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6:00 am, September 19th, 2020 - 104 comments
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Women's Suffrage Day breakfast.
Get up people.
Turnout of 50 for breakfast this morning.
17 last year.
Mood is very good for Labour into governmen here.
Great to hear that Ad.
19 September was a good choice of day for an election until Covid arrived.
Covid is not abating in Europe. A second wave is about to strike. I will need to wait and see the outcome. Flu season is going to be hectic and exhausting for medical workers in heavily affected countries.
Was it french toast or rice bubbles?
Was breakfast around at your place?
Murmurings on Twitter that Nats are down to 26%. And Newshub have polled Auckland Central.
@ScottGn – who's saying that on Twitter, Scott?
I'm wondering too ScottGN – could you follow with details so we have information?
NATs on 26.6% greens about24% LAB about 48%
That's candidate vote in Auckland Central I presume?
Great quip from Grant Robertson, “their tax cuts are less about stimulating the economy and more about stimulating their dire polling…”
Good to see the PM making a push into Wairarapa for McAnulty too.
I expected Natonal to be doing better in the polls. NZF has not improved. Act seems to be making headway. The Greens are hanging in there. Labour is secure and the party of trust and stamina.
Robertson's cynical dig at voters who support a democracy that pays his salary. I will be taking his "great quip" and the tax cuts into account when I decide who gets my vote.
There is a piece at propublica.com about US postal workers catching Covid-19 in large numbers, raising problems with postal voting in the election.
Out on the fringe, shit's flying all over the place: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/18-09-2020/candidates-defect-in-all-directions-in-ugly-minor-party-battle/
Formal procedures of democracy aren't part of normal lifestyles. Restless natives can't be expected to be disciplined into conformity. On the fringe, random is good.
I largely agree with everything I have to say too, so I get where they're coming from. However I ain't ordinary, and have a comfortable degree of control over my life, so I'm not their target market.
Last chance to decide which bunch of nutters to go with! Choose fast! On the shelf at Fringe Supermart we have Out There, Off the Wall, Zany, Fruitcakes United, plus there's Nutters Unlimited, Nutball Supreme and one or two others…
Out of control is good. That way narcissists can dominate by uttering slogans forever, which is how aspiring leaders run the show, but it does rather presume narcissists in the audience won't compete, eh? Good luck with that.
Sounds like an infestation of experienced politicos – refugees from the Nat/Lab duopoly. Tyros would struggle to combat their proven control techniques. Closet stalinism works even better than closet fascism. "What agreements? What documents? They never existed. You're hallucinating."
Excellent volume of splitter votes off National there to redistribute.
Dennis, is Covid-19 "fringe"?
By definition, a pandemic can't be fringe. Pan means all when used as a prefix (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan). So the active agent causing it can infect all…
heh.
Building consensus amongst splitters seems an impossible task. An heroic endeavour, requiring a hero.
Guru aversion. A sensible stance in politics.
The last two points they do share with the Greens – but the Greens, being cool, favour cool-button policy issues. Hot-heads hitting on hot-buttons would have to cool down to build consensus with them.
Readers will be wondering how effective howling at the moon actually is. Humans are predators & so are wolves, but biological determinism may only work on the fringe.
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/wolves-howling-at-moon.htm
So yeah, quite similar to minor party psychodynamics, when you think about it…
2 weeks and you can vote
Yeah. Can’t wait (more exciting than Christmas 🙂
"citizenship-for-sale"
Wow this doesnt seem dodgy at all…..
"People from mainland China make up the bulk of those who have purchased honorary citizenship, at the average price of around $US130,000, entitling them to a Vanuatu passport."
And….
"The leader of the country's parliamentary opposition, Ralph Regenvanu said he was concerned that international criminals and people stripped of citizenship in other countries for nefarious activities could more easily become citizens of Vanuatu."
That Smile on Ronald Warsal's dial…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/426414/vanuatu-warned-about-citizenship-sale-flaw
You mean they don't even need to pick up a one-year postgraduate Diploma in something or other on the way through? Radical.
Newshub Poll
The Greens are in trouble no one wants to make the sacrifices needed to stop climate catastrophe
Don't be mean. They want post-Covid holidays in Umbria and a new VW e-Golf (amazingly affordable at $61,990 and looks nice in blue) because they want to do the right thing. And they would, if only the Greens were a 'real environmental Party'.
