Superyacht owners are people of principle apparently. The principle being they don’t like to pay their own way.
Some fantasists have conjured the figure of 1 million dollars – this is how much money a Superyacht is said to generate in our economy per day. I know right – we need more red carpet. Cash is trickling down off the yachts. Open wide.
Likewise the latest Bugatti coughs fiddies out its exhaust.
Highlighting that we are obsessed with growth and GDP is a fair call. Showing no understanding why is a problem.
Feeling good won’t pay the bankers the interest they believe they are due on the loans they majicked out of promised economic activity (for a business, a home…). As GDP goes down total money in circulation might pay the debt but not the interest. The interest is calculated above and beyond todays wealth, it is a projection for tomorrow – where all your tomorrows are bound by debt to banks. Interest made of thin air, now choking the life out of the planet.
Who are we defaulting? Who owns so much the whole world owes them? And how is it we’re all now beholden to banks who make money out of thin air?
Having read the speech I get the impression that Marama Davidson has no idea how the economy works.
She wants everything for everyone, a better education system, better healthcare, more opportunity.
All these things have to be paid for, yet she seems opposed to most of the ways New Zealand makes its income (to be fair she doesn’t say that in this speech, it is implied for all her other statements on the economy).
Of course as a 5 to 10% party it is not really necessary to provide the answers since they will never actually be needed.
It seems to me the difference between Labour and the Greens is that Labour does have a coherent understanding of the economy, they have to since they are the core of the government from time to time.
In a recent Spinoff article I said that I hoped that Jacinda would use her authority and popularity to lead more on climate change. To set out goals and policies that would be both uniting and would make a difference. Unlike Marama Davidson, it seems to me that Jacinda has the ability to integrate lofty goals with practical policy.
Not that Marama isn’t capable of learning how it all works. I’d hope she’s doing that.
National don’t have a coherent understanding of ecology, but one might hope they are capable of learning too. You chaps’ll trash your economic engine if you’re not careful, huge lack of understanding. But, the Greens could help you to stop shooting yourself in the foot.
Next door the water we just had is undercutting the path. Soon it will be a large polluted problem and require men and machinery to fix it. It was merely a bit of grass on a path. The grass was sprayed for weeds but now the entire soil structure is collapsing and part of the hill starting to go with it. This is a perfect analogy of National methodology.
No foresight, ignore the science, do the cheapest and most convenient, wreck the place.
Well of course what seems to you is often patently absurd – like your completely arbitrary assertion that government spending should rest at 30% of GDP. And they gave you a PhD? Must have been a sympathy case. It’s not as if the Gnat policies you chose to enable have done us a lick of good – which rather deflates your pompous myth of economic competence.
Dial back on the insults, and actually engage in debate.
New Zealand gets it international income from three main sources, primary exports (about 50%), international tourism (about 20%) and other services and specialist manufactures. These pay for all New Zealand’s imports. Marama Davidson did not indicate at all in her speech how her policies would affect these. She just ignored them. However, all her previous statements would indicate she wants less of all of them.
That is why her speech is fundamentally deficient. She wants more money for a wide range of public services, but seemingly wants to drastically change the activities that generate that money.
Not just modify them, but fundamentally change them, and in some cases eliminate them. More than opposition to FTA’s but a revolution in the basic system of ownership in the economy. Without actually spelling out what the new mode of ownership would look like.
And as for the “patent absurdity” of 30%, well I suggest you take this point up with Grant Robertson, since he has adopted it.
However (as I stated) export receipts are broadly co-related to imports. Yes, you can have a current exchange deficit, even a structural one if your economy is growing. But there is a relationship between the two.
That is why I have focussed on this issue. As far I can see Green policies (at least as stated by Marama Davidson) would severely reduce New Zealand
‘s receipts of foreign exchange. That means less imports, a smaller economy and less ability to get public goods (education, health etc).
I have recently had radiation treatment from some very expensive electron beam machines. These are the newest models and cost $6 million each. They cannot conceivably be made in New Zealand, even if they could be, almost all the components would be imported. Hence the need for a substantial export economy, which is New zealand’s case is around 30% of GDP, way higher than say the United States or most larger European economies.
If a small nation like New Zealand wants first world living standards, it inevitably means a high dependence on exports. We simply can’t make most of the things that exist in first world economies. That takes an advanced economic machine of 500 million people or so (North America, the EU and China/Japan).
Might pay to start at the beginning Gosman and then you may understand the point under debate.
“Having read the speech I get the impression that Marama Davidson has no idea how the economy works.
She wants everything for everyone, a better education system, better healthcare, more opportunity.
All these things have to be paid for, yet she seems opposed to most of the ways New Zealand makes its income (to be fair she doesn’t say that in this speech, it is implied for all her other statements on the economy).”
How much of our exports, depend on imports. And money for services going overseas.
For example, if dairy exports are 17 billion, but we import 10 billion of feed, fertiliser and oil for dairy farming. Net dairy receipts around 6 billion, from memory? Take away net interest costs, imported equipment, finance costs, and profits going offshore from FDI in farming.
Then. Take the long term costs of pollution, land degradation and water usage.
Is dairy, to take just one example, giving us net positive earnings, to buy imports?
How long is swapping milk powder for short lived plastic junk, going to last?
It seems to be a right wing failing, for all their memes about being “good economic managers”, that they cannot comprehend basic accounting. A ledger has two sides.
not at all…a more relevant figure would be the import component of the service provided….take education for example, what proportion of the education budget would be spent in overseas currency?…id suggest rather little, which then begs the question what improvements could be made using our sovereign currency?
Are some of our exports even a net gain for NZ, if you take out all the overseas currency, inputs?
Looking at the overall balance of trade, we may even be better off without some of our export industries, before we even take into account the internal costs.
Import substitution may be a better way, for many things?
Wind power replacing some of the 4 billion in imported hydrocarbons, for one.
not even talking about import substitution (although thats a possibility as well)….Wayne wished to tie our ability to improve the likes of ‘health, education, more opportunity ‘to export receipts which is disingenuous as the link between the two is tenuous at best, especially as the bulk of it is funded in NZD.
The Korean take on import substitution is that it’s a born to fail strategy, that what’s required is to develop products for the local market which can then compete effectively abroad and be exported. NZ primary producers don’t really pay much attention to the local market, preferring to fail big abroad when products aren’t up to scratch.
That dynamic may need to be diluted as a carbon reduction strategy, but it is noticeable that NZ’s largest corporations produce, not the value added products, but the gross commodities that more astute companies turn another buck on – milk powder, raw logs and fillet block – a damning indictment of the governments of the day.
Yes, I think a lot of that development is achieved through education sector work – fishery and agricultural and textile institutes, usually government backed but supported through local government and considered to be indispensable parts of regional development/antipoverty strategies. I visited a few in Daegu.
Well it’s all a commitment to superior government – a late Confucian ideal, I believe it’s part of the symbology of Baekdusan among other things.
The Gnats want to make government small enough to drown in a bath tub, and Labour, post Rogergnomics, refuse to state what their objectives are. But we’re going backwards, and have been for thirty years. Hordes of Chinese (or any other nationality) will not save us, we must work our own way out of the holes dug for us by the blithering incompetents that pretend to govern us.
Not talking about thermodynamics here, but the processes in which we make our calories uses far more calories than we provide due to burning oil. I can produce more calories than I burn gardening, as I give food to others, feed chooks, and keep myself running. No oil required.
Sweat and planning – more efficient than machines.
You are focused on Exports when the point of foreign trade is imports. Selling more items via Exports than we Import doesn’t really help us become wealthier in the long run.
It’s better than a trade deficit – which ends up being balanced by migrant capital that inflates our property market, imposing massive deadweight costs across the board. But you knew that, it is merely your role to advocate for economic policies that pauperize New Zealanders.
The ideal situation is where exports receipts equal import costs. However the next best situation if where Imports exceed exports on a long term basis. This is becuase it means someone else is subsidising your economy.
I suppose that explains some of your lousy advice Gosman. So much for cultivating a degree of independence and self-sufficiency – one little global financial hiccup and your model parasite state will be obliged to do for itself, or do without.
