Us fed reserve today decides to continue its funny money looney economic policy. THE PM of nz has yet to offer his view of their policy to the president and he has put it on his agenda wirh david cameron.
Tracey it appears one persons ‘funny money loony economic policy’ is another’s economic orthodoxy,
What i would like to know is exactly where is all this supposed hyper-inflation in the US economy from the 80 odd billion dollars a month of money production by the Federal Reserve, the current means by which the US government is staving off the (inevitable???) collapse of it’s economy has so far caused insignificant amounts of inflation,
An economist would tell you that such inflation cannot occur when after a collapse of economy ‘money production’ is restrained inside the parameters of the economies highest point befor that economic collapse,
In other words X amount of money was in circulation at the point immediately prior to the collapse of economy, such a collapse reducing the money in circulation to x,
Remembering that to have reached the higher X amount of monies in circulation Y amount of inflation would have also occurred previously, by only ‘producing’ the monies to take that amount back to the previous X amount and no more, further inflation is avoided simply because that inflation occurred in previous years as the economy grew to have that X amount of monies in circulation.
The debatable point here in New Zealand is whether it would have been far more economically astute for the Government here after the GFC to simply ‘print’ the monies it has so far borrowed to keep the Government’s ‘spend’ at the same level as it was pre-GFC…
Its extremely difficult to generate hyper-inflation by issuing new money. What has happened in the US due to the Fed stuffing the financial system with excess reserves however is asset price inflation eg a share market bubble and the reflation of the housing bubble. This does most for the wealthy who hold these financial assets, and absolutely nothing for the unemployed person on the poverty line.
Its extremely difficult to generate hyper-inflation by issuing new money.
Actually, it’s very easy – just issue it to the workers instead of the banks. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen as the money was being issued solely to make the rich richer rather than having them fall over and become poor from all the “risk” that they took.
Actually, it’s very easy – just issue it to the workers instead of the banks.
I’ll counter this by saying that it doesn’t ever happen this way, unless there has also been widescale war, destruction of productive/human capacity, or a currency collapse forced by debts in foreign hard currency.
Yes Bernanke keeps priming the presses. After nearly 5 years of QE and interest rates close zero the US economy continues to need it’s fix and the Wall Street party continues.
I suspect Benanke’s doing a “Greenspan” and attempting to keep the ship afloat just long enough for him to get out when he stands down as chairman in January 2014.
Meanwhile he continues to hand cheap funny money to his mates to gamble in the Wall Street casino while robbing middle class savers, debasing the greenback and handing future taxpayers the bill.
This will all end very, very badly – I suspect Bernanke’s biggest concern is whether he can make it to January?
It does seem like madness that looks like it could implode at anytime. But Japan has been doing the same thing for decades and their zombie economy hasn’t imploded yet so maybe this will be the status quo for a very long time?
Geoff, yes I agree Japan have been doing a similar thing for decades but that has been in isoltaion. Trouble is that now US, UK, ECB & Japan are all doing it in a vain attempt to keep things afloat and there is no real evidence it’s working.
It’s not creating jobs or reflating economies. What it’s doing is allowing the market to mis-price risk and blow up unsustainable asset bubbles directing capital into asset speculation rather than business creation.
It’s taking from the 99% who are the very people needed to fuel the economy and who will ultimately pay the price for this madness.
The end game will come quickly when the reef fish turn and swim the other way – trouble is they will be swimming a damn sight faster away from the “shark” than they did towards the “food”.
Japan has been doing similar for a couple of decades, yes. But they were always backstopped by a strong trade and payments surplus.
As of a year or two ago that is now over, destroyed by China, Sth Korea, and also the many ongoing effects of the Fukushima disaster.
Bottom line: Japan is screwed. Kyle Bass expects a financial implosion there within 2 years, partly driven by the above, largely driven by the awful and shrinking demographics of the nation.
In this Herald article, a Kelly Global Workplace Index states that New Zealand has the highest workplace turnover, I found it interesting how the article tries to twist the narrative that the driver of our nations high job turnover is due to positive factors such as people changing jobs for personal growth and advancement, this is an example of quote:
“But now [they] can go out and get the jobs they want. Humans develop and want to be challenged and I see an increase in job turnover as a sign people are moving on and the economy is recovering.”
But I think the reality is the attached excerpt, from an advertisement from the situations vacant on Tuesday in our local paper, for a position in one of NZ’s largest freight companies:
“Applicants must be physically fit; have good writing and communication
skills; be capable of undertaking the duties expected of a truck driver; and be
prepared to work any day of the week with early starts and/or late finishes.”
The other day i made a comment referring to Russell Norman’s innate ability to get Ministers in this Slippery National Government to lie to Him at the Parliaments question time either with deliberation or by omission,
i was at the time having a good old laugh at the victim of Russell’s latest inquisition Conservation Minister Nick Smith who under a barrage of queries from Russell seemed to have denied ever asking to see the Draft of DOC’s report on the damming of the Tukituki River while if my memory serves me right denied ever reading the 40 odd page document,(later whittled down for some strange reason to just 2 paragraphs),
This morning RadioNZ National are reporting that they have seen a leaked email from a senior manager of DOC which directly instructed senior staff at DOC to send a copy of the full report to the Minister Nick Smith,
‘Didn’t ask to see the report’, ‘never read the report’, ‘never knew the draft existed’, naughty naughty Nick Smith expect Russell Norman to not only continue the inquisition but also to claim that the Parliament has deliberately been mislead…
I thought that too until I read who put that perspective on it… head of employers and manufacturers . Further down a professor has a different perspective.
I also read the bishop of wellington who earns 60k pa plus a house is taking a pay cut to assist people working for the church to earn a living wage. Compare that with fletchers policy here
Jonathan Ling (previous CEO), reacted to the GFC with decisive action and put a freeze on wages and salaries for eighteen months. (Cannot find link for this reported in media, just knew someone who worked there at the time).
Of course, this impacted on his income …. not at all. His bonuses went up to compensate.
Yeah, but don’t those guys take money out of people’s pay packets to build their funny buildings so they have somewhere to mumble to themselves on sundays?
Even the corgis will want to give the Key the old ankle chomp! Imagine being invited (only because you are PM) and then having the gall to ask if your family can come too – The newspapers are full of this in the UK!! – This is supposed to be an official trip to Balmoral isn’t it? I can’t imagine the Queen invited Jonkey because they are bosom buddies! And why does John Key always remind me of a Fagan/Uriah Heep hybrid? So many questions!!
Love the Heap! A singer who thinks the keyboard player is on the Moog simplifier, a guitarist named Mick Box, and a smacked up kiwi member of the 27 club on bass. ’73 was one of the great rock vintages.
