Listening to RNZ yesterday afternoon after the Christchurch earthquake, it struck me that there were several callers who expressed more of a fear of insurance companies inaction than fear of the actual earthquake.
5 years on, there were people ringing who were still in houses not dealt with by the EQC . Two callers in particular named AIG as an appalling insurer.
Yet they have enough money to splash their corporate logo all over the All Blacks shirt.
I really hope John Campbell reopened this can of worms.
There is nothing one can do about the earthquake. It’s simply something you learn to live with when choosing to live here in Christchurch. As opposed to that, the insurance shamble is man-made and can be avoided. Insurance companies drag everything as much as possible so that more and more people will give up and take a cash settlement.
One of my customer is building a commercial kitchen for one of our local church. He was surprised to find out that the reason he is building this kitchen is that the church is feeding a 100+ people a day. We had a bit of a chat about the situation here in AKL where it now is more and more the norm for low income people and people on benefits to be depended on charities to eat, they may earn enough money to pay the bills, but then have no money for food or they may get enough benefits to cover the rent but not electricity or food.
I asked him how much his pay had increased over the last 5 – 7 years vs the increases in his living costs, and he agreed with me that yes, for people on a fixed income, benefit or the min wage life has not gotten better but in fact much worse.
Slowly but surely the the mask of feel good, and pretend to be good and happy at all times is slipping, and the raising poverty and misery is coming more and more to the light for all to see.
McConnell (Senate Majority Leader) has already said any Obama appointment isn’t gonna happen. Since he controls what issues come before the Senate, he may be able to block the Senate from even voting on an Obama appointment.
Looking at the current crop of Republican senators, McCain looks the only one with enough sense of duty to vote for a reasonable Obama choice, and four Republican votes are needed (there’s currently 54 Republicans, 2 independents, 44 Democrats).
On the other hand, if Sanders wins in November and the Democrats regain a majority in the Senate, then there might be a sudden rush of final business before the new people are sworn in in January.
He could nominate the risen Yeshua and they’d block because black man…..
Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2005: ‘The President, and the President alone, nominates judges’
[…]
“[T]he Republican conference intends to restore the principle that, regardless of party, any President’s judicial nominees, after full debate, deserve a simple up-or-down vote. I know that some of our colleagues wish that restoration of this principle were not required. But it is a measured step that my friends on the other side of the aisle have unfortunately made necessary. For the first time in 214 years, they have changed the Senate’s ‘advise and consent’ responsibilities to ‘advise and obstruct.'”
The GOP blocks because they block anything the Democrats try to achieve. Since they were taken over by the Tea Party it is total war. The “black man” bit helps energise their racist base but they will do the same with any Democrat in office.
Even though there was already precedent favourable to Obama’s action, they issued a stay against Obama’s Clean Air action in a 5-4 decision with Scalia one of the 5. The full case was due to be heard mid-year.
Excellent! I also note that the onion’s twitter page features a banner photo of Obama, some more replicant Obamas, Ban Ki Moon, some space aliens, a lizard person and, er, John Key.
I’m trying very hard to be a decent respectful human being by maintaining a proper sense of decorum, and not break into hysterical laughter or a rousing chorus of “ding, dong, the witch is dead”.
The following is not laughter inducing, but relevant anyway:
“It’s appropriate that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at a luxury resort while freeloading as the guest of thus far unidentified wealthy sponsors as one of 40 guests at a private quail-hunting vacation party.
“The resort where he died, Cibolo Ranch Resort, located on land stolen by its founder from the Apache and Comanche people in the Big Bend region of west Texas, is a posh retreat favored by the ultra rich, offering rooms priced from $350 to $800 a night — and it’s a safe bet that the bed Scalia died in was located in a top-priced room — and that the credit card that was swiped to pay for it didn’t have his name on it. (According to one report, the guests at the gathering had their bills covered by the resort’s owner, John Poindexter, a mullti-millionaire real estate owner, rancher and former investment banker.)”
…..
“We don’t at this point know what Scalia’s final junket was about — Poindexter makes a point of saying it “wasn’t about politics or law — but it’s no surprise he wasn’t there on his own dime. It wasn’t the way Scalia operated. Indeed, so egregious and frequent were Scalia’s junkets that in October 2015 the New York Times wrote an editorial condemning them and calling for a reform to make such legalized bribery illegal. ” http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/3043
What changes could the Supreme court ring in that the world desperately needs?
An end to the claptrap Scalia and his ilk champion[ed].
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gives comfort to creationists while speaking at his granddaughter’s commencement ceremony.
Giving the commencement address at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda where his granddaughter Megan graduated, Scalia opined:
Class of 2015, you should not leave Stone Ridge High School thinking that you face challenges that are at all, in any important sense, unprecedented. Humanity has been around for at least some 5,000 years or so, and I doubt that the basic challenges as confronted are any worse now, or alas even much different, from what they ever were.
The reference to “5,000 years” is an allusion to the claims made by Young Earth Creationists who take a “Biblical view” of science and reject biological evolution.
[…]
The following is an excerpt of the dissent in Edwards vs. Aguillard written by Scalia:
The body of scientific evidence supporting creation science is as strong as that supporting evolution. In fact, it may be stronger…. The evidence for evolution is far less compelling than we have been led to believe. Evolution is not a scientific “fact,” since it cannot actually be observed in a laboratory. Rather, evolution is merely a scientific theory or “guess.”… It is a very bad guess at that. The scientific problems with evolution are so serious that it could accurately be termed a “myth.”…
Even though there hasn’t been any cases that I am aware of recently that involves creationism and the Supreme Court of the US why would this impact the entire world even if there was?
I’ve had the measles, as did all my siblings. I think it’s an indictment on society and the medical profession and the health systems and the Science is God people that that woman had to go to a closed internet group for advice about her baby when my mother’s generation all knew as a matter of course how to care for a sick child at home.
Doctor and FB groups are going to give completely different sets of advice. And she says in the article that she is going to take her son to the doctors, which IMO is a good way to spread the measles esp to vulnerable kids. Better that people have the skills to manage at home and the knowledge to know when they need to get medical help.
states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is not harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking an action.
[my italics]
We know the level of harm of vaccines: fuck all compared to the level of harm of the diseases they represent (see my opening sentence).
so yeah, I have very little time for people whose idiocy results in outbreaks of Dickensian illnesses in first-world nations. Frankly, I view anti-vaxxers as public health menaces.
Such a complete lack of understanding , ignorance and arrogance
That you don’t can’t or won’t describe simple concepts without using derogatory language, let alone comprehend them adequately , is your problem to work through
But I’m afraid being anti-vax fails on all three counts:
Informed choice: There is plenty of information on vaccination vs disease – it is a no-brainer that vaccination saves millions of lives / severe illnesses, with the negative effects of vaccination real but minuscule in comparison to the disease
freedom to choose: Unfortunately you are not only choosing for yourself / your children. Unvaccinated people pass disease to others and can destroy herd immunity. Oddly, this same “freedom” argument is advanced by RWNJ for their economic and social views (‘I should be free to choose whether I contribute to the education / healthcare of others etc). We should do some things collectively for the good of society.
Precautionary principle: The balance of risk is overwhelmingly in favour of vaccination. Not vaccinating fails the precautionary test.
You state “informed choice” as one of your major arguments.
Then make it clear you don’t believe in a patient’s informed choice at all, you believe in your choice and your conclusions, to be applied to everyone else, and then applying a thin veneer of your version of “informed choice” over the top of it.
1) Informed choice: there is plenty of evidence that Labour gets consistently better results for both adults and children than National does. Yes Labour Governments sometimes cause bad things, but those bad things are miniscule in comparison to the benefits that they deliver, especially compared to National.
2) Freedom to choose: National voters are not just choosing a government for themselves/their own children. Unfortunately, their choice is also damaging other people and can destroy the common good.
