Can someone put some pressure on WINZ to get people who have lost their job their benefit?
I have a friend who has been made redundant and with Christmas coming up, a mortgage to pay, kids and family to look after it becomes increasingly clear that some major distress is happening. WINZ has not responded after my friend was on the phone for almost 8 hours over a period since last week. Has been promised that a case worker will call within 48 hours. Yeah right! Of cause not.
Merry Christmas looks like the worst for especially those made redundant. Talk about insult to injury. My distain for this agency is right now without bounds.
Maybe it needs to be privatised or some other plan put in place because it clearly is not working if there is such lack of response.
I would like to know whether any prospective beneficiaries have gone into depression and worst still, could not see a way out of it due to lack of financial help.
Hah! Don't hold your breath Sunshine because it would appear this Current Mob have little to no intention of any meaningful repair of our Social Safety Net.
…the truly depressing bit starts around 27 minutes.
I always harboured doubts that it was entirely Winston applying the handbrake on enacting the reforms considered urgent by the WEAG…and to hear Our Leader opening her press conference with her calendar with much emphasis on her meetings with "business"…it's abandon ye all hope time.
Jacinda Ardern and her spokesperson for Winz Carmel Sepuloni were clear about what beneficiaries could expect should they get in again. Nothing. A wet handshake, a meaningless course in CV writing, a stern lecture about the vlaue of work and other then that nothing.
Under utilisation rate for women in NZ currently sits at almost 20% (per gov. ), not a word about that, 5.9 % unemployment is average, regional it looks much much worse, unemployed who have partners with jobs will be refused any help cause……partner, and so on and so forth.
Winz has been understaffed before Covid, and now its severely understaffed, but nothing is done. Reform to Winz will only come with a government that actually wants to reform, and the Labour is not the party that will reform anything.
My heart sank when sepuloni was again given that portfolio …(as it did when she first got it..)….and arderns' promise yesterday to do s.f.a. about what she said previously/time and time again ..was a top priority priority for her…poverty.. just has that heart sinking more and more…my son just noted that he thinks ardern will do/is doing an obama…acclaimed internationally…and doing s.f.a. domestically to earn any acclaim…she/labour are neoliberal incrementalists..’moderates’.she/they haven't changed those stripes/spots at all…and any optimism I may have had since the election re ardern/labour actually doing something meaningful..is well and truly down the crapper..and of course another question to ask is: is marama able to comment on this promise from ardern to do nothing with any sense of urgency about poverty..?..or is she muzzled by the deal the greens have with labour….?..and any labour loyalists here willing to defend arderns' promise to do s.f.a…?…
My heart sank when she got the ACC portfolio. The government will probably stall decisions to do with the Royal Commission of Inquiry. The ACC system is inadequate when it comes to anomalies related to historical sexual assault in or out of state care.
The problem reminds me of a bumper sticker that was put onto cars in the United States late in 1965.
This was after Lyndon Johnson, who claimed he didn't want a larger war in Vietnam, had run, and won, against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election. Johnson had labelled Barry as being someone who wanted to increase the US troops in Vietnam whereas he, Lyndon wasn't planning to do so. At the time of the 1964 election there were US advisers but no ground troops involved directly.
Anyway the sticker read, and was quite accurate in its words, something like "They said if I voted for Goldwater there would be 200,000 US troops on Vietnam by the end of 1965. Well I did and there are".
Perhaps you should prepare a sticker that says something like "They said if I voted for ACT all benefits would be frozen for the next 3 years. Well I did and they have been".
Alwyn your claim and Barry Goldwaters LBJ's of no US ground troops in Vietnam pre 1964 is untrue officially it may have been true.
The US and even NZ had part of its Malaysian deployment on the ground in Vietnam the 1950s.NZ has always worked closely with the US even when it appears our politicians deny it.
Nothing can now be substantiated, but from what I have gathered from history and Establishment lies, I suspect you are telling the truth.
But that is because I sympathise. Alwyn will know only what suits him.
The US and even NZ had part of its Malaysian deployment on the ground in Vietnam the 1950s.
AFAIK the US never participated in the Malaysian crisis. It was a UK/Commonwealth military operation with NZ troops withdrawing from Malaya in 1960, returning along side other Commonwealth forces during the 1963/66 Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.
In 1963 New Zealand sent a civilian surgical team to Vietnam and later that a year small non-combatant force was deployed. 161 Battery was deployed to Vietnam in 1965 and in 1967 a forces medical team was sent. All forces were withdrawn in 1971.
In May 1967, a 182-strong rifle company dubbed Victor (V) was deployed from the 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment (1RNZIR) base in West Malaysia
and:
Over a five-year period, the nine New Zealand rifle companies rotating through Nui Dat engaged in a constant round of jungle patrols, ambushes, and cordon-and-search operations. Less than a week after arriving, Victor Company had its first enemy contact, leaving one Viet Cong killed, another possibly wounded and five suspects detained. [2] This inaugural, small-scale action characterised the pace and scale of infantry operations in Vietnam
But I suppose any ".govt.nz" web address can be a link to an alternative history /sarc
btw, over the years I've heard my share of the NZ civilian employees/CIA cross border incursions/atrocities/bounties/severed heads etc yarns from folk who knew someone who knew someone, and while there's likely a wee kernel of truth behind some of these, I'd rate them alongside the sewer staple of Goff/Clark spitting at returning servicemen, mostly bullshit.
Joe 90 your right about the US not being involved in Malaysia but the Domino effect of communism spreading through south east Asia was a US program of preventing the spread.NZ was a close ally of the US fighting alongside the US in Korea and sharing intelligence which has been the case through to the present day.
Two external options, see the local MP and call in a Beneficiary Advocate. An MP phoning the manager at an office is always an effective process time saver.
With the organisation, the key determinant is paperwork (check on-line what is required) and getting an in the office appointment time (sorting it all by phone – probably not enough unless paperwork can be scanned) – booking appointment times can be made by phone or on-line.
booking appointment times can be made by phone or on-line.
Although they will do everything possible to prevent you seeing a real person. They don't like that. Be prepared for being told it can all be done online (including scanning in the necessary documents), only to find their computer can't cope with the answers you've given and tells you to phone them. Then the performance involved there.
All done and dusted but still, I think they just don't want to help. Maybe they get a bonus for every person left to fend for themselves.
I am so glad that the Billions we have paid for Air NZ are going to a good cause (sarc).
Maybe they get a bonus for every person left to fend for themselves.
At one point they were, that and deliberately denying all entitlements. It was common knowledge in our circles but then they got sprung publicly, the powers that be got a bit embarrassed and the practice supposedly was stopped. But there's still a suspicion that it goes on to a degree. Certainly under National Governments it does.
Wendy Shoebridge ….driven to suicide by heartless WINZ system.
Monthly quotas were imposed at the Ministry of Social Development to prosecute beneficiaries, an inquest into the death of a woman accused of benefit fraud has heard.
"We had to get one prosecution per month. We had to get $30,000 of debt to be recovered per month,"a former MSD investigator told the inquest into the death of Wendy Shoebridge. "Four cases had to be cleared per month."
Shoebridge, a 41-year-old mother, was found dead in Lower Hutt on April 3, 2011.
The day before, she opened a letter saying she was to be referred for prosecution over an alleged $22,000 benefit fraud. After her death, that amount fell to about $5500.
It eventually found she had not committed any offence at all.
And Labour appointed as Chief Executive one of the architects of the toxic culture that existed even more so under National. Someone from an advocacy group should be made the CE to get some real change.
A labour government who has removed including non-qualified spouses in super making future spouses $130 per week worse off as they will have to go on benefit not super now to "modernise the benefit system" which basically means where there is one income (e.g. due to one partner having a disability or just any reason at all) the working partner will now have to work longer – such modern thinking, a labour government who charges the poorest 25% of their income to pay for their emergency accommodation to make it "fair" and to "help them" adjust when they get better accommodation – so helpful, a labour government who had the most public support ever to increase benefits once the WEAG report was published and chose not to and then created a two tier benefit system for predominantly white workers when COVID struck leaving the existing poor and disabled down at the bottom where apparently they belong even though it was pointed out how racist this was, how other countries were providing stimulus payments to the poorest as they spent all their money in the economy, that the most disadvantaged would find it even harder to find work now as they would be competing against the newly unemployed with job skills and that WINZ resources would no doubt be moved away from the existing clients to help the newly (mainly European) unemployed and the newly labour berefit like noisy orchardists and agriculturalists who can't get their overseas captive labour and lastly that emergency assistance payments had gone up rapidly as people were falling into more and more hardship both costing money, costing peoples time having to apply and costing staff time that could be better utilised to help people find work than process food grant after food grant after food grant..
In other words business as it has been with a few nice temporary factors like winter payments.
Real change will come if they:
1. Increase benefits as per WEAG
2. Put comprehensive rent controls in – I favour the New York type rent control where a rent board decides how much rents can go up each year – hint it isn't much.
