Money quote (literally), to keep in mind for all those posts Farrar writes about how it’s really the rich people who pay all the taxes:
… figures from Inland Revenue’s high wealth individuals unit found more than a third of this group [New Zealanders worth more than $50 million] declared income less than $70,000 in 2015. The 252 individuals were linked to 7500 entities, some of whom are in dispute with the agency over nearly $111 million in tax.
“It blamed big business and the extremely wealthy for the growing discrepancy, saying they fuelled the inequality crisis by avoiding taxes, driving down wages for their workers and the prices paid to producers and investing less in their businesses.”
Well if you want to see exactly how extremely crazy and reactionary the rich and their media servants get if any politician even suggests limiting the flow of money upwards,then just google this.. ‘Corbyn income cap’ ..and witness the media frenzy, obviously there is to be no meaningful conversation around wealth inequality…just shut it down is the medias first and only reaction.
I am not saying I support or don’t support this income cap proposal, I am just saying look at the reaction….brutal and decisive.
I know. I’ve said it often enough here and it’s obvious that even those on the Left don’t agree with me despite all the evidence showing having rich people is bad for society.
Greed wins out even for those who say that they want an egalitarian society.
Well, you know, once Joyce and friends start being challenged in the public arena over their many and varied spurious claims, they start refusing to give interviews, and declining to front up altogether. Just ask John Campbell. No, they’re far more comfortable with tame interviewers who don’t ask the prickly questions and are less likely to humiliate them in public.
Joyce and tame interviews is a must for Natioanal’s pr campaign, especially if one listens to the weekly Joyce and Annette King segment with Hoskings on radio. How pathetic it is with Hoskings, supposedly being the “unbiased moderator” Yeah Right, what a sicko the man is.
I remember watching Key’s Hard Talk interview with Stephen Sackur. Our ex-PM limped away from that one with a bloody nose and a black eye, and given his talent for glib non-answers and evasion, it was poetry in motion. Less able charlatans like Joyce, Bennett and Brownlee would be crucified in a similar situation.
But no, with ‘true believers’ like Michael Hosking conducting the interrogation, they’ve nothing at all to worry about.
Yeh, Hosking and Henry both pretty despicable characters, but did you catch Gareth Morgan on Henry’s show? ..it was a beaut, resulting in this classic from Morgan…
“I’m about making New Zealand fair,” said Morgan. “You’re self-centred and you don’t give a toss about being fair in New Zealand.”
I stopped watching the Paul Henry Show some time ago. The man is an absolute clown, I don’t understand how he can get away with his biased and self-centered attitude. Nice to see someone like Morgan put Henry in his place. Cheers.
Well, I can’t speak for Paul, but for myself, yes, I do hate the rich. Self-serving, opportunistic, grabbing and largely irrelevant – they are a blot on any democracy!
This is not the NZ I grew up in, I am ashamed to say! The sooner we tax the bastards back to a reasonable level, and spread the wealth of society more equally, the better EVERYONE will be!
However we have a problem and it’s undermining our potential.
As a nation, we could be doing so much better.
An OECD report says: “rising inequality has wiped a third off New Zealand’s economic growth in recent decades.
New Zealand’s economy should have grown by nearly 44 per cent between 1990 and 2010, but a widening gap between the haves and have-nots saw it grow by only 28 per cent, according to the report.
The 15.5 percentage points New Zealand lost to inequality was the highest in the developed world.
Inequality was also found to have knocked 11 points off growth in Mexico, nearly 9 points in the United Kingdom, Finland and Norway and between 6 and 7 points in the United States, Italy and Sweden.
On the other hand, greater equality before the global financial crisis helped increase GDP per capita in Spain, France and Ireland.
The OECD has called for higher taxes and more redistribution of wealth to combat inequality, which it found was damaging the economic performance of most developed nations.”
Steven Joyce said it was inevitable some people would be more successful than others, which of course highlights his poor understanding of the problem.
Of course some will be more successful than others. The problem is the balance in income structures has become excessively imbalanced.
The pay difference between your average worker and your top executives has become far too extreme.
This is being compounded by the ballooning cost of housing adding to net worth while also making it more difficult to put a roof over ones head.
On top of that we have too many tax loopholes, leading to an industry dedicated to tax minimization, allowing businesses and individuals to avoid paying their fare share.
So not only are those at the top end being paid excessively more, a number of them are paying far less in tax. Weakening the Government’s capability to redistribute the wealth.
The weakening of Unions has also added to the income imbalance.
Therefore, it’s clear there are a number of areas that require a rethink to correct this excessive imbalance.
But even that is too simplistic – pretty much everyone who lives past 65, over their lifetime, gets more in benefit then they pay in tax because the most costly time of their life is in their last 6 months of life. By that stage, inflation has made what they paid in tax a pittance.
And it’s not only the cost of the benefit but the value of the benefit. Rich people get more value from the police force than poor people because rich people have more to lose if society became disordered. Rich people get more value from the legal system because they have the money to use it etc
Not true – as in other regimes the rich would just up sticks and live in private compounds while the poorer and middle class would suffer through higher crime etc.
Be interesting to find out how long an old person collects the Super for compared with other benefits. Conceivably they could draw the Super for 25 years…which I imagine is a shit load longer than most on other benefits.
Having said that…I do remember when they started calling the National Superannuation a “benefit” rather than an entitlement. There was an outcry at the time this linguistic manipulation of the national psyche, but it came to nought and “benefit” stuck.
Used to be that you paid your PAYE and a certain % was ringfenced for your future retirement income.
The system is set-up so that when you pay tax you are eventually going to get more benefit than what you put in. That’s because the tax/benefit system is adjusted for people’s life course. It makes no sense to call people “takers” and “makers” at one particular point in time because pretty much anyone living until 65 is going to be a net taker.
define folk
define more benefits then they pay in tax
are you speaking of Landlords who receive rent income that is actually financed by the Accommodation Supplement given to people who can’t afford basic housing?
are you speaking of People who recieve a food voucher which they will spend in a few Governmnet selected and favored businesses?
are you speaking of People who are homeless and are ‘housed’ by a Government agency in Motels for usurious prices that have been ‘negotiated’ with the Government agency / minister in charge?
are you speaking of People who receive unemployment benefits that they only receive because they lost a job and thus have paid taxes previously?
are you speaking of People who receive a single parent benefit, who may or may not be divorced, separated, widowed or ‘single’, and who may or may not work a few hours a week, or who may or may not have a special needs child at home and who need the benefit for the children?
are you speaking of People who are sick, may undergo treatment but need to be on the ‘Job Seekers Benefit’ cause we don’t have no more sickness benefit?
whom are you speaking of?
and are you aware that people on any benefit pay GSt on their income recieved? Or that they may be taxed Income Tax?
or do you just feel that the poor rich people of this country really are just hard done by and should just simply not pay tax at all cause Rich?
Then there are those who seem to wear a cloak of invisibility.
I know a member of my own family, who when dragged back to court for issues over financial support of his children, to be paid to his exwife, managed to prove that he had, to all intents and purposes, no actual income.
Rather surprising given his inner city villa, the private schooling and nannies, and yes, his notable job in what I shall loosely refer to as ‘The Financial Sector’.
I wonder how many people have enough assets and convoluted financial arrangements to get away with such a total piss take of the system??
Then there are those who seem to wear a cloak of invisibility.
I know a member of my own family, who when dragged back to court for issues over financial support of his children, to be paid to his exwife, managed to prove that he had, to all intents and purposes, no actual income.
Rather surprising given his inner city villa, the private schooling and nannies, and yes, his notable job in what I shall loosely refer to as ‘The Financial Sector’.
I wonder how many people have enough assets and convoluted financial arrangements to get away with such a total piss take of the system??
Instead of trying to tear folk down I would prefer constructive figures and Mpledger is obviously correct with the examples. The more affluent have the cash to employ accountants to keep their tax obligations down. While those without accept cash-in-hand to evade their obligations. “He without sin cast the first stone”
Apart from the fact that if a poor person evades tax, they spend it on food. If a rich person fiddles the books, they spend it on luxuries. And benefit fraudsters receive harsher penalties than tax fraudsters who fiddle the same amount.
But your personal preference for figures for people who receive more in benefits than they pay in tax says it all. You don’t care if they need those benefits to live in a rest home at a young age because of a head injury, or if they have some other problem that would make them “deserving poor”. It just pisses you off that some people live below ther poverty line on the government dime.
Going after beneficiaries is the punitive equivalent of harvesting the low-hanging fruit. They usually have minimal resources, are unfamiliar with our labyrinthine legal system, often unaware of their rights and are generally vilified by Joe Public. It also enables the government to claim they’re doing something to combat “scrounging bludgers who steal from hard-working tax-payers”.
Conversely, going after wealthy individuals and organisations, given their extensive networks of influence and vast resources, is frequently an expensive and difficult exercise with no guarantee of success. It’s easier to just leave all that in the too hard basket and keep pointing the finger at those dirty benes.