3) Precautionary principle: the balance of risk is greatly in favour of a Labour led government. Voting National and not voting Labour fails the test of the precautionary principle.
Conclusion – people who vote National are both socially and personally irresponsible, and the ability to democratically choose to vote for National shall be banned, in the name of the public good.
So basically the idea that Labour “consistently” does better is correct only 4/5 of the time. I reckon you might be lacking “scientific consensus” that your statement is correct.
A better example would be the policy of denazification of post-WWII Germany. Participants in a clearly bad government were banned from office, but the actual impact was minimal. So even if the thing is bad, the intervention needs to be better than the status quo. Voting interventions aren’t. Vaccinations clearly are.
Drove some long distance recently and saw incidents all the time – swerving badly across the road, driving onto one lane bridge with us already on it, random stopping in the middle of the road…. probably couple of incidents per morning on average…..
it is a very real threat, with locals driving like nanas now
My sister was catching a commuter flight from Wellington, and saw a driver (passenger in back seat) having difficulty at the car park entrance. When she enquired if they needed a handed, the driver said she was looking for the car rental place to drop off the car, and needed to do so quickly as they were late to check in for a flight.
My sister offered to direct them there and jumped in the passenger seat. During the short drive, the driver drove extremely badly, before ending up at the car rental. During somewhat strained conversation it appears that the driver had never driven a car before and driving on the NZ roads was the first time. She had driven from Rotorua to Wellington, on our somewhat unforgiving of driver error roads.
@ vto and Molly ….in the meantime young New Zealanders can’t get licenses….!!!! ( too expensive….too hard!…too much testing….too many failed because of simple tiny errors)
….this is jonkey’s banana republic…persecute and make it very hard for New Zealand youth to get ahead …and make it a free for all for the overseas hoons and irresponsible and wealthy
I suggest heavy, near extreme, measures are required.
URGENTLY.
There simply has to be a hard core practical test before any rental car can be taken out by a non-NZ driver.
If it costs – tough. It will save NZ lives.
If they fail and can’t drive – tough. It will save NZ lives.
If tourists leave – tough. It will save NZ lives.
This is now an everyday occurrence. Starting to make me very cross.
THE TOURISTS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN DRINK DRIVING…..
Most people don’t understand about derivatives or other financial products. In Holland, Pension funds are going down to their exposure to these toxic instruments, in the US pensions funds are collapsing and the funds are being looted by banks and governmental institutions to cover debts and in New Zealand we hear nothing about the Cullen fund which supposedly has about $19 billion in investments so I thought I’d link to some articles I have been writing in as early as 2012 about the fund that was supposed to be able to support our pension system for a long time to come:
so you wont ‘t be cashing in your hybrid bank bonds then Gosman?….oh wait you can’t…..I wonder if you can find someone to purchase them off you…..at a greatly reduced value of course…
Goldman Sachs man Gooseman.futures in their basic form were originally designed to create a smoothing of market prices for growers and manufacturers to stabilize markets.
Today’s futures are far from that.
The wall St futures of today are a corruption .
Futures of today are ponzi schemes bought and sold by corrupt bankers who know when the tide goes out they are worth nothing.
Unless the company selling these ponzi schemes is in bed with the large govts is The US and EU where Goldman Sachs bankers are the finance ministers.
They will turn around and get enough money printed to save their arses.
Gooseman another failure.
When are you going to produce some evidence you know something about futures.
Many times I have seen futures trading suspended because they can’t meet their obligations.
Then trillions of dollars in bailouts .
Welfare for criminal ponzi schemers.
Greek govt being lent $100’s of billions by bankers who knew they couldn’t pay it back.
Predatory loan sharks.
is John Key Merrill Lynch.
Gooseman your a gullible govt grovelar
“Max Keiser hit out against Deutsche Bank in the latest episode of his RT program Keiser Report, saying the bank was “technically insolvent” despite assurances from German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble that he had “no concerns” over his country’s biggest bank…
the German banks (and Finance Minister) didn’t behave responsibly with the Greek situation…..just as we can expect them to continue to behave in the event more defaults occur….somewhat like Cyprus
Their method has been clearly signaled and is ignored at our own risk.
A review of the modelling of the benefits of the TPPA
In a document that was recently released under the OIA, Treasury put the present value of the benefits at $13.3 billion. This assessment was based on the NZMOD benefit numbers. If we scale this back by our assessment of the annual benefits then the net present value of the benefits is $665 million. Treasury’s assessment of the net present value of the costs is $800 million (not including biologic costs)
And that doesn’t even take into account our loss of sovereignty. So, for us, the TPPA is a lose-lose.
but all is well, a real estate agent told me that the asian buyers (yep a realtor said the word asian) finally all received their IRD Numbers and House Sales will go up into the stratosphere in AKL again.
so who needs exports, n stuff ….not us not us
Quote: “Yet despite all this stimulus, growth is anaemic and deflation becoming entrenched in many countries. Increasingly, central banks are turning to negative interest rates as a last resort. Japan recently joined the ECB, Denmark Sweden and Switzerland.
What happens next could be startling. For example, the UK should start to consider ending all cash transactions to enable banks to levy negative interest rates on their customers, Andrew Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, argued in a speech last September, available here.
This is only one of the range of radical new tools central banks must devise to cope with the next recession, Martin Wolf, chief economics columnist of the Financial Times, wrote recently, available here.
Our Reserve Banks has been remarkably reticent on all these issues, even though it has missed every inflation forecast it has made in the past four years. With deflation looking ever more likely than inflation, it should take the opportunity of its March 10 Monetary Policy Statement to begin to engage business and the wider public on this fundamental challenge.
Reality is hitting home in may other ways, such as the forecast by DairyNZ that 85 per cent of dairy farmers will run at a loss this season.
Yet in Parliament on Tuesday, Key’s passing gesture to the real world was this:
“…weaker dairy prices, along with other factors, are contributing to slower growth in the nominal economy, which is expected to be around $17 billion lower over the next five years than was expected in last year’s Budget. This flows through to slightly less tax revenue, slightly lower operating balances and slightly higher debt, compared to Budget forecasts.” Quote End.
I wonder if people realise what the Bank of England nut bar is saying here? ……….
“For example, the UK should start to consider ending all cash transactions to enable banks to levy negative interest rates on their customers, Andrew Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, argued in a speech last September”
It is fucked completely.
He is saying – lets charge people to conduct transactions in order to save the banks.
It may take a while for this to seep in – especially to right wing brains…
Quote: A cashless society could help us combat crime and tax avoidance by making it much harder to trade illegally and in an untraced way. It would also avoid the problem of cash hoarding if interest rates were ever cut to 0%, or even negative rates. It would make it much easier to have negative interest rates that gave the Reserve Bank the power to stimulate the economy by charging savers to look after their money. A move to a digital currency could also allow us to do without banks for transactions and save an awful lot of money in processing and conversion fees.
So why don’t we do it? Now that most people have smart phones and almost all retailers are connected to a payments network, it would seem a simple step to remove cash from the system. After all, many of us use EFTPOS and contactless Visa and Master cards to pay for things. Why not switch completely and remove all the cost and danger of storing, transporting and handling cash?
Yet it’s proving much harder than many thought, and it’s not just a New Zealand problem. Despite all the gadgets and terminals, there is actually much more cash in circulation than there’s ever been. The Reserve Bank reports there was NZ$4.96 billion worth of notes ands coin sitting in wallets and vaults and under mattresses as at March of last year. That’s up 61.6% from the NZ$3.07 billion in circulation just 10 years earlier. Quote end.
i do like how its always to combat crime, are we not just a bunch o suckers in their eyes.
yes we could do it….and it would aid in tax evasion…..unfortunately it will also aid in bail ins for the banks and right at the moment that is a very real risk…I .dont think anyone would be very happy about losing a significant portion of their savings,….except perhaps the bankers who have skimmed off obscene bonuses for providing the “service”….quarter (or whatever figure they determine) of an obscene unwarranted amount is still not a bad scam.
