Open mike 11/10/2013

122 comments on “Open mike 11/10/2013 ”

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1. amirite 1

   11 October 2013 at 7:20 am

   Good morning!

   http://postimg.org/image/kebq47won/
   • David H 1.1

     11 October 2013 at 11:22 am

     +1
2. AsleepWhileWalking 2

   11 October 2013 at 7:52 am

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7gzBoVh1rI

   Please share this ^^^ re signing petition TPPA

   And….good morning to you too!
3. JK 3

   11 October 2013 at 8:40 am

   It hasn’t taken long for the MSM to start their whisperings about David Cunliffe.

   John Armstrong in the Herald yesterday about his speech to the CTU Conference “It seemed as if two David Cunliffes had turned up’….One passionate and stirring message for the workers; one politically sanitised version of the same message for everyone else'”.
   Claire Trevett suggests Cunliffe gave himself “wiggle-room” in his commitments to the unionists.

   No acknowledgement that a responsible Party Leader has to be careful in what they say before they’ve seen the state of the “books” the Nats leave behind.

   Despite that, Cunliffe was very clear to the unions – an immediate rise to $15phr for the minimum wage, the first budget will have a living wage to people working in the core public service, scrapping the Nats unfair employment law changes, bringing in more parental leave.

   He’s a numbers man, he knows his stuff, he will have worked out what Labour can afford to promise before the election. There’s nothing two-faced about what he is saying. But the MSM and the WhaleOils will search through everything he says to find ways to trip him up.
   • Rogue Trooper 3.1

     11 October 2013 at 11:18 am

     Labour : A Credible Government in Waiting
     http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11138194
     -Bryan Gould
     • Anne 3.1.1

       11 October 2013 at 11:53 am

       A very good synopsis, but then I’ve never known Bryan Gould produce anything that isn’t…
       • Rogue Trooper 3.1.1.1

         11 October 2013 at 12:03 pm

         consistent
   • greywarbler 3.2

     11 October 2013 at 11:21 am

     Makes me think of the old dressing table mirrors with one flat, and two wings. Stand in one place, turn your head and see three different visions or versions of whoever. Perhaps these jonolists need to move around a bit. It sounds as if they have been so rroted to their spot that they’ll start sprouting cutty grass and thorns soon.
4. Tracey 4

   11 October 2013 at 8:48 am

   Are all the pm’s reassurances to business interests done publically
5. The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 5

   11 October 2013 at 9:15 am

   Hey Standardistas,

   Cunliffe is enjoying an honeymoon, however, I think it is becoming clear that we will almost certainly have a Labour-led government next year.

   I listen to what you all say very carefully. So, I am interested in what it is you want this government to do.

   Give me your dream list. Tax hikes? GST off fruit and vegetables? Buying back all of the shares in Meridian (and perhaps some other generators not already publicly-owned)? Employment law changes? Increase in benefits? Banning foreign ownership? Out of the TPPA? Nationalisation of Trade Me? Think Big? Government control of the exchange rate? Berm mowing?
   • vto 5.1

     11 October 2013 at 9:30 am

     if you listen very carefully then you surely already know
     • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 5.1.1

       11 October 2013 at 9:57 am

       You are right. Inviting your views clearly called for me to be smacked down. Sorry.
       • McFlock 5.1.1.1

         11 October 2013 at 1:29 pm

         Stating the contradiction within your kind invitation is not a smack down. It’s simply casting doubt on either your motive or your comprehension, a failure in either of which might lead to a waste of everyone’s time.
         • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 5.1.1.1.1

           11 October 2013 at 1:30 pm

           Feel free to not answer. It’s a free country.
           • McFlock 5.1.1.1.1.1

             11 October 2013 at 3:07 pm

             I would be surprised if you believed that I felt compelled to answer your question.
             Besides NZ being a free country (albeit for a given value of “free”), if you did indeed carefully listen to what each of us said, the information is already at your fingertips.
       • bad12 5.1.1.2

         11 October 2013 at 1:36 pm

         No, no, inviting our views isn’t what clearly calls for you to be smacked down, your very existence does that…
         • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 5.1.1.2.1

           11 October 2013 at 1:40 pm

           K.
   • Zorr 5.2

     11 October 2013 at 9:33 am

     I think he should campaign on “Gulags for Gormless”

     *sigh* You are such a tiresome troll
   • miravox 5.3

     11 October 2013 at 9:33 am

     If you’re serious, and from that list:
     Employment law changes – seriously detrimental to social cohesion and a decent life for the most vulnerable with NActs changes
     Buying back all of the shares – should be on the table
     Restricting foreign ownership – unless we have reciprocal rights
     Out of the TPPA – as it stands now
   • tinfoilhat 5.4

     11 October 2013 at 9:51 am

     1. Considerable Tax hikes at the higher levels – along the lines of the top tax rate in the UK or Australia.
     2. Investment in green tech
     3. Widening of land based and marine reserves and national parks
     3. Restrictions on foreign ownership
     4. Capital gains tax on property
     5. Reversal of the Employment law changes

     …. for a start
     • Paul 5.4.1

       11 October 2013 at 9:57 am

       Inheritance tax
   • bad12 5.5

     11 October 2013 at 10:36 am

     Lolz, Gormless, the third one of the wing-nuts that appear here at the Standard to admit this far out from November 2014 that National are going to lose,

     Keep up the defeatism it will spread like swine flu through the ranks of National Party supporters, i am starting to firm up in my pick of 39% for National in 2014,

     Besides what Labour leader David Cunliffe has already announced, my little wish list, dependent entirely in what state the incoming Labour/Green Government finds the Government accounts in would be sufficient for the first term,

     (1), the reversal of ALL changes made to the benefit system by the current Government within the first 100 days,

     (2), Subject to the 500 million dollar estimated cost being available the transition of the Working for Families tax credit scheme into a functional child benefit payment which is also paid to ALL benefit dependent children,(or a definite promise of a starting date for such a scheme),

