There’s comfort in the fact that some of us, arguably those most desperate for a change of government in 2017, have been constrained in our celebrations over the Coalition.
I guess wherever one finds politicians one can expect a certain percentage of rampant egomaniacs. A pity the loudest limelighters are in the same minor party.
Why oh why can’t they just say their piece then STFU? But no, they have to bang on and on and call in the reinforcements and give the single digit salute to their political leader from the major Coalition party.
In the meantime…the other minor party in the Coalition seems more than content to set aside their basic policies and confirm and cooperate when I suspect a large percentage of the population would be supportive of a revolt over increased water bottling.
Politics.
How cynical have I become that I recognise your acronym within seconds of encountering it.
(same smiles different dials)
Have we all lost the ability to work with one another? The left and right should be keeping each other honest, actually supporting each others graduation toward maturity in this regard. This childish bickering 24/7 and gleeful propagation of sound bites where politicians ‘own’ each other…
MSM, amateur media (you, me, we), all doing it. Divide divide divide.
As for Greens having to be seen to be different – just why? Be seen to be doing things – not wearing a different shirt. Children. This ‘dealing with reality’ is a good look. It is apt to note the system is broken from within and learn as you go just what is broken where and how we might find better alternatives. In the meantime the world turns.
Western society and business is (was) based on basic trust. Seems we were sadly mistaken in giving business the rope in order to hang us all. But I prefer to have some sense of trust in the decency of people. When the shit hits the fan real people are all over it. It’s just this political/business class who seem incapable of rejoining society preferring the divide and pillage technique. The fact they pull the strings is the real reason everything’s seemingly turned to shit.
It’s a fine mess. I got a Laurel and Hardy framed picture yesterday. Sitting in one of their atypically destroyed hotel rooms “Another Fine Mess”.
Western society and business is (was) based on basic trust.
That’s what we like to tell ourselves despite all the evidence that it’s actually based upon a few people ripping everyone else off. Another example from the Western Leader:
New Zealand based water bottlers are cashing in on picturesque Southern Alps landscapes, even if they’re based nowhere near them, the Beverage Council says.
Basically, they’re putting a picture of the Southern Alps on the merchandise and thus implying that it comes from that area when it isn’t.
Basically, the normal deception that business has been engaging in since forever.
What ever happened to farmers being salt of the earth community minded? The turkey from Cheviot was whingeing that a govt dept didn’t break the privacy act to tell him about his neighbors possible (later proved positive) infection. Why didn’t his neighbor call him directly (and others around him) to advise there was some concern and to take appropriate precautions???
Bad enough the previous government let this pot boil over, now the farmers are refusing to tell where the off button is!
Maybe those that refuse to co-operate should lose the support of the community/country and have compensation declined if found to have lied/withheld evidence, especially those that have purchased animals from the ground zero farm and will not contact MPI of the fact.
This behavior is can only increase the cost of eradication or end with the disease becoming entrenched, with a large part of the cost being foist upon the public purse.
Can’t say that I’m surprised. All farmers in this country seem to be greedy, ignorant schmucks who think far too much of themselves.
Farmer Lloyd Downing told our reporter Kate Gudsell that there were issues with Fonterra, but it’s was the farmers’ business, not Shane Jones’.
When Fonterra exists due to specific legislation then it is actually everyone’s business. We need to be sure that the legislation is working and it obviously isn’t and thus needs changing. Repealing it and thus eliminating Fonterra may be the best option.
Ae. Apparently representatives of an elected government have no right to comment on how companies or ‘bizzniss’ should operate.
Rules and regulations must be applied selectively.
Bad enough those elected representatives already have an out when it suits (i.e. “I can’t comment on operational matter” – though what the definition of ‘operational’ is can be as fluid as they like)
NZH… “Health Minister David Clark has tried to gag public servants, appearing to offer them jobs in return for their silence, National’s MP for Botany Jami-Lee Ross said”……. As soon as I read Jamie Lee Ross, I realized I was suckered by the headline.
Thats dissapointing sacha! You rush to comment before you listen to the evidence, perhaps you confuse opinion with fact. The message was complete including voicemail head and tail prompts.
Please link to a story including the full voicemail so we can all hear it. The version of one clip on Newshub was shorter than the same section on RNZ (allowing a quite different impression) but neither story included the full message.
Ok so trying to keep my own personal opinions it is, at first viewing, not a good look so it’ll be interesting to see how Winston and the media play this but maybe there’ll be more information that can shed some light on this
There are only two options that I think are possible.
The most likely one is that Winston will simply announce something like
“Listen sunshine. Nothing to see here. Time to move on”. The media will then obey him. I didn’t hear a single word on Morning Report about the matter.
The other would be something that will only occur in the unlikely event that Winston wanted Minister of Health for one of his own MPs. In that case Clark will be gone by lunchtime.
The Guillotine would already have been installed in the forecourt of Parliament.
The tumbril would be moving toward it with the victim in the back.
All the female Labour and Green MPs would be sitting there with their knitting needles, (and their teeth), clacking.
David Clark, putting on his most stony Presbyterian glare would be condemning the prisoner.
The execution would be carried out at midday.
Amazing that a man of the cloth like David could be guilty of such mortal sins isn’t it? I see why he was defrocked.
Exactly, there’d be calls for resignations at the very least however while I think it sounds extremely dodgy I’m still wanting to not rush to judgement just yet
But and its a very big but I think its more proof, if proof was needed, just how unprepared the COL is for being in charge
My biggest hope is that the COL don’t do too much permanent damage before they’re replaced
Just to indicate what waffle you two are writing, I distinctly recall a nice, easy interview of Lee Ross by Guyon E on RNZ between 8.30 and 9.00am.
But none so deaf as those who do not wish to hear, huh?
Isn’t anyone from the left just the slightest bit concerned about just how incompetent some of the COLs ministers appear to be
It seems like everyone in the COL is in a race to see how much incompetence the NZ public will endure…as an example no ones mentioned Clare Curren for days because of so many new entrants
Hell at this point I’d agree to Helen Clark and Michael Cullen returning to take over
Clare Curren
Phil Twyford
Andrew Little
Megan Woods
Chris Hipkins
Kelvin Davis
David Clark
Stuart Nash
Thats a lot of Labour ministers that recently have been made to look arrogant, incompetent or both…and I’ve probably missed some
“RNZ between 8.30 and 9.00am”.
It must be nice to have that much time free.
I listened from 6:00am until about 8:20am.
Then I had to start work. I hate having to have to work out our Income tax but the IRD insist on it. I wish I was like you and had time enough to be able to listen to the radio as late as 9:00 am.
I presume, from the indentation numbering you are trying to address me.
If so can I refer you to the conversation between Vivien and Edward Lewis in the film Pretty Woman?
“Can I call you Eddy?”
“Not if you expect me to answer”
You might also do well to spell your name correctly.
Your character requires you to spell it “Gobby”.
That is used in phrases like “You are a gobby Glaswegian” https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gobby
Alternatively you would also fit the Australian definition. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gobby
No doubt it amuses you, of course. What is that phrase?
“Small things amuse small minds”.
I must say I’m disappointed in NZF. Why did they have to start their shenanigans right before Jacinda goes on maternity leave? Could it not have waited six weeks. If I were Jacinda I wouldn’t be relaxing at all.Not with the opposing snake pit ready to strike at everything that will give them positive paragraphs from the pandering press. Even the minor Hosking, Hawkesby is chewing on the end of her pen and has entered the fray. Not good.
The’re only interested in themselves and much of what we’ve seen over this last week is designed to re energise the NZF support base.
The Mystery Creek Field Days gave Jones a perfect platform to advance this cause by attacking Fonterra. The fact it coincides with Ardern’s maternity leave is of no concern to NZF. The fact that she is perceived as weak and having little or no influence over NZF cabinet ministers is also of no concern to NZF.
In the end NZF are not team players.
In the end they may seriously undermine Ardern as leader of the coalition as well as the coalition itself.
But, from NZF’s point of view, no matter, so long as it increases their support base.
If you have access to the DomPost have a look at the Sharon Murdoch cartoon this morning. I think it displays accurately how Ardern will be feeling.
I can’t find it online so I can’t provide a link I’m afraid.
A stupid tourist tax has been announced by the government today. A complicated process to pay the $30 before you come to NZ; talk about getting up peoples noses.
This is in the week where a Price Waterhouse report has shown that the government already benefits by $2.5 billion annually from tourism. This means if the new tax puts 2% of people off coming here it will raise no income at all.
The tourism guy on RNZ said this week that the government should simply reallocate some of the massive cash it already receives from tourism rather than charge a new tax.
How many visitors would really avoid coming to NZ over a $30 fee when their average spend here is about $3,000 per trip (not including the costs of getting here)?
It isn’t just foreigners coming here. It will probably be mirrored for New Zealand citizens going through other countries.
For example
Traditionally the US will charge travellers from other countries going there anything that that country charges US citizens.
I can remember when a New Zealand citizen got a free US visa while Australians were charged quite a high fee for their visa. That was because the US citizens had to pay to get an Australian visa but New Zealand didn’t charge them anything. Drove my Australian friends nuts.
If that hasn’t changed New Zealand citizens going through Los Angeles to London will probably have to pay the same amount to US authorities just to pass through the Airport at LA.
Poor old Air NZ. People will take SIA or Emirates and fly to Europe via Singapore or Dubai.
NZ citizens pay US$14.00 for the two year ESTA as part of the visa waiver program – same as Aussie and other eligible nations. My wife used her Kiwi passport to enter the US last month and will do so again next month. She’s good to go until March 2019.
Sounds about right.
While I was in Australia they dropped the ridiculous fee that were charging US citizens for an Australian visa. A couple of months later the USA did the same for Ockers. The price for Australian and New Zealand citizens then became the same.
You will note that I said the IF New Zealand started charging the extra fee for a Visa AND the US still used the old “charge others as they charge us” system we could expect the fee for a US Visa to rise.
I never said it applied now or would apply before we cranked up the fee did I?
I haven’t entered the US through LA since before 2001. I refuse to put up with the way I am told they treat visitors there. Europe via the East for me.
Should be much higher plus an extra $30 if they arrive in Auckland and are expected to use the train/tram that has not been built yet and the current ratepayers are expected to finance.
As for PWC, 1 million for their report on the stadium that the ratepayers and councillors are not allowed to read in it’s entirety, but Phil Goff.
I think Mr Goff should be able to keep the report to himself and the $936,000 invoice re-directed to his residence for his personal attention.
I would of been happy to prepare a report and arrive at the same conclusion as PWC for much less money
Essentially: ‘We could expand Eden Park, do something massive on the Albany stadium site, free range at 1 of three outer suburban sites or build something spectacular downtown.’
In the eyes of Aucklanders, anything other than downtown with bars and restaurants overlooking the Hauraki Gulf will be 2nd best. A stadium built anywhere other than there will live forever beneath the shadow of ‘Could of had a City of Sails view.’ So there are no options. Find the money.’
A visit to a stadium is an experience beyond the game or concert. I think Auckland should play her ace card. She needs the dosh. Watching the sun set over the Hauraki Gulf while meeting friends or queuing to get to your seat would be a special experience, more than a footy game.
I think an architect would love a brief that instructs them to make the most of primary views inside and also those outside the stadium.
Every toilet in every stadium in the world is buried beneath the seating. Walking into a men’s room to see a big pane of glass at the end and a mega view of the harbour would prompt me to think ‘this place is special.’
Goff hasn’t shared his report with me. I’m speculating, I think Aucklanders might of paid a million dollars to hear: ‘It needs to be downtown, anything else is a compromise’.
Elsewhere, I’d drive there, bitch about the lack of parking, not drink much and drive home after the game.
Downtown, bugger the parking thing. I’d use public transport, meet for drinks and somewhere to eat before the game/concert and could be talked into a dodgy street vendor kebab and a visit to the casino post game.
“Isn’t the view in a stadium mostly facing inwards davy? That’s the whole goddam raison d’etre isn’t it?”