3. Reduce the age of NZS back to 60 to level the playing field more for those with disabilities and Maori who have shorter life expectancy – just get the super back through taxation for those who both work and get NZS – the extra money will provide economic stimulus as well.
Of course none of these things will happen but lots of money will be spent on infrastructure projects, short-term work schemes and so on.
“I would like to know whether any prospective beneficiaries have gone into depression and worst still, could not see a way out of it due to lack of financial help.”
You might want to include current beneficiaries in that question.
Would he be better off to register a company and apply for a small business loan from the IRD at 0% if that is possible. I'm all for the small business support but I'm sure as repayment time approaches at least some will collapse the company rather than repay the money. Is the IRD taking a personal guarantee?
Maybe not for the IRD. but surely Winz could at least jam through a basic benefit for applicants and catch up with the detail later. Everyone else seems to be getting the high trust model. And no I don't warm to Carmel or the labour party handling of the wage paid workforce or those who need Winz.
Except they seem to divert excess resources to those on super – so the older's don't complain.
So you use this to attack those receiving superannuation…?…w t.f..!…one thing the ardern gummint mk 1. did for those on super..was nothing…but there was no complaint/lobbying from the oldies…'cos they know that poverty for sole-parent/the unemployed..and their children.. is far worse …..your imputation that ardern has been filling the coffers of the elderly to the detriment of those living in poverty..with 'excess resources'..is factually incorrect..and is bullshit-on-a-stick..
Didn't mean that to sound as an attack on superannuitants.
I was talking about the service level (not money) that superannuitants seem to get from Winz and I know some who feel deeply uncomfortable about it being so good when the rest of the service seems so bad. My point was that if Winz can do a decent service level for the supers then they could do the same for everyone else as well. Second point was "is the service level so high to stop any potential complainers" .
@ r. baron…Point taken…there is a seachange in attitude from how the unemployed etc. are treated…as to how superannuitants are looked after…it is palpable..that change…and yes..there is no reason why those in need of state support should be treated so shabbily by the govt. department tasked with caring for them..
Who said WINZ do a decent service for the elderly ? I advocated very recently for NZ Super clients ; waited for nearly an hour only to be told that a return call would be made in the next 24 hours. And when pressed for a more exact time we were told " What does it matter ? You have all the time in the world now".
ardern has been filling the coffers of the elderly to the detriment of those living in poverty..with 'excess resources'..is factually incorrect..and is bullshit-on-a-stick..
As always you've plumped for a gross generalisation, but there are clearly wealthy on super with mortgage free million dollar homes and large savings accounts. Aren't they having their considerable resources bumped up by a payment that could, and should, be used to assist the lowest income earners?
As for bullshit on a stick – Have you tried holding the other end?
Parliamentarians? I doubt that they will cut their cloth. 165k income, bonus, health and super paid for, transport etc…. yeah, it must be truly difficult.
B.t.w…those rich boomers don't have to suck from the superannuation-trough…it's not compulsory..you have to apply for it…those rich taking it are just greedy bastards…end-of-story..
Not a separate issue at all as it speaks directly to your rejection of the premise that "ardern has been filling the coffers of the elderly to the detriment of those living in poverty", when that is exactly what happens when a wealthy senior takes the pension.
Of course, I didn’t generalise and claim all seniors – Just the wealthy ones with no morality and/or civic responsibility.
And there are also elderly whose rent takes most of their super and who have had to run their savings down to qualify for any supplements, making living a bit precarious.
And, all over the country pensioner units are being sold off in the larger cities.
Ah yes, just play one group of vulnerable against the other.
What about those BILLIONS! we, the taxpayer have forked out to give a 50% state company like Air NZ board some enormous share option and bonus pay. Or all those other companies with huge profits sponging of the low pay and slim middle class? Only a government where non of those sitting ever had anything like an "essential" job can come up with a farce like that.
I've spent some time thinking how shareholders could reign in the excesses of the managerial class who are the main beneficiaries of business profits at the expense of both labour and to some extent capital providers. Both capital providers and labour lose if a business goes broke but the managerial class just banks the gains.
Shareholders can pass meeting resolutions. The best I've come up with so far is for the top 5% to 10% of earners (based on FTE wages) in a company can earn only x times the median wagein the company , or maybe x times the FTE of the bottom 50%.
If there was a pool set for the top earners then they could could fight it out amongst them selves and pay the high priced technocrat they need more than the generalist manager. It's how to set that pool – and as I say these thoughts are a work in progress.
In the meantime Airnz shareholder aka the government should be on the phone. If they did not know then they need a CEO with a little more vision and political smarts.
"they need a CEO with a little more vision and political smarts.".
I'm sorry but the last CEO they had with those skills resigned and left the airline on September 25 last year. He has picked up a new job since that time.
Still he will probably have the responsibility as the share-holding Minister in about 3 years time. You can but hope.
Alwynger you must be joking you know nothing or are Gerry Brownlee.
All Airlines have suffered catastrophic losses to blame the CEO who was the former CEO of Walmart a business bigger than the whole of New Zealands economy .
He has been given a hospital pass.
He turned Walmarts fortunes around was on a massive income before he took on the role of CEO of Air NZ for pocket change .
He changed the way Walmart treated staff making sure staff were remunerated well as opposed to the minimum wage ideology of the founder and previous CEO's .
Now a vaccine is looking more hopeful we need his nouse and connections to rebuild Air New Zealand.
Why are you addressing your comment to me instead of to the Red Baron?
He (or she) is the one who was complaining about the nous of the current CEO of Air New Zealand.
Still I should not be surprised. You were the one who, the other day, seemed to think that I approved of Trump. Clearly your comprehension of things verges on the side of incoherence. You also seem to be quite incapable of even spelling my name. I guess your end of year school report should simply say "Must try harder"
Alwynger i take poetic license to take you to task over your continual whinging and untruths about any Left wing initiatives.
Your right up their with Gosman with your cynicism.
If you put facts up like how Mike Sabin resigned and NZfirst reduced The National majority even further would be good.
I did have dyslexia growing up not unlike Winston Churchill who struggled with school till he turned 19 then it suddenly disappeared where he went on to be one of the most influential people in history and is responsible for you not speaking Japanese or German and allowing you to have the freedom to speak at all.I was at the bottom of most of my classes during high school but not long before I turned 16 a light switched on and suddenly I went to the top of the class in most subjects except English comprehension.
Suddenly I could speed read whole books libraries of books .
When it comes to knowledge I am a library you are a cheap gossip magazine.
You make comments that Christopher luxton was a better CEO .At a time when international tourism grew exponentially ,its easy to look good when business expands without having to do much.
Your ACT party would have let AirNZ go to the wall no govt help.
What it is: Low-interest one-off loan of up to $10,000 + $1,800 for each full-time equivalent employee.
3% interest rate
repay over 5 years
no payments in first 2 years — but you can choose to make payments
payments handled by Inland Revenue.
No interest charged if you pay back the loan within a year.
Who can get it:
Smaller businesses struggling financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
businesses with up 50 employees
sole traders
self-employed people.
As with any loan, you must also be able to show you can pay it back. Your business needs to be viable, with a plan to stay that way.
so again, its not just done by registering a company, you actually have to prove you have a viable business in order to get the business contingency loan, or alternatively you have to be on a WINZ benefit to apply for hte Self Employment Start Up.
If there is a 0% interest business loan other then that that is available through IRD please link as that would be interesting news.
What has he looking for a job got to do with a Failure of Winz to do the job they are paid to do? Namely answering the phones in a timely manner, scheduling person/person meetings to get paperwork sorted and benefits given should all legal requirements be met?
Janet, are you joking? Of cause my friend did (he or she). But that short time before Christmas coupled with a person being in their 50's seem to be the combination that really gets you into some serious trouble.
Euthanasia anybody?
But maybe you know how to get a handout like Air NZ or Briscoes. Very grateful for any hint.
My friend is looking for a job rest assured. Do you honestly believe you can feed a family on a benefit? Not to mention that this friend has worked all their life and find themselves for the first time in such situation. Do you actually understand what such event does to you psychologically? The anguish not to be able get bills paid, the sleepless nights, the worry. No wonder people kill themselves in droves here.
I don't have words for you comments really – you really don't know what the back ground is and put a judgement onto this person. Are you working for WINZ?
No I am not judging. I support the UBI theory where we do not have to be in your friends position, hanging on the whims of WINZ. We have a funny situation here in NZ at the moment. In front of me I have the latest Farmers Weekly … screaming out for workers in horticulture, diarying you name it. Screaming at the government for not bringing migrant workers in . Migrant workers who up and leave their wives and families for 6 months or more to pick up a dollar in NZ. They go home "rich " men in the societies they come from, but their being here has in the meantime held down wages, making it unattractive for ours to now go out and pick up these jobs.
