I’m sure that John Key would have been quite happy having Shane jones as Labour leader as it would have turned Labour into a party almost as right-wing as National.
Corporate and political corruption is raising its ugly head more than ever before. Sad for New Zealand, the supposedly least corrupt country in the world. Perhaps the corruption in high places is better hidden here than in other countries!
I enjoy Shane Jones as a funny man, but in my opinion, he should resign from the Labour party or be sacked, irrespective of any adverse consequences for the party. It is better to take a stand and stop these kinds of evil stuff permeating the party or the country.
Let us not allow the left wing parties and principles be tainted. Leave the right wingers to wallow in such sewers.
Clem
It’s been there for years (corrupt practices and the moral hazards that encourage them). We have just been too naive and trusting to note it. Everything that has come to light has been regarded as an exception (that proves the rule). Then it was noticed that the rule was being flouted more than followed. The age of innocence has had to end. Older and wiser now?
If, as they say, explaining is losing, then both Collins and Key were losing big time on Morning Report today. Her denials and justifications are becoming more and more ludicrous by the day and Key was forced back to his default talking points, namely dancing on the head of a pin and trying to blame it all on Labour.
Listening to the TricKey one this morning, I could have sworn he’s been on the sauce, or is still shickkered from the night before. And this is not the first time he’s sounded like this, Hmmm Shades of Muldoon.
Dunno about being on the sauce, but he is making a mess of it. He could be highly stressed. To me, he sounds like he’s on the verge of a bad panic attack, the sort where your tongue swells up in your mouth and you think you’re going to suffocate. Once he’s been through the challenging bits and can get back to where he’s comfortable – which is attacking Labour – he becomes relaxed again. I’m doubting his mental and emotional competence at the moment. I always doubted his ethical, technical, and political competence, but Kiwis love a fast talker in an expensive suit.
One point is unclear to me. Collins had said that she just popped in for a cup of tea on her way to the airport. Now she says after the dinner, she just went to bed. So, my question is, what happened to the airport destination plan?
The Opposition, Labour particularly, should keep Collins enquiry bubbling but say they have important changes planned for NZs betterment and are determined to do better than this shoddy government and just get a dig in while they are talking about their new direction and policies. It’s a mistake to concentrate on digging out all the dirt. To use modernspeak ‘This is not core business for Labour’.
So don’t get deflected Labour or you confirm my occasional irrational, frustrated description of politicians – being morons.
I haven’t listened to the links, however your summary of Key’s comments sound so familiar to any comment he ever makes – I believe you have summed up the comments I haven’t heard of his, now and in the future, very well indeed!
I don’t have much free time today, but if you want to carry on from yesterday here’s something to consider.
If a Universal Basic Income was introduced (I’m interested in the concept) and was set at a level that ensured most people could live reasonably comfortably:
– How many people would choose it over paid employment?
– How much would the number of people not in paid employment increase?
– What would this cost the Government/taxpayers?
– How would this be funded?
Ah, Petey… Thanks for providing a clear illustration of one of your strategies – don’t answer the question, but ask us to go researching for more questions. Do you ever do any real research yourself? Why are you so lacking in information and knowledge of these topics that you give your opinions on?
Since you are so very busy today, answering weka’s questions is the priority.
but if you do have some time this week …….
freedom:
How’s that weekly budget for poor people coming along Pete ?
I realise it is a complex thing to engineer without looking like a $2 shop tool but you are Pete George, the man with the plan! Where is the budget Pete?
You are Editor in Chief at the fact checking site called Politicheck.
Are facts not an essential item for your researchers to have on hand?
How do you plan to check the veracity of Government statements about poverty, incomes and expenditure if you do not have a clear understanding of the weekly budgets required of people who inhabit the lowest levels of our economy?
PG: “What would this cost the Government/taxpayers?”
To answer this question you will need some base data to set the UBI expenditure at an adequate level. Base data like budgets.
felix didn’t fully quote (himself) in his response. This is what he said:
What’s relevant is creating a society where where young people have faith that their lives are meaningful and worth living, and where adults find enough stimulation and satisfaction in their activities that they don’t feel like wiping themselves out at the end of every week.
The legality or otherwise of different substances then becomes a non-issue.
I responded “I think that’s idealistic and unrealistic”. That was in reference to the whole statement.
I think “creating a society where where young people have faith that their lives are meaningful and worth living” is a great ideal and worth working towards.
I think “where adults find enough stimulation and satisfaction in their activities that they don’t feel like wiping themselves out at the end of every week” is a fine aim but idealistic and I doubt we can ever get close to to that. For example being a parent wipes you out daily, it’s the nature of the job. It’s not uncommon for parents to want a drink or a smoke at the end of another busy day.
“The legality or otherwise of different substances then becomes a non-issue.” I took that as meaning that people wouldn’t use drugs any more. That’s naive and unrealistic. Many poor people don’t have the time or money to do drugs much if at all, and most have more sense than to waste their money and minds.
Drug use and abuse happens across the income spectrum. A wealthy person can be stressed about their money like a poor person stressed about their lack of money.
And no matter how ideal we can make our society I think there will always be a significant number of people who keep using drugs, so the legalities will remain issues. It’s idealistic to think that it could become a non-issue.
Can you show me where I ever said anything about having a drink or a smoke at the end of the day being a big deal Pete?
How about addressing what I actually asked you. I’ll paraphrase for your benefit as apparently you haven’t followed a fucking word so far:
If you don’t think we can create a society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough that they don’t try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend, then what is the point of any of your political efforts?
I mean that’s a really, really low bar for a decent society. I’m not talking utopian ideals Pete. I’m talking about large numbers of human beings not trying to self destruct on a regular basis, and regularly succeeding.
Because essentially you’re right Pete. If nothing ever changes much from what we do now, then we’ll pretty much always have the same or worse issues to deal with as we have now. If we’re lucky.
We can’ ‘create a society’, there’s too much history for that, but we should always be looking for ways to improving our society.
Most people don’t “try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend”. I think that most people who try drugs do so for some sort of enjoyment although there’s quite a bit of attempted stress relief too.
The people who develop drug problems, the drug abusers and the addicts, don’t just wait for the weekends.
I’m talking about large numbers of human beings not trying to self destruct on a regular basis, and regularly succeeding.
How many people regularly try to self destruct? Large numbers? And how many succeed? Too many do, but large numbers?
And if “we can create a society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough” how much less of a drug problem will we have?
