Everyone should bank with the TSB or KiwiBank and stop $ 3.5 billion going overseas.
“New Zealand’s four major Australian owned banks paid nearly $3.5 billion in dividends to their parent companies last year – a 28 per cent jump on 2016.”b
But it is your policy suggestion. You said that the government should “act and stop tinkering” and nationalise the banks. I asked you a range of questions about how you would want them to achieve this. You suggested then that the onus was on me to research what it is that you might want the government to do; and you said that “It has been done before in many countries” while refusing to name such a country.
That makes you a troll by definition of this site:
A troll is generally defined on this site as someone who clearly isn’t bothering to engage their brain when commenting. The standard is that the troll could be replaced with a dictionary of lines and phrases, and no-one would know the difference. Typically trolls do not interact with other commentators as they either ignore what others say in reply or write a reply that ignores what they said.
I actually agree that provision of credit should not be left solely to the commercial banks, but the difference is that I wouldn’t demand the government “act” without saying what actions I wanted them to take.
I agree with Ed, we should be banking with Kiwibank.
Forcing someone is an inefficient way of getting anyone to do anything. Much better that we be doing something with a smile and because we want to.
I think Kiwibank are under utilising their primary point of difference. They have the clout of a government and could be creating compelling reasons for people to deal with Kiwibank. Not because they have to but because they want to.
“Forcing someone is an inefficient way of getting anyone to do anything.”
So in fact you disagree with Ed in the context of replying to my post, which was referring to his statements yesterday that the government should nationalise the banks. It seems he has changed his tune after not being able to say what he meant by this.
The UK has Nationalised Banks, in the past. Along with at least one US State, North Dakota (Though I am not sure if you could call that “Nationalisation?).
The UK nationalised or part nationalised a couple of banks that were on the edge of collapse. That is a completely different thing to nationalising ALL banks in a market where all those banks are very healthy. In fact, Ed wants to nationalise the banks here because they are doing so well.
I was with Kiwibank but I went to TSB as they had a good deal on mortgages at the time but when I ran into some difficulties TSB treated me pretty shabbily.
Once the earthquake hit and the value of my house increased suddenly they couldn’t do enough for me but I switched to ANZ and have got a good deal with them so why should I go back to a bank that doesn’t care about me
You want to be treated like a doormat go right ahead, I’ll stick with ANZ (until I find something better)
You’re right I should accept being treated shabbily by a bank, I should be a doormat because “NZ”, how about Ed that NZ banks actually learn to treat customers properly and try keeping customers with good deals or do NZ banks not make any money
Absolutely correct that if I’m treated poorly I’ll go elsewhere because I have a choice, the NZ banks have a choice and the NZ banks chose to treat me shabbily but ANZ chose to treat me well
Ed I agree with your sentiment re bank profits belonging to NZ, but your posts re Chris and James are shabby.
No need to post others personal details, also if you want to open the age warfare can of worms I sure wouldn’t bash the gen x ers especially if I was baby boomer( honestly don’t know if you are or not). Which generation got free education state housing and super? Gen x and onwards have to think of themselves, something those before did not.
The 30- 40 something generation don’t know about “Pay it forward” do they so we have them pushing a “dog eats dog” philosophy so we are in for a rough ride if jacinda cant get us back to the “caring society” again.
Jacinda needs to “lead by example” on all her promises for a Government that is a warm, caring, inclusive, transparent, listening to the voices of all people, – Government ‘that will look after all provincial regions equally’ and then she will shut national out of contention.
with home loans I go with who has the package that works the best for me. A kiwibank loan (last time I looked) was in the high 10’s of thousands more expensive over the term of the loan.
Thus if you choose to pay that much money just to bank with a kiwi bank you are financially stupid (which could explain Ed’s facilitation with people being paid). That additional cost is simply interest.
If you wanted to do good with it you would be better off keeping the $ and donating or using it locally for good causes locally as opposed to paying considerably more because it’s a kiwi bank.
I found ANZ to be like WINZ when I asked then for a home loan. TSB were much easier to deal with. Just waiting to hear if they will let me use the equity in my house to clear some debt that I cannot get out from under (and yes, I blame myself for the poor choices I made there. Not all lefties blame others).
* You try to leave
* You get random debts placed on your account for no reason
* Ask to get statements which take weeks for them to come up with
* Go though a call center for everything
* Try to use their god awful website and mobile banking application
“You cannot download a years worth of statements from their website”
And I thought you were somehow involved in IT?
I just checked to see if you statement above was correct and I download and printed my entire current account for last year in seconds.
Of course you can get your statements mailed to you every month if you are somehow incapable of downloading them.
Well chris – I have been a customer of TSB for years now and have never had a problem with them. The fact that there is no bank office nearby where I live has never been a problem when I need to deposit money nor when I travel either in NZ or overseas.
TSB consistently scores highly wrt customer satisfaction and I have to say you are the first that I have ever heard express a negative opinion. Perhaps that might say more about you than about TSB.
Nope, you go through an authentication process over the phone and everything is recorded. No face-to-face meetings or branch visits required (with BNZ).
Exactly!
And infused was lying when he said that TSB tampered with the survey returns.
The surveys are notdone by TSB but by a not-for-profit consumer organisation.
Infused is full of bullshit
Of course you can!
They have my signature on file, they can identify who I am over the phone, (I have transferred 10’s of thousands of dollars from off shore into another bank in the same manner) and if I go through a proper authentication process – signing in front of a JP or Police officer who can verify my identity – and that is faxed or emailed. it is no different to going into the office and signing in front of a bank official.
TSB Bank has won the Consumer NZ People’s Choice award for Banking for the second year in a row.
People’s Choice winners are identified through detailed analysis of Consumer NZ surveys. The banking survey is a nationally representative sample of 1085 Kiwis aged 18 and over and asks respondents to rate their main bank across a number of variables.
To achieve the People’s Choice award, a brand must stand out in terms of customer satisfaction. TSB Bank shares the 2017 award with two other New Zealand owned banks but we the top the overall customer satisfaction result at 87%.
So the TSB owns Consumer NZ?
Interesting! Consumer NZ is an independent, not for profit organisation.https://www.consumer.org.nz/
Re Banks… locals banks sponsor local events, big shout out to the NBS (Nelson Building Society) for supporting so many many local events in our region.
The larger banks ie BNZ do not, thanks for the offer of your logo emblazzened BNZ marque, but that’s all you offer as support in our community, doesn’t matter how many hundreds of thousands we put through your bank. Or how many millions/billions you make from those using the BNZ.
This year we will be moving all of our organisations accounts from the BNZ over to the NBS for that reason.
Personally I’ve been with KiwiBank for many years and they’ve been brilliant.
There is also the AUST tax issue. NZ and AUST have a tax treaty which means a aust registered entity payes taxes to the aust tax office not NZ’s. (like recently highlighted apple 27mil earnings in nz with $0 tax paid in nz.
It should be noted they get their funds, just like Ozzie banks, from the international banking system, not the New Zealand Government. So you are not necessarily keeping banking within New Zealand by using them.
Funding a New Zealand bank from Government borrowing as a, non profit, co-operative would remove the offshore banks altogether, as they will be unable to compete.
The reaction from overseas moneyed interests however, will make Greece look tame. Though Iceland seems to have got away with it, for now?
Note that; Suddam Hussain was toppled not because of anything he did as a Dictator. The west supports much worse. But because he threatened the US economy, with low interest loans to other African States and the bypassing the petrodollar.
And he wanted to use the Euro for trading his oil shipments instead of the US dollar as the Euro at the time was trading better than US and this would further weakling the US economy ATM.
What is a “country”Antoine? Is it a set of lines outlining a land mass or something more? Should a government govern for its citizens or all the citizens of the world?
Why wouldn’t kiwis want the benefits of their hard work to stay in NZ?
Yeah, it makes SFA. That’s why I’m pitching as I am. Just 20% of that 5 billion would benefit all NZers rather than just those with Aussie bank shares.
Any self respecting citizen in a self respecting country would be appalled at the loss of $5 billion to wealthy overseas interests.
To read the comments of many here shows how low we have fallen since Douglas betrayed this country.
I’ve banked with Kiwibank since it started, but my house is freehold and I don’t have significant savings so easy for me to do. Their Free Up accounts don’t have fees so all it costs me is the odd other bank ATM charge and card replacement costs.
I think you have never dealt with ANZ if you think Kiwibank & TSB are the worst… Or ASB when the people trying their best are tied up by stupid rules from above
YMV indeed, but the vast vast majority of feedback I have ever heard from people that have dealt with ANZ (including myself way back when they took over National Bank) is that they are horrible. There are very few people that seem to have positive dealings.
I can’t remember where (so this is just my own musings) but I am sure that the ANZ has consistently been at the bottom of any customer satisfaction surveys/rankings for NZ banks
Be that as it may I’m a happy customer with no plans to move.
(though I did get a home loan through Kiwibank as they were offering the best deal at the time and they were hopeless – or at least the woman managing the account was hopeless).
ASB switched to a one manager 10000’s of customers and all decisions are centrally managed via email only. Time frames are long for decisions andmanagers change constantly compared with when they were not trying to squeeze every last cent out of NZ.
On the recommendation of another satisfied customer, and the strength of their zero-fees accounts, I switched to TSB about 17 years ago. They’ve been great. I like that when you phone them with a request, a person always answers the phone (no machines, no waiting).
One thing I don’t like is their prize draws – would prefer slightly interest rates on balances than the chance to win a car. If I wanted to gamble, I’d by Lotto tickets.
Put this CEO Norris in stocks and give us all rotten tomatoes to throw at him Ed.
He needs a strong dose of ridicule so no one else comes along as he has to suck up to a corrupt leader like he did with (John Key) to take our public money to get a sweetheart deal to build this “convention centre” while also being allowed to install many more gambling machines.
I know business is not your strong point but if you don’t even know the difference between a ceo and a board chairman I would suggest night classes before you start commenting on financial and business matters.
I think he should start with remedial reading lessons. Then he could continue with learning how to respond to people who query the source of some of his bizarre claims. I am still waiting for him to tell me when Stephen Joyce was the Minister of Broadcasting. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26-01-2018/#comment-1439808
That would be for the same 9 years Gerry Brownlee was the minister of climate change (according to a certain poster in here – who refuses to admit they were wrong)
“Kill off night classes”
A lot of schools used the Governments cutting out the funding off hobby classes to scrap all the courses they ran. They used the excuse that people wouldn’t be able to afford them.
Their clients weren’t given any option. The schools often didn’t want them because it meant that rooms would have to be available after 3.30pm and the staff couldn’t all head for home. Someone would have to be available to make sure that the placed was securely locked up after the classes finished in the evening.
A number of the more civic minded schools certainly kept them going and they remain very popular.
What would you like to learn. Here are a couple of options from schools in the Wellington area.
Wellington High School. A great school serving their community and the only one I have been personally involved with. http://www.cecwellington.ac.nz/course-catalogue
Tawa College http://www.tawacomed.co.nz/OurCourses
Knowing this the National led government more than decimated the funding, and then (without any kind of cost/benefit analysis), created the Inspire scholarship, increased funding to private schools, created charter schools and required beneficiaries to attend “ready to work” workshops ad nauseum.
Gives a fairly clear view of what “education” means to National.
BTW, had a look at your courses links and you are right – a comprehensive and impressive list offered by Wellington High School, but the prices remove lot of potential participants. Night school was notable for it’s accessibility.
Tawa College’s prices are more in line.
I would consider these to be anomalies now, rather than the norm. The removal of funding reduced the numbers of classes offered, increased the costs of those classes, and reduced the access to community education for many NZers.
Pointing out a couple of comprehensive programmes does not change that.
I would agree that the prices might discourage some people.
However I don’t think that the removal of funding was the cause of the classes going. That was a deliberate choice of many of the school organisations who did not give anyone who was attending their classes the option of paying a bit more.
They used the excuse of the cutting of funding as an excuse to dump them because they found them a nuisance to provide.
They even dumped the courses where the subsidy was not cut. That included the core literacy and numeracy options and te reo.
Have a look at this extract from a story at the time
“The Government’s $13.1 million funding cut for Adult Community Education, announced in the 2009 Budget, has seen the number of community-based courses plummet.
More than 100 of 212 schools offering continuing education last year have pulled out and just 24 are still receiving government funding, with another 24 in “partnerships” with funded schools.
Maryke Fordyce, president of the Continuing Education Association through Schools, said it was yet to be seen how many classes would survive. Last year 200,000 people attended subsidised night classes in schools, but only 25,000 places were subsidised this year.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3323417/Cuts-end-popular-night-classes
They cut about $65/person and HALF the schools immediately dumped them. Do you really think that cutting the subsidy for cake-decorating classes was so terrible?
“Do you really think that cutting the subsidy for cake-decorating classes was so terrible?”Yes, One of the great things about night classes is that the unemployed and sick could attend them,
For the unemployed this offered one of the only ways to get re-training, not to mention the social interaction.
For the sick, many course were more accessible, countering the issue of social isolation (if your unfamiliar with this its the human reaction to “hide” to cut yourself off when sick/unwell)
Course with no obvious financial benefit like “cake decorating” (a small percentage may have gone on working in bakery’s so the skills do have some economic benefit) have a social (social isolation is a big topic and a major driver of the benefit trap) and learning aspect and can be a great way to get people back into education.
that 13.5mil unspent now probably cost’s the govt 2 – 3 times that in mental health support (unfortunately I have no evidence to back this up, Thier is UK study http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-09-20-health-benefits-evening-classes-revealed) but NZ has diffrent social issues than the UK so the study’s stats may not apply.
“Do you really think that cutting the subsidy for cake-decorating classes was so terrible?”
Agree with Leonhart. Yes.
The social interaction and accessibility is one of the primary benefits to adult education.
And yes, schools may have “dumped” them for the reasons you state, but they are already underresourced and teachers undervalued. It amazes me how often people expect those who are already doing so much, to do more.
Link to a report from 2011, into the funding cuts puts in clearly:
2.1 Recommendations:
ACE funding for night classes should be re-instated to:
Empower communities to provide learning opportunities to meet local needs
Enhance adult learning opportunities and personal development options
Facilitate community networks
Provide career development openings. “
You also haven’t addressed the cost benefit analysis of ACE, and the failure to perform any cost benefit analyses on the education experiments they did fund. (Note: Made a mistake in previous comment Aspire scholarship fund – not Inspire)
The standard is that the troll could be replaced with a dictionary of lines and phrases, and no-one would know the difference. Typically trolls do not interact with other commentators as they either ignore what others say in reply or write a reply that ignores what they said.
Yes you have made my point.
I won’t do work for lazy posters who are merely seeking to derail and distract from the fundamental issue.
And we have better things to discuss.
Morning Breakfast people I whatched Te Karere last nite.
Many thanks to Ian Hutson he Tells the story of the reality of being a maori cultured person in Aotearoa and in reality we get the short end of the stick all the time
even some of my Whano whom are quite successful and have received the short end of the stick are in denial thats how brain washed the people of NZ are NZ is a fair and Just society YEA RIGHT.
He says that crime is dropping and confirms my statements on that subject.
They are still predicting OUR Maori prison population to continue to rise .
The Ngaru tai / Tidal wave of Maori prison population that has increased under shonky key and bills 9 YEARS this will take time to subside .
So ECO MAORI says to all the Maori cultured people on Papatuanuku keep your noses clean and make YOUR tepuna proud of you and be proud of yourselves .Then in time our Maori prison population will start dropping .
There is still talk of building a billion $ prison I say spend the money on improving the peoples and the mokos lives instead of spending all this money locking them up is the humane way to solve this problem
Its not ROCKET SCIENCE its common sence .
