National still just shy of that 50% mark, labour and greens pretty static.
After the reshuffle, prisoners coming ‘home’ etc I thought labour would have wanted to be ending the year at least on 30%. Wondering if the problem is little?
National can easily govern alone, even if NZF joined the left coalition. Voters still don’t see Labour as a viable and capable opposition in waiting. No fresh policy, a leader with single figure ratings who prefers a vacuous MP over one with experience and intelligence. Labour’s approach hasn’t changed this year and neither have the polls.
I wonder what special new Oravida questions Robertson has in store for Collins in the new year.
The folks most harmed by this Government don’t, as a rule, vote National. That is one reason why they can be harmed. Now, IF (and it is a bigish if) something happens to the property market then white upper middle class starts to get antsy. That’s National-land.
For example, last week a broker whined because banks were turning down mortgages for children of the welathy because IF the youngins can’t pay the mortgae, neither can their parents (cos of their lifestyles). IF that continues, expect a minor rumbling amongst the property owning classes about the wrongnes sof their children not being able to buy property in Auckland.
the reason Labour has zero traction is because it offers an alternative like the one between Coke and Vanilla Coke.
And if the economy or housing market slows down, voters are not going to place their trust in Labour’s economically experienced and financially unskilled leadership team.
To be realistic: half way through the third term, a deadly third termitis should have support for National withering, and Labour flexing its polling confidence in the mid 30s.
National is well on track for a fourth term, even without the voter lolly scramble English is already planning.
You can still have rising house prices and be a credible govt in waiting. At the moment they are not. That said, the Greens are still tarred with the ‘economic vandal’ tag, so people that are feeling comfortable (in their house equity bubble) will not be keen on the Greens influencing policy.
Note that not everybody in NZ is benefitting from rising house prices – mainly Auckland & CHCH with a ripple effect north and south. Renters looking to buy form a good part of the voting population also.
If/when the economy heads south, it will but pressure on the Nats, but again, Labour will have to clearly demonstrate what they would do to correct it. Robertson doesn’t inspire confidence and will struggle on that front.
The rising house prices give those people who own them a false sense of comfort and security which makes them cling to the status quo, which right now is National.
Also this government in aiting stuff. national didn’t have rafts of policies or ideas in 2007/2008 they attacked the credibility of the existing government. Such short memories people have.
“The rising house prices give those people who own them a false sense of comfort and security which makes them cling to the status quo, which right now is National.”
Just as an aside. Why does rising house prices give people a false sense of comfort and security? I know it’s a false sense, I get that part but why would they be pleased unless they are planning on selling their house and downsizing?
We got our QV notice in the mail saying our house had increased it’s value by $30,000. Thats rubbish. It’s an artificial thing. Nothing has changed about our house to increase it’s value. It pissed me off as it means our rates are going to go up at some stage and we barely exist week to week as it is. We will be punished for this artificial meaningless increase in value.
It also pisses me off that we view housing as a commodity, rather than what it is, a necessity. I wouldn’t care if my house held the same value during the remainder of my life span. We all simply just need some where decent to live. Shouldn’t that be the goal?
” Why does rising house prices give people a false sense of comfort and security? I know it’s a false sense, I get that part but why would they be pleased unless they are planning on selling their house and downsizing?”
I agree. My thoughts are that many – like our household – are just managing to get through the week on their incomes. Regardless of whether it actually improves their lifestyle – the fact that they have a “savings account” in the form of rising equity brings comfort. However false. Because there is no other means of “saving”, as costs rise and wages and incomes stagnate.
Others have managed to utilise the many provisions government policy has for promoting housing as a commodity rather than a necessity, and find the increasing value – despite little or no inputs – one of the best forms of passive and untaxed income there is.
Like you, I believe housing is a necessity and ensuring that all NZers have access to affordable, healthy secure housing should be a priority for any progressive government.
Trouble is Molly, I think it’s too late for any future progressive government to develop policy for controlling rising house prices – apart from tinkering around the edges to give the impression that they are “doing something”.
Folks over the decades and especially in recent years have been lulled into this “I have a valuable asset” buzz and don’t care about the ones behind them who can’t afford a house or reasonable rent precisely because of house prices going up and up. Are they likely to vote for a party that does care?
I don’t know in what way we can encourage folks to be less selfish when it comes to looking at what policy to vote for. We’ve developed this hideous “me first” attitude and dropped the “us together” attitude. It’s hugely detrimental to increasing fairness and well being in society.
I think it’s bordering on cruel, to be so selfish that we are happy to scramble over others to get what we want. I really don’t like what we’ve become.
What is needed is for government projects carried out by the people as much as possible, creating a little pool of housing, in a planned area close to transport and jobs. The houses could be bought on 25 year mortgages from the state, which might sell them after 10 years to a bank.
But at the start they would be affordable and made available to people with families who had passed some sort of test to establish whether they had reliability. No use in having a place ruined because someone is making a drug. And the people would have some work guaranteed so they could pay for the houses.
And for other childless reliable people three storey slab concrete apartments to rent, with an extra payment that went into a loan a/c against the time that they might apply for a house. People would apply, there background would have to be checked for violence, drunkeness, etc. And if they weren’t okay, they could apply after another two years when they had cleaned up their lives and behaviour.
It would be a start, and an incentive for young people wanting to settle down to establish a good background.
Low loans have been made before and could be again by a people-oriented political party, not one totally profit-oriented.
The houses could be bought on 25 year mortgages from the state
Which just continues to propagate the problem of private housing that people expect to be able to get an unearned and untaxed income from either through excessively rising house prices or through ownership of multiple houses and renting them out.
“… the people would have some work guaranteed so they could pay for the houses.”
LOL
“And for other childless reliable people three storey slab concrete apartments to rent, with an extra payment that went into a loan a/c against the time that they might apply for a house. People would apply, there background would have to be checked for violence, drunkeness, etc.”
Am currently reading Danny Dorlings “All that is Solid” about the housing crisis in the UK.
It’s good – worth a read – but also shows how lack of security in housing can exacerbate other problems. And how a series of misguided and destructive policies make the likelihood of solving this issue smaller and smaller.
Intrinsic to the housing affordability and access issue is the widening of inequality in terms of income and expenditure. Wealth inequality allows those already with so much to create trusts, companies etc and avoid tax while owning and accumulating property. Those who pay the most in terms of income percentage – and removal of opportunity and other choices – are those who have to pay elevated rents, or who cannot afford starter mortgages. As social housing becomes a transient option – under constant revision – the threat and cost of tenants having to move increases and creates further stress and financial hardship.
Banks and the already wealthy are the ones who are able to benefit most from Home Starter schemes, and privatisation of social housing.
There are options available in terms of ringfencing social housing from future government policies, and others in terms of suppressing the market. Communities that have residents involved in the housing associations would be a first start. Too many social housing organisations are managed by those who don’t live in them.
Where to start?
Land tax for undeveloped residential land.
Value uplift tax, to all those who have received a capital equity bonus from the land rezoning due the Unitary Plan (paid when the land is sold for the increased value, or the land is developed.) These taxes go into social housing renovation or builds.
Allow development of housing that meets need – not profiteering.
Along with new builds it is imperative that social housing is retained in all areas.
Income equality is not a priority to those who do not have to live with the constant exposure that those on lower incomes can work just as hard, care for their families and friends just as much, and still not get any traction financially because of our failure to address inequality. Those who credit their own success to just themselves, don’t have the imagination to understand others lives unless they witness it – or even better – experience it.
agree, houses should be accommodation not cash generators for the new breed of rentier, then we could get back to affordable rents, lower mortgages and living a life for someone other than the bank, recently it was published that 41% of Auckland house buyers already owned one or more!
a bit over half when Duncan Garner counted it before the general election last year.
I’m not too worried about 2 houses for mps, as they get an allowance for a wellington residence if they’re out of town, but the owners of 4,5, or 6 homes might have a conflict.
If we accept self-interest as a reasonable excuse to not act, then we are lowering the bar in terms of acceptable decision making, which should always be to people they represent, not only those they work with.
Maybe not . Elections rarely improve the popularity of a government and frankly NAct are barely hanging in there at the moment. Not that you’d know it from the MSM.
They can’t even command an parliamentary margin for a lot of legislation at the moment . The overall trend is down. And the confidence rating is slipping too
And the same question already asked needs to be asked again.
Who was asked. Likely National Voter? Likely Labour Voter? Likely NZ First Voter? Likely Green Voter?
How were the age groups represented? Home owners vs renters? Business Owners vs workers etc etc.
See how that could change the outcome quickly?
So as always, this poll means nothing, and the only poll that counts is the one in 2017, and until then a lot more water will run down the Waikato, more ponytails will be pulled, more people will be offended, and more people will loose jobs and houses.
Or, it’s normal for NZers to vote in a government for 3 terms but not 4. And in 2014, it was a relatively close election (despite the spin since). And in 2014, there were 1 million people not voting, so this idea that most Kiwis want a Key govt is false.
You think that makes it better? No it doesn’t, more people want John Key leading the country then want *insert Labour leader de jour here* leading the country
It doesn’t matter how close it was or wasn’t, theres no second prize you either win the treasury or you sit in impotent rage
Labour will get their chance in 2020 and not before
you either win the treasury or you sit in impotent rage
only if the “winners” are monomaniacal fuckwits.
