However, this does mean that it’ll be another week that I don’t make it to the Bandstand to participate in the Many Voices discussion. Also, the Oil Free Otago guest speaker I’d been arranging to have in the vicinity (lawn or pagoda depending on weather) won’t be happening until 2pm the next Saturday (22nd Feb; unless of course, further action intervenes).
Nope. During the Progressive lockout in 2006, many suppliers to the supermarket donated food and goods to the workers as a protest against the way the company was screwing them down. Growers, for example, were told that they had to cut their already low prices by arbitrary percentages if they wanted to keep their contracts. As we have a supermarket duopoly, they had little choice but to comply.
..(he is disliked by so many..the list of possible suspects is a long one..)
..but someone did..
..and i guess we will know soon who is reading this right..
..eh..?
..and if wrong i will issue a suitably grovelling apology..
..and don’t get me wrong..i wanted jones to be right..
..(if he were..it wd fit perfectly into my ‘partial-nationalisation’ idea that i am trying to bring to life/push.(where the state takes a 51% controlling share in key industries..food supplies being one ripe for pn…)
..but when i first heard it i thought it didn’t ring true..
Nothing’s changed since you posted at breakfast time, except the story seems to be taken seriously by the media and the minister Craig Foss. And I see there was limited backing from Katherine Rich from the grocers organisation. As I noted about the lockout, this alleged behaviour is consistent with Woollie’s attitude to its suppliers, so I’m in the no smoke without fire camp till actual evidence confirms it one way or another.
Key now requesting Commerce Commission investigation. Go Jones! Hope it’s stinkier than Simunovich! Key will as ever look like a softcock when it comes to doing actual political work.
What an absolute stench that ShonKey Python should be demanding answers about what everyone else says/knows about/to/of KDC !
Punkarse variously preening/sneering/obfuscating/narcissistic/exceptionalist/giggling/effete banker boy…….the question has been live for months and months and months………starting at the very start ShonKey…….where were/are you at/with/about KDC ?
Answer that question before launching interrogatories at everyone else !
How paradoxical that the guy we’d most like to have a beer with (mythically) is emblematic of the type who’d qualify for a quick crack in the mouth in most of the places where a beer might be had.
John Phillip ShonKey has a lot of front demanding to know what others have had to do with Mr Dotcom.
• Given the proximity of the KDC spread to the PM’s electorate office.
• Given his refusal to even read the Police report on what Banksie had to do with KDC.
• Given his being minister for the official snoopers (NZSIS, GCSB) that know a lot more about the KDC affair than they are so far willing to let on.
The populist nature of Mr Dotcom perhaps indicates the reptilian Prime Minister should write an official letter to everyone asking what they have had to do with KDC?
So all the political Editors are running the John Key lines “going over the top of the Justice system” etc, but no single one has asked Key where he got his information to form his allegations.
Question to Key, is very short and simple. Who told you Winston went to Dotcoms Mansion 3 times and what evidence do you have?
Who told you Norman went two times and was ‘selling questions’ to Dot Com, and what evidence do you have of this?
It would be nice if they did the job they are paid to do not the bidding of Key by repeating his accusations without question. They are all trying to out ‘Gower’ Patrick Gower in the gotcha contest this includes the shooting from the hip and missing like Gower contest .
+100…..and ironic Reptile Key is so paranoid about the visits
….it must really gall him that Winston, who he needs to form a coaliition, has been visiting Dot Com….Key is probably feeling quite desperate in fact…..
…of course he is attacking Norman rather than Paters
….while Norman is putting up a good defensive fight …the fight should be on the offensive
The answer to that would i think be an emphatic No, think SIS, and the question that might need to be asked of Slippery the Prime Minister is the SIS maintaining a 24 hour watch on Kim DotCom or perhaps Slippery as the Minister in charge has them watching Russell Norman and Winston Peters…
Mr Hodge said some of the salaries at Vanguard, in Albany, were about $16,000 more than his school could offer.
New Zealand’s largest secondary school lost five teachers after a charter school was established nearby which could offer better salaries.
I think its immaterial how kids are educated, as long as it produced results that ensure they can be contributing members of society, pursue their ambitions and enjoy the experience. If you judge the efficacy of an education on purely where it was gained then you’re an idiot.
It’s only “growing the pie” because the government is spending additional money on these schools. That’s where the salaries are coming from.
So, instead of the government spending $XX million on charter schools to “grow the pie”, they could have simply spent that same $XX million on state schools and “grown the pie” by the same amount.
Who sort of kids are going to these charter schools?
From my understanding it’s all the kids who are struggling, the 10-20% who fall through the cracks, the ones that tend to go on and feature significantly in all the bad statistics and cost the tax payer a ton of coin.
Mainstream schooling doesn’t work for them for what ever reason, so take them out of that environment and see how they go in another enviroment.
Great for teachers and pupils at mainstream school as these kids are normally a major distraction and a huge drain on the teachers time usually at the expense of the other kids in the class.
This is the ambulance at the top of the cliff, a win win for every one.
You cannot grow a pie. If you bury a pie in the ground it will not sprout new pies or make the buried pie larger. You have to make a pie. If you want a bigger pie you need to use more ingredients.
Now if the kids at the charter schools are getting more pie, where is their pie coming from.
An ambulance at the top of the cliff is next to fucking useless – all the hurt people will be at the bottom and how will the ambulance get down to help them?
BM, you understanding of who will feature as the pupils of these charter schools is either a lie because you choose to behave so or a lie because you are simply stupid,
Please provide us with some evidence of the assertion that you have made, what you will find is that a small % of pupils at such charter schools will be those in the demographic who fail in a normal educative program,
What you will also find is that one or two of this small % of those who will fail in a normal educative setting will receive intensive help in an effort to raise their standard of success who will then be held up to be the poster children of the charter schools scam,
For the others from the small % of those who would fail in a normal educative setting who do not receive such intensive help such charter schools will simply protect their NCEA results by showing them the door early on in the piece…
If the charter school doesn’t make the grade it gets closed down.
Give it a chance it may make all the difference for these kids who would probably otherwise end up in prison or on a bene living in state house somewhere in NZ scratching out some sort of depressing existence.
Fascinating given we don’y close public schools which this govt says are failing children, cos some of them must be failing the kids BM, for the charter schools to be deemed “the solution”
“Give it a chance it may make all the difference for these kids who would probably otherwise end up in prison or on a bene living in state house somewhere in NZ scratching out some sort of depressing existence.”
So about .01% of those being failed get a chance through a charter school? That sounds about right for a national supporter….
So, when the Charter schools close, a bunch of scabs teachers who perhaps found that they couldn’t work well with the majority will become job seekers.
Just not intelligent enough to figure out that Charter schools are part of an ongoing campaign against education which manifests in part in relentless attacks on teachers’ unions? Just not intelligent enough to figure out that supporting ACT policy is an attack on their colleagues?
Oooh! Ooh! I’m representative of the Left! Yee-ha! Hail, the conquering hero! Wait a minute…Wha? You’re saying you think my hyperbole is representative of the Left? No?
Your point is what? That children come a distant third on my list? Um sure, I admit it, I think that pedagogy relies more on the adult environment than the juvenile, but then juvenile seems to be your domain.
Well said tinfoilhat, there seems to be some emotion re the idea of a lack of “solidarity” amongst teachers. My fear is that the “excellent” teachers drawn away to Charter Schools will diminish the teaching standards of state schools (by way of their mentoring etc of their colleagues). The added insult here is that our taxes are funding this ridiculous experiment and ending up in private bank accounts.