The Salvation Army is the Indigenous protection society and ECO MAORI is backing the Salvation Army 100% please make donations to the Salvation Army to help Tonga in her time of need
Good interview with the CTV building collapsing during the Christchurch earth quake that scenario is the neo libral western laws being made by the wealthy to protect the wealthy what a farcial system . There is a another scenario running in Tonga at the moment the neo libral civil servants MAFT pandering to Trump and trying to stop the reality that Global Warming is pokeing the people of Papatuanuku in the eyes .They are telling TVNZ 1 Pacific reporter what she can and cannot report in Tonga Barbra Dreaver told MAFT were to go you go Lady Mana wahine
Kia kaha. Ka kite ano Here is the link to Ians from the salvation armys interview
The idea of incarceration as rehabilitation is ridiculous, it always has been. But its supported by the public because of two ideas.
1) The criminal must “pay” by suffering hardship for their crime.
2) They are a danger to society and must be removed from it.
1. is understandable but misguided, no one pays for crime by being made to suffer you pay for crime by making reparations/recompense, obviously some crimes (like murder) this is an intangible figure (although there are novel solutions for this like indentured servitude), but in many crimes a value can be associated to the crime, but this is never met as we ruin people lives for the sake of “justice”
2. Can be true, but not in most cases and the people we are talking about should be in psychiatric wards receiving treatment not sitting in a 6 by 4 box.
IN our current system we lock people up for Years, without much support (apart from Drug & alcohol programmes and recently a literary program) then release them when their time is up with a bit of money sometimes (see pathway to freedom programme – many are not eligible)
Without completing the pathway programme, according to reports you get dropped of at the local bus station with a ticket back to your hometown (sometimes) and are told to goto MSD for support (you are still subject to a stand down period) sometimes assigned housing for a short term is provided (depending on demand) other times they get released and… nothing, nowhere to live, no support apart from overworked and underfunded corrections departments.
NZ has a 65% recidivism rate because we do not reintegration ex-prisoners back into society and give little/no opportunities for future employment. If you have a conviction, most employers will not even look at your CV.
Are we want to jail more people? For longer and longer using the disproven and failed notion that longer sentences reduce crime? yes apparently, because they must pay… but never actually “pay”
by “pay” its not just financial but moral restitution should be considered as well. In the form of teaching & community work, public speaking etc. To atone for the moral implications of the crime not just financial.
cavate, some crimes are heinous and you cannot “pay” but this should not stop an attempt to even if it takes the person’s entire life trying to atone, this would be justice.
sitting in a box is not. (at a cost of $110,000 per year to the taxpayer)
Agree. The conversation in public is never very deep. MoC reform towards the less costly and more efficient rehabilitation and support would be a policy that I would like to see proposed and implemented.
Pakatoa Island would be a good NZ version of Bastøy prison, already has the accommodation and infrastructure. 🙂
1080 – just wondering.
Yesterday while driving from Colville north to Fletchers Bay on the Coromandel, we noticed a lot of warning signs advising visitors to be aware of 1080 baits in the area.
“Carcasses and baits could be fatal for dogs.”
We saw several hawks feeding on the carcasses of possums as we drove.
Were those birds likely to be affected?
I’d say yes at a guess, I know around these parts if there has been a drop people avoid trout fishing (as trout can eat rodents) as well as hunting (especially with dogs) for a few months due to that reason.
It would be hard to know if the possums were roadkill or 1080 victims if they were on the side of the road. But at a guess they would more likely be roadkill, but anything is possible.
The toxic assault on the national party has begun today with News hub siding with Judith Collins as their listeners top choice for National party leader.
Now we have a toxic leader for the National Party emerging as an aggressive leader.
We are now seeing a “generational shift” says News-hub but that made me laugh as Labour have already set the standard for the generational shift but it seems that national are taking the same direction but Collins is an old woman isn’t she?
Wake up national and new-hub also will you.
Interesting year ahead with all this toxicity emerging in the national party.
Interesting hearing David Parker on RNZ this morning saying the Government would not be bailing out Fletcher’s. He said the shareholders knew they were taking a risk with investing in shares and the Government were not about to bail them out. Sounded pretty “to the point” with no arguments. Maybe there is going to be an easing on Corporate Welfare – interesting indeed.
why would Fletcher’s need bailing out anyway? They are still going to make a profit this year. Just a lot less than last year. It is only the B&I division that is causing trouble. The other divisions are humming along. Any talk of bail outs etc is just media being silly.
No, this will merely provide Twyford with a convenient excuse.
When he is asked about the failure to build any affordable houses in the next couple of years he will probably claim something like.
“Everything was on track and we were going to greatly exceed the 100,000 target but Fletcher Building deliberately sabotaged the plan in collusion with the New Zealand National Party. They are saboteurs and are totally responsible for the total lack of progress by our great coalition. Jacinda will be on the cover of Women’s Weekly again though so the masses will be appeased”.
It is a perfectly reasonable for a while. If things are in a mess, as they were when National took over in 1990 and 2008 it can be quite valid.
Rather harder for Labour of course, since things were in general in good shape in 1999 and 2017. They can claim it about housing for a bit of course. That is the one thing where National took their eye off the ball.
It does wear a bit thin though after a while. I would say that nothing is unchangeable in about 2 years. If you haven’t made major strides after that time it becomes your fault and you deserve the blame.
The time varies with the situation. By now Labour should have started buying lots of land in Auckland for housing.
And they shouldn’t be wasting hundreds of millions on the America’s Cup.
People on the loony left are still blaming Roger Douglas for crying out loud. He ceased to have any power 30 years ago. If you didn’t like what he did you are perfectly entitled to ask every Government since that time why they didn’t change it. None of them can say it was his fault any longer and that they really truly wanted to do something else. They can hold their heads up and say they didn’t change it because he was right. That is what they all really thought and they should be honest enough to say so
Why don’t you read what I said? Is it too hard.
My precise words, in my comment you are replying to, were
“They can claim it about housing for a bit of course. That is the one thing where National took their eye off the ball”
How can you possibly interpret that as saying that “housing was in good shape”?
And read it carefully. I didn’t say that Labour could talk about “Housing a bit”. I said “FOR a bit” meaning a bit of time
and…the housing mess, and yes it is a mess, didn’t just appear under national’s watch. This is a failure of successive governments, and it isn’t going to be fixed anytime soon.
it could be. very very quickly. But it would annoy alot of people.
1) Ban Airbnb without a licence as a commercial business (with taxes, inspections the same as a motel etc applied)
2) Eminent domain any house that is left uninhabited for 6 months with regular tenants living in the home, this includes holidays homes that are left unoccupied (to stop people calling their auckland land banks properties holidays homes)
3) Introduce a CGT of 10% one home per adult 18+ (must have citizenship) owner (who owns at least 50% of the property) exempt but compounding per home owned 1 = 0, 2 = 10% 3 = 20% etc.
4) Scrap letting fees
5) Reevaluate the TT so some of its more controversial decision have a modicum of sense (like “no dogs” but tenant can have dogs then damage the property and not pay)
6) introduced a govt funded and managed Tenancy “check” for both landlords and tenants to enter good/bad data at the end of each tenancy.
7) Make civil enforcement more binding and more realistic, Example a tenant who can damage a property can be charged with paying back for all the damage but can then turn around and say ok $5 a week for 100 years.
8) Landlords who “double dip” should be charged with fraud (claim damage costs from the tenant and then get the same from insurance)
9) mandatory renters insurance (maybe even built into the tenancy agreement, with a liability cover)
10) Extreme – circumstances) Create the ability for a landlord/tenant to be stripped of the ability to rent out a property in case of landlord fraud, multiple breaches etc.
I agree with some of those suggestions, but in reality the biggest problem has been the failure to plan by local councils, aided and abetted by inept governments. That has led to a shortfall of housing, which pushes up prices and makes housing unaffordable. Wham. In Auckland we now have the indecent spectacle of developers building multi-story boxes to pack people in to a level of density that is utter madness. Add that to AT’s obsession with building cycling lanes that no-one uses, and the Council’s obsession with building public transport infrastructure in a city not designed for it, and we have a right mess.
@hornet your right, but blame is pointless it really doesn’t matter whose fault is it, what matters is what we do about it right now!
Yet, every story every political statement is just more talk, from national who needed more committees to labour who are still in committees, adding to the housing stock is a long term goal we need radical action right now or this problem is going to go critical – rent for some is 60% of their wages, whats going to happen while we add to housing stock slowly (as building takes time) and rent becomes 70%, 80%, 90% of wages, when people can’t afford food due to housing costs. (which is already happening accord to salvation army report)
Parliament should be locked in until they pass some emergency measure to curb this crisis, because its pure greed thats forcing rents/prices up, nothing more.
As you often make no sense at all, – like your mate David Bennett showed also today in parliament as my mind recalls some sweet memories of utu coming back on your friend David Bennett, – read this event for the record;
I had to laugh today watching parliament when the ex Chair of the Transport and industrial relations committee chair David Bennett got up to speak on a dairy farmer bill and blamed the labour coalition for stripping out his rights to discuss the bill as “a erosion of democracy”
I recall when we assembled a 10240 petition and presented it to the steps of the ruling National government in 2012 to give to David Bennett as he was the chair of the Transport select committee then and he refused our democratic rights to speak in front of his committee about our mothballed Gisborne rail.
So it was so satisfying to see that David Bennett got the same feeling that he gave us of indignation when he refused our ‘democratic’ right to speak.
I really don’t understand why you think I might be interested in this.
However, if I have your attention perhaps you will recall the claim that you made about Stephen Joyce some weeks ago.
Have you had time to track down the source of this yarn?
My request to you is available here. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26-01-2018/#comment-1439892
Perhaps you have forgotten. It is apparently the mark of a troll to put comments in without links and also to ignore requests to provide information to justify such claims when asked.
Doesn’t that make you a troll?
Justification or withdrawal would seem to be in order on your part..
Diddums.
It is a very simple matter to admit you are wrong you know.
I do it whenever I make a mistake.
Mind you, I do it on very rare occasions. I guess it would take a lot of your time though as you routinely tell lies.
Come on. Admit you stuffed up. Even if it is on only one occasion out of your many errors that you admit to the lapse.
You really will feel so much better. Correcting your foolish mistakes may even become a habit.
By what deranged standard could the mess National left in 1999 be described as “in good shape”?
Unemployment close to 8%, Employment Contracts Act, a double dip(ton) recession, ACC privatised, Max Bradford, growing inequality at a (for then) all-time high…
I think it’s unreasonable to toss out the garage band and expect U2 to take the stage. We’ll get another garage band, they’ll just play a genre of music I enjoy.
Those that enjoyed the ousted garage band’s blues renditions will of course claim ‘These new reggae guys are muck, I was expecting U2.’
Yes, Twyford should be gobbling up land, he is isn’t he? I understand there is an announcement in the pipeline.
I don’t share most lefties opinion of Rogernomics. I think changes were inevitable, unfortunately he administered eye surgery with a bread knife. I’m not a fan of import tariffs. I see them in the same light as WFF. Yes families need more money, in an ideal NZ I think it should be coming from thriving businesses rather than Beehive kickbacks.
“The economy is 30% smaller”.
No doubt you are able to explain the manner in which you come to that conclusion?
And you will also tell us why every Government since then has been sensible enough not to change any of the reforms to any degree.
Just one of the very many references I base that on.
NZ GDP dropped in the same period that Australia’s gained 16.8% and the OECD average was 19.7%. Hardly a success even by right wing terms such as GDP.
The rise in inequality, poverty and the drop in incomes was obvious to the rest of us.
Wage incomes dropped more than 30% against Australia’s and have never recovered.
“Another complication is that any improvements from the reforms are dominated by the macroeconomic stagnation evident in Table 2. While over the 7-year period from 1984 the OECD expanded its volume GDP by 19.7 percent, and Australia, facing a deteriorating external environment, expanded by 16.8 per cent, New Zealand GDP contracted in absolute terms.
Unlike that of the 1966-76 period, this poor performance cannot be explained by the external situation. In fact the terms of trade improved slightly over the period. Macroeconomic policy, which concentrated on disinflation, bears much of the responsibility. Monetary policy was tightened in some sense faster than fiscal policy, resulting in an over-valuation of the exchange rate at the same time as protection and export subsidies were being removed. That combination seriously damaged the tradable sector which had been the engine of growth in the New Zealand economy”.
Anyone who thinks the Douglas reforms were a success, where we bent over and unilaterally invited the outside world to fuck us, is delusional.
And no Government since has shifted them since. For the very simple reason that it suits the very few, extremely wealthy people, and the big corporates, that fund the two major parties when they obediently carry it on, just fine.
I’m sorry.
I was looking forward to what you would say but when I see that the link you provide is to something that was written a generation ago, in 1994, I don’t really think I can be bothered going through it.
I am, or was, an economist. I am not an historian though and things that happened in the period from 1984 to 1994 are just that, history.
I do think the Douglas reforms were necessary and have provided New Zealand with a much brighter future than would have been the case with the Muldoon policies.
I also do not see where you first claim, that NZ GDP dropped, can possibly come from, particularly at the drop you claim.
Here is one representation of it https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/gdp
GDP today is much higher than it was when Roger got started.
The proof is in the fact that NZ did a lot worse than other countries, such as Australia, that did not throw out the baby with the bath water.
I have many more references, some of which I have discussed, and given on this site over the years.
However writing more detail will have to wait until i am not busy at work.
As for Muldoon, it is debatable, but cutting reliance on expensive oil imports was a good idea at the time. I don’t think many people expected the USA to invade a few more countries to stop the sky rocketing oil prices. I was one of the majority who voted for Labour at the time BTW. I still see Muldoon, as the last National party leader who actually cared about NZ’s future. Rather than adding PM to their CV. Or making a fortune afterwards.
Many think big projects made fortunes for their private owners, as did asset sales in general. Showing that they could have paid back the borrowing over time. If they hadn’t been given away in the fire sale by the ideological vandals who caused Rogernomics.
“I do think the Douglas reforms were necessary and have provided New Zealand with a much brighter future than would have been the case with the Muldoon policies”.
I did not say that GDP had dropped, just that the increase was hugely lower than other OECD countries, that didn’t adopt Rogernomics/Thatcherism with anywhere near the same enthusiasm. You double the population it is going to rise, anyway.
You may be partly correct comparing Rogernomics to Muldoons policies. But there was another path we could have taken. The one initiated by Kirks Labour Government. Including the equivalent of a sovereign wealth fund, for one.
“I do think the Douglas reforms were necessary”.
This statement is wrong on so many levels, it is hard to know where to start.
We havn’t done well even by right wing measures such as GDP. Which I believe are flawed, but it does give a basic economic comparison between countries.
As for real wages, inequality, Labour productivity, investment, innovation and rising poverty. It is blatantly obvious that the 80’s and 90’s reforms have not delivered, except for a few.
The history is relevant because it set the path we have been on ever since. Where speculators and spivs make more money than contributors.
I think Ad 6.2 may be right. They have the will and the dosh, while our lot have….? (Well, sounds a possibility so let’s have an economic paper on it, let’s have a cup of tea or would you like something stronger?)
When I looked at the shareholding for Fletchers there didn’t seem to be much that said Chinese or Asian to me (morningstar report) it seemed like North American institutions and funds. Perhaps that’s why Fletchers haven’t done well. The Chinese have been building all sorts of things successfully using clever expertise and careful surveillance of steel no doubt.
And the Chinese can afford to play extreme jokes on people – who would have though Chinese had such sense of humour? In vid below it is suggested that some people think it is cruel. I would find it terrifying and would never go on it if I knew, but if the warning was in Chinese or under size 9 font I could be caught. It’s amazing what people in power will do to each other no matter what nationality – it seems to be human to be inhuman sometimes. Haha.
the query was as to the clarity of the options…id suggest there is very little clear about the provision of infrastructure requirements…something Ad himself(?) has commented on often, even the possibility they may not happen at all.