Somehow we have to get this situation rebalanced , without migrant workers. In the end it will mean our food costs more…
This is true but equally one cannot expect someone to uproot the family, maybe renting the house (mortgaged) out and paying rent at the other end, new schools for the kids and all that for a few months. As a report recently showed, it is for the majority work at minimum rate. My friend has arthritis which really makes picking in the orchards etc not a viable option. I also think we need to be careful to abstain from asking every unemployed person to take up picking "for the good of the nation", it borders on forced labour.
BTW, I am very much for the UBI which would as a very desirable side effect by removing a large swat of bureaucrats who believe they can play god with peoples lives.
I agree with the advice about local MP and a beneficiary advocate.
Privatising WINZ would make it worse. There's not good reason why WINZ can't function well other than the ideologies of successive governments (Nat and Lab) that have fucked the system up so much. At the moment it's under staffing.
They will have billion of them by the end of the year.
We should have half of our share (M) 500,000 by mid-year. Plenty for the health workers/aged care workers, border workers, front of public workers and workers with pre existing conditions.
We also have stakes in other vaccines in development – such as the Oxford one. Hopefully another 1.5M of these as well.
That would be around 4M by the end of next year – about how many would take a vaccine.
All going well, If there is a global rollout of an effective vaccine by the middle of next year it will have been a remarkable achievement by the scientific and engineering community involved in its research and development and product.
At some level I must confess a small enjoyment about having the country to ourselves seeing home grown talent etc. ( but not at the price of a pandemic of course) .
But I'm not sure that I want to see everything just returning to the "old normal" without whittling out industries and settings that do not work for all of us.
But I'm not sure that I want to see everything just returning to the "old normal" without whittling out industries and settings that do not work for all of us.
Agreed – it would be nice for a bit of a reset in certain areas, hopefully there'll be further gains regarding flexibility with how and where people work and lessons learned about our country's vulnerabilities to circumstances out of our control.
I suspect I may be disappointed and we'll see the return of the previous normal.
You know, the labour 'market' is entirely too free already. Free to break our immigration laws in a systematic fashion. Free to enjoy the blind eye of corrupt officials and ministers unfit to exercise their warrants.
If government want NZ to work, they have to work themselves. We have those immigration rules for a very sound and well-established reason, and if, as seems to be the case, the government is so out of touch they don't understand that, all they need to do is see that the law is obeyed. Their job, in case any of them wants to pretend otherwise.
Do your job Mr Faafoi, or resign in favour of someone who will.
It's going to take at least 3 to 5yrs before Airlines get reestablished let alone the tourists trust in travel ,have enough money to travel.Airlines won't be doing discounting until the volume builds up.
Forget the pollsters. If you wanted to know the outcome of last week’s US election, you just had to ask Gabriel Byrne. I did, a month ago. I wish I had gone to the bookies.
Byrne was in London on the way back to his farm in Maine, where he lives with his wife and three-year-old daughter. It’ll be thin, he said, Biden’s margin is miles slimmer than anyone predicts. He called it in 2016, too.
“If you were in touch with the rage that was on the ground, you were not looking at Hillary Clinton and saying, she’s going to get elected. That rage is still on the ground. The 40 million who support Trump haven’t wavered one iota.”
When he emails on Thursday night, he blames the Democrats for the tight result. “This is the second time they’ve come up against a Gameshow Host and they’ve learned nothing. Again they seriously underestimated the level of anger among mostly blue-collar workers.”
I don’t need to ask if he feels any optimism; he has already been pretty clear. “At least it’s the end of that guy but, personally, I can’t stand Biden. An exceptionalist roaring about America as the moral leader of the world, all this crap. You can’t appeal to people in Maine or Wisconsin or Michigan by saying this is a battle for the soul of America. It’s just political garbage.
“Nothing much will change under Biden because his thing is: let’s return America to what it was. Well, what America was caused Trump. The Democrats rolled out the red carpet (for him).”
Principled, independent thought … concern not so much for the bloated self-absorption of Upper-Middle Clintonistas & Intersectionals … more for the interests of Blue Collar America (even those really yukky ones who have white skin & are male … Ewwww Yuck !!!) … well, it's Crazyville, isn't it ? You mark my words, those God-forsaken Ruskies are behind this !!! … Damn you, Putin, damn you to hell !!!
more for the interests of Blue Collar America (even those really yukky ones who have white skin & are male
And the black Americans who live in crime ridden cities who know that BLM's calls to abolish the police are nothing but disaster for them. Or the Latinos who migrated to the USA knowing that far from a racist hell hole, that it was their best opportunity to make a better life for themselves, look at arsonists burning down businesses … and their empathy lies firmly with owners of them.
“Nothing much will change under Biden because his thing is: let’s return America to what it was. Well, what America was caused Trump. The Democrats rolled out the red carpet (for him).”
She has shown that an ordinary person can achieve political success in the USA while at the same time eschewing donations from the wealthy and corporates.
@ad…so what did that 'actor' say that is factually incorrect…?…b.t.w…did you call 2016 for clinton .?..you are a man riddled with yr certainties ..so I doubt you sat on the fence…
Well, it's his perspective, but there's nothing particularly crazy in what he says. There's the usual conceit that he knows "blue collar workers" better than other wealthy people do, but there doesn't seem to be much of the thinly-veiled references to "soros" and all that veiled-nazi jazz.
Didn't you hear the election is over and Trump lost, republicans lost, moonbats lost and wingnuts lost. You don't go messing around with the opinion filters on the back of that sort of outcome!
An attempt to unseat the chairman of the West Coast Conservation Board has fallen flat.
"Keith Morfett was recently reappointed to the board for a second term by then-Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage.
But Ngai Tahu is challenging the minister's appointment process in the High Court after accusing the conservation board of ignoring its Treaty obligations and being in thrall to environmental groups such as Forest and Bird."
It's inevitable that conflicts will arise between government environmental ideas and Maori. Please just stick to facts and avoid taking sides against Maori, 'pour encourager les autres'.
Matt King (ex MP for Northland) was given the opportunity for a pity-party on TVNZ1 Breakfast show this morning. No questions about his Twitter attacks with misinformation on climate change, no questions about name calling the PM and about the Labour Party creating a Nazi society, no questions about his actively flouting and encouraging others to flout Covid Rules but they did politely sympathize with his loss and branding him a nice guy. Not so convinced were the viewers apparently, feedback suggesting he should take a little responsibility instead of his sense of entitlement and blaming everyone but himself and his Party. Happy Days
Happy days indeed. Locals had road checks earlier in the year worried that covid-19 would come into the region. A bit of a fuss ensued but most locals were not phased about the politics. Being alive and well and having someone seeking to protect them was welcomed.
Of course there was a constituency to appeal to, to rouse and harness in election year. It is the Far North. We have red necks. King got in the car with family just to 'go for a drive to show then around'. Into the road checks no less. Fancy that, an opportunity, a cunning stunt.
A lot of them voted for him of course, most didn't.
A focus about the tide turning in mainly rural South Island has meant scant attention to the reality at the other end of the country.
In the two northernmost general electorates so solidly National for generations, that party was comprehensively thrashed. King should have stayed home, saved his petrol.
Matt was invited by Hone Harawira, to attend a Te Tai Tokerau Border Patrol for a day near Kaikohe, with Police presence! and he never turned up. He had been trying to rile his pākehā supporters about “the mareeees and their illegal road blocks”, but actually a number of non Māori in the North supported the Iwi Border Patrols.
Mr King tried to be the Trump of the North on Facebook, but regularly got fact checked and shamed, he never turned up to any invitations to debate any of the bs he put out there. A mate of mine saw him at the Dargaville A&P two years back, and King stuck his hand out, “not shaking your hand you effing fascist” was the response, King was shocked. Dunno where my mate got that classic line from but it sat the ex MP down for a minute.
King probably attended on the basis that it would be a pity-party.
TVNZ/RNZ may as well be corporate media as King's fair game and it would've been great TV watching him dance on the head of a pin if some actual journalism was practiced.
Hosking had a rant about the govts debt around covid response saying 42 organizations wanting up to $150 a week increases on benefits was causing eye watering increases in debt,and that NZ was the only country in the OECD that had increased the benefit rates by a lousy $25 other than Hong Kong .
Then Robertson comes on his show and quietly undoes all his BS.GrantRobertson also gives Hosking an update on how the economy has bounced back a lot quicker than expected.
Good on Robertson for his stellar work on the economy and his cool calm collected communication style .
[Second time: please stick to one e-mail address, thanks]
Health workers in New Zealand quarantine hotels are some of the worst protected in the developed world, according to a man in managed isolation who's helped kit out medical staff all over the world.
The organisation has financial difificulties partly from the pandemic impacting fund-raising. Peters was right to call for better government contribution.
Looks like Collins has already traded places with her deputy within minutes of his appointment. Void of original thought, of course, but ironically, may well be a good move.