You idealize economic weakness – advisers like you are not helpful.
How about you substantiate your folly by supporting your arbitrary figure of 30% of GDP? I guess Labour did it too is the best you can come up with – ie the reasoning quality of a badly brought up six year-old. You’re just not used to actual debate, as dependent as a six year-old on the utterly false narrative of National economic competence.
Absent migration the previous government oversaw nine years of stagnation. A party that was actually economically competent would have done something else. Diversification and regional development as we see under Jones is difficult and subject to risks – but we’re playing catchup due to your laziness. We should be doing considerably more.
Davidson doesn’t have responsibility for developing the new capacities we will need as yet, but it’s quite proper for her to talk about them. And if it upsets deadwood like you, that’s a sign it’s probably moving in the right direction. We’ve seen the crap your lot come up with in power.
No, Wayne’s just doubling down on his original “Labour did it too.”
Wayne is far too stupid to come up with anything better – there really is no justification whatsoever for his 30% figure, and he really did get that PhD out of a weeties box.
Points for loyalty though Gosman – what a faithful lackey you are.
If you had a bit more perspective you might’ve noticed. And he’s eating your lunch, because, infantile as he is, he’s more mature than you.
Where do you come up with this 30% figure, Wayne? Why 30 not 31 or 29? Because it’s a nice round number? Ad hoc bullshit like this underlies all your fucking stupid policies that gutted our public services and filled them with expensive and unreliable faux corporate weasels.
I’ve never yet seen a credible response for why it’s ok NZ fisheries employ and return 1% of what Japanese fisheries do on a roughly equal resource. That’s not a winning performance. Maybe cutting fisheries to the bone & giving Tangaroa up for oil exploration was less than entirely clever eh? But you could never perform that analysis on your own because you have this tragic illusion of competence.
the 30% (or any other figure) is arbitrary and is designed to maintain widespread misunderstanding of the system….if the bulk of voters understood this sufficiently then there are risks to its continuance….depending on the outcome this may be viewed as a positive or a negative
Now they have sold most of the Government assets, and got the well off used to not paying taxes, getting the size of Government up to a Functioning level, is going to be very expensive and difficult.
One of the very many unfortunate results of our “Unfortunate experiment”, Governments have embarked on since 1984.
Obviously 30% is chosen because it is an easy number to understand. It is necessary to have such a figure to easily explain policy, not just to the public, but also to officials. 20% of GDP as a debt figure is in the same category, which figure was also accepted by Grant Robertson.
The reality is that you need clear targets if you are to have any hope of achieving them.
In fact central govt expenditure has got down to 28% of GDP. Local govt adds another 5%.
Many would argue that 28% is too low as evidenced by the gaps in public expenditure. At 30% there is an additional $5 billion of public expenditure.
Obviously you can nominate any target you want. In large part it depends on the balance you want between public expenditure and private expenditure, but it also relates to economic efficiency. At around 30%, it means people keep the bulk of their income for their purposes; living, investment and enterprise. If the government takes too much, the result will blunt enterprise and initiative. Which is why over the last 25 years New Zealand has had better growth rates.
There is no magic formula as such, it is a matter of judgement.
It seems that for both National and Labour, the judgement is that 30% is about the right size of public expenditure.
Which is actually arbitrary and not supported by evidence.
The evidence shows countries with a much greater Government share of GDP, doing much better than us in a whole range of measures, including innovation and, if you must, GDP, growth.
It appears to stem entirely from the ideological beliefs in “Small Government” and “private always does it better”. Neither of which, are supported by evidence.
GDP growth, caused by immigration, earthquakes and disasters, cannot be credited to small Government,
Yes, and given the meteoric rise of negative social statistics like homelessness and suicide, the inability of immigration to control scams and whatever the MBEI agriculture successor calls itself’s failure to contain Mycoplasma Bovis, it’s fair to say your cheeseparing was cost negative – your judgment failed us, as it has so often before.
Robertson was a poor choice for economic policy – far better than English of course – but he does not possess the depth and control of his portfolio to innovate with confidence. Replicating the failed policies of the last thirty years really won’t cut it any more, you clowns have put us so far behind that we need more assertive change.
Please. Even the National believe that we are getting better at everything and extrapolate this out, in a free market will solve it philosophy. It’s no surprise parliament is filled with idiots, they honestly believe nobody notices most have multiple houses, and huge pensions coming their way. The question is why with all this progress things are getting more expensive not less, that calls globally on future wealth are unrecoverable, that were eating several planets while limited to the one. Which is it? Shake the system to match what we can afford, or continue the distorted economy that makes everything too hard to change?
Seymour works by a sort of clock which has him making periodic forays into the media to keep his name out there. He could soon be onto some New Zealanders not being able to watch the Rugby World Cup live, but then again they won’t be in his electorate so maybe it’ll be something else.
Could be about Winston Peters or Minister of Sport Robertson wasting taxpayers’ money by going to Japan to see the rugby.
Seymour’s clock says ‘Cuckoo’! But I want him in until he gets his euthanasia Bill through. That will help the people in pain and terminally ill. One day we might have an enlightened and truly democratic parliament that listens to what people want and will implement it if it is reasonable and limited in its flow-on effects.
I looked at an excerpt from a book on surgery and what doctors thought was fit to do to even high social class people and their practices weren’t to a high level of concern for the patient. And I wasn’t surprised to find that many in the medical profession did not believe in interfering with nature and giving woman aids to wellbeing when in childbirth. It takes a person from a fringe party to get leaders to step out of the square of BAU.
““Based on both the information and advice I’ve received, the conflict of interest was managed in accordance with the Cabinet Manual so therefore I would have no cause to sack Minister Jones”, the Prime Minister said in a statement.”
Yep. And if it turns out it wasn’t handled in accordance with the Cabiner Manual, and Jones has been behaving like a self-seeking Tory, then he has to go.
I’ve always thought the National Party was his natural home.
Jones might be a blowhard, but he’s our blowhard. If he looks like National Party fodder perhaps we should keep him and use his natural slant for the Labour Coalition’s advantage not strengthen the Gnats machinations.
He’s not mine by any stretch of the imagination. But regional development is going to require taking some risks, and that means there will be some mistakes and failures. The test of the coalition’s seriousness will be whether they refine and expand the role that is presently his, or treat it as a one-off vote stimulus for which they will be roundly condemned.
A comment on RNZ this morning was very apt. Ha ha.
“If a conflict of interest bars people from speaking then most of the National MPs should be barred from speaking on CGT.”
Indeed, or which citizens constitute being “hard working [or average] Kiwis”, or commenting on anything to do with ethics or morality.
We might have to exempt @ Wayne from that judgement though even though his ideas on morality and ethics appear to be like something out of the 1950s (an old school Skeith Holyoake type gNat without the suspender belt).
Lucky the neo-liberal ideology came along allowing its adherents to assuage their social consciences
That comment from Jones is appropriate. This morning he referred to the “perception of there being a conflict.”
In his relationship with the group involved in the present fuss he registered a conflict of interest, ‘just in case’ I suppose.
I’m sure there are many in the public who have the perception of conflicts of interest with the CGT. They should be barred from rooms where discussions are taking place, registering a conflict isn’t good enough for Jones, it isn’t good enough for them.
Of course they and their idiot supporters will say, the tax report’s only a discussion document, nothing’s decided and officially introduced. What? That hasn’t stopped their boofhead behaviour and scare-mongering as if it’s all a done deal .
Workers fighting for higher wages is SO yesterday, according to someone who should be fighting for higher wages for workers.
“…Public Service Association secretary Erin Polaczuk recently argued that as unions today had become more feminised and mature, they had increasingly avoided “stupid oppositional behaviour”…”
Or maybe workers are learning they need to avoid electing stupid collaboratists as leaders, like, oh I don’t know, Erin Polaczuk.
Since when did the union movement become just another career vehicle for the middle class?
“Since when did the union movement become just another career vehicle for the Middle class?”.
Probably about the same time as the Labour Party did.
