Two things from yesterday I thought I would repost as they appeared at the end of the evening thread and are worthy of a wider audience.
Another Guardian article looking at the sorry state of New Zealand’s housing.
Excerpts.
So who owns these properties?
Increasingly, not New Zealanders. Foreign investment in Auckland has boomed under the National party government (this is not confined to Auckland). According to Core Logic in 2012, 37% of buyers were investors. Today that proportion is nearly 50%, a significant number of whom are Chinese.
What are the downsides of the boom?
It’s not been called a “crisis” lightly. Just before winter, stories emerged of hundreds of people living in tents, garages and shipping containers because they could not afford to rent, were on waiting lists for a state house or had given up trying.
Families with newborns were discovered sleeping in cars and under bridges and were taken in by local maraes (Māori meeting houses).
Homelessness has reached an unprecedented level and it’s no longer just affecting the unemployed. Some families with one or two wage-earning adults (usually in minimum-wage employment, which is NZ$15.25) are unable to afford a roof over their head. Garages with no toilet or cooking facilities are being advertised on Trade Me for NZ$500.
“Foreign investment in Auckland”
“Investment” is a misnomer. It is exploitation and manipulation that is happening, not investment. Similarly, the “Halo effect” is hardly a halo when it brings homelessness and misery to many.
The homeless need a rental… they need home owned by an “investor”, be it the state or a private individual. How many of the people living in cars or garages do you think could afford to buy a house even if the price was half that of current levels?
Excuse me, Scott, but under current conditions an “investor” is not even a ‘speculator’ (apparently a less desirable term).
Under current conditions, “Profit-Gouger” is the correct term. Please call them what they are – all of them. Until the current conditions are changed to reduce this ridiculous, unproductive profit-gouging in the property sector, our society and economy will continue to become more blighted than ever.
We need investors in the market. They are the ones that provide rental accommodation. Take the people living in cars. I doubt they would be in a position (in the near to medium term) to buy a house even if house prices halved. What they need is a rental. So 50% were bought by investors. So what. Why is that a bad thing, and if you think it a bad thing then what percentage would be alright… 45%, 40%, 10%? Why?
And then “a significant number of who are Chinese”. Leaving aside the implied racist undertone that a Chinese investor is worse than a Brit or a Canadian or whomever, that statement is simply not true. It is just made up.
In Auckland we know that about 4% are sold to foreign buyers, and about 2% to Chinese buyers in particular. That makes Chinese overseas resident investors about 4% of the total investors in the market (if it is that is half of all homes sold). Since when did 2% or 4% become “a significant number”?
On top of that, some of the Chinese investors will also be sellers. That is not accounted for by a reduction in the figures above. What we know is a kind of maximum, the figures as if no foreign investor ever sells. For all we know the net number of homes owned by overseas investors is actually dropping.
I took my stats from this article in the Herald (if there are more current ones I apologize but by the sound of it that does not substantively alter anything I said):
I hear what you’re saying about the tax status, but the problems with it cut both ways. In any event it is the best (only) measure we have at the moment. If the Guardian based their statement on anything else it is pure guesswork / speculation.
I’m not a fan of Winston, but I kinda like his call for a foreign buyers register. It may not solve the definitional issues you elude to, but it would at least be a start at accounting for those that leave the register as well as those that join it (getting us to a net figure).
Sure it alters what you said. You denied the alleged scale of Chinese investment using false statistics. It is not the ‘best’ measure we have, it isn’t a measure at all.
If you’re genuinely interested you can find a copy of the last Linz report by googling this;
Anyone reading it with an open mind should absorb the bit in the intro that says Linz estimate roughly half of property transfers involve a residential sale Despite this their statistics are for all property transfers and not the (estimated) half which are residential sales.
If you’re any good at maths you’d then realise the statistics are worthless for measuring anything except property transfers … you cannot extract any useful information on property sales from that data.
What then do you get your data from? [Chinese] sounding names?
The report you cite says in Auckland 5% of purchasers were foreign tax national and 3% were Chinese tax nationals. Not the 4% and 2% I had from the old stats.
And sure, that is not a complete picture, but neither is ignoring the sellers. That report says nationally 3% of vendors were foreign tax nationals, and 3% of purchasers were. The net change was zero (or negligible at least).
[Leave the racism out, Scott. Only warning. TRP]
Apologies TRP, it was not meant as racist but rather to mock the racism on those that tried to collect their “data” in such a way – I’ll be more careful.
You might want to ask yourself why you persists in talking about buyers & sellers Scott. The Linz report contains no statistics on property sales or property buyers & sellers. It is a record of property transfers.
Yesterday evening I challenged CV to come up with some solutions as he has tended to be very critical of everything at the moment.
His response.
Slash NZ herd sizes by 75%, reduce international air travel to ten 747 arrivals a week and ten 747 departures a week, add a $5/L levy to all liquid fuels and put all the funds into sustainable low carbon public transport and freight, pursue a policy of massively onshoring technological, engineering, scientific and manufacturing capabilities, double the size and reach of the NZDF and reorientate it for a relevant future.
Put the retail banks under clear central control and take back the authority for the government to issue funds that it requires.
Make moving to Auckland a highly restricted activity requiring a quota limited permit, and give 200,000 people clear ways to move out of that city.
Give every adult NZer a UBI of $60/week on top of whatever other income they currently have.
Enforce penalty rates for anything over 37.5 hours/week work, as well as any work on Sunday.
You guys want anything else? Just ask.
CV, I agree with almost everything you say. Controlling the banks is very important.
I am interested to know 2 more of your ideas:
1. how you plan to control multinational companies who, in many ways, are more powerful than nation states.
2. how you plan to create a more diverse media, less controlled by financial interests.
I like CV’s ideas too, and good idea to lay down that challenge to say what we want not just what we don’t want.
I also think we need to talk about *how these things could happen. Talking about ideas is important, but on its own it keeps us in a cull de sac. We need to look at how we get there from where we are now.
Well that’s also a very important point weka. And this answer might explain to you a bit of of my contemporary “anti-everything” attitude.
My first step to understanding “how these things could happen”, has been to stop pretending that any of the current political parties or any of their current political policies provides NZ with anything more than a C minus in terms of what the nation actually needs.
This harks back to MS’s question of me last night – which Parliamentary Party should the “collective left” support.
