What seems to matter above all to Terry Hall (as in his Stuff/Business Day Op Ed today), is the best time to invest – not whether the investment is good for most of NZers, or whether it’ll be good/bad for the economy long term?
And it seems protests and campaigns (which reflect the fact that most Kiwis are opposed to privtisation of utilities) are just good PR for Might River Power’s asset sale….. and ha, ha, ha, ha…. stupid protesters, they are just providing this PR and not getting paid for it.
Somewhere, high up in the Beehive, someone must have said: “Bugger!” After months of planning all the ducks were in a row – the timing should have been perfect for the Mighty River float.
…
Did the opposition parties and the many protesters marching through streets and writing letters demanding that the Government abandon the partial privatisation programme realise that they were actually stoking demand for the shares? And that they weren’t getting a cent for their promotional efforts?
Carol, having read the investment types for years I have come to the conclusion that there is no right time to buy but there is an “advantageous moment”. For the last century and a half we have had currency devaluation (or asset valuation), look at the property market as a case in point (and not the bubble period but the last 100 years). Investment has been simple and mainly safe whilst this trend has been a constant upwards movement, the “smart” investor picks the most “advantageous moment” to buy as this has a real impact on the time frame to get a return.
If you look at Mighty River the most advantageous moment is when he price is lowest: who is going to pay a high sum when their is some doubt about title? The low price will suit investors as they will be working on the principle that the state will uphold “private property rights”.
PS There is good news in the trends on price: it has tracked energy availability and consequent “growth”, that is all about to reverse. Investors are going to have to learn a new game.
Dams grow old and Earthquakes undermine foundations. Its always in the interest of a seller to
be ‘helped’ by the buyer beware ideal. Secondly, its not safe to say that middle to long term
energy companies will do better, since much of their market is heating homes, insulation,
roof heat exchanges, solar, all add up to growing undermining of energy profits. I think
you should question why National no longer believe energy companies are assets of national
importance. As for the peculiar relationship of an aluminum smelter and its whole own government energy supplier. Now the smelter will start buying shares and have a seat on the board, yeah that’s really going to help drive up profits.
Aero, I have a far more cynical approach to how power companies will act in the face of “competition” from insulation, solar etc. They will merely charge more, because like Telecom before them those who have to have the electricity will need to buy, whatever the price. The competitive market thing I have seen before, it wont stop what I would describe as “passive” cartel behavior.
Another factor stopping keeping price up will be the capital cost of alternatives: those of us who can afford to buy these will leaving the less well off to bear the cost.
A further factor that will mitigate against the fall of electricity prices will be the diminution of oil based energy, demand will shift. This is the primary reason why we must hang on to our electricity as a strategic asset. It is also a primary reason these rentier parasites want to own the generation of electricity.
All up it says that we must NOT sell if we don’t want to become power peasants.
Power is a necessity and as such if a society puts it in the hands of profiteers then the poor of that society will be the ones who end up paying for the extravagant lifestyles the new owners think is owed to them.
“Did the opposition parties and the many protesters marching through streets and writing letters demanding that the Government abandon the partial privatisation programme realise that they were actually stoking demand for the shares?”
I reckon this is fallacious political posturing because I suspect “persons” (corporate groups included) with large profits need something more secure to invest in than the speculative markets, which are in a dire state of bubbledom.
Haven’t they had Josie Pagani for a while. Their idea of a leftie – my idea of a well-educated middle class woman spouting out the predictable truisms of the comfortable class whose thinking about the world is exemplified in its image of the three monkeys minus one – Hear no evil, See no evil, but feel free to Speak evil.
We also had Trotter and Bomber appear briefly. Seems to me however all that happens when a “lefty” gets on the radio is that the “left” give them as much s**t as the “right” do. We are truly a house divided.
So Josie is off to a good start…. praises school dinners idea, 1st….. then goes on to slam the logic of Shearer’s speech and the failure to pitch to potentially “new” Labour voters, or to recognise the long tail of failure in NZ’s education system… that 20% fail rate implied.
Oh… no…. that % has just grown. Josie just mentioned possibly 40%!
Yes, clearly both Josie and Hooton are focused on pitching to middleclass voters (and the middle and upper sections of the middleclasses as well). The rest don’t seem to exist in their view.
Hooten played the race card so many times its not funny.
So thats the rights new policy as theyn have no policy play the race card that will move NZ forward
yeah right.
Well unfortunately the lady with “ISSSSHHHHHHyouse”, her producer or that Extemely, Utterly, Indisputably, “every-man’s BEST friend – in the-afternoon” wouldn;t know what right, centre, or left actually is or was.
Sometimes I wonder why the likes of a Slack and others even bother. I spose his balls must have been feminised by all that cycling and Devonport living.
Well, I don’t think there are the contradictions that the author identifies to discredit particular philosophic approaches of the government. So called “neoliberalism” was always a PR front for the powerful elites to do whatever they deemed necessary to shift the wealth in their direction. This is indeed made easier by NZ’s top-down form of government, and limited amount of checks and balances in the system (eg without an upper house).
Key’s NZ Inc can operate easily in this environment, while continuing to mouth a lot of neoliberal free-market PR. Both running the government like a business, and the need to deal with regular elections, make for a short term approach. Anyway, running the public sector like a business has been integral to the “neoliberal” shift.
Klein’s disaster capitalism is also consistent with this: it involves having an underlying philosophy that favours the elite, and the willingness to be opportunistic in the face of unexpected disasters.
Of course, with the likes of Brownlee in charge of some things, cock-ups will also happen…. and these do sometimes provide openings for the opposition to make the running….. they aren’t doing this as well as they could.
First: Business is fundamentally the same for the players regardless of whether we are neo lib or Keynesian or whatever in terms of government. Business rules toward profit apply under any regime and the pathology of the resulting relations to production (to coin Marx) will be the same. Interestingly this approach also applied to Soviet enterprises, with the same predictable social results.
