I get bollock bored reiterating to my “centrist” middle class Key voting associates that we have a train wreck of youth unemployment here in NZ. I know Canterbury has a had a quake but look at this:
The number of Cantabrians aged 15 to 24 in employment has dropped by 12,300, the September 2011 Household Labour Force Survey revealed.
The fall comes despite 8700 people in the age bracket leaving the city last year.
In effect this says that in an area of 350,000 we might expect to find 12% of the population aged 18-24…..roughly 42000 people, of whom 12,300 are out of work (nearly a third), and if you count those who have gone 21,000…a half.
This is a huge indictment on the failure of all recent governments, especially the current NACT crop who don’t appear to even acknowledge the issue or give a rats arse. And worse still its a giant j’acuse at those voter who work on the “I am all right Jack” principle.
There may be a significant breakthrough in the Affco dispute this morning; it looks like pressure from Iwi has forced Talley’s back to the table and an agreement now looks likely.
If someone is currently on a one week ban here (guess who) and posts a comment on another blog (KB, General Debate today) asking for someone there to post their comment on the Standard for them, what is the position? I have no intention of doing so; the comment appears to include a link to the banned person’s own blog……
PS – FYI the same banned person was also using the other blog yesterday to respond to/comment on comments posted here subsequent to the TS ban being invoked.
I should think he can do whatever he wants on another site.
Anyone who was foolish enough to copy his comments over to here should expect moderator attention – probably deleting the comments to start with and escalating from there as necessary.
It’s up to us how we moderate. Pete’s politics may be remiss but his heart is in the right place. He is, however, a bit obsessive (as are some other regular commenters) – I’ve seen this with commenters before and it generally ends in tears. I think it’s time to let it go.
I’d also recommend that anyone who finds themselves taking the blogs too seriously, and I include obsessing over who said what to who on another blog, should take a few days off to spend some time in the real world. It’ll do you good.
For the most part Pete provides good debate here and does obviously put a lot of time into knowing his stuff.
Where he becomes annoying is the frequency at which he posts.
Anyway,
I see stuff have an article on how the majority of people still blame Labour for debt. A perfect opportunity for Labour to get some media spotlight and point out the flaws in this.
You guys run this excellent site. I am happy to accept your moderation/banning. I wouldn’t complain just as I wouldn’t should a householder asked me to leave their property. Not that that has ever happened!
I enjoy watching Rural Delivery in the weekends. They’ve been running stories recently about developments in farm effluent treatment systems, and this made me hopeful that we might finally see a reduction in the amount of pollution going into New Zealand waterways…
PROTEST TODAY, Monday 21 May 2012
12 noon – 2pm
OUTSIDE JOHN BANK’S EPSOM OFFICE
27 Gillies Ave
Newmarket
A protest has been called today, calling for the resignation of – the arguably not so ‘Honorable’ MP for Epsom, because he is not, in my considered opinion, ‘fit for duty’ as an MP – let alone a Minister.
How come former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field got sentenced for SIX years for ‘bribery and corruption’, for providing ‘immigration advice’ to Thai nationals in exchange for work on his properties – while Minister John Banks gets political protection from NZ Prime Minister John Key, after giving ‘immigration assistance’ and Coatsville property purchase ‘assistance’ to a German/ Finnish national, in return for $50,000 donated to ‘Banksie’s’ 2010 Auckland Mayoral campaign fund, and gifts valued at over $500 which he failed to declare?
It is also of great concern to me, as a fighter against ‘white collar’ crime, that ACT’s ‘one law for all’ has yet to apply to both the current and former Leaders of the ACT Party, whom, as former fellow directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, both signed Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009, which contained untrue statements, but were never charged for so doing. This is a strict liability offence under s58(3) of the Securities Act 1978, but neither the old Securities Commission, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) , nor the NZ Police arguably ‘did their job’ and charged Banks or Brash. Have they been politically protected at the highest levels?
John Banks is now the Minister of Regulatory Reform, yet four different ‘regulatory’ bodies failed to act against him, someone, who arguably couldn’t properly run a Kiwisaver Scheme, yet now has a key Ministerial post and is supposedly helping to run the country ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt in the world’? (According to Transparency Internaional’s 2011 ‘Corruption Perception Index, http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/ which obviously, in my considered opinion, is not worth the paper upon which it is written.)
I don’t expect the ACT MP for Epsom, Minister of Regulatory Reform, the ‘Honorable’ John Banks, to be particularly keen to see me, or this protest, which is intended to ‘hold his feet to the fire’.
“Mr Carter told TVNZ’s Q & A yesterday that local governments were in a similar position to central government, which intends to balance the books by selling up to 49 per cent of shares in the state-owned energy companies, and a further stake in Air NZ”
“I think if you look at my own city of Christchurch where we clearly have an extraordinary situation, the Christchurch balance sheet is strong with a number of assets, the council needs to make the decision.”
— One can see how this is going to play out in advance!
Matthew Hooton this morning got into his stride on his favourite subject, his own opinion about our economic situation and why it’s Labour’s fault. He talked over the top of Josie Pagani quite a lot. One swingeing quote – “No government anywhere in the world creates jobs”.
I’m sick of cynical negative right-wingers who quote figures from the sweepings of the economist floor as a reason for governments not doing anything. When we need practical policies to stimulate business or advance policies that will assist the mass of small taxpayers we get this do-nothing chant. We should be putting in Auckland’s rail while prices are cheap and spending on infrastructure resulting in more employment. Of course we do have to try to employ New Zealanders, not shoot ourselves in the foot bringing in cheap labour while our own people languish and despair and drink and drug or steal so they can have regular food, good housing that presently they are shut away from.
Also he talks about having a surplus in the 1990s and refers first to Ruth Richardson and Bill Birch with Michael Cullen added on. He was all right until the last three years and then spent on policies. ‘Working for Families is one of his insane policies that delivers welfare to the wealthy.’
He ignores what he must have learned in any studies he has done, that paying this sort of assistance to everyone cuts across the wealthy drone about how they are supporting low income drones and it’s not fair they should pay out all the time! Also it tends to be easier and cheaper to administrate when going to all in the target group, rather than scrutinising people’s rather than trying to sieve out the goodies from the bad low incomes.
And lastly this thing about ‘welfare’ – we all have advantage from the provisions that government makes for the nation. One of the things the wealthy and those in power have done is to trade most of our manufacturing jobs, a continuing process, because the world has gone free market which has had some advantages and massive disadvantages. It was obvious that jobs would be lost, the pr…ks knew this so now they are cynically blaming conditions on the poor and resenting every assistance.
prism:”Also it tends to be easier and cheaper to administrate when going to all in the target group, rather than scrutinising people’s rather than trying to sieve out the goodies from the bad low incomes.”
Pretty sure that at the time that is exactly Mr Cullens point. So true.
Drug lords are okay if they keep a high income and off the dole? The problem with fishing the pool of poor is that you aren’t as diligent at higher incomes. Providing welfare has never been justification for criminalization of the poorest – except by fascists. Sure there will always be some, like the lady who didn’t declare she was living with her husband. Just because one banker creates a ponsi scheme doesn’t mean all bankers are criminals.
The solution is to provide the basic limited income to survive as a negative income tax, that rewards people who have little to engage in economic activity, presently the system punitively scraps any extra income at 70c in the dollar blocking the stepping stone from a little work to part-time work.
Give the social injustice of large parts of the population leveraging themselves into massive debt exposure, and then desperate wanting tax cuts to continue their bubble economic vision. At the expense of future generations, the environment, all the activity economics of selling stuff sideways to create paper profit growth (asset sales), shows up the lying conceit in our elites.
Hooton does interrupt far too much. I think it’s a tactic to destroy the point that the other speaker is making. Certainly, I found it very hard to follow the thread of the arguments. I wish that Nat Radio took notice of that complaint.
Pleased to see you returned safely from the gorse fields, Felix.
Makes for bad radio all round, the shouty Hooten and the underpowered Pagani…..a couple of go to media commentators with egos way out of proportion to their ability.
It would good to have more of a green commentator ‘from the left’ sometimes. Today’s comment about nobody being against growth would then be challenged. I’m more for redistribution, personally, and not in favour of ‘growth’ if it means exploitation of the planet’s limited resources.
Not even the NZ Green party is advocating for a zero-growth economic policy. You might as well find a militant Trotskyite to offer their perspectives for all the relevance for mainstream NZ politics.
How right you are, nobody will advocate a zero growth policy. I suspect the Greens will go as far as a zero balance policy on the “externalities” (especially environmental) that are currently unpaid in our economic system.
More importantly we had better get used to a zero growth economy because that is what we have now, and will have for good in the future. There is a methodology prior NZ governments have used for this scenario: its called “balancing the books”. Its got these nasty little necessities such as import controls etc. It used to upset most people, they will be again.
Your second paragraph makes little sense. Something along the lines of we currently have zero growth now and should get used to it in future, (does this mean you are cool with everything), and then something about import controls. Truly bizarre shift in thinking there.
Gos, we currently have zero growth full stop.No problem so far, its demonstrable.
The next contention is get used to it: I happen to believe that resource depletion (in particular energy depletion) will result in a declining economy (as opposed to either growth or zero balance). There is lots of evidence (dont ask me to cite).
Final contention (also historically demonstrable) is that before growth became the accepted norm governments and businesses lived on their current balance, therefore had to balance their books.
Bizarre? What I find truly bizarre is the number of people walking blindfolded into a very evident future because they cant get out of the cornucopian mindset.