     (3), A State House building program focused mainly upon the cities of Auckland and Christchurch,

     (4), At the direction of the relevant Ministers both the Superfund and the ACC fund tasked to buy back shares in recently sold State Owned Assets…
     • David H 5.5.1

       11 October 2013 at 12:12 pm

       “dependent entirely in what state the incoming Labour/Green Government finds the Government accounts in ”
       Probably an empty cupboard with a little bill n john wuz here.
       • Puckish Rogue 5.5.1.1

         11 October 2013 at 2:05 pm

         What goes arounf comes around or have you forgotten “a decade of deficits”
         • Draco T Bastard 5.5.1.1.1

           11 October 2013 at 2:29 pm

           The “decade of deficits” that was pure imagination on the part of the RWNJs. In reality, it wasn’t going to happen.
         • McFlock 5.5.1.1.2

           11 October 2013 at 2:33 pm

           Have we forgotten that treasury predictions can be out by 200% within a six month timeframe? Nope.

           Your propagandist mates are pucking morons.
   • felix 5.6

     11 October 2013 at 10:58 am

     Top of my wishlist is sterilisation of obvious trools.
     • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 5.6.1

       11 October 2013 at 11:04 am

       What is a “trool”?

       Combination of “troll” and “fool”? Like it.

       [lprent: with connotations of “tool”? As in blind unthinking inanimate object doing someone else’s bidding. I suppose I could look at context but who has the time? ]
       • Rogue Trooper 5.6.1.1

         11 October 2013 at 3:13 pm

         that’s a ticking off 😀
       • McFlock 5.6.1.2

         11 October 2013 at 3:14 pm

         yeah, I always use it as a portmanteau of “tro11” and “tool” (in any sense of the word).

         Always pays to double-grok the queen’s, my droogs.
     • Puckish Rogue 5.6.2

       11 October 2013 at 2:06 pm

       So you’ll be first in line?
       • McFlock 5.6.2.1

         11 October 2013 at 2:35 pm

         There was once a rumour that Oscar Wilde coined the retort “I know you are, but what am I”.
         You, sir, are no Oscar Wilde.
       • Lanthanide 5.6.2.2

         11 October 2013 at 3:24 pm

         You speaking to a mirror?
         • Rogue Trooper 5.6.2.2.1

           11 October 2013 at 4:09 pm

           that is funny. 😀
   • joe90 5.7

     11 October 2013 at 11:50 am

     Dear Dave,

     Commerce:

     – savage any mono/duopoly/shonkey business practices.
     – give the SFO/FMA the teeth required to deal effectively with serial shysters.
     – dispute resolution with the onus on respondents to prove matters are indeed civil.
     – a serious look at the limited liability scam

     Housing:

     – CGT on property transactions – no exceptions.
     – all speculators are developers who will pay the relevant tax.
     – initiate a capitalisation scheme to assist new builds for first home owners only.
     – remove subsidies on rental accommodation state transfers to rental owners.
     – increase social housing availability for low income CBD workers.
     – increase social housing availability for the elderly/infirm.
     – improve all existing housing stock using the healthy home model.

     Education:

     – follow the science – anec-data doesn’t count.
     – 4 -16 compulsory attendance.
     – expansion of special education services.
     – 16-21 compulsory tertiary education/trade training fully funded
     – funding continuing education – attendance – a priority.

     Health:

     – health care is universal.
     – pre-natal – post-natal a priority.
     – continuation and improvement of well child initiatives.
     – universal dental care.
     – expansion of public health initiatives – step away from that pie fella – image of cleaved sternum.
     – elder care – stop the gaming of the taxpayer by those who hide or transfer resources.

     Crime and punishment:

     – remove the greatest barrier to our Peelian policing model – cannabis prohibition.
     – criminal sanctions tied to education – community service is as either a student or an educator.
     – prison is punishment – not a place to be punished.
     – prison is punishment – not a place to be disenfranchised.
     – prison is punishment – not a place where universal health care is denied.
     – prison is a work place and education facility- literacy, numeracy, transferable skills are the goals.
     – separate the bad from the mad.
     – the truly mad are treated.
     – the truly bad run out of chances.

     Work to significantly lower energy prices for both domestic and commercial users.

     Go all Keynesian on transport.

     Go all Keynesian on employment.

     Robust regional development policies.

     Governance – start by cleaning up your own parliament – the collective lack of ethics on display daily is disgusting.

     Revenue:

     – tax wealth – not work.

     Lottsa love, Me.
     • Rogue Trooper 5.7.1

       11 October 2013 at 11:53 am

       well! Three represents (not the destroyer, frigate and supply ship arriving). 😀
       • greywarbler 5.7.1.1

         11 October 2013 at 1:45 pm

         Wow joe 90 – a concise and exciting set of dynamic ideas, and we’ll need more than the Dynamic Duo to move them. But what a greatprospect it would be. rrection – it will be!

         Thanks Rogue for that interesting link. It’s time to look at what China is doing – if it can only supply some quality thinking to sustainable futures for us all, it will be a worthy world leader unlike the rubber chicken we have at present. Unfortunately I heard a radio report recently saying that China is at present supplying subsidies for shipping to fishers to go out into the high seas and will smash the tuna stocks as part of their expansion in all directions plan. It apparently is the Great Cosmic Plan in space, but we can’t do that on earth. I thought China was smart enough to realise that.
   • richard 5.8

     11 October 2013 at 3:31 pm

     1. Guaranteed real ice-cream made from milk
     This would mean dissociation from the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Authority and the re-establishment of the NZ Food Standards Authority. Then we wouldn’t have to put up with the Australian definition of ice-cream which lets manufacturers use a proportion of animal fat from any source (eg rendered chicken fat), as well as milk fat in ice cream manufacture

     2. Reworking of the Overseas Investment Office so that it’s default stance is that land sales should not be permitted to foreigners. This is a reverse of it’s current MO which is to permit land sales unless someone comes up with a damn good reason why a sale shouldn’t be permitted.

