I thought Andrew Little gave a good interview with Brent Edwards on National Radio’s Focus on Politics last Friday evening – arguing for business growth but with employees benefiting as well, and that National has blown economic opportunities since in government. If Mark Shaw was to be the new male co-leader for the Greens, that could make for a good combo.
a recommended-listen is ‘parliament this week’ which played about 7.20 this morn..(rnz..)
..it covered a select committee where the head of reserve bank and wingmen were questioned..
..both robertson and norman asked good questions..
..and the reserve bank head uttered ominous warnings about what will happen if the dairy price does not rebound..
(10% of dairy farms straight down the gurgler..)
..and the whole conversation is predicated on that price returning in about a yr..
..now..colour me fucken gobsmacked..r we to take it that the head of the reserve bank..and robertson..and norman..
..are not aware of the perfect-storm just starting to lick at the edge of the dairy industry..?..on two fronts..?
..are not aware of the predictions for the current market-glut driving prices down – to last for the next five years..?
..do they all not know this..?..they sure as hell aren’t planning for it..
..the other front in that perfect storm is the big players (china etc..) gearing up big-time – to inevitably produce an ocean of milk..
..how can anyone look at those two irrefutable-facts – and not know/realise what deep shit the dairy industry/the banking industry/the economy are lurching into..?
and please..!..if anyone reading this has any influence with iwi thinking of plunging their treaty settlement money into the ‘white gold’ of dairy..
..cd u plse ask them to just wait for awhile..
I know a guy who owned a farm and sold, it just after he sold it and while his money was still in the bank word on the street was that land prices were going to drop in the near future , so he decided to sit and wait.
The opposite happened and he’s been unable to get back in since .
While I think it’s likely there will be some come up for auction farmers are very good at riding out tough times . It will be more likely they will sell there grazing blocks , reduce there stock numbers and go back to all grass production (which is a good thing) and reduce staff numbers.
but the reality is that the good-times for dairy are over…
..those prices will not come back…
(and i haven’t even gone near the impending arrival of mu-free – the faux/animal-free-dairy indistinguishable from the real stuff – much cheaper to produce – doesn’t need to be refrigerated..
..so that perfect-storm for dairy farmers really has three fronts..)
However Australia raises the alarm: “Within five years, those massive Aussie cow exports to China will get that country self-sufficient. Within 10-15 years, it will become one of our major competitors,” claims Darryl Cardona, COO of United Dairy Power. Indeed, according to Euromonitor, with a value of $70 billion in 2019, the Chinese dairy market will have overtaken the American one as the world’s No.1. From then on, the Chinese dairy sector which had started from nowhere 20 years earlier, would be an exporting hub, endowed with an unbeatable economy of scale and pricing power…
And Australia isn’t the only country that’s been exporting cows to China.
The thing about agriculture is that pretty much every country can do it and it really doesn’t take any special knowledge.
“”The thing about agriculture is that pretty much every country can do it and it really doesn’t take any special knowledge.””
You’re right it just takes the ability to feed them which could become harder with gcc and bee population collapse . Although I was told the other day that European country’s have at times dumped grain into the Atlantic to keep supply controlled so there’s still plenty of food out there.
With the beef prices high and milk crashing the yanks are likely to kill a lot of there stock which might help prices a bit in the short term.
I know a guy who owned a farm and sold, it just after he sold it and while his money was still in the bank word on the street was that land prices were going to drop in the near future , so he decided to sit and wait.
The opposite happened and he’s been unable to get back in since .
Nah that man got out lucky as far as I can see. Did he make a solid tax free capital gain when he sold? Does he have enough money to live comfortably, albeit not extravagantly, for the rest of his life? Then what’s the problem.
In this financial bubble game of musical chairs, say the music is going to stop 5 minutes in, and there are definitely not going to be enough chairs for everyone.
You pull out of the game 4 minutes in, a minute from disaster, but you are now safe yourself.
Are you then going to spend the next one minute jealous that the music is still playing, everyone else still seems to be having plenty of fun and wishing that you were still in there in the soon to be over game, with them?
Fuck no, that’s the wrong way to think about it. As will become clear shortly.
the smart farmers realised 10 years ago that dairy was a short term gold rush
…and did NOT go into debt!….and some even sold their dairy potential land up for a whacking good price and bought many more acres of mixed crop and sheep hill country farms
….so it is not as if this was unexpected!
…this Jonkey Nact govt has been negligent!….and short sighted!
“Nah that man got out lucky as far as I can see. Did he make a solid tax free capital gain when he sold? Does he have enough money to live comfortably, albeit not extravagantly, for the rest of his life? Then what’s the problem.””
I don’t know his financial situation and wouldn’t tell you if I did. He’s had to go back to having a boss which has its pluses but who really enjoys being owned.
His reasons for selling were because the only way to get into ownership was to buy way the hell out in the middle of nowhere and he hoped to get onto a easier block in a handier spot.
I do not understand the wisdom of our government and farmers allowing the export of LIVE cows, bull and sheep to overseas countries such as China and the Middle East as has been happening now! Isn’t that a short sighted idea? Do any of you know what is the logic of doing that? Isn’t it smarter and better to sell and export the golden eggs, rather than the goose that lays them?
There’s a lot of money to be made buy the farmers supplying high quality stock to China etc I guess that it also keeps prices up for stock here to because it would stop over supply in the local market.
People used to go on about how our helping other country’s with kiwifruit will kill the industry but it hasn’t happened.
Its all tied up with opening up markets IMO good PR and all that.
Just like the latest sheep to the desert bribe sending our stock and expertise has been used by government and business’s to open up markets and target free trade for years.
Exactly!
