FFS, just because somebody grows a blob in a Petri dish doesn’t mean anything. Climate change, OTOH, is a reason to think about the future of farming. IIRC, some report was released just recently about something to do with the weather.
Outrage and more moralistic arm-waving about why people should read a report about 'the weather' is simply a really poor indicator of changing consumer behaviour.
Actually putting the R&D effort into consumer alternatives is the actual work required.
Exactly – it may not suit the anti-capitalist left's ideas – but it will be profit-seeking capitalists who wind up doing much of the real world work to mitigate climate change.
Capitalism is remarkably resilient – and with state power used to clear the field of any alternatives, it is likely to put huge effort into profiting from climate change amelioration. It will achieve remarkable things no doubt – but exactly who gets to be 'saved' by this effort is yet to be determined. We can be pretty sure though, that it won't be everybody.
it will be profit-seeking capitalists who wind up doing much of the real world work to mitigate climate change
That's only fair, don't you think? Hope you're right, and wonder about the targetting of those 'mitigation' measures/gestures.
Does the number of (capitalist) businesses that file for bankruptcy give you any cause for concern? Might 'pursuit of profit' behaviours be blinding (some) capitalists to the problems of survival? Of course, "profit-seeking capitalists" know that if they fail, they can simply start over – cause for concern, imho.
Change the Rules of the Global Market
The global market system is designed to maximize profit while meeting people’s needs. It’s had some success. As economic historian Deirdre McCloskey noted, Western Europe’s embrace of the profit motive was the catalyst for what she dubs the “Great Enrichment” of the last two centuries. In this period, the world experienced unprecedented improvement in living standards and enhanced individual freedoms. But these benefits have come with a heavy and growing price.
Today, the market is the single-most environmentally destructive force on the planet. It’s the hungry elephant in the Garden of Eden. It profits at the expense of the environment and ultimately society. And by 2050, it will likely be more than twice as big as it was in 2016.
People looking at falling stars in the night sky standing on a volcano about to erupt lack perspective and sense of reality because of their tunnel vision and narrow focus, literally.
Who’s doing “moralistic arm-waving” telling others to read the report from the CCC that is open for public consultation until 14 March? It’s bigger than the RMA, but who bloody cares except a few pesky CC Crusaders?
I’m sure NZ farmers are talking to their Ozzie banks as we speak and quacking in their boots because they’ll have to change their way of living & earning because of the Aleph Group in Israel. Even when (not if) exports drop, it won’t make one iota of difference.
I mean, the holy grail would be if someone discovers how to do something like make superstrong concrete with air-harvested CO2 as an ingredient. Building skyscrapers and bridges becomes carbon-negative.
The best intervention is always something that people already do every day, but with a painless and unnoticed tweak. Fluoride in water, folate in bread, a slightly wider cycle lane.
I am aware of businesses who are pushing for roading surfaces with 5% toner cartridges, 2% soft plastics, and 5% crumbed tyres in the mix.
Local government is currently more responsive than NZTA to such innovation. They are particularly conservative due to trying other versions in the last 2 years and they failed.
The full resurface of Queenstown Airport with this kind of mix was a good signal that it can be done with a pretty high wear and tear level.
The trick is developing something that's cheaper if it replaced what's currently in use, and then to get it up to those levels of use so that it's cheaper in practise.
I recall saying in one of the interminable vegan debates that if something genuinely indistinguishable from (in this case ribeye) steak was available for cheaper than actual moo-flesh, end of problem. This looks pretty close, dunno about the price-point though. But industrially, it should save on land use and most of the slaughterhouse process.
fuck. Leather might go up in price. There goes another hobby…
Along with the McCarthy sausages, I'm more than willing to pay more if the product markets itself as super-premium. For my household, price bracket is one signal of trust. Low price is the kind of commodity I wouldn't touch.
That image reminds me of an Annual Camp I was on as a young cook. In an incorrect pen stroke, we had 8 kilos of luncheon sausage arriving every day.
This led to a competition between shifts to serve said meat in as many differing ways as possible. Highlights were: sweet and sour, fritters and a tasty fried rice.
This is a very interesting recent interview on this topic – the timelines given here are astounding, it is entirely likely that within 15 years all our fast food will be created by cellular agriculture/cultured meat.
Absolutely it's the only poor people will be able to afford meat as we destock to more sustainable levels, with the added bonus that blob meat and petri dish gloop is how well move to mars and beyond.
They spread lies about Eco Maori and my Offspring.
They break into our whare at will and steal our smokes and food they vandalised our vehicle they interfair in our job they tell our potential employers any the bullshit they can get them to swallow.
They are on a string that is pulled by trump and the Kiwi dick that worked for him they use marked cop cars to intimadate me. O I can't tell the cops what to do YEA RIGHT.
My understanding is that rules of the house of representatives are set by a Committee of the House – a Standing Orders Committee? – chaired by the Speaker. The Speakers job is to uphold the Rules, but sometimes they will require interpretation in the light of circumstances of the time – they become Speakers Rulings (does that require ratification from the Committee?), but which certainly apply for that sitting of parliament.
Dress has occupied the minds of that Committee a number of times in the past – and recently the Speaker raised the issue of ties with the Committee and it seems a wider group of MPs – there was not support for a change. Standing Orders were amended 4 August 2020, with effect from 7 September 2020
Then we have the recent incident with a Hei Tiki instead of a normal tie – perhaps prompted by the recent informal decision not to change the rules; nobody seems to have asked the MP whether that affected his decision as to what to wear – and the Speaker had no option but to make a ruling to support the current Standing Orders.
The Committee consisting of Jan Logie (Green), Trevor Mallard (Labour) and Brooke van Velden (ACT) met and agreed to change Standing Orders to effectively leave the decision as to what constitutes "business attire" to individual membrs.
It is not clear whether the amended rule needs to be ratified by the House, but it was announced by Mallard with immediate effect as a decision of the Committee. Presumably the Committee believe that such a decision will be supported by the House. Certainly National do not appear to have objected.
NZ Media are now reporting that the decision was made by Mallard, rather than the Standing Orders Committee. This is sloppy, but does not detract from the reality that Mallard has consistently applied the rules as they stand, even when he personally believed that a tie should not be needed.
There are still uncertainties as to the exact definition of what is allowable; previous speakers have for example ruled against the wearing of hats, but that seemed to have gone. On Waitangi Day there were a lot of people wearing traditional Maori dress – if a Maori Party MP decided that was "business attire", would he be allowed to wear it?
I suspect the incident will not impress Maori generally – it was a stunt by the MP, possibly on the back of attacks on Mallard by the National Party on a different issue – yet again the media are deliberately twisting the truth to attack an MP – this time Mallard. No MP is perfect; opposition parties at times twist reality to make a point, but we do deserve accurate reporting from our media.
