Greens: please don’t do a Maori Party.
A seat in cabinet with National would end the Greens. I’d most likely give my party vote to Mana if the Greens are willing to work with the Nats and I’m sure many others would go with Labour.
I haven’t been following the internal stuff – are they really considering a deal with the Nats or is this just a formality?
I think this is just a way for the Greens to get publicity.
Be all coy about not ruling out the Nats and possibly, maybe, go with them after the election. It’s the kind of scuttlebutt that gets Guyon and Duncan all hot and bothered because it’s all ‘just so interesting’.
“At their annual meeting in Auckland on Sunday, the Greens made a final decision that they could form a Government with the Labour Party or support it on confidence and supply.
But they ruled out forming a government with National.
They said they could work with National on confidence and supply, though such an arrangement would be highly unlikely.”
The RNZ link.
That’s a dangerous game. I’ll be wanting to see the Greens press release itself. Under what conditions would the Greens support National on confidence and supply? Or are they just saying that to get the centre Green vote?
I agree Weka I said exactly the same thing when Metiria and Norman were making similar overtures a few months ago, I said on Frogblog that they were playing a dangerous game.
For the Greens to vote on Confidence and Supply ? That’s not in my view an option it would be best to force a re-election.
This government is extremely dangerous you don’t negotiate with them nor do you give them any options once out of power; ‘It’s either OR’ !!!!!
You would also need to factor in National voters bailing ship as well weka. Personally I’m all for more cooperation between the parties, but can see why the Greens are unable to work with National. With more cooperation though, we would hopefully not see the extreme swings in policy direction every time the Government changes, which costs NZ millions of dollars.
I agree about the need for more cooperation. There’s ways of co-operating without going into government with them. Although it’s the Nats (and Labour to an extent) that don’t like doing that, not the Greens.
Cooperation is nice but, considering that National are a bunch of psychopaths who don’t believe in reality, there’s very little that you cooperate with them on.
MLK inspired millions at the cost of his own life. RN waved a flag and whined like a little bitch. Difference, much?
He didn’t simply “wave a flag”, you fool. He protested against the Chinese government and was manhandled by Chinese government goons. And he didn’t “whine” at all, he quite properly pointed out the craven behaviour of the New Zealand government, which did not even protest at an attack on a New Zealand parliamentarian in the grounds of parliament.
BTW, I’m not a member of ACT but I do know better than to rely on the moral backbone of a well-meaning hippie.
You certainly sound like a member of ACT. But okay, you’re in the National Party.
Oh please, even if I agreed with your interpretation of RN’s protest, comparing him with MLK is fecking nuts.
And dude, you’re talking about a party that refuses to rule out going into coalition with NACT. Two elections down the line they’ll be looking the other way on minimum wage as long as national pay farmers $500mil to “compensate” them for not putting cattle shit in our rivers.
Oh please, even if I agreed with your interpretation of RN’s protest, comparing him with MLK is fecking nuts.
He stood up for democracy and protested against a brutal and repressive regime. Your objection to him seems to be based on nothing more than his tone of voice.
Two elections down the line they’ll be looking the other way…
You may well be right, unfortunately.
I seem to recall that the call for the game to go professional came from New Zealand against much opposition from those dastardly chaps of the Northern Hemisphere Unions. As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap.
The game is no longer the same since it was privatised, erm, professionalised .. or de-Unionised.
Sell the game, sell your players, export New Zealand, go Kiwis!
It’s really embarrassing listening to expat Kiwis talk about what a basket case NZ is, and listening to foreigners talk about how they will use their NZ immigration status to get working and living in Australia, if they can’t get into Australia directly in the first place. NZ provides a useful work-around but they would never want to live here due to the shortage of career opportunities and bad management.
Broadening tax collection or grow welfare? This is the choice the National Socialist aren’t going to answer. Free up individuals not by increasing compliance but take the weight off of a unfair taxation system. Its sad that the very people who succeed in a system, that exports skilled kiwis, that locks in welfare dependency, that supports old profit centres, who run up debt, who won’t debate without using the politics of destruction, national socialism (which is neither good for our economy or good for equality), then go out and tell us that those on welfare, people who live in high unemployment areas, people with real illnesses, people who told they can’t have another child say just watch. Its a shameless system that has picked up these mediocre right wing nutters who peddle the nastiest politics because a few media talking heads can talk for middle NZ.
Middle NZ does want people to be happy, does want happy families, they don’t want to stop people having kids who want them, they are just concerned that in order to help the poor who have kids that we remove the incentive to work, now this is wrong thinking. Firstly the market produces incentives, not a National socialist party that believes in intervention in markets, there are enough incentives for mums to get work, nice clothes, better wider range of food, services, and products! Second Middle NZ have their belief high-jacked by media, that because it looks easy (which it is not) that the low status of poverty actually leads to addiction, to social malaise, when the poverty trap is laid down, its the thinking of elites that find it all to easy to say poverty has poor outcomes it must be the poor at fault, morally, ethically, etc. But what happens when its not, what happens when all too many are addicted, too many in prison, too many ill? Well its the system that’s bigger than individial people trapped in poverty.
What happens when this persists? Well the people rise up and work together to change the system, and I assure you they will and are, globally people cannot get food and they rise up.
Government is not efficient, it does pick winners, and those winners are not more ethical or moral than the poorest, they are however less ethical and immoral when they use their lick to justify that poor, ill, marginalized are the problem.
So there’s one thing worst thing that a do-gooder, a right wing fascist do-gooder.
Government picks winners. If picked Key up and made him a beneficiary of
government distorted taxation. Only by allowing massive borrowing that favoured
capital farming could a man will little skill become a speculator currency trader.
We need a debate why the wealthy who have won from the legislative mix think
its the poor who are holding NZ back, when its them and their habits that have
led to massive indebtedness in the private sector. The rich a person was, the more
debt they could carry and the more debt they put on the NZ taxpayer now.
Government never works perfectly, and so we always need to cut down those
who benefit by failures in government, they are now the wealthy elite who
think they are owed a living despite being the people still offering us the same
restricted economic vision that just digs us deeper into debt, economic,
fiscal, environmental, social debts. Zombie economics. They don’t want the
debate because they know they will be in the dock for running our country
into the mire. We are a wealthy nation, commodities are booming, yet children
can’t get shoes, can’t have afford milk, can’t get ahead, its shameless.
Yes, the zombie economics, otherwise known as capitalism needs to be removed but that doesn’t mean that government is inefficient. One thing we should have learned over the last three decades is that government is more efficient than the private sector. The problem is that, over the last three decades, it has been used to benefit the capitalists rather than the community that it is, nominally, the servant of.
Its inevitable that any system will become so paralysed by parasites that it falls over. Even capitalism, it does not follow that capitalism is a failed system, just humans are. The argument
against public services is they are parasitical bureaucratic self-serving entities. But the same
could easily be said for the wealthy. Over time the wealthy will create such a large inequality gap that they fear becoming poor, so much so they will use their influence to write down the means of exchange (whether in a capitalist system or a communist one), since all human societies revolve around gift giving to create trust bonds between individuals and groups within society.
So one day you will be paid more, but somewhere someone is printing so much money that actually in real terms you are paid less, you buy less in the shops, the size of the products on the shelves sudden shrinks, the quality disappears, the tinned of peaches is flat like its been recooked a few times. But that’s not a problem! If you have a gormless enough citizenry who love soft nazi propaganda like NZ does, then nobody would notice how horrible the pies were, or how fat their kids are, or how stupid the education system was. No, with continuing cheapening oil supplies we all become duller. But now we are heading into a crisis, a crisis where the parasites cannot sustain themselves and the body they have infested, so its the parasites or the body. And
the parasites are winning, it will be a short victory. Nothing to do with capitalism since it happened to communism too. Every so often you need to legally, or illegally, remove the blockage, clean house, wash off the fungus. The choice is up to the parasite to choose their demise, too go out fighting taking us all down with them, or give up to the inevitable, that all the excessive unnecessary activity designed to create consent for huge unfair resource reallocating to a few of the worlds wealthiest.
It was never a binary choice, left or right, capitalism or communism, bludgers or farmers, its was always about getting everyone in a room and having the debate and playing off wants and needs. Fact is the wealthy got into bed with government and don’t want, or are too inanely stupid, too paralysis by their own pathetic addiction to power….
ACC, Telecom (If we hadn’t sold it we wouldn’t have lost ~$20b and we wouldn’t be paying them another billion or so to boost their profits), Health – US private insurance is 3 times per capita more costly than ours and only reaches 5/6 of the population…
RNZ right now Chris Laidlaw is doing an hour on food prices, crop failures, world hunger and the like. It has started well, probably be an interesting hour.
He’s been running a good quality programme lately. One of the highlights came last Sunday, when the great man read out a letter about the Sri Lankan government, written by (ahem!) me.
Prof. Steve Hoadley defends Kissinger, gets himself saved by Jim Mora
The Panel, National Radio, Friday May 27, 2011
Today’s panel: Jim Mora, “Bomber” Bradbury, Richard Langstone
First topic for the day is the arrest of Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic. Unlike Saddam Hussein, General Suharto, Augusto Pinochet, Ariel Sharon and dozens of other mass murderers, Mladic never enjoyed the support, sponsorship and diplomatic protection of the United States, so his arrest and arraignment was only a matter of time.
First guest is Professor STEPHEN HOADLEY, a right wing “security and foreign affairs specialist” from the University of Auckland. After he makes a few remarks condemning one war criminal, an unwary Hoadley is artfully lured into supporting a much worse one. Langstone and Bradbury are both astounded by what Hoadley says, and both of them want to argue the point with him. Unfortunately, the nervous host Jim Mora swiftly moves to shut down any possibility of Prof. Hoadley having to defend his words.
Presumably Professor Hoadley was capable of standing up for himself, so this is just another in a long line of missed opportunities for serious discussion on this programme….
PROF. HOADLEY: Sir Michael Jackson calls Mladic a bombastic thug.
RICHARD LANGSTONE: The man is a psychopath and a war criminal! He throttled a Dutch journalist in front of John Simpson from the BBC, for God’s sake!
MORA: The Jewish people won’t let the Holocaust be forgotten. Should we be allowed to forget Srebrenica?
BOMBER BRADBURY: Or the people who backed Osama Bin Laden?
HOADLEY: Rwanda, John Demjanjuk—there’s no statute of limitations on these heinous crimes. But then we see what’s happening with Assad in Syria, and with Gaddafi in Libya. The message doesn’t seem to deter bad behaviour.
LANGSTONE: Many people feel Henry Kissinger should be indicted for his role in the destruction of Indo-China.
MORA: Uh! But he’s slightly more REMOVED! He didn’t pat the heads of Muslim children befo—
LANGSTONE: Someone gave permission for the bombing.
MORA: Uhhh! Thank you! Thank you for raising that EXTRA strand of conversation!
HOADLEY: [with extreme gravitas] In the Geneva Conventions, military objectives are legitimate.