Nats aren't up for it, Labour – Greens .
Mellow Yellow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQNBQI3UDag
And Chloe's expensive leather sofa with the skin of a vegetarian animal and unacknowledged animal rights.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/122410717/the-most-expensive-thing-green-mp-chle-swarbrick-owns-is-her-couch
Reading comprehension fail? Chloe did not say it was expensive in absolute terms – she said it was the most expensive thing she owns. It cost bugger-all, probably, but if she does not own a car or house, maybe it cost more than anything else she owns.
Judging by your attitude, Grafton Gully, it probably cost less than your dinner-dress suit.
just shy of 3 grand as per the article linked.
a good investment, sofas generally last a long time and thus its good money spend, however, i know no one who has spend 3 grand on a sofa. But its a nice looking sofa and why not, she earns somewhere around 200.000NZD per annum so its not as if she could not afford it.
No reason to be so upset.
The thing that had me chuckle was her tweet about the 'wildcard' race between the three contenders in Auckland Central.
I'm not even being negative about this species extincting with a full bank of footnotes.
Hay bales are a fire risk and create such a mess on the floor.
"For the new poll, Reid Research interviewed 532 people in the Auckland Central electorate via landline, mobile, online and on the street in the first and second weeks of September. The results were weighted to match the electorate's demographics. The margin of error is 4.2 percent."
"With 20.7 percent of voters still undecided, there's only a slim chance Mellow can pull off an upset and keep the seat for National"
Right o, so extrapolate this out over the country and what does it mean for current National list MPs. Wouldn't they be close to having an overhang from too many 'safe' electorates and no MPs coming in off their list.
Will make for an interesting dynamic within the National caucus.
.
If we assumed, for argument's sake, that the Poll was both accurate & reflected the swing across the Country as a whole (a somewhat dodgy assumption but, for the love of Christ, humour me just this once !) … then:
2017 ………. 2020
Lab 36.9 ….. 55.3
Nat 44.4 ….. 28.3
NZF 7.2 …….. 4.9
Green 6.3 …. 4.5
ACT 0.5 ……… 3.3
… Which I happen to find quite amusing.
.
That poll was taken when the Greens were being pounded over the (minor issue-turns out to be a grant) green school. Their policy releases since have been strong so 5 per cent is very much on the cards, especially if Labour tactical voters realise they will need the Greens in 2020.
I'd rather have more ACT than more National simply because ACT aren't conservatives. ACT may have silly economic ideas but at least they support personal freedoms like euthanasia, drug policy and free speech etc.
I like your assumption.
bugger
https://twitter.com/gbrumfiel/status/1307100272502673408
Double bugger
The mentions of Cotton and Cruz weren't out of the blue.
https://twitter.com/nataliewsj/status/1307119429231284226
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/09/911194201/trump-adds-ted-cruz-tom-cotton-to-list-of-potential-scotus-picks
Candidates in the tighter senate races (five thirty eight suggests there are quite a few) are now caught in a political hard place? Maybe not as keen as Mitch.
Hopefully they are true to their word:
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/
Hopefully. I'm pretty sure that some Republicans will vote against the appointment but I'm also sure that some democrats will vote for.
So, IMO, chances are that we'll see Trumps appointment in place before the election.
I'm hoping that the Dems will not take this lying down and a great rallying cry here on Mother Jones.
Gordon Campbell on Scoop being slightly sarcastic.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2009/S00090/on-tourisms-endless-sense-of-grievance.htm
Sad that a once in a century pandemic should have come along before the government had a clearly thought out plan for rescuing all the firms and saving all the jobs in the tourism sector. Sad that the government now looks like it was making up the criteria for support as it went along. But guess what? To some extent, they were. Possibly because in the modern era, a pandemic had never before caused international travel to evaporate almost overnight.
Oh dear it's – The End of the Golden Weather (which was the name of a NZ play. I think it had a sad end too.) https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-end-of-the-golden-weather-1991
(By the way there did used-to-be bikini-width beach patrols in NZ.)
I think the bit about Iran was far more important:
Why do we still have a FTA with China?
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/nzlabour/pages/18655/attachments/original/1600459380/FINAL_Workplace_Relations_fact_sheet.pdf
Continuing to limit sick days will continue to put pressure on low paid workers to go into work when sick. The increase may decrease the prevalence but we're still going to see poor people going into work when they shouldn't.