The political fallout of such a decision alone would suggest wholesale provision by offshore entities would likely temper if not preclude such an event.
Did you hear the other things he was talking about?
Obviously this Government has solved Auckland’s housing problems.
The Nation’s children are all out of poverty.
The health system now provides all the medical treatment desired.
Now he can get on with the important matters.
A couple of hundred million to spend on a place for the uber-rich to gallivant round at an America’s Cup Regatta.
I’d rather have my tax cut, frankly. I can then spend the money on useful things like a cataract operation for my wife.
Better that than having Parker blow it away on things to attract a few billionaires here, so that the Cabinet can joyride on the super yachts. And keep Dalton in his million dollar lifestyle. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11994413
Tell Team New Zealand the money shower is over. Go somewhere else and play.
That is a $10 mil project for an industry that has a thriving export market and employs over 40,000 people.McCully gave away more than that to one windswept Arab shiek, for?
Yep. Don’t forget National suspending democracy in Canterbury, so their mates can make a killing, on a short term industry, on irrigated farmland unsuitable for dairy.
Going to be even more expensive to fix than Nationals leaky building stuffup.
Just say “No!” Prime Minister when the trash mags come calling.
“No, they’re not paying me to pose, they’re paying me to sort out homelessness and child poverty and the crisis the health system, high youth unemployment and suicide rates.”
“She really is the “woman’s weekly” pm. Soon there will be pregnancy shoots – then the baby shoots etc.”
She is and those “shoots” will deliver her many terms as Prime Minister.
I agree that some (but not all) of these photo shoots, interview by popular magazines etc may deliver political and other benefits (eg publicity about NZ) and thus well worth the PR and publicity.
Vogue for example may be aimed at the high end of the worldwide fashion market, but their articles are usually of reasonably high quality in terms of what they focus on, and are not just fluff and fashion.
From memory, it was reported back in November when the actual photo shoot and interview took place that these were on a Saturday morning – not in the midst of the parliamentary working week, for example.
As presumed by James at 7.2.1.2, it was also reported that Jacinda Ardern will not be on the front cover of the magazine as apparently it is not Vogue’s policy to do so with political figures or their family – eg Michelle Obama was not on the cover when she did a shoot and interview, and Theresa May who also did a Vogue interview and photo shoot in late 2017 will not be on the cover when these are published (April 2018?) .
Ardern’s photo shoot and interview has been reported again now because the actual interview (but not the photos) is now publicly online although the hard copy Vogue March issue is not due to be on sale for some weeks.
(Note – you will probably get an initial screen asking for name, email etc – just close the X and it should go to the article.)
IMO the article is a good balance between reporting Ardern’s political background and views, and the more personal stuff including fashion. I have certainly seen much worse.
I personally have no problems with this article being available worldwide in terms of any impressions it gives of New Zealand. In fact I am pleased to see mentions of NZ’s long standing anti-nuclear stance and Ardern’s stance on climate change.
Ardern is clear-eyed about what a prime minister of New Zealand, a country with a population of under five million, can achieve on the world stage. “We’re small,” she says, “but we do our bit by standing up for what we believe in.” She points to New Zealand’s long-standing nuclear-free policy as an example and wants to apply that same moral leadership to action on climate change. “We’re surrounded by island nations who will feel the brunt of climate change. So I see us as having a responsibility.” Of course New Zealand is a tiny contributor, overall, to the warming planet—and yet carbon-heavy industries like farming, horticulture, and forestry are the country’s biggest businesses. Ardern is ready to take those sectors on. “The most difficult thing for us to do is to mitigate and offset our agricultural emissions,” she says. “If we find a way to do that, then we’re showing other countries how to do it too.”
Exactly North – James, PR etc. are dissing things of interest to many women (fashion, clothes) as unworthy trivialities.
But they see no problem with similar things that are of interest to men (rugby, beer) where Key did photo-ops.
Their misogyny is as blatant as it is unconscious.
Oh – and she looks bloody great too – whereas Key looked like the doofus he also sounded like.
Key grasped every chance to be in the public eye. Both the sublime and the ridiculous and it seemed to work, damn him. I guess that those who read the trashy magazines may not gain an awareness in “our” ways. So go for it Jacinda – I am afraid.
While people are admiring her picture on the cover of vogue at the supermarket (I’m guessing most labour supporters would never actually buy a copy)- it takes their eye off the signing of the TPP that labour are so in favour of now despite all their promises and bowls of outrage.
You’re starting to look pretty troll-y there James. Too many implied lies there that are redesigned to rark people up. Might want to rethink how you want to comment here. It would be good if you did that before I start thinking about getting out the bold pen. But I am noticing a growing number of people pointing out the troll-like nature of your presence here.
“it takes their eye off the signing of the TPP that labour are so in favour of now despite all their promises and bowls of outrage.”
You’ve been called out on this before, and failed to respond.
Labour were never against the TPPA, but against the process. Provide a link to where they unequivocally and officially stated their aversion to the TPPA. I – like many others – waited for them to do so, and it didn’t happen. Attendence at protests is not the same as protesting or opposing. (…or the police are far more liberal and progressive than I gave them credit for)
That one is more real, because we have not had a lying, smug, ad*&^%, in office for 8 years. This hate against jacinda has no basis in fact – it may get there with time.
Unlike the former PM who not only had the blip’s list, but the utter disdain of a growing portion of the population.
Rosemary
You seem in the mood to appreciate this last bit from a rather dark post on Bowalley Road.
William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet, saw it all happening nearly a century ago, in the fretful aftermath of the First World War. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity”, he wrote in his most famous poem, The Second Coming.
The final lines of that poem can still send a chill down the spine:
… but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
She can and will do both. Who on earth would turn down golden opportunities to connect with voters the way women’s mags allow modern politicians to do? Jacinda is serving her supporters well by attending to their political needs and their need for encouraging stories.
As long as she doesn’t get into the stream of crap those magazines publish.
According to the cover stories I see at the Supermarket checkouts we will have two magazines saying how blissfully happy she and Clark are and two saying they have separated. Next month their will be the same two viewpoints but on the other pair of magazines.
Does she plan to be the David Beckham of the Posh/Becks variety?
Mind you at least Beckham was a superbly professional footballer and his wife a very skilled businesswoman. I don’t see anything like it in our pair.
God almighty did you not see all the magazines at the supermarket we had to suffer as visual pollution of the chosen one and his Stepford wife. At least Adhern’s partner is employed as we speak and not being a blessed ornament to the annointed one. The Stepford wife got a degree for god’s sake and then “with mutual decision making” decided to become a stay at home wife while the godhead blazed the stage of the money markets.
Give Jacinda Adhern a break, at least Vogue magazine has some mana in the print world and she will get maximum exposure for the forgotten lot of us down here.
Hard to see the real difference between Clark and Bronagh in at least one respect.
Brohagh stayed at home and brought up two children.
Clark is going to stay home and look after one child.
Do you really think that women who stay home with their children are to be despised? It certainly sounds like it.
Leave her alone. Just because you don’t like the National Party is no reason to spray your venom at someone who took no part in political life, seems to be a very pleasant person and has done absolutely nothing to you.
Well, alwyn, like WK I recall seeing many Women’s Weekly type magazines at the supermarket over the last nine + years featuring John Key and Bronagh (or Bronagh alone) on the cover with articles inside – with accompanying photographs of them or her in various changes of clothes.
Similarly over the last year there have been magazine articles (some with front cover photos and more photos inside ) featuring Bill and/or Mary English.
So take a step back and stop this ‘pot calling the kettle black’ approach.
Also:
1. Gayford’s first name is Clarke – not Clark. (Misspelt in your 7.3.1 as well)
2. How do you know that Jacinda is only having one child? Have you seen the ultrasound images? Do you know there are twins in Jacinda’s family (eg her father has a twin brother)?
3. As I detailed in my comment at 6.1.1.3.1.2 in OM on 13 Feb, Clarke is giving up most of his work to be the main caregiver – probably a not easy decision.
Three years ago he took a big gamble (with Jacinda’s agreement) to follow his dream of creating his own TV series combining travel, fishing and food, and marine sustainability and protection.
The third series of his series “Fish of the Day” is due to run here in NZ soon on Prime TV (it was previously on Choice TV) and in about 38 other countries through the National Geographic’s network (up from about 20 countries for the previous two series).
So he deserves credit ( as does Bronagh) for putting his dreams, ambitions etc aside to become the homemaker, caregiver etc in support of their partners.
My apologies to Clarke Gayford.
I didn’t mean to misspell it and to do it twice is very careless.
On the other hand I found Kate’s comment about Mrs Key quite offensive to all woman who see their most important role as bringing up children.
I see you pointed out Kate’s error as well.
Did you mean your criticism of me in a “nice” way as well?
Well alwyn, I had to give that a lot of deep thought overnight, and could not get hold of my lawyer to get her advice, but taking all things in to account, and putting you request into the context in which it was raised ..
OK, fair is fair, I am prepared to describe my criticism of you comments as meant in a “nice” way as well; and also as meant as “constructive criticism” – or should that be “instructive criticism”.
BUT – if it is twins, I will count on you to back me up when I claim to have predicted this before anyone else! LOL.
” I will count on you to back me up “.
That seems entirely fair. I will not treat you like Cassandra.
Both my sisters had twins. Ran them ragged.
I can’t remember whether the odds, when my siblings and I were having children, were about 1:80 that a birth would be twins or 1:80 that a person would be one of twins.
I believe that it has risen quite a lot since then, though. Older mothers and fertility treatments mostly.
I am not sure of the odds either – but only about four months to go. But my remarks on this were strictly tongue in cheek!
I have a cousin who swore that she did not want children despite being married and hubby was also of the same view etc. Lucky her (or rather them) had first one set of twins despite birth control; then a second set again despite birth control. Surgical intervention was then sought by both parties to prevent further accidents. Then divorce…
Have a nice day. Did you see my reply to your ‘randy goat’ remark on Daily Review last night? LOLZ
” Did you see my reply to your ‘randy goat’ ”
Yes, and I replied to it.
ps. There wasn’t an actual publication “The Double Standard”. There were only the mock newspaper posters.
This is why Labour made her leader, this is what her role is, smiling, laughing, mag shots and all the other superficial fakery.
The real stuff whatever that may be is going on behind the scenes, Arderns just the nice facade to make people feel all happy and positive, “Yay Jacinda she’s so lovely, what an inspiration !!!”
I’ve got to say, it’s a superb strategy, Helen Clark and Heather Simpson are seriously clever people.
Bullshit, BM. clark is out of the picture – mostly out of the country and dealing with her own (international) issues. Ardern decided to bring in Simpson – fine. An experienced pair of hands.
Ardern has a sharp brain and good tactical skills. She has a different approach and a different set of priorities to Clark’s, in her time. Stop spreading manure around and start trying to find your buch a leader who has half the smarts and yes, the charisma and communications skills, that Ardern has..
BM, I think you would say differently if you had the Prime Ministerial finger waggled at you. As she did with that sports jock. She is seriously a leader. Her leadership in the post-election dealing showed that.
I am with you in the sense that I don’t follow the fakery stuff as you call it either.
But modern media etc demand it. She’s good at it, as was Key.
Just don’t think that her skills end there…….. And I don’t agree with your assertion that she is controlled by Clark and Simpson, just as i did not believe that Key was controlled by, well, whichever conspiracy theory one may want to subscribe to.
There is a difference between control and influence, btw. People do, and should, seek good advice.
Yes BM so why did your leader go here to a secretive meeting in 2011 (as four ‘participants’) on public money representing as PM and didn’t tell us all??????
He is also the Chairman of the International Democrat Union, a consortium of 50 centre right parties which meet in Europe on a regular basis. He chaired it during his tenure as PM of this country. Fran O’Sullivan has written about this in her financial opinion pieces in the past. So much for being a centrist likeable bloke which many were suckered into believing.
I don’t have a problem with the whole Women’s Weekly thing. I want a PM who makes time to connect with different parts of the electorate. Lots of women read those magazines and don’t have other connections to politics.
I’ll be interested to see what the Vogue article actually says. The anti-Trump framing is very US looking for hope, but I think they are right. She’s not a Sanders, she’s the liberal inverse of Trump.
The support for a NZ designer will play well in many circles too. This is Ardern building political capital. I think this is smart if we want a second term with a higher majority. It’s not enough on its own, obviously we need the Labour govt to do some serious politics and change, but it’s not hurting Labour’s ability to do those things.
More of a problem imo is what Stephanie points to about values-based politics. I don’t see Labour getting that yet.
’ll be interested to see what the Vogue article actually says.
See my comment at 7.1.1.3 which provides a link to the actual article which is now online, plus my views on it and a quote from the article about NZ’s longstanding anti-nuclear stance and Ardern’s stance on climate change.
National’s questions went nowhere and elicited nothing: that’s why there is no news coverage about them.
Labour MPs fell into the same trap during the last Parliament: loaded questions just give the minister a free hit. For example: Kelvin Davis got the National Party’s habit of lying (“scaremongering”) into Hansard.
Yes, I know you don’t see it that way, and so what?
You should watch the coverage. It’s a wreckage. And it’s not about ‘eliciting’ anything, it’s about making government members look like fools. The only reason yesterday didn’t get worse was because Mallard was kind. But Kaye in particular really put a hit on Davis (Mallard had him backtracking on his first answer, then he said he had phoned a particular charter school and they “didn’t pick up the phone” – honestly he’s a walking target) and did again today. Between him and Hipkins, Labour have a real problem. Still, it won’t detract from the PM’s photo op’s, I’m certain of that.
No, she didn’t. She asked about ‘other associate ministers of education’. It was a question that, if allowed to go forward, may well have embarrassed her own minister!
No, it’s more that when National and their mouthpieces allege incompetence, I’m inclined to dismiss their bleating with contempt, on account of the deciduous forest sticking out of their eyes.
“it’s more that when National and their mouthpieces allege incompetence,”
I’d say you don’t have to support any political party to spot Hipkins and Davis as political corpses. The just released Cabinet Paper is going to provide more fun.
Hilarious. National expose an Associate Minister favouring two PS’s over another, all in his own electorate, and you call it ‘dishonest’ and ‘treating education like a political football’.
Let’s be clear, Davis is in serious trouble with this, and considering his Minister is ‘3 strikes’ Hipkins, Labour need to reign this in and fast.
In many areas Labour look to be performing well, but bumbling performances such as Hipkins and Davis are displaying won’t be tolerated with H2 in the background, I’ll bet.
(As is clear from her interjection in the House) Tracey Martin has been talking to some schools, Kelvin Davis to others.
I’d say in going after Davis in these circumstances they make ‘termination for convenience’ significantly more likely. Especially when it turns out they’ve been inflating their academic record by expelling the students they can’t teach.
“Tracey Martin has been talking to some schools, Kelvin Davis to others. ”
Davis has stated publicly he has been talking to them in his capacity as a constituent MP. Hipkins has stated it is the MoE doing the talking. What is Martin up to?
“Especially when it turns out they’ve been inflating their academic record by expelling the students they can’t teach.”
Cite?
And why won’t the government release the report on the PS’s that was due months ago?
I expect the answers to your whynes will form a large part of your reasons to beg for judicial review. Or perhaps they’ll just be more whining. That sounds more likely.
Why would there be a judicial review? We have a government who is talking with forked tongues (or maybe it’s just incompetence?), implementing poor policy to assuage a vested interest group who funds them, and riding roughshod over those who are being affected. This is normal government activity. No cause for a review.
How is complaining about Davis’ behaviour acting in bad faith? Again it sounds like you implying a threat.
And which schools have been approached by Tracy Martin? And why are either Martin or Davis engaging with the schools if Hipkins says he can’t because the work is being done by the ministry (that’s my understanding)?
