web analytics

Open mike 05/10/2014

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, October 5th, 2014 - 177 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

openmikeOpen mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

177 comments on “Open mike 05/10/2014”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. karol 1
    5 October 2014 at 7:48 am

    So an NZ Herald (woman) journo asks various people how Labour should rebuild. It asks some left and right wing guys, and one right wing woman.

    And one of the leftie guys reckon Labour needs a Shane Jones or a Tamihere to lead….

    Politics has become increasingly masculine under John key’s watch.

    • Pat O'Dea 1.1
      5 October 2014 at 7:51 am

      Anyone who thinks that Shane Jones or John Tamihere should be leaders is not left.

      • phillip ure 1.1.1
        5 October 2014 at 8:17 am

        i have banged on a bit about shane jones..

        http://whoar.co.nz/?s=shane+jones

        and let’s not forget fascinating facts such as hekia paratas’ husband funding the jones tilt at the labour party leadership..

        ..what was up with that..?

        ..yet another of those questions you’d like an answer to..

        ..like stuart nash doing a fundraiser for his election-campaign at that bastion of the right/establishment..the northern club in auckland..

        ..what was up with that..?

        ..and who was there..?..

        ..who donated..?

        • Richard 1.1.1.1
          5 October 2014 at 8:23 am

          Phil I suspect some of the left have the greed gene too. However waving wads of cash usually helps to break their cover and flush them out..

          To me Jones is not even a contender, the public would have imagined him in the PM office watching porno’s..he’s screwed for life on that one.

          Note to the elected keep your nose clean if it gets dirty not even time will wear it off.

          • phillip ure 1.1.1.1.1
            5 October 2014 at 8:27 am

            the thing i find fascinating about nash..

            ..is how relentless his links to the right are..

            ..there is the northern club fundraiser..

            ..his links with slater/lusk/hooton..

            ..the rightwinger buying/paying for his red fire engine election-prop..

            ..his stated neo-lib/fuck-the-poor! politics..

            ..you almost get the idea/feeling nash has been placed in labour..

            ..by the right..

            ..their manchurian candidate..

            ..and that his name is bandied about as a future leader..

            (albeit mainly by him..and rightwing corporate-journalist servants..everyone else goes ..’really..?..why..?..’)

            ..is kinda both farcical and horrifying..

            • Richard 1.1.1.1.1.1
              5 October 2014 at 8:33 am

              Don’t think it phil know it.

              Your probably bang on and just don’t realize it.

            • phillip ure 1.1.1.1.1.2
              5 October 2014 at 8:59 am

              and anyway..nash will likely be a one-term mp..

              ..if garth mcvicr doesn’t split the vote for him again..and gift him the seat..

              ..national will take the seat back..

              ..mc vicar is to nash..as the green party is to dunne…

              ..both gifting seats to ostensibly mortal-enemies..

              ..and i wd submit those two facts..

              ..as the irony-peaks/o.d.’s of that election-campaign..

              • Karen …
                5 October 2014 at 10:32 am

                Unfortunately Nash will probably get a high list placing next time and won’t have to win a seat.

                He is a right wing plant – I’m convinced of it. The left need to keep exposing him for what he is so that he doesn’t get any traction within the party.

                • Colonial Viper …
                  5 October 2014 at 11:01 am

                  Of course he is. Nash loves the surroundings and attention (and $) that the right wing can lavish upon his political career. And have been doing so already, in a material way.

                  • karol …
                    5 October 2014 at 5:25 pm

                    it’s worrying then that he seems to be supporting Andrew Little….?

                    • Murray Olsen …
                      5 October 2014 at 10:13 pm

                      Worrying, but expected. Little inherited the Engineers’ Union from Rex Jones, one of the most right wing class collaborators who has ever led a union. Back in the 80s, Engineers’ officials spent more time keeping militant workers out of the factories than anything else. Little was a student politician and then a lawyer. The Labour Party needs a ban on this sort, but instead they come up with the gift to the right that was the “man ban”.

                • Olwyn …
                  5 October 2014 at 11:30 am

                  One thing that points in that direction is the amount of media attention he is getting, the frequency with which his opinions are sought, and the respect with which those opinions are treated, bearing in mind that he has just been elected to parliament – that is a dead giveaway.

                  • Anne …
                    5 October 2014 at 12:22 pm

                    And don’t forget he’s good looking, has a lovely smile, nice white teeth and fits the shallow circumstantial mould – that is, youngish married man with attractive looking (no doubt) kids. They are apparently considered to be all-important pre-requisites if you want to be accepted by the celebrity driven MSM culture – especially the TV culture.

                    • Draco T Bastard …
                      5 October 2014 at 5:09 pm

                      +1

                      Got to celebrate the shallow else they’d have to dig deeper and if they did that then they’d find the corruption and they don’t want to do that.

            • Jenny Kirk 1.1.1.1.1.3
              5 October 2014 at 9:39 am

              I totally agree , Phil U, from his own mouth Nash has clearly shown that he plays with the rightwing moneyed people – and he’s in Labour ? Yuk. He’s got his political parties mixed up,

              • phillip ure …
                5 October 2014 at 10:05 am

                he reminds me very much of simon bridges..

                ..that same combination of sneering and arrogance..

                ..they both wear that on their sleeves..

                ..and i think they both came from the same cookie-cutter..

                • Richard …
                  5 October 2014 at 11:12 am

                  Simon Bridges reminds me of a very angry man who wants to fight anyone who asks him a question. National on this should back bench him. He really is the lefts best weapon in National.

            • Pasupial 1.1.1.1.1.4
              5 October 2014 at 10:05 am

              Newly elected Labour MP Stuart Nash says he has been taking advice from “dirty politics” operative Simon Lusk…
              questions over his links to key players identified in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics – Mr Lusk, Cameron Slater and Matthew Hooton…

              “He’s run a pretty good campaign, I think, in terms of what I’ve seen, and I’ve taken some advice on how to message stuff there,” Mr Nash said.
              He said other Labour MPs, and some Hawke’s Bay regional councillors, had also been in contact with Mr Lusk over the Ruataniwha dam issue.

              Mr Lusk yesterday declined to comment on his relationship with Mr Nash. Mr Nash said he had written two articles for Whale Oil blogger Mr Slater when Mr Slater was editor of the Truth newspaper…
              “I have mates right across the political spectrum and I make no apology for that. But having said that, I don’t consider Cameron Slater or Simon Lusk friends. Matthew Hooton certainly is a very good friend of mine…

              http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11337024

              Nash is wise not to; “consider Cameron Slater or Simon Lusk friends”, as I am yet to be convinced that either of them understand the concept. However, the question remains about whether he considers them colleagues.

              I suspect he was misquoted, and actually said; “I have mates across the right of the political spectrum”.

              • Jenny Kirk …
                5 October 2014 at 10:13 am

                Every time Nash opens his mouth, he puts his foot in it. Now Hooten is also his very good friend ….

              • marty mars …
                5 October 2014 at 10:21 am

                nash is a playa – he doesn’t need slater and lusk to be ‘good’ friends if hollowhooton is there – I suppose ‘people’ like nash are seeded all over – I wonder if they go to a camp to learn how to pretend to be left – you know like the movies with the pretend american town to train those russians in the minutiae of US life. Anyway playa gotta play so I expect a lot of vocalisations from nash – on anything and everything…

            • Paul 1.1.1.1.1.5
              5 October 2014 at 11:32 am

              And the right splitting the vote for him to win Napier

            • North 1.1.1.1.1.6
              5 October 2014 at 8:43 pm

              Shoosh Phillip Ure…….”Neither for nor against…..” don’t ya know ? Look to the right of the monitor – NZOnScreen – 1951.

      • Jenny Kirk 1.1.2
        5 October 2014 at 9:36 am

        Those guys – Prebble, Hide, Samuels, Tamihere – are just tired old hacks, no longer living in the real world and without any relevance to the real world. I don’t know why the Herald (and other media) keep on using them as spokespersons – they repeat the same old mantra time after time, and now they are Boring. Very, very boring.

        • Draco T Bastard 1.1.2.1
          5 October 2014 at 11:29 am

          I don’t know why the Herald (and other media) keep on using them as spokespersons – they repeat the same old mantra time after time,

          Because they repeat the same old mantra time and time again. Presenting the populace with fresh new ideas is anathema to the MSM.

      • risildowgtn 1.1.3
        5 October 2014 at 12:36 pm

        or masculine

      • whateva next? 1.1.4
        5 October 2014 at 1:57 pm

        too right!

    • mickysavage 1.2
      5 October 2014 at 8:07 am

      Yep I just wish the Herald would stop asking right wingers who the Labour leader should be. Anyone with any sense would understand that their advice is tinged with malice.

      • adam 1.2.1
        5 October 2014 at 10:37 am

        That’s the point Micky, each little knife they can slip in the better. Between the labour party playing a game of thrones, and the corporate media playing fast and loose with the truth, another person is put off voting. Media owned for the corporate interest, know the game – we should too.

        • Colonial Viper 1.2.1.1
          5 October 2014 at 10:58 am

          the game is to develop alternative media infrastructure and interpersonal information channels deep into NZ communities.

          • Richard 1.2.1.1.1
            5 October 2014 at 11:10 am

            An online left version of the Huffington post(as an example)

            She started small taking exerts from others news outlets and posting them for lack of own journalists and grew it to a large following.

            We need a left version of it in NZ. a lot of publicity and some clever web site designers.

            Is that what you mean CV?

            • Colonial Viper 1.2.1.1.1.1
              5 October 2014 at 11:31 am

              that would certainly be one option!

              • adam …
                5 October 2014 at 1:18 pm

                Of many – On this I think many on the left agree.

                To keep wishing or hoping that the corporate media will operate with any honour, seems to be a sign of willful blindness by our population as a whole.

                When our news is run for money and profit, it will always go for the almighty dollar, one sensation at a time.

                To critique the news is no longer enough – we need to produce the news in a more truthful and fulsome manner.

                • blue leopard …
                  5 October 2014 at 1:25 pm

                  What I don’t understand is why the left-wing politicians haven’t found some techniques and skill in addressing this problem.

                  Rather than counter the propaganda, the left-wing are pandering to it too much.

                  They should be providing people with another way at looking at things to hook onto.

                  The amount of times that I heard ‘Dirty Politics’ characterised as a ‘distraction’ by left wing politicians in this last election is a very good example of what I am talking about – it could have been turned around to be made into a policy issue for cleaning up our democracy.

                  The Greens have achieved the most on countering right-wing framing of matters yet I would like to see more of these skills from all left-wing politicians and wonder why they haven’t developed them already.

                  • adam …
                    5 October 2014 at 1:41 pm

                    You only truly counter propaganda when you produce news which speaks to truth yourself.

                    The dominance of editorial methodology which embraces money and profit – makes any attempts to counter the overall ideology of money worship, a very difficult task.

                    Your statement blue leopard also brings up the question for me of how many of the so called left politicians are left? Why are they so complicit in an overall support of a system which hurts their voter base?

                    As far as framing goes – look at Ralph Nader – love or hate him, the guy got things done – until – and this is important – the right took his language, and twisted it to their purpose in the corporate media.

                    I think we need to speak to the truth of an issue – no matter the cost.