It is the legal minimum requirement for employers.
Yes, so if employers so choose they can increase it. Most don't which is why the government is looking at increasing it from 5 days to 10.
Which means that, for the majority of people, they're still going to be limited and the pressure to go to work sick still there.
And that's before we get into doctors certificates.
10 instead of 5 days is halving the pressure, IMO.
What problem do you have with doctor’s certificates?
Most people don't go to the doc when they are sick however I think if you are off for 3 or more days at a stretch then an employer is justified in asking for a doc note. Not simply because they are suspicious the person is lying and more because you might want to know if your employee is A) OK and B) not going to make anyone else sick by coming in
It still leaves them with the question of if they should take the sick leave now or save it for when they're feeling worse. Especially for those of the working poor.
After all, there's no guarantee that they're going to require less than 10 days in a year.
Because they're usually a waste of time. Get a cold, take a couple of days off and get stuck with
As it is if a person gets sick on Thursday, takes Friday off and needs to get a doctors cert.
Good for privatised doctors I suppose. Boosts their profits. Just no good for the poor who have to pay.
https://www.employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/sick-leave/requirement-for-medical-examination/
Since we really want people to not pass covid around I wondered about some sort of pooling plus a subsidy if the pool was exceeded annually.
So if you have 5 employees by 10 days that' s 50 for the company per year. Without interfering with any individual right if people stay home, get covid tests etc then a rebate, subsidy via the IRD kicks in if the pool for the year is exceeded by covid related sick leave. All the usual stuff about medical certificates etc can apply.
Small firms can be hard hit by extra sick leave – larger firms would cover their covid related stuff themselves pretty much. Don't forget we have virtually no other winter flu cases so a lot of firms are doing well out of it. Also I've known companies in the past who had no formal sick leave policies jjust handed out as needed and loved it as overall sick leave was so much lower.
Maybe not a perfect idea but there must be some way to sort this
Yeah, overall sick leave is lower because people are getting less sick? Or maybe because they don't want to look like the one who isn't a "team player"?
Assuming 5 employees, that's something like 950 workdays a year (not including hols). Down to 900. Not quite as crippling.
The problem for smaller units and businesses is twofold: a sick day or two can stuff a workload schedule (especially if you need two for safety); and basic "who covers the other person's lunch break" issues.
not sure about your math,
but a year at 365 day, – 30 days holiday leave, – 10 day sick leave leaves 325 days working if full time.
950 days divided by 5 would come to 190 work days per person.
the worst abuse of 'not taking sick leave' was in offices. Well paid office people who don't want to upset upper management or ruin their career path. If they get everyone sick, who cares, at least they show up.
As for the poor – most of them don't work full time, that is part of them being poor. So if anything, again this rule will only benefit those that are waged and salaried and often times not poor.
Have you heard of public holidays?
Have you heard of weekends?
i have not taken these into account – only the guaranteed 4 weeks annual leave and the potential 10 days off.
True that, and no i have not heard of weekends in a long time as i am self employed and i don't have 'weekends'. I have 'Sunday' off, when i don't work Sundays, and the last holiday i had was the four weeks of lockdown before that i had three days of after christmas las year. Go figure. 🙂 And the last time my partner had a weekend off that he did not have to take 'anual leave for ' was just before lockdown, since then he has been on call 24/7 and he and his workmates are not going to educate his employer about the work laws of this country lest they lose their jobs. Not that anyone here gives a flying fuck about people losing their jobs. 🙂 And another friend and his work mates just took a considerable pay cut in order to protect their jobs and i am sure they are thrilled to know that they will get an extra 5 days sick leave under Labour, if they still have a job.
But the point that i was making stands, unless you are working full time or on a annual part time contract the rules are written as such that if i don't want to provide paid sick leave there are plenty of ways around, and non of these ways were addressed by Labour.
But it sure sounds like a nice 'feel good' policy for those that like a good feel good policy that does not apply to the majority of the working public in this country.
Yes, I've always wondered what would happen if the self-employed had to abide by the same employment rules as everyone else such as paying themselves the minimum wage, minimum holidays etcetera because, from what I've seen, their business wouldn't survive.
Which means, interestingly enough, that their business is non-viable.
Yes, because allowing an employer to break the laws of the nation is such a good idea.
