Open mike 13/08/2010

21 comments on “Open mike 13/08/2010 ”

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1. Sanctuary 1

   13 August 2010 at 6:52 am

   Herbert Hoover continues his deflationary, balance budgeting destruction of whatever signs of economic confidence he can find…

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4019654/More-public-service-cuts-on-the-way

   National’s economic stewardship of the recession has been little short of a catastrophe. Declining or static wage growth, slashing and burning of government services, and deficit funded tax cuts for the richest New Zealanders all point to a repeat of the economic mis-management by National in the “lost decade” of the 1990’s, when exactly the same economic response by exactly the same people to the Asian financial crisis plunged New Zealand into a long depression just as the rest of the world began a twenty year growth cycle.

   Same people, same shitty policies.
2. jcuknz 2

   13 August 2010 at 9:05 am

   It is disturbing and rather sad that the Labour Party apparently is shooting itself in the foot with the latest handout about the GST increase …. quite correct but grossly misleading and I have already worked out that my tax cuts, I’m not a rich prick by the way, more than compensate me for the GST increase of 2.5%. That may be affected by price increases related to our changing world but they would have happened anyway so do not change the basic exchange of GST for tax reductions for most people.
   • Lanthanide 2.1

     13 August 2010 at 9:20 am

     I think that probably only those on 25-30k a year are really going to be about the same or worse off from the tax cuts, and anyone over should see a modest after-GST benefit. The median wage is $37k IIRC, and the mean is $48k, so there is quite a big chunk of people that will see at least some benefit.
     • felix 2.1.1

       14 August 2010 at 10:28 am

       The median income is about $23,000
   • Ryan 2.2

     14 August 2010 at 8:13 am

     That’s all well and good that your current expenditure and income increases show a surplus. But what you fail to recognise is that the vendors overheads, rates and expenditure all go up as well. Along with the petrol and the ETS increase. Your expenditure will not rise by 2.5 percent. It will rise substantially more. By shrouding the complexities with simplicity and the famous DONKEY SMILE, you have been sucked in again.
     • comedy 2.2.1

       14 August 2010 at 8:30 am

       Isn’t GST irrelevant for vendors as they’ll be claiming it back ?
3. Tigger 3

   13 August 2010 at 9:19 am

   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4019778/Presence-not-sign-of-Keys-backing

   I’ve not no problems with Key supporting a candidate. But he should at least be honest about it. Another good example of his fence sitting, flip-flop style. I swear, a pile of mercury would be a more solid PM than this rubber-boned goober.
4. Pete 4

   13 August 2010 at 9:22 am

   Interesting comment by English over in Melbourne yesterday:

   “The Government has signalled cuts to the number of policy advisers, and Mr English said it would increasingly use outside experts and groups, along the lines of last year’s Tax Working Group.

   “It was in this context that the Government was able to put in place a fiscally neutral package of tax reforms that increased GST and the taxation of property alongside income tax cuts without causing a public backlash.”

   (here:
   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4019654/More-public-service-cuts-on-the-way)

   I can’t think of anything wrong with that statement at all – I’m off to ride my unicorn…
   • MikeG 4.1

     13 August 2010 at 10:08 am

     Given that National didn’t suffer a dip in their opinion poll numbers you could argue that there was no public backlash. However, one could argue that the package was not fiscally neutral.
5. MikeG 5

   13 August 2010 at 10:22 am

   Curia was polling last night about the local body elections in Orakei ward – with 2 questions:
   1. How interested are you in local body politics on a scale of 1-10?
   2. Who would you vote for: Doug Armstrong or Cameron Brewer?

   One would presume it was on behalf of C&R.
6. mickysavage 6

   13 August 2010 at 10:25 am

   National Standards is an issue that will keep bubbling away in the background until there is an eruption when schools decide they cannot implement it because it is so flawed.

   Following is a quote from a letter from Ernie Buutvelt sent to New Zealand Principals Federation members. The NZPF passed a resolution of no confidence in National Standards.