Mallard has followed the rules he is sworn to uphold.
In view of the fuss, the Committee met, and decided to change the rule
I think the bigger issue and the reason this one got so much blowback is Mallards inconsistent interpretation and lack of cultural sensitivity. Neck tie okay. Bow tie okay. Mexican Bola for goodness sake okay. Traditional Maori Hei Tiki and you have to leave the House.
Mallard was entitled to his interpretation if that is part of the job.
The focus on Mallard deciding was partisan, shit stirring and desperation. He gave the opportunity of consulting, went with the majority and was attacked. If he'd simply made a unilateral decision to stay with or get rid of ties he'd have been crucified.
The relevant big issue is to do with 65-33-10-2. Yes, Labour has 65 seats.
Yes, Mallard is entitled to his opinion. That alone does mean he is right or consistent with his previous decisions. I suspect the subsequent ground swell against him confirms this.
Mallard asked Waititi to put his case in writing before Christmas. Waititi presented this in Parliament. It was a very compelling case. Mallard had complete disregard for the arguments presented then, simply saying “I disagree”. The cultural issues at play required a response from the Speaker appropriate to 2021, not 1921.
Yes Mallard is entitled to his opinion, and within the limits of the rules he is entitled to make decisions consistent with those rules. He did not make the original rule. He consulted regarding the rules and found significant views resisting a change. He did not have the power to change the rule himself. The groundswell of opinion was that the rule was wrong – but the Committee have now made a change. See the difference?
The Speaker will still have to interpret the new rule – should he accept an MP in 'business' swimwear? "Business" singlet and jandals? "Business" jeans and running shoes? "Business" MAGA hat?
Previous speakers have faced similar challenges, and politics being what it is, doubtless there will be more challenges, but to attack a Speaker for doing his job is not really very fair.
At the level of casual political interest, the whole tie drama has reassured the public that their interests are served by a pack of clowns so egregious they can't even agree on dress rules. They have brought no mana on the house.
That industry has had dumptrucks of direct subsidy last year through MBIE, and whole landfills full of indirect subsidy through CO2 production and environmental effects.
Nash has done the right thing.
At near 5% unemployed – and less than 5% in the south of the South Island – this is the right time to pivot the economy.
at near 5% unemployed……never mind hte women for whom unemployment is over 5% and who are in many cases employed by the tourism industry.
Unemployment:
For men, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, down from 4.8 percent last quarter. For women, the unemployment rate was 5.4 percent, down from 5.8 percent.
Underutilisation
For men, the underutilisation rate fell to 9.7 percent, down from 10.5 percent.
For women, the underutilisation rate fell to 14.3 percent, down from 16.1 percent.
and lets not even mentioned Northland or Bay of Plenty. But yeah, go feel good about a very meaningless employment statistic from the last quater.
never mind regional unemployment in the bay of plenty area or Northland and fuck all those that used to find seasonal employment in the tourism industry.
"fuck all those that used to find seasonal employment in the tourism industry."
That's no better reason to subsidise this industry than it is a reason to subsidise Rio Tinto
The government would be better employed creating new industries, that in the case of tourism don't rely on opening our borders or handouts for only certain sectors of the economy.
The government can either subsidize jobs – be that in tourism or health, or education, or building etc, or they can pay unemployment benefits.
Consider that any unemployment benefits or any other benefit for that matter is so low that people on benefits actually are living below the poverty line in the hardest cases.
So what shall the government do with the tax money we give it? Should it pay to little to live in form of a benefit with all the resulting stress on the community/society or shall it subsidize jobs.
What other jobs can we just stop subsidizing? Farming? Infrastructure? Health Care?
This is a serious question that should be asked. Tourism is just a small part of it. And yes, women have a current unemployment rate of 5.4% (0.9 higher then that national average) and a much higher under utilisation rate (also above the national average), and tourism is one of the businesses in the bay of plenty area and in northland that offers seasonal employment for women, be that front of house, back office, or a room maid in one of the many motels/hotels/b&b etc. Like it or not, these min waged jobs are still miles better then what the government has to offer via its social wellfare office.
So what should it be? Subsidizing jobs or paying out hardship grants, special needs grants and a few hundred bucks a month unemployment. I take the jobs.
All subsidies come to an end. If you are in a low-value tourism job at the moment you have been given the strongest signal possible that you need to get out.
Women in particular need to re-train and get into construction which is where they are needed. Follow the money, and get the job.
To assist with this transition, the Government has just put out an extension to the FlexiWage programme.
yeah, the same businesses that can't exit their leases lest they declare themselves bankrupt, (see comment below) will hire someone because the government is helping to pay not quite two month worth of a full time salary and the rest of the year you are on your own. Lol. Lol. Lol. like, bwhahahahaha lol.
I can see MacDo take that offer tho and a few others.
As for re-training, and get into construction. Right, any women who worked in retail, back office, front office, airplance crews, cooks, cleaners, and so on and so forth, please present at the next training session for constructions jobs – and while yer at it, please go pick that pesky fruit. Why did they not think about that themselves the dears. Oh boy.
Sometimes really i ask myself if you really believe that and would you be capable of doing that exact same thing should the government decide next time that your job ain't worth subsidizing.
If you are aware of the criteria from the tourism transition fund, go right ahead and explain its exclusion of lease payments.
Alone of all your sex you feel women can't do construction. Maybe you're from the 1950s. Either way your mind is tired. Our company is from 2021. Move out of the way.
Most days the tiresome, chippy, weak, sexist childish fools like yourself can never see how to help themselves, and actively get in the way of others seeking to help.
You're no longer capable of helping. Unless you can prove otherwise.
Hi Sabine I do agree that the subsidizing of any business that cannot sustain themselves has to end. At the same time though, a special criteria should be included with the recipients of the unemployment benefit for people who have lost their job in a tourism business. Perhaps something similar like the topped up benefit that ended last October. There also needs assistance available for relocation costs if people find a job elsewhere. So essentially, the employee who lost the job ought to get additional assistance for a period of time, i.e. 6 months (?) not the business.
You say you take the jobs, they wont be there no matter what as the taxpayer will not pay even more billions for something they suffer through themselves for years to come. Looking at major cities like Wellington – rent is up to over $ 600, people don't even earn that much. The rates are expected to increase by a whooping 17-18%. It becomes utterly unaffordable as it is, without the knowing that we have to pay up for businesses that by its very nature is a risky undertaking. There will be a lot of resistance out there.