Good story Anon. Have you seen the Cabinet Paper that has just been released on the changes? I’m reading through it and there has been some big porky pies told.
So, again, your concern is not the right or wrong but whether the government gets away with it. I get the impression that drives most of your commentary here.
The fact that Hornet pursues the same line and approach in his multiple comments and can never be satisfied apparently, does not say anything good about the defence of charter or partnership schools. That is not the thinking of a wise person with resilience adapting to the future while still keeping the important mores of the past. You are a bad
advertisement for them Hornet.
“It was hard to breathe, and each time he exhaled the moisture froze on his face: a chandelier of crystals hung from his beard; his eyebrows were encased like preserved specimens; his eyelashes cracked when he blinked.”
Reminded me of delivering newspapers in a 40c below Swedish night.
A few technical probs. ‘Not a bear in sight’. Antarctica is like that. The blonde bears are all up the top.
I expected bravado and stiff upper lip but instead it was a very credible human story which brought a tear or two to both my eyes. His family neatly included too.
Nothing in her response suggested she’d seen Blade Runner.
NB: I’m not sure when the original exchange was. I remember Danyl posting it on his blog at the time, it must have been at least four years ago, maybe longer. If memory serves, the readers couldn’t decide whether this was Collins wittily giving a response that made her sound like a replicant failing the test through lack of empathy, or just Collins lacking empathy. You can probably guess which I thought was more likely.
No, at the time that came out the joke was she hadn’t seen BR, she had no idea she had been punked. Interesting.the righties trying to rewrite history here, Collins a sci fi fan? Ha!
(heads up, she found it humourous, so normal people might find the subject of sexual assault disturbing, regardless of location or nature of the victim):
FINALLY… Zuma has stood down… about freakin time. Time for the ANC to sort their shite out, they’ve become a freaking embarrassment to that nation.
“South Africa will look back and wonder how we allowed a president so reprehensible to last so long in office,”
Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, author of Democracy and Delusion: 10 Myths in South African Politics, told Al Jazeera.
People will be dancing in the streets over there 🙂
I’ve been fairly intimately involved in South Africa (personally and professionally), spent a fair chunk of my time there too and I don’t think this will make a lick of difference unfortunately.
Corruption is so endemic in the ANC now that it is time for a fresh face. The Democratic Alliance is the party of the future however due to the extreme propaganda from the ANC over the last 5 or so years they haven’t a hope because (but not exclusively because I should add) they have whites in the party. It is something the ANC has drilled into the minds of the poorest of the poor even though under Zuma they have suffered while the ruling class have profited. It is such a shame to see the party of Mandela become a hollowed, corrupt and self interested beast.
Zuma was part of the struggle too but in the end he was a bad as the rest.
Not sure he’s cut out for it to be honest. He said some pretty emotive and nasty things about anti-vaxxers last year, and whatever one thinks about vaccination (and anti-vaxxers) that kind of public expression isn’t what NZers expect of politicians.
He also said he wanted to be the sole Māori Party leader rather than a co-leader, another hint he might not work well with others and probably tends to the authoritarian end of the scale.
That Oxfam workers have been apparently trading aid for sex doesn’t detract from the good things the organisation does. Humans always mess up projects, that is why AI has been invented so we don’t have humans around any more. As The Conchords sing ‘The humans are dead,dead,dead….”
As expected NZ is low on their CRI calculations. So is the USA.
He should have just chosen one or two major issues (charter schools is a good one) and a couple of populist ones to go on about but instead he chooses this…
Judith Collins is right when she said that Ardern is all about her, and not about what is best for NZ (words to that effect). Ardern is not elected by the people, and all she seems to care about is endless photoshoots. Totally empty, and Kiwis deserve better. She is out of her depth as PM, so she promotes herself as a glam girl instead. So much for ‘capitalism has failed’ eh. Bring back a real PM, who cares less about empty celebrity, photo ops and magazine covers! The public will tire of it fast, if not already, especially as our economy sinks.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[RWers are free to comment under my posts so long as they’re not posting derailments and they can relate their comment to the post. You’re also not going to get away with running Dirty Politics lines like Labour being an illegitimate government. If you don’t like Ardern, that’s fine but I don’t write so that *you can have a space to troll, spout nonsense and spin. Having looked at why you’ve had bans in the past, I’m making a note for future reference, expect a ban without warning if it happens again. – weka]
1 nil, 1nil, 1nil, stand up if you hate national, stand up if you hate national, stand up if you hate national, stand up if you hate national, clap your hands for Jandals, clap your hands for Jandals. clap your hands for Jandals and Winne is the 2nd coming.
Tanz what a load of bullshit. ” Bring back a real PM, who cares less about empty celebrity, photo ops and magazine covers!”
Who would that be then the planking Pm who took every bloody media opportunity he could or that Bill bloke who found poverty in the final week of the campaign and as finance minister plunged our economy into debt with Tax cuts for the rich all the while strangling our public hospitals and schools funding.
“Ardern is not elected by the people”
Pls define this and name a PM that has been “elected by the people”
“…and all she seems to care about is endless photoshoots….”
Cough ‘John Key’ cough….
Don’t get me wrong – I actually didn’t mind Key all in all (better than some of the weird fucks like Joyce and Collins) but never voted for him. But for fucks sake man, that guy was just as vacuous as you make Ardern to be
” …. all she seems to care about is endless photoshoots.”
That of course is an infantile comment based on not just simple bias, and pique as shown by your other comments, but mainly pure ignorance of what politicians, especially Prime Ministers, do.
More than that though, nominating what according to you Ms Ardern ‘seems to care about’, would be profound stupidity except that it reflects the profound stupidity and vacuous nature of the comment.
I hope you liked what I posted last nite and this morning I’m going to smell like cow ______ so getting ready to go see our taonga mokos so to busy to have more input than this All you Kiwis and Maori cultured people be proud of who you are and keep your noses clean Ka pai Hilary & Jeremy keep up the good work so hard case Jeremy I missed your kiwi wit Ka pai Ka kite ano
Are all you brown people who have or are working in our justice systems feeling STINK BRO well good YOU should have told the Whano exactly how the farcical justice system worked and our prisons won’t be over flowing Ana to kai
Morning Rumble people I drove a water truck for a bit in tauranga. The Tauranga sandflys though they would play a move and chase ECO Away but no like water off a ducks back. Ana to kai
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. 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 ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
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:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
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. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
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 ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
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. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
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Everyone should bank with the TSB or KiwiBank and stop $ 3.5 billion going overseas.
“New Zealand’s four major Australian owned banks paid nearly $3.5 billion in dividends to their parent companies last year – a 28 per cent jump on 2016.”b
Hows the google search going?
Ask the mullet.
But it is your policy suggestion. You said that the government should “act and stop tinkering” and nationalise the banks. I asked you a range of questions about how you would want them to achieve this. You suggested then that the onus was on me to research what it is that you might want the government to do; and you said that “It has been done before in many countries” while refusing to name such a country.
That makes you a troll by definition of this site:
I actually agree that provision of credit should not be left solely to the commercial banks, but the difference is that I wouldn’t demand the government “act” without saying what actions I wanted them to take.
I agree with Ed, we should be banking with Kiwibank.
Forcing someone is an inefficient way of getting anyone to do anything. Much better that we be doing something with a smile and because we want to.
I think Kiwibank are under utilising their primary point of difference. They have the clout of a government and could be creating compelling reasons for people to deal with Kiwibank. Not because they have to but because they want to.
“Forcing someone is an inefficient way of getting anyone to do anything.”
So in fact you disagree with Ed in the context of replying to my post, which was referring to his statements yesterday that the government should nationalise the banks. It seems he has changed his tune after not being able to say what he meant by this.
Yeah Ed makes bold sweeping statements, great conversation starters.
Lots of my adventurous ideas fall over under a bit of scrutiny too. I don’t regret tabling them and sometimes a hybrid floats.
Thanks David
‘a smiley face and a wave emoji’ (I’m not sure how to do them.)
The UK has Nationalised Banks, in the past. Along with at least one US State, North Dakota (Though I am not sure if you could call that “Nationalisation?).
The UK nationalised or part nationalised a couple of banks that were on the edge of collapse. That is a completely different thing to nationalising ALL banks in a market where all those banks are very healthy. In fact, Ed wants to nationalise the banks here because they are doing so well.
I spoke to Google Ed, they said you were a dalcop.
Oh please, Ed doesn’t need to listen to your pesky demands.
I was with Kiwibank but I went to TSB as they had a good deal on mortgages at the time but when I ran into some difficulties TSB treated me pretty shabbily.
Once the earthquake hit and the value of my house increased suddenly they couldn’t do enough for me but I switched to ANZ and have got a good deal with them so why should I go back to a bank that doesn’t care about me
You want to be treated like a doormat go right ahead, I’ll stick with ANZ (until I find something better)
Me.
Me.
Me.
The neoliberal generation.
All about me.
No care for society.
They grew up in the heyday of neoliberalism and are devotees of this selfish cult.
Chris (born in 73 ) is 44.
James, who ‘doesn’t care’, is 48.
You’re right I should accept being treated shabbily by a bank, I should be a doormat because “NZ”, how about Ed that NZ banks actually learn to treat customers properly and try keeping customers with good deals or do NZ banks not make any money
Absolutely correct that if I’m treated poorly I’ll go elsewhere because I have a choice, the NZ banks have a choice and the NZ banks chose to treat me shabbily but ANZ chose to treat me well
Solidarity.
Ponder this concept for a day or so and reflect on this quote.
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Reductio ad Hitlerum 🙄
Yes, Godwin’s law. Ed should stop now.
Your last comment made the point
5 I
2 me
0 we
Ed I agree with your sentiment re bank profits belonging to NZ, but your posts re Chris and James are shabby.
No need to post others personal details, also if you want to open the age warfare can of worms I sure wouldn’t bash the gen x ers especially if I was baby boomer( honestly don’t know if you are or not). Which generation got free education state housing and super? Gen x and onwards have to think of themselves, something those before did not.
100% fact there Ed.
I see it the same way.
The 30- 40 something generation don’t know about “Pay it forward” do they so we have them pushing a “dog eats dog” philosophy so we are in for a rough ride if jacinda cant get us back to the “caring society” again.
Jacinda needs to “lead by example” on all her promises for a Government that is a warm, caring, inclusive, transparent, listening to the voices of all people, – Government ‘that will look after all provincial regions equally’ and then she will shut national out of contention.
with home loans I go with who has the package that works the best for me. A kiwibank loan (last time I looked) was in the high 10’s of thousands more expensive over the term of the loan.
Thus if you choose to pay that much money just to bank with a kiwi bank you are financially stupid (which could explain Ed’s facilitation with people being paid). That additional cost is simply interest.
If you wanted to do good with it you would be better off keeping the $ and donating or using it locally for good causes locally as opposed to paying considerably more because it’s a kiwi bank.
Kiwibank is the worst for home loans and total shit for business banking.
It’s my birthday coming up – some nice cuff links would be a beautiful present.
A violent golf course?
Can be done, but we call them ‘handcuffs!’
No doubt. You should try hanging around less wasters and criminals then.
“fewer” and policemen have handcuffs – show some respect please, old man.
No imagination! Not heard of fluffy handcuffs?
I found ANZ to be like WINZ when I asked then for a home loan. TSB were much easier to deal with. Just waiting to hear if they will let me use the equity in my house to clear some debt that I cannot get out from under (and yes, I blame myself for the poor choices I made there. Not all lefties blame others).
Wait until
* You try to leave
* You get random debts placed on your account for no reason
* Ask to get statements which take weeks for them to come up with
* Go though a call center for everything
* Try to use their god awful website and mobile banking application
Seriously, fuck tsb.
* You try to leave
I dont intend to leave. Too much of a hassle.
* You get random debts placed on your account for no reason
Not too sure what you mean. The debts that go on my account, are placed for transparent reasons
* Ask to get statements which take weeks for them to come up with
I can go on the website and download them in minutes
* Go though a call center for everything
They are working on it,
* Try to use their god awful website and mobile banking application
I found it to be fine. Room for improvement, but they are getting there. Their 2-factor authentication pisses me off tho.
Right-wingers necessarily dislike banks not owned by the big conglomerates, and will make up whatever crap about them.
Fuck off idiot. I’ve had their managers ringing me about this shit. One of their staff was fired for being so fucking inept.
They borrow all their money from overseas btw. Get a clue.
That is why I would nationalise the banks.
– You cannot download a years worth of statements from their website
– They are not working on it – they’ve done this for the last 7 years
“You cannot download a years worth of statements from their website”
And I thought you were somehow involved in IT?
I just checked to see if you statement above was correct and I download and printed my entire current account for last year in seconds.
Of course you can get your statements mailed to you every month if you are somehow incapable of downloading them.
Well chris – I have been a customer of TSB for years now and have never had a problem with them. The fact that there is no bank office nearby where I live has never been a problem when I need to deposit money nor when I travel either in NZ or overseas.
TSB consistently scores highly wrt customer satisfaction and I have to say you are the first that I have ever heard express a negative opinion. Perhaps that might say more about you than about TSB.
lol. their survey is total bullshit. their ex-wellington manager told me they remove negative replies to their surveys.
You will need to see a branch for anything related to your home loans. There’s no other way around it.
You will need to see a branch for anything related to your home loans. There’s no other way around it.
An inconvience, yet, but whats wrong with that. As long as they dont act like WINZ I am fine.
Their closest one to me is 50km away. Only open until 5pm, no weekends. Very handy.
I don’t have home loans
And when I did I was able to negotiate those over the phone. As I do with my investments.
You cannot do anything over the phone like that, stop lying. If it requires a signature, you need your ass on a chair in their office.
Nope, you go through an authentication process over the phone and everything is recorded. No face-to-face meetings or branch visits required (with BNZ).
Exactly!
And infused was lying when he said that TSB tampered with the survey returns.
The surveys are notdone by TSB but by a not-for-profit consumer organisation.
Infused is full of bullshit
Of course you can!
They have my signature on file, they can identify who I am over the phone, (I have transferred 10’s of thousands of dollars from off shore into another bank in the same manner) and if I go through a proper authentication process – signing in front of a JP or Police officer who can verify my identity – and that is faxed or emailed. it is no different to going into the office and signing in front of a bank official.
So the TSB owns Consumer NZ?
Interesting!
Consumer NZ is an independent, not for profit organisation.https://www.consumer.org.nz/
https://www.tsb.co.nz/about/news/consumer-nz-2017
Re Banks… locals banks sponsor local events, big shout out to the NBS (Nelson Building Society) for supporting so many many local events in our region.
The larger banks ie BNZ do not, thanks for the offer of your logo emblazzened BNZ marque, but that’s all you offer as support in our community, doesn’t matter how many hundreds of thousands we put through your bank. Or how many millions/billions you make from those using the BNZ.
This year we will be moving all of our organisations accounts from the BNZ over to the NBS for that reason.
Personally I’ve been with KiwiBank for many years and they’ve been brilliant.
There is also the AUST tax issue. NZ and AUST have a tax treaty which means a aust registered entity payes taxes to the aust tax office not NZ’s. (like recently highlighted apple 27mil earnings in nz with $0 tax paid in nz.
That blows.
Agree. TSB didn’t treat me at all well, either.
It should be noted they get their funds, just like Ozzie banks, from the international banking system, not the New Zealand Government. So you are not necessarily keeping banking within New Zealand by using them.
Funding a New Zealand bank from Government borrowing as a, non profit, co-operative would remove the offshore banks altogether, as they will be unable to compete.
The reaction from overseas moneyed interests however, will make Greece look tame. Though Iceland seems to have got away with it, for now?
Note that; Suddam Hussain was toppled not because of anything he did as a Dictator. The west supports much worse. But because he threatened the US economy, with low interest loans to other African States and the bypassing the petrodollar.