Funnily enough I’ve been having a similar discussion with someone on the Hot Topic blog recently (see, I haven’t been away from the internet completely).
I happen to think it reflects poorly on Hooten which I don’t mind at all, but it also reflects poorly on Pagani that she allows it. Williams doesn’t let Hooten shout him down. Neither does McCarten.
They all do it to an extent. Hooten tends to interupt when he spots BS during a long diatribe from the left wing commentator. Kathryn Ryan struggles at time to control him, (and the others), but generally does an okay job. Williams and Hooten end up agreeing with each more often than not so perhaps that is why he doesn’t interupt as much.
Williams and Hooten end up agreeing with each more often than not so perhaps that is why he doesn’t interupt as much.
Weirdness about 2 weeks ago, when Ryan messed up and said “From the Right, Mike Williams!”
That wasn’t the weird part – that happened when Williams said in response to her apology “That’s all right, I am really on the right, when I stop and think about it”.
With Ryan herself, that episode became a love fest of agreement amongst the three.
Well yeah, boil it down enough and they’re all discussing the issues of the day from strictly within the boundaries of our neo-liberal right wing economic paradigm.
Joint Media Statement
21st May 2012 Significant Progress in AFFCO dispute
After a full day of negotiations in Auckland yesterday the parties to the long running industrial dispute at the AFFCO meat works have made significant progress and are now working quickly towards trying to reach a final agreement for union members to ratify.
The parties today reached provisional agreement on the core document and are now working towards the settlement of specific site documents.
As part of a joint commitment to building a new type of relationship the parties have agreed and committed to a return to work within a short time frame of all workers and the withdrawal or suspension of all legal action while the final details are agreed.
The union and the owners of AFFCO (Talley Group) have been greatly assisted by the Iwi Leaders Forum who were represented at the negotiations today and wish to jointly acknowledged the role this group has played in working with both sides to find solutions that will enable the company to thrive in the future and the workers to work under fair and reasonable conditions.
The Iwi leadership forum members including Ken Mair, Tukoroirangi Morgan and Sonny Tau are adamant that in order to achieve an enduring settlement between the two parties it must be hinged around trust and confidence.
“The commitment by Andrew Talley and senior management to an open and regular dialogue with Union officials goes a long way to restoring confidence and certainty,” said the Iwi leaders.
“We have both sought to learn from this dispute and ensure that moving forward we build in the opportunity for a new type of relationship between the company, the union and its members. We also both value the ongoing commitment from Iwi to support this relationship” Andrew Talley said on behalf of AFFCO.
“Our members will be greatly relieved that we have made this progress today and keenly interested in us moving towards a full settlement. They are very open to making these meat works the best in the country and will welcome a different type of relationship, “ Dave Eastlake Meat Workers General Secretary said.
The parties will be making no further comment while the process is continuing.
Any other people who hadn’t heard of Louis Crimp and wondered .. I’ve just put some informative links on Open Mike for yesterday 20/5. I meant to put it on today’s.
Guess how he made his money – pokies and not winning on them haha. You didn’t think that did you. No his business is in the machines – for the players he’s the ghost in the machine perhaps.
On Louis Crimp. Couldn’t easily get info about Andrew Housing but there was quite a lot about him. I am fascinated by his big hearted philanthropy. He bought a house sold as a fundraiser by hospice for three times the expected price was one thing that raised his profile. He always has plenty to say and seems to be consulted for comment ad nauseum.
Well there has to be a circut breaker sometimes, and Sonny and the Moerewa people were getting well pissed off with Talley’s in Northland. Maybe the frozen pea sales were dropping a bit too in the odd Pak ’n Save.
Not everything must be talked about on blogs. But, “the withdrawal or suspension of all legal action while the final details are agreed” is a worry because an ‘in favour of the union ruling’ as per Open Country Cheese as to the legality of employing scabs, not to mention the legality of the targeted lockouts while the MWU was in bargaining, could help a number of workers in the very near future with Talley’s favourite charity, the Natz about to take us all back to 1991.
Looks like a typical Talley’s tactical tit pull to me at first glance.
Tapu Misa on the lack of sacrifice by the rich and the excess sacrifice by the poor dealt by this government.
“Judged by the yardstick of international norms,” he writes, “New Zealand under-taxes high income earners and over-taxes low income earners.” Using the preferred OECD “tax wedge” measure, for example, New Zealand’s tax rate among the 28 high-income OECD countries at the $100,000 salary level is 15 percentage points lower than the average, “representing over US$26,000 in tax that the average high income OECD country collects from these workers and their employers [that] New Zealand does not”.
Well, so much for the rich running off to other countries if we raise taxes on them. If they did they’d be taxed more.
That was exactly the para that I toyed with reposting here Draco. It is funny how higher taxes are always painted as a disaster and yet those northern European countries tax higher and do better. Especially when lower taxes are used as support for the myth that rich people provide the jobs rather than the poorer spending and working provide the wealth.
In addition to discourse, what types of activities are opponents to the current Neo-Liberal Capitalist Growth Economic Ideology Regime taking?
Subverting the forms of propaganda previously dominated by those abusing power.
But what Action; What translation into behaviour,care and guidance?
Downsizing?
Downshifting?
Deleveraging (urrgh!)
Reducing Reusing Recycling
Deinsuring
Disestablishing
Dissent before dishonour.
Leaving the payment of all greedy accounts till the 3 Month business payment schedule elapses?
Public transport use.
Kai gathering, home gardening, home cooking
I mean shutting off the blood supply to the greedy parasites.
There is always the ‘5.56 option of last resort’, but I expect to see that in Europe sometime in the near future, not here. Maybe that will make a few of the corporate bludgers sit-up and take notice.
Yes, there are some good suggestions in there. As always, it is the doing that matters, at the personal level, rather than any list of possibles for the undefined masses. In that context then, here’s what a particular philosopher had to say a long time ago, shortly before he left a country that was descending into chaos:
“When the great Tao is forgotten,
goodness and piety appear.
When the body’s intelligence declines,
cleverness and knowledge step forth.
When there is no peace in the family,
filial piety begins.
When the country falls into chaos,
Patriotism is born.”.
LaoTzu said the Tao was a way of natural harmony, greater than and existing before god. It’s interesting to see how the concept moves past good and bad as final resting points of human behaviour – listing them, really, as lesser evils – and reaches past that to an absolute kind of flowing/alternating order/disorder.
Within the context of your question on what each of us can do, via behaviour care and guidelines, we could do worse than use these guidelines as measure for action. LaoTzu’s political comments would also be echoed thousands of years later in social movements that understood that the overall good of the people as a collective mattered more than anything else; more than leaders careers, empire building or even the sciences. He was of the idea that materialism undermined the health of people and the earth.
Of course, his work has been fantastically abused by various Chinese leaders and historical figures since then, distorting it from a route to peace into sexual warfare and justification for totalitarianism and oppressions, but then so has Christianity under the capitalists. So as long as we understand this is a guide for our behaviour towards peace, not war and oppression, not as tool of offense, then we’ll stay the right side of the line – I hope. Shouldn’t be too hard to translate into modern terminology: you touch on several points already, such as “downsizing”, “downshifting” etc.
“Throw away holiness and wisdom’
and the people will be a hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won’t be any thieves.
If these three aren’t enough,
just stay at the centre of the circle
and let all things take their course.”
This pretty much spells out the main idea: while man cannot hope to not act in response to events, he should know how to do the least amount of damage and reach for the action of in-action that will naturally lead to the best action. As left eventually becomes right, why get into the power struggle at all?
“The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centred within the Tao.
When rich speculators prosper,
while farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money,
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn –
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.”
The Tao Te Ching is somewhat of an oxymoron, since it’s existence contradicts the goal of the masters, which was to not speak, but do. It was written, we are told, because someone asked for guidelines to the art of living as a master was leaving a particular part of the country. I think that “leaving” actually meant he was approaching death, but we could get lost in metaphors and lose the message: action, above all else.
There is another frequently cited tale that says a region was under all kinds of trouble, environmentally and socially, and a master was called to settle it. He camped on the outskirts of the region, isolated and seeing no one, until things returned to normal – which was within a few days. The idea is that he was so in tune with the natural way of things, that his presence, his act of relocating, brought natural balance back to the region. He didn’t talk, and neither should anyone, is the meaning. Do something that moves toward balance, instead.
The Master doesn’t try to be powerful;
Thus he is truly powerful.
The ordinary man keeps reaching for power;
Thus he never has enough.
The Master does nothing,
Yet leaves nothing undone.
The ordinary man is always doing things,
Yet many more things are left to be done.
The kind man does something,
Yet something remains undone
The just man does something,
And leaves many things to be done.
The moral man does something,
And when no one responds
He rolls up his sleeves and uses force.
When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is ritual.
Ritual is the husk of true faith,
The beginning of chaos.
Therefore the Master concerns himself
With the depths and not the surface,
With the fruit and not the flower.
He has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
And lets all illusion go.”
That second to last verse, the following backwards of effect and stages of decline are echoed in the other famous Book of Changes, which precedes our modern Leftist ideas that there is a reason for everything, by a long way; that nothing is simple, and that there is only the point where you stop looking. Unfortunately, Taoism also condemns statistics completely as an idiocy.
And the final example, with the dry humour and realism that many of the verses hold:
Governing a large country is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it too much with poking.
Centre your country in the Tao
And evil will have no power.
Not that it isn’t there,
But you’ll be able to step out of its way.
Give evil nothing to oppose
And it will disappear by itself.”
Or as you put it: “… shutting off the blood supply to the greedy parasites.”