The trouble is with things like travel is that there isn't a lot of sympathy ( as opposed to empathy for the workers) for the industry as a whole. Those that could afford to travel regularly aren't the bulk of people (not to mention it was the more well-off people travelling that initially spread COVID-19.) Locals having to pay tourist prices have put many things beyond the reach of the ordinary person – think something like making people pay in recent years to go to Happy Valley which has always been free, the selling off of holiday camps where the ordinary person went, the rise of peoples spare houses being used for Airbnb, the demise of freedom camping for NZers as high volumes of tourists came in, the exploitation of workers in the industry and the payments under the table, the backhanders paid to get the tourist buses to stop at your attraction/restaurant, and so on.
The damage done with the Douglas reforms where the well-off got big tax cuts while the working class lost their jobs or were forced into faux-self employment (courier drivers, cleaners, sub-contractors, etc) and got user pays and lower wages and salaries.
This continues with the wealth accumulation of the well-off and the imposition of high rents as the working class and the unemployed further line the pockets of the well-off so they can hop on a fucking plane and travel.
I like how the well off like to think they are the "ordinary" person. You know an ordinary person who needs a travel agent or a real estate agent (oh that's right poor people do now cause most real agents are parasitic landlords or rental companies who when a decent landlord gets them to manage their properties immediately put the rent up to "market" rates which like CE salaries are designed to simply enrich the well-off.
Homeownership is the lowest it has been since the 50's and 56% of young people now rent. I don't remember a lot of sympathy for those who were laid off from the railways and post office in their 50's and never got another job again – not through lack of applying either or who had to commute to Auckland during the week to work away from their families to do so. I don't remember a lot of sympathy for those laid off from the car manufacturing jobs in Porirua and so on.
I don't see any sympathy right now from landlords who just keep putting rents up and up and up beyond affordability (nor was there any post Christchurch earthquake which set the foundation for profiteering and high rents). I do see obnoxious behaviour like being a rental company owner who is opposing state housing in a local community where there is a major shortage of housing.
Maybe just maybe when the ordinary person in my communities have a job again, get paid a decent wage, can own their own home or pay reasonable rent only then will travel and tourism be a given – cause lets face it the ordinary person doesn't have a shitshow of mitigating the effects of COVID-19 and supporting that industry.
You are in the same boat as the horticulture industry which has shat on New Zealanders for the last 30 years – instead of building local community based work forces first used illegal labour and then RSE while at the same time actively telling New Zealanders how useless they are – and continue to still say that now. You are not going to get a local workforce by telling people they are useless. You're supposed to be captains of commerce and industry – how do you not get that?
There needs to be some rethinking going on by a whole lot of people.
It is funny how people assume that one must be in an industry or another when one argues for 'subsidies'. For the record the only 'subsidy' i received was the initial wage subsidy that my business received for my staff and myself. And that was that. Also, i don't have staff anymore, i work on my own, exactly like i did when i started out. O guess i don't actually have to worry what will happen to Rotorua, after all i am fine, right?
Secondly, while I now live in a tourist region, i used to live in AKL up to four years ago. Funnily enough, while i lived in AKL arguing that people deserved houses, i was told to move to the regions cause living was cheaper there, even tho i was not one who was homeless in AKL.
So really, one arguing for something does not mean one needs it or wants it.
Last but least, i did not argue for subsidies for the 'tourism industry that shat on NZ' via the jobs they provided, via the taxes they paid, and all the other stuff that comes with living and working in NZ for the most part as good as one can.
I argue that the government has a choice to make, subsidies for businesses or subsidies for people. I was from the onset against using businesses as a medium to pass benefits on to people. I was not for the wage subsidy, i wanted the government to send 'stimulus', or 'wage replacement' or 'a check' directly to people during the Lockdown period, and then argued for something like, a higher benefit for people who are unemployed, with out less strings and humiliation attached to it. I argued and still do that i would like the government to provide a legal frame work for business stuck in leases to get out of said leases before they have to declare bankruptcy so that these same people may be able to start something up that is better suited to these brave new times. Subsidies do not have to be only monetary.
But if anyone here thinks that the collapse of the tourism industry is going to change anything for homeless people in NZ or poor people in NZ should really ask why? IF anything it will make it worse first for the unemployed and the homeless and then for anyone else.
Keep in mind that currently in Rotorua houses have crept up to a million +, median rent is 460 NZD per week, and the next summer season begins in December 2021. Its 10 month till then, and like this year it will last 6 weeks – and what ever season it will be then, will depend on the money people will then have to spend.
So how much will the government pay for rent assistance, hardship assistance, special needs assistance, unemployment benefits, social welfare etc, and how many more people will end up unhoused/homeless because they can't keep up, and last but least where would you like these homeless, jobless people on a few hundred NZD per week government largess to move too?
It has been almost one year now, anyone not wearing blinders would know what is going to happen in 2021 and beyond already when we went into lockdown, and here we are pretending that the people that live in certain parts of NZ had it coming, deserve nothing more, and besides by virtue of living in a certain area they 'shat' on the country. And the tourism industry, the bad players as well as the good players and everyone in between are just the first stone to fall.
You are right, there needs to be some rethinking going on by a whole lot of people.
"So how much will the government pay for rent assistance, hardship assistance, special needs assistance, unemployment benefits, social welfare etc"
Sadly not as much as they pay to assist working people and employers. The two tier welfare system that developed post-COVID clearly delineated deserving and underserving poor like nothing else did in recent times. As long as we treat certain people differently then nothing will be done for the poor will it?
Helping out tourism as a special case will continue to reinforce the difference. A generally low paid, full of corruption industry that has seen paying under the table, backhanders, avoiding tax, etc as a normal part of doing business.
Government can borrow money, it (strictly, it is not Government) can print money, it can pay subsidies and it can pay (for) benefits all at the same time. It might go against certain economic orthodoxies and/or against certain political ideologies, but it can be done if the will and courage is there.
But the economy is going very well according to Robertson, and there is only 4.9% unemployment and debt is far lower than anticipated so we are coming through this thing very well.
Speaking of naked self interest has anyone with a Granny sub read the hosk's rant about the govt lack of covid vision.
Oz having a plan and strategy !!!…..look like it's state V federal over there with Victoria's latest budget sticking 2 fingers at scomo by addressing areas of federal responsibility.
We’re a small owner operator tourism business, currently we’re trading at about 10% of 2019. According to Paymark we were 65% domestic. Up until Sept it wasn’t too bad, October on has been beyond dead. The domestic recovery has been all over the place with destinations fall in and out if favour really quickly.
Nash is on the right track. The industry has to adjust to a very different world. While there’s some hope of international travel from 2022 it will take a very long time, if ever, before we see anything like 2019 numbers. A lot of businesses have to go. We could easily be one of them.
One area government could help this transition is around exit from leases. Most businesses lease premises and are stuck for the duration of the lease. Right now buying your way out of a lease would mean paying every cent due for the rest if the lease because the landlord has no show of getting another tenant. Our landlord’s option was a temporary rent reduction but a much longer term.
