New Zealand dollar in free fall.
Milk prices in free fall.
Private and public debt on the increase.
An economy based on real estate, immigration and dairy prices tottering on the brink of collapse.
When are the media (and New Zealanders) going to start questioning the financial management of this appalling government ?
because they are the Kiwis that will sell their properties and businesses to the higher bidder and move elsewhere.
simple as that.
its only the poor schmuck that will get to stay behind in a ditch or under a bridge.
But lets remember, and this is most important, That Labour does it too.
How about you try posting some opinions that put forward your vision and ‘aspirations’ for New Zealand rather than the carping, snide, petty and puerile comments we have got to know you for?
Is that within your remit ? Or are you told to simply come here to derail?
How about commenting on the state of NZ dollar and milk prices and your solutions rather than making ad hominem comments ?
Milk prices are cyclical, there’ll be raises and falls and if you look the industry over the last few decades you’ll see this is nothing new
Labours cynical ploy at vilifying people with chinese names is, in the long run, a smart play because Labour know that when it comes down to it WinstonFirst will go with National rather then Labour so stealing votes of Winstonfirst with anti-asian rhetoric won’t hurt them at all and any Labour voters disgusted with this ploy will probably just go to the Greens
Inflation is virtually nothing so prices for consumables are good and mortgage rates are fantastics
1. Do you not think that the present global dairy milk glut is something new? These articles would suggest this is the case and that it could last for quite a long time. With farming debt huge thanks to conversions to dairy and intensification, any long slump will see the fire sale of farms. And much of this will be to overseas interests.
2. I agree a lower dollar is good for manufacturing. Sadly we don’t have as much of it as we did before the neoliberal experiment started in the 1980s, but nevertheless, a lower dollar means exporters can compete better. There is one downside to a lower dollar. Higher fuel prices which will impact on the costs of I everything transported by truck in this country. So people’s shopping baskets will cost more.
Had we diversified our economy more, the problem of a dairy slump would not have been so severe.
Had we placed more emphasis on renewable energy and a more progressive transport policy, the price of fuel would not affect us so much.
Most farmers outsource the risk to sharemilkers, herd managers and contract milkers, so they are more or less insulated from anything that happens. If the worst comes to the worst, they can sell up and walk away.
I’d like to acknowledge Paul’s contribution over the time I have visited. I always feel stronger and more prepared to try make a difference after reading his comments.
It seems you, along with this government, enjoy destroying NZ through the use of outdated policies that have been proven conclusively (The Great Depression, The GFC, every recession in between and human induced climate change) not to work.
Stephen Joyce on Radio New Zealand mouthing platitudes….”cycles, been through this before, an unusual year, not looking for handouts….blahblahblah….”
No ideas, no solutions. A government bereft of ideas.
Even Mr Fix it can’t fix this mess his government is in.
Sam Lotu-Iiga is ‘disappointed’ with Serco after online videos are released of fighting within Mt Eden prison.
Yet he defends Serco’s governance of Mt Eden prison by gibbering on about ‘league tables, highest performing prison in the country, it’s a remand prison, they uphold the highest standards, they are in the exceptional category.’
It was like listening to an answer machine playing over and over again.
Totally useless.
Serco’s boss ( from Scotland) claims they are doing ‘a fantastic job’ , they ‘deliver a very, very good service at Mt Eden’ and that ‘they are the top of the table.’
Another investigation, another review while the lame stream media fails to follow through on a story.
Private prisons are bascially human flesh trading — no different to the slave trade really. A lot of people forget that in the 18th and 19th centuries they had private prisons as well — private companies also had the transportation contracts for inmates sent to Australia. These fights have a mandingo-ish air about them. Wouldnt be suprised if the guards put them up to it.
Consider the near incapacity of a mid-60s adult to stem tears on hearing this message delivered with resigned, traumatised eyes by an under 20 year old –
“If I go back there I’m gonna HAVE to join up with one of them. They want me……”
For many, many young guys the inevitable consequence of remand in Serco – within days of arrival, unconvicted, unsentenced, earmarked as a prospect, a conscript soldier of the future, by competing gangs. With absolutely no choice about joining/not joining. Oh but life always has hope ! Preferring one gang over another at least protects from the other gang. Fail to declare – daily brutality from all. No wonder Serco’s known as “The Jungle”.
For those who might find it self-comforting to duck responsibility for the inhumanity daily brought down on boys like that in Serco, with the denial inherent in sniffy verbiage like – “Oh, manipulating I see…….” – “20 next birthday…….c’mon…….thats an adult” – “Tut tut tut…….bad choices bad choices !” – to people like that I would say with all the bitter disgust I can summon – “OK, I’m gonna put YOUR sons, YOUR grandsons in Serco for a month !”
Without further they’d immediately understand. Tears ? They’d be screaming !
I shouldn’t be harsh. These are the NZ resident replicants of the British investor class all those thousands of miles away. The ones who routinely know all they need to know by dint of their frequent walks not in the moccasins.
Serco is actually a foremost disgrace of this nation’s many disgraces. It’s no wonder that amongst its ‘guests’ it’s unaffectionately coined “The Jungle”. Serco has a sign out front which in glorious PR verbosity conveys this tiding of successful aspiration – “average stay 23 days”. Yes, well it is a remand prison.
Are you CERTAIN that 23 days (average) isn’t long enough…….Mr British Investor Replicant In NZ…….to fuck up, random that it’s irreversible, the psyche/mind/body of your sons, your grandsons ? You are silent Sir…….why pray ?
don’t forget they will be monitored to see how serco are following the rules and such, who by …. by serco of course.
How can serco monitor their own company with honesty?
Still serco bring out their rhetoric “we will deliver good service blah blah blah”
Is Mt Eden run by a skeleton crew so serco’s shareholders get their moneys worth.?
What about serco’s loud and proud staements we are COMMITTED to getting recidivism down to 25%.
The list of their failing is world renown except apparently in NZ
Sam Lotu-liga should grow a set and get some real investigation going on into this corrections fight club.
FFS its a crock and National have opened the door to the “everyone else has a better way of ruling I mean running this country.”
One of the problems is that we Kiwis do not even understand simple concepts such as advantage and disadvantage in currency.
I have even been chided on this Standard Left /Green blog – for pointing out that $1.00 of New Zealand money will get you just $0.41 cents of British Pounds.
This means that if a person from Britain using GBP currency, buys a $million house here, they will pay only $410,000. Whereas of course, a Kiwi using $NZD currency will pay the full $Million Dollar price.
If the person were to buy two $Million homes in New Zealand, they would pay $820,000 British Pounds.
Whereas a Kiwi using $NZD buying two $Million Dollar homes would pay $2, 000,000.
The difference between $2, 000,000 and $820,000 is $1.18 million Dollars.
Imagine if the same person bought ten NZ$ Million Dollar homes…
Really? What is your evidence for this highly doubtful claim? Which real estate firm’s data are you relying on, Barfoot and Thompson’s or JamesLaw’s? The complete and utter failure to understand even the basics of how to analyse data and extrapolate robust and defendable conclusions from same by Twyford/Little and half the posters/commenters on this site beggars belief. Suggest you all take some serious time out and only re-enter the fray after several cups of tea. It’s all getting rather silly
Supermarkets destroy small businesses.
The high cost of low prices.
Even the Mad Butcher chain can’t compete.
Look at our small towns and see how big box stores and supermarkets have gutted them.
Have just heard a interesting interview with a spokesman for the farmers on Breakfast this morning. He was saying that it was disappointing that 500 workers had to be laid off, it was a knee jerk reaction to the falling prices and what management should have been doing (like the farmers I suspect) was put aside fat year by year for the lean times when they happened and not just sacrifice staff – he said it was not good for Fonterra to have staff too busy looking over their shoulders wondering when they were the next when they should be concentrating on growing the business – management should have been concentrating on working on value added commodities etc etc.
Management can’t even promise there won’t be more workers laid off in the future – not good for management/farmers relationships in the future. I always felt this was going to happen – that the worm would turn. Just being down on the Viaduct Basin in their flash multi-million dollar building with too many chiefs on fat salaries – my old Dad always said spread your investment and not put too many apples in the one basket. Wonder what the management are going to come back and say on the counter attack. Bloody disgrace if you ask me.
Yes I agree – some of the top floor’s saleries are absurd let alone bonuses on top. But I think it is interesting that farmers could be turning against the company – I thought the top honcho was a Dutchman and I was always under the impression they drove a hard ship, surely he could have kept the saleries under check. The morale in the lower echelons must be terrible – what’s Humpty Mr Fixit going to say about all this I wonder and as always Key is sunning himself away from all this going down, doing only what teflon can do. Drama couldn’t be better and just as well as there is sweet ….. all on our TV these days.
Brilliant CV ! Gossy’ll be taking it out on every random unaccompanied canine that minding its own business trots on past his place. Run dog run ! CV’s fucked him off and poor duffer can’t help it.
Why am I not surprised Paul – what never ceases to amaze me is that there are so many citizens in NZ who just cannot see how useless this Govt. is and has been and still think they are managing the economy bla bla. The Govt were the creaters of Fonterra in the first place weren’t they? Is there something in the drinking water that is affecting Nat voters for goodness sake, that people can be so preoccupied and dense as to what is going on. Its soul destroying.
“The Govt were the creaters of Fonterra in the first place weren’t they?”
Yes they were. The Commerce Commission of the time turned the idea down but the Government decided they knew better and went ahead with it.
That was in October 2001 that Fonterra started. God, the politicians in the Government of the day must have been crazy, mustn’t they?
Whoops. That wasn’t a National Government was it. It was the dopey lot on the other side who did it.
Is there something in the drinking water that is affecting left voters for goodness sake, that they forget their history?
ha ha yes, but even funnier is that farmers jumped on it when they are supposed to be anything but left wing….
why is that farmers in nz always act in a left wing way, such as establishing coops all over the place, yet talk in a right wing way? Don’t they know about these things? Maybe they would do better if their words matched their actions.
The big mistake that you’re making is thinking that the 5th Labour led government was left wing. It wasn’t. It may have been centrist than National but it still wasn’t of the Left.
I have never considered that the last Labour Government was “left wing”. They were the supreme pragmatists whose only interest was remaining in power.
The last Government we had who did things they believed to be necessary, without considering whether it would keep them in power was when Roger Douglas was the driving force in the Labour Government between the middle of1984 and the end of 1988.
What I was commenting on was Barbara’s apparent belief that it was the current, ie Key led Government, and National voters who are to blame for whatever Fonterra may be doing.
Barbara clearly doesn’t remember which Government it was that was in charge when Fonterra was created.
I spent 7 hours yesterday driving to and from visiting at that tomb of souls MECF-Serco in Mt Eden. That’s another story. I mention it only to explain how not until this morning did I see TRP’s post of yesterday – “An Open Letter To The Real Estate Whistleblower” – and comment between TRP and Tracey and others in the thread commencing with CV @ 4.1.1.1 My comment on that post earlier today is resubmitted here on OM in response to ridiculous and growing rancour in the debate. I’m motivated as a peacemaker here rather than as a muckraker, even if you’re left in no doubt as to my instant colours. Whether I succeed in that motivation is yours to choose – really only inviting everyone to pause for “a cup of tea……” so to speak.
” North…
17 July 2015 at 8:53 am
Tracey, no reply button to your comment timed 5.18 pm. Accordingly (and I don’t know where this comment will end up) I use the one on TRP’s comment of 2.06 pm –
You say – “Grow up TRP. You tried to shut CV down.”
What the hell then is the “Racist !” mantra levelled (in varying pitch) against others ? Forgive me the observation that it looks very much like a shutting-down device. Dependent on pitch it shapes also as a device for brutal humiliation.
