There's partial funding by government for people who don't earn wages or pay levies, so children, retired (and beneficiaries other unwaged I presume)
ACC is funded from multiple sources, including business, petrol revenues and wages. Funds from each source are spent on injuries relevant to where they happened.
Examples of funds paying for different injuries:
If you're injured in a motor vehicle accident, your ACC claim is paid for by funds sourced from motorists, such as vehicle registration and petrol levies
If you fall off your bicycle, the cost of your treatment is paid from a levy on your wages.
Accidents in the workplace are covered by levies paid by businesses
Government funds treatment for children and retirees.
These are just a few examples of the ways ACC levies from multiple sources are used to support people who are injured.
it's a nebulous, shapeshifting beast is ACC, at all levels
The 6.5% expenditure reduction over Government can be looked at as the amount revenue is going to contract as National tanks the economy to create ‘opportunity’ for their vulture mates. I’m expecting the tax cuts to quietly slip back because of ‘economic conditions’.
“it's a nebulous, shapeshifting beast is ACC, at all levels…”
It sure is, I did print layout for a Union Publication on ACC–basically how to negotiate the maze, and it can involve engaging specialist lawyers–and was quite taken aback by how much you need to become aware of to receive your entitlements and not get done over by case managers that make WINZ/MSD look good.
When I was an industrial worker pre 90s, ACC was a matter of seeing a doctor (as opposed to multiple doctors of ACC’s choice), a little form filling, and the employer just paid you every week…no longer it seems. But sure, self employment and precarious work has ballooned in the 00s which complicates things.
self employment and precarious work has ballooned in the 00s which complicates things
Fark yes, try claiming earnings compo when you're self employed. Standard tax accounting practices effectively deny you compensation as you're paid on net earnings, you then have to have income insurance on top of ACC levies to take care of your fixed costs while your are unable to work.
ACC is more than adequately funded by PAYGO levies.
As proven by the fact that it accumulates "reserves" like private insurance. Reserves which have basically been stolen from claimants who pay the levies.. Where cover has been refused or underpaid for all sorts of specious reasons.
ACC has no need for accumulating reserves as it is fully funded by levies. Rates of claims are fully predictable, and levies are set accordingly. Unlike earthquake or fire insurance, where exceptional events require reserve funding to cover them.
The only reason for "reserves" and forward funding current claimants, (Levying enough and paying out less to have a surplus to invest) is to make it attractive for sale to private insurance. It also makes the overall Government books look better than they are. Helps when trying to justify borrowing for tax cuts, for millionaires.
An anology would be NZTA putting aside a billion a year in the US stock market, while the roads are collapsing from lack of repairs!
A better analogy would be the "Cullen" fund. The New Zealand Superannuation Fund if you prefer its formal name. I assume you are in favour of scrapping it as New Zealand Superannuation is fully funded on a pay as you go basis.
Why do we have the Super fund? The only real reason is that Cullen, faced with excessive tax receipts back in 2000, was too mean to let people keep their own income so he invented this way of keeping it in Government hands.
It is totally unnecessary and should be scrapped. I assume, given you views on the necessity for ACC to have reserves for future payments that you agree with me?
I suspect there were sound fiscal reasons for not letting people "keep their own income" – something to do with avoiding inflation; and there has always been a suspicion that the country would not be able to afford national super once the boomers started to retire, and that therefore a fund built up in advance might be of assistance.
I think you'll find that ACC is the only health insurance in the world that is fully funded for all future claims. The accumulation of reserves on top of being fully funded represents theft from the present where it could be used rather than attempting to tie down the definition of injury more tightly than is intended by prescriptive descriptions of what an illness or injury from the workplace is.
At 14 I was swinging a hammer for the old man, a full time manual worker until got off the tools in my late fifties and pulled the pin at 66. Elbows, knees, neck, you name it. Properly fucked.
That is complete rubbish Alwyn. With the ageing population there is a big future superannuation deficit which means the Cullen fund is more needed than ever and Key was stupid to stop paying into it in order to give tax cuts.
Retirement income, real income as opposed to monetary income, as does schooling healthcare, infrastructure supply and food, always comes from current production. If I do not eat my dinner today, it does not mean there is someone who can give me my dinner in my eighties. The best investment for my old age then, is not giving my money away for financial wizards to lose, but to pay taxes, (and spend my income) to make sure that the next generation are happy, healthy, educated, employed and comfortable
The reserves are required when an aging population is more vulnerable to injury.
In that sense one of the few ways we provide for the aging of the population (as per health costs).
Those with assets have lower borrowing costs, that includes government.
Spare capacity also allows for the possibility of moving to include sickness.
ACC should be flourishing (and government budgets) when there is full employment that allows it and government to cope with the cost of higher unemployment – lower level of levies (and tax revenue) inflow.
The difference between those MPs etc. mentioned in your link and Luxon is that most of them probably have mortgages to sustain and don't have a string of mortgage-free homes dotted around the place.
I bet Luxon didn't even think about how it would look to the voters because he is such a self entitled prick. He has neither a conscience or a moral bone in his body.
C’mon Luxury Luxon only has 7 pads including the Wgtn. freehold and a Hawaii vacation spread, the $52 grand is in the rules…ok surely…except that it is not!