If the government were made of leaders who could be persuaded by evidence and reasoned argument, the entire country wins. Such a pity that has not been the case over the last few elections.
What, me single-handedly change the political direction of the country? I didn’t know you held me in such high esteem.
By the way, nobody was fooled by you pretending that it’s a pity the current government are a bunch of radicalised socioeconomic vandals. You’re part of the problem, being a tory and all.
I’m not asking you to change the political direction of the country McFlock.
It was just your opinion on what the Left could do to change the current momentum I was after?
You have a strong opinion on almost everything, so that shouldn’t be too difficult?
Why the fuck do you care what “the Left” could/should do to change the “momentum”?
Frankly, It’s quite possible that any tactical “momentum” is miniscule compared to larger cycles (unless voters have the memory normally reputed to goldfish). Over the last year or so Labour has been pretty solid, and the greens have been more solid for much longer. But then I also know people who voted National in 2008 simply because they felt it was national’s “turn”. The increased numbers of advance votes last year also matched the final tally more closely than I recall from previous years – this might affect campaign patterns.
But really, at the moment and with limited IT time, my strongest opinions are about tory shills. And when I feel the need to moderate how I express an opinion, I know I have better things to do.
Why the hell should I have or present an itemised plan to bring about utopia (especially as all you’ll do is masturbate all over the place regardless of whatever I come up with)? I don’t pretend to have all the answers, all I know is that conceited slimebags like you are some of the problems that need those answers.
I could just as lazily and inaccurately sum up “the right” based on your response, but I’ve got work in the real world to do and I don’t know enough synonyms for the words “stupid”, “slippery”, or “fuckwit”.
RWNJs seem to have a problem with the concept of “ethics” and “social conscience” and can’t understand why left wing parties don’t pander to the super rich or use RW tactics
I particularly liked this bit from the Rachel Maddow link I posted below:
Fascist political gatherings tend to encourage or at least expect a little violence around the edges, particularly against counter protesters. Fascistic leaders are aggressively macho and chauvinistic. They are xenophobic about people who they portray as outsiders or some sort of threat to the nation or as weaklings they can denounce. They broke no dissent. They are completely intolerant of criticism and when it comes to policy proposals and governing philosophy, they’re not known for nuance. The great leader just gets it done because the great leader is great, and great men do great things. Trust in the great leader.
You think that makes it better? No it doesn’t, more people want John Key leading the country then want *insert Labour leader de jour here* leading the country
🙄
In NZ we have MMP, and we don’t get to vote who is PM. People vote for many different reasons, and people don’t vote for many reasons.
AFAIK it’s normal for the leader of the opposition to not rate highly in leadership polls at this stage of the electoral cycle.
It doesn’t matter how close it was or wasn’t, theres no second prize you either win the treasury or you sit in impotent rage
Labour will get their chance in 2020 and not before
Lolz, spin away PR, it just shows how worried you are that Key/Nact will have done their dash by the next election.
IF National get in again, I think far more of a concern than Labour’s popularity will be the fact that NZ has voted in a proto-fascist government. We might have been in denial about that before or not too sure about it, but come the 2017 GE there will be no two ways about what is being voted for. And that should scare real conservatives as much as lefties (although the neoliberal power mongers and their minions such as yourself probably won’t care).
How do you know who the 1 million people would vote for?
You are assuming that they are not representative of the samples taken in polls. Of which there is no evidence of.
No James, I suggest you reread my comment. I didn’t say anything about who those million *would vote for. My point was that Key and National don’t have a mandate from the majority of NZers. That’s a fact no matter how you spin it.
Regardless – which ever way you want to look at it – this just aint good for Labour.
I’ll take that as evidence that you are still a FPP thinker. We have MMP now.
I think an important factor is the level of data this government has on the population (I’m talking polling, focus grouping and data analysis).
Imagine how powerful you could be if you had been in power for seven years (long enough to ‘profile’ various population groups and model their voting tendencies and the issues that matter to them.
You had access to all data possibly available about the incomes, net worth, assets, attitudes, behaviour, things people care about…think Census mixed with IRD mixed with Market Research mixed with what you spend on your FlyBuys and OneCard, and so on.
Not to mention cyber security tools such as CORTEX.
National have an enormous advantage over Labour in this area.
If National perceive they’re falling in the polls, everyone knows they will steal a policy, do a U-turn, ‘tweak a setting’, ‘readjust’ to ‘get the balance about right’. Or throw a dead cat on the table. Whatevs. As long as they are keeping 46-49% of the VOTING population happy enough, they will ride high in the polls.
Some of the points Muttonbird has been making recently link in with this concept.
I can’t remember the exact words he/she used, but to me it’s like the government has left the building in a way, and effectively the Combined Opposition is governing by default –
e.g. with Seymour able to get his RWC bar hours passed,
Key abdicating to the opposition his decision on the citizen initiated Red Peak petition,
the ‘bright line’ capital gains tax,
pressure on Serco,
rapists and murderers apology,
miniscule increase in benefits to some, etc.
Amazing that most of the polls all trend in the same direction.
They must all be calling the same white, male, home owning, auckland based, hetrosexual, married, 100k+ earning people each and every time to keep getting such consistent results.
thanks chairman,
nothing controversial to these eyes, more of a reminder as to who we truly are.
what i find interesting re the john perkins interview;
the power is in our hands.
if we act and move as one, we are unstoppable.
eg, we buy our petrol from bp only for 3 months, then as a group we only buy from caltex for 3 months, watch the price of fuel start to move.
also the intersection of politics and things of a more etheral nature.
on john perkins website, some of the places he is visiting , focus on a raising of conciousness.
with a raising of conciousness (waking up), we can not behave in the same way as we are used to.(exploiting workers or the environment, turning a blind eye, using ‘they did it too’ as a justification.)
this is not opinion or belief, it is a truth.
re labour not being an effective opposition: time and time again i hear them seemingly miss the mark.
eg kelvin davis on serco. (btw excellent work by kelvin to put pressure on the government).
once serco were fired there was no clear statement along the lines that privitisation is a no go under a labour regime.
they seem to be crippled by internal polling, not wanting to scare the horses.
unless there is a fundamental difference between the two main parties, why would you support a change?
Labour support the idea that business is the whole purpose of society thus they really can’t say anything different from National and thus they lose support.
the power is in our hands.
if we act and move as one, we are unstoppable.
Which, of course, is why over the last few decades the RWNJs have been destroying society, saying that there is no such thing as society in fact. They don’t want the people acting together.
eg, we buy our petrol from bp only for 3 months, then as a group we only buy from caltex for 3 months, watch the price of fuel start to move.
If we acted as one nobody would be buying fuel for their cars as there wouldn’t be any personal cars. Such acting though would destroy the profits that the bludgers claim which is why we have a society that promotes consumption rather than economising.
I read Perkins’ book nine years ago. It is absolutely chilling, a carefully written exposition of the United States and its destruction of democratic regimes. It’s not surprising that he has been resolutely excluded from the mainstream media.
I don’t think he’s f%cked it up so much as planned it this way. The RBNZ are only referring to consumer inflation which is not “Inflation”. We only have low consumer inflation because all the surplus new money being created by bank lending is going into property and causing inflation there. Real inflation is very high.
These people are economic cheats. They’re ringfencing inflation, isolating it to property, and cynically letting the extra money created stimulate the economy. It’s definitely deliberate and since MPs are all property owners I expect none are going to complain about it .
when the Reserve Bank Governor PUBLICLY outlines a specific policy prescription for the government ( infrastructure spending , Auckland) it demonstrates a frustration that private advice is not being heeded…..under the 1989 reforms the removal of political interference it the operation of the RB has been reciprocal.
I tend to think that the ministries shouldn’t be giving the ministers private advice. It should be public so that we can read it, asses it and then ask why the minister is following it or not and even have the ability to force one way or the other. But that’d be democracy and the MPs really wouldn’t like that.
A dark day for Hamilton, as its council votes to sell the rest of its pensioner housing off to Accessible Properties — an offshoot of IHC.
And to rub more salt into the wound, they approved a rent rise to boot.
This is on top of 5 years of slash and burn by HCC.
Sort of sums everything up really. Councils seem to have no interest in building their communities, all they want to do is close things down and/or sell them off.
Um, BM, we pensioners are not necessarily all possessed of intellectual disabilities. More care with thought processes and expression please.
In my area, Council does have the skills to provide pensioner housing.
It is one of the great canards that private enterprise is good at management, Serco is a good example of a private company I wouldn’t want anywhere near housing- prisoners or the free. Nor would I want let great private enterprise owner/operators near government if for example Donald Trump should possibly be elected.
In fact I’ve just had to take a few moments to recover from the shock
mac1 I agree with the point you make, as your first sentence clearly states
However, on reflection – it could be good. Bear with me.
Accessibility is a wholly owned subsidiary of IHC, a not for profit that started as a protest group formed by the parents of children with intellectual disabilities in the 1960s.
Back then, parents of children with intellectual disabilities were advised to put their children in institutions, go home, forget about them and try to have another baby.
Some parents decided their kids had the right to grow up with their own families, go to school, learn, have a life etc, and IHC was born.
Anyway – things are run as businesses now of course, with large government contracts already.