Second: good point on running governemtn like a business. The end result is that you cease to be a citizen with citizens rights: you become a client, a consumer and a tax payer. The relationship fundamentally changes to one measured not by your rights but by cash etc. Public servants become managers,….it sounds subtle but it is significant.
This is indeed made easier by NZâs top-down form of government, and limited amount of checks and balances in the system (eg without an upper house).
An upper house is not a check on abuse of power. If the same party controls both houses then both become a rubber stamp for what the government wants to do. MMP is a better check on such abuse but we’ve essentially ended up with a single party in power ATM and so the abuse has become more obvious than normal. If we want checks and balances on the abuse of power then those need to be in the hands of the people and not the politicians.
Anyway, running the public sector like a business has been integral to the âneoliberalâ shift.
Agreed and, after 30 years of doing so, the inefficiencies are really starting to show through.
A top-down corporate approach to running New Zealand – one people united under a single business plan – sounds reassuringly centralist and commonsense.
It promises to move us beyond the stale old political dichotomies of Left v Right, or liberal v conservative.
A top-down corporate approach is full on conservative and antidemocratic. I think the liberals will have something to say about that.
“The problem with New Zealand democracy is that we don’t have very good checks and balances on central government power.”
That’s true. In fact, the lack of limits on executive power is clearly shown with NACTs sell off of our assets against the will of the people.
Edwards suggests this centralising tendency has a lot to do with New Zealand’s legacy as a settler colony – the need for a strong hand to carve out a new country.
Bollocks, it has to do with a few peoples desire for power and nothing else.
This is also what the Auckland super-city merger was about, she says. With globalisation, cities too are in international competition for people and investment. So the same NZ Inc logic of intervening to foster the conditions for more rapid growth applies.
“The goal is to create space for business to flourish. It is about freeing up the resources for certain actors, the bigger corporates, to have more opportunities. It isn’t about the little local businesses. With actions like the Roads of National Significance, it is about how it will benefit the larger players.”
Got to agree with that. This government has always been about catering to the big multi-nationals while ignoring the local community.
The newly constituted ACC Board needs to demonstrate its commitment to culture change in the organisation by immediately changing the way it commissions the services of specialist medical assessors, Green Party ACC spokesperson Kevin Hague said today.
…
There is no doubt that ACC has a standard practice of using specialist medical assessors who are likely to make an assessment favourable to ACC,” said Mr Hague
“The many claimants’ stories I have on file show, in particular, it is common for ACC medical assessors to have views which are unusual in their specialty, and who are willing to offer opinions outside of their recognized scope of practice.
“Dr Du Plessis, who was interviewed in Melanie Reid’s story is far from unique.
…
“The Green Party has suggested several ways of doing this to the Minister. One is to engage with the specialists’ professional colleges to have them appoint medical assessors. Another is simply to extend the contracts ACC already has with District Health Boards so that DHB specialists make the assessments,” said Mr Hague.
Mr Hague has also raised with the Minister ACC’s intention to now exercise greater control of the clinical “gateway” into the scheme.
But with Rebstock in charge, can we expect the ACC Board to listen to the Greens?
Jokey Hen after Russia disappointed he couldn’t bag a free trade agreement. Jokey Hen at the pacific forum denigrating China our present hope for survival. This man should have duct tape applied to his mouth every morning. I understand there is a comedian who makes a good living from an act like this.
We have a long trading association with Russia. Even when they were awful ‘Reds’ and their money wasn’t freely exchangeable internationally we traded with them – our butter for their larders (whoops I mean Ladas, cars that is. Incidentally a USA woman living here was very upset then because they were produced by prisoners who weren’t receiving wages. Doesn’t this happen now in the USA and perhaps here?)
Anyway I digress, but just make the point that we have found ways to trade with Russia and it doesn’t require our Prime Minister to hang all our hopes on his high political contacts and acumen. Hah!
Radionz 8.20 this morning – http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport
NZ – Russia deal has great potential, but huge pitfalls
New Zealand firms will have to wait for at least a year to get free access to the Russian market, and there’s no guarantee it will ever happen. (6â˛40âł)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed
Hopefully the interpreter understood all Johnny Boy’s fractured words and got them correct, it would be awful if we were also committed to Russia’s contexts!
We study the role of parental wealth for childrenâs educational and occupational outcomes
across three types of welfare states and outline a theoretical model that assumes parental
wealth to impact offspringâs attainment through two mechanisms, wealthâs purchasing
function and its insurance function. We argue that welfare states can limit the purchasing
function of wealth, for instance by providing free education and generous social benefits,
yet none of the welfare states examined here provides a functional equivalent to the
insurance against adverse outcomes afforded by parental wealth. Our empirical evidence of
substantial associations between parental wealth and childrenâs educational success and
social mobility in three nations that are marked by large institutional differences is in line
with this in line with this interpretation and helps us re-examine and extend existing typologies of mobility regimes.
Germany and Sweden are at the top of the list spending close to 30% of their GDP on welfare, we spend 18.5%, so I’m wondering what your epitome of a welfare state is Carol.
I was thinking more of other Scandanavian countries. Not the US for sure. And Germany is still a bit of a banksters paradise, so I don’t expect that much social mobility there.
Arguably then, if we do see our future trade interests as being part of Asia, we should detach ourselves from the TPP as discreetly as we can. Because, to repeat:
(a) The TPP is little more than a Washingtonâled security alliance in the guise of a trade pact, and is being directed tactically against a China that we should be seeking to befriend;
(b) US farmers will ensure that the TPP cannot deliver us the freer agricultural access that would be the only worthwhile quid pro quo for the level of concessions the TPP will require of us. And of course;
(c) The TPP negotiations and the level of concessions they entail pose a genuine threat to our national autonomy, and;
(d) The negotiations are being conducted amidst a total secrecy blackout that makes a mockery of Parliament and the democratic process.