Government needs to be more involved in the hard discussions to enable people to move on, rather than screwed over.
Currently doing 2 – 3x online what we’re doing over the counter. Lost a good sale yesterday because shipping to USA was $600 for a 6kg item that was only a bit more retail
Winston's point about sanctity of contract is still valid. It's pretty draconian for government to come in and over-ride contracts and would be a very bad place to go. Although Little's bluff / threat of subsidised arbitration brought a lot of parties together with the lockdown rent rebates.
Probably the way to go would be a real program of heavily subsidised, compulsory arbitration, with a set of guidelines / expectations, and maybe a bit of cash, to force agreements between tenants and landlords so people can get out of some pretty shitty situations without having to loose everything. That agreement could be anything from exit through to a re-negotiated lease.
There's businesses in tourist areas that aren't even close to paying their operating costs (power, insurance telecoms etc) let alone rent. Motels with 10 – 20% occupancy, and having to discount heavily to get even that. Sooner or later that's going to end badly and the business owner isn't the only one getting hurt.
That situation was around the lockdown, where most commercial leases had a clause requiring a 'fair' reduction of rent for the closed period. Some leases didn't, and some parties had diverging ideas on what constituted 'fair'. So Government proposed a range of interventions, with some guidelines. Little's proposal of compulsory, pretty much free, arbitration focused a some intransigent minds and agreements happened pdq. Peters played his part and Government got the result without having to interfere in contracts.
The current situation is where lease arrangements, and property values, relate to business levels that were many times what they are now. Tenants are pretty much stuck there until the lease ends as there's no mechanism in the leases to terminate in these circumstances. Landlords are also in the crap as their rental income will disappear if they loose their tenant, with equally catastrophic consequences in most cases, so are naturally standing by the letter of the lease.
This could get quite messy, and quite quickly, once places start getting boarded up.
So I recall, however I also seem to remember further statements (Robertson?) that the issue was being worked on and they expected to have a proposal to address the issue of commercial leases 'soon'…..apparently not.
It was all a bluff, and in most cases it worked. There wasn’t much that could have been done with intervention in leases without creating bigger problems and the threat of effectively free compulsory arbitration focused minds.
Pretty sure that was still around the lockdown issues, and from what I’ve seen, common sense and goodwill prevailed, eventually.
Nash’s statements this week indicate further work is happening, but he said that the government won’t be supporting businesses that have no prospects of viability in the foreseeable.
Hopefully cool heads will prevail and good re-structuring plan is developed to create a viable tourism industry, both economically and environmentally
Maori wards ensuring representation by the vital group that considers that the planet is vital for humans and animals and vice versa of course, has submissions closing –
Submissions close TODAY. Before 5 pm this afternoon, Thursday 11 February 2021.
Let's just get robust and start moving forward instead of being shrinking violets from the progressive decisions. This would be the first for many people at a time when there need to be a lot of thinking followed by timely action, about new ways for the future. Start now, get into practise – make New Zealand vital again!
This bill seeks to amend the Local Electoral Act 2001 to improve Māori representation in local government. It aims to do this by removing provisions in the Act that allow for the use of binding polls in the decision to establish Māori wards or constituencies. More details about the bill are available on the New Zealand Parliament website.
Make a submission on the bill by 5.00pm on Thursday 11 February, 2021.
Vote for Maori wards and we can capitalise on their energy reserve just waiting to go with new ideas, ready for discussion, argument and reasoned agreement and action. These will turn Maori, pakeha and new tauiwi around to face forwards, while still towing the past with us for reference and useful experience when needed.
Wow scary stuff. So what did cloud seeding experiments result in? Would activating rain in one needy area change the 'sky rivers' bringing weather dumping? https://climate.ncsu.edu/edu/CloudSeeding
Cloud seeding first began in the mid 1940s when Dr. Vincent J. Schaefer was studying cloud formation for General Electric. Cloud seeding has been subsequently used to enhance precipitation, dissipate fog, modify hurricanes, and decrease lightning and hail in thunderstorms.
Jump to History — History · 1947–1952: CSIRO scientists dropped dry ice into the tops of cumulus clouds. · 1953–1956: CSIRO carried out similar trials in …
As General Electric held back from cloud-seeding, other commercial enterprises leapt into the breach. New York City’s leaders commissioned one to make rain over their reservoir. They got a flood and 169 lawsuits for damages. They hastily commissioned a survey to show that cloud-seeding did not work, so avoided paying damages, but were placed under a permanent injunction not to try cloud-seeding again.
India is faced with great need. I wonder if they sell off water for bottling. The commerical imperative often wins over reason and responsibility amongst country leaders.
I’ve heard on the rumour mill, Pacific Aerospace (PAC) which is NZ’s sole remaining Aircraft construction company is being liquidated by its Chinese owners. This Company was allow to be brought by the Chinese under the last National Government under the guise from the NZG & the Foreign Investment Office that the Chinese promise of keeping all Aircraft design & construction it in NZ.
So much so, for the National wanting to invest NZ STEM Training as they promise during the last general election, when let/ approve this sort’ve crap, closing down Hillside Workshops and forcing AirNZ to off load it’s two of its so-called “Non Core Assets” TAE & Safe Air which btw used to do about 90-95% of AirNZ’s Military Contracts both local & overseas.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. 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 ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
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The Aleph Group of Israel have started manufacturing a cell-grown ribeye steak.
NZBeef and Lamb should buy a big chunk of their shares now.
When even Burger King is going vegetarian, its time for our meat farmers to roll out their conversion plans.
FFS, just because somebody grows a blob in a Petri dish doesn’t mean anything. Climate change, OTOH, is a reason to think about the future of farming. IIRC, some report was released just recently about something to do with the weather.
Outrage and more moralistic arm-waving about why people should read a report about 'the weather' is simply a really poor indicator of changing consumer behaviour.
Actually putting the R&D effort into consumer alternatives is the actual work required.
I think Ad's nailed it. The industry can't claim to be blind-sided: their own advisors have been warning them of this for some time now.
Exactly – it may not suit the anti-capitalist left's ideas – but it will be profit-seeking capitalists who wind up doing much of the real world work to mitigate climate change.
Capitalism is remarkably resilient – and with state power used to clear the field of any alternatives, it is likely to put huge effort into profiting from climate change amelioration. It will achieve remarkable things no doubt – but exactly who gets to be 'saved' by this effort is yet to be determined. We can be pretty sure though, that it won't be everybody.
That's only fair, don't you think? Hope you're right, and wonder about the targetting of those 'mitigation' measures/gestures.
Does the number of (capitalist) businesses that file for bankruptcy give you any cause for concern? Might 'pursuit of profit' behaviours be blinding (some) capitalists to the problems of survival? Of course, "profit-seeking capitalists" know that if they fail, they can simply start over – cause for concern, imho.
