The Labour Party in Scotland votes Yes, No and Maybe!
“Labour in Scotland has passed a resolution against renewing the Trident weapons of mass destruction, Labour in Scotland is now officially against renewing Trident but its leader is in favour. Meanwhile UK Labour is officially in favour of renewing Trident but its leader is against. It’s perfectly straightforward, and another step backward in Labour’s attempts to make sense to the electorate of Scotland. Labour’s now got all the nuclear bases covered, yes, no and maybe. The party is as all over the place as a hedgehog that’s been playing on the M8, only with rather less integrity. Still, at least their heart is in the right place, splattered on the asphalt and being ground into the dirt.” https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com
I thought that Andrew Little was giving a speech to the Scottish Labour Party later this week.
I sounds as if he has already done so and that they listened to him. With his “on the one hand this, and on the other hand that” they could hardly help ending up totally confused.
Is he still opposed to a CGT while the party is in favour? Is he opposed to raising the age for Super, while the party is in favour? Is he in favour of a knighthood for Richie, while the party is opposed to knighthoods?
If the SLP listened to him it is hardly surprising they are confused is it?
Just caught the RNZ interview with Andrew Little about giving a knighthood to Ritchie MCCaw. What is the man thinking?
Why would the captain of our greatest national team give fealty to another nation by accepting a knighthood?
These feudal honours were always favours for political support for kings against potential usurpers. It is a corrupt system always has been, always will be.
To dress it up as “service to the nation” or “outstanding leadership”, or as Little tries to justify it “its what we do now, so we should do it”, is delusion at best or just plain selling out to a despicable system.
I hope Ritchie shows that he has greater integrity than that, and will decline as he did before.
I suggest you listen to the interview before you go on to demonstrate more ignorance about what he said. What part of ‘recognition’ is hard to understand?
Looking at my herald this morning pg3 and I see that parata is proposing stricter measures for schools such as closure where outcomes are consistently poor. Scary stuff when no account seems to be made for things such as transience and poverty. I predict that as with the us this will be an attack on the poor with school closures and charter schools to profit national’s rich mates. Oh yes and of course a dumbed down curriculum as schools teach to the test to save their skins. The story of Michelle Rhee in New York makes sobering reading http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113096/how-michelle-rhee-misled-education-reform
I think parata is of the same ilk – self promoting with a nasty dislike of teachers. Out schools are in deep trouble. I hope we have the guts to do what they did in new york and kick out the politician responsible,
Idiot territory really – what are the kids and parents going to do – waste a lot of money travelling to the next school- overcrowd that school results reduce – original school sold off to developers – oh there’s a motive
However we are fast approaching a point where we should pool our taxes locally, stuff paying it to this mob and we get better paid people and better outcomes
Parata and co want a few think big mega schools like factories churning out products… put in excessively paid sycophant principals, sorry..Chief executives .. big classes-saves money- more efficient -forget all this rubbish about schools being focal points for communities.
Yes we don’t want to encourage Internet Entrepreneurs in NZ. If only Dotcom had just bought up our real estate and paid zero taxes like all the other corps – he would be sitting beside John Key with a smile on his face instead of being persecuted for having smarter technology platforms than Hollywood.
This time he will be taking $$$ off individual investors by crowd funding. Rest assured it will be as successful as the other ideas and yet again the $$$ will end up in his back pocket.
Oh, hey CV, sorry to butt in but are you going to around for a bit? I need to ask you a question about a topic we briefly touched on months and months ago – raising the issue of the abolishment of GST at your local LEC meeting.
Thanks CV. This might be a bit of a drag because GST is a totally off the radar topic and there are so many other pressing topics that overwhelm such a yawn inducing one, such as GST.
So, I think I recall you mentioning quite some time ago that you were going to raise the idea at a LEC meeting of abolishing GST and introducing a FTT in it’s place. If you got enough support at a vote that you would take it further and introduce it as a remit (remit?) at the next Labour Party annual conference.
I am unsure of several of those statements so please correct me.
As a new Labour member who knows very little of the structure of the Party, I am really wanting to know how ideas from ordinary members get to make it into the light of day and to the attention of party officials.
I also want to see GST abolished for many reasons, which I’ve covered before.
Part two of my question is how successful were you in raising the GST abolishment issue and will it go further?
I won’t be able to attend the conference in Palmerston North coming up soon. It would have been good to see how the Party functions at a structural level.
Typically, members at a branch have to formulate and word policy remits which are then considered and voted on at Regional Conference. If the policy remit passes at Regional Conference, it is then put forward to be considered at NZ Conference.
However, the overall process is extremely clunky and leads to mechanistic and narrow consideration of policy.
For instance, to solve the housing crisis in Auckland would require a comprehensive programme of policy measures – it is impossible for such a systematic programme to be developed and considered via this remit process.
Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that the remit process is largely a diversionary waste of time. Even if NZ conference passes a remit there is no guarantee (or mechanism to guarantee) that caucus will act on it or act on it as intended.
In other words, caucus can and does go off and do its own thing all the time.
We can discuss the GST issue further – essentially I think our branch submited a remit which said that GST should be raised to 20%: but the first $100 of any item or service would be excluded from GST.
In this way, GST becomes a de facto luxury living tax, since the vast majority of items bought by the vast majority of people come under the $100 or $50 threshold.
Thanks for your response. The remit process was explained in a helpful way. Seeing as we are on a thread about Dot Com I will restart the GST discussion below as a separate post………….
A pre-hearing demonstration to voice our dissapointment that Craddocks are still considering building this factory farm both in Patumahoe or at all. If you have time you can then join us at 10am in the court room for the hearing directly after the demonstration. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us. Bring your best placards to help get the message across. We want to be heard!
Does anyone know about this? Is this the case where the commissioners have approved a massive battery chicken farm about 30m away from residential housing citing no effects?
The local residents have done extremely well in bringing this to the community’s attention, and have been supported by animal welfare organisations and many in the immediate community. There has also been the expected backlash from the “farmers are the backbone of this country” crowd who don’t know details about the issue, but back “their” team.
Unfortunately, the animal welfare issue cannot be a reason for denying resource consent, but the failure of the applicants to credibly demonstrate the issue of mitigating air quality adverse effects has led to the initial application being turned down.
The appeal has redesigned the air stacks in increase the height (and dispersion), so that’ll be interesting.
The residents have had to fund their experts regarding air and water quality independently, and it will cost them in the region of $80 – $100K to see this through.
They have been subject to small degrees of harassment, outright lying about the resource consent conditions and no small amount of emotional stress. The arrogance of the Craddocks organisation – who were offered the opportunity to onsell when the public reaction became known – has been ongoing and revealing of how our current system rewards the morally poor.
Auckland Council however, has dipped a toe in the water, and have decided to make submissions to oppose the updated application in the hearing – which is some progress.
However, until Craddocks onsells the property or indicates that they will not develop in this particular way on this site, they are in the bullying position of resubmitting applications and forcing residents to continue this fight for a long time.
It is reported that Sonny will be given a replacement medal for the one he gave to the boy. Seems wrong somehow. He gives and the lad feels great. We feel great. Somehow diminishes the generosity to replace the medal.
“In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss how a service driven Chinese economy could spell bad news for Western economies but how a two-child policy could save the global property ponzi for another generation. In the second half, Max interviews Dan Collins of TheChinaMoneyReport.com about the latest news with the Chinese economy, its crackdown on corruption and its increasing role in the global economy.”
Questions: from a Labour, NZFirst and Green perspective ,what are the implications of more Chinese overpopulation and the Chinese ecological disaster for New Zealand?
…it seems to me that the NZ housing and property bubble is NOT going to burst as Bill English claims…eg.as Max and Tracy state “how a two-child policy could save the global property ponzi for another generation”
…hence no relief for young New Zealanders and future generations of New Zealanders wanting to buy their own home from scarce New Zealand housing stock ….which is being bought up by overseas investors and escalating house prices
…also the pressure on immigration to New Zealand will continue
….unless curbs are put on both overseas ownership of NZ property and immigration by the foreign wealthy fleeing their own environmental and overpopulation disasters
Ack!
Hundreds of Cantab dairy farmers caught out over breaking effluent discharge rules in the past year. Profits are the priority!
Do the individual or company owners have Chinese-sounding or Kiwi-sounding names??