The People’s Republic of China has decided to counter-program against the TPP with the RCEP – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a proposed free trade zone encompassing ASEAN, China, Japan, India, Australia, and South Korea.
A Maori claim on commercial wind use isn’t sitting well with the Greens.
Ngapuhi member David Rankin, along with two colleagues, has lodged an application with the
Waitangi Tribunal for the commercial use of wind and has lodged a pre-emptive claim for any commercial wind farms in Northland.
Green Party Co-Leader Metiria Turei doesn’t think the claim has merit.
“It undermines the very serious claims that are going on at the moment around water. I don’t think it’s a wise claim to make, and I don’t think it’s justifiable.”
Labour leader David Shearer says at first glance it looks peculiar to him as he’s never thought of wind being anything other than the wind.
“I’d have to have a look at what they’re trying to do but at the moment, I guess I’d be sceptical about it.”
Meanwhile Prime Minister John Key says those sorts of assets are there for the entire country.
“My view is pretty clear. No-one owns water, no-one owns wind, no-one owns sunlight, no-one owns the sea. I could give you quite a long list if you like.”
So we can see that …
1) The Greens get top billing, because Metiria Turei is clear.
2) Key is repeating his familiar line – it’s deliberately misleading, it’s a dog-whistle, but .. it’s clear.
3) Shearer doesn’t know what to say. He sounds surprised.
The possibility of a wind claim was being discussed last week. So, did nobody in Shearer’s office say “Here’s what will happen, so be prepared. What’s your response?”. Or did they tell him and he forgot?
Again and again – basic Labour failure to anticipate and communicate. Why?
Your analysis of Shearer’s muddled “statement” is spot-on.
We used to keep being told how Shearer was tough and would eventually develop into a smooth and competent leader. After all, they said, he had “faced down warlords in Iraq”.
Who came up with that line? Was it those PR masterminds John and Josie Pagani?
I’ve not YET read any of the above but i am currenlty watching Skoi News Srtay Lia.
Needless to say they’re on about “boat people” AGAIN!
Firstly………can SOMEONE inform our politicians and media that seeking asylum IS NOT ACTUALLY ILLEGAL. IF Jonky or Joolya think it is, then perhaps they should FIRST rescind by whatever means it talkes, the international law both countries signed up to. IF gubbamints under a Gillard or a Jonky want to change the rules – then they should first have said they no longer want to be signatories to the international law that those who preceeded them signed up to. Simply trying to implement tactical solutions out of expediencey and panic never really works, as they may come to learn soon enough.
Secondly …….. Elsewhere on some other soshul netwerking blog (I’m not an addict of soshul netwerking), I predicted that there would be proposed legislation that (at least past) pot-smoking [illegal activity] ferral Kapiti redneck has proposed. Sure enough – it’s come to pass. Cheers Nafe..
Thirdly ………I’ll make another suggestion. It IS that Jonky (in his bid to provide some sort of relief to Joolya’s itching undercarriage) has already made certain promises – or at least given her an “understanding”
!700 refuge seekers have arrived on AUstralian Territory (which in itlelf could be challenged).
I’ll make a predication. ONCE the law has passed where people obeying already entrenched international law, and law that both NZ and OZ signed up to becomes overwhelming – Cnut likker, Putin likker, ANYONE likker if there’s a dollar init…… will “offer assistance.
WE actually bailed out the Austrralians once before – under different circumstances agreed. Something they’ve NEVER had the decency to accknowledge and something they’re desperate to forget!
I made the first comment -where-ever it was when Jonky and Joolya were kissing as he visited OZ. The timing was very interesting. VERY shortly after – we began having little exercises …… We were PRACTICING what we’d do if we (as NZers) were to be inundated by those bloody “illegal”, pesky Ali Gill soilim seekers roiving on boats.
It’s not just Pulla Bent that licks a keezus…….. old Nafe is desperate to get respectable too.
Hey – brings me to another point…….i..e. Public Servants would actually do themsleves a favour if more blew whistles. The ones that don’t have obviously NOT woken up to the fact that our Public Service (Including SSC) is no longer politically independant.
I await the first load of (ex-AUSTRALIAN) “illegals” “boat people” ” queue jumpers” etc.
(NONE of the caracterisations are actually true – shame ter is not 4th Estate left).
And – if Public Servants are in any doubt…….perhaps they cudda shudda wudda been watching 60 mis last night.
For me (as an ex PS) it was the BEST thing I ever did. Though the revelation that certain CEO’s and Snr Mgmnt are often lying, incompetent. bigoted, state security risks on a cruise, ….though that reevelation is sometimes recognised, it actually show JUST how fragile the system is.
If you can embarrass them – they’ll react.
John Fucking Key aye! Oi Oi Oi. They actually really operate on EGO.
The were Poe Bronsons and various others that stepped in his shoes way before he ever did.
Oh…..PS
Oifer Dole Unce His twear frens in Stray Lia en thear Priom Minsta of the re sint loss of Jool lears far the.
Es bruths en ssssstas, your pain is ear pain. In the ENZEK sprit, we stend ferrrm with you.
I hope that more of us become more savvy with regard to the derivatives market. I find it difficult to understand this subject, (as I believe most do) yet we need to engage with it. I suspect this sector is pivotal to addressing the major issues arising in our country and world-wide and needs to become central to our dialogue.
If I am understanding correctly,
~any tangible asset is likely to sell like hot-cakes due to the state the derivatives market is in (preferable to have your name on something tangible in the event the derivatives bubble bursts)
~the derivatives market is not regulated and has ballooned becoming 10-20x larger than world gdp
“In the past, prices were based largely on supply and demand, but they are now driven up by investors placing self-fulfilling bets on higher prices for oil, wheat and other products.
The study finds strong evidence of a direct causal link between speculative buying and selling, and changes in commodity price curves resulting in increasing prices.”