     Edit: 3. “Oh, and peace on earth, Jim”
     • greywarbler 5.8.1

       11 October 2013 at 5:21 pm

       richard
       Australian definition of ice-cream which lets manufacturers use a proportion of animal fat from any source (eg rendered chicken fat), as well as milk fat in ice cream manufacture

       I hadn’t caught up with that. I wondered why some of the ice cream didn’t taste good. I looked at the labels but reading through all the information in small print didn’t enlighten me. And I had a supermarket cream freeze and thought it was greasy rather than milky. The above could be the reason.
       • RedBaronCV 5.8.1.1

         11 October 2013 at 9:05 pm

         I’ve gotta good ice cream recipe if you need it. Trouble is the stuff doesn’t stay in the freezer
         • greywarbler 5.8.1.1.1

           13 October 2013 at 2:11 pm

           RedBaronCV
           If you have time that ice cream recipe is right for this time of year. So it would be welcome.
           • RedBaronCV 5.8.1.1.1.1

             15 October 2013 at 10:11 pm

             sorry GW didn’t see you right away.
             In the first bowl beat 4 egg yolks with electric mixer whilst slowly adding 1 cup of castor sugar until thick and sugar has melted. Then beat in a quarter cup of your favourite liqueur (I use khalua mainly for the special occasions) (but a dash of vanilla essence or other flavouring does just as well.).
             In the next bowl whip 750ml of cream adding another cup of castor sugar to this.
             Fold the two mixtures together and freeze. I beat until the cream peaks are stiff as this helps the mixture not to separate whilst it is freezing. I usually wind up making a double quatity and I freeze it in an enamel roasting dish. Xmas day plus family means its gone by nightfall.
             Prob not on the healthy heart list though, cookingnever seems to go wrongwhen loaded with fats, sugars and booze.
   • Murray Olsen 5.9

     11 October 2013 at 5:13 pm

     Nationalisation without compensation of strategic industries. Dismantling of the police force and its replacement by a neighbourhood militia, answerable to district soviets. Restarting of the Trekka factory, with engines run on methane gas from the dairy herds. Confiscation of anything beyond the family residence. Life sentence without parole for right wing bloggers. All businesses with more than 4 employees to be set up as worker cooperatives. Compulsory basket weaving classes. No TPPA, with its promoters to be tried for treason.

     Or you could read what people have been writing for years and sort it out for yourself.
   • Tim 5.10

     11 October 2013 at 6:28 pm

     Your answer(s) more than likely lay in the history of posts that occur daily on this site.

     I’m simply an intermittent visitor and occasional poster – but from what I can see, your expectation is that everyone should now kowtow, and do your work for you to satisfy an answer to your question posed – God’s gift to mankind and the Universe that you are.

     No no – get off your arse and do it yourself.

     “I listen to what you all say very carefully. So, I am interested in what it is you want this government to do.” Why that sudden iterest? Are you now all of a sudden coming to realise a tide is turning?

     …. “give me” (gimme gimme gimee)

     You probably have ‘people’ to do the work for you anyway.

     Here’s a hint though Gormless, I wouldn’t begin by looking for the responses to the posts you’ve made in the past – since most of them are in response to your ideologically driven diversionary tactics.

     I’m often not sure why people even give you the oxygen you seek by replying to half the crap you post – perhaps it’s just a response to their picking their jaws off the ground when striking utter idiocy.

     Go have a look yourself – as I usually have to do.
     • greywarbler 5.10.1

       13 October 2013 at 2:08 pm

       Tim
       And Others. When you put a reply in to someone in particular why don’t you put their name at top. Then they and everyone else knows who you refer to. It makes the remarks meaningful and worth reading. Otherwise it’s what’s this about?
   • millsy 5.11

     11 October 2013 at 11:58 pm

     Well for a start we need to have all irrigation and water storage taken schemes into public ownership. Fortunately this government has set up the Crown Irrigation Investment Company. This can be easily turned into a Petrobas for water with a few penstrokes. Water is a public resourse which should be managed by public entities.

     The revenue earned from this national water company can then be ring fenced to clean our rivers, fund rainwater storage tanks for HNZ houses, schools, and other public buildings, and run water conservation education programmes and campaigns.

     Its a smaller wishlist compared to the usual chestnuts, but control of water is a sleeper issue in this country, and Labour need to act accordingly — I would even suggest we sell Solid Energy to fund it. Control of water schemes is probably more important than the government owning a few coal mines.
6. ScottGN 6

   11 October 2013 at 10:07 am

   I’m very pleased to hear that the great Canadian writer Alice Munro has ben awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Not that you would know it if you relied on the 4 main NZ news sites (stuff, nzherald, tvnz and tv3) for your news and information.
7. vto 7

   11 October 2013 at 10:11 am

   The four official names for our two main islands announced yesterday are superb…

   North Island (bland but part of us now)
   South Island (same)
   Te Ika-a-Maui (perfect)
   Te Waipounamu (beautiful)
   • bad12 7.1

     11 October 2013 at 10:21 am

     i would have preferred Te Wai Pounamu, (the name of one of my nieces), to have become Te Waka a Maui, so as to fit within the Maori creationist myth? from whence we get Te Ika a Maui,

     Still,like the stone Pounamu is a beautiful name…
     • Bob 7.1.1

       11 October 2013 at 11:37 am

       I completely agree, Te Wai Pounamu is, and should remain the name for the West Coast (where the Pounamu was sourced) I would have preferred Te Waka a Maui also.
       • richard 7.1.1.1

         11 October 2013 at 3:43 pm

         Actually, the name for the west coast is Te Wahi Pounamu
         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Wahipounamu
     • weka 7.1.2

       11 October 2013 at 1:54 pm

       “i would have preferred Te Wai Pounamu, (the name of one of my nieces), to have become Te Waka a Maui, so as to fit within the Maori creationist myth? from whence we get Te Ika a Maui,”

       Cut the cable! 😉
   • miravox 7.2

     11 October 2013 at 10:52 am

     I’m just disappointed I’ll have to stop saying THE North Island and THE South Island, seeing as the are officially North Island and South Island.