I began my working career in the research branch of what was then the Dairy Board. We had hundreds of herd testers around the country sampling the milk out put of every cow in the country. Not only that we had the ancestory of every cow and bull and those that were the less efficient we eventually culled from the national herd. This was how NZ increased its milk production per cow over all other countries. As well as having a climate (at that time) that was sustainable for milk production in certain regions.*
Shipping years of genetic development overseas is simply ludicrous as we give away our competitive advantage for nothing.**
* Dairying in the Waikato – once the supreme dairying region of NZ has suffered 4 droughts in the past 5 years. Dry matter production has fallen 20% from 15 tonne to 12 tonne per hectare. With the cost of production rising to over $5 / kg the profit margin is approaching negative territory.
The summer of 2015-16 looks likely with a continuing El Nino (Jan15 – April15 hottest 4 months on record )to be even dryer than before.
Only fools will invest in Dairying in NZ in the future.
** Incidentally NZers seems to think that NZ is one of the major players in Dairying! We certainly punch above our weight with respect to output per cow and our production costs are comparatively low by international standards (overlooking externalities like highly polluted rivers and massive GHG emissions and short lived animals as the cost of poisoned animals (Urea sprayed on grass and Roundup sprayed on grass and Maize just prior to the making of silage). But we are really small players on the International stage. 9th overall well behind India. http://www.nddb.org/English/Statistics/Pages/Milk-Production-across-countries.aspx
People used to go on about how our helping other country’s with kiwifruit will kill the industry but it hasn’t happened.
No, it doesn’t destroy the industry – it destroys trade in that industry as other countries no longer need to import from us because they either grow them themselves or import from somewhere closer. The industry here will still exist to provide for the local market.
This really should apply to all products and produce as the locally produced stuff will be just as good as the imported stuff while being cheaper because of the lack of added transport costs.
This is addressed to Phil, or anyone else who’s interested, regarding the idea about Iwi delaying investment in dairy, owing to the future looking to be what it is.
For some reason the reply button isn’t showing, so can’t tag it on.
Just as a thought experiment i.e. phil’s opinion stands unchallenged:
Two days ago I was chatting to a bloke who is Ngati Tuwharetoa – that’s Taupo/Rotorua area. He was in as much of a bind as the rest of us when it comes to dealing with our daily challenges. Turns out, almost half his tribe, and by tribe I only mean the “officially recorded people who say they belong”, is under the age of fifteen. They number roughly 30,000. This isn’t something isolated. The local tribe round here was almost “offically” non-existent ten years ago. Now they’re recorded as up around 1000.
Now if you were an Iwi leader, I’d think you’d be aware of that fact in far greater detail – both the opportunity and potential crisis. So let’s say you have cash to spend, and the choice is invest now to prepare for your young people growing up, or wait, as would seem prudent (using pakeha perspective), keep your cash, but infringe your cultural values (e.g. neglect the value of and spiritual element of the land to maori) and risk a crisis with your young people. Tough choices.
So as a thought experiment, if delaying buying land that you know is going to devalue, that you know the “plant” of the purchase will devalue, maybe even become useless, what do you also plan to do with that purchase, within that unfavourable environment, to save your community/people?
i think a good choice for iwi would be to look at what james cameron has done in the wairarapa..
..where he has bought large dairy farms – and has converted them back to growing real food..
..he is experimenting with lots of different crops..to see what works best..and i understand he is also making the results of those growing-experiments available online..for free..
..and i am sure that if approached by iwi – that cameron (or his staff) would be happy to advise/help/consult..
so yes..of course iwi should invest in land..(and then grow real food..)..
..but timing is all…and buying that land at the height of the dairy-bubble – is not advisable..
..and preparing for a future where there is no river of white-gold – is really recommended..
+100 pu….i always find stimulating reading your comments and arguments…and the way you say it !…you are one of the best commenters here….(although I sometimes have strong disagreements with you)
….iwi should be very wary about the dairy industry…not least of all because of the degradation to the rivers and land ( that the OLD Maori treasured and which sustained them spiritually and economically)
….now is the time to be experimenting with new crops and food production…and following the lead of James Cameron ….and the lead of ag scientific and marketing advisors from universities such as Lincoln
…in other words proceeding with great caution and with expert university advice
Your thoughts on which foods should be eaten or not eaten by which critters are personal opinions, not arguments for whether particular foods are “real” or not.
“So as a thought experiment, if delaying buying land that you know is going to devalue, that you know the “plant” of the purchase will devalue, maybe even become useless, what do you also plan to do with that purchase, within that unfavourable environment, to save your community/people?”
Pretty simple. Stop treating land as a financial investment and buy land that will grow food for the people that live there, nourish the spiritual and cultural values of those people, and create small enterprises so that people can make a living. In perpetuity. That’s what Pākehā need to learn pretty bloody fast. I get why some iwi leaders are into the Pākehā model, but it’s unsustainable and doomed and any financial profit comes at the expense of others.
Small enterprises, sure, but tribes having land that grows food for the people who live there is called “subsistence agriculture” and is a recipe for poverty and misery everywhere it’s applied.
“Small enterprises, sure, but tribes having land that grows food for the people who live there is called “subsistence agriculture” and is a recipe for poverty and misery everywhere it’s applied.”
As opposed to the poverty and misery that exists now in the land of export, cash crop, market driven economy that iwi are being encouraged to take part in? How’s that working out?
Besides I think you have probably misunderstood what I was referring to. Growing food was shorthand for providing for the people directly instead of relying on artificial means. People do it all the time.
Interesting conversation with someone over the weekend involved in organising the tangihanga for Sir Paul Reeves.
Sir Paul Reeves had, with immense grace and foresight, prearranged much of the event in advance, as he came towards the end of his life. He had organised to lie in State at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the tangihanga, before going to the Cathedral for the funeral.
This required an immense effort for the community, who in coordination with AUT, NZ Army and Navy managed to pull this off. As it was a state funeral, the Department of Internal Affairs contacted those involved to talk about the schedule and the budget during the preliminary organisational phase.
Officials from that department, instead of visiting the venue in Grafton, required representatives to attend a meeting at the Nova hotel in Greenlane. You can imagine how disconcerting and uncomfortable it would be to have the responsibility of arranging a state funeral, and to be involved in making sure protocols for the Anglican Church and tikanga are followed – and then be required to take time out to attend a corporate styled meeting in the midst of it.
