pay more attention to climate change - because hot on the heels of their weaksauce energy efficiency pilot programme and not-great-but-better-than-nothing solar grants, they've released a full climate manifesto. Unfortunately, the core policies in it - a second Emissions ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
5 days ago

A coalition of racism, cruelty, and chaos
Today's big political news is that after months of wibbling, National's Chris Luxon has finally confirmed that he is willing to work with Winston Peters to become Prime Minister. Which is expected, but I guess it tells us something about which way the polls are going. Which raises the question: ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
5 days ago

More migrant workers should help generate the tax income needed to provide benefits for job seekers
Buzz from the Beehive Under something described as a “rebalance” of its immigration rules, the Government has adopted four of five recommendations made in an independent review released in July, The fifth, which called on the government to specify criteria for out-of-hours compliance visits similar to those used during ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
5 days ago

Letter To Luxon.
Some of you might know Gerard Otto (G), and his G News platform. This morning he wrote a letter to Christopher Luxon which I particularly enjoyed, and with his agreement I’m sharing it with you in this guest newsletter.If you’d like to make a contribution to support Gerard’s work you ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
5 days ago

LINDSAY MITCHELL: Alarming trend in benefit numbers
Lindsay Mitchell writes – While there will not be another quarterly release of benefit numbers prior to the election, limited weekly reporting continues and is showing an alarming trend. Because there is a seasonal component to benefit number fluctuations it is crucial to compare like with like. In ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
5 days ago

BRIAN EASTON: Has there been external structural change?
A close analysis of the Treasury assessment of the Medium Term in its PREFU 2023 suggests the economy may be entering a new phase. Brian Easton writes – Last week I explained that the forecasts in the just published Treasury Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU 2023) was ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
5 days ago

CRL Progress – Sep-23
It’s been a while since we looked at the latest with the City Rail Link and there’s been some fantastic milestones recently. To start with, and most recently, CRL have released an awesome video showing a full fly-through of one of the tunnels. Come fly with us! You asked for ...
Greater AucklandBy Matt L
5 days ago

Monday’s Chorus: Not building nearly enough
We are heading into another period of fast population growth without matching increased home building or infrastructure investment.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Labour and National detailed their house building and migration approaches over the weekend, with both pledging fast population growth policies without enough house building or infrastructure investment ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
5 days ago

Game on; Hipkins comes out punching
Labour leader Chris Hipkins yesterday took the gloves off and laid into National and its leader Christopher Luxon. For many in Labour – and particularly for some at the top of the caucus and the party — it would not have been a moment too soon. POLITIK is aware ...
PolitikBy Richard Harman
6 days ago

Tax Cut Austerity Blues.
The leaders have had their go, they’ve told us the “what?” and the “why?” of their promises. Now it’s the turn of the would be Finance Ministers to tell us the “how?”, the “how much?”, and the “when?”A chance for those competing for the second most powerful job in the ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
6 days ago

MIKE GRIMSHAW: It’s the economy – and the spirit – Stupid…
Mike Grimshaw writes – Over the past 30-odd years it’s become almost an orthodoxy to blame or invoke neoliberalism for the failures of New Zealand society. On the left the usual response goes something like, neoliberalism is the cause of everything that’s gone wrong and the answer ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
6 days ago

2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #38
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 17, 2023 thru Sat, Sep 23, 2023. Story of the Week Opinion: Let’s free ourselves from the story of economic growth A relentless focus on economic growth has ushered in ...
Skeptical Science
6 days ago

The End Of The World.
Have you been looking out of your window for signs of the apocalypse? Don’t worry, you haven’t been door knocked by a representative of the Brian Tamaki party. They’re probably a bit busy this morning spruiking salvation, or getting ready to march on our parliament, which is closed. No, I’ve ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
1 week ago

Climate Town: The Brainwashing Of America's Children
Climate Town is the YouTube channel of Rollie Williams and a ragtag team of climate communicators, creatives and comedians. They examine climate change in a way that doesn’t make you want to eat a cyanide pill. Get informed about the climate crisis before the weather does it for you. The latest ...
Skeptical Science
1 week ago

Has There Been External Structural Change?
A close analysis of the Treasury assessment of the Medium Term in its PREFU 2023 suggests the economy may be entering a new phase. Last week I explained that the forecasts in the just published Treasury Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU 2023) was similar to the May Budget BEFU, ...
PunditBy Brian Easton
1 week ago

Release: National’s plan means more cuts, more kids in poverty
National’s fiscal plan has failed to fill the massive fiscal hole in its dodgy tax scheme, it will mean more cuts to public services, more children being put into poverty and an end to action on climate change. ...
Labour Blog
1 day ago

Release: Labour will continue to back Kiwis when the going gets tough
Labour’s Social Development Plan will build on the social welfare safety net, rather than strip it back. ...
Labour Blog
1 day ago

Policy Announcements: Law & Order and Justice, Courts & Corrections
New Zealand First Policy Announcement: Law and Order New Zealand First believes that keeping society safe should be the priority of law-and-order policies. Every New Zealander deserves to feel safe, secure, and have their person and property respected. That is why New Zealand First continues to fix the flaws in ...
NZ First Press Release
2 days ago

Labour's Dirt Campaign Exposed With Media Help
In last night’s leaders debate Labour Leader Chris Hipkins referred to a quote without giving any explanation of its content, which was about the ‘disease of co-governance’ that is perpetuated by the Māori elite, and he said it was racist. Then, without even examining the content, National leader Christopher Luxon agreed with ...
NZ First Press Release
2 days ago

Labour's Dirt Campaign Exposed With Media Help
In last night’s leaders debate Labour Leader Chris Hipkins referred to a quote without giving any explanation of its content, which was about the ‘disease of co-governance’ that is perpetuated by the Māori elite, and he said it was racist. Then, without even examining the content, National leader Christopher Luxon agreed with ...
NZ First News
2 days ago

