MEDITATION: USEFUL TOOL OR FREAKY COP-OUT?
Severe conversations continue in our nation as we look for solutions to depression, suicide, obesity and the spiralling number of “sick days” reported by companies.
Whilst government solutions revolve around more counselling, more therapy, sugar tax and the like it is overlooked that by the time help is sought much damage has already been done. Has the adage “prevention is better than cure” ever been more apt?
For those who feel stressed it may be asked “is it possible to reset, – to default if you wish – a calm centre within one’s deepest self, a place where the myriad external stimuli of contemporary living lose their impact? A quiet spot all ones own that you can ‘visit’ regularly for restoration and refreshment? A centre of integration from where you step back into the world with poise and confidence?”
To address this issue Johns Hopkins University researchers reviewed 47 recently published clinical trials and found moderate evidence that meditation alleviates pain, anxiety and depression—the latter two to a similar degree as antidepressant drug therapy. A rudimentary web search reveals meditation has been trialled in schools in the UK and USA for decades as a tool to calm hyped kids and in some cases as a daily discipline.
Forget the ridiculous images of blissed out meditators on the edge of cliffs, cross legged (and probably cross-eyed) on beaches, or in the woods where branches stick you in the backside and the hum of sandflies muddle your mantra. Authentic meditation is the epitome of inwardness, undertaken for 20 minutes per day silently at home, allowing the re-discovery of a quiet and steady place, – the domain of memory fragments acting as touchstones to a long-forgotten sense of simplicity and childhood.
True our brains thrive on the stimulation provided by experience, diversity, and complexity but a little appreciated dimension of enrichment goes in the other direction, – towards abstraction, inwardness and degrees of subtlety. This aspect when reanimated brings fresh appreciation of the simplest experiences of day to day living, calming to a degree the inner dragon of material longing an outer conflict.
And now with LOVE getting a fresh airing in schools as principals grapple with student depression and suicide we are reminded that there are some simple qualities which neglected leave us poorer regardless of external stimuli.
Meditation may connect us with that which is deepest in ourselves and therefore with one another in trusting and supportive ways.
Meditation, great believer in it, fascinating subject, especially now we have the technology to scan the brain while a person is meditating. Science backs up meditation.
The brain is an incredible piece of our bio technology
They not only can scan the brain during meditation, they can measure the actual effects on the brain of practicing meditation over a (short) period of time.
A sensitive fair piece. The Media Report at 9 this morning on RNZ goes through the Meteria story. Well worth the listen.
I wonder if Materia will tell how the media and other agents, intruded on her family? My guess is that it was not the tough public interviews but what was happening off camera. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201854557
Here’s a question for you all.
When was MT going to pay the money back.?
After all she has had 15+ years of earning well over 100k. By definition she is part of the 1%. I think that is what pisses everyone off, not the amount or the fraud but the big f you up until this point.
nah, that is only something for rich people who can afford accountants do.
righ, like our Mr. Top guy, Gareth Morgan.
and housing fraud is only something for sitting PM’s who collect an Accomodation benefit on a million dollar house they own, err……their wifes owns, …..err that is in a trust……
right?
right?
for the record, considering that the min. rent in NZ now is something like 400$ for a dwelling of i would want the first 25.000 earned tax free. Cause that is a minimum that one needs to survive.
Progressive tax rates are for business people also.
In my experience, IRD are much more accommodating than WINZ, if illness makes you incapable of paying your bills.
Even in the current regime, if your business is not making money you do not pay tax. Unfortunately WINZ requires you to stop working at your business to get a benefit. Which seems to contradict Nationals stated aim of getting people into work.
Of course the system is designed so people have to take exploitative underpaid jobs.
Not to allow them to compete with Nationals mates, in business.
But a UBI would make entrepreneurship, something we want to encourage, less of a risk.
Not acceptable BM but I know that many who avoid full tax payments. I know some who remove cash from the till so that it is undeclared income. Unacceptable.
Why isn’t it acceptable? his/her family has to eat.
We’re not talking tax evasion because you don’t want to pay tax but because if you do you won’t have any money left to keep your family clothed and fed.
I think you have some gotcha facts to drop – please do so. Tough situation for business owner – could they sell their holiday home or a car or something to help if they have them. Not a long term solution but may help them short term while they sort out he day forward.
Well I’d imagine other options will have to be thought about because going to jail for tax evasion will not be pretty. Are you thinking of dobbing them in? – please don’t. Lots of us are stuggling mate.
My accountant has a simple analogy / story to solve this moral dilemma, and explain how IRD works.. It’s called the walk down the drive test. A hypothetical, or maybe real, IRD auditor walks down your drive and does a count up of the toys parked thereon. Does this match declared income?
But the more serious side to this is that petty (and not so petty) lying is an endemic, and accepted, part of our society. From a bennie maximising their benefit to tradies doing cashies to politicians having memory fades. It is accepted by a lot of our society and in a strange way kind of allows a sector of society to survive by avoiding conflict. The people who do it are seen to get ahead, so it becomes what you have to do to not be left behind.
And because everyone is doing it, when an individual calls it out they are going to get rat fucked. Hard
Pretty sure that tradies doing cashies is a far lesser sin than beneficiaries not being totally honest with WINZ. So in addition to what you describe there are all sorts of hierarchies of fairness.
Easiest solution all round is to run the economy so that people have both enough to live on and opportunity for a meaningful life. Then start rolling back the government’s push to make people selfish. If after that there are still some people who want to tell porkies, I probably don’t actually care except where it’s blatant.
My partner , a teacher administers NCEA for their school, there are two groups who get subsidised NCEA fees, some benificaries and members of the local Dairy farming community. One group is able to structure their incomes to the level of the other and its not the benificaries.
You can look at the tit pullers another way too. A lot of them actually aren’t making any money, not even close to break even without drawings. The only ones making any money are the banks (maybe) and the equipment suppliers (they get paid early before the operation starts showing a loss)
This is a looming disaster for the country where a good proportion of the dairy industry goes tits up. Group think where the answer was to go bigger and more intensive. Then they can’t meet consent conditions and it all gets really hard.
A friend tells a story about someone he went through Telford with, 5 yeas ago he had 300 cows and was getting new vehicles and an overseas holiday for the family every year, then he went big and is still driving the old vehicles and hasn’t had a day off since. But he’s got 1000 cows. They’re keeping a really close eye on him.
I gather for the same same reason that most of them did, it looked like a no brainer at the time. It’s only later they realise that the consultants, suppliers and bankers (who’ve all been paid, strange that) might not have been quite right. There may have been a bit of group think going on too, and definitely a few success stories getting it all going. Now we’re seeing stories about operations down sizing and getting more profit.
But that’s how the business process works, we’ve taken on debt to grow our business with very mixed success.
Another part to it is the way our tax system works, you’re incentivised to reinvest in your business to reduce tax liabilities, hence the new cars etc. Scale it up to the move from 300 to 1000 cows and it can get out of hand.