Please repeat this phrase thrice daily,
then perhaps you won’t have such difficulties understanding an issue that others are openly discussing and you are openly obfuscating.
“Most people don’t “try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend”. I think that most people who try drugs do so for some sort of enjoyment although there’s quite a bit of attempted stress relief too.”
Hands up who thinks PG is qualified to have an opinion on why and how people take drugs?
Research has shown that people generally take drugs to either feel good (i.e., sensation seekers or anyone wanting to experiment with feeling high or different) or to feel better (i.e., self-medicators or individuals who take drugs in an attempt to cope with difficult problems or situations, including stress, trauma, and symptoms of mental disorders).
That’s along the lines of what I suggested but in more detail (limited time so I kept it very brief).
There’s other factors too, like peer pressure, bravado, curiosity, accidental addiction (prescriptions), spiking and so on. And it’s often a combination of factors.
So felix’s “society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough” has a lot to try and address and rectify.
weka I know you can’t see me but I am putting both my hands firmly on the floor.
Pete not only knows fuck all but he’s also just shat all over every A&E doctor, nurse, ambulance officer, police office and firefighter in the country.
That’s a pretty generalised list with limited consideration of context and life circumstances. Though it does include this:
an attempt to cope with difficult problems or situations, which would include people struggling on low incomes, and/or with unbearable jobs.
There’s been quite a bit of sociological research on drug use and abuse. This looks at patterns in various contexts, over time and in different kinds of communities/circumstances.
Some of the early research by Bingham Dai (1930s US),
recognized that his drug addicts lived in disorganized neighborhoods, in which crime, delinquency, mental disorder, and suicide prevailed—drug addiction was in fact yet another variety of [deviant and criminal behaviour]
Other considerations that impact on drug use and abuse are availability and supply.
Others have argued that high levels drug abuse in a community is the result of inequalities. There is more drig abuse in lower income groups than in higher income ones – part of the use of drugs to escape from dreadful conditions.
The biggest survey of drug was the US national survey 2004. It found the reasons differed for different demographic groups and between use of legal and illegal drugs:
Use of illicit drugs
Experimental; irregular use more commonly episodic;
Use of legal drugs
– way more common than use of illegal drugs – and more likely to keep doing it; people who use legal drugs a lot, are more likely to use illegal ones;
Psychoactive use
– is more common among young people; plus people more likely to use psychoactive drugs are male, unmarried but co-habiting and not planning to go to college, the unemployed,.
Drug us can also be a rebellion against conventions.
Get fucky or get lucky – I know I prefer the latter.
And don’t forget to hear the Awkward Russian police sing daft Punk Get Lucky.
Just put the keywords and go for the middle video. Good marching music.
for some reason gw, a link to Prosperity Theology ( the, long undiscovered Pastor’s Cave Prosperity Gospel) I put up has remained in moderation, twice. Suffice to say, I recently attended a church where in the willing congregation were persuasively asked for money four times, across two services, eftpos at the back of the hall, i o u ‘s accepted.
Why did you attend TWO services on the same day?
What Church was it?
What were the reasons/cause given for the FOUR money collections?
Were the congregation obliged/compelled to pay or was it voluntary?
I think after a short adjustment period, employment would go up, as a result of people actually having money to spend into the economy.
UBI is a redistribution from those at the very top to the rest at the bottom. Naturally the people at the bottom will spend the money in ways that the people at the top never would have. This spending will create more economic activity, which means (generally) more jobs.
Lanthanide +100
Slides through the mishmash like a knife through soft butter. Says it all really. Should be printed out in little strips of paper and dropped over NZ like confetti similar to the flour bombing in the 1981 protest.
(excerpt from those unanswered-questions..addressed to pete george..)
“..That disqualifies you from having any opinion on beneficiaries until you answer the question: how many beneficiaries are not required to seek/gain employment?
Then you will have to answer how many people are now required to see work, despite previously being exempt.
Then come back and explain how those people are supposed to live. And why those people aren’t entitled to a livable income.
Then explain why you think that beneficiaries are all unemployed.
And then explain how unemployed beneficiaries are supposed to raise their income via employment when there aren’t enough jobs.
Then, when youve done all that, retract your statement that NACT don’t keep people poor…”
(can i suggest that when pg pops up with his daily-dissemble..
..that the only responses afforded him be requests for him to answer the above..first..?
..and as he is the editor (stuffs fist into mouth to stop uproarious guffaw of laughter)..of that politichek rightwing pressure-group..
If you did 5 minutes of checking instead of endless drinking you would know that the stuff story is a propaganda piece by a green party activist. Of course many companies pay workers $18 per hour. Gee some even pay 40. It is called a market. I have no sympathy for anyone on minimum wage. Up skill. The only thing that surprises about the mw is that it is so high.
Did you know that the woman interviewed was a green party activist? It should have been disclosed by the journalist.
On related topic. Just returned from Napier. As usual every up market cafe / bar/ spa was staffed by European travellers because there are no suitable nz workers. I drove past a huge orchard with a sign out front “workers desperately wanted”. So get down there.
so chalmers doesnt own that business and doesnt pay everyone above minimum wage by some margin. of course the part about how its aspirational and practical and will hurt not help isnt propaganda cos you agree with it.
“On related topic. Just returned from Napier. As usual every up market cafe / bar/ spa was staffed by European travellers because there are no suitable nz workers. I drove past a huge orchard with a sign out front “workers desperately wanted”. So get down there.”
No “suitable” NZ workers who want to do the work while getting paid a pittance in bad conditions. European travellers, also known as backpackers, will do whatever job is going to get money to fund their continued travels – that’s hardly the same as holding a long-term job to pay for food, rent, electricity, petrol, car registration, doctors visits etc.
Similarly for orchard work – it’s hard back-breaking labour with minimal pay.
Your reply is an excellent example of the problem. You seriously think it is oj for healthy unemployed people to take a benefit instead of working in an orchard?!!
Actually, you ignorant twat, a lot of Hawkes Bay people go off benefit to work in the fruit industry during the season. As do folk in the BOP, Otago etc. They work for, surprise, surprise, the minimum wage., so with travel costs factored in, they are little better off financially. The answer to that conundrum is obvious. Lift the minimum wage.
The horticultural and food processing industries rely on dormitories of casual labour, usually brown, returning to income support in their off seasons.
So your plan seems to be to ship unemployed people from other parts of New Zealand to Napier where they can work in the orchard, because the orchard “desperately wants” workers. For a couple of months.
What are all of these people that you’ve moved to Napier going to to do for the rest of the year?