As a private sector employer I lose staff when I fail to match competitors salaries etc, People will always go where they get “more”. Teachers are no different. As for “solidarity” amongst teachers it might pay to reflect on the lack of solidarity that secondary teachers have shown to the support staff in schools whose terms and conditions have been constantly eroded. In looking after (very successfully) teachers terms and conditions their Union has in effect created a closed shop mentality with substantial collateral damage to other staff.
No context missing from that analysis or anything? Nothing to say about the fact that sympathetic industrial action was made illegal in one of those relentless attacks I mentioned?
As you rightly say, people will go where the money is, but like freedom of speech, freedom of association has consequences, and one of the consequences of associating with the 0% party is the word scab.
You are 100 percent correct about context: the industrial relations area has been deliberately made to move away from sympathetic action. My comment about the teachers union is made from the direct personal observations and experience of my partner. What is obvious to her is that the context of the industrial relations environment has not prevented (through some sense of collective security or cooperation) the teachers union looking after its members even when it is obvious that others suffer diminished conditions as a consequence. Maybe the word “scab” applies to that. Or maybe we might just drop the word “scab” because ultimately the consequences of not being a “scab” include being disadvantaged by your fellow workers.
PS if you check the record of my comments on TS, they are consistently that I would prefer my employees to be in a union simply to try and get them some equity with one another, and to make dealings with them collective.
People do not “always” go where they will get more. I have no doubt some do but don’t assume all do. many pereople are working in jobs that pay less than they can get elsewhere for a number of reasons. Charities are full of such people.
He said state and state-integrated schools received average funding per student of about $7000, but Vanguard received funding of $19,664 per student this year.
And that’s the bit that’s actually important. The simple fact that charter schools will be costing us more while making a profit.
Notice the teacher pupil ratio at Vanguard?
Vanguard Military School
* Students: 108
* Number of teaching staff: 9
* Principal: Rockley Montgomery.
Ratio 1:12. Now that would be attractive to any teacher!
yup, we are creating an overt lottery for our children…. Get the small chance of a place in a charter school, or swim with the sharks. Step right up, everyone has a chance. That’s equality, National/Act- style
I could well understand that someone going up to HOD from plain teacher might raise their salary and would be attracted to if their future was blocked by a shiny-arsed tired seat warmer of long standing.
On how real political change is thwarted by scandals (individualised, personalised, fragmented, diversionary), drawing people’s anger.
A fresh angle on recent political history. e.g. this:
Like most scandals, Watergate constituted a diversion rather than a decisive break with the past. American democracy absorbed the shock and moved on. The properly significant change occurred later in the decade, during the Carter administration, when a structural shift took place from the remnants of the New Deal economy to the finance capitalism that ultimately let rip in the Reagan years. At the end of the 1970s, Wall Street took over from main street as the dominant force in US political life, a position it has occupied ever since. Watergate provided some of the cover for this to happen. It generated first outrage and then a widespread feeling of disillusionment, once it became clear how little of substance had changed.
Is Dotcom’s prevalent media prescence providing similar cover: a diversion from a strong focus on deep political failings, and a diversion from widespread, game-changing, political change?
Yes and no. Dotcom’s case encapsulates many issues – privacy, freedom of expression, restraint of trade, governmental contempt for the law. Fundamental motivators of opposition to the current economic paradigm, especially as represented by the current government.
Sure there’s a bread and circuses element too, but the airing of views expressed at select committee level, for example, generated a lot of momentum.
Shane Jones fighting like a Maori warrior against Australian supermarket exclusion of NZ products and produce….also the ruthless,predatory price downgrading by Australian supermarkets and their exclusion of producers who don’t comply by bringing their prices down to bankruptsey levels…..eg Countdown
I think i will be shopping at New World in future…and maybe consider boycotting Australian products/produce ( which i usually go to when I cant buy NZ)
We try and buy only the items we cant get elsewhere from supermarkets and it makes a substantial saving. We go to a butchers factory shop or other butchers, I buy veges at the market to substitute my own. The real key is to stop buying processed food where ever possible and buy ingredients such as flour in bulk. Having said that the supermarket still seems to cost a fortune.
Farmers markets in New Zealand should be encouraged ie fruit , veges, handmade goods…and NZ wine and alcohol should be included (at the moment many small boutique growers are going to the wall with supermarket grinding down prices) ….this would cut out the Australian supermarket middle men rorting everyone……Greens support this!….Good for tourism too!
Hi ianmac. I’ve been waiting years for the dodgy way supermarkets deal with their suppliers to come to light and to be challenged.
Although Jone’s allegation that Countdown has been pressuring suppliers to meet the shortfall in profit when a line doesn’t “perform” is a bit out there, I’d fully believe it (and look forward to the truth coming out) going on my my experience working for a supplier to Foodstuff’s.
I have a feeling Foodstuff’s will be packing themselves right now, just a little………
Just a couple of example of lose/win scenario’s:
Suppliers pay all freight costs to get their goods to either the supermarket or distribution centre
Suppliers carry the cost of item’s specialed
Suppliers pay for putting in a display end – the space at the end of an aisle is rented to them for the time they carry their stock there, usually a week
Suppliers are often obliged to provide privately contracted poorly paid casualised merchandisers to fill the shelves when the order comes in – the supermarket keeps costs down on the cost of hiring permanent shelf fillers. (I’ve also gone on about the the disadvantages of merchandising, many times before so no need to repeat)
I can’t prove this or provide a link – it’s just from my experience of dealing with grocery buyers. All of the above is considered standard practice and Countdown does it too. But at least they aren’t actively engaged in Union busting and do have reasonable collective agreements in most stores and of course the distribution centres (covered that one last week)
Countdown is the enemy at the moment because of the Australian connection but were we to look into Foodstuff’s practices I wouldn’t be surprised if there were similarities in their way of doing business. Either way I hope investigations lead to recommendations to make it a more level playing field for suppliers and workers and ultimately to regulation to ensure it.
I do shop at New World to support our local suppliers and keep NZ profits on shore but really it’s the better of two evils. Otherwise I try to purchase some goods at our local organic shop which charges much less for some items.
Its pretty cut throat if you’re a grower of say broccoli, you’re crop is ready at a certain point when progressives come along and say we are going to pay 20c less a head this month you’re left with very little option sell it to recoup something or plow it in and no doubt get blacklisted. If you do the math around a selling point of $ 1.50 a head there is bugger all in it for the grower that takes the risk on planting the crop.
Yes, exactly! Pity the produce growers! Campbell live once had an article about how screwed down the growers are – as per your example above. At the mercy of unreliable season’s and a bully for a customer.
There is tho an easy solution to this, the growers need form co-operative from which all their produce can be marketed,
IF the supermarkets play hardball with the prices such a co-operative only need sell its goods to any remaining green-grocers left operating here, sell direct to the consumer at markets, and assuming that demand will always be there for fresh vege it would be simple to find warehouse space for such a co-operative to directly sell to the public cutting out the supermarkets…
Excepting that there will always be one who will take a little less and sell to a big chain. Bit like scab labour.
The whole thing is vexed, a lot of people in nz by purely on cheapest price and there always seems to be someone who will do it for less. As with anything its cheap for a reason either the producer’s getting nothing or staff are paid dirt or shortcuts get taken… Its a race to the bottom in NZ and plenty of moaning that either the service isn’t up to scratch or if it is to expensive.