“Dr Reti’s knowledge and history working in the health sector will be an asset as Parliament deals with the impact of Covid-19. His experience will be invaluable to me as deputy leader and I’m looking forward to working closer with him.”
After all, following the 2014 election National had 60 seats and Labour had 32.
Labour recovered enough to form the Government after the following election.
Now Labour have 65 and National have 33 which is pretty much the same thing. Who knows but history may repeat and we will have a change of Government in 2023. After all we aren't likely to have another pandemic are we?
We have created "a perfect storm" for diseases from wildlife to spill over into humans and spread quickly around the world, scientists warn.
Human encroachment on the natural world speeds up that process.
In the last 20 years, we've had six significant threats – SARS, MERS, Ebola, avian influenza and swine flu," Prof Matthew Baylis from the University of Liverpool told BBC News. "We dodged five bullets but the sixth got us.
"And this is not the last pandemic we are going to face, so we need to be looking more closely at wildlife disease."
As part of this close examination, he and his colleagues have designed a predictive pattern-recognition system that can probe a vast database of every known wildlife disease.
Across the thousands of bacteria, parasites and viruses known to science, this system identifies clues buried in the number and type of species they infect. It uses those clues to highlight which ones pose most of a threat to humans.
Do you think world leaders have worked out that the next time a pandemic erupts that shutting the planet down (human activity) for 6 weeks is the cheapest option.
The appropriate response will depend on how it spreads, infectiousness profile over time, and no doubt a bunch of other factors an infectious disease specialist could bore us all to tears with.
For instance, if the next one is some sort of turbo-hepatitis where the spread is mostly through food and transferring infectious material on surfaces, and people can be infectious for decades, then the appropriate response will be quite different to a shutdown.
We are lucky here in Godzone on how we do politics. On Stuff this morning there is video of Smith conceding Nelson to Rachel Boyack and while I am not in any way a fan of his he has to be commended for the gracious manner in which he did it and the exceptional way that the Nelson Labour crew treated him. Well done everybody. It is well worth a look just to reinforce how thankful we should be about how civilised we are here.
Well we probably should give these visa holders their money back. But 23,000 visa's which is probably not the lot, is an awful lot of competition for our young NEETS in the job market – for the 50,000 or so who enter it every year. Any chance of Labour rejiging this? Unlikely.
Working Holidays are an outcome of reciprocal agreements with other countries, so we could scrap them, but that would probably result the end of the equivalent schemes, so instead of competing with foreign workers, they would compete with young NZ workers who didn't go on their OEs.
Yeh Nah I haven't looked up any actual figures – don't even know if they exist in total but our birth cohorts are in the 50-60k a year zone hence around that number onto the labour market a year.
Now if we do straight number swaps eg we issue 10 to the UK and they issue 10 to NZ it is going to have a far greater impact on our labour market as we have a much smaller population. Some of the countries mentioned in the article are aslo unlikely I suspect to provide much in the way of kiwi jobs – some of the south americain countries. But 23K is a lot and that won't be all. I really can't see that number of Kiwis leaving . and the ones that stay have to compete with student visas and other low waged immigration as well.
further nats news, maureen pugh has gone from phucking useless ,to a promotion up the list, to whip. she is getting her numbers ready for a rural takeback of the nats! with dr shane as her deputy, that would cover most of the nats trad voters, just need to keep bridges around to appeal to the whiney suitwearers.
It's less a job, more a summer internship, duties amount to nodding on camera beside a leader who will be gone soon. Still, it puts him on the (very) short list for next leader, and they could do a lot worse – and probably will.
National deputy leaders of 2020, a brief history: Bennett – quit Parliament. Kaye – quit Parliament. Brownlee – lost seat. Reti – lost seat.
I don't think any party anywhere can boast such a record.
Deeply disappointed in the cannabis referendum. The combination of punitive, vindictive sanctimonious, self righteous, fake christians and false moralists with the justice industry [cops lawyers judges corrections and would be counsellors looking for a gig] was too much for the referendumb to bear. plus the spiteful bastards against everything. The way Andrew Little brushed it off and then dodged a bullet by jettisoning justice was shameful.As a committed advocate for the working man I am never going to vote for the running dogs of capitalism but the "vote" will go to the greens next time
life will go on as normal. if Portugal is any example usage will decrease and the kidz who get upin front of the beak and say"it woz the drugz wot made me do it" will have to be responsible for their actions.
Cannabis is not the only problem with this government….and all the problems..inaction on poverty/environment/animal welfare etc etc..on and on it goes..can all be tracked back to the fact that labour is yet to realise it is clutching to a failed/bankrupt ideology…neoliberalism…as you look around the world its' failures are legion..increasing inequality..fucking up the environment…and doing basically nothing to fix the problems we have…and labour has long wed incrementalism to to that bankrupt neoliberalism…this is what has been the ideology of both our main parties since after the second lange govt and Ruth richardson's magic poverty wand was waved…helen clark/are/were neoliberal incrementalists to the core…(and they are now advising ardern..a fact that chills the blood)..and ardern/robertson learnt at the knees of clark/cullen…and what clark thought of from day one of each term and what drove her actions/inaction was the next election ..doing what she had to do to win that next election..(hence large wedges of middle-class welfare..and the poor can just rot..)…ardern/robertson are following in those shoes ..and the country cannot expect any meaningful change any time soon…(and when did it become the norm that for any pissant/small change that is made…we are made to wait eons for it to actually be enacted..?..when the f. did that delayed-gratification become the norm..?..)…as long as ardern/ labour fly that neoliberal flag..nothing much will change…but the warning for ardern is that what clark did so successfully will not work again…and she should know that when she/labour fail to deliver..that there is now another party the disappointed/disgruntled can turn to at the next election…who they know will do all the shit that needs doing…the greens…so if she doesn't deliver at the next election those tories disgusted with the current iteration/doings of the national party..will likely return home..and the left will turn en masse to the greens….and the centre will not be the certainty she now thinks it is…
I've just been saying on The Daily Blog in response to Martyn's criticism of Jacinda's neglect of the beneficiaries while spouting away about them in her slogans, if she thinks she can get away with that via her professional careerist apparatchiks and public popularity her neglect of the thinking Left will involve a serious cost.
The Maori Labour MPs, to be taken at all seriously, should have demanded the Welfare Experts Group Report to be adopted immediately. Duds.
The marijuana push-back suggests there's work to do and Labour's focus groups might have something to them. When America has gone full-on grass liberalisation it suggests timidity is the essential part of the Party. Why I voted Little for leader and have never voted for Labour.
The timidity was at the birth, though Trotter calls it realism, when the 1935 govt wouldn't put my g.great grandfather in the Legislative Council because of his outright socialism. He got nationalisation of the means of production passed at the British Labour AGM in 1908. If he'd stayed in England he would have been a Lord.
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 ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from 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 public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
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:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
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 Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Can someone put some pressure on WINZ to get people who have lost their job their benefit?
I have a friend who has been made redundant and with Christmas coming up, a mortgage to pay, kids and family to look after it becomes increasingly clear that some major distress is happening. WINZ has not responded after my friend was on the phone for almost 8 hours over a period since last week. Has been promised that a case worker will call within 48 hours. Yeah right! Of cause not.
Merry Christmas looks like the worst for especially those made redundant. Talk about insult to injury. My distain for this agency is right now without bounds.
Maybe it needs to be privatised or some other plan put in place because it clearly is not working if there is such lack of response.
I would like to know whether any prospective beneficiaries have gone into depression and worst still, could not see a way out of it due to lack of financial help.
Can someone put some pressure on WINZ …?
Hah! Don't hold your breath Sunshine because it would appear this Current Mob have little to no intention of any meaningful repair of our Social Safety Net.
Last night weka posted this…
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/11/livestream-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-s-post-cabinet-press-conference.html
…the truly depressing bit starts around 27 minutes.
I always harboured doubts that it was entirely Winston applying the handbrake on enacting the reforms considered urgent by the WEAG…and to hear Our Leader opening her press conference with her calendar with much emphasis on her meetings with "business"…it's abandon ye all hope time.
Huge respect for these organisations…
https://medium.com/actionstation/open-letter-increase-income-support-before-christmas-7960c5100b10
…who at least gave it a go.
SSDD
I doubt anyone will take any of it onboard. Very soon we will know what carrier politicians are and not capable off.
Beneficiaries get the fob off because its soo good now, isn't it.
Jacinda Ardern and her spokesperson for Winz Carmel Sepuloni were clear about what beneficiaries could expect should they get in again. Nothing. A wet handshake, a meaningless course in CV writing, a stern lecture about the vlaue of work and other then that nothing.
Under utilisation rate for women in NZ currently sits at almost 20% (per gov. ), not a word about that, 5.9 % unemployment is average, regional it looks much much worse, unemployed who have partners with jobs will be refused any help cause……partner, and so on and so forth.