     Otherwise, yeah.
   • greywarbler 7.3

     11 October 2013 at 11:17 am

     Is it Te Waipounamu as one word?

     I would like Aotearoa as an alternative name for New Zealand. I heard that the original guy putting forward these names thought it should be the name for the South Island.

     And we can still call ourselves New Zealand as that is how we are known generally. Aotearoa could be our own private name that we people who are in the know about it and love the land use in our own special country. And these names must be protected names at every level of use.
     Not just commercial fodder for some $-eyed entrepreneur.

     And I don’t see why we should not be able to continue using North and South Island as well as having the Maori name as we wish, as in Mount Taranaki or Egmont. North and South are useful directional words, but for real names they have just been waiting for Maori to decide and agree on what is best and not too long for other language speakers.
     • RedBaronCV 7.3.1

       11 October 2013 at 9:08 pm

       I’ve had a passport officer admire our passport and I explained that it a history of Aotearoa – it’s beautiful
8. Ron 8

   11 October 2013 at 10:16 am

   Had the chance to meet and talk to David last night and I am so pleased that his speaking and answering questions is just spot on. It’s hard to separate the public figure from the private person when all we have to go on is MSM. So I am confident that we can look forward to a change for the better under a Labour Government. Finally after almost 30 years of playing with the far right and the so called centre right and the various other shades of right wing politics we are finally getting back to where the party should be.
   Roll on election
9. travellerev 9

   11 October 2013 at 10:23 am

   In light of the US stalemate and the approaching default date I thought I’d dig up a Dutch Doco about what would happen if the dollar collapsed. The scenario given is that it happens withing 24 hours. It is an interesting “what if” doco and while most of it is in English some of the parts in Dutch are subtitled in English so enjoy!
   • travellerev 9.1

     11 October 2013 at 11:26 am

     That should have been: Some of the parts are in Dutch but they have been subtitled in English
10. captain hook 10

    11 October 2013 at 11:37 am

    dont get yur hopes up Ev. Doncha know its always business as usual and humans are adventitious not necessary.
11. Brett Dale 11

    11 October 2013 at 12:12 pm

    Great names for the north and south island.
    • framu 11.1

      11 October 2013 at 3:31 pm

      why do you hate america so much brett? 🙂
      • marty mars 11.1.1

        11 October 2013 at 7:57 pm

        lol
12. Bearded Git 12

    11 October 2013 at 12:15 pm

    But the wonderful thing is we are all talking about Cunliffe as though he will be next PM-self fulfilling.
13. bad12 13

    11 October 2013 at 12:54 pm

    Yeah sure there’s no housing crisis in Auckland Nick Smith, not while we have ‘private developers’ only too willing to provide right, bringing to the city of sails their version of a Mumbai Slum,

    From the Herald online, a Auckland ‘property developer’ has been fined 60 grand and ordered to deconstruct 12 flats he had illegally constructed in 3 Auckland properties,

    2 of the flats were constructed as part of existing garages already at the properties, one even featuring the existing roller door…
    • greywarbler 13.1

      11 October 2013 at 2:44 pm

      I remember an interesting Radionz doco on a Christchurch woman landlord/ developer back post WW2 I think. She used to get into trouble converting rooms into two etc. On the one hand she was creating sub-standard accommodation. On the other, housing was so tight that students and others were grateful to her, and reckoned that she was not too bad. Not much else was being done to deal with what was a tight housing market, or even a housing crisis. It depends what people are charged, and what is their alternative, and does it give some warmth, cleanliness and security and reasonable access to facilities.
      • bad12 13.1.1

        11 October 2013 at 3:49 pm

        Yes i suppose any four walls with a roof over them is a giant step up from the alternative, however, that hardly absolves a series of Governments from the failure to build up the required numbers of social housing at a time of high population growth,

        The only reason a slum-lord can thrive and/or survive is if there is a unmet demand for low cost housing…
        • greywarbler 13.1.1.1

          11 October 2013 at 4:46 pm

          Agreed. But a port in the storm is better than being drenched. And just because the place wouldn’t feature in Home Design, doesn’t mean it’s no good. If it provides basic amenities and warm and secure and cheap, it shouldn’t be dismissed as disgraceful.

          The accommodation this guy provided sounded dire when reported. Then I remembered the Christchurch woman landlord remembered kindly. It’s a matter of judging on reasonable criteria and price, and middle class people in homes better not make those criteria too high.
          • bad12 13.1.1.1.1

            11 October 2013 at 5:59 pm

            Actually the places sounded like the Ritz when described on RadioNZ National news tonight, washing and showering facilities in among the kitchen with apparently no separation,

            Market rents apparently charged, yeah your right we all should become Slum-lords,

            Apparently the particular individual/company we talk of here owns more property across Auckland, the City Council for all it’s billions of dollars of budgeted high salaries has a see no evil approach to Slum-lords and the housing they provide,

            Asked whether any of the many other property’s owned were in the same state of illegal alteration the Spokesperson for the Auckland City Council said She didn’t know coz they apparently have better things to do with their time than track down Slum-lords Slum-housing,

            Why would any of them, from Central Government to the Local variety they have all sat on their arse’s for 20 years while this ugly problem has developed, more than one or two having helped the problem along by playing ‘in the market’…
            • karol 13.1.1.1.1.1

              11 October 2013 at 6:22 pm

              This.

              Photo at the link.

