Murray McCully says there’s no link between a New Zealand businessman Earl Hagaman’s $101K donation to the National Party and his company winning a contract to manage a resort in Niue. Tui anyone? The resort is heavily subsidised by the NZ Government.
Well i guess you have to read the link.
but I feel generous today, so I do a little copy and paste and let the Mr. McCully speak for himself and his government.
Quote from the above posted link:
“Mr McCully said there was no link between the two events, nor the $7.5 million in aid funding to expand the resort a year later.
In October 2014, New Zealand’s Scenic Hotel Group announced it had “secured” the Matavai Resort in Niue.
The Niue Tourism Property Trust, whose trustees are appointed by Mr McCully, carried out what the minister said was a fully commercial process to find a company to run the resort.
That contract was won by the Scenic Hotel Group.
The month before, Earl Hagaman, that company’s founder, donated $101,000 to the National Party, making him National’s biggest living financial donor in 2014. Only a man who had died and left his estate to National gave more.” Quote End.
Now you can make up your own mind. But you should really put more effort in your reading abilities. It would make you less hopeless.
Why James, do you want to try to implicate Labour into it too?
I mean what the Fuck – why is National giving 7.5m in aid to expand resorts, first question, second question is why McCully, national party and Scenic Hotel Group is not being investigated by the SFO?
I would suggest that in the circumstances McCully would need to produce evidence to prove there was NO connection.
Because on the face of it, a large donation to a political party (and $100k is about 3 times the median income in this country) and the donor then benefiting from a special arrangement to the tune of $7.5m absolutely demands transparency.
If you cannot provide that transparency it is YOU who has the problem.
This case is easier to explain away than Murray’s saudi sheep fiasco. He can plausibly claim no involvement in either Nat donations nor the tendering process. Let’s not over-egg this one.
Perception in regards to being re-elected not whether a government is corrupt or not…of course if a corrupt government gives the perception of not being corrupt and the people don’t believe the government is corrupt then is that bad thing?
Actually there’s more than that – persons in positions of responsibility are expected to maintain clean hands – lawyers can be disbarred for not doing so. It’s not a lot to expect the same standards from government ministers, most of them are lawyers.
So it’s not just getting elected, it’s about conducting the affairs of the country in an honest and responsible manner.
“Ministers are expected to act lawfully and to behave in a way that upholds, and is seen to uphold, the highest ethical standards.” (Cabinet Manual)
The contemptible McCully is clearly corrupt and has broken this pledge repeatedly. Although enforcement lies first of all with the PM, the malefactor is in fact responsible to us, the citizenry, his masters.
So, if the public are baying for the blood of any of this worthless pack of crooks and scoundrels that Key dares to pretend to call a government, then they have a perfect and well-established right to do so.
Elections or scurrilously dishonest polls have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
indiana, citizens have expectations of decent moral and legal behaviour from MP’s and Ministers for good reason – they are paid by us to run a democratic government.
When it appears that democracy is for sale, ie, a political party can be brought off for personal gain, citizens have a right to ask questions.
As RedLogix points out, the onus is on McCully to produce evidence there was no connection between the events of Hagaman making a massive donation to the National party a month prior to the company he foundered being given “aid” of $7.5 mil for their resort.
On another note, are you ok with your tax payer money funding an offshore private business?
Are you really ok with NZ tax payers funding a private business offshore to the tune of $7.5 mil?
Here’s another one. Are you ok with living in a tax haven of a country? What’s not morally corrupt about a PM that changes the law to make it easy for corporates to evade the tax that is due to benefit the citizens of the country?
Please note, it’s not the Mana Party running the country. They are not employed by us, there is no Mana MP in parliament.
“Are you really ok with NZ tax payers funding a private business offshore to the tune of $7.5 mil?”
If you are asking this question as you believe that the Govt is corrupt and that you are trying to call me out on accepting a corrupt govt, then I have no answer for you – your mind is made up, my opinion is irrelevant.
“Here’s another one. Are you ok with living in a tax haven of a country? What’s not morally corrupt about a PM that changes the law to make it easy for corporates to evade the tax that is due to benefit the citizens of the country?”
If you believe that NZ is a tax haven, which I am not sure why you would think that as NZ doesn’t even register in the top 20-30 countries acknowledged as a tax haven, then I’m ok with living in NZ’s perceived highly imaginative tax haven. I’m sure you have all the hard evidence to prove beyond all reasonable doubt how our government blindly permits corporates to pay no tax in NZ what so ever.
No, it’s because the MSM flunkies asked no questions about Donghwa Liu – that’s the asshole who secretly bought an election – and baldly set out to neutralise Cunliffe by barefaced dishonesty. Even far-right shill John Armstrong was ashamed of his part in it. If NZ ever holds treason trials, Liu and his accomplices will be a major feature. Dotcom made his play openly, as anyone is entitled to do. Not through a festering stew of corruption like cabinet club.
except KDC and mana was out in the open and was an upfront funding of an election campaign broadcast far and wide by the people doing it
this issues is a donation and a favourable business circumstance with in a close time frame – which requires someone to go through paperwork to establish and publish for us to know about
Have you been living in a bubble, McCully has a reputation for this type of behavior spreading back to the “leaky Home Syndrome”, for which he was responsible, and then there is the corrupt Saudi affair, the man has no conscience or integrity, although those remarks probably apply to most Nat members, waky, waky, James, ignoring reality doesn’t solve the problem.
When I heard this on the news, I thought I saw a flock of pink pigs flying by the window. Do these politicians think we all came down with the last shower of rain. How many more sound bites of news are we supposed to believe is the truth. Beggars belief.
This has nothing to do with supporting the welfare of the people of Niue and everything to do with the corrupt favours handed out in cabinet club.
First off, pacific aid provided by the NZ government should be going to improve infrastructure that benefits the people of Niue. Instead $7.5 mil has gone to Scenic Group for their resort, a private business interest. That’s what we’re funding fellow tax payers!
Secondly, it’s too easy. Give a $101,000 donation and hey bingo, a month later, your company is the recipient of a $7.5 mil “aid donation”. How freaking corrupt is that?
Why do we keep letting this government get away with this kind of shit? (Jude got away with a slap over the wrist with a wet bus ticket for the Oravida scandal) Why do we not march like the Londoners?
PS: Edit. Niue is also a tax haven. What else has that Hagaman character been up to?
Political parties have no intrinsic right to exist and do not deserve public funding.
Private funding needs to be capped and corporate funding (of which unions are part) strictly forbidden. Corporations have no right to political representation – only their constituent citizens, and then only if they are New Zealanders.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
― R. Buckminster Fuller
This makes sense. And this: What the history of both Keynesianism and neoliberalism show is that it’s not enough to oppose a broken system. A coherent alternative has to be proposed. For Labour, the Democrats and the wider left, the central task should be to develop an economic Apollo programme, a conscious attempt to design a new system, tailored to the demands of the 21st Century.