Winz has been understaffed before Covid, and now its severely understaffed, but nothing is done. Reform to Winz will only come with a government that actually wants to reform, and the Labour is not the party that will reform anything.
My heart sank when sepuloni was again given that portfolio …(as it did when she first got it..)….and arderns' promise yesterday to do s.f.a. about what she said previously/time and time again ..was a top priority priority for her…poverty.. just has that heart sinking more and more…my son just noted that he thinks ardern will do/is doing an obama…acclaimed internationally…and doing s.f.a. domestically to earn any acclaim…she/labour are neoliberal incrementalists..’moderates’.she/they haven't changed those stripes/spots at all…and any optimism I may have had since the election re ardern/labour actually doing something meaningful..is well and truly down the crapper..and of course another question to ask is: is marama able to comment on this promise from ardern to do nothing with any sense of urgency about poverty..?..or is she muzzled by the deal the greens have with labour….?..and any labour loyalists here willing to defend arderns' promise to do s.f.a…?…
My heart sank when she got the ACC portfolio. The government will probably stall decisions to do with the Royal Commission of Inquiry. The ACC system is inadequate when it comes to anomalies related to historical sexual assault in or out of state care.
The problem reminds me of a bumper sticker that was put onto cars in the United States late in 1965.
This was after Lyndon Johnson, who claimed he didn't want a larger war in Vietnam, had run, and won, against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election. Johnson had labelled Barry as being someone who wanted to increase the US troops in Vietnam whereas he, Lyndon wasn't planning to do so. At the time of the 1964 election there were US advisers but no ground troops involved directly.
Anyway the sticker read, and was quite accurate in its words, something like "They said if I voted for Goldwater there would be 200,000 US troops on Vietnam by the end of 1965. Well I did and there are".
Perhaps you should prepare a sticker that says something like "They said if I voted for ACT all benefits would be frozen for the next 3 years. Well I did and they have been".
Now just why did you think it would be different?
Alwyn your claim and Barry Goldwaters LBJ's of no US ground troops in Vietnam pre 1964 is untrue officially it may have been true.
The US and even NZ had part of its Malaysian deployment on the ground in Vietnam the 1950s.NZ has always worked closely with the US even when it appears our politicians deny it.
A close friend of mine fought in the secret war
Thanks Tricledrown
Nothing can now be substantiated, but from what I have gathered from history and Establishment lies, I suspect you are telling the truth.
But that is because I sympathise. Alwyn will know only what suits him.
The French pulled out from 1954 onwards so how were the viet Minh kept at bay for 10 years with officially only 200 helicopters and a few advisors
The US and even NZ had part of its Malaysian deployment on the ground in Vietnam the 1950s.
AFAIK the US never participated in the Malaysian crisis. It was a UK/Commonwealth military operation with NZ troops withdrawing from Malaya in 1960, returning along side other Commonwealth forces during the 1963/66 Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.
In 1963 New Zealand sent a civilian surgical team to Vietnam and later that a year small non-combatant force was deployed. 161 Battery was deployed to Vietnam in 1965 and in 1967 a forces medical team was sent. All forces were withdrawn in 1971.
But hey, link away to any alternative history.
/
There are now probably fake links to fake history, given 4 years of Trump, who did not start that process..
But I would beware of total trust in official records.
We all tread a wobbly tightrope.
Interesting to hear that the infantry units, forward air controllers, and special forces soldiers we sent to Vietnam were non-combatants.
From a NZ govt website:
and:
But I suppose any ".govt.nz" web address can be a link to an alternative history /sarc
161 were the first combatants deployed
btw, over the years I've heard my share of the NZ civilian employees/CIA cross border incursions/atrocities/bounties/severed heads etc yarns from folk who knew someone who knew someone, and while there's likely a wee kernel of truth behind some of these, I'd rate them alongside the sewer staple of Goff/Clark spitting at returning servicemen, mostly bullshit.
Ah ok fair call, missed the 1950s bit.
Joe 90.The first official combatants.
my friend who fought in Malaysia but was secretly deployed to Vietnam in the late 1950s along with other Kiwi Australian and British soldiers .
Joe 90 your right about the US not being involved in Malaysia but the Domino effect of communism spreading through south east Asia was a US program of preventing the spread.NZ was a close ally of the US fighting alongside the US in Korea and sharing intelligence which has been the case through to the present day.
Two external options, see the local MP and call in a Beneficiary Advocate. An MP phoning the manager at an office is always an effective process time saver.
With the organisation, the key determinant is paperwork (check on-line what is required) and getting an in the office appointment time (sorting it all by phone – probably not enough unless paperwork can be scanned) – booking appointment times can be made by phone or on-line.
All done and dusted but still, I think they just don't want to help. Maybe they get a bonus for every person left to fend for themselves.
I am so glad that the Billions we have paid for Air NZ are going to a good cause (sarc).
Maybe they get a bonus …
Wendy Shoebridge ….driven to suicide by heartless WINZ system.
Monthly quotas were imposed at the Ministry of Social Development to prosecute beneficiaries, an inquest into the death of a woman accused of benefit fraud has heard.
"We had to get one prosecution per month. We had to get $30,000 of debt to be recovered per month," a former MSD investigator told the inquest into the death of Wendy Shoebridge. "Four cases had to be cleared per month."
Shoebridge, a 41-year-old mother, was found dead in Lower Hutt on April 3, 2011.
The day before, she opened a letter saying she was to be referred for prosecution over an alleged $22,000 benefit fraud. After her death, that amount fell to about $5500.
It eventually found she had not committed any offence at all.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/87541297/compassion-for-vulnerable-from-woman-who-died-after-false-fraud-accusation
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/87347930/aggressive-prosecution-focus-at-msd-preceded-womans-death-inquest-told?rm=m
The case managers employed under 9 years of National were taught to be deliberately obstructive.
And Labour appointed as Chief Executive one of the architects of the toxic culture that existed even more so under National. Someone from an advocacy group should be made the CE to get some real change.
A labour government who has removed including non-qualified spouses in super making future spouses $130 per week worse off as they will have to go on benefit not super now to "modernise the benefit system" which basically means where there is one income (e.g. due to one partner having a disability or just any reason at all) the working partner will now have to work longer – such modern thinking, a labour government who charges the poorest 25% of their income to pay for their emergency accommodation to make it "fair" and to "help them" adjust when they get better accommodation – so helpful, a labour government who had the most public support ever to increase benefits once the WEAG report was published and chose not to and then created a two tier benefit system for predominantly white workers when COVID struck leaving the existing poor and disabled down at the bottom where apparently they belong even though it was pointed out how racist this was, how other countries were providing stimulus payments to the poorest as they spent all their money in the economy, that the most disadvantaged would find it even harder to find work now as they would be competing against the newly unemployed with job skills and that WINZ resources would no doubt be moved away from the existing clients to help the newly (mainly European) unemployed and the newly labour berefit like noisy orchardists and agriculturalists who can't get their overseas captive labour and lastly that emergency assistance payments had gone up rapidly as people were falling into more and more hardship both costing money, costing peoples time having to apply and costing staff time that could be better utilised to help people find work than process food grant after food grant after food grant..
In other words business as it has been with a few nice temporary factors like winter payments.
Real change will come if they:
1. Increase benefits as per WEAG
2. Put comprehensive rent controls in – I favour the New York type rent control where a rent board decides how much rents can go up each year – hint it isn't much.
3. Reduce the age of NZS back to 60 to level the playing field more for those with disabilities and Maori who have shorter life expectancy – just get the super back through taxation for those who both work and get NZS – the extra money will provide economic stimulus as well.
Of course none of these things will happen but lots of money will be spent on infrastructure projects, short-term work schemes and so on.
“I would like to know whether any prospective beneficiaries have gone into depression and worst still, could not see a way out of it due to lack of financial help.”
You might want to include current beneficiaries in that question.
Would he be better off to register a company and apply for a small business loan from the IRD at 0% if that is possible. I'm all for the small business support but I'm sure as repayment time approaches at least some will collapse the company rather than repay the money. Is the IRD taking a personal guarantee?
Maybe not for the IRD. but surely Winz could at least jam through a basic benefit for applicants and catch up with the detail later. Everyone else seems to be getting the high trust model. And no I don't warm to Carmel or the labour party handling of the wage paid workforce or those who need Winz.
Except they seem to divert excess resources to those on super – so the older's don't complain.
So you use this to attack those receiving superannuation…?…w t.f..!…one thing the ardern gummint mk 1. did for those on super..was nothing…but there was no complaint/lobbying from the oldies…'cos they know that poverty for sole-parent/the unemployed..and their children.. is far worse …..your imputation that ardern has been filling the coffers of the elderly to the detriment of those living in poverty..with 'excess resources'..is factually incorrect..and is bullshit-on-a-stick..
Didn't mean that to sound as an attack on superannuitants.