See, it turns out, these are difficult problems that don’t have quick obvious solutions – because if they did, they already would have been applied.
Orchard work is only ever going to work for a small proportion of the community, simply because it is only available for a small proportion of the entire year.
I reckon if such a sign existed srylands would have stopped, photographed it and posted it here whilst quoting from Bush’s Mission Accomplished speech 😉
last time you ran this crap i posted a job offer which specifically excluded nz residents. of course you ignored that and ran away to a new thread with your old crap.
Sit down and tell us a story srylands. Now when you were very young you used to work on your father’s uncle’s farm/do seasonal work in an orchard picking/ work on the wharves/ work in the meatworks/ prune grapevines / pick and pack tobacco. Those were the days. People knew how to work then and be happy with their lot. blah blah. The great bum sitter with the enormous brain who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing – when it comes to people.
I saw a bit of a film called Snowpiercer with a cocoon of humans in an enclosed ecosystem being managed by a megalomaniac who knew how to manipulate people and who had no respect for them at all. Chilling. And it ended with the system being destroyed and two survivors stepping out into a frozen world, being viewed curiously by a polar bear. Back to nature. People like srylands would lead us to that very tipping point without questioning their own preconceptions.
“Similarly for orchard work – it’s hard back-breaking labour with minimal pay”
Not necessarilyt. I’ve done a lot of orchard work since I was about ten and it wasn’t hard or backbreaking. Sure it was a bit physical but easy enough for anyone with average fitness levels.
My three children (two female, one male) all did seasons of orchard work and were very good workers. They financed education and bought cars with what they earned. I know a lot of other people who have managed orchard work and have benefited from it.
I’ve known a lot of people who have lived on it. Wages aren’t high (relatively) but are above minimum for good workers, especially as they become experienced, improve productivity and take on responsibilities.
And there’s usually quite a bit of free food involved.
never has the phrase “comparing apples and oranges” been so apt 🙂
Some orchard work is by the hour
Some is by the bin
Some is casual hours only
Some is done for kin
Some depends on weather
Some is months at a time
Some means moving here and there
Some is just a lie
this nursery rhyme was brought to you by Pete George’s Handy Hints for Happy Homes
(Q: What decade was all this orchard work? I am guessing pre millennium, I am guessing the 1980’s actually)
p.s. Pete, maybe you forgot you have a list of questions from weka to answer, you have also said you were short on time today, so why are you even commenting on other posts? Please go answer weka’s questions
+1 freedom. Not all orchard work is the same (depends on the kind of fruit being grown and how), and as far as I can tell, the people that do well are those that get the more responsible, better paid, more stable hours jobs. That’s not everyone. The people I know that do it alot and are ok either have jobs higher up the chain, or they’ve managed to set their lives up so they have low living costs (usually no rent) and they have other ways of making a living when there is not orchard work. It’s generally not a job if you have a mortgage or kids.
I get a very strong sense that Pete hasn’t experienced much at all for 20 years or so. He seems utterly unaware of the everyday realities of life in NZ for most people.
He doesn’t think there’s much of a problem with unemployment or underemployment.
He doesn’t think there’s much of a problem with poverty.
He doesn’t even acknowledge a cultural binge-drinking issue ffs. Doesn’t affect most of us, he reckons.
Worst part is, he doesn’t think there’s much point doing anything about it either.
You’re making things up felix. From you that seems more likely to be deliberate lies rather than ignorance. Your ‘argument’ has turned to attempted discrediting with blatant bull. That’s telling.
All your claims (at 6.03 am) about what I think are incorrect nonsense.
Every time he comes on this site, we must ask him to deal with weka’s questions.
And if he won’t, we should boycott him.
Same policy for all the other RWNJs who come here to divert, distract and denigrate.
Their input ruins this site at times.
he is tired. he visited every up market bar cafe spa in napier. before easter he cared e about the poor now he has no sympathy for minimum wage workers who must somehow work enough hours to survive and pay to upskill.
he also knows who all green party activists are which is strange for a mere tax something or other from kapiti coast.
Responding to all those discussing the problems of being employed for seasonal work in orchards, vineyards etc, I suggest you look at the latest list (2014) of employers who are part of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Policy and the spread of employers across the country from Katikati to Otago. http://www.immigration.govt.nz/employers/employ/LinkAdministration/ToolboxLinks/rse.htm
While I think the policy is excellent for the Pacific Island communities, because it provides regular work, skills training and money for their communities, I think it is wrong that New Zealanders don’t make themselves available for this type of work. Effectively those of you who are saying that it is better to be unemployed that earning the minimum wage to do physical work in the orchards and vineyards are saying you are better than the Pacific Island people who are very happy to do this work. That attitude doesn’t seem respectful to the Pacific Islanders.
Also, as taxpayers, we are all contributing to funding both the RSE scheme and the unemployment benefit because New Zealanders wont do this type of work. That doesnt seem fair to me either.
I talked to a woman in west Auckland who was looking for such work – in desperation. But, she is a single parent, and there weren’t any such jobs going near her home, and that would also enable her to carry out her child care responsibilities.
for e.g. those foresty workers who work 10 hours a day in shite conditions on $16 an hour! i earn more than that at my comfy desk sitting on my bum with heating & a roof & heaps of coffee. thats plainly not fair, not fair at all.
& orchard work is indeed back breaking work!, i’ve done kiwi fruit, grape vine work & asparagus picking (in my teens, & travelling in my 20s), asparagus was a lot harder because you had to bend down for 6-7 hours a day, only young ppl can do that kind of work. so if you think orchard work is not back breaking then i actually doubt you have done any orchard work at all (unless you are the inevitable slow mo simpleton who just goes gets to do all the gopher type work around the property coz you can’t be trusted to do anything else).
No one wants sympathy from the likes of you, SSLands. I see the person using the login today is not the polite one. My guess is that there are three of you. All your posts are propaganda pieces by an ACT party activist. You should disclose that.
Sir Ian McKellen has a deeper understanding of New Zealand than most visiting stars. He talks about playing Gandalf again – and about Helen Clark’s startling confession.
“I find your society genuinely admirable in many ways. For example, I met Helen Clark while I was in Wellington. I was invited to her official residence, and waved in by a lone policeman who didn’t even check who I was, then I had a barbecue with her. I congratulated her on the public’s enlightened attitudes towards racial issues, but she disagreed. She said to me that New Zealand was really a very racist country, and she was determined to do everything she could as prime minister to change that. I thought that was a very bold, honest statement to make to a foreigner, and I really respected her for that.”