Watch , listen and follow very closely the chorus of cashless society shills. They are lining up, they are many , and they have local chapters in every corner of the globe
There are a small number of issues which will grab the attention of a huge percentage of the western world. This is one of the few
The more those few issues are openly pushed, greater numbers of people will begin to look more deeply into the lies behind them, rebel, or look for alternatives
weaker dairy prices, along with other factors, are contributing to slower growth in the nominal economy
What is this “nominal economy” and how is he getting away avoiding the impact of weaker dairy prices and other factors the real economy that real people operate in?
he does not live in the same economy than you and me. That is how he avoids the consequence of the selling of our country. When he is done he’ll bugger off.
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Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...
Hearing the Prime Minister castigate the Warehouse for laying off 1,000 workers after receiving $52 million in wage subsidies reminds me of the fabled frog who agreed to carry a scorpion across a river. The scorpion stings the frog halfway across, dooming both to drown. The frog cries “Why on ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Prof Michael BakerCompared with other OECD countries NZ is a stand-out success story by ending community transmission of COVID-19. While there have been some well-publicised recent deficiencies (eg, quarantine organisation), there has still been no evidence of community transmission for many weeks. Nevertheless, ...
It’s June 30th, marked as Asteroid Day by many people of an astronomical bent around the globe. On this date in 1908, early in the morning in a remote part of central Siberia, the sky fell in. Well, not literally. What happened is a substantially-sized lump of cosmic detritus ...
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...
Don Franks Poverty, inequality – really – aren’t politicians paid to sort that stuff ? Why can’t they just get it together and come up with something fair and sensible? A cold rainy 2020 morning, a headline showed promise. “Green Party’s $8b plan would guarantee an income of $325 a ...
A guest repost by Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) staff attorney Augusta Wilson. Fundraising is not the objective of this article but readers may wish to know that CSLDF is currently conducting a summer fundraiser to support defense of research scientists and research integrity from anti-science interference by politicians and industrial interests. The COVID-19 pandemic ...
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...
The US state of Mississippi has finally voted to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag. Good. Its appalling that it was put there in the first place, but even more appalling that it took so long to remove it. Its basicly as if a German Länder still had ...
No one could have predicted when David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was passed by Parliament last November that the referendum required to bring the legislation into force would be held against the backdrop of a deadly global pandemic. Since then, the mounting tally of casualties around the world ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
Hon Shane Jones, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says. Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot ...
Our strong economic management prior to COVID-19 - with surpluses, low debt and near-record-low unemployment - put us in a good position to weather the impact of the virus and start to rebuild our economy much earlier than many other countries.Now we're putting our plan to recover and rebuild ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Law and Order Recently released Police fleeing driver statistics have shown yet another increase in incidents with another record-high in the latest quarter. “This new quarterly record-high is the latest in a string of record-high numbers since 2014. The data shows incidents ...
New Zealand First MP Fletcher Tabuteau is pleased to be confirmed today as the party’s candidate for the Rotorua electorate. Speaking at the Rotorua AGM for New Zealand First, Mr Tabuteau said this is an election that is incredibly important for the people of Rotorua. “The founding principles of New ...
The Human Rights Commission’s PRISM report on the issues impacting people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) provides an excellent programme of work for future governments to follow, say the Greens. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the trans-Tasman bubble had not been jeopardised after aborder botch-upresulted in New Zealand having two active cases of COVID-19. On Friday, Mr Peters told RNZ's Morning Report he had heard from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that borders for trans-Tasman travel would open by ...
The Government will support the Southland economy in the wake of multinational mining company Rio Tinto’s decision to follow through with its long signalled closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. “This day has unfortunately been on the cards for some time now, but nevertheless the final decision is a ...
New tools being developed to help boost Aotearoa’s Predator Free 2050 effort were unveiled today by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. A new rat poison, a camera with predator recognition software to detect and report predators, a new predator lure and a ...
The Coalition Government has approved the purchase of a fleet of Bushmaster vehicles to replace the New Zealand Army’s armoured Pinzgauers, Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced today. The new fleet of 43 Australian-designed and built Bushmaster NZ5.5 will provide better protection for personnel and improved carrying capacity. “The age ...
The Government’s three prevention frameworks to reduce family violence in Aotearoa were launched this week by Associate Minister for Social Development Poto Williams. The frameworks were developed in partnership with communities around New Zealand, and build on the work the Government has already begun with its new family violence prevention ...
The Government is pleased to confirm funding for improvements to radiology and surgical services at Hawke's Bay DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says. "The Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson and former Health Minister Dr David Clark approved funding for Hawke's Bay DHB’s redevelopment of their radiology facilities ...
• New funding for four beds at Napier’s Springhill Residential Addiction Centre • A new managed withdrawal home and community service, and peer support before and after residential care at Tairāwhiti DHB • A co-ordinated network of withdrawal management services throughout the South Island • Peer support in Rotorua and ...
Introduction, seafarers and POAL Good morning everyone, I am delighted to be online with you all today. Before I begin, I have to acknowledge that COVID-19 has disrupted the maritime sector on an unprecedented scale. The work of seafarers and the maritime industry is keeping many economies around the world ...
A $13 million investment from Government will create jobs and improve the resilience of the rail connection between Christchurch and the West Coast, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones and Regional Economic Development Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau say. The funding comes from the tagged contingency set aside in Budget 2020 for infrastructure projects ...
The Government is investing $761 million to assist local government upgrade under-pressure water services across the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The announcement was made at the site of the water bore that was found to be the source of the fatal ...
Recognised Seasonal Employers and migrant seasonal workers stranded in New Zealand will be able to continue working and supporting themselves with more flexible hours and roles, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. The time-limited visa changes are: Stranded RSE workers will be able to work part-time (a minimum of 15 hours ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Grant Robertson has today announced the first major release of funding from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced at Budget 2020. “Today we’re setting out how $80 million will be invested, with $54 million of that over the 2020/2021 financial year for organisations from community level through to elite ...
The Government is maintaining current levy rates for the next 2 years, as part of a set of changes to help ease the financial pressures of COVID-19 providing certainty for businesses and New Zealanders, ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “New Zealanders and businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressures as a ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $1.5 million to ensure QE Health in Rotorua can proceed with its world class health service and save 75 existing jobs, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The PGF funding announced today is in addition to the $8 million ...
A new programme, which sets a firm course for the Building and Construction sector to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has been announced by the Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa. “A significant amount of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the building and construction sector. If we’re serious ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing more than $7.5 million in Northland ventures to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 virus, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment is going to the Northern Adventure Experience and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced significant funding for Auckland’s Northcote College as part of the first wave of a new nationwide school redevelopment programme to upgrade schools over the next 10 years. The $48.5 million project brings the total investment in Northcote College to ...
The Government has opened an urgent response fund to support schools and early learning services to get children and young people back on track after the Covid-19 lockdown. “While we are seeing improvements in attendance under Alert Level 1 Ministry of Education data shows that attendance rates in our schools ...
The law to boost the economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 by speeding up resource consenting on selected projects has passed its second and third readings in the House today. “Accelerating nationwide projects and activities by government, iwi and the private sector will help deliver faster economic recovery and ...
Five port-related projects in Whanganui will receive a $26.75 million Provincial Growth Fund investment to support local economic recovery and create new opportunities for growth, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This is a significant investment that will support the redevelopment of the Whanganui Port, a project governed ...
Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery will receive an investment of up to $12 million administered by the Provincial Growth Fund to support its redevelopment, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The project is included in a $3 billion infrastructure pipeline announced by Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Shane Jones yesterday. ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing nearly $2.5 million into three Te Ara Mahi programmes to support Manawatū-Whanganui jobseekers and employees to quickly train and upskill, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Up to 154 local people will be supported into employment within the first year by these ...