To me the answer is none of them, because all of one’s energy should be going into political activity which talks front and centre 24/7 about the actual answers we need, not into organisations and parties determined to keep presenting diluted watered down shadows of those answers.
My first step to understanding “how these things could happen”, has been to stop pretending that any of the current political parties or any of their current political policies provides NZ with anything more than a C minus in terms of what the nation actually needs.
You’re being generous. IMO, most of the policies of most political parties are still the absolute fail as all they’re doing is maintaining the same system that has failed badly throughout history.
To me the answer is none of them, because all of one’s energy should be going into political activity which talks front and centre 24/7 about the actual answers we need, not into organisations and parties determined to keep presenting diluted watered down shadows of those answers.
Yes it does. As you have noted for a long time, the status quo is now, to anyone willing to open their eyes, very clearly a very fast drive off a very short pier.
Coalesce around one issue – water. Everybody understands at a visceral level that we need water – good to drink, swim and fish-in water. No other political engagement necessary. Just take that issue and go for it, no holds barred until we get it. Take control of the media process, don’t be deflected by the “but,but what about roads, houses, fur-knuckled MPs …”, and make the story only about water.
Local body elections right now – demand to know what the candidates are going to do about it.
This is a huge opportunity to make big, bold capital-C Change.
1. Don’t allow multinational companies to operate here at all – comes in with the banning of offshore ownership really
2. A UBI @$400/week and a state publisher that will support anyone who wants to be a journalist by providing them with the needed resources to investigate and report on whatever they choose to
Slash NZ herd sizes by 75%, reduce international air travel to ten 747 arrivals a week and ten 747 departures a week…
Make moving to Auckland a highly restricted activity requiring a quota limited permit…
Leaving aside for a moment the question of what percentage of the party vote a party proposing to follow CV’s advice could expect to receive, any government that would be willing to grant itself the powers to issue decrees like the above is one that should be kept from power at all costs.
So, we just continue on with the present dictatorship of the corporations?
And a democracy is, by definition, not a dictatorship. And, yes, I think a majority of people would look to limiting tourists and immigration. The people in the communities are seeing the damage that they’re doing while the people in ‘government’ keep telling us it’s all good.
Depends on what Mana do between now and the election. There is a case to be made for building a movement over a long period of time so that eventually Mana has more influence. I have my doubts about this because of what happened at the last election, but I would love to see Harawira back in parliament. That’s a Maori voter issue though, Harawira getting back in.
In terms of the wider party vote, the issue is what % has to be gained to get past the gain of the electorate seat. If one votes for this election, rather than long term movement building, then there is a risk of lost votes. Likewise if Harawira doesn’t get TTT. Those are votes that could be better in Labour or the Greens in a tight election.
More extreme weather.
More reporting of that by the corporate media without the context of climate change.
What a sad little country we are becoming under Key.
I loved this description of Key I read in the Guardian.
“New Zealand is an increasingly dysfunctional and bizarre country, which seems to think it’s going to get rich building houses for immigrants. John Key, our PM, is an appalling man; a self-made multimillionaire from his arch skill at gambling with other people’s money in one of the most useless jobs invented by mankind, that of currency speculator, who treats his job as PM like the sort of insouciant hobby a man who needs nothing more in his life might take on as a pleasant interlude before retiring. He suffers from a pathological intellectual rigidity that straight-jackets his and his government’s actions; perish the thought that this man might stoop to intellectual enquiry and rational action.”
It is abundantly clear that John Key does not place the concerns of the citizens, or the future wellbeing of the country, as central to his neoliberal politics. He shamelessly pursues a neoliberal agenda, in service of the wealthy, that is even now crumbling upon its global overreach and reductionistic algorithms. He is, and has always exhibited, an envious eye to the powerful and would, it seems, ingratiate himself to them at the expense of the country he has been elected to serve. He imagines a new citizenry of the wealthy elites who can control economic realities and already exhibits distain for those upon whose backs he has ridden to power. Now in power, he is embarrassingly indifferent to the suffering his policies are creating and strikingly unaware that the model he has been sold, and is attempting to sell to New Zealand, is already considered obsolete by the world economic powers he embarrassingly,and so desperately, desires to be considered a member.
“He suffers from a pathological intellectual rigidity that straight-jackets his and his government’s actions”
Huh, I thought he steals Labour’s ideas, apparently not. Either that or the person that wrote this tosh suffers from a pathological intellectual rigidity that straight-jackets their ability to rationally critique John Key’s Prime Ministerial style?
[you are currently banned. See https://thestandard.org.nz/anti-corbyn-media-bias/#comment-1205982 I suggest when you return that you pick a consistent handle. Using multiple names is likely to get moderator attention, as is continuing to comment when you are banned – weka]
This reply might appear in the wrong place as the formatting of the Open Mike web page isn’t working for me at the moment.
1) Controlling foreign corporations: transnational corporations have access to some technologies, personnel, contacts, resources and abilities that can be highly useful. We set out to them (the Boards of Directors) very clearly what we want to achieve as a country, and seek strategic corporate partners who can help us reach those goals.
2) A more diverse media: a three pronged attack – on the quality front we leverage up TVNZ and RNZ in a big way. In a diversity front we create structures which support small scale independent media, publishing and blogging. On a corporate media regulatory front – we set clear regulatory standards for what can be called news, current affairs, etc.
Re: Mana. They can support some complementary positions but IMO they are not radical enough nor do they have a good/broad reach across the country.
Yesterday the standard wasn’t working for me from work, just got a blank white page. It happened again this morning, so I shift-F5’d the page and I got a certificate warning from Chrome. I selected to continue to the site.
So it seems like there might be an expired certificate of some sort?
I think that I had a cert that wasn’t fully trusted (trying Lets Encrypt). I replaced it with a multi-domain Comodo one last night. But it looks like that isn’t covering the SSL out to the CDN.
I’ve simply set the site to not use CDN on SSL for now. Higher load on the server…
Looks like some bits of js aren’t working for the comments. That is freaking odd.
I don’t care about the earthquakes, fracking-induced ones don’t get big and will mostly stop soon after the fracking stops. I care about the contaminated water and the greenhouse gas releases, which will cause problems for generations.