Chris Hipkins: Speech Progressing Together
Today, Chris Hipkins delivered a speech about Labour’s relationship with and ongoing commitment to Māori. ...
Labour Blog
2 days ago

Release: National out of ideas on law and order, copies Labour’s policies and costings
After years of criticising the Government on law and order, National have embarrassed themselves by conceding they have no new ideas and instead copied Labour’s Police policy announced three weeks ago, Labour Police spokesperson Ginny Andersen says. ...
Labour Blog
3 days ago

Release: Labour releases balanced, costed and credible fiscal plan
Labour’s fiscal plan will continue its focus on carefully managing the books while protecting critical public services like health and education and investing to deliver high wage jobs and a low carbon economy. ...
Labour Blog
3 days ago

Policy Announcement: Capped Time-Period For Job Seeker Beneficiaries
New Zealand First today is announcing a policy on adjusting the rules and restrictions around access to the Job Seeker Benefit. New Zealand First’s policy is to introduce a capped time-period for any person to access the Job Seeker Benefit during their lifetime. Any individual will have the ability to access the Job Seeker ...
NZ First Press Release
4 days ago

Policy Announcement: Capped Time-Period For Job Seeker Beneficiaries
New Zealand First today is announcing a policy on adjusting the rules and restrictions around access to the Job Seeker Benefit. New Zealand First’s policy is to introduce a capped time-period for any person to access the Job Seeker Benefit during their lifetime. Any individual will have the ability to access the Job Seeker ...
NZ First News
4 days ago

Release: National’s traffic light system has child poverty reduction stalling
National’s cuts to funding for beneficiaries will once again leave children and their parents with less, Spokesperson for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Labour Blog
4 days ago

Green Party will end child poverty
The Green Party will double the Best Start payment and make it available for every child under three years of age - and it will be paid for with a fair tax system. ...
Greens
4 days ago

Release: Labour pledges billion-dollar medicines boost
Labour will fund more medicines for more New Zealanders by investing over $1 billion of new funding into Pharmac if re-elected, Chris Hipkins announced today. ...
Labour Blog
4 days ago

National's welfare policy is cruel
The National Party’s job seeker policy announced today is heartless. ...
Greens
4 days ago

Labour's PHARMAC Policy A Placebo
Labour has just announced a policy to increase Pharmac funding by $1billion over four years to fund additional medicines. With the current Pharmac budget of $1.2billion per year and needing a further $213million, by Minister Verrall’s own admission, just to keep up with current costs - then this is nothing ...
NZ First Press Release
4 days ago

Labour's PHARMAC Policy A Placebo
Labour has just announced a policy to increase Pharmac funding by $1billion over four years to fund additional medicines. With the current Pharmac budget of $1.2billion per year and needing a further $213million, by Minister Verrall’s own admission, just to keep up with current costs - then this is nothing ...
NZ First News
4 days ago

Re: The Call For Corporate Manslaughter Legislation
This matter begins with the Pike River investigation being inadequate, inexplicably lengthy, and after millions of dollars, the evidence that should have been placed before the public still has not been. We have always believed that Pike River is a crime scene, and that a proper investigation would have come to that conclusion. Blue ...
NZ First Press Release
5 days ago

Re: The Call For Corporate Manslaughter Legislation
This matter begins with the Pike River investigation being inadequate, inexplicably lengthy, and after millions of dollars, the evidence that should have been placed before the public still has not been. We have always believed that Pike River is a crime scene, and that a proper investigation would have come to that conclusion. Blue ...
NZ First News
5 days ago

Release: Labour releases New Zealand’s first climate manifesto
New Zealand faces a stark choice this election – vote for Labour to continue to confront the climate emergency with eyes wide open or bury your head in the sand alongside Christopher Luxon. ...
Labour Blog
5 days ago

Green voice crucial for climate action
The Green Party is today welcoming Labour’s climate manifesto, but is clear that much more will need to be done to tackle the climate crisis. ...
Greens
5 days ago

Speech: Chris Hipkins – Wellington Rally, 24 September
...
Labour Blog
6 days ago

People need a government that will build many more homes
Labour’s plan to build more homes is a welcome step forward, but it lacks ambition. ...
Greens
6 days ago

Release: Supercharging public housing
Labour is supercharging its plan to solve the public housing shortfall created by National, promising another 6,000 homes on top of what has already been committed says Labour Housing spokesperson Dr Megan Woods. ...
Labour Blog
6 days ago

Release: New Super Visa for migrants’ parents and rights for Dawn Raid victims
Labour will back migrant working families by introducing a 10-year multiple-entry parents’ and grandparents’ Super Visa, and make good on the Dawn Raids apology by providing a one-off visa for overstayers who have been in the country ten years or more, Labour’s Immigration Spokesperson Andrew Little says. ...
Labour Blog
7 days ago

Only the Greens will deliver a fair amnesty for overstayers
The Green Party is today welcoming Labour coming to the table to ensure an amnesty for overstayers, but only the Greens will ensure immigration settings actually reflect the reality of people who have been failed by our immigration system. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Climate future of communities on the line this election
Green Party co leader James Shaw attended a South Dunedin Future street meeting today to discuss local responses to climate change. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Green Party calls for stronger action by Auckland Council to protect urban trees and native forest
The Green Party is calling on Auckland Council to do more to protect urban trees and housing developer Aedifice Property Group to restore and replant the native forest it cleared, and protect all the remaining trees on Ngahere Road in Pukekohe after a significant number of native trees were cut ...
Greens
1 week ago

Release: Ram Raids drop to two-year low
Latest Police data shows monthly ram raids have hit a two-year low, laying waste to Christopher Luxon’s false claim that there are two ram raids a day says Labour’s Police Spokesperson Ginny Andersen. ...
Labour Blog
1 week ago