–George Monbiot
Michael Moore, in his new doco “Where to invade next” has used this principle to produce a positive glimpse into what could become a reality since it is actually a reality in certain countries. He cleverly contrasts the good ideas in action with the current situation resulting from neoliberalism. I have deliberately been vague because I don’t want to spoil the impact of this doco for you, but it is inspiring.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ― R. Buckminster Fuller
Agreed, but a viable model will not persuade voters through words, theory or persuasion. It has to be demonstrably effective as a way of life that honours individuality, draws on innate talent, works cooperatively rather than competitively, and embraces the restoration of the planet’s integrity as existential imperative.
The spread of co-ops globally and all manner of co-creative enterprise is gaining momentum as people discover the incentives of one-up-manship, competition and amassing wealth are more easily shed than imagined. Sheer force of numbers will necessitate increasing publicity via MSM. Then we may see a favourable tipping point being reached.
Malcolm Turnbull has taken a cautious approach to the prime ministership, and he’s being punished for it.
Bill Shorten is taking a riskier line, announcing controversial policies, and it’s working for him.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull: When he seized the prime ministership seven months ago, Turnbull was bigger than his party.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull: When he seized the prime ministership seven months ago, Turnbull was bigger than his party. The net result is that the Turnbull government has entirely lost its advantage in the election-deciding two-party share of the vote, the first time in the Fairfax Ipsos poll.
I would put 80% of the difference between NZ and Aus down to one thing. Here in Aus there is still a functioning media; it’s rambunctious, noisy and has obvious biases. But at least you get both sides of the story. Well more than this; you actually get a story, in stark contrast to the piffling sound-bites and arse-licking talkbacks that pass for political media in NZ.
From my experience their tv is about as trashy as ours. I don’t seem to remember channels 7, 9 or 10 doing hard hitting stuff. Breakfast tv and current affairs afters the news were about our seven sharp quality. They do have ABC and SBS which are good channels and take on the important issues, but for most people I don’t think they want to watch that. Not sure how their print media compares but with Fairfax operating in both countries I imagine that is similar too.
Yep the commercial channels are predictable enough, but ABC and SBS are remarkably strong and they do get watched by enough people that it matters.
And with Fairfax does operate in both countries, there is a notable difference between their mastheads. The Age and the SMH are still worth a read, especially the weekend editions.
One thing about ABC is that it provides a venue for satire. Sure, I only watch Clarke & Dawe online, but it’d be great to have something similar broadcast here (the closest I can think of is the Corbett/ Ego two man circlejerk that used to occasionally occur on TV3, but haven’t watched for several months now to know if that still happens).
“I would put 80% of the difference between NZ and Aus down to one thing. Here in Aus there is still a functioning media; it’s rambunctious, noisy and has obvious biases. But at least you get both sides of the story. Well more than this; you actually get a story, in stark contrast to the piffling sound-bites and arse-licking talkbacks that pass for political media in NZ.”
Exactly, democracy is still alive and kicking in Aus, the punters are wise to BS, just look at Queensland and Vic changing their state Govts.
During the Abbott election though, there was considerable bias from the media, I put down to the fact that there was a female Prime minister, and misogynism was and still is very much alive here.
I’ve found channel 7 to be the most balanced of the commercial channels, sometimes more so than the ABC, which Turnbull has made some changes to.
is it my imagination or has the tide turned?…..The MSM appear to have decided they have nothing to lose and are actually starting to do their job……seems to be a lot of questions being asked about the governance of our country these past couple of weeks
Its funny you say that because I was about to post something along the lines about having reaching peak-Little, where Little is so disrespected that people stop making fun of him because it starts to feel like you’re picking on someone that can’t defend themselves
Like near the end of Shearers reign with the snapper incident or just after the election with the Cunliffe and you knew it was only a matter of time
Actually you may very well be right, because its merely my perception I was just be seeing what I want to see or rather what I want to see to confirm my bias
Eight years of government and the media may be tired of it so they well be turning on National
Yes its true John Key likes to tag in Bill English when the hard questions start rolling in
Though I think it may possibly be a lucky break for him as dealing with China is a pretty big deal so it would be considered unusual for him to be over there
I was thinking the opposite PR. I was thinking when Little was attacked all guns blazing in an effort to do a Cunliffe on him, he just quietly and honestly came back saying “I made a couple of mistakes in that poll period” and “we have to work harder to put our message across”. No signs of a leadership challenge at all.
Little has the caucus united, some of the further right elements Goff/Cosgrove have been eased out (though I quite like Goff) and a strong policy platform will be being prepared in the background.
Meanwhile sleazy Key refuses to show his tax return; backs the 12,000 secret non-disclosing offshore trusts in NZ because his Remuera golf buddies make a few million from them. The teflon is peeling-that Key 39% approval rating is the sign.
I have just heard an hour ago Andrew Little speak very well at the Grey Power AGM. He spoke coherently and forcefully and then answered questions in a forthright and unequivocal fashion.
He was heard in a very respectful and powerful silence, as his message and delivery demanded.
is it my imagination or has the tide turned?…..The MSM appear to have decided they have nothing to lose and are actually starting to do their job……seems to be a lot of questions being asked about the governance of our country these past couple of weeks
Looks like that to me too. A slow change perhaps, and I’ve been cautious about getting too optimistic, but something seems different. I suspect some of them are finally feeling like what’s the govt has been doing is too much even for their jaded perspective.
Yes, I know what you mean, and a lot of that criticism came from “Progressives” within the Labour Party.
The same people who have been dragging it away from core Labour issues for decades and who are in my humble opinion, most responsible for the party’s current lack of effectiveness.
This is an issue that could really put the skids under Key, quickly and permanently, and to my mind it is an extremely serious security issue.
And Labour would put this to one side because they’re frightened of a few false but loud allegations of racism.
The issue is being faced in Australia. Why not in NZ?
As I said, its not racism anyway. Who gives a damn about Chinese from Singapore or Taiwan? Its the PRC that is the real issue.
Look at the pics and see how many totally collapsed buildings. Now think back to ChCh and that while several buildings did fail totally, the vast majority did not. They may have been damaged beyond economic repair, but they didn’t kill their inhabitants.
For those of us inclined to forget, this is why strong, well funded government is important.
On a another note: All about the unit right now we have a flock of kurawongs, about 20 of them making the most beautiful dawn chorus. They’re about the size and colour of a crow, but far more elegant and melodious. Then just as I was looking up a flock of a dozen pure white spoonbills passed briefly overhead.
One way or another personally the past week or two have been pretty tough; but there plenty of good reasons not to give into the dark side. I only had to look out the door.