From a Systems Analysis point of view. The current system is a very broken beast. For a system that should be for everyone, it works for less and less especially in so called first world countries and fails to deliver anywhere near the outcomes that it should, especially given our level of technological advancement in society.
To fix it?
Well, that’s the big question.
Consider this first and foremost. A man or woman cannot hope to fix the world unless his or her future has been secured.
(And yes the Irony is that the world must first be fixed in order to secure anyone’s future).
But that is also the key.
The technology we need to fix things has been developed.
That starts with
The internet for freedom of information.
Product Hubs to deliver goods anywhere in the world.
And finally service hubs or platforms to be able to access services.
One of the key things that people don’t have enough of is time due to the demands of the current system.
In fact when you compare hours worked during Slavery in the US vs Capitalism now….. well let’s just say that if we are interested in outcomes it doesn’t paint a very pretty picture. In many ways, the hours are the same or similar. Sure you get to choose your master under Capitalism or you can even choose to be your own master and if you’re lucky (and statistically probably exceptionally lucky) you won’t have to work as much. But on the whole chances are you, your kids and everyone around you will have to work in order to survive in some way shape or form for the rest of their lives.
What’s worse is that as more and more roles are automated (45% in the next 10 years) this will be the case more and more. It would all be fine if wages kept pace with prices, but they aren’t going to. But the Market will correct right!? Well maybe one day but only after a crapload of people are made homeless and can’t afford to put food on the table. In fact, many will actually starve to death before the market corrects.
Why? This is because ‘The Market’ only needs a single willing buyer and a single willing seller to agree on price, for the market to appear to be working. Bob Jones bought himself an aeroplane earlier this year for a cool 2 million. Hey presto the market works, but most people reading this could never afford to buy one in their lifetime. You might shrug your shoulders at that example, but the same concept applies at a much lower level including things such as basic essentials. Things like food, a home, electricity, clothing and so on.
Take the example of a simple kebab shop. It can continue to make and sell kebabs and stay in business frequented by a few hundred customers per week at the very same time tens of thousands can’t afford to buy one. So the market correction theory doesn’t happen fast enough in the real world for it to make a difference. This becomes a real problem. Unfortunately, this is also what is happening right now.
That old poem written by Pastor Martin Neimoller on the principle of not speaking up…
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
….Applies to Capitalism in a similar vain.
There is only something wrong with Capitalism when it doesn’t work for you, but at that point its too late. But just so you know Capitalism doesn’t care that you can’t afford essential items like food and housing and nor do those at the top of the food chain so long as the profits keep coming and the money keeps rolling in.
Climate change and Capitalism? Well the long and the short of it is that fixing Climate change is simply incompatible with a system that requires continual extraction and consumption of resources to obtain profit which is under Capitalism required in order to survive.
You will never fix climate change whilst we have Capitalism.
(yes you could add in the true cost but by the time you get all of that sorted we will be living in a wasteland and there are far simpler and much more effective ways that solve many of the other problems we face at the same time.
It really depends on whether the best we can come up with, is a system that requires people to work similar hours to slavery). Capitalism doesn’t care about the environment and nor do those at the top of the food chain so long as the profits keep coming and the money keeps rolling in.
Capitalism doesn’t have boundaries. Capitalism doesn’t care about your sovereignty not in the slightest. It cares about one thing. Ownership or control of resources and Capital. Can no longer afford to live in your own country? Capitalism doesn’t care and nor do those at the top of the food chain, so long as the profit keeps coming and the money keeps rolling in
Capitalism doesn’t care about whether something is legal or illegal. You might, but Capitalism doesn’t and nor do many other people in this world. Something being illegal just means that it gets assigned a higher price tag under Capitalism. Whether its drugs, human trafficking and slavery or something else illegal like not paying your taxes or seeking to avoid them as many corporations do.
No Capitalism doesn’t care if something is illegal and nor do those at the top of the food chain, so long as the profit keeps coming and the money keeps rolling in.
Under proper systems analysis, Capitalism fails dismally. I won’t bore you with the details but it is basically determining what a system designed for people should do vs what Capitalism achieves..
If you want to go through it for yourself, systems analysis asks certain questions of the system.
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
& How?
These are the questions that are asked of any system, whether you are fixing a broken one or designing a new one. Done correctly it should be solution agnostic. That way you can determine a true set of requirements for any system no matter how big or how small.
Spoiler alert: it all comes down to the delivery of goods and services to meet needs and wants.
The question is what is the best way to do this for everyone given the available technology we have today.
For Needs, they are predominantly the same from one person to the next (Maslow’s Hierarchy Pyramid is a good place to start for this).
Wants – vastly different but the reality is you only need a system that enables people to obtain their wants and we can already do that provided you can overcome the barrier that is put in place called price.
For anyone about to lose the plot over the resources used to enable everyone to meet their needs, consider the concept of owning versus using. As an example, Under owning we have the humble lawnmower. You buy one to use on average 6 – 12 hours a year and you have to pay to maintain it. Not exactly a great use of resources now is it.
Under ‘Using; (coupled with technology of course) you can order a lawnmower via your smartphone that is delivered to your location by drone and mows your lawns automatically….. because its a robot. When it’s finished, it sends a signal to the drone which comes and picks it up to deliver it to the next location. We don’t have to do it that way, but that’s what is possible with technology from today.
The best part is it is all in place, we just need to change the way things work together and the way we work together coupled with a healthy dose of common sense.
Example: Capitalism a system where you compete against 7 billion other people for the resources you need in order to survive. Does that sound like common sense to you?
Add to that that we are facing challenges on a worldwide scale that in order to overcome, require us to work together more so than at any other time in the history ofr the human race.
How we fix things is interesting, because when you look at the monetary system and the problems it was introduced to overcome, those problems no longer exist to a large degree. I imagine the same would be true for Capitalism.
Capitalism has worked in the past, granted. In fact Capitalism has largely built the world around us today. The question is when do we begin to use what it has built in the most efficient and effective way for us, for everyone. Given that Capitalism is no longer delivering the outcomes we need it to both at an individual and at a societal level the time to relook at this has never been better or for that matter more important.
Imagine a world, where people had freedom. Where they could obtain basic essential items such as food and a home when they needed one.
Imagine a world, where you only had to work half of the time that you do now. Imagine a world, where the media once again just reported the news.
Imagine a world, where Science just gave us the facts without the corporate interference.
Imagine a world, where the systems we had, worked with nature rather than through the exploitation and destruction of it.
Imagine a world where no man held dominion over any other man woman or child.
Imagine a world, where the goal of the system was to enable you to live a happy and fulfilled life full of positive experiences in so far as you choose to do so.
Imagine true freedom.
Imagine a world, where our future was secure.
Again a man or woman cannot hope to fix this world whilst their own future is insecure.
In order to fix things we first have to secure everyone’s future.
That means we need to first and foremost decouple work from wages.
We need a new Financial system (only because most people would freak out if you removed money) This could and should be automated. It should be a highly secure crypto currency and should be used for enabling a Universal Basic Income for everyone thus largely securing everyones future.
We need a system that uses the internet, product hubs and service platforms to work for us and not simply to add to the profit of the corporate bottom line.
We need a system that automates people’s roles as much as we possibly can with a view of freeing them from having to work for the rest of their lives simply in order to survive.
At that point we can begin to really fix things, But only then.
democracy
Show people an alternative vision of the future they can themselves imagine. The biggest barrier to changing things right now is the lack of any real alternative.
Show them what the alternative is and how we would get there from where we are today.
What Is being proposed is in many ways no different than the sort of shift that took place when everything went from public ownership to private ownership (well sort of).
Govt already provides services to people. There is therefore justification to build a service hub using taxpayer funds. This is the start. Then as more and more essential services are not being met, public alternatives can fill the gap in an efficient manner using software automation.
The Crypto currency takes care and actually sidelines the powers that be to a large degree.
As has been said before the best way to change the system is to create a new and better one from within.
Thinking outside the box It could also be done by two or three key individuals (although they don’t realise it) with the help of Government through UBI. Elon Musk, Richard Branson and someone with access to a service hub. Would you or many others not support such an alliance with your dollar if this was the vision and the world that they stated up front they wanted to build? I now I would.