Even Dipton double dipper Bill English was finally embarrassed with his ripping us taxpayers via accomodation. Not so sure with Baldrick though, he is tone deaf.
Luxon is an electorate MP whose electorate is in Auckland. He needs to live, as almost all electorate MPs do, in or close to his electorate.
He also needs somewhere to live in Wellington. If Premier House isn't suitable he can live somewhere else. Why should he be treated any differently to any other electorate MP? Why should he be expected to pay his expenses out of his own pocket just because he is richer than most people? Let's face it. All MPs are better off than the bulk of the populace.
If you really want to complain about bludging MPs you should look at the List MPs, who choose to live outside of Wellington but expect the tax-payer to fund their living costs in Wellington.
List MPs should not be eligible for any accommodation allowance in the Capital. They should be told that the job for a List MP is in Wellington and a moving allowance will be paid so they can move there. That's it. From then on their address is Wellington and no accommodation perks will be provided to them.
If the MSM want something to talk about they should be asking why Luxon's home is considered to be a target for Palestinian terrorist supporters. Leave his family alone.
Why should he be expected to pay his expenses out of his own pocket just because he is richer than most people
Have you ever heard of means testing the entitlements paid out by the state? Or the process of abatement if you earn some temporary or part-time income while on a benefit? These tools are seemingly regarded as necessary to protect the public purse and police the morals of the poor, or even of just the not-rich. Why should MPs not be subject to something similar?
Not fascinating at all Alwyn, not in this scenario. Please explain to us mere mortals why, in the age of allegedly necessary austerity, a multi-millionaire freeholder homeowner who is paid by the taxpayer doesn't deserve to be means tested for an allowance?
Really, means testing needs to be expanded even more, given how broke the country apparently is. I propose that MPs with over a certain amount of cash assets and income received alongside their MP salaries have to use that up first before being allowed any 'perks' like accommodation and meal allowances, even travel. They can afford those taxi fares from the airport. Don't worry, we won't make them sell off all their assets before being allowed to get paid anything.
Rich MPs who are there because they want to make a difference, not because they want power, won't have an argument with this.
It isn't a benefit. It is a salary and allowances package they get for doing a job. Now I might think they are overpaid and that we should reduce all public service salaries down to where the maximum that anyone can be paid is limited to $100,000 but I suspect we aren't going to have any doctors in our hospitals are we?
I can remember when MPs were paid a great deal less than they are now. The used to get about the same as a experienced teacher in a school. Lets go back to that and pay ordinary MPs about $80,000 shall we?
The MPs I worry about aren't the, possibly rich, ones who were successful at something else before they become MPs. The ones I don't want around are the ones who are so useless that they couldn't make anything like their current income in the world outside Parliament. They are the no-hoper, generally list, MPs who inhabit the back benches of the house and whose claim to fame is that they were a barista or such like.
It's an allowance to enable you to do a job, not a salary for doing the job. It's a benefit that is generously dished out only to our imagined and disproportionately rewarded elites. It's perfectly valid and moral to means test it.
The MPs I worry about aren't the, possibly rich, ones who were successful at something else before they become MPs.
Quite right alwyn, the rich and/or successful can look after themselves.
…whose claim to fame is that they were a barista…
I worked a number of minimum wage jobs as a teenager and while completing Uni degrees; waitress, barista, in retail, in a call centre, as a projectionist at a cinema, at a campus library, and as maintenance manager at my housing cooperative.
However, its future is uncertain as National showed little support for it while in opposition, and is in the process of dismantling some of the last government’s employment laws, claiming they limited “flexibility, choice and agility in workplaces”.
Otoh, motivated Filipino temps are very flexible – things are looking up!
When the bill was first debated in Parliament, baristas were cited as one of the groups of lowly-paid workers who sometimes had restraint of trade clauses in their contracts.
Wealth is not a biological trait. Your logic is that the wealthy should not be subject to scrutiny simply because they are wealthy? This is eugenics territory and an unsustainable proposition for a functional society. What has transpired with this Luxon situation would be labeled benefit fraud for most of the rank and file and the hypocrisy is frankly offensive. An inability to recognise this is a hallmark of talentless privilege, which is not a skill that benefits society but a burden upon it. How many more decades of this social intelligent design fantasy are we to be compelled to accommodate? I'm so sick and tired of being sick and tired.
You should read more carefully. My view is that they should have shown that they can do something well. They might have become rich while doing so. If so they shouldn't be excluded from becoming an MP.
The ones I don't want around are the ones who are so useless that they couldn't make anything like their current income in the world outside Parliament.
You did seem to be equating that those on lower salaries, like 90% of the people, should not be MP's.
Actually. Whose to say an MP is more useful than a Teacher? Or deserves more money.
Though we need to pay at a level that normal people, not just the idle rich can afford to do it. We see with councils how that works.
And. Expense allowances, in most jobs, cover actual expenses, not to add to already generous pay.
ones who were successful at something else before they become MPs.
That they were successful is debatable. Brown nosing your way through secure positions in a corporate, appears to be some of the worst training for a Parliamentary position. Being sheltered from life in a University is another red flag.
People with a varied and in touch with reality, life experience have been our most original and effective politicians.
I cannot see how you can possibly come to that conclusion from anything I have said. It is something that can quite fairly be said about the Labour Party hierarchy though as that party has been largely overrun by mediocre academics.