“One way or another personally the past week or two have been pretty tough; but there plenty of good reasons not to give into the dark side. I only had to look out the door.”
A group of residents from Great Barrier Island who live entirely off the grid, say yes it can, as long as you have enough photovoltaic panels on your roof positioned to take in maximum sunlight in all seasons.
“Last week National announced it was fast tracking the report from the Foreign Affairs Trade and Defence Committee on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) from the end of May to 4 May. While the select committee process itself is a farce as it can’t change the deal, there are more sinister motivations behind the new deadline…
So what is really behind the decision to fast track the select committee’s report? For those of us involved in the Waitangi Tribunal claim on the TPPA lodged last July, the answer is very simple. The urgent Tribunal process concluded with the final submissions on Wednesday. The Tribunal then thought it had six weeks to write a report – already a daunting task given the thousands of pages of documents and the complexity of the issues – already a daunting task given the thousands of pages of documents and the complexity of the issues.
Now they have fewer than three weeks. The Crown is arguing ‘comity’ – that the Waitangi Tribunal must respect the jurisdiction of the Parliament as law maker. In lay terms, the Tribunal can’t engage with claims that the government’s processes and the content of the TPPA have breached its Treaty of Waitangi obligations once legislation has been introduced to the House. To borrow a term commonly used to describe the effect of the TPPA on government decisions, National intends to ‘chill’ the Tribunal process: in the truncated time available the Tribunal will be unable or unwilling to write a detailed report that is critical of the government that may not stand up to scrutiny. The threat of judicial review is already hovering in the background of the proceedings.”…
For Airbnb, things are different. Because it manages its finances via units in Ireland and tax havens like Jersey in the Channel Islands, only a small part of its share of the revenue is ever likely to be taxed by Australia or the U.S. A review of Airbnb’s overseas regulatory filings shows it has a far more extensive web of subsidiaries than it has publicly acknowledged—more than 40 in all.
This is the challenge that Airbnb, like Uber and other companies in the so-called sharing economy, poses for the world’s treasuries. In the five years since these businesses began their spiraling growth, some cities and states around the globe have fought hard to make them play by the same rules as traditional hotels or taxis and collect various local taxes—often as not, they’ve lost. As the new breed of companies moves toward profitability, transforming larger chunks of the economy, policy experts say the battle is likely to shift to the national level, where billions of dollars a year in corporate taxes could be at risk. (A source close to Airbnb says the company will turn its first profit this year.) Governments have been slow to respond.
Obviously, the government needs to ensure that money is properly taxed before it moves offshore.
Of course, there’s a fairly good argument for simply not allowing money to move offshore.
Hi there folks I am looking for help…not for myself but for a family I know that are in a dreadful situation the NZ Herald articles explains it better than I can
thanx…the Mother of the autistic girl is very articulate ( I also heard her on RNZ)….this family should NOT be put in this situation of facing the burden of care and housing by themselves
…this government should be taking responsibility and footing the whole bill imo, especially as leaky buildings was due to lack of government oversight
“The gap between rich and poor is now so wide that the Government feels comfortable writing off the unemployed and washing their hands of any part in their increasing demise.” – and those supporting the comments of English too.
Except the first part didn’t happen, a recording was released that just mysteriously happened to remove the context from what Bill English was saying and for the second part well, I don’t think it’ll hurt National in the polls but we’ll see I guess
“No disrespect to hospitality workers – I’ve been a dishwasher, a kitchen hand, a barmaid and a waitress, but I’d rather down tools and join the homeless on the street than become the servant class in my own country.”
– Yeah that’s quite a lot of disrespect right there
Thinking about recession and business decline etc. I have gathered a few stats and news items on small business, our life blood in the economy.
Small business in general should receive more support concentrating on helping them build up and employing more workers and apprentices. People forming local businesses provide jobs and money that circulate amongst the locals, enabling all to have a better stab at the economic pie and improving their conditions locally and ultimately the whole country’s. Stuff gives a brief summary. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/10198006/SMEs-still-backbone-of-NZ-business One in three New Zealand workers is employed in a small business, and combined they contribute a third of New Zealand’s gross domestic product.
The finding comes from the country’s first Small Business Sector Report, provided by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
The report outlines the statistics on New Zealand’s 460,000 small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), and the more than 900,000 workers that the business with 20 staff or less employ.
ASB 18/6/2015 report on small business. https://blog.asb.co.nz/posts/2015/06/small-businesses-keep-the-new-zealand-economy-running.html Helping them to achieve their ambitions should be a focus for all of us interested in the success of the New Zealand economy. They make up 97% of all New Zealand enterprises (that’s 459,300 businesses) and make a substantial contribution to New Zealand’s employment and economy – employing 584,000 people and contributing about $60b to New Zealand’s GDP each year, that’s nearly 30% of the total GDP!
These 459,300 businesses include zero (no employees), micro (1-5 employees) and small (6-19 employees) enterprises.
Otago University report below lists various problems that small NZ businesses grapple with. Taxation needs to be lessened on these people wading into commerce on a small scale and they should be able to charge seminars, locums, local promotions etc to their taxation offsets, and given special refunds when they employ people, and especially while they are training them. Cut the 90 day business down to a brief 15 working days orientation for staff and employer assessment. Then if workers are kept on, the taxation offset is allowed for block training courses during the first year, and lesser offset for the period of employment. Help the businesses hire and cope with the new employee training and gaining experience! Less tax for small business, and more wisely targeted!
http://www.business.otago.ac.nz/mgmt/staff/What%27s-challenging-New-Zealand-Business-owners.pdf The main group of challenges appear to be of the financial variety. This challenge is often described by business owners in other surveys. The issues relating to finances were: Lack of capital- Access to capital-Cash flow and Profits-Debt-Bad debts
Another highly mentioned challenge is related to time….
Ref: WHAT’S CHALLENGING NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS OWNERS PAGE EIGHT
The other common issues raised were:
Lack of acceptance of their business from local/NZ customers particularly
Small size of the local market in New Zealand and the physical distance from markets
People not prepared to pay for quality service/products. Customers wanting ‘freebies”
Staff – hiring, not being able to afford to hire staff and/or retain good staff
New Zealand’s labour laws
Isolation/loneliness/lethargy
Lack of understanding from others about what it takes to be a business owner
Attracting customers/sales
The fluctuating Exchange rate
Intellectual Property
Balancing capacity with demand
Keeping up with technology
Competition
Compliance/bureaucracy – particularly around GST, Tax and resource consents
Access and knowledge of where to go for advice, on relevant courses, and networking
opportunities
Lack of marketing skills
I noticed this from Macro the other day in Job Losses Everywhere. Macro 1.1.1.1
16 April 2016 at 5:11 pm
Exactly.
Here we have lost 100 jobs from a saw mill closure just before xmas.
