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.
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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When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet?Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
I’m not quite sure of what to make of the new figures for COVID-19 (as we must now call the novel coronavirus – though I’m not sure the capitalisation is correct) from Hubei province:Image from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51495484The spike yesterday is a consequence of a using a different way of ...
Bob Jones has dropped his defamation case against Renae Maihi. Good. But at the same time, it perfectly exposes what the case was all about: not protecting Jones' reputation, but punishing someone who had dared to criticise him, and deterring others from doing the same. This rich pompous asshat dragged ...
As I've done for the past few years, I'm curating and presenting The Listening Lounge, the talk programme at Splore. On the morning of Saturday the 22nd at the Living Lounge stage, the korero goes like this.Yes, we're talking about drugs again, not just because I'm professionally interested in drug ...
What Were They Thinking? RNZ's CEO Paul Thompson (left) and Jim Mather, Chairman of the RNZ Board of Governors, attempt to justify the debacle arising out of their attempt to downgrade RNZ Concert to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee at Parliament on Thursday, 13 February 2020.WHAT IS ...
Dame Tariana Turia with former PM John KeyWhat is it about Tariana Turia’s grudge against the Labour Party? Not content with attacking the Government over Whānau Ora funding, which was increased by $80 million in 2019, she has now made it personal by saying that Jacinda Ardern is out of her ...
Back in 2017, right after being elected, Jacinda Ardern promised that there would be no new mines on conservation land. Since then, her government has done nothing to make that happen, and now the policy has been officially "parked" for the election:West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor says the "no new ...
So the guy who advocated for public burning and beheading feels offended because someone called him a racist!Perhaps Bob Jones hasn't heard of the very old saying; Live by the sword, die by the sword?I mean for someone who often writes opinionated nonsense about Maori; this is a ridiculous case ...
The government today announced a major support package aimed at reducing homelessness. A thousand new transitional housing places, more support for people to find homes (or not lose them in the first place), all good stuff. The one problem with it is that they're going to start charging people in ...
Courtroom Drama: There is no off-switch in a courtroom. Neither is it possible to turn the page in disgust. Ill-formed and ill-defended opinions will be exposed ruthlessly and unapologetically. As Shakespeare put it: “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” Sometimes the ...
As of today, the novel coronavirus spreading in China is called COVID-19. Why does it matter? Around the office, we’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks about how 2019-nCoV needed its own name. First, it was getting annoying calling it by the above designation, and ‘novel coronavirus’ doesn’t ...
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill (No 2) (Brett Hudson)Its basicly more "tough on crime" nonsense (its already illegal for unlicensed people to own guns) designed to wedge NZ First against its arsehole base. ...
In 2015 the world agreed to the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. Each country would offer a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) "that it intends to achieve", and "pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving [it]". And every five years, they'd improve on it, ratcheting up ambition until ...
In theory, the emissions trading scheme should reduce emissions. Making polluters pay for permits to pollute lets them save money by reducing pollution, giving them a financial incentive to do the right thing. But right from the start the ETS was broken with a system of free allocation, so polluters ...
Irish voters went to the polls on Saturday in parliamentary elections, and perhaps delivered a political revolution. Since independence, Irish politics has been dominated by two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Basicly patronage networks with indistinguishable policies, their cleavage isn't ideology, but who killed whose father or grandfather in ...
Once again the Aotearoa Bike Challenge is on us, and once again I’m participating. In principle this is not hard because it does not represent a significant switch in behavior for me. I already bike nearly every day. The Bicycle The fascinating thing about cycling is the realisation that this ...
Lately there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the origins and purpose of Skeptical Science. As John Cook wrote nearly a decade ago, Skeptical Science is primarily a website that debunks climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. Despite the ever-worsening impacts from climate change, with record after record being broken in ...
Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Australian smoke plume sets recordsThe recent wildfires in Australia sent one of ...