BRADBURY: W-w-w-w-what?
LANGSTONE: Hoohooooo…
MORA: I know you’re hoo-hooing…
LANGSTONE: If you carpet-bomb a country and think you won’t get civilians, you haven’t been in many wars.
MORA: Okay, okay! Yeah, yeah, yeah! Onto the next topic!
Yep, Hoadley’s a bit of an old neo-conservative. He’s been a loyal apologist for US/Israeli military action/War Crimes for a few decades now.
I’m wary of calling these people “conservatives”, or “neo-conservatives”, which is what they call themselves. It implies that they were once liberals, which is untrue, and that they are now conservatives, which is also untrue. They’re radicals, with a contempt for things that conservatives hold dear, such as the rule of law, and democracy. Hoadley had something to do with the dismissal of Dr. Paul Buchanan, didn’t he?
But good to see Richard Langstone telling it like it is !
Unfortunately, Jim Mora was determined to close him down. I think Langstone and Bomber Bradbury should have shown a bit of backbone and insisted on Hoadley defending his outlandish statement.
I fail to understand how you can consider Anna Paquin “gorgeous”. We obviously have fundamentally different tastes in women.
Well, you know, I wouldn’t say no…
I thought it implied that they were a “new breed” of conservatives rather than that they had become conservative anew. How do interpret the term “neo-nazi”?
I agree it’s a misnomer and they’re not conservatives at all, just interested in the etymology.
Actually, felix, we’re both right. These guys—Wolfowitz, Perle, Kristol, Kagan, Cheney, etc.—were “doves” during the U.S. destruction of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, which means that they made sure that they didn’t end up being sent there. In the degraded, fantastic world of the American political establishment, that means they were “liberals”. Of course they never were, except when it came to dope-smoking, free love—and evading army service, unlike those stupid “rednecks” from the South and the rust-belt.
When they grew up, and were no longer in any danger of being drafted, these phoney liberals transformed themselves into the most bloodthirsty exponents of American military “intervention”.
In other words, they were (according to themselves, anyway) a new breed of conservative. All perfect nonsense of course, but it’s a term that’s caught on.
Methinks, that methane gas and other explosive and deadly ones, need to be better monitored under safety regulations in NZ. Politicians should ensure that workers health is properly looked after with decent budgets and dedicated personnel. Workers doing difficult and dirty jobs should be properly protected by gas monitoring before they enter dangerous locations. Workers need to be able to demand these from companies and/or subcontactors.
We have had Pike that may always have been a gamble with a possibility that a dangerous gas mix deadly to miners would arise in time. Now an explosion in an underground tunnel in Auckland. Also some workers killed in the last few days while working near a forklift I think on a wind turbine site underlines the vulnerability of workers using machinery outdoors to serious injury and death.
ACC is seen as needed to provide assistance to the injured, help with expenses after death and encourage safe practices for those doing risky work. The comment was made that not too many office workers fell off their chairs and broke their arms. There is a lot of hot air in parliament, perhaps this should be monitored for flatulence, to avoid unexpected injuries.
Hoping what you’re noting there do not relate to the boring, expensive “back room” functions that this government is so enthusiastically slashing and cutting, oh, capping … more like fast-dropping capping from the looks of the previous budget(s).
On Chris Laidlaw RadioNZ this morning he discussed with the author a book about the Churchill family. One aspect has been of interest to me, the way that British aristocratic, wealthy or colonial service families of the Empah often neglected to give their children on-going affection or support.
I think the author said that Winston spent the years from 7 to 16 mostly away from home. He saw his mother once a year, and his father only visited his school twice in that time. His father died of syphilis so perhaps that was an indication of the choice he would make between visiting Winston at school or seeing his woman on the side. (Karen Blixen of Out of Africa fame caught the infection from her ‘noble’ Danish husband, so the disease was widespread.)
The British brought up many of their boys under this regime of emotional deprivation and documented bullying behaviour. The likelihood of semi-sexual relationships of love and touch-deprived children in these warehouses of the privileged, though the boys may not have lived as so, has been an open secret over the years. Winston apparently yearned for love and time with his parents and was said to be devastated when his father died. His particular background, requiring strength of will and purpose to make his own way and form individual opinions, must have resulted in him being the unique person who could lead Britain out of what threatened to be a loss of the country to powerful, expansionist Nazi Germany. But what a cost to the individual to produce those traits, which most of his peers would not have been left with after the brutalising of the Brit public school, perhaps just another version of the lower class Brit Schools.
Tom Sharpe has sharply saitirised these Brit public schools in his writings such as Porterhouse Blue and Grantchester Grind. And I suggest Vintage Stuff which focuses on Peregrine Clyde-Brown and involves wild driving and adventures in France during public school holidays. I think young Pere graduates to a career as a guerilla in Ireland where his talents for destruction are fully exercised.
prism @ 1:00 pm
Read a book about Churchill’s ‘deprived’ upbringing recently and it was fascinating. What is that saying now? “Give me the child until he is seven and I’ll give you the man”. Something like that.
Those public schools were run by sadists and psychopaths in those days. His father was unstable from an early age and his mother had no maternal instincts. He was brought up by a nanny who was the only person who gave him any love, but she was taken away from him when he was sent to his first boarding school. His mother eventually found her maternal side but not until he was well into his teens. She ended up his greatest supporter. I sometimes wonder whether his many bouts of depression were the legacy of that childhood.
Two things must be born in mind re the Churchill thing – I heard a letter read out about it, in which the letter writer begged to differ, saying that quite a lot of what Churchill claimed was not actually true… Also, I think it’s important to point out that Winnie’s mother was an American. (Agatha Christie is another upper class person everyone believed was the essence of English-ness, but in Aggie’s case, her father, and her maternal grandfather were Americans. Aggie identified herself as an American, somewhat to the bemusement of her siblings, and she lived a similar life to that claimed for Churchill – “benign” parental neglect, combined in her case, with what would be called now ‘home-schooling’! So, the fault is not entirely British.) All that being said, I had a boyfriend years back, whose father had been sent from home in Kenya, to a British boarding school when he was 8 years old, and didn’t see his parents again until he was 20. That had serious repercussions for his sons, who were very inadequately parented… 🙁
Hi Vicky
I wish I could remember the name of the book, but I do remember it was written by a well regarded British historian (whose name also escapes me for the moment – oh dear) and was not necessarily based on any claims made by Winston Churchill himself. It also confirmed what I have read elsewhere about Churchill.
I agree with your premise that.. not everything Churchill claimed was actually true. If he hadn’t been a very famous politician he would have been a very famous actor. The two professions are closely related. Indeed one of his three daughters (Diana I think) took up an acting career. Sadly she took her own life in the 60s.
Anne I wonder if the author was William Manchester. I think he’s famous for his Churchill work.
Vicky32 – I didn’t know about Ag Christie having USA relations. I had always thought of her as Brit. P G Wodehouse lived there also. I think that Simenon may have also.
I have heard of a notable citizen from North America Ted Turner, being sent to a military academy at eight so some wealthy take their task of personal involvement with their children lightly.
I don’t know if you have ever read Jon Cleary, Australian author but I have just finished Endpeace, a murder mystery about a wealthy family where the parents were so bonded that they hardly had time for their children. Actually the recent Churchill book said that this was what happened with Winston and Clementine.
Hi Vicky and Anne; I would like to read that book some time even though I could find it very difficult to read.
I had a very similar upbringing though not on a so grand a scale, my family lived in the Solomons and I went to two boarding schools in Australia so in the early years I only saw my parents at the Christmas holidays.
There was bullying at the first so I did the sensible thing, ran away!!!
The origins of boarding schools are based on two premis one on Plato’s The State and Pauline Christianity; both dead ideologies.
My house master in the 1st school was a major from the British Indian army, if one had problems academically he called one a ‘dumb idiot, no hoper’ in front of the whole class. He never had any training as a teacher. Another teacher at the same school looked exactly like the Roman emperor Vespasian, drove a VW, collected Wagner, and for such misdemeanors committed in the morning he would prescribe a caning, but the caning would not be performed until about 9pm. He would like to inflict psychological torture on 8 year olds for a whole day!!!! He never had a girl friend!!!!!
@ Drakula
I would have to go to the library and get a list of all the books I’ve taken out in the past year in order to track down the title of the book 😉 . What I suggest you do is visit your local library. From memory the book deals with his life until the out-break of WW1. Another interesting book is the story of Churchill’s marriage to Clementine which is also revealing about his character.
@Vicky32. (below)
My father was a former British soldier too and he had no time for Churchill. In the past couple of decades however there have papers released and well researched books written that provide information about his upbringing – as well as hitherto unknown war-time situations. I like to think my father would have revised his opinion of Churchill had he known about them.
I do remember that my father (English, British Army veteran) loathed Churchill! He said that C., was all mouth and didn’t achieve all that he was being praised for in the 60s, when we had this discussion…
Prism, I decided in 2009, to read everything old Aggie ever wrote (such as Aspie thing to do, that, it really makes me wonder!), and often I come across cringe-making things (inevitable really) that I know people will blame on her “Englishness”, wrongly in many cases… She had a very American view of heredity, and the dangers of adoption (any child put up for adoption is bound to come from a bad background, and middle-class parents are nursing vipers in their bosom etc). Her obsession with race was very American! (Although after she married a Jewish archaeologist, at least she laid off the anti-semitism – which was never rife in England at the time, as you’ll see if you read Dorothy Sayers for instance)…
vicky32 – I have followed your track and read all Ag C (recently bought Postern of Fate her last written book). I did notice certain things that struck a wrong note, but thought that it just reflected attitudes at the time. It’s interesting how around World War 1 she wrote a number of spy stories, also about secret Russian anarchist groups.
I have also read all Dorothy L Sayers and have a copy of The Song of Roland for when I feel like it. Though I can’t remember references to anti semitism.
As for Churchill, a high-profile decision-maker like him becomes a target for sneers and anger when a military move goes wrong. I guess the trick when in a wild world war is to be right more often than wrong and to do what has to be done, persuade allies, keep the desired results of winning the war and protecting the country, first and centre to every decision.
One of the hard things was to keep the information secret which was gained from the Enigma? code breaking and allow German maneouvres to proceed with loss of life and equipment to the Allies. Seeing into the heart of German planning was all important and to react to it would have ‘blown their cover’ and resulted in Germans changing their codes. The story of how those were obtained is a dramatic tale in itself which I haven’t read completely.
I have many books on WW2 in paperback which come very cheaply these days though WW2 is still a greater story than James Bond for instance. There is the one about the Brit dying man who was recruited to be washed up dead in the sea off France with falso plans for maneouvres in his pocket. Then there are the wonderful, brave, persuasive, fast-thinking agents behind enemy lines, Nancy Wake is just one of them. Their stories are riveting. There is the Brit who had personal contacts with the French Air Force and could have brought many of their planes and trained personnel into Britain to fight with the Brits against the Germans. He was prevented in this, which required urgent, fast decision making, by dull-minded bureaucrats who could think no higher than processing paperwork in the system. And WW2 still reverberates today.