They'd do it quicker if they were penalised for the damage they'd already caused.
People looking at falling stars in the night sky standing on a volcano about to erupt lack perspective and sense of reality because of their tunnel vision and narrow focus, literally.
Who’s doing “moralistic arm-waving” telling others to read the report from the CCC that is open for public consultation until 14 March? It’s bigger than the RMA, but who bloody cares except a few pesky CC Crusaders?
I’m sure NZ farmers are talking to their Ozzie banks as we speak and quacking in their boots because they’ll have to change their way of living & earning because of the Aleph Group in Israel. Even when (not if) exports drop, it won’t make one iota of difference.
No one gives a damn about submitting to any report. Check out those marches on the streets.
The world will be won one hamburger at a time.
I mean, the holy grail would be if someone discovers how to do something like make superstrong concrete with air-harvested CO2 as an ingredient. Building skyscrapers and bridges becomes carbon-negative.
The best intervention is always something that people already do every day, but with a painless and unnoticed tweak. Fluoride in water, folate in bread, a slightly wider cycle lane.
I am aware of businesses who are pushing for roading surfaces with 5% toner cartridges, 2% soft plastics, and 5% crumbed tyres in the mix.
Local government is currently more responsive than NZTA to such innovation. They are particularly conservative due to trying other versions in the last 2 years and they failed.
The full resurface of Queenstown Airport with this kind of mix was a good signal that it can be done with a pretty high wear and tear level.
The trick is developing something that's cheaper if it replaced what's currently in use, and then to get it up to those levels of use so that it's cheaper in practise.
I recall saying in one of the interminable vegan debates that if something genuinely indistinguishable from (in this case ribeye) steak was available for cheaper than actual moo-flesh, end of problem. This looks pretty close, dunno about the price-point though. But industrially, it should save on land use and most of the slaughterhouse process.
fuck. Leather might go up in price. There goes another hobby…
Along with the McCarthy sausages, I'm more than willing to pay more if the product markets itself as super-premium. For my household, price bracket is one signal of trust. Low price is the kind of commodity I wouldn't touch.
To a degree, but $8.50 a kilo vs $9 for stuff I can't tell the difference apart in the pack, I'd give $8.50 a try. And if it works it works.
But $9 vs $12 for something that seems to be identical and claims to be as good as the cheaper stalwart? I probably won't try the change.
Great…road resurfacing frequency (and cost) is going to increase again.
To Hell with the democratic political process; barricades, banners, badges and megaphones will solve all our problems!
I prefer Frankfurters but sliced Berliner is quite nice on a sandwich.
You slice up your filled doughnuts and put them in a sandwich?
Okaaaay … it's not my place to judge.
https://www.german-butchery.com.au/products/cold-cuts/lyoner
That image reminds me of an Annual Camp I was on as a young cook. In an incorrect pen stroke, we had 8 kilos of luncheon sausage arriving every day.
This led to a competition between shifts to serve said meat in as many differing ways as possible. Highlights were: sweet and sour, fritters and a tasty fried rice.
This is a very interesting recent interview on this topic – the timelines given here are astounding, it is entirely likely that within 15 years all our fast food will be created by cellular agriculture/cultured meat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGF5MLuBau4&ab_channel=NovaraMedia
Absolutely it's the only poor people will be able to afford meat as we destock to more sustainable levels, with the added bonus that blob meat and petri dish gloop is how well move to mars and beyond.
I'm sick of these Wanker Muppet sandflys.
They spread lies about Eco Maori and my Offspring.
They break into our whare at will and steal our smokes and food they vandalised our vehicle they interfair in our job they tell our potential employers any the bullshit they can get them to swallow.
They are on a string that is pulled by trump and the Kiwi dick that worked for him they use marked cop cars to intimadate me. O I can't tell the cops what to do YEA RIGHT.
These people are making a fool of you.
Ka kite Ano
The Tie Issue
My understanding is that rules of the house of representatives are set by a Committee of the House – a Standing Orders Committee? – chaired by the Speaker. The Speakers job is to uphold the Rules, but sometimes they will require interpretation in the light of circumstances of the time – they become Speakers Rulings (does that require ratification from the Committee?), but which certainly apply for that sitting of parliament.
Dress has occupied the minds of that Committee a number of times in the past – and recently the Speaker raised the issue of ties with the Committee and it seems a wider group of MPs – there was not support for a change. Standing Orders were amended 4 August 2020, with effect from 7 September 2020
Then we have the recent incident with a Hei Tiki instead of a normal tie – perhaps prompted by the recent informal decision not to change the rules; nobody seems to have asked the MP whether that affected his decision as to what to wear – and the Speaker had no option but to make a ruling to support the current Standing Orders.
The Committee consisting of Jan Logie (Green), Trevor Mallard (Labour) and Brooke van Velden (ACT) met and agreed to change Standing Orders to effectively leave the decision as to what constitutes "business attire" to individual membrs.
It is not clear whether the amended rule needs to be ratified by the House, but it was announced by Mallard with immediate effect as a decision of the Committee. Presumably the Committee believe that such a decision will be supported by the House. Certainly National do not appear to have objected.
NZ Media are now reporting that the decision was made by Mallard, rather than the Standing Orders Committee. This is sloppy, but does not detract from the reality that Mallard has consistently applied the rules as they stand, even when he personally believed that a tie should not be needed.
There are still uncertainties as to the exact definition of what is allowable; previous speakers have for example ruled against the wearing of hats, but that seemed to have gone. On Waitangi Day there were a lot of people wearing traditional Maori dress – if a Maori Party MP decided that was "business attire", would he be allowed to wear it?
I suspect the incident will not impress Maori generally – it was a stunt by the MP, possibly on the back of attacks on Mallard by the National Party on a different issue – yet again the media are deliberately twisting the truth to attack an MP – this time Mallard. No MP is perfect; opposition parties at times twist reality to make a point, but we do deserve accurate reporting from our media.
Mallard has followed the rules he is sworn to uphold.
In view of the fuss, the Committee met, and decided to change the rule
I think the bigger issue and the reason this one got so much blowback is Mallards inconsistent interpretation and lack of cultural sensitivity. Neck tie okay. Bow tie okay. Mexican Bola for goodness sake okay. Traditional Maori Hei Tiki and you have to leave the House.
Mallard was entitled to his interpretation if that is part of the job.
The focus on Mallard deciding was partisan, shit stirring and desperation. He gave the opportunity of consulting, went with the majority and was attacked. If he'd simply made a unilateral decision to stay with or get rid of ties he'd have been crucified.
The relevant big issue is to do with 65-33-10-2. Yes, Labour has 65 seats.
Yes, Mallard is entitled to his opinion. That alone does mean he is right or consistent with his previous decisions. I suspect the subsequent ground swell against him confirms this.