Lisa Marriott to Deliver 2016 Bruce Jesson Lecture
Monday 10th October, 6pm
All New Zealanders are Equal, but some are more equal than others
Due to limited seating, REGISTRATION IS ENCOURAGED
Why are those less advantaged in New Zealand society treated differently from those who are in relatively privileged positions? Why are white-collar tax evaders treated differently to welfare fraudsters? This talk will consider circumstances where this occurs, aiming to highlight and challenge issues of equity, privilege, and the construction of crime and criminals in New Zealand.
The presentation will cover:
Investigation, prosecution and sentencing of tax evaders and welfare fraudsters;
The sentencing of serious white-collar financial crime;
The individual treatment of taxpayers and the collective treatment of welfare recipients;
Different treatments of debtors to the Crown (taxpayers, welfare recipients and students);
The introduction of legislation that provides for more punitive treatment for partners of welfare fraudsters than the partners of those engaging in other financial offending; and,
The preferential treatment of the wealthy in the tax system
Monday 10th October, 6pm
Room G36, OGHLecTh, Old Government House (Building 401), University of Auckland
Dr Lisa Marriott is an Associate Professor of Taxation at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Accounting and Commercial Law. Lisa’s research interests include social justice and inequality, and the behavioural impacts of taxation.
Lisa has publications in a range of refereed journals and is the author of The Politics of Retirement Savings Taxation: A Trans-Tasman Perspective. Her work is interdisciplinary covering disciplines including sociology, political science and public policy. Lisa was awarded a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grant to investigate the different treatments of tax evasion and welfare fraud in the New Zealand justice system.
Lisa has worked in the private sector in the United Kingdom and in the public sector in New Zealand. For the past ten years, Lisa has worked in academia.
Due to limited seating, REGISTRATION IS ENCOURAGED
Trump didn’t just donate, he hosted a fundraiser for Bondi at Mar-A-Lago after she passed on investigating Trump U https://t.co/H25aFUAx1r— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) September 7, 2016
Looks like Trump tried to bribe NY AG, then accused him of soliciting a bribe while simultaneously bribing Pam Bondi https://t.co/T8RAWa9aB9— Laura (@SheWhoVotes) September 7, 2016
But if MPs were to live in fear of whatever some rich doofus might take offence at and decide to sue over, the House would be the only place an MP would ever open their mouths.
On the surface this is appealing, but in the long run it would get in the way of mps doing their damned job.
No, parliamentary privilege is so they can make explicit allegations and statements of fact in the House. You know, actual controversial shit, rather than requesting that public funds are disseminated in a demonstrably impartial and uncorrupt manner.
He said the timing stinks to high heaven, if I was Earl then I’d be suitably miffed at what Little said and want either proof or an apology because it sounds like Little is saying Earl bribed (or doing something dodgy) his way to a contract
So yeah that sounds like a pretty explicit allegation
The timing did fucking stink. Little was right to demand that the processes be examined to ensure it was nothing more than coincidence that a nat donor’s company gets a contract so soon after a large donation. That’s just stating the bleeding obvious.
An explicit allegation would have been a direct claim of quid pro quo contracts-for-donations arrangement. This claim was never made. What was made was a demand that public money be spent in a demonstrably clean manner.
Anything’s litigable. Whether hagaman gets a penny remains to be seen.
You’re not asking why he didn’t raise the issue in the House.
You’re asking why he dared raise the issue anywhere else.
Goff, shearer, Twyford and James Shaw all raised different aspects of the affair in the House.
It is difficult to imagine how Little could make a formal written request to the AG for them to investigate solely using the debates with the house.
Basically, the thrust of your argument seems to require that Little make noises in the House, but actually do nothing. ever. For fear that some jerk takes offence and sues.
Why?
If little wanted to defend a lawsuit, he’d have made an explicit allegation.
If Hagaman’s just throwing money at a lawsuit in the hope that it inconveniences or intimidates MPs, screw that guy. They’re our representatives, not his lackeys.
But that doesn’t mean that most people wouldn’t have a fair idea going into it what the result will be. Case law is public record, after all.
Funnily enough, one of the first things a lawyer told friends of mine when they were considering legal action was to writer out a budget of what they wanted vs what they were willing to spend. It that’s the opening advice for a minor retaining wall dispute, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hagaman received similar advice, and Little. So someone’s basically decided that they can afford the costs regardless of the poor likelihood of outcome.
Why would Little withdraw the comment? The deal was suspicious, did need investigating, and in fact was investigated, albeit not by someone with the authority to actually find any evidence of wrongdoing if it exists. We’re not allowed to state the obvious now, or something?
I’m saying if theres a mechanism where a minister can basically say what they like without repercussion then, unless they’re after some free publicity, why wouldn’t they choose to use it?
Because that would make it the only place that they could ever say anything.
No comments to media. No public speeches. No party conferences. Because who knows what someone with more money than self esteem would take offence at – if demanding the AG do their job is defamatory, everything’s defamatory.
lol
Yes, he was acting in his role as a public representative. I know that this might be a difficult concept for you to grasp.
But also he simply asked someone to do their job because he probably has a pretty damned good idea about what is likely to be successfully actionable and what is not. Whereas Hagaman has probably already decided how much he’s prepared to spend out of pure petulance, actual verdict be damned.
Ok when Little said the deal stunk to heaven he was inferring the Hagamans were corrupt because they were giving the government a donation in return for being awarded a contract
Ok when Little said the deal stunk to heaven he was inferring the Hagamans were corrupt because they were giving the government a donation in return for being awarded a contract
No, he was explicitly stating that the coincidence of the two events (donation and contract) was suspicious. His request to the AG was to allay that suspicion.
Suspicion is not a crime, or even defamatory. Otherwise every complaint to the police is defamatory.
Yeah. PR is talking poor quality horseshit, probably because he has a very poor understanding of what the actual law defamation requires. The decision is made on any distortion of facts, not on the damage to reputations – which is what PR in his ignorance clearly expects.
But the facts appear to incontrovertible, so there was no reason for Andrew Little to make them in the house.
The implication by the Hagaman that thsoe facts taken together may have damaged their reputation is completely irrelevant in defamation except at the last stage AFTER a judgement is made. What their lawyers have to show is that Little invented or distorted facts.
However Andrew Little didn’t as far as I can see because he merely stated facts about a political donation and a government contract that were already on the public record. That those facts taken together throw a lot of questions about the morality and use of political donations to tap government funds with this government is rather incidental.