Whether you agree with it or not, this is how our community healthcare sector works. IHC and their services have provided birth to death care and support for people with intellectual disabilities and their families for many years, including housing, and home help.
As their client base has aged, so has their expertise in caring for the ordinary physical, social, mental, emotional etc needs of the people who use their services, and IHC has also played a critical role in the advancement of their rights.
(This hasn’t been without controversy or disagreement of course, but no one can say they haven’t been at the forefront).
People with intellectual disabilities also age in the same way as the rest of us. They get dementia. They get osteoporosis. They get cancer. They get heart disease. They lose mobility. Their social networks decrease as parents, peers, familiar staff die or age & withdraw. So IHC (IDEA Services) has had to become experts in these areas as their client base has aged.
So if IHC is now branching out to aged care services for the general population, as well as intellectual disability support I think they’re …. well, better than Serco at least.
There are legal protections for the people who receive health and disability care, which pensioner housing may be able to be classified as…The Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer’s Rights. This is overseen by the Health and Disability Commissioner, so if we’re going down this road of further privatisation into NGOs and Corporate Healthcare providers, I’d rather they go to not-for-profit NGOs, and there be strong rights-based legislation and toothy oversight to ensure accountability of the organisations providing the services.
Where is / has been the public debate on whether private NGOs SHOULD take over public services?
I for one am absolutely opposed to this.
Seems that there is money to be made from ‘poor people’?
In my view – it is quite insidious how this has come about – the neo-liberal ‘rogering’ of more public services, with those who once upon a time would have been staunch opponents of privatisation, now supporting it?
Hi Penny, in answer to your question, where is/has been the public debate…
In this case, IHC started out as a protest group in the 1960s. Started by parents who were advocating for their own kids to be allowed to grow up in their own families and communities, to participate in everyday life rather than being shut away in state-run institutions their whole lives. So the public debate has been going on since then among the people the issue affects.
Grass roots/ not for profit organisations with a strong human rights values base are totally different to share market-listed corporations who exist to make profit and provide a return to their shareholders.
I would rather my taxes/public money in the form of service contracts went to these kinds of not-for-profit organisations.
Like you, I am against my taxes/public money being siphoned off by profit makers at the expense of service quality, safety and staff conditions.
“Less stuff the council is involved in the better”
Oh yeah, Why is it then they get involved in non core items like The Velodrome, (regional council) Cycle tracks that no one will use, Hardacker’s makeover of the south end of town. Another make over on top of many costly make overs Hamilton has had over the last few decades by right wing councils that have done nothing to improve the city . The CBD is like a ghost town with ever increasing numbers of empty shops. This has increased the debt burden to the rate payer that has been forced to pay a 3.8 % pa increase for the next ten years, before other increases are added to their rates (a massive 50% increase approx over 10 years). This is to pay down the massive debt for past right wing adventures which have burdened the city, in a time of so called 0% inflation, plus other increases that are bound to occur caused by future visions of grandeur by this present right wing council.
” they don’t have the skills, leave that sort of stuff to organizations that know what they’re doing.”
Funny that mate they have done an excellent job running these pensioner houses for decades.
No doubt someone like Serco will come and show them how it is done.
I’m guessing this is the polite version of how AFFCO workers are feeling about their employer actively discriminating and undermining them after the Employment Court found AFFCO to be in breach of it’s CEA, by unlawfully locking out workers over their refusal to abandon their CEA with the Meatworkers Union;
“It feels to our members like the company is deliberately flouting the judge’s ruling and is determined to make life difficult.”
When will the opposition call for Peter Talley to be stripped of his knighthood? Surely they can see how immoral this situation is. Wouldn’t they like to stand with the workers on this high profile case?
Extraordinary excellent interview by Paul Henry! First time Coleman has been kept on track. The Labour plan is to fund melanoma for 2 years while they sort out a solution. Sounds good. Paul described Herceptin was for votes but Coleman conceded that Herceptin for the original 12 weeks was the right call but claimed that it was wrong for politicians to interfere. Tough. Genie is out of the bottle. (Mind you I think politicians should stay out of Pharmac.)
paraphrasing Coleman- “Nine weeks that were funded previously was just as good as fifty two weeks”…and lessons have been learned/was a long time ago/ a mistake was made.
So yeah, vote catching. Very cynical vote catching.
I haven’t been following the melanoma drug thing, but had one of those deep breath, eye rolling moments when I half caught something about Labour wanting the government to fund pembrolizumab. Like I say, I only half caught what was being reported and might have picked it up wrong, but my immediate reaction was to remember Goff’s “Me too!” bullshit over John Key’s sexual attraction for some Hollywood star.
Pharmac is pharmac is pharmac. And if drug procurement is subject to market related bollocks and bullshit, then our health will be compromised insofar as it’s the availability of $$$ and not really the availability of the drugs that’s going to be the crucial factor in any decision.
Then I’m remembering a bullshit ‘Ethics 101’ question that ran along the lines that your partner is dying, the drugs are in the facility across the road and you can’t afford them them. What do you do? From memory I was the only one in a lecture of 50 odd people who straight up with a ram raid option. Apparently there were ethical considerations I wasn’t taking into account.
At the time I thought it was a good interview by Henry, but thinking about it later all I could think of was that it was just self-interest from Paul Henry.
If Paul Henry didn’t know anyone who has suffered from melanoma, would he have been so hard on the the Minister? Would it have gone on as long? Would it have even happened at all?
It’s nice to know he has it in him, just a pity he cannot point it in the right direction on a regular basis at the people who need to be interviewed like this.
Because illness, especially cancer, afflicts all without care for personal wealth, education or social standing, I have noticed that is one area where social expenditure is never attacked by the well-off.
Among the many reasons, mostly good, why nearly all NZers support public expenditure on health is self-interest.
Healthy Food in schools is another matter. Obesity is another matter. These are primarily the afflictions of the poor. These are not supported or funded.
Sufferers can be blamed by the righteous majority for their self-inflicted dis-ease. Not so with cancer.
Disclosure: I am at present two thirds through irradiation treatment for cancer. I am glad this pensioner has not had to pay personally for this.
Because illness, especially cancer, afflicts all without care for personal wealth, education or social standing, I have noticed that is one area where social expenditure is never attacked by the well-off.
Among the many reasons, mostly good, why nearly all NZers support public expenditure on health is self-interest.
Healthy Food in schools is another matter. Obesity is another matter. These are primarily the afflictions of the poor. These are not supported or funded.
Sufferers can be blamed by the righteous majority for their self-inflicted dis-ease. Not so with cancer.
Seems that some of my considered opinions are getting a rather hostile response from some quarters?
However, I have a proven track record of consistent opposition to the (forced) Auckland ‘Supercity’ amalgamation, literally from ‘Day One’ (5 September 2006 – the date of the ‘failed Mayoral coup’).
As I understand it Sacha – that was not your position?
Quite a lot of people from all sides of the political divide have a track record of opposition to the Supercity Penny.
What people will be interested in is your policies for actually running the council and the city, and note that opening the books is not a policy for running the council.
How can you exercise ‘prudent stewardship’ or ‘fiscal responsibility’ and monitor ‘cost-effectiveness’ – if you don’t know where the ‘costs’ fall?
‘Opening the books’ and defending citizens LAWFUL rights to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government will be one of my major Mayoral campaign planks.
I understand that others are highly likely to pick up this issue, but none have my proven track record.
I am campaigning for the full and thorough implementation of the Public Records Act 2005, and for citizens to know exactly where every dollar of public monies are being spent, invested and borrowed.
I am campaigning against the effective mechanism for the corporate takeover of the Auckland region – Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
In my view, the public majority, not a corporate minority should benefit from public monies, assets and resources.
Mine will be a full-frontal Mayoral campaign against the neo-liberal ‘Rogernomics’ model – of which in Auckland – we’ve had two doses at local government level.
Helped to stop the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’, by exposing the FACTS about the Auckland ‘Supercity’ disaster.
What did the other Auckland Mayoral candidates do to help stop the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’?
There are good things and bad things about the amalgamation. Feel free to read my submission on the legislation. I have explained concisely what my concern is about your pattern of conduct: http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10122015/#comment-1107402
Have you ever BEEN a consultant for any of the legacy Auckland Councils, Auckland Council, any Auckland Council CCOs or in any capacity employed in that role for any central government department Sacha?
Research that I have done, if I have your surname correct, and you work in the field related to disability, shows, in my opinion, that is indeed the case.
If so, in my considered opinion, you have arguably a ‘conflict of interest’, as a private consultant/ contractor whom apparently does NOT want the books open, with details of spending available for public scrutiny?
Am I correct Sacha?
So – you prefer to try and undermine me personally, and my factual research, because, in my considered opinion, you apparently and arguably have something to hide regarding the spending of public monies on private sector consultants and contractors?
I have been both an employee and contractor to councils in the region, years ago. No conflict there but it does mean I tend to know what I’m talking about.
In my view, it was their petition that played a major role in getting the (belated) apology from PM John Key, over his ‘rapists / murderers’ statement.
The current climate change talks in Paris are a clue as to why this government remains so popular in New Zealand.
New Zealand’s performance is being excoriated and ridiculed and John Key was widely scoffed at as mendacious for his tissue thin spin on our carbon emissions policies.