What happened to the working class that used to be represented by people like Norman Kirk, or Gordon Christie?
Most people who read this would conclude the same.
The ones I don't want around are the ones who are so useless that they couldn't make anything like their current income in the world outside Parliament.
Before I cry for Luxon, not being able to rent out one of his 7 properties he owns mortgage free to someone else, while he resides there … first this
He used to claim $90,000 a year. Others doing so last year.
National Party MPs: Christopher Luxon, Andrew Bayly; Gerry Brownlee; Judith Collins; Jacqui Dean; Barbara Kuriger; Melissa Lee; Ian McKelvie; Mark Mitchell; Simon O’Connor; Stuart Smith; Louise Upston and Michael Woodhouse.
Labour Party MPs: Willie Jackson, Sarah Pallet, Deborah Russell, Jenny Salesa, Jamie Strange, Jan Tinetti, Duncan Webb, Arena Williams.
The wealthier they are the more likely they are to do it, never enough …
For mine the housing goes for rent or mortgage payment costs – if there are no such costs, no claim to make.
Local MP's get nothing for the house they live in – they pay rent and mortgage out of their salary.
Included in this number is National Leader Christopher Luxon who since the start of 2021 has claimed around $90,000 to live in his own house in Wellington.
From the start of 2021 until that date is two and three quarter years. It covers all of 2021, all of 2022 and most of 2023. You are somehow claiming it was in a single year!
Ok then. He had not claimed $90,000 per annum, but $90,000 total while living in a house he owned before becoming PM.
He has since refunded the $13,000 he has claimed since becoming PM – but none of the earlier $90,000.
In reference to those others doing the same, some would still be paying off the mortgage on the property. That being an on-going cost to them of living in Wellington.
The Remuneration Authority should look at whether those with no Wellington housing cost should receive any allowance.
A rather grudging admission perhaps but at least you are admitting you were quite wrong. I wish some of our MPs could do even that.
Even if you think it is fair to treat the MPs who own their homes in Wellington, as well as one in or near their electorate, and I don't, he is still going to have costs here. Rates, power, insurance, Body Corporate charges, etc, etc.
The Remuneration Authority should instead look at the people who are List MPs and have no reason at all to live anywhere at all except Wellington. They should be expected to move to Wellington. They should get no allowance at all for their Wellington Housing or for their own, and their families travel to Wellington.
At the moment (not any in 2023), it appears none of the MP's of the Greens or TPM is claiming any allowance for a house they own in Wellington.
None of the Wellington based MP's is allowed to claim any housing support.
An out of town electorate MP gets the support because they are as much in their electorate as in Wellington (parliament breaks, electorate work and weekends and campaigns).
List MP's serve their parties nationwide (selected onto the list by party members and are accountable to them nationwide, not just in Wellington). This is more so for parties with a high list profile proportion. And in those cases they have spokesperson roles that also requiring nationwide connection to sector groups outside the party.
It is simpler to just give them a housing allowance than to have them claim expenses for work related trips.
List figures otherwise are higher ups in the major parties with "workloads" – which is why their families often remain based in the electorates they once were members for. If, over the years they have managed to use their housing allowance to own an apartment without a mortgage, they do not need an allowance.
he is still going to have costs here. Rates, power, insurance, Body Corporate charges, etc, etc.
Given we are the only nation in the OECD without a CGT, or estate tax – you think that is an arguement?
Suppose all the List MPs were to move to Wellington and live here. They would not get a Housing Allowance. After all Wellington will be their home.
This would have no effect on their Parliament related travel outside Wellington. They can still do that, and have it paid for. They do that now don't they. Nothing is going to change in that respect.
Any person who takes a job in Wellington is expected to move her. Why should list MPs be any different. If you want the job move to the location of the job.
I cannot understand what you mean by the last sentence. What has a CGT, or Estate tax, have to do with the rates you have to pay, or the Insurance on a property, or any of the other costs have to do with it?
I lived in Australia. They had a CGT system in place. I still had to pay rates and insurance you know.
List MP's are nationwide electorate party MP's. That is unrelated to parliamentary/government business.
Electorate MP's living in a property in Wellington they own without a mortgage, do not need financial help at the level of $36,400 as MP's or $52,000 to as Ministers to pay rates, insurance, power and broadband.
The properties they own are rising in value each year with the CG untaxed. Nor is there any estate tax paid on that inherited wealth.
They should only be able to claim such costs (and any maintenance) when they pay tax on gains from ownership.
If you are a true believer in the last Government we had until last year then you wouldn't see any difference between a property without a mortgage and one that did have one.
After all the the Labour Government changed the law to prevent anyone claiming the interest paid on borrowing to buy a property. Why should anyone be entitled to a housing allowance just because they have borrowed to buy it, would surely have to be your opinion.
MP's are allowed to receive an allowance for their Wellington housing costs, rent and mortgage are such costs.
The Remuneration Authority sets those rules, and in my opinion should tighten up access to provide it only to those paying rent or mortgage.
PS The former governments policy design was to incentivise landlords moving from existing to new build property ownership – that latter qualified for mortgage deduction as a cost against rent income. We want investment money into extra housing not bidding up the price of current housing.
Destiny Church bikers will continue to wear their Tu Tangata leather vests because “they are korowai, not gang patches”, says church matriarch Hannah Tamaki.