Well Gabby, we’re not really sure about that. As a sub-contracting consultant to David Mac, my team of experts (me and my Schnauzer) will put considerable effort into finding that information and presenting it in a colourful graph form…………… for another $200k, a steal even!!
Look how much money we could have saved the Auckland rate payer!!!!!
“The tourism guy on RNZ said this week that the government should simply reallocate some of the massive cash it already receives from tourism rather than charge a new tax.”
So hes advocating for an increase in company tax then ….sounds fair enough.
and theres the problem….if you accept that additional funds are required then it has to come from somewhere….that precludes EXISTING revenue (unless you advocate reducing funding to something else)….so do you cross subsidise one sector by general taxation or do you have a targeted tax/levy?…which is fairer?….which is politically rational?….which impacts economic activity the least?
The same old BS arguments from vested interests….its all good until it impacts me
The tourism industry is NOT being subsidised at all. It is paying its way magnificently but noisy ill-informed idiots are out there in the media saying the opposite.
if it was paying its way there would be sufficient revenue in the current tax take to fund the required…..obviously it isnt, hence the calls from the regional authorities for additional funding…unless you consider they are crying wolf?
The underfunding problem is caused by central government not allocating enough of the $2.5 billion it gets from tourism to the regions and local council’s being afraid to levy enough rates from powerful developers and other business interests that make squillions from tourism.
(I live under the Queenstown Lakes District Council junta and can attest to this.)
That explains the lack of pressure on ratepayers in low population high visitor areas I guess beardy. The magnificent paytheirownway tourism wealth creators howling for workers to come live in their unaffordable houses and work for peanuts.
Time to stop using ordinary Kiwis as money machines, our taxes should be spent on our own health and education not subsiding the multinational tourist industries.
Time, user pays, applies to everyone not just the powerless!
Clearly the 2.5 billion is not being distributed very evenly in NZ as we have rising poverty of both the poor and the working and the middle class!
Why should a businessman (or woman) who comes to Auckland for a couple of days have to pay a tourist levy? They will arrive, take a taxi to their hotel or office they are visiting, carry out their business activities for a couple of days and then go back to the airport and depart. They aren’t going to go anywhere near a tourist activity.
This is just another tax. Labour and the Greens have never seen a tax they didn’t love.
So much for pre-election promises.
Why…firstly its deductable as a business expense and it isnt applying to PI or Aussie travellers (CER is my guess though I think it should) so Id suggest anyone travelling from further afield is going to incorporate some leisure activity in their tax deductable trip even if here for a short period…certainly every business trip I can think of to any distant destination is treated thus.
In any case , if you accept additional funding is required (do you?) it must come from somewhere
“certainly every business trip I can think of to any distant destination is treated thus”.
I wish my employer, in the days when I had such things, had been as generous. I generally had to back as soon as work was over. Mind you I wasn’t as hard done by as some people at one place I worked. There were people there who kept packed bags at home at all times. They also had foreign currency around. It was quite common for some of them to be told, on a Saturday perhaps, that they had to go to Singapore for 3 days and they had to get there on Sunday. They would go, travel back on Thursday and be in the office again on Friday.
Do we want some more money? Well yes, and I think we should follow what is the West Australian approach. It is, roughly, this. I am giving, from memory, the amounts charged for a car. They apply to everyone, visitor or State resident.
Payments are required to visit all National and State Parks. A single visit costs $12 for a car and its passengers. For $44 you can visit all the parks in the State for 28 days. For $88 you can visit all the parks in the State for a year. For $44 you can visit all the parks in a geographic region for a year. These are quite big regions. From memory it would be something like all the North Island up to a line across at the Manawatu Gorge. I do not guarantee that estimate. I always use the 28 day option for the whole state when I go there these days.
The last two fees are obviously of interest to people who live in WA. The first two are of interest to tourists. Everyone who uses the parks pays although the billing system does favour the locals.
Seems to work pretty well to me. The facilities are good and they are paid for by the people who use them.
Correction. The fees are $13, $46 and $92 for the first three. The last is $23 but is only available for the group of parks in the area where you reside. They must have changed since last year.
your business trip reminiscences would appear to apply to employees…the tax will be of no concern to them …nor will it be to their companies which pay it i suggest.
There are additional charges for various facilities as well (DOC huts e.g.) unfortunately that revenue will not assist the TAs in the main as it will be utilised within the businesses/organisations that have the ability to generate it.
The call has gone to central gov to assist in funding this so the gov has the options outlined in 8.1.1……..questions conveniently ignored.
What better way to raise additional funds than a levy from without the economy….and still there’s clowns who wish to decry the assistance…go figure.
Excellent analogy Alwyn. Well the tourists use our roads for that taxi and clog it up. The diesel will go into our water systems. The current residents are expected to pay for that usage by a petrol tax and rates which if renting will increase the rents.
The hotel will probably be owned by a multination corporation that may or not be paying tax here (not even sure if OZ companies for example have to). The businesses get to deduct their rates, petrol and GST as an expense that ordinary people are unable to do.
Increasingly the hotels employ people at close to the minimum wages and often under the living wages therefore they are either sponsoring someone to work here from overseas or the NZ taxpayer will have to subsidise their wages with AS and WFF and community services card.
They will use NZ water, NZ waste water, NZ sewerage, NZ infrastructure. Sadly the way the Auckland council runs their businesses, they expect the rate payers to ‘chip in’ to this tourist process and the ratepayer costs keep rising and pollution keeps increasing as the numbers keep arriving.
The tourists are likely to eat out where the premise and business are both overseas owned and increasingly our restaurants are also poor quality and the staff are new migrants of under 10 years in the country, who have very little idea of the style of food or service, because there is not much emphasis on quality or training anymore in NZ. This is very apparent in Auckland where eating out now is very hit and miss and you will pay a fortune for a very average meal of often horrible quality.
So I think your example is perfect of why the government should be collecting a tax from overseas tourists and I think the current climate of bad quality in that sector wherever you go now, is going to have a horrible toll on that tourist industry.
If you only have 3 days in NZ and get horrible food, horrible congestion and horrible service and probably are unlikely to encounter a resident to talk to who was born in NZ, then what sort of NZ experience is that?
Of course if your visit to NZ is just to buy a house, land or business then I guess you don’t care.
There is a great difference between a dynamic multicultural city and one that has tired exploited people from other countries working there cheaply. I think in NZ, we are going towards the latter, because the tourism and hospitality industry has been allowed to cost cut to an extent that will eventually end the tourist industry as we know it.
Lets face it, we have human trafficking in NZ to keep our low wage industry going because many industries and businesses do not want to have to employ people at living wage rates or even the minimum wages.
Every time there is a ‘block’ recruit of low wage workers chances are – this is what is happening and NZ immigration is completely compliant in the process and supporting the people traffickers. The use of slavery and modern day overseers aka ‘foremen running gangs of cheap workers’ on construction sites and in the horticultural and fishing sector is alive and well.
It’s already happening with the fake degrees where students are lured in after paying big bucks while finding out their degree is useless and they are expected to then pay more money to pay for the ‘residency’ job and then work for next to nothing. There should be much great checks by both the immigration and the NZ course provider that the students understand that residency is not coming with the crappy course they are recruited for and spend a lot of money coming to NZ.
Even if they are found out, the employers/courses seem to get a tiny fine and it’s business as usual. They only reason they are going after this alleged trafficker is that he is Fijian and so politically safer than going after Chinese, Indian or Korean traffickers and employers willing to capitalise on the exploitation.
Time to clean up our act NZ, like with prostitution, you don’t prosecute the prostitutes you go after the clients and so in my view there should be heavy penalties aka Jail, $100,000 fine and being banned from running a business, to not only the subcontractor who runs the trafficked workers, but also the farms and businesses where they are caught working and the employment lawyers and middle men doing the paperwork. There should also be warrants issued for the middle men in the country of origin so they can be stopped and prosecuted there.
Even the factories in China seem to have better protection for the above aka they are checked for employment conditions, than our laws that are encouraging employers to turn a blind eye or actively recruit slave workers who after paying accomodation and food are then left with nothing but debts, aka just like NZ workers.
Equal up the playing field for employment in NZ by banning slavery and human trafficking!
And of course banning slavery and human trafficking is also evening up the playing field for the honest employers in this country who are being undercut!
All of the above should also be forced to pay damages to their victims and not be allowed to just file for bankruptcy with zero penalties. If they file for bankruptcy then they should go to jail.
There should also be a tenancy tribunal type process for small disputes under $12,000 over employment which bans lawyers and will therefore deliver much swifter justice at much cheaper costs and take away the power from the big players.
The employment court is broken, delivering very little at great cost and over great periods. Everybody I know fears it, as it is a waste of time.
After a very short time a new swift employment tribunal for the cases under $12k, will change the workforce, take away little cases so the employment court can concentrate on the bigger cases and I am sure that not only will it change the workforce it will also remove a lot of the cash industry and the day to day exploitation of workers, causing employers to clean up their acts.
Good, and valid points @ saveNZ at 9.
Not only have Immigration been ‘compliant’ as you say, I’d say complicit.
They’re complicit because they target the victims (probably because they have found it easier in the past) rather than the perpetrators. When they do manage to charge a few of the exploiters/trafiickers/arseholes, there is very very little sanction and they’re left to be able to go another round.
I’ll give you one example in soon (because I happen to be familiar with it, and can’t understand why ‘authorities’ – what the politicians now call ‘their officials’ could’t have seen the bleeding bloody obvious sooner.)
Before I do though, the immigration policy and the administrative structure that has been set up to support it has been designed to allow all this to happen.
You mention the fake degree stuff where students are made false promises and utterly fleeced. Bear in mind that government agencies have supposed to have been monitoring all this and ensuring the integrity of the system
NZQA re educational standards. The Immigration Advisor’s Authority making sure consultants weren’t complete bullshit artists ( until recently, the Immig NZ/MoBIE website was STILL encouraging people to become immigration consultants/advisors, and there are now literally hundreds operating, and they give genuine immigration specialists a bad name. ) The Labour Inspectorate who have had to admit they’ve been close to useless – that is even though we had one manager assuring us we had sufficient numbers just prior to the election. AND even now, who seem have very weird priorities, such as investing in stab proof vests. It’s NO BLOODY WONDER those who are brave enough to want to report extreme levels of exploitation would rather steer clear.
These (NZQA/IAA/LI) are just 3 of the entities who should have been keeping an eye on it all, but for reasons such as being completely under-resourced for the job, or because of shear muppetry, or prejudice or the wrong focus have not just been complicit, but they have encouraged it.
You can probably recall the case of the students deported last year after being given haven in a church in Auckland. They were deported because Steven Joyce (who by the way, was a big part of the problem in designing the system) had said (to paraphrase “because they’d signed the application, they were responsible” and it was therefore all their own fault.) Nothing to do with having paid for so called ‘immigration experts’ and shoddy PTEs and labour companies). A classic case of penalising and blaming the victims whilst allowing the exploiters and perpetrators to carry on and target another round of suckers – because you know…. we have a 4 billion dollar education export industry to protect.
So here’s an example of something I’m fairly closely familiar with: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/06/06/113305/kiwi-reveals-firms-treatment-of-migrant-workers
It’s not as bad as others I know of, but there goes 2 guys who’ve exploited quite a number of people. I can’t for the life of me, understand how this did not come to the attention of various entities under MoBIE sooner. Bear in mind, LI and INZ work together, AND they’re in charge of things like the companies register.
If the cable jointer working down the street on copper cabling (who had nothing to do with 3ML) knew about it months and months ago, how is it that it was beyond the capability of a juggernaut Ministry to know. But you know what – it’s actually been easier to just get the victims of immigrant exploitation out of the country as soon as possible (and enable another round to replace them on short term visas).
And let’s not for one moment think that it is corrupt immigrants who’ve managed to get PR alone. Rest assured there are paid up 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation NZ Citizens milking it for all they’re worth.
I’m assured that coalition government ministers know about it (if only because one confided in my sister at the Labour party’s little post-election getaway in Martinborough), although I’m not sure they know the extent of it all, and whether they’ve cottoned tothe extent of some of their ‘officials’ spinning.