Union Officials, like Labour MPs, started being University educated products of the middle class about the late 1970s. The have slowly taken over all the positions. Now they all are products of the Middle class..
I would say the last Union representative from the Working class in New Zealand was Ken Douglas. Just compare him with Andrew Little.
Just like comparing Jacinda Ardern with Mike Moore.
Impressed to see Huawei firing up a global publicity campaign and taking the US government to task over the arrest of its CFO.
None of that would be available to any foreign company in China.
Huawei and other Chinese-origin corps need to pressure their government for due process rights and freedom of expression in China. Trust requires common accountability.
Good points RL – kindness and practicality work together. This freedom word is one of those that has to bow to the apparent absoluteness of another set of words –
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely’.
That is seen so often that, given the fact that it disavows 100% truth on absolute power, it is inescapable. Absolute freedom is impossible to achieve, it must always be hedged around.
Better education for the future in being able to distinguish how far is too far when allocating and demanding freedoms is necessary if the country is ever going to mature. At present it shows the maturity of teenage boys from a good Christchurch college who against the rules, played on the baggage carousel at an airport. The freedom denabded by some of us as bold NZs must be what we are naturally; ‘boys will be boys’ etc.?
So education should be useful in teaching pupils to discriminate in decision making. I found an Atlantic link link that Stuart Munro put up in Daily Review 2018 on educational research and the question as to whether it is a top feature in social mobility in the USA. It depends was the answer. https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-26-07-2018/#comment-1507119
AB 7.1 commented further referring to The Spirit Level.
26 July 2018 at 10:08 pm
“and studying, for the first time, the direct relationship between a child’s earnings and that of their parents”
One of the analyses in The Spirit Level was to look at the incomes of fathers and sons as markers of upwards (and downwards) mobility. They focused only on males to remove the confounding effect of time out of the workforce for childbearing for women.
The conclusion – though it wasn’t one of the strongest correlations in the book – was that social mobility (up and down) was greater in countries that were already more equal. Or put another way – for genuine equality of opportunity to exist, it requires relatively high levels of pre-existing equality.
This is the sort of behaviour which is becoming all too common in NZ.
A Swiss couple purchased a property in Paihia around 30 years ago. Apart from one other, they were the only house in the area but since then it has been taken over by top-end housing.
They poured their passion into the property and planted among other things a variety of trees including several tall trees. When they returned recently from a trip overseas they found the trees and creepers dead or dying. Someone had taken advantage of their absence and drilled holes into the bark and poisoned them.
This is the level of gross entitlement of the rich prick Nat.Party voting NZers who think the world owes them a living and who care not one tot for their neighbours or the environment.
It’s fences too. Such people want to have everything way and not to fit into the community and agree with their neighbours.
So in Wellington a couple on a hill had lovely views over the sea from their verandah. Until the Council granted the new owner in front the right to have a back fence and i think to have it above the usual 2m high. He built it 12 feet high as part of an agreement that he could build a fort for some reason. I think that was the story. Then all the people on the hill could see was fence, no view.
It went to Court and I think it has cost $100,000 to fight it. There was an unclear Council by-law to contend with and then the OTT imposition of this unpleasant neighbour. It is hard when preparing legislation to prepare for the possible meanness and pettyness that people will descend to, and the rich are worse than the poor at being mean.
I’m sorry Anne but do you have any evidence at all that it was the people you blame who had anything at all to do with this? Anything at all to justify your diatribe about what sort of people you think they are?
Thought not.
Actually I am surprised that it is not the couple the story is talking about who are being abused here.
They are Foreigners (Swiss) who spend a great deal of their time living overseas (9 months recently) and who have bought a house in New Zealand that is depriving a New Zealand citizen living here of a home.
After the comments about that sort of person that is so frequent on this blog I am surprised you aren’t cheering that they are being picked on.
They are Foreigners (Swiss) who spend a great deal of their time living overseas (9 months recently) and who have bought a house in New Zealand that is depriving a New Zealand citizen living here of a home.
oooh… talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Foreigners? They have been living here for 30 plus years. Just because they went away for nine months doesn’t mean they spend a great deal of time living overseas. My parents went back to England after 30 years for eight months in the 1970s. It was their first trip back to see family and friends.
So, every person who migrated to NZ and bought or built a home is a bludger depriving NZ citizens of a home? 90% of them are NZ citizens too, but just don’t happen to be born here. I wasn’t born in NZ but was brought up here. Does that make me a bludging foreigner? According to alwyn it does.
Not in the slightest Anne.
However you have no evidence at all as to who poisoned the trees.
You just choose to blame people you don’t know and assume, with no evidence at all that they are, horror of horrors ” rich prick Nat.Party voting NZers who think the world owes them a living and who care not one tot for their neighbours or the environment.”.
You don’t have any reason at all to justify that. Why do you say it?
I think you’ll find that Anne merely said it was the level of gross entitlement of rich prick Nat.Party voting NZers who think the world owes them a living and who care not one tot for their neighbours or the environment.
A crowd well known to some people. They also tend to treat hospo workers like shit. And I doubt it was a Green who poisoned the trees. And the houses new to the area are apparently quite posh, which increases the likelihood of the poisoner being a nat voter.
It is clearly the belief of the Swiss couple (and others) who know better than you or me because they know what has been going on in their part of town.
Btw, you have no evidence whatsoever that this couple are spending a great deal of time overseas as if that justifies a person or persons – probably living in one of the top-end houses – poisoning their trees and foliage. They are the victims alwyn dear… not the perpetrators.
Why don’t the last 3 commentators, McFlock, ropata and Anne all reread what they have just written.
None of you have the slightest evidence for your claims. They are all just bitter attacks on other people whose imagined views they do not like.
I could make the same claims about the imagined failings of Green, Labour, NZF or any other parties supporters. I won’t because I think it is insane to make such silly claims without any evidence at all.
ropata has probably made the wildest one.
“b) Nat voters are generally selfish arseholes who hate nature”.
What complete and utter rubbish.
It also might be an idea if you also come to some sort of agreement on where these proposed “enemies of nature reside”.
McFlock says “houses new to the area are apparently quite posh”
Anne seems to agree ” living in one of the top-end houses ”
But ropata seems to have a different view of the matter. “Nat voters with baches”.
Make up your minds. Clearly none of you have any idea of the facts of the matter.
I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you tell us the street that is involved. You all seem to know everything that goes on. You should be able to tell us something as simple as that without having to do any further research.
And for God’s sake stop making up fantasies. Are you trying to forment the class madness that we saw for so long in the Southern Stares of the US?
alwyn, being the punctilious know-all that you are, I am sure that you know the famous Ciceronian ‘Cui bono’?
Do we have savage groups of anti-tree terrorists here in Godzone that we did not know about?
Can you suggest who else would benefit from the poisoning of the trees, and then bother to go about doing it?
I look forward to some excellent creative thinking, but expect a negative vituperation.
I just might add that the situation of the house suggests that it was not many impoverished lefties who bought the sections around and then built upon them. It seems to me that Anne is right in assuming that the majority of house-owners behind the objectionable trees would not be Greenies or Labourites.
‘Top-end housing’, Alwyn. I suspect that Anne’s cap fits the culprits.
“Do we have savage groups of anti-tree terrorists here in Godzone that we did not know about?”
I don’t know whether it has happened in New Zealand but it certainly has in the United States. They drive large nails into trees to make it very dangerous to fell them. https://medium.com/united-green-alliance/how-to-spike-trees-869bd8404f94
I do’t know how you would describe the idiot(s) who sat in trees in the Waitakeres to prevent people who wanted to build on their own land. Terrorists is perhaps a bit harsh but arse-holes seems to be appropriate.
Total non-sequiturs having no relevance to the main question I put.
The people who sat in trees in Waitakeres were trying to save the trees, not destroy them, as you well know. Cherry-picking and nit-picking as usual.
Yep. Landlords are notorious for poisoning trees. One fucktard bought the house two doors down, poisoned the trees, cut down the shrubs, then onsold it only weeks later. POS!