However as far as I can tell Andrew Little only pointed to those facts and asked if there was a cause for public concern. Perfectly legitimate at every level in the circumstances. The Hagamans (and McCully) answered, but hardly (in my view) in any kind of adequate manner because they didn’t dispute either of Little’s two facts.
Basically, if you want to make political donations and don’t want questions about what expectations you or the political party may have of the result of that donation, then it needs to be damn clear that there aren’t any personal expectations. That was in this case, that simply was not clear.
Unless there is something that I don’t know about it, I think that the Hagamans are simply doing some rather stupid legal grandstanding
Tell you what, if Little apologizes (which is him basically admitting he screwed up) and/or this goes to court and Little is found guilty (however you want to legally put it) you apologize to me
If the opposite happens and Little is found not guilty (again however the courts decide) I’ll donate $5 to the Labour party (or apologize to whoever)
Authority without sufficient power to gather evidence finds no evidence of wrongdoing. Fair enough.
As for “saying stuff like this without getting sued”, it seemed pretty reasonable to me. He didn’t make an allegation, he wanted demonstrable evidence that the job of sorting the contract had been done correctly. By Hagaman’s logic, all auditors are defaming the people they audit, simply by doing their job.
Unless every meeting between a national party member and the hagamans was being recorded it would be impossible to find evidence of A Nod And A Wink, which is the standard way of arranging dodgy deals.
Like Commissions of Enquiry with Terms of Reference which are narrow and useless, it seems the AG is also limited in what she can deliver without sufficient access to information – our watchdogs are being fenced and muzzled methinks.
You see what it is really is Earlie’s the sorta bloke who likes to dole out money to pollies and he’s the sorta bloke who governments like to chuck money at. Just one of those things.
Well, with all the worrying situations above its lovely to see “the ghastly political Right fight in public and extra satisfying to have Craig and the awful Rankin fighting in public . Its better than a Tom Sharp novel. I wonder what the next revelation will be.
Williams was dealt to today. He’s such a phony. You can tell from his turns of phrase. Always thought that. Used to show when he was on Jim Mora’s show. No different now.
David Bennett seems incapable of distinguishing between peaceful acts of protest in a free society and acts of terrorism. So anyone protesting the visit of a warship, a la 1980s protests, will soon be charged with terrorism?
Yes the distinction will need to be defined in law, which requires some brain work but to ignore the distinction is an act of laziness and/or blind conservative toadyism.
“Every week Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert look at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines.
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss the mega week in the news: from Apple’s mega tax bill to Trump’s ‘yuuuge’ visit to Mexico. They also discuss Mark Carney’s warning about “dishonest bankers” and their “misconduct” threatening another mega disaster in the financial markets.
In the second half, Max interviews MegaUpload.com founder, Kim Dotcom (@kimdotcom) and his lawyer, Ira Rothken (@rothken), about MegaUpload 2.0 and Bitcache. They also discuss his ongoing trial against the might of the Hollywood copyright industry and the US government.”
I inadvertently saw bits of Hosking and co. tonight. Some ‘prank’ about one of them having birthday. Honestly ..Do they think we are interested in their celebrity birthdays or their silly in house kiddie games? It’s so shallow and trivia driven.I want news stuff or intelligent comment about real issues..
Personally I don’t give a toss about their self obsessed pretensions except it annoys me is that I’m paying for it. And is he still wearing those whatever splattered pants?
I’m starting to sound Morrisyish. Grrr ..go read a book.
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Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
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Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
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Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
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On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
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Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
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The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
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Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
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Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
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Two things from yesterday I thought I would repost as they appeared at the end of the evening thread and are worthy of a wider audience.
Another Guardian article looking at the sorry state of New Zealand’s housing.
Excerpts.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/07/why-auckland-is-leading-the-worlds-housing-market-boom
“Foreign investment in Auckland”
“Investment” is a misnomer. It is exploitation and manipulation that is happening, not investment. Similarly, the “Halo effect” is hardly a halo when it brings homelessness and misery to many.
The homeless need a rental… they need home owned by an “investor”, be it the state or a private individual. How many of the people living in cars or garages do you think could afford to buy a house even if the price was half that of current levels?
Excuse me, Scott, but under current conditions an “investor” is not even a ‘speculator’ (apparently a less desirable term).
Under current conditions, “Profit-Gouger” is the correct term. Please call them what they are – all of them. Until the current conditions are changed to reduce this ridiculous, unproductive profit-gouging in the property sector, our society and economy will continue to become more blighted than ever.
The Guardian need to do their homework.
We need investors in the market. They are the ones that provide rental accommodation. Take the people living in cars. I doubt they would be in a position (in the near to medium term) to buy a house even if house prices halved. What they need is a rental. So 50% were bought by investors. So what. Why is that a bad thing, and if you think it a bad thing then what percentage would be alright… 45%, 40%, 10%? Why?
And then “a significant number of who are Chinese”. Leaving aside the implied racist undertone that a Chinese investor is worse than a Brit or a Canadian or whomever, that statement is simply not true. It is just made up.
In Auckland we know that about 4% are sold to foreign buyers, and about 2% to Chinese buyers in particular. That makes Chinese overseas resident investors about 4% of the total investors in the market (if it is that is half of all homes sold). Since when did 2% or 4% become “a significant number”?
On top of that, some of the Chinese investors will also be sellers. That is not accounted for by a reduction in the figures above. What we know is a kind of maximum, the figures as if no foreign investor ever sells. For all we know the net number of homes owned by overseas investors is actually dropping.
Seems you need to do some homework too Scott….
“In Auckland we know that about 4% are sold to foreign buyers,”
That is false. The correct statement is that about 5% of Auckland property transfers were to foreign tax residents in the period April-June 2016 .
A property transfer is not synonymous with a property sale and a foreign tax resident is not the only type of foreign buyer.
I took my stats from this article in the Herald (if there are more current ones I apologize but by the sound of it that does not substantively alter anything I said):
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11636711
I hear what you’re saying about the tax status, but the problems with it cut both ways. In any event it is the best (only) measure we have at the moment. If the Guardian based their statement on anything else it is pure guesswork / speculation.
I’m not a fan of Winston, but I kinda like his call for a foreign buyers register. It may not solve the definitional issues you elude to, but it would at least be a start at accounting for those that leave the register as well as those that join it (getting us to a net figure).
Sure it alters what you said. You denied the alleged scale of Chinese investment using false statistics. It is not the ‘best’ measure we have, it isn’t a measure at all.