Great to see Julie Ann Genter serving it to Brownlee in the House yesterday re transport in Auckland particularly delays to the City Rail Link. Brownlee forgot to oppose her tabling Auckland Trnasport’s report on the matter, so now the costs of the delay are on record.
Transport Blog is carrying the footage today so no need to repeat it. Also seemed pretty coordinated as a Parliamentary question with Labour’s Ian Lees-Galloway. Dare I hope for cooperation?
Well spotted Ad, I think we are going to see more obvious signs of cooperation between Labour and both the Greens and NZF till we win the election. Cunliffe said something along those lines earlier this week.
And can I just give a shout out to Iain Lees Galloway? Only halfway through his second term in parliament and entrusted with one of the top jobs. His work in his electorate is top class, something John Key acknowledged in the Epsom tea tapes when he told Banks the Nats had no chance of winning Palmy back (“he’s knocked on a lot of doors”). And he has built a huge activist base in a provincial town in a time where the LP has only two MP’s outside the big cities.
Have talked to Iain a fair bit and he has definitely impressed me. My relations and friends in his electorate always see him out and about at the local markets and other events. He’s been yet another talented Labour MP kept on the back burner due to the ABC bullshit.
yesterday i did a bit of a rant in this forum about just how dismal gower et.al. are/were at that basic journalistic-responsibility ..actual accurate ‘reporting’/’reportage’..
(citing their ‘it’s robertson!..it’s robertson!’..no..it’s jones..!..it’s jones..!..cunnliffe who?’-coverage of the recent labour leadership race..)
….i.e….reporting (hopefully) being a relating of as near as possible (given the limits of the time?format) of what has actually happened wherever to/by whom..
..and something at which gower et.al fail miserably..in their constant searches for gifs/angles to sneer along to..
..last nite in america..on the daily show..
..jon stewart said it all so much better..
..as he ripped into the american versions of gower et.al..
Oh Fuck unless Labour-Greens win next year John Key gets both the opening of the National Convention Centre but also get the homecoming and series of the America’s Cup.
This more than Cunliffe actually makes me want to start donating again. I just won’t be able to stand that amount of patriotism. (Unless Cunliffe got to front it! 😉 )
Agreed– the sport & politics mash sometimes throws up upsets (like a tighthead scrum). Helen & Tana pitched for RWC and John Key got to give the three-way. Trev opened the chequebook for Deano & Dalton and John will be at welcome home.
Speaking of Trev- if Cunliffe can confirm that Wainuiomata man won’t be speaker then this Waitakere man might be tempted back. 🙂
veutoviper. he will be fine with the queen, he expects to receive a knighthood from her, pacific leaders are merely savages diverting him from trips to the states. i agree he appeared disinterested and as though he could smell something offensive.
How hard is it for these idiots to grasp that the law is based on a person’s ability to make the right choice and that some mental illnesses remove a persons capability to make the right choice?
Also, it’s not like people who are ruled not guilty due to mental illness get off, often they’re committed to mental health institutions or have to live with the realisation of what they’ve done (which can lead to self-harming/suicide) on top of living with their condition(s).
Plus for maximum irony these muppets support the political parties which love to underfund mental health services resulting in less support hours and beds in mental health facilities…
I had one round in the chamber for the SST ; thanks NickS for echoing this story from RNZ last High Noon.
Pr 19:28. A corrupt witness mocks at justice, (yes, that is you Garth ),
and the mouth of the wicked gulps down evil.
(though I doubt the dude has the reckonin’ to be fig’rin’ all them words out) 😎
Firstly Soper has no proof that this is as direct a question as he claims and secondly, even if it were, the jobs are explicitly tied to the leadership. You don’t think Key kept Brash’s staff do you? Or that Judith Collins will keep Key’s?
“Labour Leader David Cunliffe, who championed the workers’ case against the Government’s industrial reforms, could be breaking the law himself.
Mr Cunliffe has been asking his staff who they supported during the leadership race and if it wasn’t him, then they’ve been sacked.”
[citation needed]
“More than 20 staff run the risk of losing their jobs now that Mr Cunliffe’s taken over.
Most of them are contracted to the Labour leader of the day which means all staff have to reapply for their jobs.”
So which is it Soper? Staff on contracts who have to reapply when the Leader changes, or Cunliffe sacking people who didn’t vote for him? And is it all staff or most staff?
he was also on the front bench last night for Lianne Dalziel’s valedictory .. two seats along
( away from the speaker) from where he used to sit and his body language suggested he would rather have been anywhere else on earth.
stab the puff-adder. Even a reptile like him should be able to understand the importance of these Heretaunga rivers and aquifers. I could see him squirming this way and that in Question Time Tuesday.’s Gone with the Wind.
The superphosphate the sheep and beef cockies have been dumping on the place for a 100 years has accumulated to be released over the coming hundred already. Dick!
Time for a campaign to get Parliament available on freeview with the aerial.At the moment you can only get it if you have a disc and open yourself up to the pay per view channels.
Is Parliament going to become pay per view too?
Why is democracy becoming a two tier system in New Zealand?
And radio broadcasts of Parliament extended beyond the main centres, the god botherer station kicked off its frequency and a youth/iwi/access RNZ2 implemented.
i Have an aerial for freeview (just no decoder at the mo’), yet I could watch Parliament on 22 (until it was returned to the lender). Now gotta save for a Freeview installed TV.
have to confess a weakness for these new LED Flatscreens; they can be quite hypnotic.
Compromise is such a b*tch at times. Still one cannot complain about the amount of connection possible with the rest of the world; Foreign News channels, The web, Google, Wikis, Youtube. And to sit in ones’ own warm abode with ready access to references. We are so privileged with opportunity when the necessary Scaffolding
(that was a rung) is made available. 😀
(even Greenspan laments the neglect of educational focus on maths and the sciences). It is not by accident that the Jewish faith, with their ongoing reconciliation of science with scripture are so successful economically: Ties that bind (Literally, and figuratively).
I was watching the a bill going through committee stages last night and if there were six people in the house that would probably be an over estimation.
What is the point of passing legislation if so few MP’s are in the house. This seems to be a constant feature of NZ parliament and I guess it is owed to the stupid system if allowing MP’s to vote courtesy of the whips. I wish we would go back to teh system of all members being required to be in house with a few exceptions made via ‘pairs’ which the opposition agree to allow government to effect its business. In all other cases if government wants to pass legislation they will need to endure a majority of their MP’s are present in the house
I see aunty amy is providing 15m for a new internet cable into nthland.
where was the govt when business was trying to get one into the middle of the north island where diversity is assured, and she says stn cross is good til 2020.
She will be slammed over this hopefully, FFS it must connect south of the current cable and stn cross is fine, you just have to get its owners to light it up.