I have difficulty getting my head around how we want a more prosperous society, but incentivise people through our tax system to not make any money.
Ok, I was thinking more about motivations like greed, or wanting a bigger project, or wanting the challenge etc. But if I’m understanding you right it’s more that this is just what everyone does because everyone does it. Plus the advisor thing.
“But that’s how the business process works, we’ve taken on debt to grow our business with very mixed success.”
Yeah, I’ve never really understood this. I once phoned a medium business in another city and asked about accessing their product. They told me that they liked the size they were and had no intentions of growing, so sorry, they would be selling to existing local customers first and that meant they could sell to me or where I was living. And of course that left space for other producers to start up, who would do things a bit differently and so everybody wins. I gather that’s not the norm 😉
We deal with businesses that have that level of confidence and security as well, who have no intention of pursuing a growth path. The ones that are on the aggressive growth thing we tend to avoid if it’s about more, but embrace if it’s about better or higher value. And we’ve also got a couple who are so glum and insecure we wonder if we’ll ever see them again.
I think the motivation to do better and improve our lot is a human thing, we as a species have been like it from the day we thought about walking upright, for better or worse. It’s when it’s looked on as a zero sum game that it all gets messy, and really isn’t getting better. I suppose it’s whether you see the world from a we or me perspective.
I know some do. Including one i had to laugh at. He complained bitterly, about his kids losing their student allowance, the year he stated his real income, for a mortgage.
He still goes on about bludging bennies. Go figure.
I know many, like i used to, let the customer think it is a cashy, though it all went through the books.
Several reasons.
You get paid cash every Friday.
No waiting for direct credits or dud checks.
You don’t get guarantee claims for the job.
Customers think they are getting it cheaper.
Unfortunately, competing on price with tax dodgers and cowboys, is hard.
We’re not talking tax evasion because you don’t want to pay tax but because if you do you won’t have any money left to keep your family clothed and fed.
Yes, and we can figure out if we’re honest with ourselves that a lot of people struggling to keep a business viable and have enough to live on find ways to evade tax. If one of them later in life becomes a politician and promotes a policy on tax reform by revealing that they had to do this themselves a couple of decades ago, would you like to see every detail of their private life turned over by oppo research teams and media gossip-mongers in an attempt to hound them from office and prevent tax reform? Or would you find that distasteful?
Business owners have a choice. They willingly go into business. They have funds sufficient to go into business. And don’t try the beneficiaries have chosen a “lifestyle” line. If life on a benefit was so cushy and attractive, everyone, including the small business owner, would be trying to get a benefit.
They willingly go into business. They have funds sufficient to go into business
Actually, you’ll find most new businesses are grossly underfunded.
Even if they have plenty of startup capital, what if the business hasn’t been that successful and the business owner has chewed through all his/her reserves, should they just starve?
The transition from small business / self employed to either a benefit or corporate employment is almost impossible.
Winz will want you to answer unanswerable questions about income and assets, and won’t be able to understand the difference between turnover and gross and net profit (that’s three very different things). If your average bennie feels like smacking the winz agent, spare a thought for the ex small business owner.
Applying for a job is equally fraught. After 20 odd years of self employment you will never pass the psychometric tests to get into a major employer. You’re not a submissive “team player” any more. No matter how much you bend over.
Yep for many once you go down the small business path that’s it for life.
Like you say, it’s next to impossible to get any decent employment if you wanted or needed to, you don’t tick any of the correct boxes so never make it past the HR filter.
The transition from small business / self employed to either a benefit or corporate employment is almost impossible.
They don’t make it easy to transition from anything to anything. That’s part of the point that Metiria was making – instead of helping they make it hard or even impossible.
I think BM is starting to realise that. About the little lies we all have to tell to make ends meet.
I am disappointed that Metiria and the Green Party hadn’t thought this through a lot better. The ensuing rat fucking was to be expected, unfortunately that’s the world we live in now, and responses should have been there before anything was said. It’s also disappointing that three careers have been destroyed in Green politics by this. That experience, compassion and knowledge isn’t easily replaced.
You’re exactly right about the attitude towards personal change, it’s made hard at all levels, employers, winz, and really all of our society. I’d like to hear from some of our personal responsibility types here how this squares with their freedom of choice beliefs.
BM – this is the difference between choosing to be an “entrepreneur” or being a worker having to do as told. I belief it is the latter that is actually the driving force rather than sound management skills that get many into starting a business.
The risk is to loose investment and the consequence can be severe if the commercial homework is neglected.
But the risk is taken by the individual whereas the severe consequences of starving because there is no job is by design of social and trade politics.
If a former self employed person needs to go to WINZ would the last tax statement of accounts and a letter of your accountants assessment not clarify the financial situation?
I belief the difficult part is the emotional and psychological consequence as such failure is seen as loss of dignity whereas it is just a means of measuring ones skill at this point in time. 2 choices: employment or acquiring skills to get another start. Perhaps both to get the funds.
I’m having a chuckle seeing you and draco defending how generous and compliant winz are to the ex self employed. I can assure you it’s actually the most Kafkaesque experience you can ever endure. Second only to earnings related compensation from ACC for the self employed.
Of my winz experience, I got referred to them by a business assistance programme at the start of GFC when we had a huge upheaval, one appointment was enough. I gave up on the business assistance programme as well.
As for ACC, the earnings related side is hardly worth applying for if you are self employed, and especially if you are partners in business and life. You get nothing, but still have to pay full earner premium.
I’m having a chuckle seeing you and draco defending how generous and compliant winz are to the ex self employed.
Many of my relatives are self-employed contractors and have, occasionally, found themselves reliant upon the mercy of WINZ. They complained about how bad WINZ was as well and I’m pretty sure that I’ll find at least some of them complaining that MT lied to WINZ.
I gave up on the business assistance programme as well.
Yep, so did I last time I looked. Figured I’d be better off trying to start a business fully under the table while on the EB than actually getting that.
As for ACC, the earnings related side is hardly worth applying for if you are self employed, and especially if you are partners in business and life.
Yeah, I also know that people who’ve been in business that complained that they didn’t get the full 80% of their income – but had been boasting not too long before that they weren’t paying tax or ACC because of awesome accountant.
Graeme, you are missing the point.
If a person chooses to go into self employment they also know that they are getting into. If you get a job, then you can get sacked after 90 days with essentially no explanation really.
And don’t be mistaken, I have been in partnership in a business subcontracting and retail. This was an eye opener.
There are real insidious people out there, sanctioned by the tax regime of this country, who use the goods and services delivered by small business and deny payment for long periods of time thus making cash flow the number one issue of concern. It is almost criminal how this works as it basically keeps contractors in bond, like modern slavery.
If there needs something charged, than it is the law that if subcontractors deliver the goods and services than they have a right to be paid – and only then can the tax department ask for their charge and not sooner.
If any of those flexing their muscle for the SM business community start were it counts.
Hey, I’m trying to agree with you that dealing with these government agencies is a de-humanising process that is totally counter productive for our society. And it encourages / forces people to lie. This destroys good people.