I have a mind’s eye list of the Morality-Day-Trippers at the top of which are BM and Fisiani obviously. Given their customary, boldly vaunted taste for any cruel ‘-ism’ one might identify, their credibility here is zero. I dismiss them. No apologies. Entirely meet. Their true home is WhaleOil.
I cannot dismiss as moral thugs and arseholes you and CV and numerous others deservedly holding space on my similarly held second list – a list of decent, caring, philosophically mature, unafraid, morally consistent and resilient people who figure there after months, years of expressions which suggest innate possession of those qualities.
Is my estimation of you and CV and others wrong ? Of course it’s not. That is exactly why, apart from my one angry excursion into ‘the feral’ in response to one commenter (that person whom when not invoking dismissive bullying against others I know to be) “decent, caring etc etc……” – that is why I have tried to be respectful. CV particularly comes to mind.
Please contemplate how atrocious is the charge “Racist !” to those on my third list – people who are not in true character unlike you and CV and the many others on my second list. For my sins I include Twyford in that third list. To paint him a machiavellian amoral schemer as some have purported is fanciful frankly.
For me the reflexive “Racist !” charge sits on a spectrum from careless indulgence to cheap disrespect to the feral. It is not OK to give over to any point on that spectrum the broad issue at hand, viz. the various but always linked facets of the exponential shutting out of stakeholders in this country.
That broad issue is what has jointly exercised for so long the people on my second and third lists – this commonality might actually suggest an all-inclusive list.
Surely, if we’re talking of essence, it’s highly improbable that a bunch of “Racists !” could have sat undetected for so long in the welcoming company of others on that all-inclusive list ? ”
I know we’ve done Greek to death – but this makes an interesting read:
Without rehearsing 15 years of Greek controversy, let me just say that the country’s crisis is a collective responsibility of the creditors, the EMU elites, the Greek oligarchy and, ultimately, of a jejune Alexis Tsipras.
The Troika bail-out in 2010 was intended to save the euro and European banks at a time when there were no defences against contagion. Greece was not saved. It was sacrificed. The roots of the “Greek Spring” can be traced to this original sin.
The EMU creditors never acknowledged their own guilt. They never made an honest attempt to negotiate with Syriza, even on matters of common ground. They demanded that the austerity terms of the prior Memorandum be enforced to the letter, hiding behind Pharisaical talk of rules.
Let us not forget that the European Central Bank brought about the final collapse by freezing emergency liquidity to the Greek banks, forcing Syriza to shut the lenders’ doors, impose capital controls and halt imports.
It was a political decision – dressed up with technical flammery – and was arguably illegal. It is very hard to reconcile with the ECB’s treaty duty to uphold financial stability. One plain fact is clear: technocrats brought an elected government to its knees.
What will become of Europe? Clearly the hopes of the pro-European, reformist left are now over. That will leave the future in the hands of the anti-European parties, including UKIP, the National Front in France, and Golden Dawn in Greece. These are ugly, racist, xenophobic groups; Golden Dawn has proposed concentration camps for immigrants in its platform. The only counter, now, is for progressive and democratic forces to regroup behind the banner of national democratic restoration. Which means that the left in Europe will also now swing against the euro.
Interestingly enough, Galbraith still seems to think that the US is a shining light of democracy.
Exactly. Dark days for Europe ahead. Perhaps quite soon.
This is the deepest stupidity of all – the EU was founded and largely supported by Socialist and left-wing parties seeking way to break Europe out an age-old destructive cycle of nationalistic rivalries and wars. And to provide an economic platform which might lend a counter-balance to the USA.
The USA liberal establishment was happy to support the project as it gave a security buffer with the USSR.
But in a fit of utter, blind, ideological stupidity the EU technocrats have severed off the very branch they were perched upon. No-one believes in them anymore.
The EU is doomed. And there is no rule to say that what rises from the ashes will be better.
Fascinating to watch the US (through the IMF) try to sway the Eurogroup to its senses. Apparently the latest IMF document stating that Greece needed a 30 year repayment holiday was put in front of all assembled EU finance ministers last weekend.
People like you and RedLogix, being better versed in international affairs than I am, are no doubt better equipped than I am to comment on this, but it looks to me as if the US and the UK are on the one hand trying to shove neo-liberal economics down everyone’s throats, and on the other trying to get as many countries as possible onside so as to contain/threaten/separate the BRIC countries. However quite a few people have had a gutful of the harsh neo-lib formula and are getting harder to keep onside. So they may see the need to give some ground on the neo-lib front to keep Greece and other similarly placed countries within the EU.
Bernard Manning was damned for his racist taunts;
So how does Jerry Seinfeld get away with it? Nine to Noon, Radio NZ National, Friday 17 July 2015
This morning, Lynn Freeman interviewed one Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, a Seinfeld-worshipper who has written a book grandly titled Seinfeldia: The Secret World of the Show About Nothing That Changed Everything. It was interesting enough, with both women sharing affectionate memories of some of the features of the show, from Kramer’s brilliant physical comedy to the hilariously deranged “Soup Nazi”.
But there’s more to Seinfeld than snappily written comedy. A lot of what Seinfeld gets up to is anything but funny. He has been, and continues to be, involved in some exceptionally nasty business. Sometimes this nastiness even found its way into the show itself. I sent Lynn Freeman a little reminder…..
Jerry Seinfeld
Dear Lynn,
I am always concerned when I hear adulatory comments about Jerry Seinfeld. Yes, his show is well written and it is funny, but there was a darker and more sinister side: unlike the great comedians of the past, Seinfeld does not identify or empathise with the poor and downtrodden, he expresses contempt for them.
In one infamous scene, Jerry says to Elaine, “Hey that’s life. Good-looking men have the same advantages. You don’t see any handsome homeless.”
It’s perhaps not a coincidence that Seinfeld himself continues to express support for extreme right wing causes in the United States and Israel, most infamously on David Letterman’s show when he expressed his contempt for, and amusement at, the plight of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
Seinfeld does not identify or empathise with the poor and downtrodden, he expresses contempt for them.
In one infamous scene, Jerry says to Elaine, “Hey that’s life. Good-looking men have the same advantages. You don’t see any handsome homeless.”
Your example is very poor, then, out of context. That doesn’t sound like is expressing contempt for homeless people; just acknowledging in a very glib and superficial way what anyone who has seen multiple homeless people would conclude.
It’s like calling Labour pointing out that there is a disproportionate number of Chinese buyers of houses in NZ ‘racist’.
It is a Jew Arab thing which has been going down for centuries. There are plenty of American Jews that kick the crap out of Palestinians.
A couple of years ago a group of friends and I were at a bar, we started playing pool with a group from israel. Things cut up rough when one of them made a nasty remake about the Occupied Territories and Arabs. It become an all in brawl which was quite unsettling as 3 of their females were involved, extremely vicious they were with 1 punching and kicking a mate in the head after she decked him. When I saw this I remembered thinking these fuckers all do time in their army. After that I didn’t feel so bad cracking her over the head with a pool cue and laying into the rest, telling them to cut it out and clear off. They did but not before one of them smashed a bottle across a bounces jaw. It’s the only time I’ve hit a woman and thankfully the last.
Good Lord, Skinny, remind me not to accompany you to any bars in future!
For the record, I have met one or two former Israeli soldiers, and they were very nice guys. One of them helped me fix my car, which had overheated.
I know that many of them are racist and violent, but that’s a sine qua non of serving in the Occupied Territories. New Zealand soldiers behaved just as badly in Egypt and Palestine in World War I, and in Samoa in the 1920s. Let’s not forget that even the worst of the soldiers is like that only because they are placed there to do a job that a few corrupt and fanatical politicians have sent them there to do.
Morrissey, you put me in mind of the time 7 or more years ago while on the Auckland-North trip I picked up an obviously foreign hitch hiker – one can ‘tell’ somehow.
Anyway, he was a conscript IDF reservist. Mid 20s. Recounted as a late-teens soldier in Tel Aviv or some other populous Israeli centre, patrolling with one other soldier. Completely randomly the other soldier was first to step up into a bus for the ‘terrorist check’.
Boom ! Passengers died, as did the other soldier. This guy was injured quite seriously quite how I don’t now recall.
You know, when that guy got out of my car my senses were all compassion. Me, one who’s wrecked dinner parties, weirdly had a furious go with the proprietor of a classy motel I stayed at in Ahipara (one night only – next morning was excruciating), suffered stern tickings-off from close friends re my unintelligible (to them) “Palestine stuff”. As (I hope) a very human being it was salutary to meet and talk with another human being, a tool of evil, who’d paid a personal price.
That said, to the couch squatters of Khandallah (and seemingly damned near everywhere else in this ‘kind’ country), those who watch TV One’s coverage of the biennial fish-in-a-barrel killing-fest on Gaza and sighingly, mock-sagely remark – “Well…..they WILL keep on firing those rockets……” – no quarter from me for you bastards !
lol…interesting conversation which i have only just read…just to add to it….we have a NZ artist friend ( who used to have a picture of Gaddaffi in his kitchen..he was an admirer) who picked a hitch hiker up at the bottom of the Takaka Hill on the Motueka side…turned out the hitch hiker was Israeli ….so they argued all the way up the Takaka Hill …at the top, unwisely the Israeli said that “Palestine is just a bunch of real estate for the pickings”…!
…at which point our friend then biffed him out of the car and told him to go take a hike down the other side ….
imo great that NZers feel passionately for the injustices and killings perpetuated against the Palestinians and the loss of their land of Palestine!
I’m guessing its because some kiwis feel unfairly vilified by Labour and are attempting to redress the unfairness by pointing out whats really happening
What the Labour Party released wasn’t as accurate as we’d like but it was accurate enough to show what’s happening. The BS you provided was, well, bullshit.
I assume it’s something that C/T and National have come up with to try and spin the facts as they do when the facts don’t go their way.
Can Labour prove that any individual buyer is foreign? No. All we have is their last name.
So no way of determining whether even the Chinese sounding names belong to Foreign nationals, let alone say anything about the 60% of non-Chinese names?
So ‘accurate’ enough to back a cheap political shot or a racial prejudice, but not quite like the dictionary says huh?
” correct in all details; exact.”
What, house prices and power bills aren’t through the roof, we haven’t got skyrocketing government debt, and public money wasn’t spent on the oravida tour or double-dipton’s mortgage? Let alone the fact that our PM is a bit weird about hair-pulling without permission.
Totally the same league as lightbulbs and showerheads.
Now you have accepted such a low standard of data as a legitimate level of ‘proof’ on this occasion McFlock, I look forward to correcting you the next time you try to dismiss evidence of a similar standard supporting something you are not so keen on.
It’s reasonably solid methodology, with some reasonable assumptions. And it strongly indicates that this is an area where we need a register. But “proof” is a strong word, even with single rather than double quotes.
I believe that outside of formal disciplines, ‘proof’ is actually quite a soft and flexible concept. The evidence accepted as ‘proof’ of guilt by one jury might be completely rejected by another.
So your statement that the data satisfies you there are grounds for action would indicate that you feel something has been ‘proved’ to some extent?
I seem to recall that the only further action I’ve recommended as a result of this research is a register of offshore owners so we have good data to work from.
Feel free to link to where I’ve said more than that.
So as it is, if someone else puts forward some reasonably solid data that produces counter-intuitive results, and says that this is ‘proof’ that we need further research, I’d probably be in general agreement that something needs to be looks into more closely.
So have fun “correcting” me to that level. Which seems a bit less dramatic than “Now you have accepted such a low standard of data as a legitimate level of ‘proof’ on this occasion McFlock, I look forward to correcting you the next time you try to dismiss evidence of a similar standard supporting something you are not so keen on.” I read that and it sounded to me like you’d caught me sayng that John Key was a good guy because he gave someone a couple of bottles of wine.