A large foundry firm has been cutting back and cutting back and now operates a skeleton staff.
Retailers and cafes open and shut down on a regular basis.
Our food bank has gone into overdrive (and thanks to the local supermarket and donors) who have helped keep things afloat…..
It sparked my delving into the latest on small business in NZ which I have put above.
It illustrates how we need to get our own local systems going. Perhaps shift away from areas where the local Council is regulation-bound, or they have ideas above their station, or stadium as in Dunedin. You might be starved of necessary funds by comfortable retirees who don’t want to pay their whack when systems have to be upgraded. The dead hand of central and local government is being felt all over. (That sounds funny, I’ll leave it and someone might get a much-needed giggle.) Take an interest in what useful stuff they are, or not, doing with your money.
They should be finding money for task force green projects, and small business-friendly ones. They should be careful not to dig up the road outside a suburban micro business centre and leave for months with boards to walk on and no parking so that no-one goes there and the business is just about bankrupted.
Government seems to think that businesses don’can stand a business drought or need a flow of spending to survive, but they keep getting their money, oh yes. But businesses are like plants that need care and water to survive.
edited
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Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
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. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
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 ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
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Murray McCully says there’s no link between a New Zealand businessman Earl Hagaman’s $101K donation to the National Party and his company winning a contract to manage a resort in Niue. Tui anyone? The resort is heavily subsidised by the NZ Government.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/301746/no-link-between-donation-and-contract-mccully
Do you have any evidence there is?
Well i guess you have to read the link.
but I feel generous today, so I do a little copy and paste and let the Mr. McCully speak for himself and his government.
Quote from the above posted link:
“Mr McCully said there was no link between the two events, nor the $7.5 million in aid funding to expand the resort a year later.
In October 2014, New Zealand’s Scenic Hotel Group announced it had “secured” the Matavai Resort in Niue.
The Niue Tourism Property Trust, whose trustees are appointed by Mr McCully, carried out what the minister said was a fully commercial process to find a company to run the resort.
That contract was won by the Scenic Hotel Group.
The month before, Earl Hagaman, that company’s founder, donated $101,000 to the National Party, making him National’s biggest living financial donor in 2014. Only a man who had died and left his estate to National gave more.” Quote End.
Now you can make up your own mind. But you should really put more effort in your reading abilities. It would make you less hopeless.
Be interesting to know how much tax was/is paid by Hagaman?
Why James, do you want to try to implicate Labour into it too?
I mean what the Fuck – why is National giving 7.5m in aid to expand resorts, first question, second question is why McCully, national party and Scenic Hotel Group is not being investigated by the SFO?
Because Nuie doesnt have much to earn from other than tourism./
James. If you are going to defend McCulley it points more to his guilt since your job seems to be to defend the indefensible.
Didnt defend – I simply asked if there was any evidence to the “tui” that was made.
Looking at the replies – it seems that there isnt.
I would suggest that in the circumstances McCully would need to produce evidence to prove there was NO connection.
Because on the face of it, a large donation to a political party (and $100k is about 3 times the median income in this country) and the donor then benefiting from a special arrangement to the tune of $7.5m absolutely demands transparency.
If you cannot provide that transparency it is YOU who has the problem.
Well said.
Yep. All appearances are that this was pure corruption.
This case is easier to explain away than Murray’s saudi sheep fiasco. He can plausibly claim no involvement in either Nat donations nor the tendering process. Let’s not over-egg this one.
When it comes to the left, it’s nothing but egg.
When you spot a hen straining and puffing, suspicion is warranted. This one may have just been doing yoga.
And the blowback arrives: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/answer-question-mr-little-labour-leader-gets-repetitive-wont-straight-ardern-link
Guilty until you can prove your innocence?
Unless you’re National politician
in govt perception matters just as much as reality – pretty sure you both know this
I concede that yes perception is very important in politics (for purposes of getting elected that is)
But it’s ok if the present government gives the appearance of being totally corrupt?
Perception in regards to being re-elected not whether a government is corrupt or not…of course if a corrupt government gives the perception of not being corrupt and the people don’t believe the government is corrupt then is that bad thing?
the ministerial handbook has plenty to say on this subject – and that is utterly unrelated to getting elected
Actually there’s more than that – persons in positions of responsibility are expected to maintain clean hands – lawyers can be disbarred for not doing so. It’s not a lot to expect the same standards from government ministers, most of them are lawyers.
So it’s not just getting elected, it’s about conducting the affairs of the country in an honest and responsible manner.
“Ministers are expected to act lawfully and to behave in a way that upholds, and is seen to uphold, the highest ethical standards.” (Cabinet Manual)
The contemptible McCully is clearly corrupt and has broken this pledge repeatedly. Although enforcement lies first of all with the PM, the malefactor is in fact responsible to us, the citizenry, his masters.
So, if the public are baying for the blood of any of this worthless pack of crooks and scoundrels that Key dares to pretend to call a government, then they have a perfect and well-established right to do so.
Elections or scurrilously dishonest polls have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
Nah, they’re appointed to a select committee chair….
//
indiana, citizens have expectations of decent moral and legal behaviour from MP’s and Ministers for good reason – they are paid by us to run a democratic government.
When it appears that democracy is for sale, ie, a political party can be brought off for personal gain, citizens have a right to ask questions.
As RedLogix points out, the onus is on McCully to produce evidence there was no connection between the events of Hagaman making a massive donation to the National party a month prior to the company he foundered being given “aid” of $7.5 mil for their resort.
On another note, are you ok with your tax payer money funding an offshore private business?
“When it appears that democracy is for sale, ie, a political party can be brought off for personal gain, citizens have a right to ask questions.”
Is this why Mana didn’t get anywhere?
I think the issue is more that you do not agree with the answers to your “questions” so labels like corrupt get brought out.
Speaking of answers, you didn’t provide one.
Are you really ok with NZ tax payers funding a private business offshore to the tune of $7.5 mil?
Here’s another one. Are you ok with living in a tax haven of a country? What’s not morally corrupt about a PM that changes the law to make it easy for corporates to evade the tax that is due to benefit the citizens of the country?
Please note, it’s not the Mana Party running the country. They are not employed by us, there is no Mana MP in parliament.
“Are you really ok with NZ tax payers funding a private business offshore to the tune of $7.5 mil?”
If you are asking this question as you believe that the Govt is corrupt and that you are trying to call me out on accepting a corrupt govt, then I have no answer for you – your mind is made up, my opinion is irrelevant.
“Here’s another one. Are you ok with living in a tax haven of a country? What’s not morally corrupt about a PM that changes the law to make it easy for corporates to evade the tax that is due to benefit the citizens of the country?”