Joe Carolan, standing for the Mt Albert electorate as a socialist, has a qu&a now up on The Daily Blog”. Beware, Carolan uses the “l” word (not the lesbian word – the other word) as a criticism.
I think we need to have an alternative to that political class, that elite, and it needs to be led by working people themselves, the community themselves. Standing also in solidarity with other cultures. We’re a highly multicultural area here, my son goes to Owairaka school, a school of 50-60 cultures. The danger is if we don’t build a movement like that then we’re going to see the rise of a racist movement, what we’re seeing in England and the US, a polarisation of politics. The extreme centre – which is what we’re calling liberals now – cannot hold because it has no answers for the working class.
My bold
Some things Carolan stands for and by:
Parliament won’t change things for the better for working people. It needs a collection of mass movements by the people.
Carolan urges people to get involved in whichever movement they feel most strongly about.
So that’s one major way inequality manifests, the combination of low wages and high rents forcing people out of wonderful communities where they’re lived. Where you have unequal societies, even your middle class suffers – from more crime, more burglaries, more insecurity… I think there’s a growing number of middle class people in this area who worry about poverty, about where we’re going. They would support things like making the minimum wage a living wage, and some form of rent control so we don’t end up in segregated gated communities.
…
First of all, I share that distrust in politicians. When you look at parliamentary questions and see them bickering like schoolchildren, that turns everyone off. And their litany of broken promises. We have no control over these people once they do get elected. They can break every promise they make. And that’s all the major parties. I stand for a different kind of politics, based on people power and social movements themselves:
…
What we’re actually asking people to do is get involved in movements. If you want to fight for rent control, then join the housing movement. If you’re concerned about low pay, join a union. We’ll come and show you how to organise your workplace, how to fight back, get a big pay increase. These things are possible without politicians but it IS politics. Working class politics.
Quite a long q&a – more at the link above.
But he’s still standing for an electorate? Or is it just that he’s using it as a platform to encourage mobilisation of the people?
Edit: Carolan also attacks what he calls Green Party “Eco-facism” – their policy of “sustainable immigration” – Carolan says this is the first step towards Eco-fascism.
“The extreme centre – which is what we’re calling liberals now – cannot hold because it has no answers for the working class.”
Pretty hard to argue with that statement.
who exactly are the “extreme centre”?…and why can they have no answers for the working class?….seems a foolish statement to me given that for every 1000 people in NZ 554 are wage or salary earners…..the extreme centre and the working class would appear to me to have a substantial overlap .
No, because the centre ‘right’ and ‘left’ have at their core the same economic ideology, they in real terms occupy the same space, politically..so Corbyn is just tradition Left, and not hard left as the media make him out to be.
But as the media don’t acknowledge the two centists partys as being the same thing, which of course they wouldn’t, there are no surprises in their position.
ok…the short answer doesn’t address my post at all and i don’t have time to watch the long answer at the moment…how about you answer in your own words?
The “extreme centrte” refers to the dominant political parties, which label themselves as “left” and “right” but follow the same neoliberal agenda, as Olwyn explains below.
The working class – duh, is large numbers of people, not politicians or party members – well a handful of people from the working classes may become politicians: some from the working class (and some from the middle class) may believe that their party will help the working classes.
But if the main pollies and their parties follow neoliberal policies/agenda, then they have nothing to offer the working class – ie majority of people within that class.
The overlap is relatively small, and irrelevant if some working class people subscribe to a party agenda that does nothing for the working class in general.
so the extreme centre are the political parties, not a constituent cohort……think that unless that clear distinction is made (and throwing around the term extreme centre doesn’t do that) then any point attempted to be made around this will be largely dismissed.
Well, I guess it could include people who vote for the “extreme centre” parties.
Many of us think we are not being offered much of a difference between Nat/Labour/maybe Lab-Green; or between Republican/Democrat; or/Tory/Labour; or Aussie coalition/Labour. Though in each pair I’d say they Labour or Green parties are somewhat the better option. But all support the neoliberal agenda pretty much – well maybe not the Corbynistas.
And ultimately, the working classes, the unemployed, people on low incomes, the precariat, etc will continue to suffer, unless there is a true left wing option.
I do think it will need a strong, broad coalition of grass-roots, left wing campaigns and movements to shift political parties and pollies to a truly left wing position.
“Eco-fascists,” ffs. To committed socialists, everyone else is some kind of fascist. I guess I should be glad he restricted himself to “extreme centre” for describing liberals – I was half expecting it to be “liberal fascists.”
I’m also curious as to what kind of voter would try to elect to Parliament someone who thinks it’s a serious mistake to believe change can come “at a Parliamentary level.”
“The Extreme Centre” is a term coined by Tariq Ali, and refers to opposing parties having the same core commitment to a market economy, while maintaining differences in branding. https://www.versobooks.com/books/1943-the-extreme-centre
I think Joe Carolan right about forming and getting involved in movements. Neoliberalism has robbed a large part of the population of a real stake in society, and forming movements is a first step toward making a bid to reclaim it. I don’t see such movements as being in competition with the political parties of the left, but as creating platforms from which to influence and put pressure on them, rather as the business round table, etc. are able to do on the right.
Agree. So thinking of the union movement (when it was one) or the civil rights movement. Political Parties could ‘ride’ off the back of them in terms of legislation or policy formation, but the movements themselves were much, much broader (and messier in a good way) than anything a party could encapsulate.
Today, maybe momentum in the UK is playing that role to a degree.
In NZ, MANA tripped itself badly as a party by making claims to movement status. The attempt to be both introduces too many contradictions at too many levels to ever get off the ground.
I was thinking it would be nice if Joe showed signs of having understood from his time in MANA that one political entity cannot straddle (cannot be) both of those worlds (the world of political movements and the world of political parties).
So I read the piece looking for pointers, and sadly…
A lot of the parliamentary parties are hollowed out entities, they are not the movements they used to be – National, Labour and even the Greens.
The Labour Party was never a movement. Labour was a movement. The Labour Party was a party.
But maybe I’m putting too much score by a single pronouncement. Maybe it’s not really indicative of his thoughts and was a slip or just an unfortunate use of shorthand.
It’s probably charitable to regard the Joe quote as shorthand 🙂 I agree with you about not conflating a political movement with a parliamentary party, and am reminded of Roosevelt’s saying of the New Deal, “you make me do it”, meaning “I need pressure from the outside to get this through.” A strong movement from outside of parliament helps a political wing to fend off the counter-pressures that arise from within it.
Yes well it is a recipe for failure, but I wouldn’t totally mock rebranding, if properly executed. We’re not playing policy for the next day to 6 months, you should be trying to advertise policy that lands in the week leading up to early votes start pouring in. These types of analysis are tough to do, even the best prognosticators only get 6 out of ten calls right. But rebranding properly executed this way is a huge moral booster.
I don’t see such movements as being in competition with the political parties of the left, but as creating platforms from which to influence and put pressure on them, rather as the business round table, etc. are able to do on the right.
And good so. Best of luck to them all. But when it comes to political parties, for those of us who prefer to deal with the real, actually-existing world rather than utopias that could possibly come to exist if everyone else shared our ideology, the “extreme centre” Labour and Green parties with their shameful “core commitment to a market economy” are the only credible vehicles for effecting legislative change. Calling them eco-fascists and extremists isn’t the best way either to influence them or to have a chance of putting them where they can effect legislative change.
Having Carolan and Bright and/or others (TOP?) in the by-election might make for some interesting debates though. How will Ardern & Genter respond to such criticisms?
And it will be interesting to see which of the also-rans the MSM pick up on during their by-election coverage.
“eco-fascist” is Joe Carolan talking, not me. I said I agreed with him about the need for extra-parliamentary movements, but did not touch on his characterisation of the current parliamentary parties.
Sorry about that. My comment was aimed at clarifying my own views on Carolan’s post rather than addressing your comment, which I shouldn’t have because that isn’t really what the Reply button is there for.
On RNZ, highlighted as part of their “Best of 2016” series, and article and audio pretty much arguing the point I made a couple of days ago – about the “myth”/narrative of NZ identity, that has been historically constructed as rural, and associated with the open spaces and rural areas:
For about 100 years, most New Zealanders have lived in towns and cities, yet our national narrative is that we are people of the land.
…
An anti-urban current was also being felt in Australia and North America, he says, but by the end of the 19th century, their large impressive cities with strong manufacturing bases were winning people over.
He suspects the cultural divide between town and country has always been stronger here.
“In New Zealand it’s always been this idea that the backbone of the country is the farmers – the Farmer Backbone mantra … and cities are just peripheral to that.”
…
He sees New Zealand’s much-loved quarter-acre section as a kind of middle ground between rural and urban living.
“We’re urban, but we’re building cities that are different to those in the old world.”
Dr Schrader says we can still see this cultural thread today in the backlash against those arguing for the intensification of Auckland.