Hi there bad. Wouldn’t that be fantastic! But in terms of the supermarkets, the poor ol’ produce growers are only one set of suppliers who suffer. I’m more interested in them and small local producers of non perishables than I am of the fate of the big boys (multi national food groups, eg. unilver)…….who are the ones that will be cautiously coming forward to the Commerce Commission to make a complaint.
However, what happens in a market that is disconnected from it’s suppliers? While in some centres around NZ we have weekend markets where cheap vege is sold, whether it be fancy -smancy -twee -farmer’s market’s or no -questions -asked- sold- off -the -lorry markets, our 6 days a week a green grocers are fastly disappearing. As you say “any remaining green grocers left………..”
Three long term green grocers in this area have closed down in the 8 years within the time of my return to Wellington – ones I used. In that time 2 new supermarkets have opened, and 3 others have had major upgrades and their produce is crap and expensive, unlike the green grocers that were there previously, whose quality and price was good.
And yes, locally, we have warehouse space up for rent so for your idea to work the will of the all important “consumer” would need to “demand” it. (aren’t we are so “demanding” now days). Could be done?
BTW, interesting to see that what I was talking about above in terms of Foodstuff’s and their demands of suppliers did in fact run a parallel to the experience of Countdown suppliers, as reported on Campbell live tonight.
This was on tv last week or so. How the supermarkets are managing the supply chain in Britain. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FyFeuJ9unUg&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFyFeuJ9unUg
But at least govts ( be they led by national or labour) can crow about maintaining low inflation and wages keeping up with living costs. But what price ?
Rosie, just an idea off of the top of my head, the vege co-operative method of vege sales that is,
What is missing now from the New Zealand food selling market is the actual permanent markets where the retailer sold form what was barley ‘a building’, the one that used to be down Tory street in Wellington i remember from my younger days,
Using a warehouse in such a fashion where the produce sellers can hire a space for a day, week or year would probably work, but, like you say ‘things’ would have to get so bad for the producers in their dealings with the supermarkets that they all decide to directly sell to the public,
The other little inkling in the back of my mind is that food being a necessity of life the Government should own it’s own supermarket chain providing direct competition with the other markets…
“The other little inkling in the back of my mind is that food being a necessity of life the Government should own it’s own supermarket chain providing direct competition with the other markets…”
I wonder if other countries do this……….
The other thing is they need to do is take GST off food, being a necessity of life and ‘all. Tax on food is immoral.
“The near-death experience of the world economy was an open goal for lefties: indeed, it was a gaping empty net with the goal-keeper missing. And still they managed to hit the ball wide.”
“We seem, still, to prefer the anonymity of market forces rather than trust people or our flawed institutions to make the key economic decisions. “
See the article, a European perspective on the response to the left’s GFC by Chris Johns in the Irish Times. Elements translate into NZ’s situation.
Cunliffe has to convince the NZ public that his vision is different from both National’s and the 1980 -2013 Labour Party. That vision must be centered on reducing inequality while driving economic growth.
Why were the three big lessons forgotten? Because a few people wanted to be immeasurably richer than they were and the only way to do that was to take more from everyone else. On top of that they wanted a return to feudalism as them as the aristocrats which is what we’ve got it’s just that their power is now hidden behind the politicians and the economic hypothesis that privatisation is better even though it didn’t work last time resulting in the English, French and Russian Revolutions.
Reichs 3 reasons don’t stand scrutiny when coming from a man who is Prof of Public Policy. At no point does he mention the inbuilt propensity of capitalism to go hand in hand with property rights that exclude competition A good example is the intellectual property laws that keep us sending cash to Bill Gates rather than putting his software into the public domain. At no point does Reich like most commentators question the basic tenet that capitalism is meant to push wealth up, it is fekkin good at it. No amount of public policy is going to change that. What Reich is actually saying is “capitalism is good, it just neds to go back to the consumer based Keynesian prescription and it will all be good”…..and it wont.
By the way, those revolutions, yes they challenged absolute rule and the aristocratic hangers on, then voila, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Now is the time to change direction and reject the failed policies of the last two Labour governments (which have been Tory with a shiny red badge).
The failed policies of sucessive governments since 1984 can been seen in the small minority of filthy rich pricks loving life while the vast majority live in abject poverty.
“[T]he small minority of filthy rich pricks loving life while the vast majority live in abject poverty.”
Rubbish. Median wage in the June 2013 quarter was $575 per week, with GDP based on purchasing power per capita $30,804 per annum. That is not abject poverty.
Zimbabwe, whose GDP by the same measure is $589 p.a., or Liberia at $716 p.a., now that’s abject poverty.
How the hell do you get that? I’m talking about abject poverty. And why shouldn’t someone be allowed to become rich if it is by honest effort and free exchange, or is that not allowed in your world?
You’re aware that the monies (according to some sources anyway) from all the piracy goes straight back to communities that have been severely fucked over by activities of western actors eg – dumping of industrial waste off the coast, foreign vessels over fishing etc?
Who do you think the pirates are? Anyone other than desperate and impoverished fishers etc?
I’m not saying I’d want to be there, but when times get desperate….
Oh – as a libertarian, I think it’s safe for me to say that fisheries management would be as high on the agenda as any other resource management – ie, high. But then, I’m talking libertarianism as a democrat and not as a corporate/fascist fuck who has appropriated the term and twisted new meanings into it. 😉
Time to start calling out these pseudo libertarians for the fascist/corporate fucks that they are. I believe there’s been success with other terms that were formally, falsely appropriated?
I also know that a government that fails to provide social structures other than law will be replaced by a number of smaller, local, social structures that will eventually rise to enough strength to confront the power of the government. As seen in Somalia.
I am having a problem writing a post – I can no longer save changes. Keep getting a message saying saving disabled as connection with the server has been lost – on firefox.
Do these ‘demands’ for cash payments from Kiwi suppliers for “past losses”, and threats that that if they did not make the payments, they faced permanent exclusion from the shelves, and further threats of ‘blacklisting’ if they told anyone about the demands – constitute ‘bribery and corruption’ under the NZ Secret Commissions Act 1910?
The Crimes Act 1961 part 6 (external link) contains criminal offences related to, amongst other things, the corrupt use of official information and the corruption and bribery of:
the Judiciary
ministers of the Crown
members of Parliament
law enforcement officers
public officials.
Penalties include terms of imprisonment of up to 14 years for the most serious cases.
________________________________________________________________________________
Secret Commissions Act 1910
The Secret Commissions Act 1910 (external link) contains bribery and corruption-style offences relevant to the private sector.
Penalties range from $2,000 to two years imprisonment.
________________________________________________________________________________
In this Act, unless a contrary intention appears,—
agent includes any person who is or has been, or desires or intends to be, employed by or acting for any other person, whether as agent, servant, broker, auctioneer, architect, solicitor, director, or in any other capacity whatever, either alone or jointly with any other person
principal includes any person by whom an agent is or has been, or intends or desires to be, employed, or for whom an agent acts or has acted, or intends or desires to act
consideration means valuable consideration of any kind; and particularly includes discounts, commissions, rebates, bonuses, deductions, percentages, employment, payment of money (whether by way of loan, gift, or otherwise howsoever), and forbearance to demand any money or valuable thing.
________________________________________________________________________________
Penny not so bright whu can’t you just make the point without all your added self important polava.
Less is more you haven’t figured that out yet .Especially in the modern sound bite era.
Catherine Rich looked like she was swallowing a very large dead rat when she backed up Shane Jones accusations with evidence.
Was hoping Puckish would share the knowledge regarding whale watching other than the land-based usual suspect. You raise another serious issue though, I’d hate to see the Kaikoura whales chased away.