Incompetant and easily led like alot of govt ministeds.
Hi folks just to let you kow that from 7pm tonight I will do a special live skype on The Daily Blog. I would like to invite all Standardistas to visit The Daily Blog.
but I just put a DVD on Dave. Man! Anyway, to all appearances, Tory spin aside, you and the team are doing well. IMO, breathe and think. You are your team are way smarter than your opposition. and Russel Norman is very capable in his role attacking those Ministers.
A great piece of advice I always give to clients before cross-examination is probably applicable to any media appearances – if you need to think about the answer for a bit, take a sip of water first. However, if that happens too often you’ll soon be seeking an adjournment for a toilet break 😀
The leadership hustings schedule was pretty merciless…and for David he had a full Sunday of events after the announcement, then straight into it on Monday in Wellington. And as he said, working to the early hours of every morning. Crazy shit.
No wonder Cunliffe looks so tired with all those chirps of feedback constantly haunting his words! Bomber seemed to be transmitting from a place several seconds away on the temporal dimension. Whereas Manning was almost jarringly well presented – which just made the other two’s tech glitches even more evident.
I ended up mostly just listening while browsing other pages (a sure recipe for missing bits, and much rewinding). However, I far prefer that discussion; with all it’s technical teething problems, to something like “The Vote” with much higher production values, but an impoverished discourse.
Here we have a communist, socialists, conservatives and others, also tertiary experts, discuss for a long time educational policy on public TV in Chile, which is hardly a “leftist” country these days.
So we can see that there, I can show you heaps more and better from Europe and other places, but we here in NZ are told such “public broadcasting” costs too much, we get brainwashed and inundated with commercial ads.
Nobody here seems to even bother with this, all being brainwashed to death. Are there any Kiwis, awake and caring about their sound states of mind, and independent thinking and information? Or are most of you happy with being brainwashed and dumbed down consumerist instruments?
I am shocked and dismayed, and I wish to be dead at times, as this society we have, is NOT worth living in.
Free education in NZ also, we are not getting it, at least the gifted and otherwise “deserving” must get it, but we now have fee payments and privatised education in NZ.
Division and segregation rule in NZ, once a country supposedly “egalitarian”, what a sick joke the present reality is.
Pay respect for one in the “stadium” in Santiago de Chile who were shot, tortured, and disposed off at open sea, off the shores of Chile!
Human rights is one thing, and there are other reasons, sadly too many in NZ are too scared to take a stand, while civil rights and so are transgressed daily, where are you Kiwis, got to care, do you care??? Too busy with America’s Cup, rugby and self fulfilling careers? I once thought this country stood for something, apparently no more?!
Shame on MOST NZ and NZers – for cowardice and never speaking out and up, it is the endless repeat of shame, that is what I see and read here and on every NZ blog! I wish I had never come back to this horrible and soulless place!
Sorry, distress has many words, sometimes over the top, and I suffer from ill health that expresses itself as above at times. I must admit that there are progressive people in this country, but sadly also many that do not care so much, and it is the latter that tend to drive me to despair and harsh criticism.
Few understand, but this is the subtle voice of peace and social unity, who cares these days, especially in NZ??
People who stand up, take a solid stand, dare to be hit and attacked, and stand their ground, and fight back, that is what free and democratic societies are made of, I see nonone in this country be gutful enough to care and take a stand! X
@ xtasy …you are being heard!!!!!…..many NZers have great sympathy for what the Chilean people went through after Allende was assasinated and under Pinochet…..In my 20s I used to work in a department building on the Terrace in Wellington with an older Chilean communist leader who was left for dead in Chile after a gunshot to the head….(he still had the scars)…..but was smuggled out by his friends ……and eventually came to NZ…He used to come into my office and tell us what had happened in Chile…..He was a very quiet , determined , inspiring man…..very strong
…..It is very hard for people who have never been through what Chileans have been through to understand the trauma……but we are sympathetic!!!!!.
….. To really get understanding it is best you talk to other Chileans who have been through the same thing
They have buckets of blood at their hands, as we know, but it is all “legal” according to “their laws”. Sad this is, what is though nothing new in the world, and which history proves.
Chooky – I despair at times, hence my “ranting” again last night. I met three young Chileans tonight, at a supermarket in Downtown Auckland. I had a chat and mentioned Camilla Vallejo, the former student leader there, and they all know her, and they all liked her! They had nothing good to say about the way capitalism is applied there.
Yes, I met a few Chileans on my travels, also in NZ. What excites me about Chile is that there people do dare to go out on the streets, and take a vocal stand, young and old. Of course the capitalist system that is out of control keeps many intimidated, also in Chile. Also Chileans love music and culture, and I respect them very much for that.
I am doing my bit of “stirring” up emotions and ideas, to hopefully get more locals here woken up and also take a stand, as you appear to be doing very well already.
A friend of mine has just been dealt out an appalling decision by the Health and Disability Commissioner, letting off the hook the worst hatchet doctor in Auckland, that is a WiNZ hatchet doctor. This will go public soon, and he will be named and shamed!
So he went out this afternoon to do a personal protest outside the HDC Office in Queen Street. We need much more of this to happen, otherwise we will lose the battle to commerce, the corrupt government and more.
@ xtasy….keep in touch with those vibrant Chileans… they know how to party and dance and make music and enjoy life!!!!…..NZers, many of us originated from that Blairite nation of “small shop keepers” …. but also have the Maori warrior class gene and the Celts’ …..So initially and superficially we may seem to be a bit ‘slow’ ….but once the going gets tough ……then…..(as was shown in the ’81 Springbok Tour)….the tough get going
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If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
With The Stroke Of A Pen:Populism, especially right-wing populism, invests all the power of an electoral/parliamentary majority in a single political leader because it no longer trusts the bona fides of the sprawling political class among whom power is traditionally dispersed. Populism eschews traditional politics, because, among populists, traditional politics ...
I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. ...
Mr Mojo Rising: Economic growth is possible, Christopher Luxon reassures us, but only under a government that is willing to get out of the way and let those with drive and ambition get on with it.ABOUT TWELVE KILOMETRES from the farm on the North Otago coast where I grew up stands ...
You're nearly a good laughAlmost a jokerWith your head down in the pig binSaying, 'Keep on digging.'Pig stain on your fat chinWhat do you hope to findDown in the pig mine?You're nearly a laughYou're nearly a laughBut you're really a crySongwriter: Roger Waters.NZ First - Kiwi Battlers.Say what you like ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Climate denial is dead. Renewable energy denial is here. As “alternative facts” become the norm, it’s worth looking at what actual facts tell us about how renewable energy sources like solar and wind are lowering the price of electricity. As ...