“For 150 years people have wanted to live in the city and the country at the same time.”
…
Dr Schrader says confirmation that the rural man alone is no longer seen as the archetypal New Zealander came back in 2012, when the Speights ‘Southern Man’ campaign ended.
“The relevance of the outdoor life has changed” said a Speights spokesperson at the time.
In my view – the forced Auckland ‘$upercity – for the 1%’, was effectively a corrupt corporate coup, and another massive dose of Neo-liberal ‘Rogernomics’ at NZ local government level.
Unlike all the other ‘declared’ Mt Albert by-election candidates, I was one of the very few, who has consistently and persistently opposed this Auckland ‘Supercity – super RIPOFF’ from Day One.
Day One being 5 September 2006, the day where the four previous City Council Mayors, at the Auckland Mayoral Forum in the Auckland Town Hall, ‘ganged up’ against Mike Lee (then Chair of the Auckland Regional Council ARC) and signed an ‘Open Letter’ to Labour PM Helen Clark, calling for an Auckland ‘Supercity’.
Fellow ‘Public Watchdog’ Lisa Prager and I, having been tipped off about this meeting, gate-crashed it and disrupted it, on the basis that there was no lawful basis for these Mayors to attempt to push any such thing, without first consulting the public.
It worked.
That day became known as ‘the failed Mayoral coup’.
How many of you knew about that?
The corporate agenda was always fewer contracts for fewer but bigger private contractors.
First Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) – then Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
How many of the other ‘declared’ Mt Albert by-election candidates have consistently and persistently opposed these mechanisms for corporate control – CCOs and PPPs?
Penny, you’d have a chance if you didn’t [deleted] I mean refusing to pay your rates.., got you labelled a weirdo, you’ll have to do a lot of public good deeds to get that stigma off your name. I’m sorry if you don’t like reading it, but hell women you were all over the paper.
[Okay Richard. I’ve been tolerant and let a fair few things slide these past couple of days. But that bullshit just steps waaay over the line. Take a week out.] – Bill
However, if James is suggesting that folks shouldn’t vote for someone because they haven’t won when they’ve stood as a candidate – I’m just pointing out the inconsistency in that argument?
Don’t forget that in the Mt Albert electorate are a very large number of voters who have voted for parties other than Labour or the Greens?
What will they do?
For whom will they vote?
Will they all just stay home – or might a significant number of them be moved to cast a ‘protest vote’ against the rorts, ripoffs, bribery and corruption in order to get a proven ‘anti-corruption’ campaigner inside the House, which, in itself will send a clear message that can’t be ignored?
How will voting for an existing MP who is already in Parliament, with no proven track record in fighting for transparency in the spending of public monies on private consultants and contractors – do THAT?
How many of the ‘declared’ Mt Albert candidates and people generally, have yet studied the 226 page ‘Reasons for the Verdict of Fitzgerald J’ – in the unprecedented bribery and corruption convictions of Murray Noone and Stephen Borlase?
I stood as a candidate for the Water Pressure Group and polled 2nd, with nearly 6,500 votes.
Campaigned against Metrowater – the commercialisation and privatisation of water services, and against the ‘Rogernomics’ Neo-liberal model, and nearly caused an upset.
(700 votes behind Noelene Raffills).
Over 4000 votes more than the City Vision (Labour /Alliance) candidate.
I stood because a number of City Vision Auckland City Councillors had sold out on their stated policies / pledges to abolish Metrowater.
(There will be some from The Standard who will recall this.)
Raised a few eyebrows at the time….
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for the Mt Albert by-election.
Aw, c’mon james, where’s your sense of humour? We could rename Parliament TV to “Penny in Da House” and it might even become fun to watch. Besides, 7 months of an MP’s salary should be enough for Penny to pay her rates bill so we can stop hearing about that all the time.
This shit has got to stop and restrictions put on foreign “investors”
The last sentence gets me
“Though it had no “concrete” plans for the properties, “commercial sense” indicated the site would be developed to help ease Auckland’s housing shortage.”
Nah fucking Bullshit, that is the last thing they are thinking of. They are more interested in making a killing owing to the housing crisis created by this pack of shit we have as a government.
remind me, you want a five or ten minute argument on the things governments have done.. I mean that’s a risky line, secondly, there are always restrictions..don’t make a little truth and then add a big fat lie.
and it was not Labour who let 70k a month into the country, they still had to go through the appropriate channels.., but under National they flooded the place with money, they sold out to crime and money laundering, National, there is no other you could compare to that.
as for stupidity both parties earn a gold star for wiliam liu turns out he’s connected with drug deals all sorts yet both parties were happy to blow him daily for cash..
aww the commies are after me, i’m rich.. how the hell do you get THAT rich in china?
James, your a proven shit stirrer, track record, every post, truth a smidgeon lies a lot.. /slap
Both Labour and National are slaves to neo-liberal ideology.
It would appear you support the more extreme version of neo-liberalism, so you hardly in a position to criticise Labour on this.
Who said it wasn’t but it still doesn’t get away from the fact we have a pack of shit as a government that has been in government for eight years and done fuck all about it and made the situation worse by selling off state houses.,.
If you are going to start the “labour did it as well” shit I haven’t seen this pack of crap reversing the rules YET.
Remind me which government signed the free trade agreement that allowed overseas Chinese to buy houses here with out restriction?
Labour. Now let’s remind ourselves which government has been in power for all the years since it became apparent that wasn’t a good idea and is causing the country significant damage? National.
Labour gets to claim “unforeseen consequences” to account for its role in this debacle. National gets to choose from “incompetence,” “neglect,” “greed” or “malice” to explain its involvement. My money would be on “greed,” that one’s always a safe bet with Nat govts.
Unitary Plan driving up the cost/value of housing.
“In scenes likely to be repeated across the Super City, large subdividable sites are proving irresistible to wealthy investors due to their newfound development potential under the Unitary Plan.”
Like, seriously, its 20 bleeding 17 and the Christchurch City Council is still discharging untreated wastewater and sewerage into the Avon and Heathcote Rivers.
FFS…stop blaming the earthquake….how about bulding a bigger capacity waste water treatment plant on some of that red zoned land?
Reporters don’t quite know what to make of the like economy because so much advertising revenue is getting sucked into social media, away from production costs. This is what trying to breathe life into a dead corpse looks like. It’s unfortunate this had to happen to people like Pilger/5thestate/Mihingarangi/Campbell/ect.
Simon Wilson highlights National’s Index of Shame.
For me, the issues I would focus on most are Inequality (#1, #4, #7, #8 and and #12), the Environment (#2, # 17 and #9) and workers rights (#5 and and #10)
1. Child poverty
2. Filthy rivers
3. Domestic violence
4. Tax evasion
5. Farm worker deaths
6. Underfunded mental health services
7. The surging wealth inequality gap
8. The housing crisis
9. The Emissions Trading Scheme
10. Pike River
11. The Saudi sheep deal
12. Housing the homeless
13. Healthy food in schools
14. Underfunded homecare services for the elderly
15. The neglect of Northland
16. Abuse of children in state care
17. Deep-sea oil drilling
18. Blaming Helen Clark
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below. She descended a bit more and shouted: “‘Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don’t know where I am”. The man below replied “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude”.
“You must be a technician.” said the balloonist. “I am” replied the man “how did you know?” “Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you have told me is probably technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip with your talk.”
The man below responded, “You must be in management”. “I am” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?” “Well,” said the man “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fucking fault!
Would you believe it? I have been gifted tickets to the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony of @realDonaldTrump – What an honour! #auspol— Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) January 15, 2017
Here’s a tip: if the piece is in the “Opinion” section and says “Opinion” right next to the headline, chances are it’s an opinion piece and not news, fake or otherwise.
Nothing fake about this bit: The essential question of how to tackle the City banks and law firms that launder money for the Russian kleptocracy has yet to be faced.
Vlad doesn’t need to worry about the Tories taking any serious anti-Russian actions as long as that cash cornucopia’s still operating. In the unlikely event you see Theresa May actually doing something about that money-laundering, then it’s time to worry.
So, just to clarify, the Nick Cohen piece was clearly labelled as opinion and not pretending to be a news report, so therefore couldn not have been “fake news”.
Shame on Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and Cory Booker;
When the U.S. most needs leadership, they have failed egregiously.
Over the last week or so, we have heard much about three men, all of them Democratic Party politicians, who have spoken out strongly against Donald Trump. Congressman JOHN LEWIS of Georgia is a legend in the civil rights community; more than fifty years ago, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Birmingham, and had his skull smashed by “law enforcement” thugs. The Rev. JESSE JACKSON in 1988 got 6.6 million votes in his run for the Democratic nomination; he is famous around the world for his eloquent defense of human rights. And New Jersey senator CORY BOOKER last week became the second senator in history to testify against one of his colleagues when, at the Senate confirmation hearing, he spoke against Trump’s unbelievable nomination for Attorney General, the racist Alabama senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
This all sounds impressive, and it’s the kind of political news that gives people hope during these dark and dread-filled days of waiting for the horrifying reality of a Ku Klux Klan-endorsed candidate reciting the Presidential oath on Friday.