New legislation on Monday outlawed the wearing of gang patches in public, and offenders who break that ban could be fined up to $5000 or jailed for six months. The gang patch ban extends to funerals and tangi.
Tamaki told the Herald the 90 bikers who ride under Destiny Church’s Tu Tangata Iwi Tapu patch would continue in the church colours.
That will be interesting as they are defiant and Tamaki even issues a warning to Mark Mitchell.
Israel has now fully demonstrated why UNRWA must be maintained and strengthened. The horror of non UN aid trucks being used in North Gaza as bait to bring out desperately starving Palestinians from their hiding places in order to massacre more than 100, run over their bodies with tanks, and injure more than 700 in an environment with zero first aid, is apalling.
There is no way that aid trucks can reach Gaza without express knowledge of the Israeli's.
"The majority of victims suffered gunshots and shrapnel in the head and upper parts of the body. They were hit by direct artillery shelling, drone missiles and gun firing"…
Ambulances were unable to reach the scene of the massacre.
Feel the same Git, low bastards. There have been a couple of airdrops into Gaza, by a UK group with assistance via Jordan, but fully expect the next one to be shot down…
There needs to be an international aid brigade that just goes in…there are reports of a Turkey led flotilla leaving soon including NZ Kia Ora Gaza reps. Back in 2011 the Turkish flotilla was attacked by Israel in international waters and a number of people killed. One of my colleagues Mike Treen went one year, was tasered and beaten, lucky to escape with his life, similarly Green MP Marama Davidson went in 2016 I think and was lucky to get out alive too.
Israel is not coming back from this butchery for much of the worlds people, even if Govt.s seem happy enough to look the other way.
Interesting that the coalition isn't supporting Cushla Tangaere-Manuel's Local Government Amendment Bill to allow councilors to attend meetings remotely for what can be loosely described as "reasons" – but only if you're feeling extremely generous:
They seem to range from still being salty about COVID lockdowns (Simon Court -ACT):
I want to make it clear why the ACT Party won't be supporting this bill. While there are occasions, whether it's following a sever weather event, where local government – elected members may not be able to travel to hold meetings, it is possible that by exception, in the future, there may be occasions where there's a need for remote participation. This should not become a matter of course. This Parliament, which facilitated remote participation when the COVID-19 controls were in place so that members like myself, who were relegated to be the second-class citizens of New Zealand, stuck in Auckland, could participate—that is no longer the case. This Parliament has adapted to the return of the normal situation, and so has local government. Therefore, we won't be supporting this bill and we do not believe it should proceed. Thank you.
To something, something, something gummint overreach (Tim Costley – National)
We believe in local solutions to local problems. We absolutely believe that they should have the freedom of choice, but we don't believe in this age-old, from-the-left "Wellington knows best. We'll tell you how to do it. We've got all the answers. What we decide in Wellington is the way to do it." We heard it from them not just with this; we heard it from three waters, "Give us all your ratepayer assets, we'll take control of them, and we'll decide what you're going to do with them." We heard it with Te Pūkenga: "We'll centralise everything. Wellington knows best. We've got the answers." We saw it with health. Nothing gets better
Don't know exactly what is in the bill, but what has either excuse above got to do with the assumed intent… that is, allow someone who wants to attend a meeting but is unable to because say… an air-port closure due to fog.
It seems to me that the right wing brain can only reach a certain level of comprehension before a brain-fog sets in which sends them down rabbit holes and flights of irrelevant fancy.
The bill itself is pretty simple and just amends the LGA to specifically make remote participation at council meetings a legal right, rather than something a Council can decide to allow via standing orders.
But yeah, crazy NACT is trying itself into knots trying to oppose it.
God only knows what will happens when the abolition of the ratepayer roll gets drawn.
"He knew what we all eventually realize, if we are awake and courageous enough: that the best way — and the only effective way — to complain about the way things are is to make new and better things, untested and unexampled things, things that spring from the gravity of creative conviction and drag the status quo like a tide toward some new horizon."
This footag is designed to make Palestinians look like insects and ants, not like people. The IDF has the most advanced image capturing equipment on the planet. They film and send this out to make you hate Palestinians and be indifferent to their deaths, or even be happy about it. This is meant to visually dehumanize. This is the lowest of the lowest of the low. This is it, right here. This actually makes me sick
IDF released aerial footage showing how a Palestinian crowd in northern #Gaza attacked the trucks bringing humanitarian aid and as a result, dozens died from overcrowding, and trampling
Rather than bite the bullet and carry on with the contract for a modern, fit for purpose piece of vital transport infrastructure that'll deliver intergenerational benefits the idiots chose to piss the thick end of half a billion dollars up against the wall.
/
KiwiRail has written off $382 million in costs associated with the cancelled Interislander replacement project and provisioned a further $60m for winding it down, BusinessDesk reports.
The $442m in costs, detailed in the 2024 half-year results released on Thursday, doesn’t include the cost of exiting the shipbuilding contract with South Korean shipyard Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, which was contracted to build two new ferries for $551m.
A bomb has just gone off in uk politics in the form of George Galloway winning the Rochdale by election , the first thing he said in his acceptance speech was " this is for Gaza " and he wont be mincing his words on the subject when he gets to parliament !!
Good news !! Keir will be shitting himself .cant wait .