Things are happening though – probably not as fast as we (and the exploited) would wish
I’m sniffing some PR spin when it comes to how the PM is dealing with her NZ First MP’s.
First up, we have Winston Peters, deputy PM and acting PM shortly, suing the government. When asked about how appropriate or otherwise this is, the Prime Minister’s response was that he was doing it in a personal capacity.
“The man of many hats is back,” Megan Woods proclaimed in 2016.
The Labour MP wasn’t reciting a Dr Seuss book, but excoriating John Key for using the question of ministerial responsibility to dodge questions about his connection to foreign trusts.
Key’s choice of different “hats” during his time in power – prime minister, Helensville MP, husband putting out the cat – was a subject of frequent irritation for Opposition politicians seeking to hold him to account.
Heres the thing though, for 9 years the posters on here gleefully pointed out every real and imagined error the National made all in the guise of holding the government to account
Those posters set the standard of behaviour and Ardern then doubled down on the standards she expected so now the only thing the opposition has is the ability to point out whenever the government puts a foot wrong and this government is doing so much wrong
Yet not a peep from the posters on here when the government displays the same, and worse, behaviour the last government did
I don’t expect this govt no to make mistakes and I don’t expect them to not do anything that doesn’t fall in with my values and their professed values e.g the Eugenie Sage bottled water thing. I understand they may be in positions where they need to compromise.
I do look at the big picture and what they are trying to achieve. Under Labour its improving minimum wage, not building mega prisons, fixing the Middlemore mess and properly funding infrastructure and attempting to solve the housing crisis (and actually naming it as a crisis that needs solving).
From my point of view that have been working very hard from day one to address these issues (and many more) that are important to me. Mostly National either did nothing about the problems eg Middlemore or had a hand in creating them.
From that point of view, I am very happy with the Coalition and I am forgiving of mistakes (up to a point). After all we all make them.
Re the list of labour incompetents…………Well Nationals are:
N Smith,
G Brownlee
H Parata
Anne Tolley
Jamie Lee Ross
The new guy in Northcote (if the Wilson interview is anything to go by
J Coleman
P Bennett ……………………………………………..etc etc
Interesting pr. What did national raise minimum wage by? Notice all govt employees to get a living wage…..
I do think arrogance and incompetence are something else. I have to say plenty of that in National, possibly labour.
But it’s what hey achieve that matters most. An organisation can have bits of incompetence but still get good outcomes……I am looking at the outcomes btw think it is ridiculous to judge col success on the housing crisis yet. It took some years to develop under national. You don’t turn that around in 8 months.
And I do blame Nat for the housing crisis. Owned a house in am that I rented between 2004 2014 cause I moved out of Auckland for work. The first four years mostly got tennants ok but around 2006 had to drop the rent cause I couldn’t get a tenant. After 2008 whole thing became crazy
Shes easily as good as John Key was at manipulating the media, you know the whole transparent government thing then putting Curran in charge
Shes as good as Key was at saying a lot, and sounding authoritative, without saying anything at all, relentlessly positive thing and don’t have to lie to be in politics
Shes also as good as Key at mangling the language but still sounding like “one of us”
Shes a very good communicator and a very good politician
Shes not the leader John Key was though, everyone knew John Key was the boss however she may grow to equal or even surpass John in that are as well though I doubt it
(No there’s no damning with faint praise going on)
I’m not disagreeing with you but i was more referring to the age and experience difference in that John Key is older and has held more leadership positions so its only natural that Key is the more experienced/better leader
Jacinda may well become as good (effective) leader as John in the future but at the moment she isn’t
Again , subjective. The leadership styles are merely different.
Also , Adern has held leadership positions at a very young age when overseas. While Key spent much of time as a younger man literally working for the ‘ Man’.
Recall Key working in with Andrew Kreiger to pull off one of the biggest Forex Heists in history against the NZ economy.
And that’s not leadership , – that’s being a boy taking orders.
And doesn’t particularly show any sense of operating in his country of births best interests, … does it.
“Also , Adern has held leadership positions at a very young age when overseas.”
– like what exactly?
“While Key spent much of time as a younger man literally working for the ‘ Man’.”
– Wow, thats wow. Like did Key ever become “the man” or just work for “the man”, who is “the man” anyway, is there a female counterpart like “the woman”?
Hang on I party voted for National which means that John Key did work for me and since John Key worked for “the man” that must mean I am “the man”
President of the International Union of Socialist Youth.
So , one involved in the financial sector as a junior at first , the other in the political area as a leader. So it pretty much pans out . And we are back to square one. Different leadership styles.
“Shes not the leader John Key was though, everyone knew John Key was the boss”
That kinda paints you as a unreconstructed authoritarian there, Pucky.
Leaders don’t have to be “the boss”; there are more elegant ways to lead. In many ways, your thinking seems pre-Arthurian where Might was regarded as Right. We’ve come a long way since then, Pucky. Well, some of us have 🙂
You cant have dodgy characters in official govt position’s in dept’s and elected officials carrying on and leaking private financial details to the public. That’s an illegal breach of privacy and breach of protocol for a start.
Its also political bias from govt dept heads working in collusion to smear a political figure deemed as opposed to their political masters. When they should by job description be impartial and simply executors of the incumbent govts policy’s.
And the fact no one had seemed to have the gonads to own up shows they knew what they were doing was wrong.
Peters has every right and all power to him.
Slap on the wrist Meaning – YouTube
Video for slap on the wrist you tube▶ 0:20
Hey I agree, send it to the courts to decide and see what happens and thats all good but to suggest the acting PM is doing it in a personal capacity and announcing it while he takes the reigns is a couple steps to far
… ” to suggest the acting PM is doing it in a personal capacity and announcing it while he takes the reigns is a couple steps to far ” …
Not at all.
That’s a matter of personal opinion and interpretation. And as for it being in a personal capacity well its correct on at least one count…
As it was it was directed solely at Peters ,- not his party.
The fact that no one – after all this time elapsing ,- has come forward and admitted it is also indicative of knowledge of wrongdoing . W e are dealing with dept’s that know the law about public disclosures and what is illegal.
And we are also dealing with elected officials who know those laws. One of which , – has a past track record of releasing personal details to the public on at least two occasions against those least able to defend themselves – beneficiaries.
This event occurred just prior to a general election ,- was that a couple of steps too far to try and smear a leader of a political party that was deemed a threat , – until the incumbent govt realized they might need them to form a govt ???
I would say it is indeed very ‘personal’.
And political, – on the defendants side.
Which begs the question : do we really want future politics to be conducted in this manner with this sort of Dirty Politicking ??? Is this what we are paying elected officials and heads of govt depts to act like?
So what better time as Peters becomes Prime Minister to make an example of this sort of stonewalling of democracy by using underhanded ( and illegal ) means ?
If anything I would say Winston Peters is doing the country a big favour by putting the boot squarely on the neck of these sorts of activity’s. And highlighting this sort of skulduggery when hes Prime Minister is in fact, perfect timing.
Liar.
Richard Prebble had, I think, the first definition.
I’m sure that Puckish Rogue would never be so disrespectful as to use it about the stars of stage, screen and vaudeville who rule us.
I personally can’t think of a better definition than Richard’s but perhaps that is simply my problem in trying to move away from its accuracy.
Pucky is trying not to disillusion you I would say, Sacha. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11935125
I get tribalism, I get that people are happy “their side” won, I understand the vitriol against National I really do (I did read the posts after all) but, six months in, are the posters on the left here happy with how the present government is performing, are they performing up to the standard you expect or were led to believe they’d act
Personally, Pucky, I’m delighted with the COL (in preference to the CON). I couldn’t know what they could do, given the state of the nation at takeover, or how the Opposition (CON) might behave, or how the MSM might conduct itself, nor how the coalition partners would gel (sorry Simon), so given those factors, yes, I reckon the Jacinda-led Government is doing very well indeed and I’m very happy with their direction, pace and approach. There are glitches (the CON’s were hidden from us by a slippery leader and a team of deceitful strategists and assorted flunkies) so I’m not at all rattled by those things you are attempting to wave in front of us every day.
K?
And the fact that you are commenting on and assuming tanker-loads in comparing a 6 month old govt against another ( CON ) that was in power for 9 years !
There’s a very very long bow in attempting to do that.
Not really, some of the Labour ministers seem to be as arrogant as the National ministers were except that Labours only been in power for six months as opposed to Nationals arrogance being born from terms in power
OK , but it does seem your original statement was more to do with ‘performance’ than ‘arrogance’.
And if ‘arrogance’ is an allusion to say Phil Twyfords retorts back to Judith Collins on housing , for example ,… when a govt is only 6 months in and attempting to fix the negligence of a former govt that was in for 9 long years and that did nothing…
I would say even that is a little premature to accuse them of being ‘arrogant’… but point taken … there is arrogance on all sides of the political spectrum.
Well In regards to performance I could mention Claire Curren or Jenny Marcroft or David Clarks interesting strategy or Kelvin Nash being well Kelvin Nash
“there is arrogance on all sides of the political spectrum.”
On this I think we, and everyone here, can all agree that is the case so its nice we can reach consensus on somethings 🙂
Please Puckish Rogue. How good a lunch, and how many glasses of wine, did you have?
It is Clare Curran, not Claire Curren
It is Kelvin Davis, not Kelvin Nash.
Alternatively it is Stuart Nash, not Kelvin Nash
They may be pretty useless but they deserve to be given their proper names.
On 6 October 2009, Field was jailed for six years on corruption charges, with the sentencing judge saying his offending threatened the foundation of democracy and justice.
He’s more the exception than the rule only in getting prosecuted. Given more vigorous pursuit of MP crime the majority of the previous government would be incarcerated. It’s one of the things a halfway decent government would prioritize.
They’re a very corrupt lot, the present day Gnats – it is not supposed to be fear of prosecution that keeps an MP straight, but a genuine concern for the country they are paid and sworn to represent.
Minor shit. Not too sure about the first one, but Gnat sources whining impropriety are going to meet skepticism until some of their larger rorts are dealt with.
Clark is my electorate MP and has long since destroyed any vestiges of credibility the party aegis might have lent him had he not been such a turd. That said, a politicized board member is nothing to boast of either – and Clark’s response may have been merely to circumvent possible legal action around dismissal.
The analogy you’re looking for is older than Star Chamber of course.
The hot and cold running corruption that typifies present day National is viewed by them as seigneurage – the price we pay for the distinctly dubious pleasure of their presence.
Which is no pleasure at all, and the costs are better recovered and spent appropriately, if only to keep useless oiks like Brownlee from misappropriating the money that was supposed to keep roofs over peoples’ heads.
I do not think Stuart Munro literally means the majority but rather figuratively , in as much as if the inner core have been involved in spurious activity’s , it behooves the wider party to do something about it. They did not.
Putting aside some of the serious allegations mentioned in Dirty Politics , there seems to be a very real reticence to charge and prosecute those in govt in this country. Whats needed is an equivalent to the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission in this country.
We have Bill English shielding Todd Barclay from Police inquiry’s , we have John Key and common assault , signing off on a possible military operation that led to possible war crimes, then there was the tax haven fiasco and the Panama Papers , then we have Judith Collins and conflicts of interest to name a few…
And over 9 years they racked up a pretty impressive list that , although covered in layers of deflections and plausible deniability, had their origins from somewhere. And that’s circumstantial evidence that is never proven because there seems to be a protective hedge around those who work in the interests of the moneyed people that is effective in preventing justice from taking its natural course.
And its at this point they cease from being elected officials to being in a derogatory sense , mere ‘politicians’.
There’s a good deal of strong feeling around the issue of corrupt National Party MPs, isn’t there! Much of that seems to stem from the frustration resulting from the techniques and strategies that appeared to shield those Ministers from natural justice. Much of the positive political “atmosphere” around the country now comes, not from the expected baby, but from the relief felt from National Party MPs being in Opposition and less able to behave as it was believed they did.