Blue Leopard … if you haven’t already, find The Big Short by Michael Lewis; an amazing book from last year on how the whole banking and markets system functions — it is beyond belief, and beautifully written .. reads like fiction, so extraordinary it is.
(Although I am exceedingly scathing that more people did not foresee the problem; this is to say that people who worked in the financial circles were incapable of recognizing the signs of a bubble….it is clearly to such peoples’ advantage to plead ignorance…)
“It is likely the commissioners would be required until 2015. For this reason, the Government proposes to defer the 2013 election for Kaipara District Council until October 2015.”
1: Corruption
2: Payoff for corruption
3: Govt commisars sent in to cover it all up
4: Possible deferred elections
Nah we don’t have corruption in NZ eh bro,
Mr McKerchar, 61, was chief executive when the council illegally struck rates and was also at the helm in the lead-up to its debt blowout.
He had refused to discuss whether he contributed to the council’s poor financial health.
Argh, the brothers strike another blow for the rest of us!
Last week it was reported that the former chief executive of the council, Jack McKercher, had received severance payments totalling $240,000 when he quit.
So why did Mr McKerchar get a quarter million payout if he was in charge when dirty deals going down? You get fired for that and then put in prison.
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When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I donât know TaupĹ well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, Iâm always on the way to somewhere else. Usually TaupĹ means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 â the virus that causes COVID-19 â leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection â this has been dubbed âlong COVIDâ. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK â following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi.  A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititiâs successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
Dear friends, itâs been a covidious year,A testing time for all of us hereâCitizens of an island nationIn a state of managed isolation,A team (someone said) five million strong,Making it up as we went along:Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion,Without any wild excess ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021Editor's Choice7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ...
Scottish doctor Malcolm Kendrick looks at the pandemic and the responses to it 30th December 2020 I have not written much about COVID19 recently. What can be said? In my opinion the world has simply gone bonkers. The best description can be found in Danteâs Inferno, written many hundreds of ...
I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL for your ...
The deed is done, the doers undoneHad I been a Brit, I would have voted âRemainâ rather than Brexit (or âLeaveâ). Instead, I have been bemused by the comic theatre of British politics, fascinated by what the Brits actual think and professionally interested by the revelations of the complexity of ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. Thereâs a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, hereâs a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. âFollowing confirmation of the Cook Islandsâ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. âOur top priority continues ...
Todayâs deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. âThe deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. âABAC helps ensure that APECâs work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Governmentâs prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealandâs local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. âGiven the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, itâs clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. âThe Battle at Te Ruapekapeka PÄ, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. âThe new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. âThe past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Yearâs Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. âWe are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Yearâs Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Governmentâs investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. âCOVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
New virus variants and ongoing high rates of diseases in some countries prompt additional border protections Extra (day zero or day one) test to be in place this week New ways of reducing risk before people embark on travel being investigated, including pre-departure testing for people leaving the United Kingdom ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
âLast year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at IhumÄtao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didnât think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bayâ says ACT Leader David Seymour. âThe prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago â some 124 days â since MÄâohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planetâs lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governorâs apology and claim he will âown the issueâ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayersâ Union said: âItâs been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools â from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing â have transformed the way we work. In many respects theyâve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. âWe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on Englandâs Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called âfounding fathersâ of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-GuĂŠrin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country â this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. âIt is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealandâs Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, itâs not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authorityâs Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If youâve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
âWe may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. âIt is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka â Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as âdeath ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his âbaseâ, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Covid-19 fears accelerated banksâ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...
Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and todayâs anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a âtorch being passed to a new generationâ. Two years later and one day apart, ...
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...
As CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures.As we enter the New Year I ...
The Prada Cup challenger series starts today. Suzanne McFadden goes behind the scenes of the world's only live yachting regatta to see what's in store for the next five weeks. At 6am on race days, Iain Murray wakes up and immediately checks the weather outside his Auckland window. âItâs all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Raquel Peel, Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland This story contains spoilers for Bridgerton The first season of Bridgerton, Netflixâs new hit show based on Julia Quinnâs novels, premiered on December 25 last year. The show is set in London, during the ...
The New Zealand government believes its own negotiations with Rio Tinto will be resolved "fairly quickly" now there is certainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter. ...
Amanda Thompson and her family are attempting to cut back on the meat, so they gave all the vego sausies the local supermarket had to offer a hoon on the barbie. Here are the results.I was a vegetarian once. Even the best of us take a well-meaning wrong turn on ...
The Taxpayersâ Union welcomes the call by Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons for a shift to land value based rates charges. Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "Local government leaders across the country should join in Fitzsimonsâs call ...
It’s been described as ‘pointless revenge’, but impeaching the president has a firm moral purpose, argues Michael Blake – setting a limit to what sorts of action a society will accept.A House majority, including 10 Republicans, voted today to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection”. The vote will initiate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Lead Academic Teacher – Politics & Social Science (Swinburne Online), Swinburne University of Technology In a historic vote today, Donald Trump became the only US president to be impeached twice. By a margin of 232â197, the Democrat-controlled US House of ...
Hurrah. The PM is back to posting her announcements on the governmentâs official website, her deputy is back in the business of self-congratulation, Rio Tinto is back in the business of sucking up cheap electricity to produce aluminium at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. And overseas students (some, anyway) can come ...
The electricity sector, Government and people of Southland are rejoicing after Tiwai Point aluminium smelter owner Rio Tinto announced the major industrial would be open until the end of 2024, Marc Daalder reports Stakeholders in the electricity sector and across Southland are celebrating the extension of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter's ...
If you’ve been on social media this week, you may well have come across a surge in interest in sea shanties. We asked a veteran of the style why. In case you missed it, soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum. If that sentence is even ...
