sorry if i scared some of the blogers with my last blogs on open mike i have not just crashed this site i have being reading the standard for about a year i have posted blogs on the daily blog about how the justice system is breaching my human rights last year i tried to get help from the human rights commissioner the privacy commissioner no help there maybe it is because i cannot get a lawyer because john key slashed the funding for legal aid so no poor person can challange the system and hold them acountable for there actions
I’d suggest using punctuation, and in the case of the previous comment, break it into paragraphs. This will make it easier to read and for people to respond.
The Privacy Commission is a political organisation who would have told you if you were unhappy you could complain to the ombudsman.
The Human Rights Commission would ignore you unless there were hundreds of complaints along similar lines, even if what you complained about was serious and had a public interest component.
Been there, done that. Still do it just in case one day someone takes it seriously and there is a written record.
@ Brad, Set up a Facebook page with all your allegations… otherwise it may look like you are trolling to disrupt posts and doing the opposite of what you might be trying to achieve as it’s not clear what human rights have been breached from your posts but there are a lot of posts on some articles.
P.S. You will probably get nowhere as National have shut down pretty much all justice for vulnerable people and actually people in general.
Try Citizens Advice Bureau perhaps they can put you in touch with a lawyer offering pro bono help. If you find one there will probably be a long queue.
I don’t know what your issue is but sometimes public libraries can be helpful
Further evidence of the corruption in the PTE/Immigration rort that is the ‘international student’ education sector which Joyce so vociferously defends.
NZ doesn’t want this sort of practise going because it damages the country and its reputation in so many ways.
He begins with explaining the evolution of human morality – fit for small hunter gatherer societies but doesn’t work quite the same in today’s context. He quotes stats showing what has happened in relation to poverty in NZ since the 1990.
He quotes extensively from Metiria Turei’s speech on welfare, in which she made her confession about her time on benefits.
She uses her own experience to express empathy for some individuals who have been brutally treated by our current benefit system.
Then TPS turns his attention to media responses to Turei, and to Ardern’s treatment of Turei in the last week.
He begins his post:
We are moral animals.
But, so far as I can judge, in politics today our moral instincts are operating in a way that generates the worst moral outcomes.
And ends:
We missed the chance to confront, as a nation, what we have been doing to ‘our own people’ – to ourselves – for three decades.
But, more importantly, because of how central the treatment of beneficiaries and the poor is to the neoliberal structuring of the state and the economy, we have also missed the chance to confront and weigh in the balance — out loud and with clear and honest eyes — the state of not just New Zealand’s welfare regime but the morality of our direction as a country.
Yes – its a very good read, Carolyn_nth – but I doubt that many will take much notice of it. We have become a hard, uncaring country over the last three decades.
I like it Carolyn_nth. But you are asking people tethered to racism, hate and revenge politics to stop. Not likely when they are encouraged to be amoral actors at almost every turn.
Plus they are rewarded for their psychopathic behavior to put the boot in.
Ever since the 4th labour Government gave up on socialism and embraced liberalism, our society has slowly but surly given up on morality as well. Ironically a economic system that preaches individualism is so bereft of morality, which adversely affects the individual.
Yes. Changing the government, by reinforcing the neoliberal and individualistic culture that has become entrenched deeply in our society since the 1980s, is no win for the left in the long term.
I am in despair, because I have seen too much of such appeasement over the last 3 decades, and the left just gets weaker long term.
Can anyone one help me extract text from PDF files? I can’t figure out how to do it on my mac, and apps I am looking at all seem to be OCR converters but this PDF isn’t an OCR issue as far as I can tell. All the new GP policy is in this form. I can cut and paste but the paste is partial and illegible.
On my Mac perhaps screen capture would help?
Apple, shift 4. Then drag. Will only capture what is on screen. Should appear on the deck top. Mind you my Mac is a desk top.
That’s a tricky one. On my windows version of acrobat reader there’s a “save as other” option which lets me save it as a text file or word document. The formatting is lost in the text file but it still appears to save all the content. Need an online adobe account for word conversion so I haven’t tried that.
One thing you can do with unformatted text like that is to use something like notepad++ to change the carriage return and other hidden text patterns into some approximation of decent formatting in one go.
eg delete all the carriafe returns and line feeds (\r\n) and then replace triple spaces with new line breaks.
Take a snapshot of the text in the PDF do and paste it into a Microsoft OneNote Doc, then select the image that u have pasted and right-click and select “copy text from picture”. This renders the text as editable.
On a mac, but are you suggesting taking a screen shot and then using an OCR converter? That might work. It will be a lot of work on the larger docs though.
Perhaps a quick call to GP head office and make them aware there might be a problem with this document. Surely it is in their interests for folk to be able to easily quote their words?
Open Word
Highlight text in the PDF
Press Cntrl-C
Press Cntrl-V on the Word page.
(I found right-clicking on the highlighted text does not bring up “copy”)
here’s the text:
Mending the Safety Net
For a fairer society
Green
GREEN PARTY ELECTION PRIORITY
Summary
No one in New Zealand should live in poverty, whether they are working or on a benefit.
The Green Party will repair the holes that have been torn in New Zealand’s social safety net in recent decades by making major changes to income support – changes that will bring people out of poverty and provide independence, dignity, and choices. We will:
1. Increase all core benefits by 20 percent
2. Increase the amount people can earn before their benefit is cut Increase the value of Working For Families for all families who receive tax credits
Create a non-discriminatory Working For Families Children’s Credit of $72 a week1
5. Remove financial penalties and excessive sanctions for people receiving benefits
6. Raise the top tax rate to 40 percent on income over $150,000 per year, and reduce the bottom tax rate from 10.5 percent to 9 percent on income under $14,000.
Our welfare system should provide effective support for people who need it, while they need it. The social safety net should stop families from falling into poverty and guarantee a basic, liveable income. That’s what it means to live in a decent, compassionate society.
Punishing people through benefit sanctions, cuts, and investigations has not worked. Rather than giving people ‘incentives’ it traps them in a cycle of poverty and puts children’s wellbeing at risk.
Children suffer when the welfare system punishes their parents, and in the long term, so does society. In contrast, the simple and stable incomes system the Green Party will implement will provide parents with the support they need to raise their kids and improve their lives.
The Green Party’s plan will ensure the people on the highest incomes pay their fair share and those that need help are treated with respect and dignity.
Situation
New Zealand is a country where everyone should get a fair go at a decent life. But despite years of stories and outrage about child poverty, we are still falling far behind comparable countries in our efforts to guarantee all children their basic needs.
Inequality in New Zealand rose drastically from the 1980s, a product of the zealous social and economic reforms which saw jobs lost and income support drastically cut, pushing thousands of families below the poverty line. These changes ripped holes in the social safety net that generations of New Zealanders had knitted together. That legacy still haunts us.
Far too many people in New Zealand simply do not have enough to get by on. Today, 212,000 children live in poverty. Haifa million Kiwis experience hardship in education, health, income, housing, material well-being, or employment.2 Housing in many New Zealand towns and cities is classed as severely unaffordable,3 and one in a hundred people are homeless.4
Children who grow up poorfind it harderto succeed at school, and as adults, have worse health and earn less than children from wealthier households. UNICEF has calculated that the impact of child poverty on the economy is $10 billion every year.5
We need to do better for families who are struggling to make ends meet. And we can do better. It is time to mend the social safety net and restore its purpose to provide a decent life for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Under National, our welfare system relies heavily on sanctions and unnecessarily harsh obligations, which force people off benefits with no guarantee that they will be able to provide for themselves or their children.
As a result, families can end up without enough money to make it through the week, or in debt to Work and Income (WINZ) or loan sharks. 6 Forcing people, particularly parents, off benefits and into short term, poorly paid, or precarious work – or no work at all – is not a viable long term solution.7
Sanctions are also expensive to administer. In the UK, research by the National Audit Office concluded simply that there was “no evidence that sanctions worked”.8
It is not welfare that causes people to become trapped, it is poverty.
Single parents – who are overwhelmingly female – are the most likely of any family group to be living in hardship today. Yet they can lose hundreds of dollars a week if WINZ thinks they are in a relationship, even if their partner is not able or willing to financially support them. 9 The impact of this falls hardest on children, and can quickly send families even further into poverty.
In addition, single parents are punished for not revealing the other parent of their children under a dubious section of the Social Security Act, which involves a weekly sanction of $22 or more, per child. To get an exemption for compelling circumstances (such as rape or domestic abuse), women may have to recount personal and often traumatic details of their lives to WINZ staff members who are not trained to deal with such situations, often in open-plan offices.
The Green Party will put all that firmly behind us and focus on ensuring that every family in Aotearoa New Zealand has what they need to get by.
Solution
The Green Party will rebuild a welfare system that recognises the need for families to live above the poverty line, to access support and advice, and to have the best opportunities to improve their circumstances. The first step is to raise benefits, which have stayed too low for too long. One of the most effective ways to help children thrive in the long term is simply to make sure they have enough money.
1. Welfare reform
The simple fact is that benefits should be enough to live on and enough to raise kids on. The Green Party will increase all core benefits by 20 percent: Jobseeker Support, Sole Parent Support, Supported Living Payments, and Student Allowances.
Government should never use poverty as a weapon against people who need help – Metiria Turei
We will also restore the Training Incentive Allowance, to support people on benefits who want to go to University or attend a course that will help them get secure, well-paid work. At a cost of just $35 million a year, the Training Incentive Allowance is an important tool for people to use to pursue a better future for their families.
Fixing abatement rates
Currently, it is too easy for people to end up worse off financially if they work part time, as they lose 40 percent of their earnings after just 5-8 hours work on the minimum wage. This is no help for people who are trying to get back into the workforce, and leaves them exposed if they don’t have regular or reliable income.
The Green Party will increase the amount that all beneficiaries can earn to $200 a week before any reductions kick in, with a 30 percent abatement
for weekly income between $200 and $400, and a 70 percent abatement after that.
We estimate the combined cost of increasing benefits and fixing abatement rates will cost $935.2 million in the first year. However, more generous core benefitsare likely to reduce the amount of money that people need to claim as one-off hardship grants, which cost the Government $70 million in the December 2016 quarter alone.10
Removing sanctions
We will remove all the obligations and sanctions that create an excessive burden on people. These include:
excessive appointment attendance requirements forced budgeting appointments
work testing for sole parent support, jobseeker support, and disability support
repeated proof of disability or sickness intrusive relationship investigations.
Sanctions that take money from beneficiaries will also be removed from the Social Security Act, including the punitive, sexist section 70A which punishes women for not naming the father of their child. Reducing sanctions is estimated to cost just $8.8 million a year.
This will be more than offset by drastically reduced Government spending on investigations into whether people are meeting obligations, which cost $36.4 million last year.
A culture of compassion
Situations change and life can be unpredictable. People move in and out of poverty and on and off benefits through no particularfaultoftheirown. The government’s role is to support people through difficult times and help them make their lives better, not to provide the bare minimum or seek out opportunities to reduce financial support.
The Green Party will restore an individual case management system to WINZ so that each person on a benefit has a well-trained caseworker who will help that person either find appropriate well paid work, quality
training or education, or assist that person to live a decent life for the time they remain on a benefit.
2. Sole Parent Support
The Green Party will simplify the definition of a relationship in the nature of marriage, to stop the government intruding into the personal lives of sole parents. Currently, WINZ spends an inordinate amount of time and resources attempting to catch people out for being in a relationship. We will make the rules more simple and sensible.
A person receiving the Sole Parent Support (SPS) benefit will be required to advise WINZ when they enter into an intimate relationship which involves living together in the same household and a financial commitment to each other. They will be entitled to retain the SPS until they marry or enter into a civil union, or once they are entitled to a share of another person’s property under the Property Relationships Act (three years in a de-facto relationship).
3. Raising incomes for working families
Working for Families has become less and less effective at helping low-income families over the past decade, as National has frozen the rates while wages and inflation rise.