Open letter to [US Oligarch] Sam Zell: your statements are delusional and dangerous
It’s fine to want to make money, and it’s also fine to just want to be comfortable, content and fulfilled in what you do. I’m not making a judgement call here. What I am saying is that people like you, who are constantly surrounded by people that think just like you, people who obsess 24/7 about how to make more money on money, you think that everyone thinks just like you. Sorry to break it to you, they don’t.
So this is where your delusion begins. You think everyone that has issues with you oligarchs and how the 0.01% is destroying our economy and society is simply envious because you assume they think like you do. Certainly, if you were poor you would be envious of the the rich. You’ve made that clear. However, that is not the primary motivation of the anger and resentment swelling up from the underclasses.
I noticed this from CV s link which seems important:
Canada has been very open to foreign investors, which means that in an age of unprecedented global liquidity cash-rich wealthy individuals who are looking for places to park their excess funds can do so in its housing market.
Until now… As SCMP reports, Canada’s government has announced that it is scrapping its controversial investor visa scheme, which has allowed waves of rich Hongkongers and mainland Chinese to immigrate since 1986.
My Bolding.
There have been reports of Chinese officials taking fraudulently obtained funds offshore and investing in foreign property as a “back up plan” in case they need to leave China in a hurry some time in the future.
It looks to me like the Chinese government has put pressure on the Canadian govt to end this loophole.
I wonder if anyone has a finger on that dyke here, (referring to the folk Netherland tale of the boy and the dyke.)
And that piece about Chinese officials or their families going abroad. It seems to me that is the old externalities deja vue. Make money, cause problems, pocket money, leave the people living in the mess and seek better climes. Though the clim-ate will catch them.
Why the exodus among families who have benefited most from China’s rise?
Aside from education, another obvious motivator is pollution. China’s toxic air and poisonous water are regular topics of complaint among the wealthy (as well as ordinary Chinese).
A less obvious factor is the crackdown on corruption.
Over the last year, Chairman Xi Jinping has overseen investigations into some of China’s wealthiest and most powerful party figures, including those who have profited massively from the state-owned oil industry. He has vowed to take down both “tigers” (top bosses) and “flies” (local officials).
In January, Xi stepped up his campaign by forbidding the promotion of officials who have spouses or children living abroad. These so-called “naked” officials are seen as especially prone to corruption.
“They belong to a high-risk group for corruption,” a party official told the state-run Xinhua news agency. “Around 40 percent of economic cases and nearly 80 percent of corruption and embezzlement cases involve naked officials.” In China, crimes like fraud, bribery, and embezzlement are referred to as economic cases.
This designation covers a large group. According to a report by the Hong Kong newspaper Oriental Daily, a majority of members of China’s 2013 National People’s Congress were “naked officials.”
So the spies and snoops will probably have their favourite focus picked out from meta-data, to be monitored by drones, only nano-ones, like the one in the Harry Potter book. One of the nasties there has shape-shifting genes and can turn herself into an insect and literally be ‘the fly on the wall’. And she happens to be a jonolist I think, so gets lots of stuff that’s not fit to print.
Lots of opportunities for the use of technology to hurt society and the individual.
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1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
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 ...
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This Saturday Noon (15th Feb), all around Te Waipounamu/ South, is a time to head to a beach and protest against Deepsea Oil Drilling:
http://www.getfree.org.nz/banners/
However, this does mean that it’ll be another week that I don’t make it to the Bandstand to participate in the Many Voices discussion. Also, the Oil Free Otago guest speaker I’d been arranging to have in the vicinity (lawn or pagoda depending on weather) won’t be happening until 2pm the next Saturday (22nd Feb; unless of course, further action intervenes).
And, of course, you’ll be spreading the word on those beaches, aye? 😉
has shane jones been ‘punked’..?
phillip ure..
Nope. During the Progressive lockout in 2006, many suppliers to the supermarket donated food and goods to the workers as a protest against the way the company was screwing them down. Growers, for example, were told that they had to cut their already low prices by arbitrary percentages if they wanted to keep their contracts. As we have a supermarket duopoly, they had little choice but to comply.
edit: a pretty good summary of the blue here: https://libcom.org/history/progressive-lockout-class-struggle-aotearoa-new-zealand-2008
Great site, excellent article fully worth the read.
Thanks TRP.
Great to see Jones stepping in.
..it would seem either jones has been punked..
..or countdown have done a seriously fast u-turn..
..and are lying..
..phillip ure..
my questions have been answered..
..jones was punked..
..idiot..!
..phillip ure..
Answered? By whom? Punked? Who by? I think you may be jumping the gun a tad, Phil.
@ trp..
..i dunno ‘who’ punked him..
..(he is disliked by so many..the list of possible suspects is a long one..)
..but someone did..
..and i guess we will know soon who is reading this right..
..eh..?
..and if wrong i will issue a suitably grovelling apology..
..and don’t get me wrong..i wanted jones to be right..
..(if he were..it wd fit perfectly into my ‘partial-nationalisation’ idea that i am trying to bring to life/push.(where the state takes a 51% controlling share in key industries..food supplies being one ripe for pn…)
..but when i first heard it i thought it didn’t ring true..
..and now i am certain..
..phillip ure..
moderation..?
phillip ure..
Yeah, that’s not very convincing, Phil.
Nothing’s changed since you posted at breakfast time, except the story seems to be taken seriously by the media and the minister Craig Foss. And I see there was limited backing from Katherine Rich from the grocers organisation. As I noted about the lockout, this alleged behaviour is consistent with Woollie’s attitude to its suppliers, so I’m in the no smoke without fire camp till actual evidence confirms it one way or another.
more no-show-evidence from jones..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/new-zealand-parliament-list-of-questions-for-oral-answer-thursday-13-february-2014/
(excerpt..)
(ed:..i am making the call that jones has been punked..here is his chance to prove his case/me wrong..)
..it’s foss-the-hapless..!..his first turn for the year…!
..jones is making a horses’-arse of a job with his questioning..
..and that was it..?..that’s all jones has..?
..no evidence..just mangled/repeated questions..
..i stand by my claim that jones has been punked..
..and is now just fulminating/thrashing about in despair..
..see shane fly..see shane crash..
(cont..)
phillip ure..
..todays..
..bhoar..
..you to tears word is..?
(excerpt)
..”punked”..
🙁
Phil – I find your comments difficult enough to read and comprehend – now this word ‘punked’. Please – what does it mean?
Key now requesting Commerce Commission investigation. Go Jones! Hope it’s stinkier than Simunovich! Key will as ever look like a softcock when it comes to doing actual political work.
And the response of the Government of the day to the Progressive lockout was?
What an absolute stench that ShonKey Python should be demanding answers about what everyone else says/knows about/to/of KDC !
Punkarse variously preening/sneering/obfuscating/narcissistic/exceptionalist/giggling/effete banker boy…….the question has been live for months and months and months………starting at the very start ShonKey…….where were/are you at/with/about KDC ?
Answer that question before launching interrogatories at everyone else !
How paradoxical that the guy we’d most like to have a beer with (mythically) is emblematic of the type who’d qualify for a quick crack in the mouth in most of the places where a beer might be had.
John Phillip ShonKey has a lot of front demanding to know what others have had to do with Mr Dotcom.
• Given the proximity of the KDC spread to the PM’s electorate office.
• Given his refusal to even read the Police report on what Banksie had to do with KDC.
• Given his being minister for the official snoopers (NZSIS, GCSB) that know a lot more about the KDC affair than they are so far willing to let on.