That Louis Crimp chappie from down south, who gave 100K+ to ACT to “do somethng about the maoris” who are “full of welfare and crime”, and who ACT now say they think says offensive things but they’ll take his money, (given to achieve offensive things), anyway…
… will be on Campbell live tonight, even though he didn’t know the camera was rolling.
It is enough to make a person embarrassed to have even walked the same streets as he did!
I have looked in vain for the $500,000,000.00 that he says is going into finding Te Reo but if we are cutting Māori Language funding even though it is a legal language of this country, then I presume that monies dedictaed to the teaching of English and NZ Sign will also be cut freeing up that funding for something else?!
The man is an idiot and a bully. I notice that he has threatened that he will not fund Act if they don’t make the abolition of Te Reo funding a non-negotiable. That is what he did to Stadium Southland Trust vis a vis the acknowledgment of ILT funding for the project. ILT has poured far more money into the Invercargill community than Louis Crimp ever will but the trustees gave into his blackmail. It will be interesting to see how Act respond
I saw that, and now I see why the Hell Pizza owners decided to approach Clive to put their case and refused to appear on Sunday on TV1…
The interviewer on Clive are giving the owner a sympathetic ear, she’s oozing with sweet kind questions (no hard ones) and it’s obvious why he chose to refuse Sunday and appear on Clive, after all, how many times has TV 3 ever criticised business men?
Don Brash was one of the few hopes for New Zealand he said at the time about 5 years ago it would be harder than the second world war to get New Zealand to a Growing sustainable country catching up with Australia. That was over 5 years ago and he was ignored along with many of Acts initial policy’s. So if was as hard as war then well.
The Solution is:
I really see it, first we need pleading to international help to help us recover and get international aid. We need to outsource Government departments such as entire health sector to Australia to administer. We need to have boarder-less “passport free” crossing to Australia, common currency just for start.
We then need to remove RMA completely and privatize the Building Department and all associated acts.
Sell the entire Tertiary Education sector.
Reduce income tax to 10%
Removed GST of all food, and basic living items.
Introduce Capital gains tax
Sell parts or New Zealand to Europe and America allowing them to create cities such as a French city in South island ran and administered by France.
Increase school standards. (Longer Day- Real economic teaching learn anther language from early on.)
Remove the treaty of Wiatangi form many government items.
Put some Politicians in jail. ( And look at performance pay- Electronic Elections on the internet).
Write a CONSTITUTION based on the American.
Removed number of MPs make it 99 and fix MMP i.e. party percent list choice elected from public.
Remove Government Standards: i.e allow cheap quality small electric cars on road. Allow Insurance companies to take risk analysis – not Government
Increase tax on alcohol. Also other government arbitrary standards which may not have cost benefit logical ratio.
Sell some roads completely.
Remove many testing and certification schemes.
Reduce all fines by 50%
Sell ACC and allow privatization and suing
Removed 50% of Government Agency’s and ministry’s.
Stop putting money in the Rugby industry.
Sue the transport minister for spending millionths on motorways for the Roading Lobby.
Invest in heavy public transport and bike lanes for the big city’s.
Don’t think we’ve really tried it Draco at all National are just keeping the same old Labour Policies but doing things slower with the exception of Motorway Lust.
Key always said Don Brash and Roger Douglas policies where unworkable and extreme. Well perhaps we need some “extreme” stuff to get NZ on track.
Driving NZ off a cliff is extreme, but it won’t get us back on track.
Giving every NZer a decent wage is the way to get us back on track. We print the money, we implement a CGT, we implement an FTT and we implement a 0.5% pa wealth tax to pay for it.
Capital which leaves the country for reasons other than the facilitation of direct trade is also taxed.
Oh yeah, the nationalisation of core economic infrastructure back into public and community ownership and control.
Not really Colonial that extreme – good to see you thinking. Printing credit is well overdue- absolutely Should funded some council projects for a few years.
Basically one side of the economic philosophy here is to allow quicker and rapid exchange of service and expertise between citizens of this country without third-party holdups and Government intervention. This is probably one of the quickest ways to allow society to exchange goods services and find a natural system which benefits all parties.
Allowing business to open run services people want rapidly. (Super Rapid – Houses built in a week sort of fast) In fact no building consents, all done on buyer choice buyer insurance schemes and “enforced” contract law.
So you could quickly find the service you are best to aid society with and also reap rewards of other diligent members of the commerce community for a price your happy with.
We’re all adults we don’t need Government checking every transaction and business idea to make sure they fit all governments rules and regulations.
Ah, a libertarian or, in other words, someone who’s all for oppressing the majority of people. Yes, that is the result of the BS you peddle.
A major reason why we have regulation is so that everyone is working with the best knowledge. We all adults, yes, we’re not all omniscient gods. The consent process is there to ensure that houses are built to best standards (well, that’s the theory unfortunately the government seems to have forgotten that and set minimum standards well bellow what they should be). If you remove those standards and remove the process to ensure those standards then what we will have would be a situation much worse than the leaking homes saga and no one would be accountable for it. People would start a business, make millions and then, as soon as trouble looked like it was starting, liquidate the business.
We’re a democracy so government happens to be us, what we call government is actually our administrative arm and, like all administration, it’s needed. Unfortunately, idiots like you go round telling people that our needed administration is evil.
“People would start a business, make millions and then, as soon as trouble looked like it was starting, liquidate the business.”
That’s what happens now.
Perhaps under contract law, when you purchase a Product you look to see if they have a long history and perhaps their underwriters.
And perhaps even write and agreement which binds your purchase to the personal seller of the product and not the business. ( guess in Contract Law you could write any terms and conditions in you wanted, as long as you both agree and sign off on it.)
In fact business models could start which take care of purchasing contracts and could even insure the product as security. Sort of like Safeseller on trademe
They way I see it things get more and more interesting and more productive and harmonious in Libertarian economics.
They way I see it things get more and more interesting and more productive and harmonious in Libertarian economics.
LOL, no, they get more litigious and most people can’t afford the lawyers required to help negotiate the contracts or enforce the contracts that are signed.
outsourcing government departments to Australia? Really. I heard on RNZ in the last few days that some Australian states are complaining that they aren’t given equal treatment nationally with the bigger more powerful states like NSW. I think it’s to do with being given less funding and consideration in policies.
And you think NZ wouldn’t be undermined by any Australian-based governance of NZ?
Ditto for any control of cities by French or US interests – it would open these cities to yet more plundering by wealthy and powerful overseas interests.
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The Treaty Principles Bill has been defeated in Parliament with 112 votes in opposition and 11 in favour, but the debate about Te Tiriti and Māori rights looks set to stay high on the political agenda. Supermarket giant Woolworths has confirmed a new operating model that Workers First say will ...
1. What did Seymour say after his obnoxious bill was buried 112 to 11?a. Watch this spaceb. Mea culpac. I am not a crookd. Youse are all such dumbasses2. Which lasted longest?a. Liz Trussb. Trump’s Tariffsc. The Lettuced. Too soon to say but the smart money’s on the vegetable 3. ...
And this is what I'm gonna doI'm gonna put a call to you'Cause I feel good tonightAnd everything's gonna beRight-right-rightI'm gonna have a good time tonightRock and roll music gonna play all nightCome on, baby, it won't take longOnly take a minute just to sing my songSongwriters: Kirk Pengilly / ...
The Indonesian military has a new role in cybersecurity but, worryingly, no clear doctrine on what to do with it nor safeguards against human rights abuses. Assignment of cyber responsibility to the military is part ...
The StrategistBy Gatra Priyandita and Christian Guntur Lebang
Another Friday, another roundup. Autumn is starting to set in, certainly getting darker earlier but we hope you enjoy some of the stories we found interesting this week. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday we ran a guest post from the wonderful Darren Davis about what’s happening ...
Long stories shortest:The White House confirms Donald Trump’s total tariffs now on China are 145%, not 125%. US stocks slump again. Gold hits a record high. PM Christopher Luxon joins a push for a new rules-based trading system based around CPTPP and EU, rather than US-led WTO. Winston Peters ...
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: and on the week in geopolitics and climate, including Donald Trump’s shock and (partial) backflip; and,Health Coalition Aotearoa Chair ...
USAID cuts and tariffs will harm the United States’ reputation in the Pacific more than they will harm the region itself. The resilient region will adjust to the economic challenges and other partners will fill ...
National's racist and divisive Treaty Principles Bill was just voted down by the House, 112 to 11. Good fucking riddance. The bill was not a good-faith effort at legislating, or at starting a "constitutional conversation". Instead it was a bad faith attempt to stoke division and incite racial hatred - ...
Democracy watch Indonesia’s parliament passed revisions to the country’s military law, which pro-democracy and human rights groups view as a threat to the country’s democracy. One of the revisions seeks to expand the number of ...
The StrategistBy Linus Cohen, Astrid Young and Alice Wai
Australia should follow international examples and develop a civilian cyber reserve as part of a whole-of-society approach to national defence. By setting up such a reserve, the federal government can overcome a shortage of expertise ...
A ballot for three Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Life Jackets for Children and Young Persons Bill (Cameron Brewer) Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Restrictions on Issue of Off-Licences and Low and No Alcohol Products) Amendment Bill (Mike Butterick) Crown ...
Te Whatu Ora is proposing to slash jobs from a department that brings in millions of dollars a year and ensures safety in hospitals, rest homes and other community health providers. The Treaty Principles Bill is back in Parliament this evening and is expected to be voted down by all parties, ...