In order to make sure that families get the help they need, the Green Party will turn the In Work Tax Credit into a Children’s Credit for all families, which will give at least an extra $72 a week to low income families and help 178,000 children.11
We will create a Children’s Credit for all low income families, so parents and kids get the help they need.
To make sure more families get some extra help, we will raise the amount people can earn before abatement rates kick in to $44,800 and lower the abatement rate to 20%. We will also increase all Working For Families tax
credits to the value of their 2010 levels, to take account of the rising cost of living since then, and tie annual increases to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
We estimate this will cost $489.4 million a year. 4. Tax reform
Taxes in New Zealand should be fair. 64 percent of Kiwis believe that the economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful.12 When it comes to taxes, the evidence for that is clear. Since the mid-1980s, the top tax rate has been halved from 66 percent to 33 percent, making it the fourth-lowest in the developed world. The tax rate for someone earning the median wage is only three percent less than someone earning $200,000 a year.
The Green Party will reduce the bottom tax rate on income up to $14,000 from 10.5 percent to 9 percent. This will help low and medium income earners keep more of their wages. Everyone who earns less than $150,000 will be better off.
People on the highest incomes should pay their fair share of tax to help those most in need. We will raise the top tax rate to 40 percent on income over $150,000.
The net impact of this tax reform is a slight increase in tax revenue of $163.4 million a year.
4. Raising the minimum wage
The minimum wage must be set at a level that prevents poverty and enables families to live decent lives.
The Green Party will raise the minimum wage to $17.75 per hour in 2018, and make further adjustments to ensure it reaches 66 percent of the average wage by 2020. Based on Treasury forecasts, that will mean a minimum wage of $21.25 in 2020.
Currently, 152,700 people earn the minimum wage.
What difference will this make for people?
Reducing the bottom tax rate will see all working people have a bit more in their pocket each week. Families and people on benefits will see significant increases in their incomes, enabling a decent quality of life.
A sole parent on a benefit, with two school-age children, and no paid employment: $179.62 better off every week.
2. A sole parent receiving the Student Allowance, with two children, and part time work on just above minimum wage: $176.15 better off every week.
3. A single person receiving Jobseeker support: $42.20 better off every week.
4. A two parent family, with one working parent on the median income, with three children: $104.42 better off every week.
5. Two parents, both receiving Jobseeker support, with three children: $207.46 better off every week.
6. Atwo parent family, both earning the median income of 48,000, with three children: $130.19 better off every week.
7. Two parents, one in paid work earning $70,000 a year, with two children: $87.85 better off every week.
Fiscal impact
In New Zealand, there is enough to go around if it is shared fairly.
Costs for these changes to benefits, Working for Families, and the tax system have been independently modelled by BERL.13 This modelling assumes National’s 2017 “families package” does not take effect. While that package included a small step in the right direction, the Green Party’s plan is a much more comprehensive solution to raise family incomes and is designed to replace National’s.
The total cost of fixing benefits and Working for Families is $1,468 billion, while the tax reform is close to fiscally neutral with a small net positive fiscal impact of $163.4 million. Reducing WINZ’s spending on investigating beneficiaries for not meeting obligations saves a further $35 million.
The net gain from the tax reform does not coverthe whole cost of this package. Prior to the election we will release our full fiscals which will show all planned spending and revenue.
Solution Fiscal implication (millions)
Benefit increase and abatement changes -$935.1
Working For Families changes -$489.4
Reinstate the Training Incentive Allowance -$35
Removing sanctions -$8.8
Total cost of benefit and WFF reform -$1,468.3
Open the PDF file at http://www.newocr.com and do an OCR on it page by page (you can flip through the pages on the webpage). You get a direct on-screen output on the webpage that you can copy and paste directly, or you can save each page individually. The paragraphs are retained fairly well.
Family benefit for the in work, how many do you think let people rent a room or do cash jobs. Got to be huge. So those who recieve the smallest amount, on the lowest income get the most onerous oversight. Thats seems wrong to me, we need to widen the debate out some family benefit over claimers.
To me this New Zealand is one which desperately needs to be united not divided like it has been by the current government and which is obvious in the speak of people like Henry Cooke. Paula Bennett says it’s Bill English which has the brain to unite New Zealanders but all he’s done is bring about the New Zealand we have today which, imo, is heading down a steep cliff to class division and warfare, if we are not there already.
In the real world, as opposed to Paula Bennett’ ladder-kicking world, it is Jacinda Arden who has the better mind for uniting New Zealand again. To do this she’ll need the full support of the Greens, the Opportunities Party, Winston First, and the Maori Party, and all their supporters.
More like cut into and mince. Throw the gristle away. That’s anyone who happens to be completely unable to gain large sums of money and property and assets through any means not noticeably unlawful for a sufficient time to complete the transaction.
The Greens policy on rent regulation is good and looks like the French model. Long term tenants with families just want to be able feel stable like home owning families of New Zealand and not worry about a letter from the agent arriving in the mail.
They want to be able to make their place a home and make minor changes like home owning families do. They even want to be able to do this without asking the landlord to pay for it, but they can’t because they literally don’t know when they are going to be ‘kicked out’.
They want to contribute to their communities and schools but are always afraid of what’s coming next because of the whim of an amateur landlord.
I’ll be looking for Labour’s rent regulation policy to be very close to the Greens and perhaps TOP’s too. It’s probably the biggest issue for me in terms of voting.
Again TOP strike out in an interesting and radical fresh direction:
Gareth Morgan’s Opportunities Party (TOP) wants to make it illegal to kick out a tenant for any reason other than lack of payment or damage to property.
Morgan’s policy would move New Zealand to a German-style rental system where tenancies are much more secure and long-term.
He would also introduce rental warrants of fitness and donate the government social housing stock to non-profit social housing providers.
The key piece of the policy package is greatly strengthened tenancy rights through a radical rethink of the Residential Tenancies Act.
….
“What we are trying to do is turn these rental houses into homes. The biggest problems we have here is the huge instability caused by kicking low-income families pillar to post as they change rentals, and have to change their kids’ schools,” Morgan said.
Two main components; greatly strengthened tenant rights and housing standards. Something the left has been demanding for ages. TOP look like they want to deliver on this and more.
But the other component, increasing non-profit involvement in the sector while winding back state involvement will have the the statists frothing. Regardless that the non-profit housing association model is generally very widespread and successful in many other countries (including even here in Australia), the principle will be reflexively rejected.
Regardless that the non-profit housing association model is generally very widespread and successful in many other countries (including even here in Australia), the principle will be reflexively rejected.
That’s because it’s rather stupid even if it is ‘successful’.
It increases the bureaucracy and thus the costs associated with housing for no benefit.
Not really. What they effectively do is replace large state bureaucracies, with smaller, more flexible entities that can be both more localised and more responsive to people’s needs.
Many have the long term goal of transitioning people from tenants into owners where they can meet the requirements.
By contrast state housing locked people into a ‘one size fits all’ mold that has it’s own limitations. Note I’m not bashing the concept of social housing at all, just pointing out that the state does not need to be it’s monopoly provider.
What they effectively do is replace large state bureaucracies, with smaller, more flexible entities that can be both more localised and more responsive to people’s needs.
That’s a belief, not a reality. As an example, Telecom when it was still part of the Post Office, ran the cities and regions locally. It wasn’t top down control as many people assume. It was local people seeing what was needed locally and responding to that and doing so quickly.
And those smaller, more localised bureaucracies need a bigger state bureaucracy to manage them. So we end up with more bureaucracies at the local level which requires more people and we have greater bureaucracy at the state level as well also boosting the number of people needed. Those people really could be doing other stuff that really is more important.
There’s a very real cost to increased competition that gets hidden by the ideology that more competition is good.
Many have the long term goal of transitioning people from tenants into owners where they can meet the requirements.
Private ownership of housing is Bad Thing™ as it encourages the rentier and speculative behaviour that we see in the housing sector.
By contrast state housing locked people into a ‘one size fits all’ mold that has it’s own limitations.
I’ve been to many state houses in my life and none of them were all exactly the same. Two, three and four bedroom designs and all with different characteristics.
And don’t tell me that they’d all be the same design either. I can go all over Auckland and even the country and find entire subdivisions built by the private sector that are built all on the same design. Town houses, apartments, flats and standalone.
Amazingly enough, there really isn’t a hell of a lot of difference to peoples needs.
How are they reducing the number of people needed to provide those houses?
But they’re doing it over here, and over there isn’t valid reason to do the same thing here.
Yes, we have more homelessness here than over there but that seems to be because we stopped doing the state thing and started doing the private provider thing instead.
The non-profit provider often still pays extremely high salaries and benefits, and also pays a board of trustees.
The creative accounting team can do their work and provide a non-profit accounting, but the incentive and directive of a non-profit is also different to a state-owned housing provider.
A state housing provider needs to find you a home even if you are unable to raise credit, have a mental illness or for some reason are unattractive to private or social housing providers.
A well-designed government housing department would have access to the resources and connections needed to house all NZers appropriately and securely. This will never be achieved by a non-profit housing provider.
“Gareth Morgan’s Opportunities Party (TOP) wants to make it illegal to kick out a tenant for any reason other than lack of payment or damage to property.”
So landlords can’t evict if they want to sell or live in the house themselves?
Lease terms would essentially be abolished, with the assumption that all tenancies are long-term.
Selling a rental property would not be a reason to get rid of tenants – any new buyer would need to take them on.
Landlords would only be able to kick out a tenant for not paying rent or damaging the property. Even then, the length of notice that landlords must give to tenants would be based off how long the tenant had lived in the property.
Rent increases would also be restricted so tenants could not be priced out intentionally.
And note carefully … as a responsible landlord I am happy to vote for this. (What I would like to see is some balancing rules to ensure bad tenants can be dealt with quickly and efficiently before the damage they’re causing escalates.)
True. This sort of informal tenancy already exists with ‘house sitting’ being common enough when people travel overseas for months or more, and plenty of baches are rented out with no problem. My memory is flakey on this, but I think current rules cover off these short-term occupations without any problems.
But for the vast majority of tenants who want a home to live in, this policy ticks some pretty big boxes.
I’m on a year long lease that rolls over if the landlords don’t want to come home. It’s not informal (is covered by tenancy law) and not short term.
I don’t know what the landlords would have done if the law said the tenant had right of occupation, probably would have either sold it (most like to non-renters), or made an off the books arrangement (rental black market).
I support the law changing to give tenants right of occupation where the property is primarily for rent, but I think there needs to be specific law written around home rentals, not just doing that casually. Maybe home-owners can register a property with Tenancy as a home rental, and there is a specific rental agreement for those properties. The notice required from landlords would still need to be quite long (current 6 weeks if ridiculous).
Holiday houses are a bit different because they are often short term. There is also an emerging issue of them being used as AirBnB accommodation now, which has taken them out of the rental market and created housing shortages.
Well if you are renting someone else’s family home for say six months or more, and the owner intends to return and re-occupy at some time, then as you say, set up a contractual provision to cover that off. Dead easy if both parties are aware of the potentially limited term of the tenancy at the outset.
The big deal here is the vast majority of tenants get exactly what is needed; the opportunity for a decent, secure home.
If you say so, although current rules seem to be able to handle these variations readily enough. I would expect if it ever came time to draft TOP policy into law, a Green party policy partner might well ably assist in getting these details right 🙂
The big problem with the current rules though, is it lets landlords deceive tenants into thinking they can have an open-ended lease, when they have no intention of doing so. That creates horrible problems for tenants, and TOP’s policy by default slams the door on that practice.
Personally feel TOP rental policy gone too far. Big problem in NZ is that there is a shortage of tenancies. So anything to stop people renting, i.e. not being able to sell it or move back in would mean many rentals are not rented.
Short term rental are particularly desirable as everyone is now ‘on contract’ so nobody even knows how long they might have their job for, renter or landlord.
I rented out my place for a few years while overseas and would not do that if I was unable to move back in myself when I returned. I had quite a few problems from people selling drugs from the property, non payment of rent or just bizarre expectations.