                    It is why I’ve so vocal in my attacks on labour as a political party and why I think it is a dead weight around the left.

                    And CV I think you are so right we need to reach deep into NZ communities, with a good well rounded approach, communicating a clear and inspiring vision. We need to stop making people feel disempowered, this is what our corporate media and current crop of professional politicians seem to be doing in spades.

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      5 October 2014 at 1:48 pm

                      adam, blue leopard, both of you have cut right through to the heart of the matter IMO.

                      As far as framing goes – look at Ralph Nader – love or hate him, the guy got things done – until – and this is important – the right took his language, and twisted it to their purpose in the corporate media.

                      the “Right” who attacked Nader, also included the Democratic Party, who wanted to see his third party movement to the left of their own destroyed and permanently out of electoral politics.

                      Which to my mind, has direct parallels to what Labour has successfully done to Laila and Hone, I might add.

                    • blue leopard …
                      5 October 2014 at 1:55 pm

                      I totally support the setting up of an informative media channel, however, the countering of propaganda in response to MSM messages is still required because even if there was another news media channel (whatever the platform) some would still be looking at the old one and simply allowing the propaganda to slide – or even worse answering it in a manner that implies there is some foundation for thinking the way the propaganda frames it – simply leaves that ‘idea’ in peoples’ heads and supplies no opition for the people listening to the propaganda of looking at it in another way. It is very damaging indeed.

                      Therefore, left wing politicians need to learn to counter the propaganda no matter what.

                      I really am puzzled by why they haven’t developed this skill to date.

                      I think your questioning of Labour (or anyone being simpering toward the false narratives) is a natural response because when one has looked into things and one sees someone doing that, it just looks like they are unconvinced by their own political stance.

                      I think some of this, however, has more to do with lack of skill in arguing and could be improved by getting skill. They ultimately lack passion more than anything though, and seem more worried about ‘fitting in’ than getting anything achieved. 🙁

                      I haven’t heard of Ralph Nader and will look him up.

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      5 October 2014 at 2:13 pm

                      Ralph Nader ran as the third Presidential candidate against George Bush and Al Gore in 2000. The Democrats attacked Nader throughout the campaign and then blamed him for Al Gore’s final loss.

                      The Democrats could not allow a truly progressive and independent voice to stand; as such Nader was far more dangerous to the Democrats then the Republicans.

                      Nader has also run since then, but is typically completely ignored by the US corporate media.

                    • blue leopard …
                      5 October 2014 at 2:22 pm

                      @ CV

                      Thanks very much for that summary!

                      That is a problem with their electoral system – splitting the vote of potential ‘left’ supporters. Labour has no excuse for that here [cross-face].

                      I was reading an article about Britain’s UKIP party, also having that problem of splitting the left vote.

                      I am really glad we have MMP here, it would be excellent if our left-wing politicians, especially Labour, learned how to use it to the left’s advantage.

                      If they continue in the tracks they have been going to date, then I think it is fair to say Labour don’t want left-wing principles to be encouraged, Up until now, I have been giving them rather a lot of lee-way for daftness but will be doing so no more.

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      5 October 2014 at 2:29 pm

                      side note…as I am sure you know, UKIP shouldn’t be considered a left wing party by any stretch of the imagination 😎

                      Their success derives from UK Labour becoming such a middling, centrist party of the establishment.

                      The NZ Labour caucus has been frakking around with the future of our nation and you are right, no more leeway for them.

                    • blue leopard …
                      5 October 2014 at 2:37 pm

                      @ CV

                      I should have provided the link to the UKIP article. Here it is:

                      http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/16/ukip-divided-left-right-cut-labour-support

                      I know very little about UKIP, in fact that article is one of the few things I have read about them.

                      Just to be perfectly clear, (although I think you probably got the point) that comment I made about UKIP was to highlight how the voting system in the UK & USA creates an issue with splitting the vote whereas ours is better in that regard, I was not attempting to provide any knowledge of UKIP, because I can confidently say I know very little about them! 🙂

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      5 October 2014 at 3:45 pm

                      Worth remembering that the initial set up of the US electoral system was carried out by 40 wealthy, property owning, slave owning white men who were interested in maintaining their own privilege in any new democracy.

                • Colonial Viper …
                  5 October 2014 at 1:43 pm

                  To critique the news is no longer enough – we need to produce the news in a more truthful and fulsome manner.

                  This.

                  • greywarbler …
                    5 October 2014 at 5:20 pm

                    @ blue leopard 2.37
                    I remember having a look at UKIP and putting up some links. Then, I think it was about them being successful in getting into the European Parliament. And I was interested in how the EP had dropped the threshhold low which I think is so unwise, opening it up to the poisoned tip of the dagger from toxic parties.

                    Anyway if you search for UKIP on TS it has been mentioned a lot.

                    • blue leopard …
                      5 October 2014 at 5:33 pm

                      Thanks Greywarbler, its not really a focus of my interest, but may follow the leads in the coming days at a quiet point – always good to learn something new 🙂

              • North …
                5 October 2014 at 8:55 pm

                The issue of the molestation of Democracy by a bunch of (metaphorically) pimply, ‘really really need to be on the telly’ narcissists, bought off by media corporates and mutated by their own vanities, is very much alive. It has to be addressed. It must not be let lie.

      • whateva next? 1.2.2
        5 October 2014 at 2:03 pm

        My response exactly to Whaleoil putting Nash and Davies up for leader, sheer arrogance, or at least Lusk manipulation, or both. Previously, MSM has amplified Whaleoil’s voice, and it becomes mainstream narrative, no matter how bonkers the idea, will it still happen after dirty politics exposed?

    • Richard 1.3
      5 October 2014 at 8:30 am

      Karol, try not to read it. Seriously, it’s just whale oil, main stream, the only people who really read it are so right wing it panders to their mentality. Or the left wanting to know what the rights doing by way of brainwashing the masses.

      The only thing to do is smear the rag as far right and leave it be. definitely do not allow it to influence any decision you make.

      • David H 1.3.1
        5 October 2014 at 8:45 am

        Do what I did E-Mailed the Wanna be Hack that scribbled it, and just gently pointed out that she should stick to being the Tea lady, as the Granny has enough hacks in Armweak etc etc.

        • Richard 1.3.1.1
          5 October 2014 at 8:57 am

          Hmm good idea I did.

          • weka 1.3.1.1.1
            5 October 2014 at 9:30 am

            Doubt that the Herald Editors are going to take any notice of people who ridicule them.

            • Richard 1.3.1.1.1.1
              5 October 2014 at 9:56 am

              No they tend to ban anyone who thinks any of their so called journo’s is a bais twat.

              • weka …
                5 October 2014 at 10:08 am

                Right, so when you email them, how about pointing out the problems with their coverage without calling them a twat or ridiculing them?

                • Richard …
                  5 October 2014 at 10:26 am

                  Passed that point three months ago Weka. I’ve definitely tried the polite avenue to many times to recount.

                  Now I’m down to insults as they just do not care, they have a hidden agenda not all the horses on the planet could shift. I insult them for personal satisfaction now.

                  In fact the Herald is lower than whaleoil in my opinion, because they have far more influence on the voting public, whereas only the nutty right read whaleoil.

                  • Colonial Viper …
                    5 October 2014 at 10:57 am

                    The NZ Herald has been tory leaning since day dot. That’s the point of every big establishment newspaper in NZ, and worse so since the media corporates took over.

                    We shouldn’t be still acting surprised and disappointed in this, at this late point, right?

                    • AB …
                      5 October 2014 at 12:25 pm

                      It seems so. I recall Chris Trotter saying that the NZH was vocal in calling for the invasion of the Waikato in 1863 at the behest of Auckland business interests.
                      Being the scholarly type Chris has probably been up to the Ak Museum to read the microfilmed originals – assuming they’ve still got them after the reign of mad Vanda. So I don’t doubt him.

                      And he mentions Iris Wilkinson (Robin Hyde) being told as a cub reporter in the 30’s to not say anything about the NZLP. All comments had to come from the NZH’s senior staff.

                      So nothing much has changed. Feel the long sweep of history eh? But most voters are completely ahistorical and live in the present.

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      5 October 2014 at 12:31 pm

                      Workers, union members and their families were utterly vilified by the big papers during the watersiders strike of 1951 (?). I’m fairly confident that was also the case for the Great Strike of 1913.

                    • swordfish …
                      5 October 2014 at 3:43 pm

                      “I’m fairly confident that was also the case for the Great Strike of 1913”

                      Yep, it was. Here’s a comment I made on Brian Edwards Media back in 2010…..

                      “There’s a long, long history of this. A few years ago, I came across an unintentionally amusing article in a 1913 edition of Wellington’s TRIAD magazine. It was on the Waterside Workers’ lockout/strike (which a few weeks later snowballed into the General Strike of 1913 – notorious for Massey’s Cossacks).

                      The report began by describing the wharfies as “dark and furious persons of unpleasant aspect”. ….. The writer then went on to spend more than a few column inches emotively listing the various inconveniences the lockout had caused to the general public (nothing changes in 100 years); before ending on a moral high-note with this colourful little crescendo of xenophobia: “All of this because Wharfside Bill has a grievance…..Bill is sometimes an English subject, sometimes a non-descript negro, and sometimes a representative of one or other of those deceitful nations whose men wear rings through their ears”.

                      That was a Wellington-based magazine. The big papers were no different – particularly the morning papers The Herald, The Dominion, The Press and the ODT. All closely associated with Massey’s right-wing Reform Party. (the evening papers were closer to the Liberals).

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      5 October 2014 at 3:51 pm

                      Brilliant, thanks. Those uppity darkies, still causing issues.

                      Which goes back to the points made above. Why 100 years on is the left still fixated on the MSM instead of building up alternative infrastructure and assets like The Standard.

                    • karol …
                      5 October 2014 at 5:32 pm

                      AB, you don’t need to go up to the Museum, just have a search through NZ Herald articles on Papers Past (1863-1945)

                      And this is what Papers Past (part of the National Library of NZ) says about the NZ Herald:

                      For decades the New Zealand Herald changed little in its appearance and sober, right-of-centre editorial stance; this was epitomised for half a century by the generally conservative cartoons of Gordon Minhinnick. The sobriquet ‘Granny Herald’ was part affection, part frustration.

                      See also this NZ Herald report of 1863, on the defeat of Maori in the Waikato

    • Colonial Viper 1.4
      5 October 2014 at 10:55 am

      Politics has become increasingly masculine under John key’s watch.

      How did you go from a few uninformed peeps talking about Shane Jones and JT (who have their own political constituency, sure, but one which stretches back many many years) to blaming John Key for making politics more “masculine.”

      Voters had a choice of a Labour and Green Party for which gender balance was a significant issue of policy, equality and inclusiveness; and a choice of a party which had fewer than 1/3 women in caucus and constantly downplays the issue by talking about “merit” instead.

      Outcome: the people who didn’t care about gender balance in politics as a major issue either decided to vote National, or they decided to stay at home.

      • blue leopard 1.4.1
        5 October 2014 at 12:58 pm

        “Outcome: the people who didn’t care about gender balance in politics as a major issue either decided to vote National, or they decided to stay at home.”

        Unsure if I am entirely clear on your point, here.

        If you are trying to establish that policies about gender balance/rights didn’t ‘decide the election’, then I would tend to agree.