During the meeting, the officials broached the subject of the schedule and enquired if there was a space available for a government representative to speak. There was uncertainty about why or who would speak, but one of the attendees advised the officials that there is one person who would not be welcome – John Key.
A communication arrived the next day informing the organisers that the Dept of Internal Affairs would not be paying for the tangihanga, and that the money would come out of the Te Puni Kokiri budget.
I have very little reason to query the veracity of this story.
I am no longer surprised at the cronyism of our government, but was momentarily disconcerted by the sheer pettiness shown.
I find that one of the most ominous things I’ve heard it can only mean full surveillance.
Mind you I googled travargo the other day had a quick look and left and now I’m getting emails from them despite not contacting them in any way.
So were being watched buy the computers already.
@ bwaghorn
Did you put them into your Facebook references or something? They are a travel information company aren’t they. Perhaps there is some connection through FB or similar.
No just a quick Google looked at it for a minute max then the next day they turned up in the promotions part of my g.mail as a ad. So there is a link there with Google but at no point did I actively make contact. I wouldn’t say its got me worried but it’s hardening my conviction that anything you do online should be self moderated because fuck knows who’s looking.
Yes there a travel agency
To hear Turia Fitzsimons and Brash on the budget-to-come and needed economic reforms, listen on Radionz this a.m.
at –
10:25 Pre-Budget Panel
On Thursday Finance Minister Bill English will deliver his seventh budget. Few people will be expecting any real surprises. Budgets these days tend to be steady-as-you-go affairs with little in the way of major announcements or wallet altering policies. But if the Government were of a mind to introduce some radical economic reforms what should they be? Former leader of the National and ACT parties Don Brash; former co-leader of the Greens Jeanette Fitzsimons, and former Maori Party co-leader and cabinet minister Tariana Turia discuss the economic reforms they believe would most benefit Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Recent news from Radionz.
Oz escorts more undesirables away from their shores.
Boo and Pistol – begone. TINA. We in Oz can’t possibly offer quarantine services to someone who is obviously a wealth creator doing things rather than profiting from gains made by a computer running programs betting on financial movements or mining something. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/273792/johnny-depp%27s-dogs-leave-australia
and
Heard speaking on TPPA was some lawyer whose voice and tone fully matched the lies and confabulations he presented on how states always paid close attention to
ensuring any treaties they entered into would be very good for their interests. He also stated that it would be a good thing for states to have their sovereignty over-ruled.
He sounded more like an actor trying to sound like a slimy, lying, disingenuous hound than an actual person.
By the way all who want a good quality radio service from RadioNZ, which I imagine is most of the readers here, will no doubt have visited their new on-line comment section.
If not do visit it, it is on a program called Discourse I think, and they explain how it works so you can add your thoughts. They want comment on their own News and from the listings of presented news at present they have a number of subjects to choose from
which are indicated in the News listings with the word COMMENT at the bottom.
On Q and A this morning, the topic was the Auckland housing crisis. Peters and Turei were interviewed. During the panel discussion, Hooton kept putting his boot into Labour several times, when Labour was not even involved in the interviews at all.
I felt Hooton, the so called ‘expert’ about everything, is a completely biased crap of an AH commentator with an agenda.
Can’t TVNZ get some intelligent, objective, knowledgeable and fair minded commentators and real experts for their panel discussions instead of this professional nincompoop?
I didn’t see much of it but as much as I hate to agree with anything hooton says a full cgt on all assets is the way to go, of course he lost the plot and said that it should be paid on yearly valuation instead of at sale time.
Even if a cgt doesn’t cool the market the tax should be getting collected.
He is playing dirty games by suggesting potentially the worst solutions that would do immense political harm to Labour and the Left progressive parties. He is a snake oil merchant. Forked tongue. Don’t take him seriously. He has a right wing political agenda. Untrustworthy and deceptive, in my opinion.
Taxing on unrealised profit fits right in with the far right mentality that every thing should be about business they don’t understand that some one might want to own a house or run a farm because it might give them security and fullfulment they are unable to see anything past MONEY!!!!
“I didn’t see much of it but as much as I hate to agree with anything hooton says a full cgt on all assets is the way to go”
If Hooton is so keen on that then why does he not ask National and ACT to do that and see if they get re-elected.
Labour has gone into election at least twice so far on a very reasonable and modest CGT proposal of 15% on the GAINS on houses when sold, excluding the primary family home. Even such a reasonable modest proposal was vehemently condemned and opposed by Key, English, Joyce and these hypocritical right wing AH commentators and the majority of voters too opposed and rejected that policy.
It would appear the hooton was doing his job and softening people up for the nats new cgt announcement and by going to the extreme end of cgt he makes the nats plan more palatable. Checkmate labour they can’t score a single point on this or they’ll look like fools and if they attack voters for not going for cgt at the election they are insane
I noticed a month or two ago act floated the cgt idea quietly it obviously polled OK..
Papanui is a state school according to their website. Why are they shoving this rancid shit in the faces of their students?
Secondary school pupils were this week handed a pamphlet branding women in de facto relationships “cheap prostitutes” and “wicked fornicators”, and saying “death and hell” awaited those having gay sex.
The material, produced by the American-based Bible Baptist Publications, was handed out to year 11 pupils at Christchurch’s co-ed Papanui High School during a health studies class…
A Ministry of Education official said it was “rare” for such material to be distributed… But principal Jeff Smith said the literature was part of a resource package the school used to help encourage pupils to make “informed” relationship decisions… The school will continue to use the document.
Congratulations to; “Christchurch mother Lydia Clark”, who spoke up against this. The line; “The intent of their lesson is to enable students to see there is a range of material available and that students need to make informed decisions based on that”, that the school seems to be running with, doesn’t really work when they themself are the organisation providing them with the leaflet to take home.