And he wanted to use the Euro for trading his oil shipments instead of the US dollar as the Euro at the time was trading better than US and this would further weakling the US economy ATM.
Why would I want money to be in NZ rather than Australia?
Are Australians less deserving than New Zealanders? Do we want to take their money away??
A.
What is a “country”Antoine? Is it a set of lines outlining a land mass or something more? Should a government govern for its citizens or all the citizens of the world?
Why wouldn’t kiwis want the benefits of their hard work to stay in NZ?
As an Australasian, I’m happy for my money to stay in Australasia.
(Or to leave the region, in exchange for something I want for somewhere else)
There is no country or political entity called Australasia. It is in the same sector as Oceania.
OK, I’m an Oceanian then
Be bold, be a Zealandian
Pull the other one, this piece of land you are trying to flog off to me is largely underwater
Keeps us away from aus.
If you drill down into who the major sharehoders and bond holders of the big 4 banks are, you may be surprised.
It should not be of surprise value…
The banks are not, Australian owned..
They are owned, just like the vast majority of listed companies around the world…’owned’ and controlled by a handful of entities…
They are large global finance institutions
The cost of getting my kid to an Aussie school would be astronomical. It would take 2 days for a policeman to show up.
I can see sense in my bank fees building NZ schools and paying a NZ based Policeman.
(Puzzled) Your bank fees go to the bank, not to pay for schools or police.
A.
The bank is owned by the same people that build schools and pay policemen. You and me.
Kiwibank pays SFA dividends back to its owners.
A.
Yeah, it makes SFA. That’s why I’m pitching as I am. Just 20% of that 5 billion would benefit all NZers rather than just those with Aussie bank shares.
Any self respecting citizen in a self respecting country would be appalled at the loss of $5 billion to wealthy overseas interests.
To read the comments of many here shows how low we have fallen since Douglas betrayed this country.
‘Why would I want money to be in NZ rather than Australia?’
Hope you don’t need to go to a NZ hospital or a road anytime soon.
Went over this with David Mac already, see above
yep Ed been with TSB for 15yrs now.
Very happy so I recommend for all to switch to TSB.
Nice staff.
I’ve banked with Kiwibank since it started, but my house is freehold and I don’t have significant savings so easy for me to do. Their Free Up accounts don’t have fees so all it costs me is the odd other bank ATM charge and card replacement costs.
TSB is the worst bank in NZ next to Kiwibank.
Coincidence?
TSB is not NZ owned.
I think you have never dealt with ANZ if you think Kiwibank & TSB are the worst… Or ASB when the people trying their best are tied up by stupid rules from above
I’m with ANZ and have nothing but great service.
I’m of the opinion that individual results vary no matter which bank you are with
YMV indeed, but the vast vast majority of feedback I have ever heard from people that have dealt with ANZ (including myself way back when they took over National Bank) is that they are horrible. There are very few people that seem to have positive dealings.
I can’t remember where (so this is just my own musings) but I am sure that the ANZ has consistently been at the bottom of any customer satisfaction surveys/rankings for NZ banks
Be that as it may I’m a happy customer with no plans to move.
(though I did get a home loan through Kiwibank as they were offering the best deal at the time and they were hopeless – or at least the woman managing the account was hopeless).
I’d vote ANZ the worst customer service and least ethical bank in NZ.
ASB switched to a one manager 10000’s of customers and all decisions are centrally managed via email only. Time frames are long for decisions andmanagers change constantly compared with when they were not trying to squeeze every last cent out of NZ.
ANZ are great.
So great they remove massive wads of money out of our country.
I understand that TSB is one that is totally under NZ control. Who do you think owns TSB?
Sorry to see your TSB experience was a poor one, Infused, but why lie about the 100% NZ-owned and independent TSB bank?
https://www.tsb.co.nz/about/history
On the recommendation of another satisfied customer, and the strength of their zero-fees accounts, I switched to TSB about 17 years ago. They’ve been great. I like that when you phone them with a request, a person always answers the phone (no machines, no waiting).
One thing I don’t like is their prize draws – would prefer slightly interest rates on balances than the chance to win a car. If I wanted to gamble, I’d by Lotto tickets.
Sorry – they source their funds from overseas. Some hong kong bank.
How can it be worse than banks that take $3.5 billion out of our economy every year?
Think about what we could do with our hospitals with 3.5 billion.
Credit Unions are another good option to support local banking.
I think you need $5k to open an account with tsb.
Trouble at Russell McVeigh
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11994831
And at Fletchers
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/350429/fears-job-losses-will-stem-from-fletcher-s-fall
Time for the old boys’ club to be torn down in this country.
Put this CEO Norris in stocks and give us all rotten tomatoes to throw at him Ed.
He needs a strong dose of ridicule so no one else comes along as he has to suck up to a corrupt leader like he did with (John Key) to take our public money to get a sweetheart deal to build this “convention centre” while also being allowed to install many more gambling machines.
He has blood on his hands this evil man.
I know business is not your strong point but if you don’t even know the difference between a ceo and a board chairman I would suggest night classes before you start commenting on financial and business matters.
I think he should start with remedial reading lessons. Then he could continue with learning how to respond to people who query the source of some of his bizarre claims. I am still waiting for him to tell me when Stephen Joyce was the Minister of Broadcasting.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26-01-2018/#comment-1439808
That would be for the same 9 years Gerry Brownlee was the minister of climate change (according to a certain poster in here – who refuses to admit they were wrong)
Didn’t the last National Government kill off night classes James?
Do you not pay attention to what those you cheer for actually do?
There are still night classes – just not all the yoga classes paid for my the government.
You don’t rate yoga ?
What’s wrong with you, James ?
Not all yoga is bad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoDvXcTgTl4
Combine that with a barbie, and James’ll be in like Flynn!
Ask and you shall receive
https://www.facebook.com/events/402624236775556/
After all that meat eating, he needs some healthy activity.
“Kill off night classes”
A lot of schools used the Governments cutting out the funding off hobby classes to scrap all the courses they ran. They used the excuse that people wouldn’t be able to afford them.
Their clients weren’t given any option. The schools often didn’t want them because it meant that rooms would have to be available after 3.30pm and the staff couldn’t all head for home. Someone would have to be available to make sure that the placed was securely locked up after the classes finished in the evening.
A number of the more civic minded schools certainly kept them going and they remain very popular.
What would you like to learn. Here are a couple of options from schools in the Wellington area.
Wellington High School. A great school serving their community and the only one I have been personally involved with.
http://www.cecwellington.ac.nz/course-catalogue
Tawa College
http://www.tawacomed.co.nz/OurCourses
Yet a PriceWaterHouse Cooper study in 2009 apparently calculated a return of $16 for every dollar spent on ACE.
The benefits of your “hobby courses” are long-term and more than just improving individual finances.
Knowing this the National led government more than decimated the funding, and then (without any kind of cost/benefit analysis), created the Inspire scholarship, increased funding to private schools, created charter schools and required beneficiaries to attend “ready to work” workshops ad nauseum.
Gives a fairly clear view of what “education” means to National.
BTW, had a look at your courses links and you are right – a comprehensive and impressive list offered by Wellington High School, but the prices remove lot of potential participants. Night school was notable for it’s accessibility.
Tawa College’s prices are more in line.
I would consider these to be anomalies now, rather than the norm. The removal of funding reduced the numbers of classes offered, increased the costs of those classes, and reduced the access to community education for many NZers.
Pointing out a couple of comprehensive programmes does not change that.
I would agree that the prices might discourage some people.
However I don’t think that the removal of funding was the cause of the classes going. That was a deliberate choice of many of the school organisations who did not give anyone who was attending their classes the option of paying a bit more.
They used the excuse of the cutting of funding as an excuse to dump them because they found them a nuisance to provide.
They even dumped the courses where the subsidy was not cut. That included the core literacy and numeracy options and te reo.
Have a look at this extract from a story at the time
“The Government’s $13.1 million funding cut for Adult Community Education, announced in the 2009 Budget, has seen the number of community-based courses plummet.
More than 100 of 212 schools offering continuing education last year have pulled out and just 24 are still receiving government funding, with another 24 in “partnerships” with funded schools.
Maryke Fordyce, president of the Continuing Education Association through Schools, said it was yet to be seen how many classes would survive. Last year 200,000 people attended subsidised night classes in schools, but only 25,000 places were subsidised this year.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3323417/Cuts-end-popular-night-classes
They cut about $65/person and HALF the schools immediately dumped them. Do you really think that cutting the subsidy for cake-decorating classes was so terrible?
“Do you really think that cutting the subsidy for cake-decorating classes was so terrible?”Yes, One of the great things about night classes is that the unemployed and sick could attend them,
For the unemployed this offered one of the only ways to get re-training, not to mention the social interaction.
For the sick, many course were more accessible, countering the issue of social isolation (if your unfamiliar with this its the human reaction to “hide” to cut yourself off when sick/unwell)
Course with no obvious financial benefit like “cake decorating” (a small percentage may have gone on working in bakery’s so the skills do have some economic benefit) have a social (social isolation is a big topic and a major driver of the benefit trap) and learning aspect and can be a great way to get people back into education.
that 13.5mil unspent now probably cost’s the govt 2 – 3 times that in mental health support (unfortunately I have no evidence to back this up, Thier is UK study http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-09-20-health-benefits-evening-classes-revealed) but NZ has diffrent social issues than the UK so the study’s stats may not apply.
“Do you really think that cutting the subsidy for cake-decorating classes was so terrible?”
Agree with Leonhart. Yes.
The social interaction and accessibility is one of the primary benefits to adult education.
And yes, schools may have “dumped” them for the reasons you state, but they are already underresourced and teachers undervalued. It amazes me how often people expect those who are already doing so much, to do more.
Link to a report from 2011, into the funding cuts puts in clearly:
You also haven’t addressed the cost benefit analysis of ACE, and the failure to perform any cost benefit analyses on the education experiments they did fund. (Note: Made a mistake in previous comment Aspire scholarship fund – not Inspire)
James, as you don’t know the difference between honesty and truth (agitators plight)..
You’re not in a position to suggest that anyone else should ‘take classes’…
Now the insult is to attend night classes, that the last national government closed down. You’re truly a priceless amoral scrub aren’t you james.
He is. And I wish he would stop loitering on this site.
Hey, déjà vu all over again!
I interact regularly with other posters.
I ignore for the most part pointless or aggressive posts
Google is your friend.
Yes you have made my point.
I won’t do work for lazy posters who are merely seeking to derail and distract from the fundamental issue.
And we have better things to discuss.
So what’s your excuse for everyone else who asks you to expand on your drive-by comments?
I’ve heard Russell McVeigh has a poor reputation for honesty, I’d avoid.
Morning Breakfast people I whatched Te Karere last nite.
Many thanks to Ian Hutson he Tells the story of the reality of being a maori cultured person in Aotearoa and in reality we get the short end of the stick all the time
even some of my Whano whom are quite successful and have received the short end of the stick are in denial thats how brain washed the people of NZ are NZ is a fair and Just society YEA RIGHT.
He says that crime is dropping and confirms my statements on that subject.
They are still predicting OUR Maori prison population to continue to rise .
The Ngaru tai / Tidal wave of Maori prison population that has increased under shonky key and bills 9 YEARS this will take time to subside .
So ECO MAORI says to all the Maori cultured people on Papatuanuku keep your noses clean and make YOUR tepuna proud of you and be proud of yourselves .Then in time our Maori prison population will start dropping .
There is still talk of building a billion $ prison I say spend the money on improving the peoples and the mokos lives instead of spending all this money locking them up is the humane way to solve this problem
Its not ROCKET SCIENCE its common sence .
The Salvation Army is the Indigenous protection society and ECO MAORI is backing the Salvation Army 100% please make donations to the Salvation Army to help Tonga in her time of need
Good interview with the CTV building collapsing during the Christchurch earth quake that scenario is the neo libral western laws being made by the wealthy to protect the wealthy what a farcial system . There is a another scenario running in Tonga at the moment the neo libral civil servants MAFT pandering to Trump and trying to stop the reality that Global Warming is pokeing the people of Papatuanuku in the eyes .They are telling TVNZ 1 Pacific reporter what she can and cannot report in Tonga Barbra Dreaver told MAFT were to go you go Lady Mana wahine
Kia kaha. Ka kite ano Here is the link to Ians from the salvation armys interview
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/te-karere/home/new-salvation-army-report-highlights-nz-issues
The idea of incarceration as rehabilitation is ridiculous, it always has been. But its supported by the public because of two ideas.
1) The criminal must “pay” by suffering hardship for their crime.
2) They are a danger to society and must be removed from it.
1. is understandable but misguided, no one pays for crime by being made to suffer you pay for crime by making reparations/recompense, obviously some crimes (like murder) this is an intangible figure (although there are novel solutions for this like indentured servitude), but in many crimes a value can be associated to the crime, but this is never met as we ruin people lives for the sake of “justice”
2. Can be true, but not in most cases and the people we are talking about should be in psychiatric wards receiving treatment not sitting in a 6 by 4 box.
IN our current system we lock people up for Years, without much support (apart from Drug & alcohol programmes and recently a literary program) then release them when their time is up with a bit of money sometimes (see pathway to freedom programme – many are not eligible)
Without completing the pathway programme, according to reports you get dropped of at the local bus station with a ticket back to your hometown (sometimes) and are told to goto MSD for support (you are still subject to a stand down period) sometimes assigned housing for a short term is provided (depending on demand) other times they get released and… nothing, nowhere to live, no support apart from overworked and underfunded corrections departments.
NZ has a 65% recidivism rate because we do not reintegration ex-prisoners back into society and give little/no opportunities for future employment. If you have a conviction, most employers will not even look at your CV.
Are we want to jail more people? For longer and longer using the disproven and failed notion that longer sentences reduce crime? yes apparently, because they must pay… but never actually “pay”
by “pay” its not just financial but moral restitution should be considered as well. In the form of teaching & community work, public speaking etc. To atone for the moral implications of the crime not just financial.
cavate, some crimes are heinous and you cannot “pay” but this should not stop an attempt to even if it takes the person’s entire life trying to atone, this would be justice.
sitting in a box is not. (at a cost of $110,000 per year to the taxpayer)
Agree. The conversation in public is never very deep. MoC reform towards the less costly and more efficient rehabilitation and support would be a policy that I would like to see proposed and implemented.
Pakatoa Island would be a good NZ version of Bastøy prison, already has the accommodation and infrastructure. 🙂
Just now, https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/101482467/manawat-prisons-flaws-pointed-out-after-inspection
Very shocking, we are treating offenders worse than animals, no wonder gang culture is so strong and they are so angry when they get out.
1080 – just wondering.
Yesterday while driving from Colville north to Fletchers Bay on the Coromandel, we noticed a lot of warning signs advising visitors to be aware of 1080 baits in the area.
“Carcasses and baits could be fatal for dogs.”
We saw several hawks feeding on the carcasses of possums as we drove.
Were those birds likely to be affected?
I’d say yes at a guess, I know around these parts if there has been a drop people avoid trout fishing (as trout can eat rodents) as well as hunting (especially with dogs) for a few months due to that reason.
It would be hard to know if the possums were roadkill or 1080 victims if they were on the side of the road. But at a guess they would more likely be roadkill, but anything is possible.
Hawks can be poisoned as by-kill from other kinds of baits. Not sure about 1080.
The toxic assault on the national party has begun today with News hub siding with Judith Collins as their listeners top choice for National party leader.
Now we have a toxic leader for the National Party emerging as an aggressive leader.
We are now seeing a “generational shift” says News-hub but that made me laugh as Labour have already set the standard for the generational shift but it seems that national are taking the same direction but Collins is an old woman isn’t she?