        If you are arguing that the having a balanced gender in a party doesn’t have an impact on election results, then I think this point is problematic, due to National’s skill at ‘guiding’ perceptions.

        When I heard that National had less women than Labour earlier in the year, I actually had to go and check that by counting, I had to check because I would find it far easier to list National female MPs than Labour ones. If pushed, I possibly could come up with a longer list of Labour female MPs – possibly – yet doubt this would be the case for those who don’t watch parliament TV on the regular basis that I do (which is largely where I see the female Labour MPs). With regard to someone with less interest in politics, I suspect National would come across as having more female representation than Labour because National have placed women in some very high profile positions and this means male and female MPs from National get on TV and in the papers in fairly equal proportions. I don’t see this occurring with Labour.

        I don’t know if women (or men) base their decisions on how representative the party they are voting for looks, or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if part of National’s success is the appearance of a reasonable balance. (This may also be the case with regard to ethnicity too, although I haven’t thought too hard over that one, so could be quite incorrect. )

        With regard to looking representative of the general population:

        Between the two main parties, I would say National appear more balanced.

        Between the Greens and NZ First – I would say the Greens are more balanced.

        I suspect that any type of sway on voting choice re ‘balanced representation’ won’t be made on a conscious level by everyone but for some it will and significantly, I very much doubt that any representational balance would put someone off, who wasn’t making that a point of decision.

        In summary, wouldn’t say this matter was the be all and end all, but I do suspect it will be significant and that an effort made to come across as not being largely dominated by ‘male’ and importantly I will add here ‘white’, too, is an effort well worth making for accumulating wider appeal.

  2. b waghorn 2
    5 October 2014 at 8:00 am

    Shane would of been a disaster well he was looking off into the distance replaying what he just said in his head again key would of nailed him to the wall

    • Skinny 2.1
      5 October 2014 at 10:11 am

      An over inflated ego of his own self worth sums up Jones. He large ego will see him return to politics as a list candidate for NZF at the next election, probably as a contender successor to Peters. I would be making it very clear if and when this happens that NZF will side with the Nats, the ease of his transition to his current National party jacked up junket says it all. Not to be trusted!

      • Colonial Viper 2.1.1
        5 October 2014 at 11:36 am

        Jones has got a secure, well paid govt job which lets him jetset and is not subject to caucus BS and fickle voters; why would he walk from that?

  3. Richard 3
    5 October 2014 at 8:18 am

    Thoughts of my day..

    Why are policies announced but never the in’s and out’s of them.

    During the election I felt like parties were announcing policy by name with no detail.

    Take my conversations yesterday on open mike about the CGT. It appears to me to many unanswered questions we’re left on such a polar subject. To many home owners did not understand it. Nor the raising of retirement. Crikey Robertson was even defending it on Backbenchers last night. Whilst the Nats claimed it was not needed they were growing the economy. You know I’m on my way to the moon right now too. /sarc I heard it was made of cheese.

    Slight distraction from topic, who boldly states they are growing the economy when dairy and the dollar are diving. Who has the balls to lie like that.

    back to topic

    ALL contentious Policy should be accompanied by a leaflet drop with loads of questions answered about it. Both the CGT and Raising of retirement certainly required more than a press release and some debate questions. In fact a leaflet drop would have made DC’s leader debates answers easier.

    haven’t you read our leaflet john?

    • MrSmith 3.1
      5 October 2014 at 8:48 am

      Or maybe it would be better to introduce an idea like CCT after being elected, put it out there and let people debate it in public for three years, by then most should have a far idea of how it would affect them, then take it to the people at the next election.

    • lurgee 3.2
      5 October 2014 at 9:10 am

      More people support a capital gains tax than are opposed to it.

      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11282563

      CGT isn’t the problem. Key just grabs it, every three years, to win a couple of cheap headlines after the debates.

      • Richard 3.2.1
        5 October 2014 at 9:24 am

        If the Herald told me the sky was blue. I would immediately go outside and check it out for myself.

      • Skinny 3.2.2
        5 October 2014 at 10:21 am

        Liking it and voting for a party who wants to introduce it are obviously two different things.

      • Herodotus 3.2.3
        5 October 2014 at 10:23 am

        How can a policy such as a CGT be seen as a cure for our housing unaffordability when the CTG tax rate is 1/2 of the coy and top PAYE tax rate ? This was no cure.
        If Lab14 version had followed Lab11 version and complemented a CGT with a $5k tax free threashold then this could have been viewed as a tax redistribution, benefiting tenants, and PAYE workers. If kiwibuild had been complemented with an increase in housing NZ stock then many would have seen the Lab14 version as being seen as an active attempt in solving housing in particular aucklands housing issue. Hit property speculators as hard as your can, if trading then tax at 28%.
        So I disagree CGT is the problem, it is lukewarm solution by neoliberalism protecting their own kind.

        • Colonial Viper 3.2.3.1
          5 October 2014 at 11:38 am

          How can a policy such as a CGT be seen as a cure for our housing unaffordability when the CTG tax rate is 1/2 of the coy and top PAYE tax rate ?

          Also, it does not apply to a vast part of the housing stock known as “family homes”.

    • Karen 3.3
      5 October 2014 at 10:55 am

      I think that a leaflet explaining a policy would be a great idea Richard. I think the main reason Labour lost was their lack of a simple clear communication of important policy. Most of the population are not going to read130 pages of policy on a website that wasn’t very accessible.

      Labour boasted at having so much detailed policy compared to National, but
      people not that interested in politics don’t care. They need to be given something simple they can understand and these policies should have been on billboards – vote Labour to increase the minimum wage by $2 an hour. Vote Labour to protect our rivers. Vote Positive is meaningless.

      I think the CGT is a good idea but there was a huge amount of misinformation out there that could have been countered by a well designed leaflet as you suggest. Same with minimum wage increases. It was obvious the Nats would say it would increase unemployment so why not preempt the claims in a Q & A leaflet?

      • Herodotus 3.3.1
        5 October 2014 at 11:17 am

        You mentioned that a CGT was a good idea, Just curious why? Is that IYO it will solve the house affordability issue for just address the idea of a fairer tax system ?
        Many of the issues to preempt cannot be placed at DC’s feet, labour strategists should have been able to foresee any of the nats counter claims and had the responses already available, but it appears that they were found lacking….

        • Colonial Viper 3.3.1.1
          5 October 2014 at 11:39 am

          Very lacking. Yet they are likely to be the same people running the 2017 campaign, as they were the 2011 campaign.

        • Karen 3.3.1.2
          5 October 2014 at 11:47 am

          The CGT will not be enough to solve house affordability, but could slow down the the rampant inflation of house prices in Auckland. Its main benefits are that it would discourage property speculation by those trying to avoid paying tax as well as raising more tax revenue from those with higher incomes. Working class people often can’t even afford a home of their own let alone an investment property.

          All other OECD countries have a CGT and as a result NZ property speculation is seen as attractive by foreign investors. It would be better to get investment in the productive sector.

      • Kiwisaver 3.3.2
        5 October 2014 at 5:39 pm

        A simple pledge card with a few main policies and Party Vote labour. Keep CGT for second term and retirement age same.

  4. Richard 4
    5 October 2014 at 9:06 am

    On another Subject..

    Today or very soon I hope they find little Jack who was swept out to sea.

    My utterly sincere and deepest condolences go out to the family, friends and all that care about the wee fella.

    Time jack was found and bought home. I not a religious man but I will have a little prayer today being gods day, for his return.

  5. weka 5
    5 October 2014 at 9:44 am

    Newly elected Labour MP Stuart Nash says he has been taking advice from “dirty politics” operative Simon Lusk and has always been happy talking to people across the political spectrum.

    “I have mates right across the political spectrum and I make no apology for that. But having said that, I don’t consider Cameron Slater or Simon Lusk friends. Matthew Hooton certainly is a very good friend of mine, and I bang into him socially every now and then, and he’s quite enjoyable company, but that doesn’t change my politics or how I view things, believe me,” he said.

    “When people say ‘be careful of your right-leaning friends’, I say ‘why would I do that?’ We [MPs] get advice from a whole lot of different people – Matthew doesn’t give me advice.”

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11337024

    • Pasupial 5.1
      5 October 2014 at 10:42 am

      Hadn’t seen this when I quoted the same text above in response to P Ure. Did you get the link through TDB as well?

      http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/10/04/final-vote-national-lose-majority-will-greens-go-right-could-littleardern-ticket-save-labour/

      If you have the stomach for it, here are Nash’s posts on TDB – he’s always been one of the few authors on that site that with whom I’ve consistently disagreed. This wasn’t so important when he was a private citizen giving a window into the thoughts of the Labour rightwing. Now that he’s a parliamentary representative, it seems a bit more disturbing.

      http://thedailyblog.co.nz/category/bloggers/stuart-nash/

      Politics is about winning. Nothing else. MPs can philosophise, criticise, pontificate, and machinate as much as they want in opposition and it doesn’t count for a thing… I have said Labour brand. I personally don’t give a damn about any other party’s message, policies or political posturing because I am not representing that party or their aspirations on the doorstep or the soapbox when I am campaigning. I know, you know, and the voters know that in an MMP world a major party cannot govern alone; that coalition partners are vital to forming a government. At this point in time that is not my concern.

      – See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/01/24/politics-and-winning/#sthash.ayQwHtWr.dpuf

      Also his predictions are woefully inaccurate given his supposed access to internal Labour data. The GP went from 247,372 (11.06%) in 2011 to 257,356 (10.70%) in 2014 getting 14 MPs in both elections. Nash’s prediction?

      The Green party received 11.1% at the last election. History will show this is the high-water mark for them. I expect them to get around the 6.7% they polled in 2008; or even close to the 5.3% they got in 2005.

      – See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/01/10/its-not-what-you-say-but-what-they-hear/#sthash.AyIZ4FUO.dpuf

      History has shown that Nash possessed a faulty political weather-vane in this judgement, why should we expect any future announcement of his to have any predictive validity? He has done as much as any Labour candidate (except Jones or Davis) to drive wedges between the Labour party and its MMP allies on the left.

      • Richard 5.1.1
        5 October 2014 at 11:03 am

        “History has shown that Nash possessed a faulty political weather-vane in this judgement”

        Yeah well, I thought labour would romp home and national would be thrown out by the public for the Dirty politics of one JC.

        Boy was I wrong.

      • weka 5.1.2
        5 October 2014 at 11:20 am

        very good thanks.

        My dislike of Nash comes from his election byline which went something like ‘Labour supports the people who work hardest not moan the loudest’. Dog whistle and wedge politics.

        • Colonial Viper 5.1.2.1
          5 October 2014 at 11:46 am

          Nash is a corporate type who likes the money and enjoys all the trappings money can access

        • Kiwiri 5.1.2.2
          5 October 2014 at 12:16 pm

          Nash said that???
          LOL!!!
          He himself has been the one moaning, very often ill-timed and reflecting poorly on his colleagues.

      • Murray Olsen 5.1.3
        5 October 2014 at 10:43 pm

        I wonder why Bumbler Bradbury gives him space? Given the number of people whose comments never appear, it can’t be in the interests of open debate.