Hey Pucky- and pretty sure I’m speaking speaking for most beneficiaries, the living in total and constant fear of the State vanished the moment Peters announced his decision. There were a lot of people who had exit plans ready had the other crowd got back in, not kidding, it was that bad.
It’s still not great for us and I have no confidence at all in Sepaloni and there’s actions she could’ve taken immediately but hasn’t because she has a track record of hating beneficiaries, but I’m not living in constant fear, at least not for the next 2 years.
Kay, I understand what you’re saying here. I have a family member who is a sickness beneficiary. I don’t think many people realise how vindictive and nasty MSD became from around 2011 onwards. I do think things will improve over the next year or two.
As hard as it is to do, everyone needs to hope things will improve and stay strong for others who need our support
So the taxpayer will find a new $10 million high speed gondola for the Whakapapa Skifield. Another subsidy for private businesses. Ordinary wage earners foot the bill.
I see burger king are up to their usual BS in industrial relations in Christchurch.
Trespassing union organisers, so childish.
Here their 0800 number, call them and tell them to grow up. Remember all conversations are recorded. So be polite. This is the name of all the company directors you should mention who need to lift their game.
I’d say that if your personal financial affairs turned up being sensationalised, and incorrectly at that, in the media you’d be in your lawyer’s office pretty smartly seeking redress.
The unfortunate aspect of this sorry affair is that those responsible will hide behind executive privilege and pass the responsibility for their actions onto the taxpayer. Just like the past government’s ministers are doing with the meth testing debacle.
Might be time for politicians to be personally responsible for their actions.
Good morning Q$A ECO MAORI been done over by the justice system and is still been done over by this justice system how can they still find – – – reasons to carry on this farce. Another reason I don’t trust petri dish meat is that we don’t no what’s in it and big businesses will take total control of this new industry we can still farm traditions style and environment friendly ways.
Renewable energy is the way to go our new coalition government will change our energy supply to more renewables all in good time Ka pai Corin Ka kite ano
trump trade war is just the a way for him to portray that he is a strong person.
His trade war will effect the poor people the most as inflation spikes.
Eco Maori music for the minute shonky cause the houseing crisis so his 1 million dollar house will sell for 4.
His national party supporters would have made heaps $$$$$$. Who cares about those mostly brown broken people under the bridge that’s their mind set link below. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk
P.S what over reason is there for denieing that there is a houseing crisis when that crisis is fulling your hip pocket with $$$$$$$
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Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
Arawata Shane Arawata Shane had wandered long In the wild tangled hills of the West Coast. He came to a stop on the mighty range And looked down at the wide river flats. He breathed in the clean air, And he took in the shadows playing across The face of ...
SPECIAL REPORT:Islands Business in Suva Today is the 24th anniversary of renegade and failed businessman George Speight’s coup in 2000 Fiji. The elected coalition government headed by Mahendra Chaudhry, the first and only Indo-Fijian prime minister of Fiji, was held hostage at gunpoint for 56 days in the country’s ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist and Kelvin Anthony, RNZ Pacific digital journalist Police have used tear gas and stun grenades on rioters at an airport near Nouméa as the chaos in New Caledonia stretched into its sixth day. Five people, including two police officers, have died and hundreds of ...
Asia Pacific ReportThe global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on France to not “misuse” a crackdown in the ongoing unrest in the non-self-governing French Pacific territory of Kanaky New Caledonia in the wake of a controversial vote by the French Parliament to adopt a bill changing the territory’s ...
A major provider of school lunches fears the government's new $3 limit for most students will see them eating more pre-packaged and processed food. ...
The star of Dark City: The Cleaner takes us through his life in TV, including the VHS revolution and the John Campbell impression that started it all. Best known for his comedic roles, Cohen Holloway says he struggled at times to maintain the stone cold facade of serial killer on ...
David Hill remembers an old friend, who you’ve probably never heard of. My friend Doug never travelled; he had little interest in the world beyond his own tiny rural town. I’ve rarely known anyone who radiated such contentment. Doug (I’ll call him that) died in March. You won’t know him. ...
Some of the earliest photos of life in Aotearoa are on display at Auckland Museum right now – but the identities of some of the people in them are a mystery.What was it like to be one of the first people in New Zealand to have their photo taken? ...
Since its founding almost a decade ago, Featherston Booktown has grown into one of the country’s most interesting and idiosyncratic literary events. Erin Banks reports from the audience. “Come in, have you had lunch? I’m about to make a cheese toastie.” Mary Biggs, operations manager of Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival, ...
After 33 years abroad, Loveni Enari recently returned to Aotearoa and Samoa in what a friend joked was an “existential crisis”. He learnt and re-learnt so much about his family, friends and both countries. Almost as an afterthought, he got a Samoan tatau. This is his story. (Accompanying it are ...
Nearly 30 years ago, two people told me they’d killed a woman they knew. I thought the truth would come out, that others would tell it. In the end, I had to. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Fact: in 1995, Angela Blackmoore ...
Editor Madeleine Chapman looks back at the week and shines a light on some increasingly rare longform journalism. Mōrena and welcome to The Weekend where there will sadly be no aurora to see. After a busy week last week of short, sharp pieces, this week we swung the other way, ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates. Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during ...
Forget thin is in, apparently now bigger is better … or is it? After over a decade of body positivity, girls, teens and women are even more confused about what body positivity actually is. The movement began with women confronting unrealistic expectations of how their bodies should look. But sub-strands ...
Grace always sat at the bar at the back of The Cambridge, where she could watch who came in. A huge mirror ran the length of the pub, so you could sometimes watch people without them knowing. The mirror made the place seem a lot bigger than it really was. ...
MONDAY Sheriff Mark Mitchell rose at dawn. He had a long day’s ride ahead of him. He was headed for Waikeria. Waikeria! Even the name itself stirred his blood, and set root in his imagination. There was nothing and no one in Waikeria. But he would bend it to his ...
The first phase of the inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones finished this week, turning up plenty of revelations and few answers. But through all the confusion, heartbreak and antipathy on display, the simple fact at the heart of this case remains: if little Lachie’s body had ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roger Benjamin, Professor in Art History, University of Sydney “She’s no oil painting”. Those were the unkind words of a colleague commenting on the subject of Vincent Namatjira’s acrylic painting, Gina. Every one of the prominent Australians and cultural heroes in Namatjira’s ...
Government plans to require local councils hold a referendum on whether to have Māori wards breaches the Treaty of Waitangi, a Waitangi Tribunal report has found. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney This year the National Rugby League (NRL) opened its season in Las Vegas. It was an audacious move by the league’s ambitious head honcho Peter V’Landys to showcase the game in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Strong, Associate Professor, Music Industry, RMIT University Leading music organisations have praised the federal budget for its investment in the live music sector. The budget includes A$8.6 million for a program called Revive Live: to provide essential support to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marnee Shay, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, The University of Queensland The 2024 federal budget contains A$110 million for Indigenous education. This includes funding for various different organisations to represent and help Indigenous people as well as scholarships in a bid to ...
Air New Zealand has confirmed Nouméa’s Tontouta International airport in New Caledonia is closed until Tuesday. The airline earlier told RNZ it would update customers as soon as it could. Earlier today, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters told RNZ Morning Report government officials had been working on an “hourly basis” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Linley, PhD Candidate in Ecology, Charles Sturt University Grant Linley Australia’s unprecedented Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20 created ideal conditions for misinformation to spread, from the insidious to the absurd. It was within this context that a bizarre story ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcel Scharth, Lecturer in Business Analytics, University of Sydney OpenAI executive Mira Murati launching GPT-4o.OpenAI Earlier this week OpenAI launched GPT-4o (“o” for “omni”), a new version of the artificial intelligence (AI) system powering the popular ChatGPT chatbot. GPT-4o is promoted ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treasure McGuire, Assistant Director of Pharmacy, Mater Health SEQ in conjoint appointment as Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Bond University and as Associate Professor (Clinical), The University of Queensland Speedkingz/Shutterstock Menopause is a natural biological process that marks the end of a ...
A new poem by Hannah Patterson. Xiāng There’s a pear tree in our backyard And Xiāng tells me She can’t eat them anymore Not after some things that have happened in her life. She tells me, in Mandarin The word for pear sounds the same as the word for disassociation ...
‘Cycling Works’ aims to show business support for citywide cycle infrastructure. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, supermarket giant Foodstuffs lost its attempt to block the construction of a cycle lane outside Thorndon New World in Wellington. The Spinoff’s Wellington editor ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Slow Productivity by Cal Newport (Penguin, $40)Taking out the top spot in Auckland this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Lowe, Emeritus Professor, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University For decades, Australia has exported uranium – but not used it, other than in the Lucas Heights research reactor. But change is coming. We now face a rapidly deepening commitment to ...
"In future I should walk away," Green MP Julie Anne Genter says after complaints over an exchange in Parliament and from two members of the public. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Graffam, PhD Candidate in Theatre, Monash University Gianna Rizzo/Malthouse Music pumps; lights pulsate; two sweaty bodies sway together, touching, breathing in each other’s scent. A male body framed by downlight restlessly shifts between stances and gestures. He undresses. The intensity ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sandra van der Laan, Professor of Accounting, University of Sydney Mtaya/Shutterstock At some point, you or someone else will need to make a decision about your “send-off”. Most Australians die in an institution, such as a hospital or aged care facility. ...
Asia Pacific Report Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai — who is also Chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group — has reaffirmed MSG’s support of the pro-independence umbrella group Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) stance opposing the French government’s constitutional bill “unfreezing” the New Caledonia Electoral Roll. It is ...
Producer Susan Leonard remembers her father Ernie, a pioneer of Māori television, and how his legacy lives on in Pathfinders.My father was a fabulous man. His name was Ernie Leonard and he started in TV in the 1970s when it was still glamorous – when TVNZ made behind the ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk, and Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist The suspected ringleaders of the unrest in New Caledonia have been placed in home detention and the social network TikTok has been banned as French security forces struggle to restore law and order. The French ...
Multi-year appropriations - which give the government authority to spend money without reapplying annually - are loosening Parliament's control of the public purse, auditor-general says. ...
Dr. Eric Chuah who stood for a centrist NZ political party in the October 2023 NZ Elections for Maungakiekie Auckland will stand as a candidate for Tauranga City Council Ward of Matua-=Otumoetai and Mayor of Tauranga. ...
If you can’t get to the comedy fest, let us bring the comedy fest to you. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. The New Zealand International Comedy Festival is in full swing at the moment, with a veritable smorgasboard of comedy treats ...
A new poll commissioned by Unions Wellington shows an overwhelming majority of Wellingtonians oppose the Council’s plan to sell the 34% public stake in Wellington Airport. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aruna Sathanapally, Chief Executive, Grattan Institute, Grattan Institute A central focus of this week’s budget is the treasury’s forecast for inflation. By this time next year, inflation is projected to be back within the Reserve Bank’s 2-3% target range. Inflation has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yolanda van Heezik, Professor of Ecology, University of Otago Getty Images Cities across Aotearoa New Zealand are trying to solve a housing crisis, with increasing residential density a key solution. But not everyone is happy about the resulting loss of natural ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Reeve, Deputy Program Director, Energy and Climate Change, Grattan Institute WDG Photo/Shutterstock For years, the electricity sector has been the poster child for emissions cuts in Australia. The sector achieved a stunning 26% drop in emissions over the past 15 ...
It’s often the last thing people want to do, but asking someone if they’re having suicidal thoughts is a critical first step to helping them. Content warning: this story discusses suicide and suicidal ideation. For a list of resources that can help if you or someone you know is feeling ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy J. Ralph, Associate Professor, Macquarie University The pyramids at Giza, like dozens of others, are located several kilometres west of the current path of the Nile.Alex Cimbal / Shutterstock The largest field of pyramids in Egypt – consisting of 31 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute ABO PHOTOGRAPHY/Shutterstock Receiving a cancer diagnosis is life-changing and can cause a range of concerns about ongoing health. Fear of cancer returning is one ...
Winston Peters has been on tour around the Pacific while two unrelated crises unfolded, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Two separate ...