Actually, on close inspection, these three turn out to be no more honest or trustworthy than some of their more unpleasant, less revered colleagues. This past week both Lewis and Jackson have shown that, whatever glorious and brave deeds they have performed in the past, they are first and foremost Democratic Party loyalists. And being a Democratic Party loyalist right now means that you are under intense pressure to repeat the most absurd, fantastic and lurid anti-Russian propaganda.
The other day, on NBC’s Meet the Press John Lewis, civil rights hero, lowered himself to the level of the most shameless Clinton apparatchiks as he delivered the following fantasy, which might as well have been written for him by John Dean or Debbie Wasserman Schultz….
“I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president….I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. And they helped destroy the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.”
Equally on message, equally loyal, equally cynical is another former civil rights warrior, Jesse Jackson who, when taunted by a Fox News troll to comment on why Hillary Clinton lost, said this:
“Well somewhere between Russian hacking and corruption and voter suppression may give you an answer.”
At a time when the United States more than ever needs people of proven rectitude and character to step forward and speak truthfully and fearlessly, two old civil rights warriors have thrown in the towel, and a superficially attractive young politician is exposed as just another smooth-talking fraud. Thus party politics doth make cowards of us all.
Tomorrow afternoon, if things go really really badly, I may find myself down to one eye. People who used to sneer at me on Twitter will no doubt say So what's changed? Nothing, that's what, you one-eyed lefty.I don’t mean to be dramatic, it’s just a routine bit of cataract ...
A few weeks ago an invitation dropped into my email inbox to attend a joint Treasury/Motu seminar on recent, rather major, changes that had apparently been made to the discount rates used by The Treasury to evaluate proposals from government agencies. It was all news to me, but when ...
All your life is Time magazineI read it tooWhat does it mean?PressureI'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationaleBut here you are with your faithAnd your Peter Pan adviceYou have no scars on your faceAnd you cannot handle pressureSongwriter: Billy Joel.Christopher Luxon is under pressure from all sides. The reviews are ...
After seeing yet-more-months of political debate and policy decisions to ‘go for growth’ by pulling the same old cheap migration and cheap tourism levers without nearly-enough infrastructure, or any attempt to address the same old lack of globally conventional tax incentives for investment, I thought it would be worth issuing ...
The plans for the buildings that will replace the downtown carpark have been publicly notified giving us the first detailed glance at what is proposed for one of the biggest and best development sites in the city centre. The council agreed to sell the site to Precinct Properties for $122 ...
With the Reserve Bank expected today to return the Official Cash Rate to where it was in mid-2022 comes a measure of how much of a psychological impact the rate has. Federated Farmers has published its latest six-monthly farm confidence survey, which shows that profit expectations have fallen and risen ...
Kiwis Disallowed From Waiting Lists Based on Arbitrary MeasuresWellington hospital are now rejecting patients from specialist waiting lists due to BMI (body mass index).This article from Rachel Thomas for The Post says it all (emphasis mine):A group of Porirua GPs are sounding alarm bells after patients with body mass indexes ...
The Prime Minister says he's really comfortable with us not knowing the reoffending rate for his boot camp programme.They asked him for it at yesterday’s press conference, and he said, nah, not telling, have to respect people's privacy.Okay I'll bite. Let's say they release this information to us:The rate of ...
Warning 1: There is a Nazi theme at the end of this article related to the disabled community. Warning 2: This article could be boring!One day, last year, I excitedly opened up a Substack post that was about how to fight back, and the answer at the end was disappointing ...
This may be rhetorical but here goes: did any of you invest in the $Libra memecoin endorsed and backed by Argentine president and darling of the global Right Javier Milei (who admitted to being paid a fee for his promotion of the token)? You know, the one that soared above ...
Last week various of the great and good of New Zealand economics and public policy trooped off to Hamilton (of all places) for the annual Waikato Economics Forum, one of the successful marketing drives of university’s Vice-Chancellor. My interest was in the speeches delivered by the Minister of Finance and ...
The Prime Minister says the Government would be open to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine if a ceasefire was reached. The government has announced a $30 million spend on tourism infrastructure and biodiversity projects, including $11m spent to improve popular visitor sites and further $19m towards biodiversity efforts. A New Zealand-born ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler “But what about when the sun doesn't shine?!” Ah yes, the energy debate’s equivalent of “The Earth is flat!” Every time someone mentions solar or wind power, some self-proclaimed energy expert emerges from the woodwork to drop this supposedly devastating truth bomb: ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission.In this article I look into data on how well the rail network serve New Zealanders, and how many people might be able to travel by train… if we ran more than a ...
Hi,Before we get into Hayden Donnell’s new column about how yes, Donald Trump is definitely the Antichrist, I wanted to touch on something feral that happened in New Zealand last week.Members of Destiny Church pushed and punched their way into an Auckland library, apparently angry it was part of Pride ...
Despite delays, logjams and overcrowding in our emergency departments, funding constraints are limiting the numbers of nurses and doctors being trained. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 18 are:A NZ Herald investigation ...
Now that the US has ripped up the Atlantic alliance, Europe is more vulnerable now than at any time since the mid-1930s. Apparently, Europe and Ukraine itself will not have a seat at the table in the talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin that will ...
Olivia and Noah and Hana are going to the library!It is fun to go to the library. It has books and songs and mat time and people who smile at you and say, Hello Olivia, what have you been doing this morning?The library is more fun than the mall. At ...
New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly.IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X ...
“This might surprise you, Laurie, but I reckon Trump’s putting on a bloody impressive performance.”“GOODNESS ME, HANNAH, just look at all those Valentine’s Day cards!”“Occupational hazard, Laurie, the more beer I serve, the more my customers declare their undying love!”“Crikey! I had no idea business was so good.” Laurie squinted ...
In 2005, Labour repealed the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship in Aotearoa. Why? As with everything else Labour does, it all came down to austerity: "foreign mothers" were supposedly "coming to this country to give birth", and this was "put[ting] pressure on hospitals". Then-Immigration Minister George Hawkins explicitly gave this ...
And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Ngāi Tahu wants to introduce contamination charges to address contamination in Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere, the High Court has been told.In the second week of the two-month case against the Attorney-General over wai māori (freshwater), Dr Elizabeth Brown, the Rangatira of Taumutu, which sits on the lake’s edge, told Justice Melanie ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra ASIO chief Mike Burgess has warned that over the next five years Australia’s security environment will become more dynamic, diverse and degraded, with “more security surprises” in the second half of the decade than in ...
There is certainly plenty of room for better police training for dealing with protest activity that starts with a rights-based approach to ensuring people can fully exercise their human rights. ...
“We are thrilled that this Bill is making its way through the House and looks set to become law,” said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Gross, Lecturer in Economics, Monash University Gumbariya/Shutterstock The Reserve Bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in four years has triggered a round of celebration. Mortgage holders are cheering the fact their monthly repayments are now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Housing supply in Australia will be a key battleground in the election campaign. With home ownership more and more out of reach for young and not so young Australians, red tape and low productivity are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Korolev, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, UNSW Sydney The United States and Russia agreed to work on a plan to end the war in Ukraine at high-level talks in Saudi Arabia this week. Ukrainian and European representatives were pointedly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University BaLL LunLa/Shutterstock Sleep is the holy grail for new parents. So no wonder many tired parents are looking for something to help their babies sleep. A TikTok trend claims ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ranjana Gupta, Senior Lecturer, Accounting Department, Auckland University of Technology Jirsak/Shutterstock The profit made on every breakfast bowl of weet-bix is tax exempt, giving Sanitarium Health Food Company, owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, an advantage over other breakfast food companies. ...
A closer look at some of the homegrown talent currently commanding television screens around the globe. The new season of The White Lotus hit our screens this week, and with it a familiar face in New Zealand actor Morgana O’Reilly. To secure a role in one of the world’s most ...
"This is a crisis of the Government’s own making and the unit is another sign of desperation," said PSA acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francesca Perugia, Senior Lecturer, School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University Australia’s housing crisis has created a push for fast-tracked construction. Federal, state and territory governments have set a target of 1.2 million new homes over five years. Increasing housing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ash Watson, Scientia Fellow and Senior Lecturer, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock When we’re uncomfortable we say the “vibe is off”. When we’re having a good time we’re “vibing”. To assess the mood we do a “vibe check”. And when the atmosphere in ...
What’s up with the man from Epsom? The leader of the Act Party has been in plenty of headlines in the last two weeks, ranging from a controversial letter to police on behalf of constituent Philip Polkinghorne (written before David Seymour was a minister) to an attempt to drive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Stephenson, Deputy Director, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Australian National University Newly published research has found clear evidence that openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer+ (LGBTIQ+) Australian politicians were disproportionately targeted with personal abuse on social media at the ...