I prefer Queen Victoria owns the foreshore and seabed and (better still) all the land leased from Queen Victoria so Queen Victoria can use the money for her armies, hospitals roads etc (for the benefit of her brown boys and girls and white and banana boys and girls). Queen Victoria rarely rides her steed down the beach (whereas Maori frequently show up). But that’s beside the point.
Evolutionary psychology makes good argument that humans are (by nature) racist in so far as they have an initial preference for people like themselves. Talking up your own group is healthy. Listen to any after game conversation when the local school creamed the visitors.
In his review article Discovery and Confirmation in Evolutionary Psychology (in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Psychology) Edouard Machery concludes:
“Evolutionary psychology remains a very controversial approach in psychology, maybe because skeptics sometimes have little first-hand knowledge of this field, maybe because the research done by evolutionary psychologists is of uneven quality. However, there is little reason to endorse a principled skepticism toward evolutionary psychology: Although clearly fallible, the discovery heuristics and the strategies of confirmation used by evolutionary psychologists are on a firm grounding.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_evolutionary_psychology
Results show that oxytocin creates intergroup bias because oxytocin motivates in-group favoritism and, to a lesser extent, out-group derogation. These findings call into question the view of oxytocin as an indiscriminate “love drug” or “cuddle chemical” and suggest that oxytocin has a role in the emergence of intergroup conflict and violence.
To survive and prosper, individuals need groups whose members contribute information and resources. Because contributing resources and information makes oneself vulnerable to exploitation by others, group members need to know who to trust or to distrust, who can be expected to also contribute to the group and to reciprocate cooperation, and who may abuse in-group generosity and free-ride on others (1). A key mechanism facilitating such in-group cooperation is ethnocentrism, the tendency to view one’s own group as centrally important and as superior to other groups. Ethnocentrism manifests itself in positive valuation of (members of) one’s in-group. Such in-group favoritism signals loyalty and positive commitment to the group, thus rendering the ethnocentric individual a reliable and trustworthy partner. Ethnocentrism may also show up in negative valuation of (members of) out-groups. Such out-group derogation signals to in-group members who should be excluded from in-group resources and exchanges, and reduces the probability that in-group resources are inadvertently extended to out-groups (1–6).
If in-group favoritism and out-group derogation have adaptive value and sustain in-group functioning, coordination, and cooperation, it follows that (i) throughout evolution those individuals who displayed in-group favoritism and out-group derogation and who detected such tendencies in others were more likely to spread than individuals lacking these capacities (5–8) and (ii) the human brain may have evolved to sustain ethnocentrism through yet-unknown neurobiological systems
A Zoologist For A Financial Shitstorm And A Wall Street Banker As Our Prime Minister. No Wonder We’re Tanking. My take on the housing bubble denial saga
From the Herald’s online version: ”Prison alone wont deter crims” says break-in victim,
”Gavin” who has been done over 5 times in the past 3 years by burglars gets my vote for Kiwi of the week, for this:
”I’m not sure prison is the ultimate answer, but it could be part of it, they definitely need some sort of decent education, some rehabilitation”,
He thought the bigger issue politicians should be addressing was, ”the separation of wealth between rich and poor, which he believed was one of the key drivers of burglary”
Wise words from a five time victim of burglars which will probably be ignored by the politicians he addresses as they continue the revolving door imprisonment policy, using the blokes taxes to build more of them and in effect re-victimizing Him all over again…
my take is if prisons worked, why is there still crime? & also this thing that some laws are acceptable to break, like opening hours in wanaka over easter. did you also read that thing where the police have had to pay out over $500,000 this year to ppl because of police fuck ups.
+2
Both None to Noon and Afternoons are much better when a locum is in place – but in particular, Lyn Freeman is great. Nine to Noon probably should have gone to her in the first place
personally I find Lyn Freeman too nicey nice and watered down to be a really great interviewer ( probably becase she doesnt eat meat..let alone go for the jugular or gnaw the bones) …..and I fear she lacks the intellectual range of Ryan…..she doesn’t ask the hard questions…she is better for the arts….i am sure she is a lovely person however
I reckon she’s a closet carnivore (Freeman I mean). I just find the work-life-balanced, regular gal with issssyooos, and her in depth (once was) knowledge of ‘the beltway’ (Ryan) a bit bloody nauseating at times. Plus she’s a total 3rd-wayer with a (no doubt, very balanced) portfolio. But …. different strokes for different folks I guess.
I’m only glad she seems to have negotiated a substantial leave entitlement.
RNZ though – still far better than anything else going
As a politically-independent anti-corruption campaigner, who is not aligned to ANY political party I fully support this Green Party initiative, and look forward to ALL parties who genuinely support ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’ doing the same.
Greens push for disclosure policy to reveal MP’s ‘private interests’ (3:45)
Just as NZ Prime Minister John Key exhibited wilful blindness in his continued support for dodgy John Banks, his defence of the indefensible Minister for Corruption (sorry – ‘Justice’) Judith Collins will not endear him to the voting public – in my considered opinion.
You are wrong in saying they are asking for more transparency from all MP’s, they are only proposing more transparency from ministers.
Not saying that there’s anything wrong with that, but i would respect it a lot more if it came from them when they were actually in power because this reeks of an empty pre-election talking point with little actual relevance.
ER
Yea Thanks .I missed it. Winston not quite as eloquent as before but still able to mock the Gowers of this world (Paddy.. let me answer from my experience, rather than your inexperience -love it). And his response to entrapment ‘questions’ like…. ” What you’re saying is…..”.when that’s not what they’re saying at all.
I don’t vote for Winston but he’s good and I hope he’s part of the Labour coalition.
Winston is clear in terms of protecting the retirement age @ 3’50” – 4’23”
Question: “.. if Labour tries to change the retirement age, you’d go to the cross benches again”
Winston: “… I think they can be persuaded if that was the issue , I think they can be persuaded that that fatally cost them the election ..”
…
Winston: “… what’s a priority in the context that there is no fiscal reason when it is near 4.3 per cent of GDP to be panicking as Jenny Shipley and Financial Services Council are trying to get (?you) to do so, they can get to control the industry and take out (?biddings) and favours …”
And at the Herald. Joyce changing university boards to be dominated by businessmen. Universities as free trainers for corporates funded by the kids borrowing.
So now we are going to have our young people borrowing money to fund their studies to save companies having to invest in training them.