And something that will not be easily solved, and I think we’ll have to live with – proxy agents. As long as real estate in Auckland goes up 15% pa and will be double in 10 years etc. etc. – You’d be mad not to put your money (if you have it – or your families) in that rather than the Chinese sharemarket, for example. Current capitalism as it stands with its fiat currency is broken – NZ is a good place to legally put your money into a tangible asset.
How do we balance geopolitics and the current macroeconomic regime against having a fair inclusive society?
Or do we just accept a new class system with all its glass ceilings?
We can attempt to do something now or wait for a bloody good war or plague. Don’t think we’re better than history tells us.
Ever heard of proxy buyers? http://www.realestate.co.nz/about/glossary#p
Used extensively by off shore purchasers to get around all manner of restrictions.
That article just proves the point.
ooops see Thom beat me to it. That is the biggest threat. That article is just an attempted white-wash (if you will forgive the pun). But it it just raises the suspicions, and anger, further when one knows just what was going on there!
It is good to see that Labour are doing something for small business owners with regard to the way tax payments can be made.
“At present, provisional tax rules require a business to estimate, in advance, its taxable profits for the year and pay tax in three large instalments over the year.
“If they guess wrong, they can be faced with a big bill at the end of the year which can push a small business to the wall,” Mr Little said.
“Under Labour’s proposal, businesses will have the option of choosing to pay their tax through regular instalments at a rate they can adjust. This means businesses can align their payments to suit their circumstances.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11482508
This proposal makes a lot of sense to me and it will be interesting to see how small business owners respond to and contribute to the discussion. The myth that National is the go-to party for those in business has persisted far too long. Right wing lobby groups like NZ Initiative are happy to compromise worker safety in the pursuit of cost saving, but there ARE other ways of making life better for business owners without putting employees health and safety at risk,
Labour’s problem is that they’re not in government, so they can suggest any great-sounding policy without actually having to implement it, or even study how to implement it.
It’s no secret that IRD’s systems are undergoing a massive re-development at the moment, precisely because they are so unwieldy to update to respond to new government policy.
In other words, National may have already come up with plans on how to change provisional tax to make it fairer / easier, but had to abandon the plans in the face of the IRD’s decrepit systems.
Labour’s problem is that they’re not in government, so they can suggest any great-sounding policy without actually having to implement it, or even study how to implement it.
They’ve studied it and put forward ideas. Interestingly enough, National have now come out and said that Labour has stolen their policy.
It’s no secret that IRD’s systems are undergoing a massive re-development at the moment, precisely because they are so unwieldy to update to respond to new government policy.
That’s the big one and that needs to be done before any tax changes are put in place IMO. Of course, up until that point the politicians should be looking at renewing our entire tax system because at the moment it’s got way too many loopholes in it to be efficient and lets far too many people get away with not paying the taxes that they should be.
As I understand it you can do something similar to this. Every time you pay your GST you can also add in an extra amount tagged for Provisional tax. You can also make payments at anytime to provisional tax.
Just a heads up Bernie Sanders will be doing some good old fashioned, organisation on the 29 th. He may be a social democrat, but he gets organisation and talking frankly with working people.
Why is there so much bleating in the media about farmers needing help? Did they not make a lifestyle choice. Maybe they made some bad decisions similar to the children living in poverty who made a bad decision in choosing their parents. Surely they do not want the support of society because as their sainted Margaret Thatcher said, “they’re casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families.”
Yes but they are Farmers, and Farmers starts with an F which is further along the alphabet than C for Children and it logically follows that last-on-is-first-off. While Farmers are out standing in their fields, Children often just sit around dying in poverty all day. Simple maths: two in the pocket equals votes on the downturn, so tally-ho the old jolly what what, eh, what?
How about you try posting some opinions that put forward your vision and ‘aspirations’ for New Zealand rather than the carping, snide, petty and puerile comments we have got to know you for?
Is that within your remit ? Or are you told to simply come here to derail?
How about you face the fact that Twyfords little announcement is being seen for what it was (dog whistling racism) and not just by people on the right but also by people on the left
Revelations in court yesterday show the link goes further than just Jones, as Shane Phillips (also known as Shane Te Pou), a professional Labour Party fundraiser, had close links with Mr Yan, taking him on a trip to Hawke’s Bay which included a visit with then Labour Internal Affairs minister Rick Barker. – Shane Te Pou, unwanted baggage NBR 22 May 2012
Beat me to it Ovid. Another right winger is angling for his 15 mins of fame by resigning in a very public manner. Labour is no doubt the better for his departure too. He wants Little to apologise to him. I think he’s out of luck!
And him and his Lounge Lizard mate standing over and bullying people at the last Auckland List Conference.
This wife is not the wife he cheated on by using the Union credit card in various brothels which got him turfed out of the Union job. Bloody good riddance I say.
Apologies for the full-length article, this was from a database and is not linkable
Helen Clark pressures Te Pou to quit, Sunday News, 13 July 1997, p.1. – David Fisher
A TOP trade unionist and Labour Party Maori Council chairperson has quit under pressure from Helen Clark after she was told he misused union money.
Shane Te Pou (30) was forced to quit as president of the Trade Union Federation, national secretary of the United Food and Beverage Workers Union and chairperson of the Labour Party Maori Council.
It’s understood the $4000 involved has been repaid.
Te Pou’s Auckland lawyer, Barry Wilson, faxed a statement to Sunday News saying his client resigned his posts for health reasons.
“Mr Te Pou has recently suffered ill health, which has required him to undergo a minor medical procedure at Middlemore Hospital.
“Accordingly he resigned from his positions in his union and the Labour Party to seek another career away from the union movement and politics.
“There have been some vicious rumours circulating about Mr Te Pou. These are an indication of the extent to which people are prepared to get involved in scumbag politics.”
Wilson also faxed a copy of Te Pou’s hand-written resignation to Labour Party president Michael Hirschfield which read: “Please accept this letter as my resignation from all official posts within the Labour Party. I will still remain a member of the Labour Party.”
His resignation was accepted.
Wilson said: “The other thing I’m absolutely emphatic about is he has not been involved in any misappropriation of funds. He has been ill, he had a medical procedure in Middlemore Hospital . . . an on-going gastric problem. It was stress-related. “He went into Middlemore Hospital about a month ago.”
When we asked Clark whether she’d heard the allegation some of the $4000 union money was used in massage parlours, she said: “Yes, that was in the range of it . . .
“I’ve heard the allegation and heard the union was taking action and did request letters of resignation go to the president.
“I wouldn’t want to comment on exactly what he did. I don’t have it from the horse’s mouth.
“I’ve heard it was serious enough for resignations . . .
“The problem with politics is you only make one mistake.”
When we called the United Food Beverage and General Workers Union last week a receptionist said Te Pou left on June 26 for health reasons.
Acting national secretary Neville Donaldson refused to say why Te Pou left when we called him in Dunedin yesterday.
“The union’s business is the union’s business. If the members wish to discuss it we will discuss it with them,” he said.
Te Pou, who unsuccessfully sought Labour’s Tamaki candidacy in 1992, featured in a Metro magazine article in 1992 (from which his P1 photo was taken), headlined “Young Smarties”.
It said he led his first strike at Kawerau High School over the curriculum. As a teenager he heckled National Party meetings and was Northern Hotel Workers Union president at 20.
David Lange said Te Pou wouldn’t “abandon his roots for the sake of a free air ticket or a Bellamys lunch”.
Te Pou said: “I can bring a grassroots affinity. I think I know where people are at.”
Funnily enough, I tend to agree with both helen Kelly and Stephen Joyce: weasel words to pander to an audience of tories, fudging the fact that the problem with fire-at-will is that it lacks fairness. So requiring fairness by definition removes fire-at-will. Whether the level of “fairness” is to return to the old probationary periods (or even stronger), or add some fudging around the terms that doesn’t really change too much, that’s weaselly.
Nope – fairness will be …. “”We just want to make a requirement to give feedback so the person knows whether they’re on track to make the grade or not.””
So – you he wants people to be told that they are on the firing track. I can live with that.
Glad to see that he seems to realise that some people are just wrong and you have to get rid of them.
However, Im guessing he will change his view yet again before the election.
It seems that the main difference was “an obligation to communicate any concerns to the employee and obligations to supervise and review. ” Sounds pretty consistent with “give feedback so the person knows whether they’re on track to make the grade”.
Probationary Periods under the Employment Relations Act Prior to 12th Dec 08
Under section 67 of the Act parties to an employment agreement can agree to a probationary period but it must be specified in the agreement. The law relating to an unjustified dismissal still applies to a situation where an employee is dismissed during or at the end of a probationary period. Any decision to terminate employment during a probationary period must be accompanied by fair warning, an obligation to communicate any concerns to the employee and obligations to supervise and review. The employer would be faced with legal proceedings by the prospect of the employee being able to raise a personal grievance under the Employment Relations Act.
Changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 on 12th Dec 2008 regarding the 90 Day Probationary Period
The changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000, were passed on the 12th December 2008 relating to trial periods, however this change in legislation will come into effect on 1 March 2009.
Employers will only be allowed to enter into trial periods from 1 March 2009. Only employers who have 19 or fewer staff can offer trial employees to new staff members.
Trial periods can only be entered into with an employee, only if the employer has never employed that employee before. The trial period must be agreed to in writing in accordance with good faith as part of a written employment agreement and signed by both parties and can last up to 90 calendar days.
During the trial period, an employee has access to all the employment rights afforded to any other employee, including access to mediation services, and rights regarding health and safety, pay, etc. During this period an employer may terminate the employee’s employment, and the employee may not pursue a personal grievance on the grounds of unjustified dismissal. However, the employee may pursue other personal grievances, on the grounds specified in sections 103(1)(b) to (g) of the Employment Relations Act. These provisions relate to matters such as discrimination, racial or sexual harassment, duress in relation to membership (or non-membership) of a union etc.
Employers must comply with any provisions in the employment agreement regarding notice, including the period of notice that must be given and whether notice must be in writing. Notice must be given within the trial period, even if the actual dismissal doesn’t become effective until after the trial period ends. Existing provisions for probationary periods of employment in the Employment Relations Act 2000 will remain.
I’m sure that the next meeting he has down at the local union hall he’ll saying the 90 day law will be repealed, hes seems like a flip flop say anything to anyone type of guy
This is pretty amazing. I thought there was no way they’d try to go right, because, well, they couldn’t. But no, no hurdle is too impossible, they are actually going to try to become the National Party while National still exist. I can imagine Key leaning over to Nathan Guy and saying, “They… they can see us here, right?”
I did not become a Labour Party member to support anti worker bullshit like the 90 day law.
Whilst never being fired under the 90 day Act I have had to deal with the huge amount of anxiety that this law creates. Having a policy of “Adding a fairness requirement” will not go any way towards reassuring workers in those anxious first three months.
I’ve also seen a young friend go through the stress of his first three months at his very first job and he was so relieved when he got to the end of those three months. “Phew! Made it!” he texted. Is that any kind of condition to be working under??? FFS!!!
The previous law that allowed for a trial period for both employer and employee but didn’t allow for workers to be fired at will without explanation as the 90 day Act does, was a fair law and workers knew where they stood and at least had the protection of the law if they were unjustifiably dismissed.
Mr Little, do you want to win in 2017 or not? Or are you expecting the bosses to turn out and vote for you and the workers to stay home on election day?
Thank goodness for Helen Kelly is there to challenge him and for the first time in my life I find myself agreeing with Steven Joyce and his comment that Andrew Little’s stance is “weasel words”
Little wants to win thats why hes back tracking on this, voters of NZ agree with this so to go against it would be like National removing WFF (they should)
Sometimes you have to swallow a dead rat or two…or three and Littles going to be doing a lot swallowing over the next few months/years
“The question frequently came up from employers, Little said, with every employer indicating they already gave feedback to any worker they let go, so they would not be affected under Labour’s policy.”