Gilmore Girls, Schitt’s Creek, even The Vampire Diaries – they’re all set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. So what is it like to actually know your neighbours? My favourite television shows are set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. Characters attend town meetings where they debate local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, PhD Candidate in Communication and Media Studies, University of Adelaide IMDB On the surface, Ne Zha 2: The Sea’s Fury (2025), the sequel to the 2019 Chinese blockbuster Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, is a high-octane, action-packed and ...
Wellington travellers say their buses are so hot they’re often forced to get off early and walk. Shanti Mathias explores the impact of non-functioning air conditioning on public transport. When Bella, a young professional living in Wellington, thinks about taking the bus, her first thought is “Ugh”. The bus might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Kroen, Research Fellow Planning and Transport, RMIT University The cleanup is underway in northern Queensland following the latest flooding catastrophe to hit the state. More than 7,000 insurance claims have already been lodged, most of them for inundated homes and other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Subha Parida, Lecturer in Property, University of South Australia Carl Oberg/Shutterstock Houses and fire do not mix. The firestorm which hit Los Angeles in January destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings and forced 130,000 people to evacuate. The 2019–20 Australian megafires destroyed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Tasmania has been burning for more than two weeks, with no end in sight. Almost 100,000 hectares of bushland in the northwest has burned to date. This includes the Tarkine rainforest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Loosemore, Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology Sydney This week, the Productivity Commission released its much-awaited report into productivity growth in Australia’s housing construction sector. It wasn’t a glowing appraisal. The commission found physical productivity – the total number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pascale Lubbe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Ecology, University of Otago Royal spoonbills are among several new species that have crossed the Tasman and naturalised in New Zealand. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA When people arrived on the shores of Aotearoa ...
Stats NZ’s head is stepping down over the agency’s failure to safeguard census data, and more officials may soon be in the firing line, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. An ‘absolutely unacceptable’ failure Stats NZ chief ...
Health NZ is under greater government scrutiny, with the new health minister setting up a unit he says will "drive greater accountability and performance". ...
The country’s two wealthiest people own the same amount as the poorest 30 percent in New Zealand.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/322422/top-1-percent-of-nzers-own-20-percent-of-wealth
Money quote (literally), to keep in mind for all those posts Farrar writes about how it’s really the rich people who pay all the taxes:
… figures from Inland Revenue’s high wealth individuals unit found more than a third of this group [New Zealanders worth more than $50 million] declared income less than $70,000 in 2015. The 252 individuals were linked to 7500 entities, some of whom are in dispute with the agency over nearly $111 million in tax.
Here’s another.
“It blamed big business and the extremely wealthy for the growing discrepancy, saying they fuelled the inequality crisis by avoiding taxes, driving down wages for their workers and the prices paid to producers and investing less in their businesses.”
Well if you want to see exactly how extremely crazy and reactionary the rich and their media servants get if any politician even suggests limiting the flow of money upwards,then just google this.. ‘Corbyn income cap’ ..and witness the media frenzy, obviously there is to be no meaningful conversation around wealth inequality…just shut it down is the medias first and only reaction.
I am not saying I support or don’t support this income cap proposal, I am just saying look at the reaction….brutal and decisive.
An income cap and capital taxes are a necessity if we want to prevent our society going into collapse.
I agree, but try saying that in public like Corbyn, and see what happens.
I know. I’ve said it often enough here and it’s obvious that even those on the Left don’t agree with me despite all the evidence showing having rich people is bad for society.
Greed wins out even for those who say that they want an egalitarian society.
What a miserable interview by RNZ.
Stephen Joyce allowed to pontificate without any of his outrageous statements and evasions being challenged.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201829878
Well, you know, once Joyce and friends start being challenged in the public arena over their many and varied spurious claims, they start refusing to give interviews, and declining to front up altogether. Just ask John Campbell. No, they’re far more comfortable with tame interviewers who don’t ask the prickly questions and are less likely to humiliate them in public.
Joyce and tame interviews is a must for Natioanal’s pr campaign, especially if one listens to the weekly Joyce and Annette King segment with Hoskings on radio. How pathetic it is with Hoskings, supposedly being the “unbiased moderator” Yeah Right, what a sicko the man is.
True.
I remember watching Key’s Hard Talk interview with Stephen Sackur. Our ex-PM limped away from that one with a bloody nose and a black eye, and given his talent for glib non-answers and evasion, it was poetry in motion. Less able charlatans like Joyce, Bennett and Brownlee would be crucified in a similar situation.
But no, with ‘true believers’ like Michael Hosking conducting the interrogation, they’ve nothing at all to worry about.
Yeh, Hosking and Henry both pretty despicable characters, but did you catch Gareth Morgan on Henry’s show? ..it was a beaut, resulting in this classic from Morgan…
“I’m about making New Zealand fair,” said Morgan. “You’re self-centred and you don’t give a toss about being fair in New Zealand.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2016/12/tax-policy-bust-up-gareth-morgan-trades-insults-with-paul-henry.html
I stopped watching the Paul Henry Show some time ago. The man is an absolute clown, I don’t understand how he can get away with his biased and self-centered attitude. Nice to see someone like Morgan put Henry in his place. Cheers.
You mean you want them to do their job paul ?
good luck with that
Yes he do s as the NZ RT correspondent
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I see your on your on Morning nap before they release the straight jacket for another bash this avo Paul
Attitudes like that say a lot about you.
So what? Are you whining about whether it is one two or three people. Do you hate the rich or are you just jealous?
Well, I can’t speak for Paul, but for myself, yes, I do hate the rich. Self-serving, opportunistic, grabbing and largely irrelevant – they are a blot on any democracy!
This is not the NZ I grew up in, I am ashamed to say! The sooner we tax the bastards back to a reasonable level, and spread the wealth of society more equally, the better EVERYONE will be!
I don’t hate the rich nor am I jealous.
However we have a problem and it’s undermining our potential.
As a nation, we could be doing so much better.
An OECD report says: “rising inequality has wiped a third off New Zealand’s economic growth in recent decades.
New Zealand’s economy should have grown by nearly 44 per cent between 1990 and 2010, but a widening gap between the haves and have-nots saw it grow by only 28 per cent, according to the report.
The 15.5 percentage points New Zealand lost to inequality was the highest in the developed world.
Inequality was also found to have knocked 11 points off growth in Mexico, nearly 9 points in the United Kingdom, Finland and Norway and between 6 and 7 points in the United States, Italy and Sweden.
On the other hand, greater equality before the global financial crisis helped increase GDP per capita in Spain, France and Ireland.
The OECD has called for higher taxes and more redistribution of wealth to combat inequality, which it found was damaging the economic performance of most developed nations.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/64000371/nz-economy-hard-hit-by-inequality-oecd
Steven Joyce said it was inevitable some people would be more successful than others, which of course highlights his poor understanding of the problem.
Of course some will be more successful than others. The problem is the balance in income structures has become excessively imbalanced.
The pay difference between your average worker and your top executives has become far too extreme.
This is being compounded by the ballooning cost of housing adding to net worth while also making it more difficult to put a roof over ones head.
On top of that we have too many tax loopholes, leading to an industry dedicated to tax minimization, allowing businesses and individuals to avoid paying their fare share.
So not only are those at the top end being paid excessively more, a number of them are paying far less in tax. Weakening the Government’s capability to redistribute the wealth.
The weakening of Unions has also added to the income imbalance.
Therefore, it’s clear there are a number of areas that require a rethink to correct this excessive imbalance.
Simplistic figures … I would rather know the proportions of folk who receive more in various benefits than they pay in tax.
But even that is too simplistic – pretty much everyone who lives past 65, over their lifetime, gets more in benefit then they pay in tax because the most costly time of their life is in their last 6 months of life. By that stage, inflation has made what they paid in tax a pittance.
And it’s not only the cost of the benefit but the value of the benefit. Rich people get more value from the police force than poor people because rich people have more to lose if society became disordered. Rich people get more value from the legal system because they have the money to use it etc
Not true – as in other regimes the rich would just up sticks and live in private compounds while the poorer and middle class would suffer through higher crime etc.
While it doesn’t directly answer your question, this chart seems relevant.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/88353916/chart-of-the-day-which-benefit-does-the-government-spend-the-most-on
Bloody old people!
Be interesting to find out how long an old person collects the Super for compared with other benefits. Conceivably they could draw the Super for 25 years…which I imagine is a shit load longer than most on other benefits.
Having said that…I do remember when they started calling the National Superannuation a “benefit” rather than an entitlement. There was an outcry at the time this linguistic manipulation of the national psyche, but it came to nought and “benefit” stuck.
Used to be that you paid your PAYE and a certain % was ringfenced for your future retirement income.
That chart needs wider dissemination.
The system is set-up so that when you pay tax you are eventually going to get more benefit than what you put in. That’s because the tax/benefit system is adjusted for people’s life course. It makes no sense to call people “takers” and “makers” at one particular point in time because pretty much anyone living until 65 is going to be a net taker.