How about a market solution from the corporates, they can provide paid internships to give work experience and fund the study costs of graduates in the disciplines they are short of and they need to be doing this before they can scream skill shortages.
Listening to Williams and Holton this morning and the subject of Cunliffe not fronting up to Campbell live was brought up. Well on seeing the little bit that I could stomach of the key family at home(snigger) item I wouldn’t of turned up either. It is documented knowledge, stated by key himself that he hardly ever goes to that derelict looking place he call a bach. So why would he choose to use it as the destination for the interview. Campbell made a right toady of himself with the gushy bit about Obama la la la la.etc. That’s when I turned off, so possibly it got better. ?? or not. So key is being his usual devious self but Cunliffe would be expected to have his interview or whatever you might call it at his actual home because people might think he is trying to hide his wealth and he’ll get caned by the media again. I don’t see the problem with Cunliffe delaying his ‘at home’. He had genuine reasons which have been reported, Campbell made to much of it, and he looks like he was played by key. Don,t think much of him at the moment.
+100 ffloyd….Cunliffe should take control of his media appearances not the other way around( if he doesn’t want to be interviewed in his home for family privacy reasons then good on him!)
….lets hope Campbell gets back into the real hard question journalism of which he is capable
….not the frothy ‘Women’s Weekly’ and ‘House and Garden ‘ variety
…this is what is wrong with the msm at the moment ….concentration on trivia rather than the Hard questions
…hard questions involving
affordable housing for young New Zealanders
education
corruption
the issues Xtasy brings up ie support for those most in need …(in fact I suggest John Campbell does an in interview with Xtasy…this is the real side of NZ….not John Key’s mansions…sick making)
Listened to a bit of Williams/Hooton until I got tired of Hooton’s Foxdistortion-monologues. Admit to being disappointed in Williams, a man that I once admired. No fire left?
..and one of my favourite williams’ recent quotes..
..was his sneering at the activists returning to labour…as all the mad people having come back to labour..
..(these he is sneering at are those who left labour because of labour losing its’ way up that neo-lib dead-end road..that tells you’ll you need to know about williams..
i agree, that home piece was appalling but nearly all the media pundits all gave it glowing reviews! dunne & peters both garnered a little respect from me by them declining. keys one was all about him being ‘normal’ & how awesome he is at talking to children! & playing with some little girls pony tail which was a bit creepy imo. if campbell didnt know he was being used by a master manipulator (key) then hes a tool.
Shonkey is a highly staged media event full stop. He knows it’s his medium to play like that guitar he refers to but that was a private conversation apparently.
Absolutely no unscripted questions allowed and the best spin available from your mates like Hooton, O’Shillivan etc when you go off the ranch and put your foot in it by doing crazy stuff like inviting the opposition to a debate.
Bet the backers and minders told John Phillip to STFU and stick to the smile and wave, leave the messaging to us. The only debate he’ll do is one where sympathisers like Hoskins can protect him from himself.
Campbell is lightweight with the occasional burst of enthusiasm but it’s sugar rush jonolism, once the high’s gone they go looking for another.
RNZ Midday Report. CTU to take legal action over deaths of two of the 32 forestry staff killed since 2008.
The television news showed Worksafe climbing all over crews, with RNZ reporting 25 crews instructed to stop immediately; entrenched “non-compliance concerns”.
meanwhile Jones states he “wouldn’t call Gardiner a friend…”. hmm, must just be an uninterested admirer of his posture then…
A worker at the coal-face of addictions claims the impact and extent of synthentic cannabis abuse is greater than that of metamphetamine; children as young as nine…deep sigh…
The Queensland Fruit-fly makes fruit and vegetables inedible! Cabbage Fight! (ducks).
“Our lives end the day we become silent about things that matter”. Martin Luther King.
for greywarbler – I visited a church recently rolling in a non-canonical gospel for ‘spiritual’ success. Across two services on the same Sunday, much the same congregation were persuasively asked four times for money- eftpos at the rear of the hall, IOU’s accepted. 😎
This from the article is interesting: ”The complex plan change, setting tougher nutrient leaching limits in the catchment and requiring farmers to implement individual enviromental management plans, raised fears at the Council that farming in the area would become uneconomic”,
Whoever is raising such fears deserves the dunce award, scientific soil mapping, paddock by paddock in places where soils are apt to change types frequently has been shown to boost production,
Along with such boosted production comes less use of both water and nutrients as soil mapping also identifies the optimum time for the use of water and nutrients on the proposed crops, SO, with intensive soil mapping we can tell exactly what can be grown where while producing NO off farm leaching of water or nutrients and NO leaching of the same into the water table,
Instead of just dumping water and nutrient on paddocks and crops because that is the way its always been done soil mapping will be the next revolution in farm management and i am pleased to see this irrigation scheme has attached to it individual management plans that will likely mean the farmers have to soil map all their farms,
Now all we need is the body with the resources and the will to rigidly Police such management plans and i don’t think that this can be simply left in the hands of Regional Councils…
Bernard Hickey Shows Himself The Ignoramus I Always Thought He Was And Here Is Why:
In an article today Bernard Hickey actually made an attempt to counter Jesse Colombo’s 12 point list as to why we were not heading for an economic bubble bust of epic proportions and in doing so showed once again how NZ economists really haven’t got a clue about what is going on globally and I will show this by taking his talking points and show them for the misleading uniformed trash they are.
NZ has a floating exchange rate and flexible interest rates
There are plenty of candidates to generate a shock to New Zealand’s economy that could cause our house prices to start falling. The IMF warned in March that a sharp slowdown in China could do the trick.
In this point he is arguing that the IMF predicted the same possible down turn but they mitigated the prediction by stating:
Hickey says: However, the IMF rightly points out in the very next sentence that New Zealand has some automatic stabilisers (SIC) to deal with just such a shock.
The authorities have monetary and fiscal policy space to respond to shocks. The RBNZ has scope to adapt monetary conditions to help buffer against a downside scenario, and the free-floating New Zealand dollar provides an additional cushion against terms of trade and other external shocks. New Zealand’s modest public debt gives the authorities scope to delay their planned deficit reduction path in the event of a sharp deterioration in the economic outlook.
My response: First of all Hickey is not denying the possibility of a down turn and that is wise. What he argues is that in order to delay a planned deficit reduction path (read austerity for the 99% but more for the 1% like in Greece, Ukraine, to name a few) there is space to borrow more.