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has repeatedly asserted the country’s commitment to a non-aligned foreign policy. But can Indonesia still credibly claim neutrality while tacitly engaging with Russia? Holding an unprecedented bilateral naval drills with Moscow ...
The NZCTU have launched a new policy programme and are calling on political parties to adopt bold policies in the lead up to the next election. The Government is scrapping the 30-day rule that automatically signs an employee up to the collective agreement when they sign on to a new ...
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te must have been on his toes. The island’s trade and defence policy has snapped into a new direction since US President Donald Trump took office in January. The government was almost ...
Auckland’s ongoing rail pain will intensify again from this weekend as Kiwirail shut down the network for two weeks as part of their push to get the network ready for the City Rail Link. KiwiRail will progress upgrade and renewal projects across Auckland’s rail network over the Easter holiday period ...
This is a re-post from The Electrotech Revolution by Daan Walter Last week, UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch took the stage to advocate for slowing the rollout of renewables, arguing that they ultimately lead to higher costs: “Huge amounts are being spent on switching round how we distribute electricity ...
That there, that's not meI go where I pleaseI walk through wallsI float down the LiffeyI'm not hereThis isn't happeningI'm not hereI'm not hereSongwriters: Philip James Selway / Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood / Edward John O'Brien / Thomas Edward Yorke / Colin Charles Greenwood.I had mixed views when the first ...
(A note to subscribers:I’m going to keep these daily curated news updates shorter in future to ensure an earlier and more regular delivery.Expect this format and delivery around 7 am Monday to Friday from now on. My apologies for not delivering yesterday. There was too much news… This ...
As Donald Trump zigs and zags on tariffs and trashes America’s reputation as a safe and stable place to invest, China has a big gun that it could bring to this tariff knife fight. Behind Japan, China has the world’s second largest holdings of American debt. As a huge US ...
Civilian exploration may be the official mission of a Chinese deep-sea research ship that sailed clockwise around Australia over the past week and is now loitering west of the continent. But maybe it’s also attending ...
South Korea’s internal political instability leaves it vulnerable to rising security threats including North Korea’s military alliance with Russia, China’s growing regional influence and the United States’ unpredictability under President Donald Trump. South Korea needs ...
Here are 5 updates that you may be interested in today:Speed kills and costs - so why does National want more of it?James (Jim) Grenon Board Takeover Gets Shaky - As Canadian Calls An Australian Shareholder a “Flake” Billionaire Bust-ups -The World’s Richest Men Are UncomfortableOver 3,500 Australian doctors on ...
Australia is in a race against time. Cyber adversaries are exploiting vulnerabilities faster than we can identify and patch them. Both national security and economic considerations demand policy action. According to IBM’s Data Breach Report, ...
The ever brilliant Kate Nicholls has kindly agreed to allow me to re-publish her substack offering some under-examined backdrop to Trump’s tariff madness. The essay is not meant to be a full scholarly article but instead an insight into the thinking (if that is the correct word) behind the current ...
In the Pacific, the rush among partner countries to be seen as the first to assist after disasters has become heated as part of ongoing geopolitical contest. As partners compete for strategic influence in the ...
The StrategistBy Miranda Booth, Henrietta McNeill and Genevieve Quirk
We’ve seen this morning the latest step up in the Trump-initiated trade war, with the additional 50 per cent tariffs imposed on imports from China. If the tariff madness persists – but in fact even if were wound back in some places (eg some of the particularly absurd tariffs on ...
Weak as I am, no tears for youWeak as I am, no tears for youDeep as I am, I'm no one's foolWeak as I amSongwriters: Deborah Ann Dyer / Richard Keith Lewis / Martin Ivor Kent / Robert Arnold FranceMorena. This morning, I couldn’t settle on a single topic. Too ...
Australian policy makers are vastly underestimating how climate change will disrupt national security and regional stability across the Indo-Pacific. A new ASPI report assesses the ways climate impacts could threaten Indonesia’s economic and security interests ...
So here we are in London again because we’re now at the do-it-while-you-still-can stage of life. More warm wide-armed hugs, more long talks and long walks and drinks in lovely old pubs with our lovely daughter.And meanwhile the world is once more in one of its assume-the-brace-position stages.We turned on ...
Hi,Back in September of 2023, I got pitched an interview:David -Thanks for the quick response to the DM! Means the world. Re-stating some of the DM below for your team’s reference -I run a business called Animal Capital - we are a venture capital fund advised by Noah Beck, Paris ...
I didn’t want to write about this – but, alas, the 2020s have forced my hand. I am going to talk about the Trump Tariffs… and in the process probably irritate nearly everyone. You see, alone on the Internet, I am one of those people who think we need a ...
Maybe people are only just beginning to notice the close alignment of Russia and China. It’s discussed as a sudden new phenomenon in world affairs, but in fact it’s not new at all. The two ...
The High Court has just ruled that the government has been violating one of the oldest Treaty settlements, the Sealord deal: The High Court has found the Crown has breached one of New Zealand's oldest Treaty Settlements by appropriating Māori fishing quota without compensation. It relates to the 1992 ...
Darwin’s proposed Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct is set to be the heart of a new integrated infrastructure network in the Northern Territory, larger and better than what currently exists in northern Australia. However, the ...
Local body elections are in October, and so like a lot of people, I received the usual pre-election enrolment confirmation from the Orange Man in the post. And I was horrified to see that it included the following: Why horrified? After all, surely using email, rather ...
Australia needs to deliver its commitment under the Seoul Declaration to create an Australian AI safety, or security, institute. Australia is the only signatory to the declaration that has yet to meet its commitments. Given ...
Ko kōpū ka rere i te paeMe ko Hine RuhiTīaho mai tō arohaMe ko Hine RuhiDa da da ba du da da ba du da da da ba du da da da da da daDa da da ba du da da ba du da da da ba du da da ...
Army, Navy and AirForce personnel in ceremonial dress: an ongoing staffing exodus means we may get more ships, drones and planes but not have enough ‘boots on the ground’ to use them. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy this morning:PM Christopher Luxon says the Government can ...
If you’re a qualified individual looking to join the Australian Army, prepare for a world of frustration over the next 12 to 18 months. While thorough vetting is essential, the inefficiency of the Australian Defence ...
I’ve inserted a tidbit and rumours section1. Colonoscopy wait times increase, procedures drop under NationalWait times for urgent, non-urgent and surveillance colonoscopies all progressively worsened last year. Health NZ data shows the total number of publicly-funded colonoscopies dropped by more than 7 percent.Health NZ chief medical officer Helen Stokes-Lampard blamed ...
Three billion dollars has been wiped off the value of New Zealand’s share market as the rout of global financial markets caught up with the local market. A Sāmoan national has been sentenced for migrant exploitation and corruption following a five-year investigation that highlights the serious consequences of immigration fraud ...
This is a guest post by Darren Davis. It originally appeared on his excellent blog, Adventures in Transitland, which we encourage you to check out. It is shared by kind permission. Rail Network Investment Plan quietly dropped While much media attention focused on the 31st March 2025 announcement that the replacement Cook ...
Amendments to Indonesia’s military law risk undermining civilian supremacy and the country’s defence capabilities. Passed by the House of Representatives on 20 March, the main changes include raising the retirement age and allowing military officers ...
The StrategistBy Alfin Febrian Basundoro and Jascha Ramba Santoso
So New Zealand is about to spend $12 billion on our defence forces over the next four years – with $9 million of it being new money that is not being spent on pressing needs here at home. Somehow this lavish spend-up on Defence is “affordable,” says PM Christopher Luxon, ...
Donald Trump’s philosophy about the United States’ place in the world is historically selfish and will impoverish his country’s spirit. While he claimed last week to be ‘liberating’ Americans from the exploiters and freeloaders who’ve ...
China’s crackdown on cyber-scam centres on the Thailand-Myanmar border may cause a shift away from Mandarin, towards English-speaking victims. Scammers also used the 28 March earthquake to scam international victims. Australia, with its proven capabilities ...
At the 2005 election campaign, the National Party colluded with a weirdo cult, the Exclusive Brethren, to run a secret hate campaign against the Greens. It was the first really big example of the rich using dark money to interfere in our democracy. And unfortunately, it seems that they're trying ...
Many of you will know that in collaboration with the University of Queensland we created and ran the massive open online course (MOOC) "Denial101x - Making sense of climate science denial" on the edX platform. Within nine years - between April 2015 and February 2024 - we offered 15 runs ...
How will the US assault on trade affect geopolitical relations within Asia? Will nations turn to China and seek protection by trading with each other? The happy snaps a week ago of the trade ministers ...
I mentioned this on Friday - but thought it deserved some emphasis.Auckland Waitematā District Commander Superintendent Naila Hassan has responded to Countering Hate Speech Aotearoa, saying police have cleared Brian Tamaki of all incitement charges relating to the Te Atatu library rainbow event assault.Hassan writes:..There is currently insufficient evidence to ...
With the report of the recent intelligence review by Heather Smith and Richard Maude finally released, critics could look on and wonder: why all the fuss? After all, while the list of recommendations is substantial, ...
Well, I don't know if I'm readyTo be the man I have to beI'll take a breath, I'll take her by my sideWe stand in awe, we've created lifeWith arms wide open under the sunlightWelcome to this place, I'll show you everythingSongwriters: Scott A. Stapp / Mark T. Tremonti.Today is ...
Staff at Kāinga Ora are expecting details of another round of job cuts, with the Green Party claiming more than 500 jobs are set to go. The New Zealand Defence Force has made it easier for people to apply for a job in a bid to get more boots on ...
