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
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
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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