This is not a sensible response to the risk of a global cascading financial down turn. This is just more of the global bankster kicking the can down to road fraud. And while it may postpone the inevitable collapse of an unsustainable collapse of the fiat currency system which at the moment has to print money by the trillion to keep going.
What is equally misguiding is his notion that we can cut the interest rates which unlike the rest of the Western world are being raised making it more difficult for people to pay their mortgages.
So far it hasn’t materialized in higher interest on bank savings for example.
The real reason why interest rates in the US, UK and other Western countries are next to zero is that they are so for the rich. Those of us who have to buy a kitchen appliance on a credit card or GE pay 20% – 30%. The interest is not a tool which is used for the betterment of New Zealanders but to make a whole sale wealth transfer of the 99% to the 1% possible by preventing deflation and encouraging inflation. The only people suffering under this are those on fixed incomes. The rich, the bankers and others close to the reserve banks lending spigot sea their incomes rise with the money creation level. A very comfortable lace to be to be sure but the rest of us will find it harder and harder to make ends meet and that includes the mortgages that keep the bubble going.
Our Government has room to borrow to cushion the blow
Jesse diplayed (SIC) an alarming chart showing a tripling in the Government’s overseas debt in nominal terms between 1993 and 2012. Unfortunately, that didn’t show the net and real value of that debt in relation to our economy, which is the most important thing.
New Zealand’s net government debt has risen from less than 10% of GDP to under 30%. US Government debt is over 100% of GDP, Britain’s public debt is over 70% and Ireland’s debt to GDP ratio is over 120% of GDP.
As the current government proved from 2008 to 2012 when it kept…
At first, this seems just a very dull article about golf, a sport I don’t much appreciate. But scratch the surface, ignore the headline and you’ll find hidden within details that show that NZ’s middle classes are now being impacted by the depression and austerity policies of the government.
One quote in particular show the new unequal New Zealand. A NZ where wealthy foreigners buy up our land, the rich 1% of NZers travel round the world to play their favourite golf courses and the rest of NZ go backwards.
Mr Stuart said many British clubs were closing and the same changes were affecting the sport in this country.
“The dynamics are interesting because at the top end, there’s no problem, with people who want to go around the world and play golf. It’s in the middle that we’re all fighting for members,” he said.
2 other interesting points…the Nat M.P. involved and the US and Chinese money taking over our country.
If only the NZ Herald knew how to frame a story and write a headline.
They have missed the real story here.
Jones quits…..good riddance, fair weather friends are not what Labour needs. My initial reaction to the excuse that he could never become leader due to the new way of electing a leader was soft cock. Did he ever realise he would have to earn it? Now off to work for National, theres loyalty, not!
“He has been in talks with Foreign Minister Murray McCully for some time about a possible role in an international fisheries management role and expected that to go through.”
I was just wondering, how come Pete George’s ban was lifted?
[lprent: He got banned in August 2012 for (yet again) trying to tell us how we should run our site – something that we give fair warning about being dangerous to do in the policy.
We lifted all outstanding bans in a well publicised amnesty in March 2013. This gets done periodically because most humans do have this facility to be able to learn from experience, so we give them a chance to rejoin the noisy and robust arguments going on here.
His absence after that was purely voluntary.
He has been mostly been following the policy guidelines he started commenting again a month or so ago. Despite all of the moaning about his comments, he hasn’t really overstepped the bounds since. ]
Ummm. Must look at a amnesty again. It really has to be soon so we can eliminate the ones who are too dumb to read the policy before full-blown election season arrives. Or after the election.
There are a few still serving out long bans and about ten or twelve previous regulars who picked up permanent bans since March last year. Most bans of the latter were banned for trying diversion trolling at the top comments in posts. Haven’t really had to do any of those that I can remember since early this year.
That is a very dangerous sport that as who knows when we have time to bump their preferred posts to OpenMike. If we’re short of time, then we stop warning and start banning to reduce the workload. We find this kind of semi-random sentencing risk helps to ensure people are very cautious about their exposures to the edges of the policy.
Then there are a pile of simple trolls who got booted off the site after a couple of comments for being stupid trolls (we rather like playing with the smarter ones). We’d have to cull the ones who haven’t picked up the capabilities to survive here out again. Saw quite a few “first-timers” come through today who didn’t manage to write anything intelligent for any viewpoint in several comments and didn’t make it past first moderation.
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Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is seen some as its ‘silicon shield’ against invasion – but how will overseas expansion affect that protection? The post The state of Taiwan’s silicon shield appeared first on Newsroom. ...
There’s relief for building owners bending under the weight of earthquake strengthening rules – and costs – that came into force seven years ago. Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has announced a scheduled 2027 review of the earthquake-prone building regulations will now start this year. Owners will also get ...
Opinion: It has been announced that nine percent of roles at Oranga Tamariki will be disestablished, presumably to help fund the tax cuts promised by the coalition Government. I am reminded of the graphics used to illustrate pandemic events, where five thousand people are standing in a field and then ...
After more than two sleepless days, running through savage terrain, Greig Hamilton didn’t know if he was going to finish one of the most gruelling psychological assaults in sport. He was metres away from the finish line, a yellow gate made famous in a Netflix documentary; a race he’d dreamed ...
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The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
COMMENTARY:By Murray Horton New Zealand needs to get tough with Israel. It’s not as if we haven’t done so before. When NZ authorities busted a Mossad operation in Auckland 20 years ago, the government didn’t say: “Oh well, Israel has the right to defend itself.” No, it arrested, prosecuted, ...
NEWSMAKERS:By Vijay Narayan, news director of FijiVillage Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country. I was privileged to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Lowry, Ice Sheet & Climate Modeller, GNS Science Hugh Chittock/Antarctica New Zealand, CC BY-SA As the climate warms and Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets melt, the resulting rise in sea level has the potential to displace hundreds of millions of ...
The government's plan to reintroduce a three strikes regime is being strongly opposed by lawyers, who argue there is no evidence it reduces crime or helps people rehabilitate. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Professor specialising in Internet law, Bond University Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform? Anyone inclined to answer “yes” to this question should perhaps also ask ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giovanni E Ferreira, NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, Institute of Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney Last week in a post on X, owner of the platform Elon Musk recommended people look into disc replacement if they’re experiencing severe neck or back pain. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University anek.soowannaphoom/Shutterstock NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey caught the headlines yesterday, courtesy of a blistering speech condemning the latest GST carve-up. New South Wales, he claimed, would be A$11.9 billion worse off over the ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
While police are "broadly in favour", the government's proposed anti-gang laws are facing pushback from lawyers, rights groups and former gang members. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived at Kokoda Station, Northern province, at the start of his state visit to Papua New Guinea. Both Albanese and Prime Minister James Marape will meet with the locals and the Northern Provincial government before they begin their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Shutterstock An important principle was invoked by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week in defence of the government’s Future Made in Australia industry ...
how about that shane jones..?..eh..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/paratas-husband-funded-the-labour-leadership-challenge-from-shane-jones-ed-whoar-eh/
(excerpt:..)