I was talking about the service level (not money) that superannuitants seem to get from Winz and I know some who feel deeply uncomfortable about it being so good when the rest of the service seems so bad. My point was that if Winz can do a decent service level for the supers then they could do the same for everyone else as well. Second point was "is the service level so high to stop any potential complainers" .
@ r. baron…Point taken…there is a seachange in attitude from how the unemployed etc. are treated…as to how superannuitants are looked after…it is palpable..that change…and yes..there is no reason why those in need of state support should be treated so shabbily by the govt. department tasked with caring for them..
Who said WINZ do a decent service for the elderly ? I advocated very recently for NZ Super clients ; waited for nearly an hour only to be told that a return call would be made in the next 24 hours. And when pressed for a more exact time we were told " What does it matter ? You have all the time in the world now".
And the return call never came.
As always you've plumped for a gross generalisation, but there are clearly wealthy on super with mortgage free million dollar homes and large savings accounts. Aren't they having their considerable resources bumped up by a payment that could, and should, be used to assist the lowest income earners?
As for bullshit on a stick – Have you tried holding the other end?
See my replies to the others –
Parliamentarians? I doubt that they will cut their cloth. 165k income, bonus, health and super paid for, transport etc…. yeah, it must be truly difficult.
@ the allen…means-testing of superannuitants is a separate issue…(one I have sympathy for)…you are conflating the two…
B.t.w…those rich boomers don't have to suck from the superannuation-trough…it's not compulsory..you have to apply for it…those rich taking it are just greedy bastards…end-of-story..
You are right , you do have to apply to be a superannuate, it is not automatic. Those who really don,t need it have applied for it.
Not a separate issue at all as it speaks directly to your rejection of the premise that "ardern has been filling the coffers of the elderly to the detriment of those living in poverty", when that is exactly what happens when a wealthy senior takes the pension.
Of course, I didn’t generalise and claim all seniors – Just the wealthy ones with no morality and/or civic responsibility.
@ the allen..your final sentence/question is meaningless…are you having a go @ humour..?
And there are also elderly whose rent takes most of their super and who have had to run their savings down to qualify for any supplements, making living a bit precarious.
And, all over the country pensioner units are being sold off in the larger cities.
All equally true and valid observations.
Ah yes, just play one group of vulnerable against the other.
What about those BILLIONS! we, the taxpayer have forked out to give a 50% state company like Air NZ board some enormous share option and bonus pay. Or all those other companies with huge profits sponging of the low pay and slim middle class? Only a government where non of those sitting ever had anything like an "essential" job can come up with a farce like that.
See above. I was on service level not money. All should enjoy the same service level as the supers.
And I'm as deeply unhappy about about AirNZ as a lot of other corporate behaviour I Have complained about on here
Indeed the service level is as unfair a playing field as the weekly pay cheques given.
One lot just have to prove to be old, the others tasked with myriad hoop jumping to often get much less.
I've spent some time thinking how shareholders could reign in the excesses of the managerial class who are the main beneficiaries of business profits at the expense of both labour and to some extent capital providers. Both capital providers and labour lose if a business goes broke but the managerial class just banks the gains.
Shareholders can pass meeting resolutions. The best I've come up with so far is for the top 5% to 10% of earners (based on FTE wages) in a company can earn only x times the median wagein the company , or maybe x times the FTE of the bottom 50%.
If there was a pool set for the top earners then they could could fight it out amongst them selves and pay the high priced technocrat they need more than the generalist manager. It's how to set that pool – and as I say these thoughts are a work in progress.
In the meantime Airnz shareholder aka the government should be on the phone. If they did not know then they need a CEO with a little more vision and political smarts.
"they need a CEO with a little more vision and political smarts.".
I'm sorry but the last CEO they had with those skills resigned and left the airline on September 25 last year. He has picked up a new job since that time.
Still he will probably have the responsibility as the share-holding Minister in about 3 years time. You can but hope.
Alwynger you must be joking you know nothing or are Gerry Brownlee.
All Airlines have suffered catastrophic losses to blame the CEO who was the former CEO of Walmart a business bigger than the whole of New Zealands economy .
He has been given a hospital pass.
He turned Walmarts fortunes around was on a massive income before he took on the role of CEO of Air NZ for pocket change .
He changed the way Walmart treated staff making sure staff were remunerated well as opposed to the minimum wage ideology of the founder and previous CEO's .
Now a vaccine is looking more hopeful we need his nouse and connections to rebuild Air New Zealand.
You really are delusional aren't you?
Why are you addressing your comment to me instead of to the Red Baron?
He (or she) is the one who was complaining about the nous of the current CEO of Air New Zealand.
Still I should not be surprised. You were the one who, the other day, seemed to think that I approved of Trump. Clearly your comprehension of things verges on the side of incoherence. You also seem to be quite incapable of even spelling my name. I guess your end of year school report should simply say "Must try harder"
Alwynger i take poetic license to take you to task over your continual whinging and untruths about any Left wing initiatives.
Your right up their with Gosman with your cynicism.
If you put facts up like how Mike Sabin resigned and NZfirst reduced The National majority even further would be good.
I did have dyslexia growing up not unlike Winston Churchill who struggled with school till he turned 19 then it suddenly disappeared where he went on to be one of the most influential people in history and is responsible for you not speaking Japanese or German and allowing you to have the freedom to speak at all.I was at the bottom of most of my classes during high school but not long before I turned 16 a light switched on and suddenly I went to the top of the class in most subjects except English comprehension.
Suddenly I could speed read whole books libraries of books .
When it comes to knowledge I am a library you are a cheap gossip magazine.
Alwyn shifting the blame lame.
You make comments that Christopher luxton was a better CEO .At a time when international tourism grew exponentially ,its easy to look good when business expands without having to do much.
Your ACT party would have let AirNZ go to the wall no govt help.
As for government loans to start a business….here
Who can get it
You may be able to get a Self-employment start up payment if:
The maximum payout is $10,000 in one year, and you or your partner will need to be already receiving a WINZ benefit.
see here : https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/products/a-z-benefits/self-employment-start-up-payment.html
Covid contingency small business loan – administered by IRD
https://www.business.govt.nz/news/covid-19-support-for-small-businesses/
so again, its not just done by registering a company, you actually have to prove you have a viable business in order to get the business contingency loan, or alternatively you have to be on a WINZ benefit to apply for hte Self Employment Start Up.
If there is a 0% interest business loan other then that that is available through IRD please link as that would be interesting news.
First question , has he gone looking for work ?
What has he looking for a job got to do with a Failure of Winz to do the job they are paid to do? Namely answering the phones in a timely manner, scheduling person/person meetings to get paperwork sorted and benefits given should all legal requirements be met?
Janet, are you joking? Of cause my friend did (he or she). But that short time before Christmas coupled with a person being in their 50's seem to be the combination that really gets you into some serious trouble.
Euthanasia anybody?
But maybe you know how to get a handout like Air NZ or Briscoes. Very grateful for any hint.
Well actually "Christmas coming and being in their 50.s " sounds a bit like an excuse not to be looking for a job .
My friend is looking for a job rest assured. Do you honestly believe you can feed a family on a benefit? Not to mention that this friend has worked all their life and find themselves for the first time in such situation. Do you actually understand what such event does to you psychologically? The anguish not to be able get bills paid, the sleepless nights, the worry. No wonder people kill themselves in droves here.
I don't have words for you comments really – you really don't know what the back ground is and put a judgement onto this person. Are you working for WINZ?
No I am not judging. I support the UBI theory where we do not have to be in your friends position, hanging on the whims of WINZ. We have a funny situation here in NZ at the moment. In front of me I have the latest Farmers Weekly … screaming out for workers in horticulture, diarying you name it. Screaming at the government for not bringing migrant workers in . Migrant workers who up and leave their wives and families for 6 months or more to pick up a dollar in NZ. They go home "rich " men in the societies they come from, but their being here has in the meantime held down wages, making it unattractive for ours to now go out and pick up these jobs.
Somehow we have to get this situation rebalanced , without migrant workers. In the end it will mean our food costs more…
This is true but equally one cannot expect someone to uproot the family, maybe renting the house (mortgaged) out and paying rent at the other end, new schools for the kids and all that for a few months. As a report recently showed, it is for the majority work at minimum rate. My friend has arthritis which really makes picking in the orchards etc not a viable option. I also think we need to be careful to abstain from asking every unemployed person to take up picking "for the good of the nation", it borders on forced labour.
BTW, I am very much for the UBI which would as a very desirable side effect by removing a large swat of bureaucrats who believe they can play god with peoples lives.
I agree with the advice about local MP and a beneficiary advocate.
Privatising WINZ would make it worse. There's not good reason why WINZ can't function well other than the ideologies of successive governments (Nat and Lab) that have fucked the system up so much. At the moment it's under staffing.
IMO Carmel Sepuloni should be replaced.