Wake up national and new-hub also will you.
Interesting year ahead with all this toxicity emerging in the national party.
Looking good for a second term for labour now.
Perhaps like others, I voted in that poll for Judith Collins simply because I want to see the National party implode.
Or maybe I’m sinister like that.
Interesting hearing David Parker on RNZ this morning saying the Government would not be bailing out Fletcher’s. He said the shareholders knew they were taking a risk with investing in shares and the Government were not about to bail them out. Sounded pretty “to the point” with no arguments. Maybe there is going to be an easing on Corporate Welfare – interesting indeed.
why would Fletcher’s need bailing out anyway? They are still going to make a profit this year. Just a lot less than last year. It is only the B&I division that is causing trouble. The other divisions are humming along. Any talk of bail outs etc is just media being silly.
bail them out, nationalise them and call them something like… The Ministry of Works!
Totally agree.
This is an opportunity for the government to assume much greater control of housing in NZ.
Clearly the Australians and Chinese will be building Twyford’s houses and railways.
The cycles of life, Fletchers grew their teeth building Savage’s houses. Fewer pokie emporiums and more houses ain’t so bad.
No, this will merely provide Twyford with a convenient excuse.
When he is asked about the failure to build any affordable houses in the next couple of years he will probably claim something like.
“Everything was on track and we were going to greatly exceed the 100,000 target but Fletcher Building deliberately sabotaged the plan in collusion with the New Zealand National Party. They are saboteurs and are totally responsible for the total lack of progress by our great coalition. Jacinda will be on the cover of Women’s Weekly again though so the masses will be appeased”.
Hahahaha, nah he doesn’t need to do that. He need only stick to the story that all incoming governments trot out.
‘Now that we can have an indepth look at the situation we’ve discovered that things are much worse than we were led to believe.’
It’s a line that gets cut through because it can be applied to all facets of government and leaves dirt sitting with the new opposition.
It is a perfectly reasonable for a while. If things are in a mess, as they were when National took over in 1990 and 2008 it can be quite valid.
Rather harder for Labour of course, since things were in general in good shape in 1999 and 2017. They can claim it about housing for a bit of course. That is the one thing where National took their eye off the ball.
It does wear a bit thin though after a while. I would say that nothing is unchangeable in about 2 years. If you haven’t made major strides after that time it becomes your fault and you deserve the blame.
The time varies with the situation. By now Labour should have started buying lots of land in Auckland for housing.
And they shouldn’t be wasting hundreds of millions on the America’s Cup.
People on the loony left are still blaming Roger Douglas for crying out loud. He ceased to have any power 30 years ago. If you didn’t like what he did you are perfectly entitled to ask every Government since that time why they didn’t change it. None of them can say it was his fault any longer and that they really truly wanted to do something else. They can hold their heads up and say they didn’t change it because he was right. That is what they all really thought and they should be honest enough to say so
Rather harder for Labour of course, since things were in general in good shape in 1999 and 2017.
By what deranged standard could the housing mess National left for Labour to clean up be described as “in good shape?”
Why don’t you read what I said? Is it too hard.
My precise words, in my comment you are replying to, were
“They can claim it about housing for a bit of course. That is the one thing where National took their eye off the ball”
How can you possibly interpret that as saying that “housing was in good shape”?
And read it carefully. I didn’t say that Labour could talk about “Housing a bit”. I said “FOR a bit” meaning a bit of time
and…the housing mess, and yes it is a mess, didn’t just appear under national’s watch. This is a failure of successive governments, and it isn’t going to be fixed anytime soon.
it could be. very very quickly. But it would annoy alot of people.
1) Ban Airbnb without a licence as a commercial business (with taxes, inspections the same as a motel etc applied)
2) Eminent domain any house that is left uninhabited for 6 months with regular tenants living in the home, this includes holidays homes that are left unoccupied (to stop people calling their auckland land banks properties holidays homes)
3) Introduce a CGT of 10% one home per adult 18+ (must have citizenship) owner (who owns at least 50% of the property) exempt but compounding per home owned 1 = 0, 2 = 10% 3 = 20% etc.
4) Scrap letting fees
5) Reevaluate the TT so some of its more controversial decision have a modicum of sense (like “no dogs” but tenant can have dogs then damage the property and not pay)
6) introduced a govt funded and managed Tenancy “check” for both landlords and tenants to enter good/bad data at the end of each tenancy.
7) Make civil enforcement more binding and more realistic, Example a tenant who can damage a property can be charged with paying back for all the damage but can then turn around and say ok $5 a week for 100 years.
8) Landlords who “double dip” should be charged with fraud (claim damage costs from the tenant and then get the same from insurance)
9) mandatory renters insurance (maybe even built into the tenancy agreement, with a liability cover)
10) Extreme – circumstances) Create the ability for a landlord/tenant to be stripped of the ability to rent out a property in case of landlord fraud, multiple breaches etc.
I agree with some of those suggestions, but in reality the biggest problem has been the failure to plan by local councils, aided and abetted by inept governments. That has led to a shortfall of housing, which pushes up prices and makes housing unaffordable. Wham. In Auckland we now have the indecent spectacle of developers building multi-story boxes to pack people in to a level of density that is utter madness. Add that to AT’s obsession with building cycling lanes that no-one uses, and the Council’s obsession with building public transport infrastructure in a city not designed for it, and we have a right mess.
@hornet your right, but blame is pointless it really doesn’t matter whose fault is it, what matters is what we do about it right now!
Yet, every story every political statement is just more talk, from national who needed more committees to labour who are still in committees, adding to the housing stock is a long term goal we need radical action right now or this problem is going to go critical – rent for some is 60% of their wages, whats going to happen while we add to housing stock slowly (as building takes time) and rent becomes 70%, 80%, 90% of wages, when people can’t afford food due to housing costs. (which is already happening accord to salvation army report)
Parliament should be locked in until they pass some emergency measure to curb this crisis, because its pure greed thats forcing rents/prices up, nothing more.
Everything you write is hard to figure Alwyn;;
As you often make no sense at all, – like your mate David Bennett showed also today in parliament as my mind recalls some sweet memories of utu coming back on your friend David Bennett, – read this event for the record;
I had to laugh today watching parliament when the ex Chair of the Transport and industrial relations committee chair David Bennett got up to speak on a dairy farmer bill and blamed the labour coalition for stripping out his rights to discuss the bill as “a erosion of democracy”
I recall when we assembled a 10240 petition and presented it to the steps of the ruling National government in 2012 to give to David Bennett as he was the chair of the Transport select committee then and he refused our democratic rights to speak in front of his committee about our mothballed Gisborne rail.
So it was so satisfying to see that David Bennett got the same feeling that he gave us of indignation when he refused our ‘democratic’ right to speak.
Utu to you David Bennett.
I really don’t understand why you think I might be interested in this.
However, if I have your attention perhaps you will recall the claim that you made about Stephen Joyce some weeks ago.
Have you had time to track down the source of this yarn?
My request to you is available here.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26-01-2018/#comment-1439892
Perhaps you have forgotten. It is apparently the mark of a troll to put comments in without links and also to ignore requests to provide information to justify such claims when asked.
Doesn’t that make you a troll?
Justification or withdrawal would seem to be in order on your part..
You have ‘selective reading disorder’ like your bosses in the hapless national party.
So no point responding to your dribble is there?
Diddums.
It is a very simple matter to admit you are wrong you know.
I do it whenever I make a mistake.
Mind you, I do it on very rare occasions. I guess it would take a lot of your time though as you routinely tell lies.
Come on. Admit you stuffed up. Even if it is on only one occasion out of your many errors that you admit to the lapse.
You really will feel so much better. Correcting your foolish mistakes may even become a habit.
By what deranged standard could the mess National left in 1999 be described as “in good shape”?
Unemployment close to 8%, Employment Contracts Act, a double dip(ton) recession, ACC privatised, Max Bradford, growing inequality at a (for then) all-time high…
Yes Douglas deserves trial, judgement, conviction and a sentence that would deter future treasonous behaviour.
100% Ed I stand at the door on this as these treasonous animals need to be taken to order for their crimes against the people.
I think it’s unreasonable to toss out the garage band and expect U2 to take the stage. We’ll get another garage band, they’ll just play a genre of music I enjoy.
Those that enjoyed the ousted garage band’s blues renditions will of course claim ‘These new reggae guys are muck, I was expecting U2.’
Yes, Twyford should be gobbling up land, he is isn’t he? I understand there is an announcement in the pipeline.
I don’t share most lefties opinion of Rogernomics. I think changes were inevitable, unfortunately he administered eye surgery with a bread knife. I’m not a fan of import tariffs. I see them in the same light as WFF. Yes families need more money, in an ideal NZ I think it should be coming from thriving businesses rather than Beehive kickbacks.
Excellent satire, again, Alwyn.
Since when did National leave anything in good shape?
As for Douglas’s, so called reforms. They were a failure by any measure.
The economy is 30% smaller than it would have been without the “reforms”.
Including the billions removed by the asset stripping he enabled since.
Forgotten 87 already?
“The economy is 30% smaller”.
No doubt you are able to explain the manner in which you come to that conclusion?
And you will also tell us why every Government since then has been sensible enough not to change any of the reforms to any degree.
Just one of the very many references I base that on.
NZ GDP dropped in the same period that Australia’s gained 16.8% and the OECD average was 19.7%. Hardly a success even by right wing terms such as GDP.
The rise in inequality, poverty and the drop in incomes was obvious to the rest of us.
Wage incomes dropped more than 30% against Australia’s and have never recovered.
https://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/1994/10/economic_and_other_ideas_behind_the_new_zealand_reforms/
“Another complication is that any improvements from the reforms are dominated by the macroeconomic stagnation evident in Table 2. While over the 7-year period from 1984 the OECD expanded its volume GDP by 19.7 percent, and Australia, facing a deteriorating external environment, expanded by 16.8 per cent, New Zealand GDP contracted in absolute terms.
Unlike that of the 1966-76 period, this poor performance cannot be explained by the external situation. In fact the terms of trade improved slightly over the period. Macroeconomic policy, which concentrated on disinflation, bears much of the responsibility. Monetary policy was tightened in some sense faster than fiscal policy, resulting in an over-valuation of the exchange rate at the same time as protection and export subsidies were being removed. That combination seriously damaged the tradable sector which had been the engine of growth in the New Zealand economy”.
Anyone who thinks the Douglas reforms were a success, where we bent over and unilaterally invited the outside world to fuck us, is delusional.
And no Government since has shifted them since. For the very simple reason that it suits the very few, extremely wealthy people, and the big corporates, that fund the two major parties when they obediently carry it on, just fine.
I’m sorry.
I was looking forward to what you would say but when I see that the link you provide is to something that was written a generation ago, in 1994, I don’t really think I can be bothered going through it.
I am, or was, an economist. I am not an historian though and things that happened in the period from 1984 to 1994 are just that, history.
I do think the Douglas reforms were necessary and have provided New Zealand with a much brighter future than would have been the case with the Muldoon policies.
I also do not see where you first claim, that NZ GDP dropped, can possibly come from, particularly at the drop you claim.
Here is one representation of it
https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/gdp
GDP today is much higher than it was when Roger got started.
The proof is in the fact that NZ did a lot worse than other countries, such as Australia, that did not throw out the baby with the bath water.
I have many more references, some of which I have discussed, and given on this site over the years.
However writing more detail will have to wait until i am not busy at work.
As for Muldoon, it is debatable, but cutting reliance on expensive oil imports was a good idea at the time. I don’t think many people expected the USA to invade a few more countries to stop the sky rocketing oil prices. I was one of the majority who voted for Labour at the time BTW. I still see Muldoon, as the last National party leader who actually cared about NZ’s future. Rather than adding PM to their CV. Or making a fortune afterwards.
Many think big projects made fortunes for their private owners, as did asset sales in general. Showing that they could have paid back the borrowing over time. If they hadn’t been given away in the fire sale by the ideological vandals who caused Rogernomics.
“I do think the Douglas reforms were necessary and have provided New Zealand with a much brighter future than would have been the case with the Muldoon policies”.
I did not say that GDP had dropped, just that the increase was hugely lower than other OECD countries, that didn’t adopt Rogernomics/Thatcherism with anywhere near the same enthusiasm. You double the population it is going to rise, anyway.
You may be partly correct comparing Rogernomics to Muldoons policies. But there was another path we could have taken. The one initiated by Kirks Labour Government. Including the equivalent of a sovereign wealth fund, for one.
“I do think the Douglas reforms were necessary”.
This statement is wrong on so many levels, it is hard to know where to start.
We havn’t done well even by right wing measures such as GDP. Which I believe are flawed, but it does give a basic economic comparison between countries.
As for real wages, inequality, Labour productivity, investment, innovation and rising poverty. It is blatantly obvious that the 80’s and 90’s reforms have not delivered, except for a few.
The history is relevant because it set the path we have been on ever since. Where speculators and spivs make more money than contributors.
clearly?
I think Ad 6.2 may be right. They have the will and the dosh, while our lot have….? (Well, sounds a possibility so let’s have an economic paper on it, let’s have a cup of tea or would you like something stronger?)
When I looked at the shareholding for Fletchers there didn’t seem to be much that said Chinese or Asian to me (morningstar report) it seemed like North American institutions and funds. Perhaps that’s why Fletchers haven’t done well. The Chinese have been building all sorts of things successfully using clever expertise and careful surveillance of steel no doubt.
And the Chinese can afford to play extreme jokes on people – who would have though Chinese had such sense of humour? In vid below it is suggested that some people think it is cruel. I would find it terrifying and would never go on it if I knew, but if the warning was in Chinese or under size 9 font I could be caught. It’s amazing what people in power will do to each other no matter what nationality – it seems to be human to be inhuman sometimes. Haha.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9biTRkiBEBs
the query was as to the clarity of the options…id suggest there is very little clear about the provision of infrastructure requirements…something Ad himself(?) has commented on often, even the possibility they may not happen at all.
The political fallout of such a decision alone would suggest wholesale provision by offshore entities would likely temper if not preclude such an event.
Did you hear the other things he was talking about?
Obviously this Government has solved Auckland’s housing problems.
The Nation’s children are all out of poverty.
The health system now provides all the medical treatment desired.
Now he can get on with the important matters.
A couple of hundred million to spend on a place for the uber-rich to gallivant round at an America’s Cup Regatta.
I’d rather have my tax cut, frankly. I can then spend the money on useful things like a cataract operation for my wife.
Better that than having Parker blow it away on things to attract a few billionaires here, so that the Cabinet can joyride on the super yachts. And keep Dalton in his million dollar lifestyle.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11994413
Tell Team New Zealand the money shower is over. Go somewhere else and play.
Don’t forget Winston’s all weather race course for the horsie people.
Gotta start out on the important stuff.
First race coming up in 2 weeks, only 3 horses in it. lolololol
The stables have turned.
ha ha good joke Matiri
A Donkey, a lame duck and a mad pit bull!
That is a $10 mil project for an industry that has a thriving export market and employs over 40,000 people.McCully gave away more than that to one windswept Arab shiek, for?
Yep. Don’t forget National suspending democracy in Canterbury, so their mates can make a killing, on a short term industry, on irrigated farmland unsuitable for dairy.
Going to be even more expensive to fix than Nationals leaky building stuffup.
“Blow money on superyachts”. To promote one of New Zealand’s few successful manufacturing export industries?
Or. Is your preference to blow even more money in irrigating Canterbury. so we can add to the worlds surplus of cheap dairy products?
If you, and many similar idealogs, hadn’t kept voting for tax cuts, the public health system would have covered your wife’s cataract operation.
Why state that when they haven’t asked?
Could someone perhaps tell our Prime Minister that there’s work to be done.
There’s absobloodylutely no time for this shit….http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11994876
Just say “No!” Prime Minister when the trash mags come calling.