  6. anker 6
    5 October 2014 at 9:54 am

    Weka @ 5 perhaps this explains Hooton’s on-going disgraceful dissing of DC.

    BTW anyone see Q & A. I caught the end of the “panel”……………….seemed to be promoting Andrew Little.?

    • Richard 6.1
      5 October 2014 at 10:02 am

      No but watching it now.. think it’s chanel 504 or 502 on sky for the delayed hours viewing so you can catch it again if you missed it.

      Putting up with another bunch of pro rights led by Susan and there token lefts who do and say stuff all in the lefts defence.

      best comment was by Bryce so far stating the RMA and dairy prices were a problem for National. But Boagy said it won’t matter with the idiot coat tailers passing it anyways.

      Shocker coming from Bryce usually he’s stuck up Keys bottom.

    • BM 6.2
      5 October 2014 at 10:13 am

      If Little enters the race, that’s the end of Cunliffe.

    • tc 6.3
      5 October 2014 at 10:32 am

      Q&A is just more 2 tracking DP tactics using an under the thumb SOE as the delivery mechanism.

      Hooton will take the lead sales role now with cam and david needing to be more circumspect as unlike those 2 matty doesnt run a site full of spin dogwhistling up the rednecks.

    • Skinny 6.4
      5 October 2014 at 10:37 am

      Little interviewed fairly well, not as good as yesterday on The Nation, however good enough for sum of us to see him as a real Leader option. Mike Williams seemed annoyed and put out Andrew was being so glowingly talked up, he appeared more comfortable talking up Grant & Nash. What I can say is having talked individually with all those 3 and DC, I found Andrew Little naturally engaging and genuine with a finger on the pulse to things relevant.

  7. joe90 7
    5 October 2014 at 10:31 am

    As our young drown in a sea of debt.

    Lower Saxony is the final German state to scrap tuition fees, meaning that all German universities are free of charge for all students – and yes, that includes overseas students.

    “Tuition fees are socially unjust,” Dorothee Stapelfeldt, senator for science in Hamburg, told the Times. The state scrapped fees in 2012. “They particularly discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up studies. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.”

    German universities were allowed by law to start charging fees in 2006, when a constitutional court decided that moderate fees combined with loans did not violate the country’s commitment to universal higher education. Most schools only charged relatively low amounts of around €1,000 a year (£845) – but that didn’t stop state governments from changing their mind after eight years.

    http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/22027/1/germany-scraps-tuition-fees-for-all-universities

    • Paul 7.1
      5 October 2014 at 11:50 am

      Local government with powers in Germany.

      • Pat O'Dea 7.1.1
        5 October 2014 at 3:53 pm

        No wonder the establishment are trying so desperately to demonise New Zealand resident Kim Dotcom, spreading around his crazy German ideas about free tertiary education and wanting to see young people freed from student debt. We wouldn’t want crazy foreign ideas like that catching on here. No Sirrreee

  8. phillip ure 8
    5 October 2014 at 10:31 am

    i see the corporate-media hacks have now deserted grant robertson..

    ..and are now anointing andrew little as the new leader of labour..

    ..and are insisting that the appearance of little..

    ..must be the signal/reason for cunliffe to roll over and play dead…

    ..(how many ‘reasons to go!’ for cunliffe have the media dreamed up so far..?

    ..i have lost count..

    ..and like robertson..

    ..my observations of little in parliament confirm that he does not have what it takes..

    ..he has not shone there..nor in interviews..

    ..little will make a great minister..and is clearly an intelligent/considered person..

    ..but cunliffe (this time with policy backing his promises..) is still clearly labours’ best chance for victory in 2017..

    ..nobody else mooted come close in ability to take it to both key and national..

    • Skinny 8.1
      5 October 2014 at 10:43 am

      Have you met any of them in person Phil? My advice don’t sell Andrew short he is more sincere and talks with you rather than at you.

      • Hanswurst 8.1.1
        5 October 2014 at 10:54 am

        While I agree that their attributes in personal interaction are of some importance, the fact is that it isn’t the leader’s job to go into the hone of every person in New Zealand, shake their hand and share a cream tea. They are supposed to debate, articulate vision and policy and set the course for the party as a whole. My reaction whenever I see the “Have you met them in person?” thing trotted out here (and it’s coming up with regular monotony at the moment) is, “No, and why on Earth should I care?”.

      • phillip ure 8.1.2
        5 October 2014 at 2:41 pm

        @ skinny..

        ..where does little sit on the left/right spectrum..?

        ..is he a neo-lib robertson..?

        ..or a progressive cunliffe..?

        ..that is what concerns me..

        ..(if a three-headed goat promised to do away with neo-lib and to make labour a real labour party again..i wd support them for the leadership role..)

        ..(and also having seen him in action in parliament/debate..gives me doubts as to if he is ready for the job..)

        ..but otherwise he seems fine..

        ..and on a ‘trust-ranking’..i wd have him @ 8-9/10..

        ..whereas i wd have the likes of nash..at..oh..!.i dunno… minus 3..?..(is that too harsh..?..)

        ..and no..i have ‘met’ none of them…

        ..(and of course a standard question for nash from now on whenever he opines on whatever..wd/must be:..

        ..’and what did slater/lusk/hooton advise you to do about this..?..

        ..are we again hearing their words thru you..?..’..)

        • phillip ure 8.1.2.1
          5 October 2014 at 5:32 pm

          i also have a certain wariness about the union movement in general..

          ..’cos of their silences during those nine long years of ignoring/demonising of the poor by the clark govt..

          ..i still haven’t heard an explanation for that benchmark in ‘i’m alright jack!’..from those unions..

          ..so that someone is from a union means little to me..

          ..(see what i did there..?..)

    • tc 8.2
      5 October 2014 at 10:46 am

      Labours best chance is to use mmp effectively, work with other opposition parties and dont be so cavalier with socially unpopular policies like raising retirement age.

      govts lose elections more so than oppositions win them, they needed to work with greens and mana not scare middle nz, be united etc and nats would probably be gone now.

      Its this failure to do what it takes to win and show nz that coalition is workable, which deflates an attack theme. However they lecture middle nz with a ‘we know best’ and that will continue to keep them in opposition.

    • Richard 8.3
      5 October 2014 at 10:58 am

      Cunliffe and if Little joins will be a hard decision for me. I like DC but also have to admit to myself he’s not universally liked by the masses. Little has no such hang ups. Hard choice as David will take labour if allowed where I personally want them to go.

      Little I have to find out but he shows up good and level headed in interviews, but can he deliver in chambers or debates.

      • Stephanie Rodgers 8.3.1
        5 October 2014 at 11:36 am

        It’s a transferable vote, Richard, so you would only have to figure out which gets your #1 and #2 pick.

        • Richard 8.3.1.1
          5 October 2014 at 11:48 am

          Sorted, then. That’s good news, two I like, and two votes. Thanks Steph as the info hasn’t arrived yet. Just a nice email from a labour big wig. Telling me as I joined after election day they were a little tied up getting me up to date. I understood it completely.

      • odysseus 8.3.2
        5 October 2014 at 11:42 am

        Anyone’s blood race a bit when Little is on the telly? No, didn’t think so. The charisma of a newt.

        • Richard 8.3.2.1
          5 October 2014 at 11:52 am

          No but he spoke good common sense. My heart raced as in their was finally another choice, I was of the impression may be better. remember he pretty much only needs to get Labour as a minimum into, the somewhere in the mid to high 30’s with Greens support and hopefully Winny, we would have a government. It’s a real possibility with Little, a lot of hard work for DC. Not chance with GR and the hiding he will get media wise pre 2017 election.

        • Dialey 8.3.2.2
          5 October 2014 at 1:08 pm

          Charisma s over-rated and few understand it – after all people say Key is charismatic, but he is as bland as blancmange. There have been very few charismatic leaders over history, modern ones include Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King – we have nobody of that calibre any where near the reins of power or even pretenders.
          Common sense would be good; the ability to articulate complex policy in terms everyone can understand; a certain modesty but the boldness to actually stand up for what is right; and the ability to respect others and convey the sense that everyone is valued. Those are the qualities I look for in a a leader.

      • phillip ure 8.3.3
        5 October 2014 at 2:52 pm

        @ richard..

        “..but can he deliver in chambers or debates…”

        ..in a word..going on my observations..no..

    • infused 8.4
      5 October 2014 at 5:31 pm

      Well, I lost quite a bit of money on him on ipredict… Actually have some faith in little.

  9. SPC 9
    5 October 2014 at 11:22 am

    Policies and how Labour could have better communicated them.

    1. The age of super.

    No increase in age of super until after 2030.

    The age would be gradually increased after 2030, but by no more than 3 months per year.

    The message would then not be Labour increasing the age but promising no increase before 2030.

    • Colonial Viper 9.1
      5 October 2014 at 11:50 am

      Why even frakking increase the retirement age at all, when we already have an excess labour pool and not enough full time jobs to go around???

      Cunliffe said that Labour would not be the political party which cuts off your leg but with anaesthetic. All you’ve said here is, sell how good the anaesthetic is.

      • SPC 9.1.1
        5 October 2014 at 12:01 pm

        The first issue at play is that Labour has to improve its game in marketing policy.

        It needs to identify how the public reacts to policy so it can better market it.

        The second issue is to take the public on board bit by bit (the Key strategy for change over time – bed things in before moving on).

        Then Labour looks like a less risky change option.

        Your point, about what the policy should be, is another issue entirely.

        But for mine, the current surplus of labour is not caused by a proposal to increase the age for super in over a decades time.

        And the proportion of people working over age 65 now is much greater than the number that would be impacted by an increase from age 65 to 67. And this number is increasing regardless of what the age for super is.

        • Skinny 9.1.1.1
          5 October 2014 at 12:37 pm

          CV is correct axe that policy fullstop. The jobs are not there now and with technology the demand for workers will be further reduced. We need to move away from consumerism and become more focused on being self reliant. Just go to any mall and watch people loading up on debt by buying things that they don’t really need.

          • SPC 9.1.1.1.1
            5 October 2014 at 12:46 pm

            How does one afford and live with paying super to people who are still working age 65 to 67 while other people are in poverty? The number is about 33% of those age 65 to 67 and rising.

            These people, many in the top 10% income bracket, are getting more in tax paid super than poor families with no other means of support.

            • phillip ure 9.1.1.1.1.1
              5 October 2014 at 2:56 pm

              i think the ultimate example of this is mp’s..with their gold-plated pensions..

              ..still receiving state superannuation..

              ..surely that double-dipping cd be stopped at source..?

              ..that as part of that gold-plated super deal..

              ..they don’t also trough on state super..?

              ..is that an unreasonable request..?

            • Colonial Viper 9.1.1.1.1.2
              6 October 2014 at 2:04 am

              How does one afford and live with paying super to people who are still working age 65 to 67 while other people are in poverty? The number is about 33% of those age 65 to 67 and rising.

              WTF?

              “How does one afford and live with”???

              Where are you getting this awkward misdirected phrasing from? When you are referring to the NZ Government “affording” and “living with” paying super.

              Get serious and try and make a joined together argument eh? Let’s start with NZ Super being a universal entitlement, yeah?

        • Colonial Viper 9.1.1.2
          6 October 2014 at 2:01 am

          But for mine, the current surplus of labour is not caused by a proposal to increase the age for super in over a decades time.