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What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
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https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350196925/acc-mulls-job-cuts-after-very-clear-expectation-save-65
Is acc fully self funded by the revenue it collects ?
If it is does this government intend to steel employers acc contributions to fund tax cuts ?
There's partial funding by government for people who don't earn wages or pay levies, so children, retired (and beneficiaries other unwaged I presume)
it's a nebulous, shapeshifting beast is ACC, at all levels
The 6.5% expenditure reduction over Government can be looked at as the amount revenue is going to contract as National tanks the economy to create ‘opportunity’ for their vulture mates. I’m expecting the tax cuts to quietly slip back because of ‘economic conditions’.
“it's a nebulous, shapeshifting beast is ACC, at all levels…”
It sure is, I did print layout for a Union Publication on ACC–basically how to negotiate the maze, and it can involve engaging specialist lawyers–and was quite taken aback by how much you need to become aware of to receive your entitlements and not get done over by case managers that make WINZ/MSD look good.
When I was an industrial worker pre 90s, ACC was a matter of seeing a doctor (as opposed to multiple doctors of ACC’s choice), a little form filling, and the employer just paid you every week…no longer it seems. But sure, self employment and precarious work has ballooned in the 00s which complicates things.
Fark yes, try claiming earnings compo when you're self employed. Standard tax accounting practices effectively deny you compensation as you're paid on net earnings, you then have to have income insurance on top of ACC levies to take care of your fixed costs while your are unable to work.
ACC is more than adequately funded by PAYGO levies.
As proven by the fact that it accumulates "reserves" like private insurance. Reserves which have basically been stolen from claimants who pay the levies.. Where cover has been refused or underpaid for all sorts of specious reasons.
ACC has no need for accumulating reserves as it is fully funded by levies. Rates of claims are fully predictable, and levies are set accordingly. Unlike earthquake or fire insurance, where exceptional events require reserve funding to cover them.
The only reason for "reserves" and forward funding current claimants, (Levying enough and paying out less to have a surplus to invest) is to make it attractive for sale to private insurance. It also makes the overall Government books look better than they are. Helps when trying to justify borrowing for tax cuts, for millionaires.
An anology would be NZTA putting aside a billion a year in the US stock market, while the roads are collapsing from lack of repairs!
A better analogy would be the "Cullen" fund. The New Zealand Superannuation Fund if you prefer its formal name. I assume you are in favour of scrapping it as New Zealand Superannuation is fully funded on a pay as you go basis.
Why do we have the Super fund? The only real reason is that Cullen, faced with excessive tax receipts back in 2000, was too mean to let people keep their own income so he invented this way of keeping it in Government hands.
It is totally unnecessary and should be scrapped. I assume, given you views on the necessity for ACC to have reserves for future payments that you agree with me?
I suspect there were sound fiscal reasons for not letting people "keep their own income" – something to do with avoiding inflation; and there has always been a suspicion that the country would not be able to afford national super once the boomers started to retire, and that therefore a fund built up in advance might be of assistance.
I think you'll find that ACC is the only health insurance in the world that is fully funded for all future claims. The accumulation of reserves on top of being fully funded represents theft from the present where it could be used rather than attempting to tie down the definition of injury more tightly than is intended by prescriptive descriptions of what an illness or injury from the workplace is.
I'm starting to creak and grown after 37 years of manual labour started pushing a milk cart at 14,
I expect I'll be classed as wear and tear illness as opposed to work related injuries when the time comes
At 14 I was swinging a hammer for the old man, a full time manual worker until got off the tools in my late fifties and pulled the pin at 66. Elbows, knees, neck, you name it. Properly fucked.
That is complete rubbish Alwyn. With the ageing population there is a big future superannuation deficit which means the Cullen fund is more needed than ever and Key was stupid to stop paying into it in order to give tax cuts.
The myth of “Retirement Savings” « The Standard
The reserves are required when an aging population is more vulnerable to injury.
In that sense one of the few ways we provide for the aging of the population (as per health costs).
Those with assets have lower borrowing costs, that includes government.
Spare capacity also allows for the possibility of moving to include sickness.
ACC should be flourishing (and government budgets) when there is full employment that allows it and government to cope with the cost of higher unemployment – lower level of levies (and tax revenue) inflow.
No NACT is downsizing ACC so
1. it can lower contribution requirements from employers
2. reduce the amount of assets on the government books to create a sense of debt crisis
It merely reflects the NACT wreckers anti-government capability policy.
The $30 million pig has his snout in the taxpayer trough. Despicable.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/03/01/luxon-claims-52k-accommodation-payment-to-live-in-own-apartment/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/510560/christopher-luxon-claims-52k-accommodation-payment-to-live-in-own-apartment
The difference between those MPs etc. mentioned in your link and Luxon is that most of them probably have mortgages to sustain and don't have a string of mortgage-free homes dotted around the place.
I bet Luxon didn't even think about how it would look to the voters because he is such a self entitled prick. He has neither a conscience or a moral bone in his body.
C’mon Luxury Luxon only has 7 pads including the Wgtn. freehold and a Hawaii vacation spread, the $52 grand is in the rules…ok surely…except that it is not!
Even Dipton double dipper Bill English was finally embarrassed with his ripping us taxpayers via accomodation. Not so sure with Baldrick though, he is tone deaf.