This morning I have formally tendered my resignation as Minister of Health, which was accepted by the Prime Minister. Serving as Minister of Health has been an absolute privilege – particularly through these extraordinary last few months. It’s no secret that Health is a challenging portfolio. I have given ...
Scholarships for 57 early-career agricultural emissions scientists from 20 developing countries is another example of New Zealand’s international leadership in primary sector sustainability, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor, announcing the scholarships today, says hundreds of applications were received for this fourth round of the CLIFF-GRADS programme (Climate, Food ...
A project to help rejuvenate the Horowhenua town of Foxton will receive a Provincial Growth Fund investment of $3.86 million, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This funding for the Foxton Regeneration project will be used to make the well-known holiday town even more attractive for visitors and ...
Moa bones and other sub-fossil remains of extinct species are set to have improved protection with proposals to prevent the trade in extinct species announced the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “We have lost too many of our native species, but these lost species, such as moa, remain an ...
The Government’s free and healthy school lunches programme moves south for the first time creating jobs for around 30 people in Otago and Southland. “Eighteen schools with 3000 students are joining the programme – 11 have already begun serving lunches, and seven are preparing to start during Term 3. This is ...
Thousands of Kiwi jobs and investment in New Zealand productions will be protected through a screen sector support package announced today by Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford and Minister for Broadcasting Kris Faafoi. The package also includes investment in broadcasting ...
The Government has established a new $10 million fund for the domestic events sector to help save jobs and protect incomes as it recovers from the impacts of COVID-19, Minister of Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. This funding from Budget 2020 follows talks with the event sector designed to ...
COMMENT:By Benny Wenda, chair of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua For over 50 years, Indonesia has been promising West Papua “autonomy”. Each time, underneath autonomy lies only bullets and killings. As the 2001 Special Autonomy law expires this year, the United Liberation Movement (ULMWP) and all the ...
Fonterra’s boss might have been ultra-cautious but out on the country’s dairy farms there was a subdued cheer at the news that the wholemilk powder price had leapt 14% at the latest GDT auction.. The GDT index rose 8.3%, the biggest rise since November 2016, and the fourth successive ...
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Despite dark clouds on the horizon, New Zealand’s post-lockdown spending spree is still going strong. Mary Jo Vergara from Kiwi Economics shares insights into what’s driving it – and how long it will last.Covid-19 and the level four lockdown has bought about some dramatic shifts in New Zealanders’ spending and ...
Today’s Tiwai Point closure announcement will result in cheaper electricity for New Zealand households and the chance to swiftly decarbonise transport and industry, says Greenpeace. Rio Tinto’s smelter, which uses 13 percent of New Zealand’s ...
While Matariki and Pūanga rose last month in Pipiri, they are most visible this month, in Hōngongoi (July). Our celebration of them continues.With thanks to Matua Rereata Mākiha, Sam Rerekura and Rangiānehu Mātāmua for sharing their knowledge.Pūanga and Matariki shine high and bright in Tāmaki (Auckland) this month, bringing with ...
Stacey Morrison talks to Chloe Irvine about life with breast cancer through Covid-19. Breast cancer doesn’t wait for anything – not even a global pandemic. The effects and social restrictions of Covid-19 have put immense strain on women (and men) who are receiving treatment for breast cancer, and the pandemic has ...
The Government plans to increase primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade with a goal of getting 10,000 more New Zealanders working in the sector over the next four years. Prime Minister Ardern said the sector, which has ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Papua New Guinea’s Controller of the National Pandemic Response and Police Commissioner, David Manning, has told the public that a rumour circulating on social media about new cases of covid-19 in Port Moresby is false, the PNG Post-Courier reports. He also cautioned the public from spreading ...
Rio Tinto finally pulls pin on Tiwai Point smelter, which employs 2,600 directly and indirectly, uses 13 percent of NZ's power and exports $1.2b of aluminium each year This time they weren't bluffing. Rio Tinto has finally announced it will close the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter at Bluff by August 2021 with the loss ...
This story first appeared on rnz.co.nz and is republished with permissionAfter a 90 minute escape by a Covid-19 positive patient from a central Auckland isolation hotel, the Government points to security improvements. The Covid-19 border control minister has signalled there could be more police involvement in managing returnees after ...
There can be few more spectacular political own goals than that just scored against the National Party by first-term Clutha-Southland MP, Hamish Walker this week. The consequences for Walker personally, and his eminence grise, Michelle Boag, have been ...
Yesterday Ātea editor Leonie Hayden suggested a number of Māori whose great deeds deserve to be memorialised in stone. Today Pākehā historian Scott Hamilton picks four heroic early New Zealanders of European descent.Recently I publicly suggested that Akaroa’s Bully Hayes Restaurant and Bar should change its name. Bully Hayes was ...
<center><center><img src="https://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/2007/88ff99564d4a71d68d16.jpeg" width="720" height="462"></center> </center> <center>Tweet posted by Nick Bertram </center> In 2017, ...
A highlight from the latest issue of literary journal Landfall is a remarkable poem inspired by I Dream Of Jeannie.Barbara Eden’s Screams 1. It was the 70s. There wasn’t much on. They lured us in with cartoon credits smacked us with the laugh track. Why weren’t ...
The minister in charge of quarantine and isolation facilities has signalled there could be more police involvement in managing returnees after two escapes in a week. ...
Mediaworks CEO to leave after four years as TV3 sale deal likely within weeks. He won't confirm talk of sale to Discovery, who don't own news operations elsewhere ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Molly Glassey, Digital Editor, The Conversation Live on YouTube from 3pm WIB, 5 pm WIT, 6pm AEST today (Thursday, July 9). Use this link to watch. For West Papuans in Indonesia and Indigenous Australians who live within systemic racism and oppression, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Blyth, Paediatrician, Infectious Diseases Physician and Clinical Microbiologist, University of Western Australia A Victorian teenager holidaying on the NSW South Coast has been diagnosed with COVID-19, NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said on Wednesday. The revelation follows reports senior students ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Scheele, Research Fellow in Ecology, Australian National University This article is a preview of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a multimedia project launching on Monday July 13. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and animals after last summer’s bushfire tragedy. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Joanne Adam, Senior Lecturer in Literacy Education and Children’s Literature: Course Coordinator Master of Teaching (Primary), Edith Cowan University Global support for the Black Lives Matter movement isn’t only about standing up against the injustice done to George Floyd, or Indigenous ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flavio Romero Macau, Senior Lecturer in Supply Chain Management and Global Logistics, Edith Cowan University You’re nervous, I get it. Panic buying is back, not as strong as in March and more localised in Melbourne. Once again shop shelves have been emptied ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Webb, Dean, Graduate Research, University of Canberra It seems sometimes literary fiction performs a bellwether function: signalling changes; alerting us to the directions in which a society is headed. The 2020 Miles Franklin shortlist seems to bear this out in six ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Petterson, Assistant Editor, Health + Medicine, The Conversation Australia Let’s be honest: during coronavirus lockdown it was hard to resist the allure of internet intimacy. Rates of watching porn skyrocketed in Australia during isolation. But have you ever wondered what effects ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ayesha Tulloch, DECRA Research Fellow, University of Sydney Many Victorians returning to stage three lockdown will be looking for ways to pass the hours at home. And some will be turning to birdwatching. When Australians first went into lockdown in March, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Lesh, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage, University of Melbourne The roar of the crowd at the stadium. Jostling to see the New Year fireworks in the public square. Captivated by the band at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide Architecture suffers before building does. A survey of more than 450 architecture practices conducted by the Association of Consulting Architects finds that two thirds have lost more than 30% of their revenue, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mike Dickison, Research Information Advisor, Massey University When Wellington mural artist Xoë Hall discovered her work on a calendar, she hadn’t been contacted by anybody, let alone credited or paid for it. This wasn’t the first time. Her art often appears on ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Changes coming in managed isolation after 2nd escape, Hamish Walker’s political career over, and expert advice released ahead of cannabis referendum.Changes are being made to the way managed isolation facilities are run, after it emerged that a resident went for a wander ...