          Dude, I never made such a back-asswards invalid point. Why would you even think this sentence you wrote had any basis?

          There are far too many unemployed and under-employed right now. Why put in place measures which will increase the surplus labour force even further, is my question. It’s dumb policy.

      • Richard 9.1.2
        5 October 2014 at 1:41 pm

        Frankly CV I never saw the need for a raising of the retirement either. My reasoning is dad died 65. Paid all that tax never even got to enjoy it(super).

        There’s a guy 70 still working at my work. But pays secondary tax. You can keep working if you want free choice. If anything, better early retirement choices would be a more attractive vote winner for those in hard manual labour who bodies don’t last the distance rather than go on SB or IB or ACC.

        Something like that would surely be a very attractive policy.

        As for the imminent baby boomer retirement. Is it going to be a THAT costly? What’s the figures? What other options do we have? Does returning more into the workforce help. If unemployment was 5-6 or less is there still an issue.

        If we start the Cullen fund up again does the interest help can it be used.

        Surely theirs a better option than scaring the 50+ crowd and me at 48.5

        • SPC 9.1.2.1
          5 October 2014 at 1:48 pm

          Should you be able to continue working AND get super?

          Dunne’s flexi-super allows early retirement but comes with a lifetime actuarial cap – meaning a lower rate of super for the rest of one’s life for doing this.

          Personally the only part of Dunne’s idea that I support, is enabling those sick and infirm (with health issues that limit life duration) stuck on a benefit to go onto super a little earlier (say from age 60, and for periods before then when people are terminally ill).

          • Richard 9.1.2.1.1
            5 October 2014 at 2:00 pm

            Good question SPC. Thinking about it… no??? But then no secondary tax. I mean I enjoy my job, I’d not want to be forced to retire, nor would I like to receive Super and a wage with a secondary high tax rate. I want to work my week and feel the satisfaction of seeing a healthy after tax income in my wage slip as a reward.

            However my back will never make it too 65 as employment rules around safety in the work place are a joke if you don’t live in the spotlight of a big city with employment inspectors.

            Have you been made aware of the massive drop in workplace ethics and worker safety since national got in.

          • phillip ure 9.1.2.1.2
            5 October 2014 at 2:59 pm

            @ spc..

            “..Personally the only part of Dunne’s idea that I support, is enabling those sick and infirm (with health issues that limit life duration) stuck on a benefit to go onto super a little earlier (say from age 60, and for periods before then when people are terminally ill)…”

            ..+ 1..

  10. SPC 10
    5 October 2014 at 11:23 am

    Policies and how Labour could have better communicated them.

    2. Kiwi Saver being compulsory.

    Labour has a plan to prevent mortgage costs from rising and improve export incomes.

    The government could use this “anti-inflationary” tool to hold down the OCR.

    Instead of people simply paying more of their wages to banks in mortgage interest cost they would be putting the money into their Kiwi Saver account – this money being available to them when they retired or a once a decade withdrawal to pay down their mortgage (and of course for those yet to own to withdraw to buy their first home).

    I would however withdraw the part about a variable rate as voters do/would not like the uncertainty of it. This is a component better left to consideration as policy for a following election.

  11. SPC 11
    5 October 2014 at 11:30 am

    New Policy.

    Before moving to flexible rate Kiwi Saver there should be a surcharge on mortgages.

    This option is one that Bollard floated late in his RB term as an alternative to raising the OCR (given the adverse impact on exporter incomes and jobs).

    A 1% surcharge on mortgages would allow the OCR to fall from 3.5 to 2.5%.

    At 3.5 the banks are lending at 6%.
    At 2.5 the banks are lending at 5%.

    Thus the mortgage holder pays 5% to the bank, instead of 6, and 1% to the government.

    This would by the way raise about $2B pa for the government in surcharge, as well as the higher tax revenues off higher exporter and wage incomes.

    • Colonial Viper 11.1
      5 October 2014 at 11:51 am

      Yep there are many smart, targeted mechanisms which could be used. A surcharge or stamp duty on mortgages/property transactions is one example.

    • Richard 11.2
      5 October 2014 at 11:58 am

      So another tax. Why not grow employment , or reduce unemployment as a strategy to help the government coffers.

      If the economy is running sweet most problems will disappear by themselves.

      • SPC 11.2.1
        5 October 2014 at 12:09 pm

        The more taxes the lower the rate of tax the better is the maxim for optimum tax policy. It’s the higher rates that create perverse incentives, avoidance etc.

        The surcharge, CGT and carbon tax allow lower tax rates.

        And they all improve economic performance.

        1. a lower OCR and dollar assists exporter returns and job growth.
        2. reduces the incentive to speculate, rather than invest
        3. a more sustainable economy

      • SPC 11.2.2
        5 October 2014 at 12:35 pm

        It’s a policy that’s purpose is to increase jobs.

        • Richard 11.2.2.1
          5 October 2014 at 12:57 pm

          Yeah it is SPC and the investment capital earned from it may help create more jobs , however the issue I have, and I’m trying to convey is to stop us pandering and promoting the perception the public have that we(Labour) just tax, tax, more tax, seriously I think we need to STFU on taxes, do what another said, once elected inform the people our intent and then throw it to referendum. Silence the naysayers.

          We need to stop allowing the misinformation to be justified.

          and most of all stop arming Key with debate lines of 5 headed monsters and look another tax.

          • Colonial Viper 11.2.2.1.1
            6 October 2014 at 1:56 am

            Get over it mate. Key raised more taxes, levies and fees than Labour proposed. Starting with GST, if you recall.

            Taxes allow government to direct and rebalance the economy, sometimes without having to even bring in a single dollar from the tax.

            Make the fucking case in other words, don’t buy into the right wing framing and back off.

            • Richard 11.2.2.1.1.1
              6 October 2014 at 6:33 am

              Hmmm, CV the ammo and look when he(Key in debates) said 5 new taxes.

              Remember that. I hear what your saying, but it’s all about perception isn’t it. If your serious about labour winning, and against shifty key we’d better start thinking smarter.

              Everything in moderation.

              • Draco T Bastard …
                6 October 2014 at 6:50 am

                The problem we have is that people have been taught that taxes are a negative rather than the positive that they are. We call tax cuts tax relief which is really a load of bollocks because it usually makes life worse for the many. Of course, the rich do well out of it as they a) get more income from doing nothing more and b) put prices up to shift that extra money in peoples pockets into their own.

                People are always better off paying taxes than they are not paying taxes.

                • Richard …
                  6 October 2014 at 7:00 am

                  Again this is due to the media not explaining things, or the party not producing the counter arguments to dispel the stereotyping.

                  In a normal democracy with a broader media that compliments both sides it would be fine, But here in NZ we have to admit we are playing with a marked deck and need to sharpen up.

                  I’m not saying your wrong at all, I’m saying we have difficulty getting it over too the voters.

    • bearded git 11.3
      5 October 2014 at 12:00 pm

      I think Labour should scrap cgt, scrap the 67 pension age (though convene parliament wide body to discuss the pension age) and go for a Mansion Tax per Labour in the UK, of say 1% on houses $750k to $1m and 2% on houses worth more than a $1m with no exceptions (or some variation on this) while raising the top rate of tax above $130k to 39%.

      These would be relatively simple to administer, hit the right people and put a lid on house prices and raise revenue.

  12. Jenny 12
    5 October 2014 at 11:46 am

    One of the main arguments marshalled by those who wish to change the flag is that, at a distance, it is too easily mistaken for the Australian flag.

    It could be worse:

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10580871/Silver-Fern-compared-to-terror-group-flag

    At least our troops will be less likely to be shelled by the Americans if they only mistake us for Australians.

    • Colonial Viper 12.1
      5 October 2014 at 11:53 am

      well the record shows that neither Australian nor UK troops (or American troops for that matter) are particularly safe from US fire…

      • Richard 12.1.1
        5 October 2014 at 12:10 pm

        Certainly true that. As when I play Battlefield 3 the yanks always mistake my little tank for a bloody Russians. /humour 🙂

  13. greywarbler 13
    5 October 2014 at 11:59 am

    Good on Radionz Wallace Chapman this a.m.
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday

    Halfway through his interview with Michael Katakis I heard something about an interview arrangement he had with Kim Hill having been cancelled on the basis that there had been too many left leaning USA intellectuals on already! Interesting – I think that is what I heard. If what I have repeated is true then that is alarming.

    11:05 Michael Katakis – Traveller
    Michael Katakis has been photographing and writing about different cultures for the past 35 years. His work has been celebrated by the Royal Geographical Society, The Smithsonian Institute and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, to name just a few. He is also the literary manager of Ernest Hemingway’s intellectual estate. He joins Wallace to talk about his books, A Thousand Shards of Glass – which is a personal farewell to America and his wife; and Traveller, which is a collection of letters and journal entries that reflect on his own past.

    For those with questions about what philosophy we should live by (think song – Teach your children well) the interview with Sam Harris, an atheist has something to say.
    10:20 Sam Harris – Devoted to Reason
    One of the world’s most well-known atheists, Sam Harris is the author of the bestselling books The End of Faith and The Moral Landscape. Dr Harris is cofounder and CEO of Project Reason, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA. He joins Wallace to talk about his latest book Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion where they discuss mindfulness, drugs, critics and, of course, religion.

    And NZ Peter Williams QC aged 80, talking about his work with many murderers and prison reform, and author of new book called The Dwarf that Moved?
    It’s one of the stories in the book, about a dwarf in an Auckland circus whose wife was committing adultery with another guy in the circus. They had a sharp-shooting booth where she would shoot something out of the dwarf’s mouth and she hits him one day and is charged with attempted murder.
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11217263

    11:30 Peter Williams – Life in the Law
    Peter Williams QC is a well-known name and face to New Zealanders. One of our greatest barristers, Peter Williams has defended some of New Zealand’s most infamous criminal cases, including: Terry Clark (Mr. Asia) and Arthur Allan Thomas. He has been a constant advocate for change in the penal system and has campaigned to rehabilitate prisoners, rather than imprisoning them. He joins Wallace on Sunday Morning to talk about some of his more notorious cases and his life spent working in the law.

    • Richard 13.1
      5 October 2014 at 12:36 pm

      http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/20152188/current-affairs

      link to the audio Greywarbler.

      Very, very interesting. Blimmin heck Dunne sounds out of place with National.

      Took notes people should listen to the interview.

      Winner Dunne. Jamie trying to defend the indefensible and frankly Dunne took him to task.

      rma

      Jamie

      Wants greening of act, more emphasis on equality the people of nz have spoken their concerns for growing inequality. Dunne showed him up n one hand he wants Act more green like but same time want dismantling of RMA. Dunne states prior to RMA there was 54 laws it was Kos Jamie want a return to kaos basically.

      Dunne will not support RMA changes at all. Stated, steadfast.

      Charter schools

      Dunne Will not support them they are a joke
      Spoke examples of private partnerships, not trained teachers , franky it sound a joke these charter schools

      Jamie lies and tells Wallace his facts from Stanford research are wrong when Wallace had them in front of him. Silly boy.

      All in All Dunnes more left than I had thought, Jamie is very dangerous as he is following an agenda without reasoned thought.