None of this is reported in the media here. In fact barely anything about the Paris talks is reported on apart from reports of the adversarial he said/she said and/or will they/won’t they kind.
What actually happens is Key keeps up his round of jokey and blokey PR puff appearances on commercial radio and TVNZ, the most popular free to air channel by far, runs a 7pm infotainment show whose host uses it as a platform to regularly launch ad-hominim attacks on the governments opponents. Serious jornalism has collapsed and what political coverage there is is of the horse race commentary and opinion pieces by talking heads whose default is to be sympathetic to the government.
Unemployment, child poverty, the systematic underfunding of core government services, the new, invisible army of desperately poor – none of this is regularly reported on anymore and so it isn’t in the public consciousness or subject to civic engagement anymore.
All we have left is a society now firmly in the trance-like grip of greed and grimly resenting any intrusion of reality into the ecstatic denial that is at the heart of it’s consumerist reverie.
All we have left is a society now firmly in the trance-like grip of greed and grimly resenting any intrusion of reality into the ecstatic denial that is at the heart of it’s consumerist reverie.
It’s probably a good thing the excoriation and ridicule is not being reported much in NZ. I maintain it would only increase Key’s support. Most people resent being told they are fuckwits to their face.
It’s the same with all addicts; telling them only drives them deeper into denial.
I largely agree with you Sanctuary, but what should frighten us more than seven years of basically static polls, punctuated by a couple of elections, is the lack of traction on our side. About half of the country favouring National is not all that surprising – what is worrying is that Key’s government is only interested in the people it needs, a group which excludes the poor, the landless and the working class in general. The only use these people have for this government is as prison fodder and as a warning to those silly enough not cooperate with the wealthy. What you have is not merely a balance that leans a little too much to the right, but a deep divide, in which the dominant have almost complete power over the dominated. I am much more interested in seeing a shift in this balance than I am in polls – the PM getting year after year of taking and holding ground against those he does not think he needs is much more worrying.
[lprent: Make it obvious to the moderators why a clip is relevant to the post it is in. We are not going to watch it because we don’t have time. The same rules as links apply. Explain why people should click the video.
Moved to OpenMike as probably being off topic.. ]
Developer vandals are at it again, trying to cut down the Kauri despite having said they wouldn’t. So the eco warriors are back out in force too,
Morning Save Our Kauri Supporters
It’s all on again. Yesterday men with chainsaws arrived to fell the Kauri but our community protested to save the tree again. Today Johno Smith has climbed the tree in case they come back and we are here by the tree in support.
Come up to 40 Paturoa Road in Titirangi and join us!!
We need more people to help us make sure this beautiful and ancient Kauri tree stays standing.
[lprent: Make it obvious to the moderators why a clip is relevant to the post it is in. We are not going to watch it because we don’t have time. The same rules as links apply. Explain why people should click the video.
Moved to OpenMike as probably being off topic.. ]
“Here in the United States,” Maddow began, “when the term ‘fascist’ gets used, it’s either talking about other countries, ancient history or it’s used as a sort of insult, right, a sort of generic right wing epithet that people use to criticize politicians who are at most on the edge of mainstream American political thought.”
“But fascism is not just a word,” Maddow continued. “It’s not just a way to insult someone with whom you disagree. It is a specific thing. It is a specific form of far right politics that involves a sort of narcissistic cult of superman action around the leader of the party,” Maddow explained, alluding to Trump’s campaign:
In the video she actually describes fascism as ‘the interests of business being the interests of the people’ which is pretty much how the US administration has worked for decades and so has ours.
Where was Judith Collins ever held accountable for her ‘conflict of interest’, in helping to organise three separate ‘net-working’ opportunities for her friends’ and husband’s private company Oravida,
while she was in China as the Minister of Justice?
Just as well a few of us helped to keep the pressure on, so that New Zealand has now (FINALLY) ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) ?
Next step – to ensure the anti-corruption measures outlined in UNCAC are implemented.
First – a genuinely Independent Commission Against Corruption for New Zealand?
Gosh – I wonder how enthusiastic our newly reappointed Minister of Police and Corrections will be about THAT proposal?
If you don’t know your rights – you don’t have any.
If you don’t defend the rights to which you’re lawfully entitled – you lose them.
That’s my considered opinion, and I believe it equally applies to International Human Rights Law, especially the UN Charter.
Here’s what the UN Charter actually states:
Home Charter of the United Nations Chapter I
Chapter I
CHAPTER I: PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
Article 2
The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.
The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll.
…………
__________________________________________
It would take a whole different kind of Parliament to entrench our existing Bill Of Rights Act into a 2/3 or 3/4 majority.
Hard to imagine happening, whatever international convention we’re signatory to.
In the meantime Parliament has to make do with the BORA test that attaches to any draft legislation. Far too often just ignored by this government. But nothing anyone can do about it.
No one is forcing you to read my considered opinion?
A pity some of you apparently have so little regard for the LAWFUL rights of citizens to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ government?
Then again, maybe you’re just, in my opinion, effectively gutless sheep?
Just tug your forelocks, do whatever this Auckland ‘Supercity’ (for the 1%) tells you.
Irrespective of whether THEY are complying with their lawful statutory requirements, pay your ever-increasing rates, and keep whining and trying to undermine someone who has the guts to stand up to them?
Or, am I apparently the ‘main enemy’ here, because I’m campaigning as a 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate against neo-liberal ‘Rogernomics’, and you’re supporting candidates who are not?
John Key promises an increase in New Zealand’s quota, with some to come from Syria – all a long time before Trudeau was even elected. How many extra refugees have arrived in New Zealand so far?
(and what is the coding to embed a url in a link?)
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
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 ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
Kicking off the day with the latest Roy Morgan:
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6599-roy-morgan-new-zealand-voting-intention-december-2015-201512092333
National still just shy of that 50% mark, labour and greens pretty static.
After the reshuffle, prisoners coming ‘home’ etc I thought labour would have wanted to be ending the year at least on 30%. Wondering if the problem is little?
Nats 49%, Labour 28%, Greens 13%, NZF 6%.
National can easily govern alone, even if NZF joined the left coalition. Voters still don’t see Labour as a viable and capable opposition in waiting. No fresh policy, a leader with single figure ratings who prefers a vacuous MP over one with experience and intelligence. Labour’s approach hasn’t changed this year and neither have the polls.
I wonder what special new Oravida questions Robertson has in store for Collins in the new year.
” Voters still don’t see Labour as a viable and capable opposition in waiting.”
Have to disagree on that front fulla.
Voters still have rising house prices, so all is content on Average Street.
Just like that.
The folks most harmed by this Government don’t, as a rule, vote National. That is one reason why they can be harmed. Now, IF (and it is a bigish if) something happens to the property market then white upper middle class starts to get antsy. That’s National-land.
For example, last week a broker whined because banks were turning down mortgages for children of the welathy because IF the youngins can’t pay the mortgae, neither can their parents (cos of their lifestyles). IF that continues, expect a minor rumbling amongst the property owning classes about the wrongnes sof their children not being able to buy property in Auckland.
the reason Labour has zero traction is because it offers an alternative like the one between Coke and Vanilla Coke.
And if the economy or housing market slows down, voters are not going to place their trust in Labour’s economically experienced and financially unskilled leadership team.
To be realistic: half way through the third term, a deadly third termitis should have support for National withering, and Labour flexing its polling confidence in the mid 30s.
National is well on track for a fourth term, even without the voter lolly scramble English is already planning.
You can still have rising house prices and be a credible govt in waiting. At the moment they are not. That said, the Greens are still tarred with the ‘economic vandal’ tag, so people that are feeling comfortable (in their house equity bubble) will not be keen on the Greens influencing policy.
Note that not everybody in NZ is benefitting from rising house prices – mainly Auckland & CHCH with a ripple effect north and south. Renters looking to buy form a good part of the voting population also.
If/when the economy heads south, it will but pressure on the Nats, but again, Labour will have to clearly demonstrate what they would do to correct it. Robertson doesn’t inspire confidence and will struggle on that front.
The rising house prices give those people who own them a false sense of comfort and security which makes them cling to the status quo, which right now is National.
Also this government in aiting stuff. national didn’t have rafts of policies or ideas in 2007/2008 they attacked the credibility of the existing government. Such short memories people have.
“The rising house prices give those people who own them a false sense of comfort and security which makes them cling to the status quo, which right now is National.”
Just as an aside. Why does rising house prices give people a false sense of comfort and security? I know it’s a false sense, I get that part but why would they be pleased unless they are planning on selling their house and downsizing?
We got our QV notice in the mail saying our house had increased it’s value by $30,000. Thats rubbish. It’s an artificial thing. Nothing has changed about our house to increase it’s value. It pissed me off as it means our rates are going to go up at some stage and we barely exist week to week as it is. We will be punished for this artificial meaningless increase in value.
It also pisses me off that we view housing as a commodity, rather than what it is, a necessity. I wouldn’t care if my house held the same value during the remainder of my life span. We all simply just need some where decent to live. Shouldn’t that be the goal?
” Why does rising house prices give people a false sense of comfort and security? I know it’s a false sense, I get that part but why would they be pleased unless they are planning on selling their house and downsizing?”
I agree. My thoughts are that many – like our household – are just managing to get through the week on their incomes. Regardless of whether it actually improves their lifestyle – the fact that they have a “savings account” in the form of rising equity brings comfort. However false. Because there is no other means of “saving”, as costs rise and wages and incomes stagnate.