“Landlords are notorious for poisoning trees”
Given the destruction of most of the forests in agriculture-based societies, it could be that we agriculturalists believe that we are all … landlords?
The fire break excavation has also damaged water lines, irrigation lines and fences but the greatest expense will be in reinstating the pastures.
Pauline’s insurance covers the infrastructure but not the land disturbance – “there never would be on any insurance cover”, Simon said.
“That’s what I’ll be looking to the mayoral relief fund for.”
With the no time to delay in sowing new pasture, he said they would have to act now.
“I think we’re just going to have to move ahead and front the cost and hope that the government will pay for it.”
Landlords don’t buy and then sell houses within a couple of weeks. Landlords hold onto houses and put in tenants. Whatever sort of person you seem to be talking about they certainly don’t fit the definition of a landlord.
I know. But it’s always nice to identify the nit-pickers.
Actually he’d planned to bulldoze the existing property and turn the site to units but something put him off. Maybe he’d not read his bylaws properly. Maybe he knew I had photos of his (then) illegal activity. Maybe I walked up to the fence line and snapped him drilling holes in a tree from feet away. Maybe he was told to fuck off.
Last illegal builder on the street – it cost them $15 000 for poisoning the stream. He came at me with a spade then realised I was smiling at him and not moving an inch. He was seconds from a very bad situation. Tucked tail and went back inside.
I love the fact we’re all carrying cameras and recording devices today. I had him to rights cursing me out and coming at me.
And I am only one of SO many kiwis who’ve had enough of self entitled pricks.
Want to be an eco-crim in my hood, lol, we’ll eat you alive, then the courts will get a piece. No more warnings.
We have been so wrong in this country to adopt this fraudulent contracting system and without protections and harsh oversight to stop employers rorting the lives of innocent people. The companies and their hard eyes measures aren’t innocents.
One man – who RNZ has agreed not to name – has been a linesman for more than 20 years. He worked for Downer until the lines contract in his area went to Visionstream in 2009.
Visionstream uses contractors, not employees – so to keep working, he spent over $50,000 buying and fitting out his own van.
“I’m thinking, maybe next week, maybe next month, maybe I might make it… I’m trapped in this vicious circle. A lot of guys have gone bankrupt … and a lot more will close,” he said.
Visionstream pays a set price for each job, he said, regardless of how long it takes or how far away it is. Pay is then deducted if something goes wrong.
Isn’t this the powerful having their cake and eating it too? Trying to have firm contracts and then not fulfilling their responsibility to ensure they contain clauses relating to unexpected difficulties. They surely have a contract that the work can be done, and there should be payment if the workers are there ready to do the work. If the work cannot be accessed then it is the firm’s problem and the workers should not be at risk. That should be covered by insurance.
Paris said earlier that his brief as incoming CEO was to get Vodafone NZ into shape for an IPO in early 2020.
Smoke and mirrors for ‘share price’ purposes…Paris took the role for 30 pieces and ‘Pre IPO’…he knew the gig…
Offshoring (which can include bringing foreign resources inhouse as required)’services’ and ‘cloud automation/virualization’ will lead to downgrades in service, and push publicly listed Voda Nz share price financially towards a cliff…shortly after the big players have extracted their cut from an IPO…
The only action which prevents this happening is for customers to walk away…cut mobile services usage to the bone…and live life outside the digital trap…
Jobs will be gone either way…ending the relationship sooner will be less painful long term…
Switching have/are/will be doing exactly the same …5G architecture is exclusively virtualized…which is part of the huge push behind the tech…
the total cost of lost growth potential for the UK caused by ‘too much finance’ between 1995 and 2015 is in the region of £4,500 billion. This total figure amounts to roughly 2.5 years of the average GDP across the period.
The report provides the first ever numerical estimate for the scale of damage caused by the UK’s finance sector growing beyond a useful size. Of the £4,500 billion loss in economic output, £2,700 billion is accounted for by the misallocation of resources where resources, skills and investments are diverted away from more productive non-financial activities into finance. The other £1,800 billion arises from the 2008 banking crisis.
A-mazing. Some prototype top bizzies from The Simpsons brought to you by Forbes.
Here is the technique for manufacturing consent to get the public ready to be be hornswoggled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM
“All these folks who’ve never learned to read a map, clogging all the roads while doing endless circles in their cars.”
Hah! I have often seen the consternation on the faces of the tech dependent as they frantically tap and swipe. Lost, they are, in a cell phone black spot which still exist in the hinterland here in Godzone. We will produce maps…like printed on paper with scales and everything…. and they think we’re joking. “Nein, nein! (Or “non, non!”) they say as we try to explain that Taputoputo to Taupo is a journey of slightly more than four hours….. Tap , tap, swipe, swipe……
“Israel is not a state of all its citizens,” he wrote. “According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people – and only it.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, March 11, 2019
What would the people of the world think if a German leader, ever made a statement like this?*
“Germany is not a state of all its citizens,” he wrote. “According to the basic nationality law we passed, Germany is the nation-state of the German people – and only it.”
*They would think, and rightly so, that, that German leader was a genocidal fascist
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
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Superyacht owners are people of principle apparently. The principle being they don’t like to pay their own way.
Some fantasists have conjured the figure of 1 million dollars – this is how much money a Superyacht is said to generate in our economy per day. I know right – we need more red carpet. Cash is trickling down off the yachts. Open wide.
Likewise the latest Bugatti coughs fiddies out its exhaust.
We are lucky to have these people.
Now bow and scrape.
“Superyacht owners are people of principle apparently.”
“Bugatti”
Neither of which will be taxed in Labour’s proposed CGT, for some odd reason
I really don’t believe super yachts gain in value.
Bugattis – yeah I can see classics appreciating – newer ones…….. nah
So you are pro cgt then??
Not particularly worried either way, given how much they are bound to either tone it down or not actually do it.
Just seems strange they would want to exclude rich boys toys, like boats and art.
Status is causing the extinction of our species.
The mill. may include the street value of the drugs smuggled in.
Yep taxpayers pay for the dredging and dump the toxic waste in the pristine waters off Great Barrier Island = Fuzzy Logic IMHO ?
Marama Davidson speech to Green Party Summer Policy Conference in Wellington.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1903/S00062/speech-marama-davidson-summer-policy-conference.htm
Highlighting that we are obsessed with growth and GDP is a fair call. Showing no understanding why is a problem.
Feeling good won’t pay the bankers the interest they believe they are due on the loans they majicked out of promised economic activity (for a business, a home…). As GDP goes down total money in circulation might pay the debt but not the interest. The interest is calculated above and beyond todays wealth, it is a projection for tomorrow – where all your tomorrows are bound by debt to banks. Interest made of thin air, now choking the life out of the planet.
Who are we defaulting? Who owns so much the whole world owes them? And how is it we’re all now beholden to banks who make money out of thin air?
Something is seriously rotten.
“Our goal shouldn’t be to tinker around the edges of a broken system. We need to reimagine a world where everybody thrives.”
Is this what The Greens are doing?
Marama says, “shouldn’t” be…, “We need to..”
I hope they are .
Nats vision. Paying more, for less, for longer, so that his voters can feel better about their financial rorts.
Read the link party attribution hilarious.
Having read the speech I get the impression that Marama Davidson has no idea how the economy works.
She wants everything for everyone, a better education system, better healthcare, more opportunity.
All these things have to be paid for, yet she seems opposed to most of the ways New Zealand makes its income (to be fair she doesn’t say that in this speech, it is implied for all her other statements on the economy).
Of course as a 5 to 10% party it is not really necessary to provide the answers since they will never actually be needed.
It seems to me the difference between Labour and the Greens is that Labour does have a coherent understanding of the economy, they have to since they are the core of the government from time to time.
In a recent Spinoff article I said that I hoped that Jacinda would use her authority and popularity to lead more on climate change. To set out goals and policies that would be both uniting and would make a difference. Unlike Marama Davidson, it seems to me that Jacinda has the ability to integrate lofty goals with practical policy.
Hell freezes over, and I agree. 😀
Not that Marama isn’t capable of learning how it all works. I’d hope she’s doing that.