Foreign Waka, for most small business people it’s not at all a choice at all, in my partner’s case it’s all she knows and in mine there were no employment options at the time and then I discovered it was a one way street. I had a good career in construction, NZCE, but came out the wrong side of a couple of recessions. Then ran up against the HR dept. No going back there.
It’s certainly got it’s good points, but dealing with lairs who can’t / won’t pay you is a pain. And they think they are so shit hot for doing it. You soon learn to keep out of their way.
Well, that’s the difference between the two, isn’t it.
For your business owner, going to winz is the last resort in acknowledging failure, and they would prefer to commit tax fraud.
If you are already at the last resort, and it still doesn’t pay the most basic bills, committing benefit fraud is really the only option if you want to eat.
Personally, I doubt that Metiria Turei is part of the top 1% by PAYE or by wealth but no doubt you have a ‘definition’ that supports your claim. Would you be so kind to provide a link for my edification?
I think you’ll find that she isn’t. IIRC, back in 2004, 100k put people into the top 3%. Considering inflation since and the way that the top salary packages have gone up that 100k has probably dropped down the scale some.
I think that is what pisses everyone off
You’re not everyone and I’m pretty sure that you’re only projecting your feelings onto everyone else thus I figure you’re talking out your arse.
While looking at the position of Germans in the USA pre WW2 I came across this bio of a German couple who immigrated mid 1800’s and became leaders of integrity with progressive and enlightened results that benefitted the USA greatly.
This is an example of the good side of immigration.
Let’s look at immigration from the point of what useful results to the social and skillsets of the country – large number of immigrants here have turned us into a wonderful, advanced country.
But now a large number of immigrants are more likely to be chosen for their money, or their willingness to tie themselves into debt for an unscrupulous, promised education and better future, not their useful additions of insight and beneficial ideas and proven positive skills at professional level, or proven outcomes.
Schurz and his wife arrived in the United States in 1852, eventually settling in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1855. They were quite well off financially. Margarethe’s dowry (the money a woman brings into a marriage) alone was enough to set Schurz up in business. His fame as a daring fighter for freedom in Germany, his solid education, his gifts as a writer and speaker, and his political ambition combined to make him a well-known figure almost immediately. Although he rarely stood for election himself, his persuasiveness with German American voters made him a force to be reckoned.
His wife, too, was active in bringing new ideas in education to the United States. In 1856 Margarethe Schurz founded what many consider the first kindergarten in the United States in Watertown. Like many German schools in the United States, the kindergarten was conducted in the German language until World War I (1914–18).
Schurz was antislavery and became an avid supporter of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) in the presidential campaign of 1860. He is said to have traveled more than twenty-one thousand miles campaigning for Lincoln, speaking in both English and German. He was credited with swinging much of the German American vote.
After the American Civil War (1861–65), in which he served as a general, Schurz settled in St. Louis, Missouri, and became a U.S. senator. In Washington, D.C., he turned to issues of corruption. Because of his criticisms of U.S. politicians, some alleged that he was not a patriotic American.
He responded with a phrase that has become famous:”My country right or wrong: if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
In 1876, Margarethe Schurz died, but by that time she had passed on her knowledge to others who established more kindergartens and set a standard for preschools in the nation. Schurz was made Secretary of the Interior that year. He attempted to initiate environmental controls, particularly over forestlands, and to follow a humanitarian (promoting human welfare) policy with respect to the Indians, but stronger powers within the nation overpowered his liberal idealism.
Schurz left government office for good in 1881 and began a second successful career as a journalist, author, and lecturer. He made New York his home, where he became editor-in-chief of the Evening Post and eventually Harper’s Weekly.
Schurz saw himself as a mediator between German and American culture. He continued to be equally fluent in German and English, writing his widely read memoirs in both languages. He traveled back and forth many times between the United States and Germany, filled with pride for both. When accused of mixed loyalties, he responded that he loved equally his “old mother” and his “new bride.”
“It has also killed off the notion of leader Winston Peters being in power sharing arrangement with Labour – as he could credibly have done if Andrew Little had delivered enough numbers for a coalition but with an embarrassingly suppressed voted.
(His best chance now would perhaps be in such circumstance that, were a Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of a mind to, she decided she wanted a few month’s parental leave).”
Who supported Trump and why? There has been lots of discussion and insight on that. They seem to like his full-on approach, his apparent anti-government,
anti-authoritarian stance, someone who stands big and criticises others who should be doing something else without much idea of what should or could be done. When there is enough rot the fine fabric of democracy starts to tear!
I remembered the great following of Hitler from some people in the USA pre WW2.
Seems similar – follow the loudmouth, the apparently strong man who inspires confidence. Some were right on to the Nazi message in the USA though it was felt that it was a connection of the settlers to their German heritage, but they still gave the raised arm salute, the same mass gatherings, marches etc. “Hitler is the friend of Germans everywhere,” noted a girl who attended Camp Hindenburg in Wisconsin. “And just as Christ wanted little children to come to him, Hitler wants German children to revere him.”
KJT
They certainly got something out of it, a parade, hats, camaraderie. Someone should have played 76 Trombones. Are they allowed to hand out free doughnuts in the USA or is that treating? Homer would have been there, dooh!
More poverty bashing from the National Party. How does sending kids to the Army and fining their struggling parents for not being better ‘prison officers’ tie in with his so called ‘social investment’ policy?
That sounds bad. Freedom of movement?
14yo Children on the street can be arrested and taken to court? Crikey!
Suppose the justification is where they as mobs creating mayhem but all those under 14 get arrested where their companions over 14 will not be and that probably includes the group leader.
This is all about the individualist entitled Generation X or Y saying why do I have to do this? Why aren’t there laws just for other people? There needs to be a helmet law because we want to save the brains of those who don’t really have much up there anyway.
It is likely to be blokes who are leaders in this anti-law stir as men want to be FREE. And not have to worry about accidents, after all they can ride on the pavement now and use the safety component of that, shifting the risk of collision and injury to the pedestrian. And there is the state ACC to look after you if you survive. Put the effort into getting more safe cycling lanes. Offer Councils plans that show how to have separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists. That’s worthy of effort.
There needs to be a helmet law but one that isn’t so tough that people who have to travel somewhere and haven’t a helmet aren’t going to be spot fined a month’s rent or something. Just enough to nag you into putting one on your must-have list.
well, so far I’ve gotten through ten minutes of correlation=causation, “a study”, “widely acknowledged”, assumptions that the legislation was generated in a vacuum rather than wide campaigning, “trivial difference” (trivial head injuries?) and so on.
Nobody has ever said the only thing to effect cycling safety is wearing a helmet. A “trivial effect” is still an effect.
Here’s what they never said: why do helmet requirements lower cycling rates? It can’t be because they’re afraid of looking like a dick.
Holy fuck, it gets worse as it goes on lol. Some numpty got arrested for not paying her fines because she refused to wear a fucking helmet? 13min: Oh no, old white guy treated like criminal for breaking the law!