Every party needs to step up on school lunches
Labour has finally said it would continue free school lunches - and the Green Party is calling on every party to step up. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Release: School lunches on the line this election
Free and healthy school lunches will be here to stay if Labour is re-elected, guaranteeing food for our kids who need it most and significant cost saving for parents. ...
Labour Blog
1 week ago

Release: Labour commits to a new hospital for the people of Hawke’s Bay
The next Labour Government will build a new hospital in Hawke’s Bay, Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall announced. ...
Labour Blog
1 week ago

Govt changes fall short of what’s needed for migrant protection
The Green Party will keep up the fight to support exploited migrant workers, including pushing to end single employer visas, after the government picked up Green recommendations to improve immigration settings. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Clean Power Payment the smartest way forward to reduce emissions and bills
Green Party co leader James Shaw visited a home in Auckland today that has been upgraded with a wide range of energy improvements, similar to those that would be supported through the Green Party’s Clean Power Payment. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Foreign Minister's Action – A Contempt For “Caretaker Government” Convention
The Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s presence in New York today at the United Nations General Assembly is a contempt of New Zealand’s “caretaker government” convention. Despite the long-standing caretaker convention, Minister Mahuta is today at the UN to sign a highly contentious “Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement”, delivering a ...
NZ First Press Release
1 week ago

Back To Black Responsibly
The Pre-Election Fiscal Update Changes Everything Within an hour of this speech there is going to be a debate between the political parties that the media, under MMP, still think are the only parties that matter in this campaign. Both of those parties are riddled with inexperience, as evidenced by ...
NZ First Press Release
1 week ago

Stop the cuts before they start – Labour launches new TV ad
National and ACT's tax plans don't add up, and that means deep cuts to the public services New Zealanders rely on, says Labour Campaign Chair Megan Woods. ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

Free school lunches paid for with a wealth tax
The Green Party will expand free school lunches and pay for it with a fair tax system. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

The Pacific Reset & the Blue Continent
Thank you for your invitation to speak with you this afternoon about New Zealand Foreign Policy. After offering one or two general thoughts about the nature of foreign policy, the focus today will be the Pacific Reset and why its goals remain even more important today as when they were ...
NZ First Press Release
2 weeks ago

Release: Huge hole in National’s climate budget
National’s plan to cut policies that are reducing New Zealand’s climate emissions will result in a huge gap in the country’s emissions budgets and could see Kiwis paying significantly more at the petrol pump as a result of Christopher Luxon hiking the ETS price. ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

Greens would push Labour much further on solar power
Labour’s plan to support rooftop solar is a step in the right direction, but falls short of what could be achieved through the Green Party’s Clean Power Payment. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

New community-level energy projects to support more than 800 Māori households
Seven more innovative community-scale energy projects will receive government funding through the Māori and Public Housing Renewable Energy Fund to bring more affordable, locally generated clean energy to more than 800 Māori households, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. “We’ve already funded 42 small-scale clean energy projects that ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Huge boost to Te Tai Tokerau flood resilience
The Government has approved new funding that will boost resilience and greatly reduce the risk of major flood damage across Te Tai Tokerau. Significant weather events this year caused severe flooding and damage across the region. The $8.9m will be used to provide some of the smaller communities and maraes ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Napier’s largest public housing development comes with solar
The largest public housing development in Napier for many years has been recently completed and has the added benefit of innovative solar technology, thanks to Government programmes, says Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods. The 24 warm, dry homes are in Seddon Crescent, Marewa and Megan Woods says the whanau living ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Te Whānau a Apanui and the Crown initial Deed of Settlement I Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me...
Māori: Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me te Karauna te Whakaaetanga Whakataunga Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me te Karauna i tētahi Whakaaetanga Whakataunga hei whakamihi i ō rātou tāhuhu kerēme Tiriti o Waitangi. E tekau mā rua ngā hapū o roto mai o Te Whānau ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

Plan for 3,000 more public homes by 2025 – regions set to benefit
Regions around the country will get significant boosts of public housing in the next two years, as outlined in the latest public housing plan update, released by the Housing Minister, Dr Megan Woods. “We’re delivering the most public homes each year since the Nash government of the 1950s with one ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
6 days ago

Immigration settings updates
Judicial warrant process for out-of-hours compliance visits 2023/24 Recognised Seasonal Employer cap increased by 500 Additional roles for Construction and Infrastructure Sector Agreement More roles added to Green List Three-month extension for onshore Recovery Visa holders The Government has confirmed a number of updates to immigration settings as part of ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Poroporoaki: Tā Patrick (Patu) Wahanga Hohepa
Tangi ngunguru ana ngā tai ki te wahapū o Hokianga Whakapau Karakia. Tārehu ana ngā pae maunga ki Te Puna o te Ao Marama. Korihi tangi ana ngā manu, kua hinga he kauri nui ki te Wao Nui o Tāne. He Toa. He Pou. He Ahorangi. E papaki tū ana ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Renewable energy fund to support community resilience
40 solar energy systems on community buildings in regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events Virtual capability-building hub to support community organisations get projects off the ground Boost for community-level renewable energy projects across the country At least 40 community buildings used to support the emergency response ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