If you’re genuinely interested you can find a copy of the last Linz report by googling this;
prs_property-transfers-tax-residency_report_2016_apr-jun.pdf
Anyone reading it with an open mind should absorb the bit in the intro that says Linz estimate roughly half of property transfers involve a residential sale Despite this their statistics are for all property transfers and not the (estimated) half which are residential sales.
If you’re any good at maths you’d then realise the statistics are worthless for measuring anything except property transfers … you cannot extract any useful information on property sales from that data.
What then do you get your data from? [Chinese] sounding names?
The report you cite says in Auckland 5% of purchasers were foreign tax national and 3% were Chinese tax nationals. Not the 4% and 2% I had from the old stats.
And sure, that is not a complete picture, but neither is ignoring the sellers. That report says nationally 3% of vendors were foreign tax nationals, and 3% of purchasers were. The net change was zero (or negligible at least).
[Leave the racism out, Scott. Only warning. TRP]
Apologies TRP, it was not meant as racist but rather to mock the racism on those that tried to collect their “data” in such a way – I’ll be more careful.
You might want to ask yourself why you persists in talking about buyers & sellers Scott. The Linz report contains no statistics on property sales or property buyers & sellers. It is a record of property transfers.
The second thing.
Solutions to neo-liberalism.
Yesterday evening I challenged CV to come up with some solutions as he has tended to be very critical of everything at the moment.
His response.
CV, I agree with almost everything you say. Controlling the banks is very important.
I am interested to know 2 more of your ideas:
1. how you plan to control multinational companies who, in many ways, are more powerful than nation states.
2. how you plan to create a more diverse media, less controlled by financial interests.
Thanks CV.
I like CV’s ideas too, and good idea to lay down that challenge to say what we want not just what we don’t want.
I also think we need to talk about *how these things could happen. Talking about ideas is important, but on its own it keeps us in a cull de sac. We need to look at how we get there from where we are now.
Well that’s also a very important point weka. And this answer might explain to you a bit of of my contemporary “anti-everything” attitude.
My first step to understanding “how these things could happen”, has been to stop pretending that any of the current political parties or any of their current political policies provides NZ with anything more than a C minus in terms of what the nation actually needs.
This harks back to MS’s question of me last night – which Parliamentary Party should the “collective left” support.
To me the answer is none of them, because all of one’s energy should be going into political activity which talks front and centre 24/7 about the actual answers we need, not into organisations and parties determined to keep presenting diluted watered down shadows of those answers.
You’re being generous. IMO, most of the policies of most political parties are still the absolute fail as all they’re doing is maintaining the same system that has failed badly throughout history.
Which means getting rid of the status quo.
Yes it does. As you have noted for a long time, the status quo is now, to anyone willing to open their eyes, very clearly a very fast drive off a very short pier.
Coalesce around one issue – water. Everybody understands at a visceral level that we need water – good to drink, swim and fish-in water. No other political engagement necessary. Just take that issue and go for it, no holds barred until we get it. Take control of the media process, don’t be deflected by the “but,but what about roads, houses, fur-knuckled MPs …”, and make the story only about water.
Local body elections right now – demand to know what the candidates are going to do about it.
This is a huge opportunity to make big, bold capital-C Change.
water is a good one. A critical part of maintaining a habitat and an ecosystem which can support healthy life.
1. Don’t allow multinational companies to operate here at all – comes in with the banning of offshore ownership really
2. A UBI @$400/week and a state publisher that will support anyone who wants to be a journalist by providing them with the needed resources to investigate and report on whatever they choose to
Slash NZ herd sizes by 75%, reduce international air travel to ten 747 arrivals a week and ten 747 departures a week…
Make moving to Auckland a highly restricted activity requiring a quota limited permit…
Leaving aside for a moment the question of what percentage of the party vote a party proposing to follow CV’s advice could expect to receive, any government that would be willing to grant itself the powers to issue decrees like the above is one that should be kept from power at all costs.
Sometimes people need to do what needs to be done rather than wringing their hands declaiming that nothing can be done.
Just needs a good old dictatorship of the proletariat for a bit, huh? No thanks.
So, we just continue on with the present dictatorship of the corporations?
And a democracy is, by definition, not a dictatorship. And, yes, I think a majority of people would look to limiting tourists and immigration. The people in the communities are seeing the damage that they’re doing while the people in ‘government’ keep telling us it’s all good.
And a final question…..
Would Mana be a suitable party to vote for to get at least some of these outcomes?
Depends on what Mana do between now and the election. There is a case to be made for building a movement over a long period of time so that eventually Mana has more influence. I have my doubts about this because of what happened at the last election, but I would love to see Harawira back in parliament. That’s a Maori voter issue though, Harawira getting back in.
In terms of the wider party vote, the issue is what % has to be gained to get past the gain of the electorate seat. If one votes for this election, rather than long term movement building, then there is a risk of lost votes. Likewise if Harawira doesn’t get TTT. Those are votes that could be better in Labour or the Greens in a tight election.
More extreme weather.
More reporting of that by the corporate media without the context of climate change.
What a sad little country we are becoming under Key.
I loved this description of Key I read in the Guardian.
“New Zealand is an increasingly dysfunctional and bizarre country, which seems to think it’s going to get rich building houses for immigrants. John Key, our PM, is an appalling man; a self-made multimillionaire from his arch skill at gambling with other people’s money in one of the most useless jobs invented by mankind, that of currency speculator, who treats his job as PM like the sort of insouciant hobby a man who needs nothing more in his life might take on as a pleasant interlude before retiring. He suffers from a pathological intellectual rigidity that straight-jackets his and his government’s actions; perish the thought that this man might stoop to intellectual enquiry and rational action.”
Congratulations Paul. The Guardian published the letter you wrote to them did it?
Now you can quote it.
Typical RWNJ – doesn’t like the message and so attacks the messenger.
But I congratulated him? Is that classed as an attack these days?
No, you attacked him using irony and sarcasm.
It was clearly a backhanded congratulation.