The populist nature of Mr Dotcom perhaps indicates the reptilian Prime Minister should write an official letter to everyone asking what they have had to do with KDC?
So all the political Editors are running the John Key lines “going over the top of the Justice system” etc, but no single one has asked Key where he got his information to form his allegations.
Question to Key, is very short and simple. Who told you Winston went to Dotcoms Mansion 3 times and what evidence do you have?
Who told you Norman went two times and was ‘selling questions’ to Dot Com, and what evidence do you have of this?
It would be nice if they did the job they are paid to do not the bidding of Key by repeating his accusations without question. They are all trying to out ‘Gower’ Patrick Gower in the gotcha contest this includes the shooting from the hip and missing like Gower contest .
+100…..and ironic Reptile Key is so paranoid about the visits
….it must really gall him that Winston, who he needs to form a coaliition, has been visiting Dot Com….Key is probably feeling quite desperate in fact…..
…of course he is attacking Norman rather than Paters
….while Norman is putting up a good defensive fight …the fight should be on the offensive
Another question for Key: Is the GCSB/Police still monitoring DotCom and is this how you became aware of Winston’s 3 visits to the Mansion.
These are the questions our pussycat media should be asking. But we (posters and bloggers) will do it for them as usual.
The answer to that would i think be an emphatic No, think SIS, and the question that might need to be asked of Slippery the Prime Minister is the SIS maintaining a 24 hour watch on Kim DotCom or perhaps Slippery as the Minister in charge has them watching Russell Norman and Winston Peters…
Perhaps the Police and SIS are keeping tabs on Kim to see he does not abscond quietly before the extradition trial.
Well well look at this.
Mr Hodge said some of the salaries at Vanguard, in Albany, were about $16,000 more than his school could offer.
New Zealand’s largest secondary school lost five teachers after a charter school was established nearby which could offer better salaries.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11200998
There’s a bit of a glut when it comes to people with teaching degrees.
At least it gives some one else an opportunity to get into the teaching profession.
Growing the pie = good.
What bullshit
Funnelling government money into private sector schools may “grow” private sector profits, but it does fuck all else.
Idiot.
I disagree
Dickface
There’s no “growth”; just funnelling of money from public schools into private hands.
Point out where the “growth” is, if you can.
The growth will be in the kids success.
if you rate farming kids as cash cows for private school owners.
I think its immaterial how kids are educated, as long as it produced results that ensure they can be contributing members of society, pursue their ambitions and enjoy the experience. If you judge the efficacy of an education on purely where it was gained then you’re an idiot.
It’s only “growing the pie” because the government is spending additional money on these schools. That’s where the salaries are coming from.
So, instead of the government spending $XX million on charter schools to “grow the pie”, they could have simply spent that same $XX million on state schools and “grown the pie” by the same amount.
Duh.
Who sort of kids are going to these charter schools?
From my understanding it’s all the kids who are struggling, the 10-20% who fall through the cracks, the ones that tend to go on and feature significantly in all the bad statistics and cost the tax payer a ton of coin.
Mainstream schooling doesn’t work for them for what ever reason, so take them out of that environment and see how they go in another enviroment.
Great for teachers and pupils at mainstream school as these kids are normally a major distraction and a huge drain on the teachers time usually at the expense of the other kids in the class.
This is the ambulance at the top of the cliff, a win win for every one.
BM – two cliches a day, please explain?
You cannot grow a pie. If you bury a pie in the ground it will not sprout new pies or make the buried pie larger. You have to make a pie. If you want a bigger pie you need to use more ingredients.
Now if the kids at the charter schools are getting more pie, where is their pie coming from.
An ambulance at the top of the cliff is next to fucking useless – all the hurt people will be at the bottom and how will the ambulance get down to help them?
“From my understanding it’s all the kids who are struggling, the 10-20% who fall through the cracks,”
thats not an understanding – thats you repeating the salesmans spiel
your whole comment is essentially a cut and paste from the advertising!
But do you disagree with what I’ve written.
If so, why?
BM, you understanding of who will feature as the pupils of these charter schools is either a lie because you choose to behave so or a lie because you are simply stupid,
Please provide us with some evidence of the assertion that you have made, what you will find is that a small % of pupils at such charter schools will be those in the demographic who fail in a normal educative program,
What you will also find is that one or two of this small % of those who will fail in a normal educative setting will receive intensive help in an effort to raise their standard of success who will then be held up to be the poster children of the charter schools scam,
For the others from the small % of those who would fail in a normal educative setting who do not receive such intensive help such charter schools will simply protect their NCEA results by showing them the door early on in the piece…
What a load of kaka ow.
If the charter school doesn’t make the grade it gets closed down.
Give it a chance it may make all the difference for these kids who would probably otherwise end up in prison or on a bene living in state house somewhere in NZ scratching out some sort of depressing existence.
The comment of an empty-head, containing none of the ‘evidence’ asked for in my first comment to you,
Not deserving of the pixels required of a further reply…
Fascinating given we don’y close public schools which this govt says are failing children, cos some of them must be failing the kids BM, for the charter schools to be deemed “the solution”
“Give it a chance it may make all the difference for these kids who would probably otherwise end up in prison or on a bene living in state house somewhere in NZ scratching out some sort of depressing existence.”
So about .01% of those being failed get a chance through a charter school? That sounds about right for a national supporter….
h a charter school just opened? You could do an OIA on them BM and find out the truth.
So, when the Charter schools close, a bunch of
scabsteachers who perhaps found that they couldn’t work well with the majority will become job seekers.Bonus!
How are those teachers scabs?
i happen to know each and every one of those teachers and they are all excellent people as well as superb teachers.
Just not intelligent enough to figure out that Charter schools are part of an ongoing campaign against education which manifests in part in relentless attacks on teachers’ unions? Just not intelligent enough to figure out that supporting ACT policy is an attack on their colleagues?
I’m sure they’re all lovely people.
True to form, the left’s prime concern is for the teachers and their unions. School pupils come a distant third.
That whooshing sound was the point going over your head.
Oooh! Ooh! I’m representative of the Left! Yee-ha! Hail, the conquering hero! Wait a minute…Wha? You’re saying you think my hyperbole is representative of the Left? No?
Your point is what? That children come a distant third on my list? Um sure, I admit it, I think that pedagogy relies more on the adult environment than the juvenile, but then juvenile seems to be your domain.
at least kids make the Left’s list.
Well said tinfoilhat, there seems to be some emotion re the idea of a lack of “solidarity” amongst teachers. My fear is that the “excellent” teachers drawn away to Charter Schools will diminish the teaching standards of state schools (by way of their mentoring etc of their colleagues). The added insult here is that our taxes are funding this ridiculous experiment and ending up in private bank accounts.
As a private sector employer I lose staff when I fail to match competitors salaries etc, People will always go where they get “more”. Teachers are no different. As for “solidarity” amongst teachers it might pay to reflect on the lack of solidarity that secondary teachers have shown to the support staff in schools whose terms and conditions have been constantly eroded. In looking after (very successfully) teachers terms and conditions their Union has in effect created a closed shop mentality with substantial collateral damage to other staff.
No context missing from that analysis or anything? Nothing to say about the fact that sympathetic industrial action was made illegal in one of those relentless attacks I mentioned?
As you rightly say, people will go where the money is, but like freedom of speech, freedom of association has consequences, and one of the consequences of associating with the 0% party is the word scab.