SIR GEOFFREY PALMER is worried about democracy. In his Newsroom website post of 27 January 2025 he asserts that “the future of democracy across the world now seems to be in question.” Following a year of important electoral contests across the world, culminating in Donald Trump’s emphatic recapture of the ...
The Government hasn’t stopped talking about growth since the Prime Minister made his “yes” speech at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce last week. But so far, the measures announced would seem hardly likely to suddenly pitch New Zealand into the fast-growth East Asian league. The digital nomad announcement hardly deserved ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Someone defames you anonymously online. Can you find out who it is? Maybe. There are legal avenues to seek a court order that an internet host reveal the identity of the person. One of them is called a Norwich Pharmacal order, but as Hugh Tomlinson KC points out, it only ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Everything you missed from the third day of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard four hours of oral submission. Read our recaps of day one of the hearings here, and day two here. Parliament was quiet on Friday for the third day of hearings on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University Tijana Simic/Shutterstock The news last week that three people in Sydney were hospitalised with botulism after receiving botox injections has raised questions about the regulation of the cosmetic injectables industry. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jens Blotevogel, Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader for Remediation Technologies, CSIRO Mino Surkala, Shutterstock Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Innovation, Flinders University Netflix Netflix’s new limited series, Apple Cider Vinegar, tells the story of the elaborate cancer con orchestrated by Australian blogger Annabelle (Belle) Gibson. The first episode opens with Gibson’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dee Ninis, Earthquake Scientist, Monash University Greece’s government has just declared a state of emergency on the island of Santorini, as earthquakes shake the island multiple times a day and sometimes only minutes apart. The “earthquake swarm” is also affecting other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Western Australian state election will be held on March 8. A Newspoll, conducted January 29 to February 4 from a sample ...
She’s back behind the wheel, and this time, she wants to find out what it is that makes us tick. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. After a prolific career on stage and screen, 83-year-old Miriam Margolyes is on the road again. ...
A new poem by Jordan Hamel. Real Poet Every word earned its place and so did he, so should you. Real poet lives in the capital but writes himself into the Mackenzie country golden hour, man of the paper land, he neglects to mention his pollen ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Understanding Te Tiriti by Roimata Smail (Wai Ako Press, $25) No better time to get ...
The committee has published this list to inform the public about its work, and to give clarity to submitters who have contacted the committee asking if they will be invited to make an oral submission. ...
Alex Casey and Gabi Lardies dissect their Laneway 2025 experience. Gabi Lardies: Hi Alex :))))))) Congratulations on not getting sunburnt. Everyone I talked to at Laneway yesterday was braving the sun for one thing. Charli XCX. How was your brat experience?Alex Casey: We will talk about the rest of ...
The US President's suggestion, which sparked enormous debate globally, has been labelled as a threat, not a proposal, by the Federation of Islamic Associations. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine McCarthy, Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Interior of Auckland South Men’s Prison.Getty Images Prisons are not colourful places. Typically, they are grey or some variation of a monochrome colour scheme. But increasingly, ...
FICTION1Tree of Nourishment (Kāwai 2) by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)Interesting to note that the author of the biggest-selling New Zealand novel in Waitangi Week is Māori (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tai, and Ngāti Kahungunu).2 Kāwai: For Such a Time as This (Kāwai 1) by Monty Soutar (David ...
Remembering the renowned New Zealand writer, who died on February 5, 2025. The Stopover When the trout rise like compassion It is worth watching when the hinds come down from the hills with a new message it will be as well to listen. – Brian Turner Poet, environmentalist, sportsman, journalist, ...
Survivors can choose to have former High Court judge Paul Davison assess their individual claims to tailor payments to their personal circumstances. ...
Are we too modest when it comes to celebrating our putrid plant life?She’s beauty. She’s grace. She smells like a decaying corpse and lurks in the backrooms of Auckland Zoo, wallowing tragically in a bucket. In recent weeks an Australian corpse plant named Putricia has captured the noses and ...
Politicians from the coalition government received a frosty reception at Waitangi this year, but Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka says the pōwhiri that received so much attention was just one part of many events throughout the week. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Allen, Postdoctoral research associate, Griffith University A humpback whale mother and calf on the New Caledonian breeding grounds.Mark Quintin All known human languages display a surprising pattern: the most frequent word in a language is twice as frequent as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justin Keogh, Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University Jordan Mailata is an Australian-born NFL star who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles as an offensive left tackle. This position favours very tall, heavy and strong athletes who ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nigel Tucker, Research Associate in Environment and Sustainability, James Cook University TREAT volunteers planting treesTREAT Like ferns and the tides, community conservation groups come and go. Many achieve their goal. Volunteers restore a local wetland or protect a patch of urban ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karyn Healy, Honorary Principal Research Fellow in Psychology, The University of Queensland Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock The start of the school year means new classes, routines, after-school activities and sometimes even a new school. This can be a really exciting time for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kerrie Sadiq, Professor of Taxation, QUT Business School, and ARC Future Fellow, Queensland University of Technology The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released a discussion paper this week on investment tax breaks. The study looks at whether tax incentives, such as instant ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Naomi Zouwer, Visual Artist and Lecturer in Teacher Education, University of Canberra Galleries and art museums can be intimidating and alienating even for adults. Imagine it from a child’s point of view. Stern security guards in uniforms stationed the doors, bags checked, ...
The clock is ticking in the great chain chase. 2025 is an election year in New Zealand. Not the general variation, obviously, but the local form. If you’re thinking of running, nominations open in just five months, and your chances are good – about 50% across the various races; in ...
Political aspects of Waitangi week may be moved in 2026, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell for The Bulletin.To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Celebration and on-the-ground politics For the third year in a row, I have returned from Waitangi full of food and deep regrets about not ...
Arriving at Ōnuku Marae, it was easy to see why Prime Minister Christopher Luxon chose the venue to mark Waitangi Day.Kayakers paddled around Akaroa Harbour under clear blue skies, with the marae barely a stone’s throw from the shore.Luxon’s decision to skip traditional events at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds this ...
Thanks to increased operating costs and new fare structures, many public transport users in Auckland are now paying more for trains, buses and ferries. Shanti Mathias explains what’s behind the changes. Schools are back around the country, but in Auckland, kids aren’t the only ones to have returned to a ...
In a special Waitangi edition of Gone By Lunchtime, Ātea editor Liam Rātana and politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith recap a politically charged few days at the Treaty Grounds. Our Waitangi 2025 coverage is possible because of the 13,000-plus Spinoff members who regularly pay to support our work. If you aren’t a member ...
Analysis: Waitangi Day belongs to Māori first, as mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga take centre stage.Our Waitangi 2025 coverage is possible because of the 13,000-plus Spinoff members who regularly pay to support our work. If you aren’t a member yet, now is the time.Walking around the treaty grounds, te reo Māori ...