National don’t have a coherent understanding of ecology, but one might hope they are capable of learning too. You chaps’ll trash your economic engine if you’re not careful, huge lack of understanding. But, the Greens could help you to stop shooting yourself in the foot.
Next door the water we just had is undercutting the path. Soon it will be a large polluted problem and require men and machinery to fix it. It was merely a bit of grass on a path. The grass was sprayed for weeds but now the entire soil structure is collapsing and part of the hill starting to go with it. This is a perfect analogy of National methodology.
No foresight, ignore the science, do the cheapest and most convenient, wreck the place.
Wayne said:
“Labour does have a coherent understanding of the economy”
WTB said:
“National don’t have a coherent understanding of ecology”
Well of course what seems to you is often patently absurd – like your completely arbitrary assertion that government spending should rest at 30% of GDP. And they gave you a PhD? Must have been a sympathy case. It’s not as if the Gnat policies you chose to enable have done us a lick of good – which rather deflates your pompous myth of economic competence.
Stuart Munro
Dial back on the insults, and actually engage in debate.
New Zealand gets it international income from three main sources, primary exports (about 50%), international tourism (about 20%) and other services and specialist manufactures. These pay for all New Zealand’s imports. Marama Davidson did not indicate at all in her speech how her policies would affect these. She just ignored them. However, all her previous statements would indicate she wants less of all of them.
That is why her speech is fundamentally deficient. She wants more money for a wide range of public services, but seemingly wants to drastically change the activities that generate that money.
Not just modify them, but fundamentally change them, and in some cases eliminate them. More than opposition to FTA’s but a revolution in the basic system of ownership in the economy. Without actually spelling out what the new mode of ownership would look like.
And as for the “patent absurdity” of 30%, well I suggest you take this point up with Grant Robertson, since he has adopted it.
you conflate again Wayne….export receipts are not necessarily tied to the provision of domestic services
Pat,
However (as I stated) export receipts are broadly co-related to imports. Yes, you can have a current exchange deficit, even a structural one if your economy is growing. But there is a relationship between the two.
That is why I have focussed on this issue. As far I can see Green policies (at least as stated by Marama Davidson) would severely reduce New Zealand
‘s receipts of foreign exchange. That means less imports, a smaller economy and less ability to get public goods (education, health etc).
I have recently had radiation treatment from some very expensive electron beam machines. These are the newest models and cost $6 million each. They cannot conceivably be made in New Zealand, even if they could be, almost all the components would be imported. Hence the need for a substantial export economy, which is New zealand’s case is around 30% of GDP, way higher than say the United States or most larger European economies.
If a small nation like New Zealand wants first world living standards, it inevitably means a high dependence on exports. We simply can’t make most of the things that exist in first world economies. That takes an advanced economic machine of 500 million people or so (North America, the EU and China/Japan).
All of which is irrelevant unless there is an import component in the domestic provision…and depending on the case that may range from zero.
Importing is the purpose of foreign trade. You want to be able to encourage people to import if they so desire.
Might pay to start at the beginning Gosman and then you may understand the point under debate.
“Having read the speech I get the impression that Marama Davidson has no idea how the economy works.
She wants everything for everyone, a better education system, better healthcare, more opportunity.
All these things have to be paid for, yet she seems opposed to most of the ways New Zealand makes its income (to be fair she doesn’t say that in this speech, it is implied for all her other statements on the economy).”
Wayne 2.3
A more relevant figure would be “net” exports.
How much of our exports, depend on imports. And money for services going overseas.
For example, if dairy exports are 17 billion, but we import 10 billion of feed, fertiliser and oil for dairy farming. Net dairy receipts around 6 billion, from memory? Take away net interest costs, imported equipment, finance costs, and profits going offshore from FDI in farming.
Then. Take the long term costs of pollution, land degradation and water usage.
Is dairy, to take just one example, giving us net positive earnings, to buy imports?
How long is swapping milk powder for short lived plastic junk, going to last?
It seems to be a right wing failing, for all their memes about being “good economic managers”, that they cannot comprehend basic accounting. A ledger has two sides.
not at all…a more relevant figure would be the import component of the service provided….take education for example, what proportion of the education budget would be spent in overseas currency?…id suggest rather little, which then begs the question what improvements could be made using our sovereign currency?
I think that is what we are getting at here.
Are some of our exports even a net gain for NZ, if you take out all the overseas currency, inputs?
Looking at the overall balance of trade, we may even be better off without some of our export industries, before we even take into account the internal costs.
Import substitution may be a better way, for many things?
Wind power replacing some of the 4 billion in imported hydrocarbons, for one.
not even talking about import substitution (although thats a possibility as well)….Wayne wished to tie our ability to improve the likes of ‘health, education, more opportunity ‘to export receipts which is disingenuous as the link between the two is tenuous at best, especially as the bulk of it is funded in NZD.
https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/imports-by-category
Wayne was/is a National party politician. An expert at only giving half the story.
The Korean take on import substitution is that it’s a born to fail strategy, that what’s required is to develop products for the local market which can then compete effectively abroad and be exported. NZ primary producers don’t really pay much attention to the local market, preferring to fail big abroad when products aren’t up to scratch.
That dynamic may need to be diluted as a carbon reduction strategy, but it is noticeable that NZ’s largest corporations produce, not the value added products, but the gross commodities that more astute companies turn another buck on – milk powder, raw logs and fillet block – a damning indictment of the governments of the day.
South Korea has done the same thing with their manufacturing we did with dairy.
Lots of state funded support, research and development.
Our hands off Governments, have killed any other than commodity industries. Sacrificing nascent industries, on the alter of FTA’s for agriculture.
@KJT
Yes, I think a lot of that development is achieved through education sector work – fishery and agricultural and textile institutes, usually government backed but supported through local government and considered to be indispensable parts of regional development/antipoverty strategies. I visited a few in Daegu.
One of our family cuzzies, is Korean.
I was there in the 80’s. In Ulsan.
It is informative that they are going in the opposite direction to us. More State involvement and redistribution policies than their past.
Almost like they are looking at Scandinavian socialism.
Including workplace safety and human rights.
And doing well at it. See their minimum wage rises.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/641616/south-korea-minimum-wage/
Korean minimum wage is less then someone on super gets here
Well it’s all a commitment to superior government – a late Confucian ideal, I believe it’s part of the symbology of Baekdusan among other things.
The Gnats want to make government small enough to drown in a bath tub, and Labour, post Rogergnomics, refuse to state what their objectives are. But we’re going backwards, and have been for thirty years. Hordes of Chinese (or any other nationality) will not save us, we must work our own way out of the holes dug for us by the blithering incompetents that pretend to govern us.
Poisson.
The point is the rate, at which it is being raised.
Korea has come a long way from a low base, on workers rights.
Modern agriculture uses more energy than it provides.
Well. Everything does really. 🙄
It’s called entropy
Not talking about thermodynamics here, but the processes in which we make our calories uses far more calories than we provide due to burning oil. I can produce more calories than I burn gardening, as I give food to others, feed chooks, and keep myself running. No oil required.
Sweat and planning – more efficient than machines.
😉
F#%ked all the rivers in Canterbury.
You are focused on Exports when the point of foreign trade is imports. Selling more items via Exports than we Import doesn’t really help us become wealthier in the long run.
It’s better than a trade deficit – which ends up being balanced by migrant capital that inflates our property market, imposing massive deadweight costs across the board. But you knew that, it is merely your role to advocate for economic policies that pauperize New Zealanders.
The ideal situation is where exports receipts equal import costs. However the next best situation if where Imports exceed exports on a long term basis. This is becuase it means someone else is subsidising your economy.
I suppose that explains some of your lousy advice Gosman. So much for cultivating a degree of independence and self-sufficiency – one little global financial hiccup and your model parasite state will be obliged to do for itself, or do without.
You idealize economic weakness – advisers like you are not helpful.
Wayne, you’re a joke.
How about you substantiate your folly by supporting your arbitrary figure of 30% of GDP? I guess Labour did it too is the best you can come up with – ie the reasoning quality of a badly brought up six year-old. You’re just not used to actual debate, as dependent as a six year-old on the utterly false narrative of National economic competence.