If you believe that NZ is a tax haven, which I am not sure why you would think that as NZ doesn’t even register in the top 20-30 countries acknowledged as a tax haven, then I’m ok with living in NZ’s perceived highly imaginative tax haven. I’m sure you have all the hard evidence to prove beyond all reasonable doubt how our government blindly permits corporates to pay no tax in NZ what so ever.
and in that case the issue wasnt all of NZ tax law – just one part of it as it related to offshore trusts
it was never a case of NZ being a tax haven – just one part of our law providing a means for off shore money to hide its origin and destination
your playing semantics to avoid, or your not up to speed on, the issue
No, it’s because the MSM flunkies asked no questions about Donghwa Liu – that’s the asshole who secretly bought an election – and baldly set out to neutralise Cunliffe by barefaced dishonesty. Even far-right shill John Armstrong was ashamed of his part in it. If NZ ever holds treason trials, Liu and his accomplices will be a major feature. Dotcom made his play openly, as anyone is entitled to do. Not through a festering stew of corruption like cabinet club.
except KDC and mana was out in the open and was an upfront funding of an election campaign broadcast far and wide by the people doing it
this issues is a donation and a favourable business circumstance with in a close time frame – which requires someone to go through paperwork to establish and publish for us to know about
ie: they arent the same thing – not even close
Caesar’s wife is the standard for cabinet.
James
Have you been living in a bubble, McCully has a reputation for this type of behavior spreading back to the “leaky Home Syndrome”, for which he was responsible, and then there is the corrupt Saudi affair, the man has no conscience or integrity, although those remarks probably apply to most Nat members, waky, waky, James, ignoring reality doesn’t solve the problem.
+1111
And, yes, National gives the appearance of totally corrupt.
When I heard this on the news, I thought I saw a flock of pink pigs flying by the window. Do these politicians think we all came down with the last shower of rain. How many more sound bites of news are we supposed to believe is the truth. Beggars belief.
Yes, this is absolutely stunning.
This has nothing to do with supporting the welfare of the people of Niue and everything to do with the corrupt favours handed out in cabinet club.
First off, pacific aid provided by the NZ government should be going to improve infrastructure that benefits the people of Niue. Instead $7.5 mil has gone to Scenic Group for their resort, a private business interest. That’s what we’re funding fellow tax payers!
Secondly, it’s too easy. Give a $101,000 donation and hey bingo, a month later, your company is the recipient of a $7.5 mil “aid donation”. How freaking corrupt is that?
Why do we keep letting this government get away with this kind of shit? (Jude got away with a slap over the wrist with a wet bus ticket for the Oravida scandal) Why do we not march like the Londoners?
PS: Edit. Niue is also a tax haven. What else has that Hagaman character been up to?
https://www.facebook.com/ohariulabour/
This totally reeks. A shining example of everything that is wrong with our current political system.
+1
This is a prime example of why we can no longer allow political parties to be funded by private donations.
Agree…including Unions.
Political parties have no intrinsic right to exist and do not deserve public funding.
Private funding needs to be capped and corporate funding (of which unions are part) strictly forbidden. Corporations have no right to political representation – only their constituent citizens, and then only if they are New Zealanders.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
― R. Buckminster Fuller
This makes sense. And this:
What the history of both Keynesianism and neoliberalism show is that it’s not enough to oppose a broken system. A coherent alternative has to be proposed. For Labour, the Democrats and the wider left, the central task should be to develop an economic Apollo programme, a conscious attempt to design a new system, tailored to the demands of the 21st Century.
–George Monbiot
Michael Moore, in his new doco “Where to invade next” has used this principle to produce a positive glimpse into what could become a reality since it is actually a reality in certain countries. He cleverly contrasts the good ideas in action with the current situation resulting from neoliberalism. I have deliberately been vague because I don’t want to spoil the impact of this doco for you, but it is inspiring.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ― R. Buckminster Fuller
Agreed, but a viable model will not persuade voters through words, theory or persuasion. It has to be demonstrably effective as a way of life that honours individuality, draws on innate talent, works cooperatively rather than competitively, and embraces the restoration of the planet’s integrity as existential imperative.
The spread of co-ops globally and all manner of co-creative enterprise is gaining momentum as people discover the incentives of one-up-manship, competition and amassing wealth are more easily shed than imagined. Sheer force of numbers will necessitate increasing publicity via MSM. Then we may see a favourable tipping point being reached.
After all, most of us are sheeple. 😉
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/fairfax-ipsos-poll-malcolm-turnbull-a-cautious-pm-and-voters-are-punishing-him-for-it-20160417-go8hju.html#ixzz467GRN8U4
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I would put 80% of the difference between NZ and Aus down to one thing. Here in Aus there is still a functioning media; it’s rambunctious, noisy and has obvious biases. But at least you get both sides of the story. Well more than this; you actually get a story, in stark contrast to the piffling sound-bites and arse-licking talkbacks that pass for political media in NZ.
From my experience their tv is about as trashy as ours. I don’t seem to remember channels 7, 9 or 10 doing hard hitting stuff. Breakfast tv and current affairs afters the news were about our seven sharp quality. They do have ABC and SBS which are good channels and take on the important issues, but for most people I don’t think they want to watch that. Not sure how their print media compares but with Fairfax operating in both countries I imagine that is similar too.
Yep the commercial channels are predictable enough, but ABC and SBS are remarkably strong and they do get watched by enough people that it matters.
And with Fairfax does operate in both countries, there is a notable difference between their mastheads. The Age and the SMH are still worth a read, especially the weekend editions.
Exactly key words being ‘when it matters’ . Elections, major events, disasters, conflicts all see ABC/SBS ratings rise as people seek balance.
Crucial difference is they exist to be viewed whereas here no such balance exists
One thing about ABC is that it provides a venue for satire. Sure, I only watch Clarke & Dawe online, but it’d be great to have something similar broadcast here (the closest I can think of is the Corbett/ Ego two man circlejerk that used to occasionally occur on TV3, but haven’t watched for several months now to know if that still happens).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ys4LCeVppc
RedLogix
+1
“I would put 80% of the difference between NZ and Aus down to one thing. Here in Aus there is still a functioning media; it’s rambunctious, noisy and has obvious biases. But at least you get both sides of the story. Well more than this; you actually get a story, in stark contrast to the piffling sound-bites and arse-licking talkbacks that pass for political media in NZ.”
Exactly, democracy is still alive and kicking in Aus, the punters are wise to BS, just look at Queensland and Vic changing their state Govts.
During the Abbott election though, there was considerable bias from the media, I put down to the fact that there was a female Prime minister, and misogynism was and still is very much alive here.
I’ve found channel 7 to be the most balanced of the commercial channels, sometimes more so than the ABC, which Turnbull has made some changes to.
Yep, that Australian mainstream media sure be fair and balanced
Like this
and this
Two-Party-Preferred in Last 5 Polls = have either been 50/50 or 51/49 to the ALP.