“No, they’re not paying me to pose, they’re paying me to sort out homelessness and child poverty and the crisis the health system, high youth unemployment and suicide rates.”
She really is the “woman’s weekly” pm. Soon there will be pregnancy shoots – then the baby shoots etc.
“She really is the “woman’s weekly” pm. Soon there will be pregnancy shoots – then the baby shoots etc.”
She is and those “shoots” will deliver her many terms as Prime Minister.
Unfortunately you’re probably correct
She has to get thru this one first.
I agree that some (but not all) of these photo shoots, interview by popular magazines etc may deliver political and other benefits (eg publicity about NZ) and thus well worth the PR and publicity.
Vogue for example may be aimed at the high end of the worldwide fashion market, but their articles are usually of reasonably high quality in terms of what they focus on, and are not just fluff and fashion.
From memory, it was reported back in November when the actual photo shoot and interview took place that these were on a Saturday morning – not in the midst of the parliamentary working week, for example.
As presumed by James at 7.2.1.2, it was also reported that Jacinda Ardern will not be on the front cover of the magazine as apparently it is not Vogue’s policy to do so with political figures or their family – eg Michelle Obama was not on the cover when she did a shoot and interview, and Theresa May who also did a Vogue interview and photo shoot in late 2017 will not be on the cover when these are published (April 2018?) .
Ardern’s photo shoot and interview has been reported again now because the actual interview (but not the photos) is now publicly online although the hard copy Vogue March issue is not due to be on sale for some weeks.
https://www.vogue.com/article/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand-prime-minister-vogue-march-2018-issue
(Note – you will probably get an initial screen asking for name, email etc – just close the X and it should go to the article.)
IMO the article is a good balance between reporting Ardern’s political background and views, and the more personal stuff including fashion. I have certainly seen much worse.
I personally have no problems with this article being available worldwide in terms of any impressions it gives of New Zealand. In fact I am pleased to see mentions of NZ’s long standing anti-nuclear stance and Ardern’s stance on climate change.
Ardern is clear-eyed about what a prime minister of New Zealand, a country with a population of under five million, can achieve on the world stage. “We’re small,” she says, “but we do our bit by standing up for what we believe in.” She points to New Zealand’s long-standing nuclear-free policy as an example and wants to apply that same moral leadership to action on climate change. “We’re surrounded by island nations who will feel the brunt of climate change. So I see us as having a responsibility.” Of course New Zealand is a tiny contributor, overall, to the warming planet—and yet carbon-heavy industries like farming, horticulture, and forestry are the country’s biggest businesses. Ardern is ready to take those sectors on. “The most difficult thing for us to do is to mitigate and offset our agricultural emissions,” she says. “If we find a way to do that, then we’re showing other countries how to do it too.”
“She really is the “woman’s weekly” pm.” Mmm…..with greater relevance and authenticity than had Key with that rugby publication.
Exactly North – James, PR etc. are dissing things of interest to many women (fashion, clothes) as unworthy trivialities.
But they see no problem with similar things that are of interest to men (rugby, beer) where Key did photo-ops.
Their misogyny is as blatant as it is unconscious.
Oh – and she looks bloody great too – whereas Key looked like the doofus he also sounded like.
do you disapprove James?
Disapprove is too strong a word.
I’m not really that fussed.
She’s the Vogue PM James – try to keep up.
https://www.vogue.com/article/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand-prime-minister-vogue-march-2018-issue
That type of approach worked for John Key. I’m not sure if Labour supporters will be as forgiving as they were to John.
Would you prefer something more like this?
http://thewireless.co.nz/system/production/content_images/images/000/005/100/full/hotdogkey.jpg?1496559828
Argh. That needed a warning attached.
Key grasped every chance to be in the public eye. Both the sublime and the ridiculous and it seemed to work, damn him. I guess that those who read the trashy magazines may not gain an awareness in “our” ways. So go for it Jacinda – I am afraid.
“I am afraid.”
I am disappointed. Saddened. Disheartened.
Key did this shit as a distraction from nasty dealings behind the scenes.
What’s going on with this lot we don’t know about yet?
SSDD.
For what its worth Rosemary I respect that the views you’re holding on Jacinda are similar to the views held on John Key when he did stuff like this
While people are admiring her picture on the cover of vogue at the supermarket (I’m guessing most labour supporters would never actually buy a copy)- it takes their eye off the signing of the TPP that labour are so in favour of now despite all their promises and bowls of outrage.
You’re starting to look pretty troll-y there James. Too many implied lies there that are redesigned to rark people up. Might want to rethink how you want to comment here. It would be good if you did that before I start thinking about getting out the bold pen. But I am noticing a growing number of people pointing out the troll-like nature of your presence here.
I have been saying this for ages.
James comments only to derail and distract.
And he never adds anything positive to a discussion.
“it takes their eye off the signing of the TPP that labour are so in favour of now despite all their promises and bowls of outrage.”
You’ve been called out on this before, and failed to respond.
Labour were never against the TPPA, but against the process. Provide a link to where they unequivocally and officially stated their aversion to the TPPA. I – like many others – waited for them to do so, and it didn’t happen. Attendence at protests is not the same as protesting or opposing. (…or the police are far more liberal and progressive than I gave them credit for)
Else you are deliberately misleading.
Thanks for that, I couldn’t be bothered going over it again. Imo, he’s deliberately misleading.
SSDD?
same shit different day
ta.
JDS.
What?
JCVD
I think James is developing Jacinda Derangement Syndrome.
That one is more real, because we have not had a lying, smug, ad*&^%, in office for 8 years. This hate against jacinda has no basis in fact – it may get there with time.
Unlike the former PM who not only had the blip’s list, but the utter disdain of a growing portion of the population.
It’s hard to pick it from his Usual Conservative Cognitive Shambles.
Rosemary
You seem in the mood to appreciate this last bit from a rather dark post on Bowalley Road.
William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet, saw it all happening nearly a century ago, in the fretful aftermath of the First World War. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity”, he wrote in his most famous poem, The Second Coming.
The final lines of that poem can still send a chill down the spine:
… but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
She can and will do both. Who on earth would turn down golden opportunities to connect with voters the way women’s mags allow modern politicians to do? Jacinda is serving her supporters well by attending to their political needs and their need for encouraging stories.
As long as she doesn’t get into the stream of crap those magazines publish.
According to the cover stories I see at the Supermarket checkouts we will have two magazines saying how blissfully happy she and Clark are and two saying they have separated. Next month their will be the same two viewpoints but on the other pair of magazines.
Does she plan to be the David Beckham of the Posh/Becks variety?
Mind you at least Beckham was a superbly professional footballer and his wife a very skilled businesswoman. I don’t see anything like it in our pair.
God almighty did you not see all the magazines at the supermarket we had to suffer as visual pollution of the chosen one and his Stepford wife. At least Adhern’s partner is employed as we speak and not being a blessed ornament to the annointed one. The Stepford wife got a degree for god’s sake and then “with mutual decision making” decided to become a stay at home wife while the godhead blazed the stage of the money markets.
Give Jacinda Adhern a break, at least Vogue magazine has some mana in the print world and she will get maximum exposure for the forgotten lot of us down here.
Hard to see the real difference between Clark and Bronagh in at least one respect.
Brohagh stayed at home and brought up two children.
Clark is going to stay home and look after one child.
Do you really think that women who stay home with their children are to be despised? It certainly sounds like it.
Leave her alone. Just because you don’t like the National Party is no reason to spray your venom at someone who took no part in political life, seems to be a very pleasant person and has done absolutely nothing to you.
Well, alwyn, like WK I recall seeing many Women’s Weekly type magazines at the supermarket over the last nine + years featuring John Key and Bronagh (or Bronagh alone) on the cover with articles inside – with accompanying photographs of them or her in various changes of clothes.
Similarly over the last year there have been magazine articles (some with front cover photos and more photos inside ) featuring Bill and/or Mary English.
So take a step back and stop this ‘pot calling the kettle black’ approach.
Also:
1. Gayford’s first name is Clarke – not Clark. (Misspelt in your 7.3.1 as well)
2. How do you know that Jacinda is only having one child? Have you seen the ultrasound images? Do you know there are twins in Jacinda’s family (eg her father has a twin brother)?
3. As I detailed in my comment at 6.1.1.3.1.2 in OM on 13 Feb, Clarke is giving up most of his work to be the main caregiver – probably a not easy decision.
Three years ago he took a big gamble (with Jacinda’s agreement) to follow his dream of creating his own TV series combining travel, fishing and food, and marine sustainability and protection.
The third series of his series “Fish of the Day” is due to run here in NZ soon on Prime TV (it was previously on Choice TV) and in about 38 other countries through the National Geographic’s network (up from about 20 countries for the previous two series).
More details of this and his other work are here –
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13-02-2018/#comment-1448000
So he deserves credit ( as does Bronagh) for putting his dreams, ambitions etc aside to become the homemaker, caregiver etc in support of their partners.
My apologies to Clarke Gayford.
I didn’t mean to misspell it and to do it twice is very careless.
On the other hand I found Kate’s comment about Mrs Key quite offensive to all woman who see their most important role as bringing up children.
I see you pointed out Kate’s error as well.
Did you mean your criticism of me in a “nice” way as well?
Well alwyn, I had to give that a lot of deep thought overnight, and could not get hold of my lawyer to get her advice, but taking all things in to account, and putting you request into the context in which it was raised ..
OK, fair is fair, I am prepared to describe my criticism of you comments as meant in a “nice” way as well; and also as meant as “constructive criticism” – or should that be “instructive criticism”.
BUT – if it is twins, I will count on you to back me up when I claim to have predicted this before anyone else! LOL.
” I will count on you to back me up “.
That seems entirely fair. I will not treat you like Cassandra.
Both my sisters had twins. Ran them ragged.
I can’t remember whether the odds, when my siblings and I were having children, were about 1:80 that a birth would be twins or 1:80 that a person would be one of twins.
I believe that it has risen quite a lot since then, though. Older mothers and fertility treatments mostly.
I am not sure of the odds either – but only about four months to go. But my remarks on this were strictly tongue in cheek!
I have a cousin who swore that she did not want children despite being married and hubby was also of the same view etc. Lucky her (or rather them) had first one set of twins despite birth control; then a second set again despite birth control. Surgical intervention was then sought by both parties to prevent further accidents. Then divorce…
Have a nice day. Did you see my reply to your ‘randy goat’ remark on Daily Review last night? LOLZ
” Did you see my reply to your ‘randy goat’ ”
Yes, and I replied to it.
ps. There wasn’t an actual publication “The Double Standard”. There were only the mock newspaper posters.
A whisper – Ardern, not Adhern. Shhhhh (Meant nicely)
I agree – see my reply to you at 7.1.1.3
Rosemary.
This is why Labour made her leader, this is what her role is, smiling, laughing, mag shots and all the other superficial fakery.
The real stuff whatever that may be is going on behind the scenes, Arderns just the nice facade to make people feel all happy and positive, “Yay Jacinda she’s so lovely, what an inspiration !!!”
I’ve got to say, it’s a superb strategy, Helen Clark and Heather Simpson are seriously clever people.
Lovely to hear from you BM !
Bullshit, BM. clark is out of the picture – mostly out of the country and dealing with her own (international) issues. Ardern decided to bring in Simpson – fine. An experienced pair of hands.
Ardern has a sharp brain and good tactical skills. She has a different approach and a different set of priorities to Clark’s, in her time. Stop spreading manure around and start trying to find your buch a leader who has half the smarts and yes, the charisma and communications skills, that Ardern has..
WK 1.15?
You meet a better class of marriageable types at uni.
!000%
BM, I think you would say differently if you had the Prime Ministerial finger waggled at you. As she did with that sports jock. She is seriously a leader. Her leadership in the post-election dealing showed that.
I am with you in the sense that I don’t follow the fakery stuff as you call it either.
But modern media etc demand it. She’s good at it, as was Key.
Just don’t think that her skills end there…….. And I don’t agree with your assertion that she is controlled by Clark and Simpson, just as i did not believe that Key was controlled by, well, whichever conspiracy theory one may want to subscribe to.
There is a difference between control and influence, btw. People do, and should, seek good advice.
No,no,no BM. Youve got it all wrong.! That was john key that you are describing. Mister Superficial.
And the Illuminati BM. Don’t forget the illuminati.
100% National is part of Illuminati for sure;
Since John Key and co’ attended Bilderberg in 2011 where lots of Illuminati were part of this secret society.
http://twochurchesonly.com/volume-1/supmat/03/most_influential/bilderberg_group/list_of_bilderberg_attendees.pdf
Didn’t realise Clarkula was part of the Illuminati.
Sort of surprised, not surprised if you know what I mean.
Yes BM so why did your leader go here to a secretive meeting in 2011 (as four ‘participants’) on public money representing as PM and didn’t tell us all??????
http://twochurchesonly.com/volume-1/supmat/03/most_influential/bilderberg_group/list_of_bilderberg_attendees.pdf
List of Bilderberg participants 4
New Zealand
• John Key (2011-2012), Prime Minister of New Zealand
You better watch it old boy or I’ll hack your computer and erase all your shit.
LOL, fuck you’re a crazy old coot.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/02/14/the-dirty-politics-campaign-to-destabilise-bill-english/#comment-417196
BM means = Bloody Mildless
Name fits you are a spook you don’t fool me or scare me!!!
So try again you (obviously) young coot.
While your’e at it please for all our sanity, crawl back into that toxic national snakepit inside the $11.7 Billion hole you all dig for your graves.
He is also the Chairman of the International Democrat Union, a consortium of 50 centre right parties which meet in Europe on a regular basis. He chaired it during his tenure as PM of this country. Fran O’Sullivan has written about this in her financial opinion pieces in the past. So much for being a centrist likeable bloke which many were suckered into believing.
Did you say that when John key minced down the catwalk in a blue tee shirt?
Vogue as a trash mag 😆
I don’t have a problem with the whole Women’s Weekly thing. I want a PM who makes time to connect with different parts of the electorate. Lots of women read those magazines and don’t have other connections to politics.
I’ll be interested to see what the Vogue article actually says. The anti-Trump framing is very US looking for hope, but I think they are right. She’s not a Sanders, she’s the liberal inverse of Trump.
The support for a NZ designer will play well in many circles too. This is Ardern building political capital. I think this is smart if we want a second term with a higher majority. It’s not enough on its own, obviously we need the Labour govt to do some serious politics and change, but it’s not hurting Labour’s ability to do those things.
More of a problem imo is what Stephanie points to about values-based politics. I don’t see Labour getting that yet.
’ll be interested to see what the Vogue article actually says.
See my comment at 7.1.1.3 which provides a link to the actual article which is now online, plus my views on it and a quote from the article about NZ’s longstanding anti-nuclear stance and Ardern’s stance on climate change.
thanks!
One of the first things she needs to do is lift the governments performance in the House. Yesterday was a trainwreck for Peeni Henare (https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=198293), Willie Jackson (https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=198289 and Kelvin Davis (https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=198286).
National’s questions went nowhere and elicited nothing: that’s why there is no news coverage about them.
Labour MPs fell into the same trap during the last Parliament: loaded questions just give the minister a free hit. For example: Kelvin Davis got the National Party’s habit of lying (“scaremongering”) into Hansard.
Yes, I know you don’t see it that way, and so what?
You should watch the coverage. It’s a wreckage. And it’s not about ‘eliciting’ anything, it’s about making government members look like fools. The only reason yesterday didn’t get worse was because Mallard was kind. But Kaye in particular really put a hit on Davis (Mallard had him backtracking on his first answer, then he said he had phoned a particular charter school and they “didn’t pick up the phone” – honestly he’s a walking target) and did again today. Between him and Hipkins, Labour have a real problem. Still, it won’t detract from the PM’s photo op’s, I’m certain of that.