The Ministry of Health is refusing to confirm if it supplied Michelle Boag with a daily list of people infected with Covid-19 and their private information. ...
Why does it take a huge, international outpouring of resistance, antagonism and grief to make brands consider changing their discriminatory names? The Black Lives Matter movement has catapulted racially discriminatory practices in society and organisations to the fore. Not only have overt physical discriminatory practices been condemned, but symbols of discrimination ...
New Zealand, it seems, is leading the world getting women’s sport back up and running. And new fans around the world are watching. Among the fears triggered by Covid-19's global shutdown of sport was that the growing women’s sports movement would be severely knocked back. As sports bodies have looked at their ...
The Ministry of Health is refusing to confirm if it supplied Michelle Boag with a daily list of people infected with Covid-19 and their private information. ...
Has Michelle Boag finally gone too far? It won’t be the first time the question has been asked of New Zealand’s infamous right-wing PR consultant. On Tuesday night, news broke that Michelle Boag had provided private Covid-19 patient information to National MP Hamish Walker, who in turn leaked it to ...
New Zealand's music scene is starting to open up again, but without international acts, it's a limp back to normal. The live gigs are back, the bars are open, and the festivals and concerts are on - but there is one missing ingredient – and that’s international acts. A ...
Because no one is as happy as Simon Bridges with a baby yak. Video by José Barbosa.For a very long time, human beings have been striving to answer a simple, vexing question: how can I be happy?From Plato’s moral gateways to Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness, the search goes on. Some look ...
The US Supreme Court’s recent decision on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has been discussed mainly in terms of its impact on the Trump administration’s immigration policy. It’s a demonstration of the importance of the court’s role in America’s separation-of-powers regime. And it says something about the current relationship ...
A man in an Auckland managed-isolation facility decided he’d like to slip through the hotel fence and get some groceries. Justin Giovannetti on what we know about his ill-advised adventure.He’d been back in New Zealand for four days and staying in the heart of Auckland, with the roar of Albert ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison will take a proposal to Friday’s national cabinet to slow the influx of Australians returning from overseas. Morrison’s proposal followed this week’s request from Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan that international flights be ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua has created an action station petition to oppose the application for the proposed Dome Valley Landfill. Find the petition here: https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/protect-our-kaipara-moana The Petition asks that the Mayor of Auckland, Auckland Council and the Minister for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Kaine, Associate Professor UTS Centre for Business and Social Innovation, University of Technology Sydney In late March, the Victorian government put private security firms in charge of hotel quarantine in Melbourne. This happened without a formal tender process. It was a ...
By RNZ News Health Minister Chris Hipkins says New Zealand’s latest case of covid-19 will be charged for breaching isolation and visiting a central Auckland supermarket last night. Hipkins said the 32-year-old man, who arrived from India on July 3, left his managed isolation last night to go to the ...
Claire from McLeod’s Daughters died in 2003 and Tara Ward is still not over it. The unexpected death of Claire McLeod is the most tragic event you’ll see on television. It was a miserable day when that white Brumby bolted across the road and made Claire drive off a cliff, ...
Luckily for Labour, Jacinda Ardern's leadership in the Covid-19 crisis is a much more powerful political weapon than bread-and-butter issues about the country’s future. ...
IrrigationNZ believes Government investment in the water sector is a step in the right direction – but calls for a broader strategy to encompass all water infrastructure, including storage and policy development. ...
The race relations commissioner, Meng Foon, has just sent the following letter to leaders of New Zealand political parties.Tēnā koe, Talofa, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Kia orana, 你好, Namaste.My role as Race Relations Commissioner is to promote and enhance harmonious communities in our diverse nation. As the leader of a political ...
National MP Hamish Walker's unconscionable privacy breach has already ended his career and that of a party stalwart - but his caucus colleagues may also be cursing his terrible judgment come September 19, Sam Sachdeva writes A young, promising politician gifted one of the safest seats in the country and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato The leak of the confidential personal information of COVID-19 patients by Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker and influential party figure Michelle Boag has been highly embarrassing for the National Party. In less than 24 hours ...
An extract from The Quick and the Dead, the new memoir by Palmerston North pathologist Cynric Temple-Camp.Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes: Strong recommend for this medical memoir, the second by the most excellently-named Cynric Temple-Camp after his 2017 bestseller The Cause of Death.Ostensibly a collection of yarns and case studies, after ...
National Party leader Todd Muller has spoken about the controversy around Hamish Walker at a roading announcement this afternoon, saying the National MP's exit from politics was "the only option". ...
National Party leader Todd Muller has made another roading announcement this afternoon, as the controversy around the National MP who leaked Covid-19 patient details continues to unfold. ...
"Linking funding to commitment from councils to reform the investment, planning and delivery of their water assets is a welcome move," says Infracom (New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga) Chief Executive Ross Copland, in response ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dani Larkin, Associate Lecturer in Law, University of Newcastle Gunnai-Kurnai and Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe was recently elected by Greens party members to replace the former party leader, Richard Di Natale, as senator for Victoria. Thorpe is the first Indigenous woman to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charlene Zietsma, Associate professor, Pennsylvania State University In May this year, we were convening a dream conference: 140 like-minded academics on a Greek island for three-and-a-half days to work on a topic we cared about – organising sustainably. We recognised the contradiction ...
“The Government’s long-awaited funding boost and water reform agenda is New Zealand’s best chance to create a high performing water sector for New Zealanders,” says Infrastructure NZ CEO Paul Blair. “The Government has today announced it will ...
Yesterday evening I received a letter from Leader Todd Muller, asking the National Party Board of Directors to urgently meet and consider some very serious, publicly reported, issues concerning Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker. The Board met at midday ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua is working with Marae, hapū, Post Settlement Governance Entities (Te Uri o Hau, Ngā Maunga Whakahī, and Ōrākei) and Fight the Tip to lead a hikoi in Tāmaki Mākaurau (Auckland) on Friday 17 July 2020. It is the position ...
The country's latest case of Covid-19 will be charged for visiting an Auckland supermarket last night, Health Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed. Hipkins said the 32-year-old man, who arrived from India on July 3, left his managed isolation last night to go to the Countdown supermarket on Victoria Street in central ...
The Government has formally confirmed that it will not use any of the current or future serology tests to assess how widespread the Covid19 disease has been in New Zealand. In answer to an Official Information Request by the Covid Plan B group, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Yue Zhang, Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology Only 40% of students in China who previously intended to study overseas still plan to, while just under 50% of those who had studied overseas plan to return to ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) welcomes the announcement of $761 million for Tranche One funding as part of the Government’s three waters reform programme, saying it provides a measure of financial assistance to councils as they consider ...
Latest from the Beehive The government’s economic engineers were hard at work yesterday. One minister was set on establishing a base for film production in Christchurch while – much more critically for the wellbeing of the nation – a cluster of others led by the PM were unveiling their grand ...
Recent shocks to our economy have shown that when it comes to knowing how to manage our money, New Zealand still has a long way to go. Having now moved on from my first illustrious job as a graduate tax accountant, a lot of what I learnt about tax in my ...
Open Mike 15/02/2016 
Open mike is your post.