However I had terrible experiences as a tenant as well.
Moved into a rental in the CBD, for example an asked the rental agent if it was a long term rental – they said yes and also if it was going on the market and they said no. So I paid by letting fee + GST, then put a lot of effort into making the place look great, literally one month later, got a letter saying that the place was going on the market for sale.
As the place was leasehold I thought, at least it would not sell. Nope, it went within 3 weeks and I only had 6 weeks to find a new place. A member of my family was seriously injured at the time, and we had to literally move out while they were in immense pain.
Would like to see reform on the rental agents, if they sell or market the house within a year of your signing the lease you get your rental fees back.
Also 10% discount on the rent if the property is for sale.
I think the TOP long term rental thing is a red herring because many people have the opposite problem and they are constantly moving because their work keeps changing and it’s going to exasperate the rental shortages as people just sell or leave properties empty instead of renting them.
I think the TOP long term rental thing is a red herring because many people have the opposite problem and they are constantly moving because their work keeps changing
The policy allows tenants to move with 90 days notice. In practise most landlords will be quite happy to let the tenant move on much sooner if they have someone else lined up.
We never bother with enforcing lease terms. If a tenant needs to move they need to and demanding they stay on just creates issues. Although here in Australia it’s quite different. If you want to leave a fixed lease, you sodding pay the rent until the landlord finds another tenant. Period.
As for landlords giving up and selling their properties, isn’t that exactly what you want? And leaving a property empty is precisely the behaviour TOP’s CCT is designed to address.
What does baffle me a bit. This is EXACTLY the tenancy policy lefties have been asking for here for ages. And yet when Gareth Morgan delivers …. suddenly all those progressive urges abandon everyone. Weird.
“The policy allows tenants to move with 90 days notice”
I believe that’s in the current tenancy agreement. Which also affords landlords the same 90 days to quit provision. I think that’s fair enough for both parties involved.
This is a stupid policy from Top. There’s nothing wrong with rent controls being brought in, and I expect labour and the greens to both be interested in doing something like that, keeping rent rises to once a year and under the rate or pegged to inflation, but ‘for ever lets’ is whack, like making home owners pay capital in advance of selling up or on.
That’s interesting. It’s exactly the same ‘stupid policy’ the Germans have and the same ‘stupid policy’ lots of lefties here have been demanding for ages.
I get it, you’re the resident Top fanboi. Awesome.
It’s still, in my left wing, green tinged, non German opinion, a stupid policy that isn’t needed here.
Doesn’t mean the tenancy agreement doesn’t need work, so I’ll be waiting for policy releases from the proper left of center parties, that ones who will actually be in government after the election, to see how they can make changes.
And yeah, it’s the policy, but of course the party too. That’s why I’m also not interested in whatever the nats or act come up with.
OK so I’ll wait for the ‘proper centre-left parties’ to get around to mentioning it. It will be interesting to see just how much political capital they’re willing to put on the line for it.
Funny though how lots of people like demanding change, but when offered something really interesting, they come over all conservative for some reason.
Oh and are you arguing the German’s are both stupid and unsuccessful? Or are you just xenophobic?
“are you arguing the German’s are both stupid and unsuccessful? Or are you just xenophobic?”
No to all three, and I’m a little surprised, or perhaps not really, that you’ve made that connection from what I posted. Can you not just accept my opinion the policy isn’t a good one for NZ is different to Morgan’s, now yours, lots of lefties and Germans?
As for the other bit, I’ve never made that demand, don’t think the policy interesting, and am certainly not conservative for any reason.
Finally, for this part of the discussion at least, being aware you’re a moderator here, I’ll just leave it at that and wish you a good evening. I’ve no desire to infringe, especially over a policy from a party that won’t be in a position to do sod all about their policies anyway.
First of all … in almost 10 years participating here I’ve categorically never moderated anyone in a conversation I was participating in. Especially just because they attacked me or I disagreed with them. Period.
The Morgan Foundation made their case in some detail here:
Feel free to debate their reasoning, but mere tribal, reflexive opposition to an idea because “it wasn’t invented here” really doesn’t impress me much.
Of course it makes sense that if tenants get to enjoy unlimited security of occupancy, that landlords should get some extra protection in return.
As I said above, in Australia the norm is 6 or 12 month leases. In our case once it expired the landlord was happy to roll it over monthly. But as a rule, if you leave before your lease is up, you WILL pay the balance of rent until the landlord gets around to placing a new occupant. As a result it’s a much more stable business over here.
In our experience NZ’s rental market is very immature and absolutely could look to implement better practice from other nations.
Thanks for the info, Craig.
So tenants at least have that in their favour now.
My view is that fair contracts be honoured unless unforeseen circumstances intervene, be that six months, a year or even longer, with exit clauses in case of bad landlords or tenants.
That’s OK. You should have said at the outset that you think tenants should not have security of occupation. That landlords should be able to throw tenants out pretty much when it suits them for no reason.
I’m impressed at a leftie standing up for the rights of landlords like this. It doesn’t happen often and as a landlord myself I appreciate the concern.
“You should have said at the outset that you think tenants should not have security of occupation.”
That’s unfair and you’re being quite disingenuous. I’ve not said that at all, in fact, honouring fair contracts with tenant get out clauses for unforeseen events or having a bad landlord is almost the exact opposite of zero security.
“That landlords should be able to throw tenants out pretty much when it suits them for no reason.”
See above except swap tenant with landlord and landlord with tenant. I’ve not written, implied or ever secretly conservatively desired anything like you’ve insinuated 🙄
I reckon you’re just on one now. Your reply must come close to the biggest misrepresentation of a comment I’ve ever seen on The Standard. That’s OK. I’m done with you here, mate. I’ve no time that sort of underhand debating tactic bollocks.
My view is that fair contracts be honoured unless unforeseen circumstances intervene, be that six months, a year or even longer
I don’t regard six or twelve months as ‘security of occupation’. It falls well short of being able to settle into the place and make it your home, become part of the community, plan for the kids to go through school and so on. It’s this instability which is deeply disruptive to people’s lives.
I think tenants should have the right to stay as long as they want, as long as they pay the rent, don’t cause a nuisance or damage the place.
So if you want to stay long-term, can you see anyone committing to say a five year lease? With the attendant risk of having to fulfil your part of paying off the balance of five years rent if it doesn’t work out for any reason? It’s just not feasible.
And if you think tenants should be able to get out of a fair contract due to unforeseen circumstances, why would you deny landlords the same right?
So in effect you’re reduced to business as usual with no real security of occupation at all.
“I don’t regard six or twelve months as ‘security of occupation’.”
Contracts of six month, a year or even longer, broken by unforeseen circumstances. You exactly get full security for the length of the negotiated contract. The rest of what you’ve written may well be true, but in this instance, not relevant to the point made.
“if you want to stay long-term, can you see anyone committing to say a five year lease? With the attendant risk of having to fulfil your part of paying off the balance of five years rent if it doesn’t work out for any reason? It’s just not feasible.”
Who said that would be the rule? Not me. With a fair non penalised notice period, that scenario wouldn’t ever be the case.
“And if you think tenants should be able to get out of a fair contract due to unforeseen circumstances, why would you deny landlords the same right?”
So at the most you’re allowing for fixed 12 month lease, and acknowledge that longer isn’t generally feasible. And if either party wants out they can give fair notification and quit.
You haven’t really explained how that’s much better than the current situation.
Still if you don’t want to discuss it further that’s fine. In my experience here that’s usually because someone has a stake in the issue they’re not disclosing.
“Still if you don’t want to discuss it further that’s fine. In my experience here that’s usually because someone has a stake in the issue they’re not disclosing.”
Nope, it’s because of the underhand debating tactic bollocks like that. 😉
Cheers
[RL: Your argument makes no sense, you say you are in favour of better security for tenants then present a solution that’s objectively little different to the current situation. Clearly you are not a stupid person, so your inability to present a coherent case strongly suggests an conflict in your thinking. That’s not underhand, it’s an observation from many years of being here.]
I don’t agree with giving up on home ownership. The difference between rent and mortgage is not large when there’s only minimal (long term) housing inflation.
From an investment risk perspective property needs to return around 2-4 percentage points more than bank term deposits. Mortgage interest rates run at 1.3-2 points more than term deposits so the difference between rent and a mortgage should really only be the principal. If renters can save for a deposit then they should be able to pay off the principal.
The Government should be putting an end to housing inflation IMO. Do that and the rest should look after itself.
The current problem is largely that property investors are buying future rent increases Draco. They’ll moan that houses aren’t providing a good return from rents but they’re comparing it against current property value and not what they actually invested (paid) for the property.
if you look at the investor who has owned his property for more than a few years the returns on the actual investment will have turned pretty positive due to rent increases. Ending housing inflation will pretty much end rent increases too which IMO is the real objective. Investors are buying with the intent to raise rents over time.
What’s been killing the poor is real living costs going up faster than their income and housing is the biggest culprit.
Labour’s homebuild policy is a better approach than Morgan’s scheme IMO.
The current problem is largely that property investors are buying future rent increases
What they’re doing is buying the ability to bludge off of others and then complaining that it isn’t enough.
What’s been killing the poor is real living costs going up faster than their income and housing is the biggest culprit.
Yeah, that’s what being able to bludge off of others does. The bludgers simply decide that they want more and put the rents up and the ones that they’re bludging off don’t have a choice.
“I don’t agree with giving up on home ownership”
I tend to agree because giving up on it will lead to capital accumulation in fewer and fewer hands.
One possible approach – if there is any mortgage owing on a house then any rent paid to occupy it should be regarded as mortgage repayment and confer rights of partial ownership on the renter.
Trying to get my head around that idea. Initial question: would this logically lead to residential property ownership concentrating in large capital and investment funds? (What you are trying to avoid?).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11899540
Whilst Mike H@#$%@@ maynot be to everyones liking, I was taken back by his Greens led by a “Crook and a fraud”. I thought that this would be breaching broadcast standards – as her actions whist being polarising, as MT has not been charged let alone convicted of anything.
NZ is too small for this man he needs to be head hunted for Fox USA.
yes, and if NZ’lers fall for it they deserve everything they get.
again, is the Media in NZ the ones that decides the colours and the people in government or is it the People?
Fuck it, at this point or better with the point you make its better to not vote at all, in fact, lets stop the pretense and abolish voting altogether.
the media, can tell us the great unwashed masses every few years with whom they would like to work and whom they would like to aks about breeding, with whom they would like to have a drink and a bbq and who they prefer as a sports team.
the media in NZ has power because people will fall over and do as they are told.
well, let me put it this way, like so many others i seem to be running out of people to vote for. and for the life of me i ain’t v oting for Patrick Gower and his mates.
and that is what this election seems to boil down to.
Loads of people, are #iammetiria – she’s increasing the Greens votes, if they abandon her, then it will do the opposite and disappoint those demanding welfare reform and they will not vote.
It’s like giving National a gift of less voters voting, by getting Metiria to step down.
I really think many underestimate the amount of people in NZ who have been humiliated or refused help by WINZ.
Many relationships split up and WINZ can be the first court of call, if one in the relationship refuses to pay child support which is pretty common.
It’s not just the desperate poor, it’s more people than you might expect.
Then there is the next generation of kids now in their 30’s and 40’s, that grew up with the WINZ parent, but under the old system that Paula is now unravelling pulling up the ladder after her, similar to John Key selling off the state houses.
Bean instead of Bef. The Atlantic has a great article on what value this action would have.
These paras talk about Brazil which has specialised in beef cattle. NZ has specialised in milk-bearing cattle. We are over-exposed in terms of what is a balanced business approach with risk spread intelligently.
To understand why the climate impact of beef alone is so large, note that the image at the top of this story is a sea of soybeans in a silo in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. The beans belong to a feed lot that holds 38,000 cattle, the growth and fattening of which means dispensing 900 metric tons of feed every day. Which is to say that these beans will be eaten by cows, and the cows will convert the beans to meat, and the humans will eat the meat.