Us fed reserve today decides to continue its funny money looney economic policy. THE PM of nz has yet to offer his view of their policy to the president and he has put it on his agenda wirh david cameron.
Tracey it appears one persons ‘funny money loony economic policy’ is another’s economic orthodoxy,
What i would like to know is exactly where is all this supposed hyper-inflation in the US economy from the 80 odd billion dollars a month of money production by the Federal Reserve, the current means by which the US government is staving off the (inevitable???) collapse of it’s economy has so far caused insignificant amounts of inflation,
An economist would tell you that such inflation cannot occur when after a collapse of economy ‘money production’ is restrained inside the parameters of the economies highest point befor that economic collapse,
In other words X amount of money was in circulation at the point immediately prior to the collapse of economy, such a collapse reducing the money in circulation to x,
Remembering that to have reached the higher X amount of monies in circulation Y amount of inflation would have also occurred previously, by only ‘producing’ the monies to take that amount back to the previous X amount and no more, further inflation is avoided simply because that inflation occurred in previous years as the economy grew to have that X amount of monies in circulation.
The debatable point here in New Zealand is whether it would have been far more economically astute for the Government here after the GFC to simply ‘print’ the monies it has so far borrowed to keep the Government’s ‘spend’ at the same level as it was pre-GFC…
Its extremely difficult to generate hyper-inflation by issuing new money. What has happened in the US due to the Fed stuffing the financial system with excess reserves however is asset price inflation eg a share market bubble and the reflation of the housing bubble. This does most for the wealthy who hold these financial assets, and absolutely nothing for the unemployed person on the poverty line.
Funny that.
Actually, it’s very easy – just issue it to the workers instead of the banks. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen as the money was being issued solely to make the rich richer rather than having them fall over and become poor from all the “risk” that they took.
I’ll counter this by saying that it doesn’t ever happen this way, unless there has also been widescale war, destruction of productive/human capacity, or a currency collapse forced by debts in foreign hard currency.
Good grief.
Doing your Charlie Brown act again?
Yes Bernanke keeps priming the presses. After nearly 5 years of QE and interest rates close zero the US economy continues to need it’s fix and the Wall Street party continues.
I suspect Benanke’s doing a “Greenspan” and attempting to keep the ship afloat just long enough for him to get out when he stands down as chairman in January 2014.
Meanwhile he continues to hand cheap funny money to his mates to gamble in the Wall Street casino while robbing middle class savers, debasing the greenback and handing future taxpayers the bill.
This will all end very, very badly – I suspect Bernanke’s biggest concern is whether he can make it to January?
It does seem like madness that looks like it could implode at anytime. But Japan has been doing the same thing for decades and their zombie economy hasn’t imploded yet so maybe this will be the status quo for a very long time?
Geoff, yes I agree Japan have been doing a similar thing for decades but that has been in isoltaion. Trouble is that now US, UK, ECB & Japan are all doing it in a vain attempt to keep things afloat and there is no real evidence it’s working.
It’s not creating jobs or reflating economies. What it’s doing is allowing the market to mis-price risk and blow up unsustainable asset bubbles directing capital into asset speculation rather than business creation.
It’s taking from the 99% who are the very people needed to fuel the economy and who will ultimately pay the price for this madness.
The end game will come quickly when the reef fish turn and swim the other way – trouble is they will be swimming a damn sight faster away from the “shark” than they did towards the “food”.
Japan has been doing similar for a couple of decades, yes. But they were always backstopped by a strong trade and payments surplus.
As of a year or two ago that is now over, destroyed by China, Sth Korea, and also the many ongoing effects of the Fukushima disaster.
Bottom line: Japan is screwed. Kyle Bass expects a financial implosion there within 2 years, partly driven by the above, largely driven by the awful and shrinking demographics of the nation.
Alan Greenspan: The Age of Turbulence and the ‘creative destruction’ it makes.
This is what hardship looks like for one of the 1% when they have been caught doing something against the law.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11126767
Looks like Nick Smith has been caught telling porkies in parliament. Again.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/222109/minister-voiced-dam-submission-concerns
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11126754
In this Herald article, a Kelly Global Workplace Index states that New Zealand has the highest workplace turnover, I found it interesting how the article tries to twist the narrative that the driver of our nations high job turnover is due to positive factors such as people changing jobs for personal growth and advancement, this is an example of quote:
“But now [they] can go out and get the jobs they want. Humans develop and want to be challenged and I see an increase in job turnover as a sign people are moving on and the economy is recovering.”
But I think the reality is the attached excerpt, from an advertisement from the situations vacant on Tuesday in our local paper, for a position in one of NZ’s largest freight companies:
“Applicants must be physically fit; have good writing and communication
skills; be capable of undertaking the duties expected of a truck driver; and be
prepared to work any day of the week with early starts and/or late finishes.”
Nothing to do with growth, everything to do with some of the poorest work conditions in the oecd!
Then there is the lowest quality of management seen anywhere in the world I’ve ever experienced!
Truly so awful, it defies belief.
The articles premise, is ridiculous!
The other day i made a comment referring to Russell Norman’s innate ability to get Ministers in this Slippery National Government to lie to Him at the Parliaments question time either with deliberation or by omission,
i was at the time having a good old laugh at the victim of Russell’s latest inquisition Conservation Minister Nick Smith who under a barrage of queries from Russell seemed to have denied ever asking to see the Draft of DOC’s report on the damming of the Tukituki River while if my memory serves me right denied ever reading the 40 odd page document,(later whittled down for some strange reason to just 2 paragraphs),
This morning RadioNZ National are reporting that they have seen a leaked email from a senior manager of DOC which directly instructed senior staff at DOC to send a copy of the full report to the Minister Nick Smith,
‘Didn’t ask to see the report’, ‘never read the report’, ‘never knew the draft existed’, naughty naughty Nick Smith expect Russell Norman to not only continue the inquisition but also to claim that the Parliament has deliberately been mislead…
“Didn’t ask to see the report’, ‘never read the report’, ‘never knew the draft existed’,”
Must have been taking lessons from the same guy that Shonky uses. Next will come the convenient brain fades.
Lolz, being as charitable as possible to Nick i have to point out there is no evidence of Him being in possession of one in the first place…
True, but there is now evidence that he did know that it existed and that he asked for it.
Sarbo
I thought that too until I read who put that perspective on it… head of employers and manufacturers . Further down a professor has a different perspective.
I also read the bishop of wellington who earns 60k pa plus a house is taking a pay cut to assist people working for the church to earn a living wage. Compare that with fletchers policy here
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11126712
Jonathan Ling (previous CEO), reacted to the GFC with decisive action and put a freeze on wages and salaries for eighteen months. (Cannot find link for this reported in media, just knew someone who worked there at the time).