Oh no, they resent wearing helmets!
Nice propaganda. Shame it doesn’t back it up with the facts you promised. It’s a load of shit.
Having smacked my head on the road due to legislation that allows cars to be driven by cunts, I don’t give a shit what “research” tells us. If you smack your head into something, it helps if you’ve got a helmet on it.
The video makes the point that helmets should be mandatory in high risk areas but not so in low risk areas. I.e, if you’re commuting to work on the road then wear a helmet. If you’re out for a Sunday ride down the park/beach then maybe not.
You can still wear one if you want though.
I’ve never hit my head falling off a bicycle – even when I got run over by a car. Broken my ribs a time or two though.
11. Obligation to alleviate pain or distress of ill or injured animals
(1)The owner of an animal that is ill or injured, and every person in charge of such an animal, must ensure that the animal receives treatment that alleviates any unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress being suffered by the animal.
(2)This section does not—
(a) limit section 10; or
(b)require a person to keep an animal alive when it is in such a condition that it is suffering unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress.
Section 11(1): amended, on 10 May 2015, by section 12 of the Animal Welfare Amendment Act (No 2) 2015 (2015 No 49).
_____________________________
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.
Exposing the $1.6 BILLION Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM.
Genau. Actually, I cannot help but admire Hitler as he eyeballs down 40,000+ people at the Nuremburg rally … Yet he was a barbarian. Times are turbulent as usual, and Trump is an anathema, but here in NZ we act like none of this happened before.
Timing is supposed to be everything in politics – but the drama of the past few days has scuppered that old nostrum.
As did the baby of Labour’s Rangitikei candidate Heather Warren.
Her baby was scheduled for September 29, comfortably after the September 23 election day – but instead arrived a fortnight ago, at 31 weeks.
WTF If you are having a baby that should be the first priority for the next year.
It is an expectation that modern women will still be interested in looking after their offspring and trying to breast feed the child. That is in all the information available as being of top importance for health in the distant as well as near future.
Talk about trying to double dip. You can’t be thinking about political matters and giving your child all the attention and care it needs while a baby and toddler, and withdrawing for long periods to keep up with your constituency and party concerns. I think many women are trying to have everything, and not being fair to their children. In this case the political life should have waited till the next election, staying on the list would have been a reasonable start.
btw. women have birthed all of humanity since ages ago, actually since ever, and have always worked.
they might not have been payed, they might have been handmaids, they might have been slaves, they might have been single mothers or unfortunates, they might have been widows, they might have been young or old, they might have lived in peace time or in war time, but they have always worked.
So yeah, women can have it all.
and just for the record, let me fix this for you
Talk about trying to double dip. You can’t be thinking about political matters and giving your child all the attention and care it needs while a baby and toddler, and withdrawing for long periods to keep up with your constituency and party concerns. I think many man are trying to have everything, and not being fair to their children and are fully depending on their wifes to handle childcare, household care on their own, while they go about gallivanting in politics. In this case the political life should have waited till the next election, staying on the list would have been a reasonable start for any man whose wife has just given birth to a child.
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It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
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"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
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Audrey Young in the Herald is reporting that a TVNZ poll for Q & A will show that Peter Dunne is trailing Greg O’Connor in Ohariu. One more nail in National’s coffin…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11902970
MEDITATION: USEFUL TOOL OR FREAKY COP-OUT?
Severe conversations continue in our nation as we look for solutions to depression, suicide, obesity and the spiralling number of “sick days” reported by companies.
Whilst government solutions revolve around more counselling, more therapy, sugar tax and the like it is overlooked that by the time help is sought much damage has already been done. Has the adage “prevention is better than cure” ever been more apt?
For those who feel stressed it may be asked “is it possible to reset, – to default if you wish – a calm centre within one’s deepest self, a place where the myriad external stimuli of contemporary living lose their impact? A quiet spot all ones own that you can ‘visit’ regularly for restoration and refreshment? A centre of integration from where you step back into the world with poise and confidence?”
To address this issue Johns Hopkins University researchers reviewed 47 recently published clinical trials and found moderate evidence that meditation alleviates pain, anxiety and depression—the latter two to a similar degree as antidepressant drug therapy. A rudimentary web search reveals meditation has been trialled in schools in the UK and USA for decades as a tool to calm hyped kids and in some cases as a daily discipline.
Forget the ridiculous images of blissed out meditators on the edge of cliffs, cross legged (and probably cross-eyed) on beaches, or in the woods where branches stick you in the backside and the hum of sandflies muddle your mantra. Authentic meditation is the epitome of inwardness, undertaken for 20 minutes per day silently at home, allowing the re-discovery of a quiet and steady place, – the domain of memory fragments acting as touchstones to a long-forgotten sense of simplicity and childhood.
True our brains thrive on the stimulation provided by experience, diversity, and complexity but a little appreciated dimension of enrichment goes in the other direction, – towards abstraction, inwardness and degrees of subtlety. This aspect when reanimated brings fresh appreciation of the simplest experiences of day to day living, calming to a degree the inner dragon of material longing an outer conflict.
And now with LOVE getting a fresh airing in schools as principals grapple with student depression and suicide we are reminded that there are some simple qualities which neglected leave us poorer regardless of external stimuli.
Meditation may connect us with that which is deepest in ourselves and therefore with one another in trusting and supportive ways.
Meditation, great believer in it, fascinating subject, especially now we have the technology to scan the brain while a person is meditating. Science backs up meditation.
The brain is an incredible piece of our bio technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw71zanwMnY
They not only can scan the brain during meditation, they can measure the actual effects on the brain of practicing meditation over a (short) period of time.
http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/articles/differential-pattern-of-functional-brain-plasticity-after-compassion-and-empathy-training
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/07/dalai-lama-neuroscience-compassion/397706/
BTW, meditation does not have to be Buddhist practice.
Well said ant.
Regular meditation has had the most profound effect on me as an adult.
At it’s essence is the lack of thought, from which we gain our idea of ourselves, which is almost always wrong.
Oscar Kightley has said it so right re Meteria. An excellent piece.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95719299/oscar-kightley-brave-tureis-main-mistake-was-to-be-so-honest
Yep. Well said that man.
A sensitive fair piece. The Media Report at 9 this morning on RNZ goes through the Meteria story. Well worth the listen.
I wonder if Materia will tell how the media and other agents, intruded on her family? My guess is that it was not the tough public interviews but what was happening off camera.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201854557
Here’s a question for you all.
When was MT going to pay the money back.?
After all she has had 15+ years of earning well over 100k. By definition she is part of the 1%. I think that is what pisses everyone off, not the amount or the fraud but the big f you up until this point.
Feeling personally affronted is the choice you Righties make, P4l. Enjoy!
Robert, do you think it’s acceptable for a struggling business owner to not pay tax so he/she can pay the family bills?
Is this a personal question, BM? Are you doing it hard? Is the IRD taking more from you than it should? If so, tautoko!
No.