The Global Protest to #FightInequality was powerful – thankyou and what next? Dear allies, We started the decade with a huge protest to #FightInequality that was heard around the world, including the 1% at Davos. Watch and share the highlights on facebook and twitter. A huge thank you. Together we ...
The Ministry of Health have announced a package that might ensure NZ will never experience another measles epidemic. While at the time of writing the details are still limited it appears that the important limitations in our current programme have been acknowledged and the intent is to address them. Great ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly summarise our assessment of the highly uncertain new coronavirus threat. Given its potential to become a severe and prolonged global pandemic, a precautionary response now means activating all components of our pandemic plan, with a particular focus on ‘keep ...
When Labour was running for election, Jacinda Ardern famously said that climate change was "my generation's nuclear free moment". The implication was that her government would take the problem seriously, and act swiftly to reduce emissions. The reality:New Zealand will emit a million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 ...
James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
by Philip Ferguson Exit polls are showing a three-way virtual tie between the main parties in the south of Ireland. Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are all on just over 22%. FG on 22.4, SF on 22.3, FF on 22.2. Exit polls indicate that over 30% of 18-24 ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 2, 2020 through Sat, Feb 8, 2020 Editor's Pick New Report Details How Fossil Fuel Industry's Climate Destruction Also Exacerbates Human Rights Abuses"Even in the face of the ...
In a previous post I described briefly when and how the Starlink satellite chains – recent launches by Space-X in a scheme to bring 5G internet connectivity to the whole globe – could be seen from New Zealand with the naked eye. Here I provide an update and predictions for ...
Keeping The Faith: This Government’s broad, new, heavily moderated, progressive faith does not require a prime minister with the powers of a medieval pope. Jacinda’s regime has no need of subterranean torture chambers to ensure compliance. A gift for diplomacy and the ability to inspire her fellow human-beings is all ...
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...
Tonight’s news suggests the coronavirus outbreak may have originated from pangolins. Details are very sketchy, almost nothing at all beyond a claim of high similarity. My impression is this claim comes from a press release by South China Agricultural University. Initial discussion online suggests this is a more likely candidate ...
by Susanne Kemp The Fire and Emergency service (FENZ) has recently asked firefighters in Auckland Areas 3, 4 and 5 to take on an additional duty that has rather ominous implications. Namely, to collect names and addresses of everyone on the premises of fires they attend. The firefighters’ union, the ...
Part of the story of the Nazis' rise to power in Germany was the willingness of mainstream right-wing parties to work with them to keep out the left. Because of this, one of the fundamental rules of postwar German politics has been "do not work with Nazis". As a result, ...
There has long been a truism in public broadcasting: don't mess with Concert FM. The theory was that although the station has been in a long-term audience decline, and that audience is steadily ageing out, it has powerful establishment support – and any threat to it would provoke a fury.As ...
This is a re-post from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The heat absorbed in Earth’s oceans reached a new record in 2019, found a recent study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. Despite the fact that this has been the case for almost every year over the past decade, this information ...
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics.Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...
by Don Franks Under a government claiming empathy with the fine arts, Radio New Zealand ( RNZ) is poised to cut back its classical music station, RNZ Concert. The plan is replacing it on FM radio with music “for a younger audience” as part of a new multimedia music brand. ...
More Thwaites This past week we heard disturbing news about Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. Helping to fill in the longer term history of Thwaites' behavior and especially helpful in interpreting results of the recent drilling project and what it may say about the future of this unstable mass of ice is Revealing the ...
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit:Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ...
“The scene is set, the players met…”. And what players they are in this farce of an Election coming up in the United States this year. There is a multi-faceted anger in the broader situation the world finds itself in, in which the false promises of so-called “moderates” find themselves ...
A few years ago, a company lowballed a contract to dispose of toxic waste from the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. So, they dumped it in a disused paper mill in Mataura, then went into liquidation - effectively dumping the problem on local councils. The waste is dangerous - it releases ...
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...
Over on The Good Society, Max Rashbrooke suggests that its time to start directly taxing wealth:A wealth tax would be levied on net wealth – that is, the value of people’s assets once their debts have been subtracted. Such a tax would be highly redistributive. Levied at 1% on wealth ...