Good article on the haste of TPPA from Prof Jane Kelsey.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/04/18/government-try-and-ram-through-tppa-without-nzers-noticing/#sthash.UEqRINa6.dpuf
Also very nice effort video on TPPA from action station. Great to see some thinking outside the box!
http://www.actionstation.org.nz/video_our_people_powered_submission_on_the_tppa?utm_campaign=tpp_reportsub&utm_medium=email&utm_source=actionstation
is it my imagination or has the tide turned?…..The MSM appear to have decided they have nothing to lose and are actually starting to do their job……seems to be a lot of questions being asked about the governance of our country these past couple of weeks
Its funny you say that because I was about to post something along the lines about having reaching peak-Little, where Little is so disrespected that people stop making fun of him because it starts to feel like you’re picking on someone that can’t defend themselves
Like near the end of Shearers reign with the snapper incident or just after the election with the Cunliffe and you knew it was only a matter of time
so you suggest it is my imagination?….no change then?
Actually you may very well be right, because its merely my perception I was just be seeing what I want to see or rather what I want to see to confirm my bias
Eight years of government and the media may be tired of it so they well be turning on National
lol….well my confirmation bias has been reinforced by the fact the PM is hiding overseas again….so the questions must be a little too hard
Yes its true John Key likes to tag in Bill English when the hard questions start rolling in
Though I think it may possibly be a lucky break for him as dealing with China is a pretty big deal so it would be considered unusual for him to be over there
Or its that bias sneaking in again…
must be….was announced in Feb….the teflon one’s luck is legend
PR what a pathetic bit of nonsense, typical trollisationingisms.
I was thinking the opposite PR. I was thinking when Little was attacked all guns blazing in an effort to do a Cunliffe on him, he just quietly and honestly came back saying “I made a couple of mistakes in that poll period” and “we have to work harder to put our message across”. No signs of a leadership challenge at all.
Little has the caucus united, some of the further right elements Goff/Cosgrove have been eased out (though I quite like Goff) and a strong policy platform will be being prepared in the background.
Meanwhile sleazy Key refuses to show his tax return; backs the 12,000 secret non-disclosing offshore trusts in NZ because his Remuera golf buddies make a few million from them. The teflon is peeling-that Key 39% approval rating is the sign.
You may be right and I might wrong (and vice versa) I think I’m probably right but the next couple of polls will probably give a better indication
Though if I were advising Little I’d suggest he jettison Robertson and McCarten as I wouldn’t trust them at all
yes dear
Up your game, you’re nearly two hours behind the comment. Not good enough. 🙂
I have just heard an hour ago Andrew Little speak very well at the Grey Power AGM. He spoke coherently and forcefully and then answered questions in a forthright and unequivocal fashion.
He was heard in a very respectful and powerful silence, as his message and delivery demanded.
is it my imagination or has the tide turned?…..The MSM appear to have decided they have nothing to lose and are actually starting to do their job……seems to be a lot of questions being asked about the governance of our country these past couple of weeks
Looks like that to me too. A slow change perhaps, and I’ve been cautious about getting too optimistic, but something seems different. I suspect some of them are finally feeling like what’s the govt has been doing is too much even for their jaded perspective.
Amazing how the left are so keen to get something on John Key but appear to have completely overlooked something real and important.
This is an issue that needs a whole lot more investigation and exposure. Where is it in the NZ media? Why is it being overlooked? The issue is this-
What role do PRC immigrants have in the National Party, and do they have connections to the Chinese Communist Party?
What role if any did they play in Key’s weird decision to attack our traditional flag?
Key and the Chinese Connection
Australian journalists are doing the work on this. NZ journos need to catch up.
Because the last time Labour said anything about the influence of China on NZ, everyone stood up a bleated ‘racism’?
Yes, I know what you mean, and a lot of that criticism came from “Progressives” within the Labour Party.
The same people who have been dragging it away from core Labour issues for decades and who are in my humble opinion, most responsible for the party’s current lack of effectiveness.
This is an issue that could really put the skids under Key, quickly and permanently, and to my mind it is an extremely serious security issue.
And Labour would put this to one side because they’re frightened of a few false but loud allegations of racism.
The issue is being faced in Australia. Why not in NZ?
As I said, its not racism anyway. Who gives a damn about Chinese from Singapore or Taiwan? Its the PRC that is the real issue.
I once said RB that if we both traversed around the entire political circle we’d bump into each other on the other side. 🙂
Ecuador gets a hammering:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/17/ecuador-earthquake-230-killed-magnitude-seven-point-eight
Look at the pics and see how many totally collapsed buildings. Now think back to ChCh and that while several buildings did fail totally, the vast majority did not. They may have been damaged beyond economic repair, but they didn’t kill their inhabitants.
For those of us inclined to forget, this is why strong, well funded government is important.
On a another note: All about the unit right now we have a flock of kurawongs, about 20 of them making the most beautiful dawn chorus. They’re about the size and colour of a crow, but far more elegant and melodious. Then just as I was looking up a flock of a dozen pure white spoonbills passed briefly overhead.
One way or another personally the past week or two have been pretty tough; but there plenty of good reasons not to give into the dark side. I only had to look out the door.
“One way or another personally the past week or two have been pretty tough; but there plenty of good reasons not to give into the dark side. I only had to look out the door.”
Sage advice..kia kaha.
Red Logic.
Like!!
Nice one Red, on both counts.
Hey National, Labopur, Greens, NZFirst, Maori Party, Act, UF heres something to look at:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/78950653/new-canada-law-would-allow-doctorassisted-suicide-for-seriously-ill
Can solar energy power a home all year round?
RNZ programme
We’re in the Money
Hillary Clinton showered with 1000 $1 bills as she drives to a $343,000 a pop dinner at George Clooney’s
I love how the secret service guy even has a wry smile on his face.
Hehehe yeah! I thought it was a brilliant form of protest.
Meanwhile Bernie got to meet the Pope and one banner read “Rome is Berning!” 🙂
‘Government try and ram through TPPA without NZers noticing’ by Professor Jane Kelsey
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/04/18/government-try-and-ram-through-tppa-without-nzers-noticing/
“Last week National announced it was fast tracking the report from the Foreign Affairs Trade and Defence Committee on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) from the end of May to 4 May. While the select committee process itself is a farce as it can’t change the deal, there are more sinister motivations behind the new deadline…
So what is really behind the decision to fast track the select committee’s report? For those of us involved in the Waitangi Tribunal claim on the TPPA lodged last July, the answer is very simple. The urgent Tribunal process concluded with the final submissions on Wednesday. The Tribunal then thought it had six weeks to write a report – already a daunting task given the thousands of pages of documents and the complexity of the issues – already a daunting task given the thousands of pages of documents and the complexity of the issues.