In the process, the cows will emit much greenhouse gas, and they will consume far more calories in beans than they will yield in meat, meaning far more clearcutting of forests to farm cattle feed than would be necessary if the beans above were simply eaten by people.
This inefficient process happens on a massive scale. Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of red meat, holds around 212 million cattle. (In June, the U.S. temporarily suspended imports of beef from Brazil due to abscesses, collections of pus, in the meat.)
According to the United Nations, 33 percent of arable land on Earth is used to grow feed for livestock. Even more, 26 percent of the ice-free terrestrial surface of Earth is used for grazing livestock. In all, almost a third of the land on Earth is used to produce meat and animal products. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/
That is not correct PM. It is of more than academic interest, and why only academics? Are they the only ones who spend some time thinking and examining important matters to NZ?
The piece touches on the amount of land used for grazing animals to be used for meat (and dairy) when beans could provide alternative protein and fibre and the land could be used more effectively for that.
I made the point of how we are using this industry as our major earner, and are overexposed to risk. When things go wrong as in Brazil, it would mean an immediate halt in the required level of business and probably a downgrading in our credit-rating with a rise in interest for borrowing, at a time when we could least afford it.
In the sense I used it, “of academic interest” means an abstract discussion without direct practical relevance, rather than something that’s of interest only to academics. The lack of direct practical relevance arises from the fact that we generally feed cattle on grass in this country, not beans or grains (which ought be a “well duh” since feeding cattle on human-edible crops is stupid even on the face of it and only becomes more stupid on further investigation).
The idea that grazing land would be more productive if crops were grown on it is an article of faith among vegetarians, but by no means an undisputed fact. Even if it were a fact, it has the fairly obvious problem that most people prefer to eat meat for protein, not beans. The fact that something is more efficient doesn’t necessarily mean it’s preferable – for example, it would be more efficient for us to turn human corpses into fertiliser rather than burn or bury them, but it won’t happen because people don’t value efficiency more highly than they do honouring their dead – food may be a lesser example of that effect, but is nevertheless an example of it.
I’m vegetarian, but there is obviously land which is totally unsuitable for crops while being perfectly adequate for grass, whether that is then used for meat or milk. Sheep are quite good mountain animals, for example, so grassy hillsides are fine for sheep, while being largely useless for crops.
PM
You are making perfect sense to me. But still I don’t think you should be so dismissive. We choose to eat beef but can down the beef and up the beans, though not perhaps soy beans as they are practically bound up under the control of Monsanto or some other conglomerate, We have to change, so learning to eat more beans would be comparatively easy.
As for vegetarians only believing that beans are more efficiently grown food = the article seemed to have some good facts in it that appeared to support the case. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/ This means much less deforestation and land degradation if so many plant crops weren’t run through the digestive tracts of cattle. If Americans traded their beef for beans, the researchers found, that would free up 42 percent of U.S. crop land….
(And then there is the large amount of ruminant gas given out by all those animals.)
Recently Harwatt and a team of scientists from Oregon State University, Bard College, and Loma Linda University calculated just what would happen if every American made one dietary change: substituting beans for beef. They found that if everyone were willing and able to do that—hypothetically—the U.S. could still come close to meeting its 2020 greenhouse-gas emission goals, pledged by President Barack Obama in 2009.
That is, even if nothing about our energy infrastructure or transportation system changed—and even if people kept eating chicken and pork and eggs and cheese—this one dietary change could achieve somewhere between 46 and 74 percent of the reductions needed to meet the target.
“I think there’s genuinely a lack of awareness about how much impact this sort of change can have,” Harwatt told me. There have been analyses in the past about the environmental impacts of veganism and vegetariansim, but this study is novel for the idea that a person’s dedication to the cause doesn’t have to be complete in order to matter. A relatively small, single-food substitution could be the most powerful change a person makes in terms of their lifetime environmental impact—more so than downsizing one’s car, or being vigilant about turning off light bulbs, and certainly more than quitting showering.
So if someone is agonising that they are doing nothing, here is a simple thing that you could do, eat beans 6 days and beef on one day a week for a very good outcome, and that makes no account of chicken or lamb.
And I thought that our animals would always eat grass. But the changes that going global has made results in us bringing in feed for the dairy herd, palm kernel offcuts and feed lot systems so so-called farmers can fatten their beasts under cover and in greater numbers than the land can bear. For the straight beef-product I think the same would apply.
And also Hooton’s cheap shot at one presenter over the coverage of the ‘baby’ issue, when in fact several commentators and interviewees from Jackie Blue to ordinary panellists had made similar points.
Another right wing blame job on the ‘left-wing’ media.All this “Jacinda effect” is down to the media?
“Cometh the hour, cometh the woman.” I have been amazed at the response which I’ve been seeing on Facebook, from friends, family, and commentators alike.
For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.
@garibaldi Mills certainly seems not to be a supporter of the MOU-blinkered Labour. But Hooton saying the Greens will probably stay above 5% when they are polling about 14% takes the cake.
Unfortunately Hooton is probably right about Metiria-see my post above.
Dump Metiria and you dump the whole beneficiary issue, which is what National (and Labour for that matter)want. Pushing a low wage economy and denigrating benes is what neoliberalism wants. Shame on those who won’t front up to the issue, and that includes Stephen Mills..
Pushing a low wage economy and denigrating benes is what neoliberalism wants.
It’s what capitalism, in any form, needs to keep the rich getting richer. The inevitable result from this is increasing poverty and the eventual collapse of society.
Lol Snap repateet. Nearly got smacked in the head by a flying dummy. Had to be Hootens. He actually sounded genuinely angry. Had my first big laugh of the Day. Thank you Matthew.
I think Matthew sets on one truly derogatory message per outing and goes for broke on that maybe repeating it several times. Then apart from that he can appear logical and even reasonable.
One on one DEbate:
“This is your one chance to see the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Bill English, and the Leader of the Opposition, the Honourable Jacinda Ardern, face off ahead of the General Election.
The debate will be held on Thursday, 7 September at the La Vida Centre, and will be moderated by the Editor of The Press, Joanna Norris. It will be an unmissable opportunity to hear Bill English and Jacinda Ardern answer the hard questions and debate the current issues facing New Zealand………Entry to this event is by ticket only. Admission is free, but because of limited seating, tickets will be issued by ballot…”
Oops. Might be for Press Subscribers only? Wonder if it will be broadcast?
Just looking at Yes Minister showing how The Rhodesia Solution can be used. Have National used this recently? It sounds like something that John Key used . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGJH_-S_MGs
Expect a John Key story to be released each week before the election by the National Party machine. Perhaps two or three a week if it’s looking bad for them.
already happened today…key granted honary doctorate by canterbury uni…..presumably for his services to clean rivers on the plains and his services to democracy at the CRC ….sarc
A mockery – ‘we are not like other unis who chuck them out like confetti – oh know we only give away 3 or so a year’ – lol – up there with knighthoods for irrelevance and in your face arrogance – dr sir John key ffs
Would it be correct please, to call him a ‘right wing conspiracy theorist’; seeing he’s released a book, just before the election with some scathing remarks about the government?
English has come out about his texts to Glenys Dickson.
“However, he rejected the suggestion that his regular communication with Dickson meant he was more involved in the controversy than he first let on.
He was also asked about his claim that he knew little about the controversy when he had texted one of the key players 450 times at the time.
“What I said was I wasn’t involved with and didn’t know about the nature of the employment settlement,” English replied.”
Does anyone have transcripts from the times he said he didn’t know what was going on? The times other than those when he said he did not know about the nature of the employment settlement, when he said he didn’t know anything. I think that is coverup / lying / disingenuous any way. I can play semantics as well as him. He did know of ‘the nature’, it is implausible he didn’t. He may not know the exact specifics, as in having seen actual documents with the specific details written down.
There’s about 7 weeks until election day and there’s still no National Party hoardings in my electorate of Clutha-Southland. Have they not managed to find a replacement yet for Todd Barclay?
I haven’t seen any comment on English’e report on RNZ this morning where he said that National would not be involved in personality politics but rather in policy.
He said they would not be diverted by the “new toy”.
That was a reference to Jacinda Ardern?
As a friend said when told of this, “Who would call a male politician a “new toy”?”
I may have misheard and misreported what English actually said. He will say of course it’s all to do with context, and he was only speaking as “Bill English, private citizen” and they do it too.
Breaking News: Green MPs threatening to walk out!
Update: “Two Green Party MPs have quit politics in protest at co-leader Metiria Turei’s decision not to step down.”
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In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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sorry if i scared some of the blogers with my last blogs on open mike i have not just crashed this site i have being reading the standard for about a year i have posted blogs on the daily blog about how the justice system is breaching my human rights last year i tried to get help from the human rights commissioner the privacy commissioner no help there maybe it is because i cannot get a lawyer because john key slashed the funding for legal aid so no poor person can challange the system and hold them acountable for there actions
I’d suggest using punctuation, and in the case of the previous comment, break it into paragraphs. This will make it easier to read and for people to respond.
The Privacy Commission is a political organisation who would have told you if you were unhappy you could complain to the ombudsman.
The Human Rights Commission would ignore you unless there were hundreds of complaints along similar lines, even if what you complained about was serious and had a public interest component.
Been there, done that. Still do it just in case one day someone takes it seriously and there is a written record.
@ Brad, Set up a Facebook page with all your allegations… otherwise it may look like you are trolling to disrupt posts and doing the opposite of what you might be trying to achieve as it’s not clear what human rights have been breached from your posts but there are a lot of posts on some articles.
P.S. You will probably get nowhere as National have shut down pretty much all justice for vulnerable people and actually people in general.
Try Citizens Advice Bureau perhaps they can put you in touch with a lawyer offering pro bono help. If you find one there will probably be a long queue.
I don’t know what your issue is but sometimes public libraries can be helpful
Further evidence of the corruption in the PTE/Immigration rort that is the ‘international student’ education sector which Joyce so vociferously defends.
NZ doesn’t want this sort of practise going because it damages the country and its reputation in so many ways.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/336615/old-boys-network-suspected-in-indian-student-market
The selfstyled agent of agents is one thing, the personal loan to a tertiary head looks well dodgy.
Excellent long read from The Political Scientist: the morality of poverty and the poverty of morality.
He begins with explaining the evolution of human morality – fit for small hunter gatherer societies but doesn’t work quite the same in today’s context. He quotes stats showing what has happened in relation to poverty in NZ since the 1990.
He quotes extensively from Metiria Turei’s speech on welfare, in which she made her confession about her time on benefits.
She uses her own experience to express empathy for some individuals who have been brutally treated by our current benefit system.
Then TPS turns his attention to media responses to Turei, and to Ardern’s treatment of Turei in the last week.
He begins his post:
And ends:
Yes – its a very good read, Carolyn_nth – but I doubt that many will take much notice of it. We have become a hard, uncaring country over the last three decades.
Well, it’s important to keep this ideas circulating, around diverse networks – however small to start with. Real change is a long hard road.
You mean since the 4th labour government there Jenny Kirk?
I like it Carolyn_nth. But you are asking people tethered to racism, hate and revenge politics to stop. Not likely when they are encouraged to be amoral actors at almost every turn.
Plus they are rewarded for their psychopathic behavior to put the boot in.
Ever since the 4th labour Government gave up on socialism and embraced liberalism, our society has slowly but surly given up on morality as well. Ironically a economic system that preaches individualism is so bereft of morality, which adversely affects the individual.
@ Carolyn
Thanks for the great link. I admire Puddleglum a lot and find their ideas very influential.
Good read Carolyn_nth.
It reinforces that to change the government, means not just to change the players, but to change the way it works.
Yes. Changing the government, by reinforcing the neoliberal and individualistic culture that has become entrenched deeply in our society since the 1980s, is no win for the left in the long term.
I am in despair, because I have seen too much of such appeasement over the last 3 decades, and the left just gets weaker long term.
on a radio station [some god botherer one] bloke seems to think labour has ripped off beyonce s Rule the World for their back round music.