The masses have only just started to wake up. Many know something is wrong and parents are worried about their children’s future. Show them a better alternative and they will take the chance.
The pieces can be put in place without unvielling the full picture. There is justification to build a service hub in order to gain efficiencies in delivering govt services to people. The rest will take care of itself as things continue to get worse.
The alternative is to stick with the status quo and simply do nothing. Sounds like an interesting choice for people.
Will the royal visit influence flag choices in the first flag referendum as James Shaw and the Greens argue ? (….or WTF…the strange case of James Shaw and the NZ flag)
James Shaw helped John key make sure that the existing NZ flag with the Union Jack ( the most popular choice for New Zealanders) was excluded from the first referendum, which is when the royals turn up…but the corporate logo Red Peak flag, James’s favourite, is in the first referendum
….. James and the Greens went against Labour Party and NZF wishes ( their future coalition partners?). The Labour Party argued having the existing NZ flag in the first referendum would have saved a costly second referendum and in any case NZers dont want to change their flag. Winston Peters and NZF also argue this.
….so if the flag with the Union Jack is NOT to be in the first referendum when the royals arrive….how can the royal visit influence NZers voting for the Union Jack in the first referendum?
Preparing for NCEA exams?
“The letter bearing the college masthead and its official phone numbers claimed that senior students would have to undergo full body check – including their bare bottoms.”
What will they get up to next? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11538899
Picking up GST discussion with CV above on altogether unrelated thread…………
I agree with the taxation of luxury goods. (and also alcohol and tobacco) You suggested that an increase to 20% GST with an exemption of GST for the first $100 of a purchase would in effect be a de facto luxury tax.
However, when we are paying $250 in one go for groceries, paying our rates, paying for expensive car repairs, paying power bills etc we’re not paying for luxury goods, we’re paying for essentials.
These essentials, shouldn’t be taxed for moral reasons. For me, the idea of GST is a moral one as it places an unnecessary financial burden on many people. If GST were removed tomorrow, depending on your financial circumstances you’d see a dramatic improvement in your financial health. The less wealthy you are the greater the improvement as your little budget is unfairly weighted down by GST compared to the wealthy person’s budget.
From a business point of view, scrapping GST could be seen as beneficial. A reduction in financial stress in a household could see its members spending more on things they could never afford before. Money saved from GST could go into the tills of retailers.
(An aside. A former customer of mine, from my days as a sales rep, was a retailer who had a successful business. It had been going for 30 years. He had owned it for the previous 10. He suffered through the GFC, was partially affected by public service cuts, as some Wellington retailers were, but he said it was the increase in GST that the Natz brought in that was the last straw for him. They way we saw it was that not only does a consumer harm households, it harms business).
I’ve got more points in my abolishment of GST argument but this would end up a very long post and rehash old ground. Happy to discuss if others are interested though.
One final point I will cover again is Labour’s opportunity to address past wrongs, eg, being the ones to introduce GST in 1986.
Next year is the Centenary celebrations for the Labour Party. It will be a great time to highlight and celebrate the very proud history that the NZLP has, and how they led and shaped NZ into a decent and fair society through the introduction of the welfare state.
They will have to face their dark past too. GST was part of the neo liberal reforms. It has no place in the unequal society that we have become.
This is a good opportunity for them to abandon the tax policy they introduced. It would be a hugely bold move, but we need bold, not bland.
In 2011 Labour tinkered with the idea by having an election promise to remove GST off fresh fruit and vege. It didn’t gain any traction and seemed like a random policy out on it’s own, not in context with anything else.
In 2014 NZ First said they would exempt GST from council rates. Again, no traction with that one.
2016 is the right time to stand up and say GST, you can just f*ck off, and demonstrate to the voters how their lives will be improved for it.
There is no single item in a standard grocery shop which is over $50 or over $100.
Therefore under our branch’s remit, your entire grocery shop would be GST free.
See how it works?
Removing GST from rates is also a good idea. BTW I don’t think your conclusion that NZ First got “not traction” on that was correct: out of all the opposition parties they were the only one which GAINED MPs.
Yes, ok, the grocery shop would be GST free, because each single item is under $50/$100. I was thinking total shop.
But what about power bills? You would have to be a single person living on your own with extremely minimal use of power to get to the GST free threshold of $100. What about car repairs and servicing? Nothing much there under $100. Our head gasket blew and we had to borrow $3K for repairs. This has a GST content of $450, which is being paid off with interest over 18 months. Interest on a tax, hardly fair. Have to buy new tyres for the car? Not cheap either.
Need to get an electrician or plumber in? Have never seen a bill that would meet the GST excluded threshold you propose. Chimney sweep? same thing. Have to see the dentist? You’ll be paying that off on the credit card, and like the mechanics bill you’ll be paying a massive chunk of GST with interest added.
And you are proposing we add another 5% to that cost! Sorry CV, only the wealthy can afford that.
The only way people would benefit under the 20% GST with a threshold of $100 as GST free would be for food, weekly public transport costs, a small top up of petrol for the car and sundry items. I think this policy, rather than being helpful would cause even greater hardship. It’s a messy option. Any short term savings you make on the small things will get gobbled up on the larger living costs, and even worse than before. Things also need to be kept super simple for voters. Just get rid of GST altogether.
Thats without going into the logistics for wholesalers and retailers who carry a variety of lines some of which fall into the GST excluded zone. For example, what happens when a retailer purchases an item from the wholesaler and pays GST on it, but then the item won’t sell, even after markdowns. Eventually they have to sell below original wholesale cost, and lose not only their profit but they directly lose the 20% tax they had to pay?
Re NZ First, I was referring to the GST off council rates policy getting no traction in the form of generating public discussion, not the success that NZ First had last year. Labours GST off produce in 2011 only generated a bit of confusion.
applying the GST correctly is very simple in the age of computerised inventory and sales systems.
Wine and beer sold in supermarkets have varying alcohol excise tax applied in addition to GST. No one complained it couldnt be done.
Also the 20% GST only applies to each dollar above say $100. So a $150 car tyre or dentists check up will only have $10 of GST added: which is less than you are paying in GST today.
Thanks. I do appreciate the time you have taken to explain your proposal. I’m still uncomfortable with it, and I do think it’s messy.
The big thing for me is that GST is a neoliberal tax, it belongs in the past. I have a moral issue with it. Transfer the tax burden to the wealthy and introduce a Robin Hood style tax.
I have no probs with that. Especially since I am of the school which says that Government does not need to raise all its revenues through taxation and that taxation can be used to achieve many different purposes other than to raise revenues.
Since the in-house Labour technocrats are utterly disinterested in all these ideas I might as well find alternative avenues to put these non-orthodox ideas out there.
Turnbull was never an arse licker to the Anglo-Saxon establishment.
Key and National are died in the wool royalists. Shipley used Bolger’s republicanism (and more subtly his Irish Catholicism) to get support to stab him in the back.
Malcolm Turnbull has dumped Tony Abbott’s widely ridiculed policy of reinstating Knights and Dames, saying the titles are “not appropriate” in modern Australia.
Good on the All Blacks for winning the Rugby World Cup. Many will have celebrated their victory and much has been reported and discussed in the MSM of course.
Let us perhaps focus on some important stuff that matters. I did already post this link under Open Mike for 01 Nov. last night. It deserves some attention.
The Office of Ombudsmen is conducting a survey on experiences with and satisfaction with OIA requests and responses:
This should be of much interest to readers here, especially those who care about transparency of government, of ministries and agencies. The OIA process is supposed to strengthen our democracy, but as we know, things have gone downhill with it for some time.
I encourage all to participate in their survey, those that care about improving the OIA process, and especially those that have had experiences with OIA requests and replies.
Sadly it does not seem to get much attention by our media.
EXCLUSIVE: Jane Kelsey – TPPA HAS NOT BEEN SIGNED.
Crucial protest on 14 Nov
By Prof Jane Kelsey / November 2, 2015
This is no time for surrender or fatigue. Other countries are fighting to ensure the political price is too high for their governments to do so and that opposition parties make an uncompromising commitment to reject the still-secret
The fact many people think the TPPA is a done deal and there’s nothing we can do shows how effective the government’s propaganda campaign has been.
That’s what they need people to believe so they can kill off one of the most effective public campaigns to oppose a core government policy for several decades.