Australia’s agriculture sector and food system have prospered under a global rules-based system influenced by Western liberal values. But the assumptions, policy approaches and economic frameworks that have traditionally supported Australia’s food security are no ...
Following Trump’s tariff announcement, US stock values fell by the most ever in value terms (US$6.6 trillion). Photo: Getty ImagesLong story shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy this morning:Donald Trump just detonated a neutron bomb under the globalised economy, but this time the Fed isn’t cutting interest rates to rescue ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 30, 2025 thru Sat, April 5, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
This is a longer read.Summary:Trump’s tariffs are reckless, disastrous and hurt the poorest countries deeply. It will stoke inflation, and may cause another recession. Funds/investments around the world have tanked.Trump’s actions emulate the anti-economic logic of another right wing libertarian politician - Liz Truss. She had her political career cut ...
We are all suckers for hope.He’s just being provocative, people will say, he wouldn’t really go that far. They wouldn’t really go that far.Germany in the 1920s and 30s was one of the world’s most educated, culturally sophisticated, and scientifically advanced societies.It had a strong democratic constitution with extensive civil ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Mars warming? Mars’ climate varies due to completely different reasons than Earth’s, and available data indicates no temperature trends comparable to Earth’s ...
Max Harris and Max Rashbrooke discuss how we turn around the right wing slogans like nanny state, woke identity politics, and the inefficiency of the public sector – and how we build a progressive agenda. From Donald Trump to David Seymour, from Peter Dutton to Christopher Luxon, we are subject to a ...
Max Harris and Max Rashbrooke discuss how we turn around the right wing slogans like nanny state, woke identity politics, and the inefficiency of the public sector – and how we build a progressive agenda. From Donald Trump to David Seymour, from Peter Dutton to Christopher Luxon, we are subject to a ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
The Privileges Committee has denied fundamental rights to Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, breaching their own standing orders, breaching principles of natural justice, and highlighting systemic prejudice and discrimination within our parliamentary processes. The three MPs were summoned to the privileges committee following their performance of a haka ...
April 1 used to be a day when workers could count on a pay rise with stronger support for those doing it tough, but that’s not the case under this Government. ...
Winston Peters is shopping for smaller ferries after Nicola Willis torpedoed the original deal, which would have delivered new rail enabled ferries next year. ...
The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to scrap proposed changes to Early Childhood Care, after attending a petition calling for the Government to ‘Put tamariki at the heart of decisions about ECE’. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill today that will remove the power of MPs conscience votes and ensure mandatory national referendums are held before any conscience issues are passed into law. “We are giving democracy and power back to the people”, says New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters. ...
Welcome to members of the diplomatic corp, fellow members of parliament, the fourth estate, foreign affairs experts, trade tragics, ladies and gentlemen. ...
In recent weeks, disturbing instances of state-sanctioned violence against Māori have shed light on the systemic racism permeating our institutions. An 11-year-old autistic Māori child was forcibly medicated at the Henry Bennett Centre, a 15-year-old had his jaw broken by police in Napier, kaumātua Dean Wickliffe went on a hunger ...
Confidence in the job market has continued to drop to its lowest level in five years as more New Zealanders feel uncertain about finding work, keeping their jobs, and getting decent pay, according to the latest Westpac-McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index. ...
The Greens are calling on the Government to follow through on their vague promises of environmental protection in their Resource Management Act (RMA) reform. ...
The Government’s new planning legislation to replace the Resource Management Act will make it easier to get things done while protecting the environment, say Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop and Under-Secretary Simon Court. “The RMA is broken and everyone knows it. It makes it too hard to build ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay has today launched a public consultation on New Zealand and India’s negotiations of a formal comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. “Negotiations are getting underway, and the Public’s views will better inform us in the early parts of this important negotiation,” Mr McClay says. We are ...
More than 900 thousand superannuitants and almost five thousand veterans are among the New Zealanders set to receive a significant financial boost from next week, an uplift Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says will help support them through cost-of-living challenges. “I am pleased to confirm that from 1 ...
By Layla Bailey-McDowell, RNZ Māori news journalist Legal experts and Māori advocates say the fight to protect Te Tiriti is only just beginning — as the controversial Treaty Principles Bill is officially killed in Parliament. The bill — which seeks to redefine the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wesley Morgan, Research Associate, Institute for Climate Risk and Response, UNSW Sydney Australia’s relationship with its regional neighbours could be in doubt under a Coalition government after two Pacific leaders challenged Opposition Leader Peter Dutton over his weak climate stance. This week, ...
An additional tariff by the US on New Zealand exporters is harmful and the Minister of Trade has written to his American counterparts to tell them that. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sophia Staite, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Social media is ablaze with reports of kids going wild at screenings of A Minecraft Movie. Some cinemas are cracking down. There are reports of cinemas calling ...
The Treaty Principles Bill has been brutally defeated in Parliament. We have highlights from key speeches, and explain why its demise is so unusual. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Fujak, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, Deakin University Few issues in Australian sport generate as much media noise or emotional fan reactions as player movement, especially in our major winter codes the National Rugby League (NRL) and Australian Football League (AFL). ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isabelle Ng, PhD candidate, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University A couple of whip coral goby (_Bryaninops yongei_).randi_ang/Shutterstock Swim along the edge of a coral reef and you’ll often see schools of sleek, torpedo-shaped fishes gliding through the currents, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Kemp, Professor, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Languages are windows into the worlds of the people who speak them – reflecting what they value and experience daily. So perhaps it’s no surprise different languages highlight different ...
A new poem by Daniel Frears. Pale Straw this season’s colour is pale straw a revelatory colour for an oh so special season it might mess with your head, or mine you can rub my belly like I was a dog. all actions are allowed in this .. phase. if ...
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 The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House, $32) “A truly helpful treatise on seeing ...
Tara Ward watches the return of The Handmaid’s Tale and discovers the dystopia of the future now feels all too real. If you like your television so bleak that you need to curl into a ball and rock back and forward afterwards, then clear the floor because I have great ...
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 A national YouGov poll, conducted April 4–10 from a sample of 1,505, gave Labor a 52.5–47.5 lead, a 1.5-point gain for Labor ...
Submissions close today on proposed reforms that would mark the most significant shakeup of fisheries in decades. Here’s what you need to know.On February 12, oceans and fisheries minister Shane Jones held up a wagging finger and a shiny, plastic-comb-bound document as Wellington’s downtown seagulls squawked overhead. Among a ...
This bill sought to fundamentally alter the meaning of Te Tiriti o Waitangi by selectively and incorrectly interpreting the reo Māori text, says E tū National Secretary Rachel Mackintosh. ...
Luxon has an opportunity to emerge as a stabiliser without the diplomatic risk of poking the bear in the White House. Last month, pundits from across the political spectrum were begging Christopher Luxon to add a modicum of clarity to the way he communicates after a disastrous interview with Mike ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Mitchell, Professor of Nursing and Health Services Research, University of Newcastle Annie Spratt/Unsplash Hospital-acquired infections are infections patients didn’t have when they were admitted to hospital. The most common include wound infections after surgery, urinary tract infections and pneumonia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christina Hanna, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Planning, University of Waikato Christina Hanna, CC BY-SA Once floodwaters subside, talk of planned retreat inevitably rises. Within Aotearoa New Zealand, several communities from north to south – including Kumeū, Kawatiri Westport and parts ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arian Wallach, Future Fellow in Ecology, Queensland University of Technology michael garner/Shutterstock In 1938, zoologist Ellis Le Geyt Troughton mourned that Australia’s “gentle and specialized creatures” were “unable to cope with changed conditions and introduced enemies”. The role of these ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Peetz, Laurie Carmichael Distinguished Research Fellow at the Centre for Future Work, and Professor Emeritus, Griffith Business School, Griffith University doublelee/Shutterstock Can the government actually make a difference to the wages Australians earn? A lot of attention always falls on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Egliston, Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures, Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, University of Sydney Last week, Nintendo announced the June 5 release of its long anticipated Switch 2. But the biggest talking point wasn’t the console’s launch titles or features. At ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Woodman, TR Ashworth Professor in Sociology, The University of Melbourne Securing the welfare of future generations seems like solid grounds for judging policies and politicians, especially during an election campaign. Political legacies are on the line because the stakes are so ...
A must watch piss take on bankers….
Those sad little rich men. Scrooge had a better Christmas?
I get bollock bored reiterating to my “centrist” middle class Key voting associates that we have a train wreck of youth unemployment here in NZ. I know Canterbury has a had a quake but look at this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/6955597/More-young-people-out-of-work-in-city
The number of Cantabrians aged 15 to 24 in employment has dropped by 12,300, the September 2011 Household Labour Force Survey revealed.
The fall comes despite 8700 people in the age bracket leaving the city last year.
In effect this says that in an area of 350,000 we might expect to find 12% of the population aged 18-24…..roughly 42000 people, of whom 12,300 are out of work (nearly a third), and if you count those who have gone 21,000…a half.
This is a huge indictment on the failure of all recent governments, especially the current NACT crop who don’t appear to even acknowledge the issue or give a rats arse. And worse still its a giant j’acuse at those voter who work on the “I am all right Jack” principle.
“And worse still its a giant j’acuse at those voter who work on the “I am all right Jack” principle”
— Yup, and those same selfish fools who think that they are out of harms way, will be in the line of fire eventually, on current course!
There may be a significant breakthrough in the Affco dispute this morning; it looks like pressure from Iwi has forced Talley’s back to the table and an agreement now looks likely.
Good news!