Of course, this impacted on his income …. not at all. His bonuses went up to compensate.
Did look for link for above, and instead found this – interesting that the Herald and Stuff has two contradictory headlines within the space of one day:
Ling’s pay doubles, but bonus suffers Herald – 25 Sept 2010
Fletcher’s boss gets profits back as profits return Stuff – 24 Sept 2010
SNAFU
Knew “interesting” was not the word I was looking for. Thanks DTB.
Yeah, but don’t those guys take money out of people’s pay packets to build their funny buildings so they have somewhere to mumble to themselves on sundays?
Bad and sanctuary. Nick is slow to learn from tge boss. He should have prefaced with…
I have no recollection of…
I may have but I dont remember…
anyone its just the environment… right?
At last we have in John Key a Prime Minister who is a genuine world-class statesman.
Right up there with Nixon and Berlusconi…
an amusing snippet of vid on tvone breakfast..
..key tugging his forelock/clasping his kness..while cameron lectures him..
..a serial-bullshitter..being fed bullshit..by another serial-bullshitter..
..and funny story..!..key looked uncomfortable..at being bullshitted to..
..(you’d think he’d be more ‘quite-relaxed’ in that ouvre..eh..?..)
..and funny story part two:..both the bullshitter and the bullshittee..
..they both know it is all total bullshit…eh..?
..in fact..it was/is ‘literally’.. a masterclass in bullshitting..
..phillip ure..
sorry phillip .. methinks maybe ‘oeuvre’ not ‘ouvre’ (as in open) ? ( just helping out here as you are always so precise !!) 🙂
heh..!
philip ure..
“At last we have in John Key a Prime Minister who is a genuine world-class statesman.”
Not according to the Pacific News report on Morning Report today!
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2569790/pacific-news-for-19-september-2013
Starting at 2.58 in, remarks made by a Marshall Island Cabinet Minister about Key’s attitude at the recent Pacific Island Forum included
– “did not seem connected in an impressive manner”,
– “seemed odd”
– “offhanded and not in good form”.
Does not bode well for his weekend with the Queen!
Even the corgis will want to give the Key the old ankle chomp! Imagine being invited (only because you are PM) and then having the gall to ask if your family can come too – The newspapers are full of this in the UK!! – This is supposed to be an official trip to Balmoral isn’t it? I can’t imagine the Queen invited Jonkey because they are bosom buddies! And why does John Key always remind me of a Fagan/Uriah Heep hybrid? So many questions!!
cos’ he’s been Stealin’ when he should’a been bye-in’
Love the Heap! A singer who thinks the keyboard player is on the Moog simplifier, a guitarist named Mick Box, and a smacked up kiwi member of the 27 club on bass. ’73 was one of the great rock vintages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Thain
A Kerslake fan
Nixon and Berlusconi . . . and Mussolini
Great to see Julie Ann Genter serving it to Brownlee in the House yesterday re transport in Auckland particularly delays to the City Rail Link. Brownlee forgot to oppose her tabling Auckland Trnasport’s report on the matter, so now the costs of the delay are on record.
Transport Blog is carrying the footage today so no need to repeat it. Also seemed pretty coordinated as a Parliamentary question with Labour’s Ian Lees-Galloway. Dare I hope for cooperation?
Well spotted Ad, I think we are going to see more obvious signs of cooperation between Labour and both the Greens and NZF till we win the election. Cunliffe said something along those lines earlier this week.
And can I just give a shout out to Iain Lees Galloway? Only halfway through his second term in parliament and entrusted with one of the top jobs. His work in his electorate is top class, something John Key acknowledged in the Epsom tea tapes when he told Banks the Nats had no chance of winning Palmy back (“he’s knocked on a lot of doors”). And he has built a huge activist base in a provincial town in a time where the LP has only two MP’s outside the big cities.
Yeah. It has been impressive to watch.
Have talked to Iain a fair bit and he has definitely impressed me. My relations and friends in his electorate always see him out and about at the local markets and other events. He’s been yet another talented Labour MP kept on the back burner due to the ABC bullshit.
I have observed Iain Lees Galloway to be cogent speaker.
CRL and the CFN in Parliament
yesterday i did a bit of a rant in this forum about just how dismal gower et.al. are/were at that basic journalistic-responsibility ..actual accurate ‘reporting’/’reportage’..
(citing their ‘it’s robertson!..it’s robertson!’..no..it’s jones..!..it’s jones..!..cunnliffe who?’-coverage of the recent labour leadership race..)
….i.e….reporting (hopefully) being a relating of as near as possible (given the limits of the time?format) of what has actually happened wherever to/by whom..
..and something at which gower et.al fail miserably..in their constant searches for gifs/angles to sneer along to..
..last nite in america..on the daily show..
..jon stewart said it all so much better..
..as he ripped into the american versions of gower et.al..
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-september-17-2013-jake-gyllenhaal
phillip ure..
Oh Fuck unless Labour-Greens win next year John Key gets both the opening of the National Convention Centre but also get the homecoming and series of the America’s Cup.
This more than Cunliffe actually makes me want to start donating again. I just won’t be able to stand that amount of patriotism. (Unless Cunliffe got to front it! 😉 )
Agreed– the sport & politics mash sometimes throws up upsets (like a tighthead scrum). Helen & Tana pitched for RWC and John Key got to give the three-way. Trev opened the chequebook for Deano & Dalton and John will be at welcome home.
Speaking of Trev- if Cunliffe can confirm that Wainuiomata man won’t be speaker then this Waitakere man might be tempted back. 🙂
veutoviper. he will be fine with the queen, he expects to receive a knighthood from her, pacific leaders are merely savages diverting him from trips to the states. i agree he appeared disinterested and as though he could smell something offensive.
Perhaps worried that while He is away Judith Collins will play…
in case you missed this lovely funny piece a few days back .. advice to Key for hanging out with Her Madge … I laughed out loud !!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11125055
I had a good laugh also when I saw it – and at some of the comments. I recall reading somewhere that grouse shooting might also be on the programme ……
I wonder whether his DPS minders also got an invitation?
He could possibly smell sweat, in his cologne cocoon of highly mannered artificial living and behaving the human smell would be unusual and unwelcome.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/push-change-verdicts-mentally-ill-5587162
Fuck the Sensible Sentencing Trust.
How hard is it for these idiots to grasp that the law is based on a person’s ability to make the right choice and that some mental illnesses remove a persons capability to make the right choice?
Also, it’s not like people who are ruled not guilty due to mental illness get off, often they’re committed to mental health institutions or have to live with the realisation of what they’ve done (which can lead to self-harming/suicide) on top of living with their condition(s).