Two questions. “every employer”. Is that every employer ever since 2008 has given feedback to the employees they fired, or just the ones who told Andrew Little they did, and how can we trust their word anyway?
Does feedback like “I didn’t like they way you dressed” or what ever the employer decides to make up to justify their decision, make it OK that they are being fired? How is that making the 90 day Act fairer?
I’m actually hoping he will write a post about it for TS readers and we can have an open discussion with him. Clarity is required for Labour members, non members, workers and potential Labour voters.
“Everybody who is enraged at this needs to start lobbying now.”
Why? What difference will it make? We might lobby a right-wing government and win a small battle. It’s always worth doing that, for the benefit of those affected, keeping the pressure up, maintaining a sense of opposition and critique in a democratic society etc etc. But lobbying a political party that’s made up of people who’re meant to be our friends? On individual issues we think important despite knowing that Labour reflects core values and beliefs anathema to our core values and beliefs? That’s just finger in the dyke stuff. Labour is beyond redemption. We need to start treating Labour as the irrelevancy its become. Continuing to have hope that Labour might some day change is akin to colluding with keys and his henchmen because it means offering no opposition. That’s why things have become so tragic.
I’m already reeling from the pro government statement I heard last night, from the head and founder of an NGO, who also managed to completely blame the very people they serve, for the circumstances they find themselves in. Imagine Mike Hoskings in charge supporting vulnerable people and you have this person.
I have been considering the idea of exposing this NGO for their hypocrisy and ignorance but it would harm the people they are there to support and it would get another person in trouble who doesn’t deserve to be in trouble. I have been grappling with this today.
And now this. Black is white and white is black.
It’s a stunning evening with the sun going down soon and I want to go and catch those beautiful rays before they disappear, go feed my ducks and chill out.
Should we be surprised by this? Yes, of course we can say that Little’s sold out and should resign blah blah blah, but who’d replace him? What would any Labour leader do differently? When die-hard Labour supporters finally understand what Labour has irrevocably become the better. Because as soon as that happens we’ll have the long-overdue impetus needed to obliterate Labour from the political landscape and to start again from scratch to create a proper party of the left. Current Labour is infested to the core with right-wing ideology and is no longer viable. “Broad church” my arse. That’s the excuse we’re all fed to make us believe these goons are still on our side. They’re not and haven’t been for a very long time. We all need to realise this.
‘Baby Boomers strike back – “Economic nationalists Vs Global cosmopolitans” – Phil Quin & Keith Ng – your membership papers for the Green Party are ready’
…”I was invited to Labour’s Auckland meeting with Caucus last night and I was keen to hear what they thought about their Chinese speculator crusade and how it was impacting them.
Firstly, the place was genuinely buzzing. 300 people make some noise and it wasn’t the usual Labour Party diehards, it was money people who aren’t getting any traction with National because they aren’t personal friends with Steven Joyce. Bankers mixed with NGOs, the wine was being gulped back the way nervous children drink before their divorced parents turn up for Christmas dinner….”
Yup, first the NZ First style Chinese attack, and now we see the follow up National Lite support for the 90 day legislation….
It’s clear that Labour have decided how they need to present the Party in order to directly target the Center / Center Right voters they need to win the next election.
Will be fascinating to see where they go if they get an immediate poll bump….
I disagree. As a business owner this has freed up our ability to hire. It even gives us clear guidelines on managing the transition of staff into the business. That 3 months (and it doesn’t need to be any longer) focus us on doing everything that we need to do as an employer by ensuring that the employee understands the job and what we need them to do in a non confrontational way.
Employees are more focussed on what they need to do and aren’t afraid to raise issues. They see that we want them to succeed. We chose them out of another 30 odd applicants. Our work place is happier, more inclusive. It has been much better all around.
I actually think it has struck the right balance.
+100 PR….on a rare occasion I agree with you Puckish Rogue….and good call by Andrew Little and Labour imo…small businesses often struggle and many businesses are very good employers
btw… here I am talking about Labour’s flexible plans to help small businesses do their commercial book keeping as required incrementally without penalities for being late
…about 90 day trial periods I have reservations because of unfair dismissals and the potential for exploitation …however the CTU line on Labour policy is :
“If Labour introduced “just cause” provisions to the trials to allow personal grievances, the CTU could accept that, as this returned to the earlier rules in existing laws covering probationary periods.”
On a flimsy shield of light blue, a chicken, rampant, with one right wing, two left feet and a tin ear. Supporters: on the right, a CEO in a suit of grey. On the left…? Motto: “This space for hire: cheap rates”
Today on Whale Oil I got banned because I wouldn’t stop making comments like this.
I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I think kiwis are genuinely concerned about the issue of overseas investors driving up house prices. Yeah the data wasn’t the best but it was probably the best obtainable at the time. Labour said it wasn’t the best and that better data was needed. National modus operandai on issues like this seems to be deny deny deny, then obfuscate as much as possible. They did the same with children in poverty and their delaying around providing information on OIA requests smacks of the same arrogant mentality.
These guys are in there to work for us. Get the good data, put it out for the public to see. then deal with the issue. If you don’t want to deal with it because you and your fellow Mps own property in Auckland. Say so. The next election will probably take care of their position on that.
I guess it depends on how much our childrens future and ensuring it is a good one matters to people, If it doesn’t we can stick with the starus quo.
+100…jonkey nactional hopes we will ignore it if there are no stats…and the problem will go away or be buried …especially if the Greens and other idiots accuse Labour and NZF and everyone else of being racist …. for talking about their experiences
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The garish immediate past Corrections minister Tolley and the present out-of-his-depth minister, Key’s favourite fiapalagi Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga, must be ejected from Cabinet. Last task – accompany Serco out of New Zealand back to the UK. Collins was Corrections minister not that long ago. That should be her task as well.
It beggars belief that with Key’s much-vaunted “no surprises” imperative all of these ministers did not know about all of this. Hoisting off to foreign rentiers the New Zealand communities’ responsibility to deal with its societal dysfunction is a recipe for disaster. It’s “PPPP”. “Piss on Prisons and People for Profit”.
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Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ welcomes the coalition Government’s endeavour to take action on reducing agricultural emissions but is disappointed at the weak stance that the Government has taken on the issue. ...
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has issued a formal warning under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) to seven reporting entities within the Regus Management Limited (RNZML) designated business ...
The Northland Regional Council (NRC) has voted to exclude all GM/GE precautionary provisions in its regional plan, despite years of community engagement showing support for such protection. There is a sense of betrayal following the way the NRC Chairman ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
Tara Ward reviews Funny As, a series that documents the history of New Zealand comedy, and manages to be a key part of that history in its own right.Kiwi comedy has come a long way since Fred Dagg first fell out ...
Cave à Vin founder Zane Kelsall says he has been in ‘intense therapy’ following sexual misconduct claims in Halifax.Last week, The Spinoff published a story about Cave à Vin, a new wine bar on Auckland’s North Shore. The story hailed ...
Hundreds of artefacts connected with the lesbian community in New Zealand are displayed in a small volunteer-run museum in West Auckland.Charmaine always had crushes on girls. When she was head girl of Auckland Girls’ Grammar, she fell in love with ...
From a school for budding beekeepers to a street-side garden growing produce for locals, Auckland’s abuzz with projects making the city safer for pollinators.Auckland’s a hive of activity aimed at helping our pollinators and it’s all a part of For ...
After watching a mind-bending film about a dying magician that reminded him of Tickled, David Farrier interviewed the director, only to have his interview disappear.This has never happened before. I’ve never lost audio from an interview, and it’s the most ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk New Zealand’s unprecedented “internet-native mass shooting” attack on two mosques, the New Caledonia independence referendum, Fiji’s general election and news media responses are featured in the latest Pacific Journalism Review being published next week. Analysis ...
Aldous Harding is coming back to New Zealand. In the lead-up to her shows, she spoke to The Spinoff about live TV, maturity, and the weirder interpretations of her songs.Aldous Harding is calling from her home in Wales. Only a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Flannery, Planetary Scientist, Queensland University of Technology This weekend marks 50 years exactly since humans first walked on the Moon. It also marks Australia’s small but significant role in enabling NASA ...
The Lightbulb asks innovators and entrepreneurs how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Aaron Jones, founder of Christchurch-based reusable bag company Zerobag.First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Zerobag.Zerobag is a New Zealand-owned ...
Aaron Kreisler looks beyond the gags in this survey of an artist and his dogsat the Christchurch Art Gallery.“The dog really must love him, it’s so incredibly patient…”, a woman says to her daughter, punctuating a screening of Coin ...
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and ...
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University Instagram is running a social media experiment in Australia and elsewhere to see what happens when it hides the number of likes on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling You’ve probably heard that this week marks 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon – a feat that still boggles the mind given ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane.Channel HoppingStupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $35)Fucking ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Griebsch, Specialist and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine, University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney, Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection ...
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...
Finance companies say they shouldn’t have to be ‘fit and proper’ even though in some cases they charge more than the planned clampdown on high cost lending. A group of finance companies that charges well over the government’s proposed cap on ...
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign Affairs and trade Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): The new, ...
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, CSIRO The role Australia played in relaying the first television images of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the Moon 50 years ago this July features in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndal Sleep, Research Fellow, Griffith University In Australia’s social security laws, the “couple rule” is used to determine if a person is in a relationship, tying access to Centrelink payments to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Walker, Lecturer (Management), Victoria University of Wellington We live in a society obsessed with performance. For both young and old, competitions, awards and rankings are an inescapable feature of life. How ...
Open mike 17/07/2015 
Open mike is your post.
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New Zealand dollar in free fall.
Milk prices in free fall.
Private and public debt on the increase.
An economy based on real estate, immigration and dairy prices tottering on the brink of collapse.
When are the media (and New Zealanders) going to start questioning the financial management of this appalling government ?
And how does the media let them get away with comments like .’we’re optimistic about the futures.’
because they are the Kiwis that will sell their properties and businesses to the higher bidder and move elsewhere.
simple as that.
its only the poor schmuck that will get to stay behind in a ditch or under a bridge.
But lets remember, and this is most important, That Labour does it too.
It seems you enjoy putting New Zealand down. What’s wrong with ya?
zzzzzzzzzzzz
Paul is a [deleted. Unjustified, unnecessary and likely to start a flame war – MS]
You don’t like people who challenge your miserable behaviour on this site, do you pr?
Its funny but I was about to say the exact same thing to you
How about you try posting some opinions that put forward your vision and ‘aspirations’ for New Zealand rather than the carping, snide, petty and puerile comments we have got to know you for?
Is that within your remit ? Or are you told to simply come here to derail?
How about commenting on the state of NZ dollar and milk prices and your solutions rather than making ad hominem comments ?
My opinion is thus, the lowering of the dollar while not good for exporting is good for manufactoring
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/70297368/canterbury-manufacturers-relieved-at-a-falling-dollar
Milk prices are cyclical, there’ll be raises and falls and if you look the industry over the last few decades you’ll see this is nothing new
Labours cynical ploy at vilifying people with chinese names is, in the long run, a smart play because Labour know that when it comes down to it WinstonFirst will go with National rather then Labour so stealing votes of Winstonfirst with anti-asian rhetoric won’t hurt them at all and any Labour voters disgusted with this ploy will probably just go to the Greens
Inflation is virtually nothing so prices for consumables are good and mortgage rates are fantastics
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/economic_indicators/CPI_inflation/ConsumersPriceIndex_MRJun15qtr.aspx
So, quite frankly, NZ is in a good place and all the impotent left can do is try to manufacture lies which the voting public of NZ see right through
1. Do you not think that the present global dairy milk glut is something new? These articles would suggest this is the case and that it could last for quite a long time. With farming debt huge thanks to conversions to dairy and intensification, any long slump will see the fire sale of farms. And much of this will be to overseas interests.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-milk-glut-is-udder-misery-for-new-zealand-farmers-1418317202
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/1/12/china/will-milk-be-next-commodity-turn-sour
http://www.china.org.cn/world/Off_the_Wire/2015-04/30/content_35462532.htm
2. I agree a lower dollar is good for manufacturing. Sadly we don’t have as much of it as we did before the neoliberal experiment started in the 1980s, but nevertheless, a lower dollar means exporters can compete better. There is one downside to a lower dollar. Higher fuel prices which will impact on the costs of I everything transported by truck in this country. So people’s shopping baskets will cost more.