” Ms Clark met Mr Smith, her daughter’s teacher and another senior teacher on Friday, telling the Herald on Sunday that her initial concerns came from “an unfortunate misunderstanding”.
“The meeting has gone well. They have explained the context of the lesson in which the pamphlet was given to my daughter, and listened to and discussed my concerns,” she said.
“It was made clear this was not an instance of anybody pushing their own religious doctrines on students.”
The school will continue to use the document, but teachers would ensure students were clear on its context.’
—————-
I agree, the ‘reported’ material is shocking and despicable!
But we do not really know the context as we have not seen the entire text or the complete lesson. Would be interesting to know why Ms Clark felt satisfied after that meeting with the Principal and teachers. The article is not very clear on that.
It’s a reprint of a HoS article which I haven’t read, I don’t know if there’s any more info there. I still think that the school’s line fails on the basis that the students wouldn’t have the offending leaflet if the school hadn’t given it to them. I can see the merits of discussing such religious tracts in class, but giving them all a copy to take home is something else entirely.
Damn, read something about the religious sex education BS that’s being taught in schools under a faux secular label put out by US religious groups. This sounds like that stuff that quite literally lies to the children about their health.
“In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss Obama’s ignorance, his blissful strength as he pushes for TPIP – a trade deal about which he knows remarkably little if his speech to Nike is anything to go on. In the second half, Max interviews Tina Louise Rothery, who was a candidate for the Green Party in the General Election. They discuss the Conservative win, fracking and TTIP.”
Anyone else been noticing of late news photographs of John Key which depict him terribly unattractively ? Images across a spectrum from giggling child ‘doesn’t get it’, to embarrassingly gauche fool, to arrogant prick, to cold authoritarian, to ‘fuck you !’ sinister gangster. See the photograph in this link for example – some bullshitter trying to make out the idea was all his all along……like no one knows……hello ?
What a cheek John Key! CGT indeed.
(Wonder why Labour are reluctant to declare policy at this stage of the electoral cycle.)
Of course those waiting for Capital Gains might wait 3 or 4+ years. Surely they should also pay CGT?
Given that both Andrew Little and Grant Robertson gave speeches to chambers of commerce last week, to let business know that Labour is a better management team for capital than National, it’s yet again time for unions to rethink some basics.
Compressed Air for energy storage? “Electricity from wind turbines and solar panels run compressors that fill man-made caverns also used for natural gas storage.
When the pressurized air is released, it drives turbines that provide clean power when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.
In less than a decade, annual investment in compressed air will be almost $5 billion, according to Navigant Research.”
I’m not 100%, as you will already know I’m on prednisone, it’s finally working, but it is making me grouchy, numb, blank-minded and fed-up!
Living the life as a human!
[lprent: Based on this comment, it allows you to write better comments than the many many comments that we have been filing under “spam”. Personally I’d prefer to let the comments through, so stay on it and see how it works out. ]
On an email from Aavaz – Dalia Hashad – Avaaz Every day in Paraguay, two girls between the ages of 10 and 14, give birth to children conceived as a result of rape. It’s an epidemic….
A 10-year-old girl in Paraguay was reportedly sexually abused by her stepfather for years. She appealed to the authorities for help but they did nothing to protect her. Now pregnant and being forced to have the baby, she needs our help.
Is this civilisation in the modern year of 2015?
And the story of the Falun Gong being killed and their organs being taken widely in China.
It keeps being repeated. This is Hitlerist. And from a country still angry at the way that the Japanese treated them in Manchuria. A country that will not treat others better than the way they were damaged cannot demand respect.
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The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
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I thought Andrew Little gave a good interview with Brent Edwards on National Radio’s Focus on Politics last Friday evening – arguing for business growth but with employees benefiting as well, and that National has blown economic opportunities since in government. If Mark Shaw was to be the new male co-leader for the Greens, that could make for a good combo.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/focusonpolitics/audio/201754613/focus-on-politics-for-15-may-2015
that was all discussed at length yesterday – should you be interested..
..and a good rightwing-‘combo’..y’reckon..?..
Mark Shaw???
a recommended-listen is ‘parliament this week’ which played about 7.20 this morn..(rnz..)
..it covered a select committee where the head of reserve bank and wingmen were questioned..
..both robertson and norman asked good questions..
..and the reserve bank head uttered ominous warnings about what will happen if the dairy price does not rebound..
(10% of dairy farms straight down the gurgler..)
..and the whole conversation is predicated on that price returning in about a yr..
..now..colour me fucken gobsmacked..r we to take it that the head of the reserve bank..and robertson..and norman..
..are not aware of the perfect-storm just starting to lick at the edge of the dairy industry..?..on two fronts..?
..are not aware of the predictions for the current market-glut driving prices down – to last for the next five years..?
..do they all not know this..?..they sure as hell aren’t planning for it..
..the other front in that perfect storm is the big players (china etc..) gearing up big-time – to inevitably produce an ocean of milk..
..how can anyone look at those two irrefutable-facts – and not know/realise what deep shit the dairy industry/the banking industry/the economy are lurching into..?
(..property-bubble – dairy-bubble..bubbles bubbles everywhere..)
..and/but that the head of our reserve bank – and the cited political-luminaries – seem to have no idea of what is bearing down upon us..
..disturbs me quite a bit..
..how could it not..?
and please..!..if anyone reading this has any influence with iwi thinking of plunging their treaty settlement money into the ‘white gold’ of dairy..
..cd u plse ask them to just wait for awhile..
(and if for no other reasons – than there will be..starting in about a years’ time..lots of over-geared dairy farm coming up for auction..
..cashed-up iwi will be able to join foreigners – in picking over the corpses..
..buying in now..wd be madness..
..that ‘white gold’ is really just tarnished-gilt..)
and please..!..if anyone reading this has any influence with iwi thinking of plunging their treaty settlement money into the ‘white gold’ of dairy..
..cd u plse ask them to just wait for awhile..