Plus for maximum irony these muppets support the political parties which love to underfund mental health services resulting in less support hours and beds in mental health facilities…
Yesterdays nine to noon – Simon Moore, John Dawson and Ruth Money
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20130918-0907-increased_number_of_acquitted_crimes_on_mental_health_grounds-048.mp3
I had one round in the chamber for the SST ; thanks NickS for echoing this story from RNZ last High Noon.
Pr 19:28. A corrupt witness mocks at justice, (yes, that is you Garth ),
and the mouth of the wicked gulps down evil.
(though I doubt the dude has the reckonin’ to be fig’rin’ all them words out) 😎
Is the year’s biggest Hollywood blockbuster a Marxist polemic?
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2013/09/floating-to-elysium.html
An interesting, and sad article thanks ultra-left.I always find the articles at readingthemaps very interesting and expansive to the world-view.
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/nbpol/1171021875-labour-staff-questioned-on-their-loyalty-to-cunliffe
– This is good, cunliffe needs to weed out the non-believers
Whadda loada crap!
Firstly Soper has no proof that this is as direct a question as he claims and secondly, even if it were, the jobs are explicitly tied to the leadership. You don’t think Key kept Brash’s staff do you? Or that Judith Collins will keep Key’s?
Jonolism at its finest!
Thats why I’m saying its good, hes having a clean out of dead wood and replacing with his own people which will strengthen his grip on the party
“Labour Leader David Cunliffe, who championed the workers’ case against the Government’s industrial reforms, could be breaking the law himself.
Mr Cunliffe has been asking his staff who they supported during the leadership race and if it wasn’t him, then they’ve been sacked.”
[citation needed]
“More than 20 staff run the risk of losing their jobs now that Mr Cunliffe’s taken over.
Most of them are contracted to the Labour leader of the day which means all staff have to reapply for their jobs.”
So which is it Soper? Staff on contracts who have to reapply when the Leader changes, or Cunliffe sacking people who didn’t vote for him? And is it all staff or most staff?
I agree TRP, jonolism at its finest.
Where is Shearer?
I spotted him sitting in a backrow seat on TV in Question Time today looking very relaxed. Question 3 or 4 from memory.
he was also on the front bench last night for Lianne Dalziel’s valedictory .. two seats along
( away from the speaker) from where he used to sit and his body language suggested he would rather have been anywhere else on earth.
so when are the proles with only a uhf aerial going to get parliament on freeview or is it restricted to disc and sky subscribers only?
Looks like another National minister is about to be slaughtered.
https://www.ipredict.co.nz/app.php?do=contract_detail&contract=MIN.DEPART.2013.2
Any guesses who it is?
Nick Smith? Can’t see him surviving another scandal!
stab the puff-adder. Even a reptile like him should be able to understand the importance of these Heretaunga rivers and aquifers. I could see him squirming this way and that in Question Time Tuesday.’s Gone with the Wind.
The superphosphate the sheep and beef cockies have been dumping on the place for a 100 years has accumulated to be released over the coming hundred already. Dick!
Time for a campaign to get Parliament available on freeview with the aerial.At the moment you can only get it if you have a disc and open yourself up to the pay per view channels.
Is Parliament going to become pay per view too?
Why is democracy becoming a two tier system in New Zealand?
And Select Committee hearings should be televised.
And radio broadcasts of Parliament extended beyond the main centres, the god botherer station kicked off its frequency and a youth/iwi/access RNZ2 implemented.
i Have an aerial for freeview (just no decoder at the mo’), yet I could watch Parliament on 22 (until it was returned to the lender). Now gotta save for a Freeview installed TV.
You can buy plain decoders for under a $100
or $500 if you want to record stuff
plain decoders that take a flash drive/USB stick, all done for less than $150
have to confess a weakness for these new LED Flatscreens; they can be quite hypnotic.
Compromise is such a b*tch at times. Still one cannot complain about the amount of connection possible with the rest of the world; Foreign News channels, The web, Google, Wikis, Youtube. And to sit in ones’ own warm abode with ready access to references. We are so privileged with opportunity when the necessary Scaffolding
(that was a rung) is made available. 😀
(even Greenspan laments the neglect of educational focus on maths and the sciences). It is not by accident that the Jewish faith, with their ongoing reconciliation of science with scripture are so successful economically: Ties that bind (Literally, and figuratively).
I don’t understand. I have freeview with a UHF aerial and a freeview box/myfreeview, and can watch parliament..
Try doing a full re-scan on your Freeview box. It should be there. Have a look at this page:
http://www.freeviewnz.tv/tv-guide/freeview-channels.aspx
And click on Freeview | HD
These should be all of the channels you can get (except some that are regional)
I don’t have sky or any pay tv , I have a UHF aerial and a satellite dish and a tv with freeview built in and I can get Parliament TV on everything!!
I was watching the a bill going through committee stages last night and if there were six people in the house that would probably be an over estimation.
What is the point of passing legislation if so few MP’s are in the house. This seems to be a constant feature of NZ parliament and I guess it is owed to the stupid system if allowing MP’s to vote courtesy of the whips. I wish we would go back to teh system of all members being required to be in house with a few exceptions made via ‘pairs’ which the opposition agree to allow government to effect its business. In all other cases if government wants to pass legislation they will need to endure a majority of their MP’s are present in the house
+1 Ron
I agree
In some parties they do have to endure the majority of their MPs.
This woman is brain dead. She wants to take NZ kids back to the dark ages.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Paratas-U-turn-on-charter-school-creationism/tabid/1607/articleID/313916/Default.aspx
I’ve got no problems with creationism being taught in religious studies as long as evolution is taught in science classes…
that is a WinSome gravatar.
well spotted 🙂
It describes me better
Once folk know you have a grasp of some of these
Schools
then deep fellowship tends to dry up and church may be perceived more as a Social Supporters Club.
SST vs “the ongoing failure of mental health support systems”- Coroner-referring cases to the Law Commission.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11127145
Here’s a great music video from a film way back with George Harrison and Ringo Starr on the music side. Freedom We Want our Freedom. Handmade Film.
ears are burning to Get Back to Ave Verum.
Let us pierce A la Chapelle Sixtine
(we’re all in the Lists).
I see aunty amy is providing 15m for a new internet cable into nthland.
where was the govt when business was trying to get one into the middle of the north island where diversity is assured, and she says stn cross is good til 2020.
She will be slammed over this hopefully, FFS it must connect south of the current cable and stn cross is fine, you just have to get its owners to light it up.
Incompetant and easily led like alot of govt ministeds.
So the cable extends from NZ to Oz to US right? How much is the NSA contributing to the cable hmmm?