      • greywarbler 13.1.1
        5 October 2014 at 1:00 pm

        @ Richard
        All in All Dunnes more left than I had thought, Jamie is very dangerous as he is following an agenda without reasoned thought.
        I think Dunne will follow that old saying about running with the fox and hunting with the hounds.
        Somewhere in the middle he might make a useful stand to act as some solace for those who wanted him out.
        Don’t be so sure about Jamie Whyte and reasoned thought. That is like looking at a mirror from different standpoints. Same mirror, different views.
        Some good reporting today.

  14. John 14
    5 October 2014 at 12:04 pm

    The AB’s have gone down. Shoulda kept John Key away from the jersey.

  15. Draco T Bastard 15
    5 October 2014 at 12:06 pm

    The Kink in the Human Brain

    If the news that in the past 40 years the world has lost over 50% its vertebrate wildlife (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish) fails to tell us that there is something wrong with the way we live, it’s hard to imagine what could. Who believes that a social and economic system which has this effect is a healthy one? Who, contemplating this loss, could call it progress?

    We need a better economic system because the one we have is uneconomic.

  16. b waghorn 16
    5 October 2014 at 12:16 pm

    @odesseus I just watched little s interview and thought he came across well It maid me wish the labour office had of sorted its shit so I could of joined in time to vote.

  17. greywarbler 17
    5 October 2014 at 12:54 pm

    I couldn’t remember the leadership timeline. For those like me – this is our link.

    Labour announces leadership election details


    Nominations close on Tuesday, 14 October. After which there are meetings around the rohe.

  18. Pat O'Dea 18
    5 October 2014 at 3:23 pm

    Tracy Watkins puts her 2 cents in.

    “In the old days he would have been gone already”
    Tracy Watkin

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/10546182/Cunliffes-exit-is-assured-but-by-which-route

    According columnist Tracy Watkins.
    In the old days Douglas would have sacked Lange.

    Wishful thinking by a rightwing journo with her own agenda?

    You decide:

    David Cunliffe’s resignation from the Labour leadership is certain. It is only the manner of his going that is yet to be decided.

    In the old days he would have been gone already.

    Tuesday’s brutalising caucus was a coup in all but name. It showed Cunliffe no longer has any authority over his caucus, who can outvote him at will. They already have, over his choice of Whip.

    A leader who can’t control his caucus or win a vote cannot credibly front National as the Leader of the Opposition. But under Labour’s rules a coup is no longer a simple numbers game in the caucus.

    If it were, Cunliffe’s rival Grant Robertson would already be leader.

    He has had the numbers to roll Cunliffe for more than a year.

    But that is not enough.

    Robertson’s supporters could force a vote of no confidence in Cunliffe, but that effectively puts the decision in the hands of the wider party and Labour’s union affiliates. In a vote, they could decide to re-install Cunliffe over a hostile caucus. They did so the last time the leadership was put to the vote, a year ago.

    Whether they would do so again after the chaotic scenes of recent days remains to be seen. Camp Cunliffe are convinced they would…..

    “Cunliffe’s exit is assured” Tracy Watkins
    stuff.co.nz September 5, 2014

    Maybe not.

    • karol 18.1
      5 October 2014 at 5:46 pm

      That’s Tracy Watkins fer ya. It’s dated Sep 26 – I did wonder as Sept 5 was before the election.

    • Colonial Viper 18.2
      5 October 2014 at 6:00 pm

      Grant Robertson and his crew have never accepted for even one day, the decision of the members and affiliates that Cunliffe should be leader.

    • Draco T Bastard 18.3
      5 October 2014 at 8:47 pm

      He has had the numbers to roll Cunliffe for more than a year.

      No he hasn’t else Robertson would have been leader a year ago when Shearer resigned and Cunliffe became leader. Of course, what Watkins is really saying here is: If it wasn’t for those dratted members and unions we’d have a sensible Labour Party that would hold to the status quo.

      Basically, more authoritarian BS from our MSM that holds that the public should just leave the decisions to the government and not get engaged in the actual decision making.

  19. Draco T Bastard 19
    5 October 2014 at 3:27 pm

    Primer for the Goldman Sachs secret tapes

    THE FEDERAL Reserve Bank of New York is responsible for regulating the nation’s biggest banks. But new secret audio tapes indicate the banks — not the Fed — are in charge. Congress can keep making the rules tougher and tougher, but it won’t make an ounce of difference if the regulators won’t enforce those rules. Below is a primer to explain what’s going on.

    It is time to end the Reign of the Banks.

    • yeshe 19.1
      5 October 2014 at 7:28 pm

      DTB .. and let’s remember Goldman Sachs absorbed Merrill Lynch thus Key’s fortune rests in Goldman Sachs shares … nothing more needs be said, sadly …

      • Colonial Viper 19.1.1
        6 October 2014 at 1:32 am

        Bank of America. And BoA got a serious case of indigestion from ingesting ML.

    • greywarbler 19.2
      5 October 2014 at 9:14 pm

      @ DTB 19
      Joe 90 and I put up comments on 27/9 which may extend background on this Federal Reserve Bank regulatory farce.

      Open mike 27/09/2014

  20. fisiani 20
    5 October 2014 at 4:09 pm

    Andrew Little might not be a stellar performer but at least he will not be disliked or pitied. He would be a safe pair of hands to bring about the needed changes and remember that under MMP he only has to raise Labour to where it was when Shearer was deposed in order to possibly win in 2017. Andrew Little is better than Shearer and could win votes from the Greens and win back the Labour voters who opted for the safety of National in 2014.

  21. logie97 21
    5 October 2014 at 5:28 pm

    Public Broadcasting impartiality
    Back in 2003 “Trougher Hide” led a tirade against Brian Edwards and had him successfully removed from current affairs. Apparently on the basis of Edwards political leanings and questionable “impartiality”.

    Wonder how Hide views Hosking’s role in meeting Public Broadcasting standards?

  22. Colonial Viper 22
    5 October 2014 at 5:46 pm

    An incredible, innovative, musical protest for Mike Brown

    Brown was the young black man killed without legal reason, by a white police officer in Ferguson, St Louis County.

  23. weka 23
    5 October 2014 at 6:22 pm

    why do we let these people have power?

    A promo video from Pinkroccade, a prominent IT contractor to Dutch local governments, makes the case for spying on wearables (if your heart-rate rises because you’re about to be mugged, the police could be alerted, and get GPS from your phone, find nearby phones belonging to people with criminal records, check the view from your Google Glass, and respond — case closed); following outrage from the press, the company doubled down on its video, saying it was not meant to be interpreted by lay people and that you have to be an expert to understand why it isn’t creepy as all fuck.

    http://boingboing.net/2014/10/04/dutch-it-contractor-lays-out-t.html

  24. halfcrown 24
    5 October 2014 at 6:56 pm

    On tonights news I see there is a major fire in a substation in Auckland.

    Funny that, I thought, that would have not happened in the bad bad bad days of NZCED when we ALL owned the infrastructure of New Zealand. Myers reminded us of these “terrible” days on Q&A this morning
    My second thought was, Why did it happen? Was it because we had a cost reducing profit maximizing lack of maintenance or, incompetent subcontractors with the lowest bid got the job.
    My third thought was
    One of the suburbs that was really affected was EPSOM. Ha Ha fucking Ha perhaps Rimmer along with Kryton can come and fix it for them.

  25. fisiani 25
    5 October 2014 at 9:41 pm

    Wanna make some money . Go on Ipredict and pick the Labour leader. Arbitrage to your heart’s content.

  26. Cave Johnson 26
    5 October 2014 at 10:21 pm

    Just read Chris Trotter’s Sept 30th discussion about renewal of NZLP. The key suggestion seemed to be to turn the party list over to member voting, as done by the Greens. Party list selection by members is a great idea, but it would have much less impact for NZLP than it does for GPANZ.
    .
    The current NZLP electorate candidate process is also interesting. I think involves 3 votes from head office and 2 from local organisation. So centralised control could be exerted to enforce electorate candidate renewal, but that might be very messy and simply lead to a call for less head office power.
    .
    The Labour trend is clearly away from centralised control. As Trotter points out, the Nats are much more comfortable with that idea.
    .
    The rules are here http://www.elections.org.nz/sites/default/files/parties/rules/Labour%20Party%20Constitution%20and%20Rules.pdf
    .
    The org review from 2012 also makes interesting reading for those who are calling for yet another org review. https://www.labour.org.nz/sites/default/files/Labour%20Review%20Discussion%20Paper.pdf

  27. Murray Olsen 27
    6 October 2014 at 1:06 am

    When parliaments were first formed, only the rich could afford to be MPs. The answer to this was supposedly to pay them a salary. This obviously hasn’t worked, because the people we have in parliament are somewhere between comfortably well off and super rich. As well as what they can make if they indulge in insider trading with their blind trusts, cough cough, they get paid far more than most Kiwis can even dream about. Maybe they should be paid something like the unemployment benefit rate, with allowances for travel etc? I’m sure that would keep heaps of the troughers we have at the moment out of the Beehive.

    And also: Glory glory to South Sydney. The two teams I hope never win the NRL competition again are Manly (Abbott and his ilk live there) and the Broncos (donate to the LNP campaign in Queensland). After seeing Russell Crowe get a championship ring made for Isaac Luke, I think there might be some truth to the rumours that he is part Kiwi.

    Lenin wrote somewhere that the left should be involved where the working masses are. For me, that’s not a challenge at all, because I love Rugby League. The Kiwis would never make John Key captain.

    • greywarbler 27.1
      6 October 2014 at 10:08 am

      Murray 0 1/06 am
      Low wages for MPs would result in a moral hazard whereby they would be vulnerable to brown envelopes and baubles, and trips to resorts for their family, an apartment on the Gold Coast etc………..

      Limited terms would be the deal and applying to all of them there pollies from top to bottom. Putin seems adept at the merry go round, but some sort of limitation would stop too many from digging themselves a fur lined cave for the duration.

      I understand they have these in the USA, fur lined cars, or caves I mean. And someone who has early onset bigotry and calcification of the brain can stay in power probably with pay offs and because they look like daddy, so they can’t be winkled out. Probably in the end it seems uncharitable to such an old soldier to give him the push so they get a sympathy vote. That’s not democracy at work. That’s good ol’boys getting a rort.

      • Murray Olsen 27.1.1
        6 October 2014 at 7:02 pm

        High salaries just make the moral hazards more costly. I remember when the first ACT government vastly increased judges’ salaries, saying they would be vulnerable to bribery at the then current rate. I found it funny that judges had to be bribed to be honest.