   To quote:

   This government has sold National Standards as a panacea to fix everything from welfare dependency to the crime rate. They have shown utter intransigence on this issue, along with many others (mining excepted) in the face of dogged public opposition. If they are to continue to ignore the pleas of the sector, there is little for us to do but to ensure that the damage that the current National Standards will do – in labelling children, in misleading and damaging school league tables, in limiting the curriculum, in damaging the learning of tamariki Māori, in not being a solution to under-achievement are mitigated in every way possible.
   • prism 6.1

     13 August 2010 at 1:37 pm

     There is a special needs place in education discussion under way. The advocates for the intellectually compromised want them all to be mainstreamed. But the teachers need extra training for this.

     Teachers are presently under attack frequently by the right-wing for under-performing in their present environment. ‘You can’t get good servants these days’ class attitudes. It isn’t enough that they have to deal with anti-social, disruptive. anti-learning, personally undisciplined children who disrupt the class and/or knife the teacher, they may have added to that at least one special needs child permanently in their class, with or without an aide.

     Can anyone else see the inevitability of further crushing criticisms of them in the future. And ‘black spot’ schools emerging from failure to meet the mean in the national standards stakes?
     • KJT 6.1.1

       13 August 2010 at 1:56 pm

       One. Currently in the decile one school I was teaching at there wold be at least 5 per class.
       In a woodwork class of 30 where you have to keep them safe from machinery as well as try and give them each the individual attention they need because not enough time or money was spent on them at primary school.
       Standards to tell us what we already know (maybe) are really going to help.
7. ZakC 7

   13 August 2010 at 1:57 pm

   Here’s one for all of you guys.. to ask the Minister of Tourism and mebbe his offsider, the Minister of Health.. it’s the tourist that knows nothing about borders tho plenty about the folks it uses for passport into and outta places… apparently likes multitudes…

   and oh yes nobody knows its limitations..

   least of all mystery shoppers..

   and all should be demanding answers NOW… bcos this thing loves fast followers.. too.
8. john 8

   13 August 2010 at 2:25 pm

   The home of neo-liberal free market economics and society (Survival of the fittest),The Society Nact looks up to and takes its ideology from is heading for Third World Status! Do we have to copy their failure? Refer link
   http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Archives2010/GreerEndgame.html
9. Pascal's bookie 9

   13 August 2010 at 5:14 pm

   Cookin dinner with the radio on, and I think I just heard the guy, maybe from jbwere, talking about the housing market, describe it as “basically fucking neutral”, though I could be wrong. Anyone else hear that?
   • Pascal's bookie 9.1

     13 August 2010 at 7:17 pm

     So had another listen, “stuck in neutral”. More profanity please.
10. dasein 10

    13 August 2010 at 6:51 pm

    So Michael Laws has been “unwise”. Nothing new there!
    • Descendant Of Smith 10.1

      14 August 2010 at 6:10 am

      As much as I dislike Michael Laws I don’t wish anyone’s private lives to be made quite as public as the story initially seemed. I can’t understand how someone who is supposed to be media savy would send explicit texts tho. Duh.

      Sounds like he has over-reacted though.

      From Jacqueline Sperling, the woman at the centre of the (non?)-relationship.
      This has to be one of the funniest lines this year:

      “He came over on the pretence of wanting to discuss drug prohibition, that never got discussed. He said my past fascinated him. He talked about himself for three hours.”
11. Bill 11

    13 August 2010 at 8:31 pm

    Jimmy Reid, the last of the Red Clydesiders has died this week.

    This speech from 1972 and reproduced by ‘The Independent’, has been compared to the Gettysburg Address and was printed on the front page of the NY Times at the time.

    It’s worth the read.

    And here’s a piece on his personal/political history for if you are unaware of who he was and what he did.

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1. The Standard: posted on 12 August 2010 at 6:01 pm

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