Others have managed to utilise the many provisions government policy has for promoting housing as a commodity rather than a necessity, and find the increasing value – despite little or no inputs – one of the best forms of passive and untaxed income there is.
Like you, I believe housing is a necessity and ensuring that all NZers have access to affordable, healthy secure housing should be a priority for any progressive government.
Trouble is Molly, I think it’s too late for any future progressive government to develop policy for controlling rising house prices – apart from tinkering around the edges to give the impression that they are “doing something”.
Folks over the decades and especially in recent years have been lulled into this “I have a valuable asset” buzz and don’t care about the ones behind them who can’t afford a house or reasonable rent precisely because of house prices going up and up. Are they likely to vote for a party that does care?
I don’t know in what way we can encourage folks to be less selfish when it comes to looking at what policy to vote for. We’ve developed this hideous “me first” attitude and dropped the “us together” attitude. It’s hugely detrimental to increasing fairness and well being in society.
I think it’s bordering on cruel, to be so selfish that we are happy to scramble over others to get what we want. I really don’t like what we’ve become.
What is needed is for government projects carried out by the people as much as possible, creating a little pool of housing, in a planned area close to transport and jobs. The houses could be bought on 25 year mortgages from the state, which might sell them after 10 years to a bank.
But at the start they would be affordable and made available to people with families who had passed some sort of test to establish whether they had reliability. No use in having a place ruined because someone is making a drug. And the people would have some work guaranteed so they could pay for the houses.
And for other childless reliable people three storey slab concrete apartments to rent, with an extra payment that went into a loan a/c against the time that they might apply for a house. People would apply, there background would have to be checked for violence, drunkeness, etc. And if they weren’t okay, they could apply after another two years when they had cleaned up their lives and behaviour.
It would be a start, and an incentive for young people wanting to settle down to establish a good background.
Low loans have been made before and could be again by a people-oriented political party, not one totally profit-oriented.
Which just continues to propagate the problem of private housing that people expect to be able to get an unearned and untaxed income from either through excessively rising house prices or through ownership of multiple houses and renting them out.
“… the people would have some work guaranteed so they could pay for the houses.”
LOL
“And for other childless reliable people three storey slab concrete apartments to rent, with an extra payment that went into a loan a/c against the time that they might apply for a house. People would apply, there background would have to be checked for violence, drunkeness, etc.”
WTF
😈
fender
If you have better ideas about fairness of the economic system and housing you should change you pseudo to ‘funder’.
😀
Agree again.
Am currently reading Danny Dorlings “All that is Solid” about the housing crisis in the UK.
It’s good – worth a read – but also shows how lack of security in housing can exacerbate other problems. And how a series of misguided and destructive policies make the likelihood of solving this issue smaller and smaller.
Intrinsic to the housing affordability and access issue is the widening of inequality in terms of income and expenditure. Wealth inequality allows those already with so much to create trusts, companies etc and avoid tax while owning and accumulating property. Those who pay the most in terms of income percentage – and removal of opportunity and other choices – are those who have to pay elevated rents, or who cannot afford starter mortgages. As social housing becomes a transient option – under constant revision – the threat and cost of tenants having to move increases and creates further stress and financial hardship.
Banks and the already wealthy are the ones who are able to benefit most from Home Starter schemes, and privatisation of social housing.
There are options available in terms of ringfencing social housing from future government policies, and others in terms of suppressing the market. Communities that have residents involved in the housing associations would be a first start. Too many social housing organisations are managed by those who don’t live in them.
Where to start?
Land tax for undeveloped residential land.
Value uplift tax, to all those who have received a capital equity bonus from the land rezoning due the Unitary Plan (paid when the land is sold for the increased value, or the land is developed.) These taxes go into social housing renovation or builds.
Allow development of housing that meets need – not profiteering.
Along with new builds it is imperative that social housing is retained in all areas.
Income equality is not a priority to those who do not have to live with the constant exposure that those on lower incomes can work just as hard, care for their families and friends just as much, and still not get any traction financially because of our failure to address inequality. Those who credit their own success to just themselves, don’t have the imagination to understand others lives unless they witness it – or even better – experience it.
agree, houses should be accommodation not cash generators for the new breed of rentier, then we could get back to affordable rents, lower mortgages and living a life for someone other than the bank, recently it was published that 41% of Auckland house buyers already owned one or more!
+1
A great explanation of why all housing should be state owned.
Rising house prices are the main sign of economic vandalism.
+100
Yet how many of our politicians from both sides of the house currently own multiple houses? Do you think they are going to try to fix the problem?
a bit over half when Duncan Garner counted it before the general election last year.
I’m not too worried about 2 houses for mps, as they get an allowance for a wellington residence if they’re out of town, but the owners of 4,5, or 6 homes might have a conflict.
Which just indicates that the people should be setting the policies rather than the MPs.
Might also indicate that MP’s prefer to invest in real estate rather than risk their coin on the often punishing share market.
“Which just indicates that the people should be setting the policies rather than the MPs.”
Are you suggesting a referendum on the number of houses an MP can own(?) 😈
No, I’m saying that the people should set all policies and not MPs.
… only if we demand it off them.
If we accept self-interest as a reasonable excuse to not act, then we are lowering the bar in terms of acceptable decision making, which should always be to people they represent, not only those they work with.
Maybe not . Elections rarely improve the popularity of a government and frankly NAct are barely hanging in there at the moment. Not that you’d know it from the MSM.
They can’t even command an parliamentary margin for a lot of legislation at the moment . The overall trend is down. And the confidence rating is slipping too
The overall trend is down ????
You read the link right ? They are on 49 %. How the hell do you call that a downward trend?
Using your logic labour at 28% are trending how ?
Seems odd to thinkit would be little, cos it was sheaer, and cunliffe before him, apparently… seems it’s something different altogether James
That is a fair point re Little.
I’m guessing its Labour. Most of the population simply dont want them in power. Dont agree with them, dont see them as credible,
Heck if people believed in them then they wouldn’t be languishing in the 20’s for so long.
And the same question already asked needs to be asked again.
Who was asked. Likely National Voter? Likely Labour Voter? Likely NZ First Voter? Likely Green Voter?
How were the age groups represented? Home owners vs renters? Business Owners vs workers etc etc.
See how that could change the outcome quickly?
So as always, this poll means nothing, and the only poll that counts is the one in 2017, and until then a lot more water will run down the Waikato, more ponytails will be pulled, more people will be offended, and more people will loose jobs and houses.
and yet again the same old excuses are being trotted out that were brought out in 2008, 2011 and 2014
Always saying the polls wrong and soon, very soon the people of NZ will see the real John Key and that’s when Labour will be returned to power
Yet the left don’t seem to realise is that we’ve seen the real John Key and that’s why he’ll get another term in 2017
Or, it’s normal for NZers to vote in a government for 3 terms but not 4. And in 2014, it was a relatively close election (despite the spin since). And in 2014, there were 1 million people not voting, so this idea that most Kiwis want a Key govt is false.
You think that makes it better? No it doesn’t, more people want John Key leading the country then want *insert Labour leader de jour here* leading the country
It doesn’t matter how close it was or wasn’t, theres no second prize you either win the treasury or you sit in impotent rage
Labour will get their chance in 2020 and not before
only if the “winners” are monomaniacal fuckwits.
If the government were made of leaders who could be persuaded by evidence and reasoned argument, the entire country wins. Such a pity that has not been the case over the last few elections.
It’s a pity McFlock, and if things don’t change it will be a pity next election as well.
What’s your plan for changing the momentum?
lol
What, me single-handedly change the political direction of the country? I didn’t know you held me in such high esteem.
By the way, nobody was fooled by you pretending that it’s a pity the current government are a bunch of radicalised socioeconomic vandals. You’re part of the problem, being a tory and all.
I’m not asking you to change the political direction of the country McFlock.
It was just your opinion on what the Left could do to change the current momentum I was after?
You have a strong opinion on almost everything, so that shouldn’t be too difficult?
Why the fuck do you care what “the Left” could/should do to change the “momentum”?
Frankly, It’s quite possible that any tactical “momentum” is miniscule compared to larger cycles (unless voters have the memory normally reputed to goldfish). Over the last year or so Labour has been pretty solid, and the greens have been more solid for much longer. But then I also know people who voted National in 2008 simply because they felt it was national’s “turn”. The increased numbers of advance votes last year also matched the final tally more closely than I recall from previous years – this might affect campaign patterns.
But really, at the moment and with limited IT time, my strongest opinions are about tory shills. And when I feel the need to moderate how I express an opinion, I know I have better things to do.
No plan, no positive ideas, clinging to a few straws, and main energy going into attacking shills.
Pretty much sums up the situation on the Left, and why it is polling where it is.
Oh fuck off.
Why the hell should I have or present an itemised plan to bring about utopia (especially as all you’ll do is masturbate all over the place regardless of whatever I come up with)? I don’t pretend to have all the answers, all I know is that conceited slimebags like you are some of the problems that need those answers.