Can anyone one help me extract text from PDF files? I can’t figure out how to do it on my mac, and apps I am looking at all seem to be OCR converters but this PDF isn’t an OCR issue as far as I can tell. All the new GP policy is in this form. I can cut and paste but the paste is partial and illegible.
https://www.greens.org.nz/sites/default/files/Mending%20the%20Safety%20Net%20policy%20paper%20FINAL_0.pdf
On my Mac perhaps screen capture would help?
Apple, shift 4. Then drag. Will only capture what is on screen. Should appear on the deck top. Mind you my Mac is a desk top.
Thanks, but I need text not an image.
That’s a tricky one. On my windows version of acrobat reader there’s a “save as other” option which lets me save it as a text file or word document. The formatting is lost in the text file but it still appears to save all the content. Need an online adobe account for word conversion so I haven’t tried that.
did you do that with the Green Party PDF above?
Yes, only hiccup was it exported the carriage returns as well and it didn’t look too pretty… had to reformat the paragraphs.
OCR was the usual method for those, don’t know how they did that one.
Cheers.
One thing you can do with unformatted text like that is to use something like notepad++ to change the carriage return and other hidden text patterns into some approximation of decent formatting in one go.
eg delete all the carriafe returns and line feeds (\r\n) and then replace triple spaces with new line breaks.
Take a snapshot of the text in the PDF do and paste it into a Microsoft OneNote Doc, then select the image that u have pasted and right-click and select “copy text from picture”. This renders the text as editable.
On a mac, but are you suggesting taking a screen shot and then using an OCR converter? That might work. It will be a lot of work on the larger docs though.
Just tried that with an online PDF to text service and it gave me a blank document at the end.
Perhaps a quick call to GP head office and make them aware there might be a problem with this document. Surely it is in their interests for folk to be able to easily quote their words?
Open Word
Highlight text in the PDF
Press Cntrl-C
Press Cntrl-V on the Word page.
(I found right-clicking on the highlighted text does not bring up “copy”)
Cut and pasting doesn’t work. I can cut but the paste is illegible.
Although I would be interested to see if you can do that with the Green Party PDF above, then what system you are on.
Steps to conversion:
1. I opened it using “Foxit” pdf, then saved it under a new name.
2. Upload to http://www.free-online-ocr.com/
3. Convert to text.
4. Edit (the time consuming part)
Having tried various other ways first, these steps got me to an editable text file.
Okay.
here’s the text:
Mending the Safety Net
For a fairer society
Green
GREEN PARTY ELECTION PRIORITY
Summary
No one in New Zealand should live in poverty, whether they are working or on a benefit.
The Green Party will repair the holes that have been torn in New Zealand’s social safety net in recent decades by making major changes to income support – changes that will bring people out of poverty and provide independence, dignity, and choices. We will:
1. Increase all core benefits by 20 percent
2. Increase the amount people can earn before their benefit is cut Increase the value of Working For Families for all families who receive tax credits
Create a non-discriminatory Working For Families Children’s Credit of $72 a week1
5. Remove financial penalties and excessive sanctions for people receiving benefits
6. Raise the top tax rate to 40 percent on income over $150,000 per year, and reduce the bottom tax rate from 10.5 percent to 9 percent on income under $14,000.
Our welfare system should provide effective support for people who need it, while they need it. The social safety net should stop families from falling into poverty and guarantee a basic, liveable income. That’s what it means to live in a decent, compassionate society.
Punishing people through benefit sanctions, cuts, and investigations has not worked. Rather than giving people ‘incentives’ it traps them in a cycle of poverty and puts children’s wellbeing at risk.
Children suffer when the welfare system punishes their parents, and in the long term, so does society. In contrast, the simple and stable incomes system the Green Party will implement will provide parents with the support they need to raise their kids and improve their lives.
The Green Party’s plan will ensure the people on the highest incomes pay their fair share and those that need help are treated with respect and dignity.
Situation
New Zealand is a country where everyone should get a fair go at a decent life. But despite years of stories and outrage about child poverty, we are still falling far behind comparable countries in our efforts to guarantee all children their basic needs.
Inequality in New Zealand rose drastically from the 1980s, a product of the zealous social and economic reforms which saw jobs lost and income support drastically cut, pushing thousands of families below the poverty line. These changes ripped holes in the social safety net that generations of New Zealanders had knitted together. That legacy still haunts us.
Far too many people in New Zealand simply do not have enough to get by on. Today, 212,000 children live in poverty. Haifa million Kiwis experience hardship in education, health, income, housing, material well-being, or employment.2 Housing in many New Zealand towns and cities is classed as severely unaffordable,3 and one in a hundred people are homeless.4
Children who grow up poorfind it harderto succeed at school, and as adults, have worse health and earn less than children from wealthier households. UNICEF has calculated that the impact of child poverty on the economy is $10 billion every year.5
We need to do better for families who are struggling to make ends meet. And we can do better. It is time to mend the social safety net and restore its purpose to provide a decent life for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Under National, our welfare system relies heavily on sanctions and unnecessarily harsh obligations, which force people off benefits with no guarantee that they will be able to provide for themselves or their children.
As a result, families can end up without enough money to make it through the week, or in debt to Work and Income (WINZ) or loan sharks. 6 Forcing people, particularly parents, off benefits and into short term, poorly paid, or precarious work – or no work at all – is not a viable long term solution.7
Sanctions are also expensive to administer. In the UK, research by the National Audit Office concluded simply that there was “no evidence that sanctions worked”.8
It is not welfare that causes people to become trapped, it is poverty.
Single parents – who are overwhelmingly female – are the most likely of any family group to be living in hardship today. Yet they can lose hundreds of dollars a week if WINZ thinks they are in a relationship, even if their partner is not able or willing to financially support them. 9 The impact of this falls hardest on children, and can quickly send families even further into poverty.
In addition, single parents are punished for not revealing the other parent of their children under a dubious section of the Social Security Act, which involves a weekly sanction of $22 or more, per child. To get an exemption for compelling circumstances (such as rape or domestic abuse), women may have to recount personal and often traumatic details of their lives to WINZ staff members who are not trained to deal with such situations, often in open-plan offices.
The Green Party will put all that firmly behind us and focus on ensuring that every family in Aotearoa New Zealand has what they need to get by.
Solution
The Green Party will rebuild a welfare system that recognises the need for families to live above the poverty line, to access support and advice, and to have the best opportunities to improve their circumstances. The first step is to raise benefits, which have stayed too low for too long. One of the most effective ways to help children thrive in the long term is simply to make sure they have enough money.
1. Welfare reform
The simple fact is that benefits should be enough to live on and enough to raise kids on. The Green Party will increase all core benefits by 20 percent: Jobseeker Support, Sole Parent Support, Supported Living Payments, and Student Allowances.
Government should never use poverty as a weapon against people who need help – Metiria Turei
We will also restore the Training Incentive Allowance, to support people on benefits who want to go to University or attend a course that will help them get secure, well-paid work. At a cost of just $35 million a year, the Training Incentive Allowance is an important tool for people to use to pursue a better future for their families.
Fixing abatement rates
Currently, it is too easy for people to end up worse off financially if they work part time, as they lose 40 percent of their earnings after just 5-8 hours work on the minimum wage. This is no help for people who are trying to get back into the workforce, and leaves them exposed if they don’t have regular or reliable income.
The Green Party will increase the amount that all beneficiaries can earn to $200 a week before any reductions kick in, with a 30 percent abatement
for weekly income between $200 and $400, and a 70 percent abatement after that.
We estimate the combined cost of increasing benefits and fixing abatement rates will cost $935.2 million in the first year. However, more generous core benefitsare likely to reduce the amount of money that people need to claim as one-off hardship grants, which cost the Government $70 million in the December 2016 quarter alone.10
Removing sanctions
We will remove all the obligations and sanctions that create an excessive burden on people. These include:
excessive appointment attendance requirements forced budgeting appointments
work testing for sole parent support, jobseeker support, and disability support
repeated proof of disability or sickness intrusive relationship investigations.
Sanctions that take money from beneficiaries will also be removed from the Social Security Act, including the punitive, sexist section 70A which punishes women for not naming the father of their child. Reducing sanctions is estimated to cost just $8.8 million a year.
This will be more than offset by drastically reduced Government spending on investigations into whether people are meeting obligations, which cost $36.4 million last year.
A culture of compassion
Situations change and life can be unpredictable. People move in and out of poverty and on and off benefits through no particularfaultoftheirown. The government’s role is to support people through difficult times and help them make their lives better, not to provide the bare minimum or seek out opportunities to reduce financial support.
The Green Party will restore an individual case management system to WINZ so that each person on a benefit has a well-trained caseworker who will help that person either find appropriate well paid work, quality
training or education, or assist that person to live a decent life for the time they remain on a benefit.
2. Sole Parent Support
The Green Party will simplify the definition of a relationship in the nature of marriage, to stop the government intruding into the personal lives of sole parents. Currently, WINZ spends an inordinate amount of time and resources attempting to catch people out for being in a relationship. We will make the rules more simple and sensible.
A person receiving the Sole Parent Support (SPS) benefit will be required to advise WINZ when they enter into an intimate relationship which involves living together in the same household and a financial commitment to each other. They will be entitled to retain the SPS until they marry or enter into a civil union, or once they are entitled to a share of another person’s property under the Property Relationships Act (three years in a de-facto relationship).
3. Raising incomes for working families
Working for Families has become less and less effective at helping low-income families over the past decade, as National has frozen the rates while wages and inflation rise.
In order to make sure that families get the help they need, the Green Party will turn the In Work Tax Credit into a Children’s Credit for all families, which will give at least an extra $72 a week to low income families and help 178,000 children.11
We will create a Children’s Credit for all low income families, so parents and kids get the help they need.
To make sure more families get some extra help, we will raise the amount people can earn before abatement rates kick in to $44,800 and lower the abatement rate to 20%. We will also increase all Working For Families tax
credits to the value of their 2010 levels, to take account of the rising cost of living since then, and tie annual increases to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
We estimate this will cost $489.4 million a year. 4. Tax reform
Taxes in New Zealand should be fair. 64 percent of Kiwis believe that the economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful.12 When it comes to taxes, the evidence for that is clear. Since the mid-1980s, the top tax rate has been halved from 66 percent to 33 percent, making it the fourth-lowest in the developed world. The tax rate for someone earning the median wage is only three percent less than someone earning $200,000 a year.
The Green Party will reduce the bottom tax rate on income up to $14,000 from 10.5 percent to 9 percent. This will help low and medium income earners keep more of their wages. Everyone who earns less than $150,000 will be better off.
People on the highest incomes should pay their fair share of tax to help those most in need. We will raise the top tax rate to 40 percent on income over $150,000.
The net impact of this tax reform is a slight increase in tax revenue of $163.4 million a year.
4. Raising the minimum wage
The minimum wage must be set at a level that prevents poverty and enables families to live decent lives.
The Green Party will raise the minimum wage to $17.75 per hour in 2018, and make further adjustments to ensure it reaches 66 percent of the average wage by 2020. Based on Treasury forecasts, that will mean a minimum wage of $21.25 in 2020.
Currently, 152,700 people earn the minimum wage.
What difference will this make for people?
Reducing the bottom tax rate will see all working people have a bit more in their pocket each week. Families and people on benefits will see significant increases in their incomes, enabling a decent quality of life.
A sole parent on a benefit, with two school-age children, and no paid employment: $179.62 better off every week.
2. A sole parent receiving the Student Allowance, with two children, and part time work on just above minimum wage: $176.15 better off every week.
3. A single person receiving Jobseeker support: $42.20 better off every week.
4. A two parent family, with one working parent on the median income, with three children: $104.42 better off every week.