Is the IRD taking more from you than it should
How does that work, Robert? if you’re only making enough to survive you shouldn’t have to pay any tax?
nah, that is only something for rich people who can afford accountants do.
righ, like our Mr. Top guy, Gareth Morgan.
and housing fraud is only something for sitting PM’s who collect an Accomodation benefit on a million dollar house they own, err……their wifes owns, …..err that is in a trust……
right?
right?
for the record, considering that the min. rent in NZ now is something like 400$ for a dwelling of i would want the first 25.000 earned tax free. Cause that is a minimum that one needs to survive.
Progressive tax rates are for business people also.
In my experience, IRD are much more accommodating than WINZ, if illness makes you incapable of paying your bills.
Even in the current regime, if your business is not making money you do not pay tax. Unfortunately WINZ requires you to stop working at your business to get a benefit. Which seems to contradict Nationals stated aim of getting people into work.
Of course the system is designed so people have to take exploitative underpaid jobs.
Not to allow them to compete with Nationals mates, in business.
But a UBI would make entrepreneurship, something we want to encourage, less of a risk.
Yep and I’m pretty sure that National realise that and can see profits dropping if people could easily compete with entrenched businesses.
Removes the risk of other things as well such as a career change that requires retraining at tertiary level.
Not acceptable BM but I know that many who avoid full tax payments. I know some who remove cash from the till so that it is undeclared income. Unacceptable.
Why isn’t it acceptable? his/her family has to eat.
We’re not talking tax evasion because you don’t want to pay tax but because if you do you won’t have any money left to keep your family clothed and fed.
I think you have some gotcha facts to drop – please do so. Tough situation for business owner – could they sell their holiday home or a car or something to help if they have them. Not a long term solution but may help them short term while they sort out he day forward.
No gotchas, no holiday homes and they need the car for the family.
Well I’d imagine other options will have to be thought about because going to jail for tax evasion will not be pretty. Are you thinking of dobbing them in? – please don’t. Lots of us are stuggling mate.
[Citation Needed]
Well maybe they have to have somewhere to sleep?
My accountant has a simple analogy / story to solve this moral dilemma, and explain how IRD works.. It’s called the walk down the drive test. A hypothetical, or maybe real, IRD auditor walks down your drive and does a count up of the toys parked thereon. Does this match declared income?
But the more serious side to this is that petty (and not so petty) lying is an endemic, and accepted, part of our society. From a bennie maximising their benefit to tradies doing cashies to politicians having memory fades. It is accepted by a lot of our society and in a strange way kind of allows a sector of society to survive by avoiding conflict. The people who do it are seen to get ahead, so it becomes what you have to do to not be left behind.
And because everyone is doing it, when an individual calls it out they are going to get rat fucked. Hard
Pretty sure that tradies doing cashies is a far lesser sin than beneficiaries not being totally honest with WINZ. So in addition to what you describe there are all sorts of hierarchies of fairness.
Easiest solution all round is to run the economy so that people have both enough to live on and opportunity for a meaningful life. Then start rolling back the government’s push to make people selfish. If after that there are still some people who want to tell porkies, I probably don’t actually care except where it’s blatant.
My partner , a teacher administers NCEA for their school, there are two groups who get subsidised NCEA fees, some benificaries and members of the local Dairy farming community. One group is able to structure their incomes to the level of the other and its not the benificaries.
You can look at the tit pullers another way too. A lot of them actually aren’t making any money, not even close to break even without drawings. The only ones making any money are the banks (maybe) and the equipment suppliers (they get paid early before the operation starts showing a loss)
This is a looming disaster for the country where a good proportion of the dairy industry goes tits up. Group think where the answer was to go bigger and more intensive. Then they can’t meet consent conditions and it all gets really hard.
A friend tells a story about someone he went through Telford with, 5 yeas ago he had 300 cows and was getting new vehicles and an overseas holiday for the family every year, then he went big and is still driving the old vehicles and hasn’t had a day off since. But he’s got 1000 cows. They’re keeping a really close eye on him.
and are quietly managing the price down and drip feeding the sales into the market…..as usual the banks are unlikely to end up footing the bill.
A great many are farming capital gains, not cows!
why did he go big?
I gather for the same same reason that most of them did, it looked like a no brainer at the time. It’s only later they realise that the consultants, suppliers and bankers (who’ve all been paid, strange that) might not have been quite right. There may have been a bit of group think going on too, and definitely a few success stories getting it all going. Now we’re seeing stories about operations down sizing and getting more profit.
But that’s how the business process works, we’ve taken on debt to grow our business with very mixed success.
Another part to it is the way our tax system works, you’re incentivised to reinvest in your business to reduce tax liabilities, hence the new cars etc. Scale it up to the move from 300 to 1000 cows and it can get out of hand.
I have difficulty getting my head around how we want a more prosperous society, but incentivise people through our tax system to not make any money.
Ok, I was thinking more about motivations like greed, or wanting a bigger project, or wanting the challenge etc. But if I’m understanding you right it’s more that this is just what everyone does because everyone does it. Plus the advisor thing.
“But that’s how the business process works, we’ve taken on debt to grow our business with very mixed success.”
Yeah, I’ve never really understood this. I once phoned a medium business in another city and asked about accessing their product. They told me that they liked the size they were and had no intentions of growing, so sorry, they would be selling to existing local customers first and that meant they could sell to me or where I was living. And of course that left space for other producers to start up, who would do things a bit differently and so everybody wins. I gather that’s not the norm 😉
We deal with businesses that have that level of confidence and security as well, who have no intention of pursuing a growth path. The ones that are on the aggressive growth thing we tend to avoid if it’s about more, but embrace if it’s about better or higher value. And we’ve also got a couple who are so glum and insecure we wonder if we’ll ever see them again.
I think the motivation to do better and improve our lot is a human thing, we as a species have been like it from the day we thought about walking upright, for better or worse. It’s when it’s looked on as a zero sum game that it all gets messy, and really isn’t getting better. I suppose it’s whether you see the world from a we or me perspective.
How many tradies are actually doing cashies?
I know some do. Including one i had to laugh at. He complained bitterly, about his kids losing their student allowance, the year he stated his real income, for a mortgage.
He still goes on about bludging bennies. Go figure.
I know many, like i used to, let the customer think it is a cashy, though it all went through the books.
Several reasons.
You get paid cash every Friday.
No waiting for direct credits or dud checks.
You don’t get guarantee claims for the job.
Customers think they are getting it cheaper.
Unfortunately, competing on price with tax dodgers and cowboys, is hard.
We’re not talking tax evasion because you don’t want to pay tax but because if you do you won’t have any money left to keep your family clothed and fed.
Yes, and we can figure out if we’re honest with ourselves that a lot of people struggling to keep a business viable and have enough to live on find ways to evade tax. If one of them later in life becomes a politician and promotes a policy on tax reform by revealing that they had to do this themselves a couple of decades ago, would you like to see every detail of their private life turned over by oppo research teams and media gossip-mongers in an attempt to hound them from office and prevent tax reform? Or would you find that distasteful?