Had we diversified our economy more, the problem of a dairy slump would not have been so severe.
Had we placed more emphasis on renewable energy and a more progressive transport policy, the price of fuel would not affect us so much.
Fuel prices are fine and if the diary farmers can’t run their businesses effectively then they need to look at what they’re doing
I give up.
Seriously I don’t have much time for farmers, farming may be the backbone of NZ but farmers arn’t.
Inherited wealth rarely does anyone anygood and farmers are proof of that
Most farmers outsource the risk to sharemilkers, herd managers and contract milkers, so they are more or less insulated from anything that happens. If the worst comes to the worst, they can sell up and walk away.
Exactly, farmers (most not all of course) crying poverty and simply crocodile tears
Pr. What’s a diary farmer?… If National can’t run a country properly they need to look at what they’re doing! We are in free fall!
To late MS – but thanks for trying – we got a flame war.
Paul is a mine canary and New Zealand is being run like Pike River.
Yep Paul is very good at identifying important stories and trends. No wonder the right attack him.
Agreed, and has a lot of energy as well.
I’d like to acknowledge Paul’s contribution over the time I have visited. I always feel stronger and more prepared to try make a difference after reading his comments.
I don’t know how he does it. I’ve come to the conclusion he has several brains all parked in different places.
It seems you, along with this government, enjoy destroying NZ through the use of outdated policies that have been proven conclusively (The Great Depression, The GFC, every recession in between and human induced climate change) not to work.
John Key did promise we were “on the cusp of something special”.
Yes, Jane Kelsey reckons our FIRE Economy ( Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) is on the brink of collapse.
I you believe Jane Kelsey, you can also trust Father Christmas, Peter Pan and the tooth fairy. Goodonya for keeping the faith.
CP -Such a clever insightful comment which contributes so much to the debate.
(that’s sarc).
Again, can you debate without reverting to the puerile ad homins?
You have never had any sort of interaction with Jane have you.
Read and learn.
http://www.interest.co.nz/business/76568/jane-kelsey-warns-were-economic-doom-if-we-dont-stop-trying-make-money-money
We are for him and his investor mates ,fonterra will be ripe for the picking next year and 10% of dairy farms are likely to go on the market IMO
Re : (John Key did promise we were “on the cusp of something special”)
His farts for the people.
To my friends who are involved with the celebrations:
Happy Eyd-e Fetr or Eid al-Fitr 🙂
Stephen Joyce on Radio New Zealand mouthing platitudes….”cycles, been through this before, an unusual year, not looking for handouts….blahblahblah….”
No ideas, no solutions. A government bereft of ideas.
Even Mr Fix it can’t fix this mess his government is in.
Sam Lotu-Iiga is ‘disappointed’ with Serco after online videos are released of fighting within Mt Eden prison.
Yet he defends Serco’s governance of Mt Eden prison by gibbering on about ‘league tables, highest performing prison in the country, it’s a remand prison, they uphold the highest standards, they are in the exceptional category.’
It was like listening to an answer machine playing over and over again.
Totally useless.
Serco’s boss ( from Scotland) claims they are doing ‘a fantastic job’ , they ‘deliver a very, very good service at Mt Eden’ and that ‘they are the top of the table.’
Another investigation, another review while the lame stream media fails to follow through on a story.
Private prisons are bascially human flesh trading — no different to the slave trade really. A lot of people forget that in the 18th and 19th centuries they had private prisons as well — private companies also had the transportation contracts for inmates sent to Australia. These fights have a mandingo-ish air about them. Wouldnt be suprised if the guards put them up to it.
Consider the near incapacity of a mid-60s adult to stem tears on hearing this message delivered with resigned, traumatised eyes by an under 20 year old –
“If I go back there I’m gonna HAVE to join up with one of them. They want me……”
For many, many young guys the inevitable consequence of remand in Serco – within days of arrival, unconvicted, unsentenced, earmarked as a prospect, a conscript soldier of the future, by competing gangs. With absolutely no choice about joining/not joining. Oh but life always has hope ! Preferring one gang over another at least protects from the other gang. Fail to declare – daily brutality from all. No wonder Serco’s known as “The Jungle”.
For those who might find it self-comforting to duck responsibility for the inhumanity daily brought down on boys like that in Serco, with the denial inherent in sniffy verbiage like – “Oh, manipulating I see…….” – “20 next birthday…….c’mon…….thats an adult” – “Tut tut tut…….bad choices bad choices !” – to people like that I would say with all the bitter disgust I can summon – “OK, I’m gonna put YOUR sons, YOUR grandsons in Serco for a month !”
Without further they’d immediately understand. Tears ? They’d be screaming !
I shouldn’t be harsh. These are the NZ resident replicants of the British investor class all those thousands of miles away. The ones who routinely know all they need to know by dint of their frequent walks not in the moccasins.
Serco is actually a foremost disgrace of this nation’s many disgraces. It’s no wonder that amongst its ‘guests’ it’s unaffectionately coined “The Jungle”. Serco has a sign out front which in glorious PR verbosity conveys this tiding of successful aspiration – “average stay 23 days”. Yes, well it is a remand prison.
Are you CERTAIN that 23 days (average) isn’t long enough…….Mr British Investor Replicant In NZ…….to fuck up, random that it’s irreversible, the psyche/mind/body of your sons, your grandsons ? You are silent Sir…….why pray ?
don’t forget they will be monitored to see how serco are following the rules and such, who by …. by serco of course.
How can serco monitor their own company with honesty?
Still serco bring out their rhetoric “we will deliver good service blah blah blah”
Is Mt Eden run by a skeleton crew so serco’s shareholders get their moneys worth.?
What about serco’s loud and proud staements we are COMMITTED to getting recidivism down to 25%.
The list of their failing is world renown except apparently in NZ
Sam Lotu-liga should grow a set and get some real investigation going on into this corrections fight club.
FFS its a crock and National have opened the door to the “everyone else has a better way of ruling I mean running this country.”
To: Paul
One of the problems is that we Kiwis do not even understand simple concepts such as advantage and disadvantage in currency.
I have even been chided on this Standard Left /Green blog – for pointing out that $1.00 of New Zealand money will get you just $0.41 cents of British Pounds.
This means that if a person from Britain using GBP currency, buys a $million house here, they will pay only $410,000. Whereas of course, a Kiwi using $NZD currency will pay the full $Million Dollar price.
If the person were to buy two $Million homes in New Zealand, they would pay $820,000 British Pounds.
Whereas a Kiwi using $NZD buying two $Million Dollar homes would pay $2, 000,000.
The difference between $2, 000,000 and $820,000 is $1.18 million Dollars.
Imagine if the same person bought ten NZ$ Million Dollar homes…
There would be no problem if foreign speculators were not allowed to buy houses here.
Really? What is your evidence for this highly doubtful claim? Which real estate firm’s data are you relying on, Barfoot and Thompson’s or JamesLaw’s? The complete and utter failure to understand even the basics of how to analyse data and extrapolate robust and defendable conclusions from same by Twyford/Little and half the posters/commenters on this site beggars belief. Suggest you all take some serious time out and only re-enter the fray after several cups of tea. It’s all getting rather silly
Supermarkets destroy small businesses.
The high cost of low prices.
Even the Mad Butcher chain can’t compete.
Look at our small towns and see how big box stores and supermarkets have gutted them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11482026
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/shopkeepers-lose-fight-against-new-supermarket-ng-150438
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/may/03/supermarkets-kill-free-markets-communities
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1570612/Supermarkets-kill-high-streets-says-report.html
This is one way to revitalise our dying town centre’s
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/high-street-shops-enjoy-huge-sale-spike-after-thieves-destroy-welsh-towns-parking-meters-10393549.html
Brilliant! Free parking would be a great idea in small towns. As would free public transport in big cities.
And this.
A tax on supermarkets.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/apr/10/tax-supermarket-high-street-shops-thinktank
And watch at how online shopping destroys the big stores as well.
If you want to revitalise the town centres then turn them into a social space rather than a retail space.
+100
+100
A very clever idea.
Have just heard a interesting interview with a spokesman for the farmers on Breakfast this morning. He was saying that it was disappointing that 500 workers had to be laid off, it was a knee jerk reaction to the falling prices and what management should have been doing (like the farmers I suspect) was put aside fat year by year for the lean times when they happened and not just sacrifice staff – he said it was not good for Fonterra to have staff too busy looking over their shoulders wondering when they were the next when they should be concentrating on growing the business – management should have been concentrating on working on value added commodities etc etc.
Management can’t even promise there won’t be more workers laid off in the future – not good for management/farmers relationships in the future. I always felt this was going to happen – that the worm would turn. Just being down on the Viaduct Basin in their flash multi-million dollar building with too many chiefs on fat salaries – my old Dad always said spread your investment and not put too many apples in the one basket. Wonder what the management are going to come back and say on the counter attack. Bloody disgrace if you ask me.
I’m wonder how much the management will pay themselves in bonuses this year.
Yes I agree – some of the top floor’s saleries are absurd let alone bonuses on top. But I think it is interesting that farmers could be turning against the company – I thought the top honcho was a Dutchman and I was always under the impression they drove a hard ship, surely he could have kept the saleries under check. The morale in the lower echelons must be terrible – what’s Humpty Mr Fixit going to say about all this I wonder and as always Key is sunning himself away from all this going down, doing only what teflon can do. Drama couldn’t be better and just as well as there is sweet ….. all on our TV these days.
Just warbled on this morning on Morning Report.
Platitudes like it’s a cycle….
With friends like this, farmers must be thinking….
Why is it Government’s job to ensure a particular sector of the economy is receiving viable prices for what they produce?
Why is it you frame such stupid questions?
If you don’t believe that Government should govern, don’t get involved in politics.
+100
Brilliant CV ! Gossy’ll be taking it out on every random unaccompanied canine that minding its own business trots on past his place. Run dog run ! CV’s fucked him off and poor duffer can’t help it.
Why am I not surprised Paul – what never ceases to amaze me is that there are so many citizens in NZ who just cannot see how useless this Govt. is and has been and still think they are managing the economy bla bla. The Govt were the creaters of Fonterra in the first place weren’t they? Is there something in the drinking water that is affecting Nat voters for goodness sake, that people can be so preoccupied and dense as to what is going on. Its soul destroying.
“The Govt were the creaters of Fonterra in the first place weren’t they?”
Yes they were. The Commerce Commission of the time turned the idea down but the Government decided they knew better and went ahead with it.
That was in October 2001 that Fonterra started. God, the politicians in the Government of the day must have been crazy, mustn’t they?
Whoops. That wasn’t a National Government was it. It was the dopey lot on the other side who did it.
Is there something in the drinking water that is affecting left voters for goodness sake, that they forget their history?
Don’t forget David cunliffe had a part to play in the formation of fonterra as well, apparantly 🙂
ha ha yes, but even funnier is that farmers jumped on it when they are supposed to be anything but left wing….
why is that farmers in nz always act in a left wing way, such as establishing coops all over the place, yet talk in a right wing way? Don’t they know about these things? Maybe they would do better if their words matched their actions.
The big mistake that you’re making is thinking that the 5th Labour led government was left wing. It wasn’t. It may have been centrist than National but it still wasn’t of the Left.
I have never considered that the last Labour Government was “left wing”. They were the supreme pragmatists whose only interest was remaining in power.