Hi folks just to let you kow that from 7pm tonight I will do a special live skype on The Daily Blog. I would like to invite all Standardistas to visit The Daily Blog.
Awesome, watching now.
but I just put a DVD on Dave. Man! Anyway, to all appearances, Tory spin aside, you and the team are doing well. IMO, breathe and think. You are your team are way smarter than your opposition. and Russel Norman is very capable in his role attacking those Ministers.
A great piece of advice I always give to clients before cross-examination is probably applicable to any media appearances – if you need to think about the answer for a bit, take a sip of water first. However, if that happens too often you’ll soon be seeking an adjournment for a toilet break 😀
Watched it. Great interview, in spite of the squeaky technology!
Like the ideas on NZ as part of the Pacific and a Pacific TV (or was it radio?) channel.
I think RNZ already do shortwave out into the pacific.
Daily Blog skype interview with Cunliffe now up on YouTube.
Ta.
@ CV …re David Cunliffe interview with Daily Blog…..thanks for YouTube link…
Very interesting….Very clearly and succinctly expressed on a number of crucial issues facing the country.
Would like to see more of these interviews, say once a month as a regular feature
…….Have great confidence in David Cunliffe to lead a coalition with the Greens to victory in 2014! .
( He looks very tired though and needs to take at least a day off ….imo)
The leadership hustings schedule was pretty merciless…and for David he had a full Sunday of events after the announcement, then straight into it on Monday in Wellington. And as he said, working to the early hours of every morning. Crazy shit.
No wonder Cunliffe looks so tired with all those chirps of feedback constantly haunting his words! Bomber seemed to be transmitting from a place several seconds away on the temporal dimension. Whereas Manning was almost jarringly well presented – which just made the other two’s tech glitches even more evident.
I ended up mostly just listening while browsing other pages (a sure recipe for missing bits, and much rewinding). However, I far prefer that discussion; with all it’s technical teething problems, to something like “The Vote” with much higher production values, but an impoverished discourse.
Seemed to me that Cunliffe and Manning were very clear and in focus while Bradbury was low-resolution, distorted, crackly and screechy.
And then there were the technical issues…
lol
What the hell is wrong with NZ Aoteaora?
Here we have a communist, socialists, conservatives and others, also tertiary experts, discuss for a long time educational policy on public TV in Chile, which is hardly a “leftist” country these days.
So we can see that there, I can show you heaps more and better from Europe and other places, but we here in NZ are told such “public broadcasting” costs too much, we get brainwashed and inundated with commercial ads.
Nobody here seems to even bother with this, all being brainwashed to death. Are there any Kiwis, awake and caring about their sound states of mind, and independent thinking and information? Or are most of you happy with being brainwashed and dumbed down consumerist instruments?
I am shocked and dismayed, and I wish to be dead at times, as this society we have, is NOT worth living in.
Viva Camilla!
Free education in NZ also, we are not getting it, at least the gifted and otherwise “deserving” must get it, but we now have fee payments and privatised education in NZ.
Division and segregation rule in NZ, once a country supposedly “egalitarian”, what a sick joke the present reality is.
Victor Jara – Chile, one of the assasinated by fascist general Pinochet, an interesting audio with his popular songs:
Victor Jara –
Yo no canto por cantar, etc
Pay respect for one in the “stadium” in Santiago de Chile who were shot, tortured, and disposed off at open sea, off the shores of Chile!
Human rights is one thing, and there are other reasons, sadly too many in NZ are too scared to take a stand, while civil rights and so are transgressed daily, where are you Kiwis, got to care, do you care??? Too busy with America’s Cup, rugby and self fulfilling careers? I once thought this country stood for something, apparently no more?!
Viva el pueblo unida!!
Shame on MOST NZ and NZers – for cowardice and never speaking out and up, it is the endless repeat of shame, that is what I see and read here and on every NZ blog! I wish I had never come back to this horrible and soulless place!
Sorry, distress has many words, sometimes over the top, and I suffer from ill health that expresses itself as above at times. I must admit that there are progressive people in this country, but sadly also many that do not care so much, and it is the latter that tend to drive me to despair and harsh criticism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xRJ6jbCv1o
Viva Chile, viva Victor Jara!
Few understand, but this is the subtle voice of peace and social unity, who cares these days, especially in NZ??
People who stand up, take a solid stand, dare to be hit and attacked, and stand their ground, and fight back, that is what free and democratic societies are made of, I see nonone in this country be gutful enough to care and take a stand! X
@ xtasy …you are being heard!!!!!…..many NZers have great sympathy for what the Chilean people went through after Allende was assasinated and under Pinochet…..In my 20s I used to work in a department building on the Terrace in Wellington with an older Chilean communist leader who was left for dead in Chile after a gunshot to the head….(he still had the scars)…..but was smuggled out by his friends ……and eventually came to NZ…He used to come into my office and tell us what had happened in Chile…..He was a very quiet , determined , inspiring man…..very strong
…..It is very hard for people who have never been through what Chileans have been through to understand the trauma……but we are sympathetic!!!!!.
….. To really get understanding it is best you talk to other Chileans who have been through the same thing
Thanks USA
And UK/Thatcher of course.
They have buckets of blood at their hands, as we know, but it is all “legal” according to “their laws”. Sad this is, what is though nothing new in the world, and which history proves.
Chooky – I despair at times, hence my “ranting” again last night. I met three young Chileans tonight, at a supermarket in Downtown Auckland. I had a chat and mentioned Camilla Vallejo, the former student leader there, and they all know her, and they all liked her! They had nothing good to say about the way capitalism is applied there.
Yes, I met a few Chileans on my travels, also in NZ. What excites me about Chile is that there people do dare to go out on the streets, and take a vocal stand, young and old. Of course the capitalist system that is out of control keeps many intimidated, also in Chile. Also Chileans love music and culture, and I respect them very much for that.
I am doing my bit of “stirring” up emotions and ideas, to hopefully get more locals here woken up and also take a stand, as you appear to be doing very well already.
A friend of mine has just been dealt out an appalling decision by the Health and Disability Commissioner, letting off the hook the worst hatchet doctor in Auckland, that is a WiNZ hatchet doctor. This will go public soon, and he will be named and shamed!
So he went out this afternoon to do a personal protest outside the HDC Office in Queen Street. We need much more of this to happen, otherwise we will lose the battle to commerce, the corrupt government and more.
Kia kaha all!
@ xtasy….keep in touch with those vibrant Chileans… they know how to party and dance and make music and enjoy life!!!!…..NZers, many of us originated from that Blairite nation of “small shop keepers” …. but also have the Maori warrior class gene and the Celts’ …..So initially and superficially we may seem to be a bit ‘slow’ ….but once the going gets tough ……then…..(as was shown in the ’81 Springbok Tour)….the tough get going