I have also read all Dorothy L Sayers and have a copy of The Song of Roland for when I feel like it. Though I can’t remember references to anti semitism.
The anti-semitic remarks are in early Agatha books, then she married Max Mallowan, a German Jew…
There is the one about the Brit dying man who was recruited to be washed up dead in the sea off France with falso plans for maneouvres in his pocket.
I remember my Mum talking about that… The guy had pneumonia, and died with fluid in his lungs, which would convince the Germans that he had drowned, which was an essential part of the scheme… There was a film about it, I believe…
Then there are the wonderful, brave, persuasive, fast-thinking agents behind enemy lines, Nancy Wake is just one of them. Their stories are riveting. There is the Brit who had personal contacts with the French Air Force and could have brought many of their planes and trained personnel into Britain to fight with the Brits against the Germans. He was prevented in this, which required urgent, fast decision making, by dull-minded bureaucrats who could think no higher than processing paperwork in the system. And WW2 still reverberates today.
Thanks to my son, I learned about the number of people involved in Formula One who were agents… and I learned the story about Andree Borell, who was incredibly brave!
I started a Facebook group about her, and am looking for a link… which I can’t find, drat it! 🙁
vicky32 -Formula One agents? Do you mean the racing cars? Can you point me in the direction of that story as well as Andree Borell, when you find her link. Thanks.
My son had a book about them a few years back, nail-biting stuff! I can’t remember the name or the author, I think it’s Joe Saward… here’s the Wikipedia link about Andree Borell… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9e_Borrel
I see I’ve been mis-spelling her name, which can’t have helped my search… The Grand Prix Saboteurs, that’s the name of the book, Joe Saward… http://www.grandprixplus.com/meettheteam/joesaward.html
The thing that impressed me most about Andree Borrel is her fate – thrown alive into a crematorium, apparently… That makes me feel ill even to think about! (I watched Blitz Street last night on Prime, and thought about people in the ME who’ve been suffering things similar to that for nearly 10 years now..) I am constantly reminded of the reasons why I am a radical pacifist… I don’t know whether L., took the book to Welly with him, or I would arrange to lend it to you….(I assume you’re in NZ, but you may be at the other end of the country from me, for all I know!)
Vicky
Private insurers confirm that they can’t do accident insurance as cheaply as ACC and the only way they could compete in the market would be if the government removed ACC completely.
Edmiston said that private insurers would not be able to compete with ACC’s pricing and would prefer it was excised completely from the market.
There ya go RWNJs, straight from the horses mouth, the private insurance companies will not be making accident insurance cheaper or better because they can’t.
They private insurers were cheaper last time ACC was opened up to competition. As an employer the amount I was paying went down considerably and the cover was far more extensive.
I’m picking a big part of the reason they won’t this time is that they have learnt from last time that as soon as Labour get back in office they will revert to the model that best serves their ideology. A state run monopoly that can dictate the price and the level of cover to serve the best interests of easy administration. Once again we will be relegated to no fixed service level, no particular contract for what is covered and what is not – once again Labour will throw us onto the fire of ideology and ACC will be policy de-jour serving itself.
Umm, wasn’t just me felix. The ability to choose a level of cover, agree a price and have a contract for that cover rather than a nebulas ‘you pay what we say – you get the treatment we decide and we assess you eligibility for everything according to the rules in force when it happens’ was the biggest bonus. My most recent experience with ACC they changed the eligibility and cost of the services I was using half way through the process – strangely my premiums went up for the luxury as well.
They private insurers were cheaper last time ACC was opened up to competition.
That doesn’t mean that it will be cheaper now. In fact, the insurance industry has just come out and said it won’t be.
Everything else you said is pure ideology and not backed up by fact as has been shown by the PWC study on ACC finding it to be the cheapest and best accident compensation scheme in the world and, now, by the insurance industry who have come out and said that they can’t beat it.
That doesn’t mean that it will be cheaper now. In fact, the insurance industry has just come out and said it won’t be.
That was kind of what I was saying with;
“I’m picking a big part of the reason they won’t this time is that they have learnt from last time that as soon as Labour get back in office they will revert to the model that best serves their ideology.”
No you weren’t. You were espousing your delusional belief that the private sector is always cheaper than the public sector and that the government should do what’s best for the private sector rather than what’s best for the community.
Labour have said they will reverse it… They did last time as well; If that’s not a major disincentive for insurers to enter the market then what is.
Your beloved party is costing tax payers money because it’s policies are to restrict competition. I understand that’s probably a bitter pill to swallow but get over it.
The whole point of ACC is so people can have their treatment covered and be paid 80% of their wages while off work.
Opening ACC up to private cover means that they wont be because private insurers have to make a profit, and the only way they can do that that is by denying people cover. That is a FACT.
I dont give a shit if you dont like paying high levies, the fact is that it is a price to pay so living standards are preserved in hard times.
80% is the magic figure that people can survive on then ? For everyone ? So that guy earning $5,000,000 a year he needs $4,000,000 and the guy on $20K a year he will be just as fine on $16K ?
That guy on $5,000,000 might have wanted to reduce his premium and settle on an ‘after accident’ benefit of $500,000/year… That guy on $20K might have wanted to pay a small increase in premium to preserve $20K inflation adjusted as his after accident compensation… But no, couldn’t have that.
That’s great, I’m glad we understand that one size fits all.
80% is the magic figure that people can survive on then ? For everyone ? So that guy earning $5,000,000 a year he needs $4,000,000 and the guy on $20K a year he will be just as fine on $16K ?
That guy on $5,000,000 might have wanted to reduce his premium and settle on an ‘after accident’ benefit of $500,000/year… That guy on $20K might have wanted to pay a small increase in premium to preserve $20K inflation adjusted as his after accident compensation… But no, couldn’t have that.
uh, burt, you can’t insure yourself for more than $103,670 (this year’s upper limit, adjusted each year). that’s the maximum for ACC, if you want to make more than that.
also, you’ve obviously not heard of coverplus extra, which allows you to pick a sum & pay ACC on that figure. it allows guaranteed cover, and we usually recommend clients to purchase enough cover to employ a replacement person for their business.
pays to understand the system before you criticise it.
[there’s not a “reply” thingy on the relevant comment so i hope it appears in the right order]
burt, government monopoly accident compensation is cheaper than private insurers. Studies prove this and the insurance companies themselves have now come out and confirmed that they cannot match the low fees and cover of ACC. This means that Labour (whom I don’t vote for BTW), far from costing tax payers money is saving them hundreds of millions of dollars per year which means that you, in your denial of this, is promoting the delusional belief that the private sector is always cheaper and are saying that the government should do what’s best for the private sector rather than what’s best for the community.
The government are our servants – not those of the capitalists and they should always do what’s best for us which, in this case, means not bowing and scraping to the psychopathic capitalists who want to enrich themselves at our expense.
Are you deliberately not addressing the point that ACC is not an insurance as such. There is no specific contract with agreed costs and compensations. Sure we can continue to push the line that we have the only state monopoly no fault accident insurance scheme in the world and therefore the cheapest – but that’s getting us nowhere.
ACC are not our servants, they are a cost plus monopoly run for the convenience of having a one size fits all socialist model.
I have no issues with contributing to a social policy scheme that protects the people who can’t protect themselves, I just don’t agree that the only way to make that work is a one size fits all model for everyone.
“Why? Shouldn’t people over a certain income be asset tested?”
No, because it’s tied into no-fault cover. If you have an accident and are rich you’d be able to sue for compensation over what ACC would have given you, but if you were below a threshhold you’re limited to 80%. As soon as the door is opened to lawyers even a crack, they’ll push it further open and the entire point – that you get treatment and compensation without it becoming a battle of the lawyers – becomes completely unattainable (rather than less frequetly having to hire lawyers to deal with ACC)
ACC, burtyboy, has a LEGAL OBLIGATION TO PAY OUT ON EACH AND EVERY CLAIM.
Full cover for medical treatment and payment at 80% of your wages until you are better.
Somehow I cannot see private insurers offering that. Most likely, they will try and get out of paying out, and leave people to struggle on sickness benefits, etc.
But twenty years ago they very may well could of competed, in a growing economy
its possible to create a ponsi system where existing insured pay for dead cover
(as we see now insurance circles as we are all now going to be paying higher
premiums!).
I mean look around, there’s huge cash globally chasing ever shrinking prospects.
Of course insurance cannot sell investors the revenue stream when the energy
crunch continues and will continue for decades to come.
So why doesn’t National understand this, is this just cheap politics of looking
aggressive, extreme and radical because that’s how they attracted votes.
Vote for winners because even thought they have no clue how government
picked them as winners, and no clue why cheaper year on year energy
and increasing access to cheaper and cheaper credit made anything they
did well good, and anything they did badly come on as average.
All it takes is China to sneeze, with a mass revolt and the whole hollow
edifice of smile and jerk zombie economics will come crashing down.
Petrol prices should be much higher, so high that even National voters
are crying our for cycle paths, cheap local public transport, and intercity
rail – that naturally mean better mixed retail apartment centers. Then we’ll
be building a future, not the more roading sprawl.
And we pay for it by introducing fair broad taxation, GST off food, books,
child goods and a CGT. If we are going to compete with Australia
we should have our tax regimes locked in step. Otherwise speculators
can buy the PM slot, Key is not a good politician, he is a goof ball.
John Let me turn that proposition in its head. I’m totally opposed to social welfare that pays young people $6 an hour to sit at home every day watching pornography and smoking drug and planning crimes. I’m absolutely committed to giving them the dignity of work. It is wrong to pay them $6 an hour to do that when you could have them working and getting work experience and apprenticeships in the workforce without a minimum wage rate of pay. Minimum wage rates of pay in this country are failing young people that want to work. My long experience Sean is that even criminals that come out of jail want the dignity of work, and want to play in the local Rugby League team. If they’ve got a job and they’re playing sport I’m telling you they don’t go back to jail.
Victorian attitudes come to the fore here. Apparently all our young people sit at home and watch porn, smoke drugs and plot to commit crime and the only way to stop them is to make them work for effectively nothing.
I especially love the bit about playing rugby! What a tosser… Because of course no “criminals” and no “young people” for that matter are girls, or hate team sports!
I agree Millsy; Banks came from a very hard background but misses the point entirely, he thinks if people come from a tough background they should have the guts to choose the right path.
Like he did !!!!
He fails to realize that scraping the minimum wage is tantamount to slavery and exploitation and nobody likes to be taken advantage of.
If that becomes the prevailing zeitgiest then it is likely that the disadvantaged will make an economic decision over a moral one. Especially when one is hungry or their families are deprived of health services and educational opportunities.
His philosophy is ‘I made it against all the odds so can anyone else’ He would be a fan of Ayn Rand where the survival of the fittest breeds the alfa- hero, Atlas.
I think you would agree that a social system gives everyone a good start in life equips youth with a skill and keeps everyone healthy. this may not eliminate crime but people would be better equiped to make moral decisions rather than economic decisions based on desperation.