              My place is a conversion of an extension – a bit of a step up from the ones reported on though. Quite reasonable, but a bit strange.
    • miravox 13.2

      11 October 2013 at 8:16 pm

      I noticed in the report yesterday about a car driving into a house that a working person can’t find an affordable safe home with a separate room for a 5-year-old.

      New Zealand – building a brighter future
14. Ad 14

    11 October 2013 at 1:04 pm

    OK here’s my top ten wishlist, not ranked:

    1. Stop all new motorway contracts and use the funding for rail and cycling public transport projects
    2. All Crown super and investment funds including Kiwisaver providers required to have 50% nz ownership weighting, and are required to start immediate buy back of electricity utility shares. And Kiwibank becomes the Crown’s sole bank.
    3. State and city governments all form property development companies to roll out Kiwibuild really fast.
    4. Decrease income tax for the lowest quarter of income owners and impose Capital Gains Tax. Just as soon as I’ve offloaded one of the rentals. 😉
    5. Complete Treaty of Waitangi settlements
    6. Merge Maori Television and Radio NZ into a new Internet-based public broadcasting company
    7. Roll out increased minimum wage to whole public sector, with contractors next
    8. Establish a single national park the length of the South Island using existing DoC estate.
    9. Pump money into the arts and other identity-drivers like sports. Gradual increase in patriotism and identity like Clark.
    10. Establish a multi-billion research fund for job-rich innovation, where private business must partner with Crown Research Institutes, universities, and local government in joint ventures.

    nothing new there really, just collectively would feel like reasonable and populist progress.
15. bad12 15

    11 October 2013 at 1:07 pm

    What price do we pay for ‘free trade’, from RadioNZ National News, 200 fish processing jobs are set to disappear from Christchurch’s Independent Fishery’s,

    Citing competition from ‘cheap imports’ the company is set to close it’s fish crumbing plant in November with the loss of 200 jobs,

    With Slippery the Prime Minister whipping along the TPPA where New Zealand’s access to the other signatory’s markets will be in a decade or longer, just how many more jobs in the New Zealand economy is the little Shyster prepared to give away…
    • tc 15.1

      11 October 2013 at 1:20 pm

      Depends how much he’s offered, a bankster is as a bankster does.
16. tricldrown 16

    11 October 2013 at 1:46 pm

    To all the taxers above .
    The smartest tax would be a land tax.
    This would solve many of the problems NZ has.
    As high value overcrowded areas with not enough infrastructure would pay higher taxes while under populated areas with underutilized infrastructure would pay lower taxes people would move to lower taxed areas or make better use of land in high taxed areas income tax would have to be lowered to make the idea work.
    Just saying you want tax the well off and rich to much is feeding keys spin that the left are extreme!
    We on the left don’t need to give Key and co a free ride to the next election.
    Be reasonable the majority of New Zealands middle classes have aspirations of being rich one day that’s why they vote National,Even though most NZers will never get to the top tax rate.
    We on the left need to cooperate
    Just as those on the right all sing from the same song sheet .
    Capital gains tax is good if it is broad spectrum.
    If it only focuses on one area not so good.
    But If Capital gains managef to get over the line the money brought in should gone into building affordable houses and that would have a double whammy reducing the risk of a housing bubble.
    • richard 16.1

      11 October 2013 at 3:40 pm

      I really don’t think a land tax is an answer.

      From my reading, it would pretty well destroy the pastoral farming industry in NZ as it adversely affects those with a variable income and those with a high land value to income generated from that land. A land tax would be a double whammy for farmers.
    • millsy 16.2

      12 October 2013 at 12:19 am

      Land tax?

      Youll have every cow-cocky in the country firing up their tractor and riding it down to Wellington. If I have learned something, it is never to take on the farmers. You will not win.
17. blue leopard (Get Lost GCSB Bill) 17

    11 October 2013 at 1:52 pm

    I thought that this BBC article on what would happen if America defaulted was a good introduction to the matter, namely because it is brief and easy to understand(!) and also interesting that they admitted to not knowing all the consequences a number of times throughout the article.

    A small amount of historically similar occurrences are provided and also a good graph on the debt accumulation since 1980.
18. Adrian 18

    11 October 2013 at 2:15 pm

    Tricldown. We already have a sort of Land Tax, I grow grapes and make wine , the Govt gets $2.82 a litre ( which I pay when I sell it locally ) I get $1.50 a litre and then I pay GST on the total. How much more tax should I pay ? I am not complaining, I think consumption taxes are a good idea but there is bugger all left for me.
19. Rogue Trooper 19