COVID-19 funding returned to Government
The lifting of COVID-19 isolation and mask mandates in August has resulted in a return of almost $50m in savings and recovered contingencies, Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Following the revocation of mandates and isolation, specialised COVID-19 telehealth and alternative isolation accommodation are among the operational elements ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Appointment of District Court Judge
Susie Houghton of Auckland has been appointed as a new District Court Judge, to serve on the Family Court, Attorney-General David Parker said today. Judge Houghton has acted as a lawyer for child for more than 20 years. She has acted on matters relating to the Hague Convention, an international ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Government invests further in Central Hawke’s Bay resilience
The Government has today confirmed $2.5 million to fund a replace and upgrade a stopbank to protect the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant. “As a result of Cyclone Gabrielle, the original stopbank protecting the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant was destroyed. The plant was operational within 6 weeks of the ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Govt boost for Hawke’s Bay cyclone waste clean-up
Another $2.1 million to boost capacity to deal with waste left in Cyclone Gabrielle’s wake. Funds for Hastings District Council, Phoenix Contracting and Hog Fuel NZ to increase local waste-processing infrastructure. The Government is beefing up Hawke’s Bay’s Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up capacity with more support dealing with the massive amount ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Taupō Supercars revs up with Government support
The future of Supercars events in New Zealand has been secured with new Government support. The Government is getting engines started through the Major Events Fund, a special fund to support high profile events in New Zealand that provide long-term economic, social and cultural benefits. “The Repco Supercars Championship is ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

There is no recession in NZ, economy grows nearly 1 percent in June quarter
The economy has turned a corner with confirmation today New Zealand never was in recession and stronger than expected growth in the June quarter, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. “The New Zealand economy is doing better than expected,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s continuing to grow, with the latest figures showing ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Highest legal protection for New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs
The Government has accepted the Environment Court’s recommendation to give special legal protection to New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs, Te Waikoropupū Springs (also known as Pupū Springs), Environment Minister David Parker announced today. “Te Waikoropupū Springs, near Takaka in Golden Bay, have the second clearest water in New Zealand after ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

More support for victims of migrant exploitation
Temporary package of funding for accommodation and essential living support for victims of migrant exploitation Exploited migrant workers able to apply for a further Migrant Exploitation Protection Visa (MEPV), giving people more time to find a job Free job search assistance to get people back into work Use of 90-day ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Strong export boost as NZ economy turns corner
An export boost is supporting New Zealand’s economy to grow, adding to signs that the economy has turned a corner and is on a stronger footing as we rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle and lock in the benefits of multiple new trade deals, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. “The economy is ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Funding approved for flood resilience work in Te Karaka
The Government has approved $15 million to raise about 200 homes at risk of future flooding. More than half of this is expected to be spent in the Tairāwhiti settlement of Te Karaka, lifting about 100 homes there. “Te Karaka was badly hit during Cyclone Gabrielle when the Waipāoa River ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Further business support for cyclone-affected regions
The Government is helping businesses recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and attract more people back into their regions. “Cyclone Gabrielle has caused considerable damage across North Island regions with impacts continuing to be felt by businesses and communities,” Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds said. “Building on our earlier business support, this ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

New maintenance facility at Burnham Military Camp underway
Defence Minister Andrew Little has turned the first sod to start construction of a new Maintenance Support Facility (MSF) at Burnham Military Camp today. “This new state-of-art facility replaces Second World War-era buildings and will enable our Defence Force to better maintain and repair equipment,” Andrew Little said. “This Government ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Foreign Minister to attend United Nations General Assembly
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will represent New Zealand at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York this week, before visiting Washington DC for further Pacific focussed meetings. Nanaia Mahuta will be in New York from Wednesday 20 September, and will participate in UNGA leaders ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Midwives’ pay equity offer reached
Around 1,700 Te Whatu Ora employed midwives and maternity care assistants will soon vote on a proposed pay equity settlement agreed by Te Whatu Ora, the Midwifery Employee Representation and Advisory Service (MERAS) and New Zealand Nurses Association (NZNO), Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “Addressing historical pay ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

New Zealand provides support to Morocco
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide humanitarian support to those affected by last week’s earthquake in Morocco, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “We are making a contribution of $1 million to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to help meet humanitarian needs,” Nanaia Mahuta said. ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Government invests in West Coast’s roading resilience
The Government is investing over $22 million across 18 projects to improve the resilience of roads in the West Coast that have been affected by recent extreme weather, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. A dedicated Transport Resilience Fund has been established for early preventative works to protect the state ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Government invests in Greymouth’s future
The Government has today confirmed a $2 million grant towards the regeneration of Greymouth’s CBD with construction of a new two-level commercial and public facility. “It will include a visitor facility centred around a new library. Additionally, it will include retail outlets on the ground floor, and both outdoor and ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Nanaia Mahuta to attend PIF Foreign Ministers’ Meeting
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will attend the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, in Suva, Fiji alongside New Zealand’s regional counterparts. “Aotearoa New Zealand is deeply committed to working with our pacific whanau to strengthen our cooperation, and share ways to combat the challenges facing the Blue Pacific Continent,” ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

PREFU shows no recession, growing economy, more jobs and wages ahead of inflation
Economy to grow 2.6 percent on average over forecast period Treasury not forecasting a recession Inflation to return to the 1-3 percent target band next year Wages set to grow 4.8 percent a year over forecast period Unemployment to peak below the long-term average Fiscal Rules met - Net debt ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 weeks ago

New cancer centre opens in Christchurch
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall proudly opened the Canterbury Cancer Centre in Christchurch today. The new facility is the first of its kind and was built with $6.5 million of funding from the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group scheme for shovel-ready projects allocated in 2020. ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 weeks ago

Government invests in top of the south’s roading resilience
$12 million to improve the resilience of roads in the Nelson, Marlborough and Tasman regions Hope Bypass earmarked in draft Government Policy Statement on land transport $127 million invested in the top of the south’s roads since flooding in 2021 and 2022 The Government is investing over $12 million to ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 weeks ago

New Zealanders continue to support the revitalisation of te reo as we celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Mā...
Ko tēnei te wiki e whakanui ana i tō tātou reo rangatira. Ko te wā tuku reo Māori, e whakanuia tahitia ai te reo ahakoa kei hea ake tēnā me tēnā o tātou, ka tū ā te Rātū te 14 o Mahuru, ā te 12 o ngā hāora i te ahiahi. ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 weeks ago