The privatised prisons are a clasic example of this fascist thinking: The prisons usually have contracts with earth moving corporations who employ prisoners but only pay them a fraction of the going rate. these institutions argue that the crims should pay and pay.
The prisoner knows that the employer is stealing his labour and that if the institutions steal then why can’t he? when he gets out of prison with virtualy nothing !!!
It sends out the wrong message doesn’t it?
In reality there are two issues (1) If one commits the crime one does the time, fair enough (2) A law breaker should be tought that work should be rewarded not exploited.
A responsible employer should pay the prisoner the full rate to be put it into his bank account until his release that will help prisoners to settle into a straight civi life.
His philosophy is ‘I made it against all the odds so can anyone else’
Indeed, and it’d be hilarious if it weren’t so serious how many people believe this without considering for a moment what “against all the odds” means.
Do these people also believe that everyone who goes to the casino can win too? Perhaps they’d all win if they just gambled a bit harder.
As Banks is only a bit older than me I am sure he had the same free schooling, health and dental care I did. He and his parents would have benefited from the relatively crime free and prosperous society and the infrastructure paid for by New Zealanders in the past.
My parents were low income, admittedly from choice, as they chose to help people rather than earn lots of money. Thanks to the, pre-Rogernomics, New Zealand we grew up in we did not lack opportunity. We all went onto well paid and satisfying careers.
If Banks was born to a low income family in the sort of society he advocates it is doubtfull he would have even finished school, or advanced beyound a minimum income job..
“But any sort of rules are a good start.”
__________________________________________________________________________
Given that NZ – ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt country in the world’ (along with Denmark and Singapore, according to Transparency International’s 2010 ‘Corruption Perception Index’) –
doesn’t have a ‘Register of Lobbyists’ or a ‘Code of Conduct for Lobbyists’ – not to mention an enforceable ‘Code of Conduct’ for MPs ………….. I decided to check out the ‘rules’ which apply to ‘lobbyists’ (and MPs) – across the ditch – in Australia………..
Summary of codes of conduct in Australian parliaments
A survey of codes of conduct in Australian and selected overseas parliaments
Online only. First published as an E-brief on 15 June 2006 and Background Note 1 July 2007.
This edition issued 26 November 2009, updated 17 December 2009.
Deirdre McKeown
Politics and Public Administration Section
Contents
Introduction
Commonwealth parliament
Ministerial code of conduct
Post-separation employment
Senators’ and members’ code of conduct
Register of Interests
Lobbying code of conduct and register of lobbyists
New South Wales
Ministerial code of conduct
Members of parliament code of conduct
Secondary employment and post-separation employment
Disclosure of pecuniary interests
The Parliamentary ethics adviser
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
Victoria
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct and register of interests
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
Queensland
Ministers’ code of ethics
Members’ code of ethical standards
Register of members’ interests
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
Queensland integrity commissioner
Integrity Act 2009
Western Australia
Ministerial code of conduct
Members of parliament code of conduct
Register of interests
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
South Australia
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct
Register of interests
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
Tasmania
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct
Government members’ code and guidelines
Review of ethical conduct by the Joint Select Committee on Ethical Conduct
Register of interests
Lobbyist register
Australian Capital Territory
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct
Ethics and integrity adviser
Register of interests
Northern Territory
Members’ code of conduct
Register of interests
Summary of codes of conduct in Australian parliaments
Selected Overseas Parliaments
United Kingdom
Ministerial code of conduct
Report on the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests
Members’ and Lords’ code of conduct
Register of interests
Lobbying industry inquiry
In June 2007 the PASC
Parliamentary Standards Act 2009
Canada
Ministerial code of conduct
Members code of conduct
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Post–separation employment
Senate ethics officer
Lobbying Act 1985
United States
Members’ code of conduct
Office of Congressional Ethics
Lobbyist legislation and post–separation employment
New Zealand
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct
Register of interests
_______________________________________________________________________
NZ is also missing legislation which covers ‘post-separation’ employment.
ie: Legislation which prevents the ‘revolving door’ from public office to the private sector – which is arguably a form of ‘corrupt practice’ which appears to be endemic in ‘clean, green NZ’.
Did I mention the similar lack of an enforceable ‘Code of Conduct’ for NZ Judges, and the lack of a ‘Register of pecuniary interests’ for both Judges and Local Government elected representatives and their spouses?
If NZ is ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt country in the world’ (along with Denmark and Singapore, according to Transparency International’s 2010 ‘Corruption Perception Index’) – then shouldn’t we be the MOST ‘transparent’?
The Transparency International rating is as I understand, set after responses by citizens of the country as to their perceptions of corrupt practices or not. It could be that we are so busy swanning round in our Swandris, and wheeling around in our four-wheel drives, and taking part in or watching sport or talking about sport or watching fake reality shows, that we don’t know what is going on and really don’t care.
Indeed, many don’t bother to be informed when there is real news informing about bad practices. Finally many haven’t absorbed any values and standards during childhood to adulthood so haven’t any ideals or aspirations other than to get as much money as possible, and pay as little tax as possible and regard the government as a lever to pull to achieve that.
Great comment Penny. New Zealand so needs to get its act together regarding ethical practice.
No wonder ‘parasites in emperor’s clothing’ like Nact,their business buddies and their media buddies ( DF now seems to be in this category too via nz herald and stuff) are able to manipulate the weak democratic and justice systems we have here to meet their own ends.
Did you notice that National haven’t even been in govt 3 years yet? The substance of that report is actually a reflection on the previous tyrannous govt that operated in the best interests of the state providers – who are unaccountable.
Note: Online only. First published as an E-brief on 15 June 2006 and Background Note 1 July 2007.
This edition issued 26 November 2009, updated 17 December 2009.
I couldn’t believe the backlash against sports commentator Murray Deaker last week and had to turn the radio and TV off because of the incessant complaints about my old mate using the N word. People just went on and on like it was the end of the world or something. It’s freedom of bloody expression, something a lot of people just don’t understand.
You might have noticed a large dollop of sarcasm in the above paragraph…
If ACC is privatised, will the British snowboarders who injure themselves whist on holiday in NZ still be covered?
I really can’t see what the problem is. If a member of parliament can use the expression “White Motherfucker”, then surely any form of racial abuse is to be tolerated in NZ??
n*gger has been used as a term of abuse and oppression against groups of people who have enslaved, beaten, lynched, denied various human rights and even after all that was supposed to end are still by and large treated much worse than their white compatriots.
Calling someone a white whatever, at least in a NZ context, NEVER has the same degree of hate and evil attached to it. Harawira was trying to make a point about the treatment of Maori at the hands of white people since colonisation. Pakeha in NZ have never experienced the kind of oppression that he was talking about. You can’t just reverse those things and say they are the same.
Motherfucker is an abusive, misogynistic word, and Harawira apologised to women for using it.
Harawira used the term in a private email. Deaker use the term on a TV broadcast. He has apologised unreservedly, which is good.
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Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 24 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. It’s not as if we haven’t done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didn’t say: “Oh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.” No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
The government's plan to reintroduce a three strikes regime is being strongly opposed by lawyers, who argue there is no evidence it reduces crime or helps people rehabilitate. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer “yes” to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if they’re experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University anek.soowannaphoom/Shutterstock NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up. New South Wales, he claimed, would be A$11.9 billion worse off over the ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Shutterstock An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week in defence of the government’s Future Made in Australia industry ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Security forces reinforcements were sent from France ahead of two rival marches in the capital Nouméa today, at the same time and only two streets away one from the other. One march, called by Union Calédonienne party (a component of the ...
A poll last August found that just 16% of New Zealanders oppose bringing back the ‘Three Strikes’ law. The nationwide poll of 1,000 New Zealanders was commissioned by Family First NZ and carried out by Curia Market Research. ...
The solo show from Ana Scotney is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see, writes Mad Chapman. In the opening moments of Scattergun: After the Death of Rūaumoko, writer and performer Ana Scotney lays out the groundwork, literally. Silently moving around the square stage, Scotney is not so much dancing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Burridge, Professor of Linguistics, Monash University Who makes the words? Why are trees called trees and why are shoes called shoes and who makes the names? – Elliot, age 5, Eltham, Victoria Good question Elliot! Let’s start with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne at amRawpixel.com/Shutterstock Roles of health professionals are still unfortunately often stuck in the past. That is, before the ...
COMMENTARY:By Malcolm Evans Last week’s leaked New York Times staff directive, as to what words can and cannot be used to describe the carnage Israel is raining on Palestinians, is proof positive, since those reports are published verbatim here in New Zealand, that our understanding of the conflict is ...
In the case of New Zealand, the results confirm that there is no popular support for the vicious austerity program being imposed by the National Party-led government, which is backed in all fundamental respects by the opposition Labour Party. ...
The ‘Vampire’ singer has never visited our part of the world, but that might all be about to change. We assess the evidence.Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour is pulling in massive crowds as it whips around the US and Europe, even helping to catapult regular supporting act Chappell Roan ...
Testing of drinking water in rural Canterbury over the weekend by Greenpeace revealed that several public town supplies were reaching levels of nitrate above 5 mg/L - the threshold which a growing body of scientific evidence has linked to increased ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rohan Fisher, Information Technology for Development Researcher, Charles Darwin University It may come as a surprise to hear 2023 was Australia’s biggest bushfire season in more than a decade. Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black ...
Responding to the Government’s announcement of changes to resource management laws, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: “These changes are a step in the right direction in terms of removing ideological and unworkable ...
More than two years after the Human Rights Council called for the establishment of a national human rights commission, such a body has yet to be formed. ...
Comment:An emergency management system with wide variations in performance, significant capability gaps, funding shortfalls and above all a setup that is not meeting the needs of New Zealanders at times of crisis. The Government’s inquiry into the response to Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events in the North ...
Welcome to the whirring wonders of one brain trying to align its actions with its beliefs within a system it thinks is evil. My brain has been spiralling in a woke conundrum ever since I found out a bookshop I’ve never been to was shutting down. Good Books, a bookshop ...
We repeat our call for criminal justice policy to be based on evidence, something the three strikes regime neglects to recognise – with no evidence that it either reduces crime or assists with rehabilitation. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara With only four more seats in the 50-member Parliament yet to be officially declared, there is no outright winner in the Solomon Islands elections. As of Monday, the two largest blocs in the winner’s circle, independents and the incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh ...
Greens set to declare today who they would work with in the next Government:
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/greens-set-declare-hand-coalitions-4206369
Norman: please don’t do a Nick Clegg.
“Norman: please don’t do a Nick Clegg.”
Greens: please don’t do a Maori Party.
A seat in cabinet with National would end the Greens. I’d most likely give my party vote to Mana if the Greens are willing to work with the Nats and I’m sure many others would go with Labour.
I haven’t been following the internal stuff – are they really considering a deal with the Nats or is this just a formality?