Here is another one that was also pretty succinct and on the money: from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/06/new-zealand-needs-migrants-as-some-kiwis-are-lazy-and-on-drugs-says-pm under the name spike91nz:
It is abundantly clear that John Key does not place the concerns of the citizens, or the future wellbeing of the country, as central to his neoliberal politics. He shamelessly pursues a neoliberal agenda, in service of the wealthy, that is even now crumbling upon its global overreach and reductionistic algorithms. He is, and has always exhibited, an envious eye to the powerful and would, it seems, ingratiate himself to them at the expense of the country he has been elected to serve. He imagines a new citizenry of the wealthy elites who can control economic realities and already exhibits distain for those upon whose backs he has ridden to power. Now in power, he is embarrassingly indifferent to the suffering his policies are creating and strikingly unaware that the model he has been sold, and is attempting to sell to New Zealand, is already considered obsolete by the world economic powers he embarrassingly,and so desperately, desires to be considered a member.
My favourite is short but sweet:
“Key is a fuckwit of the highest order, but nowhere near as dense as his cabinet.”
“He suffers from a pathological intellectual rigidity that straight-jackets his and his government’s actions”
Huh, I thought he steals Labour’s ideas, apparently not. Either that or the person that wrote this tosh suffers from a pathological intellectual rigidity that straight-jackets their ability to rationally critique John Key’s Prime Ministerial style?
The description of the outgoing PM that you found is brilliant Paul ty for sharing 😀
the standard is coming through in a very strange format this morning , no boarders and no side bars at all .
Indeed. I fear the css have gone walkabouts.
[you are currently banned. See https://thestandard.org.nz/anti-corbyn-media-bias/#comment-1205982 I suggest when you return that you pick a consistent handle. Using multiple names is likely to get moderator attention, as is continuing to comment when you are banned – weka]
Good morning folks,
If that telco Telcom offers you lightbox with your plan,needn’t bother, if you run on linux.
DIM SPARK. DIM SPARK DIM SPARK
Just a heads up.
No idea what that means but lol DIM SPARK.
Ta weka
edit : ar, were back in format, thanks whoever. 🙂
I’ve always thought looking at their logo that their graphic designer is a fan of Kurt Vonnegut and the CEO has never heard of him.
Yep b waghorn but still readable on my Mac.
Hi Paul,
This reply might appear in the wrong place as the formatting of the Open Mike web page isn’t working for me at the moment.
1) Controlling foreign corporations: transnational corporations have access to some technologies, personnel, contacts, resources and abilities that can be highly useful. We set out to them (the Boards of Directors) very clearly what we want to achieve as a country, and seek strategic corporate partners who can help us reach those goals.
2) A more diverse media: a three pronged attack – on the quality front we leverage up TVNZ and RNZ in a big way. In a diversity front we create structures which support small scale independent media, publishing and blogging. On a corporate media regulatory front – we set clear regulatory standards for what can be called news, current affairs, etc.
Re: Mana. They can support some complementary positions but IMO they are not radical enough nor do they have a good/broad reach across the country.
1. Not really. Or, to be more precise, they’re only useful in the present failed system. Maintaining the present failed system isn’t viable.
So who to vote for?
I’ll vote for somebody probably on the day, but I ain’t supporting any of them coz they ain’t worth it.
Fair call.
I am in agreement with you about a lot.
Root and branch reform needed.
Well that was odd. It looks like there was a problem at AWS cloudfront ??
Anyway, I turned off the CDN, forced some cache reloads and now we appear to have a good front-end again
Just checking that the $25(ish) bill was paid…. They should have been. It is automatic
Yesterday the standard wasn’t working for me from work, just got a blank white page. It happened again this morning, so I shift-F5’d the page and I got a certificate warning from Chrome. I selected to continue to the site.
So it seems like there might be an expired certificate of some sort?
I think that I had a cert that wasn’t fully trusted (trying Lets Encrypt). I replaced it with a multi-domain Comodo one last night. But it looks like that isn’t covering the SSL out to the CDN.
I’ve simply set the site to not use CDN on SSL for now. Higher load on the server…
Looks like some bits of js aren’t working for the comments. That is freaking odd.
Ok, that was just a page cache needed another clear
Yep. $31.87 on the 3rd September.
Ok, I’d class that as just outright weird
Jeremy Corbyn commits to banning fracking.
We, in earthquake- prone Aotearoa, where uncontaminated water is becoming increasingly hard to find, need to do the same: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/07/jeremy-corbyn-pledges-fracking-ban-energy-co-ops-green-labour-agenda
+1 – Fracking and earthquakes go together.
I don’t care about the earthquakes, fracking-induced ones don’t get big and will mostly stop soon after the fracking stops. I care about the contaminated water and the greenhouse gas releases, which will cause problems for generations.
Damage to houses from daily fracking quakes.
Lisa Marriott to Deliver 2016 Bruce Jesson Lecture
Monday 10th October, 6pm
All New Zealanders are Equal, but some are more equal than others
Due to limited seating, REGISTRATION IS ENCOURAGED
Why are those less advantaged in New Zealand society treated differently from those who are in relatively privileged positions? Why are white-collar tax evaders treated differently to welfare fraudsters? This talk will consider circumstances where this occurs, aiming to highlight and challenge issues of equity, privilege, and the construction of crime and criminals in New Zealand.
The presentation will cover:
Investigation, prosecution and sentencing of tax evaders and welfare fraudsters;
The sentencing of serious white-collar financial crime;
The individual treatment of taxpayers and the collective treatment of welfare recipients;
Different treatments of debtors to the Crown (taxpayers, welfare recipients and students);
The introduction of legislation that provides for more punitive treatment for partners of welfare fraudsters than the partners of those engaging in other financial offending; and,
The preferential treatment of the wealthy in the tax system
Monday 10th October, 6pm
Room G36, OGHLecTh, Old Government House (Building 401), University of Auckland
Dr Lisa Marriott is an Associate Professor of Taxation at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Accounting and Commercial Law. Lisa’s research interests include social justice and inequality, and the behavioural impacts of taxation.
Lisa has publications in a range of refereed journals and is the author of The Politics of Retirement Savings Taxation: A Trans-Tasman Perspective. Her work is interdisciplinary covering disciplines including sociology, political science and public policy. Lisa was awarded a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grant to investigate the different treatments of tax evasion and welfare fraud in the New Zealand justice system.
Lisa has worked in the private sector in the United Kingdom and in the public sector in New Zealand. For the past ten years, Lisa has worked in academia.
Due to limited seating, REGISTRATION IS ENCOURAGED
+100 …good to see you back Greywarshark!…
drip drip drip…..