"a Hawaii vacation spread".
Bulls**t.
Wasn't it luxon – or someone doing his bidding – who recently told those doing it the hardest that the free ride is over..?
Luxury Luxon himself used the term…“free ride is over”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/prime-minister-christopher-luxon-talks-to-mike-hosking-about-beneficiary-sanctions/NPDTDV4E2FBLHGB6KOZCOXMFYA/
Reminiscent of SirKey saying beneficiaries needed a “kick in the pants…”
The 3 Amigos coalition looks like a repeat of the 90s “war on the poor” to me. Act are now gunning for school lunches…wtf…educationalists have delivered the evidence for years that hungry kids don’t learn well at all, a Principal said on RNZ today the free breakfast and or lunch is the only decent meal some kids get.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018928238/not-providing-school-lunches-could-lead-to-truancy
Natzos just love a good Bennie bash.
It's Waiheke, not Hawaii – all hail "King Luxon the Aspirational" – marvellous!
Luxon is an electorate MP whose electorate is in Auckland. He needs to live, as almost all electorate MPs do, in or close to his electorate.
He also needs somewhere to live in Wellington. If Premier House isn't suitable he can live somewhere else. Why should he be treated any differently to any other electorate MP? Why should he be expected to pay his expenses out of his own pocket just because he is richer than most people? Let's face it. All MPs are better off than the bulk of the populace.
If you really want to complain about bludging MPs you should look at the List MPs, who choose to live outside of Wellington but expect the tax-payer to fund their living costs in Wellington.
List MPs should not be eligible for any accommodation allowance in the Capital. They should be told that the job for a List MP is in Wellington and a moving allowance will be paid so they can move there. That's it. From then on their address is Wellington and no accommodation perks will be provided to them.
If the MSM want something to talk about they should be asking why Luxon's home is considered to be a target for Palestinian terrorist supporters. Leave his family alone.
Lux-on owns the property he is claiming for..
..freehold…
He is also the richest mp…
You know how it goes:
Do as I say – not as I do..
Oh dear, alwyn is upset. This is not going to help:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/510589/luxon-s-criticisms-of-profligate-spending-come-back-to-bite
Have you ever heard of means testing the entitlements paid out by the state? Or the process of abatement if you earn some temporary or part-time income while on a benefit? These tools are seemingly regarded as necessary to protect the public purse and police the morals of the poor, or even of just the not-rich. Why should MPs not be subject to something similar?
Politicians are payed for by taxpayer and they should 100% be subject to means testing like the rest of us plebs.
https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/accommodation-supplement.html#:~:text=Someone%20not%20receiving%20a%20main,union%20or%20de%20facto%20couple
You certainly have a fascinating idea of what is a "benefit"
Not fascinating at all Alwyn, not in this scenario. Please explain to us mere mortals why, in the age of allegedly necessary austerity, a multi-millionaire freeholder homeowner who is paid by the taxpayer doesn't deserve to be means tested for an allowance?
Really, means testing needs to be expanded even more, given how broke the country apparently is. I propose that MPs with over a certain amount of cash assets and income received alongside their MP salaries have to use that up first before being allowed any 'perks' like accommodation and meal allowances, even travel. They can afford those taxi fares from the airport. Don't worry, we won't make them sell off all their assets before being allowed to get paid anything.
Rich MPs who are there because they want to make a difference, not because they want power, won't have an argument with this.
It isn't a benefit. It is a salary and allowances package they get for doing a job. Now I might think they are overpaid and that we should reduce all public service salaries down to where the maximum that anyone can be paid is limited to $100,000 but I suspect we aren't going to have any doctors in our hospitals are we?
I can remember when MPs were paid a great deal less than they are now. The used to get about the same as a experienced teacher in a school. Lets go back to that and pay ordinary MPs about $80,000 shall we?
The MPs I worry about aren't the, possibly rich, ones who were successful at something else before they become MPs. The ones I don't want around are the ones who are so useless that they couldn't make anything like their current income in the world outside Parliament. They are the no-hoper, generally list, MPs who inhabit the back benches of the house and whose claim to fame is that they were a barista or such like.
It's an allowance to enable you to do a job, not a salary for doing the job. It's a benefit that is generously dished out only to our imagined and disproportionately rewarded elites. It's perfectly valid and moral to means test it.
Quite right alwyn, the rich and/or successful can look after themselves.
Otoh, motivated Filipino temps are very flexible – things are looking up!
Wealth is not a biological trait. Your logic is that the wealthy should not be subject to scrutiny simply because they are wealthy? This is eugenics territory and an unsustainable proposition for a functional society. What has transpired with this Luxon situation would be labeled benefit fraud for most of the rank and file and the hypocrisy is frankly offensive. An inability to recognise this is a hallmark of talentless privilege, which is not a skill that benefits society but a burden upon it. How many more decades of this social intelligent design fantasy are we to be compelled to accommodate? I'm so sick and tired of being sick and tired.
You should read more carefully. My view is that they should have shown that they can do something well. They might have become rich while doing so. If so they shouldn't be excluded from becoming an MP.
You did seem to be equating that those on lower salaries, like 90% of the people, should not be MP's.
Actually. Whose to say an MP is more useful than a Teacher? Or deserves more money.