Question for a moderator
If someone is currently on a one week ban here (guess who) and posts a comment on another blog (KB, General Debate today) asking for someone there to post their comment on the Standard for them, what is the position? I have no intention of doing so; the comment appears to include a link to the banned person’s own blog……
PS – FYI the same banned person was also using the other blog yesterday to respond to/comment on comments posted here subsequent to the TS ban being invoked.
Out of sight, out of mind. Please don’t remind me.
Link is to a Stuff article, not his blog. Agreed, Carol, but trying to preempt…..
I should think he can do whatever he wants on another site.
Anyone who was foolish enough to copy his comments over to here should expect moderator attention – probably deleting the comments to start with and escalating from there as necessary.
It’s up to us how we moderate. Pete’s politics may be remiss but his heart is in the right place. He is, however, a bit obsessive (as are some other regular commenters) – I’ve seen this with commenters before and it generally ends in tears. I think it’s time to let it go.
I’d also recommend that anyone who finds themselves taking the blogs too seriously, and I include obsessing over who said what to who on another blog, should take a few days off to spend some time in the real world. It’ll do you good.
For the most part Pete provides good debate here and does obviously put a lot of time into knowing his stuff.
Where he becomes annoying is the frequency at which he posts.
Anyway,
I see stuff have an article on how the majority of people still blame Labour for debt. A perfect opportunity for Labour to get some media spotlight and point out the flaws in this.
You guys run this excellent site. I am happy to accept your moderation/banning. I wouldn’t complain just as I wouldn’t should a householder asked me to leave their property. Not that that has ever happened!
Fonterra environmental bullies
I enjoy watching Rural Delivery in the weekends. They’ve been running stories recently about developments in farm effluent treatment systems, and this made me hopeful that we might finally see a reduction in the amount of pollution going into New Zealand waterways…
Its quite amusing in a sad way but true that if you want to catch a trout go to a sheep farming area.
PROTEST TODAY, Monday 21 May 2012
12 noon – 2pm
OUTSIDE JOHN BANK’S EPSOM OFFICE
27 Gillies Ave
Newmarket
A protest has been called today, calling for the resignation of – the arguably not so ‘Honorable’ MP for Epsom, because he is not, in my considered opinion, ‘fit for duty’ as an MP – let alone a Minister.
( http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com/give-a-grrl-a-banner/ shows some of the banners that will be on display, and should attract attention at this busy part of Newmarket during the flow of lunchtime traffic.)
How come former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field got sentenced for SIX years for ‘bribery and corruption’, for providing ‘immigration advice’ to Thai nationals in exchange for work on his properties – while Minister John Banks gets political protection from NZ Prime Minister John Key, after giving ‘immigration assistance’ and Coatsville property purchase ‘assistance’ to a German/ Finnish national, in return for $50,000 donated to ‘Banksie’s’ 2010 Auckland Mayoral campaign fund, and gifts valued at over $500 which he failed to declare?
It is also of great concern to me, as a fighter against ‘white collar’ crime, that ACT’s ‘one law for all’ has yet to apply to both the current and former Leaders of the ACT Party, whom, as former fellow directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, both signed Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009, which contained untrue statements, but were never charged for so doing. This is a strict liability offence under s58(3) of the Securities Act 1978, but neither the old Securities Commission, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) , nor the NZ Police arguably ‘did their job’ and charged Banks or Brash. Have they been politically protected at the highest levels?
(Copies of this correspondence are avaialbe on http://www.pennybright4epsom.org.nz )
John Banks is now the Minister of Regulatory Reform, yet four different ‘regulatory’ bodies failed to act against him, someone, who arguably couldn’t properly run a Kiwisaver Scheme, yet now has a key Ministerial post and is supposedly helping to run the country ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt in the world’? (According to Transparency Internaional’s 2011 ‘Corruption Perception Index, http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/ which obviously, in my considered opinion, is not worth the paper upon which it is written.)
I don’t expect the ACT MP for Epsom, Minister of Regulatory Reform, the ‘Honorable’ John Banks, to be particularly keen to see me, or this protest, which is intended to ‘hold his feet to the fire’.
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
Penny, Good luck with the protest.
Has there ever been any official explanation why Banks and Brash were not charged after the investigation into Huljich Wealth Management?
Ahead of the council’s budget announcement, Local Government Minister David Carter urged councils around the country to consider the sale of strategic assets rather than rates rises to fund projects.
“Mr Carter told TVNZ’s Q & A yesterday that local governments were in a similar position to central government, which intends to balance the books by selling up to 49 per cent of shares in the state-owned energy companies, and a further stake in Air NZ”
“I think if you look at my own city of Christchurch where we clearly have an extraordinary situation, the Christchurch balance sheet is strong with a number of assets, the council needs to make the decision.”
— One can see how this is going to play out in advance!
Not really surprising, National are all about getting the hands of the rich on our assets so that they can become even bigger
thievesrentiers.Matthew Hooton this morning got into his stride on his favourite subject, his own opinion about our economic situation and why it’s Labour’s fault. He talked over the top of Josie Pagani quite a lot. One swingeing quote – “No government anywhere in the world creates jobs”.
I’m sick of cynical negative right-wingers who quote figures from the sweepings of the economist floor as a reason for governments not doing anything. When we need practical policies to stimulate business or advance policies that will assist the mass of small taxpayers we get this do-nothing chant. We should be putting in Auckland’s rail while prices are cheap and spending on infrastructure resulting in more employment. Of course we do have to try to employ New Zealanders, not shoot ourselves in the foot bringing in cheap labour while our own people languish and despair and drink and drug or steal so they can have regular food, good housing that presently they are shut away from.
Also he talks about having a surplus in the 1990s and refers first to Ruth Richardson and Bill Birch with Michael Cullen added on. He was all right until the last three years and then spent on policies. ‘Working for Families is one of his insane policies that delivers welfare to the wealthy.’
He ignores what he must have learned in any studies he has done, that paying this sort of assistance to everyone cuts across the wealthy drone about how they are supporting low income drones and it’s not fair they should pay out all the time! Also it tends to be easier and cheaper to administrate when going to all in the target group, rather than scrutinising people’s rather than trying to sieve out the goodies from the bad low incomes.
And lastly this thing about ‘welfare’ – we all have advantage from the provisions that government makes for the nation. One of the things the wealthy and those in power have done is to trade most of our manufacturing jobs, a continuing process, because the world has gone free market which has had some advantages and massive disadvantages. It was obvious that jobs would be lost, the pr…ks knew this so now they are cynically blaming conditions on the poor and resenting every assistance.
prism:”Also it tends to be easier and cheaper to administrate when going to all in the target group, rather than scrutinising people’s rather than trying to sieve out the goodies from the bad low incomes.”
Pretty sure that at the time that is exactly Mr Cullens point. So true.
Drug lords are okay if they keep a high income and off the dole? The problem with fishing the pool of poor is that you aren’t as diligent at higher incomes. Providing welfare has never been justification for criminalization of the poorest – except by fascists. Sure there will always be some, like the lady who didn’t declare she was living with her husband. Just because one banker creates a ponsi scheme doesn’t mean all bankers are criminals.
The solution is to provide the basic limited income to survive as a negative income tax, that rewards people who have little to engage in economic activity, presently the system punitively scraps any extra income at 70c in the dollar blocking the stepping stone from a little work to part-time work.
Give the social injustice of large parts of the population leveraging themselves into massive debt exposure, and then desperate wanting tax cuts to continue their bubble economic vision. At the expense of future generations, the environment, all the activity economics of selling stuff sideways to create paper profit growth (asset sales), shows up the lying conceit in our elites.
lolz at Hooton yelling “Josie Josie Josie CALM DOWN!”
His self-awareness is hilariously low, even for a Golem.
felix
Hooton does interrupt far too much. I think it’s a tactic to destroy the point that the other speaker is making. Certainly, I found it very hard to follow the thread of the arguments. I wish that Nat Radio took notice of that complaint.
Pleased to see you returned safely from the gorse fields, Felix.
Much quicker than I thought! Now for the blackberry…
Goats, its easier.
Goats! Don’t talk to me about goats.
They taste good after they have eaten the blackberries…..Rasa on Cuba St cooks a mean South Indian goat curry.
Makes for bad radio all round, the shouty Hooten and the underpowered Pagani…..a couple of go to media commentators with egos way out of proportion to their ability.
It would good to have more of a green commentator ‘from the left’ sometimes. Today’s comment about nobody being against growth would then be challenged. I’m more for redistribution, personally, and not in favour of ‘growth’ if it means exploitation of the planet’s limited resources.
Not even the NZ Green party is advocating for a zero-growth economic policy. You might as well find a militant Trotskyite to offer their perspectives for all the relevance for mainstream NZ politics.
How right you are, nobody will advocate a zero growth policy. I suspect the Greens will go as far as a zero balance policy on the “externalities” (especially environmental) that are currently unpaid in our economic system.
More importantly we had better get used to a zero growth economy because that is what we have now, and will have for good in the future. There is a methodology prior NZ governments have used for this scenario: its called “balancing the books”. Its got these nasty little necessities such as import controls etc. It used to upset most people, they will be again.
What???
Your second paragraph makes little sense. Something along the lines of we currently have zero growth now and should get used to it in future, (does this mean you are cool with everything), and then something about import controls. Truly bizarre shift in thinking there.
Gos, we currently have zero growth full stop.No problem so far, its demonstrable.
The next contention is get used to it: I happen to believe that resource depletion (in particular energy depletion) will result in a declining economy (as opposed to either growth or zero balance). There is lots of evidence (dont ask me to cite).