5. Two parents, both receiving Jobseeker support, with three children: $207.46 better off every week.
6. Atwo parent family, both earning the median income of 48,000, with three children: $130.19 better off every week.
7. Two parents, one in paid work earning $70,000 a year, with two children: $87.85 better off every week.
Fiscal impact
In New Zealand, there is enough to go around if it is shared fairly.
Costs for these changes to benefits, Working for Families, and the tax system have been independently modelled by BERL.13 This modelling assumes National’s 2017 “families package” does not take effect. While that package included a small step in the right direction, the Green Party’s plan is a much more comprehensive solution to raise family incomes and is designed to replace National’s.
The total cost of fixing benefits and Working for Families is $1,468 billion, while the tax reform is close to fiscally neutral with a small net positive fiscal impact of $163.4 million. Reducing WINZ’s spending on investigating beneficiaries for not meeting obligations saves a further $35 million.
The net gain from the tax reform does not coverthe whole cost of this package. Prior to the election we will release our full fiscals which will show all planned spending and revenue.
Solution Fiscal implication (millions)
Benefit increase and abatement changes -$935.1
Working For Families changes -$489.4
Reinstate the Training Incentive Allowance -$35
Removing sanctions -$8.8
Total cost of benefit and WFF reform -$1,468.3
Tax reform (net) $163.4
Savings from changes to sanctions and obligations14 $35
Total revenue $198.4
Sources
1 $72 a week for the first child
2 SuperU ‘Familes and Whanau Status Report 2017’
http://www.superu.govt.nz/publication/families-and-whanau-status-report-2017
3 The Economist ‘Global House Prices’ March 2017 https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/03/daily-chart-6?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/
4 Dr Kate Amore ‘Homelessness accelerates between censuses’ 3 June 2016 http://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago613529.html
5 https://www.unicef.org.nz/learn/our-work-in-new-zealand/Child-Poverty-in-New-Zealand
6 Simon Maude’Emergency housing choices often limited, costly, says ministry’ June 25 2016 http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/national/80363283/Emergency-housing-choices-often-limited-costly-says-ministry
7 Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty http://www.occ.org.nz/assets/Uploads/EAG/Working-papers/No-3-Causes-and-consequences.pdf
8 Rajeev Sayal ‘No evidence welfare sanctions work, says National Audit Office’, The Guardian, 30 November 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/30/no-evidence-welfa re-sanctions-work-says-national-audit-office
9 SuperU ‘Familes and Whanau Status Report 2017’
10 https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/statistics/benefit/index.html
11 $72 a week for the first child
12 Henry Cooke ‘Over half of Kiwis think politics and the economy are rigged against them’, July 3 2017.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94335554/over-half-of-kiwis-think-politics-and-the-economy-are-rigged-against-them
13 The BERL model does not include changes to the minimum wage.
14 Estimate, based on recent years. Most recent annual figure is $36.4 million.
http://www.greens.org.nz/ families-package
Green
Authorised by Metiria Turei, Parliament Buildings, Wellington
Looks like I can’t copy and paste the text, but I’ve used ABBYY Finereader to OCR the PDF and export to TXT.
You can grab it from here:
https://1drv.ms/t/s!AmYFbYF_zxe3rGwf7JbQJPf43N0V
Here’s my version Weka.
I used ABBYY Finereader to OCR it.
https://1drv.ms/t/s!AmYFbYF_zxe3rGwf7JbQJPf43N0V
thanks! that looks like an easy to use form too.
The OCR online services I used and one downloaded app, seemed to decide it wasn’t an OCR issue (as in, it hadn’t been scanned).
ta, just waiting. Foxit is taking a massive amount of time to download a rather small file.
Open the PDF file at http://www.newocr.com and do an OCR on it page by page (you can flip through the pages on the webpage). You get a direct on-screen output on the webpage that you can copy and paste directly, or you can save each page individually. The paragraphs are retained fairly well.
We need a Truth and Reconciliation session for WINZ / MSD
The wrongs done, and the survival outcomes. (or not)
I signed the petition.
I signed for a friend asked to work 15 hrs a week when dying of cancer!!
Paula exposed helpless people for her own ends in her role and still lives well.
I wanted her to feel a weight of anger.
Perhaps that makes me human …. not necessarily a hypocrite.
It is so hard for “Clients” to get cut through, I am not amazed at the reaction.
+1 patricia bremner
Family benefit for the in work, how many do you think let people rent a room or do cash jobs. Got to be huge. So those who recieve the smallest amount, on the lowest income get the most onerous oversight. Thats seems wrong to me, we need to widen the debate out some family benefit over claimers.
Great policy announced by TOP today – bringing in the German tenancy model, with much greater rights for tenants:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/336605/give-up-on-home-ownership-strengthen-renters-rights-morgan
Don’t you just love the right wing media language around this? Read the headline if you want to know the positioning of Henry Cooke.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95505946/gareth-morgans-rental-policy-would-make-it-far-harder-to-kick-out-tenants
To me this New Zealand is one which desperately needs to be united not divided like it has been by the current government and which is obvious in the speak of people like Henry Cooke. Paula Bennett says it’s Bill English which has the brain to unite New Zealanders but all he’s done is bring about the New Zealand we have today which, imo, is heading down a steep cliff to class division and warfare, if we are not there already.
In the real world, as opposed to Paula Bennett’ ladder-kicking world, it is Jacinda Arden who has the better mind for uniting New Zealand again. To do this she’ll need the full support of the Greens, the Opportunities Party, Winston First, and the Maori Party, and all their supporters.
I almost completely avoid the commercial newz media in nz now…. And your link is a good example of why.
The nats are anything but unifiers. More like divide and conquer.
More like cut into and mince. Throw the gristle away. That’s anyone who happens to be completely unable to gain large sums of money and property and assets through any means not noticeably unlawful for a sufficient time to complete the transaction.
Sounds like TOP is going for private rentals only. The Green Party has a policy on rent regulation, and for long term tenancy.
Plus they have a policy to increase state housing.
The Greens policy on rent regulation is good and looks like the French model. Long term tenants with families just want to be able feel stable like home owning families of New Zealand and not worry about a letter from the agent arriving in the mail.
They want to be able to make their place a home and make minor changes like home owning families do. They even want to be able to do this without asking the landlord to pay for it, but they can’t because they literally don’t know when they are going to be ‘kicked out’.
They want to contribute to their communities and schools but are always afraid of what’s coming next because of the whim of an amateur landlord.
I’ll be looking for Labour’s rent regulation policy to be very close to the Greens and perhaps TOP’s too. It’s probably the biggest issue for me in terms of voting.
I haven’t read the detail yet – but it should obviously apply to all residential rentals, regardless of who the landlord is.
Again TOP strike out in an interesting and radical fresh direction:
Two main components; greatly strengthened tenant rights and housing standards. Something the left has been demanding for ages. TOP look like they want to deliver on this and more.
But the other component, increasing non-profit involvement in the sector while winding back state involvement will have the the statists frothing. Regardless that the non-profit housing association model is generally very widespread and successful in many other countries (including even here in Australia), the principle will be reflexively rejected.
That’s because it’s rather stupid even if it is ‘successful’.
It increases the bureaucracy and thus the costs associated with housing for no benefit.
Not really. What they effectively do is replace large state bureaucracies, with smaller, more flexible entities that can be both more localised and more responsive to people’s needs.
Many have the long term goal of transitioning people from tenants into owners where they can meet the requirements.
By contrast state housing locked people into a ‘one size fits all’ mold that has it’s own limitations. Note I’m not bashing the concept of social housing at all, just pointing out that the state does not need to be it’s monopoly provider.
That’s a belief, not a reality. As an example, Telecom when it was still part of the Post Office, ran the cities and regions locally. It wasn’t top down control as many people assume. It was local people seeing what was needed locally and responding to that and doing so quickly.
And those smaller, more localised bureaucracies need a bigger state bureaucracy to manage them. So we end up with more bureaucracies at the local level which requires more people and we have greater bureaucracy at the state level as well also boosting the number of people needed. Those people really could be doing other stuff that really is more important.
There’s a very real cost to increased competition that gets hidden by the ideology that more competition is good.
Private ownership of housing is Bad Thing™ as it encourages the rentier and speculative behaviour that we see in the housing sector.
I’ve been to many state houses in my life and none of them were all exactly the same. Two, three and four bedroom designs and all with different characteristics.
And don’t tell me that they’d all be the same design either. I can go all over Auckland and even the country and find entire subdivisions built by the private sector that are built all on the same design. Town houses, apartments, flats and standalone.
Amazingly enough, there really isn’t a hell of a lot of difference to peoples needs.
All through the UK, Europe and Australia the whole non-profit housing association model existing in many successful variations.
It’s NZ that’s fallen well behind the innovation curve.
And they’re providing different houses how?
What innovation are they actually providing?
How are they reducing the number of people needed to provide those houses?
But they’re doing it over here, and over there isn’t valid reason to do the same thing here.
Yes, we have more homelessness here than over there but that seems to be because we stopped doing the state thing and started doing the private provider thing instead.
The non-profit provider often still pays extremely high salaries and benefits, and also pays a board of trustees.
The creative accounting team can do their work and provide a non-profit accounting, but the incentive and directive of a non-profit is also different to a state-owned housing provider.
A state housing provider needs to find you a home even if you are unable to raise credit, have a mental illness or for some reason are unattractive to private or social housing providers.
A well-designed government housing department would have access to the resources and connections needed to house all NZers appropriately and securely. This will never be achieved by a non-profit housing provider.
“Gareth Morgan’s Opportunities Party (TOP) wants to make it illegal to kick out a tenant for any reason other than lack of payment or damage to property.”
So landlords can’t evict if they want to sell or live in the house themselves?
No more fixed term tenancies?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95505946/gareth-morgans-rental-policy-would-make-it-far-harder-to-kick-out-tenants
And note carefully … as a responsible landlord I am happy to vote for this. (What I would like to see is some balancing rules to ensure bad tenants can be dealt with quickly and efficiently before the damage they’re causing escalates.)
There needs to be an out for renting out the family home. Holiday homes might need some thought too.
True. This sort of informal tenancy already exists with ‘house sitting’ being common enough when people travel overseas for months or more, and plenty of baches are rented out with no problem. My memory is flakey on this, but I think current rules cover off these short-term occupations without any problems.
But for the vast majority of tenants who want a home to live in, this policy ticks some pretty big boxes.
I’m on a year long lease that rolls over if the landlords don’t want to come home. It’s not informal (is covered by tenancy law) and not short term.
I don’t know what the landlords would have done if the law said the tenant had right of occupation, probably would have either sold it (most like to non-renters), or made an off the books arrangement (rental black market).
I support the law changing to give tenants right of occupation where the property is primarily for rent, but I think there needs to be specific law written around home rentals, not just doing that casually. Maybe home-owners can register a property with Tenancy as a home rental, and there is a specific rental agreement for those properties. The notice required from landlords would still need to be quite long (current 6 weeks if ridiculous).
Holiday houses are a bit different because they are often short term. There is also an emerging issue of them being used as AirBnB accommodation now, which has taken them out of the rental market and created housing shortages.
Well if you are renting someone else’s family home for say six months or more, and the owner intends to return and re-occupy at some time, then as you say, set up a contractual provision to cover that off. Dead easy if both parties are aware of the potentially limited term of the tenancy at the outset.
The big deal here is the vast majority of tenants get exactly what is needed; the opportunity for a decent, secure home.
It’s not dead easy though, it’s something that needs consideration and to be written into law well, not casually.
“The big deal here is the vast majority of tenants get exactly what is needed; the opportunity for a decent, secure home.”
Sure, but there are lots of variations in ‘normal’ and it’s good to explore that particular from the tenant’s pov.
It’s not dead easy though,
If you say so, although current rules seem to be able to handle these variations readily enough. I would expect if it ever came time to draft TOP policy into law, a Green party policy partner might well ably assist in getting these details right 🙂
The big problem with the current rules though, is it lets landlords deceive tenants into thinking they can have an open-ended lease, when they have no intention of doing so. That creates horrible problems for tenants, and TOP’s policy by default slams the door on that practice.