Though we need to pay at a level that normal people, not just the idle rich can afford to do it. We see with councils how that works.
And. Expense allowances, in most jobs, cover actual expenses, not to add to already generous pay.
That they were successful is debatable. Brown nosing your way through secure positions in a corporate, appears to be some of the worst training for a Parliamentary position. Being sheltered from life in a University is another red flag.
People with a varied and in touch with reality, life experience have been our most original and effective politicians.
So you do not think the working class should be represented by one of their own in parliament?
I cannot see how you can possibly come to that conclusion from anything I have said. It is something that can quite fairly be said about the Labour Party hierarchy though as that party has been largely overrun by mediocre academics.
What happened to the working class that used to be represented by people like Norman Kirk, or Gordon Christie?
Most people who read this would conclude the same.
Before I cry for Luxon, not being able to rent out one of his 7 properties he owns mortgage free to someone else, while he resides there … first this
He used to claim $90,000 a year. Others doing so last year.
National Party MPs: Christopher Luxon, Andrew Bayly; Gerry Brownlee; Judith Collins; Jacqui Dean; Barbara Kuriger; Melissa Lee; Ian McKelvie; Mark Mitchell; Simon O’Connor; Stuart Smith; Louise Upston and Michael Woodhouse.
Labour Party MPs: Willie Jackson, Sarah Pallet, Deborah Russell, Jenny Salesa, Jamie Strange, Jan Tinetti, Duncan Webb, Arena Williams.
The wealthier they are the more likely they are to do it, never enough …
For mine the housing goes for rent or mortgage payment costs – if there are no such costs, no claim to make.
Local MP's get nothing for the house they live in – they pay rent and mortgage out of their salary.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2310/S00020/the-mps-using-the-taxpayer-to-own-wellington-property.htm
"He used to claim $90,000 a year.".
That is a lie. You have no evidence at all for your fanciful claim.
Is it?
Don't read links?
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2310/S00020/the-mps-using-the-taxpayer-to-own-wellington-property.htm
Retract and walk away or be hunted.
You still can't read, can you?
That story was dated 12 October 2023.
From the start of 2021 until that date is two and three quarter years. It covers all of 2021, all of 2022 and most of 2023. You are somehow claiming it was in a single year!
I suggest it is you who should be retracting.
Ok then. He had not claimed $90,000 per annum, but $90,000 total while living in a house he owned before becoming PM.
He has since refunded the $13,000 he has claimed since becoming PM – but none of the earlier $90,000.
In reference to those others doing the same, some would still be paying off the mortgage on the property. That being an on-going cost to them of living in Wellington.
The Remuneration Authority should look at whether those with no Wellington housing cost should receive any allowance.
A rather grudging admission perhaps but at least you are admitting you were quite wrong. I wish some of our MPs could do even that.
Even if you think it is fair to treat the MPs who own their homes in Wellington, as well as one in or near their electorate, and I don't, he is still going to have costs here. Rates, power, insurance, Body Corporate charges, etc, etc.
The Remuneration Authority should instead look at the people who are List MPs and have no reason at all to live anywhere at all except Wellington. They should be expected to move to Wellington. They should get no allowance at all for their Wellington Housing or for their own, and their families travel to Wellington.
Why not?
At the moment (not any in 2023), it appears none of the MP's of the Greens or TPM is claiming any allowance for a house they own in Wellington.
None of the Wellington based MP's is allowed to claim any housing support.
An out of town electorate MP gets the support because they are as much in their electorate as in Wellington (parliament breaks, electorate work and weekends and campaigns).
List MP's serve their parties nationwide (selected onto the list by party members and are accountable to them nationwide, not just in Wellington). This is more so for parties with a high list profile proportion. And in those cases they have spokesperson roles that also requiring nationwide connection to sector groups outside the party.
It is simpler to just give them a housing allowance than to have them claim expenses for work related trips.
List figures otherwise are higher ups in the major parties with "workloads" – which is why their families often remain based in the electorates they once were members for. If, over the years they have managed to use their housing allowance to own an apartment without a mortgage, they do not need an allowance.
Given we are the only nation in the OECD without a CGT, or estate tax – you think that is an arguement?
Regarding the "Housing Allowance".
Suppose all the List MPs were to move to Wellington and live here. They would not get a Housing Allowance. After all Wellington will be their home.
This would have no effect on their Parliament related travel outside Wellington. They can still do that, and have it paid for. They do that now don't they. Nothing is going to change in that respect.
Any person who takes a job in Wellington is expected to move her. Why should list MPs be any different. If you want the job move to the location of the job.
I cannot understand what you mean by the last sentence. What has a CGT, or Estate tax, have to do with the rates you have to pay, or the Insurance on a property, or any of the other costs have to do with it?
I lived in Australia. They had a CGT system in place. I still had to pay rates and insurance you know.
List MP's are nationwide electorate party MP's. That is unrelated to parliamentary/government business.
Electorate MP's living in a property in Wellington they own without a mortgage, do not need financial help at the level of $36,400 as MP's or $52,000 to as Ministers to pay rates, insurance, power and broadband.
The properties they own are rising in value each year with the CG untaxed. Nor is there any estate tax paid on that inherited wealth.
They should only be able to claim such costs (and any maintenance) when they pay tax on gains from ownership.