Apparently so as your example of your own business not keeping to the minimums required by law shows.
true that, but in saying that, so as long as i can pay myself a wage that is still better then getting fuck all from Winz. And if we had to pay ourselfs all these wages and costs, no small business woud start up and thus don't grow to big businesses. But then the main reason for people like me – women – to have their own little businesses is that the job situation in NZ for women is fucked – last time 4% unemployment for women was in 2008 (by the governments own numbers) so we find a niche and hope to make enough money to pay for our lifes, lest we depend on Winz or the generosity of a partner.
And this includes, all cost of running a business, all compliance costs, all supplier bills, acc levy, and so on.
i keep telling him, but he truly believes that paying the bills is a good thing and besides there are no jobs to which he could just switch over to show it to his boss. Go figure.
please show me where exactly i am breaking the law currently and frankly you should if you accuse someone of breaking the law.
as in my business, i am now the only person working. I have let go of my staff who was employed for 21 weekly fixed hours with full benefits as entitled to by the law at the beginning of march due to loss of business thanks to covid.
Really if you throw out these accusations you better have something to back it up lest you come across as a bit of a wanker.
I didn't say that you were breaking the law. I said that you weren't keeping to the minimums required by law. You do that legally because the law is broken in not requiring self-employed people to provide themselves with the legal minimums.
As I say, a market system can only work if costs are properly accounted for and your example shows that they're not.
Which is probably the reasoning that the government uses to keep the broken law in place that gives small businesses a competitive advantage – despite the fact that small businesses almost never grow into big businesses.
I think it would be better if small businesses also covered the full costs of actually providing all those minimums that are considered so important that they're written into law. My solution for encouraging a small business is a UBI.
Yeah you're probably right about the math. It's a weekend.
Part-time workers and casual workers also qualify for paid sick leave, as long as it's >10hrs a week.
It's aimed at expanding the rights of employees. I think you'll find the wealthier employees are in a position to negotiate additional benefits like time off, flexible schedules, all that. This is merely a minimum requirement for everyone employed for more than ten hours a week.
and min of six month on the job 🙂
I suggest that any employer who feels compelled to avoid paying sick leave by structuring their employment agreements so that no employees works for six months is running their business in an incompetent manner and if they don't go bust from that, they'll end up breaking employment law somehow and going bust from that.
Lol. 🙂
Employment agreements? What is this that you speak of? Oh , contracts right, for waged and salaried workers? Right? lol. Sorry McFlock, but you have no idea what goes on in NZ employments, specially on the low to very low end. But bless your cotton socks.
No one in this country has gone bust from breaking employment laws 'somehow' see Talley, see various Temp agencies, see various people that illegally employ foreign students etc. They don't go bust, they make good bank, and what ever fine they get is less then what they made.
With 200.000 + unemployed (majority of them women for whom no one creates shovel ready jobs or increases the benefits ) with another round of job loses to come, the ones that have one will consider it a blessing and they will not do anything to jeopordize this.
Two examples here that i have come across in my time working for others in NZ:
(the two 4 hours and 6 hours are lunch relief, the other is sunday work) only the full time manager will benefit
these are just three examples of people who will not benefit legally in current and normal 'working agreements' from this law, due to the current legislation. They already don't get the 5 days.
Sorry McFlock, but that is going to be a nice thing for the few remaining people that still have jobs and still dare to complain. The rest is gonna shut up, lemsip up and go to work, as they need the pay, and Winz is not gonna help pay the bills.
Never mind all those that already don't work in the 'polite societies economy' but work under the table in order to pay for food and rent, considering that Covid is not enough of a mess for the Labour government actually to do anything of substance for those that have no jobs, no income, and no chance of finding anything soon, or for those that currently would do everything – including giving up pay – in order to keep their jobs.
as for breaking employment laws, how many people have died in forestry and the company is still going? how many laws has talley broken? Are they bust?
now if Labour would get rid of the giant loopholes and say everyone working is entitled to sick leave irrespective of hours worked or length of employment, and that is then paid for via ACC – similar to maternity leave you would have something, but they did not do that.
Thanks for that info and perspective Siobhan – we don't know how lucky we are not to be squeezed by all these problems on low wages and any hours the boss likes to set.
Oh, piss off with that holier than though crap. You think because you've had shit work nobody else has?