I know a guy who owned a farm and sold, it just after he sold it and while his money was still in the bank word on the street was that land prices were going to drop in the near future , so he decided to sit and wait.
The opposite happened and he’s been unable to get back in since .
While I think it’s likely there will be some come up for auction farmers are very good at riding out tough times . It will be more likely they will sell there grazing blocks , reduce there stock numbers and go back to all grass production (which is a good thing) and reduce staff numbers.
but the reality is that the good-times for dairy are over…
..those prices will not come back…
(and i haven’t even gone near the impending arrival of mu-free – the faux/animal-free-dairy indistinguishable from the real stuff – much cheaper to produce – doesn’t need to be refrigerated..
..so that perfect-storm for dairy farmers really has three fronts..)
No doubt there’s some big head winds the biggest being the removal of the production controls in Europe.
plus china and brazil – to name just two behemoths…
..both are investing big-time in dairy..
..our industry..down at the bottom of the world..
..is fucked…
Actually, I think the biggest is that the US has been seriously increasing milk production. Then there’s what’s happening in China:
And Australia isn’t the only country that’s been exporting cows to China.
The thing about agriculture is that pretty much every country can do it and it really doesn’t take any special knowledge.
“”The thing about agriculture is that pretty much every country can do it and it really doesn’t take any special knowledge.””
You’re right it just takes the ability to feed them which could become harder with gcc and bee population collapse . Although I was told the other day that European country’s have at times dumped grain into the Atlantic to keep supply controlled so there’s still plenty of food out there.
With the beef prices high and milk crashing the yanks are likely to kill a lot of there stock which might help prices a bit in the short term.
Nah that man got out lucky as far as I can see. Did he make a solid tax free capital gain when he sold? Does he have enough money to live comfortably, albeit not extravagantly, for the rest of his life? Then what’s the problem.
In this financial bubble game of musical chairs, say the music is going to stop 5 minutes in, and there are definitely not going to be enough chairs for everyone.
You pull out of the game 4 minutes in, a minute from disaster, but you are now safe yourself.
Are you then going to spend the next one minute jealous that the music is still playing, everyone else still seems to be having plenty of fun and wishing that you were still in there in the soon to be over game, with them?
Fuck no, that’s the wrong way to think about it. As will become clear shortly.
the smart farmers realised 10 years ago that dairy was a short term gold rush
…and did NOT go into debt!….and some even sold their dairy potential land up for a whacking good price and bought many more acres of mixed crop and sheep hill country farms
….so it is not as if this was unexpected!
…this Jonkey Nact govt has been negligent!….and short sighted!
“Nah that man got out lucky as far as I can see. Did he make a solid tax free capital gain when he sold? Does he have enough money to live comfortably, albeit not extravagantly, for the rest of his life? Then what’s the problem.””
I don’t know his financial situation and wouldn’t tell you if I did. He’s had to go back to having a boss which has its pluses but who really enjoys being owned.
His reasons for selling were because the only way to get into ownership was to buy way the hell out in the middle of nowhere and he hoped to get onto a easier block in a handier spot.
I do not understand the wisdom of our government and farmers allowing the export of LIVE cows, bull and sheep to overseas countries such as China and the Middle East as has been happening now! Isn’t that a short sighted idea? Do any of you know what is the logic of doing that? Isn’t it smarter and better to sell and export the golden eggs, rather than the goose that lays them?
There’s a lot of money to be made buy the farmers supplying high quality stock to China etc I guess that it also keeps prices up for stock here to because it would stop over supply in the local market.
People used to go on about how our helping other country’s with kiwifruit will kill the industry but it hasn’t happened.
Its all tied up with opening up markets IMO good PR and all that.
“Its all tied up with opening up markets IMO good PR and all that”
What does that even mean? Can you explain?
Just like the latest sheep to the desert bribe sending our stock and expertise has been used by government and business’s to open up markets and target free trade for years.
And the end result will be less trade as the country that we want to open up for trade will become ever more self-sufficient.
Exactly!
I began my working career in the research branch of what was then the Dairy Board. We had hundreds of herd testers around the country sampling the milk out put of every cow in the country. Not only that we had the ancestory of every cow and bull and those that were the less efficient we eventually culled from the national herd. This was how NZ increased its milk production per cow over all other countries. As well as having a climate (at that time) that was sustainable for milk production in certain regions.*
Shipping years of genetic development overseas is simply ludicrous as we give away our competitive advantage for nothing.**
* Dairying in the Waikato – once the supreme dairying region of NZ has suffered 4 droughts in the past 5 years. Dry matter production has fallen 20% from 15 tonne to 12 tonne per hectare. With the cost of production rising to over $5 / kg the profit margin is approaching negative territory.
The summer of 2015-16 looks likely with a continuing El Nino (Jan15 – April15 hottest 4 months on record )to be even dryer than before.
Only fools will invest in Dairying in NZ in the future.
** Incidentally NZers seems to think that NZ is one of the major players in Dairying! We certainly punch above our weight with respect to output per cow and our production costs are comparatively low by international standards (overlooking externalities like highly polluted rivers and massive GHG emissions and short lived animals as the cost of poisoned animals (Urea sprayed on grass and Roundup sprayed on grass and Maize just prior to the making of silage). But we are really small players on the International stage. 9th overall well behind India.
http://www.nddb.org/English/Statistics/Pages/Milk-Production-across-countries.aspx
No, it doesn’t destroy the industry – it destroys trade in that industry as other countries no longer need to import from us because they either grow them themselves or import from somewhere closer. The industry here will still exist to provide for the local market.
This really should apply to all products and produce as the locally produced stuff will be just as good as the imported stuff while being cheaper because of the lack of added transport costs.
This is addressed to Phil, or anyone else who’s interested, regarding the idea about Iwi delaying investment in dairy, owing to the future looking to be what it is.
For some reason the reply button isn’t showing, so can’t tag it on.