Now they have fewer than three weeks. The Crown is arguing ‘comity’ – that the Waitangi Tribunal must respect the jurisdiction of the Parliament as law maker. In lay terms, the Tribunal can’t engage with claims that the government’s processes and the content of the TPPA have breached its Treaty of Waitangi obligations once legislation has been introduced to the House. To borrow a term commonly used to describe the effect of the TPPA on government decisions, National intends to ‘chill’ the Tribunal process: in the truncated time available the Tribunal will be unable or unwilling to write a detailed report that is critical of the government that may not stand up to scrutiny. The threat of judicial review is already hovering in the background of the proceedings.”…
On the subject of tax avoidance:
Obviously, the government needs to ensure that money is properly taxed before it moves offshore.
Of course, there’s a fairly good argument for simply not allowing money to move offshore.
Hi there folks I am looking for help…not for myself but for a family I know that are in a dreadful situation the NZ Herald articles explains it better than I can
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11612277
Please read the article and if you are able to please “give a little”
thanx…the Mother of the autistic girl is very articulate ( I also heard her on RNZ)….this family should NOT be put in this situation of facing the burden of care and housing by themselves
…this government should be taking responsibility and footing the whole bill imo, especially as leaky buildings was due to lack of government oversight
…this Nact government is uncaring and immoral
Jane Bowron doesn’t mince her words when criticising this Government, great article:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/79012560/hopeless-comment-a-sign-of-a-tired-government
“The gap between rich and poor is now so wide that the Government feels comfortable writing off the unemployed and washing their hands of any part in their increasing demise.” – and those supporting the comments of English too.
+100…good for Jane Bowron
Except the first part didn’t happen, a recording was released that just mysteriously happened to remove the context from what Bill English was saying and for the second part well, I don’t think it’ll hurt National in the polls but we’ll see I guess
“No disrespect to hospitality workers – I’ve been a dishwasher, a kitchen hand, a barmaid and a waitress, but I’d rather down tools and join the homeless on the street than become the servant class in my own country.”
– Yeah that’s quite a lot of disrespect right there
Thinking about recession and business decline etc. I have gathered a few stats and news items on small business, our life blood in the economy.
Small business in general should receive more support concentrating on helping them build up and employing more workers and apprentices. People forming local businesses provide jobs and money that circulate amongst the locals, enabling all to have a better stab at the economic pie and improving their conditions locally and ultimately the whole country’s. Stuff gives a brief summary.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/10198006/SMEs-still-backbone-of-NZ-business
One in three New Zealand workers is employed in a small business, and combined they contribute a third of New Zealand’s gross domestic product.
The finding comes from the country’s first Small Business Sector Report, provided by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
The report outlines the statistics on New Zealand’s 460,000 small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), and the more than 900,000 workers that the business with 20 staff or less employ.
ASB 18/6/2015 report on small business.
https://blog.asb.co.nz/posts/2015/06/small-businesses-keep-the-new-zealand-economy-running.html
Helping them to achieve their ambitions should be a focus for all of us interested in the success of the New Zealand economy. They make up 97% of all New Zealand enterprises (that’s 459,300 businesses) and make a substantial contribution to New Zealand’s employment and economy – employing 584,000 people and contributing about $60b to New Zealand’s GDP each year, that’s nearly 30% of the total GDP!
These 459,300 businesses include zero (no employees), micro (1-5 employees) and small (6-19 employees) enterprises.
Otago University report below lists various problems that small NZ businesses grapple with. Taxation needs to be lessened on these people wading into commerce on a small scale and they should be able to charge seminars, locums, local promotions etc to their taxation offsets, and given special refunds when they employ people, and especially while they are training them. Cut the 90 day business down to a brief 15 working days orientation for staff and employer assessment. Then if workers are kept on, the taxation offset is allowed for block training courses during the first year, and lesser offset for the period of employment. Help the businesses hire and cope with the new employee training and gaining experience! Less tax for small business, and more wisely targeted!
http://www.business.otago.ac.nz/mgmt/staff/What%27s-challenging-New-Zealand-Business-owners.pdf
The main group of challenges appear to be of the financial variety. This challenge is often described by business owners in other surveys. The issues relating to finances were: Lack of capital- Access to capital-Cash flow and Profits-Debt-Bad debts
Another highly mentioned challenge is related to time….
Ref: WHAT’S CHALLENGING NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS OWNERS PAGE EIGHT
The other common issues raised were:
Lack of acceptance of their business from local/NZ customers particularly
Small size of the local market in New Zealand and the physical distance from markets
People not prepared to pay for quality service/products. Customers wanting ‘freebies”
Staff – hiring, not being able to afford to hire staff and/or retain good staff
New Zealand’s labour laws
Isolation/loneliness/lethargy
Lack of understanding from others about what it takes to be a business owner
Attracting customers/sales
The fluctuating Exchange rate
Intellectual Property
Balancing capacity with demand
Keeping up with technology
Competition
Compliance/bureaucracy – particularly around GST, Tax and resource consents
Access and knowledge of where to go for advice, on relevant courses, and networking
opportunities
Lack of marketing skills
I noticed this from Macro the other day in Job Losses Everywhere.
Macro 1.1.1.1
16 April 2016 at 5:11 pm
Exactly.
Here we have lost 100 jobs from a saw mill closure just before xmas.
A large foundry firm has been cutting back and cutting back and now operates a skeleton staff.
Retailers and cafes open and shut down on a regular basis.
Our food bank has gone into overdrive (and thanks to the local supermarket and donors) who have helped keep things afloat…..
It sparked my delving into the latest on small business in NZ which I have put above.
It illustrates how we need to get our own local systems going. Perhaps shift away from areas where the local Council is regulation-bound, or they have ideas above their station, or stadium as in Dunedin. You might be starved of necessary funds by comfortable retirees who don’t want to pay their whack when systems have to be upgraded. The dead hand of central and local government is being felt all over. (That sounds funny, I’ll leave it and someone might get a much-needed giggle.) Take an interest in what useful stuff they are, or not, doing with your money.
They should be finding money for task force green projects, and small business-friendly ones. They should be careful not to dig up the road outside a suburban micro business centre and leave for months with boards to walk on and no parking so that no-one goes there and the business is just about bankrupted.
Government seems to think that businesses don’can stand a business drought or need a flow of spending to survive, but they keep getting their money, oh yes. But businesses are like plants that need care and water to survive.
edited
I see a Herald headline about the PM’s son going to China. Big fucken deal.
Who paid?
A member of the diplomatic corps is involved in writing the speech of an American political candidate….there’s a word for shit like this…..
Netanyahu’s confidant Ron Dermer discussed diplomatic and security policy with Jared Kushner, who wrote Trump’s speech, ahead of the conference.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.714796
I love lunch.
I love long boozy lunches.