Final contention (also historically demonstrable) is that before growth became the accepted norm governments and businesses lived on their current balance, therefore had to balance their books.
Bizarre? What I find truly bizarre is the number of people walking blindfolded into a very evident future because they cant get out of the cornucopian mindset.
Funnily enough I’ve been having a similar discussion with someone on the Hot Topic blog recently (see, I haven’t been away from the internet completely).
Especially the Greens! They’re a farce, honestly. Blue-Greens, opportunists and irredeemably middle class…
Read Growth Fetish by Clive Hamilton
Do you have a better alternative from the left and the right then?
I don’t mind Hooton as a spokesperson for the right.
Some people seem to do though. Why all the complaining about him shouting down poor Josie Pagani?
I happen to think it reflects poorly on Hooten which I don’t mind at all, but it also reflects poorly on Pagani that she allows it. Williams doesn’t let Hooten shout him down. Neither does McCarten.
They all do it to an extent. Hooten tends to interupt when he spots BS during a long diatribe from the left wing commentator. Kathryn Ryan struggles at time to control him, (and the others), but generally does an okay job. Williams and Hooten end up agreeing with each more often than not so perhaps that is why he doesn’t interupt as much.
Who would you like to see doing these spots, presuming we stick with the “left v right” format?
Weirdness about 2 weeks ago, when Ryan messed up and said “From the Right, Mike Williams!”
That wasn’t the weird part – that happened when Williams said in response to her apology “That’s all right, I am really on the right, when I stop and think about it”.
With Ryan herself, that episode became a love fest of agreement amongst the three.
Well yeah, boil it down enough and they’re all discussing the issues of the day from strictly within the boundaries of our neo-liberal right wing economic paradigm.
goose only because style is more important than substance
Oh yes, a totally weird moment!
Maffoo and Josie, a greater and a lesser RWNJ! Who will speak for the Left?
Super token leftie Chris Trotter?
At least he knows that he is a lefty, Pagani would not even be able to define the term.
A press release on an end to the AFFCO dispute:
Joint Media Statement
21st May 2012
Significant Progress in AFFCO dispute
After a full day of negotiations in Auckland yesterday the parties to the long running industrial dispute at the AFFCO meat works have made significant progress and are now working quickly towards trying to reach a final agreement for union members to ratify.
The parties today reached provisional agreement on the core document and are now working towards the settlement of specific site documents.
As part of a joint commitment to building a new type of relationship the parties have agreed and committed to a return to work within a short time frame of all workers and the withdrawal or suspension of all legal action while the final details are agreed.
The union and the owners of AFFCO (Talley Group) have been greatly assisted by the Iwi Leaders Forum who were represented at the negotiations today and wish to jointly acknowledged the role this group has played in working with both sides to find solutions that will enable the company to thrive in the future and the workers to work under fair and reasonable conditions.
The Iwi leadership forum members including Ken Mair, Tukoroirangi Morgan and Sonny Tau are adamant that in order to achieve an enduring settlement between the two parties it must be hinged around trust and confidence.
“The commitment by Andrew Talley and senior management to an open and regular dialogue with Union officials goes a long way to restoring confidence and certainty,” said the Iwi leaders.
“We have both sought to learn from this dispute and ensure that moving forward we build in the opportunity for a new type of relationship between the company, the union and its members. We also both value the ongoing commitment from Iwi to support this relationship” Andrew Talley said on behalf of AFFCO.
“Our members will be greatly relieved that we have made this progress today and keenly interested in us moving towards a full settlement. They are very open to making these meat works the best in the country and will welcome a different type of relationship, “ Dave Eastlake Meat Workers General Secretary said.
The parties will be making no further comment while the process is continuing.
Any other people who hadn’t heard of Louis Crimp and wondered .. I’ve just put some informative links on Open Mike for yesterday 20/5. I meant to put it on today’s.
Guess how he made his money – pokies and not winning on them haha. You didn’t think that did you. No his business is in the machines – for the players he’s the ghost in the machine perhaps.
His original source of wealth was Andrew Housing, as far as I am aware. The bars and pokies came later
On Louis Crimp. Couldn’t easily get info about Andrew Housing but there was quite a lot about him. I am fascinated by his big hearted philanthropy. He bought a house sold as a fundraiser by hospice for three times the expected price was one thing that raised his profile. He always has plenty to say and seems to be consulted for comment ad nauseum.
Another project was to buy a carpark by a licensing trust tavern with the idea of building a hospital for alzheimers patients there. He has regular run ins with the Invercargill Licensing Trust which might be a hint about this idea. Here is a background link on this.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/5068041/Crimp-leaves-trees-across-tavern-driveway
Well there has to be a circut breaker sometimes, and Sonny and the Moerewa people were getting well pissed off with Talley’s in Northland. Maybe the frozen pea sales were dropping a bit too in the odd Pak ’n Save.
Not everything must be talked about on blogs. But, “the withdrawal or suspension of all legal action while the final details are agreed” is a worry because an ‘in favour of the union ruling’ as per Open Country Cheese as to the legality of employing scabs, not to mention the legality of the targeted lockouts while the MWU was in bargaining, could help a number of workers in the very near future with Talley’s favourite charity, the Natz about to take us all back to 1991.
Looks like a typical Talley’s tactical tit pull to me at first glance.
Tapu Misa on the lack of sacrifice by the rich and the excess sacrifice by the poor dealt by this government.
Well, so much for the rich running off to other countries if we raise taxes on them. If they did they’d be taxed more.
Perhaps they are bouyed by such articles…
NZ rated highly for investment safety
I guess they did not factor in the internal investor issues, about $10b lost of investors cash in the financial companies theft!
The drivel the quoted from the bloke at D & B is , confused, bob each way stuff!
That was exactly the para that I toyed with reposting here Draco. It is funny how higher taxes are always painted as a disaster and yet those northern European countries tax higher and do better. Especially when lower taxes are used as support for the myth that rich people provide the jobs rather than the poorer spending and working provide the wealth.
In addition to discourse, what types of activities are opponents to the current Neo-Liberal Capitalist Growth Economic Ideology Regime taking?
Subverting the forms of propaganda previously dominated by those abusing power.
But what Action; What translation into behaviour,care and guidance?
Downsizing?
Downshifting?
Deleveraging (urrgh!)
Reducing Reusing Recycling
Deinsuring
Disestablishing
Dissent before dishonour.
Leaving the payment of all greedy accounts till the 3 Month business payment schedule elapses?
Public transport use.
Kai gathering, home gardening, home cooking
I mean shutting off the blood supply to the greedy parasites.
Any more suggestions?
There is always the ‘5.56 option of last resort’, but I expect to see that in Europe sometime in the near future, not here. Maybe that will make a few of the corporate bludgers sit-up and take notice.
Yes, there are some good suggestions in there. As always, it is the doing that matters, at the personal level, rather than any list of possibles for the undefined masses. In that context then, here’s what a particular philosopher had to say a long time ago, shortly before he left a country that was descending into chaos:
“When the great Tao is forgotten,
goodness and piety appear.
When the body’s intelligence declines,
cleverness and knowledge step forth.
When there is no peace in the family,
filial piety begins.
When the country falls into chaos,
Patriotism is born.”.
LaoTzu said the Tao was a way of natural harmony, greater than and existing before god. It’s interesting to see how the concept moves past good and bad as final resting points of human behaviour – listing them, really, as lesser evils – and reaches past that to an absolute kind of flowing/alternating order/disorder.
Within the context of your question on what each of us can do, via behaviour care and guidelines, we could do worse than use these guidelines as measure for action. LaoTzu’s political comments would also be echoed thousands of years later in social movements that understood that the overall good of the people as a collective mattered more than anything else; more than leaders careers, empire building or even the sciences. He was of the idea that materialism undermined the health of people and the earth.
Of course, his work has been fantastically abused by various Chinese leaders and historical figures since then, distorting it from a route to peace into sexual warfare and justification for totalitarianism and oppressions, but then so has Christianity under the capitalists. So as long as we understand this is a guide for our behaviour towards peace, not war and oppression, not as tool of offense, then we’ll stay the right side of the line – I hope. Shouldn’t be too hard to translate into modern terminology: you touch on several points already, such as “downsizing”, “downshifting” etc.
“Throw away holiness and wisdom’
and the people will be a hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won’t be any thieves.
If these three aren’t enough,
just stay at the centre of the circle
and let all things take their course.”
This pretty much spells out the main idea: while man cannot hope to not act in response to events, he should know how to do the least amount of damage and reach for the action of in-action that will naturally lead to the best action. As left eventually becomes right, why get into the power struggle at all?
“The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centred within the Tao.
When rich speculators prosper,
while farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money,
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn –
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.”
The Tao Te Ching is somewhat of an oxymoron, since it’s existence contradicts the goal of the masters, which was to not speak, but do. It was written, we are told, because someone asked for guidelines to the art of living as a master was leaving a particular part of the country. I think that “leaving” actually meant he was approaching death, but we could get lost in metaphors and lose the message: action, above all else.
There is another frequently cited tale that says a region was under all kinds of trouble, environmentally and socially, and a master was called to settle it. He camped on the outskirts of the region, isolated and seeing no one, until things returned to normal – which was within a few days. The idea is that he was so in tune with the natural way of things, that his presence, his act of relocating, brought natural balance back to the region. He didn’t talk, and neither should anyone, is the meaning. Do something that moves toward balance, instead.
The Master doesn’t try to be powerful;
Thus he is truly powerful.