And they have done so despite conceding the deal would deliver almost none of the gains they made a bottom line, and keeping the text secret so no-one can categorically rebut the content or omissions in their ‘fact sheets’.
The truth is that the TPPA can’t be signed for at least another three months.
Until then New Zealand has not been committed in any formal legal manner to the political deal. Even then, the country won’t be bound irrevocably to the TPPA for probably another two years.
This is no time for surrender or fatigue.
Other countries are fighting to ensure the political price is too high for their governments to do so and that opposition parties make an uncompromising commitment to reject the still-secret deal.
We need to do that here, starting with a mass turnout to the protests around the country, especially in Auckland and Wellington, on Saturday 14 November.
The Fast Track legislation said Obama must give 90 days’ notice before he can sign the TPPA. The text becomes public no longer than 30 days into that 90 days, which means two months to debunk the pro-TPPA lobby’s spin.
Obama has not given that 90 days’ notice yet.
The officials have been in Japan doing what we call the ‘legal scrubbing’ of the text. That should be a purely technical task, but reports suggest there are many problems emerging about interpretations and some countries are only just finding out what others have agreed between themselves in side-letters.
The legal officials’ meeting has finished. They will try to sort out the remain issues by internet, but they are likely to have to meet again.
The longer this takes, the further away those 90 days become and the more time we have to make it clear to the Key/Groser government that we don’t believe their snow job and will make any attempt to sign it politically toxic, and to the opposition parties that they have to
Seems Crosby T advisers have got to key. Haven’t seen the same fawning photo ops. Guess they have said, “let the country revel in it John, and we’ll step it up a notch when everyone’s home. Plenty of time yet!”
Tomorrow afternoon, if things go really really badly, I may find myself down to one eye. People who used to sneer at me on Twitter will no doubt say So what's changed? Nothing, that's what, you one-eyed lefty.I don’t mean to be dramatic, it’s just a routine bit of cataract ...
A few weeks ago an invitation dropped into my email inbox to attend a joint Treasury/Motu seminar on recent, rather major, changes that had apparently been made to the discount rates used by The Treasury to evaluate proposals from government agencies. It was all news to me, but when ...
All your life is Time magazineI read it tooWhat does it mean?PressureI'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationaleBut here you are with your faithAnd your Peter Pan adviceYou have no scars on your faceAnd you cannot handle pressureSongwriter: Billy Joel.Christopher Luxon is under pressure from all sides. The reviews are ...
After seeing yet-more-months of political debate and policy decisions to ‘go for growth’ by pulling the same old cheap migration and cheap tourism levers without nearly-enough infrastructure, or any attempt to address the same old lack of globally conventional tax incentives for investment, I thought it would be worth issuing ...
The plans for the buildings that will replace the downtown carpark have been publicly notified giving us the first detailed glance at what is proposed for one of the biggest and best development sites in the city centre. The council agreed to sell the site to Precinct Properties for $122 ...
With the Reserve Bank expected today to return the Official Cash Rate to where it was in mid-2022 comes a measure of how much of a psychological impact the rate has. Federated Farmers has published its latest six-monthly farm confidence survey, which shows that profit expectations have fallen and risen ...
Kiwis Disallowed From Waiting Lists Based on Arbitrary MeasuresWellington hospital are now rejecting patients from specialist waiting lists due to BMI (body mass index).This article from Rachel Thomas for The Post says it all (emphasis mine):A group of Porirua GPs are sounding alarm bells after patients with body mass indexes ...
The Prime Minister says he's really comfortable with us not knowing the reoffending rate for his boot camp programme.They asked him for it at yesterday’s press conference, and he said, nah, not telling, have to respect people's privacy.Okay I'll bite. Let's say they release this information to us:The rate of ...
Warning 1: There is a Nazi theme at the end of this article related to the disabled community. Warning 2: This article could be boring!One day, last year, I excitedly opened up a Substack post that was about how to fight back, and the answer at the end was disappointing ...
This may be rhetorical but here goes: did any of you invest in the $Libra memecoin endorsed and backed by Argentine president and darling of the global Right Javier Milei (who admitted to being paid a fee for his promotion of the token)? You know, the one that soared above ...
Last week various of the great and good of New Zealand economics and public policy trooped off to Hamilton (of all places) for the annual Waikato Economics Forum, one of the successful marketing drives of university’s Vice-Chancellor. My interest was in the speeches delivered by the Minister of Finance and ...
The Prime Minister says the Government would be open to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine if a ceasefire was reached. The government has announced a $30 million spend on tourism infrastructure and biodiversity projects, including $11m spent to improve popular visitor sites and further $19m towards biodiversity efforts. A New Zealand-born ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler “But what about when the sun doesn't shine?!” Ah yes, the energy debate’s equivalent of “The Earth is flat!” Every time someone mentions solar or wind power, some self-proclaimed energy expert emerges from the woodwork to drop this supposedly devastating truth bomb: ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission.In this article I look into data on how well the rail network serve New Zealanders, and how many people might be able to travel by train… if we ran more than a ...
Hi,Before we get into Hayden Donnell’s new column about how yes, Donald Trump is definitely the Antichrist, I wanted to touch on something feral that happened in New Zealand last week.Members of Destiny Church pushed and punched their way into an Auckland library, apparently angry it was part of Pride ...
Despite delays, logjams and overcrowding in our emergency departments, funding constraints are limiting the numbers of nurses and doctors being trained. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 18 are:A NZ Herald investigation ...
Now that the US has ripped up the Atlantic alliance, Europe is more vulnerable now than at any time since the mid-1930s. Apparently, Europe and Ukraine itself will not have a seat at the table in the talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin that will ...
Olivia and Noah and Hana are going to the library!It is fun to go to the library. It has books and songs and mat time and people who smile at you and say, Hello Olivia, what have you been doing this morning?The library is more fun than the mall. At ...
New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly.IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X ...
“This might surprise you, Laurie, but I reckon Trump’s putting on a bloody impressive performance.”“GOODNESS ME, HANNAH, just look at all those Valentine’s Day cards!”“Occupational hazard, Laurie, the more beer I serve, the more my customers declare their undying love!”“Crikey! I had no idea business was so good.” Laurie squinted ...
In 2005, Labour repealed the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship in Aotearoa. Why? As with everything else Labour does, it all came down to austerity: "foreign mothers" were supposedly "coming to this country to give birth", and this was "put[ting] pressure on hospitals". Then-Immigration Minister George Hawkins explicitly gave this ...
And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Gross, Lecturer in Economics, Monash University Gumbariya/Shutterstock The Reserve Bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in four years has triggered a round of celebration. Mortgage holders are cheering the fact their monthly repayments are now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Housing supply in Australia will be a key battleground in the election campaign. With home ownership more and more out of reach for young and not so young Australians, red tape and low productivity are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Korolev, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, UNSW Sydney The United States and Russia agreed to work on a plan to end the war in Ukraine at high-level talks in Saudi Arabia this week. Ukrainian and European representatives were pointedly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University BaLL LunLa/Shutterstock Sleep is the holy grail for new parents. So no wonder many tired parents are looking for something to help their babies sleep. A TikTok trend claims ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ranjana Gupta, Senior Lecturer, Accounting Department, Auckland University of Technology Jirsak/Shutterstock The profit made on every breakfast bowl of weet-bix is tax exempt, giving Sanitarium Health Food Company, owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, an advantage over other breakfast food companies. ...
A closer look at some of the homegrown talent currently commanding television screens around the globe. The new season of The White Lotus hit our screens this week, and with it a familiar face in New Zealand actor Morgana O’Reilly. To secure a role in one of the world’s most ...
"This is a crisis of the Government’s own making and the unit is another sign of desperation," said PSA acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francesca Perugia, Senior Lecturer, School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University Australia’s housing crisis has created a push for fast-tracked construction. Federal, state and territory governments have set a target of 1.2 million new homes over five years. Increasing housing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ash Watson, Scientia Fellow and Senior Lecturer, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock When we’re uncomfortable we say the “vibe is off”. When we’re having a good time we’re “vibing”. To assess the mood we do a “vibe check”. And when the atmosphere in ...