I could just as lazily and inaccurately sum up “the right” based on your response, but I’ve got work in the real world to do and I don’t know enough synonyms for the words “stupid”, “slippery”, or “fuckwit”.
sheep shagger seems to be conducting a poll of political bloggers, perhaps DPF is paying him off ??
we had a fairly reasoned chat about this last night but it seems to be his mission to hassle everyone on TS asking the same question.
don’t tell him the secret plan!
lol
I love the idea that the left doing badly in the polls can only be because the left isn’t doing the correct thing.
Obviously never took the Kobayashi Maru test…
RWNJs seem to have a problem with the concept of “ethics” and “social conscience” and can’t understand why left wing parties don’t pander to the super rich or use RW tactics
I particularly liked this bit from the Rachel Maddow link I posted below:
My bold.
So you are saying the Left needs a great leader? Any suggestions?
No, I was drawing the similarities between what PR was saying and fascism.
Nice attempt at purposely twisting my words though.
You think that makes it better? No it doesn’t, more people want John Key leading the country then want *insert Labour leader de jour here* leading the country
🙄
In NZ we have MMP, and we don’t get to vote who is PM. People vote for many different reasons, and people don’t vote for many reasons.
AFAIK it’s normal for the leader of the opposition to not rate highly in leadership polls at this stage of the electoral cycle.
It doesn’t matter how close it was or wasn’t, theres no second prize you either win the treasury or you sit in impotent rage
Labour will get their chance in 2020 and not before
Lolz, spin away PR, it just shows how worried you are that Key/Nact will have done their dash by the next election.
IF National get in again, I think far more of a concern than Labour’s popularity will be the fact that NZ has voted in a proto-fascist government. We might have been in denial about that before or not too sure about it, but come the 2017 GE there will be no two ways about what is being voted for. And that should scare real conservatives as much as lefties (although the neoliberal power mongers and their minions such as yourself probably won’t care).
How do you know who the 1 million people would vote for?
You are assuming that they are not representative of the samples taken in polls. Of which there is no evidence of.
Regardless – which ever way you want to look at it – this just aint good for Labour.
If a potential voter hated JK and loved the Left you’d think they would vote?
But it is known why they don’t. So no, they cannot be counted as de facto Left voters. They are non voters and don’t count for anything.
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/Well-being/civic-human-rights/non-voters-2008-2011-gen-elections.aspx
How do you know who the 1 million people would vote for?
You are assuming that they are not representative of the samples taken in polls. Of which there is no evidence of.
No James, I suggest you reread my comment. I didn’t say anything about who those million *would vote for. My point was that Key and National don’t have a mandate from the majority of NZers. That’s a fact no matter how you spin it.
Regardless – which ever way you want to look at it – this just aint good for Labour.
I’ll take that as evidence that you are still a FPP thinker. We have MMP now.
I think an important factor is the level of data this government has on the population (I’m talking polling, focus grouping and data analysis).
Imagine how powerful you could be if you had been in power for seven years (long enough to ‘profile’ various population groups and model their voting tendencies and the issues that matter to them.
You had access to all data possibly available about the incomes, net worth, assets, attitudes, behaviour, things people care about…think Census mixed with IRD mixed with Market Research mixed with what you spend on your FlyBuys and OneCard, and so on.
Not to mention cyber security tools such as CORTEX.
National have an enormous advantage over Labour in this area.
If National perceive they’re falling in the polls, everyone knows they will steal a policy, do a U-turn, ‘tweak a setting’, ‘readjust’ to ‘get the balance about right’. Or throw a dead cat on the table. Whatevs. As long as they are keeping 46-49% of the VOTING population happy enough, they will ride high in the polls.
Some of the points Muttonbird has been making recently link in with this concept.
I can’t remember the exact words he/she used, but to me it’s like the government has left the building in a way, and effectively the Combined Opposition is governing by default –
e.g. with Seymour able to get his RWC bar hours passed,
Key abdicating to the opposition his decision on the citizen initiated Red Peak petition,
the ‘bright line’ capital gains tax,
pressure on Serco,
rapists and murderers apology,
miniscule increase in benefits to some, etc.
hahahaha thats funny.
Amazing that most of the polls all trend in the same direction.
They must all be calling the same white, male, home owning, auckland based, hetrosexual, married, 100k+ earning people each and every time to keep getting such consistent results.
Here are a couple of short interviews that (if you haven’t already) need to be seen.
Do they resonate with you or do you find them controversial?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
https://youtu.be/XC5SMg6oosI
https://youtu.be/DL3mCSPGgZ0
The Chairman
I got part way through the Pilger interview and then decided I had to get to work. Will watch mre later.
Thanks for attempting to take the time Tracey.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts when you finally find the time to view them both.
thanks chairman,
nothing controversial to these eyes, more of a reminder as to who we truly are.
what i find interesting re the john perkins interview;
the power is in our hands.
if we act and move as one, we are unstoppable.
eg, we buy our petrol from bp only for 3 months, then as a group we only buy from caltex for 3 months, watch the price of fuel start to move.
also the intersection of politics and things of a more etheral nature.
on john perkins website, some of the places he is visiting , focus on a raising of conciousness.
with a raising of conciousness (waking up), we can not behave in the same way as we are used to.(exploiting workers or the environment, turning a blind eye, using ‘they did it too’ as a justification.)
this is not opinion or belief, it is a truth.
Thanks gsays.
The push to have everything privatized (as discussed in the Perkins interview) must surely be recognizable to most voters now.
The Perkins interview also helps explain why Labour isn’t providing the difference most would expect from the opposition.
And the alternative suggested (which you highlighted) is as consumers there is power in our hands.
re labour not being an effective opposition: time and time again i hear them seemingly miss the mark.
eg kelvin davis on serco. (btw excellent work by kelvin to put pressure on the government).
once serco were fired there was no clear statement along the lines that privitisation is a no go under a labour regime.
they seem to be crippled by internal polling, not wanting to scare the horses.
unless there is a fundamental difference between the two main parties, why would you support a change?
Labour support the idea that business is the whole purpose of society thus they really can’t say anything different from National and thus they lose support.
Which, of course, is why over the last few decades the RWNJs have been destroying society, saying that there is no such thing as society in fact. They don’t want the people acting together.
If we acted as one nobody would be buying fuel for their cars as there wouldn’t be any personal cars. Such acting though would destroy the profits that the bludgers claim which is why we have a society that promotes consumption rather than economising.
+1
I read Perkins’ book nine years ago. It is absolutely chilling, a carefully written exposition of the United States and its destruction of democratic regimes. It’s not surprising that he has been resolutely excluded from the mainstream media.
Read his book also.
Since then my cynics hat has been firmly on, never to be taken off.
Sad to see Pilger seeming to struggle in terms of articulation and presentation, but hey.
Didn’t listen to John Perkins yet. Ever since he first popped up I’ve wondered whether his back story is genuine.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201782389/rbnz-calls-on-govt-to-boost-capital-spending
in RBNZ language….youve fucked up Bill
I don’t think he’s f%cked it up so much as planned it this way. The RBNZ are only referring to consumer inflation which is not “Inflation”. We only have low consumer inflation because all the surplus new money being created by bank lending is going into property and causing inflation there. Real inflation is very high.
These people are economic cheats. They’re ringfencing inflation, isolating it to property, and cynically letting the extra money created stimulate the economy. It’s definitely deliberate and since MPs are all property owners I expect none are going to complain about it .
+1
when the Reserve Bank Governor PUBLICLY outlines a specific policy prescription for the government ( infrastructure spending , Auckland) it demonstrates a frustration that private advice is not being heeded…..under the 1989 reforms the removal of political interference it the operation of the RB has been reciprocal.
I tend to think that the ministries shouldn’t be giving the ministers private advice. It should be public so that we can read it, asses it and then ask why the minister is following it or not and even have the ability to force one way or the other. But that’d be democracy and the MPs really wouldn’t like that.
well you just got your wish.
you miss the point…the RBGovernor is promoting policy that is contrary to the sitting government…the RB Gov, not the leader of the opposition
Interesting that Felix Geiringer has challenged Tracey Watkins for her misleading take on Judith Collins. Collins was not cleared of anything in Dirty Tricks but Tracey says she was.
Saw on Twitter.Does this work?
https://twitter.com/Simonpnz?t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&sig=6f7e34843914481730173168bf851b87f2e1eb94&al=1&refsrc=email&iid=b323598fd2134b9494aa0cf9feab4d8a&autoactions=1449745827&uid=2555959843&nid=244+127
A dark day for Hamilton, as its council votes to sell the rest of its pensioner housing off to Accessible Properties — an offshoot of IHC.
And to rub more salt into the wound, they approved a rent rise to boot.
This is on top of 5 years of slash and burn by HCC.
Sort of sums everything up really. Councils seem to have no interest in building their communities, all they want to do is close things down and/or sell them off.
That’s great news, IHC do a brilliant job housing all the people with Intellectual disabilities, Pensioners will be so much better off.
Less stuff the council is involved in the better, they don’t have the skills, leave that sort of stuff to organizations that know what they’re doing.
Um, BM, we pensioners are not necessarily all possessed of intellectual disabilities. More care with thought processes and expression please.
In my area, Council does have the skills to provide pensioner housing.
It is one of the great canards that private enterprise is good at management, Serco is a good example of a private company I wouldn’t want anywhere near housing- prisoners or the free. Nor would I want let great private enterprise owner/operators near government if for example Donald Trump should possibly be elected.
