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!”
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TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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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!”