But that’s not a bug, that’s a feature.
define folk
define more benefits then they pay in tax
are you speaking of Landlords who receive rent income that is actually financed by the Accommodation Supplement given to people who can’t afford basic housing?
are you speaking of People who recieve a food voucher which they will spend in a few Governmnet selected and favored businesses?
are you speaking of People who are homeless and are ‘housed’ by a Government agency in Motels for usurious prices that have been ‘negotiated’ with the Government agency / minister in charge?
are you speaking of People who receive unemployment benefits that they only receive because they lost a job and thus have paid taxes previously?
are you speaking of People who receive a single parent benefit, who may or may not be divorced, separated, widowed or ‘single’, and who may or may not work a few hours a week, or who may or may not have a special needs child at home and who need the benefit for the children?
are you speaking of People who are sick, may undergo treatment but need to be on the ‘Job Seekers Benefit’ cause we don’t have no more sickness benefit?
whom are you speaking of?
and are you aware that people on any benefit pay GSt on their income recieved? Or that they may be taxed Income Tax?
or do you just feel that the poor rich people of this country really are just hard done by and should just simply not pay tax at all cause Rich?
@Sabine +1
Then there are those who seem to wear a cloak of invisibility.
I know a member of my own family, who when dragged back to court for issues over financial support of his children, to be paid to his exwife, managed to prove that he had, to all intents and purposes, no actual income.
Rather surprising given his inner city villa, the private schooling and nannies, and yes, his notable job in what I shall loosely refer to as ‘The Financial Sector’.
I wonder how many people have enough assets and convoluted financial arrangements to get away with such a total piss take of the system??
There’s a reason talented lawyers and accountants can charge so much.
Then there are those who seem to wear a cloak of invisibility.
I know a member of my own family, who when dragged back to court for issues over financial support of his children, to be paid to his exwife, managed to prove that he had, to all intents and purposes, no actual income.
Rather surprising given his inner city villa, the private schooling and nannies, and yes, his notable job in what I shall loosely refer to as ‘The Financial Sector’.
I wonder how many people have enough assets and convoluted financial arrangements to get away with such a total piss take of the system??
Alot more than before national removed gift duty which means massive sums can go into trusts in a single event with no duty payable.
Once in a family trust its pretty much impregnable unless within 5 years and only to the IRD as far as I’m aware.
Plus capitalising their super that does not get measured in wealth calculations
Plus capitalising superannuation that does not get measured in wealth calculations
Instead of trying to tear folk down I would prefer constructive figures and Mpledger is obviously correct with the examples. The more affluent have the cash to employ accountants to keep their tax obligations down. While those without accept cash-in-hand to evade their obligations. “He without sin cast the first stone”
Apart from the fact that if a poor person evades tax, they spend it on food. If a rich person fiddles the books, they spend it on luxuries. And benefit fraudsters receive harsher penalties than tax fraudsters who fiddle the same amount.
But your personal preference for figures for people who receive more in benefits than they pay in tax says it all. You don’t care if they need those benefits to live in a rest home at a young age because of a head injury, or if they have some other problem that would make them “deserving poor”. It just pisses you off that some people live below ther poverty line on the government dime.
Going after beneficiaries is the punitive equivalent of harvesting the low-hanging fruit. They usually have minimal resources, are unfamiliar with our labyrinthine legal system, often unaware of their rights and are generally vilified by Joe Public. It also enables the government to claim they’re doing something to combat “scrounging bludgers who steal from hard-working tax-payers”.
Conversely, going after wealthy individuals and organisations, given their extensive networks of influence and vast resources, is frequently an expensive and difficult exercise with no guarantee of success. It’s easier to just leave all that in the too hard basket and keep pointing the finger at those dirty benes.
Joe Carolan, standing for the Mt Albert electorate as a socialist, has a qu&a now up on The Daily Blog”. Beware, Carolan uses the “l” word (not the lesbian word – the other word) as a criticism.
My bold
Some things Carolan stands for and by:
Parliament won’t change things for the better for working people. It needs a collection of mass movements by the people.
Carolan urges people to get involved in whichever movement they feel most strongly about.
Quite a long q&a – more at the link above.
But he’s still standing for an electorate? Or is it just that he’s using it as a platform to encourage mobilisation of the people?
Edit: Carolan also attacks what he calls Green Party “Eco-facism” – their policy of “sustainable immigration” – Carolan says this is the first step towards Eco-fascism.
So will it be fair to use Joe Carolan’s vote share to infer how much support there is for a popular movement based around those principles?
“The extreme centre – which is what we’re calling liberals now – cannot hold because it has no answers for the working class.”
Pretty hard to argue with that statement.
who exactly are the “extreme centre”?…and why can they have no answers for the working class?….seems a foolish statement to me given that for every 1000 people in NZ 554 are wage or salary earners…..the extreme centre and the working class would appear to me to have a substantial overlap .
Extreme centre….
short explanation…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9kq2HOw72w
Long explanation…
And by framing the right wing as centre, Corbyn becomes ‘hard left.’
(with reference to yesterday’s conversation)
No, because the centre ‘right’ and ‘left’ have at their core the same economic ideology, they in real terms occupy the same space, politically..so Corbyn is just tradition Left, and not hard left as the media make him out to be.
But as the media don’t acknowledge the two centists partys as being the same thing, which of course they wouldn’t, there are no surprises in their position.
Totally agree.
Thanks for the Tariq Ali links.
ok…the short answer doesn’t address my post at all and i don’t have time to watch the long answer at the moment…how about you answer in your own words?
The “extreme centrte” refers to the dominant political parties, which label themselves as “left” and “right” but follow the same neoliberal agenda, as Olwyn explains below.
The working class – duh, is large numbers of people, not politicians or party members – well a handful of people from the working classes may become politicians: some from the working class (and some from the middle class) may believe that their party will help the working classes.
But if the main pollies and their parties follow neoliberal policies/agenda, then they have nothing to offer the working class – ie majority of people within that class.
The overlap is relatively small, and irrelevant if some working class people subscribe to a party agenda that does nothing for the working class in general.
so the extreme centre are the political parties, not a constituent cohort……think that unless that clear distinction is made (and throwing around the term extreme centre doesn’t do that) then any point attempted to be made around this will be largely dismissed.
Well, I guess it could include people who vote for the “extreme centre” parties.
Many of us think we are not being offered much of a difference between Nat/Labour/maybe Lab-Green; or between Republican/Democrat; or/Tory/Labour; or Aussie coalition/Labour. Though in each pair I’d say they Labour or Green parties are somewhat the better option. But all support the neoliberal agenda pretty much – well maybe not the Corbynistas.
And ultimately, the working classes, the unemployed, people on low incomes, the precariat, etc will continue to suffer, unless there is a true left wing option.
I do think it will need a strong, broad coalition of grass-roots, left wing campaigns and movements to shift political parties and pollies to a truly left wing position.
“Eco-fascists,” ffs. To committed socialists, everyone else is some kind of fascist. I guess I should be glad he restricted himself to “extreme centre” for describing liberals – I was half expecting it to be “liberal fascists.”
I’m also curious as to what kind of voter would try to elect to Parliament someone who thinks it’s a serious mistake to believe change can come “at a Parliamentary level.”
Ideologically intolerant illiberal liberals
Possibly not someone who’d vote for an obvious QUOCKERWODGER?
Thinking John Key was a bit of a cockwomble quockerwodger…
“The Extreme Centre” is a term coined by Tariq Ali, and refers to opposing parties having the same core commitment to a market economy, while maintaining differences in branding. https://www.versobooks.com/books/1943-the-extreme-centre
I think Joe Carolan right about forming and getting involved in movements. Neoliberalism has robbed a large part of the population of a real stake in society, and forming movements is a first step toward making a bid to reclaim it. I don’t see such movements as being in competition with the political parties of the left, but as creating platforms from which to influence and put pressure on them, rather as the business round table, etc. are able to do on the right.
Agree. So thinking of the union movement (when it was one) or the civil rights movement. Political Parties could ‘ride’ off the back of them in terms of legislation or policy formation, but the movements themselves were much, much broader (and messier in a good way) than anything a party could encapsulate.
Today, maybe momentum in the UK is playing that role to a degree.
In NZ, MANA tripped itself badly as a party by making claims to movement status. The attempt to be both introduces too many contradictions at too many levels to ever get off the ground.
I was thinking it would be nice if Joe showed signs of having understood from his time in MANA that one political entity cannot straddle (cannot be) both of those worlds (the world of political movements and the world of political parties).
So I read the piece looking for pointers, and sadly…
A lot of the parliamentary parties are hollowed out entities, they are not the movements they used to be – National, Labour and even the Greens.
The Labour Party was never a movement. Labour was a movement. The Labour Party was a party.
But maybe I’m putting too much score by a single pronouncement. Maybe it’s not really indicative of his thoughts and was a slip or just an unfortunate use of shorthand.