The ordinary man keeps reaching for power;
Thus he never has enough.
The Master does nothing,
Yet leaves nothing undone.
The ordinary man is always doing things,
Yet many more things are left to be done.
The kind man does something,
Yet something remains undone
The just man does something,
And leaves many things to be done.
The moral man does something,
And when no one responds
He rolls up his sleeves and uses force.
When the Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is ritual.
Ritual is the husk of true faith,
The beginning of chaos.
Therefore the Master concerns himself
With the depths and not the surface,
With the fruit and not the flower.
He has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
And lets all illusion go.”
That second to last verse, the following backwards of effect and stages of decline are echoed in the other famous Book of Changes, which precedes our modern Leftist ideas that there is a reason for everything, by a long way; that nothing is simple, and that there is only the point where you stop looking. Unfortunately, Taoism also condemns statistics completely as an idiocy.
And the final example, with the dry humour and realism that many of the verses hold:
Governing a large country is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it too much with poking.
Centre your country in the Tao
And evil will have no power.
Not that it isn’t there,
But you’ll be able to step out of its way.
Give evil nothing to oppose
And it will disappear by itself.”
Or as you put it: “… shutting off the blood supply to the greedy parasites.”
Oh very nice. I appreciated this.
Post of the week. Thanks
Plus you got us all talking slopely
Thank you from the deepest parts of me. “This is the way, step inside(the Storm and non-act)
Did you see the Joy Division reference, did ya see it……
Richard Wolff, Professor of Economics,University of Massachusetts: The Costs of Capitalism’s Crisis: Who Will Pay.
(YouTube: 1.35.01)
Fifty one percent local ownership, Mugabe style.
What is this madness? http://wonderfulnow.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/one-more-thing-before-i-go.html
That Louis Crimp chappie from down south, who gave 100K+ to ACT to “do somethng about the maoris” who are “full of welfare and crime”, and who ACT now say they think says offensive things but they’ll take his money, (given to achieve offensive things), anyway…
… will be on Campbell live tonight, even though he didn’t know the camera was rolling.
“… will be on Campbell live tonight, even though he didn’t know the camera was rolling.”
Like shooting fish in a barrel.
” not a native tree, but a nice English tree like an oak” lol. That reporter was very good.
(Crimp had asked her if she had ever had sex against a tree)
It is enough to make a person embarrassed to have even walked the same streets as he did!
I have looked in vain for the $500,000,000.00 that he says is going into finding Te Reo but if we are cutting Māori Language funding even though it is a legal language of this country, then I presume that monies dedictaed to the teaching of English and NZ Sign will also be cut freeing up that funding for something else?!
The man is an idiot and a bully. I notice that he has threatened that he will not fund Act if they don’t make the abolition of Te Reo funding a non-negotiable. That is what he did to Stadium Southland Trust vis a vis the acknowledgment of ILT funding for the project. ILT has poured far more money into the Invercargill community than Louis Crimp ever will but the trustees gave into his blackmail. It will be interesting to see how Act respond
I saw that, and now I see why the Hell Pizza owners decided to approach Clive to put their case and refused to appear on Sunday on TV1…
The interviewer on Clive are giving the owner a sympathetic ear, she’s oozing with sweet kind questions (no hard ones) and it’s obvious why he chose to refuse Sunday and appear on Clive, after all, how many times has TV 3 ever criticised business men?
Why is everything in italics? Weird…
That’s what happens when the kids don’t put their tags away.
Alright, who left their tags on the stairs?
That was UTurn.
http://www.3news.co.nz/No-regret-for-Maori-comments-says-Crimp/tabid/817/articleID/255038/Default.aspx
He’s lost his marbles. If he ever had too many to begin with…
Act sure does attract them!!!
and who is Susan English’s brother in law??
SOUTHERN EQUITIES LIMITED (156001)
Shareholders in Allocation:
Allocation 1:13333334 shares
Susan Joy ENGLISH
22 Vera Street, Karori, Wellington 6012 , New Zealand
Rex Thomas CHAPMAN
42 Don Street, Invercargill 9810 , New Zealand
James Bartholomew HENNESSY
345 Bainfield Road, Rd 2, Invercargill, 9872 , New Zealand
Louis Mervyn CRIMP
164 Mill Road South, No 1 R D, Invercargill 9871 , New Zealand
Don Brash was one of the few hopes for New Zealand he said at the time about 5 years ago it would be harder than the second world war to get New Zealand to a Growing sustainable country catching up with Australia. That was over 5 years ago and he was ignored along with many of Acts initial policy’s. So if was as hard as war then well.
The Solution is:
I really see it, first we need pleading to international help to help us recover and get international aid. We need to outsource Government departments such as entire health sector to Australia to administer. We need to have boarder-less “passport free” crossing to Australia, common currency just for start.
We then need to remove RMA completely and privatize the Building Department and all associated acts.
Sell the entire Tertiary Education sector.
Reduce income tax to 10%
Removed GST of all food, and basic living items.
Introduce Capital gains tax
Sell parts or New Zealand to Europe and America allowing them to create cities such as a French city in South island ran and administered by France.
Increase school standards. (Longer Day- Real economic teaching learn anther language from early on.)
Remove the treaty of Wiatangi form many government items.
Put some Politicians in jail. ( And look at performance pay- Electronic Elections on the internet).
Write a CONSTITUTION based on the American.
Removed number of MPs make it 99 and fix MMP i.e. party percent list choice elected from public.
Remove Government Standards: i.e allow cheap quality small electric cars on road. Allow Insurance companies to take risk analysis – not Government
Increase tax on alcohol. Also other government arbitrary standards which may not have cost benefit logical ratio.
Sell some roads completely.
Remove many testing and certification schemes.
Reduce all fines by 50%
Sell ACC and allow privatization and suing
Removed 50% of Government Agency’s and ministry’s.
Stop putting money in the Rugby industry.
Sue the transport minister for spending millionths on motorways for the Roading Lobby.
Invest in heavy public transport and bike lanes for the big city’s.
Gee its going to be hard for someone.
Right, so your solution to the problem is more of the same?
I’ll put it this way: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Don’t think we’ve really tried it Draco at all National are just keeping the same old Labour Policies but doing things slower with the exception of Motorway Lust.
Key always said Don Brash and Roger Douglas policies where unworkable and extreme. Well perhaps we need some “extreme” stuff to get NZ on track.
Driving NZ off a cliff is extreme, but it won’t get us back on track.
Giving every NZer a decent wage is the way to get us back on track. We print the money, we implement a CGT, we implement an FTT and we implement a 0.5% pa wealth tax to pay for it.
Capital which leaves the country for reasons other than the facilitation of direct trade is also taxed.
Oh yeah, the nationalisation of core economic infrastructure back into public and community ownership and control.
Extreme enough for you?
Not really Colonial that extreme – good to see you thinking. Printing credit is well overdue- absolutely Should funded some council projects for a few years.
Basically one side of the economic philosophy here is to allow quicker and rapid exchange of service and expertise between citizens of this country without third-party holdups and Government intervention. This is probably one of the quickest ways to allow society to exchange goods services and find a natural system which benefits all parties.
Allowing business to open run services people want rapidly. (Super Rapid – Houses built in a week sort of fast) In fact no building consents, all done on buyer choice buyer insurance schemes and “enforced” contract law.
So you could quickly find the service you are best to aid society with and also reap rewards of other diligent members of the commerce community for a price your happy with.
We’re all adults we don’t need Government checking every transaction and business idea to make sure they fit all governments rules and regulations.
Ah, a libertarian or, in other words, someone who’s all for oppressing the majority of people. Yes, that is the result of the BS you peddle.
A major reason why we have regulation is so that everyone is working with the best knowledge. We all adults, yes, we’re not all omniscient gods. The consent process is there to ensure that houses are built to best standards (well, that’s the theory unfortunately the government seems to have forgotten that and set minimum standards well bellow what they should be). If you remove those standards and remove the process to ensure those standards then what we will have would be a situation much worse than the leaking homes saga and no one would be accountable for it. People would start a business, make millions and then, as soon as trouble looked like it was starting, liquidate the business.
We’re a democracy so government happens to be us, what we call government is actually our administrative arm and, like all administration, it’s needed. Unfortunately, idiots like you go round telling people that our needed administration is evil.
I’ll think about what you wrote for a while.
“People would start a business, make millions and then, as soon as trouble looked like it was starting, liquidate the business.”
That’s what happens now.
Perhaps under contract law, when you purchase a Product you look to see if they have a long history and perhaps their underwriters.
And perhaps even write and agreement which binds your purchase to the personal seller of the product and not the business. ( guess in Contract Law you could write any terms and conditions in you wanted, as long as you both agree and sign off on it.)
In fact business models could start which take care of purchasing contracts and could even insure the product as security. Sort of like Safeseller on trademe
They way I see it things get more and more interesting and more productive and harmonious in Libertarian economics.
LOL, no, they get more litigious and most people can’t afford the lawyers required to help negotiate the contracts or enforce the contracts that are signed.
..
Anthony – thanks for your random assortment of unworkable, nation destroying fantasies.
outsourcing government departments to Australia? Really. I heard on RNZ in the last few days that some Australian states are complaining that they aren’t given equal treatment nationally with the bigger more powerful states like NSW. I think it’s to do with being given less funding and consideration in policies.
And you think NZ wouldn’t be undermined by any Australian-based governance of NZ?
Ditto for any control of cities by French or US interests – it would open these cities to yet more plundering by wealthy and powerful overseas interests.