Mallard asked Waititi to put his case in writing before Christmas. Waititi presented this in Parliament. It was a very compelling case. Mallard had complete disregard for the arguments presented then, simply saying “I disagree”. The cultural issues at play required a response from the Speaker appropriate to 2021, not 1921.
Yes Mallard is entitled to his opinion, and within the limits of the rules he is entitled to make decisions consistent with those rules. He did not make the original rule. He consulted regarding the rules and found significant views resisting a change. He did not have the power to change the rule himself. The groundswell of opinion was that the rule was wrong – but the Committee have now made a change. See the difference?
The Speaker will still have to interpret the new rule – should he accept an MP in 'business' swimwear? "Business" singlet and jandals? "Business" jeans and running shoes? "Business" MAGA hat?
Previous speakers have faced similar challenges, and politics being what it is, doubtless there will be more challenges, but to attack a Speaker for doing his job is not really very fair.
At the level of casual political interest, the whole tie drama has reassured the public that their interests are served by a pack of clowns so egregious they can't even agree on dress rules. They have brought no mana on the house.
You make a very valid point Stuart. Hard to disagree with you.
Why doesn't Nash just fuck off to the national party?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/300227138/youre-going-to-have-to-have-some-very-hard-conversations-tourism-minister-says-bleeding-tourism-businesses-shouldnt-expect-more-government-support
That industry has had dumptrucks of direct subsidy last year through MBIE, and whole landfills full of indirect subsidy through CO2 production and environmental effects.
Nash has done the right thing.
At near 5% unemployed – and less than 5% in the south of the South Island – this is the right time to pivot the economy.
at near 5% unemployed……never mind hte women for whom unemployment is over 5% and who are in many cases employed by the tourism industry.
Unemployment:
For men, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, down from 4.8 percent last quarter. For women, the unemployment rate was 5.4 percent, down from 5.8 percent.
Underutilisation
and lets not even mentioned Northland or Bay of Plenty. But yeah, go feel good about a very meaningless employment statistic from the last quater.
never mind regional unemployment in the bay of plenty area or Northland and fuck all those that used to find seasonal employment in the tourism industry.
"fuck all those that used to find seasonal employment in the tourism industry."
That's no better reason to subsidise this industry than it is a reason to subsidise Rio Tinto
The government would be better employed creating new industries, that in the case of tourism don't rely on opening our borders or handouts for only certain sectors of the economy.
The government can either subsidize jobs – be that in tourism or health, or education, or building etc, or they can pay unemployment benefits.
Consider that any unemployment benefits or any other benefit for that matter is so low that people on benefits actually are living below the poverty line in the hardest cases.
So what shall the government do with the tax money we give it? Should it pay to little to live in form of a benefit with all the resulting stress on the community/society or shall it subsidize jobs.
What other jobs can we just stop subsidizing? Farming? Infrastructure? Health Care?
This is a serious question that should be asked. Tourism is just a small part of it. And yes, women have a current unemployment rate of 5.4% (0.9 higher then that national average) and a much higher under utilisation rate (also above the national average), and tourism is one of the businesses in the bay of plenty area and in northland that offers seasonal employment for women, be that front of house, back office, or a room maid in one of the many motels/hotels/b&b etc. Like it or not, these min waged jobs are still miles better then what the government has to offer via its social wellfare office.
So what should it be? Subsidizing jobs or paying out hardship grants, special needs grants and a few hundred bucks a month unemployment. I take the jobs.
So what should it be?
All subsidies come to an end. If you are in a low-value tourism job at the moment you have been given the strongest signal possible that you need to get out.
Women in particular need to re-train and get into construction which is where they are needed. Follow the money, and get the job.
To assist with this transition, the Government has just put out an extension to the FlexiWage programme.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-on-expanding-flexi-wage-scheme/GCLVHAWNVT44P66ZFX2EN2J7GI/
yeah, the same businesses that can't exit their leases lest they declare themselves bankrupt, (see comment below) will hire someone because the government is helping to pay not quite two month worth of a full time salary and the rest of the year you are on your own. Lol. Lol. Lol. like, bwhahahahaha lol.
I can see MacDo take that offer tho and a few others.
As for re-training, and get into construction. Right, any women who worked in retail, back office, front office, airplance crews, cooks, cleaners, and so on and so forth, please present at the next training session for constructions jobs – and while yer at it, please go pick that pesky fruit. Why did they not think about that themselves the dears. Oh boy.
Sometimes really i ask myself if you really believe that and would you be capable of doing that exact same thing should the government decide next time that your job ain't worth subsidizing.
If you are aware of the criteria from the tourism transition fund, go right ahead and explain its exclusion of lease payments.
Alone of all your sex you feel women can't do construction. Maybe you're from the 1950s. Either way your mind is tired. Our company is from 2021. Move out of the way.
Most days the tiresome, chippy, weak, sexist childish fools like yourself can never see how to help themselves, and actively get in the way of others seeking to help.
You're no longer capable of helping. Unless you can prove otherwise.
Hi Sabine I do agree that the subsidizing of any business that cannot sustain themselves has to end. At the same time though, a special criteria should be included with the recipients of the unemployment benefit for people who have lost their job in a tourism business. Perhaps something similar like the topped up benefit that ended last October. There also needs assistance available for relocation costs if people find a job elsewhere. So essentially, the employee who lost the job ought to get additional assistance for a period of time, i.e. 6 months (?) not the business.
You say you take the jobs, they wont be there no matter what as the taxpayer will not pay even more billions for something they suffer through themselves for years to come. Looking at major cities like Wellington – rent is up to over $ 600, people don't even earn that much. The rates are expected to increase by a whooping 17-18%. It becomes utterly unaffordable as it is, without the knowing that we have to pay up for businesses that by its very nature is a risky undertaking. There will be a lot of resistance out there.
The trouble is with things like travel is that there isn't a lot of sympathy ( as opposed to empathy for the workers) for the industry as a whole. Those that could afford to travel regularly aren't the bulk of people (not to mention it was the more well-off people travelling that initially spread COVID-19.) Locals having to pay tourist prices have put many things beyond the reach of the ordinary person – think something like making people pay in recent years to go to Happy Valley which has always been free, the selling off of holiday camps where the ordinary person went, the rise of peoples spare houses being used for Airbnb, the demise of freedom camping for NZers as high volumes of tourists came in, the exploitation of workers in the industry and the payments under the table, the backhanders paid to get the tourist buses to stop at your attraction/restaurant, and so on.
The damage done with the Douglas reforms where the well-off got big tax cuts while the working class lost their jobs or were forced into faux-self employment (courier drivers, cleaners, sub-contractors, etc) and got user pays and lower wages and salaries.