The quarterly labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has dropped to 4%. There are now 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when Labour took office. Its not the performance we had under Clark (when unemployment was ~3.3%), but its still a reasonable improvement over prevailing conditions under National. ...
Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick Wilson, Louise Delany, Prof Richard Edwards, Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanThe current national measles epidemic in New Zealand is amongst the largest we have experienced in the last 40 years. It can be linked to the problems created by long-term erosion and fragmentation of national public health ...
I’m about to start teaching science communication to tertiary students, which is equally hilarious and terrifying to me. (Hi to my students who have Googled me and found this post.) I loved English at high school, but we spent most of our time reading The Outsiders, discussing the differences between metaphors and ...
Space-X has started launching its Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit with a plan to use some tens of thousands of these to deliver 5G wifi to the whole globe. Chains of these satellites can be seen in the evening or before-dawn skies, through the sunlight they scatter. Here I provide ...
New Zealand was the first country to decriminalise prostitution and it was promoted as a progressive move. Yet survivors of the sex trade say that pimps and johns are emboldened operating within the law, and that the women are treated more like a piece of property to be used and ...
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...
All New Zealanders need to have their voices heard at work to ensure we have an inclusive and productive economy. Today we introduce a Bill to do this for workers in the New Zealand screen industry, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “The Screen Industry Workers Bill will ...
The Government has announced further help for the Southland and Otago regions to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. “I’ve approved Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG), making $500,000 available to help with the clean-up in Fiordland, Southland, and the Clutha district in Otago,” Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Following the announcement that more than 340 schools will be funded to run events promoting vocational education, the Government has announced it will fund a further 257 events to be run by employers and industry. “These industry-run events will allow more than 30,000 students to connect with more than 2,000 ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
Clear requirements for ensuring customers are treated fairly by banks, insurers and other financial service providers are included in new financial conduct legislation that passed its first reading today. “The recent reviews, by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, into the conduct of banks and ...
Applications are now open for the fifth round of the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced today. “I am delighted to open this year’s fund which has some $7 million available to support performing arts venues, galleries, museums and whare ...
The Minister of Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta today congratulated Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu on her appointment as the next President of the Law Commission. “Amokura Kawharu will be a standout in her new role, leading in an innovative and forward looking approach to the law reform process. She will ...
Auckland University legal academic Amokura Kawharu has been appointed as the next President of the Law Commission, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Associate Professor Kawharu will take up her new appointment on 11 May 2020. “I would like to congratulate Associate Professor Kawharu on her appointment,” Andrew ...
A programme for employers to help them engage effectively with younger employees was launched today by Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson. The Youth Ready Employer Programme contains a range of on-line templates that employers can easily access to help with employing and retaining young people in their businesses. The programme ...
Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursday 14 May, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “This year’s Budget will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also preparing the economy for the future. “Those challenges and opportunities cannot be resolved in one budget, ...
I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has today classified the drought conditions in Northland as an adverse event for the primary sector, unlocking $80,000 in Government support. “This is recognition that the extreme and prolonged nature of this dry spell is taking its toll on our farmers and growers and additional support ...
The Minister of Police says an operation to smash a trans national drug smuggling ring today will make a significant impact on the methamphetamine trade fuelling harm in our communities. Police have announced 10 arrests and the seizure of up to five million dollars’ worth of illicit drugs after an ...
The Government’s books are in a strong position to withstand global headwinds, with the accounts in surplus and expenses close to forecast, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown accounts for the six months to December. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was above ...
Race courses can improve safety with this year’s second round of funding from the Racing Safety Development Fund. Minister for Racing Winston Peters has announced the second funding round of 2019/20 is open with $347,875 available for distribution. “The racing industry is integral to the economic and social fabric of ...
The Government is committing $300,000 to fund research to update behavioural information to make sure HIV and STI prevention services are targeted appropriately in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson made the announcement at today’s Big Gay Out in Auckland. “There is much talk about ...