It’s probably charitable to regard the Joe quote as shorthand 🙂 I agree with you about not conflating a political movement with a parliamentary party, and am reminded of Roosevelt’s saying of the New Deal, “you make me do it”, meaning “I need pressure from the outside to get this through.” A strong movement from outside of parliament helps a political wing to fend off the counter-pressures that arise from within it.
Yes well it is a recipe for failure, but I wouldn’t totally mock rebranding, if properly executed. We’re not playing policy for the next day to 6 months, you should be trying to advertise policy that lands in the week leading up to early votes start pouring in. These types of analysis are tough to do, even the best prognosticators only get 6 out of ten calls right. But rebranding properly executed this way is a huge moral booster.
I don’t see such movements as being in competition with the political parties of the left, but as creating platforms from which to influence and put pressure on them, rather as the business round table, etc. are able to do on the right.
And good so. Best of luck to them all. But when it comes to political parties, for those of us who prefer to deal with the real, actually-existing world rather than utopias that could possibly come to exist if everyone else shared our ideology, the “extreme centre” Labour and Green parties with their shameful “core commitment to a market economy” are the only credible vehicles for effecting legislative change. Calling them eco-fascists and extremists isn’t the best way either to influence them or to have a chance of putting them where they can effect legislative change.
Having Carolan and Bright and/or others (TOP?) in the by-election might make for some interesting debates though. How will Ardern & Genter respond to such criticisms?
And it will be interesting to see which of the also-rans the MSM pick up on during their by-election coverage.
“eco-fascist” is Joe Carolan talking, not me. I said I agreed with him about the need for extra-parliamentary movements, but did not touch on his characterisation of the current parliamentary parties.
Sorry about that. My comment was aimed at clarifying my own views on Carolan’s post rather than addressing your comment, which I shouldn’t have because that isn’t really what the Reply button is there for.
Good luck with your real world Psycho Milt, best of British luck in it. I look forward to your next anti working people rank.
My “next” anti-worker rant? When was the existing one?
Interesting article on source protection.
https://theintercept.com/2015/01/28/how-to-leak-to-the-intercept/
On RNZ, highlighted as part of their “Best of 2016” series, and article and audio pretty much arguing the point I made a couple of days ago – about the “myth”/narrative of NZ identity, that has been historically constructed as rural, and associated with the open spaces and rural areas:
Kim Hill’s interview with historian Ben Schrader, Oct 2016:
For those that missed it, here’s Trump’s first press conference.
In my view – the forced Auckland ‘$upercity – for the 1%’, was effectively a corrupt corporate coup, and another massive dose of Neo-liberal ‘Rogernomics’ at NZ local government level.
Unlike all the other ‘declared’ Mt Albert by-election candidates, I was one of the very few, who has consistently and persistently opposed this Auckland ‘Supercity – super RIPOFF’ from Day One.
Day One being 5 September 2006, the day where the four previous City Council Mayors, at the Auckland Mayoral Forum in the Auckland Town Hall, ‘ganged up’ against Mike Lee (then Chair of the Auckland Regional Council ARC) and signed an ‘Open Letter’ to Labour PM Helen Clark, calling for an Auckland ‘Supercity’.
Fellow ‘Public Watchdog’ Lisa Prager and I, having been tipped off about this meeting, gate-crashed it and disrupted it, on the basis that there was no lawful basis for these Mayors to attempt to push any such thing, without first consulting the public.
It worked.
That day became known as ‘the failed Mayoral coup’.
How many of you knew about that?
The corporate agenda was always fewer contracts for fewer but bigger private contractors.
First Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) – then Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
How many of the other ‘declared’ Mt Albert by-election candidates have consistently and persistently opposed these mechanisms for corporate control – CCOs and PPPs?
Penny Bright
Proven ‘anti-privatisation / anti- corruption campaigner’.
2017 Independent candidate Mt Albert by-election.
Why would the people of Mt Albert vote for their MP, someone who was already an MP?
Wouldn’t that effectively be a wasted vote?
Penny Bright
Proven ‘anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner’.
2017 Independent candidate Mt Albert by-election.
“Wouldn’t that effectively be a wasted vote?”
Nope.
A vote for Penny Bright is a wasted vote – evidenced by your track record.
I note that Jacinda didn’t win the electorate vote in Auckland Central – so does the same comment equally apply to her?
Just asking – nicely 🙂
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for Mt Albert by-election.
Penny, you’d have a chance if you didn’t [deleted] I mean refusing to pay your rates.., got you labelled a weirdo, you’ll have to do a lot of public good deeds to get that stigma off your name. I’m sorry if you don’t like reading it, but hell women you were all over the paper.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79459454/Auckland-protester-Penny-Bright-won-t-budge-over-50k-rates-arrears-bill
[deleted]
[Okay Richard. I’ve been tolerant and let a fair few things slide these past couple of days. But that bullshit just steps waaay over the line. Take a week out.] – Bill
Oh – you must have missed that over 7000 people did vote for me in the 2016 Auckland Mayoralty?
Despite the effective mainstream media censorship?
She got pretty close – it was worth the fight, and she and her team worked hard to get that close.
Appreciate that point.
However, if James is suggesting that folks shouldn’t vote for someone because they haven’t won when they’ve stood as a candidate – I’m just pointing out the inconsistency in that argument?
Don’t forget that in the Mt Albert electorate are a very large number of voters who have voted for parties other than Labour or the Greens?
What will they do?
For whom will they vote?
Will they all just stay home – or might a significant number of them be moved to cast a ‘protest vote’ against the rorts, ripoffs, bribery and corruption in order to get a proven ‘anti-corruption’ campaigner inside the House, which, in itself will send a clear message that can’t be ignored?
How will voting for an existing MP who is already in Parliament, with no proven track record in fighting for transparency in the spending of public monies on private consultants and contractors – do THAT?
How many of the ‘declared’ Mt Albert candidates and people generally, have yet studied the 226 page ‘Reasons for the Verdict of Fitzgerald J’ – in the unprecedented bribery and corruption convictions of Murray Noone and Stephen Borlase?
Here’s the full Judgment:
https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/r-v-borlase-reasons/@@images/fileDecision
Ive spent days studying this document, and, in my view it’s politically explosive.
Interested in discussing it and intend to help make it a major Mt Albert by-election issue.
Penny Bright
No considering she was just a point or two of winning, your record is a gap bigger than the Grand Canyon under every campaign you have entered
Really?
So you are unaware of the Avondale / Mt Roskill (Auckland City Council) by-election result in 2000?
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate Mt Albert by-election.
if I was I would be very concerned why I know this, a council by election 16 years ago, honestly
I stood as a candidate for the Water Pressure Group and polled 2nd, with nearly 6,500 votes.
Campaigned against Metrowater – the commercialisation and privatisation of water services, and against the ‘Rogernomics’ Neo-liberal model, and nearly caused an upset.
(700 votes behind Noelene Raffills).
Over 4000 votes more than the City Vision (Labour /Alliance) candidate.
I stood because a number of City Vision Auckland City Councillors had sold out on their stated policies / pledges to abolish Metrowater.
(There will be some from The Standard who will recall this.)
Raised a few eyebrows at the time….
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for the Mt Albert by-election.
I stand corrected and apoligise
Apology accepted 🙂
Aw, c’mon james, where’s your sense of humour? We could rename Parliament TV to “Penny in Da House” and it might even become fun to watch. Besides, 7 months of an MP’s salary should be enough for Penny to pay her rates bill so we can stop hearing about that all the time.
This shit has got to stop and restrictions put on foreign “investors”
The last sentence gets me
“Though it had no “concrete” plans for the properties, “commercial sense” indicated the site would be developed to help ease Auckland’s housing shortage.”
Nah fucking Bullshit, that is the last thing they are thinking of. They are more interested in making a killing owing to the housing crisis created by this pack of shit we have as a government.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11782787
“owing to the housing crisis created by this pack of shit we have as a government.”
Remind me which government signed the free trade agreement that allowed overseas Chinese to buy houses here with out restriction?
Hint – it was labour.
remind me, you want a five or ten minute argument on the things governments have done.. I mean that’s a risky line, secondly, there are always restrictions..don’t make a little truth and then add a big fat lie.
and it was not Labour who let 70k a month into the country, they still had to go through the appropriate channels.., but under National they flooded the place with money, they sold out to crime and money laundering, National, there is no other you could compare to that.
as for stupidity both parties earn a gold star for wiliam liu turns out he’s connected with drug deals all sorts yet both parties were happy to blow him daily for cash..
aww the commies are after me, i’m rich.. how the hell do you get THAT rich in china?
James, your a proven shit stirrer, track record, every post, truth a smidgeon lies a lot.. /slap
Both Labour and National are slaves to neo-liberal ideology.
It would appear you support the more extreme version of neo-liberalism, so you hardly in a position to criticise Labour on this.