1 in 50 Fijian children may have rheumatic heart disease, says health chief
By Pauliasi Mateboto in Suva One in 50 Fijian children could have rheumatic heart disease and children between the ages of five to 15 years are the most at risk of rheumatic fever. While revealing these alarming statistics, Health Secretary Dr James Fong revealed the high figures indicated the high ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
44 mins ago

NZ election 2023: Police investigate after invasion of Te Pāti Māori candidate’s home
RNZ News New Zealand police are investigating after the home of Te Pāti Māori election candidate Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke was invaded, vandalised, and a threatening letter left behind. They said the burglary of a Huntly home was reported to police on Monday. On Friday, Te Pāti Māori issued a statement saying ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
3 hours ago

Anti-co-governance march to parliament overshadowed by counterprotest
A protest against co-governance led by Julian Batchelor, a prominent figure in the movement, has ended, with police saying there were no issues. About 300 people marched from Civic Square to parliament in Wellington today, according to a police press release, and they have now departed parliament grounds. About 45 ...
The SpinoffBy Alice Neville
3 hours ago

ACT's business plan: Removing January holiday, putting minimum wage on hold
The ACT Party says it would abolish Fair Pay Agreements, put a hold on minimum wage increases for three years, and remove the 2 January public holiday. ...
Radio NZ – political
3 hours ago

Police investigate after invasion of Te Pāti Māori candidate's home
Police are investigating after the home of Te Pāti Māori candidate Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke was invaded, vandalised, and a threatening letter left behind. ...
Radio NZ – political
5 hours ago

Election 2023: All the latest developments on 30 September
There's no break in sight for the political party leaders as they continue to campaign in communities on Saturday. Follow RNZ's live blog for more. ...
Radio NZ – political
6 hours ago

Andy Foster plots his glorious return
Former Wellington mayor Andy Foster is attempting a political comeback as a candidate for NZ First. He talks to Joel MacManus. Fear not, Wellingtonians, your leader has returned from exile: Andy Foster is back. After nine terms on council and one term as mayor, Foster lost his re-election bid to ...
The SpinoffBy Joel MacManus
7 hours ago

Andy Foster plots his glorious return
Former Wellington mayor Andy Foster is attempting a political comeback as a candidate for NZ First. He talks to Joel MacManus. Fear not, Wellingtonians, your leader has returned from exile: Andy Foster is back. After nine terms on council and one term as mayor, Foster lost his re-election bid to ...
The SpinoffBy Joel MacManus
7 hours ago

‘Who’s that?’ says Peters of Luxon in at times jovial, at times furious interview
In an interview that swung from jovial to furious and back again, Winston Peters joked about National leader Christopher Luxon’s claim not to know him, and denied his party was responsible for race-baiting that’s led to an escalation in vitriol towards Māori. In an interview on Newshub Nation this morning, ...
The SpinoffBy Alice Neville
7 hours ago

‘Who’s that?’ says Peters of Luxon in at times jovial, at times furious interview
In an interview that swung from jovial to furious and back again, Winston Peters joked about National leader Christopher Luxon’s claim not to know him, and denied his party was responsible for race-baiting that’s led to an escalation in vitriol towards Māori. In an interview on Newshub Nation this morning, ...
The SpinoffBy Alice Neville
7 hours ago

‘I had to drive into a wheelbarrow’: Miriama Smith on the TV ad that haunts her
The star of Shortland Street, The Gone and now Celebrity Treasure Island shares some of her favourite TV moments. Name a New Zealand television show, and Miriama Smith has probably been in it. For the past 30 years, the actor and presenter has been a welcome fixture on our TV ...
The SpinoffBy My Life in TV
8 hours ago

The Week in Detail: Tiny homes, mental health awareness, and Afghan refugees
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories. This week, the big problems with tiny homes, how we can do our bit to mitigate climate change (besides recycling), why it's so difficult to keep our drinking water safe, the limits of mental health 'awareness', and the case of an ...
Newsroom
11 hours ago

VOTE2023: Q&A with James Shaw
In this week's episode of VOTE2023, we talk to Green Party co-leader and Climate Change Minister James Shaw about student-focused policies, electric vehicles, the Emissions Trading Scheme, and whether the Green Party would form a coalition government with National This series is made by politics students and aims to entertain ...
Newsroom
11 hours ago

Their house, my garden: Growing things in pots
See ya later, ground. This week on Their house, my garden, it’s all pots, balconies, window ledges and the kitchen bench. Sometimes you move into a tiny CBD apartment to live out your urbanite dreams. You put on your sparkly eyeshadow and smile till 3am behind the bar of a ...
The SpinoffBy Gabi Lardies
12 hours ago

Getting the brain back on track: Is there new hope for sufferers of chronic illness?
After a mild traumatic brain injury turned her life into a ‘game of snakes and ladders with no ladders’, Ursula Cochran discovered a powerful tool she could use to start getting better – her own brain. Here, she explores the potential of mind-body training for sufferers of other chronic illnesses, ...
The SpinoffBy Ursula Cochran
12 hours ago

Long Read: The food lobby in Aotearoa
This is The Detail's Long Read – one in-depth story read by us every weekend This week, it's a story from RNZ's In Depth team: 'Fully embedded': The food lobby in Aotearoa. Investigative reporter Guyon Espiner has come out with a new series, Off the Shelf, looking at the quiet struggle to stop New Zealanders eating ...
Newsroom
12 hours ago

Media targeting public for a war with China, warns Declassified Australia
Pacific Media Watch Barely a day passes without a story in the British or Australian media that ramps up fear about the rulers in Beijing, reports the investigative website Declassified Australia. According to an analysis by co-editors Antony Loewenstein and Peter Cronau, the Australian and British media are ramping up ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
17 hours ago