Absent migration the previous government oversaw nine years of stagnation. A party that was actually economically competent would have done something else. Diversification and regional development as we see under Jones is difficult and subject to risks – but we’re playing catchup due to your laziness. We should be doing considerably more.
Davidson doesn’t have responsibility for developing the new capacities we will need as yet, but it’s quite proper for her to talk about them. And if it upsets deadwood like you, that’s a sign it’s probably moving in the right direction. We’ve seen the crap your lot come up with in power.
I didn’t know Grant Robertson was a six year old.
Wayne said:
“Dial back on the insults, and actually engage in debate.”
Wayne said:
“I didn’t know Grant Robertson was a six year old.”
He’s not insulting Grant Robertson. He’s throwing back Stuart Munro’s words in his face. It is highlighting the ridiculousness of his statements.
No, Wayne’s just doubling down on his original “Labour did it too.”
Wayne is far too stupid to come up with anything better – there really is no justification whatsoever for his 30% figure, and he really did get that PhD out of a weeties box.
Points for loyalty though Gosman – what a faithful lackey you are.
If you had a bit more perspective you might’ve noticed. And he’s eating your lunch, because, infantile as he is, he’s more mature than you.
Where do you come up with this 30% figure, Wayne? Why 30 not 31 or 29? Because it’s a nice round number? Ad hoc bullshit like this underlies all your fucking stupid policies that gutted our public services and filled them with expensive and unreliable faux corporate weasels.
I’ve never yet seen a credible response for why it’s ok NZ fisheries employ and return 1% of what Japanese fisheries do on a roughly equal resource. That’s not a winning performance. Maybe cutting fisheries to the bone & giving Tangaroa up for oil exploration was less than entirely clever eh? But you could never perform that analysis on your own because you have this tragic illusion of competence.
the 30% (or any other figure) is arbitrary and is designed to maintain widespread misunderstanding of the system….if the bulk of voters understood this sufficiently then there are risks to its continuance….depending on the outcome this may be viewed as a positive or a negative
Now they have sold most of the Government assets, and got the well off used to not paying taxes, getting the size of Government up to a Functioning level, is going to be very expensive and difficult.
One of the very many unfortunate results of our “Unfortunate experiment”, Governments have embarked on since 1984.
Tell Grant that he has ‘fucking stupid policies”.
Obviously 30% is chosen because it is an easy number to understand. It is necessary to have such a figure to easily explain policy, not just to the public, but also to officials. 20% of GDP as a debt figure is in the same category, which figure was also accepted by Grant Robertson.
The reality is that you need clear targets if you are to have any hope of achieving them.
In fact central govt expenditure has got down to 28% of GDP. Local govt adds another 5%.
Many would argue that 28% is too low as evidenced by the gaps in public expenditure. At 30% there is an additional $5 billion of public expenditure.
Obviously you can nominate any target you want. In large part it depends on the balance you want between public expenditure and private expenditure, but it also relates to economic efficiency. At around 30%, it means people keep the bulk of their income for their purposes; living, investment and enterprise. If the government takes too much, the result will blunt enterprise and initiative. Which is why over the last 25 years New Zealand has had better growth rates.
There is no magic formula as such, it is a matter of judgement.
It seems that for both National and Labour, the judgement is that 30% is about the right size of public expenditure.
Which is actually arbitrary and not supported by evidence.
The evidence shows countries with a much greater Government share of GDP, doing much better than us in a whole range of measures, including innovation and, if you must, GDP, growth.
It appears to stem entirely from the ideological beliefs in “Small Government” and “private always does it better”. Neither of which, are supported by evidence.
GDP growth, caused by immigration, earthquakes and disasters, cannot be credited to small Government,
Yes, and given the meteoric rise of negative social statistics like homelessness and suicide, the inability of immigration to control scams and whatever the MBEI agriculture successor calls itself’s failure to contain Mycoplasma Bovis, it’s fair to say your cheeseparing was cost negative – your judgment failed us, as it has so often before.
Robertson was a poor choice for economic policy – far better than English of course – but he does not possess the depth and control of his portfolio to innovate with confidence. Replicating the failed policies of the last thirty years really won’t cut it any more, you clowns have put us so far behind that we need more assertive change.
Please. Even the National believe that we are getting better at everything and extrapolate this out, in a free market will solve it philosophy. It’s no surprise parliament is filled with idiots, they honestly believe nobody notices most have multiple houses, and huge pensions coming their way. The question is why with all this progress things are getting more expensive not less, that calls globally on future wealth are unrecoverable, that were eating several planets while limited to the one. Which is it? Shake the system to match what we can afford, or continue the distorted economy that makes everything too hard to change?
James Shaw must have his head in his hands shaking his head.
Jones must be fired
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/03/shane-jones-has-to-be-fired-over-smoking-gun-email-david-seymour.html”
According to David seymore anyway.
Will be interesting to see how the government manage this. – sunny holds waaaaaaaay to much power for labour to do anything.
David Seymour says a lot of things, most of which are of no consequence. He’s a man struggling for relevance on National’s dime.
I’m happy to admit Jones is a pretentious blowhard though.
Seymour works by a sort of clock which has him making periodic forays into the media to keep his name out there. He could soon be onto some New Zealanders not being able to watch the Rugby World Cup live, but then again they won’t be in his electorate so maybe it’ll be something else.
Could be about Winston Peters or Minister of Sport Robertson wasting taxpayers’ money by going to Japan to see the rugby.
Seymour’s clock says ‘Cuckoo’! But I want him in until he gets his euthanasia Bill through. That will help the people in pain and terminally ill. One day we might have an enlightened and truly democratic parliament that listens to what people want and will implement it if it is reasonable and limited in its flow-on effects.
I looked at an excerpt from a book on surgery and what doctors thought was fit to do to even high social class people and their practices weren’t to a high level of concern for the patient. And I wasn’t surprised to find that many in the medical profession did not believe in interfering with nature and giving woman aids to wellbeing when in childbirth. It takes a person from a fringe party to get leaders to step out of the square of BAU.
Link doesn’t work.
““Based on both the information and advice I’ve received, the conflict of interest was managed in accordance with the Cabinet Manual so therefore I would have no cause to sack Minister Jones”, the Prime Minister said in a statement.”
Yep. And if it turns out it wasn’t handled in accordance with the Cabiner Manual, and Jones has been behaving like a self-seeking Tory, then he has to go.
I’ve always thought the National Party was his natural home.
Jones might be a blowhard, but he’s our blowhard. If he looks like National Party fodder perhaps we should keep him and use his natural slant for the Labour Coalition’s advantage not strengthen the Gnats machinations.
He’s not mine by any stretch of the imagination. But regional development is going to require taking some risks, and that means there will be some mistakes and failures. The test of the coalition’s seriousness will be whether they refine and expand the role that is presently his, or treat it as a one-off vote stimulus for which they will be roundly condemned.
Shane Jones is a bufoon but can we take anything David Seymour says seriously?
A comment on RNZ this morning was very apt. Ha ha.
“If a conflict of interest bars people from speaking then most of the National MPs should be barred from speaking on CGT.”
Indeed, or which citizens constitute being “hard working [or average] Kiwis”, or commenting on anything to do with ethics or morality.
We might have to exempt @ Wayne from that judgement though even though his ideas on morality and ethics appear to be like something out of the 1950s (an old school Skeith Holyoake type gNat without the suspender belt).
Lucky the neo-liberal ideology came along allowing its adherents to assuage their social consciences
That comment from Jones is appropriate. This morning he referred to the “perception of there being a conflict.”
In his relationship with the group involved in the present fuss he registered a conflict of interest, ‘just in case’ I suppose.
I’m sure there are many in the public who have the perception of conflicts of interest with the CGT. They should be barred from rooms where discussions are taking place, registering a conflict isn’t good enough for Jones, it isn’t good enough for them.
Of course they and their idiot supporters will say, the tax report’s only a discussion document, nothing’s decided and officially introduced. What? That hasn’t stopped their boofhead behaviour and scare-mongering as if it’s all a done deal .