This is the Mount Everest of artificial meatcraft.Ah, bacon. Pig’s gold. Toast’s consolation. Dawn’s savoury embrace. If meat was a currency, bacon would be the Benjamin Franklin. Or if you’re feeling patriotic, the Lord Rutherford. When it comes to fake bacon, the obvious question is: why bother? In the ...
From illegal milk to sprinkler bans and airplane ticket scams, Tyrone Barugh is on a one-man mission through New Zealand’s most obscure legal loopholes. I’m deep undercover, investigating Wellington’s criminal underworld. Inside this store, I’ve been told there is a million-dollar trade in illicit substances. A man dressed in black ...
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New Zealand’s drug legislation hasn’t been overhauled in nearly 50 years, in spite of a recommendation from the Law Commission in 2011 to do so. Our Misuse of Drugs Act was passed in 1975 and is based on a United Nations framework set in 1961. Now a new organisation, Harm ...
Baby coming this weekend?
There is nothing that comes close to a new born baby. I think they are intelligent and so entertaining.
And time intensive.
And constantly present, in the now.
That is why they light up a room.
Truly universal beings, about to be impacted by the development of an ego.
Ha! Yes, discovering our sense of self starts with amazement at how our fingers wiggle.
It really starts to go downhill when the concept of ‘mine’ occurs.
So are puppies.
A baby is nice
There’s comfort in the fact that some of us, arguably those most desperate for a change of government in 2017, have been constrained in our celebrations over the Coalition.
I guess wherever one finds politicians one can expect a certain percentage of rampant egomaniacs. A pity the loudest limelighters are in the same minor party.
Why oh why can’t they just say their piece then STFU? But no, they have to bang on and on and call in the reinforcements and give the single digit salute to their political leader from the major Coalition party.
In the meantime…the other minor party in the Coalition seems more than content to set aside their basic policies and confirm and cooperate when I suspect a large percentage of the population would be supportive of a revolt over increased water bottling.
Politics.
SSDD
How cynical have I become that I recognise your acronym within seconds of encountering it.
(same smiles different dials)
Have we all lost the ability to work with one another? The left and right should be keeping each other honest, actually supporting each others graduation toward maturity in this regard. This childish bickering 24/7 and gleeful propagation of sound bites where politicians ‘own’ each other…
MSM, amateur media (you, me, we), all doing it. Divide divide divide.
As for Greens having to be seen to be different – just why? Be seen to be doing things – not wearing a different shirt. Children. This ‘dealing with reality’ is a good look. It is apt to note the system is broken from within and learn as you go just what is broken where and how we might find better alternatives. In the meantime the world turns.
Western society and business is (was) based on basic trust. Seems we were sadly mistaken in giving business the rope in order to hang us all. But I prefer to have some sense of trust in the decency of people. When the shit hits the fan real people are all over it. It’s just this political/business class who seem incapable of rejoining society preferring the divide and pillage technique. The fact they pull the strings is the real reason everything’s seemingly turned to shit.
It’s a fine mess. I got a Laurel and Hardy framed picture yesterday. Sitting in one of their atypically destroyed hotel rooms “Another Fine Mess”.
Yes, yes it is.
She means same shit different day, surely
That’s what we like to tell ourselves despite all the evidence that it’s actually based upon a few people ripping everyone else off. Another example from the Western Leader:
Basically, they’re putting a picture of the Southern Alps on the merchandise and thus implying that it comes from that area when it isn’t.
Basically, the normal deception that business has been engaging in since forever.
Farmers: “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me.”
Also farmers: “Why are you being so mean?!”
Strange the lack of personal responsibility in the rural conservative vote considering what they bang on about half the time.
Lloyd Downing was the organiser of that rally under the Mega Cow in Morrinsville in September. Pops up again in that RNZ interview.
From you view of the “farmers” attitude
RATM has the same attitude BUT from the opposite perspective
The kids are just discovering it 😈
Also seen on Tom Morello’s Twitter feed.
My first impression “fucken farmers”
What ever happened to farmers being salt of the earth community minded? The turkey from Cheviot was whingeing that a govt dept didn’t break the privacy act to tell him about his neighbors possible (later proved positive) infection. Why didn’t his neighbor call him directly (and others around him) to advise there was some concern and to take appropriate precautions???
Bad enough the previous government let this pot boil over, now the farmers are refusing to tell where the off button is!
Maybe those that refuse to co-operate should lose the support of the community/country and have compensation declined if found to have lied/withheld evidence, especially those that have purchased animals from the ground zero farm and will not contact MPI of the fact.
This behavior is can only increase the cost of eradication or end with the disease becoming entrenched, with a large part of the cost being foist upon the public purse.
Can’t say that I’m surprised. All farmers in this country seem to be greedy, ignorant schmucks who think far too much of themselves.
When Fonterra exists due to specific legislation then it is actually everyone’s business. We need to be sure that the legislation is working and it obviously isn’t and thus needs changing. Repealing it and thus eliminating Fonterra may be the best option.
Ae. Apparently representatives of an elected government have no right to comment on how companies or ‘bizzniss’ should operate.
Rules and regulations must be applied selectively.
Bad enough those elected representatives already have an out when it suits (i.e. “I can’t comment on operational matter” – though what the definition of ‘operational’ is can be as fluid as they like)
NZH… “Health Minister David Clark has tried to gag public servants, appearing to offer them jobs in return for their silence, National’s MP for Botany Jami-Lee Ross said”……. As soon as I read Jamie Lee Ross, I realized I was suckered by the headline.
Perhaps listen to the voicemail. He most certainly sounds like that was exactly what he was doing.
Eeeeeeek i find myself agreeing with james here. That voice message was waaay out of line IMHO
Have we heard the entire message yet? Or just the sections that suit those who released it.
Just the corrupt bit
Thats dissapointing sacha! You rush to comment before you listen to the evidence, perhaps you confuse opinion with fact. The message was complete including voicemail head and tail prompts.
Please link to a story including the full voicemail so we can all hear it. The version of one clip on Newshub was shorter than the same section on RNZ (allowing a quite different impression) but neither story included the full message.
Damn you sacha you have exposed my guilty secret! Yes i have lapsed and have been visiting the herald again from time to time
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12070966
And here:
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/not-helpful-minister-accused-of-gagging-public-servants/.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12070966
Ok so trying to keep my own personal opinions it is, at first viewing, not a good look so it’ll be interesting to see how Winston and the media play this but maybe there’ll be more information that can shed some light on this
There are only two options that I think are possible.
The most likely one is that Winston will simply announce something like
“Listen sunshine. Nothing to see here. Time to move on”. The media will then obey him. I didn’t hear a single word on Morning Report about the matter.
The other would be something that will only occur in the unlikely event that Winston wanted Minister of Health for one of his own MPs. In that case Clark will be gone by lunchtime.
I’d put my money on the first option.
Would be interesting to see what the reaction would be if it was a National minister instead
The Guillotine would already have been installed in the forecourt of Parliament.
The tumbril would be moving toward it with the victim in the back.
All the female Labour and Green MPs would be sitting there with their knitting needles, (and their teeth), clacking.
David Clark, putting on his most stony Presbyterian glare would be condemning the prisoner.
The execution would be carried out at midday.
Amazing that a man of the cloth like David could be guilty of such mortal sins isn’t it? I see why he was defrocked.
Exactly, there’d be calls for resignations at the very least however while I think it sounds extremely dodgy I’m still wanting to not rush to judgement just yet
But and its a very big but I think its more proof, if proof was needed, just how unprepared the COL is for being in charge
My biggest hope is that the COL don’t do too much permanent damage before they’re replaced
Just to indicate what waffle you two are writing, I distinctly recall a nice, easy interview of Lee Ross by Guyon E on RNZ between 8.30 and 9.00am.
But none so deaf as those who do not wish to hear, huh?
Isn’t anyone from the left just the slightest bit concerned about just how incompetent some of the COLs ministers appear to be
It seems like everyone in the COL is in a race to see how much incompetence the NZ public will endure…as an example no ones mentioned Clare Curren for days because of so many new entrants
Hell at this point I’d agree to Helen Clark and Michael Cullen returning to take over
Clare Curren
Phil Twyford
Andrew Little
Megan Woods
Chris Hipkins
Kelvin Davis
David Clark
Stuart Nash
Thats a lot of Labour ministers that recently have been made to look arrogant, incompetent or both…and I’ve probably missed some
Competent members in opposition. Zero.Nil.Nada.one minus one.
“RNZ between 8.30 and 9.00am”.
It must be nice to have that much time free.
I listened from 6:00am until about 8:20am.
Then I had to start work. I hate having to have to work out our Income tax but the IRD insist on it. I wish I was like you and had time enough to be able to listen to the radio as late as 9:00 am.
From 8.38am: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018649420/national-claims-health-minister-silencing-staff-on-middlemore
how bizarre the actual voicemail is 2.11 long, and self explanatory
RNZ takes 4.16 to play a excerpt and then obfuscate the meaning.
?
Organise your time better wally, or avail yourself of the listen again facility.
I presume, from the indentation numbering you are trying to address me.
If so can I refer you to the conversation between Vivien and Edward Lewis in the film Pretty Woman?
“Can I call you Eddy?”
“Not if you expect me to answer”
You might also do well to spell your name correctly.
Your character requires you to spell it “Gobby”.
That is used in phrases like “You are a gobby Glaswegian”
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gobby
Alternatively you would also fit the Australian definition.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gobby
No doubt it amuses you, of course. What is that phrase?
“Small things amuse small minds”.
Why would Clark be trying to gag DHB officials from talking about Nationals mess, not in his best interest.
Can you be a man of the cloth and defrocked wally? One or t’other surely.
I hope you don’t often find yourself struggling to recall common phrases wally.
He certainly does seem to be teetering on the brink of pricksmithery.
I wondered where todays “Hate In” was going to be.
It’s the usual.
I must say I’m disappointed in NZF. Why did they have to start their shenanigans right before Jacinda goes on maternity leave? Could it not have waited six weeks. If I were Jacinda I wouldn’t be relaxing at all.Not with the opposing snake pit ready to strike at everything that will give them positive paragraphs from the pandering press. Even the minor Hosking, Hawkesby is chewing on the end of her pen and has entered the fray. Not good.
I am about to see how the PMs maternity leave is going to be handled by every political party.
The PM could turn up with a hungry, tired, screaming baby at queston time and hand the baby to Mallard. Now that would be something.
Or Winston could have wonderful fun chewing up nat party idiots and making them look like the ignorant shills they are
Winston is a fun guy. I’d like to see him takedown Judith.
I wonder if he is going to get a new suit for the occasion or a tie with a message on it…
Winston’s in charge.
Ffloyd
This is normal NZF behaviour.
The’re only interested in themselves and much of what we’ve seen over this last week is designed to re energise the NZF support base.
The Mystery Creek Field Days gave Jones a perfect platform to advance this cause by attacking Fonterra. The fact it coincides with Ardern’s maternity leave is of no concern to NZF. The fact that she is perceived as weak and having little or no influence over NZF cabinet ministers is also of no concern to NZF.
In the end NZF are not team players.
In the end they may seriously undermine Ardern as leader of the coalition as well as the coalition itself.
But, from NZF’s point of view, no matter, so long as it increases their support base.
If you have access to the DomPost have a look at the Sharon Murdoch cartoon this morning. I think it displays accurately how Ardern will be feeling.
I can’t find it online so I can’t provide a link I’m afraid.
I’m sure she is elated, a little nervous about her first birth and over the moon it’s happening.
I’m sure you are right. The cartoon is funny though.
A stupid tourist tax has been announced by the government today. A complicated process to pay the $30 before you come to NZ; talk about getting up peoples noses.
This is in the week where a Price Waterhouse report has shown that the government already benefits by $2.5 billion annually from tourism. This means if the new tax puts 2% of people off coming here it will raise no income at all.
The tourism guy on RNZ said this week that the government should simply reallocate some of the massive cash it already receives from tourism rather than charge a new tax.
How many visitors would really avoid coming to NZ over a $30 fee when their average spend here is about $3,000 per trip (not including the costs of getting here)?