Peter ‘toi toi’ Sharples goes with where the winds of power blow.
Let’s hope Russel doesn’t go toi toi-ing with the RWNJs.
I think this is just a way for the Greens to get publicity.
Be all coy about not ruling out the Nats and possibly, maybe, go with them after the election. It’s the kind of scuttlebutt that gets Guyon and Duncan all hot and bothered because it’s all ‘just so interesting’.
Ok, hoping Russel isn’t toying with the left progressive voters and then selling out on them.
News out now ..
Here’s hoping, “highly unlikely” or not, the Greens do not supply political capital and give their confidence to the Greeds:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/77013/political-positioning-set-out-by-greens
Lesson 1: Tory con jobs demand too high a price.
“At their annual meeting in Auckland on Sunday, the Greens made a final decision that they could form a Government with the Labour Party or support it on confidence and supply.
But they ruled out forming a government with National.
They said they could work with National on confidence and supply, though such an arrangement would be highly unlikely.”
The RNZ link.
That’s a dangerous game. I’ll be wanting to see the Greens press release itself. Under what conditions would the Greens support National on confidence and supply? Or are they just saying that to get the centre Green vote?
I agree Weka I said exactly the same thing when Metiria and Norman were making similar overtures a few months ago, I said on Frogblog that they were playing a dangerous game.
For the Greens to vote on Confidence and Supply ? That’s not in my view an option it would be best to force a re-election.
This government is extremely dangerous you don’t negotiate with them nor do you give them any options once out of power; ‘It’s either OR’ !!!!!
Here’s the “highly unlikely” press release from the Greens website:
http://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/independent-greens-could-support-labour-national-unlikely
And here’s Metiria’s speech (with the “highly unlikely” remit at the end) on Scoop’s:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1106/S00082/speech-turei-our-goals-our-achievements-our-position.htm
Interesting. But still hoping that Russel (cf. Turei) will not be doing a Cleggy.
You would also need to factor in National voters bailing ship as well weka. Personally I’m all for more cooperation between the parties, but can see why the Greens are unable to work with National. With more cooperation though, we would hopefully not see the extreme swings in policy direction every time the Government changes, which costs NZ millions of dollars.
I agree about the need for more cooperation. There’s ways of co-operating without going into government with them. Although it’s the Nats (and Labour to an extent) that don’t like doing that, not the Greens.
Cooperation is nice but, considering that National are a bunch of psychopaths who don’t believe in reality, there’s very little that you cooperate with them on.
From what I’ve heard on Nat Rad, the Greens will not go with National, whew!
Vicky
Grens will woith Te mana and Labour, not because Te Mana will have great environmental policies but because of their idealogy.
Would Nick Clegg have had the courage to confront Chinese government thugs like Russell Norman did last year?
More importantly: is Nick Clegg married to the sister of a gorgeous movie star?
Courage or grandstanding stupidity? Fine line there.
Many people said the same about Martin Luther King. Are you a member of ACT?
MLK inspired millions at the cost of his own life. RN waved a flag and whined like a little bitch. Difference, much?
BTW, I’m not a member of ACT but I do know better than to rely on the moral backbone of a well-meaning hippie.
MLK inspired millions at the cost of his own life. RN waved a flag and whined like a little bitch. Difference, much?
He didn’t simply “wave a flag”, you fool. He protested against the Chinese government and was manhandled by Chinese government goons. And he didn’t “whine” at all, he quite properly pointed out the craven behaviour of the New Zealand government, which did not even protest at an attack on a New Zealand parliamentarian in the grounds of parliament.
BTW, I’m not a member of ACT but I do know better than to rely on the moral backbone of a well-meaning hippie.
You certainly sound like a member of ACT. But okay, you’re in the National Party.
Oh please, even if I agreed with your interpretation of RN’s protest, comparing him with MLK is fecking nuts.
And dude, you’re talking about a party that refuses to rule out going into coalition with NACT. Two elections down the line they’ll be looking the other way on minimum wage as long as national pay farmers $500mil to “compensate” them for not putting cattle shit in our rivers.
Oh please, even if I agreed with your interpretation of RN’s protest, comparing him with MLK is fecking nuts.
He stood up for democracy and protested against a brutal and repressive regime. Your objection to him seems to be based on nothing more than his tone of voice.
Two elections down the line they’ll be looking the other way…
You may well be right, unfortunately.
Rugby crying poor again.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/5101744/Rugby-model-in-desperate-need-of-revamp
I seem to recall that the call for the game to go professional came from New Zealand against much opposition from those dastardly chaps of the Northern Hemisphere Unions. As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap.
The game is no longer the same since it was privatised, erm, professionalised .. or de-Unionised.
Sell the game, sell your players, export New Zealand, go Kiwis!
It’s really embarrassing listening to expat Kiwis talk about what a basket case NZ is, and listening to foreigners talk about how they will use their NZ immigration status to get working and living in Australia, if they can’t get into Australia directly in the first place. NZ provides a useful work-around but they would never want to live here due to the shortage of career opportunities and bad management.
Actually it’s fraking pathetic.
We don’t have a government who is willing to do the hard yards to invest and create in jobs.
Easier just to hollow out the country by selling out.
Or pissing off to across the ditch.
Broadening tax collection or grow welfare? This is the choice the National Socialist aren’t going to answer. Free up individuals not by increasing compliance but take the weight off of a unfair taxation system. Its sad that the very people who succeed in a system, that exports skilled kiwis, that locks in welfare dependency, that supports old profit centres, who run up debt, who won’t debate without using the politics of destruction, national socialism (which is neither good for our economy or good for equality), then go out and tell us that those on welfare, people who live in high unemployment areas, people with real illnesses, people who told they can’t have another child say just watch. Its a shameless system that has picked up these mediocre right wing nutters who peddle the nastiest politics because a few media talking heads can talk for middle NZ.
Middle NZ does want people to be happy, does want happy families, they don’t want to stop people having kids who want them, they are just concerned that in order to help the poor who have kids that we remove the incentive to work, now this is wrong thinking. Firstly the market produces incentives, not a National socialist party that believes in intervention in markets, there are enough incentives for mums to get work, nice clothes, better wider range of food, services, and products! Second Middle NZ have their belief high-jacked by media, that because it looks easy (which it is not) that the low status of poverty actually leads to addiction, to social malaise, when the poverty trap is laid down, its the thinking of elites that find it all to easy to say poverty has poor outcomes it must be the poor at fault, morally, ethically, etc. But what happens when its not, what happens when all too many are addicted, too many in prison, too many ill? Well its the system that’s bigger than individial people trapped in poverty.
What happens when this persists? Well the people rise up and work together to change the system, and I assure you they will and are, globally people cannot get food and they rise up.
Government is not efficient, it does pick winners, and those winners are not more ethical or moral than the poorest, they are however less ethical and immoral when they use their lick to justify that poor, ill, marginalized are the problem.
So there’s one thing worst thing that a do-gooder, a right wing fascist do-gooder.
Yes, actually, it is.
Government picks winners. If picked Key up and made him a beneficiary of
government distorted taxation. Only by allowing massive borrowing that favoured
capital farming could a man will little skill become a speculator currency trader.
We need a debate why the wealthy who have won from the legislative mix think
its the poor who are holding NZ back, when its them and their habits that have
led to massive indebtedness in the private sector. The rich a person was, the more
debt they could carry and the more debt they put on the NZ taxpayer now.
Government never works perfectly, and so we always need to cut down those
who benefit by failures in government, they are now the wealthy elite who
think they are owed a living despite being the people still offering us the same
restricted economic vision that just digs us deeper into debt, economic,
fiscal, environmental, social debts. Zombie economics. They don’t want the
debate because they know they will be in the dock for running our country
into the mire. We are a wealthy nation, commodities are booming, yet children
can’t get shoes, can’t have afford milk, can’t get ahead, its shameless.
Yes, the zombie economics, otherwise known as capitalism needs to be removed but that doesn’t mean that government is inefficient. One thing we should have learned over the last three decades is that government is more efficient than the private sector. The problem is that, over the last three decades, it has been used to benefit the capitalists rather than the community that it is, nominally, the servant of.
Its inevitable that any system will become so paralysed by parasites that it falls over. Even capitalism, it does not follow that capitalism is a failed system, just humans are. The argument
against public services is they are parasitical bureaucratic self-serving entities. But the same
could easily be said for the wealthy. Over time the wealthy will create such a large inequality gap that they fear becoming poor, so much so they will use their influence to write down the means of exchange (whether in a capitalist system or a communist one), since all human societies revolve around gift giving to create trust bonds between individuals and groups within society.
So one day you will be paid more, but somewhere someone is printing so much money that actually in real terms you are paid less, you buy less in the shops, the size of the products on the shelves sudden shrinks, the quality disappears, the tinned of peaches is flat like its been recooked a few times. But that’s not a problem! If you have a gormless enough citizenry who love soft nazi propaganda like NZ does, then nobody would notice how horrible the pies were, or how fat their kids are, or how stupid the education system was. No, with continuing cheapening oil supplies we all become duller. But now we are heading into a crisis, a crisis where the parasites cannot sustain themselves and the body they have infested, so its the parasites or the body. And
the parasites are winning, it will be a short victory. Nothing to do with capitalism since it happened to communism too. Every so often you need to legally, or illegally, remove the blockage, clean house, wash off the fungus. The choice is up to the parasite to choose their demise, too go out fighting taking us all down with them, or give up to the inevitable, that all the excessive unnecessary activity designed to create consent for huge unfair resource reallocating to a few of the worlds wealthiest.
It was never a binary choice, left or right, capitalism or communism, bludgers or farmers, its was always about getting everyone in a room and having the debate and playing off wants and needs. Fact is the wealthy got into bed with government and don’t want, or are too inanely stupid, too paralysis by their own pathetic addiction to power….
rant, rant.
How is it more efficient give us proof?
ACC, Telecom (If we hadn’t sold it we wouldn’t have lost ~$20b and we wouldn’t be paying them another billion or so to boost their profits), Health – US private insurance is 3 times per capita more costly than ours and only reaches 5/6 of the population…
RNZ right now Chris Laidlaw is doing an hour on food prices, crop failures, world hunger and the like. It has started well, probably be an interesting hour.
He’s been running a good quality programme lately. One of the highlights came last Sunday, when the great man read out a letter about the Sri Lankan government, written by (ahem!) me.
Hey Lynn – the time stamp on comments is about 7 min ahead of real time (and getting faster I think?)
8 mins ahead by my comp time automatically set from NZST.
Prof. Steve Hoadley defends Kissinger, gets himself saved by Jim Mora
The Panel, National Radio, Friday May 27, 2011
Today’s panel: Jim Mora, “Bomber” Bradbury, Richard Langstone
First topic for the day is the arrest of Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic. Unlike Saddam Hussein, General Suharto, Augusto Pinochet, Ariel Sharon and dozens of other mass murderers, Mladic never enjoyed the support, sponsorship and diplomatic protection of the United States, so his arrest and arraignment was only a matter of time.