Just as a thought experiment i.e. phil’s opinion stands unchallenged:
Two days ago I was chatting to a bloke who is Ngati Tuwharetoa – that’s Taupo/Rotorua area. He was in as much of a bind as the rest of us when it comes to dealing with our daily challenges. Turns out, almost half his tribe, and by tribe I only mean the “officially recorded people who say they belong”, is under the age of fifteen. They number roughly 30,000. This isn’t something isolated. The local tribe round here was almost “offically” non-existent ten years ago. Now they’re recorded as up around 1000.
Now if you were an Iwi leader, I’d think you’d be aware of that fact in far greater detail – both the opportunity and potential crisis. So let’s say you have cash to spend, and the choice is invest now to prepare for your young people growing up, or wait, as would seem prudent (using pakeha perspective), keep your cash, but infringe your cultural values (e.g. neglect the value of and spiritual element of the land to maori) and risk a crisis with your young people. Tough choices.
So as a thought experiment, if delaying buying land that you know is going to devalue, that you know the “plant” of the purchase will devalue, maybe even become useless, what do you also plan to do with that purchase, within that unfavourable environment, to save your community/people?
i think a good choice for iwi would be to look at what james cameron has done in the wairarapa..
..where he has bought large dairy farms – and has converted them back to growing real food..
..he is experimenting with lots of different crops..to see what works best..and i understand he is also making the results of those growing-experiments available online..for free..
..and i am sure that if approached by iwi – that cameron (or his staff) would be happy to advise/help/consult..
so yes..of course iwi should invest in land..(and then grow real food..)..
..but timing is all…and buying that land at the height of the dairy-bubble – is not advisable..
..and preparing for a future where there is no river of white-gold – is really recommended..
Q. Might Cameron be experimenting with GMO ?
Q. What could prevent him doing so ?
+100 pu….i always find stimulating reading your comments and arguments…and the way you say it !…you are one of the best commenters here….(although I sometimes have strong disagreements with you)
….iwi should be very wary about the dairy industry…not least of all because of the degradation to the rivers and land ( that the OLD Maori treasured and which sustained them spiritually and economically)
….now is the time to be experimenting with new crops and food production…and following the lead of James Cameron ….and the lead of ag scientific and marketing advisors from universities such as Lincoln
…in other words proceeding with great caution and with expert university advice
Milk is actually food, FYI.
yeah..food for baby cows…not for humans..
..so you all for mono-cultural..are you..?
Your thoughts on which foods should be eaten or not eaten by which critters are personal opinions, not arguments for whether particular foods are “real” or not.
just a fact – dairy is food for baby cows..
..what is to argue against that..?
And everything edible that plants produce is for the plant’s purposes, not ours. just a fact…
Thanks Phillip for mentioning what James Cameron is doing, I had been wondering what he was doing with that land of his. I just did a search and found this article on what he’s been up to: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/67572692/james-cameron-snaps-up-organic-empire
Should be good for the health of Lake Wairarapa anyway.
i think it is really good work he is doing..
..he is preparing a blueprint for our future..
“So as a thought experiment, if delaying buying land that you know is going to devalue, that you know the “plant” of the purchase will devalue, maybe even become useless, what do you also plan to do with that purchase, within that unfavourable environment, to save your community/people?”
Pretty simple. Stop treating land as a financial investment and buy land that will grow food for the people that live there, nourish the spiritual and cultural values of those people, and create small enterprises so that people can make a living. In perpetuity. That’s what Pākehā need to learn pretty bloody fast. I get why some iwi leaders are into the Pākehā model, but it’s unsustainable and doomed and any financial profit comes at the expense of others.
Small enterprises, sure, but tribes having land that grows food for the people who live there is called “subsistence agriculture” and is a recipe for poverty and misery everywhere it’s applied.
what cameron is doing is testing for the viability of commercial-crops –
– not some hippie subsistance-farming..do pay attention..!
..so it makes perfect sense for iwi and others to take what he is offering for free..
..dairy is down the toilet..and what we do next is crucially important..
..cameron is the right man in the right place at the right time..
..we should be grateful he is doing it..
..as poliicians wouldn’t have a fucken clue..
The comment was in reply to weka, not you – unless Cameron is eschewing the idea of ‘financial profit’ from farming.
So what’s on your mind lately?
How are you ‘in general’?
Do you like when we communicate?
“Small enterprises, sure, but tribes having land that grows food for the people who live there is called “subsistence agriculture” and is a recipe for poverty and misery everywhere it’s applied.”
As opposed to the poverty and misery that exists now in the land of export, cash crop, market driven economy that iwi are being encouraged to take part in? How’s that working out?
Besides I think you have probably misunderstood what I was referring to. Growing food was shorthand for providing for the people directly instead of relying on artificial means. People do it all the time.
Interesting conversation with someone over the weekend involved in organising the tangihanga for Sir Paul Reeves.
Sir Paul Reeves had, with immense grace and foresight, prearranged much of the event in advance, as he came towards the end of his life. He had organised to lie in State at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the tangihanga, before going to the Cathedral for the funeral.
This required an immense effort for the community, who in coordination with AUT, NZ Army and Navy managed to pull this off. As it was a state funeral, the Department of Internal Affairs contacted those involved to talk about the schedule and the budget during the preliminary organisational phase.
Officials from that department, instead of visiting the venue in Grafton, required representatives to attend a meeting at the Nova hotel in Greenlane. You can imagine how disconcerting and uncomfortable it would be to have the responsibility of arranging a state funeral, and to be involved in making sure protocols for the Anglican Church and tikanga are followed – and then be required to take time out to attend a corporate styled meeting in the midst of it.
During the meeting, the officials broached the subject of the schedule and enquired if there was a space available for a government representative to speak. There was uncertainty about why or who would speak, but one of the attendees advised the officials that there is one person who would not be welcome – John Key.
A communication arrived the next day informing the organisers that the Dept of Internal Affairs would not be paying for the tangihanga, and that the money would come out of the Te Puni Kokiri budget.
I have very little reason to query the veracity of this story.