It isn’t just foreigners coming here. It will probably be mirrored for New Zealand citizens going through other countries.
For example
Traditionally the US will charge travellers from other countries going there anything that that country charges US citizens.
I can remember when a New Zealand citizen got a free US visa while Australians were charged quite a high fee for their visa. That was because the US citizens had to pay to get an Australian visa but New Zealand didn’t charge them anything. Drove my Australian friends nuts.
If that hasn’t changed New Zealand citizens going through Los Angeles to London will probably have to pay the same amount to US authorities just to pass through the Airport at LA.
Poor old Air NZ. People will take SIA or Emirates and fly to Europe via Singapore or Dubai.
NZ citizens pay US$14.00 for the two year ESTA as part of the visa waiver program – same as Aussie and other eligible nations. My wife used her Kiwi passport to enter the US last month and will do so again next month. She’s good to go until March 2019.
Sounds about right.
While I was in Australia they dropped the ridiculous fee that were charging US citizens for an Australian visa. A couple of months later the USA did the same for Ockers. The price for Australian and New Zealand citizens then became the same.
You will note that I said the IF New Zealand started charging the extra fee for a Visa AND the US still used the old “charge others as they charge us” system we could expect the fee for a US Visa to rise.
I never said it applied now or would apply before we cranked up the fee did I?
I haven’t entered the US through LA since before 2001. I refuse to put up with the way I am told they treat visitors there. Europe via the East for me.
So happynz………… are you saying alwyn is full of shit??
Well I never…………..
It already is.
Tourist taxes aren’t a new thing and the reality is that we’re having to subsidise tourist operators in this country in many ways. Aren’t capitalists all about not having subsidies?
@Bearded Git. Great news, good on the government.
Should be much higher plus an extra $30 if they arrive in Auckland and are expected to use the train/tram that has not been built yet and the current ratepayers are expected to finance.
As for PWC, 1 million for their report on the stadium that the ratepayers and councillors are not allowed to read in it’s entirety, but Phil Goff.
Who trusts the trougher’s with fees like those!
Reminds me of firms like Anderson Consulting, they get out of touch and then, poof one day they are gone. Although apparently Anderson Consulting are back! Under a new name of course.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/11069713/Arthur-Andersen-returns-12-years-after-Enron-scandal.html
I think Mr Goff should be able to keep the report to himself and the $936,000 invoice re-directed to his residence for his personal attention.
I would of been happy to prepare a report and arrive at the same conclusion as PWC for much less money
Essentially: ‘We could expand Eden Park, do something massive on the Albany stadium site, free range at 1 of three outer suburban sites or build something spectacular downtown.’
In the eyes of Aucklanders, anything other than downtown with bars and restaurants overlooking the Hauraki Gulf will be 2nd best. A stadium built anywhere other than there will live forever beneath the shadow of ‘Could of had a City of Sails view.’ So there are no options. Find the money.’
“That’ll be $500,000 thanks.”
Isn’t the view in a stadium mostly facing inwards davy? That’s the whole goddam raison d’etre isn’t it?
A visit to a stadium is an experience beyond the game or concert. I think Auckland should play her ace card. She needs the dosh. Watching the sun set over the Hauraki Gulf while meeting friends or queuing to get to your seat would be a special experience, more than a footy game.
I think an architect would love a brief that instructs them to make the most of primary views inside and also those outside the stadium.
Every toilet in every stadium in the world is buried beneath the seating. Walking into a men’s room to see a big pane of glass at the end and a mega view of the harbour would prompt me to think ‘this place is special.’
Goff hasn’t shared his report with me. I’m speculating, I think Aucklanders might of paid a million dollars to hear: ‘It needs to be downtown, anything else is a compromise’.
A downtown location will be good for commerce.
Elsewhere, I’d drive there, bitch about the lack of parking, not drink much and drive home after the game.
Downtown, bugger the parking thing. I’d use public transport, meet for drinks and somewhere to eat before the game/concert and could be talked into a dodgy street vendor kebab and a visit to the casino post game.
“Isn’t the view in a stadium mostly facing inwards davy? That’s the whole goddam raison d’etre isn’t it?”
Well Gabby, we’re not really sure about that. As a sub-contracting consultant to David Mac, my team of experts (me and my Schnauzer) will put considerable effort into finding that information and presenting it in a colourful graph form…………… for another $200k, a steal even!!
Look how much money we could have saved the Auckland rate payer!!!!!
I wonder if Leaky McLeakerson was the fine fellow on morning report yesterday .
“The tourism guy on RNZ said this week that the government should simply reallocate some of the massive cash it already receives from tourism rather than charge a new tax.”
So hes advocating for an increase in company tax then ….sounds fair enough.
No he’s not-he is simply asking for the government to reallocate the taxes it already receives from tourism.
and theres the problem….if you accept that additional funds are required then it has to come from somewhere….that precludes EXISTING revenue (unless you advocate reducing funding to something else)….so do you cross subsidise one sector by general taxation or do you have a targeted tax/levy?…which is fairer?….which is politically rational?….which impacts economic activity the least?
The same old BS arguments from vested interests….its all good until it impacts me
The tourism industry is NOT being subsidised at all. It is paying its way magnificently but noisy ill-informed idiots are out there in the media saying the opposite.
if it was paying its way there would be sufficient revenue in the current tax take to fund the required…..obviously it isnt, hence the calls from the regional authorities for additional funding…unless you consider they are crying wolf?
The underfunding problem is caused by central government not allocating enough of the $2.5 billion it gets from tourism to the regions and local council’s being afraid to levy enough rates from powerful developers and other business interests that make squillions from tourism.
(I live under the Queenstown Lakes District Council junta and can attest to this.)
That explains the lack of pressure on ratepayers in low population high visitor areas I guess beardy. The magnificent paytheirownway tourism wealth creators howling for workers to come live in their unaffordable houses and work for peanuts.
Yes it is. By several million dollars per year per region.
Time to stop using ordinary Kiwis as money machines, our taxes should be spent on our own health and education not subsiding the multinational tourist industries.
Time, user pays, applies to everyone not just the powerless!
Clearly the 2.5 billion is not being distributed very evenly in NZ as we have rising poverty of both the poor and the working and the middle class!
If you can afford to travel, pay up!
Why should a businessman (or woman) who comes to Auckland for a couple of days have to pay a tourist levy? They will arrive, take a taxi to their hotel or office they are visiting, carry out their business activities for a couple of days and then go back to the airport and depart. They aren’t going to go anywhere near a tourist activity.
This is just another tax. Labour and the Greens have never seen a tax they didn’t love.
So much for pre-election promises.
Why…firstly its deductable as a business expense and it isnt applying to PI or Aussie travellers (CER is my guess though I think it should) so Id suggest anyone travelling from further afield is going to incorporate some leisure activity in their tax deductable trip even if here for a short period…certainly every business trip I can think of to any distant destination is treated thus.
In any case , if you accept additional funding is required (do you?) it must come from somewhere
Additionally this is external to the econmy
“certainly every business trip I can think of to any distant destination is treated thus”.
I wish my employer, in the days when I had such things, had been as generous. I generally had to back as soon as work was over. Mind you I wasn’t as hard done by as some people at one place I worked. There were people there who kept packed bags at home at all times. They also had foreign currency around. It was quite common for some of them to be told, on a Saturday perhaps, that they had to go to Singapore for 3 days and they had to get there on Sunday. They would go, travel back on Thursday and be in the office again on Friday.
Do we want some more money? Well yes, and I think we should follow what is the West Australian approach. It is, roughly, this. I am giving, from memory, the amounts charged for a car. They apply to everyone, visitor or State resident.
Payments are required to visit all National and State Parks. A single visit costs $12 for a car and its passengers. For $44 you can visit all the parks in the State for 28 days. For $88 you can visit all the parks in the State for a year. For $44 you can visit all the parks in a geographic region for a year. These are quite big regions. From memory it would be something like all the North Island up to a line across at the Manawatu Gorge. I do not guarantee that estimate. I always use the 28 day option for the whole state when I go there these days.
The last two fees are obviously of interest to people who live in WA. The first two are of interest to tourists. Everyone who uses the parks pays although the billing system does favour the locals.
Seems to work pretty well to me. The facilities are good and they are paid for by the people who use them.
Correction. The fees are $13, $46 and $92 for the first three. The last is $23 but is only available for the group of parks in the area where you reside. They must have changed since last year.
your business trip reminiscences would appear to apply to employees…the tax will be of no concern to them …nor will it be to their companies which pay it i suggest.
There are additional charges for various facilities as well (DOC huts e.g.) unfortunately that revenue will not assist the TAs in the main as it will be utilised within the businesses/organisations that have the ability to generate it.
The call has gone to central gov to assist in funding this so the gov has the options outlined in 8.1.1……..questions conveniently ignored.
What better way to raise additional funds than a levy from without the economy….and still there’s clowns who wish to decry the assistance…go figure.
Agreed Alwyn…this is a very dumb tax.
are there any taxes you dont consider dumb?
@BG So do you think Soimun will scrub this tax if he gets in?
Excellent analogy Alwyn. Well the tourists use our roads for that taxi and clog it up. The diesel will go into our water systems. The current residents are expected to pay for that usage by a petrol tax and rates which if renting will increase the rents.
The hotel will probably be owned by a multination corporation that may or not be paying tax here (not even sure if OZ companies for example have to). The businesses get to deduct their rates, petrol and GST as an expense that ordinary people are unable to do.
Increasingly the hotels employ people at close to the minimum wages and often under the living wages therefore they are either sponsoring someone to work here from overseas or the NZ taxpayer will have to subsidise their wages with AS and WFF and community services card.
They will use NZ water, NZ waste water, NZ sewerage, NZ infrastructure. Sadly the way the Auckland council runs their businesses, they expect the rate payers to ‘chip in’ to this tourist process and the ratepayer costs keep rising and pollution keeps increasing as the numbers keep arriving.
The tourists are likely to eat out where the premise and business are both overseas owned and increasingly our restaurants are also poor quality and the staff are new migrants of under 10 years in the country, who have very little idea of the style of food or service, because there is not much emphasis on quality or training anymore in NZ. This is very apparent in Auckland where eating out now is very hit and miss and you will pay a fortune for a very average meal of often horrible quality.
So I think your example is perfect of why the government should be collecting a tax from overseas tourists and I think the current climate of bad quality in that sector wherever you go now, is going to have a horrible toll on that tourist industry.
If you only have 3 days in NZ and get horrible food, horrible congestion and horrible service and probably are unlikely to encounter a resident to talk to who was born in NZ, then what sort of NZ experience is that?
Of course if your visit to NZ is just to buy a house, land or business then I guess you don’t care.
There is a great difference between a dynamic multicultural city and one that has tired exploited people from other countries working there cheaply. I think in NZ, we are going towards the latter, because the tourism and hospitality industry has been allowed to cost cut to an extent that will eventually end the tourist industry as we know it.
You mentioned three tourist activities wally.
@save NZ see my comment above.
Lets face it, we have human trafficking in NZ to keep our low wage industry going because many industries and businesses do not want to have to employ people at living wage rates or even the minimum wages.
Every time there is a ‘block’ recruit of low wage workers chances are – this is what is happening and NZ immigration is completely compliant in the process and supporting the people traffickers. The use of slavery and modern day overseers aka ‘foremen running gangs of cheap workers’ on construction sites and in the horticultural and fishing sector is alive and well.
New Zealand’s first human trafficking convictions
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2016/09/new-zealands-first-human-trafficking-conviction.html
Human trafficking in NZ likely thanks to Chinese immigrants – expert
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/06/human-trafficking-in-nz-likely-thanks-to-chinese-immigrants-expert.html
It’s already happening with the fake degrees where students are lured in after paying big bucks while finding out their degree is useless and they are expected to then pay more money to pay for the ‘residency’ job and then work for next to nothing. There should be much great checks by both the immigration and the NZ course provider that the students understand that residency is not coming with the crappy course they are recruited for and spend a lot of money coming to NZ.