The last Government we had who did things they believed to be necessary, without considering whether it would keep them in power was when Roger Douglas was the driving force in the Labour Government between the middle of1984 and the end of 1988.
What I was commenting on was Barbara’s apparent belief that it was the current, ie Key led Government, and National voters who are to blame for whatever Fonterra may be doing.
Barbara clearly doesn’t remember which Government it was that was in charge when Fonterra was created.
No, I have no problem blaming Labour for that balls-up.
yup, there goes the fat
Good morning fellow Lefties.
I spent 7 hours yesterday driving to and from visiting at that tomb of souls MECF-Serco in Mt Eden. That’s another story. I mention it only to explain how not until this morning did I see TRP’s post of yesterday – “An Open Letter To The Real Estate Whistleblower” – and comment between TRP and Tracey and others in the thread commencing with CV @ 4.1.1.1 My comment on that post earlier today is resubmitted here on OM in response to ridiculous and growing rancour in the debate. I’m motivated as a peacemaker here rather than as a muckraker, even if you’re left in no doubt as to my instant colours. Whether I succeed in that motivation is yours to choose – really only inviting everyone to pause for “a cup of tea……” so to speak.
” North…
17 July 2015 at 8:53 am
Tracey, no reply button to your comment timed 5.18 pm. Accordingly (and I don’t know where this comment will end up) I use the one on TRP’s comment of 2.06 pm –
You say – “Grow up TRP. You tried to shut CV down.”
What the hell then is the “Racist !” mantra levelled (in varying pitch) against others ? Forgive me the observation that it looks very much like a shutting-down device. Dependent on pitch it shapes also as a device for brutal humiliation.
I have a mind’s eye list of the Morality-Day-Trippers at the top of which are BM and Fisiani obviously. Given their customary, boldly vaunted taste for any cruel ‘-ism’ one might identify, their credibility here is zero. I dismiss them. No apologies. Entirely meet. Their true home is WhaleOil.
I cannot dismiss as moral thugs and arseholes you and CV and numerous others deservedly holding space on my similarly held second list – a list of decent, caring, philosophically mature, unafraid, morally consistent and resilient people who figure there after months, years of expressions which suggest innate possession of those qualities.
Is my estimation of you and CV and others wrong ? Of course it’s not. That is exactly why, apart from my one angry excursion into ‘the feral’ in response to one commenter (that person whom when not invoking dismissive bullying against others I know to be) “decent, caring etc etc……” – that is why I have tried to be respectful. CV particularly comes to mind.
Please contemplate how atrocious is the charge “Racist !” to those on my third list – people who are not in true character unlike you and CV and the many others on my second list. For my sins I include Twyford in that third list. To paint him a machiavellian amoral schemer as some have purported is fanciful frankly.
For me the reflexive “Racist !” charge sits on a spectrum from careless indulgence to cheap disrespect to the feral. It is not OK to give over to any point on that spectrum the broad issue at hand, viz. the various but always linked facets of the exponential shutting out of stakeholders in this country.
That broad issue is what has jointly exercised for so long the people on my second and third lists – this commonality might actually suggest an all-inclusive list.
Surely, if we’re talking of essence, it’s highly improbable that a bunch of “Racists !” could have sat undetected for so long in the welcoming company of others on that all-inclusive list ? ”
More tea anyone ?
I spent 7 hours yesterday driving to and from visiting at that tomb of souls MECF-Serco in Mt Eden. That’s another story
Respect.
Reminds me, I need to renew my membership of the Otago Howard League.
Thanks for your comment North, and for repeating it.
Thanks North. It needed to be said. And who could say it better… 🙂
onya North
I know we’ve done Greek to death – but this makes an interesting read:
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/greece-bailout-breaking-the-spell-for-europes-leftwing-parties-20150716-giddzu.html#ixzz3g5zC4lxj
From a self-proclaimed conservative no less.
Greece, Europe, and the United States
Interestingly enough, Galbraith still seems to think that the US is a shining light of democracy.
Exactly. Dark days for Europe ahead. Perhaps quite soon.
This is the deepest stupidity of all – the EU was founded and largely supported by Socialist and left-wing parties seeking way to break Europe out an age-old destructive cycle of nationalistic rivalries and wars. And to provide an economic platform which might lend a counter-balance to the USA.
The USA liberal establishment was happy to support the project as it gave a security buffer with the USSR.
But in a fit of utter, blind, ideological stupidity the EU technocrats have severed off the very branch they were perched upon. No-one believes in them anymore.
The EU is doomed. And there is no rule to say that what rises from the ashes will be better.
Fascinating to watch the US (through the IMF) try to sway the Eurogroup to its senses. Apparently the latest IMF document stating that Greece needed a 30 year repayment holiday was put in front of all assembled EU finance ministers last weekend.
They ignored it.
Are the Germans simply reverting to form do you think?
superior Aryans and all that horseshit…
People like you and RedLogix, being better versed in international affairs than I am, are no doubt better equipped than I am to comment on this, but it looks to me as if the US and the UK are on the one hand trying to shove neo-liberal economics down everyone’s throats, and on the other trying to get as many countries as possible onside so as to contain/threaten/separate the BRIC countries. However quite a few people have had a gutful of the harsh neo-lib formula and are getting harder to keep onside. So they may see the need to give some ground on the neo-lib front to keep Greece and other similarly placed countries within the EU.
Jeeze DtB … that is SO worth a read. And it’s Galbraith saying it. :very slow headshake:
Bernard Manning was damned for his racist taunts;
So how does Jerry Seinfeld get away with it?
Nine to Noon, Radio NZ National, Friday 17 July 2015
This morning, Lynn Freeman interviewed one Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, a Seinfeld-worshipper who has written a book grandly titled Seinfeldia: The Secret World of the Show About Nothing That Changed Everything. It was interesting enough, with both women sharing affectionate memories of some of the features of the show, from Kramer’s brilliant physical comedy to the hilariously deranged “Soup Nazi”.
But there’s more to Seinfeld than snappily written comedy. A lot of what Seinfeld gets up to is anything but funny. He has been, and continues to be, involved in some exceptionally nasty business. Sometimes this nastiness even found its way into the show itself. I sent Lynn Freeman a little reminder…..
Jerry Seinfeld
Dear Lynn,
I am always concerned when I hear adulatory comments about Jerry Seinfeld. Yes, his show is well written and it is funny, but there was a darker and more sinister side: unlike the great comedians of the past, Seinfeld does not identify or empathise with the poor and downtrodden, he expresses contempt for them.
In one infamous scene, Jerry says to Elaine, “Hey that’s life. Good-looking men have the same advantages. You don’t see any handsome homeless.”
It’s perhaps not a coincidence that Seinfeld himself continues to express support for extreme right wing causes in the United States and Israel, most infamously on David Letterman’s show when he expressed his contempt for, and amusement at, the plight of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Your example is very poor, then, out of context. That doesn’t sound like is expressing contempt for homeless people; just acknowledging in a very glib and superficial way what anyone who has seen multiple homeless people would conclude.
It’s like calling Labour pointing out that there is a disproportionate number of Chinese buyers of houses in NZ ‘racist’.
It is a Jew Arab thing which has been going down for centuries. There are plenty of American Jews that kick the crap out of Palestinians.
A couple of years ago a group of friends and I were at a bar, we started playing pool with a group from israel. Things cut up rough when one of them made a nasty remake about the Occupied Territories and Arabs. It become an all in brawl which was quite unsettling as 3 of their females were involved, extremely vicious they were with 1 punching and kicking a mate in the head after she decked him. When I saw this I remembered thinking these fuckers all do time in their army. After that I didn’t feel so bad cracking her over the head with a pool cue and laying into the rest, telling them to cut it out and clear off. They did but not before one of them smashed a bottle across a bounces jaw. It’s the only time I’ve hit a woman and thankfully the last.
Yeah, they are a very interesting population and psyche.
Their psyche is irrelevant. It’s their crimes that matter.
Their crimes are the result of their psyche which is seems to be a result of their vicious culture.
Good Lord, Skinny, remind me not to accompany you to any bars in future!
For the record, I have met one or two former Israeli soldiers, and they were very nice guys. One of them helped me fix my car, which had overheated.
I know that many of them are racist and violent, but that’s a sine qua non of serving in the Occupied Territories. New Zealand soldiers behaved just as badly in Egypt and Palestine in World War I, and in Samoa in the 1920s. Let’s not forget that even the worst of the soldiers is like that only because they are placed there to do a job that a few corrupt and fanatical politicians have sent them there to do.
Morrissey, you put me in mind of the time 7 or more years ago while on the Auckland-North trip I picked up an obviously foreign hitch hiker – one can ‘tell’ somehow.
Anyway, he was a conscript IDF reservist. Mid 20s. Recounted as a late-teens soldier in Tel Aviv or some other populous Israeli centre, patrolling with one other soldier. Completely randomly the other soldier was first to step up into a bus for the ‘terrorist check’.
Boom ! Passengers died, as did the other soldier. This guy was injured quite seriously quite how I don’t now recall.
You know, when that guy got out of my car my senses were all compassion. Me, one who’s wrecked dinner parties, weirdly had a furious go with the proprietor of a classy motel I stayed at in Ahipara (one night only – next morning was excruciating), suffered stern tickings-off from close friends re my unintelligible (to them) “Palestine stuff”. As (I hope) a very human being it was salutary to meet and talk with another human being, a tool of evil, who’d paid a personal price.
That said, to the couch squatters of Khandallah (and seemingly damned near everywhere else in this ‘kind’ country), those who watch TV One’s coverage of the biennial fish-in-a-barrel killing-fest on Gaza and sighingly, mock-sagely remark – “Well…..they WILL keep on firing those rockets……” – no quarter from me for you bastards !
lol…interesting conversation which i have only just read…just to add to it….we have a NZ artist friend ( who used to have a picture of Gaddaffi in his kitchen..he was an admirer) who picked a hitch hiker up at the bottom of the Takaka Hill on the Motueka side…turned out the hitch hiker was Israeli ….so they argued all the way up the Takaka Hill …at the top, unwisely the Israeli said that “Palestine is just a bunch of real estate for the pickings”…!
…at which point our friend then biffed him out of the car and told him to go take a hike down the other side ….
imo great that NZers feel passionately for the injustices and killings perpetuated against the Palestinians and the loss of their land of Palestine!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11482300
Probably more accurate then Labours stolen data
And arguably makes matters worse.
You’ve just presented evidence of one ethnic group representing 9% of the population buying 100% of real-estate currently on offer in Auckland.
Whichever way you cut it – that has some ugly implications.
Nope
“Mr Law said all were either New Zealand citizens or permanent residents.”
And your point is?
We’re all kiwis
What – so why mention the ethnicity of these kiwi buyers in the article at all?
I’m guessing its because some kiwis feel unfairly vilified by Labour and are attempting to redress the unfairness by pointing out whats really happening
And by logical extension it must be that suddenly none of the 91% of people in Auckland are at all interested in buying real-estate.
Good oh – problem solved. Can’t imagine what the fuss was all about.
Nope, it’ll be even less accurate as it only pertains to 23 sections and not all of Auckland.
Of course – but lets not spoil PR’s little game here.
Wow less accurate than something the Labour party announces with great glee thats really inaccurate
What the Labour Party released wasn’t as accurate as we’d like but it was accurate enough to show what’s happening. The BS you provided was, well, bullshit.
I assume it’s something that C/T and National have come up with to try and spin the facts as they do when the facts don’t go their way.
What the Labour Party released wasn’t as accurate as we’d like but it was accurate enough to show what’s happening.
It was accurate? If so, can someone tell me how many of the buyers on the list were foreign nationals from places other than China?
http://publicaddress.net/speaker/house-buying-patterns-in-auckland/
Can Labour prove that any individual buyer is foreign? No. All we have is their last name.