I am no longer surprised at the cronyism of our government, but was momentarily disconcerted by the sheer pettiness shown.
“For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens ‘as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone”.
– David Cameron speaking to the National Security Council, 13 May 2015
So the saying by right wing prats “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” has now just flown out of the window.
I find that one of the most ominous things I’ve heard it can only mean full surveillance.
Mind you I googled travargo the other day had a quick look and left and now I’m getting emails from them despite not contacting them in any way.
So were being watched buy the computers already.
@ bwaghorn
Did you put them into your Facebook references or something? They are a travel information company aren’t they. Perhaps there is some connection through FB or similar.
No just a quick Google looked at it for a minute max then the next day they turned up in the promotions part of my g.mail as a ad. So there is a link there with Google but at no point did I actively make contact. I wouldn’t say its got me worried but it’s hardening my conviction that anything you do online should be self moderated because fuck knows who’s looking.
Yes there a travel agency
both peters and turei performed well on q & a..
..given how labour are still stuck up that neoliberal backwater – turei and peters are the de-facto leaders of the opposition..
To hear Turia Fitzsimons and Brash on the budget-to-come and needed economic reforms, listen on Radionz this a.m.
at –
10:25 Pre-Budget Panel
On Thursday Finance Minister Bill English will deliver his seventh budget. Few people will be expecting any real surprises. Budgets these days tend to be steady-as-you-go affairs with little in the way of major announcements or wallet altering policies. But if the Government were of a mind to introduce some radical economic reforms what should they be? Former leader of the National and ACT parties Don Brash; former co-leader of the Greens Jeanette Fitzsimons, and former Maori Party co-leader and cabinet minister Tariana Turia discuss the economic reforms they believe would most benefit Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Stop constantly putting your boot into Labour. You are suffering from Hooton’s biass disease. Smoke it off.
elsewhere i said robertson asked good questions – credit where credit is due..
– what have i said about little/labour that is incorrect..?
Recent news from Radionz.
Oz escorts more undesirables away from their shores.
Boo and Pistol – begone. TINA. We in Oz can’t possibly offer quarantine services to someone who is obviously a wealth creator doing things rather than profiting from gains made by a computer running programs betting on financial movements or mining something.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/273792/johnny-depp%27s-dogs-leave-australia
and
Heard speaking on TPPA was some lawyer whose voice and tone fully matched the lies and confabulations he presented on how states always paid close attention to
ensuring any treaties they entered into would be very good for their interests. He also stated that it would be a good thing for states to have their sovereignty over-ruled.
He sounded more like an actor trying to sound like a slimy, lying, disingenuous hound than an actual person.
I think I heard it on here which I have not had time to listen to again yet.
Listen – 12.14 mins http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201754684
One of the most controversial aspects of the massive multi-country Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, is the Investor State Dispute settlement clause – or ISDS. We hear from both sides of the ‘loss of sovereignty’ debate.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201754684/trans-pacific-partnership-and-investor-state-disputes
By the way all who want a good quality radio service from RadioNZ, which I imagine is most of the readers here, will no doubt have visited their new on-line comment section.
If not do visit it, it is on a program called Discourse I think, and they explain how it works so you can add your thoughts. They want comment on their own News and from the listings of presented news at present they have a number of subjects to choose from
which are indicated in the News listings with the word COMMENT at the bottom.
Here is the link http://rnztalk.nz/
http://m.heraldsun.com.au/news/tony-abbott-unveils-blame-labor-billboards-for-victorians-stuck-in-traffic/story-e6frf7jo-1227357181940
I cannot figure out if this is satire or not, scary if true.
Matthew Hooton, the crap commentator.
On Q and A this morning, the topic was the Auckland housing crisis. Peters and Turei were interviewed. During the panel discussion, Hooton kept putting his boot into Labour several times, when Labour was not even involved in the interviews at all.
I felt Hooton, the so called ‘expert’ about everything, is a completely biased crap of an AH commentator with an agenda.
Can’t TVNZ get some intelligent, objective, knowledgeable and fair minded commentators and real experts for their panel discussions instead of this professional nincompoop?
I didn’t see much of it but as much as I hate to agree with anything hooton says a full cgt on all assets is the way to go, of course he lost the plot and said that it should be paid on yearly valuation instead of at sale time.
Even if a cgt doesn’t cool the market the tax should be getting collected.
i agree cgt on all assets..
..hoots was scaremongering there with his yearly-valuation scare-stories..of course it wd be assesed/paid at sale-time..
..the fucken idiot also parroted the line that ‘fonterra prices will be back to $6 again soon’..
..complete and utter ‘faith-based’ bullshit – that one..
..with both him and little being ‘followers’..
He is playing dirty games by suggesting potentially the worst solutions that would do immense political harm to Labour and the Left progressive parties. He is a snake oil merchant. Forked tongue. Don’t take him seriously. He has a right wing political agenda. Untrustworthy and deceptive, in my opinion.
Taxing on unrealised profit fits right in with the far right mentality that every thing should be about business they don’t understand that some one might want to own a house or run a farm because it might give them security and fullfulment they are unable to see anything past MONEY!!!!
bw
+1
“I didn’t see much of it but as much as I hate to agree with anything hooton says a full cgt on all assets is the way to go”
If Hooton is so keen on that then why does he not ask National and ACT to do that and see if they get re-elected.
Labour has gone into election at least twice so far on a very reasonable and modest CGT proposal of 15% on the GAINS on houses when sold, excluding the primary family home. Even such a reasonable modest proposal was vehemently condemned and opposed by Key, English, Joyce and these hypocritical right wing AH commentators and the majority of voters too opposed and rejected that policy.
It would appear the hooton was doing his job and softening people up for the nats new cgt announcement and by going to the extreme end of cgt he makes the nats plan more palatable. Checkmate labour they can’t score a single point on this or they’ll look like fools and if they attack voters for not going for cgt at the election they are insane
I noticed a month or two ago act floated the cgt idea quietly it obviously polled OK..
i wouldn’t put too much blame on a cgt..(as labour have clearly done – in their search for scapegoats..)
i reckon the raising the pension age was the one that turned off the most potential labour voters..