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-regulator-says-ordered-drop-fraud-investigation-trump-university-over-politics
Clinton now just 3.1% ahead of Trump in RCP’s poll of polls.
And only 2.1% ahead of Trump in a four way matchup with the Libertarian and Green candidates.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html
@CV…yup pretty close…I think he will pull it off…she is so unpopular
‘Poll: Nine weeks out, a near even race’ (September 7, 2016)
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/06/_politics-zone-injection/trump-vs-clinton-presidential-polls-election-2016/
…and latest CNN poll a dead heat..even pulling ahead
And there is still a massive amount of information about Clinton’s bad judgement as Sec State still to come out.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/84016795/ag-clears-contract-at-centre-of-political-donations-row
Whether he is right or wrong (hes wrong) why didn’t use the protection that was enabled for mps to say stuff like this without getting sued?
because he didnt say any thing that was illegal.
Seems a pretty interesting way to determine that when he could have said it in parliament instead and not have to bother with all this
But if MPs were to live in fear of whatever some rich doofus might take offence at and decide to sue over, the House would be the only place an MP would ever open their mouths.
On the surface this is appealing, but in the long run it would get in the way of mps doing their damned job.
Well no, I thought the reason mps had the protection of the house was so they could say stuff like this and not have to worry about it
Are you saying that if they say it in the house its not as important or as valid as saying it outside of the house?
No, parliamentary privilege is so they can make explicit allegations and statements of fact in the House. You know, actual controversial shit, rather than requesting that public funds are disseminated in a demonstrably impartial and uncorrupt manner.
He said the timing stinks to high heaven, if I was Earl then I’d be suitably miffed at what Little said and want either proof or an apology because it sounds like Little is saying Earl bribed (or doing something dodgy) his way to a contract
So yeah that sounds like a pretty explicit allegation
lol no it’s not.
The timing did fucking stink. Little was right to demand that the processes be examined to ensure it was nothing more than coincidence that a nat donor’s company gets a contract so soon after a large donation. That’s just stating the bleeding obvious.
An explicit allegation would have been a direct claim of quid pro quo contracts-for-donations arrangement. This claim was never made. What was made was a demand that public money be spent in a demonstrably clean manner.
Anything’s litigable. Whether hagaman gets a penny remains to be seen.
The mechanism is there for Little to say this without getting sued, why not use it?
You’re not asking why he didn’t raise the issue in the House.
You’re asking why he dared raise the issue anywhere else.
Goff, shearer, Twyford and James Shaw all raised different aspects of the affair in the House.
It is difficult to imagine how Little could make a formal written request to the AG for them to investigate solely using the debates with the house.
Basically, the thrust of your argument seems to require that Little make noises in the House, but actually do nothing. ever. For fear that some jerk takes offence and sues.
Hey if he wants to spend his money on lawsuits then good on him
Why?
If little wanted to defend a lawsuit, he’d have made an explicit allegation.
If Hagaman’s just throwing money at a lawsuit in the hope that it inconveniences or intimidates MPs, screw that guy. They’re our representatives, not his lackeys.
So who decides if what someone says is defamatory then?
The courts have the final say.
But that doesn’t mean that most people wouldn’t have a fair idea going into it what the result will be. Case law is public record, after all.
Funnily enough, one of the first things a lawyer told friends of mine when they were considering legal action was to writer out a budget of what they wanted vs what they were willing to spend. It that’s the opening advice for a minor retaining wall dispute, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hagaman received similar advice, and Little. So someone’s basically decided that they can afford the costs regardless of the poor likelihood of outcome.
the only thing that wasnt determined was how vindictive and petty someone who wasnt even criticised would be
and frankly – if thats the bar then we should all cease saying anything, ever
You might think its not a big deal but Earl obviously didn’t like being smeared and so take what he considered appropriate actions
He gave Little ample time to withdraw the comment but Little chose to get some publicity
Why would Little withdraw the comment? The deal was suspicious, did need investigating, and in fact was investigated, albeit not by someone with the authority to actually find any evidence of wrongdoing if it exists. We’re not allowed to state the obvious now, or something?
I’m saying if theres a mechanism where a minister can basically say what they like without repercussion then, unless they’re after some free publicity, why wouldn’t they choose to use it?
Because that would make it the only place that they could ever say anything.
No comments to media. No public speeches. No party conferences. Because who knows what someone with more money than self esteem would take offence at – if demanding the AG do their job is defamatory, everything’s defamatory.
So Little was doing this for everyone and not just trying to garner some free publicity?
lol
Yes, he was acting in his role as a public representative. I know that this might be a difficult concept for you to grasp.
But also he simply asked someone to do their job because he probably has a pretty damned good idea about what is likely to be successfully actionable and what is not. Whereas Hagaman has probably already decided how much he’s prepared to spend out of pure petulance, actual verdict be damned.
The only person in parliament prepared to get things done, everyone else hides behind parliamentary privilege
What a guy
nah.
He didn’t say anything much more extreme than what any other politician has said outside the House. Winston being a prime example.
Little was just unlucky enough to piss off a rich dude with money to burn. Occupational hazard.
how was earl smeared? – only by association as far as i can see
IMO you have to stretch what little said to quite a degree to get to the conclusion that he was talking about the hagmans actions and not the govts.
im not saying its not a big deal – im saying that the case against little is nothing more than spite and an attempt at attrition via legal threat
In your opinion you see it that way but in Earls opinion he obviously saw it differently and I don’t blame him for that either
what exactly did little say that defamed the hagmans?
I suppose if we’re going to go down that road then Little has said nothing that defames them until a judge decides otherwise
thats some mighty back pedaling mate.
cmon – seriously? – you’re going to spend all these comments basically saying the hagmans are right, then bow out now?
Ok when Little said the deal stunk to heaven he was inferring the Hagamans were corrupt because they were giving the government a donation in return for being awarded a contract
No, he was explicitly stating that the coincidence of the two events (donation and contract) was suspicious. His request to the AG was to allay that suspicion.
Suspicion is not a crime, or even defamatory. Otherwise every complaint to the police is defamatory.
Yeah. PR is talking poor quality horseshit, probably because he has a very poor understanding of what the actual law defamation requires. The decision is made on any distortion of facts, not on the damage to reputations – which is what PR in his ignorance clearly expects.
But the facts appear to incontrovertible, so there was no reason for Andrew Little to make them in the house.