âIt is basic human decency to speak up and protect any vulnerable child from harm, so withholding information in child abuse cases and allowing the abuse to happen by not speaking up is, put simply, a cowardly move,â says Jess McVicar Co-Leader ...
Allowing 1,000 returning international students back to New Zealand is the right move by the Government, and hopefully we will be able to welcome more, says ExportNZ Executive Director Catherine Beard. "International education has contributed ...
A majority of the House of Representatives have voted to make Donald Trump the first US president ever to be impeached twice, formally charging him in his waning days in power with inciting an insurrection just a week after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol. Follow the ...
The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZâs 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. âWe believe it is vital to hold our new Labour-led government to account ...
The Taxpayersâ Union is calling on Rotorua Lakes District Council to urgently release the engineering report on the public safety and structural integrity of the visible foundation-misalignment and lean of the Cityâs Hemo Gorge monument to government ...
Changes in income and movement in and out of poverty over time are only weakly associated with higher rates of child hospitalisation in New Zealand, according to a new University of Auckland study. Published today in PLOS ONE, the collaborative study led by Dr ...
With a long, hot summer upon us, pet owners are urged to be extra mindful of their petâs health and safety. Unusually warm weather can quickly take its toll on furry family members, who arenât well equipped for dealing with blazing heat. The National ...
The Council for Civil Liberties is challenging a claim by former National Party leader Simon Bridges that people should have total freedom of expression on Twitter. ...
A century of sexual abuse of women in New Zealand is analysed in a University of Auckland study. The newly-published research looks back as far as 1922 by analysing interviews with thousands of women about their lifetime experiences. The study indicates ...
62,686 more native trees will be planted in New Zealand in 2021 thanks to generous Kiwis who chose to go green for Christmas gifting. <img src="https://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/2101/cf409712f141732a8543.jpeg" width="720" height="540"> Trees That Count, a programme ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By Arturo LĂłpez-LevyOakland, CaliforniaUnfortunately, the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, encouraged by the Inciter-in-Chief, will not be the last act of mischief. Trump is insisting on causing as much damage as possible to the interests and values ...
The threatened Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will keep operating through to the end of December 2024, in a new deal just announced to the New Zealand stock exchange. Mining conglomerate Rio Tinto announced last year it was closing Tiwai due to high energy and transmission costs. Meridian Energy said that ...
The lack of Māori language or symbolism on the SuperGold Card isn’t just a design issue – it’s emblematic of the overwhelming whiteness of Aotearoa’s superannuant population, writes former race relations commissioner Joris de Bres.I’ve enjoyed the SuperGold Card since I retired eight years ago. I appreciate the free public ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Brumm, Professor, Griffith University The dating of an exceptionally old cave painting of animals that was found recently on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is reported in our paper out today. The painting portrays images of the Sulawesi warty pig (Sus ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Garrick, University Fellow in Law, Charles Darwin University Just over a year has gone by since the novel coronavirus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and the world still has many questions about where and how it originated. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Young, Lecturer, Deakin University Medievalist references littered the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th. Rudy Giuliani called for a âtrial by combatâ; the âQ Shamanâ, Jacob Chansley (also known as Jake Angeli), was covered in Norse tattoos; rioters brandished ...
A WhakatÄne therapist says the Whakaari eruption and Christchurch mosque shooting reveal a health system unable to deal with mass casualty events. Whakaari after its eruption in 2019. Photo: Supplied/Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust This comes amid calls for millions of dollars of promised mental health funding to be urgently re-routed to Canterbury ...
What is it with these investment types?
What seems to matter above all to Terry Hall (as in his Stuff/Business Day Op Ed today), is the best time to invest – not whether the investment is good for most of NZers, or whether it’ll be good/bad for the economy long term?
And it seems protests and campaigns (which reflect the fact that most Kiwis are opposed to privtisation of utilities) are just good PR for Might River Power’s asset sale….. and ha, ha, ha, ha…. stupid protesters, they are just providing this PR and not getting paid for it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/7642726/Asset-sale-falters-as-NZ-shares-soar
Carol, having read the investment types for years I have come to the conclusion that there is no right time to buy but there is an “advantageous moment”. For the last century and a half we have had currency devaluation (or asset valuation), look at the property market as a case in point (and not the bubble period but the last 100 years). Investment has been simple and mainly safe whilst this trend has been a constant upwards movement, the “smart” investor picks the most “advantageous moment” to buy as this has a real impact on the time frame to get a return.
If you look at Mighty River the most advantageous moment is when he price is lowest: who is going to pay a high sum when their is some doubt about title? The low price will suit investors as they will be working on the principle that the state will uphold “private property rights”.
PS There is good news in the trends on price: it has tracked energy availability and consequent “growth”, that is all about to reverse. Investors are going to have to learn a new game.
Dams grow old and Earthquakes undermine foundations. Its always in the interest of a seller to
be ‘helped’ by the buyer beware ideal. Secondly, its not safe to say that middle to long term
energy companies will do better, since much of their market is heating homes, insulation,
roof heat exchanges, solar, all add up to growing undermining of energy profits. I think
you should question why National no longer believe energy companies are assets of national
importance. As for the peculiar relationship of an aluminum smelter and its whole own government energy supplier. Now the smelter will start buying shares and have a seat on the board, yeah that’s really going to help drive up profits.
Now National are blaming Maori water rights and trying to lump air in as well HOOten spreading cynicism again.
Aero, I have a far more cynical approach to how power companies will act in the face of “competition” from insulation, solar etc. They will merely charge more, because like Telecom before them those who have to have the electricity will need to buy, whatever the price. The competitive market thing I have seen before, it wont stop what I would describe as “passive” cartel behavior.
Another factor stopping keeping price up will be the capital cost of alternatives: those of us who can afford to buy these will leaving the less well off to bear the cost.
A further factor that will mitigate against the fall of electricity prices will be the diminution of oil based energy, demand will shift. This is the primary reason why we must hang on to our electricity as a strategic asset. It is also a primary reason these rentier parasites want to own the generation of electricity.