What’s up with the man from Epsom? The leader of the Act Party has been in plenty of headlines in the last two weeks, ranging from a controversial letter to police on behalf of constituent Philip Polkinghorne (written before David Seymour was a minister) to an attempt to drive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Stephenson, Deputy Director, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Australian National University Newly published research has found clear evidence that openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer+ (LGBTIQ+) Australian politicians were disproportionately targeted with personal abuse on social media at the ...
Gilmore Girls, Schitt’s Creek, even The Vampire Diaries – they’re all set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. So what is it like to actually know your neighbours? My favourite television shows are set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. Characters attend town meetings where they debate local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, PhD Candidate in Communication and Media Studies, University of Adelaide IMDB On the surface, Ne Zha 2: The Sea’s Fury (2025), the sequel to the 2019 Chinese blockbuster Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, is a high-octane, action-packed and ...
Wellington travellers say their buses are so hot they’re often forced to get off early and walk. Shanti Mathias explores the impact of non-functioning air conditioning on public transport. When Bella, a young professional living in Wellington, thinks about taking the bus, her first thought is “Ugh”. The bus might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Kroen, Research Fellow Planning and Transport, RMIT University The cleanup is underway in northern Queensland following the latest flooding catastrophe to hit the state. More than 7,000 insurance claims have already been lodged, most of them for inundated homes and other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Subha Parida, Lecturer in Property, University of South Australia Carl Oberg/Shutterstock Houses and fire do not mix. The firestorm which hit Los Angeles in January destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings and forced 130,000 people to evacuate. The 2019–20 Australian megafires destroyed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Tasmania has been burning for more than two weeks, with no end in sight. Almost 100,000 hectares of bushland in the northwest has burned to date. This includes the Tarkine rainforest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Loosemore, Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology Sydney This week, the Productivity Commission released its much-awaited report into productivity growth in Australia’s housing construction sector. It wasn’t a glowing appraisal. The commission found physical productivity – the total number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pascale Lubbe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Ecology, University of Otago Royal spoonbills are among several new species that have crossed the Tasman and naturalised in New Zealand. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA When people arrived on the shores of Aotearoa ...
Stats NZ’s head is stepping down over the agency’s failure to safeguard census data, and more officials may soon be in the firing line, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. An ‘absolutely unacceptable’ failure Stats NZ chief ...
Health NZ is under greater government scrutiny, with the new health minister setting up a unit he says will "drive greater accountability and performance". ...
Manurewa Marae acknowledges should have done better at handling completed census forms, following an inquiry into steps government agencies took to protect data. ...
Police failed to protect people from protesters at a high-profile rally and made unlawful arrests at another, the Independent Police Conduct Authority says. ...
Comment: Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are making it easier for people to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without having to handle digital wallets or private keys. These allow investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency through their regular brokerage accounts.This has opened the door for billions of dollars ...
Two long-awaited reports into alleged personal data misuse, centred on census collection and Covid-19 vaccination efforts at Manurewa Marae, were released yesterday. Here’s what you need to know.“Very sobering reading” was how public service commissioner Sir Brian Roche described his organisation’s long-awaited report into the alleged misuse of census ...
Backbench MPs reached new levels of patsy questions in an extraordinarily dull question time on Tuesday. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. “MPs ask questions to explore key issues ...
Trident, a weapon of mass destruction.
The Labour Party in Scotland votes Yes, No and Maybe!
“Labour in Scotland has passed a resolution against renewing the Trident weapons of mass destruction, Labour in Scotland is now officially against renewing Trident but its leader is in favour. Meanwhile UK Labour is officially in favour of renewing Trident but its leader is against. It’s perfectly straightforward, and another step backward in Labour’s attempts to make sense to the electorate of Scotland. Labour’s now got all the nuclear bases covered, yes, no and maybe. The party is as all over the place as a hedgehog that’s been playing on the M8, only with rather less integrity. Still, at least their heart is in the right place, splattered on the asphalt and being ground into the dirt.”
https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com
As a little bit of history , the base for nuclear submarines in Scotland was first set up by a New Zealander.
I thought that Andrew Little was giving a speech to the Scottish Labour Party later this week.
I sounds as if he has already done so and that they listened to him. With his “on the one hand this, and on the other hand that” they could hardly help ending up totally confused.
Is he still opposed to a CGT while the party is in favour? Is he opposed to raising the age for Super, while the party is in favour? Is he in favour of a knighthood for Richie, while the party is opposed to knighthoods?
If the SLP listened to him it is hardly surprising they are confused is it?
Just caught the RNZ interview with Andrew Little about giving a knighthood to Ritchie MCCaw. What is the man thinking?
Why would the captain of our greatest national team give fealty to another nation by accepting a knighthood?
These feudal honours were always favours for political support for kings against potential usurpers. It is a corrupt system always has been, always will be.
To dress it up as “service to the nation” or “outstanding leadership”, or as Little tries to justify it “its what we do now, so we should do it”, is delusion at best or just plain selling out to a despicable system.
I hope Ritchie shows that he has greater integrity than that, and will decline as he did before.
where you coming from John key b
een saying it for 5 years Ritchie already turned one down
Labour previously abolished these stupid titles and all that went with them.
If Andrew Little is listening to people who think giving knighthoods is a great idea then we are going nowhere.
I reckon nowhere is precisely where Labour is going.
Knighthood for McCaw, no reason to oppose the TPA, amend right to fire to make it fairer.
A pragmatic comment from Andrew. If he said Ritchie should not get a medal, imagine the outcry. He would be damned by thousands who admire Ritchie.
He either believes in titles or not – If he doesn’t then he should have said so. If he does, then why not?
I think Richie will take it this time. He knows he wont be able to lead another world cup.
I suggest you listen to the interview before you go on to demonstrate more ignorance about what he said. What part of ‘recognition’ is hard to understand?
What’s wrong with our own NZ honours system? Home grown recognition and none of the obsequious bowing and scraping that Knighthoods entail
Who said anything was wrong with it? Certainly not Andrew Little nor I.
God forbid that we should say ANYTHING that caused an outcry from Breakfast TV or talkback radio land.
Do we stand for anything?
Go grow a pair.
Looking at my herald this morning pg3 and I see that parata is proposing stricter measures for schools such as closure where outcomes are consistently poor. Scary stuff when no account seems to be made for things such as transience and poverty. I predict that as with the us this will be an attack on the poor with school closures and charter schools to profit national’s rich mates. Oh yes and of course a dumbed down curriculum as schools teach to the test to save their skins. The story of Michelle Rhee in New York makes sobering reading http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113096/how-michelle-rhee-misled-education-reform
I think parata is of the same ilk – self promoting with a nasty dislike of teachers. Out schools are in deep trouble. I hope we have the guts to do what they did in new york and kick out the politician responsible,
Apart from poorly performing Charter schools, because business run schools are exempt.
Idiot territory really – what are the kids and parents going to do – waste a lot of money travelling to the next school- overcrowd that school results reduce – original school sold off to developers – oh there’s a motive
However we are fast approaching a point where we should pool our taxes locally, stuff paying it to this mob and we get better paid people and better outcomes
Parata and co want a few think big mega schools like factories churning out products… put in excessively paid sycophant principals, sorry..Chief executives .. big classes-saves money- more efficient -forget all this rubbish about schools being focal points for communities.
Dotcom, got no money?, yeah right…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/73578775/kim-dotcom-is-building-his-own-private-internet
You think you’re upset about it, imagine what it was like for all your STASI mates when their authoritarian wet dream ended.
Yes we don’t want to encourage Internet Entrepreneurs in NZ. If only Dotcom had just bought up our real estate and paid zero taxes like all the other corps – he would be sitting beside John Key with a smile on his face instead of being persecuted for having smarter technology platforms than Hollywood.
There is one reason he is trying this and one only – and thats to get money.
Lets look at his other examples – Baboom – total failure.
MEGA – another failure – only kept alive by by $$$ coming from Bill Liu – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11340600
This time he will be taking $$$ off individual investors by crowd funding. Rest assured it will be as successful as the other ideas and yet again the $$$ will end up in his back pocket.
LOL what would you or the NZ Herald know about Dotcom’s personal situations.
Oh, hey CV, sorry to butt in but are you going to around for a bit? I need to ask you a question about a topic we briefly touched on months and months ago – raising the issue of the abolishment of GST at your local LEC meeting.
yes will be checking in to The Std through the afternoon 🙂
Thanks CV. This might be a bit of a drag because GST is a totally off the radar topic and there are so many other pressing topics that overwhelm such a yawn inducing one, such as GST.
