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.
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
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Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
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Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
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Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
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A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
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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…
https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/698659911400448001
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!
https://youtu.be/wU28EDeLGhU
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.