Pfizer's vaccine looking promising but still a fair bit of follow up to do.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/09/covid-19-vaccine-from-pfizer-and-biontech-is-strongly-effective-early-data-from-large-trial-indicate/
I'm becoming more confident that we'll see a vaccine available for us in NZ towards the middle of next year.
They will have billion of them by the end of the year.
We should have half of our share (M) 500,000 by mid-year. Plenty for the health workers/aged care workers, border workers, front of public workers and workers with pre existing conditions.
We also have stakes in other vaccines in development – such as the Oxford one. Hopefully another 1.5M of these as well.
That would be around 4M by the end of next year – about how many would take a vaccine.
All going well, If there is a global rollout of an effective vaccine by the middle of next year it will have been a remarkable achievement by the scientific and engineering community involved in its research and development and product.
Australia is already manufacturing 30 million doses in the hope the trials are safe.So they can be ready to go immediately the OK is given.
At some level I must confess a small enjoyment about having the country to ourselves seeing home grown talent etc. ( but not at the price of a pandemic of course) .
But I'm not sure that I want to see everything just returning to the "old normal" without whittling out industries and settings that do not work for all of us.
But I'm not sure that I want to see everything just returning to the "old normal" without whittling out industries and settings that do not work for all of us.
Agreed – it would be nice for a bit of a reset in certain areas, hopefully there'll be further gains regarding flexibility with how and where people work and lessons learned about our country's vulnerabilities to circumstances out of our control.
I suspect I may be disappointed and we'll see the return of the previous normal.
flexibility with how and where people work
You know, the labour 'market' is entirely too free already. Free to break our immigration laws in a systematic fashion. Free to enjoy the blind eye of corrupt officials and ministers unfit to exercise their warrants.
If government want NZ to work, they have to work themselves. We have those immigration rules for a very sound and well-established reason, and if, as seems to be the case, the government is so out of touch they don't understand that, all they need to do is see that the law is obeyed. Their job, in case any of them wants to pretend otherwise.
Do your job Mr Faafoi, or resign in favour of someone who will.
It's going to take at least 3 to 5yrs before Airlines get reestablished let alone the tourists trust in travel ,have enough money to travel.Airlines won't be doing discounting until the volume builds up.
Word is circulating that we are expecting to have vaccinations rolling out by mid 2021. (Not sure which particular vaccine it will be.)
Not sure if there will be a mutation which could be ineffective with the new vaccine.
Would a different vaccine be required for each mutation or strain?
Treetop Very likely like the current flu vaccine
.
Oh no ! … actor Gabriel Byrne a "convergence moonbat" too ?
http://web.archive.org/web/20201108220809/https://amp.theguardian.com/film/2020/nov/08/gabriel-byrne-its-an-obscenity-to-tell-innocent-children-theyre-going-to-hell
Principled, independent thought … concern not so much for the bloated self-absorption of Upper-Middle Clintonistas & Intersectionals … more for the interests of Blue Collar America (even those really yukky ones who have white skin & are male … Ewwww Yuck !!!) … well, it's Crazyville, isn't it ? You mark my words, those God-forsaken Ruskies are behind this !!! … Damn you, Putin, damn you to hell !!!
more for the interests of Blue Collar America (even those really yukky ones who have white skin & are male
And the black Americans who live in crime ridden cities who know that BLM's calls to abolish the police are nothing but disaster for them. Or the Latinos who migrated to the USA knowing that far from a racist hell hole, that it was their best opportunity to make a better life for themselves, look at arsonists burning down businesses … and their empathy lies firmly with owners of them.
Denial and blame and loathing and all the stages of grief just get rolled up into one tired F-grade actor's armwaving.
Before his next Oscar nomination he needs a good sized paper bag for an inhale session.
The old, anyone to the left of control has to be part of chaos, trick.
You don't agree with this then?
“Nothing much will change under Biden because his thing is: let’s return America to what it was. Well, what America was caused Trump. The Democrats rolled out the red carpet (for him).”
my bold
No.
That quote is as stupid as it sounds.
Call me when AOC achieves something in politics other getting re-elected.
AOC already has achieved something huge.
She has shown that an ordinary person can achieve political success in the USA while at the same time eschewing donations from the wealthy and corporates.
Nothing new in that. Not even particularly remarkable.
@ad…so what did that 'actor' say that is factually incorrect…?…b.t.w…did you call 2016 for clinton .?..you are a man riddled with yr certainties ..so I doubt you sat on the fence…
Well, it's his perspective, but there's nothing particularly crazy in what he says. There's the usual conceit that he knows "blue collar workers" better than other wealthy people do, but there doesn't seem to be much of the thinly-veiled references to "soros" and all that veiled-nazi jazz.
Didn't you hear the election is over and Trump lost, republicans lost, moonbats lost and wingnuts lost. You don't go messing around with the opinion filters on the back of that sort of outcome!
So, what you're saying is that everyone lost and there's still a bunch of elected dictators in power?
I'm saying you know the guy won you know the thing and so you know the bank is now in charge.
Agree with Gabriel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0YTM8iO4_s&t=6s
Too simple for Trump to say, I concede pending on the recount.
An attempt to unseat the chairman of the West Coast Conservation Board has fallen flat.
"Keith Morfett was recently reappointed to the board for a second term by then-Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage.
But Ngai Tahu is challenging the minister's appointment process in the High Court after accusing the conservation board of ignoring its Treaty obligations and being in thrall to environmental groups such as Forest and Bird."
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/morfett-reappointed-conservation-board
"in thrall to environmental groups such as Forest and Bird." ? ! Well that might not be what Ngai Tahu's in thrall of….maybe Money?
It's inevitable that conflicts will arise between government environmental ideas and Maori. Please just stick to facts and avoid taking sides against Maori, 'pour encourager les autres'.
Ah…..any reading of my Posts/Comments on here would see that I dont "take sides against Maori"…….
However I dont see Ngai Tahu as particularly "Enviro" or…Green. Quite the Business First Org.
And this was Forest and Bird they were chipping at….
My View…and I will stand by it.!
As American as apple pie. Just add cream.
https://i.imgflip.com/4lpyqg.jpg
Matt King (ex MP for Northland) was given the opportunity for a pity-party on TVNZ1 Breakfast show this morning. No questions about his Twitter attacks with misinformation on climate change, no questions about name calling the PM and about the Labour Party creating a Nazi society, no questions about his actively flouting and encouraging others to flout Covid Rules but they did politely sympathize with his loss and branding him a nice guy. Not so convinced were the viewers apparently, feedback suggesting he should take a little responsibility instead of his sense of entitlement and blaming everyone but himself and his Party. Happy Days
Happy days indeed. Locals had road checks earlier in the year worried that covid-19 would come into the region. A bit of a fuss ensued but most locals were not phased about the politics. Being alive and well and having someone seeking to protect them was welcomed.
Of course there was a constituency to appeal to, to rouse and harness in election year. It is the Far North. We have red necks. King got in the car with family just to 'go for a drive to show then around'. Into the road checks no less. Fancy that, an opportunity, a cunning stunt.
A lot of them voted for him of course, most didn't.
A focus about the tide turning in mainly rural South Island has meant scant attention to the reality at the other end of the country.
In the two northernmost general electorates so solidly National for generations, that party was comprehensively thrashed. King should have stayed home, saved his petrol.
Matt was invited by Hone Harawira, to attend a Te Tai Tokerau Border Patrol for a day near Kaikohe, with Police presence! and he never turned up. He had been trying to rile his pākehā supporters about “the mareeees and their illegal road blocks”, but actually a number of non Māori in the North supported the Iwi Border Patrols.
Mr King tried to be the Trump of the North on Facebook, but regularly got fact checked and shamed, he never turned up to any invitations to debate any of the bs he put out there. A mate of mine saw him at the Dargaville A&P two years back, and King stuck his hand out, “not shaking your hand you effing fascist” was the response, King was shocked. Dunno where my mate got that classic line from but it sat the ex MP down for a minute.
Sounds a bit 'Rick' from The Young Ones.
And Awesome Willow-Jean win ! : )
King probably attended on the basis that it would be a pity-party.
TVNZ/RNZ may as well be corporate media as King's fair game and it would've been great TV watching him dance on the head of a pin if some actual journalism was practiced.
Hosking fearmongering undone by Robertson.
Hosking had a rant about the govts debt around covid response saying 42 organizations wanting up to $150 a week increases on benefits was causing eye watering increases in debt,and that NZ was the only country in the OECD that had increased the benefit rates by a lousy $25 other than Hong Kong .
Then Robertson comes on his show and quietly undoes all his BS.GrantRobertson also gives Hosking an update on how the economy has bounced back a lot quicker than expected.
Good on Robertson for his stellar work on the economy and his cool calm collected communication style .