This continues with the wealth accumulation of the well-off and the imposition of high rents as the working class and the unemployed further line the pockets of the well-off so they can hop on a fucking plane and travel.
I like how the well off like to think they are the "ordinary" person. You know an ordinary person who needs a travel agent or a real estate agent (oh that's right poor people do now cause most real agents are parasitic landlords or rental companies who when a decent landlord gets them to manage their properties immediately put the rent up to "market" rates which like CE salaries are designed to simply enrich the well-off.
Homeownership is the lowest it has been since the 50's and 56% of young people now rent. I don't remember a lot of sympathy for those who were laid off from the railways and post office in their 50's and never got another job again – not through lack of applying either or who had to commute to Auckland during the week to work away from their families to do so. I don't remember a lot of sympathy for those laid off from the car manufacturing jobs in Porirua and so on.
I don't see any sympathy right now from landlords who just keep putting rents up and up and up beyond affordability (nor was there any post Christchurch earthquake which set the foundation for profiteering and high rents). I do see obnoxious behaviour like being a rental company owner who is opposing state housing in a local community where there is a major shortage of housing.
Maybe just maybe when the ordinary person in my communities have a job again, get paid a decent wage, can own their own home or pay reasonable rent only then will travel and tourism be a given – cause lets face it the ordinary person doesn't have a shitshow of mitigating the effects of COVID-19 and supporting that industry.
You are in the same boat as the horticulture industry which has shat on New Zealanders for the last 30 years – instead of building local community based work forces first used illegal labour and then RSE while at the same time actively telling New Zealanders how useless they are – and continue to still say that now. You are not going to get a local workforce by telling people they are useless. You're supposed to be captains of commerce and industry – how do you not get that?
There needs to be some rethinking going on by a whole lot of people.
It is funny how people assume that one must be in an industry or another when one argues for 'subsidies'. For the record the only 'subsidy' i received was the initial wage subsidy that my business received for my staff and myself. And that was that. Also, i don't have staff anymore, i work on my own, exactly like i did when i started out. O guess i don't actually have to worry what will happen to Rotorua, after all i am fine, right?
Secondly, while I now live in a tourist region, i used to live in AKL up to four years ago. Funnily enough, while i lived in AKL arguing that people deserved houses, i was told to move to the regions cause living was cheaper there, even tho i was not one who was homeless in AKL.
So really, one arguing for something does not mean one needs it or wants it.
Last but least, i did not argue for subsidies for the 'tourism industry that shat on NZ' via the jobs they provided, via the taxes they paid, and all the other stuff that comes with living and working in NZ for the most part as good as one can.
I argue that the government has a choice to make, subsidies for businesses or subsidies for people. I was from the onset against using businesses as a medium to pass benefits on to people. I was not for the wage subsidy, i wanted the government to send 'stimulus', or 'wage replacement' or 'a check' directly to people during the Lockdown period, and then argued for something like, a higher benefit for people who are unemployed, with out less strings and humiliation attached to it. I argued and still do that i would like the government to provide a legal frame work for business stuck in leases to get out of said leases before they have to declare bankruptcy so that these same people may be able to start something up that is better suited to these brave new times. Subsidies do not have to be only monetary.
But if anyone here thinks that the collapse of the tourism industry is going to change anything for homeless people in NZ or poor people in NZ should really ask why? IF anything it will make it worse first for the unemployed and the homeless and then for anyone else.
Keep in mind that currently in Rotorua houses have crept up to a million +, median rent is 460 NZD per week, and the next summer season begins in December 2021. Its 10 month till then, and like this year it will last 6 weeks – and what ever season it will be then, will depend on the money people will then have to spend.
So how much will the government pay for rent assistance, hardship assistance, special needs assistance, unemployment benefits, social welfare etc, and how many more people will end up unhoused/homeless because they can't keep up, and last but least where would you like these homeless, jobless people on a few hundred NZD per week government largess to move too?
It has been almost one year now, anyone not wearing blinders would know what is going to happen in 2021 and beyond already when we went into lockdown, and here we are pretending that the people that live in certain parts of NZ had it coming, deserve nothing more, and besides by virtue of living in a certain area they 'shat' on the country. And the tourism industry, the bad players as well as the good players and everyone in between are just the first stone to fall.
You are right, there needs to be some rethinking going on by a whole lot of people.
The you was generic rather than specific.
"So how much will the government pay for rent assistance, hardship assistance, special needs assistance, unemployment benefits, social welfare etc"
Sadly not as much as they pay to assist working people and employers. The two tier welfare system that developed post-COVID clearly delineated deserving and underserving poor like nothing else did in recent times. As long as we treat certain people differently then nothing will be done for the poor will it?
Helping out tourism as a special case will continue to reinforce the difference. A generally low paid, full of corruption industry that has seen paying under the table, backhanders, avoiding tax, etc as a normal part of doing business.
Government can borrow money, it (strictly, it is not Government) can print money, it can pay subsidies and it can pay (for) benefits all at the same time. It might go against certain economic orthodoxies and/or against certain political ideologies, but it can be done if the will and courage is there.
Government does not subsidise Rio Tinto.
But the economy is going very well according to Robertson, and there is only 4.9% unemployment and debt is far lower than anticipated so we are coming through this thing very well.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Speaking of naked self interest has anyone with a Granny sub read the hosk's rant about the govt lack of covid vision.
Oz having a plan and strategy !!!…..look like it's state V federal over there with Victoria's latest budget sticking 2 fingers at scomo by addressing areas of federal responsibility.
We’re a small owner operator tourism business, currently we’re trading at about 10% of 2019. According to Paymark we were 65% domestic. Up until Sept it wasn’t too bad, October on has been beyond dead. The domestic recovery has been all over the place with destinations fall in and out if favour really quickly.
Nash is on the right track. The industry has to adjust to a very different world. While there’s some hope of international travel from 2022 it will take a very long time, if ever, before we see anything like 2019 numbers. A lot of businesses have to go. We could easily be one of them.
One area government could help this transition is around exit from leases. Most businesses lease premises and are stuck for the duration of the lease. Right now buying your way out of a lease would mean paying every cent due for the rest if the lease because the landlord has no show of getting another tenant. Our landlord’s option was a temporary rent reduction but a much longer term.
Government needs to be more involved in the hard discussions to enable people to move on, rather than screwed over.
Is bankruptcy the only other alternative out of the lease?
Even Art and Object have started to figure out how to get online better.
Just gently inquiring what scope you would have for your kind of art on line.
Personal guarantee. Screwed.
Currently doing 2 – 3x online what we’re doing over the counter. Lost a good sale yesterday because shipping to USA was $600 for a 6kg item that was only a bit more retail
Yes, helping tenants to get out of leases would be a big help for those that want to get out now.