Business owners have a choice. They willingly go into business. They have funds sufficient to go into business. And don’t try the beneficiaries have chosen a “lifestyle” line. If life on a benefit was so cushy and attractive, everyone, including the small business owner, would be trying to get a benefit.
They willingly go into business. They have funds sufficient to go into business
Actually, you’ll find most new businesses are grossly underfunded.
Even if they have plenty of startup capital, what if the business hasn’t been that successful and the business owner has chewed through all his/her reserves, should they just starve?
Stupid question. They can apply for a benefit like everyone else if they have insufficient income to avoid starving.
Maybe they don’t want to get hassled by the draconian winz.
Once you turn up and apply for a benefit you’ve got to then start looking for a job, I don’t think running your own business counts.
That’s the end of your business and all that money and hardwork down the drain.
The transition from small business / self employed to either a benefit or corporate employment is almost impossible.
Winz will want you to answer unanswerable questions about income and assets, and won’t be able to understand the difference between turnover and gross and net profit (that’s three very different things). If your average bennie feels like smacking the winz agent, spare a thought for the ex small business owner.
Applying for a job is equally fraught. After 20 odd years of self employment you will never pass the psychometric tests to get into a major employer. You’re not a submissive “team player” any more. No matter how much you bend over.
Yep for many once you go down the small business path that’s it for life.
Like you say, it’s next to impossible to get any decent employment if you wanted or needed to, you don’t tick any of the correct boxes so never make it past the HR filter.
They don’t make it easy to transition from anything to anything. That’s part of the point that Metiria was making – instead of helping they make it hard or even impossible.
I think BM is starting to realise that. About the little lies we all have to tell to make ends meet.
I am disappointed that Metiria and the Green Party hadn’t thought this through a lot better. The ensuing rat fucking was to be expected, unfortunately that’s the world we live in now, and responses should have been there before anything was said. It’s also disappointing that three careers have been destroyed in Green politics by this. That experience, compassion and knowledge isn’t easily replaced.
You’re exactly right about the attitude towards personal change, it’s made hard at all levels, employers, winz, and really all of our society. I’d like to hear from some of our personal responsibility types here how this squares with their freedom of choice beliefs.
BM – this is the difference between choosing to be an “entrepreneur” or being a worker having to do as told. I belief it is the latter that is actually the driving force rather than sound management skills that get many into starting a business.
The risk is to loose investment and the consequence can be severe if the commercial homework is neglected.
But the risk is taken by the individual whereas the severe consequences of starving because there is no job is by design of social and trade politics.
If a former self employed person needs to go to WINZ would the last tax statement of accounts and a letter of your accountants assessment not clarify the financial situation?
I belief the difficult part is the emotional and psychological consequence as such failure is seen as loss of dignity whereas it is just a means of measuring ones skill at this point in time. 2 choices: employment or acquiring skills to get another start. Perhaps both to get the funds.
I’m having a chuckle seeing you and draco defending how generous and compliant winz are to the ex self employed. I can assure you it’s actually the most Kafkaesque experience you can ever endure. Second only to earnings related compensation from ACC for the self employed.
Of my winz experience, I got referred to them by a business assistance programme at the start of GFC when we had a huge upheaval, one appointment was enough. I gave up on the business assistance programme as well.
As for ACC, the earnings related side is hardly worth applying for if you are self employed, and especially if you are partners in business and life. You get nothing, but still have to pay full earner premium.
Many of my relatives are self-employed contractors and have, occasionally, found themselves reliant upon the mercy of WINZ. They complained about how bad WINZ was as well and I’m pretty sure that I’ll find at least some of them complaining that MT lied to WINZ.
Yep, so did I last time I looked. Figured I’d be better off trying to start a business fully under the table while on the EB than actually getting that.
Yeah, I also know that people who’ve been in business that complained that they didn’t get the full 80% of their income – but had been boasting not too long before that they weren’t paying tax or ACC because of awesome accountant.
80% of zero is zero.
Graeme, you are missing the point.
If a person chooses to go into self employment they also know that they are getting into. If you get a job, then you can get sacked after 90 days with essentially no explanation really.
And don’t be mistaken, I have been in partnership in a business subcontracting and retail. This was an eye opener.
There are real insidious people out there, sanctioned by the tax regime of this country, who use the goods and services delivered by small business and deny payment for long periods of time thus making cash flow the number one issue of concern. It is almost criminal how this works as it basically keeps contractors in bond, like modern slavery.
If there needs something charged, than it is the law that if subcontractors deliver the goods and services than they have a right to be paid – and only then can the tax department ask for their charge and not sooner.
If any of those flexing their muscle for the SM business community start were it counts.
Hey, I’m trying to agree with you that dealing with these government agencies is a de-humanising process that is totally counter productive for our society. And it encourages / forces people to lie. This destroys good people.
There’s got to be a better way to do it.
Foreign Waka, for most small business people it’s not at all a choice at all, in my partner’s case it’s all she knows and in mine there were no employment options at the time and then I discovered it was a one way street. I had a good career in construction, NZCE, but came out the wrong side of a couple of recessions. Then ran up against the HR dept. No going back there.
It’s certainly got it’s good points, but dealing with lairs who can’t / won’t pay you is a pain. And they think they are so shit hot for doing it. You soon learn to keep out of their way.
Apparently, according to you, they don’t have a choice.
Wrong. In fact, WINZ actually has business startup assistance.
Isn’t that the risk that all the capitalists insists is the reason they’re worth so much?
They require you to cease all work on the business.
Which is counterproductive to the stated aims of getting you back into work.
Contrast with, say, breaking a leg while on ACC.
Well, that’s the difference between the two, isn’t it.
For your business owner, going to winz is the last resort in acknowledging failure, and they would prefer to commit tax fraud.
If you are already at the last resort, and it still doesn’t pay the most basic bills, committing benefit fraud is really the only option if you want to eat.
Actually, just drop your completely flawed argument.
Nah, stiff their unsecured creditors and hide behind their limited liability skirt.
/
That’s the wealthy business owners Joe.
The rest of us have to sign personal guarantees, to get supplier credit.
While the wealthy business owner we subcontracted to has it all in a family trust.
Hi BM
Do you think this is justified and makes sense?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/88924330/Benefit-fraud-v-tax-avoidance-why-is-one-dealt-with-more-harshly-by-courts
Personally, yes, and back when I worked for IRD, saw a lot of tax debt written off in those circumstances.
No but that business owner can go down to social welfare and get the same help that others can get to help pay their bills.
Personally, I doubt that Metiria Turei is part of the top 1% by PAYE or by wealth but no doubt you have a ‘definition’ that supports your claim. Would you be so kind to provide a link for my edification?
I think you’ll find that she isn’t. IIRC, back in 2004, 100k put people into the top 3%. Considering inflation since and the way that the top salary packages have gone up that 100k has probably dropped down the scale some.
You’re not everyone and I’m pretty sure that you’re only projecting your feelings onto everyone else thus I figure you’re talking out your arse.