Workers fighting for higher wages is SO yesterday, according to someone who should be fighting for higher wages for workers.
“…Public Service Association secretary Erin Polaczuk recently argued that as unions today had become more feminised and mature, they had increasingly avoided “stupid oppositional behaviour”…”
Or maybe workers are learning they need to avoid electing stupid collaboratists as leaders, like, oh I don’t know, Erin Polaczuk.
Since when did the union movement become just another career vehicle for the middle class?
“Since when did the union movement become just another career vehicle for the Middle class?”.
Probably about the same time as the Labour Party did.
Union Officials, like Labour MPs, started being University educated products of the middle class about the late 1970s. The have slowly taken over all the positions. Now they all are products of the Middle class..
I would say the last Union representative from the Working class in New Zealand was Ken Douglas. Just compare him with Andrew Little.
Just like comparing Jacinda Ardern with Mike Moore.
A good article on police pursuits in the NZ Herald today.
Impressed to see Huawei firing up a global publicity campaign and taking the US government to task over the arrest of its CFO.
None of that would be available to any foreign company in China.
Huawei and other Chinese-origin corps need to pressure their government for due process rights and freedom of expression in China. Trust requires common accountability.
Good points RL – kindness and practicality work together. This freedom word is one of those that has to bow to the apparent absoluteness of another set of words –
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely’.
That is seen so often that, given the fact that it disavows 100% truth on absolute power, it is inescapable. Absolute freedom is impossible to achieve, it must always be hedged around.
Better education for the future in being able to distinguish how far is too far when allocating and demanding freedoms is necessary if the country is ever going to mature. At present it shows the maturity of teenage boys from a good Christchurch college who against the rules, played on the baggage carousel at an airport. The freedom denabded by some of us as bold NZs must be what we are naturally; ‘boys will be boys’ etc.?
So education should be useful in teaching pupils to discriminate in decision making. I found an Atlantic link link that Stuart Munro put up in Daily Review 2018 on educational research and the question as to whether it is a top feature in social mobility in the USA. It depends was the answer.
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-26-07-2018/#comment-1507119
AB 7.1 commented further referring to The Spirit Level.
26 July 2018 at 10:08 pm
“and studying, for the first time, the direct relationship between a child’s earnings and that of their parents”
One of the analyses in The Spirit Level was to look at the incomes of fathers and sons as markers of upwards (and downwards) mobility. They focused only on males to remove the confounding effect of time out of the workforce for childbearing for women.
The conclusion – though it wasn’t one of the strongest correlations in the book – was that social mobility (up and down) was greater in countries that were already more equal. Or put another way – for genuine equality of opportunity to exist, it requires relatively high levels of pre-existing equality.
That comment should have gone into How to get there.
Sorry.
This is the sort of behaviour which is becoming all too common in NZ.
A Swiss couple purchased a property in Paihia around 30 years ago. Apart from one other, they were the only house in the area but since then it has been taken over by top-end housing.
They poured their passion into the property and planted among other things a variety of trees including several tall trees. When they returned recently from a trip overseas they found the trees and creepers dead or dying. Someone had taken advantage of their absence and drilled holes into the bark and poisoned them.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12210495
This is the level of gross entitlement of the rich prick Nat.Party voting NZers who think the world owes them a living and who care not one tot for their neighbours or the environment.
It’s fences too. Such people want to have everything way and not to fit into the community and agree with their neighbours.
So in Wellington a couple on a hill had lovely views over the sea from their verandah. Until the Council granted the new owner in front the right to have a back fence and i think to have it above the usual 2m high. He built it 12 feet high as part of an agreement that he could build a fort for some reason. I think that was the story. Then all the people on the hill could see was fence, no view.
It went to Court and I think it has cost $100,000 to fight it. There was an unclear Council by-law to contend with and then the OTT imposition of this unpleasant neighbour. It is hard when preparing legislation to prepare for the possible meanness and pettyness that people will descend to, and the rich are worse than the poor at being mean.
I’m sorry Anne but do you have any evidence at all that it was the people you blame who had anything at all to do with this? Anything at all to justify your diatribe about what sort of people you think they are?
Thought not.
Actually I am surprised that it is not the couple the story is talking about who are being abused here.
They are Foreigners (Swiss) who spend a great deal of their time living overseas (9 months recently) and who have bought a house in New Zealand that is depriving a New Zealand citizen living here of a home.
After the comments about that sort of person that is so frequent on this blog I am surprised you aren’t cheering that they are being picked on.
They are Foreigners (Swiss) who spend a great deal of their time living overseas (9 months recently) and who have bought a house in New Zealand that is depriving a New Zealand citizen living here of a home.
oooh… talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Foreigners? They have been living here for 30 plus years. Just because they went away for nine months doesn’t mean they spend a great deal of time living overseas. My parents went back to England after 30 years for eight months in the 1970s. It was their first trip back to see family and friends.
So, every person who migrated to NZ and bought or built a home is a bludger depriving NZ citizens of a home? 90% of them are NZ citizens too, but just don’t happen to be born here. I wasn’t born in NZ but was brought up here. Does that make me a bludging foreigner? According to alwyn it does.
Not in the slightest Anne.
However you have no evidence at all as to who poisoned the trees.
You just choose to blame people you don’t know and assume, with no evidence at all that they are, horror of horrors ” rich prick Nat.Party voting NZers who think the world owes them a living and who care not one tot for their neighbours or the environment.”.
You don’t have any reason at all to justify that. Why do you say it?
I think you’ll find that Anne merely said it was the level of gross entitlement of rich prick Nat.Party voting NZers who think the world owes them a living and who care not one tot for their neighbours or the environment.
A crowd well known to some people. They also tend to treat hospo workers like shit. And I doubt it was a Green who poisoned the trees. And the houses new to the area are apparently quite posh, which increases the likelihood of the poisoner being a nat voter.
a) Wealthy neighbours had the most to gain from killing trees
b) Nat voters are generally selfish arseholes who hate nature
therefore, tree killers are probably Nat voters with baches
seems plausible
It is clearly the belief of the Swiss couple (and others) who know better than you or me because they know what has been going on in their part of town.
Btw, you have no evidence whatsoever that this couple are spending a great deal of time overseas as if that justifies a person or persons – probably living in one of the top-end houses – poisoning their trees and foliage. They are the victims alwyn dear… not the perpetrators.
Why don’t the last 3 commentators, McFlock, ropata and Anne all reread what they have just written.
None of you have the slightest evidence for your claims. They are all just bitter attacks on other people whose imagined views they do not like.
I could make the same claims about the imagined failings of Green, Labour, NZF or any other parties supporters. I won’t because I think it is insane to make such silly claims without any evidence at all.
ropata has probably made the wildest one.
“b) Nat voters are generally selfish arseholes who hate nature”.
What complete and utter rubbish.
It also might be an idea if you also come to some sort of agreement on where these proposed “enemies of nature reside”.
McFlock says “houses new to the area are apparently quite posh”
Anne seems to agree ” living in one of the top-end houses ”
But ropata seems to have a different view of the matter. “Nat voters with baches”.
Make up your minds. Clearly none of you have any idea of the facts of the matter.
I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you tell us the street that is involved. You all seem to know everything that goes on. You should be able to tell us something as simple as that without having to do any further research.
And for God’s sake stop making up fantasies. Are you trying to forment the class madness that we saw for so long in the Southern Stares of the US?
Simon Bridges is “fomenting class madness” with his bitter attacks on an imaginary CGT that doesn’t even exist
Landlords are “fomenting class madness” by threatening tenants and trying to force them to vote National https://is.gd/JYsWI6
They don’t care about humans, so trees are even less likely to survive the National plague
alwyn, being the punctilious know-all that you are, I am sure that you know the famous Ciceronian ‘Cui bono’?
Do we have savage groups of anti-tree terrorists here in Godzone that we did not know about?
Can you suggest who else would benefit from the poisoning of the trees, and then bother to go about doing it?
I look forward to some excellent creative thinking, but expect a negative vituperation.