You are 100 percent correct about context: the industrial relations area has been deliberately made to move away from sympathetic action. My comment about the teachers union is made from the direct personal observations and experience of my partner. What is obvious to her is that the context of the industrial relations environment has not prevented (through some sense of collective security or cooperation) the teachers union looking after its members even when it is obvious that others suffer diminished conditions as a consequence. Maybe the word “scab” applies to that. Or maybe we might just drop the word “scab” because ultimately the consequences of not being a “scab” include being disadvantaged by your fellow workers.
PS if you check the record of my comments on TS, they are consistently that I would prefer my employees to be in a union simply to try and get them some equity with one another, and to make dealings with them collective.
Acting against their interests probably does include being “disadvantaged” by your fellows. Hardly surprising, really.
If we call them fluffy bunnies instead of scabs I don’t think that’s going to change.
A scab is a sign of healthy wound healing. Appropriate in this case, I would have thought.
Once the scab falls off.
There is strength in numbers, Richard. You righties have your henchmen, we lefties have our freedoms of expression and association.
That’s just the way things are.
Freedom of expression – yeah right. From where did political correctness originate then?
A scab is a sign of healthy wound healing. Appropriate in this case.
better off without the wound in the first place, I would have thought. You’re not left with a scar.
are you a teacher or educationalist of some form?
No, a medical doctor. But from memory, doctor actually means teacher.
People do not “always” go where they will get more. I have no doubt some do but don’t assume all do. many pereople are working in jobs that pay less than they can get elsewhere for a number of reasons. Charities are full of such people.
And that’s the bit that’s actually important. The simple fact that charter schools will be costing us more while making a profit.
Notice the teacher pupil ratio at Vanguard?
Vanguard Military School
* Students: 108
* Number of teaching staff: 9
* Principal: Rockley Montgomery.
Ratio 1:12. Now that would be attractive to any teacher!
yup, we are creating an overt lottery for our children…. Get the small chance of a place in a charter school, or swim with the sharks. Step right up, everyone has a chance. That’s equality, National/Act- style
I could well understand that someone going up to HOD from plain teacher might raise their salary and would be attracted to if their future was blocked by a shiny-arsed tired seat warmer of long standing.
New Statesman article by David Runciman.
On how real political change is thwarted by scandals (individualised, personalised, fragmented, diversionary), drawing people’s anger.
A fresh angle on recent political history. e.g. this:
Is Dotcom’s prevalent media prescence providing similar cover: a diversion from a strong focus on deep political failings, and a diversion from widespread, game-changing, political change?
Of course – bread and circuses!
Yes and no. Dotcom’s case encapsulates many issues – privacy, freedom of expression, restraint of trade, governmental contempt for the law. Fundamental motivators of opposition to the current economic paradigm, especially as represented by the current government.
Sure there’s a bread and circuses element too, but the airing of views expressed at select committee level, for example, generated a lot of momentum.
I agree with you, OAB, it’s not the issues themselves – it’s the treatment of it by Key and the press that is the diversionary circus
Shane Jones fighting like a Maori warrior against Australian supermarket exclusion of NZ products and produce….also the ruthless,predatory price downgrading by Australian supermarkets and their exclusion of producers who don’t comply by bringing their prices down to bankruptsey levels…..eg Countdown
I think i will be shopping at New World in future…and maybe consider boycotting Australian products/produce ( which i usually go to when I cant buy NZ)
He comes across well and speaks a language most people in the middle can understand
@ p.r..
..is that you shane..?
..phillip ure..
He reaches a wider range of people then most in Labour
What makes you think that?
PR likes him, therefore PR thinks Jones has wide appeal.
Logic is not PR’s strong point.
+1000
A fervent supporter of the righ tis best positioned to know what labour voters like.
..by ‘wider’..
..do you mean as in body-dystopia..?
..does he appeal to the (defiant?) fat-vote..?
..phillip ure..
Nothing wrong with being fat phil. Hating fatness though, that’s a kind of pathology.
@ weka..
..do i ‘hate fatness’..
..like i am ‘scared of strong women’..?
..you’re quite funny..eh..?
..and jones does celebrate his lifestyle that got him that way..
..eh..?
..hence the ‘defiant’ fat-vote..
..so..fair comment..?
..phillip ure..
you and yr pop-psychology cliches..eh..?
..are you known for pulling that one..?
..and..did you learn it all in a mag..?
‘how to spot fat-haters who are scared of strong women’..
..was that the title/headline..?
..phillip ure..
We try and buy only the items we cant get elsewhere from supermarkets and it makes a substantial saving. We go to a butchers factory shop or other butchers, I buy veges at the market to substitute my own. The real key is to stop buying processed food where ever possible and buy ingredients such as flour in bulk. Having said that the supermarket still seems to cost a fortune.
Farmers markets in New Zealand should be encouraged ie fruit , veges, handmade goods…and NZ wine and alcohol should be included (at the moment many small boutique growers are going to the wall with supermarket grinding down prices) ….this would cut out the Australian supermarket middle men rorting everyone……Greens support this!….Good for tourism too!
My guess is that New World has the same tactics. Competition you know.
at least New World and Pak’nSave are New Zealand owned
…..and Raewoods has now been bought out by Australian owned Countdown
Hi ianmac. I’ve been waiting years for the dodgy way supermarkets deal with their suppliers to come to light and to be challenged.
Although Jone’s allegation that Countdown has been pressuring suppliers to meet the shortfall in profit when a line doesn’t “perform” is a bit out there, I’d fully believe it (and look forward to the truth coming out) going on my my experience working for a supplier to Foodstuff’s.
I have a feeling Foodstuff’s will be packing themselves right now, just a little………
Just a couple of example of lose/win scenario’s:
Suppliers pay all freight costs to get their goods to either the supermarket or distribution centre
Suppliers carry the cost of item’s specialed
Suppliers pay for putting in a display end – the space at the end of an aisle is rented to them for the time they carry their stock there, usually a week
Suppliers are often obliged to provide privately contracted poorly paid casualised merchandisers to fill the shelves when the order comes in – the supermarket keeps costs down on the cost of hiring permanent shelf fillers. (I’ve also gone on about the the disadvantages of merchandising, many times before so no need to repeat)
I can’t prove this or provide a link – it’s just from my experience of dealing with grocery buyers. All of the above is considered standard practice and Countdown does it too. But at least they aren’t actively engaged in Union busting and do have reasonable collective agreements in most stores and of course the distribution centres (covered that one last week)
Countdown is the enemy at the moment because of the Australian connection but were we to look into Foodstuff’s practices I wouldn’t be surprised if there were similarities in their way of doing business. Either way I hope investigations lead to recommendations to make it a more level playing field for suppliers and workers and ultimately to regulation to ensure it.
I do shop at New World to support our local suppliers and keep NZ profits on shore but really it’s the better of two evils. Otherwise I try to purchase some goods at our local organic shop which charges much less for some items.
Its pretty cut throat if you’re a grower of say broccoli, you’re crop is ready at a certain point when progressives come along and say we are going to pay 20c less a head this month you’re left with very little option sell it to recoup something or plow it in and no doubt get blacklisted. If you do the math around a selling point of $ 1.50 a head there is bugger all in it for the grower that takes the risk on planting the crop.
Yes, exactly! Pity the produce growers! Campbell live once had an article about how screwed down the growers are – as per your example above. At the mercy of unreliable season’s and a bully for a customer.
There is tho an easy solution to this, the growers need form co-operative from which all their produce can be marketed,
IF the supermarkets play hardball with the prices such a co-operative only need sell its goods to any remaining green-grocers left operating here, sell direct to the consumer at markets, and assuming that demand will always be there for fresh vege it would be simple to find warehouse space for such a co-operative to directly sell to the public cutting out the supermarkets…
Excepting that there will always be one who will take a little less and sell to a big chain. Bit like scab labour.