So no way of determining whether even the Chinese sounding names belong to Foreign nationals, let alone say anything about the 60% of non-Chinese names?
So ‘accurate’ enough to back a cheap political shot or a racial prejudice, but not quite like the dictionary says huh?
” correct in all details; exact.”
(You don’t need to see the data.)
We don’t need to see the data.
(This isn’t the data you’re looking for.)
This isn’t the data we’re looking for.
(Move along…)
Move along… Move along!
lol
How many days into it and you still haven’t bothered to read up on what you’re talking about?
No surprises there.
I’ve read enough to know that this was an principally an attempt to win back a few votes from the xenophobes that Winston panders to.
Either that or it was simply a continuation of the utter lack of commonsense political judgement Labour have been displaying for the last 9 years.
Can’t imagine Helen Clark approving this kind of dumb shit.
“wreckers & haters” she said.
Giving Dear Leader her dues she was a strong leader and I can respect that
“Dear Leader“?
Yeah, life in NZ under Helen clark was totally like North Korea, you fuckwit.
Oh fuck off youself, how about you read some of the comments on here about what life is like under John Key and then come talk to me about hyperbole
What, house prices and power bills aren’t through the roof, we haven’t got skyrocketing government debt, and public money wasn’t spent on the oravida tour or double-dipton’s mortgage? Let alone the fact that our PM is a bit weird about hair-pulling without permission.
Totally the same league as lightbulbs and showerheads.
Well, you’ve read enough to confirm your bias and stopped in case actual facts might start to contradict it.
Now you have accepted such a low standard of data as a legitimate level of ‘proof’ on this occasion McFlock, I look forward to correcting you the next time you try to dismiss evidence of a similar standard supporting something you are not so keen on.
It won’t be long i’m picking…..
I said it was proof? Of what?
Cite please.
It’s reasonably solid methodology, with some reasonable assumptions. And it strongly indicates that this is an area where we need a register. But “proof” is a strong word, even with single rather than double quotes.
I believe that outside of formal disciplines, ‘proof’ is actually quite a soft and flexible concept. The evidence accepted as ‘proof’ of guilt by one jury might be completely rejected by another.
So your statement that the data satisfies you there are grounds for action would indicate that you feel something has been ‘proved’ to some extent?
I seem to recall that the only further action I’ve recommended as a result of this research is a register of offshore owners so we have good data to work from.
Feel free to link to where I’ve said more than that.
So as it is, if someone else puts forward some reasonably solid data that produces counter-intuitive results, and says that this is ‘proof’ that we need further research, I’d probably be in general agreement that something needs to be looks into more closely.
So have fun “correcting” me to that level. Which seems a bit less dramatic than “Now you have accepted such a low standard of data as a legitimate level of ‘proof’ on this occasion McFlock, I look forward to correcting you the next time you try to dismiss evidence of a similar standard supporting something you are not so keen on.” I read that and it sounded to me like you’d caught me sayng that John Key was a good guy because he gave someone a couple of bottles of wine.
And something that will not be easily solved, and I think we’ll have to live with – proxy agents. As long as real estate in Auckland goes up 15% pa and will be double in 10 years etc. etc. – You’d be mad not to put your money (if you have it – or your families) in that rather than the Chinese sharemarket, for example. Current capitalism as it stands with its fiat currency is broken – NZ is a good place to legally put your money into a tangible asset.
How do we balance geopolitics and the current macroeconomic regime against having a fair inclusive society?
Or do we just accept a new class system with all its glass ceilings?
We can attempt to do something now or wait for a bloody good war or plague. Don’t think we’re better than history tells us.
+100 Thom Pietersen
Ever heard of proxy buyers?
http://www.realestate.co.nz/about/glossary#p
Used extensively by off shore purchasers to get around all manner of restrictions.
That article just proves the point.
ooops see Thom beat me to it. That is the biggest threat. That article is just an attempted white-wash (if you will forgive the pun). But it it just raises the suspicions, and anger, further when one knows just what was going on there!
yup shell companies within shell companies eg Chinese property devt company buying through a cover Aussie wine company
so the day after it comes out that Serco’s prison is a venue for Fight Club, it turns out that parole and treatment reduces reoffending more than making prisoners serve a full term in the thunderdome. A full third less likely to reoffend.
Garth McVictim is bravely refusing to let facts stand in the way of his
income streamoutrage.It is good to see that Labour are doing something for small business owners with regard to the way tax payments can be made.
“At present, provisional tax rules require a business to estimate, in advance, its taxable profits for the year and pay tax in three large instalments over the year.
“If they guess wrong, they can be faced with a big bill at the end of the year which can push a small business to the wall,” Mr Little said.
“Under Labour’s proposal, businesses will have the option of choosing to pay their tax through regular instalments at a rate they can adjust. This means businesses can align their payments to suit their circumstances.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11482508
This proposal makes a lot of sense to me and it will be interesting to see how small business owners respond to and contribute to the discussion. The myth that National is the go-to party for those in business has persisted far too long. Right wing lobby groups like NZ Initiative are happy to compromise worker safety in the pursuit of cost saving, but there ARE other ways of making life better for business owners without putting employees health and safety at risk,
Labour’s problem is that they’re not in government, so they can suggest any great-sounding policy without actually having to implement it, or even study how to implement it.
It’s no secret that IRD’s systems are undergoing a massive re-development at the moment, precisely because they are so unwieldy to update to respond to new government policy.
In other words, National may have already come up with plans on how to change provisional tax to make it fairer / easier, but had to abandon the plans in the face of the IRD’s decrepit systems.
What – national passed up an opportunity to blame Labour for something? Amazing.
Of course, national’s priorities might not be to help small business, anyway, so the problem never occurred to them.
National could easily have flagged this idea as part of the justification for the IRD upgrade.
They’ve studied it and put forward ideas. Interestingly enough, National have now come out and said that Labour has stolen their policy.
That’s the big one and that needs to be done before any tax changes are put in place IMO. Of course, up until that point the politicians should be looking at renewing our entire tax system because at the moment it’s got way too many loopholes in it to be efficient and lets far too many people get away with not paying the taxes that they should be.
As I understand it you can do something similar to this. Every time you pay your GST you can also add in an extra amount tagged for Provisional tax. You can also make payments at anytime to provisional tax.
Just a heads up Bernie Sanders will be doing some good old fashioned, organisation on the 29 th. He may be a social democrat, but he gets organisation and talking frankly with working people.
Way to go.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/15/beetlejuice-darth-vader-tasmanian-devil-halloween-funeral
Why is there so much bleating in the media about farmers needing help? Did they not make a lifestyle choice. Maybe they made some bad decisions similar to the children living in poverty who made a bad decision in choosing their parents. Surely they do not want the support of society because as their sainted Margaret Thatcher said, “they’re casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families.”
I agree
Yes but they are Farmers, and Farmers starts with an F which is further along the alphabet than C for Children and it logically follows that last-on-is-first-off. While Farmers are out standing in their fields, Children often just sit around dying in poverty all day. Simple maths: two in the pocket equals votes on the downturn, so tally-ho the old jolly what what, eh, what?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11482666
Another lefty that needs to be excommunicated!
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Just another Lefty from the right wing of the party eh? Move along, nothing to see here
I repeat.
How about you try posting some opinions that put forward your vision and ‘aspirations’ for New Zealand rather than the carping, snide, petty and puerile comments we have got to know you for?
Is that within your remit ? Or are you told to simply come here to derail?
How about you face the fact that Twyfords little announcement is being seen for what it was (dog whistling racism) and not just by people on the right but also by people on the left
After reading the Herald’s article, Labour revolt: Little under fire for singling out Chinese, I googled Shane Te Pou, the complainant cited in the story.
He was also associated with Bill Liu:
So I think his motives may not be so pure.
The Herald is reaching, to put it mildly.
Beat me to it Ovid. Another right winger is angling for his 15 mins of fame by resigning in a very public manner. Labour is no doubt the better for his departure too. He wants Little to apologise to him. I think he’s out of luck!
And him and his Lounge Lizard mate standing over and bullying people at the last Auckland List Conference.
This wife is not the wife he cheated on by using the Union credit card in various brothels which got him turfed out of the Union job. Bloody good riddance I say.
Apologies for the full-length article, this was from a database and is not linkable
Helen Clark pressures Te Pou to quit, Sunday News, 13 July 1997, p.1. – David Fisher
A TOP trade unionist and Labour Party Maori Council chairperson has quit under pressure from Helen Clark after she was told he misused union money.
Shane Te Pou (30) was forced to quit as president of the Trade Union Federation, national secretary of the United Food and Beverage Workers Union and chairperson of the Labour Party Maori Council.
It’s understood the $4000 involved has been repaid.
Te Pou’s Auckland lawyer, Barry Wilson, faxed a statement to Sunday News saying his client resigned his posts for health reasons.
“Mr Te Pou has recently suffered ill health, which has required him to undergo a minor medical procedure at Middlemore Hospital.
“Accordingly he resigned from his positions in his union and the Labour Party to seek another career away from the union movement and politics.
“There have been some vicious rumours circulating about Mr Te Pou. These are an indication of the extent to which people are prepared to get involved in scumbag politics.”
Wilson also faxed a copy of Te Pou’s hand-written resignation to Labour Party president Michael Hirschfield which read: “Please accept this letter as my resignation from all official posts within the Labour Party. I will still remain a member of the Labour Party.”
His resignation was accepted.
Wilson said: “The other thing I’m absolutely emphatic about is he has not been involved in any misappropriation of funds. He has been ill, he had a medical procedure in Middlemore Hospital . . . an on-going gastric problem. It was stress-related. “He went into Middlemore Hospital about a month ago.”
When we asked Clark whether she’d heard the allegation some of the $4000 union money was used in massage parlours, she said: “Yes, that was in the range of it . . .
“I’ve heard the allegation and heard the union was taking action and did request letters of resignation go to the president.
“I wouldn’t want to comment on exactly what he did. I don’t have it from the horse’s mouth.
“I’ve heard it was serious enough for resignations . . .
“The problem with politics is you only make one mistake.”
When we called the United Food Beverage and General Workers Union last week a receptionist said Te Pou left on June 26 for health reasons.
Acting national secretary Neville Donaldson refused to say why Te Pou left when we called him in Dunedin yesterday.
“The union’s business is the union’s business. If the members wish to discuss it we will discuss it with them,” he said.
Te Pou, who unsuccessfully sought Labour’s Tamaki candidacy in 1992, featured in a Metro magazine article in 1992 (from which his P1 photo was taken), headlined “Young Smarties”.
It said he led his first strike at Kawerau High School over the curriculum. As a teenager he heckled National Party meetings and was Northern Hotel Workers Union president at 20.
David Lange said Te Pou wouldn’t “abandon his roots for the sake of a free air ticket or a Bellamys lunch”.
Te Pou said: “I can bring a grassroots affinity. I think I know where people are at.”
Wahoo !!!!! Andrew Little agrees that Labour will be keeping the 90 day rule
Changed a but from “We don’t need the 90-day law and under Labour it will go,”.
So now Labour think they are either a good thing or necessary.
Ah, this must be what you’re talking about.
Funnily enough, I tend to agree with both helen Kelly and Stephen Joyce: weasel words to pander to an audience of tories, fudging the fact that the problem with fire-at-will is that it lacks fairness. So requiring fairness by definition removes fire-at-will. Whether the level of “fairness” is to return to the old probationary periods (or even stronger), or add some fudging around the terms that doesn’t really change too much, that’s weaselly.
I’m unimpressed.
Nope – fairness will be …. “”We just want to make a requirement to give feedback so the person knows whether they’re on track to make the grade or not.””
So – you he wants people to be told that they are on the firing track. I can live with that.
Glad to see that he seems to realise that some people are just wrong and you have to get rid of them.