    11 October 2013 at 2:27 pm

    Dasein must be considered as a ‘whole’, and this, my friends, requires an account of death. Dasein can only be genuinely authentic only in it’s ‘being towards death’, wherein it accepts it’s finitude. Dasein is individualized by death: for we all die alone, and no-one else can die in our place. Death, therefore, is a criterion of authenticity: We must recognize that we die, and not simply that ‘one’ dies. Heidegger suggests, along with others (Kierkegaard and Tolstoy for instance) that there is a pervasive tendency to conceal the inevitability of one’s own death: “All men are mortal, Caius is a man, so Caius is mortal” in the abstract, mused Ivan Ilyich, is perfectly correct, but we are not Caius, an abstract person, but creatures quite distinct from all others. Authentic being towards death (Feat, don’t fail me now) is related to ‘resoluteness’ ( Entschlossenheit ): it is only if we are aware of our finitude that we have reason to act now, rather than procrastinate, and it is the crucial decision, made with a view to the course of our future lives that gives them unity and shape.
    The future becomes thus the primary aspect or ‘ecstasis’ of time, however, decisions are also constrained by situations inherited from the past; the more important decisions are, the more they will be considered in view of the past. The third ecstasis, the present (which many do not see 😉 ) is now the ‘moment’ of decision ( The Power of Now etc): “In resoluteness, the present is not only brought back from distraction with objects of one’s closest concern, but gets held in the future and in having been. That present which is held in authentic temporality and which thus is authentic itself, we call the ‘moment of vision’ ( der Augenblick ).
    Several central features of time have been generally overlooked by traditional accounts deriving from Aristotle. Time is significant (just ask the White Rabbit 😉 ): It is time to do this and that. Time is datable by events, when , for example, David Cunliffe became Leader of the NZLP. Time is spanned; now is not an instant (the blinking of an eye) without duration, but now, during .Time is public: we can all indicate the same time by ‘now’ or ‘then’, even if we date it by different, relevent, events. Time is finite : (our) time will not continue forever, but is running out- “See how it runs”. History is to be understood in terms of these accounts of time and of the ‘historicality’ of Dasein . Dasein’s understanding of itself and the world depends on an interpretation inherited from the past. This interpretation regulates and disclose the possibilities open to it. Inauthentic Dasein accepts tradition unthinkingly (or lazily) and fulfils the possibilities shaped by it; authentic Dasein probes tradition (see neo-orthodoxy) and therefore opens up new and weightier possibilities. Heidegger, for example, does not simply contribute to contemporary philosophical controversy, but by ‘repeating’ and ‘de(con)structing’ crucial elements and episodes in the development of the philosophical tradition endeavours to change the whole course of philosophical enquiry.
20. tricldrown 20

    11 October 2013 at 3:31 pm

    Adrian I did say we should reduce income tax if their is to be a land tax..
    Alcohol tax is what you are paying alcohol is the second most damaging drug thi country allows to be sold that’s why you pay so much.
21. Rogue Trooper 21

    11 October 2013 at 4:02 pm

    What is Metaphysics (1929) expands upon the nothing , which made a brief, cameo, appearance in Being and Time , and which is disclosed in the Angst that reveals to Dasein , in it’s freedom and finitude, the ultimate groundlessness of itself, it’s world and it’s projects. (these are times when the terms existential and crisis are frequently uttered , together, by sane and sound people, yet on the denial goes).
    Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (1929; tr. Bloomington, Ind. 1962) argues that the first Critique is not a theory of knowledge or of the sciences (as such neo-Kantians as Cohen, Natorp??? and Cassirer held) (made ya’ look ya’ dirty chook), but lays the foundation for meta-physics: Kant saw that reason, knowledge and man in general are finite, and thus, made the transcendental imagination the basis of synthetic a priori knowledge (hence Revelation, and, think of the fertility of memes) :-D. However, (could be a but) , since this threatens the primacy of reason and the foundations of ‘Western metaphysics’, Kant recoiled from the ‘abyss’ , unlike some we could mention, no names please, in the second edition of the Critique and made the imagination ‘a function of understanding’. Attacked by most Kant scholars, Heidegger implicitly retracted some of his interpretations in later essays on Kant.(sadly).
    Despite Heidegger’s denials, being ( Sein resembles God. It is not at man’s disposal, rather, it disposes of man. Whatever happens comes from being. Man, the ‘shepherd of being’, must respond to it’s directions (like genes get throwing themselves forward, tended wisely).It is is above history, or before, but since the time of Plato it has been hidden, yet the ‘history of being’ can be reconstructed from the texts of philosophers,poets (and political pundits) :-D. Sadly, forgetfulness of being, or nihilism, has culminated in the domination of the world by technology. Whether or not man can return to genuine thinking of being will determine the future of the planet. “But where there is danger, the remedy grows too”. H_
    The appropriate response to being is thinking. Thinking is our obedient answer to the call of being, yet some of it’s practice may have been forgotten.Thinking contrasts with assertion, logic, science (science does not think ), metaphysics, philosophy itself and especially technology, which is merely an instrument, a ‘strool’ for the calculation and domination of entities. Language, which, like thinking, played a subordinate role in Being and Time becomes central to Heidegger’s later philosophy, though not language as an instrument of manipulation- into which it has degenerated (under the sway of metaphysics) -but language as an ‘abode of being’. Language speaks, not man.Man only speaks when he fatefully responds to language. Gotta love fate, m8! 😀
22. tricldrown 22

    11 October 2013 at 4:08 pm

    Richard rural land would attract a very small tax as well a reduced income tax would reward productivity.
23. Puckish Rogue 23

    11 October 2013 at 4:15 pm

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9272758/Mark-Lundy-free-after-12-years-behind-bars

    – Bain, Macdonald and Lundy apparantly not guilty of murder…there must be a really clever serial killer running around NZ

    – Must give hope to Tamihere and Watson to being freed
    • Morrissey 23.1

      11 October 2013 at 4:28 pm

      Bain, Macdonald and Lundy apparantly not guilty of murder…there must be a really clever serial killer running around NZ. Must give hope to Tamihere and Watson to being freed.

      And O.J. Simpson?
      • Tiger Mountain 23.1.1

        11 October 2013 at 4:44 pm

        Tamihere is already out, released with strict conditions in November 2010. Luckily we have a system however flawed that decides such things rather than what the idiocracy ‘finks’.
    • McFlock 23.2

      11 October 2013 at 4:55 pm

      Nah.

      Partly it’s a problem with the “prime suspect” approach to policing: make your scenario based on gut instinct, then fit the data to that pattern. The problem is that unless you gather enough data (including data on the chain of custody of that data) it becomes easier for the defence to connect those same dots into another picture. Especially as time passes and it becomes easier to forget that common procedure now was disproportionately time-consuming and expensive then. Regardless of whether the “prime suspect” is innocent or whether the assumption of investigators led them to believe short-cuts hadn’t been taken, the model is flawed.

      Couple that with juries that are only slowly coming out of a culture of believing everything a cop says (and the fact that almost everyone can be painted as either criminal or weird), it’s not particularly surprising that a number of high profile cases have been kicked back.