So, I think I recall you mentioning quite some time ago that you were going to raise the idea at a LEC meeting of abolishing GST and introducing a FTT in it’s place. If you got enough support at a vote that you would take it further and introduce it as a remit (remit?) at the next Labour Party annual conference.
I am unsure of several of those statements so please correct me.
As a new Labour member who knows very little of the structure of the Party, I am really wanting to know how ideas from ordinary members get to make it into the light of day and to the attention of party officials.
I also want to see GST abolished for many reasons, which I’ve covered before.
Part two of my question is how successful were you in raising the GST abolishment issue and will it go further?
I won’t be able to attend the conference in Palmerston North coming up soon. It would have been good to see how the Party functions at a structural level.
Typically, members at a branch have to formulate and word policy remits which are then considered and voted on at Regional Conference. If the policy remit passes at Regional Conference, it is then put forward to be considered at NZ Conference.
However, the overall process is extremely clunky and leads to mechanistic and narrow consideration of policy.
For instance, to solve the housing crisis in Auckland would require a comprehensive programme of policy measures – it is impossible for such a systematic programme to be developed and considered via this remit process.
Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that the remit process is largely a diversionary waste of time. Even if NZ conference passes a remit there is no guarantee (or mechanism to guarantee) that caucus will act on it or act on it as intended.
In other words, caucus can and does go off and do its own thing all the time.
We can discuss the GST issue further – essentially I think our branch submited a remit which said that GST should be raised to 20%: but the first $100 of any item or service would be excluded from GST.
In this way, GST becomes a de facto luxury living tax, since the vast majority of items bought by the vast majority of people come under the $100 or $50 threshold.
Thanks for your response. The remit process was explained in a helpful way. Seeing as we are on a thread about Dot Com I will restart the GST discussion below as a separate post………….
A pre-hearing demonstration to voice our dissapointment that Craddocks are still considering building this factory farm both in Patumahoe or at all. If you have time you can then join us at 10am in the court room for the hearing directly after the demonstration. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us. Bring your best placards to help get the message across. We want to be heard!
https://web.facebook.com/events/625096927629982/
Does anyone know about this? Is this the case where the commissioners have approved a massive battery chicken farm about 30m away from residential housing citing no effects?
Yes. My neck of the woods actually.
The local residents have done extremely well in bringing this to the community’s attention, and have been supported by animal welfare organisations and many in the immediate community. There has also been the expected backlash from the “farmers are the backbone of this country” crowd who don’t know details about the issue, but back “their” team.
Unfortunately, the animal welfare issue cannot be a reason for denying resource consent, but the failure of the applicants to credibly demonstrate the issue of mitigating air quality adverse effects has led to the initial application being turned down.
The appeal has redesigned the air stacks in increase the height (and dispersion), so that’ll be interesting.
The residents have had to fund their experts regarding air and water quality independently, and it will cost them in the region of $80 – $100K to see this through.
They have been subject to small degrees of harassment, outright lying about the resource consent conditions and no small amount of emotional stress. The arrogance of the Craddocks organisation – who were offered the opportunity to onsell when the public reaction became known – has been ongoing and revealing of how our current system rewards the morally poor.
Auckland Council however, has dipped a toe in the water, and have decided to make submissions to oppose the updated application in the hearing – which is some progress.
However, until Craddocks onsells the property or indicates that they will not develop in this particular way on this site, they are in the bullying position of resubmitting applications and forcing residents to continue this fight for a long time.
Wow what a weekend, can’t believe I managed to drag myself to work but there you go…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/73578987/sam-cane-faces-nervous-wait-for-mccaw-to-confirm-retirement
The best NZ has to offer whether it be sporting, military or political…makes you proud to be a kiwi!
It is reported that Sonny will be given a replacement medal for the one he gave to the boy. Seems wrong somehow. He gives and the lad feels great. We feel great. Somehow diminishes the generosity to replace the medal.
Episode 830
https://www.rt.com/shows/keiser-report/320218-episode-max-keiser-830/
“In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss how a service driven Chinese economy could spell bad news for Western economies but how a two-child policy could save the global property ponzi for another generation. In the second half, Max interviews Dan Collins of TheChinaMoneyReport.com about the latest news with the Chinese economy, its crackdown on corruption and its increasing role in the global economy.”
Questions: from a Labour, NZFirst and Green perspective ,what are the implications of more Chinese overpopulation and the Chinese ecological disaster for New Zealand?
…it seems to me that the NZ housing and property bubble is NOT going to burst as Bill English claims…eg.as Max and Tracy state “how a two-child policy could save the global property ponzi for another generation”
…hence no relief for young New Zealanders and future generations of New Zealanders wanting to buy their own home from scarce New Zealand housing stock ….which is being bought up by overseas investors and escalating house prices
…also the pressure on immigration to New Zealand will continue
….unless curbs are put on both overseas ownership of NZ property and immigration by the foreign wealthy fleeing their own environmental and overpopulation disasters
As if more proof were needed that MSM has completely gone down the gurgler…
A dose of man flu for an ‘entertainer’ with a narcissistic personality disorder (aka Mike Hosking) hits the Herald headlines. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11538804
Hosking is probably upset that he is no longer Key’s favourite and has his nose out of joint over Key’s bromance/obsession with Richie McCaw.
This is a pretty disgusting story about dairy pollution that is not being
officially charged by the appropriate govt. authority it seems.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/73502841/hundreds-of-dairy-farmers-caught-breaking-rules
Ack!
Hundreds of Cantab dairy farmers caught out over breaking effluent discharge rules in the past year. Profits are the priority!
Do the individual or company owners have Chinese-sounding or Kiwi-sounding names??
From a Systems Analysis point of view. The current system is a very broken beast. For a system that should be for everyone, it works for less and less especially in so called first world countries and fails to deliver anywhere near the outcomes that it should, especially given our level of technological advancement in society.
To fix it?
Well, that’s the big question.
Consider this first and foremost. A man or woman cannot hope to fix the world unless his or her future has been secured.
(And yes the Irony is that the world must first be fixed in order to secure anyone’s future).
But that is also the key.
The technology we need to fix things has been developed.
That starts with
The internet for freedom of information.
Product Hubs to deliver goods anywhere in the world.
And finally service hubs or platforms to be able to access services.
One of the key things that people don’t have enough of is time due to the demands of the current system.
In fact when you compare hours worked during Slavery in the US vs Capitalism now….. well let’s just say that if we are interested in outcomes it doesn’t paint a very pretty picture. In many ways, the hours are the same or similar. Sure you get to choose your master under Capitalism or you can even choose to be your own master and if you’re lucky (and statistically probably exceptionally lucky) you won’t have to work as much. But on the whole chances are you, your kids and everyone around you will have to work in order to survive in some way shape or form for the rest of their lives.
What’s worse is that as more and more roles are automated (45% in the next 10 years) this will be the case more and more. It would all be fine if wages kept pace with prices, but they aren’t going to. But the Market will correct right!? Well maybe one day but only after a crapload of people are made homeless and can’t afford to put food on the table. In fact, many will actually starve to death before the market corrects.
Why? This is because ‘The Market’ only needs a single willing buyer and a single willing seller to agree on price, for the market to appear to be working. Bob Jones bought himself an aeroplane earlier this year for a cool 2 million. Hey presto the market works, but most people reading this could never afford to buy one in their lifetime. You might shrug your shoulders at that example, but the same concept applies at a much lower level including things such as basic essentials. Things like food, a home, electricity, clothing and so on.
Take the example of a simple kebab shop. It can continue to make and sell kebabs and stay in business frequented by a few hundred customers per week at the very same time tens of thousands can’t afford to buy one. So the market correction theory doesn’t happen fast enough in the real world for it to make a difference. This becomes a real problem. Unfortunately, this is also what is happening right now.
That old poem written by Pastor Martin Neimoller on the principle of not speaking up…
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
….Applies to Capitalism in a similar vain.
There is only something wrong with Capitalism when it doesn’t work for you, but at that point its too late. But just so you know Capitalism doesn’t care that you can’t afford essential items like food and housing and nor do those at the top of the food chain so long as the profits keep coming and the money keeps rolling in.