First guest is Professor STEPHEN HOADLEY, a right wing “security and foreign affairs specialist” from the University of Auckland. After he makes a few remarks condemning one war criminal, an unwary Hoadley is artfully lured into supporting a much worse one. Langstone and Bradbury are both astounded by what Hoadley says, and both of them want to argue the point with him. Unfortunately, the nervous host Jim Mora swiftly moves to shut down any possibility of Prof. Hoadley having to defend his words.
Presumably Professor Hoadley was capable of standing up for himself, so this is just another in a long line of missed opportunities for serious discussion on this programme….
PROF. HOADLEY: Sir Michael Jackson calls Mladic a bombastic thug.
RICHARD LANGSTONE: The man is a psychopath and a war criminal! He throttled a Dutch journalist in front of John Simpson from the BBC, for God’s sake!
MORA: The Jewish people won’t let the Holocaust be forgotten. Should we be allowed to forget Srebrenica?
BOMBER BRADBURY: Or the people who backed Osama Bin Laden?
HOADLEY: Rwanda, John Demjanjuk—there’s no statute of limitations on these heinous crimes. But then we see what’s happening with Assad in Syria, and with Gaddafi in Libya. The message doesn’t seem to deter bad behaviour.
LANGSTONE: Many people feel Henry Kissinger should be indicted for his role in the destruction of Indo-China.
MORA: Uh! But he’s slightly more REMOVED! He didn’t pat the heads of Muslim children befo—
LANGSTONE: Someone gave permission for the bombing.
MORA: Uhhh! Thank you! Thank you for raising that EXTRA strand of conversation!
HOADLEY: [with extreme gravitas] In the Geneva Conventions, military objectives are legitimate.
BRADBURY: W-w-w-w-what?
LANGSTONE: Hoohooooo…
MORA: I know you’re hoo-hooing…
LANGSTONE: If you carpet-bomb a country and think you won’t get civilians, you haven’t been in many wars.
MORA: Okay, okay! Yeah, yeah, yeah! Onto the next topic!
Yep, Hoadley’s a bit of an old neo-conservative. He’s been a loyal apologist for US/Israeli military action/War Crimes for a few decades now.
But good to see Richard Langstone telling it like it is !
(Incidently, I fail to understand how you can consider Anna Paquin “gorgeous”. We obviously have fundamentally different tastes in women).
Yep, Hoadley’s a bit of an old neo-conservative. He’s been a loyal apologist for US/Israeli military action/War Crimes for a few decades now.
I’m wary of calling these people “conservatives”, or “neo-conservatives”, which is what they call themselves. It implies that they were once liberals, which is untrue, and that they are now conservatives, which is also untrue. They’re radicals, with a contempt for things that conservatives hold dear, such as the rule of law, and democracy. Hoadley had something to do with the dismissal of Dr. Paul Buchanan, didn’t he?
But good to see Richard Langstone telling it like it is !
Unfortunately, Jim Mora was determined to close him down. I think Langstone and Bomber Bradbury should have shown a bit of backbone and insisted on Hoadley defending his outlandish statement.
I fail to understand how you can consider Anna Paquin “gorgeous”. We obviously have fundamentally different tastes in women.
Well, you know, I wouldn’t say no…
It implies that they were once liberals…
I thought it implied that they were a “new breed” of conservatives rather than that they had become conservative anew. How do interpret the term “neo-nazi”?
I agree it’s a misnomer and they’re not conservatives at all, just interested in the etymology.
Actually, felix, we’re both right. These guys—Wolfowitz, Perle, Kristol, Kagan, Cheney, etc.—were “doves” during the U.S. destruction of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, which means that they made sure that they didn’t end up being sent there. In the degraded, fantastic world of the American political establishment, that means they were “liberals”. Of course they never were, except when it came to dope-smoking, free love—and evading army service, unlike those stupid “rednecks” from the South and the rust-belt.
When they grew up, and were no longer in any danger of being drafted, these phoney liberals transformed themselves into the most bloodthirsty exponents of American military “intervention”.
In other words, they were (according to themselves, anyway) a new breed of conservative. All perfect nonsense of course, but it’s a term that’s caught on.
Methinks, that methane gas and other explosive and deadly ones, need to be better monitored under safety regulations in NZ. Politicians should ensure that workers health is properly looked after with decent budgets and dedicated personnel. Workers doing difficult and dirty jobs should be properly protected by gas monitoring before they enter dangerous locations. Workers need to be able to demand these from companies and/or subcontactors.
We have had Pike that may always have been a gamble with a possibility that a dangerous gas mix deadly to miners would arise in time. Now an explosion in an underground tunnel in Auckland. Also some workers killed in the last few days while working near a forklift I think on a wind turbine site underlines the vulnerability of workers using machinery outdoors to serious injury and death.
ACC is seen as needed to provide assistance to the injured, help with expenses after death and encourage safe practices for those doing risky work. The comment was made that not too many office workers fell off their chairs and broke their arms. There is a lot of hot air in parliament, perhaps this should be monitored for flatulence, to avoid unexpected injuries.
Hoping what you’re noting there do not relate to the boring, expensive “back room” functions that this government is so enthusiastically slashing and cutting, oh, capping … more like fast-dropping capping from the looks of the previous budget(s).
On Chris Laidlaw RadioNZ this morning he discussed with the author a book about the Churchill family. One aspect has been of interest to me, the way that British aristocratic, wealthy or colonial service families of the Empah often neglected to give their children on-going affection or support.
I think the author said that Winston spent the years from 7 to 16 mostly away from home. He saw his mother once a year, and his father only visited his school twice in that time. His father died of syphilis so perhaps that was an indication of the choice he would make between visiting Winston at school or seeing his woman on the side. (Karen Blixen of Out of Africa fame caught the infection from her ‘noble’ Danish husband, so the disease was widespread.)
The British brought up many of their boys under this regime of emotional deprivation and documented bullying behaviour. The likelihood of semi-sexual relationships of love and touch-deprived children in these warehouses of the privileged, though the boys may not have lived as so, has been an open secret over the years. Winston apparently yearned for love and time with his parents and was said to be devastated when his father died. His particular background, requiring strength of will and purpose to make his own way and form individual opinions, must have resulted in him being the unique person who could lead Britain out of what threatened to be a loss of the country to powerful, expansionist Nazi Germany. But what a cost to the individual to produce those traits, which most of his peers would not have been left with after the brutalising of the Brit public school, perhaps just another version of the lower class Brit Schools.
Tom Sharpe has sharply saitirised these Brit public schools in his writings such as Porterhouse Blue and Grantchester Grind. And I suggest Vintage Stuff which focuses on Peregrine Clyde-Brown and involves wild driving and adventures in France during public school holidays. I think young Pere graduates to a career as a guerilla in Ireland where his talents for destruction are fully exercised.
prism @ 1:00 pm
Read a book about Churchill’s ‘deprived’ upbringing recently and it was fascinating. What is that saying now? “Give me the child until he is seven and I’ll give you the man”. Something like that.
Those public schools were run by sadists and psychopaths in those days. His father was unstable from an early age and his mother had no maternal instincts. He was brought up by a nanny who was the only person who gave him any love, but she was taken away from him when he was sent to his first boarding school. His mother eventually found her maternal side but not until he was well into his teens. She ended up his greatest supporter. I sometimes wonder whether his many bouts of depression were the legacy of that childhood.
Two things must be born in mind re the Churchill thing – I heard a letter read out about it, in which the letter writer begged to differ, saying that quite a lot of what Churchill claimed was not actually true… Also, I think it’s important to point out that Winnie’s mother was an American. (Agatha Christie is another upper class person everyone believed was the essence of English-ness, but in Aggie’s case, her father, and her maternal grandfather were Americans. Aggie identified herself as an American, somewhat to the bemusement of her siblings, and she lived a similar life to that claimed for Churchill – “benign” parental neglect, combined in her case, with what would be called now ‘home-schooling’! So, the fault is not entirely British.) All that being said, I had a boyfriend years back, whose father had been sent from home in Kenya, to a British boarding school when he was 8 years old, and didn’t see his parents again until he was 20. That had serious repercussions for his sons, who were very inadequately parented… 🙁
Hi Vicky
I wish I could remember the name of the book, but I do remember it was written by a well regarded British historian (whose name also escapes me for the moment – oh dear) and was not necessarily based on any claims made by Winston Churchill himself. It also confirmed what I have read elsewhere about Churchill.
I agree with your premise that.. not everything Churchill claimed was actually true. If he hadn’t been a very famous politician he would have been a very famous actor. The two professions are closely related. Indeed one of his three daughters (Diana I think) took up an acting career. Sadly she took her own life in the 60s.
Anne I wonder if the author was William Manchester. I think he’s famous for his Churchill work.
Vicky32 – I didn’t know about Ag Christie having USA relations. I had always thought of her as Brit. P G Wodehouse lived there also. I think that Simenon may have also.
I have heard of a notable citizen from North America Ted Turner, being sent to a military academy at eight so some wealthy take their task of personal involvement with their children lightly.
I don’t know if you have ever read Jon Cleary, Australian author but I have just finished Endpeace, a murder mystery about a wealthy family where the parents were so bonded that they hardly had time for their children. Actually the recent Churchill book said that this was what happened with Winston and Clementine.
Hi Vicky and Anne; I would like to read that book some time even though I could find it very difficult to read.
I had a very similar upbringing though not on a so grand a scale, my family lived in the Solomons and I went to two boarding schools in Australia so in the early years I only saw my parents at the Christmas holidays.
There was bullying at the first so I did the sensible thing, ran away!!!
The origins of boarding schools are based on two premis one on Plato’s The State and Pauline Christianity; both dead ideologies.
My house master in the 1st school was a major from the British Indian army, if one had problems academically he called one a ‘dumb idiot, no hoper’ in front of the whole class. He never had any training as a teacher. Another teacher at the same school looked exactly like the Roman emperor Vespasian, drove a VW, collected Wagner, and for such misdemeanors committed in the morning he would prescribe a caning, but the caning would not be performed until about 9pm. He would like to inflict psychological torture on 8 year olds for a whole day!!!! He never had a girl friend!!!!!
Not very natural institutions.
@ Drakula
I would have to go to the library and get a list of all the books I’ve taken out in the past year in order to track down the title of the book 😉 . What I suggest you do is visit your local library. From memory the book deals with his life until the out-break of WW1. Another interesting book is the story of Churchill’s marriage to Clementine which is also revealing about his character.
@Vicky32. (below)
My father was a former British soldier too and he had no time for Churchill. In the past couple of decades however there have papers released and well researched books written that provide information about his upbringing – as well as hitherto unknown war-time situations. I like to think my father would have revised his opinion of Churchill had he known about them.