All up it says that we must NOT sell if we don’t want to become power peasants.
+1
Power is a necessity and as such if a society puts it in the hands of profiteers then the poor of that society will be the ones who end up paying for the extravagant lifestyles the new owners think is owed to them.
@ Carol
“Did the opposition parties and the many protesters marching through streets and writing letters demanding that the Government abandon the partial privatisation programme realise that they were actually stoking demand for the shares?”
I reckon this is fallacious political posturing because I suspect “persons” (corporate groups included) with large profits need something more secure to invest in than the speculative markets, which are in a dire state of bubbledom.
More detail at post 15
Looks like there’s a”new” leftie up against Hooton in Nine-to-Noon today: Josie Pagan:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/20120910
Or could they just not find a truly left wing commentator, and are just recycling the old faux-leftie?
I predict a re-enactment of Passchendaele. Again.
Maybe that useless husband of hers can hold her hand when it’s over and try to stanch the bleeding.
The identical armies fighting the old war the same way all over again with the same predictable results……..
Haven’t they had Josie Pagani for a while. Their idea of a leftie – my idea of a well-educated middle class woman spouting out the predictable truisms of the comfortable class whose thinking about the world is exemplified in its image of the three monkeys minus one – Hear no evil, See no evil, but feel free to Speak evil.
They could find one. There are plenty around and they’ve found them before. So if they don’t have one it’s probably because they don’t want one.
And they could have spelled her name correctly, too. How many times has she been their tame leftie?
She’s been their pet for at least a couple of months, on and off.
felix
I liked Leila Harre – have never forgotten her as she was so clear about her ideas and pleasant to listen to.
Yeah she was good, as was Sue Bradford.
We also had Trotter and Bomber appear briefly. Seems to me however all that happens when a “lefty” gets on the radio is that the “left” give them as much s**t as the “right” do. We are truly a house divided.
Leila Harre always handed out a whupping to Matthew Hooton. Maybe the SPCA had something to do with her not being asked back for a year or so.
PL 2 3 3
đ Made a dog’s breakfast out of him do you think.
So Josie is off to a good start…. praises school dinners idea, 1st….. then goes on to slam the logic of Shearer’s speech and the failure to pitch to potentially “new” Labour voters, or to recognise the long tail of failure in NZ’s education system… that 20% fail rate implied.
Oh… no…. that % has just grown. Josie just mentioned possibly 40%!
And what a joke! Both Hooton and Josie dishing out advice to Labour as to what they should do.
Nothing wrong with that, the right wingers are always giving Labour advice.
The problem is that Labour takes notice.
Aye. The right were heavily in support of Shearer becoming leader.
I count amongst those right wingers, many, perhaps most of the Greens, although IMO they’re sneaky barstewards! đ
Faux left.
More retardedness from Pagani. She’s concerned that 40% of kids aren’t reaching the top, or even the middle.
FFS.
Also nice to hear her stories about sending her kids to school in France. Heartland Labour stuff that.
Yes, clearly both Josie and Hooton are focused on pitching to middleclass voters (and the middle and upper sections of the middleclasses as well). The rest don’t seem to exist in their view.
Hooten played the race card so many times its not funny.
So thats the rights new policy as theyn have no policy play the race card that will move NZ forward
yeah right.
Well unfortunately the lady with “ISSSSHHHHHHyouse”, her producer or that Extemely, Utterly, Indisputably, “every-man’s BEST friend – in the-afternoon” wouldn;t know what right, centre, or left actually is or was.
Sometimes I wonder why the likes of a Slack and others even bother. I spose his balls must have been feminised by all that cycling and Devonport living.
The following article is quite kind to National in giving a possible coherency to National’s authoritarian “me first” looting:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/7637382/The-business-of-NZ-Inc
I suspect Jim Anderton is right in believing in cock-up theories over conspiracy theories – but the cock-ups do appear to favour Gerry’s mates.
Well, I don’t think there are the contradictions that the author identifies to discredit particular philosophic approaches of the government. So called “neoliberalism” was always a PR front for the powerful elites to do whatever they deemed necessary to shift the wealth in their direction. This is indeed made easier by NZ’s top-down form of government, and limited amount of checks and balances in the system (eg without an upper house).
Key’s NZ Inc can operate easily in this environment, while continuing to mouth a lot of neoliberal free-market PR. Both running the government like a business, and the need to deal with regular elections, make for a short term approach. Anyway, running the public sector like a business has been integral to the “neoliberal” shift.
Klein’s disaster capitalism is also consistent with this: it involves having an underlying philosophy that favours the elite, and the willingness to be opportunistic in the face of unexpected disasters.
Of course, with the likes of Brownlee in charge of some things, cock-ups will also happen…. and these do sometimes provide openings for the opposition to make the running….. they aren’t doing this as well as they could.
Two comments:
First: Business is fundamentally the same for the players regardless of whether we are neo lib or Keynesian or whatever in terms of government. Business rules toward profit apply under any regime and the pathology of the resulting relations to production (to coin Marx) will be the same. Interestingly this approach also applied to Soviet enterprises, with the same predictable social results.
Second: good point on running governemtn like a business. The end result is that you cease to be a citizen with citizens rights: you become a client, a consumer and a tax payer. The relationship fundamentally changes to one measured not by your rights but by cash etc. Public servants become managers,….it sounds subtle but it is significant.
An upper house is not a check on abuse of power. If the same party controls both houses then both become a rubber stamp for what the government wants to do. MMP is a better check on such abuse but we’ve essentially ended up with a single party in power ATM and so the abuse has become more obvious than normal. If we want checks and balances on the abuse of power then those need to be in the hands of the people and not the politicians.
Agreed and, after 30 years of doing so, the inefficiencies are really starting to show through.