      Funny you mention Tamihere – straight after the verdict TV1 played a documentary on how our brave police caught the man wot dun it. A comment made by the lead investigator has stuck with me ever since: “we had found our suspect, and we proceeded to build a case around him”.
      • Murray Olsen 23.2.1

        12 October 2013 at 7:30 pm

        I always had my doubts about both Tamiheres. In David’s case, I strongly suspect the evidence was found or fabricated to make a bad guy look guilty. In John’s case, hmmmm, what can you say? Incriminates himself and still gets votes.
    • Murray Olsen 23.3

      11 October 2013 at 5:33 pm

      Do you have evidence that all these murders were done by the same person? Not presenting it to the police makes you an accessory after the fact. Do your civic duty.
    • Rogue Trooper 23.4

      11 October 2013 at 5:43 pm

      there are some really clever thieves running NZ. (you’re welcome 😀 )
24. tricldrown 24

    11 October 2013 at 4:40 pm

    Or not so clever cops!
    In Bains case they threw out the evidence after the privy council turned down bains first appeal.
    Barlow is another one.
25. Paul 25

    11 October 2013 at 5:01 pm

    The Herald
    “Two years since Rena: No signs of oil on beaches.”
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11138756

    Are the Herald suggesting let’s go with oil drilling???
    • chris73 25.1

      11 October 2013 at 7:45 pm

      Wouldn’t be a bad idea to pay for Cunliffes promises
    • BM 25.2

      11 October 2013 at 7:57 pm

      Absolutely.
      There’s going to be millions of oil wells popping up every where.

      And about time too.
      • marty mars 25.2.1

        11 October 2013 at 8:04 pm

        millions? – settle down

        about time? – for what, you know BM money isn’t as important as, you know, fucken fresh air and water. These ‘millions’ of oil wells are a foul and suicidal legacy we leave for our grandchildren – what a disgusting stupid bunch of weaklings we have become!!!
        • BM 25.2.1.1

          11 October 2013 at 8:14 pm

          Civilization needs the black stuff.
          Until something else comes along to take it’s place, it’s drill, baby, drill.
          • Pascal's bookie 25.2.1.1.1

            11 October 2013 at 8:24 pm

            You guys are so cute how you keep on with the derp lines from the GOP. By this time next year you’ll be banging on ‘unskewing the polls’.
          • Draco T Bastard 25.2.1.1.2

            11 October 2013 at 9:01 pm

            Civilization needs the black stuff.

            Nope, civilisation needs to be sustainable and using fossil oil prevents that.

            Until something else comes along to take it’s place, it’s drill, baby, drill.

            Nothing’s going to come along. There is, quite literally, nothing with the energy density of oil and even that’s petering out as the EROEI drops.
            • marty mars 25.2.1.1.2.1

              11 October 2013 at 10:10 pm

              + 1 Very good point.
          • felix 25.2.1.1.3

            11 October 2013 at 9:37 pm
            • marty mars 25.2.1.1.3.1

              11 October 2013 at 10:14 pm

              Big lols
    • Molly 25.3

      11 October 2013 at 8:02 pm

      Beaches are not necessarily the place to look. Didn’t they put something on the oil to make it sink to the seabed? Perhaps, that is where they should look before they start congratulating themselves.
    • miravox 25.4

      11 October 2013 at 8:42 pm

      ” No signs of oil on beaches.

      Out of sight so out of mind – but would you eat the shellfish?
26. RedBaronCV 26

    11 October 2013 at 9:30 pm

    Now I have a bone to pick about the local body elections. Went down this morning to drop my vote in- didn’t post it as I didn’t want it to get lost in the mail. The house only received two thirds of the voting papers it should have so it might be worth asking councils how many papers never made it and have been returned.

    I knew where to go fortunately because the lack of signage was appalling and inside are all these great posters about voting, done by the wellington region’s councils but I have only seen all the drab ones up around town and not too many of those.I’m sure a lot of businesses etc would have been happy to have one to display.

    But my main point is why don’t all the council places where you can drop off votes also have somebody that can issue replacement papers and even more importantly those orange pavement boards outside saying election stuff available here – just like general election polling booths are marked.

    One size doesn’t fit all and visual reminders all over the “burbs at libraries etc might give people a bit more of a push.
    • weka 26.1

      11 October 2013 at 10:29 pm

      I noticed how hard it was to find out information about candidates that wasn’t in the booklet that came with the voting papers. I’m pretty motivated, but the effort involved in finding out was too much. I can see why so many don’t bother voting.
      • Ron 26.1.1

        12 October 2013 at 12:09 am

        Vote. Co.nz
        Put your address in and it gives you all your voting choices with full details
        • weka 26.1.1.1

          12 October 2013 at 12:30 am

          No, it gives me what someone has chosen to put in there, often it’s just the blurb from the booklet. I want to know details about where the candidates stand on things, not generic blather that’s designed to make voters feel good but doesn’t tell them anything substantial.
27. joe90 27

    11 October 2013 at 9:41 pm

    H.P.was quite a guy.

    I used to be a hide-bound Tory simply for traditional and antiquarian reasons—and because I had never done any real thinking on civics and industry and the future. The depression—and its concomitant publicisation of industrial, financial, and governmental problems—jolted me out of my lethargy and led me to reëxamine the facts of history in the light of unsentimental scientific analysis; and it was not long before I realised what an ass I had been. The liberals at whom I used to laugh were the ones who were right—for they were living in the present while I had been living in the past. They had been using science while I had been using romantic antiquarianism. At last I began to recognise something of the way in which capitalism works—always piling up concentrated wealth and impoverishing the bulk of the population until the strain becomes so intolerable as to force artificial reform.

    […]

    As for the Republicans — how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical ‘American heritage’…) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead.