(and john keys’ reactions to this news..?)
“..You’re joking!..”
(ed:..but wait..!..there’s more..!..)
I’m sure that John Key would have been quite happy having Shane jones as Labour leader as it would have turned Labour into a party almost as right-wing as National.
shaking head. he will keep shooting them in the foot
Corporate and political corruption is raising its ugly head more than ever before. Sad for New Zealand, the supposedly least corrupt country in the world. Perhaps the corruption in high places is better hidden here than in other countries!
I enjoy Shane Jones as a funny man, but in my opinion, he should resign from the Labour party or be sacked, irrespective of any adverse consequences for the party. It is better to take a stand and stop these kinds of evil stuff permeating the party or the country.
Let us not allow the left wing parties and principles be tainted. Leave the right wingers to wallow in such sewers.
Clem
It’s been there for years (corrupt practices and the moral hazards that encourage them). We have just been too naive and trusting to note it. Everything that has come to light has been regarded as an exception (that proves the rule). Then it was noticed that the rule was being flouted more than followed. The age of innocence has had to end. Older and wiser now?
metiria turei just made an efficient/credible appearance on tvone breakfast..
..the vid will be worth hunting down..(tvnz ondemand..)
If, as they say, explaining is losing, then both Collins and Key were losing big time on Morning Report today. Her denials and justifications are becoming more and more ludicrous by the day and Key was forced back to his default talking points, namely dancing on the head of a pin and trying to blame it all on Labour.
Robertson:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20140422-0637-labour_says_judith_collins_has_misled_parliament-048.mp3
Collins:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20140422-0714-collins_says_oravida_affair_has_turned_into_a_witch_hunt-048.mp3
Key:
“mumble, mumble, slur, incomprehensible…….
….”let’s take a step back….”
“…. at the end of the day…”
convoluted avoiding of questions
attack Labour
divert to other issues
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20140422-0718-pm_says_labour_is_playing_politics_over_collins-048.mp3
Listening to the TricKey one this morning, I could have sworn he’s been on the sauce, or is still shickkered from the night before. And this is not the first time he’s sounded like this, Hmmm Shades of Muldoon.
Dunno about being on the sauce, but he is making a mess of it. He could be highly stressed. To me, he sounds like he’s on the verge of a bad panic attack, the sort where your tongue swells up in your mouth and you think you’re going to suffocate. Once he’s been through the challenging bits and can get back to where he’s comfortable – which is attacking Labour – he becomes relaxed again. I’m doubting his mental and emotional competence at the moment. I always doubted his ethical, technical, and political competence, but Kiwis love a fast talker in an expensive suit.
“Mike Pero, Mortgages!”
One point is unclear to me. Collins had said that she just popped in for a cup of tea on her way to the airport. Now she says after the dinner, she just went to bed. So, my question is, what happened to the airport destination plan?
Two different events. See here. I would guess on different days.
Also worth knowing that it was 35 miles in the direction opposite to the airport, not “on the way”.
Key himself is deeply involved in this.
The opposition should go to the bottom of this, explore it all relentlessly and not let these dodgy corrupt ways go unexposed and unpunished.
The Opposition, Labour particularly, should keep Collins enquiry bubbling but say they have important changes planned for NZs betterment and are determined to do better than this shoddy government and just get a dig in while they are talking about their new direction and policies. It’s a mistake to concentrate on digging out all the dirt. To use modernspeak ‘This is not core business for Labour’.
So don’t get deflected Labour or you confirm my occasional irrational, frustrated description of politicians – being morons.
@ Karol 3.1,
LOL
I haven’t listened to the links, however your summary of Key’s comments sound so familiar to any comment he ever makes – I believe you have summed up the comments I haven’t heard of his, now and in the future, very well indeed!
Well done!
weka’s (so far) unanswered questions.
A few of the many that are avoided, partly by changing the topic, not answering and/or or asking Standardistas further questions.
Pete George, please come on the site prepared to answer these questions, not waffle on.
Otherwise go chat with your friend Slater.
I don’t have much free time today, but if you want to carry on from yesterday here’s something to consider.
If a Universal Basic Income was introduced (I’m interested in the concept) and was set at a level that ensured most people could live reasonably comfortably:
– How many people would choose it over paid employment?
– How much would the number of people not in paid employment increase?
– What would this cost the Government/taxpayers?
– How would this be funded?
“..I don’t have much free time today..”
yay..!!
..answer the questions..
🙄
UBI issues have been covered in detail elsewhere on The Standard.
Petty George brings nothing to the table.
<i<“partly by changing the topic, not answering and/or or asking Standardistas further questions.”
Sorry to hear you don’t have much time today. How about tomorrow or Thursday?
felix, indeed. So we will just keep asking him the questions he hasn’t answered… and I have more.
Ah, Petey… Thanks for providing a clear illustration of one of your strategies – don’t answer the question, but ask us to go researching for more questions. Do you ever do any real research yourself? Why are you so lacking in information and knowledge of these topics that you give your opinions on?
Since you are so very busy today, answering weka’s questions is the priority.
but if you do have some time this week …….
freedom:
PG: “What would this cost the Government/taxpayers?”
To answer this question you will need some base data to set the UBI expenditure at an adequate level. Base data like budgets.
And there’s this one from felix. – important question about underlying values.
felix didn’t fully quote (himself) in his response. This is what he said:
I responded “I think that’s idealistic and unrealistic”. That was in reference to the whole statement.
I think “creating a society where where young people have faith that their lives are meaningful and worth living” is a great ideal and worth working towards.
I think “where adults find enough stimulation and satisfaction in their activities that they don’t feel like wiping themselves out at the end of every week” is a fine aim but idealistic and I doubt we can ever get close to to that. For example being a parent wipes you out daily, it’s the nature of the job. It’s not uncommon for parents to want a drink or a smoke at the end of another busy day.
“The legality or otherwise of different substances then becomes a non-issue.” I took that as meaning that people wouldn’t use drugs any more. That’s naive and unrealistic. Many poor people don’t have the time or money to do drugs much if at all, and most have more sense than to waste their money and minds.