I do remember that my father (English, British Army veteran) loathed Churchill! He said that C., was all mouth and didn’t achieve all that he was being praised for in the 60s, when we had this discussion…
Prism, I decided in 2009, to read everything old Aggie ever wrote (such as Aspie thing to do, that, it really makes me wonder!), and often I come across cringe-making things (inevitable really) that I know people will blame on her “Englishness”, wrongly in many cases… She had a very American view of heredity, and the dangers of adoption (any child put up for adoption is bound to come from a bad background, and middle-class parents are nursing vipers in their bosom etc). Her obsession with race was very American! (Although after she married a Jewish archaeologist, at least she laid off the anti-semitism – which was never rife in England at the time, as you’ll see if you read Dorothy Sayers for instance)…
vicky32 – I have followed your track and read all Ag C (recently bought Postern of Fate her last written book). I did notice certain things that struck a wrong note, but thought that it just reflected attitudes at the time. It’s interesting how around World War 1 she wrote a number of spy stories, also about secret Russian anarchist groups.
I have also read all Dorothy L Sayers and have a copy of The Song of Roland for when I feel like it. Though I can’t remember references to anti semitism.
As for Churchill, a high-profile decision-maker like him becomes a target for sneers and anger when a military move goes wrong. I guess the trick when in a wild world war is to be right more often than wrong and to do what has to be done, persuade allies, keep the desired results of winning the war and protecting the country, first and centre to every decision.
One of the hard things was to keep the information secret which was gained from the Enigma? code breaking and allow German maneouvres to proceed with loss of life and equipment to the Allies. Seeing into the heart of German planning was all important and to react to it would have ‘blown their cover’ and resulted in Germans changing their codes. The story of how those were obtained is a dramatic tale in itself which I haven’t read completely.
I have many books on WW2 in paperback which come very cheaply these days though WW2 is still a greater story than James Bond for instance. There is the one about the Brit dying man who was recruited to be washed up dead in the sea off France with falso plans for maneouvres in his pocket. Then there are the wonderful, brave, persuasive, fast-thinking agents behind enemy lines, Nancy Wake is just one of them. Their stories are riveting. There is the Brit who had personal contacts with the French Air Force and could have brought many of their planes and trained personnel into Britain to fight with the Brits against the Germans. He was prevented in this, which required urgent, fast decision making, by dull-minded bureaucrats who could think no higher than processing paperwork in the system. And WW2 still reverberates today.
Sorry Prism that when I clicked ‘submit’ all my paragraphing was lost!
vicky32 -Formula One agents? Do you mean the racing cars? Can you point me in the direction of that story as well as Andree Borell, when you find her link. Thanks.
My son had a book about them a few years back, nail-biting stuff! I can’t remember the name or the author, I think it’s Joe Saward… here’s the Wikipedia link about Andree Borell… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9e_Borrel
I see I’ve been mis-spelling her name, which can’t have helped my search… The Grand Prix Saboteurs, that’s the name of the book, Joe Saward… http://www.grandprixplus.com/meettheteam/joesaward.html
The thing that impressed me most about Andree Borrel is her fate – thrown alive into a crematorium, apparently… That makes me feel ill even to think about! (I watched Blitz Street last night on Prime, and thought about people in the ME who’ve been suffering things similar to that for nearly 10 years now..) I am constantly reminded of the reasons why I am a radical pacifist… I don’t know whether L., took the book to Welly with him, or I would arrange to lend it to you….(I assume you’re in NZ, but you may be at the other end of the country from me, for all I know!)
Vicky
Private insurers confirm that they can’t do accident insurance as cheaply as ACC and the only way they could compete in the market would be if the government removed ACC completely.
There ya go RWNJs, straight from the horses mouth, the private insurance companies will not be making accident insurance cheaper or better because they can’t.
H/T Chris Hipkins @Red Alert
They private insurers were cheaper last time ACC was opened up to competition. As an employer the amount I was paying went down considerably and the cover was far more extensive.
I’m picking a big part of the reason they won’t this time is that they have learnt from last time that as soon as Labour get back in office they will revert to the model that best serves their ideology. A state run monopoly that can dictate the price and the level of cover to serve the best interests of easy administration. Once again we will be relegated to no fixed service level, no particular contract for what is covered and what is not – once again Labour will throw us onto the fire of ideology and ACC will be policy de-jour serving itself.
Why do you think he doesn’t just say that then burt?
Why would he make up lies (according to you he’s lying) about not being cheaper than ACC?
They were loss-leading last time burt. You got some insurance on special. Well done.
Umm, wasn’t just me felix. The ability to choose a level of cover, agree a price and have a contract for that cover rather than a nebulas ‘you pay what we say – you get the treatment we decide and we assess you eligibility for everything according to the rules in force when it happens’ was the biggest bonus. My most recent experience with ACC they changed the eligibility and cost of the services I was using half way through the process – strangely my premiums went up for the luxury as well.
Who said it was “just you”? They were loss-leading to compete for business.
The insurance council says they can’t beat ACC on price for cover.
You think they’re lying?
That doesn’t mean that it will be cheaper now. In fact, the insurance industry has just come out and said it won’t be.
Everything else you said is pure ideology and not backed up by fact as has been shown by the PWC study on ACC finding it to be the cheapest and best accident compensation scheme in the world and, now, by the insurance industry who have come out and said that they can’t beat it.
That was kind of what I was saying with;
“I’m picking a big part of the reason they won’t this time is that they have learnt from last time that as soon as Labour get back in office they will revert to the model that best serves their ideology.”
No you weren’t. You were espousing your delusional belief that the private sector is always cheaper than the public sector and that the government should do what’s best for the private sector rather than what’s best for the community.
No I was saying ‘once bitten twice shy’.
Labour have said they will reverse it… They did last time as well; If that’s not a major disincentive for insurers to enter the market then what is.
Your beloved party is costing tax payers money because it’s policies are to restrict competition. I understand that’s probably a bitter pill to swallow but get over it.
Who the fuck cares burt.
The whole point of ACC is so people can have their treatment covered and be paid 80% of their wages while off work.
Opening ACC up to private cover means that they wont be because private insurers have to make a profit, and the only way they can do that that is by denying people cover. That is a FACT.
I dont give a shit if you dont like paying high levies, the fact is that it is a price to pay so living standards are preserved in hard times.
Delightful…
So the whole point is one size fits all so shut the fuck up !
If people get compensated for the lost wages when they get injured, then one size should fit all.
Unless you are saying that people who cannot work due to injury should pretty much lose everything.
80% is the magic figure that people can survive on then ? For everyone ? So that guy earning $5,000,000 a year he needs $4,000,000 and the guy on $20K a year he will be just as fine on $16K ?
That guy on $5,000,000 might have wanted to reduce his premium and settle on an ‘after accident’ benefit of $500,000/year… That guy on $20K might have wanted to pay a small increase in premium to preserve $20K inflation adjusted as his after accident compensation… But no, couldn’t have that.
That’s great, I’m glad we understand that one size fits all.
80% is the magic figure that people can survive on then ? For everyone ? So that guy earning $5,000,000 a year he needs $4,000,000 and the guy on $20K a year he will be just as fine on $16K ?
That guy on $5,000,000 might have wanted to reduce his premium and settle on an ‘after accident’ benefit of $500,000/year… That guy on $20K might have wanted to pay a small increase in premium to preserve $20K inflation adjusted as his after accident compensation… But no, couldn’t have that.
uh, burt, you can’t insure yourself for more than $103,670 (this year’s upper limit, adjusted each year). that’s the maximum for ACC, if you want to make more than that.
also, you’ve obviously not heard of coverplus extra, which allows you to pick a sum & pay ACC on that figure. it allows guaranteed cover, and we usually recommend clients to purchase enough cover to employ a replacement person for their business.
pays to understand the system before you criticise it.
[there’s not a “reply” thingy on the relevant comment so i hope it appears in the right order]
“So the whole point is one size fits all so shut the fuck up”
more right whining, eh?
burt, government monopoly accident compensation is cheaper than private insurers. Studies prove this and the insurance companies themselves have now come out and confirmed that they cannot match the low fees and cover of ACC. This means that Labour (whom I don’t vote for BTW), far from costing tax payers money is saving them hundreds of millions of dollars per year which means that you, in your denial of this, is promoting the delusional belief that the private sector is always cheaper and are saying that the government should do what’s best for the private sector rather than what’s best for the community.
The government are our servants – not those of the capitalists and they should always do what’s best for us which, in this case, means not bowing and scraping to the psychopathic capitalists who want to enrich themselves at our expense.
Are you deliberately not addressing the point that ACC is not an insurance as such. There is no specific contract with agreed costs and compensations. Sure we can continue to push the line that we have the only state monopoly no fault accident insurance scheme in the world and therefore the cheapest – but that’s getting us nowhere.
ACC are not our servants, they are a cost plus monopoly run for the convenience of having a one size fits all socialist model.
I have no issues with contributing to a social policy scheme that protects the people who can’t protect themselves, I just don’t agree that the only way to make that work is a one size fits all model for everyone.
Burt why dont you just say that people should be denied ACC cover.
As I’ve said – you belief is delusional. The one size fits all is the best option.
And, yes burt, I did notice that you changed the argument from one of cost to one of best.
Why? Shouldn’t people over a certain income be asset tested?
“Why? Shouldn’t people over a certain income be asset tested?”
No, because it’s tied into no-fault cover. If you have an accident and are rich you’d be able to sue for compensation over what ACC would have given you, but if you were below a threshhold you’re limited to 80%. As soon as the door is opened to lawyers even a crack, they’ll push it further open and the entire point – that you get treatment and compensation without it becoming a battle of the lawyers – becomes completely unattainable (rather than less frequetly having to hire lawyers to deal with ACC)
burt you’re the only one here arguing from an ideological basis.
Everyone else just wants the most cover for the most people (everyone) at the best price.
So why not put a couple of providers in the ring to test that theory Felix?
Because it’s not “theory” Rob, it’s the best system in the world in practice.
That’s a statement based on evidence. The study by PWC (those known socialists) found that no other system in the world can compare.
Why should we fuck with the security of our excellent system so that you and burt can test your theories?
No thanks.
No I was saying ‘once bitten twice shy’
Yet for some mysterious reason they won’t say this and prefer to make up stories about not being able to match ACC on price for cover.
Right burt?
felix
I did frame it as;
Did you forget that and get all carried away thinking you could corner me in add no value to the debate felix style ?
My question still stands: Why do you think the insurance companies won’t just come out and tell the truth?
Why do they insist on making up stories about not being able to compete on price for cover?
Did you forget that and get all carried away thinking you could corner me in
Haha no need for me to help you with that, burtie boy.
ACC, burtyboy, has a LEGAL OBLIGATION TO PAY OUT ON EACH AND EVERY CLAIM.
Full cover for medical treatment and payment at 80% of your wages until you are better.
Somehow I cannot see private insurers offering that. Most likely, they will try and get out of paying out, and leave people to struggle on sickness benefits, etc.
Actually ACC spends rather alot of money trying not to pay out on each and every claim. But yeah, private are unlikely to be more generous.
But twenty years ago they very may well could of competed, in a growing economy
its possible to create a ponsi system where existing insured pay for dead cover
(as we see now insurance circles as we are all now going to be paying higher
premiums!).