Is this about corporate welfare?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11902858
They can’t organise their lives as best they would have wanted so we give them money as a handout as an investment for all of our futures.
Can individuals do the same thing?
“Peter Dunne is trailing Greg O’Connor in Ohariu.”
Brings to mind one of those pull-toys: the wobbling ducks or the Dachshund.
Is Michelle B off her head on Q&A?
Sure was entertaining.
Yep ,gone mad. Panic attack big time.
Michelle Boag is off her head full stop.What a harpie.
Morticia comes out of the crypt on occasion and frightens the life out of people. Brush her off like an irritating fly.
Classic. Made my afternoon.
I see the National Party have adopted a “me too” strategy.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/337045/national-s-donations-surge-after-ardern-s-promotion
They don’t like it up em do they.
Edit: They don’t like it up em. 😀
the faithful will be pooing that it’s all going to end and they’ll be chucked off the gravy train. Easy marks for the party machine
Yeah, hopefully the begging e-mails I have been getting from Joyce, Collins and Bennett will stop now they have such a big inflow. lol.
What happened with the Cabinet Club? Did Key take the customer database with him?
https://thestandard.org.nz/cabinet-club/
Billbomb about to go off?
Do you mean the Barclay Bomb Graeme?
Well we had billburger yesterday
Tried to access Q&A on Demand but they say no longer available. Damn.
Q and A screens again later tonight I think. It should be available on demand for a few days after that too.
Just tried again on Demand and it works. Michelle was predictable up until the water question when she became unhinged. Also chicken dressing?
While looking at the position of Germans in the USA pre WW2 I came across this bio of a German couple who immigrated mid 1800’s and became leaders of integrity with progressive and enlightened results that benefitted the USA greatly.
This is an example of the good side of immigration.
Let’s look at immigration from the point of what useful results to the social and skillsets of the country – large number of immigrants here have turned us into a wonderful, advanced country.
But now a large number of immigrants are more likely to be chosen for their money, or their willingness to tie themselves into debt for an unscrupulous, promised education and better future, not their useful additions of insight and beneficial ideas and proven positive skills at professional level, or proven outcomes.
Schurz and his wife arrived in the United States in 1852, eventually settling in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1855. They were quite well off financially. Margarethe’s dowry (the money a woman brings into a marriage) alone was enough to set Schurz up in business. His fame as a daring fighter for freedom in Germany, his solid education, his gifts as a writer and speaker, and his political ambition combined to make him a well-known figure almost immediately. Although he rarely stood for election himself, his persuasiveness with German American voters made him a force to be reckoned.
His wife, too, was active in bringing new ideas in education to the United States. In 1856 Margarethe Schurz founded what many consider the first kindergarten in the United States in Watertown. Like many German schools in the United States, the kindergarten was conducted in the German language until World War I (1914–18).
Schurz was antislavery and became an avid supporter of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) in the presidential campaign of 1860. He is said to have traveled more than twenty-one thousand miles campaigning for Lincoln, speaking in both English and German. He was credited with swinging much of the German American vote.
After the American Civil War (1861–65), in which he served as a general, Schurz settled in St. Louis, Missouri, and became a U.S. senator. In Washington, D.C., he turned to issues of corruption. Because of his criticisms of U.S. politicians, some alleged that he was not a patriotic American.
He responded with a phrase that has become famous:”My country right or wrong: if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
In 1876, Margarethe Schurz died, but by that time she had passed on her knowledge to others who established more kindergartens and set a standard for preschools in the nation. Schurz was made Secretary of the Interior that year. He attempted to initiate environmental controls, particularly over forestlands, and to follow a humanitarian (promoting human welfare) policy with respect to the Indians, but stronger powers within the nation overpowered his liberal idealism.
Schurz left government office for good in 1881 and began a second successful career as a journalist, author, and lecturer. He made New York his home, where he became editor-in-chief of the Evening Post and eventually Harper’s Weekly.
Schurz saw himself as a mediator between German and American culture. He continued to be equally fluent in German and English, writing his widely read memoirs in both languages. He traveled back and forth many times between the United States and Germany, filled with pride for both. When accused of mixed loyalties, he responded that he loved equally his “old mother” and his “new bride.”
Audrey Young plumbs new baby depths here:
“It has also killed off the notion of leader Winston Peters being in power sharing arrangement with Labour – as he could credibly have done if Andrew Little had delivered enough numbers for a coalition but with an embarrassingly suppressed voted.
(His best chance now would perhaps be in such circumstance that, were a Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of a mind to, she decided she wanted a few month’s parental leave).”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11902498
Audrey the Spiteful National Hack?
You gottit!
Nasty little woman with a forked tongue ?
Thats why she works for The Herald.
Who supported Trump and why? There has been lots of discussion and insight on that. They seem to like his full-on approach, his apparent anti-government,
anti-authoritarian stance, someone who stands big and criticises others who should be doing something else without much idea of what should or could be done. When there is enough rot the fine fabric of democracy starts to tear!
I remembered the great following of Hitler from some people in the USA pre WW2.
Seems similar – follow the loudmouth, the apparently strong man who inspires confidence. Some were right on to the Nazi message in the USA though it was felt that it was a connection of the settlers to their German heritage, but they still gave the raised arm salute, the same mass gatherings, marches etc.
“Hitler is the friend of Germans everywhere,” noted a girl who attended Camp Hindenburg in Wisconsin. “And just as Christ wanted little children to come to him, Hitler wants German children to revere him.”
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/11/how-american-nazis-used-summer-camps-to-indoctrinate-their-own-children/
http://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/6-things-may-known-nazis-america/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/world-war-ii-before-the-war/100089/
In 1931, the U.S. authorised flying hero and known Nazi sympathiser Charles Lindbergh to be sent as a spy to Hudson Bay to look into using sea-planes for warfare and seek out points of low resistance as potential bridgeheads
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039453/How-America-planned-destroy-BRITAIN-1930-bombing-raids-chemical-weapons.html#ixzz4paZWJXBm
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
I think a lot of the Trump vote was from those whose circumstances were so bad, that almost any change gives some hope.
KJT
They certainly got something out of it, a parade, hats, camaraderie. Someone should have played 76 Trombones. Are they allowed to hand out free doughnuts in the USA or is that treating? Homer would have been there, dooh!
This is what they voted for with Trump, visualising something better and brighter!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdd6q0pW4DM
More poverty bashing from the National Party. How does sending kids to the Army and fining their struggling parents for not being better ‘prison officers’ tie in with his so called ‘social investment’ policy?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95727988/special-bootcamp-for-youth-offenders-at-waiouru-army-camp-under-national
That sounds bad. Freedom of movement?
14yo Children on the street can be arrested and taken to court? Crikey!
Suppose the justification is where they as mobs creating mayhem but all those under 14 get arrested where their companions over 14 will not be and that probably includes the group leader.
The party of “individual responsibility” and personal freedom is sure keen on search, surveillance and restrictions on people meeting.
The party of “individual responsibility” and “personal freedom” is sure keen on search, surveillance and restricting people.