The whole thing is vexed, a lot of people in nz by purely on cheapest price and there always seems to be someone who will do it for less. As with anything its cheap for a reason either the producer’s getting nothing or staff are paid dirt or shortcuts get taken… Its a race to the bottom in NZ and plenty of moaning that either the service isn’t up to scratch or if it is to expensive.
Hi there bad. Wouldn’t that be fantastic! But in terms of the supermarkets, the poor ol’ produce growers are only one set of suppliers who suffer. I’m more interested in them and small local producers of non perishables than I am of the fate of the big boys (multi national food groups, eg. unilver)…….who are the ones that will be cautiously coming forward to the Commerce Commission to make a complaint.
However, what happens in a market that is disconnected from it’s suppliers? While in some centres around NZ we have weekend markets where cheap vege is sold, whether it be fancy -smancy -twee -farmer’s market’s or no -questions -asked- sold- off -the -lorry markets, our 6 days a week a green grocers are fastly disappearing. As you say “any remaining green grocers left………..”
Three long term green grocers in this area have closed down in the 8 years within the time of my return to Wellington – ones I used. In that time 2 new supermarkets have opened, and 3 others have had major upgrades and their produce is crap and expensive, unlike the green grocers that were there previously, whose quality and price was good.
And yes, locally, we have warehouse space up for rent so for your idea to work the will of the all important “consumer” would need to “demand” it. (aren’t we are so “demanding” now days). Could be done?
BTW, interesting to see that what I was talking about above in terms of Foodstuff’s and their demands of suppliers did in fact run a parallel to the experience of Countdown suppliers, as reported on Campbell live tonight.
This was on tv last week or so. How the supermarkets are managing the supply chain in Britain.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FyFeuJ9unUg&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFyFeuJ9unUg
But at least govts ( be they led by national or labour) can crow about maintaining low inflation and wages keeping up with living costs. But what price ?
Thanks for the link Herodotus. Looks good and look forward to getting a chance to watch the doco
Rosie, just an idea off of the top of my head, the vege co-operative method of vege sales that is,
What is missing now from the New Zealand food selling market is the actual permanent markets where the retailer sold form what was barley ‘a building’, the one that used to be down Tory street in Wellington i remember from my younger days,
Using a warehouse in such a fashion where the produce sellers can hire a space for a day, week or year would probably work, but, like you say ‘things’ would have to get so bad for the producers in their dealings with the supermarkets that they all decide to directly sell to the public,
The other little inkling in the back of my mind is that food being a necessity of life the Government should own it’s own supermarket chain providing direct competition with the other markets…
“The other little inkling in the back of my mind is that food being a necessity of life the Government should own it’s own supermarket chain providing direct competition with the other markets…”
I wonder if other countries do this……….
The other thing is they need to do is take GST off food, being a necessity of life and ‘all. Tax on food is immoral.
Spain and Turkey in midst of economic/financial/political crises
So what do their elite decide to do? Build an AIRCRAFT CARRIER of course!!!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-12/surreal-news-du-jour-spain-turkey-jointly-build-aircraft-carrier
“The near-death experience of the world economy was an open goal for lefties: indeed, it was a gaping empty net with the goal-keeper missing. And still they managed to hit the ball wide.”
“We seem, still, to prefer the anonymity of market forces rather than trust people or our flawed institutions to make the key economic decisions. “
See the article, a European perspective on the response to the left’s GFC by Chris Johns in the Irish Times. Elements translate into NZ’s situation.
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/why-has-the-left-failed-to-exploit-the-financial-crisis-1.1687497
Cunliffe has to convince the NZ public that his vision is different from both National’s and the 1980 -2013 Labour Party. That vision must be centered on reducing inequality while driving economic growth.
(this is relevant to the link from not ps..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/why-the-three-biggest-economic-lessons-were-forgotten-comment-there-are-none-so-blind-as-the-ideologically-blind/
(excerpt..)
..(ed:..this is a classic case of ideological-blindness..
..where the right refuse to/can’t see ..
..that the fastest way to kickstart an economy back into life..
..is to increase the incomes of the poorest..
(cont..)
phillip ure..
Why were the three big lessons forgotten? Because a few people wanted to be immeasurably richer than they were and the only way to do that was to take more from everyone else. On top of that they wanted a return to feudalism as them as the aristocrats which is what we’ve got it’s just that their power is now hidden behind the politicians and the economic hypothesis that privatisation is better even though it didn’t work last time resulting in the English, French and Russian Revolutions.
For a good critique read http://cluborlov.com/ on “American exceptionalism”.
Reichs 3 reasons don’t stand scrutiny when coming from a man who is Prof of Public Policy. At no point does he mention the inbuilt propensity of capitalism to go hand in hand with property rights that exclude competition A good example is the intellectual property laws that keep us sending cash to Bill Gates rather than putting his software into the public domain. At no point does Reich like most commentators question the basic tenet that capitalism is meant to push wealth up, it is fekkin good at it. No amount of public policy is going to change that. What Reich is actually saying is “capitalism is good, it just neds to go back to the consumer based Keynesian prescription and it will all be good”…..and it wont.
By the way, those revolutions, yes they challenged absolute rule and the aristocratic hangers on, then voila, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
American exceptionalism
And yes, that was a good read. I really should read more of Orlov.
Yep. That’s why we need participatory democracy rather than representative democracy. The former empowers the people, that latter empowers the rich.
From the bookmarks.
http://onthecommons.org/truth-about-american-exceptionalism
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/02/22/essay-american-exceptionalism
Hear Hear,
Now is the time to change direction and reject the failed policies of the last two Labour governments (which have been Tory with a shiny red badge).
The failed policies of sucessive governments since 1984 can been seen in the small minority of filthy rich pricks loving life while the vast majority live in abject poverty.
+1
“[T]he small minority of filthy rich pricks loving life while the vast majority live in abject poverty.”
Rubbish. Median wage in the June 2013 quarter was $575 per week, with GDP based on purchasing power per capita $30,804 per annum. That is not abject poverty.
Zimbabwe, whose GDP by the same measure is $589 p.a., or Liberia at $716 p.a., now that’s abject poverty.
Median, Wormtongue? Tell me more. Oh please, tell me more, unbiased one, bringer of stuff that is not partisan at all.
Are you making excuses for the filthy rich McGrath?
Have you no common decency?
How the hell do you get that? I’m talking about abject poverty. And why shouldn’t someone be allowed to become rich if it is by honest effort and free exchange, or is that not allowed in your world?
how about somalia, libertarian paradise?
You’re aware that the monies (according to some sources anyway) from all the piracy goes straight back to communities that have been severely fucked over by activities of western actors eg – dumping of industrial waste off the coast, foreign vessels over fishing etc?
Who do you think the pirates are? Anyone other than desperate and impoverished fishers etc?
I’m not saying I’d want to be there, but when times get desperate….
As opposed to the corruptly legalised and officially sanctioned piracy/highway robbery carried out by corporations.
Well, a chunk. But then fisheries management isn’t part of the libertarian govt purview, either…
Oh – as a libertarian, I think it’s safe for me to say that fisheries management would be as high on the agenda as any other resource management – ie, high. But then, I’m talking libertarianism as a democrat and not as a corporate/fascist fuck who has appropriated the term and twisted new meanings into it. 😉
ah, true, my bad 🙂
Time to start calling out these pseudo libertarians for the fascist/corporate fucks that they are. I believe there’s been success with other terms that were formally, falsely appropriated?