Even if they are found out, the employers/courses seem to get a tiny fine and it’s business as usual. They only reason they are going after this alleged trafficker is that he is Fijian and so politically safer than going after Chinese, Indian or Korean traffickers and employers willing to capitalise on the exploitation.
Time to clean up our act NZ, like with prostitution, you don’t prosecute the prostitutes you go after the clients and so in my view there should be heavy penalties aka Jail, $100,000 fine and being banned from running a business, to not only the subcontractor who runs the trafficked workers, but also the farms and businesses where they are caught working and the employment lawyers and middle men doing the paperwork. There should also be warrants issued for the middle men in the country of origin so they can be stopped and prosecuted there.
Even the factories in China seem to have better protection for the above aka they are checked for employment conditions, than our laws that are encouraging employers to turn a blind eye or actively recruit slave workers who after paying accomodation and food are then left with nothing but debts, aka just like NZ workers.
Equal up the playing field for employment in NZ by banning slavery and human trafficking!
And of course banning slavery and human trafficking is also evening up the playing field for the honest employers in this country who are being undercut!
All of the above should also be forced to pay damages to their victims and not be allowed to just file for bankruptcy with zero penalties. If they file for bankruptcy then they should go to jail.
There should also be a tenancy tribunal type process for small disputes under $12,000 over employment which bans lawyers and will therefore deliver much swifter justice at much cheaper costs and take away the power from the big players.
The employment court is broken, delivering very little at great cost and over great periods. Everybody I know fears it, as it is a waste of time.
After a very short time a new swift employment tribunal for the cases under $12k, will change the workforce, take away little cases so the employment court can concentrate on the bigger cases and I am sure that not only will it change the workforce it will also remove a lot of the cash industry and the day to day exploitation of workers, causing employers to clean up their acts.
Good, and valid points @ saveNZ at 9.
Not only have Immigration been ‘compliant’ as you say, I’d say complicit.
They’re complicit because they target the victims (probably because they have found it easier in the past) rather than the perpetrators. When they do manage to charge a few of the exploiters/trafiickers/arseholes, there is very very little sanction and they’re left to be able to go another round.
I’ll give you one example in soon (because I happen to be familiar with it, and can’t understand why ‘authorities’ – what the politicians now call ‘their officials’ could’t have seen the bleeding bloody obvious sooner.)
Before I do though, the immigration policy and the administrative structure that has been set up to support it has been designed to allow all this to happen.
You mention the fake degree stuff where students are made false promises and utterly fleeced. Bear in mind that government agencies have supposed to have been monitoring all this and ensuring the integrity of the system
NZQA re educational standards. The Immigration Advisor’s Authority making sure consultants weren’t complete bullshit artists ( until recently, the Immig NZ/MoBIE website was STILL encouraging people to become immigration consultants/advisors, and there are now literally hundreds operating, and they give genuine immigration specialists a bad name. ) The Labour Inspectorate who have had to admit they’ve been close to useless – that is even though we had one manager assuring us we had sufficient numbers just prior to the election. AND even now, who seem have very weird priorities, such as investing in stab proof vests. It’s NO BLOODY WONDER those who are brave enough to want to report extreme levels of exploitation would rather steer clear.
These (NZQA/IAA/LI) are just 3 of the entities who should have been keeping an eye on it all, but for reasons such as being completely under-resourced for the job, or because of shear muppetry, or prejudice or the wrong focus have not just been complicit, but they have encouraged it.
You can probably recall the case of the students deported last year after being given haven in a church in Auckland. They were deported because Steven Joyce (who by the way, was a big part of the problem in designing the system) had said (to paraphrase “because they’d signed the application, they were responsible” and it was therefore all their own fault.) Nothing to do with having paid for so called ‘immigration experts’ and shoddy PTEs and labour companies). A classic case of penalising and blaming the victims whilst allowing the exploiters and perpetrators to carry on and target another round of suckers – because you know…. we have a 4 billion dollar education export industry to protect.
So here’s an example of something I’m fairly closely familiar with:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/06/06/113305/kiwi-reveals-firms-treatment-of-migrant-workers
It’s not as bad as others I know of, but there goes 2 guys who’ve exploited quite a number of people. I can’t for the life of me, understand how this did not come to the attention of various entities under MoBIE sooner. Bear in mind, LI and INZ work together, AND they’re in charge of things like the companies register.
If the cable jointer working down the street on copper cabling (who had nothing to do with 3ML) knew about it months and months ago, how is it that it was beyond the capability of a juggernaut Ministry to know. But you know what – it’s actually been easier to just get the victims of immigrant exploitation out of the country as soon as possible (and enable another round to replace them on short term visas).
And let’s not for one moment think that it is corrupt immigrants who’ve managed to get PR alone. Rest assured there are paid up 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation NZ Citizens milking it for all they’re worth.
You might be interested in this also – if you haven’t already seen it:
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/06/12/judith-collins-wins-a-hypocrisy-award/
including my comment.
I’m assured that coalition government ministers know about it (if only because one confided in my sister at the Labour party’s little post-election getaway in Martinborough), although I’m not sure they know the extent of it all, and whether they’ve cottoned tothe extent of some of their ‘officials’ spinning.
Things are happening though – probably not as fast as we (and the exploited) would wish
Do the COL think the people of NZ have such short memories that we recall stuff like this?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12071217
I’m sniffing some PR spin when it comes to how the PM is dealing with her NZ First MP’s.
First up, we have Winston Peters, deputy PM and acting PM shortly, suing the government. When asked about how appropriate or otherwise this is, the Prime Minister’s response was that he was doing it in a personal capacity.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/06/14/122988/sam-sachdeva-hat-switching-a-worrying-sign
“The man of many hats is back,” Megan Woods proclaimed in 2016.
The Labour MP wasn’t reciting a Dr Seuss book, but excoriating John Key for using the question of ministerial responsibility to dodge questions about his connection to foreign trusts.
Key’s choice of different “hats” during his time in power – prime minister, Helensville MP, husband putting out the cat – was a subject of frequent irritation for Opposition politicians seeking to hold him to account.
Lol thanks pucky for that.
I’m enjoying how the jacinda replies make the keyster attempts seem even more shallow in retrospect.
But hey at least the bridge is a keyclone so no surprises for the gnats.
So no issues with Ardern saying pretty much what Key said even though she promised how much better Labour was going to be?
Sure, a teeny issue soon reconciled, just seems you’re trying to froth the milk a bit much.
Heres the thing though, for 9 years the posters on here gleefully pointed out every real and imagined error the National made all in the guise of holding the government to account
Those posters set the standard of behaviour and Ardern then doubled down on the standards she expected so now the only thing the opposition has is the ability to point out whenever the government puts a foot wrong and this government is doing so much wrong
Yet not a peep from the posters on here when the government displays the same, and worse, behaviour the last government did
A sad tale of woe indeed and somehow it makes me smile – my bad.
If nothing else you can believe me on this when I say I totally get it and understand
Hey Pukish and other posters.
I don’t expect this govt no to make mistakes and I don’t expect them to not do anything that doesn’t fall in with my values and their professed values e.g the Eugenie Sage bottled water thing. I understand they may be in positions where they need to compromise.
I do look at the big picture and what they are trying to achieve. Under Labour its improving minimum wage, not building mega prisons, fixing the Middlemore mess and properly funding infrastructure and attempting to solve the housing crisis (and actually naming it as a crisis that needs solving).
From my point of view that have been working very hard from day one to address these issues (and many more) that are important to me. Mostly National either did nothing about the problems eg Middlemore or had a hand in creating them.
From that point of view, I am very happy with the Coalition and I am forgiving of mistakes (up to a point). After all we all make them.
Re the list of labour incompetents…………Well Nationals are:
N Smith,
G Brownlee
H Parata
Anne Tolley
Jamie Lee Ross
The new guy in Northcote (if the Wilson interview is anything to go by
J Coleman
P Bennett ……………………………………………..etc etc
Ok so
“Under Labour its improving minimum wage”
– as did National
“Fixing the Middlemore mess”
– That is indeed a mess
attempting to solve the housing crisis
– Its not looking good at the moment unless you’re a housing developer
“I am forgiving of mistakes (up to a point). After all we all make them.”
– Mistakes yes but arrogance and incompetence is something else entirely don’t you think?
Interesting pr. What did national raise minimum wage by? Notice all govt employees to get a living wage…..
I do think arrogance and incompetence are something else. I have to say plenty of that in National, possibly labour.
But it’s what hey achieve that matters most. An organisation can have bits of incompetence but still get good outcomes……I am looking at the outcomes btw think it is ridiculous to judge col success on the housing crisis yet. It took some years to develop under national. You don’t turn that around in 8 months.
And I do blame Nat for the housing crisis. Owned a house in am that I rented between 2004 2014 cause I moved out of Auckland for work. The first four years mostly got tennants ok but around 2006 had to drop the rent cause I couldn’t get a tenant. After 2008 whole thing became crazy
Puckish Rogue is trying to point out that he misses John but Jacinda is just as good.
Most MP’s have several hats, although Simon appears to only have one hat which doesn’t fit properly.
Jacinda is very good at what she does, she’s easily the equal of John Key in certain respects
“easily the equal”
If she matches him “easily”, that implied besting him would only take a little more effort from Jacinda. I believe that’s the case.
Shes easily as good as John Key was at manipulating the media, you know the whole transparent government thing then putting Curran in charge
Shes as good as Key was at saying a lot, and sounding authoritative, without saying anything at all, relentlessly positive thing and don’t have to lie to be in politics
Shes also as good as Key at mangling the language but still sounding like “one of us”
Shes a very good communicator and a very good politician
Shes not the leader John Key was though, everyone knew John Key was the boss however she may grow to equal or even surpass John in that are as well though I doubt it
(No there’s no damning with faint praise going on)
Or one could say Key was a passive autocrat in style whereas Adern is a facilitative / consensus style leader.
Irrespective of what language style they use.
I’m not disagreeing with you but i was more referring to the age and experience difference in that John Key is older and has held more leadership positions so its only natural that Key is the more experienced/better leader
Jacinda may well become as good (effective) leader as John in the future but at the moment she isn’t
Again , subjective. The leadership styles are merely different.
Also , Adern has held leadership positions at a very young age when overseas. While Key spent much of time as a younger man literally working for the ‘ Man’.
Recall Key working in with Andrew Kreiger to pull off one of the biggest Forex Heists in history against the NZ economy.
And that’s not leadership , – that’s being a boy taking orders.
And doesn’t particularly show any sense of operating in his country of births best interests, … does it.
“Also , Adern has held leadership positions at a very young age when overseas.”
– like what exactly?
“While Key spent much of time as a younger man literally working for the ‘ Man’.”
– Wow, thats wow. Like did Key ever become “the man” or just work for “the man”, who is “the man” anyway, is there a female counterpart like “the woman”?
Hang on I party voted for National which means that John Key did work for me and since John Key worked for “the man” that must mean I am “the man”
As for John Key ?
Merril Lynch.
As for Jacinda Adern ?
President of the International Union of Socialist Youth.
So , one involved in the financial sector as a junior at first , the other in the political area as a leader. So it pretty much pans out . And we are back to square one. Different leadership styles.
“Shes not the leader John Key was though, everyone knew John Key was the boss”
That kinda paints you as a unreconstructed authoritarian there, Pucky.
Leaders don’t have to be “the boss”; there are more elegant ways to lead. In many ways, your thinking seems pre-Arthurian where Might was regarded as Right. We’ve come a long way since then, Pucky. Well, some of us have 🙂
Well I could have thrown Helen Clark in there as well as a good leader 🙂
You cant have dodgy characters in official govt position’s in dept’s and elected officials carrying on and leaking private financial details to the public. That’s an illegal breach of privacy and breach of protocol for a start.
Its also political bias from govt dept heads working in collusion to smear a political figure deemed as opposed to their political masters. When they should by job description be impartial and simply executors of the incumbent govts policy’s.
And the fact no one had seemed to have the gonads to own up shows they knew what they were doing was wrong.
Peters has every right and all power to him.