Bicycle helmet laws – not really worth the effort
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGsM-XIuGwo&feature=share
This is all about the individualist entitled Generation X or Y saying why do I have to do this? Why aren’t there laws just for other people? There needs to be a helmet law because we want to save the brains of those who don’t really have much up there anyway.
It is likely to be blokes who are leaders in this anti-law stir as men want to be FREE. And not have to worry about accidents, after all they can ride on the pavement now and use the safety component of that, shifting the risk of collision and injury to the pedestrian. And there is the state ACC to look after you if you survive. Put the effort into getting more safe cycling lanes. Offer Councils plans that show how to have separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists. That’s worthy of effort.
There needs to be a helmet law but one that isn’t so tough that people who have to travel somewhere and haven’t a helmet aren’t going to be spot fined a month’s rent or something. Just enough to nag you into putting one on your must-have list.
I suggest you actually watch it.
Sorry I haven’t got 22 minutes for whining. Can you tell m whereabouts the meat of the item is?
There’s no whining – just facts backed by research.
The only whining so far is from you.
well, so far I’ve gotten through ten minutes of correlation=causation, “a study”, “widely acknowledged”, assumptions that the legislation was generated in a vacuum rather than wide campaigning, “trivial difference” (trivial head injuries?) and so on.
Nobody has ever said the only thing to effect cycling safety is wearing a helmet. A “trivial effect” is still an effect.
Here’s what they never said: why do helmet requirements lower cycling rates? It can’t be because they’re afraid of looking like a dick.
Holy fuck, it gets worse as it goes on lol. Some numpty got arrested for not paying her fines because she refused to wear a fucking helmet? 13min: Oh no, old white guy treated like criminal for breaking the law!
Oh no, they resent wearing helmets!
Nice propaganda. Shame it doesn’t back it up with the facts you promised. It’s a load of shit.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/recreational-cycling/11979540/Bike-helmet-laws-do-not-prevent-head-injuries.html
Having smacked my head on the road due to legislation that allows cars to be driven by cunts, I don’t give a shit what “research” tells us. If you smack your head into something, it helps if you’ve got a helmet on it.
The video makes the point that helmets should be mandatory in high risk areas but not so in low risk areas. I.e, if you’re commuting to work on the road then wear a helmet. If you’re out for a Sunday ride down the park/beach then maybe not.
You can still wear one if you want though.
I’ve never hit my head falling off a bicycle – even when I got run over by a car. Broken my ribs a time or two though.
Yeah, the old “in general it might be a good idea, but I’m safe and don’t need it”.
Or, more precisely, “bike helmet laws do not prevent people being admitted overnight with some manner of head injury on their list of diagnoses”.
Nothing about severity or even primary cause of admission in that study.
Murdoch on doing anything for kids
Probably needs to be embedded or something.
ARE SOME NZ HUMAN BEINGS TREATED WORSE THAN ANIMALS?
http://nzh.tw/11902374
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1999/0142/latest/DLM50299.html
11. Obligation to alleviate pain or distress of ill or injured animals
(1)The owner of an animal that is ill or injured, and every person in charge of such an animal, must ensure that the animal receives treatment that alleviates any unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress being suffered by the animal.
(2)This section does not—
(a) limit section 10; or
(b)require a person to keep an animal alive when it is in such a condition that it is suffering unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress.
Section 11(1): amended, on 10 May 2015, by section 12 of the Animal Welfare Amendment Act (No 2) 2015 (2015 No 49).
_____________________________
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.
Exposing the $1.6 BILLION Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM.
You can be prosecuted for not feeding and housing an animal properly.
Apparently keeping 300 thousand children in poverty, is legal!
And. Highlighting the fact, is grounds for dismissal.
No, it is grounds for Trial by Media with the ‘Honourable Justice’ Patrick Gower presiding.
Staggering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgXVGT9Qvw8&ab_channel=TheYoungTurks
Yup, emboldened KKK, Neo-Nazis, and anti-Semitic White Nationalists.
Hate as a family thing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/it-wasnt-just-white-men-who-participated-in-the-unite-the-right-rally_us_598f55b4e4b09071f69a0381?ncid=APPLENEWS00001
even more staggering
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017-chicago-murders
this weekend to be added.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-1-wounded-in-south-side-shooting-20170812-story.html
Must be a new Roy Morgan poll out soon. Anyone got any ideas?
Can anyone tell me the contact email address for The Standard?
This one: thestandardnz@gmail.com gets returned to sender.
Aha. On the contribute page the email address has a dot after .com so the message is now sent!
still relevant today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HdOHrc3OQ
The sadness runs deep.
it does. 77 years and nothing really has changed.
Genau. Actually, I cannot help but admire Hitler as he eyeballs down 40,000+ people at the Nuremburg rally … Yet he was a barbarian. Times are turbulent as usual, and Trump is an anathema, but here in NZ we act like none of this happened before.
why oh why is David Parker not Labours finance spokesman (any more)?….
Parker chose not to be but Grant is doing a pretty good job. Easily edged ahead of Nationals SS Joyce, the BS merchant, on Q & A this morning.
Agree. Dildo came second.
pleased to hear that….but with Parker its effortless.
The media have been slated for asking Jacinda about baby possibilities.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/95700222/a-baby-and-a-campaign-at-the-same-time
But this Labour candidate was expecting her baby to come a week after the election and is disappointed that it didn’t stick to its timetable.
Timing is supposed to be everything in politics – but the drama of the past few days has scuppered that old nostrum.
As did the baby of Labour’s Rangitikei candidate Heather Warren.
Her baby was scheduled for September 29, comfortably after the September 23 election day – but instead arrived a fortnight ago, at 31 weeks.
WTF If you are having a baby that should be the first priority for the next year.
It is an expectation that modern women will still be interested in looking after their offspring and trying to breast feed the child. That is in all the information available as being of top importance for health in the distant as well as near future.
Talk about trying to double dip. You can’t be thinking about political matters and giving your child all the attention and care it needs while a baby and toddler, and withdrawing for long periods to keep up with your constituency and party concerns. I think many women are trying to have everything, and not being fair to their children. In this case the political life should have waited till the next election, staying on the list would have been a reasonable start.
yes. dear.
btw. women have birthed all of humanity since ages ago, actually since ever, and have always worked.
they might not have been payed, they might have been handmaids, they might have been slaves, they might have been single mothers or unfortunates, they might have been widows, they might have been young or old, they might have lived in peace time or in war time, but they have always worked.
So yeah, women can have it all.
and just for the record, let me fix this for you
Talk about trying to double dip. You can’t be thinking about political matters and giving your child all the attention and care it needs while a baby and toddler, and withdrawing for long periods to keep up with your constituency and party concerns. I think many man are trying to have everything, and not being fair to their children and are fully depending on their wifes to handle childcare, household care on their own, while they go about gallivanting in politics. In this case the political life should have waited till the next election, staying on the list would have been a reasonable start for any man whose wife has just given birth to a child.
Yay Sabine!