Personally feel TOP rental policy gone too far. Big problem in NZ is that there is a shortage of tenancies. So anything to stop people renting, i.e. not being able to sell it or move back in would mean many rentals are not rented.
Short term rental are particularly desirable as everyone is now ‘on contract’ so nobody even knows how long they might have their job for, renter or landlord.
I rented out my place for a few years while overseas and would not do that if I was unable to move back in myself when I returned. I had quite a few problems from people selling drugs from the property, non payment of rent or just bizarre expectations.
However I had terrible experiences as a tenant as well.
Moved into a rental in the CBD, for example an asked the rental agent if it was a long term rental – they said yes and also if it was going on the market and they said no. So I paid by letting fee + GST, then put a lot of effort into making the place look great, literally one month later, got a letter saying that the place was going on the market for sale.
As the place was leasehold I thought, at least it would not sell. Nope, it went within 3 weeks and I only had 6 weeks to find a new place. A member of my family was seriously injured at the time, and we had to literally move out while they were in immense pain.
Would like to see reform on the rental agents, if they sell or market the house within a year of your signing the lease you get your rental fees back.
Also 10% discount on the rent if the property is for sale.
I think the TOP long term rental thing is a red herring because many people have the opposite problem and they are constantly moving because their work keeps changing and it’s going to exasperate the rental shortages as people just sell or leave properties empty instead of renting them.
I think the TOP long term rental thing is a red herring because many people have the opposite problem and they are constantly moving because their work keeps changing
The policy allows tenants to move with 90 days notice. In practise most landlords will be quite happy to let the tenant move on much sooner if they have someone else lined up.
We never bother with enforcing lease terms. If a tenant needs to move they need to and demanding they stay on just creates issues. Although here in Australia it’s quite different. If you want to leave a fixed lease, you sodding pay the rent until the landlord finds another tenant. Period.
As for landlords giving up and selling their properties, isn’t that exactly what you want? And leaving a property empty is precisely the behaviour TOP’s CCT is designed to address.
What does baffle me a bit. This is EXACTLY the tenancy policy lefties have been asking for here for ages. And yet when Gareth Morgan delivers …. suddenly all those progressive urges abandon everyone. Weird.
as a leftie I think there are probably good parts of it, but I’m betting the Greens already have it covered 🙂
But it’s also important to take the time to critique policy and get it right.
“The policy allows tenants to move with 90 days notice”
I believe that’s in the current tenancy agreement. Which also affords landlords the same 90 days to quit provision. I think that’s fair enough for both parties involved.
This is a stupid policy from Top. There’s nothing wrong with rent controls being brought in, and I expect labour and the greens to both be interested in doing something like that, keeping rent rises to once a year and under the rate or pegged to inflation, but ‘for ever lets’ is whack, like making home owners pay capital in advance of selling up or on.
This is a stupid policy from Top.
That’s interesting. It’s exactly the same ‘stupid policy’ the Germans have and the same ‘stupid policy’ lots of lefties here have been demanding for ages.
The real problem you have isn’t with the policy.
I get it, you’re the resident Top fanboi. Awesome.
It’s still, in my left wing, green tinged, non German opinion, a stupid policy that isn’t needed here.
Doesn’t mean the tenancy agreement doesn’t need work, so I’ll be waiting for policy releases from the proper left of center parties, that ones who will actually be in government after the election, to see how they can make changes.
And yeah, it’s the policy, but of course the party too. That’s why I’m also not interested in whatever the nats or act come up with.
OK so I’ll wait for the ‘proper centre-left parties’ to get around to mentioning it. It will be interesting to see just how much political capital they’re willing to put on the line for it.
Funny though how lots of people like demanding change, but when offered something really interesting, they come over all conservative for some reason.
Oh and are you arguing the German’s are both stupid and unsuccessful? Or are you just xenophobic?
“are you arguing the German’s are both stupid and unsuccessful? Or are you just xenophobic?”
No to all three, and I’m a little surprised, or perhaps not really, that you’ve made that connection from what I posted. Can you not just accept my opinion the policy isn’t a good one for NZ is different to Morgan’s, now yours, lots of lefties and Germans?
As for the other bit, I’ve never made that demand, don’t think the policy interesting, and am certainly not conservative for any reason.
Finally, for this part of the discussion at least, being aware you’re a moderator here, I’ll just leave it at that and wish you a good evening. I’ve no desire to infringe, especially over a policy from a party that won’t be in a position to do sod all about their policies anyway.
First of all … in almost 10 years participating here I’ve categorically never moderated anyone in a conversation I was participating in. Especially just because they attacked me or I disagreed with them. Period.
The Morgan Foundation made their case in some detail here:
http://morganfoundation.org.nz/german-house-prices-flat/
Feel free to debate their reasoning, but mere tribal, reflexive opposition to an idea because “it wasn’t invented here” really doesn’t impress me much.
The current tenancy law is 21 days notice for tenants, 90 days for landlords.
Good point. I should have remembered this.
Of course it makes sense that if tenants get to enjoy unlimited security of occupancy, that landlords should get some extra protection in return.
As I said above, in Australia the norm is 6 or 12 month leases. In our case once it expired the landlord was happy to roll it over monthly. But as a rule, if you leave before your lease is up, you WILL pay the balance of rent until the landlord gets around to placing a new occupant. As a result it’s a much more stable business over here.
In our experience NZ’s rental market is very immature and absolutely could look to implement better practice from other nations.
Thanks for the info, Craig.
So tenants at least have that in their favour now.
My view is that fair contracts be honoured unless unforeseen circumstances intervene, be that six months, a year or even longer, with exit clauses in case of bad landlords or tenants.
That’s OK. You should have said at the outset that you think tenants should not have security of occupation. That landlords should be able to throw tenants out pretty much when it suits them for no reason.
I’m impressed at a leftie standing up for the rights of landlords like this. It doesn’t happen often and as a landlord myself I appreciate the concern.
“You should have said at the outset that you think tenants should not have security of occupation.”
That’s unfair and you’re being quite disingenuous. I’ve not said that at all, in fact, honouring fair contracts with tenant get out clauses for unforeseen events or having a bad landlord is almost the exact opposite of zero security.
“That landlords should be able to throw tenants out pretty much when it suits them for no reason.”
See above except swap tenant with landlord and landlord with tenant. I’ve not written, implied or ever secretly conservatively desired anything like you’ve insinuated 🙄
I reckon you’re just on one now. Your reply must come close to the biggest misrepresentation of a comment I’ve ever seen on The Standard. That’s OK. I’m done with you here, mate. I’ve no time that sort of underhand debating tactic bollocks.
What you asked for was this:
My view is that fair contracts be honoured unless unforeseen circumstances intervene, be that six months, a year or even longer
I don’t regard six or twelve months as ‘security of occupation’. It falls well short of being able to settle into the place and make it your home, become part of the community, plan for the kids to go through school and so on. It’s this instability which is deeply disruptive to people’s lives.
I think tenants should have the right to stay as long as they want, as long as they pay the rent, don’t cause a nuisance or damage the place.
So if you want to stay long-term, can you see anyone committing to say a five year lease? With the attendant risk of having to fulfil your part of paying off the balance of five years rent if it doesn’t work out for any reason? It’s just not feasible.
And if you think tenants should be able to get out of a fair contract due to unforeseen circumstances, why would you deny landlords the same right?
So in effect you’re reduced to business as usual with no real security of occupation at all.
“I don’t regard six or twelve months as ‘security of occupation’.”
Contracts of six month, a year or even longer, broken by unforeseen circumstances. You exactly get full security for the length of the negotiated contract. The rest of what you’ve written may well be true, but in this instance, not relevant to the point made.
“if you want to stay long-term, can you see anyone committing to say a five year lease? With the attendant risk of having to fulfil your part of paying off the balance of five years rent if it doesn’t work out for any reason? It’s just not feasible.”
Who said that would be the rule? Not me. With a fair non penalised notice period, that scenario wouldn’t ever be the case.
“And if you think tenants should be able to get out of a fair contract due to unforeseen circumstances, why would you deny landlords the same right?”
I don’t. The post you replied to states exactly that. 🙄
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07082017/#comment-1364294
And with that I really am out. I don’t want to debate you for said reasons.
Good night.
So at the most you’re allowing for fixed 12 month lease, and acknowledge that longer isn’t generally feasible. And if either party wants out they can give fair notification and quit.
You haven’t really explained how that’s much better than the current situation.
Still if you don’t want to discuss it further that’s fine. In my experience here that’s usually because someone has a stake in the issue they’re not disclosing.
Cheers
“Still if you don’t want to discuss it further that’s fine. In my experience here that’s usually because someone has a stake in the issue they’re not disclosing.”
Nope, it’s because of the underhand debating tactic bollocks like that. 😉
Cheers
[RL: Your argument makes no sense, you say you are in favour of better security for tenants then present a solution that’s objectively little different to the current situation. Clearly you are not a stupid person, so your inability to present a coherent case strongly suggests an conflict in your thinking. That’s not underhand, it’s an observation from many years of being here.]
I don’t agree with giving up on home ownership. The difference between rent and mortgage is not large when there’s only minimal (long term) housing inflation.
From an investment risk perspective property needs to return around 2-4 percentage points more than bank term deposits. Mortgage interest rates run at 1.3-2 points more than term deposits so the difference between rent and a mortgage should really only be the principal. If renters can save for a deposit then they should be able to pay off the principal.
The Government should be putting an end to housing inflation IMO. Do that and the rest should look after itself.
I do but it shouldn’t be handed over to private landlords as that just encourages the rentier capitalism that we see today.
The government doesn’t have to pay any costs for money and so there’s no risk involved at all.
very few renters can do that these days.
Do that and the rentier landlords will be complaining that they can’t compete with the government rentals set at 25% of income or less.
The current problem is largely that property investors are buying future rent increases Draco. They’ll moan that houses aren’t providing a good return from rents but they’re comparing it against current property value and not what they actually invested (paid) for the property.
if you look at the investor who has owned his property for more than a few years the returns on the actual investment will have turned pretty positive due to rent increases. Ending housing inflation will pretty much end rent increases too which IMO is the real objective. Investors are buying with the intent to raise rents over time.
What’s been killing the poor is real living costs going up faster than their income and housing is the biggest culprit.
Labour’s homebuild policy is a better approach than Morgan’s scheme IMO.
What they’re doing is buying the ability to bludge off of others and then complaining that it isn’t enough.
Yeah, that’s what being able to bludge off of others does. The bludgers simply decide that they want more and put the rents up and the ones that they’re bludging off don’t have a choice.
“I don’t agree with giving up on home ownership”
I tend to agree because giving up on it will lead to capital accumulation in fewer and fewer hands.
One possible approach – if there is any mortgage owing on a house then any rent paid to occupy it should be regarded as mortgage repayment and confer rights of partial ownership on the renter.
Trying to get my head around that idea. Initial question: would this logically lead to residential property ownership concentrating in large capital and investment funds? (What you are trying to avoid?).
That’s what we’re seeing with private ownership of housing now.
I guess Gareth is safe, as he famously said he does not rent out his rentals as the tenants might spoil his carpet.
And he wants to kill all your cats too.
The market will provide, not.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/336623/govt-slashes-forecast-for-new-home-building-in-auckland
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11899540
Whilst Mike H@#$%@@ maynot be to everyones liking, I was taken back by his Greens led by a “Crook and a fraud”. I thought that this would be breaching broadcast standards – as her actions whist being polarising, as MT has not been charged let alone convicted of anything.
NZ is too small for this man he needs to be head hunted for Fox USA.
I’m a Green voter and love MT-but she has to go. The pro-Right MSM will use to “crook and fraud” label until 23rd Sept.
Marama Davidson or Julie-Anne Genter are ready-made replacements and will give a “Jacinda” effect.
yes, and if NZ’lers fall for it they deserve everything they get.
again, is the Media in NZ the ones that decides the colours and the people in government or is it the People?