The implication by the Hagaman that thsoe facts taken together may have damaged their reputation is completely irrelevant in defamation except at the last stage AFTER a judgement is made. What their lawyers have to show is that Little invented or distorted facts.
However Andrew Little didn’t as far as I can see because he merely stated facts about a political donation and a government contract that were already on the public record. That those facts taken together throw a lot of questions about the morality and use of political donations to tap government funds with this government is rather incidental.
However as far as I can tell Andrew Little only pointed to those facts and asked if there was a cause for public concern. Perfectly legitimate at every level in the circumstances. The Hagamans (and McCully) answered, but hardly (in my view) in any kind of adequate manner because they didn’t dispute either of Little’s two facts.
Basically, if you want to make political donations and don’t want questions about what expectations you or the political party may have of the result of that donation, then it needs to be damn clear that there aren’t any personal expectations. That was in this case, that simply was not clear.
Unless there is something that I don’t know about it, I think that the Hagamans are simply doing some rather stupid legal grandstanding
Tell you what, if Little apologizes (which is him basically admitting he screwed up) and/or this goes to court and Little is found guilty (however you want to legally put it) you apologize to me
If the opposite happens and Little is found not guilty (again however the courts decide) I’ll donate $5 to the Labour party (or apologize to whoever)
Sound good?
“what exactly did little say that defamed the hagamans?”
He said they were chummy with National. That’s a serious insult these days.
lol
Authority without sufficient power to gather evidence finds no evidence of wrongdoing. Fair enough.
As for “saying stuff like this without getting sued”, it seemed pretty reasonable to me. He didn’t make an allegation, he wanted demonstrable evidence that the job of sorting the contract had been done correctly. By Hagaman’s logic, all auditors are defaming the people they audit, simply by doing their job.
Unless every meeting between a national party member and the hagamans was being recorded it would be impossible to find evidence of A Nod And A Wink, which is the standard way of arranging dodgy deals.
Which you’d expect a lawyer like Little is to know that and so should have said it in the house
Little obviously wanted some media attention over this and hes got it, not sure its the type of attention he wanted though
Like Commissions of Enquiry with Terms of Reference which are narrow and useless, it seems the AG is also limited in what she can deliver without sufficient access to information – our watchdogs are being fenced and muzzled methinks.
So why not just say it in the house where you have protection?
Coz he has balls.
and a big johnson if that carpet is anything to go by
well in that case hopefully he also has big pockets because hes going to need them
I am sure he appreciates your everlasting & sincere concern, really.
I’m sure he does as well
You see what it is really is Earlie’s the sorta bloke who likes to dole out money to pollies and he’s the sorta bloke who governments like to chuck money at. Just one of those things.
Well, with all the worrying situations above its lovely to see “the ghastly political Right fight in public and extra satisfying to have Craig and the awful Rankin fighting in public . Its better than a Tom Sharp novel. I wonder what the next revelation will be.
It is great fun for all…except for the kids of course
Williams was dealt to today. He’s such a phony. You can tell from his turns of phrase. Always thought that. Used to show when he was on Jim Mora’s show. No different now.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/84027390/juror-discharged-in-colin-craig-high-court-defamation-trial
So the “independent” inquiry into the Chiefs scandal never interviewed the victim, while the “independent” witnesses were at the same bar earlier they may not have even been present where the incident took place 🙄
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201815292/nz-rugby's-tew-stands-by-independence-of-chiefs-probe
What exactly was the inquiry supposed to do?
considering they used their inhouse lawyer i reckon the purpose is pretty clear
Yep, pre-determined whitewash.
I’m still not sure what they were trying to achieve and then, based on the outcome, what they were going to do
I thought the ‘pre-determined whitewash’ was pretty clear. Their purpose was to clear the players of any wrong doing no matter the facts.
I mean was any player going to get fined or fired or was it a prelude to the police being brought in?
I don’t know but it was definitely a conspiracy
Also well done to Lynn for fixing whatever needed to be fixed
Good to see the first scum bag politician has put their hands up these elections.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/84035442/nelson-retailers-plan-to-solve-longstanding-stanton-problem
Honesty from our media, was it a mistake or are they finally admitting this is where news is at.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/83995524/new-breakfast-host-hilary-barry-speaks-out-in-first-interview-since-tv3-resignation
David Bennett seems incapable of distinguishing between peaceful acts of protest in a free society and acts of terrorism. So anyone protesting the visit of a warship, a la 1980s protests, will soon be charged with terrorism?
Yes the distinction will need to be defined in law, which requires some brain work but to ignore the distinction is an act of laziness and/or blind conservative toadyism.
+100…obviously David Bennett is a numpty w..ker who requires “brain work ” and is a “blind conservative toady”
…lets hope he goes out next Election
The Empire vs Kim Dotcom ( entrepreneurs and govt law)
First Amendment violated. Shining a light on government abuse
Episode 962
https://www.rt.com/shows/keiser-report/358125-episode-max-keiser-962/
“Every week Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert look at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines.
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss the mega week in the news: from Apple’s mega tax bill to Trump’s ‘yuuuge’ visit to Mexico. They also discuss Mark Carney’s warning about “dishonest bankers” and their “misconduct” threatening another mega disaster in the financial markets.
In the second half, Max interviews MegaUpload.com founder, Kim Dotcom (@kimdotcom) and his lawyer, Ira Rothken (@rothken), about MegaUpload 2.0 and Bitcache. They also discuss his ongoing trial against the might of the Hollywood copyright industry and the US government.”
I inadvertently saw bits of Hosking and co. tonight. Some ‘prank’ about one of them having birthday. Honestly ..Do they think we are interested in their celebrity birthdays or their silly in house kiddie games? It’s so shallow and trivia driven.I want news stuff or intelligent comment about real issues..
Personally I don’t give a toss about their self obsessed pretensions except it annoys me is that I’m paying for it. And is he still wearing those whatever splattered pants?
I’m starting to sound Morrisyish. Grrr ..go read a book.
Project to help get more funding for RNZ National by going to change.org.
https://www.change.org/p/hon-amy-adams-minister-of-broadcasting-increase-funding-for-radio-new-zealand-in-this-year-s-budget/u/17793332?tk=qcZT8qTBAuoQMPVeL4UyuYKPNVQrqRuSC4wLahqOsOc&utm_source=petition_update&utm_medium=email
Learn to ssl