The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has announced work will begin on a business case to assess the viability of forming a new public media entity. “The Government must ensure New Zealanders have a strong independent public media service for decades to come, which means ensuring public ...
Minister of Civil Defence Hon Peeni Henare announced today that the Government will contribute $100,000 to the Southland regional Mayoral Relief Fund, to support communities impacted by the recent flooding in Southland. Mr Henare says this week’s flooding has caused significant disruption to communities in the lower South Island. ...
Heritage buildings throughout New Zealand will benefit from the $1.1 million in Heritage EQUIP funding grants announced today. “These grants for seismic strengthening projects help private building owners get the advice they need to start building work or to get the work completed,” Grant Robertson says. “Timaru’s Grosvenor Hotel has ...
A new survey has found New Zealand’s game development sector has grown beyond expectations and is on track to becoming a billion dollar industry in 2025, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says. “New Zealand’s interactive media sector grew by 42 per cent in last financial year to $203.4 million, according ...
Te Tii, the lower marae at Waitangi, is among more than 70 marae now connected to broadband internet thanks to the Provincial Growth Fund’s marae connectivity scheme, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said today. In February 2019, the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) allocated $21 million to connect rural towns ...
The West Coast has had a funding injection of over $1.2 million from the Provincial Growth Fund, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced at Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika today. The PGF projects announced are: $800,000 to Development West Coast for a Grey District Regional Digital Hub ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has declared an adverse event for the Southland and Otago regions, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “Widespread flooding has resulted in severe disruption, with many people evacuated from their homes and many farms being affected by flood waters. It’s putting pressure on our farmers, ...
Alex Casey delivers her seventh power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where a group of intruders have herniated the competition’s intestines forever. Click here for previous instalments. Welcome back to The Bachelorette NZ, where everything is made up and every man is suddenly named Mike. Intruders! Five of them! A whole ...
By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila Solicitor-General Jose Calida asked the Supreme Court today to issue a gag order against ABS-CBN, claiming the Philippines’ largest television network was engaging in “propaganda” to sway the justices in the quo warranto case seeking to void its franchise. Calida filed the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen R Fisher, Professor, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for young children with disability is not equal across Australia. Where you live can hinder access to information about disability support, assistance to apply for ...
The New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations applauds the changes to the Residential Tenancies Act released by the government yesterday but does not believe that they go far enough to improving the rights of renters. The power imbalance in the current ...
The Prime Minister will take no action against Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, after confirmation of a Serious Fraud Office investigation. ...
Eamonn Marra’s debut novel makes a study of the mundane: sanding a fence, heating baked beans, three pizzas for $29.99 delivered. Alie Benge reckons it belongs somewhere between Sally Rooney and Elena Ferrante. It was about page three of 2000ft Above Worry Level. A feeling burst inside me: the joy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzie Gibson, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Charles Sturt University The gothic developed as a European architectural phenomenon in 12th-century France, where awe-inspiring cathedrals reflected a world drenched in religious piety and superstition. Its veneration was revisited in 18th-century English literature, when ...
Financial services company Heartland Bank has reported a solid lift in its first-half profit driven by increased lending despite a squeeze on margins and rising costs. ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, e-bikes are now just a tap away! Josie Adams reviews the latest disruption in transport culture.When Lime launched in 2018, New Zealand’s transport culture got the electric shock it needed. For too long we’d ...
Ministers love to bray about the seizing of illegal drugs. Customs statistics on seizures last year – albeit “preliminary” statistics – therefore were irresistible to Customs Minister Jenny Salesa. They gave her a platform to remind us of her existence as a Minister while acknowledging the work of her officials. ...
The rise of ‘plant-based’ diets seems like a win for those who decry eating meat. But some vegan groups claim the halfway step of vegetarianism is ineffectual if you really care about animal cruelty, climate change, or your own personal health.An article in the Guardian last year asked “Why do ...
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Open mike 13/02/2014 
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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.
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.