Sorry, no rule of law there so not a libertarian society, more anarchic. But you already knew that.
I also know that a government that fails to provide social structures other than law will be replaced by a number of smaller, local, social structures that will eventually rise to enough strength to confront the power of the government. As seen in Somalia.
I am having a problem writing a post – I can no longer save changes. Keep getting a message saying saving disabled as connection with the server has been lost – on firefox.
You write posts from within ‘ts’? Why not type them up on ‘word’ or whatever on your own computer’s system and then ‘cut and paste’? It’s what I do.
Yes, usually. It’s easier to do the formatting as I write. But I ended up finishing that post on Word when I couldn’t save some of the last edits.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/countdown-rejects-shane-jones-extortion-claim-labour-mp-gets-tacit-backing-rich-ck-151788
FYI – (My comment – yet to be published …)
Do these ‘demands’ for cash payments from Kiwi suppliers for “past losses”, and threats that that if they did not make the payments, they faced permanent exclusion from the shelves, and further threats of ‘blacklisting’ if they told anyone about the demands – constitute ‘bribery and corruption’ under the NZ Secret Commissions Act 1910?
http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/criminal-justice/bribery-and-corruption/legal-framework
Bribery and corruption offences
New Zealand’s criminal offences relating to bribery are contained in the:
Crimes Act 1961
Secret Commissions Act 1910.
________________________________________________________________________________
Crimes Act 1961
The Crimes Act 1961 part 6 (external link) contains criminal offences related to, amongst other things, the corrupt use of official information and the corruption and bribery of:
the Judiciary
ministers of the Crown
members of Parliament
law enforcement officers
public officials.
Penalties include terms of imprisonment of up to 14 years for the most serious cases.
________________________________________________________________________________
Secret Commissions Act 1910
The Secret Commissions Act 1910 (external link) contains bribery and corruption-style offences relevant to the private sector.
Penalties range from $2,000 to two years imprisonment.
________________________________________________________________________________
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1910/0040/latest/whole.html#DLM177664
2 Interpretation
In this Act, unless a contrary intention appears,—
agent includes any person who is or has been, or desires or intends to be, employed by or acting for any other person, whether as agent, servant, broker, auctioneer, architect, solicitor, director, or in any other capacity whatever, either alone or jointly with any other person
principal includes any person by whom an agent is or has been, or intends or desires to be, employed, or for whom an agent acts or has acted, or intends or desires to act
consideration means valuable consideration of any kind; and particularly includes discounts, commissions, rebates, bonuses, deductions, percentages, employment, payment of money (whether by way of loan, gift, or otherwise howsoever), and forbearance to demand any money or valuable thing.
________________________________________________________________________________
Penny Bright
Penny not so bright whu can’t you just make the point without all your added self important polava.
Less is more you haven’t figured that out yet .Especially in the modern sound bite era.
Catherine Rich looked like she was swallowing a very large dead rat when she backed up Shane Jones accusations with evidence.
That IS a fairly short comment for Ms. Bright … 🙄
Just watched the Managing Director of the supermarket chain on Campbell Live. Has to be the person who took the ‘o’ out of Countdown!
Puckish Rogue…
Is this the KDC you were referring to in your childish attempt at diversion on the “Smirks and inversions” post?
What was your point? Do you want Bennett & co. to go swimming with the whales?
@ fender..is that true..?
..does bennett really ‘swim with the whales’..?
..whoar..!
..’holy disturbing-imagery..!..batman..!”
..phillip ure..
Was hoping Puckish would share the knowledge regarding whale watching other than the land-based usual suspect. You raise another serious issue though, I’d hate to see the Kaikoura whales chased away.
Annoying I forgot to fix the db query cache after doing some edits last weekend. Caused an outage. While I was on the bus..
Fixed and rebooted.
coolest bit of vid for a long time..
..it came at the end of campbell live..
..and is footage of mila the elephant seeing/meeting/trunk-wrapping with another elephant..
..for the first time in 40 yrs..
..and if susceptible to that sort of thing..
..it is tissue-material..
..phillip ure..
“it is tissue-material”
So too was the piece about the 11y/o boy killed with a cricket bat by his father . I could not believe what I was hearing.
aye..
phillip ure..
Open letter to [US Oligarch] Sam Zell: your statements are delusional and dangerous
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2014/02/06/an-open-letter-to-sam-zell-why-your-statements-are-delusional-and-dangerous/
thumbs uop
The “envy ” tag is a BS throwaway line to justify ignoring the criticism
Deutsche Bank rates NZ housing market as 3rd most over valued in the industrialised world
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-12/did-canada-just-pop-its-housing-bubble
I noticed this from CV s link which seems important:
Canada has been very open to foreign investors, which means that in an age of unprecedented global liquidity cash-rich wealthy individuals who are looking for places to park their excess funds can do so in its housing market.
Until now… As SCMP reports, Canada’s government has announced that it is scrapping its controversial investor visa scheme, which has allowed waves of rich Hongkongers and mainland Chinese to immigrate since 1986.
My Bolding.
There have been reports of Chinese officials taking fraudulently obtained funds offshore and investing in foreign property as a “back up plan” in case they need to leave China in a hurry some time in the future.
It looks to me like the Chinese government has put pressure on the Canadian govt to end this loophole.
I wonder if anyone has a finger on that dyke here, (referring to the folk Netherland tale of the boy and the dyke.)
And that piece about Chinese officials or their families going abroad. It seems to me that is the old externalities deja vue. Make money, cause problems, pocket money, leave the people living in the mess and seek better climes. Though the clim-ate will catch them.
Rats and ships.
Why the exodus among families who have benefited most from China’s rise?
Aside from education, another obvious motivator is pollution. China’s toxic air and poisonous water are regular topics of complaint among the wealthy (as well as ordinary Chinese).
A less obvious factor is the crackdown on corruption.
Over the last year, Chairman Xi Jinping has overseen investigations into some of China’s wealthiest and most powerful party figures, including those who have profited massively from the state-owned oil industry. He has vowed to take down both “tigers” (top bosses) and “flies” (local officials).
In January, Xi stepped up his campaign by forbidding the promotion of officials who have spouses or children living abroad. These so-called “naked” officials are seen as especially prone to corruption.
“They belong to a high-risk group for corruption,” a party official told the state-run Xinhua news agency. “Around 40 percent of economic cases and nearly 80 percent of corruption and embezzlement cases involve naked officials.” In China, crimes like fraud, bribery, and embezzlement are referred to as economic cases.
This designation covers a large group. According to a report by the Hong Kong newspaper Oriental Daily, a majority of members of China’s 2013 National People’s Congress were “naked officials.”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/140131/war-corruption-ramps-china-s-wealthy-flock-america
Quick question re the NSA and data storage. Are they storing content from all phone calls, or is it just the meta data?
My assumption would be that they are storing everything; listening to what Jacob Appelbaum and others have to say, I think that is a pretty safe bet.
but they will only admit metadata and therefore only ever be forced to cough that up.
Thanks. I had assumed it was everything, but when I looked online there was a lot of contradictory information.
So the spies and snoops will probably have their favourite focus picked out from meta-data, to be monitored by drones, only nano-ones, like the one in the Harry Potter book. One of the nasties there has shape-shifting genes and can turn herself into an insect and literally be ‘the fly on the wall’. And she happens to be a jonolist I think, so gets lots of stuff that’s not fit to print.
Lots of opportunities for the use of technology to hurt society and the individual.