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

  • Rāhui day 4
    The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
    The little pakehaBy chrismiller
    55 mins ago

  • Letter to a friend
    by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    2 hours ago

  • Life in Lock Down: Day 3
    . . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    10 hours ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #13
    A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020 Articles Linked to on Facebook Sun, Mar 22, 2020 In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
    Skeptical Science
    19 hours ago

  • Rāhui day 3
    I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
    The little pakehaBy chrismiller
    1 day ago

  • A test of civil society.
    The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    1 day ago

  • Life in Lock Down: Day 2
    . . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    1 day ago

  • How Do You Feel? What Do You Think?
    Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 days ago

  • Landlords are NOT an essential service
    If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
    The Jackal
    2 days ago

  • A “new Society” post-COVID19 will definitely emerge. The question is: on what path?
    Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    2 days ago

  • Raise the Bar: Everything you need to know about the wage subsidy
    Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...
    PosseBy chloeanneking
    2 days ago

  • The massacre of prisoners in Modelo jail, Bogota, March 21
    by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    2 days ago

  • We are not America
    When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago

  • When will we know the lockdown is working?
    Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    2 days ago

  • Lock Down: Day 1
    . . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    2 days ago

  • A Compelling Recollection.
    Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
    Bowalley Road
    3 days ago

  • The Warehouse – where everyone gets a virus
    . . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago

  • Aggressive action to address climate change could save the world $145 trillion
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago

  • After the Pandemic
    It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
    SciBlogsBy Robert Hickson
    3 days ago

  • Coronavirus – Cuba shows the way
    We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin.  The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    3 days ago

  • Using privacy law to prevent the death penalty
    In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago

  • It’s Time For Disaster Socialism.
    Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
    Bowalley Road
    4 days ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #12, 2020
    Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago

  • Avoidable hospitalisations: Helping our health system get through COVID-19
    Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick Wilson While it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    4 days ago

  • Raise the Bar: 10 questions to ask your employer proposing redundancy
    Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
    PosseBy chloeanneking
    4 days ago

  • An equitable way to support business
    The Herald reports that the government is planning to lend billions of dollars to large businesses to keep them operating during the pandemic. As with mortgage relief, this is necessary: we need companies to stay in business, to reduce the economic damage and help things get restarted again when this ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago

  • Hard News: Together Alone
    We're about to do something unprecedented as a nation. We hope that by taking this extraordinary action before a single life in New Zealand has been lost to the deadly novel virus we will save tens of thousands of lives. Our  lives. We'll do it together, in households, in isolation ...
    Public Address
    5 days ago

  • Why timing is everything: ‘A time to refrain from embracing’ starts today
    “There is a time for everything,    and a season for every activity under the heavens.”So writes the author of Ecclesiastes, a book in the Old Testament that’s counted as a ‘wisdom’ book and written as if by an unnamed king of Jerusalem. But who would have thought there would be a time ...
    PunditBy Tim Watkin
    5 days ago

  • Dealing with the Covid-19 Tsunami.
    I was surprised when the prime minister described the Economic Response to Covid-19 package as the ‘largest peacetime government spend in New Zealand's history’. Reflecting – checking through history – I realised that the term ‘spend’ was crucial and the package had no income tax cuts. Even so, it has ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    5 days ago

  • What about renters?
    The government today announced the latest part of its pandemic relief package: a six-month mortgage holiday for people whose incomes have been affected by the pandemic. Which is great, because these people are going to need help, and that's what the government should be doing. At the same time, it ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • Living within our means.
    Years ago the Argentine sociologist Carlos Weisman wrote a book titled “Living within our Means.” It was a critique of Argentine society that focused on the paradoxical question of why, in a land of plenty, there was so much economic instability, inequality, corruption and political turmoil. His conclusion was basically ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    5 days ago

  • Transparency and the pandemic
    Parliament will be leading by example and adjourning tomorrow after a special sitting to consider an epidemic notice and state of emergency. Day-to-day oversight of the government will be delegated to a select committee. But that's not the only overight mechanism. The OIA will still be law, and (so far) ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • ‘Overjoyed’: a leading health expert on New Zealand’s coronavirus shutdown, and the challengin...
    Michael Baker, University of Otago Overjoyed. That’s not a word epidemiologists normally use, but that’s how I felt after hearing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement about New Zealand’s COVID-19 shutdown of everything except essential services for at least four weeks from midnight on Wednesday. More than anything, I just ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    5 days ago

  • One way to solve the housing crisis
    How much homelessness is caused by house hoarding? We're about to find out. The pandemic has destroyed tourism, which means that house hoarders who put their hoarded properties up as short-term tourist rentals are now offering them on the ordinary rental market:Property investors are pulling properties from Airbnb to offer ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • The pros and cons of planting trees to address global warming
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bruce Lieberman It seems like such a simple, straightforward, empowering idea: plant trees – a lot of trees – all over the world, and watch the planet’s temperature fall. Who doesn’t love a tree or two, even far more – the right ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Not a grand coalition, but a government of national salvation
    According to Newshub, Simon Bridges is open to joining a “grand coalition” with Labour as we hunker down to go into a month long lockdown. The idea is sound. Before now, the role of the opposition was to scrutinise and oppose. In the context of what almost amounts to a ...
    PunditBy Liam Hehir
    6 days ago

  • Raise the Bar: hospitality workers & wage subsidy entitlements
    Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or ...
    PosseBy chloeanneking
    6 days ago

  • Lifting our game against COVID-19
    We need to be lifting our game against COVID-19. You and I need to help those working to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while they’re trying to lift the testing and treatment efforts. We don’t want to be playing this game running backwards. Best to play it solidly forward, from ...
    SciBlogsBy Grant Jacobs
    6 days ago

  • The maths and ethics of minimising COVID-19 deaths in NZ
    Prof Tony Blakely, Prof Michael Baker, and Prof Nick Wilson The NZ Government must do more to clearly articulate its COVID-19 strategy: eradication or ‘flattening the curve’ mitigation. But to do so means understanding the maths and ethics of both these strategies. In this blog, we adapt our work for ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    6 days ago

  • All aboard the Covid Train
    A few days ago I was starting to write something about the pandemic, which now seems unconscionable. It took the form of a letter to an agony aunt:“Dear Deidre, I have an ugly confession. I am quite excited by Covid-19.”This is how the piece went:“I’m not a psychopath, honest. Although the ...
    PunditBy Phil Vine
    6 days ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #12
    Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters The likelihood of extreme events ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • We are all socialists now
    Last week, the government announced a $12 billion initial package to support people during the pandemic. Today, the Reserve Bank is buying government bonds - effectively printing money - to keep up the money supply during the crisis. Normally such moves would have the right apoplectic. Instead, the National Party ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • A plea to experts: safeguard your role in public life
    I am a pundit, somebody who opines and comments on the news. There are no real qualifications to punditry though having a rudimentary way with words and good general knowledge helps. That is one reason there is a constant oversupply of would-be pundits and why it is quite hard to ...
    PunditBy Liam Hehir
    1 week ago

  • Enlightenment when?
    I recently encountered the following prescription from a Faculty of Education at a leading New Zealand University. At first I wondered if it was another product of the postmodern generator (http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/pomo/), designed to create gibberish in the postmodern form, but I’m told it is real: The “schooled” society: Towards the ...
    SciBlogsBy Michael Corballis
    1 week ago

  • What the Crisis Can teach Us
    The coronavirus pandemic has of course had a major impact on individual lives and on societies as a whole. But, long after the crisis has passed (assuming it does), we will begin to realise that its real and lasting significance lies in the lessons it has taught us, if only ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    1 week ago

  • Hammering home measures to stop COVID-19
    COVID-19 has plunged Aotearoa New Zealand (indeed, the world) into territory that, while maybe not totally unprecedented, certainly hasn’t been seen during the lifetimes of most of us here today. Our borders are closed to non-citizens, we’re being told not to gather in groups of more than 500 outside/100 inside, ...
    PunditBy Andrew Geddis
    1 week ago

  • What does ‘level two’ mean – and why does it matter?
    For the last few weeks, I’ve been urging you to prepare yourself, your family, business, and community for Covid-19. Now it’s time for real action.  Yesterday the director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced another 13 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, bringing our total to date to 52. ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    1 week ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #12
    A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 15, 2020 through Sat, Mar 21, 2020 Editor's Pick Now Isn’t the Time to Forget About Our Climate Change Efforts   Tasha Tilberg, Lindsey Wixson, and Liu Wen photographed ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Is the Guardian becoming  a real newspaper again?
    by Jan Rivers The article has been corrected to show that it was Ewen MacAskill, former Guardian journalist and not Luke Harding who travelled to meet Edward Snowden with journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras.  Some of the Guardian’s well-known journalists who did not sign the protest letter are ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • Life asserts itself regardless
    by Cultural Worker Late March 2020 amidst the virus. With gigs crashing and burning all around it was without much hope that I called a long standing rest home booking: “ Hi, I’m supposed to be entertaining at your place this afternoon – is it still on?” “”If you don’t ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • Politics, the possible, and the pandemic
    Whenever people demand real change from their politicians, we're told that "politics is the art of the possible". The implication is that change isn't possible, so we'd better just get used to the sucky status quo. But now that there's a pandemic, a lot of things we were previously told ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • The Only Way Through This Crisis Is Together.
    Together: In leading New Zealand through the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Prime Minister could do a lot worse than allow herself to be guided by the spirit of collective sacrifice and co-operation that animated the New Zealanders of 80 years ago. Most Kiwis alive today have had no opportunity to prove their ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • GFC vs Covid-19
    It is said that generals fight the last war. In the case of the early stages of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) they had learned from the Great Depression of the 1930s and they fought intelligently and successfully. Later their advice would be ignored in favour of the Austerians who ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    1 week ago

  • Nobody Left Behind.
    Solidarity Forever: All over the world, the arrival of the Covid-19 virus has exposed the fragility of the walls we erect around ourselves and our loved ones. It has shattered our illusions of autonomy and revealed to us how utterly dependent we all are on other human-beings. Finally, we see ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • Rebuilding a truly “Democratic” counter, or a “moderate Republican” bolt-hol...
    Looking across the various arguments for/against the leading candidates to take the Democratic Nomination, you might honestly be very hard pressed to tell. There are a number of things that have now started happening since Amy Klobuchar and “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg both threw the towel in and immediately (and ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    1 week ago

  • Abortion law reform a win for women
    by Daphna Whitmore Abortion is no longer in the Crimes Act in New Zealand. The law reform passed yesterday and now abortion is a medical matter between a woman and her doctor. Many women’s groups and progressive people have campaigned for reform for decades. The women’s liberation movement and some ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • How to spot bogus science stories and read the news like a scientist
    Doug Specht, University of Westminster and Julio Gimenez, University of Westminster When fake news, misreporting and alternative facts are everywhere, reading the news can be a challenge. Not only is there plenty of misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and other scientific topics floating around social media, you also ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    1 week ago

  • Why New Zealand needs to continue decisive action to contain coronavirus
    Michael Baker, University of Otago and Nick Wilson, University of Otago With some of the toughest border restrictions and a newly-announced NZ$500 million boost to health services, New Zealand is among a small number of countries with a strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. New Zealand is also fortunate in ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    1 week ago

  • Parliament and the pandemic II
    As expected, the government has introduced a sessional order to allow Parliament to operate during the pandemic. You can read it on the Order Paper here, but the short version is that questions and motions can be filed electronicly, select committees can work remotely, and the the Business Committee can ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • When a virus goes viral: pros and cons to the coronavirus spread on social media
    Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology; Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology; Timothy Graham, Queensland University of Technology, and Tobias R. Keller, Queensland University of Technology News and views about coronavirus has spread via social media in a way that no health emergency has done before. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    1 week ago

  • How to survive 14 days of self-isolation
    So you’ve recently returned from overseas, come into contact with someone who tested positive, got a bit of a dry cough yourself or perhaps just want to self isolate for 14 days to avoid other people who might have COVID-19. Here are a few tips and tricks to help get ...
    The Jackal
    2 weeks ago