I just might add that the situation of the house suggests that it was not many impoverished lefties who bought the sections around and then built upon them. It seems to me that Anne is right in assuming that the majority of house-owners behind the objectionable trees would not be Greenies or Labourites.
‘Top-end housing’, Alwyn. I suspect that Anne’s cap fits the culprits.
“Do we have savage groups of anti-tree terrorists here in Godzone that we did not know about?”
I don’t know whether it has happened in New Zealand but it certainly has in the United States. They drive large nails into trees to make it very dangerous to fell them.
https://medium.com/united-green-alliance/how-to-spike-trees-869bd8404f94
I do’t know how you would describe the idiot(s) who sat in trees in the Waitakeres to prevent people who wanted to build on their own land. Terrorists is perhaps a bit harsh but arse-holes seems to be appropriate.
Total non-sequiturs having no relevance to the main question I put.
The people who sat in trees in Waitakeres were trying to save the trees, not destroy them, as you well know. Cherry-picking and nit-picking as usual.
Yep. Landlords are notorious for poisoning trees. One fucktard bought the house two doors down, poisoned the trees, cut down the shrubs, then onsold it only weeks later. POS!
“Landlords are notorious for poisoning trees”
Given the destruction of most of the forests in agriculture-based societies, it could be that we agriculturalists believe that we are all … landlords?
More disrupted land problems.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/111154243/no-land-insurance-means-farmer-pays-in-the-aftermath-of-nelson-bush-fire
“So it’s had the top soil stripped off and it’s in big piles either side.”
The fire break excavation has also damaged water lines, irrigation lines and fences but the greatest expense will be in reinstating the pastures.
Pauline’s insurance covers the infrastructure but not the land disturbance – “there never would be on any insurance cover”, Simon said.
“That’s what I’ll be looking to the mayoral relief fund for.”
With the no time to delay in sowing new pasture, he said they would have to act now.
“I think we’re just going to have to move ahead and front the cost and hope that the government will pay for it.”
Landlords don’t buy and then sell houses within a couple of weeks. Landlords hold onto houses and put in tenants. Whatever sort of person you seem to be talking about they certainly don’t fit the definition of a landlord.
Just to be fair in view of my above criticism, that is a fair point.
I know. But it’s always nice to identify the nit-pickers.
Actually he’d planned to bulldoze the existing property and turn the site to units but something put him off. Maybe he’d not read his bylaws properly. Maybe he knew I had photos of his (then) illegal activity. Maybe I walked up to the fence line and snapped him drilling holes in a tree from feet away. Maybe he was told to fuck off.
Last illegal builder on the street – it cost them $15 000 for poisoning the stream. He came at me with a spade then realised I was smiling at him and not moving an inch. He was seconds from a very bad situation. Tucked tail and went back inside.
I love the fact we’re all carrying cameras and recording devices today. I had him to rights cursing me out and coming at me.
And I am only one of SO many kiwis who’ve had enough of self entitled pricks.
Want to be an eco-crim in my hood, lol, we’ll eat you alive, then the courts will get a piece. No more warnings.
We have been so wrong in this country to adopt this fraudulent contracting system and without protections and harsh oversight to stop employers rorting the lives of innocent people. The companies and their hard eyes measures aren’t innocents.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/384411/line-workers-ripped-off-by-contracts-from-chorus-subcontractor-visionstream-lawyer
One man – who RNZ has agreed not to name – has been a linesman for more than 20 years. He worked for Downer until the lines contract in his area went to Visionstream in 2009.
Visionstream uses contractors, not employees – so to keep working, he spent over $50,000 buying and fitting out his own van.
“I’m thinking, maybe next week, maybe next month, maybe I might make it… I’m trapped in this vicious circle. A lot of guys have gone bankrupt … and a lot more will close,” he said.
Visionstream pays a set price for each job, he said, regardless of how long it takes or how far away it is. Pay is then deducted if something goes wrong.
Isn’t this the powerful having their cake and eating it too? Trying to have firm contracts and then not fulfilling their responsibility to ensure they contain clauses relating to unexpected difficulties. They surely have a contract that the work can be done, and there should be payment if the workers are there ready to do the work. If the work cannot be accessed then it is the firm’s problem and the workers should not be at risk. That should be covered by insurance.
Yes the trucking industry has used this “gig” model for years and destroyed the lives of its drivers. It’s a sneaky way to avoid OSH, minimum wages, and all sorts of employment laws. They are effectively employees with none of the benefits and all of the costs https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/16-01-2019/transport-sectors-dirty-little-secret-truckers-breaking-the-law-to-survive/
Vodafone wants to sack 2800 Kiwis and outsource everything to India
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12211416
All hail our job and wealth creators and their kindly trickles upon the peasants.
Fuck them. Glad I switched to Spark last year
Wasn.t Spark Telecom. Which came, saw, bought up, profit-stripped and also asset-s, our asses?
Yes they are utter scum as well. But they are *our* scum
Apparently Vodaphone wanted/required the current employees to train the Indians!!!
If so how rotten is that! Suppose the bosses have a redundancy clause to hold over them or else they would all walk off en masse.
“While our CEO [Jason Paris] has said as a proud Kiwi he would love to retain all jobs in New Zealand, we need to make tough choices as a business.”
Proud Kiwi – fuck these guys.
Mafia tactic, don’t mess up your suit, have them dig their own grave.
Paris said earlier that his brief as incoming CEO was to get Vodafone NZ into shape for an IPO in early 2020.
Smoke and mirrors for ‘share price’ purposes…Paris took the role for 30 pieces and ‘Pre IPO’…he knew the gig…
Offshoring (which can include bringing foreign resources inhouse as required)’services’ and ‘cloud automation/virualization’ will lead to downgrades in service, and push publicly listed Voda Nz share price financially towards a cliff…shortly after the big players have extracted their cut from an IPO…
The only action which prevents this happening is for customers to walk away…cut mobile services usage to the bone…and live life outside the digital trap…
Jobs will be gone either way…ending the relationship sooner will be less painful long term…
Switching have/are/will be doing exactly the same …5G architecture is exclusively virtualized…which is part of the huge push behind the tech…
http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2018/10/05/uk-finance-curse-report/
the total cost of lost growth potential for the UK caused by ‘too much finance’ between 1995 and 2015 is in the region of £4,500 billion. This total figure amounts to roughly 2.5 years of the average GDP across the period.
The report provides the first ever numerical estimate for the scale of damage caused by the UK’s finance sector growing beyond a useful size. Of the £4,500 billion loss in economic output, £2,700 billion is accounted for by the misallocation of resources where resources, skills and investments are diverted away from more productive non-financial activities into finance. The other £1,800 billion arises from the 2008 banking crisis.
TRILLIONS of GBP.
A-mazing. Some prototype top bizzies from The Simpsons brought to you by Forbes.
Here is the technique for manufacturing consent to get the public ready to be be hornswoggled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM
(http://fortune.com/2014/08/29/simpsons-business/
Ha! It’s the Y2K bug of GPS systems. Apparently, the calendars are going to run out. 😉
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12211529
I can picture it now. All these folks who’ve never learned to read a map, clogging all the roads while doing endless circles in their cars.
“Siri, what’s happening? Siri, what’s happening?”
W2K was about getting next generation Microsoft products into production environments…essentially to assist in further cornering markets…
This will be something similar…
“All these folks who’ve never learned to read a map, clogging all the roads while doing endless circles in their cars.”
Hah! I have often seen the consternation on the faces of the tech dependent as they frantically tap and swipe. Lost, they are, in a cell phone black spot which still exist in the hinterland here in Godzone. We will produce maps…like printed on paper with scales and everything…. and they think we’re joking. “Nein, nein! (Or “non, non!”) they say as we try to explain that Taputoputo to Taupo is a journey of slightly more than four hours….. Tap , tap, swipe, swipe……
What would the people of the world think if a German leader, ever made a statement like this?*
*They would think, and rightly so, that, that German leader was a genocidal fascist
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/2189583/wonder-woman-urges-calm-israeli-civil-rights-fight