Indonesian police raid church office, home in Nduga – arrest six, torture 12
Asia Pacific Report Members of Indonesia’s Nduga District Police and the Damai Cartenz Police Task Force have raided a residential house and the local head office of the Papuan Tabernacle Church (Kingmi Papua) in the town of Kenyam, Nduga Regency, Papua Pegunungan Province, reports Human Rights Monitor. Before raiding the ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
19 hours ago

Candidate's home broken into, vandalised, threat left behind
The home of Te Pāti Māori candidate Hana Maipi-Clarke was broken into, vandalised, and a threatening letter left behind this week. ...
Radio NZ – political
19 hours ago

‘Politically motivated attack’: Te Pāti Māori candidate’s home vandalised, ‘threatening le...
Te Pāti Māori’s candidate for Hauraki-Waikato says her home was “invaded, vandalised, and left with a threatening letter” in what the party is calling a “politically motivated attack”. Hana-Rawhiti Maipi Clark said the “premeditated and targeted attack” was the latest of three incidents to take place at her home just ...
The SpinoffBy Stewart Sowman-Lund
20 hours ago

Ghoulish smoke and mirrors: Reaction to National's fiscal plan
The National Party's fiscal plan is ghoulish smoke and mirrors that will put more children into poverty, if you listen to Labour and the Green Party. ACT is critical, too. ...
Radio NZ – political
20 hours ago

Taking The Politics Out Of The Covid-19 Royal Commission
“ACT will take the politics out of the Royal Commission into the Government’s Covid-19 response by allowing all New Zealanders to have their say on what should be investigated through a new crowdsourced terms of reference”, says ACT Leader ...
Scoop politics
20 hours ago

Te Pāti Māori Candidate Hana Maipi-Clark’s Home Invaded In Politically Motivated Attack
Te Pāti Māori are not strangers to hate speech and online threats. Today however, a line was crossed. Our Hauraki-Waikato candidate, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi Clark’s home was invaded, vandalised, and left with a threatening letter. This premeditated and ...
Scoop politics
20 hours ago

The disability royal commission recommendations could fix some of the worst living conditions – bu...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Winkler, Adjunct Associate Professor, La Trobe University The bite mark on Ashlee’s cheek, her broken teeth and other photos of injuries from assaults in disability housing are some of the haunting images emerging from the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
22 hours ago

The Week in Politics: Luxon likely to get what he doesn't want
Analysis - Christopher Luxon's announcement that he'll work with Winston Peters after the election if he has to boosts NZ First's chances of getting back into Parliament, writes Peter Wilson. ...
Radio NZ – political
23 hours ago

National's big guns come out in Tāmaki
National has wheeled out its stars into the blue, blue seat of Tāmaki which is under friendly fire attack from Act deputy leader Brooke van Velden First Bill English, then Christopher Luxon fronted within two days of each other for Simon O'Connor in the previously safe National heartland of the east ...
Newsroom
23 hours ago

Concern at candidate's assault: 'He shook me, slapped my cheeks'
Chris Hipkins has condemned the increased risk of campaign trail violence as police investigate an assault on Labour’s Angela Roberts Labour’s candidate for Taranaki-King Country has confirmed she was assaulted following an election debate at the Inglewood Rotary Club earlier this week. Angela Roberts explained in a Facebook post after ...
Newsroom
24 hours ago

National's fiscal plan doesn't answer tax cut questions
National may have hoped its detailed fiscal plan would put to bed the lingering questions about how it will pay for its tax cuts, but there are no satisfactory answers in sight, Marc Daalder writes Analysis: Grant Robertson says National's new fiscal plan has a $537 million hole in it and ...
Newsroom
24 hours ago

Beneficiary Bashing Continues This Election With National, ACT & NZ First Policies
“People who experience poverty as sanctioned by a capitalist system shouldn’t be punished for the predicament they’re in” says Brooke Pao Stanley, AAAP Coordinator. These parties use fear based politics to gain popularity and continue to push a narrative ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Foreign policy has been missing from NZ’s election campaign – voters deserve answers to these bi...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Tax cuts, crime, the cost of living, potholes and co-governance … these and various other issues are now familiar to most voters. But there has been one major election area missing the serious debate ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Labour candidate slapped following debate in Taranaki
Labour candidate Angela Roberts, a list MP campaigning in Taranaki-King Country, was shaken and slapped by a member of the public following a debate on Tuesday this week. She described the incident on Facebook. While talking about education policy with an attendee after an event at Inglewood Rotary Club, the ...
The SpinoffBy Shanti Mathias
1 day ago

Forest Owners Welcome National's Forest Policy But Hold Reservations On Planting Restrictions
The Forest Owners Association generally welcomes the National Party forestry policy announcement that National wants to give certainty and support to the forestry and wood processing industry clearly recognising its economic and environmental advantages. ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Funding The Basics Brilliantly Would Be A Start
Both major parties needed to have prioritised ongoing new investment in children and education in their allowances for new spending, NZEI Te Riu Roa president Mark Potter said today. “The two fiscal plans released this week made pre-commitments ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

National’s Fiscal Plan Continues Attack On Low Income Households
National has finally released its fiscal plan after much delay and it reveals a plan to cut the incomes and essential public services the poorest New Zealanders rely on, just so they can pay for tax cuts for landlords and the well-off, says NZCTU ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Governor-General’s Official Visit To Malaysia
The Governor-General of New Zealand, Rt Hon Dame Cindy Kiro, and Dr Richard Davies will depart for an official visit to Malaysia on Sunday 1 October 2023. Their Excellencies are travelling to Malaysia at the invitation of His Majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