Climate change and Capitalism? Well the long and the short of it is that fixing Climate change is simply incompatible with a system that requires continual extraction and consumption of resources to obtain profit which is under Capitalism required in order to survive.
You will never fix climate change whilst we have Capitalism.
(yes you could add in the true cost but by the time you get all of that sorted we will be living in a wasteland and there are far simpler and much more effective ways that solve many of the other problems we face at the same time.
It really depends on whether the best we can come up with, is a system that requires people to work similar hours to slavery). Capitalism doesn’t care about the environment and nor do those at the top of the food chain so long as the profits keep coming and the money keeps rolling in.
Capitalism doesn’t have boundaries. Capitalism doesn’t care about your sovereignty not in the slightest. It cares about one thing. Ownership or control of resources and Capital. Can no longer afford to live in your own country? Capitalism doesn’t care and nor do those at the top of the food chain, so long as the profit keeps coming and the money keeps rolling in
Capitalism doesn’t care about whether something is legal or illegal. You might, but Capitalism doesn’t and nor do many other people in this world. Something being illegal just means that it gets assigned a higher price tag under Capitalism. Whether its drugs, human trafficking and slavery or something else illegal like not paying your taxes or seeking to avoid them as many corporations do.
No Capitalism doesn’t care if something is illegal and nor do those at the top of the food chain, so long as the profit keeps coming and the money keeps rolling in.
Under proper systems analysis, Capitalism fails dismally. I won’t bore you with the details but it is basically determining what a system designed for people should do vs what Capitalism achieves..
If you want to go through it for yourself, systems analysis asks certain questions of the system.
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
& How?
These are the questions that are asked of any system, whether you are fixing a broken one or designing a new one. Done correctly it should be solution agnostic. That way you can determine a true set of requirements for any system no matter how big or how small.
Spoiler alert: it all comes down to the delivery of goods and services to meet needs and wants.
The question is what is the best way to do this for everyone given the available technology we have today.
For Needs, they are predominantly the same from one person to the next (Maslow’s Hierarchy Pyramid is a good place to start for this).
Wants – vastly different but the reality is you only need a system that enables people to obtain their wants and we can already do that provided you can overcome the barrier that is put in place called price.
For anyone about to lose the plot over the resources used to enable everyone to meet their needs, consider the concept of owning versus using. As an example, Under owning we have the humble lawnmower. You buy one to use on average 6 – 12 hours a year and you have to pay to maintain it. Not exactly a great use of resources now is it.
Under ‘Using; (coupled with technology of course) you can order a lawnmower via your smartphone that is delivered to your location by drone and mows your lawns automatically….. because its a robot. When it’s finished, it sends a signal to the drone which comes and picks it up to deliver it to the next location. We don’t have to do it that way, but that’s what is possible with technology from today.
The best part is it is all in place, we just need to change the way things work together and the way we work together coupled with a healthy dose of common sense.
Example: Capitalism a system where you compete against 7 billion other people for the resources you need in order to survive. Does that sound like common sense to you?
Add to that that we are facing challenges on a worldwide scale that in order to overcome, require us to work together more so than at any other time in the history ofr the human race.
How we fix things is interesting, because when you look at the monetary system and the problems it was introduced to overcome, those problems no longer exist to a large degree. I imagine the same would be true for Capitalism.
Capitalism has worked in the past, granted. In fact Capitalism has largely built the world around us today. The question is when do we begin to use what it has built in the most efficient and effective way for us, for everyone. Given that Capitalism is no longer delivering the outcomes we need it to both at an individual and at a societal level the time to relook at this has never been better or for that matter more important.
Imagine a world, where people had freedom. Where they could obtain basic essential items such as food and a home when they needed one.
Imagine a world, where you only had to work half of the time that you do now. Imagine a world, where the media once again just reported the news.
Imagine a world, where Science just gave us the facts without the corporate interference.
Imagine a world, where the systems we had, worked with nature rather than through the exploitation and destruction of it.
Imagine a world where no man held dominion over any other man woman or child.
Imagine a world, where the goal of the system was to enable you to live a happy and fulfilled life full of positive experiences in so far as you choose to do so.
Imagine true freedom.
Imagine a world, where our future was secure.
Again a man or woman cannot hope to fix this world whilst their own future is insecure.
In order to fix things we first have to secure everyone’s future.
That means we need to first and foremost decouple work from wages.
We need a new Financial system (only because most people would freak out if you removed money) This could and should be automated. It should be a highly secure crypto currency and should be used for enabling a Universal Basic Income for everyone thus largely securing everyones future.
We need a system that uses the internet, product hubs and service platforms to work for us and not simply to add to the profit of the corporate bottom line.
We need a system that automates people’s roles as much as we possibly can with a view of freeing them from having to work for the rest of their lives simply in order to survive.
At that point we can begin to really fix things, But only then.
so how do you shift power and influence away from that top 0.1% who are currently major beneficiaries of the existing order?
democracy
Show people an alternative vision of the future they can themselves imagine. The biggest barrier to changing things right now is the lack of any real alternative.
Show them what the alternative is and how we would get there from where we are today.
What Is being proposed is in many ways no different than the sort of shift that took place when everything went from public ownership to private ownership (well sort of).
Govt already provides services to people. There is therefore justification to build a service hub using taxpayer funds. This is the start. Then as more and more essential services are not being met, public alternatives can fill the gap in an efficient manner using software automation.
The Crypto currency takes care and actually sidelines the powers that be to a large degree.
As has been said before the best way to change the system is to create a new and better one from within.
Thinking outside the box It could also be done by two or three key individuals (although they don’t realise it) with the help of Government through UBI. Elon Musk, Richard Branson and someone with access to a service hub. Would you or many others not support such an alliance with your dollar if this was the vision and the world that they stated up front they wanted to build? I now I would.
If democracy actually worked to disempower the 0.1%, it would have been outlawed ages ago.
The masses have only just started to wake up. Many know something is wrong and parents are worried about their children’s future. Show them a better alternative and they will take the chance.
The pieces can be put in place without unvielling the full picture. There is justification to build a service hub in order to gain efficiencies in delivering govt services to people. The rest will take care of itself as things continue to get worse.
The alternative is to stick with the status quo and simply do nothing. Sounds like an interesting choice for people.
Will the royal visit influence flag choices in the first flag referendum as James Shaw and the Greens argue ? (….or WTF…the strange case of James Shaw and the NZ flag)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/288575/greens-question-timing-of-royal-visit
James Shaw helped John key make sure that the existing NZ flag with the Union Jack ( the most popular choice for New Zealanders) was excluded from the first referendum, which is when the royals turn up…but the corporate logo Red Peak flag, James’s favourite, is in the first referendum
….. James and the Greens went against Labour Party and NZF wishes ( their future coalition partners?). The Labour Party argued having the existing NZ flag in the first referendum would have saved a costly second referendum and in any case NZers dont want to change their flag. Winston Peters and NZF also argue this.
….so if the flag with the Union Jack is NOT to be in the first referendum when the royals arrive….how can the royal visit influence NZers voting for the Union Jack in the first referendum?
( or am I missing something here?)
Preparing for NCEA exams?
“The letter bearing the college masthead and its official phone numbers claimed that senior students would have to undergo full body check – including their bare bottoms.”
What will they get up to next?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11538899
Picking up GST discussion with CV above on altogether unrelated thread…………
I agree with the taxation of luxury goods. (and also alcohol and tobacco) You suggested that an increase to 20% GST with an exemption of GST for the first $100 of a purchase would in effect be a de facto luxury tax.
However, when we are paying $250 in one go for groceries, paying our rates, paying for expensive car repairs, paying power bills etc we’re not paying for luxury goods, we’re paying for essentials.
These essentials, shouldn’t be taxed for moral reasons. For me, the idea of GST is a moral one as it places an unnecessary financial burden on many people. If GST were removed tomorrow, depending on your financial circumstances you’d see a dramatic improvement in your financial health. The less wealthy you are the greater the improvement as your little budget is unfairly weighted down by GST compared to the wealthy person’s budget.
From a business point of view, scrapping GST could be seen as beneficial. A reduction in financial stress in a household could see its members spending more on things they could never afford before. Money saved from GST could go into the tills of retailers.