I mean look around, there’s huge cash globally chasing ever shrinking prospects.
Of course insurance cannot sell investors the revenue stream when the energy
crunch continues and will continue for decades to come.
So why doesn’t National understand this, is this just cheap politics of looking
aggressive, extreme and radical because that’s how they attracted votes.
Vote for winners because even thought they have no clue how government
picked them as winners, and no clue why cheaper year on year energy
and increasing access to cheaper and cheaper credit made anything they
did well good, and anything they did badly come on as average.
All it takes is China to sneeze, with a mass revolt and the whole hollow
edifice of smile and jerk zombie economics will come crashing down.
Petrol prices should be much higher, so high that even National voters
are crying our for cycle paths, cheap local public transport, and intercity
rail – that naturally mean better mixed retail apartment centers. Then we’ll
be building a future, not the more roading sprawl.
And we pay for it by introducing fair broad taxation, GST off food, books,
child goods and a CGT. If we are going to compete with Australia
we should have our tax regimes locked in step. Otherwise speculators
can buy the PM slot, Key is not a good politician, he is a goof ball.
Cause for hope:
Paula Bennett appears on Q and A:
read transcript here
Not really anything there that hasant been mentioned before. No real hints at what the government will adopt from the WWG report.
Good old John Banks:
John Let me turn that proposition in its head. I’m totally opposed to social welfare that pays young people $6 an hour to sit at home every day watching pornography and smoking drug and planning crimes. I’m absolutely committed to giving them the dignity of work. It is wrong to pay them $6 an hour to do that when you could have them working and getting work experience and apprenticeships in the workforce without a minimum wage rate of pay. Minimum wage rates of pay in this country are failing young people that want to work. My long experience Sean is that even criminals that come out of jail want the dignity of work, and want to play in the local Rugby League team. If they’ve got a job and they’re playing sport I’m telling you they don’t go back to jail.
Victorian attitudes come to the fore here. Apparently all our young people sit at home and watch porn, smoke drugs and plot to commit crime and the only way to stop them is to make them work for effectively nothing.
I especially love the bit about playing rugby! What a tosser… Because of course no “criminals” and no “young people” for that matter are girls, or hate team sports!
I agree Millsy; Banks came from a very hard background but misses the point entirely, he thinks if people come from a tough background they should have the guts to choose the right path.
Like he did !!!!
He fails to realize that scraping the minimum wage is tantamount to slavery and exploitation and nobody likes to be taken advantage of.
If that becomes the prevailing zeitgiest then it is likely that the disadvantaged will make an economic decision over a moral one. Especially when one is hungry or their families are deprived of health services and educational opportunities.
His philosophy is ‘I made it against all the odds so can anyone else’ He would be a fan of Ayn Rand where the survival of the fittest breeds the alfa- hero, Atlas.
I think you would agree that a social system gives everyone a good start in life equips youth with a skill and keeps everyone healthy. this may not eliminate crime but people would be better equiped to make moral decisions rather than economic decisions based on desperation.
The privatised prisons are a clasic example of this fascist thinking: The prisons usually have contracts with earth moving corporations who employ prisoners but only pay them a fraction of the going rate. these institutions argue that the crims should pay and pay.
The prisoner knows that the employer is stealing his labour and that if the institutions steal then why can’t he? when he gets out of prison with virtualy nothing !!!
It sends out the wrong message doesn’t it?
In reality there are two issues (1) If one commits the crime one does the time, fair enough (2) A law breaker should be tought that work should be rewarded not exploited.
A responsible employer should pay the prisoner the full rate to be put it into his bank account until his release that will help prisoners to settle into a straight civi life.
His philosophy is ‘I made it against all the odds so can anyone else’
Indeed, and it’d be hilarious if it weren’t so serious how many people believe this without considering for a moment what “against all the odds” means.
Do these people also believe that everyone who goes to the casino can win too? Perhaps they’d all win if they just gambled a bit harder.
As Banks is only a bit older than me I am sure he had the same free schooling, health and dental care I did. He and his parents would have benefited from the relatively crime free and prosperous society and the infrastructure paid for by New Zealanders in the past.
My parents were low income, admittedly from choice, as they chose to help people rather than earn lots of money. Thanks to the, pre-Rogernomics, New Zealand we grew up in we did not lack opportunity. We all went onto well paid and satisfying careers.
If Banks was born to a low income family in the sort of society he advocates it is doubtfull he would have even finished school, or advanced beyound a minimum income job..
He and his parents would have benefited from the relatively crime free and prosperous society…
From what I’ve heard they benefited in the sense that they didn’t have too much competition.
Yes. And their son is living prove of the saying. “Steal a hundred dollars you are put in jail. Steal millions, you get a knighthood”.
Don “Petain” Nicholson and Tim “Laval” Groser on the Nation wanting China to come and buy up all our farmland.
If I had my way, quislings like them would be strung up with piano wire.
Tracy Watkin’s recent article – “The rise and rise of lobbyists” – inspired me to do a bit research:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5099703/The-rise-and-rise-of-lobbyists
“But any sort of rules are a good start.”
__________________________________________________________________________
Given that NZ – ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt country in the world’ (along with Denmark and Singapore, according to Transparency International’s 2010 ‘Corruption Perception Index’) –
doesn’t have a ‘Register of Lobbyists’ or a ‘Code of Conduct for Lobbyists’ – not to mention an enforceable ‘Code of Conduct’ for MPs ………….. I decided to check out the ‘rules’ which apply to ‘lobbyists’ (and MPs) – across the ditch – in Australia………..
AUSTRALIAN OVERVIEW:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Library/pubs/BN/pol/CodesOfConduct.htm
Summary of codes of conduct in Australian parliaments
A survey of codes of conduct in Australian and selected overseas parliaments
Online only. First published as an E-brief on 15 June 2006 and Background Note 1 July 2007.
This edition issued 26 November 2009, updated 17 December 2009.
Deirdre McKeown
Politics and Public Administration Section
Contents
Introduction
Commonwealth parliament
Ministerial code of conduct
Post-separation employment
Senators’ and members’ code of conduct
Register of Interests
Lobbying code of conduct and register of lobbyists
New South Wales
Ministerial code of conduct
Members of parliament code of conduct
Secondary employment and post-separation employment
Disclosure of pecuniary interests
The Parliamentary ethics adviser
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
Victoria
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct and register of interests
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
Queensland
Ministers’ code of ethics
Members’ code of ethical standards
Register of members’ interests
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
Queensland integrity commissioner
Integrity Act 2009
Western Australia
Ministerial code of conduct
Members of parliament code of conduct
Register of interests
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
South Australia
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct
Register of interests
Lobbyist code of conduct and register of lobbyists
Tasmania
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct
Government members’ code and guidelines
Review of ethical conduct by the Joint Select Committee on Ethical Conduct
Register of interests
Lobbyist register
Australian Capital Territory
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct
Ethics and integrity adviser
Register of interests
Northern Territory
Members’ code of conduct
Register of interests
Summary of codes of conduct in Australian parliaments
Selected Overseas Parliaments
United Kingdom
Ministerial code of conduct
Report on the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests
Members’ and Lords’ code of conduct
Register of interests
Lobbying industry inquiry
In June 2007 the PASC
Parliamentary Standards Act 2009
Canada
Ministerial code of conduct
Members code of conduct
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Post–separation employment
Senate ethics officer
Lobbying Act 1985
United States
Members’ code of conduct
Office of Congressional Ethics
Lobbyist legislation and post–separation employment
New Zealand
Ministerial code of conduct
Members’ code of conduct
Register of interests
_______________________________________________________________________
NZ is also missing legislation which covers ‘post-separation’ employment.
ie: Legislation which prevents the ‘revolving door’ from public office to the private sector – which is arguably a form of ‘corrupt practice’ which appears to be endemic in ‘clean, green NZ’.
Did I mention the similar lack of an enforceable ‘Code of Conduct’ for NZ Judges, and the lack of a ‘Register of pecuniary interests’ for both Judges and Local Government elected representatives and their spouses?
If NZ is ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt country in the world’ (along with Denmark and Singapore, according to Transparency International’s 2010 ‘Corruption Perception Index’) – then shouldn’t we be the MOST ‘transparent’?
SO WHY ON EARTH AREN’T WE?
Penny Bright
http://waterpressure.wordpress.com
The Transparency International rating is as I understand, set after responses by citizens of the country as to their perceptions of corrupt practices or not. It could be that we are so busy swanning round in our Swandris, and wheeling around in our four-wheel drives, and taking part in or watching sport or talking about sport or watching fake reality shows, that we don’t know what is going on and really don’t care.
Indeed, many don’t bother to be informed when there is real news informing about bad practices. Finally many haven’t absorbed any values and standards during childhood to adulthood so haven’t any ideals or aspirations other than to get as much money as possible, and pay as little tax as possible and regard the government as a lever to pull to achieve that.
Great comment Penny. New Zealand so needs to get its act together regarding ethical practice.
No wonder ‘parasites in emperor’s clothing’ like Nact,their business buddies and their media buddies ( DF now seems to be in this category too via nz herald and stuff) are able to manipulate the weak democratic and justice systems we have here to meet their own ends.
seeker
Did you notice that National haven’t even been in govt 3 years yet? The substance of that report is actually a reflection on the previous tyrannous govt that operated in the best interests of the state providers – who are unaccountable.
Note: Online only. First published as an E-brief on 15 June 2006 and Background Note 1 July 2007.
This edition issued 26 November 2009, updated 17 December 2009.
Working Like a…
I couldn’t believe the backlash against sports commentator Murray Deaker last week and had to turn the radio and TV off because of the incessant complaints about my old mate using the N word. People just went on and on like it was the end of the world or something. It’s freedom of bloody expression, something a lot of people just don’t understand.
You might have noticed a large dollop of sarcasm in the above paragraph…
http://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2011/06/working-like-nigger.html
If ACC is privatised, will the British snowboarders who injure themselves whist on holiday in NZ still be covered?
I really can’t see what the problem is. If a member of parliament can use the expression “White Motherfucker”, then surely any form of racial abuse is to be tolerated in NZ??
The difference is this:
n*gger has been used as a term of abuse and oppression against groups of people who have enslaved, beaten, lynched, denied various human rights and even after all that was supposed to end are still by and large treated much worse than their white compatriots.
Calling someone a white whatever, at least in a NZ context, NEVER has the same degree of hate and evil attached to it. Harawira was trying to make a point about the treatment of Maori at the hands of white people since colonisation. Pakeha in NZ have never experienced the kind of oppression that he was talking about. You can’t just reverse those things and say they are the same.
Motherfucker is an abusive, misogynistic word, and Harawira apologised to women for using it.
Harawira used the term in a private email. Deaker use the term on a TV broadcast. He has apologised unreservedly, which is good.
Even back i the 1970’s it wasnt liked, Richard Pryor says it well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEVmAbxC14g