This morning, after years of threats and demands for subsidies, Rio Tinto announced that it would be closing the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. Good. Because as I've argued before, the best thing this foreign polluter can do is close. Doing so will free up 12% of our electricity supply, not ...3 hours ago
Former National Party President - Michelle BoagAfter the complete botch job Hamish Walker made of leaking the private details of COVID-19 patients to the mainstream media last week, the best-case scenario for Todd Muller and the National Party would be if the news cycle went quiet about their involvement.But unfortunately ...6 hours ago
One of the challenges of working on illegal wildlife markets, is you don’t really have scope to talk about your research into illegal wildlife markets. There is some stuff though that willbe coming out on Asiatic black bears in China, and before Covid19, I was delving more into rhinos. Which ...19 hours ago
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Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...22 hours ago
So now we know, beyond all doubt. The National party has no interest in joining the “team of five million” in our fight against the pandemic but its priority is to take every opportunity it can to damage the government. The cynicism is breathtaking. It was prepared to leak the ...1 day ago
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If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...2 days ago
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There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...1 week ago
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...1 week ago
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Rio Tinto finally pulls pin on Tiwai Point smelter, which employs 2,600 directly and indirectly, uses 13 percent of NZ's power and exports $1.2b of aluminium each year This time they weren't bluffing. Rio Tinto has finally announced it will close the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter at Bluff by August 2021 with the loss ...3 hours ago
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The US Supreme Court’s recent decision on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has been discussed mainly in terms of its impact on the Trump administration’s immigration policy. It’s a demonstration of the importance of the court’s role in America’s separation-of-powers regime. And it says something about the current relationship ...15 hours ago
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National MP Hamish Walker's unconscionable privacy breach has already ended his career and that of a party stalwart - but his caucus colleagues may also be cursing his terrible judgment come September 19, Sam Sachdeva writes A young, promising politician gifted one of the safest seats in the country and the ...21 hours ago
The country's latest case of Covid-19 will be charged for visiting an Auckland supermarket last night, Health Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed. Hipkins said the 32-year-old man, who arrived from India on July 3, left his managed isolation last night to go to the Countdown supermarket on Victoria Street in central ...23 hours ago
Latest from the Beehive The government’s economic engineers were hard at work yesterday. One minister was set on establishing a base for film production in Christchurch while – much more critically for the wellbeing of the nation – a cluster of others led by the PM were unveiling their grand ...24 hours ago
Listening to RNZ yesterday afternoon after the Christchurch earthquake, it struck me that there were several callers who expressed more of a fear of insurance companies inaction than fear of the actual earthquake.
5 years on, there were people ringing who were still in houses not dealt with by the EQC . Two callers in particular named AIG as an appalling insurer.
Yet they have enough money to splash their corporate logo all over the All Blacks shirt.
I really hope John Campbell reopened this can of worms.
Yes
I heard that damage claims have to be in in 3 months
Shame that there is not a 3 month pay out time..
All claim settlements need to include a ‘use-of-money’ component, back-dated to the date of the event.
You know, like the government and IRD does with us.
goose and gander and all that…..
yes?
no?
Yeah, there’d definitely be a financial incentive not to drag the chain if that were to be in place.
The whole thing is really a big clusterfuck though, with the whole “handover from EQC” seeming to be handled really poorly for everyone.
After EQC is done with it, your insurance company has to start *from scratch*.
There is nothing one can do about the earthquake. It’s simply something you learn to live with when choosing to live here in Christchurch. As opposed to that, the insurance shamble is man-made and can be avoided. Insurance companies drag everything as much as possible so that more and more people will give up and take a cash settlement.
One of my customer is building a commercial kitchen for one of our local church. He was surprised to find out that the reason he is building this kitchen is that the church is feeding a 100+ people a day. We had a bit of a chat about the situation here in AKL where it now is more and more the norm for low income people and people on benefits to be depended on charities to eat, they may earn enough money to pay the bills, but then have no money for food or they may get enough benefits to cover the rent but not electricity or food.
I asked him how much his pay had increased over the last 5 – 7 years vs the increases in his living costs, and he agreed with me that yes, for people on a fixed income, benefit or the min wage life has not gotten better but in fact much worse.
Slowly but surely the the mask of feel good, and pretend to be good and happy at all times is slipping, and the raising poverty and misery is coming more and more to the light for all to see.
Yes. And there’s another cold winter on the horizon.
Food? or warmth? Stark choices that have to be made by many.
Who will replace Scalia on the US Supreme Court..
Possibly Kamala Harris:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris
This would help ring in the changes that the world so desperately needs.
This bloke too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Srinivasan
Impressive, isn’t he? They might be able to get him through the Senate, which I think would be a problem with Harris.
You see the Senate going for an Obama nominee do you?
McConnell (Senate Majority Leader) has already said any Obama appointment isn’t gonna happen. Since he controls what issues come before the Senate, he may be able to block the Senate from even voting on an Obama appointment.
Looking at the current crop of Republican senators, McCain looks the only one with enough sense of duty to vote for a reasonable Obama choice, and four Republican votes are needed (there’s currently 54 Republicans, 2 independents, 44 Democrats).
On the other hand, if Sanders wins in November and the Democrats regain a majority in the Senate, then there might be a sudden rush of final business before the new people are sworn in in January.
He could nominate the risen Yeshua and they’d block because black man…..
Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2005: ‘The President, and the President alone, nominates judges’
[…]
“[T]he Republican conference intends to restore the principle that, regardless of party, any President’s judicial nominees, after full debate, deserve a simple up-or-down vote. I know that some of our colleagues wish that restoration of this principle were not required. But it is a measured step that my friends on the other side of the aisle have unfortunately made necessary. For the first time in 214 years, they have changed the Senate’s ‘advise and consent’ responsibilities to ‘advise and obstruct.'”
http://m.dailykos.com/stories/1484831
The GOP blocks because they block anything the Democrats try to achieve. Since they were taken over by the Tea Party it is total war. The “black man” bit helps energise their racist base but they will do the same with any Democrat in office.
What changes could the Supreme court ring in that the world desperately needs?
Affirmation that the President has the right and obligation to control the emission of harmful greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
Have they recently ruled against this then?
Even though there was already precedent favourable to Obama’s action, they issued a stay against Obama’s Clean Air action in a 5-4 decision with Scalia one of the 5. The full case was due to be heard mid-year.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/13/3749464/the-simply-breathtaking-consequences-of-justice-scalias-death/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/antonin-scalia-death-undecided-cases_us_56c072c5e4b08ffac1259d23
Dead after a long battle…
Excellent! I also note that the onion’s twitter page features a banner photo of Obama, some more replicant Obamas, Ban Ki Moon, some space aliens, a lizard person and, er, John Key.
🙂 He doesn’t even look out of place.
I’m trying very hard to be a decent respectful human being by maintaining a proper sense of decorum, and not break into hysterical laughter or a rousing chorus of “ding, dong, the witch is dead”.
You two are not helping.
The following is not laughter inducing, but relevant anyway:
“It’s appropriate that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at a luxury resort while freeloading as the guest of thus far unidentified wealthy sponsors as one of 40 guests at a private quail-hunting vacation party.
“The resort where he died, Cibolo Ranch Resort, located on land stolen by its founder from the Apache and Comanche people in the Big Bend region of west Texas, is a posh retreat favored by the ultra rich, offering rooms priced from $350 to $800 a night — and it’s a safe bet that the bed Scalia died in was located in a top-priced room — and that the credit card that was swiped to pay for it didn’t have his name on it. (According to one report, the guests at the gathering had their bills covered by the resort’s owner, John Poindexter, a mullti-millionaire real estate owner, rancher and former investment banker.)”
…..
“We don’t at this point know what Scalia’s final junket was about — Poindexter makes a point of saying it “wasn’t about politics or law — but it’s no surprise he wasn’t there on his own dime. It wasn’t the way Scalia operated. Indeed, so egregious and frequent were Scalia’s junkets that in October 2015 the New York Times wrote an editorial condemning them and calling for a reform to make such legalized bribery illegal. ” http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/3043
Not surprising.
After all, insider trading by members of congress didn’t get made illegal until 2012, and as far as I know it hasn’t been enforced yet.
The covarubius class imaging arrays on board those DOD satellites will show what really happened to an overweight 79 year old smoker.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbMofCJUEAAIbIK.jpg:large
Heh!