However, Im guessing he will change his view yet again before the election.
And how does regular performance feedback differ from the previous “probationary periods” in NZ labour law?
oh, here we are.
It seems that the main difference was “an obligation to communicate any concerns to the employee and obligations to supervise and review. ” Sounds pretty consistent with “give feedback so the person knows whether they’re on track to make the grade”.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70319219/labour-would-retain-90day-trial-periods-but-make-them-fairer–little
Resign.
Oh this is funny 🙂
My fav Andrew Little 90 day trial quotes that are now rendered useless.
“”We don’t need the 90-day law and under Labour it will go.”
Source – https://www.labour.org.nz/media/90-day-law-sees-more-workers-shown-door
“Labour would, however, not back away from its plans to change employment law, including scrapping the 90-day trial period for new employees.”
– Radio NZ
“Later Little told reporters Labour still opposed the 90 day trial, which many small businesses liked …..”
– Interest.co.nz
Will be interesting to see the unions get in behind this new approach.
I’m sure that the next meeting he has down at the local union hall he’ll saying the 90 day law will be repealed, hes seems like a flip flop say anything to anyone type of guy
This is pretty amazing. I thought there was no way they’d try to go right, because, well, they couldn’t. But no, no hurdle is too impossible, they are actually going to try to become the National Party while National still exist. I can imagine Key leaning over to Nathan Guy and saying, “They… they can see us here, right?”
So, let’s talk about the Green Party. hahaa
Don’t worry i’m sure Paul will be able to explain why this isn’t moving Labour to the right
This is great news for NZ by the way, it looks like Little has accepted the reality of the situation
I know. Absolutely f-ing unbelievable.
I did not become a Labour Party member to support anti worker bullshit like the 90 day law.
Whilst never being fired under the 90 day Act I have had to deal with the huge amount of anxiety that this law creates. Having a policy of “Adding a fairness requirement” will not go any way towards reassuring workers in those anxious first three months.
I’ve also seen a young friend go through the stress of his first three months at his very first job and he was so relieved when he got to the end of those three months. “Phew! Made it!” he texted. Is that any kind of condition to be working under??? FFS!!!
The previous law that allowed for a trial period for both employer and employee but didn’t allow for workers to be fired at will without explanation as the 90 day Act does, was a fair law and workers knew where they stood and at least had the protection of the law if they were unjustifiably dismissed.
Mr Little, do you want to win in 2017 or not? Or are you expecting the bosses to turn out and vote for you and the workers to stay home on election day?
Thank goodness for Helen Kelly is there to challenge him and for the first time in my life I find myself agreeing with Steven Joyce and his comment that Andrew Little’s stance is “weasel words”
Little wants to win thats why hes back tracking on this, voters of NZ agree with this so to go against it would be like National removing WFF (they should)
Sometimes you have to swallow a dead rat or two…or three and Littles going to be doing a lot swallowing over the next few months/years
PR. The headline may have well as read “Labour Leader seeks votes from minority. Workers can go take a hike”.
If he doesn’t clarify this he will lose my vote and my membership.
I would vote National if I wanted to see rights taken away from workers. It’s Labour’s job to restore those rights.
Here you go: https://www.nationalparty.org.nz/support 🙂
Labour in its heart has always wanted to be the socially responsible party of the bosses and the top 10%.
i think you are getting confused with nact…if you think this about Labour why dont you jump ship?…and join Mana/Int?
Furthermore:
From the article:
“The question frequently came up from employers, Little said, with every employer indicating they already gave feedback to any worker they let go, so they would not be affected under Labour’s policy.”
Two questions. “every employer”. Is that every employer ever since 2008 has given feedback to the employees they fired, or just the ones who told Andrew Little they did, and how can we trust their word anyway?
Does feedback like “I didn’t like they way you dressed” or what ever the employer decides to make up to justify their decision, make it OK that they are being fired? How is that making the 90 day Act fairer?
+1 Rosie.
Please send this post (at 20.3) to Little, Rosie.
Everybody who is enraged at this needs to start lobbying now.
Good point Karen.
I’m actually hoping he will write a post about it for TS readers and we can have an open discussion with him. Clarity is required for Labour members, non members, workers and potential Labour voters.
“Everybody who is enraged at this needs to start lobbying now.”
Why? What difference will it make? We might lobby a right-wing government and win a small battle. It’s always worth doing that, for the benefit of those affected, keeping the pressure up, maintaining a sense of opposition and critique in a democratic society etc etc. But lobbying a political party that’s made up of people who’re meant to be our friends? On individual issues we think important despite knowing that Labour reflects core values and beliefs anathema to our core values and beliefs? That’s just finger in the dyke stuff. Labour is beyond redemption. We need to start treating Labour as the irrelevancy its become. Continuing to have hope that Labour might some day change is akin to colluding with keys and his henchmen because it means offering no opposition. That’s why things have become so tragic.
+ 1 Rosie – although I’ll never agree with anything joyce says even if he is correct lol.
This is a dark day indeed.
It’s a bit much marty mars.
I’m already reeling from the pro government statement I heard last night, from the head and founder of an NGO, who also managed to completely blame the very people they serve, for the circumstances they find themselves in. Imagine Mike Hoskings in charge supporting vulnerable people and you have this person.
I have been considering the idea of exposing this NGO for their hypocrisy and ignorance but it would harm the people they are there to support and it would get another person in trouble who doesn’t deserve to be in trouble. I have been grappling with this today.
And now this. Black is white and white is black.
It’s a stunning evening with the sun going down soon and I want to go and catch those beautiful rays before they disappear, go feed my ducks and chill out.
Over and out for now.
How long should we keep trusting Labour? What will it take for us to realise what its become?
Should we be surprised by this? Yes, of course we can say that Little’s sold out and should resign blah blah blah, but who’d replace him? What would any Labour leader do differently? When die-hard Labour supporters finally understand what Labour has irrevocably become the better. Because as soon as that happens we’ll have the long-overdue impetus needed to obliterate Labour from the political landscape and to start again from scratch to create a proper party of the left. Current Labour is infested to the core with right-wing ideology and is no longer viable. “Broad church” my arse. That’s the excuse we’re all fed to make us believe these goons are still on our side. They’re not and haven’t been for a very long time. We all need to realise this.
‘Baby Boomers strike back – “Economic nationalists Vs Global cosmopolitans” – Phil Quin & Keith Ng – your membership papers for the Green Party are ready’
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/07/16/baby-boomers-strike-back-economic-nationalists-vs-global-cosmopolitans-phil-quin-keith-ng-your-membership-papers-for-the-green-party-are-ready/
…”I was invited to Labour’s Auckland meeting with Caucus last night and I was keen to hear what they thought about their Chinese speculator crusade and how it was impacting them.
Firstly, the place was genuinely buzzing. 300 people make some noise and it wasn’t the usual Labour Party diehards, it was money people who aren’t getting any traction with National because they aren’t personal friends with Steven Joyce. Bankers mixed with NGOs, the wine was being gulped back the way nervous children drink before their divorced parents turn up for Christmas dinner….”
Labour loves getting a bit of loving from the top 10%
…suggest you read the whole thing and all the comments….this has support from New Zealand working class youth!
…as well as their NZ parents who had a free education, could afford to buy a house and had a job….hence entering the middleclass
…these are not wealthy overseas investors buying up multiple homes…but modest New Zealanders
Labour is on to a winner!
“Modest NZers” have not been able to afford Auckland homes since about 2003-2004
suggest you read the whole thing…including comments…without spinning diversions
Others have said it already above, but it deserves not just another reply, but a chorus.
You’ll all be leased to know that the Labour leadership are no longer stabbing each other in the back – now they’re stabbing the workers in the back.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70319219/labour-would-retain-90day-trial-periods-but-make-them-fairer–little
Fuck you Little, you are a weasel.
Maybe Little really has been listening to small business owners…stranger things have happened at sea I guess
Fucking hell.
The Labour strategy for 2017 becomes clearer day by day
Yup, first the NZ First style Chinese attack, and now we see the follow up National Lite support for the 90 day legislation….
It’s clear that Labour have decided how they need to present the Party in order to directly target the Center / Center Right voters they need to win the next election.
Will be fascinating to see where they go if they get an immediate poll bump….
I disagree. As a business owner this has freed up our ability to hire. It even gives us clear guidelines on managing the transition of staff into the business. That 3 months (and it doesn’t need to be any longer) focus us on doing everything that we need to do as an employer by ensuring that the employee understands the job and what we need them to do in a non confrontational way.
Employees are more focussed on what they need to do and aren’t afraid to raise issues. They see that we want them to succeed. We chose them out of another 30 odd applicants. Our work place is happier, more inclusive. It has been much better all around.
I actually think it has struck the right balance.
This. + 1000
Far too many people on here see employers and owners as “the enemy” and don’t want to/can’t see the issues facing employers
At least Little has realised that helping employers is not the end of the world
Hes gone up in my estimation
Long shift today.
Hope you are on more than the minimum wage.
+100 PR….on a rare occasion I agree with you Puckish Rogue….and good call by Andrew Little and Labour imo…small businesses often struggle and many businesses are very good employers
Labour is definitely on the up and up
btw… here I am talking about Labour’s flexible plans to help small businesses do their commercial book keeping as required incrementally without penalities for being late
…about 90 day trial periods I have reservations because of unfair dismissals and the potential for exploitation …however the CTU line on Labour policy is :
“If Labour introduced “just cause” provisions to the trials to allow personal grievances, the CTU could accept that, as this returned to the earlier rules in existing laws covering probationary periods.”
Labour’s arms:
On a flimsy shield of light blue, a chicken, rampant, with one right wing, two left feet and a tin ear. Supporters: on the right, a CEO in a suit of grey. On the left…? Motto: “This space for hire: cheap rates”
Today on Whale Oil I got banned because I wouldn’t stop making comments like this.
I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I think kiwis are genuinely concerned about the issue of overseas investors driving up house prices. Yeah the data wasn’t the best but it was probably the best obtainable at the time. Labour said it wasn’t the best and that better data was needed. National modus operandai on issues like this seems to be deny deny deny, then obfuscate as much as possible. They did the same with children in poverty and their delaying around providing information on OIA requests smacks of the same arrogant mentality.
These guys are in there to work for us. Get the good data, put it out for the public to see. then deal with the issue. If you don’t want to deal with it because you and your fellow Mps own property in Auckland. Say so. The next election will probably take care of their position on that.
I guess it depends on how much our childrens future and ensuring it is a good one matters to people, If it doesn’t we can stick with the starus quo.
+100…jonkey nactional hopes we will ignore it if there are no stats…and the problem will go away or be buried …especially if the Greens and other idiots accuse Labour and NZF and everyone else of being racist …. for talking about their experiences
The level of detail in the latest Pluto fly by images is astounding!
https://twitter.com/paulcoxon/status/621416714694225920/photo/1
Good to see that Little agrees workers are expendable.
Looks like Young Labour are tired of being bullied and shat on:
https://twitter.com/younglabournz/status/621893604848447488/photo/1
Bravo.
Since ages ago and on numerous occasions I’ve been made aware that guards at MECF-Serco in Mt Eden advisedly give the blind eye to extreme violence. I believe these accounts. Latest events vindicate such a belief.
The garish immediate past Corrections minister Tolley and the present out-of-his-depth minister, Key’s favourite fiapalagi Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga, must be ejected from Cabinet. Last task – accompany Serco out of New Zealand back to the UK. Collins was Corrections minister not that long ago. That should be her task as well.
It beggars belief that with Key’s much-vaunted “no surprises” imperative all of these ministers did not know about all of this. Hoisting off to foreign rentiers the New Zealand communities’ responsibility to deal with its societal dysfunction is a recipe for disaster. It’s “PPPP”. “Piss on Prisons and People for Profit”.
Outrageous !