It surely would be the Last Trump!
I can’t believe I agree with BM
In fact I’ve just had to take a few moments to recover from the shock
mac1 I agree with the point you make, as your first sentence clearly states
However, on reflection – it could be good. Bear with me.
Accessibility is a wholly owned subsidiary of IHC, a not for profit that started as a protest group formed by the parents of children with intellectual disabilities in the 1960s.
Back then, parents of children with intellectual disabilities were advised to put their children in institutions, go home, forget about them and try to have another baby.
Some parents decided their kids had the right to grow up with their own families, go to school, learn, have a life etc, and IHC was born.
Anyway – things are run as businesses now of course, with large government contracts already.
Whether you agree with it or not, this is how our community healthcare sector works. IHC and their services have provided birth to death care and support for people with intellectual disabilities and their families for many years, including housing, and home help.
As their client base has aged, so has their expertise in caring for the ordinary physical, social, mental, emotional etc needs of the people who use their services, and IHC has also played a critical role in the advancement of their rights.
(This hasn’t been without controversy or disagreement of course, but no one can say they haven’t been at the forefront).
People with intellectual disabilities also age in the same way as the rest of us. They get dementia. They get osteoporosis. They get cancer. They get heart disease. They lose mobility. Their social networks decrease as parents, peers, familiar staff die or age & withdraw. So IHC (IDEA Services) has had to become experts in these areas as their client base has aged.
So if IHC is now branching out to aged care services for the general population, as well as intellectual disability support I think they’re …. well, better than Serco at least.
There are legal protections for the people who receive health and disability care, which pensioner housing may be able to be classified as…The Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer’s Rights. This is overseen by the Health and Disability Commissioner, so if we’re going down this road of further privatisation into NGOs and Corporate Healthcare providers, I’d rather they go to not-for-profit NGOs, and there be strong rights-based legislation and toothy oversight to ensure accountability of the organisations providing the services.
Yep, I had quite a bit to do with them a few years ago.
Highly professional outfit.
Love to see them running some sort of operation in conjunction with cyps
Where is / has been the public debate on whether private NGOs SHOULD take over public services?
I for one am absolutely opposed to this.
Seems that there is money to be made from ‘poor people’?
In my view – it is quite insidious how this has come about – the neo-liberal ‘rogering’ of more public services, with those who once upon a time would have been staunch opponents of privatisation, now supporting it?
Not impressed.
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Hi Penny, in answer to your question, where is/has been the public debate…
In this case, IHC started out as a protest group in the 1960s. Started by parents who were advocating for their own kids to be allowed to grow up in their own families and communities, to participate in everyday life rather than being shut away in state-run institutions their whole lives. So the public debate has been going on since then among the people the issue affects.
Grass roots/ not for profit organisations with a strong human rights values base are totally different to share market-listed corporations who exist to make profit and provide a return to their shareholders.
I would rather my taxes/public money in the form of service contracts went to these kinds of not-for-profit organisations.
Like you, I am against my taxes/public money being siphoned off by profit makers at the expense of service quality, safety and staff conditions.
IHC like all of these NGO’s pick and choose who they help. That is the nature of charities, etc.
The Hamilton City Council had a legal obligation to house pensioners, who met their criteria.
“Less stuff the council is involved in the better”
Oh yeah, Why is it then they get involved in non core items like The Velodrome, (regional council) Cycle tracks that no one will use, Hardacker’s makeover of the south end of town. Another make over on top of many costly make overs Hamilton has had over the last few decades by right wing councils that have done nothing to improve the city . The CBD is like a ghost town with ever increasing numbers of empty shops. This has increased the debt burden to the rate payer that has been forced to pay a 3.8 % pa increase for the next ten years, before other increases are added to their rates (a massive 50% increase approx over 10 years). This is to pay down the massive debt for past right wing adventures which have burdened the city, in a time of so called 0% inflation, plus other increases that are bound to occur caused by future visions of grandeur by this present right wing council.
” they don’t have the skills, leave that sort of stuff to organizations that know what they’re doing.”
Funny that mate they have done an excellent job running these pensioner houses for decades.
No doubt someone like Serco will come and show them how it is done.
HCC is stacked with wannabe nactiods led by the divisive hardaker urged on by mcindoe and bennett so no surprises there.
Her councils record of financial mismanagement speaks for itself, mystery creek events centre, v8s and other vanity projects saddling ratepayers.
I’m guessing this is the polite version of how AFFCO workers are feeling about their employer actively discriminating and undermining them after the Employment Court found AFFCO to be in breach of it’s CEA, by unlawfully locking out workers over their refusal to abandon their CEA with the Meatworkers Union;
“It feels to our members like the company is deliberately flouting the judge’s ruling and is determined to make life difficult.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/rural/291831/meatworkers-accuse-affco-of-ignoring-court-ruling
When will the opposition call for Peter Talley to be stripped of his knighthood? Surely they can see how immoral this situation is. Wouldn’t they like to stand with the workers on this high profile case?
Or have they done this and I have missed it?
Good effort by Paul Henry this morning in his interview with Jonathan Coleman.
I find that highly unlikely. Could you explain what was so “good” about it?
Surprising though it is I find myself agreeing with Cogito, Coleman was well badgered.
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/paulhenry/govt-will-not-fund-melanoma-wonder-drug—minister-2015121107#axzz3txHILWV2
Extraordinary excellent interview by Paul Henry! First time Coleman has been kept on track. The Labour plan is to fund melanoma for 2 years while they sort out a solution. Sounds good. Paul described Herceptin was for votes but Coleman conceded that Herceptin for the original 12 weeks was the right call but claimed that it was wrong for politicians to interfere. Tough. Genie is out of the bottle. (Mind you I think politicians should stay out of Pharmac.)
paraphrasing Coleman- “Nine weeks that were funded previously was just as good as fifty two weeks”…and lessons have been learned/was a long time ago/ a mistake was made.
So yeah, vote catching. Very cynical vote catching.
I haven’t been following the melanoma drug thing, but had one of those deep breath, eye rolling moments when I half caught something about Labour wanting the government to fund pembrolizumab. Like I say, I only half caught what was being reported and might have picked it up wrong, but my immediate reaction was to remember Goff’s “Me too!” bullshit over John Key’s sexual attraction for some Hollywood star.
Pharmac is pharmac is pharmac. And if drug procurement is subject to market related bollocks and bullshit, then our health will be compromised insofar as it’s the availability of $$$ and not really the availability of the drugs that’s going to be the crucial factor in any decision.
Then I’m remembering a bullshit ‘Ethics 101’ question that ran along the lines that your partner is dying, the drugs are in the facility across the road and you can’t afford them them. What do you do? From memory I was the only one in a lecture of 50 odd people who straight up with a ram raid option. Apparently there were ethical considerations I wasn’t taking into account.
At the time I thought it was a good interview by Henry, but thinking about it later all I could think of was that it was just self-interest from Paul Henry.
If Paul Henry didn’t know anyone who has suffered from melanoma, would he have been so hard on the the Minister? Would it have gone on as long? Would it have even happened at all?
It’s nice to know he has it in him, just a pity he cannot point it in the right direction on a regular basis at the people who need to be interviewed like this.
Good points, Kevin.
Because illness, especially cancer, afflicts all without care for personal wealth, education or social standing, I have noticed that is one area where social expenditure is never attacked by the well-off.
Among the many reasons, mostly good, why nearly all NZers support public expenditure on health is self-interest.
Healthy Food in schools is another matter. Obesity is another matter. These are primarily the afflictions of the poor. These are not supported or funded.
Sufferers can be blamed by the righteous majority for their self-inflicted dis-ease. Not so with cancer.
Disclosure: I am at present two thirds through irradiation treatment for cancer. I am glad this pensioner has not had to pay personally for this.
All the best Mac1.
Good points, Kevin.
Because illness, especially cancer, afflicts all without care for personal wealth, education or social standing, I have noticed that is one area where social expenditure is never attacked by the well-off.
Among the many reasons, mostly good, why nearly all NZers support public expenditure on health is self-interest.
Healthy Food in schools is another matter. Obesity is another matter. These are primarily the afflictions of the poor. These are not supported or funded.
Sufferers can be blamed by the righteous majority for their self-inflicted dis-ease. Not so with cancer.
Seems that some of my considered opinions are getting a rather hostile response from some quarters?
However, I have a proven track record of consistent opposition to the (forced) Auckland ‘Supercity’ amalgamation, literally from ‘Day One’ (5 September 2006 – the date of the ‘failed Mayoral coup’).
As I understand it Sacha – that was not your position?
Is that correct?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Quite a lot of people from all sides of the political divide have a track record of opposition to the Supercity Penny.
What people will be interested in is your policies for actually running the council and the city, and note that opening the books is not a policy for running the council.
Really?
How can you exercise ‘prudent stewardship’ or ‘fiscal responsibility’ and monitor ‘cost-effectiveness’ – if you don’t know where the ‘costs’ fall?
‘Opening the books’ and defending citizens LAWFUL rights to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ local government will be one of my major Mayoral campaign planks.
I understand that others are highly likely to pick up this issue, but none have my proven track record.
I am campaigning for the full and thorough implementation of the Public Records Act 2005, and for citizens to know exactly where every dollar of public monies are being spent, invested and borrowed.