‘Forcing more children into poverty’: Labour responds to National’s fiscal plan
Labour says National’s plan to index benefits to inflation rather than wages will result in more children living in poverty. Speaking in Lower Hutt today, party leader Chris Hipkins said National was proposing “$2 billion in benefit cuts”. “In the middle of a cost of living crisis, they’re cutting benefits ...
The SpinoffBy Alice Neville
1 day ago

Review Of Wellbeing Strategy Needed As Police Recruitment Declines; Suicides Continue
Hatikvah Blue Hope Foundation is gravely concerned following the suicide of another serving police officer in the past month, and we extend our deepest sympathy to the grieving family. This tragedy comes as NZ Police is seeing a staggering 48.5% decline ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Here’s how to fix Australia’s approach to soil carbon credits so they really count towards our c...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron Simmons, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, University of New England William Edge, Shutterstock Australia’s plan to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 relies heavily on carbon credits. These credits are awarded to projects that avoid the release ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Tough Times Ahead For Children In Hardship Under Next Government, CPAG Warns
The Child Poverty Action Group is asking the National Party to make good on its commitment to children in poverty, but says the party’s fiscal plan reveals it has no desire or intention to help those living in the greatest poverty in Aotearoa. ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Review: Patricia Highsmith play never quite reaches its subject’s brilliance
Sam Brooks reviews Auckland Theatre Company’s Switzerland, which can’t quite meet its subject straight in the eye. What is it? The last show in Auckland Theatre Company’s programme is somewhat of a pivot from the rest of its programme this year. It’s a psychological thriller by an Australian playwright (Joanna ...
The SpinoffBy Sam Brooks
1 day ago

The Friday Poem: ‘farm to table’ by kī anthony
A new poem by kī anthony. farm to table there is a story in my body that you want to hear. pull me apart like supermarket pizzabread and tell me who i am. narrative unspools my broken cassette; pick up your fork. wind me up. present me on masterchef and ...
The SpinoffBy kī anthony
1 day ago

'Completely unacceptable': Labour candidate Angela Roberts 'slapped' following p...
The candidate for Taranaki-King Country says she was going to let it go, but realised it was important to take a stand against aggressive and unacceptable behaviour. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending September 29
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Vintage, $26) Gamer Queen of the list! ...
The SpinoffBy The Spinoff Review of Books
1 day ago

Taxpayers’ Union Slams National’s Alternative Fiscal Plan
The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming the plan released by the National Party today saying it barely touches the sides in terms of cutting waste, and realigning the sector to live within the country’s means. Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Jordan ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Nicola Willis confirms plan for pre-Christmas mini-budget
A National-led government would deliver “a mini-budget before Christmas”, Nicola Willis has confirmed, with the intention of “setting out some of the savings and reprioritisations we believe are necessary to get New Zealand back on track”. Speaking as National unveiled its revised, post-Prefu fiscal plan, she said heads of government ...
The SpinoffBy Toby Manhire
1 day ago

National sets aside funding for predicted rise in prison population
National’s “tough-on-crime” approach will result in a higher prison population, and $700 million has been set aside to deal with this, Nicola Willis has confirmed. “We do expect the prison population to rise as a result of our sentencing policy,” National’s finance spokesperson said at the announcement of the party’s ...
The SpinoffBy Alice Neville
1 day ago

National promises bigger surplus by 2027
National is promising a bigger surplus and lower debt than Labour in its fiscal plan, which has just been released by leader Christopher Luxon and finance spokesperson Nicola Willis in Auckland. National’s plan says a surplus of $2.9 billion will be reached in 2027 – the same year as Labour. ...
The SpinoffBy Alice Neville
1 day ago

Election 2023: National Party fiscal plan promises lower taxes, disciplined government spending
The National Party has released its fiscal plan, saying it will lower taxes and reduce net debt. Watch a live stream with leader Christopher Luxon and finance spokesperson Nicola Willis here. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Meet the Gen Z politics nerd who’s made a game out of the election
Can learning about politicians and policies be fun? A 23-year-old Ōtautahi illustrator thinks so, if you turn it all into a card game. A pencil drawn Chris Hipkins, with freckles and a big wide smile, looks like a little school boy. Underneath the portrait, he is briefly and somewhat ruthlessly ...
The SpinoffBy Gabi Lardies
1 day ago

Parties use Facebook less – and don’t always share accurate information
Smaller parties contending the 2023 election use social media most, shows a new study. Conducted by Victora University’s Internet, Social Media and Politics Research Lab, researchers analysed 681 posts made by political parties and party leaders on Facebook. Act posted almost twice as much as any other party. “Most of ...
The SpinoffBy Shanti Mathias
1 day ago

Election Study Tracks Facts And Fiction In Political Parties’ Social Media Campaigns
In the lead-up to the general election on 14 October, ACT is pipping other parliamentary parties for the number of Facebook posts. However, some of its posts contain “half-truths”, said Dr Mona Krewel, director of the Internet, Social Media and Politics Research ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Ngāi Tahu Marks 25 Years Since Crown Settlement
Ngāi Tahu is celebrating the anniversary of its Crown Settlement by holding a tribal climate change symposium with whānau today. In 1998, Ngāi Tahu received an apology from the Crown, cultural and tribal redress, and $170 million compensation. It was ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Election 2023: ACT Party would call for public submissions on Covid-19 inquiry terms of reference
It is "wrong" that the government gets to set the terms of reference of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into its Covid-19 response, the ACT Party says. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

National to release its fiscal plan today
It’s Friday, September 29. Welcome to The Spinoff’s election live updates. Learn more about the political parties at Policy.nz The agenda Coming up today: National is releasing its fiscal plan in Auckland at midday, after which leader Christopher Luxon is doing a walkabout in St Heliers and attending ...
The SpinoffBy Alice Neville
1 day ago