Slap on the wrist Meaning – YouTube
Video for slap on the wrist you tube▶ 0:20
Hey I agree, send it to the courts to decide and see what happens and thats all good but to suggest the acting PM is doing it in a personal capacity and announcing it while he takes the reigns is a couple steps to far
… ” to suggest the acting PM is doing it in a personal capacity and announcing it while he takes the reigns is a couple steps to far ” …
Not at all.
That’s a matter of personal opinion and interpretation. And as for it being in a personal capacity well its correct on at least one count…
As it was it was directed solely at Peters ,- not his party.
The fact that no one – after all this time elapsing ,- has come forward and admitted it is also indicative of knowledge of wrongdoing . W e are dealing with dept’s that know the law about public disclosures and what is illegal.
And we are also dealing with elected officials who know those laws. One of which , – has a past track record of releasing personal details to the public on at least two occasions against those least able to defend themselves – beneficiaries.
This event occurred just prior to a general election ,- was that a couple of steps too far to try and smear a leader of a political party that was deemed a threat , – until the incumbent govt realized they might need them to form a govt ???
I would say it is indeed very ‘personal’.
And political, – on the defendants side.
Which begs the question : do we really want future politics to be conducted in this manner with this sort of Dirty Politicking ??? Is this what we are paying elected officials and heads of govt depts to act like?
So what better time as Peters becomes Prime Minister to make an example of this sort of stonewalling of democracy by using underhanded ( and illegal ) means ?
If anything I would say Winston Peters is doing the country a big favour by putting the boot squarely on the neck of these sorts of activity’s. And highlighting this sort of skulduggery when hes Prime Minister is in fact, perfect timing.
All power to him.
What do you mean by “COL”?
Coalition of Labour
Not a useful term, surely. Labour-led, if you must.
Remember the John Key-led Government? Natty MPs used the phrase ad nauseum .
I doubt even piss-weak Act would have let them call it the ‘Coalition of National’.
CON, for “Coalition of National”?
Seems about right.
.. though it does fit, as you note. 🙂
Liar.
Richard Prebble had, I think, the first definition.
I’m sure that Puckish Rogue would never be so disrespectful as to use it about the stars of stage, screen and vaudeville who rule us.
I personally can’t think of a better definition than Richard’s but perhaps that is simply my problem in trying to move away from its accuracy.
Pucky is trying not to disillusion you I would say, Sacha.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11935125
I don’t think so – losers not labour is the phase used by, without apparent irony, the losers of the last election ha ha.
It’s kind of a shame it worked so well isn’t it puckers.
I get tribalism, I get that people are happy “their side” won, I understand the vitriol against National I really do (I did read the posts after all) but, six months in, are the posters on the left here happy with how the present government is performing, are they performing up to the standard you expect or were led to believe they’d act
Is this really how you thought it’d be?
Personally, Pucky, I’m delighted with the COL (in preference to the CON). I couldn’t know what they could do, given the state of the nation at takeover, or how the Opposition (CON) might behave, or how the MSM might conduct itself, nor how the coalition partners would gel (sorry Simon), so given those factors, yes, I reckon the Jacinda-led Government is doing very well indeed and I’m very happy with their direction, pace and approach. There are glitches (the CON’s were hidden from us by a slippery leader and a team of deceitful strategists and assorted flunkies) so I’m not at all rattled by those things you are attempting to wave in front of us every day.
K?
Ok fair enough
And the fact that you are commenting on and assuming tanker-loads in comparing a 6 month old govt against another ( CON ) that was in power for 9 years !
There’s a very very long bow in attempting to do that.
Not really, some of the Labour ministers seem to be as arrogant as the National ministers were except that Labours only been in power for six months as opposed to Nationals arrogance being born from terms in power
OK , but it does seem your original statement was more to do with ‘performance’ than ‘arrogance’.
And if ‘arrogance’ is an allusion to say Phil Twyfords retorts back to Judith Collins on housing , for example ,… when a govt is only 6 months in and attempting to fix the negligence of a former govt that was in for 9 long years and that did nothing…
I would say even that is a little premature to accuse them of being ‘arrogant’… but point taken … there is arrogance on all sides of the political spectrum.
Well In regards to performance I could mention Claire Curren or Jenny Marcroft or David Clarks interesting strategy or Kelvin Nash being well Kelvin Nash
“there is arrogance on all sides of the political spectrum.”
On this I think we, and everyone here, can all agree that is the case so its nice we can reach consensus on somethings 🙂
Please Puckish Rogue. How good a lunch, and how many glasses of wine, did you have?
It is Clare Curran, not Claire Curren
It is Kelvin Davis, not Kelvin Nash.
Alternatively it is Stuart Nash, not Kelvin Nash
They may be pretty useless but they deserve to be given their proper names.
!!!
Go alwyn !!!
They are infinitely better than the Gnats.
They’ve moved from criminal to pedestrian.
I want enlightened.
Just letting you know Labour aren’t squeaky clean in this area, in case you’d forgotten
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taito_Phillip_Field
On 6 October 2009, Field was jailed for six years on corruption charges, with the sentencing judge saying his offending threatened the foundation of democracy and justice.
He’s more the exception than the rule only in getting prosecuted. Given more vigorous pursuit of MP crime the majority of the previous government would be incarcerated. It’s one of the things a halfway decent government would prioritize.
They’re a very corrupt lot, the present day Gnats – it is not supposed to be fear of prosecution that keeps an MP straight, but a genuine concern for the country they are paid and sworn to represent.
They disgust me.
So no issues here then?
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/353436/nz-first-mp-instructed-to-apologise-to-national-party
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/06/david-clark-accused-of-silencing-dhb-staff-over-middlemore.html
Minor shit. Not too sure about the first one, but Gnat sources whining impropriety are going to meet skepticism until some of their larger rorts are dealt with.
Clark is my electorate MP and has long since destroyed any vestiges of credibility the party aegis might have lent him had he not been such a turd. That said, a politicized board member is nothing to boast of either – and Clark’s response may have been merely to circumvent possible legal action around dismissal.
Ok fair enough
Stuart Munro
Why do you keep saying such ridiculous things like the majority of the former govt should be in jail. It is hardly conducive to reasoned debate.
How is anyone going to take anything you say seriously when you go on like that?
Presumably some of what you say is intended to be serious, as opposed to just being polemic.
Explain the public interest in the sweetheart loans to Mediaworks Wayne.
Explain to Christchurch residents Brownlee’s collusion with insurers and fake repairers.
Explain the looting of Housing Corp by Gnat supporters employing spurious P tests to alienate public property at a massive discount.
And don’t explain it to me – tell it to a panel of judges tasked to clean up the woeful record of corruption you and your disgusting mates created.
Which Panel of Judges is this?
Are these the handpicked Star Chamber Judges that you hope the government will establish?
You defend the mendacity of your colleagues as usual. No surprise. But plenty of shame.
The analogy you’re looking for is older than Star Chamber of course.
The hot and cold running corruption that typifies present day National is viewed by them as seigneurage – the price we pay for the distinctly dubious pleasure of their presence.
Which is no pleasure at all, and the costs are better recovered and spent appropriately, if only to keep useless oiks like Brownlee from misappropriating the money that was supposed to keep roofs over peoples’ heads.
Why do you need a panel of judges? Perjury and graft can be tried perfectly well by a regular court.
Well I’m not a lawyer – but most of these miscreants are.
They need the full Dies Eyre.
I do not think Stuart Munro literally means the majority but rather figuratively , in as much as if the inner core have been involved in spurious activity’s , it behooves the wider party to do something about it. They did not.
Putting aside some of the serious allegations mentioned in Dirty Politics , there seems to be a very real reticence to charge and prosecute those in govt in this country. Whats needed is an equivalent to the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission in this country.
We have Bill English shielding Todd Barclay from Police inquiry’s , we have John Key and common assault , signing off on a possible military operation that led to possible war crimes, then there was the tax haven fiasco and the Panama Papers , then we have Judith Collins and conflicts of interest to name a few…
And over 9 years they racked up a pretty impressive list that , although covered in layers of deflections and plausible deniability, had their origins from somewhere. And that’s circumstantial evidence that is never proven because there seems to be a protective hedge around those who work in the interests of the moneyed people that is effective in preventing justice from taking its natural course.
And its at this point they cease from being elected officials to being in a derogatory sense , mere ‘politicians’.
There’s a good deal of strong feeling around the issue of corrupt National Party MPs, isn’t there! Much of that seems to stem from the frustration resulting from the techniques and strategies that appeared to shield those Ministers from natural justice. Much of the positive political “atmosphere” around the country now comes, not from the expected baby, but from the relief felt from National Party MPs being in Opposition and less able to behave as it was believed they did.
Hey Pucky- and pretty sure I’m speaking speaking for most beneficiaries, the living in total and constant fear of the State vanished the moment Peters announced his decision. There were a lot of people who had exit plans ready had the other crowd got back in, not kidding, it was that bad.
It’s still not great for us and I have no confidence at all in Sepaloni and there’s actions she could’ve taken immediately but hasn’t because she has a track record of hating beneficiaries, but I’m not living in constant fear, at least not for the next 2 years.
… ” There were a lot of people who had exit plans ready had the other crowd got back in, not kidding, it was that bad ” …
That ,…. is incredibly chilling.
Kay, I understand what you’re saying here. I have a family member who is a sickness beneficiary. I don’t think many people realise how vindictive and nasty MSD became from around 2011 onwards. I do think things will improve over the next year or two.
As hard as it is to do, everyone needs to hope things will improve and stay strong for others who need our support
So the taxpayer will find a new $10 million high speed gondola for the Whakapapa Skifield. Another subsidy for private businesses. Ordinary wage earners foot the bill.
I see burger king are up to their usual BS in industrial relations in Christchurch.
Trespassing union organisers, so childish.
Here their 0800 number, call them and tell them to grow up. Remember all conversations are recorded. So be polite. This is the name of all the company directors you should mention who need to lift their game.
Michelle Tracy Alexander
John Christopher Hunter
Jan Thorsgaard Nielsen
James Douglas Carnegie
0800 425 464
http://www.burgerking.co.nz/contact-us
https://www.businesscheck.co.nz/ltd/9429038757549/
And remind em the Coalitions just passed the LIVING WAGE for all govt employees.
And it will be their turn next .
Might be bad for business if they don’t.
The party’s over.
A salary package of nearly $400k plus super just isnt enough for some. Why not try to take the tax payers for another $1.8 million.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/06/12/118327/deputy-pm-seeks-million-plus-from-state#
I’d say that if your personal financial affairs turned up being sensationalised, and incorrectly at that, in the media you’d be in your lawyer’s office pretty smartly seeking redress.
The unfortunate aspect of this sorry affair is that those responsible will hide behind executive privilege and pass the responsibility for their actions onto the taxpayer. Just like the past government’s ministers are doing with the meth testing debacle.
Might be time for politicians to be personally responsible for their actions.
Making man you guys on the right are usually for law and order. If a judge find the defendants guilty in this case then that’s the law.
Your not suggesting people shouldn’t execercse their legal rights are you?
Test
“Might be time for politicians to be personally responsible for their actions.’
So are you saying David Parker should pay $450k out of his own pocket.
I hope Peters loses and the government sue him for the costs.
Good morning Q$A ECO MAORI been done over by the justice system and is still been done over by this justice system how can they still find – – – reasons to carry on this farce. Another reason I don’t trust petri dish meat is that we don’t no what’s in it and big businesses will take total control of this new industry we can still farm traditions style and environment friendly ways.
Renewable energy is the way to go our new coalition government will change our energy supply to more renewables all in good time Ka pai Corin Ka kite ano
trump trade war is just the a way for him to portray that he is a strong person.
His trade war will effect the poor people the most as inflation spikes.
Eco Maori music for the minute shonky cause the houseing crisis so his 1 million dollar house will sell for 4.
His national party supporters would have made heaps $$$$$$. Who cares about those mostly brown broken people under the bridge that’s their mind set link below.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk
P.S what over reason is there for denieing that there is a houseing crisis when that crisis is fulling your hip pocket with $$$$$$$