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
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”.
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While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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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 !