  • Abortion Legislation Bill passes third reading
    Some fave speeches:     ...
    Boots TheoryBy Stephanie Rodgers
    2 weeks ago

  • Why Leadership Matters – More Than Anything.
    Our Good Fortune: Precisely because she has never been an ideologue (she calls herself a “pragmatic idealist”) Jacinda Ardern has a political nimbleness and spontaneity which, when infused with her exceptional emotional intelligence, produces spectacular demonstrations of leadership. Jacinda's empathic political personality contrasts sharply with the less-than-sunny ways of her ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 weeks ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11, 2020
    46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global pattern of short‐term concurrent hot and dry extremes and its relationship to large‐scale climate indices Opposite spatial variability of climate change‐induced surface temperature trends due to soil and atmospheric moisture in tropical/subtropical dry and wet land regions ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 weeks ago

  • 68-51
    The Abortion Legislation Bill has just passed its third reading, 68-51. NZ First MPs bailed because their referendum amendment didn't pass, but there were plenty of MPs to provide a majority without them. The bill is a long way from perfect - most significantly, it subjects pregnant people who need ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • The ‘herd immunity’ route to fighting coronavirus is unethical and potentially dangerous
    As most of the world tries to suppress the coronavirus spread, some countries are going it alone – trying to manage the pandemic through so-called “herd immunity”. Herd immunity means letting a large number of people catch a disease, and hence develop immunity to it, to stop the virus spreading. ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • Eight new COVID-19 cases today. It’s no surprise when you look at some numbers
    So, as I sit at home with a very, very slight headache (i.e. not at work when I would otherwise be so), the now familiar figure of Ashley Bloomfield reports eight new confirmed cases of COVID-19  including two in Waikato. A surprise, given that we had just twelve yesterday? No. ...
    SciBlogsBy Marcus Wilson
    2 weeks ago

  • The WINZ Paradox versus the new COVID-19 Reality: Get real people, seriously…
    Many who advocated for, and voted for, the current Coalition – particularly those who voted Labour and the Green Party – expected to see a sea change in the reality of social services. A real, deep change of attitude, approach of process through which the system negotiates the difficult and ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    2 weeks ago

  • The Air New Zealand bailout
    Stuff reports that the government is going to have to throw $2 - 3 billion at Air new Zealand to get it through the pandemic. Good. While international routes are basicly closed, Air New Zealand is a strategic asset which is vital to our tourism industry, not to mentioning airfreight. ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • Why NZ’s tough coronavirus travel rules are crucial to protecting lives at home and across the Pac...
    New Zealand’s border restrictions will come with significant job and business losses in the tourism sector, both at home and in the Pacific. But the new travel rules are absolutely necessary to protect the health of New Zealanders and people right across Pacific Islands, because New Zealand is a gateway ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • The tiniest of teeth
    Back in early 2018, as a shoddy legal tactic to try and avoid the prisoner voting ban being formally declared inconsistent with the BORA by the Supreme Court, Justice Minister Andrew Little floated the idea of greater legal protection for human rights. When the Supreme Court case didn't go the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • One simple, common factor to success against COVID-19
    Professor Philip Hill and Associate Professor James Ussher Most infectious diseases have an Achilles heel, the secret is to find it. The question is if we don’t have a drug or a vaccine for COVID-19, is there something else we can do to beat it? Some people estimate that, without ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

  • National should isolate Simon Bridges
    The Coalition Governments $12.1 billion economic package to help combat the financial effects of COVID-19 was generally well received across the board, even amongst many business leaders who would normally be critical of a Labour led Government.However there was one glaringly obvious exception, Simon Bridges. The so-called leader of the ...
    The Jackal
    2 weeks ago

  • How testing for Covid-19 works
    With confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand up to 12, many influential people are writing open letters and opinion pieces and doing press conferences asking why we aren’t pulling out all the stops and testing thousands of people a day like they are in South Korea. The thing is, ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    2 weeks ago

  • The COVID-19 package and the limits of capitalism
    by Daphna Whitmore The willingness to put human life before business shows that sometimes capitalism is capable of suspending its relentless drive for profit. For a short time it can behave differently. Flatten the curve is the public health message since COVID-19 suddenly overwhelmed the hospital system in northern Italy. ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    2 weeks ago

Older posts

  • Tariff concessions on COVID-19 related products
    New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Clarification of modification to wage subsidy scheme
    Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Face masks flowing to DHBs
    Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • COVID-19: Further steps to protect New Zealanders’ jobs
    The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Tax relief for Mycoplasma Bovis farmers
    Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • $27 million for NGOs and community groups to continue providing essential services
    A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Statement on guilty plea of March 15 terrorist
    “The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • COVID-19 updates
    The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Police numbers break through 10,000 mark
    Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Urgent tax measures for economic recovery
    Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Further support for farmers and growers as drought persists
    From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • COVID-19: Temporary changes to Education Act
    Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar join NZ and Singapore in committing to keeping supply a...
    Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis.  Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • COVID-19: Rent increase freeze and more protection for tenants
    Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Working together to protect businesses and workers
    As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • State of National Emergency declared to fight COVID-19
    A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Prime Minister’s statement on State of National Emergency and Epidemic Notice
    Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Deadline for domestic travel extended
    People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Mortgage holiday and business finance support schemes to cushion COVID impacts
    The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Government working to keep air freight moving
    Minister of Transport Phil Twyford has today announced details of the Government’s support package to keep key air freight moving and ensure New Zealanders retain access to essential goods during the four-week level 4 lockdown. “The Government is working with airlines and air freight operators to ensure New Zealand’s key ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • New Zealand moves to COVID-19 Alert Level 3, then Level 4 in 48 hours
    New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 – Restrict New Zealand to move up to COVID-19 Alert Level 4 – Eliminate, in 48 hours Two-staged approach to give people and businesses time to prepare  Level 3, from tomorrow Non-essential businesses must close All events and gatherings must be ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago

  • Prime Minister: COVID-19 Alert Level increased
    Good afternoon  The Cabinet met this morning to discuss our next actions in the fight against COVID-19.  Like the rest of the world, we are facing the potential for devastating impacts from this virus. But, through decisive action, and through working together, do we have a small window to get ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago

  • Govt takes significant economic decisions as NZ readies for Alert Level 4 in COVID-19 fight
    The Government is announcing significant further support for the economy, workers and businesses as the country unites to prepare for Alert Level 4 in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet today agreed to remove the cap on the Government’s wage subsidy scheme, which will inject a further $4 billion into the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago

  • Govt backs RBNZ move to support economy with lower interest rates
    The Government is backing the Reserve Bank’s latest action to support the economy by reducing longer-term interest rates, meaning lower costs for businesses and mortgage holders, and a lower currency to help our exporters. The Minister of Finance has signed a memorandum of understanding and a letter of indemnity with ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Government statement on commercial cooperation during COVID-19
    The Government has asked the Commerce Commission to take account of the exceptional circumstances created by COVID-19 when monitoring business behaviour in coming weeks.   “The purpose of my request to the Commerce Commission is to make sure businesses can work together in ways that will allow them to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • New Zealand temporarily closes diplomatic posts in Barbados and Myanmar due to COVID-19
    The New Zealand Government has temporarily closed its High Commission in Bridgetown, Barbados and its Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.   “Due to the increasing scarcity of air links in and out of Bridgetown and Yangon, and the pressure COVID-19 is placing ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Supporting Māori communities and businesses through
    Associate Health and Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare has today announced the Government’s plan to support Māori communities and businesses in the face of COVID-19. “Our Government’s $12.1 billion economic package will help many Māori whānau, workers and businesses, whether it’s through wage subsidies, income support and worker redeployment, or ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Guidelines for hospitality establishments released
    The Government and the hospitality industry have worked together to produce guidelines to assist with managing and reducing transmission of COVID-19, Health Minister David Clark announced today.  The guidelines developed between the Government, Hospitality New Zealand and SkyCity Entertainment Group, set out how the new restrictions on physical distancing and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Nation steps up to COVID-19 Alert Level 2
    Four stage Alert System for COVID-19 announced New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 2 – Reduce Contact New Zealanders over 70 and those with certain medical conditions told to stay at home as much as they can to reduce risk of contact with the virus Workplaces to implement ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • PM Address – Covid-19 Update
    Kia ora koutou katoa I’m speaking directly to all New Zealanders today to give you as much certainty and clarity as we can as we fight Covid-19. Over the past few weeks, the world has changed. And it has changed very quickly. In February it would have seemed unimaginable to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • NZ and Singapore commit to keeping supply and trade links open, including on essential goods and med...
    New Zealand and Singapore have jointly committed to keep supply chains open and to remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker welcomed the commitment. “This is an important collective response, and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Joint Ministerial Statement by Singapore and New Zealand -Covid-19 situation
    JOINT MINISTERIAL STATEMENT BY SINGAPORE AND NEW ZEALAND AFFIRMING COMMITMENT TO ENSURING SUPPLY CHAIN CONNECTIVITY AMIDST THE COVID-19 SITUATION  The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis.  As part of our collective response to combat COVID-19, Singapore and New Zealand are committed to maintaining open and connected supply chains. We ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Transit between Australia and New Zealand
    Travel restrictions, closing our border to almost all travelers came into force from 23:59 on Thursday 19 March 2020 (NZDT).  All airlines were informed of these restrictions before they came into force. Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says “The transit of passengers between Australia and New Zealand has been agreed upon and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • $100 million to redeploy workers
    The Government has allocated $100 million to help redeploy workers affected by the economic impact of COVID-19, with the hard-hit region of Gisborne-Tairāwhiti to be the first helped, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford, Forestry and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. Phil Twyford ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • More support for wood processing
    The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is ramping up support for Tairāwhiti’s wood processing sector to bolster the region’s economy at a time of heightened uncertainty, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Following earlier announcements today of a regional support package for Tairāwhiti, Minister Jones has also announced a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Govt steps in to protect Air New Zealand
    The Coalition Government has stepped in to protect Air New Zealand with a significant financial deal that protects essential routes and allows the company to keep operating. The Government and Air New Zealand have agreed a debt funding agreement through commercial 24-month loan facilities of up to $900 million*. The ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Stronger border measures to protect NZers from COVID-19
    The Government has taken further measures to protect New Zealanders from the COVID-19 virus, effectively stopping all people from boarding a plane to New Zealand from 11:59pm today, except for returning New Zealanders, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today.  New Zealanders’ partners, legal guardians or any dependent children travelling with ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Action on indoor gatherings and events to protect public health
    The Government has reinforced its commitment to protecting the health of New Zealanders from COVID-19 through the cancellation of indoor events with more than 100 people.  “Protecting the health of New Zealanders is our number one priority, and that means we need to reduce the risks associated with large gatherings,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
    The New Zealand Government is advising New Zealanders not to travel overseas due to COVID-19, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “We are raising our travel advice to the highest level: do not travel,” Mr Peters said. “This is the first time the New Zealand Government has advised New Zealanders ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Govt announces aviation relief package
    Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier this week as part of the Government’s $12.1 billion COVID-19 economic response. The initial part of the aviation package aims to secure the operators of New Zealand’s aviation security system, and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

Older posts

Older posts