I am campaigning against the effective mechanism for the corporate takeover of the Auckland region – Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
In my view, the public majority, not a corporate minority should benefit from public monies, assets and resources.
Mine will be a full-frontal Mayoral campaign against the neo-liberal ‘Rogernomics’ model – of which in Auckland – we’ve had two doses at local government level.
Helped to stop the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’, by exposing the FACTS about the Auckland ‘Supercity’ disaster.
What did the other Auckland Mayoral candidates do to help stop the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Is it your policy to dissolve all the Auckland CCOs?
There are good things and bad things about the amalgamation. Feel free to read my submission on the legislation. I have explained concisely what my concern is about your pattern of conduct: http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10122015/#comment-1107402
Thanks for challenging the ridiculous claims of Penny Bright, Sacha. She may not take any notice, but it is useful for others reading the Standard.
Thank you. When it’s something I know is untrue, I’ll continue to link to evidence. But I believe you’re right about Ms Bright being a lost cause.
Really Sacha?
Do explain what, in your view, is GOOD about this (forced) Auckland ‘Supercity’ amalgamation?
Shouldn’t take you long ?
Unless of course, you’re a private consultant / contractor with your snout in the Auckland Council public trough?
Are you Sacha?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
No.
Have you ever BEEN a consultant for any of the legacy Auckland Councils, Auckland Council, any Auckland Council CCOs or in any capacity employed in that role for any central government department Sacha?
Research that I have done, if I have your surname correct, and you work in the field related to disability, shows, in my opinion, that is indeed the case.
If so, in my considered opinion, you have arguably a ‘conflict of interest’, as a private consultant/ contractor whom apparently does NOT want the books open, with details of spending available for public scrutiny?
Am I correct Sacha?
So – you prefer to try and undermine me personally, and my factual research, because, in my considered opinion, you apparently and arguably have something to hide regarding the spending of public monies on private sector consultants and contractors?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
I have been both an employee and contractor to councils in the region, years ago. No conflict there but it does mean I tend to know what I’m talking about.
You won’t win votes by attacking voters.
Try charm, if you want actual votes.
Oh – so now it’s my ‘conduct’ is it Sacha?
I take full personal responsibility for anything I’ve ever said or done.
Like to point out where I’ve ever stated anything which is FACTUALLY inaccurate Sacha?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Heh. What do you think I’ve been doing. Done with expecting you to improve, but others should not have to put up with people misleading them.
You’re skating on very thin ice Sacha.
Please provide the evidence that I have ever stated anything which is FACTUALLY inaccurate.
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
I’ll let other people consider previous responses. You have earned nothing further from me.
Yes Sacha – best for you to quit while you’re behind?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Penny you know this is a public site right?
Thousands upon thousands of readers, daily.
When you attack, you attack potential voters.
Forget reading us your media releases with amateur law.
Start reading Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.
hilarious
ACTION STATION is to be applauded for what it has achieved in such a short space of time.
http://www.actionstation.org.nz/annualreport2015?utm_campaign=ar15_itsnotokay&utm_medium=email&utm_source=actionstation
Yes – Action Station have been VERY effective.
In my view, it was their petition that played a major role in getting the (belated) apology from PM John Key, over his ‘rapists / murderers’ statement.
Penny Bright
The current climate change talks in Paris are a clue as to why this government remains so popular in New Zealand.
New Zealand’s performance is being excoriated and ridiculed and John Key was widely scoffed at as mendacious for his tissue thin spin on our carbon emissions policies.
None of this is reported in the media here. In fact barely anything about the Paris talks is reported on apart from reports of the adversarial he said/she said and/or will they/won’t they kind.
What actually happens is Key keeps up his round of jokey and blokey PR puff appearances on commercial radio and TVNZ, the most popular free to air channel by far, runs a 7pm infotainment show whose host uses it as a platform to regularly launch ad-hominim attacks on the governments opponents. Serious jornalism has collapsed and what political coverage there is is of the horse race commentary and opinion pieces by talking heads whose default is to be sympathetic to the government.
Unemployment, child poverty, the systematic underfunding of core government services, the new, invisible army of desperately poor – none of this is regularly reported on anymore and so it isn’t in the public consciousness or subject to civic engagement anymore.
All we have left is a society now firmly in the trance-like grip of greed and grimly resenting any intrusion of reality into the ecstatic denial that is at the heart of it’s consumerist reverie.
All we have left is a society now firmly in the trance-like grip of greed and grimly resenting any intrusion of reality into the ecstatic denial that is at the heart of it’s consumerist reverie.
It’s probably a good thing the excoriation and ridicule is not being reported much in NZ. I maintain it would only increase Key’s support. Most people resent being told they are fuckwits to their face.
It’s the same with all addicts; telling them only drives them deeper into denial.
I largely agree with you Sanctuary, but what should frighten us more than seven years of basically static polls, punctuated by a couple of elections, is the lack of traction on our side. About half of the country favouring National is not all that surprising – what is worrying is that Key’s government is only interested in the people it needs, a group which excludes the poor, the landless and the working class in general. The only use these people have for this government is as prison fodder and as a warning to those silly enough not cooperate with the wealthy. What you have is not merely a balance that leans a little too much to the right, but a deep divide, in which the dominant have almost complete power over the dominated. I am much more interested in seeing a shift in this balance than I am in polls – the PM getting year after year of taking and holding ground against those he does not think he needs is much more worrying.
Shihad: FVEY
[lprent: Make it obvious to the moderators why a clip is relevant to the post it is in. We are not going to watch it because we don’t have time. The same rules as links apply. Explain why people should click the video.
Moved to OpenMike as probably being off topic.. ]
OK fair call. It was somewhat relevant to the post but doesn’t really add much
Developer vandals are at it again, trying to cut down the Kauri despite having said they wouldn’t. So the eco warriors are back out in force too,
(from email)
[lprent: Make it obvious to the moderators why a clip is relevant to the post it is in. We are not going to watch it because we don’t have time. The same rules as links apply. Explain why people should click the video.
Moved to OpenMike as probably being off topic.. ]
Economy not looking pretty says Brian Fallow: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11559304
Is America ready to use the term “fascist” in our political discourse? Rachel Maddow explores how Donald Trump has mainstreamed extremism
In the video she actually describes fascism as ‘the interests of business being the interests of the people’ which is pretty much how the US administration has worked for decades and so has ours.
Will Judith Collins support a genuinely Independent Commission Against Corruption, now she’s Minister of Police?
_____________________________________________________
Where was Judith Collins ever held accountable for her ‘conflict of interest’, in helping to organise three separate ‘net-working’ opportunities for her friends’ and husband’s private company Oravida,
while she was in China as the Minister of Justice?
Just as well a few of us helped to keep the pressure on, so that New Zealand has now (FINALLY) ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) ?
Next step – to ensure the anti-corruption measures outlined in UNCAC are implemented.
First – a genuinely Independent Commission Against Corruption for New Zealand?
Gosh – I wonder how enthusiastic our newly reappointed Minister of Police and Corrections will be about THAT proposal?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate
If you don’t know your rights – you don’t have any.
If you don’t defend the rights to which you’re lawfully entitled – you lose them.
That’s my considered opinion, and I believe it equally applies to International Human Rights Law, especially the UN Charter.
Here’s what the UN Charter actually states:
Home Charter of the United Nations Chapter I
Chapter I
CHAPTER I: PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES
Article 1
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
Article 2
The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.
The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll.
…………
__________________________________________
Lest we forget?
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
It would take a whole different kind of Parliament to entrench our existing Bill Of Rights Act into a 2/3 or 3/4 majority.
Hard to imagine happening, whatever international convention we’re signatory to.
In the meantime Parliament has to make do with the BORA test that attaches to any draft legislation. Far too often just ignored by this government. But nothing anyone can do about it.
Pay your rates penny and stop boring us senseless with your dribble
perhaps she will lose Net access when she gets kicked out of her house
You are a mean spirited person.
No one is forcing you to read my considered opinion?
A pity some of you apparently have so little regard for the LAWFUL rights of citizens to ‘open, transparent and democratically accountable’ government?
Then again, maybe you’re just, in my opinion, effectively gutless sheep?
Just tug your forelocks, do whatever this Auckland ‘Supercity’ (for the 1%) tells you.
Irrespective of whether THEY are complying with their lawful statutory requirements, pay your ever-increasing rates, and keep whining and trying to undermine someone who has the guts to stand up to them?
Or, am I apparently the ‘main enemy’ here, because I’m campaigning as a 2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate against neo-liberal ‘Rogernomics’, and you’re supporting candidates who are not?
Penny Bright
you’re not an enemy Penny, just an embarrassment
Have to say I admire Guyon Espinor’s persistence on this one:
https://assets.stuff.co.nz/video/production/1449807767930-Laura%202_1.mp4
Not that he got an answer from the slimeball.
Canadia’s Prime Minister went to the airport to welcome Syrian refugees.
http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/canadas-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-went-to-the-airport-to-meet-syrian-refugees–WJx6YssC5ql?utm_source=indy&utm_medium=top5&utm_campaign=i100
John Key promises an increase in New Zealand’s quota, with some to come from Syria – all a long time before Trudeau was even elected. How many extra refugees have arrived in New Zealand so far?
(and what is the coding to embed a url in a link?)