An end to the claptrap Scalia and his ilk champion[ed].
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gives comfort to creationists while speaking at his granddaughter’s commencement ceremony.
Giving the commencement address at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda where his granddaughter Megan graduated, Scalia opined:
The reference to “5,000 years” is an allusion to the claims made by Young Earth Creationists who take a “Biblical view” of science and reject biological evolution.
[…]
The following is an excerpt of the dissent in Edwards vs. Aguillard written by Scalia:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/06/scalia-commencement-speech-supports-young-earth-creationism/
Even though there hasn’t been any cases that I am aware of recently that involves creationism and the Supreme Court of the US why would this impact the entire world even if there was?
Anti-science loons impact the entire world.
Yes indeed. People who are anti-vaccines and GMO’s are a major problem.
Gosman the clone who proves you can’t vaccinate for gullibility.
The supreme court is anti democracy.
Of course it is anti-democratic. That is it’s point.
Seems pertinent
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/76866652/australian-antivaxxer-mum-seeks-covert-help-after-son-contracts-measles
I’ve had the measles, as did all my siblings. I think it’s an indictment on society and the medical profession and the health systems and the Science is God people that that woman had to go to a closed internet group for advice about her baby when my mother’s generation all knew as a matter of course how to care for a sick child at home.
I read that as she’d rather use her close-minded group on Facebook then go to a doctor
Nevertheless, my point above stands.
Doctor and FB groups are going to give completely different sets of advice. And she says in the article that she is going to take her son to the doctors, which IMO is a good way to spread the measles esp to vulnerable kids. Better that people have the skills to manage at home and the knowledge to know when they need to get medical help.
Pretending to understand enough to make another blanket statement
Informed choice, freedom to choose and the precautionary principle
You need to work harder at pretending.
Reading through your contributions, I would say you’re projecting, wildly
There is a distinct sneering tone, which reeks of fear such as the asinine remark you made above
What, if any is your issue with the three tenets I listed ?
I have little time for idiots who endanger others as well as their children.
1: “informed choice” does not equal “shit some moron told me in a youtube video must be more reliable than ‘big pharma'”
2: “freedom to choose” is not the same as “freedom to endanger the lives of others”
3: The precautionary principle:
[my italics]
We know the level of harm of vaccines: fuck all compared to the level of harm of the diseases they represent (see my opening sentence).
so yeah, I have very little time for people whose idiocy results in outbreaks of Dickensian illnesses in first-world nations. Frankly, I view anti-vaxxers as public health menaces.
@McFlock.
Jeez, sometimes you do say something sensible.
This is one of those times.
Such a complete lack of understanding , ignorance and arrogance
That you don’t can’t or won’t describe simple concepts without using derogatory language, let alone comprehend them adequately , is your problem to work through
Good luck with the journey
I’m not going to pretend I have the slightest ounce of respect for people who deserve none.
And on the other side of the equation: less than 5000 petitions of harm from vaccines in the same period, and about 2/3 of petitions are unsuccessful.
I always figured you for a command and control authoritarian at heart.
Nah.
I just have little tolerance for walking public health hazards,
Not that I like siding with right wingers.
But I’m afraid being anti-vax fails on all three counts:
Informed choice: There is plenty of information on vaccination vs disease – it is a no-brainer that vaccination saves millions of lives / severe illnesses, with the negative effects of vaccination real but minuscule in comparison to the disease
freedom to choose: Unfortunately you are not only choosing for yourself / your children. Unvaccinated people pass disease to others and can destroy herd immunity. Oddly, this same “freedom” argument is advanced by RWNJ for their economic and social views (‘I should be free to choose whether I contribute to the education / healthcare of others etc). We should do some things collectively for the good of society.
Precautionary principle: The balance of risk is overwhelmingly in favour of vaccination. Not vaccinating fails the precautionary test.
You have to be fucking kidding me.
You state “informed choice” as one of your major arguments.
Then make it clear you don’t believe in a patient’s informed choice at all, you believe in your choice and your conclusions, to be applied to everyone else, and then applying a thin veneer of your version of “informed choice” over the top of it.
Let’s run with your bullshit one step further:
1) Informed choice: there is plenty of evidence that Labour gets consistently better results for both adults and children than National does. Yes Labour Governments sometimes cause bad things, but those bad things are miniscule in comparison to the benefits that they deliver, especially compared to National.
2) Freedom to choose: National voters are not just choosing a government for themselves/their own children. Unfortunately, their choice is also damaging other people and can destroy the common good.
3) Precautionary principle: the balance of risk is greatly in favour of a Labour led government. Voting National and not voting Labour fails the test of the precautionary principle.
Conclusion – people who vote National are both socially and personally irresponsible, and the ability to democratically choose to vote for National shall be banned, in the name of the public good.
did you include lab4 in that equation? Because that seriously skews your math
Of course I included Lab4 into the equation.
Has Lab4 somehow been exorcised from Labour’s history and performance?
MPs from that time who voted for Rogernomics are still in the caucus.
Or should I do the drug company statistics thing and simply exclude entire datasets and time periods which prove inconvenient?
So basically the idea that Labour “consistently” does better is correct only 4/5 of the time. I reckon you might be lacking “scientific consensus” that your statement is correct.
A better example would be the policy of denazification of post-WWII Germany. Participants in a clearly bad government were banned from office, but the actual impact was minimal. So even if the thing is bad, the intervention needs to be better than the status quo. Voting interventions aren’t. Vaccinations clearly are.
This tourism driving is getting seriously out of hand on the main tourist roads of the south island – west coast, otago especially.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/76883987/frustrated-truck-driver-throws-tourists-car-keys-over-fence-near-queenstown
Drove some long distance recently and saw incidents all the time – swerving badly across the road, driving onto one lane bridge with us already on it, random stopping in the middle of the road…. probably couple of incidents per morning on average…..
it is a very real threat, with locals driving like nanas now
chaos and carnage
My sister was catching a commuter flight from Wellington, and saw a driver (passenger in back seat) having difficulty at the car park entrance. When she enquired if they needed a handed, the driver said she was looking for the car rental place to drop off the car, and needed to do so quickly as they were late to check in for a flight.
My sister offered to direct them there and jumped in the passenger seat. During the short drive, the driver drove extremely badly, before ending up at the car rental. During somewhat strained conversation it appears that the driver had never driven a car before and driving on the NZ roads was the first time. She had driven from Rotorua to Wellington, on our somewhat unforgiving of driver error roads.
@ vto and Molly ….in the meantime young New Zealanders can’t get licenses….!!!! ( too expensive….too hard!…too much testing….too many failed because of simple tiny errors)
….this is jonkey’s banana republic…persecute and make it very hard for New Zealand youth to get ahead …and make it a free for all for the overseas hoons and irresponsible and wealthy
Here is some backup to my call above – exactly what is going through EVERYBODY’s minds who lives in these parts and has to drive.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/76839291/fiordland-residents-fearful-of-driving-alongside-visitors.html
It is ridiculous.
I suggest heavy, near extreme, measures are required.
URGENTLY.
There simply has to be a hard core practical test before any rental car can be taken out by a non-NZ driver.
If it costs – tough. It will save NZ lives.
If they fail and can’t drive – tough. It will save NZ lives.
If tourists leave – tough. It will save NZ lives.
This is now an everyday occurrence. Starting to make me very cross.
THE TOURISTS ARE MORE DANGEROUS THAN DRINK DRIVING…..
AAAAAARRGGGHHHHHH…!!!!!!
What’s a few deaths and maimings when we’re making all those tourism dollars?