(An aside. A former customer of mine, from my days as a sales rep, was a retailer who had a successful business. It had been going for 30 years. He had owned it for the previous 10. He suffered through the GFC, was partially affected by public service cuts, as some Wellington retailers were, but he said it was the increase in GST that the Natz brought in that was the last straw for him. They way we saw it was that not only does a consumer harm households, it harms business).
I’ve got more points in my abolishment of GST argument but this would end up a very long post and rehash old ground. Happy to discuss if others are interested though.
One final point I will cover again is Labour’s opportunity to address past wrongs, eg, being the ones to introduce GST in 1986.
Next year is the Centenary celebrations for the Labour Party. It will be a great time to highlight and celebrate the very proud history that the NZLP has, and how they led and shaped NZ into a decent and fair society through the introduction of the welfare state.
They will have to face their dark past too. GST was part of the neo liberal reforms. It has no place in the unequal society that we have become.
This is a good opportunity for them to abandon the tax policy they introduced. It would be a hugely bold move, but we need bold, not bland.
In 2011 Labour tinkered with the idea by having an election promise to remove GST off fresh fruit and vege. It didn’t gain any traction and seemed like a random policy out on it’s own, not in context with anything else.
In 2014 NZ First said they would exempt GST from council rates. Again, no traction with that one.
2016 is the right time to stand up and say GST, you can just f*ck off, and demonstrate to the voters how their lives will be improved for it.
There is no single item in a standard grocery shop which is over $50 or over $100.
Therefore under our branch’s remit, your entire grocery shop would be GST free.
See how it works?
Removing GST from rates is also a good idea. BTW I don’t think your conclusion that NZ First got “not traction” on that was correct: out of all the opposition parties they were the only one which GAINED MPs.
Yes, ok, the grocery shop would be GST free, because each single item is under $50/$100. I was thinking total shop.
But what about power bills? You would have to be a single person living on your own with extremely minimal use of power to get to the GST free threshold of $100. What about car repairs and servicing? Nothing much there under $100. Our head gasket blew and we had to borrow $3K for repairs. This has a GST content of $450, which is being paid off with interest over 18 months. Interest on a tax, hardly fair. Have to buy new tyres for the car? Not cheap either.
Need to get an electrician or plumber in? Have never seen a bill that would meet the GST excluded threshold you propose. Chimney sweep? same thing. Have to see the dentist? You’ll be paying that off on the credit card, and like the mechanics bill you’ll be paying a massive chunk of GST with interest added.
And you are proposing we add another 5% to that cost! Sorry CV, only the wealthy can afford that.
The only way people would benefit under the 20% GST with a threshold of $100 as GST free would be for food, weekly public transport costs, a small top up of petrol for the car and sundry items. I think this policy, rather than being helpful would cause even greater hardship. It’s a messy option. Any short term savings you make on the small things will get gobbled up on the larger living costs, and even worse than before. Things also need to be kept super simple for voters. Just get rid of GST altogether.
Thats without going into the logistics for wholesalers and retailers who carry a variety of lines some of which fall into the GST excluded zone. For example, what happens when a retailer purchases an item from the wholesaler and pays GST on it, but then the item won’t sell, even after markdowns. Eventually they have to sell below original wholesale cost, and lose not only their profit but they directly lose the 20% tax they had to pay?
Re NZ First, I was referring to the GST off council rates policy getting no traction in the form of generating public discussion, not the success that NZ First had last year. Labours GST off produce in 2011 only generated a bit of confusion.
applying the GST correctly is very simple in the age of computerised inventory and sales systems.
Wine and beer sold in supermarkets have varying alcohol excise tax applied in addition to GST. No one complained it couldnt be done.
Also the 20% GST only applies to each dollar above say $100. So a $150 car tyre or dentists check up will only have $10 of GST added: which is less than you are paying in GST today.
A unit of power is only 20c. No GST applies.
Our branch worked all this out in detail.
Thanks. I do appreciate the time you have taken to explain your proposal. I’m still uncomfortable with it, and I do think it’s messy.
The big thing for me is that GST is a neoliberal tax, it belongs in the past. I have a moral issue with it. Transfer the tax burden to the wealthy and introduce a Robin Hood style tax.
I have no probs with that. Especially since I am of the school which says that Government does not need to raise all its revenues through taxation and that taxation can be used to achieve many different purposes other than to raise revenues.
“Our branch worked all this out in detail.”
Any chance you could put this in the public domain (or would that hobble the process within Labour)?
I also appreciate the explanations and would love to see more.
Since the in-house Labour technocrats are utterly disinterested in all these ideas I might as well find alternative avenues to put these non-orthodox ideas out there.
great, look forward to it.
Aussies dumping Knights and Dames as inappropriate in this day and age. Is Turnbull trying to upset his new pal John Key?
Turnbull was never an arse licker to the Anglo-Saxon establishment.
Key and National are died in the wool royalists. Shipley used Bolger’s republicanism (and more subtly his Irish Catholicism) to get support to stab him in the back.
Malcolm Turnbull has dumped Tony Abbott’s widely ridiculed policy of reinstating Knights and Dames, saying the titles are “not appropriate” in modern Australia.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-scraps-tony-abbotts-knights-and-dames-20151101-gkodek.html
Good on the All Blacks for winning the Rugby World Cup. Many will have celebrated their victory and much has been reported and discussed in the MSM of course.
Let us perhaps focus on some important stuff that matters. I did already post this link under Open Mike for 01 Nov. last night. It deserves some attention.
The Office of Ombudsmen is conducting a survey on experiences with and satisfaction with OIA requests and responses:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/OIASurvey2
This should be of much interest to readers here, especially those who care about transparency of government, of ministries and agencies. The OIA process is supposed to strengthen our democracy, but as we know, things have gone downhill with it for some time.
I encourage all to participate in their survey, those that care about improving the OIA process, and especially those that have had experiences with OIA requests and replies.
Sadly it does not seem to get much attention by our media.
Here is more info on all this on the Ombudsman’s website:
http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/newsroom/item/chief-ombudsman-seeks-public-experience-of-oia
Seen this?
EXCLUSIVE: Jane Kelsey – TPPA HAS NOT BEEN SIGNED.
Crucial protest on 14 Nov
By Prof Jane Kelsey / November 2, 2015
This is no time for surrender or fatigue. Other countries are fighting to ensure the political price is too high for their governments to do so and that opposition parties make an uncompromising commitment to reject the still-secret
The fact many people think the TPPA is a done deal and there’s nothing we can do shows how effective the government’s propaganda campaign has been.
That’s what they need people to believe so they can kill off one of the most effective public campaigns to oppose a core government policy for several decades.
And they have done so despite conceding the deal would deliver almost none of the gains they made a bottom line, and keeping the text secret so no-one can categorically rebut the content or omissions in their ‘fact sheets’.
The truth is that the TPPA can’t be signed for at least another three months.
Until then New Zealand has not been committed in any formal legal manner to the political deal. Even then, the country won’t be bound irrevocably to the TPPA for probably another two years.
This is no time for surrender or fatigue.
Other countries are fighting to ensure the political price is too high for their governments to do so and that opposition parties make an uncompromising commitment to reject the still-secret deal.
We need to do that here, starting with a mass turnout to the protests around the country, especially in Auckland and Wellington, on Saturday 14 November.
The Fast Track legislation said Obama must give 90 days’ notice before he can sign the TPPA. The text becomes public no longer than 30 days into that 90 days, which means two months to debunk the pro-TPPA lobby’s spin.
Obama has not given that 90 days’ notice yet.
The officials have been in Japan doing what we call the ‘legal scrubbing’ of the text. That should be a purely technical task, but reports suggest there are many problems emerging about interpretations and some countries are only just finding out what others have agreed between themselves in side-letters.
The legal officials’ meeting has finished. They will try to sort out the remain issues by internet, but they are likely to have to meet again.
The longer this takes, the further away those 90 days become and the more time we have to make it clear to the Key/Groser government that we don’t believe their snow job and will make any attempt to sign it politically toxic, and to the opposition parties that they have to
Seems Crosby T advisers have got to key. Haven’t seen the same fawning photo ops. Guess they have said, “let the country revel in it John, and we’ll step it up a notch when everyone’s home. Plenty of time yet!”