Quoting article:
A top-down corporate approach is full on conservative and antidemocratic. I think the liberals will have something to say about that.
That’s true. In fact, the lack of limits on executive power is clearly shown with NACTs sell off of our assets against the will of the people.
Bollocks, it has to do with a few peoples desire for power and nothing else.
Got to agree with that. This government has always been about catering to the big multi-nationals while ignoring the local community.
Green MP Kevin hague is continuing on the ACC case. Press Release from yesterday:
http://www.greens.org.nz/press-releases/truly-independent-medical-assessments-must-be-top-priority-new-acc-board
But with Rebstock in charge, can we expect the ACC Board to listen to the Greens?
With Rebstock in charge we can expect ACC to be made ready for sale.
The Atlantic on the extortion of taxpayer money by professional sport.
http://theatln.tc/PTZLjd
The Glazers are good at this, threatened to relocate their NFL team if they didn’t get a shiny new stadium.
Their takeover of Manyoo has been a masterclass in bleeding out the cash cow also.
And you can probably guarantee the owners are regular “welfare BAD” republican supporters…
Jokey Hen after Russia disappointed he couldn’t bag a free trade agreement. Jokey Hen at the pacific forum denigrating China our present hope for survival. This man should have duct tape applied to his mouth every morning. I understand there is a comedian who makes a good living from an act like this.
We have a long trading association with Russia. Even when they were awful ‘Reds’ and their money wasn’t freely exchangeable internationally we traded with them – our butter for their larders (whoops I mean Ladas, cars that is. Incidentally a USA woman living here was very upset then because they were produced by prisoners who weren’t receiving wages. Doesn’t this happen now in the USA and perhaps here?)
Anyway I digress, but just make the point that we have found ways to trade with Russia and it doesn’t require our Prime Minister to hang all our hopes on his high political contacts and acumen. Hah!
Radionz 8.20 this morning – http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport
NZ – Russia deal has great potential, but huge pitfalls
New Zealand firms will have to wait for at least a year to get free access to the Russian market, and there’s no guarantee it will ever happen. (6â˛40âł)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed
Hopefully the interpreter understood all Johnny Boy’s fractured words and got them correct, it would be awful if we were also committed to Russia’s contexts!
Vlad says kweewee is just trying to get another notch on his belt.
in other words it is just more tory weasel words.
Exceptional upward mobility, a myth.
http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/pdf/rr12-766.pdf
ABSTRACT
We study the role of parental wealth for childrenâs educational and occupational outcomes
across three types of welfare states and outline a theoretical model that assumes parental
wealth to impact offspringâs attainment through two mechanisms, wealthâs purchasing
function and its insurance function. We argue that welfare states can limit the purchasing
function of wealth, for instance by providing free education and generous social benefits,
yet none of the welfare states examined here provides a functional equivalent to the
insurance against adverse outcomes afforded by parental wealth. Our empirical evidence of
substantial associations between parental wealth and childrenâs educational success and
social mobility in three nations that are marked by large institutional differences is in line
with this in line with this interpretation and helps us re-examine and extend existing typologies of mobility regimes.
Flicking through the article, it seems that the comparisons are focused on the US, Germany and Sweden – not my idea of the epitome of welfare states.
Germany and Sweden are at the top of the list spending close to 30% of their GDP on welfare, we spend 18.5%, so I’m wondering what your epitome of a welfare state is Carol.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_wel_sta_the_wel_sta_and_soc_exp_of_gdp-welfare-state-social-expenditure-gdp
I was thinking more of other Scandanavian countries. Not the US for sure. And Germany is still a bit of a banksters paradise, so I don’t expect that much social mobility there.
Good write up on the TPPA by Gordon Campbell:
The TPPA is getting worse for NZ by the day.
You might find this article kind of interesting DtB. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/NI08Ad02.html
Quoting article:
I LOL’d đ
Derp:
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/labour-won-t-scrap-national-standards-shearer-5070882
The curse of Pagani still afflicts Labour I see.
/facepalm
The shear stupidityâŚ
More of a deliberate act than stupidity!
Yet again, communication failure from Shearer …
Newstalk ZB –
A Maori claim on commercial wind use isn’t sitting well with the Greens.
Ngapuhi member David Rankin, along with two colleagues, has lodged an application with the
Waitangi Tribunal for the commercial use of wind and has lodged a pre-emptive claim for any commercial wind farms in Northland.
Green Party Co-Leader Metiria Turei doesn’t think the claim has merit.
“It undermines the very serious claims that are going on at the moment around water. I don’t think it’s a wise claim to make, and I don’t think it’s justifiable.”
Labour leader David Shearer says at first glance it looks peculiar to him as he’s never thought of wind being anything other than the wind.
“I’d have to have a look at what they’re trying to do but at the moment, I guess I’d be sceptical about it.”
Meanwhile Prime Minister John Key says those sorts of assets are there for the entire country.
“My view is pretty clear. No-one owns water, no-one owns wind, no-one owns sunlight, no-one owns the sea. I could give you quite a long list if you like.”
So we can see that …
1) The Greens get top billing, because Metiria Turei is clear.
2) Key is repeating his familiar line – it’s deliberately misleading, it’s a dog-whistle, but .. it’s clear.
3) Shearer doesn’t know what to say. He sounds surprised.
The possibility of a wind claim was being discussed last week. So, did nobody in Shearer’s office say “Here’s what will happen, so be prepared. What’s your response?”. Or did they tell him and he forgot?
Again and again – basic Labour failure to anticipate and communicate. Why?
Your analysis of Shearer’s muddled “statement” is spot-on.
We used to keep being told how Shearer was tough and would eventually develop into a smooth and competent leader. After all, they said, he had “faced down warlords in Iraq”.
Who came up with that line? Was it those PR masterminds John and Josie Pagani?
I’ve not YET read any of the above but i am currenlty watching Skoi News Srtay Lia.