There are a fuckload of workers – workers, not managers or bureaucrats – who will appreciate being able to take another paid day if they or a kid are sick. But because they're lucky enough to hold down a job for six months and work ten hours a week there, you don't give a shit about them.
Sure, Talley's can afford to piss away money breaking employment law. Does the retail outlet with only a few staff have the same wiggle room in their budget?
Were you complaining that the covid grants were giving money to employers who didn't need it? Or were you complaining that the government wasn't doing enough to help businesses?
dude i don't know how you come to that, all i say is that the law change is meaningless if labour at the same time don't remove the loop holes that allows people / bosses/ hr departments to avoid paying the CURRENT 5 DAY sickness benefit. So keep the accusations away.
yes, if they employ people so that they don't get over the min hours, they can legally get away with these rules. Say – i need someone full time, but don't want to pay any benefits other then the wage. I c could hire 5 people – Mon – Fri – each working one day – all of them WINZ beneficiaries – and it would be a win win. They all get the one day they can work without loosing money on their benefits and i would have the week covered. Its actually so fucking easy to get around these rules, because they Loopholes are so big.
Yes, i did. The day it was announced i was here on the standard and called bullshit. I advocated for a full bill holiday – for everyone, inclusive businesses, i advocated for IRD to send a stipend to each household for the duration of the lockdown level that would prevent people from going to work. You can search that. I said very much that this would not help the small businesses as it would not cover the cost of having business closed and it would not cover the bills at home. And you know what, i got called hysteric, whingy and all sorts of other things. So yeah, i knew that that shit would be abused, and i knew it would be abused by the big companies. Everyone in their right mind did.
this is what i said to McFlock at the end of my comment:
Now if Labour would get rid of the giant loopholes and say everyone working is entitled to sick leave irrespective of hours worked or length of employment, and that is then paid for via ACC – similar to maternity leave you would have something, but they did not do that.
This is no more and no less a lolly scramble as the bullshit tax cuts advocated by National.
There is one thing that i know as someone who actually has to work for money, if the people in this country have no money , i have no business. So its not in my interest at all to have a poor populace. You might want to keep that in mind when screaming abuse at me. I am not the one that advocates for feel good bull, i advocate for no income taxes for the first 20 grand – cost of housing, i advocate for a serious increase in well fare benefits, i advocate for rental caps and i have done this since the years of John Key.
And lastly, i am closer to poverty then i ever will be to riches. And i for one know this.
Yeah, whatevs.
Meanwhile, in the real world, real workers just got a moderate improvement to their conditions.
The recession won't last forever, and thanks to the government you're outraged at you might even keep your business.
Do you think that there are new groups of people who feel pressured to go into work e.g health workers when they are not well?
It is not just physical illness which requires time off. I did not realise that a student on a work placement is not covered for wages if they have an accident e.g. student nurse injuring their back. They can take some limited sick days so they do not fail their placement.
That has always been the case and currently is the case.
The retail job in my post above – the 'manager' was me. After about three month of working there i got blood poisioning. Pretty bad up the leg, felt interesting to say the least.
I got lots of antibiotics, a note for the white cross clinic that i should be in bedrest for a few days etc. I go to work to my manager, and i was told that i had no rights to 'sick leave' and if i wanted to take off i would have to do so without pay. Which of course does not help to pay the bills.
I went to work. Every day. Drugged to the hilt, white as death, and sick as.
If you have cancer treatment the five days are not gonna get you through. So you go to work.
And everyone i knew in the last office that i worked before redundancy having a cold or the flu was no reason to stay home. they went to work, and everyone got sick, and everyone went to work. Reason? Most hoped to accumulate enough sick days for something 'real' like cancer, or a serious injury, or a serious illness of a family member.
Employees can accumulate up to 20 sick days over four years.
yes, and that is what i learned is what quite a few people do so as to have a bit of a cushion if they have something bad.
a friend underwent a masectomy this year with all the treatments that come with cancer. People in her office 'donated' some of their sick days to her for the treatment so she could stay home.
She got the last treatment just before shutdown and is working from home fulltime.
That’s cool!
Yes, i am so happy for her. She is the most loveliest person you could imagine. So far so good.
A side issue, but I heard Bonus Bonds have 3.2 billion to pay out over the next yet as they are folding. It couldn’t come at a better time for the economy imho
I personally am fascinated about this. I bought a single dollar bond in 1969 when it started. I will be so delighted to get it back. I think I will crack a bottle of Champers when I get it. It was actually a paper note back then.