..so..we have labour wanting to raise the pension age and national introduces a capital gains tax..
..it’s an upside down world – alice..
..are labour/national blurring/becoming one..?
..it must be all so confusing for them all..
Papanui is a state school according to their website. Why are they shoving this rancid shit in the faces of their students?
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/342483/unwed-women-cheap-prostitutes-pupils-told
Congratulations to; “Christchurch mother Lydia Clark”, who spoke up against this. The line; “The intent of their lesson is to enable students to see there is a range of material available and that students need to make informed decisions based on that”, that the school seems to be running with, doesn’t really work when they themself are the organisation providing them with the leaflet to take home.
The ODT link also says this towards the end :
” Ms Clark met Mr Smith, her daughter’s teacher and another senior teacher on Friday, telling the Herald on Sunday that her initial concerns came from “an unfortunate misunderstanding”.
“The meeting has gone well. They have explained the context of the lesson in which the pamphlet was given to my daughter, and listened to and discussed my concerns,” she said.
“It was made clear this was not an instance of anybody pushing their own religious doctrines on students.”
The school will continue to use the document, but teachers would ensure students were clear on its context.’
—————-
I agree, the ‘reported’ material is shocking and despicable!
But we do not really know the context as we have not seen the entire text or the complete lesson. Would be interesting to know why Ms Clark felt satisfied after that meeting with the Principal and teachers. The article is not very clear on that.
It’s a reprint of a HoS article which I haven’t read, I don’t know if there’s any more info there. I still think that the school’s line fails on the basis that the students wouldn’t have the offending leaflet if the school hadn’t given it to them. I can see the merits of discussing such religious tracts in class, but giving them all a copy to take home is something else entirely.
You need to read the article at Gay NZ to find the real story about this leaflet. The HOS article is very misleading.
http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/2/article_16841.php
Damn, read something about the religious sex education BS that’s being taught in schools under a faux secular label put out by US religious groups. This sounds like that stuff that quite literally lies to the children about their health.
EDIT: This one in fact
More on USA Trade deals…does Obama know what he is doing?..is he a servant for the corporates?
http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/258185-episode-max-keiser-757/
“In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss Obama’s ignorance, his blissful strength as he pushes for TPIP – a trade deal about which he knows remarkably little if his speech to Nike is anything to go on. In the second half, Max interviews Tina Louise Rothery, who was a candidate for the Green Party in the General Election. They discuss the Conservative win, fracking and TTIP.”
Anyone else been noticing of late news photographs of John Key which depict him terribly unattractively ? Images across a spectrum from giggling child ‘doesn’t get it’, to embarrassingly gauche fool, to arrogant prick, to cold authoritarian, to ‘fuck you !’ sinister gangster. See the photograph in this link for example – some bullshitter trying to make out the idea was all his all along……like no one knows……hello ?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11450124
Some people somewhere deciding their feverish attachment of theistic qualities to the bullshitter is no longer apposite ?
CGT is on John (notme) says so. Ha!! so now the Nats are stealing Labours ideas. Has John had a lavage?
What a cheek John Key! CGT indeed.
(Wonder why Labour are reluctant to declare policy at this stage of the electoral cycle.)
Of course those waiting for Capital Gains might wait 3 or 4+ years. Surely they should also pay CGT?
http://www.channel5.com/shows/benefits-britain-life-on-the-dole/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2687734/Channel-5-look-like-racist-morons-say-benefits-documentary-family-afraid-leave-home-threats.html
This series will begin to air on Murdoch Channel 9 next week
Q. Is this being shown in NZ or has a local version been produced ?
I guess the CGT story has successfully drowned out the international response to NZ’s human rights failures…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/17/un-makes-13-recommendations-to-improve-human-rights-in-new-zealand
Well it’s only young Maori men – so no story there.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/the-28-greatest-moments-in-the-history-of-sarcasm#.nhxGYE52W
link – I hope is enough to understand my above statement – but you never know…
Unions and the chains that bind:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/why-unions-should-not-be-affiliated-to-labour/
Given that both Andrew Little and Grant Robertson gave speeches to chambers of commerce last week, to let business know that Labour is a better management team for capital than National, it’s yet again time for unions to rethink some basics.
Compressed Air for energy storage?
“Electricity from wind turbines and solar panels run compressors that fill man-made caverns also used for natural gas storage.
When the pressurized air is released, it drives turbines that provide clean power when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.
In less than a decade, annual investment in compressed air will be almost $5 billion, according to Navigant Research.”
Who would have thought it!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11448604
I’m not 100%, as you will already know I’m on prednisone, it’s finally working, but it is making me grouchy, numb, blank-minded and fed-up!
Living the life as a human!
[lprent: Based on this comment, it allows you to write better comments than the many many comments that we have been filing under “spam”. Personally I’d prefer to let the comments through, so stay on it and see how it works out. ]
On an email from Aavaz – Dalia Hashad – Avaaz
Every day in Paraguay, two girls between the ages of 10 and 14, give birth to children conceived as a result of rape. It’s an epidemic….
A 10-year-old girl in Paraguay was reportedly sexually abused by her stepfather for years. She appealed to the authorities for help but they did nothing to protect her. Now pregnant and being forced to have the baby, she needs our help.
Is this civilisation in the modern year of 2015?
And the story of the Falun Gong being killed and their organs being taken widely in China.
It keeps being repeated. This is Hitlerist. And from a country still angry at the way that the Japanese treated them in Manchuria. A country that will not treat others better than the way they were damaged cannot demand respect.
Oh dear oh dear,
Looks like 5 people turned up in Ch.Ch. for the first public meeting on the flag change.
Not a good start John…. not a good start.
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/low-turnout-for-first-public-flag-change-meeting-2015051716#axzz3aO6AzZIS