Fuck it, at this point or better with the point you make its better to not vote at all, in fact, lets stop the pretense and abolish voting altogether.
the media, can tell us the great unwashed masses every few years with whom they would like to work and whom they would like to aks about breeding, with whom they would like to have a drink and a bbq and who they prefer as a sports team.
the media in NZ has power because people will fall over and do as they are told.
@ Sabine Agree about the media, but thinking people will see through their BS and it is ALWAYS better to vote. Not voting is what the Right wants.
well, let me put it this way, like so many others i seem to be running out of people to vote for. and for the life of me i ain’t v oting for Patrick Gower and his mates.
and that is what this election seems to boil down to.
yep. The Greens should stand their ground on this, otherwise it’s all over for the left.
QFT
Loads of people, are #iammetiria – she’s increasing the Greens votes, if they abandon her, then it will do the opposite and disappoint those demanding welfare reform and they will not vote.
It’s like giving National a gift of less voters voting, by getting Metiria to step down.
I really think many underestimate the amount of people in NZ who have been humiliated or refused help by WINZ.
Many relationships split up and WINZ can be the first court of call, if one in the relationship refuses to pay child support which is pretty common.
It’s not just the desperate poor, it’s more people than you might expect.
Then there is the next generation of kids now in their 30’s and 40’s, that grew up with the WINZ parent, but under the old system that Paula is now unravelling pulling up the ladder after her, similar to John Key selling off the state houses.
Bean instead of Bef. The Atlantic has a great article on what value this action would have.
These paras talk about Brazil which has specialised in beef cattle. NZ has specialised in milk-bearing cattle. We are over-exposed in terms of what is a balanced business approach with risk spread intelligently.
To understand why the climate impact of beef alone is so large, note that the image at the top of this story is a sea of soybeans in a silo in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. The beans belong to a feed lot that holds 38,000 cattle, the growth and fattening of which means dispensing 900 metric tons of feed every day. Which is to say that these beans will be eaten by cows, and the cows will convert the beans to meat, and the humans will eat the meat.
In the process, the cows will emit much greenhouse gas, and they will consume far more calories in beans than they will yield in meat, meaning far more clearcutting of forests to farm cattle feed than would be necessary if the beans above were simply eaten by people.
This inefficient process happens on a massive scale. Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of red meat, holds around 212 million cattle. (In June, the U.S. temporarily suspended imports of beef from Brazil due to abscesses, collections of pus, in the meat.)
According to the United Nations, 33 percent of arable land on Earth is used to grow feed for livestock. Even more, 26 percent of the ice-free terrestrial surface of Earth is used for grazing livestock. In all, almost a third of the land on Earth is used to produce meat and animal products.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/
NZ beef is from grass-fed cattle, so the above is of academic interest only.
That is not correct PM. It is of more than academic interest, and why only academics? Are they the only ones who spend some time thinking and examining important matters to NZ?
The piece touches on the amount of land used for grazing animals to be used for meat (and dairy) when beans could provide alternative protein and fibre and the land could be used more effectively for that.
I made the point of how we are using this industry as our major earner, and are overexposed to risk. When things go wrong as in Brazil, it would mean an immediate halt in the required level of business and probably a downgrading in our credit-rating with a rise in interest for borrowing, at a time when we could least afford it.
In the sense I used it, “of academic interest” means an abstract discussion without direct practical relevance, rather than something that’s of interest only to academics. The lack of direct practical relevance arises from the fact that we generally feed cattle on grass in this country, not beans or grains (which ought be a “well duh” since feeding cattle on human-edible crops is stupid even on the face of it and only becomes more stupid on further investigation).
The idea that grazing land would be more productive if crops were grown on it is an article of faith among vegetarians, but by no means an undisputed fact. Even if it were a fact, it has the fairly obvious problem that most people prefer to eat meat for protein, not beans. The fact that something is more efficient doesn’t necessarily mean it’s preferable – for example, it would be more efficient for us to turn human corpses into fertiliser rather than burn or bury them, but it won’t happen because people don’t value efficiency more highly than they do honouring their dead – food may be a lesser example of that effect, but is nevertheless an example of it.
I’m vegetarian, but there is obviously land which is totally unsuitable for crops while being perfectly adequate for grass, whether that is then used for meat or milk. Sheep are quite good mountain animals, for example, so grassy hillsides are fine for sheep, while being largely useless for crops.
The indonesians and incas managed to grow crops pretty well on steep hillsides. Might be a bit labour-intensive for us soft lazy westerners, tho.
PM
You are making perfect sense to me. But still I don’t think you should be so dismissive. We choose to eat beef but can down the beef and up the beans, though not perhaps soy beans as they are practically bound up under the control of Monsanto or some other conglomerate, We have to change, so learning to eat more beans would be comparatively easy.
As for vegetarians only believing that beans are more efficiently grown food = the article seemed to have some good facts in it that appeared to support the case.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/if-everyone-ate-beans-instead-of-beef/535536/
This means much less deforestation and land degradation if so many plant crops weren’t run through the digestive tracts of cattle. If Americans traded their beef for beans, the researchers found, that would free up 42 percent of U.S. crop land….
(And then there is the large amount of ruminant gas given out by all those animals.)
Recently Harwatt and a team of scientists from Oregon State University, Bard College, and Loma Linda University calculated just what would happen if every American made one dietary change: substituting beans for beef. They found that if everyone were willing and able to do that—hypothetically—the U.S. could still come close to meeting its 2020 greenhouse-gas emission goals, pledged by President Barack Obama in 2009.
That is, even if nothing about our energy infrastructure or transportation system changed—and even if people kept eating chicken and pork and eggs and cheese—this one dietary change could achieve somewhere between 46 and 74 percent of the reductions needed to meet the target.
“I think there’s genuinely a lack of awareness about how much impact this sort of change can have,” Harwatt told me. There have been analyses in the past about the environmental impacts of veganism and vegetariansim, but this study is novel for the idea that a person’s dedication to the cause doesn’t have to be complete in order to matter. A relatively small, single-food substitution could be the most powerful change a person makes in terms of their lifetime environmental impact—more so than downsizing one’s car, or being vigilant about turning off light bulbs, and certainly more than quitting showering.
So if someone is agonising that they are doing nothing, here is a simple thing that you could do, eat beans 6 days and beef on one day a week for a very good outcome, and that makes no account of chicken or lamb.
And I thought that our animals would always eat grass. But the changes that going global has made results in us bringing in feed for the dairy herd, palm kernel offcuts and feed lot systems so so-called farmers can fatten their beasts under cover and in greater numbers than the land can bear. For the straight beef-product I think the same would apply.
Just listening to Matthew Hooton crapping his pants over the coverage that Jacinda Ardern has had. And at the other end spewing out crap too.
And also Hooton’s cheap shot at one presenter over the coverage of the ‘baby’ issue, when in fact several commentators and interviewees from Jackie Blue to ordinary panellists had made similar points.
Another right wing blame job on the ‘left-wing’ media.All this “Jacinda effect” is down to the media?
“Cometh the hour, cometh the woman.” I have been amazed at the response which I’ve been seeing on Facebook, from friends, family, and commentators alike.
Another quote seems apt to me. From Audrey Lorde:
We should stick that quote right under The Standard’s headline banner.
Maybe Hooton works on commission and he just missed his target for last week.
Stephen Mills is proving to be as nearly as big a twit as Hooten on RNZ politics this morning.
@garibaldi Mills certainly seems not to be a supporter of the MOU-blinkered Labour. But Hooton saying the Greens will probably stay above 5% when they are polling about 14% takes the cake.
Unfortunately Hooton is probably right about Metiria-see my post above.
My prediction for this week’s poll:
Lab 35 Green 12 NZF 10 Nats 39 TOP 3
Dump Metiria and you dump the whole beneficiary issue, which is what National (and Labour for that matter)want. Pushing a low wage economy and denigrating benes is what neoliberalism wants. Shame on those who won’t front up to the issue, and that includes Stephen Mills..
It’s what capitalism, in any form, needs to keep the rich getting richer. The inevitable result from this is increasing poverty and the eventual collapse of society.
labour 33 greens 12 NZF 10 NATIONAL43 ALL OTHERS <1%
National will empty the lolly jar now.
National will pretend to be socialist to get votes again.Which tells us what voters really want.
Lol Snap repateet. Nearly got smacked in the head by a flying dummy. Had to be Hootens. He actually sounded genuinely angry. Had my first big laugh of the Day. Thank you Matthew.
How on Earth can you be that pissed by 11 am on a Monday?.
I think Matthew sets on one truly derogatory message per outing and goes for broke on that maybe repeating it several times. Then apart from that he can appear logical and even reasonable.
One on one DEbate:
“This is your one chance to see the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Bill English, and the Leader of the Opposition, the Honourable Jacinda Ardern, face off ahead of the General Election.
The debate will be held on Thursday, 7 September at the La Vida Centre, and will be moderated by the Editor of The Press, Joanna Norris. It will be an unmissable opportunity to hear Bill English and Jacinda Ardern answer the hard questions and debate the current issues facing New Zealand………Entry to this event is by ticket only. Admission is free, but because of limited seating, tickets will be issued by ballot…”
Oops. Might be for Press Subscribers only? Wonder if it will be broadcast?
Just looking at Yes Minister showing how The Rhodesia Solution can be used. Have National used this recently? It sounds like something that John Key used .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGJH_-S_MGs
Expect a John Key story to be released each week before the election by the National Party machine. Perhaps two or three a week if it’s looking bad for them.
Your pulling my ponytail…
already happened today…key granted honary doctorate by canterbury uni…..presumably for his services to clean rivers on the plains and his services to democracy at the CRC ….sarc
A mockery – ‘we are not like other unis who chuck them out like confetti – oh know we only give away 3 or so a year’ – lol – up there with knighthoods for irrelevance and in your face arrogance – dr sir John key ffs
Lol.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95518305/tick-party-vote-for-act-to-bring-quality-candidates-into-parliament-leader-says
Lmfao re keep alive
Would it be correct please, to call him a ‘right wing conspiracy theorist’; seeing he’s released a book, just before the election with some scathing remarks about the government?
Yeah, he’s trying to cash in on the election period but no-one will read it so a fail there.
Also, the ‘no dickheads and prima-donnas’ policy must have come in after he joined the party.
New political poll coming out tonight, newshub releasing sound bites about it, no info about the parameters yet.
Whatever the results, Gower will push it as good news for Labour/Ardern and bad for the GP/Turei.
English has come out about his texts to Glenys Dickson.
“However, he rejected the suggestion that his regular communication with Dickson meant he was more involved in the controversy than he first let on.
He was also asked about his claim that he knew little about the controversy when he had texted one of the key players 450 times at the time.
“What I said was I wasn’t involved with and didn’t know about the nature of the employment settlement,” English replied.”
Does anyone have transcripts from the times he said he didn’t know what was going on? The times other than those when he said he did not know about the nature of the employment settlement, when he said he didn’t know anything. I think that is coverup / lying / disingenuous any way. I can play semantics as well as him. He did know of ‘the nature’, it is implausible he didn’t. He may not know the exact specifics, as in having seen actual documents with the specific details written down.
Even when he comes clean he’s dirty.
There’s about 7 weeks until election day and there’s still no National Party hoardings in my electorate of Clutha-Southland. Have they not managed to find a replacement yet for Todd Barclay?
I haven’t seen any comment on English’e report on RNZ this morning where he said that National would not be involved in personality politics but rather in policy.
He said they would not be diverted by the “new toy”.
That was a reference to Jacinda Ardern?
As a friend said when told of this, “Who would call a male politician a “new toy”?”
I may have misheard and misreported what English actually said. He will say of course it’s all to do with context, and he was only speaking as “Bill English, private citizen” and they do it too.
Breaking News: Green MPs threatening to walk out!
Update: “Two Green Party MPs have quit politics in protest at co-leader Metiria Turei’s decision not to step down.”
Update further”http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11899846
OOps there is a post up already.