Here is a great piece of writing by Henry Mance in the Financial Times.
LUNCH WITH NIGEL FARAGE
© James Ferguson
Nigel Farage has an adjective for the good things in life — “proper”. Proper blokes, proper jobs, proper markets. And when we meet at The Lamb, a pub in London’s Leadenhall Market, he clearly is in the mood for a proper lunch. “Have we got an order in?” the leader of the UK Independence party exclaims within two minutes of our arrival. “A man could die of thirst in here.”
This was Farage’s local pub when he was a trader on the London Metal Exchange. When he started in the 1980s, the City was a fantastic gentlemen’s club. “Now it’s like being a battery chicken,” he sighs.
Farage, in contrast, is a free-range bull. He once labelled the European Council president a “damp rag”, and said Britons should be “concerned if a group of Romanian people suddenly moved in next door”. Supporters call him the boss man; opponents call him a racist. He is, undoubtedly, Britain’s most effective Brussels-basher, the man without whom there would be no EU referendum in June.
Ukip is the biggest new party to emerge in Britain since Labour a century ago. It won 3.8m votes in last year’s general election, as many as the Scottish Nationalists and Liberal Democrats combined, and is likely to gain dozens of seats in local elections in May.
Yet as Farage jovially plunges into his pint of ale, there is a sense that he may be losing his touch. Academics argue that his rhetoric puts off the very moderates whose votes will decide the in/out referendum. Ukip has also slipped into civil war. Farage is not on speaking terms with its sole member of parliament, Douglas Carswell; critics say he is incapable of sharing the limelight. “The cult of personality is very strong,” says one Ukipper. “They’d be better off ditching him,” says a Tory MP.
He croaks with laughter. ‘I love Europe! France is wonderful. It should be.We subsidised it for 40 years’
An easy question to answer is, does Farage want a second pint? A harder one is, might he soon be as outdated as his overcoat?
We head outside, where Farage can smoke. The son of an alcoholic Kent stockbroker, he joined the City aged 18 from London’s prestigious Dulwich College, and then became convinced that Britain needed a more Eurosceptic party than the Conservatives. “I’d been predicting a commodity boom all through the 1990s. Politics took over and I bloody well missed it!” he jokes.
A passer-by intercedes: “I thought it was a doppelgänger but it’s actually you!” Farage is delighted. Voters yearn for a politician they’d like to have a beer with; finally here’s a politician who’d take up the offer. “Every pub’s a parliament!” he enthuses.
The Lamb serves food but Farage, 52, has other plans. We walk down Cornhill to Simpson’s Tavern — London’s oldest surviving chophouse, where he has been a customer for more than 30 years. “Sadly most of the waitresses have changed,” he says.
Most of the waitresses have not changed, it seems. “Haven’t seen you here for a while, Nigel,” says one, pouring him a pint before the door has shut behind me. I survey the clientele, and conclude that there’s unlikely to be a queue for the women’s toilets. “I love it here,” beams Farage.
We take our third pint to the courtyard. An hour gone, and the alcohol we’ve consumed is already half the recommended weekly limit. “I know. It’s just ludicrous,” says Farage, resting on an old beer barrel, his mood livelier than his grey suit suggests. He reaches for his third cigarette. “They’ll be telling us this is bad for us next. They want to live forever!”
I ask about his hobby: visiting first-world-war battlefields. Farage opens up. “Whenever I go there, I always think, what would I have done? If I was a 19-year-old, fresh out of college … would I have been a proper man or not?”
Our table is ready inside. We squeeze alongside each other on a wooden bench with our backs to the window. Farage orders the house speciality — stewed cheese — for both of us, and picks a bottle of wine. For me, this is now entering stag-party territory; for him, it’s little more than holy communion. “The thing we used to drink here was port,” he says. “We’d all go back to work, all crimson. That’s just what we did! No one cared. I don’t drink port at all now, ever.”
What happened in the afternoons? “Chaos. Extraordinary. I remember once there was a really big cock-up … I remember the boss saying, ‘So when did this happen?’ ‘Half-past four yesterday afternoon.’ ‘Oh well, there we are then.’ The boss accepted this!”
Farage is quick to depict politics as a sacrifice. “I’m a loopy optimist, aren’t I?” he says. “I like to think I’ve changed the centre of gravity on lots of national debates. But there is no life at all — nothing.” It would be even worse, he says, if he’d succeeded in his seventh attempt to enter parliament last year. “Can you imagine if I’d been elected to Westminster? I’d need to be there every day.”
He has four children, two with his second wife Kirsten, who is German. In the 2000s, he twice had to remortgage his house in Kent. “My financial position is slightly better than it was, but for about 10 years it was pretty rough,” he says. How is it better? “It just is. Slightly better. There we are,” he says, drawing a boundary.
The cheese arrives, and Farage smears his white toast with sauce. “Yeah mustard, yeah lovely, proper job!” he says, reaching for the Lea & Perrins. He is right — it’s wonderful. The wine, a fruity Bordeaux, is excellent too. I should visit the 1980s more often.
An old friend of Farage’s arrives at a neighbouring table and points at the paper napkin around Farage’s collar. “You must be meeting someone important if you’ve got that tucked in there!” Farage laughs, carefree. “Is it a proper lunch, Kevin?” he asks his friend. “No, we’ve got a meeting later,” comes the reply. “They were the days, Kevin,” says Farage, “they were the days.”
Accused of nostalgia, however, he turns serious. “The club was lovely, but the club wasn’t very efficient. It had to change. The sadness is — this is where I may be nostalgic — the people whose working lives are on computers, they’re not as fulfilling as working lives that are actually meeting people doing stuff.”
Farage orders the Edwardian pork chop, well done, with a sausage. “I can’t help it, I love pork chop.” It’s my turn. “Lamb chops? Pork chops?” Farage suggests. “Mixed grill?” offers the waitress. I order goat’s cheese in filo pastry.
There is a pause while Farage’s ears relay the news to his brain. “What? No. They shouldn’t serve rubbish like that here. Goat’s cheese? I mean … Goat’s cheese?” He turns to the waitress. “You can’t give him bloody goat’s cheese.” I look up at her for sympathy; she looks back with contempt. Farage continues: “You’re not a veggie, are you, or something like that? If you are, fine. But what on earth are you doing here then?”
And for a brief moment I know how the Romanians must feel.
I predict that Bernie Sanders will win in New York.
Look at the numbers attending his rallies – compared with Hillary Clinton.
Look at how his support has soared – even over the last month.
(Who had even heard of Bernie Sanders a year ago?)
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/clintons-delegate-lead-do_b_9711160.html
Clinton Delegate Lead Down to 194, Even as Dramatic Miscounting of Delegates by Media Continues
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
The problem is democratic voters had to be registered last October…. So it’s not likely he will win. But I hope he does.