I watched the coverage prior to commenting.
If National want to allege wrongdoing on Davis’ part they should should do so. As it is they’re asking loaded questions with inevitable results.
That’s why none of this is news, and why you have now repeated your original point without adding anything new, Ad Nauseam.
You were so quick to answer you missed my edit! Didn’t realise I had struck such a nerve.
Here’s today’s episode https://www.parliament.nz/en/watch-parliament/ondemand?itemId=198357.
Another wreckage fro Davis.
😆
Tracey Martin exposed the opposition’s dishonest approach to question time very well. Thanks for the link, and the laugh.
And you still haven’t managed to say anything new.
No, she didn’t. She asked about ‘other associate ministers of education’. It was a question that, if allowed to go forward, may well have embarrassed her own minister!
But how are going with that news coverage Anon?
From yesterday. That has no legs, because it’s as you said. a “hit”, not a substantive criticism.
“From yesterday. That has no legs, because it’s as you said. a “hit”, not a substantive criticism.”
I disagree. But even so, are you saying that as long as the media doesn’t notice, incompetence is ok?
No, it’s more that when National and their mouthpieces allege incompetence, I’m inclined to dismiss their bleating with contempt, on account of the deciduous forest sticking out of their eyes.
“it’s more that when National and their mouthpieces allege incompetence,”
I’d say you don’t have to support any political party to spot Hipkins and Davis as political corpses. The just released Cabinet Paper is going to provide more fun.
It was easy: you didn’t say anything new, and what you have said amounts to: “I don’t like Labour”. Your edit hasn’t changed that.
Thanks for illustrating my point. For further information, and rebuttal of your repetitious talking point, refer to 7.7.1.1.1
So you accept it was a train wreck, but you just don’t care?
Or you don’t think it was a train wreck because no-one else wrote about it?
Mmmm
“…that’s why there is no news coverage about them. ”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/101433659/charter-school-lays-complaint-with-ministry-of-education-about-kelvin-davis
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018632089/kelvin-davis-accused-of-favouritism-by-charter-school
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/02/14/88929/davis-downplays-charter-school-complaint
It neatly exposed the National Party’s dishonest approach to QT, and that they are treating education like a political football.
You cannot see this. Your worldview requires that you not see it.
The complaint will go nowhere. Watch and learn.
Hilarious. National expose an Associate Minister favouring two PS’s over another, all in his own electorate, and you call it ‘dishonest’ and ‘treating education like a political football’.
Let’s be clear, Davis is in serious trouble with this, and considering his Minister is ‘3 strikes’ Hipkins, Labour need to reign this in and fast.
In many areas Labour look to be performing well, but bumbling performances such as Hipkins and Davis are displaying won’t be tolerated with H2 in the background, I’ll bet.
(As is clear from her interjection in the House) Tracey Martin has been talking to some schools, Kelvin Davis to others.
I’d say in going after Davis in these circumstances they make ‘termination for convenience’ significantly more likely. Especially when it turns out they’ve been inflating their academic record by expelling the students they can’t teach.
But hey, it’s your link.
“Tracey Martin has been talking to some schools, Kelvin Davis to others. ”
Davis has stated publicly he has been talking to them in his capacity as a constituent MP. Hipkins has stated it is the MoE doing the talking. What is Martin up to?
“Especially when it turns out they’ve been inflating their academic record by expelling the students they can’t teach.”
Cite?
And why won’t the government release the report on the PS’s that was due months ago?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Whyne? Whine. Whine.
I expect the answers to your whynes will form a large part of your reasons to beg for judicial review. Or perhaps they’ll just be more whining. That sounds more likely.
“That sounds more likely.”
Why would there be a judicial review? We have a government who is talking with forked tongues (or maybe it’s just incompetence?), implementing poor policy to assuage a vested interest group who funds them, and riding roughshod over those who are being affected. This is normal government activity. No cause for a review.
You think the Governance of the country should depend on who “wins” petty games?
That is one of the main problems. The comfortable think it is a game. Like a debating competition, or a horse race.
“You think the Governance of the country should depend on who “wins” petty games?”
No. That’s what OAB thinks, apparently.
It is obvious that is what you think Hornet. As that is what you have been doing on here.
“…that’s why there is no news coverage about them. ”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/101433659/charter-school-lays-complaint-with-ministry-of-education-about-kelvin-davis
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018632089/kelvin-davis-accused-of-favouritism-by-charter-school
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/02/14/88929/davis-downplays-charter-school-complaint
I wonder whether the schools who’ve been approached by Tracey Martin are wise to follow this path of attacking Kelvin Davis.
Why not? Surely the decision about their future will be made in an impartial manner? (Chuckle).
Because Ms. Martin would then be able to note that they’re acting in bad faith, and that would increase the likelihood of their closure.
Especially if they’ve failed to disclose their contact with Ms. Martin to Nikki Kaye. Own goal.
How is complaining about Davis’ behaviour acting in bad faith? Again it sounds like you implying a threat.
And which schools have been approached by Tracy Martin? And why are either Martin or Davis engaging with the schools if Hipkins says he can’t because the work is being done by the ministry (that’s my understanding)?
Obviously the poor cry-babies feel threatened. Why else would they be reaching out to the National Party?
And of course, they know that their access to brand new BMWs will cease by the end of the December school term.
And they know they’ll be brought under the eye of the MoE. Or be terminated for convenience.
It’s all good with me.
Good story Anon. Have you seen the Cabinet Paper that has just been released on the changes? I’m reading through it and there has been some big porky pies told.
😆
Then your judicial review will totes succeed.
links and do tell. You’re always good for a laugh when you try to report what you think is reality.
“Then your judicial review will totes succeed.”
So, again, your concern is not the right or wrong but whether the government gets away with it. I get the impression that drives most of your commentary here.
Judicial review is all about right and wrong. Try again.
“Judicial review is all about right and wrong. Try again.”
Yes, but that’s not your concern. Is it? Your concern is pure ideology, and you’ll support lies and deception to achieve it.
“You’re always good for a laugh when you try to report what you think is reality.”
Find it yourself. It’s publicly available now. It hasn’t been suppressed, although on past form that would probably your preference, aye.
Your concern is pure ideology, and you’ll support lies and deception to achieve it.
Your judicial review will prove that. Or not, as the case may be.
You would it be fair to say you support National?
And therefore would it be fair to say your comment is entirely predictable?
“You would it be fair to say you support National?”
I have voted and supported across the political spectrum. Today I trust none of them. I had thought the Greens had at least some integrity, and then this https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/05-02-2018/my-old-party-is-betraying-its-own-proud-history-on-the-waka-jumping-bill/.
The fact that Hornet pursues the same line and approach in his multiple comments and can never be satisfied apparently, does not say anything good about the defence of charter or partnership schools. That is not the thinking of a wise person with resilience adapting to the future while still keeping the important mores of the past. You are a bad
advertisement for them Hornet.
Just read a long piece of absorbing literature with clever technical bits sent to me by Millhouse.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/12/the-white-darkness
What a great/crazy man he was. (Let me know if you read it.)
Yes, skillful prose Ian.
“It was hard to breathe, and each time he exhaled the moisture froze on his face: a chandelier of crystals hung from his beard; his eyebrows were encased like preserved specimens; his eyelashes cracked when he blinked.”
Reminded me of delivering newspapers in a 40c below Swedish night.
A few technical probs. ‘Not a bear in sight’. Antarctica is like that. The blonde bears are all up the top.
I was wondering the other day. Could polar bears be successfully introduced to Antarctica? Or would penguins thrive in the Arctic?
A.
Ha! I think polar bears would develop a taste for aquatic poultry.
The ‘Long March’ would become the ‘Short Speed Waddle’.
I expected bravado and stiff upper lip but instead it was a very credible human story which brought a tear or two to both my eyes. His family neatly included too.
Judith Collins tweets her true nature, as well as the kaupapa of her party,
https://twitter.com/ThisCJ/status/963531431187116032
Shes referencing Blade Runner: http://www.devo.com/bladerunner/sector/2/interrogation.html
Danyl was referencing Blade Runner. Collins was referencing her feelings of empathy, in a pretty revealing way.
TBH I’m just surprised shes watched Blade Runner
What makes you think she’s seen BR and wasn’t just answering at face value?
She could have at least tried a bit of conscience-signalling…
Maybe she did 😆
Nothing in her response suggested she’d seen Blade Runner.
NB: I’m not sure when the original exchange was. I remember Danyl posting it on his blog at the time, it must have been at least four years ago, maybe longer. If memory serves, the readers couldn’t decide whether this was Collins wittily giving a response that made her sound like a replicant failing the test through lack of empathy, or just Collins lacking empathy. You can probably guess which I thought was more likely.
No, at the time that came out the joke was she hadn’t seen BR, she had no idea she had been punked. Interesting.the righties trying to rewrite history here, Collins a sci fi fan? Ha!
(heads up, she found it humourous, so normal people might find the subject of sexual assault disturbing, regardless of location or nature of the victim):
Russell Brown has another example of her failing an empathy test.
And just in case we think it doesn’t exist in NZ, it’s funny to her, because it’s true.
FINALLY… Zuma has stood down… about freakin time. Time for the ANC to sort their shite out, they’ve become a freaking embarrassment to that nation.
“South Africa will look back and wonder how we allowed a president so reprehensible to last so long in office,”
Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, author of Democracy and Delusion: 10 Myths in South African Politics, told Al Jazeera.
People will be dancing in the streets over there 🙂
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/jacob-zuma-resigns-south-africa-president-180209204724335.html
I’ve been fairly intimately involved in South Africa (personally and professionally), spent a fair chunk of my time there too and I don’t think this will make a lick of difference unfortunately.
Corruption is so endemic in the ANC now that it is time for a fresh face. The Democratic Alliance is the party of the future however due to the extreme propaganda from the ANC over the last 5 or so years they haven’t a hope because (but not exclusively because I should add) they have whites in the party. It is something the ANC has drilled into the minds of the poorest of the poor even though under Zuma they have suffered while the ruling class have profited. It is such a shame to see the party of Mandela become a hollowed, corrupt and self interested beast.
Zuma was part of the struggle too but in the end he was a bad as the rest.
Thanks for your insight John, much appreciated.
Last election over there I heard that the ANC were standing over the poor, threatening and bullying them into voting for the ANC.
Strongly agree with what you say ” It is such a shame to see the party of Mandela become a hollowed, corrupt and self interested beast”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/101387777/lance-osullivan-could-be-a-future-national-party-leader
Do it Lance do it! (But wait until 2020 at least)
Good luck with that.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/19-09-2017/lance-osullivan-explains-why-hes-is-running-for-the-maori-party-in-2020/
Still not bad, means National will have a coalition partner ready to go but some maori Labour MPs might be a little worried
Not sure he’s cut out for it to be honest. He said some pretty emotive and nasty things about anti-vaxxers last year, and whatever one thinks about vaccination (and anti-vaxxers) that kind of public expression isn’t what NZers expect of politicians.
He also said he wanted to be the sole Māori Party leader rather than a co-leader, another hint he might not work well with others and probably tends to the authoritarian end of the scale.
I wonder at his motives when surely he is much more use as a doctor than a Nat mp 🙁
Lol, true. I don’t know if he sits on the left or right of the Mp, that would be very interesting to know.
That Oxfam workers have been apparently trading aid for sex doesn’t detract from the good things the organisation does. Humans always mess up projects, that is why AI has been invented so we don’t have humans around any more. As The Conchords sing ‘The humans are dead,dead,dead….”
As expected NZ is low on their CRI calculations. So is the USA.
Get lots of links off this link.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/335299/nz-shamefully-poor-on-tax-policies-oxfam
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2018/02/david-seymour-gilda-kirkpatrick-to-star-in-dancing-with-the-stars-2018.html
NO NO NO NO !!!!
This is beyond stupid of Seymour.
Who the hell in his team thought this was a good idea?
This is shades of Bill English getting in the fight for life…not good
Sadly true.
He should have just chosen one or two major issues (charter schools is a good one) and a couple of populist ones to go on about but instead he chooses this…
Charter Schools is a dead duck – they will carry on just under a different name and a tidy-up
The same people who think being a Libertarian is a good idea. They just set themselves a new benchmark, too.
They could put Judith Collins on and call it Dancing with the Satyrs.
Aww yeah! I’d watch that, I’d watch the hell out of that, I’d possibly even watch it twice in a row…without a break
Is it suddenly hot in here?
Judith Collins is right when she said that Ardern is all about her, and not about what is best for NZ (words to that effect). Ardern is not elected by the people, and all she seems to care about is endless photoshoots. Totally empty, and Kiwis deserve better. She is out of her depth as PM, so she promotes herself as a glam girl instead. So much for ‘capitalism has failed’ eh. Bring back a real PM, who cares less about empty celebrity, photo ops and magazine covers! The public will tire of it fast, if not already, especially as our economy sinks.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[RWers are free to comment under my posts so long as they’re not posting derailments and they can relate their comment to the post. You’re also not going to get away with running Dirty Politics lines like Labour being an illegitimate government. If you don’t like Ardern, that’s fine but I don’t write so that *you can have a space to troll, spout nonsense and spin. Having looked at why you’ve had bans in the past, I’m making a note for future reference, expect a ban without warning if it happens again. – weka]
erm..were you here for John Keys term?
Bah Bah Bah, still want those tissues?
1 nil, 1nil, 1nil, stand up if you hate national, stand up if you hate national, stand up if you hate national, stand up if you hate national, clap your hands for Jandals, clap your hands for Jandals. clap your hands for Jandals and Winne is the 2nd coming.
Tanz what a load of bullshit. ” Bring back a real PM, who cares less about empty celebrity, photo ops and magazine covers!”
Who would that be then the planking Pm who took every bloody media opportunity he could or that Bill bloke who found poverty in the final week of the campaign and as finance minister plunged our economy into debt with Tax cuts for the rich all the while strangling our public hospitals and schools funding.
100% Craig Glen Eden.
National were heading us into ruin as they did to Greece so thank god Jacinda saved the day.
Well she is not sucking allover a allblack,or offering 10 new bridges
I think you should take along holiday and come back in the real world
A moderation note for you above and I’d like an acknowledgement you have understood .
Sorry but can you clarify a few things for me…
“Ardern is not elected by the people”
Pls define this and name a PM that has been “elected by the people”
“…and all she seems to care about is endless photoshoots….”
Cough ‘John Key’ cough….
Don’t get me wrong – I actually didn’t mind Key all in all (better than some of the weird fucks like Joyce and Collins) but never voted for him. But for fucks sake man, that guy was just as vacuous as you make Ardern to be
” …. all she seems to care about is endless photoshoots.”
That of course is an infantile comment based on not just simple bias, and pique as shown by your other comments, but mainly pure ignorance of what politicians, especially Prime Ministers, do.
More than that though, nominating what according to you Ms Ardern ‘seems to care about’, would be profound stupidity except that it reflects the profound stupidity and vacuous nature of the comment.
I hope you liked what I posted last nite and this morning I’m going to smell like cow ______ so getting ready to go see our taonga mokos so to busy to have more input than this All you Kiwis and Maori cultured people be proud of who you are and keep your noses clean Ka pai Hilary & Jeremy keep up the good work so hard case Jeremy I missed your kiwi wit Ka pai Ka kite ano
Are all you brown people who have or are working in our justice systems feeling STINK BRO well good YOU should have told the Whano exactly how the farcical justice system worked and our prisons won’t be over flowing Ana to kai
Friends. Not.
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/02/14/with-friends-like-these-2/
Pihau
Morning Rumble people I drove a water truck for a bit in tauranga. The Tauranga sandflys though they would play a move and chase ECO Away but no like water off a ducks back. Ana to kai