James @ 10.1.1
Who said it wasn’t but it still doesn’t get away from the fact we have a pack of shit as a government that has been in government for eight years and done fuck all about it and made the situation worse by selling off state houses.,.
If you are going to start the “labour did it as well” shit I haven’t seen this pack of crap reversing the rules YET.
Remind me which government signed the free trade agreement that allowed overseas Chinese to buy houses here with out restriction?
Labour. Now let’s remind ourselves which government has been in power for all the years since it became apparent that wasn’t a good idea and is causing the country significant damage? National.
Labour gets to claim “unforeseen consequences” to account for its role in this debacle. National gets to choose from “incompetence,” “neglect,” “greed” or “malice” to explain its involvement. My money would be on “greed,” that one’s always a safe bet with Nat govts.
Unitary Plan driving up the cost/value of housing.
“In scenes likely to be repeated across the Super City, large subdividable sites are proving irresistible to wealthy investors due to their newfound development potential under the Unitary Plan.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11782787
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11782951
This shit needs sorting now.
Like, seriously, its 20 bleeding 17 and the Christchurch City Council is still discharging untreated wastewater and sewerage into the Avon and Heathcote Rivers.
FFS…stop blaming the earthquake….how about bulding a bigger capacity waste water treatment plant on some of that red zoned land?
To sort out fake news from real news, you need to study art history – even more than STEM subjects (!):
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/15/the-art-of-learning-why-art-history-might-be-the-most-important-subject-you-could-study-today/
I dunno, man, that one looks dodgy to me. Better hold judgement until more corroboration comes along.
Reporters don’t quite know what to make of the like economy because so much advertising revenue is getting sucked into social media, away from production costs. This is what trying to breathe life into a dead corpse looks like. It’s unfortunate this had to happen to people like Pilger/5thestate/Mihingarangi/Campbell/ect.
How it should be (Basic Income)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11782947
english backed labours ets , i wonder if he backed keys gutting of it .
It’s Time To Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Simon Wilson highlights National’s Index of Shame.
For me, the issues I would focus on most are Inequality (#1, #4, #7, #8 and and #12), the Environment (#2, # 17 and #9) and workers rights (#5 and and #10)
For more details read here
http://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/14-01-2017/nationals-index-of-shame-and-the-other-issues-the-left-need-to-focus-on-this-election/?utm_source=The+Spinoff&utm_medium=CPE&utm_campaign=National%E2%80%99s+Index+of+Shame%2C+and+the+other+issues+the+left+need+to+focus+on+this+election
He forgot this summer which to date has been pretty crap,
That’s down to the preevislabagummin.
Agree😀
Where’s ‘Corruption’ on this list?
Not there yet?
It will be ….
Penny Bright
2017 Independent candidate for the Mt Albert by-election.
Sounds like a worried man,but there is nothing new under the sun.
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below. She descended a bit more and shouted: “‘Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don’t know where I am”. The man below replied “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude”.
“You must be a technician.” said the balloonist. “I am” replied the man “how did you know?” “Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you have told me is probably technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip with your talk.”
The man below responded, “You must be in management”. “I am” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?” “Well,” said the man “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fucking fault!
Different shades of blue.
Sharon Murdoch points out the diary industry is doing everything they can to try and confuse people about water pollution
your link isn’t working
bizarre and broken link.
https://twitter.com/domesticanimal?lang=en
Guessing it was this. (second post down) I’ve no idea how to isolate shit from twitter feeds 😉
Click on the top right time/date stamp / three dots bottom centre /select embed tweet/ copy paste the embed code in the box.
https://twitter.com/domesticanimal/status/820391780315119616
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2Kd9sYVIAAHkPa.jpg
Time/date/three dots bottom center/embed tweet/copy paste embed code.
The image – https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C2Kd9sYVIAAHkPa.jpg
ohh he tapped a cow with his foot and called her a bitch , hang the bastard
You’ve lost me, bwag.
the mini vid in your link , if you scroll down, i wonder if your average radical vegan would like to be videoed in secret.
Thank you
Click on the date and the URL will change to that specific tweet e.g.
https://twitter.com/domesticanimal/status/820391780315119616
Good cartoon.
Cheers both.
Yes that was it
Fascists of the world unite.
/
heh
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2017/01/12/minding-their-knitting.html
Looks like a legal challenge of the Government’s stance on Medical Cannabis is brewing.
http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/is-the-ministry-of-health-acting-outside/
It’s going to the high court
Good read that one, thanks for the link
Despite all the discussions above I am still waiting for the Nat’s to tell us why Key resigned.
The King is dead. Long live the King.
Despite all the above concerns I am still waiting for the Nat’s to tell us why Key resigned.
He was concerned with level of KDS so he did it for the good of the people. All hail Jk
Fake news propagated by the Guardian
Russian treachery is extreme and it is everywhere
Here’s a tip: if the piece is in the “Opinion” section and says “Opinion” right next to the headline, chances are it’s an opinion piece and not news, fake or otherwise.
Nothing fake about this bit:
The essential question of how to tackle the City banks and law firms that launder money for the Russian kleptocracy has yet to be faced.
Vlad doesn’t need to worry about the Tories taking any serious anti-Russian actions as long as that cash cornucopia’s still operating. In the unlikely event you see Theresa May actually doing something about that money-laundering, then it’s time to worry.
And the Guardian promotes certain opinions a lot…..
so you are admitting your claims of fake news where Fake Paulsky
No.
Thanks for acknowledging my sources are the reputable journalists such as Cockburn, PIlger, Greenwald, Fisk, Oborne. Monbiot…..
Unlike the MSM fake propaganda from the BBC, the Washington Post, CNN, al Jazeera, Fairfax Media you depend on…
I shall stick to independent sources….neither Moscow nor Washington.
Your sources meanwhile come from US government talking points.
So, just to clarify, the Nick Cohen piece was clearly labelled as opinion and not pretending to be a news report, so therefore couldn not have been “fake news”.
David Bellamy uses shonky figures as basis for statement that world’s glaciers are growing. #FakeNews
http://mainstreammediaexposed.com/david-bellamy-being-humiliated-by-george-monbiot-over-climate-change-david-bellamy-and-bad-science-fakenews/
a train from china to england.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/14/china-silk-road-trade-train-rolls-london
awesome.
Indeed
Shame on Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, and Cory Booker;
When the U.S. most needs leadership, they have failed egregiously.
Over the last week or so, we have heard much about three men, all of them Democratic Party politicians, who have spoken out strongly against Donald Trump. Congressman JOHN LEWIS of Georgia is a legend in the civil rights community; more than fifty years ago, he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Birmingham, and had his skull smashed by “law enforcement” thugs. The Rev. JESSE JACKSON in 1988 got 6.6 million votes in his run for the Democratic nomination; he is famous around the world for his eloquent defense of human rights. And New Jersey senator CORY BOOKER last week became the second senator in history to testify against one of his colleagues when, at the Senate confirmation hearing, he spoke against Trump’s unbelievable nomination for Attorney General, the racist Alabama senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
This all sounds impressive, and it’s the kind of political news that gives people hope during these dark and dread-filled days of waiting for the horrifying reality of a Ku Klux Klan-endorsed candidate reciting the Presidential oath on Friday.
Actually, on close inspection, these three turn out to be no more honest or trustworthy than some of their more unpleasant, less revered colleagues. This past week both Lewis and Jackson have shown that, whatever glorious and brave deeds they have performed in the past, they are first and foremost Democratic Party loyalists. And being a Democratic Party loyalist right now means that you are under intense pressure to repeat the most absurd, fantastic and lurid anti-Russian propaganda.
The other day, on NBC’s Meet the Press John Lewis, civil rights hero, lowered himself to the level of the most shameless Clinton apparatchiks as he delivered the following fantasy, which might as well have been written for him by John Dean or Debbie Wasserman Schultz….
http://reason.com/blog/2017/01/14/rep-john-lewis-says-trump-is-not-a-legit
Equally on message, equally loyal, equally cynical is another former civil rights warrior, Jesse Jackson who, when taunted by a Fox News troll to comment on why Hillary Clinton lost, said this:
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/jesse-jackson-gave-fox-news-troll-perfect-answer-why-hillary-lost-less-10-seconds
And as for Senator Cory Booker: well, the United States needs another Barack Obama like it needs another nuclear weapons building program….
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/14/14262732/cory-booker-senate-democrats
At a time when the United States more than ever needs people of proven rectitude and character to step forward and speak truthfully and fearlessly, two old civil rights warriors have thrown in the towel, and a superficially attractive young politician is exposed as just another smooth-talking fraud. Thus party politics doth make cowards of us all.
Stephen Cohen on Tucker Carlson: Empty Accusations of Russian Meddling Have Become “Grave National Security Threat”
Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald Discuss Deep State War Vs Trump
“Trump will be assassinated” Paul Craig Roberts & Max Keiser
Last Minute Change in Security at Inauguration Reminiscent of JFK in Dealey Plaza