[Second time: please stick to one e-mail address, thanks]
[Second time: please stick to one e-mail address, thanks]
edit
Are we concreted in on some Covid-19 decisions that should be constantly revised?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430230/man-in-miq-blown-away-seeing-staff-only-wearing-surgical-masks
Health workers in New Zealand quarantine hotels are some of the worst protected in the developed world, according to a man in managed isolation who's helped kit out medical staff all over the world.
And we care don’t we for St Johns. Management may be being too neo lib perhaps pay high at top but workers?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018772011/paramedics-vote-for-strike-action-we-feel-st-john-don-t-really-care
The organisation has financial difificulties partly from the pandemic impacting fund-raising. Peters was right to call for better government contribution.
St John's shouldn't even be a private organisation.
What to do when your caucus is now only 33?
Bridges for Finance?
Reti for Deputy?
What to do with Nick Smith?
How to bury Paul Goldsmith?
Erica Stanford anyone?
What stars will rise in the firmament in 2021 from the political ash-heap of 2020?
Anyone feeling it?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/national-mps-meet-to-decide-their-next-deputy-leader-after-their-devastating-election-loss/SUBI3OEOSHWRCNV4QJMWGBSD2M/
Erica Stanford would be the obvious candidate to take over the Blue-Green mantle from Nick Smith. Such as it is, anyways.
The slippery old eel Nick Smith will he slither away or hang around time for this environmental disaster to go.
I'd quite like for him to asphyxiate quietly in one of our many polluted waterways.
Do you think that National will be more united with 33 caucus members?
Looks like Collins has already traded places with her deputy within minutes of his appointment. Void of original thought, of course, but ironically, may well be a good move.
“Dr Reti’s knowledge and history working in the health sector will be an asset as Parliament deals with the impact of Covid-19. His experience will be invaluable to me as deputy leader and I’m looking forward to working closer with him.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/123350020/shane-reti-elected-unopposed-as-new-deputy-leader-of-the-national-party
Lol good one Chris.
You never know what might happen.
After all, following the 2014 election National had 60 seats and Labour had 32.
Labour recovered enough to form the Government after the following election.
Now Labour have 65 and National have 33 which is pretty much the same thing. Who knows but history may repeat and we will have a change of Government in 2023. After all we aren't likely to have another pandemic are we?
Well not until the next one.
Do you think world leaders have worked out that the next time a pandemic erupts that shutting the planet down (human activity) for 6 weeks is the cheapest option.
The appropriate response will depend on how it spreads, infectiousness profile over time, and no doubt a bunch of other factors an infectious disease specialist could bore us all to tears with.
For instance, if the next one is some sort of turbo-hepatitis where the spread is mostly through food and transferring infectious material on surfaces, and people can be infectious for decades, then the appropriate response will be quite different to a shutdown.
Unfortunately I am forced to agree with you.
Can I change the last sentence to "After all, perhaps we will be lucky enough not to have another pandemic so quickly"?
Alwyn your lame claim doesn't add up how come National only had a 2 seat majority relying on the relying on the Maori Party.
Labour Greens Maori Party have a 30 seat majority given the Maori Party will not go with National again.
Alwynger your living in the past first past the post.
We are lucky here in Godzone on how we do politics. On Stuff this morning there is video of Smith conceding Nelson to Rachel Boyack and while I am not in any way a fan of his he has to be commended for the gracious manner in which he did it and the exceptional way that the Nelson Labour crew treated him. Well done everybody. It is well worth a look just to reinforce how thankful we should be about how civilised we are here.
yes, even with polies you despise , you know they still have NZ best interest at heart . looking at many of the overseas polies? maybe not.
Well we probably should give these visa holders their money back. But 23,000 visa's which is probably not the lot, is an awful lot of competition for our young NEETS in the job market – for the 50,000 or so who enter it every year. Any chance of Labour rejiging this? Unlikely.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/123334850/working-holiday-visa-holders-stuck-offshore-beg-for-extensions-to-entry-date
Working Holidays are an outcome of reciprocal agreements with other countries, so we could scrap them, but that would probably result the end of the equivalent schemes, so instead of competing with foreign workers, they would compete with young NZ workers who didn't go on their OEs.
Yeh Nah I haven't looked up any actual figures – don't even know if they exist in total but our birth cohorts are in the 50-60k a year zone hence around that number onto the labour market a year.
Now if we do straight number swaps eg we issue 10 to the UK and they issue 10 to NZ it is going to have a far greater impact on our labour market as we have a much smaller population. Some of the countries mentioned in the article are aslo unlikely I suspect to provide much in the way of kiwi jobs – some of the south americain countries. But 23K is a lot and that won't be all. I really can't see that number of Kiwis leaving . and the ones that stay have to compete with student visas and other low waged immigration as well.
Well Dr Reti, I hope you've packed your magic undies, 'cause you've sure got a shitty new job.
Especially when his leader says she's looking forward to working "closer" with him.
further nats news, maureen pugh has gone from phucking useless ,to a promotion up the list, to whip. she is getting her numbers ready for a rural takeback of the nats! with dr shane as her deputy, that would cover most of the nats trad voters, just need to keep bridges around to appeal to the whiney suitwearers.
It's less a job, more a summer internship, duties amount to nodding on camera beside a leader who will be gone soon. Still, it puts him on the (very) short list for next leader, and they could do a lot worse – and probably will.
National deputy leaders of 2020, a brief history: Bennett – quit Parliament. Kaye – quit Parliament. Brownlee – lost seat. Reti – lost seat.
I don't think any party anywhere can boast such a record.
heh
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1325937738311413760
It's Farrar's 'dream' team. History shows that what goes on in that head's reverie is likely to be some sort of hallucinogenic weirdness.
Deeply disappointed in the cannabis referendum. The combination of punitive, vindictive sanctimonious, self righteous, fake christians and false moralists with the justice industry [cops lawyers judges corrections and would be counsellors looking for a gig] was too much for the referendumb to bear. plus the spiteful bastards against everything. The way Andrew Little brushed it off and then dodged a bullet by jettisoning justice was shameful.As a committed advocate for the working man I am never going to vote for the running dogs of capitalism but the "vote" will go to the greens next time
and if they decriminalise?
life will go on as normal. if Portugal is any example usage will decrease and the kidz who get upin front of the beak and say"it woz the drugz wot made me do it" will have to be responsible for their actions.
it was more how you would respond if they decriminalised…would you then vote for them?
Cannabis is not the only problem with this government….and all the problems..inaction on poverty/environment/animal welfare etc etc..on and on it goes..can all be tracked back to the fact that labour is yet to realise it is clutching to a failed/bankrupt ideology…neoliberalism…as you look around the world its' failures are legion..increasing inequality..fucking up the environment…and doing basically nothing to fix the problems we have…and labour has long wed incrementalism to to that bankrupt neoliberalism…this is what has been the ideology of both our main parties since after the second lange govt and Ruth richardson's magic poverty wand was waved…helen clark/are/were neoliberal incrementalists to the core…(and they are now advising ardern..a fact that chills the blood)..and ardern/robertson learnt at the knees of clark/cullen…and what clark thought of from day one of each term and what drove her actions/inaction was the next election ..doing what she had to do to win that next election..(hence large wedges of middle-class welfare..and the poor can just rot..)…ardern/robertson are following in those shoes ..and the country cannot expect any meaningful change any time soon…(and when did it become the norm that for any pissant/small change that is made…we are made to wait eons for it to actually be enacted..?..when the f. did that delayed-gratification become the norm..?..)…as long as ardern/ labour fly that neoliberal flag..nothing much will change…but the warning for ardern is that what clark did so successfully will not work again…and she should know that when she/labour fail to deliver..that there is now another party the disappointed/disgruntled can turn to at the next election…who they know will do all the shit that needs doing…the greens…so if she doesn't deliver at the next election those tories disgusted with the current iteration/doings of the national party..will likely return home..and the left will turn en masse to the greens….and the centre will not be the certainty she now thinks it is…
ok….but it was a specific question in relation to R P McMurphy's post "Deeply disappointed in the cannabis referendum…."
Im quite sure that there will be many rationales for people not to vote Labour should they so choose
I've just been saying on The Daily Blog in response to Martyn's criticism of Jacinda's neglect of the beneficiaries while spouting away about them in her slogans, if she thinks she can get away with that via her professional careerist apparatchiks and public popularity her neglect of the thinking Left will involve a serious cost.
The Maori Labour MPs, to be taken at all seriously, should have demanded the Welfare Experts Group Report to be adopted immediately. Duds.
Reading the comments above we all seem to be seething about the neglect of beneficiaries.
The marijuana push-back suggests there's work to do and Labour's focus groups might have something to them. When America has gone full-on grass liberalisation it suggests timidity is the essential part of the Party. Why I voted Little for leader and have never voted for Labour.
The timidity was at the birth, though Trotter calls it realism, when the 1935 govt wouldn't put my g.great grandfather in the Legislative Council because of his outright socialism. He got nationalisation of the means of production passed at the British Labour AGM in 1908. If he'd stayed in England he would have been a Lord.