I discussed that very idea with the labor contender here in Vegas, ………but nothing much came of it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300070014/andrew-little-proposes-fund-for-businesses-after-nz-first-pulls-support-for-rent-law
NZ First is no longer a factor and havnt been for 4 months?????
Winston's point about sanctity of contract is still valid. It's pretty draconian for government to come in and over-ride contracts and would be a very bad place to go. Although Little's bluff / threat of subsidised arbitration brought a lot of parties together with the lockdown rent rebates.
Probably the way to go would be a real program of heavily subsidised, compulsory arbitration, with a set of guidelines / expectations, and maybe a bit of cash, to force agreements between tenants and landlords so people can get out of some pretty shitty situations without having to loose everything. That agreement could be anything from exit through to a re-negotiated lease.
There's businesses in tourist areas that aren't even close to paying their operating costs (power, insurance telecoms etc) let alone rent. Motels with 10 – 20% occupancy, and having to discount heavily to get even that. Sooner or later that's going to end badly and the business owner isn't the only one getting hurt.
The question is, if it was important enough to be addressed 7 months ago (but stymied by Winston) why have they made no move post his departure?
Maybe Winston was not the only reason?
That situation was around the lockdown, where most commercial leases had a clause requiring a 'fair' reduction of rent for the closed period. Some leases didn't, and some parties had diverging ideas on what constituted 'fair'. So Government proposed a range of interventions, with some guidelines. Little's proposal of compulsory, pretty much free, arbitration focused a some intransigent minds and agreements happened pdq. Peters played his part and Government got the result without having to interfere in contracts.
The current situation is where lease arrangements, and property values, relate to business levels that were many times what they are now. Tenants are pretty much stuck there until the lease ends as there's no mechanism in the leases to terminate in these circumstances. Landlords are also in the crap as their rental income will disappear if they loose their tenant, with equally catastrophic consequences in most cases, so are naturally standing by the letter of the lease.
This could get quite messy, and quite quickly, once places start getting boarded up.
So I recall, however I also seem to remember further statements (Robertson?) that the issue was being worked on and they expected to have a proposal to address the issue of commercial leases 'soon'…..apparently not.
Looks Government washed its hands off it.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/12/grant-robertson-rules-out-revisiting-commercial-rent-relief-as-business-owner-pleads-for-help.html
One half-hearted ‘experiment’ appears to have failed and is due to finish at the end of next month.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123951180/dismal-uptake-of-governments-40m-covid-commercial-rents-dispute-service
The whole issue appears to have been swept under the carpet and/or swallowed up by the huge mushroom cloud of the housing market.
Thanks for that….certainly appears they have washed their hands of it
It was all a bluff, and in most cases it worked. There wasn’t much that could have been done with intervention in leases without creating bigger problems and the threat of effectively free compulsory arbitration focused minds.
Pretty sure that was still around the lockdown issues, and from what I’ve seen, common sense and goodwill prevailed, eventually.
Nash’s statements this week indicate further work is happening, but he said that the government won’t be supporting businesses that have no prospects of viability in the foreseeable.
Hopefully cool heads will prevail and good re-structuring plan is developed to create a viable tourism industry, both economically and environmentally
Chris, I'd appreciate your take on why Minister Nash should do as you ask? What is your beef with Nash?
Good to see they have captured this bastard who left this lady badly injured. Also good that there is no name suppression for him.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/taita-hit-and-run-accused-appears-in-hutt-valley-district-court/XC4GPAAB47AOPMTBSXQLFCMLOM/
Maori wards ensuring representation by the vital group that considers that the planet is vital for humans and animals and vice versa of course, has submissions closing –
Let's just get robust and start moving forward instead of being shrinking violets from the progressive decisions. This would be the first for many people at a time when there need to be a lot of thinking followed by timely action, about new ways for the future. Start now, get into practise – make New Zealand vital again!
This bill seeks to amend the Local Electoral Act 2001 to improve Māori representation in local government. It aims to do this by removing provisions in the Act that allow for the use of binding polls in the decision to establish Māori wards or constituencies. More details about the bill are available on the New Zealand Parliament website.
Make a submission on the bill by 5.00pm on Thursday 11 February, 2021.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2102/S00082/have-your-say-on-the-local-electoral-maori-wards-and-maori-constituencies-amendment-bill.htm
Vote for Maori wards and we can capitalise on their energy reserve just waiting to go with new ideas, ready for discussion, argument and reasoned agreement and action. These will turn Maori, pakeha and new tauiwi around to face forwards, while still towing the past with us for reference and useful experience when needed.
Lighter and five to seven times stronger than concrete.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbZKP4UAtL8&feature=youtu.be
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/02/nzambi-matee-plastic-bricks/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/436232/study-links-climate-change-to-severe-rainfall
Wow scary stuff. So what did cloud seeding experiments result in? Would activating rain in one needy area change the 'sky rivers' bringing weather dumping? https://climate.ncsu.edu/edu/CloudSeeding
Cloud seeding first began in the mid 1940s when Dr. Vincent J. Schaefer was studying cloud formation for General Electric. Cloud seeding has been subsequently used to enhance precipitation, dissipate fog, modify hurricanes, and decrease lightning and hail in thunderstorms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding
and Australia? – Cloud seeding – New World Encyclopedia http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org › entry › Cloud_seedi…
Jump to History — History · 1947–1952: CSIRO scientists dropped dry ice into the tops of cumulus clouds. · 1953–1956: CSIRO carried out similar trials in …
Stepping carefully. NZ Geographic brings some interesting facts to light. https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-rainmakers/
As General Electric held back from cloud-seeding, other commercial enterprises leapt into the breach. New York City’s leaders commissioned one to make rain over their reservoir. They got a flood and 169 lawsuits for damages. They hastily commissioned a survey to show that cloud-seeding did not work, so avoided paying damages, but were placed under a permanent injunction not to try cloud-seeding again.
India is faced with great need. I wonder if they sell off water for bottling. The commerical imperative often wins over reason and responsibility amongst country leaders.
https://india.mongabay.com/2019/07/as-cloud-seeding-catches-on-in-times-of-climate-change-more-research-holds-the-key/
I’ve heard on the rumour mill, Pacific Aerospace (PAC) which is NZ’s sole remaining Aircraft construction company is being liquidated by its Chinese owners. This Company was allow to be brought by the Chinese under the last National Government under the guise from the NZG & the Foreign Investment Office that the Chinese promise of keeping all Aircraft design & construction it in NZ.
So much so, for the National wanting to invest NZ STEM Training as they promise during the last general election, when let/ approve this sort’ve crap, closing down Hillside Workshops and forcing AirNZ to off load it’s two of its so-called “Non Core Assets” TAE & Safe Air which btw used to do about 90-95% of AirNZ’s Military Contracts both local & overseas.