If you are a true believer in the last Government we had until last year then you wouldn't see any difference between a property without a mortgage and one that did have one.
After all the the Labour Government changed the law to prevent anyone claiming the interest paid on borrowing to buy a property. Why should anyone be entitled to a housing allowance just because they have borrowed to buy it, would surely have to be your opinion.
Why?
MP's are allowed to receive an allowance for their Wellington housing costs, rent and mortgage are such costs.
The Remuneration Authority sets those rules, and in my opinion should tighten up access to provide it only to those paying rent or mortgage.
PS The former governments policy design was to incentivise landlords moving from existing to new build property ownership – that latter qualified for mortgage deduction as a cost against rent income. We want investment money into extra housing not bidding up the price of current housing.
Let's get welfarism for Luxon back on track – oh, that all Kiwis were this 'productive'.
The unparalleled genius of our 'wealth-creators' must be constantly rewarded or else they will abandon us.
That will be interesting as they are defiant and Tamaki even issues a warning to Mark Mitchell.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/bishop-brians-bikers-will-wear-their-leather-vests-with-pride-because-they-are-korowai-not-gang-patches/U7DRA3TR6FBHNJAFAMQHEYYCTY/
Israel has now fully demonstrated why UNRWA must be maintained and strengthened. The horror of non UN aid trucks being used in North Gaza as bait to bring out desperately starving Palestinians from their hiding places in order to massacre more than 100, run over their bodies with tanks, and injure more than 700 in an environment with zero first aid, is apalling.
There is no way that aid trucks can reach Gaza without express knowledge of the Israeli's.
Ambulances were unable to reach the scene of the massacre.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/29/dozens-killed-injured-by-israeli-fire-in-gaza-while-collecting-food-aid
I thought the Israeli actions couldnt possibly get any worse….but they have managed it.
Feel the same Git, low bastards. There have been a couple of airdrops into Gaza, by a UK group with assistance via Jordan, but fully expect the next one to be shot down…
There needs to be an international aid brigade that just goes in…there are reports of a Turkey led flotilla leaving soon including NZ Kia Ora Gaza reps. Back in 2011 the Turkish flotilla was attacked by Israel in international waters and a number of people killed. One of my colleagues Mike Treen went one year, was tasered and beaten, lucky to escape with his life, similarly Green MP Marama Davidson went in 2016 I think and was lucky to get out alive too.
Israel is not coming back from this butchery for much of the worlds people, even if Govt.s seem happy enough to look the other way.
Interesting that the coalition isn't supporting Cushla Tangaere-Manuel's Local Government Amendment Bill to allow councilors to attend meetings remotely for what can be loosely described as "reasons" – but only if you're feeling extremely generous:
They seem to range from still being salty about COVID lockdowns (Simon Court -ACT):
To something, something, something gummint overreach (Tim Costley – National)
Don't know exactly what is in the bill, but what has either excuse above got to do with the assumed intent… that is, allow someone who wants to attend a meeting but is unable to because say… an air-port closure due to fog.
It seems to me that the right wing brain can only reach a certain level of comprehension before a brain-fog sets in which sends them down rabbit holes and flights of irrelevant fancy.
The bill itself is pretty simple and just amends the LGA to specifically make remote participation at council meetings a legal right, rather than something a Council can decide to allow via standing orders.
But yeah, crazy NACT is trying itself into knots trying to oppose it.
God only knows what will happens when the abolition of the ratepayer roll gets drawn.
Why don’t you provide a link to the source from which you copied & pasted those long quotes @ 6. A link to the Bill document may be helpful too.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20240229_20240229_28
"He knew what we all eventually realize, if we are awake and courageous enough: that the best way — and the only effective way — to complain about the way things are is to make new and better things, untested and unexampled things, things that spring from the gravity of creative conviction and drag the status quo like a tide toward some new horizon."
https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/06/18/william-blake-vs-the-world/
A fascinating read Mr Guyton, thank you.
Congrats Israel, you've done it.
/
@alon_mizrahi
This footag is designed to make Palestinians look like insects and ants, not like people. The IDF has the most advanced image capturing equipment on the planet. They film and send this out to make you hate Palestinians and be indifferent to their deaths, or even be happy about it. This is meant to visually dehumanize. This is the lowest of the lowest of the low. This is it, right here. This actually makes me sick
https://twitter.com/alon_mizrahi/status/1763280047316558168
Rather than bite the bullet and carry on with the contract for a modern, fit for purpose piece of vital transport infrastructure that'll deliver intergenerational benefits the idiots chose to piss the thick end of half a billion dollars up against the wall.
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KiwiRail has written off $382 million in costs associated with the cancelled Interislander replacement project and provisioned a further $60m for winding it down, BusinessDesk reports.
The $442m in costs, detailed in the 2024 half-year results released on Thursday, doesn’t include the cost of exiting the shipbuilding contract with South Korean shipyard Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, which was contracted to build two new ferries for $551m.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/kiwirail-slumps-to-407m-loss-on-interislander-write-offs/XJKXIBEISRAPRENQAPM5ANUNZY/
A bomb has just gone off in uk politics in the form of George Galloway winning the Rochdale by election , the first thing he said in his acceptance speech was " this is for Gaza " and he wont be mincing his words on the subject when he gets to parliament !!
Good news !! Keir will be shitting himself .cant wait .