Needless to say they’re on about “boat people” AGAIN!
Firstly………can SOMEONE inform our politicians and media that seeking asylum IS NOT ACTUALLY ILLEGAL. IF Jonky or Joolya think it is, then perhaps they should FIRST rescind by whatever means it talkes, the international law both countries signed up to. IF gubbamints under a Gillard or a Jonky want to change the rules – then they should first have said they no longer want to be signatories to the international law that those who preceeded them signed up to. Simply trying to implement tactical solutions out of expediencey and panic never really works, as they may come to learn soon enough.
Secondly …….. Elsewhere on some other soshul netwerking blog (I’m not an addict of soshul netwerking), I predicted that there would be proposed legislation that (at least past) pot-smoking [illegal activity] ferral Kapiti redneck has proposed. Sure enough – it’s come to pass. Cheers Nafe..
Thirdly ………I’ll make another suggestion. It IS that Jonky (in his bid to provide some sort of relief to Joolya’s itching undercarriage) has already made certain promises – or at least given her an “understanding”
!700 refuge seekers have arrived on AUstralian Territory (which in itlelf could be challenged).
I’ll make a predication. ONCE the law has passed where people obeying already entrenched international law, and law that both NZ and OZ signed up to becomes overwhelming – Cnut likker, Putin likker, ANYONE likker if there’s a dollar init…… will “offer assistance.
WE actually bailed out the Austrralians once before – under different circumstances agreed. Something they’ve NEVER had the decency to accknowledge and something they’re desperate to forget!
I made the first comment -where-ever it was when Jonky and Joolya were kissing as he visited OZ. The timing was very interesting. VERY shortly after – we began having little exercises …… We were PRACTICING what we’d do if we (as NZers) were to be inundated by those bloody “illegal”, pesky Ali Gill soilim seekers roiving on boats.
It’s not just Pulla Bent that licks a keezus…….. old Nafe is desperate to get respectable too.
Hey – brings me to another point…….i..e. Public Servants would actually do themsleves a favour if more blew whistles. The ones that don’t have obviously NOT woken up to the fact that our Public Service (Including SSC) is no longer politically independant.
I await the first load of (ex-AUSTRALIAN) “illegals” “boat people” ” queue jumpers” etc.
(NONE of the caracterisations are actually true – shame ter is not 4th Estate left).
And – if Public Servants are in any doubt…….perhaps they cudda shudda wudda been watching 60 mis last night.
For me (as an ex PS) it was the BEST thing I ever did. Though the revelation that certain CEO’s and Snr Mgmnt are often lying, incompetent. bigoted, state security risks on a cruise, ….though that reevelation is sometimes recognised, it actually show JUST how fragile the system is.
If you can embarrass them – they’ll react.
John Fucking Key aye! Oi Oi Oi. They actually really operate on EGO.
The were Poe Bronsons and various others that stepped in his shoes way before he ever did.
Oh…..PS
Oifer Dole Unce His twear frens in Stray Lia en thear Priom Minsta of the re sint loss of Jool lears far the.
Es bruths en ssssstas, your pain is ear pain. In the ENZEK sprit, we stend ferrrm with you.
Hey watch Joolya ditch Jonky though when she wakes up to the fact that the guy is a total pratt.
Enuff Fnear tho. Earta here
I hope that more of us become more savvy with regard to the derivatives market. I find it difficult to understand this subject, (as I believe most do) yet we need to engage with it. I suspect this sector is pivotal to addressing the major issues arising in our country and world-wide and needs to become central to our dialogue.
If I am understanding correctly,
~any tangible asset is likely to sell like hot-cakes due to the state the derivatives market is in (preferable to have your name on something tangible in the event the derivatives bubble bursts)
~the derivatives market is not regulated and has ballooned becoming 10-20x larger than world gdp
http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2008/10/the_size_of_der.php
~and is effecting real world prices.
“In the past, prices were based largely on supply and demand, but they are now driven up by investors placing self-fulfilling bets on higher prices for oil, wheat and other products.
The study finds strong evidence of a direct causal link between speculative buying and selling, and changes in commodity price curves resulting in increasing prices.”
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/21/markets/oil-gas-prices-speculators/index.htm
Blue Leopard … if you haven’t already, find The Big Short by Michael Lewis; an amazing book from last year on how the whole banking and markets system functions — it is beyond belief, and beautifully written .. reads like fiction, so extraordinary it is.
Cool, cheers Yeshe, I haven’t read it, I will keep an eye out for it đ
Summary here for you B.L. … such a readable book about eminently unreadable subjects !
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathryn-schulz/review-michael-lewiss-emt_b_504796.html
“eminently unreadable subject”
lol I like that!
Good link cheers
(Although I am exceedingly scathing that more people did not foresee the problem; this is to say that people who worked in the financial circles were incapable of recognizing the signs of a bubble….it is clearly to such peoples’ advantage to plead ignorance…)
For sure this would have been put up, I managed to miss this takeover.
Kaipara District Council Supplied Four government-appointed commissioners will replace elected councillors of the heavily indebted Kaipara District Council.
1: Corruption
2: Payoff for corruption
3: Govt commisars sent in to cover it all up
4: Possible deferred elections
Nah we don’t have corruption in NZ eh bro,
Mr McKerchar, 61, was chief executive when the council illegally struck rates and was also at the helm in the lead-up to its debt blowout.
He had refused to discuss whether he contributed to the council’s poor financial health.
Argh, the brothers strike another blow for the rest of us!
So why did Mr McKerchar get a quarter million payout if he was in charge when dirty deals going down? You get fired for that and then put in prison.
perhaps too ‘big’ to jail?
Its just another very clear signal of the direction we are allowing this country to be taken in!
Was the payoff was hush money, these bros always stick togeher!
People, don’t care, or don’t know, does this guy just get to hang out without any consequence of his actions?
What does this say about out society, and what is it telling people to behave like!