Māori leaders pen open letter condemning racism from political candidates
Māori leaders, including Dame Naida Glavish, Tā Mark Solomon and Tukoroirangi Morgan, have released an open letter to politicians this morning calling on them to “call out racism and race-baiting and publicly condemn it”. The letter appears to reference a line from National leader Christopher Luxon’s speech at Waitangi this ...
The SpinoffBy Anna Rawhiti-Connell
1 day ago

A taste of democracy: What political leaders eat (or don’t eat) on the campaign trail
With just over two weeks till election day, we asked party leaders about the kai that fuels them along the campaign trail. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. One of the great (or only) joys of election campaign season is the abundance of footage and ...
The SpinoffBy Charlotte Muru-Lanning
1 day ago

Save The Children Calls For Children To Be Back On The Agenda In Election 23
Save the Children is asking politicians and voters to put children’s needs at the top of the agenda ahead of Election 23, with five vital asks for tamariki. The child rights organisation, that has been gathering children and youth voices in recent ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Election 2023: The foreign affairs, trade and defence policies in two minutes
New Zealand makes lots of money from foreign trade, and spends lots of money on the defence force. What role do the parties want the country to play overseas? Policy.nz has the full version, but we can tell you the basics in two minutes. One of the roles of a ...
The SpinoffBy Shanti Mathias
1 day ago

Election 2023: ACT Party would amend Inquiries Act to allow public submissions on Covid-19 inquiry
It is "wrong" that the government gets to set the term of reference of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into its Covid-19 response, the ACT Party says. It is "wrong" ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Election 2023: Māori leaders call on politicians to condemn racism
In an open letter, Māori and community leaders are calling for an end to a "divisive style of politics", and asking National leader Christopher Luxon to condemn race-baiting by NZ First and ACT. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

The Bulletin: Willis scores big with CEOs in Herald’s Mood of the Boardroom
National leader Chris Luxon beats his Labour rival – though not overwhelmingly so – in the NZ Herald’s Mood of the Boardroom survey out this morning. The regular pre-election survey of 100 business leaders asks them to rank government ministers and opposition MPs on their handling of economic issues and overall political ...
The SpinoffBy Catherine McGregor
1 day ago

Media And Police Attribute Success Of Operation Dickinson To The Firearms Registry
The Sporting Shooters Association of New Zealand (SSANZ) is concerned about the political neutrality of New Zealand Police in the leadup to the 2023 General Election. We also have concerns about the media’s understanding of the Firearms Registry ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

A search for links between two of the universe’s most spectacular phenomena has come up empty – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Howell, OzGrav Associate Investigator; Adjunct Research Fellow in Astrophysics, The University of Western Australia Carl Knox / OzGrav, CC BY Every so often, astronomers glimpse an intense flash of radio waves from space – a flash that lasts only ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Lions to roar or Magpies to soar? It’s a remarkable revival story either way on grand final day
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Saturday’s premiership tussle between Collingwood and Brisbane features the two top-ranked teams from 2023. Hopefully, unlike last year’s final, it will be a gripping match. The 2023 finals series has so ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Handkerchief or tissue? Which one’s better for our health and the planet?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Shutterstock Maybe you have hay fever, COVID, a cold or the flu, and are reaching for a tissue or handkerchief. But which one’s better ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

‘You’re constantly worrying’: pregnant women, bushfire smoke and the impossibility of safety
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Lou Rasmussen, Professor, School of Sociology, Australian National University Smoke covered large swathes of Australia during the catastrophic summer fires of 2019-2020. You could see the plumes from space. Over 20% of Australia’s forests went up in smoke and flame. ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Michael Woodhouse is prepared to lose in Dunedin one last time
The former cabinet minister withdrew from National’s list after implying the party had valued his experience below the need for diversity. Shanti Mathias speaks to him in Dunedin as he contemplates what comes after 15 years in politics. Michael Woodhouse is always repping – both Otago and the National Party. ...
The SpinoffBy Shanti Mathias
1 day ago

Michael Woodhouse is prepared to lose in Dunedin one last time
The former cabinet minister withdrew from National’s list after implying the party had valued his experience below the need for diversity. Shanti Mathias speaks to him in Dunedin as he contemplates what comes after 15 years in politics. Michael Woodhouse is always repping – both Otago and the National Party. ...
The SpinoffBy Shanti Mathias
1 day ago

Boos and strong language mark forum on housing
Political candidates have heard the plight of renters at a forum in Wellington, with all promising to continue funding tenant services. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

ACT climate policy could see NZ Paris Agreement pledge walked back
The ACT Party has raised the possibility it would renege on New Zealand's international climate pledge under the Paris Agreement. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Public sector headcount rises in last pre-election recruitment drive
The public administration and safety sector takes on 2,300 new workers in a month ...
Newsroom
1 day ago

Weet-bix case shows size of mountain supermarket challengers need to climb
It’s just one product, in one chain of stores. But few stories symbolise the ongoing power of the supermarket duopoly as well as The Warehouse’s Weet-bix situation, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The SpinoffBy Catherine McGregor
1 day ago

Election 2023: All the latest developments on 29 September
The National Party is set to reveal its fiscal plan today after much controversy over how viable its foreign buyer's tax is and Labour's release of their fiscal plan on Wednesday. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Try queen almost quit her Black Ferns dream
A prolific try-scorer in any team she makes, Martha Mataele is looking to cross the try line for the Black Ferns, as she's named in the squad for the first time. Martha Mataele almost gave up on her Black Ferns dream before her call-up came this month. When the Black ...
Newsroom
1 day ago

Short story of a NZ Loyal Party candidate
"They're using cloud seeding to alter the atmosphere!": a NZ Loyal candidate is sadly imagined by Jack Remiel Cottrell, in our series of short stories set in the election campaign "Andy, what you're saying is unhinged." Despite Ethan being one of the sheeple, Andy does appreciate that he visits. ...
Newsroom
1 day ago