Most people don’t understand about derivatives or other financial products. In Holland, Pension funds are going down to their exposure to these toxic instruments, in the US pensions funds are collapsing and the funds are being looted by banks and governmental institutions to cover debts and in New Zealand we hear nothing about the Cullen fund which supposedly has about $19 billion in investments so I thought I’d link to some articles I have been writing in as early as 2012 about the fund that was supposed to be able to support our pension system for a long time to come:
https://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/the-serious-fraud-squad-should-investigate-john-key-and-merrill-lynchs-involvement-with-the-cullen-fund/
https://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/breaking-did-merrill-lynch-set-up-the-cullen-fund-meet-ira-bing/
Most people would include you it seems. Care to explain why Futures products are in anyway dangerous?
How about I leave that to an expert, cowboy hat boy!
So you agree that you yourself don’t understand them and rely of linking to clips of other people who you think can explain them do you?
so you wont ‘t be cashing in your hybrid bank bonds then Gosman?….oh wait you can’t…..I wonder if you can find someone to purchase them off you…..at a greatly reduced value of course…
Gosman you’re a boring little dick with a penchant for time wasting. Have a nice day!
Goldman Sachs man Gooseman.futures in their basic form were originally designed to create a smoothing of market prices for growers and manufacturers to stabilize markets.
Today’s futures are far from that.
The wall St futures of today are a corruption .
Futures of today are ponzi schemes bought and sold by corrupt bankers who know when the tide goes out they are worth nothing.
Unless the company selling these ponzi schemes is in bed with the large govts is The US and EU where Goldman Sachs bankers are the finance ministers.
They will turn around and get enough money printed to save their arses.
Gooseman another failure.
When are you going to produce some evidence you know something about futures.
Many times I have seen futures trading suspended because they can’t meet their obligations.
Then trillions of dollars in bailouts .
Welfare for criminal ponzi schemers.
Greek govt being lent $100’s of billions by bankers who knew they couldn’t pay it back.
Predatory loan sharks.
is John Key Merrill Lynch.
Gooseman your a gullible govt grovelar
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/12/deutsche-bank-plans-3bn-bond-buy-back
a whole 3 billion!
…more here on ….’Keiser: Deutsche Bank ‘technically insolvent’, running a ‘ponzi scheme’
https://www.rt.com/news/332446-keiser-deutsche-bank-technically-insolvent/
“Max Keiser hit out against Deutsche Bank in the latest episode of his RT program Keiser Report, saying the bank was “technically insolvent” despite assurances from German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble that he had “no concerns” over his country’s biggest bank…
( but what about the poor Greeks?)
poor everybody….if they can’t keep all these balls up in the air for a very long time then we will all be Greeks
the German banks would not let Greece off the hook
http://www.maxkeiser.com/2015/07/grexit-or-jubilee-how-greek-debt-could-be-annulled/
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/270514-grexit-crisis-like-2008/
the German banks (and Finance Minister) didn’t behave responsibly with the Greek situation…..just as we can expect them to continue to behave in the event more defaults occur….somewhat like Cyprus
Their method has been clearly signaled and is ignored at our own risk.
agreed “… ignored at our own risk.”
I suspect it’s not always the case but a bond buyback here looks desperate.
particularly one this insignificantly small….it is less than a drop in the overflowing bucket
Republican Lifeguard (cartoon)
Isn’t that the same idea from Paula Bennett?
Pretty much National’s entire basis for how they run welfare.
Can’t access the mobile version for some reason lprent. Been that way since at least saturday.
Garbage in, garbage out
And that doesn’t even take into account our loss of sovereignty. So, for us, the TPPA is a lose-lose.
but all is well, a real estate agent told me that the asian buyers (yep a realtor said the word asian) finally all received their IRD Numbers and House Sales will go up into the stratosphere in AKL again.
so who needs exports, n stuff ….not us not us
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/76821748/Rod-Oram-Economic-reality-is-hitting-home
Quote: “Yet despite all this stimulus, growth is anaemic and deflation becoming entrenched in many countries. Increasingly, central banks are turning to negative interest rates as a last resort. Japan recently joined the ECB, Denmark Sweden and Switzerland.
What happens next could be startling. For example, the UK should start to consider ending all cash transactions to enable banks to levy negative interest rates on their customers, Andrew Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, argued in a speech last September, available here.
This is only one of the range of radical new tools central banks must devise to cope with the next recession, Martin Wolf, chief economics columnist of the Financial Times, wrote recently, available here.
Our Reserve Banks has been remarkably reticent on all these issues, even though it has missed every inflation forecast it has made in the past four years. With deflation looking ever more likely than inflation, it should take the opportunity of its March 10 Monetary Policy Statement to begin to engage business and the wider public on this fundamental challenge.
Reality is hitting home in may other ways, such as the forecast by DairyNZ that 85 per cent of dairy farmers will run at a loss this season.
Yet in Parliament on Tuesday, Key’s passing gesture to the real world was this:
“…weaker dairy prices, along with other factors, are contributing to slower growth in the nominal economy, which is expected to be around $17 billion lower over the next five years than was expected in last year’s Budget. This flows through to slightly less tax revenue, slightly lower operating balances and slightly higher debt, compared to Budget forecasts.” Quote End.
I wonder if people realise what the Bank of England nut bar is saying here? ……….
“For example, the UK should start to consider ending all cash transactions to enable banks to levy negative interest rates on their customers, Andrew Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England, argued in a speech last September”
It is fucked completely.
He is saying – lets charge people to conduct transactions in order to save the banks.
It may take a while for this to seep in – especially to right wing brains…
its already happening in sweden, and in the US people on a benefit can only take $ 25 out a day, and they are charged for each transaction.
and not much discussed in our own sweet aotearoa
http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/79845/bernard-hickey-suggests-removing-cash-and-adopting-blockchain-type-system-transactions
Quote: A cashless society could help us combat crime and tax avoidance by making it much harder to trade illegally and in an untraced way. It would also avoid the problem of cash hoarding if interest rates were ever cut to 0%, or even negative rates. It would make it much easier to have negative interest rates that gave the Reserve Bank the power to stimulate the economy by charging savers to look after their money. A move to a digital currency could also allow us to do without banks for transactions and save an awful lot of money in processing and conversion fees.
So why don’t we do it? Now that most people have smart phones and almost all retailers are connected to a payments network, it would seem a simple step to remove cash from the system. After all, many of us use EFTPOS and contactless Visa and Master cards to pay for things. Why not switch completely and remove all the cost and danger of storing, transporting and handling cash?
Yet it’s proving much harder than many thought, and it’s not just a New Zealand problem. Despite all the gadgets and terminals, there is actually much more cash in circulation than there’s ever been. The Reserve Bank reports there was NZ$4.96 billion worth of notes ands coin sitting in wallets and vaults and under mattresses as at March of last year. That’s up 61.6% from the NZ$3.07 billion in circulation just 10 years earlier. Quote end.
i do like how its always to combat crime, are we not just a bunch o suckers in their eyes.
yes we could do it….and it would aid in tax evasion…..unfortunately it will also aid in bail ins for the banks and right at the moment that is a very real risk…I .dont think anyone would be very happy about losing a significant portion of their savings,….except perhaps the bankers who have skimmed off obscene bonuses for providing the “service”….quarter (or whatever figure they determine) of an obscene unwarranted amount is still not a bad scam.
Watch , listen and follow very closely the chorus of cashless society shills. They are lining up, they are many , and they have local chapters in every corner of the globe
There are a small number of issues which will grab the attention of a huge percentage of the western world. This is one of the few
The more those few issues are openly pushed, greater numbers of people will begin to look more deeply into the lies behind them, rebel, or look for alternatives
What is this “nominal economy” and how is he getting away avoiding the impact of weaker dairy prices and other factors the real economy that real people operate in?
he does not live in the same economy than you and me. That is how he avoids the consequence of the selling of our country. When he is done he’ll bugger off.
I guess Planet Key only needs a nominal economy.
Everything’s ok… TPPA will deliver us the missing growth. That light at the end of the tunnel is the Brighter Future. You read it here first.