(It never won a prize, but any chance was better than none at all. Moderation in gambling!)
Yep will be getting $20 back, but have a friend who will get $3000.00. 3.2 billon a lot to be coming back into circulation.
Hold onto it, get it signed and you might increase the value.
Who would you want to sign it?
About 15 years ago I got as change a $5 note and it had on it to Kevin (not sure if it had sir in the signature) but it was signed by Edmund Hillary.
I did not keep the $5 note as the name Kevin had many unhappy memories for me.
A few years later on the radio I heard Kevin Milne talking about loosing a $5 note which Sir Edmund Hillary had signed. I think he tucked it into a picture frame and it fell out.
So had I kept the $5 note signed by Edmund Hillary would I have been the owner?
I know the $5 note would be worth a lot now.
so you are saying the bottle of whiskey that i auctioned of Jacinda Ardern before the last election and that is signed by her is worth money? Yei!
That party vote for National in the Auckland Central poll must be giving Nats head office the heebiejeebies!
Yes definitely, especially with a combined 68% left/centre-left party vote – or 70% for the current governing parties if we add in NZF’s paltry contribution.
20 bucks for the minimum wage, good counter to the poxy tax cut for those workers. Also good signal to move us away from a low wage economy with a trickle up flow.
October 17 cannot come soon enough.
Right to be fairly treated and have free speech – only works when it is a two-way thing. This man was said to 'collect injustices.' Why can't people be held in prison as mentally unfit to be in society? It will have to come if people can't control themselves. Why should women be killed by vicious partners, their children be killed to get at the parent, a nutter go loose because some people care more about their rights than the vulnerable people they verbally and later physically, attack.
I was looking up Carl Hiaasen, author, and saw this about his brother's murder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Gazette_shooting
Auckland Harbour Bridge was built at a time when integrity was queen. Any repairs must be with guaranteed okay steel not from China.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/426479/no-guarantee-engineers-target-temporary-fix-for-harbour-bridge
Like pretty much all the infrastructure we build in NZ the harbour bridge was a cheapskate job from start to finish.
lowest bidder always wins, never best design or best engineering.
That’s way too simplistic. Procurement is much more than just chasing the lowest bid(der), which would be a very simple task/exercise.
You seem to have time on your hands: https://www.procurement.govt.nz/
It feels this way. Many years ago, my husband and i were 'preferred contractors to the AKL Council' – we did a lot of graffity prevention works in schools etc. Good fun, but gosh arguing for funds was tedious to say the least.
One of the people that we worked with – an ex cop – told me that its always the lowest bidder that wins. And sometimes it just feels that way.
Despite anecdotal evidence and feels, it is not generally true. In reality, the successful bid is usually somewhere in-between the cheapest no-frills one and the most expensive all bells & whistles gold-plated top of the shelf one. True, it is a grey area and depends on available budget and many subjective factors. Think of it like a house sale; the highest bid is not always accepted (the ‘winner’) because of conditions & clauses that make it less attractive or unfavourable even. The ‘game’ is a little (!) different when it is not your own money that is spent but the rules for accountability, transparency, and fairness, for example, are therefore quite stringent, as it should be. The tender process is confidential so it is hard, bordering on impossible, for outsiders or even bidding parties to form a proper judgement of the decision and the decision-making process; the rules are clear and known to all.
Fair enough. Generally i always only hope that the money is well spend and that the things that are being build are well build. That is all i hope for, that the bridge that i am travelling on is not gonna fall down.
Well, shit happens, but life has many beautiful moments too.
Some good moves there – but they are incremental – the real test will be this new wave of "skilled immigration" that's going to get 1000 places in isolation. They are to be for where there is a:
genuine and justified need for critical and skilled workers
But those were always the criteria, it's just that corruption meant that was allowed to include fruit pickers, exploitable Bottle-O staff, Chorus employees and of course the prototype for this visa scam, the slave fishermen.
It will be a fair litmus test of the government, whether they resume the disastrous mass low-wage immigration policies that gave us the fastest growing inequality in the OECD, or whether they have learned – at last – that migration is not an unmixed blessing.
If they are desperate, then they'll accept my promise to vote for them if they increase benefits by 50 %.
Wrong column, but I'm referring to National.
Disappointed at the surface politics above. Iceing and not enough cake.