    – H. P. Lovecraft
    • Rogue Trooper 27.1

      11 October 2013 at 11:03 pm

      understandable
    • ghostrider888 27.2

      11 October 2013 at 11:22 pm

      sauce for a gander
28. ratesarerevolting 28

    11 October 2013 at 9:57 pm

    LBIAFC !
29. finbar 29

    11 October 2013 at 10:46 pm

    Cunliff!s 100 day promise is a easy given.The more costly and some would say radical idea!s of central control of the electricity and gas industry,the housing and rents issue,the cost of health and education will all be managed as he has said,given the fiscal situation.One thing is for certain, if he does get the treasury benches in 2014,he will be inheriting massive debt, and that will slow down his road to a more egalatarian N.Z.that all Labour Party supporters yearn for.
30. millsy 30

    11 October 2013 at 11:32 pm

    My picks for local elections tomorrow (As far as I am concerned my two week banned applies from when I made that post that got me banned):

    Auckland: Len Brown to hold on. Palino will run him close with Minto in third. Centre-right to have control of council.

    Wellington: John Morrison beats CWB. Celia kinda screwed up, completely out of her depth as mayor. Folding on spending cuts, and underestimating the pro-road rednecks didnt do her any good. Finding that keeping her promises on light rail would be impossible also counts against her.

    Christchurch: Lianne Dalziel by a country mile, though Bob Parker may have given her a good run.

    Dunedin: Cull all the way, given that there appears to be no challengers.

    Meanwhile, New Plymouth looks set to elect a bunch of Tea Party slash and burn ACToids to its district council. We probably wont have a library for that long. Shame.
31. xtasy 31

    12 October 2013 at 12:18 am

    HATCHET DOCTORS – used by WINZ, this is a must read post and comment thread on ACC Forum, that exposes how they work and try to manipulate the system to “off load” sick and disabled off benefits. It is based on a true story:

    http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15326-hatchet-doctor-exposed-winz-acc-alert-hdc-office-do-cop-out/

    I most strongly suggest others that have stories to share, to do so on that thread, and perhaps here also, if you wish to be discrete about your privacy, just make sure your true name and details are concealed.

    But for the benefit of ALL others, please dare to NAME and SHAME those damned doctors that tried to kick you off benefits, while your own doctor and possibly other specialists said the opposite was needed!!!
32. xtasy 32

    12 October 2013 at 1:30 am

    Hitler REVEALED:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlSb4KnxD7Q

    This is most interesting historic revelation!
    • xtasy 32.1

      12 October 2013 at 1:34 am

      All%20records%20that%20exist%20are%3A%0A%0AHitler%20and%20the%20Nazis%20learned%20in%20early%20years%20from%20the%20AMERICAN%20ADVERTISING%20INDUSTRY%2C%20how%20to%20manipulate%20the%20population.%20We%20have%20that%20mind%20bending%20power%20highly%20active%20in%20New%20Zealand%20right%20now!%0A%0AThat%20does%20of%20course%20not%20equate%20to%20advertising%20industry%20supporting%20NAZI%20idelogy%2C%20but%20they%20promote%20the%20neo%20liberal%2C%20right%20wing%2C%20capitalist%20ideology%2C%20and%20system.%20That%20is%20why%20in%20NZ%20we%20have%20NO%20true%20democracy%2C%20it%20is%20a%20total%20farce%20and%20LIE!%0A%0AWe%20are%20being%20manipulated%20at%20an%20immense%20scale%20to%20consume%2C%20to%20focus%20on%20nothing%20but%20consumerism%2C%20on%20fake%20freedom%20(largely%20individualistic)%20and%20on%20capitalist%20ideals%2C%20none%20else.

      [translated]

      All records that exist are:

      Hitler and the Nazis learned in early years from the AMERICAN ADVERTISING INDUSTRY, how to manipulate the population. We have that mind bending power highly active in New Zealand right now!

      That does of course not equate to advertising industry supporting NAZI idelogy, but they promote the neo liberal, right wing, capitalist ideology, and system. That is why in NZ we have NO true democracy, it is a total farce and LIE!

      We are being manipulated at an immense scale to consume, to focus on nothing but consumerism, on fake freedom (largely individualistic) and on capitalist ideals, none else.
      • xtasy 32.1.1

        12 October 2013 at 1:39 am

        Now I am being corrupted and attacked by The Standard, I cannot believe this, NZ is truly Fucked, there is NO left and alternative force, you are traitors to the idea!

        Sorry I sign off and will never be back you are EVIL!
        • weka 32.1.1.1

          12 October 2013 at 9:17 am

          Settle down xtasy 🙂 There is a bug in the edit function, it’s happening to others randomly too.
33. xtasy 33

    12 October 2013 at 2:08 am

    In all honesty I am struggling to be convinced that suicide is not the best solution to persons like me, give present regimes and economic conditions. Why are people stigmatising us who want a decent “exit” from a SHIT SOCIETY and SHIT WORLD? Let us go, pleaase, I am totally sick off you all and your SHIT society, I hate living, I hate being, I rather be dead right now, that is me, in full confession!!!
    • karol 33.1

      12 October 2013 at 8:12 am

      Hey xtasy. Sorry last night, the early hours, was bad for you. Hope you are feeling a bit better today.

      You still have much to offer, keeping us infomred about developments with social security/benefit issues.

      Take care.
      • xtasy 33.1.1

        12 October 2013 at 5:59 pm

        Yes, it is definitely time for a longer “mental health break”, away from the internet and computer. Take care and keep up the good work, karol.

        Maybe I’ll be back some time further down the future time-line, when mind and body feel a bit better again.
34. xtasy 34

    12 October 2013 at 2:22 am

    I am going “insane” again, but Dr Bratt will think I am “fit for work”, the insanity lies in the system, and this song reveals more:
35. Saarbo 35

    12 October 2013 at 6:59 am

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11138933

    National is GONE, even their No1 cheerleader has swapped sides.

    The best article I have red from Armstrong in living memory!

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