Drug use and abuse happens across the income spectrum. A wealthy person can be stressed about their money like a poor person stressed about their lack of money.
And no matter how ideal we can make our society I think there will always be a significant number of people who keep using drugs, so the legalities will remain issues. It’s idealistic to think that it could become a non-issue.
Can you show me where I ever said anything about having a drink or a smoke at the end of the day being a big deal Pete?
How about addressing what I actually asked you. I’ll paraphrase for your benefit as apparently you haven’t followed a fucking word so far:
If you don’t think we can create a society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough that they don’t try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend, then what is the point of any of your political efforts?
I mean that’s a really, really low bar for a decent society. I’m not talking utopian ideals Pete. I’m talking about large numbers of human beings not trying to self destruct on a regular basis, and regularly succeeding.
Because essentially you’re right Pete. If nothing ever changes much from what we do now, then we’ll pretty much always have the same or worse issues to deal with as we have now. If we’re lucky.
We can’ ‘create a society’, there’s too much history for that, but we should always be looking for ways to improving our society.
Most people don’t “try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend”. I think that most people who try drugs do so for some sort of enjoyment although there’s quite a bit of attempted stress relief too.
The people who develop drug problems, the drug abusers and the addicts, don’t just wait for the weekends.
How many people regularly try to self destruct? Large numbers? And how many succeed? Too many do, but large numbers?
And if “we can create a society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough” how much less of a drug problem will we have?
Dear Pete
“Alcohol is a drug”
Please repeat this phrase thrice daily,
then perhaps you won’t have such difficulties understanding an issue that others are openly discussing and you are openly obfuscating.
kind regards
still pretending, pretending, pretending
“Most people don’t “try to utterly destroy themselves every weekend”. I think that most people who try drugs do so for some sort of enjoyment although there’s quite a bit of attempted stress relief too.”
Hands up who thinks PG is qualified to have an opinion on why and how people take drugs?
I doubt anyone here is qualified to have an informed opinion on what qualifications I have.
But why not check with who should clearly be qualified, like the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
That’s along the lines of what I suggested but in more detail (limited time so I kept it very brief).
There’s other factors too, like peer pressure, bravado, curiosity, accidental addiction (prescriptions), spiking and so on. And it’s often a combination of factors.
So felix’s “society where people’s lives are fulfilling enough” has a lot to try and address and rectify.
weka I know you can’t see me but I am putting both my hands firmly on the floor.
Pete not only knows fuck all but he’s also just shat all over every A&E doctor, nurse, ambulance officer, police office and firefighter in the country.
god save us all from the days when pete george has time to post
I’m sure that some people say the same about me.
PG @ 3.40pm.
That’s a pretty generalised list with limited consideration of context and life circumstances. Though it does include this:
an attempt to cope with difficult problems or situations, which would include people struggling on low incomes, and/or with unbearable jobs.
There’s been quite a bit of sociological research on drug use and abuse. This looks at patterns in various contexts, over time and in different kinds of communities/circumstances.
This 2006 article gives an overview of some of the research
Some of the research finings and theories:
Some of the early research by Bingham Dai (1930s US),
Other considerations that impact on drug use and abuse are availability and supply.
Others have argued that high levels drug abuse in a community is the result of inequalities. There is more drig abuse in lower income groups than in higher income ones – part of the use of drugs to escape from dreadful conditions.
The biggest survey of drug was the US national survey 2004. It found the reasons differed for different demographic groups and between use of legal and illegal drugs:
Use of illicit drugs
Experimental; irregular use more commonly episodic;
Use of legal drugs
– way more common than use of illegal drugs – and more likely to keep doing it; people who use legal drugs a lot, are more likely to use illegal ones;
Psychoactive use
– is more common among young people; plus people more likely to use psychoactive drugs are male, unmarried but co-habiting and not planning to go to college, the unemployed,.
Drug us can also be a rebellion against conventions.
Pete is still pretending that when we talk about drugs we’re not including alcohol.
yep.
Get fucky or get lucky – I know I prefer the latter.
And don’t forget to hear the Awkward Russian police sing daft Punk Get Lucky.
Just put the keywords and go for the middle video. Good marching music.
for some reason gw, a link to Prosperity Theology ( the, long undiscovered Pastor’s Cave Prosperity Gospel) I put up has remained in moderation, twice. Suffice to say, I recently attended a church where in the willing congregation were persuasively asked for money four times, across two services, eftpos at the back of the hall, i o u ‘s accepted.
Why did you attend TWO services on the same day?
What Church was it?
What were the reasons/cause given for the FOUR money collections?
Were the congregation obliged/compelled to pay or was it voluntary?
being a polite guest
Apostolic / Acts / Equippers
Tithe, Love Offerings, Speakers fees
Voluntary with copious encouragement to do so.
I think after a short adjustment period, employment would go up, as a result of people actually having money to spend into the economy.
UBI is a redistribution from those at the very top to the rest at the bottom. Naturally the people at the bottom will spend the money in ways that the people at the top never would have. This spending will create more economic activity, which means (generally) more jobs.
Lanthanide +100
Slides through the mishmash like a knife through soft butter. Says it all really. Should be printed out in little strips of paper and dropped over NZ like confetti similar to the flour bombing in the 1981 protest.
loks like you havetime for everything except these
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21042014/#comment-801587
(excerpt from those unanswered-questions..addressed to pete george..)
“..That disqualifies you from having any opinion on beneficiaries until you answer the question: how many beneficiaries are not required to seek/gain employment?
Then you will have to answer how many people are now required to see work, despite previously being exempt.
Then come back and explain how those people are supposed to live. And why those people aren’t entitled to a livable income.
Then explain why you think that beneficiaries are all unemployed.
And then explain how unemployed beneficiaries are supposed to raise their income via employment when there aren’t enough jobs.
Then, when youve done all that, retract your statement that NACT don’t keep people poor…”
(can i suggest that when pg pops up with his daily-dissemble..
..that the only responses afforded him be requests for him to answer the above..first..?
..and as he is the editor (stuffs fist into mouth to stop uproarious guffaw of laughter)..of that politichek rightwing pressure-group..
..answering simple questions like that..
..should be a breeze for him..eh..?..)
great idea @ only response be to re ask these questions.
in the meantime companies implementing living wage arent collapsing… but how can that be. good article in stuff today. slylands head will explode.
chalmers organics..makers of tonzu tofu..
..went from just above minimum-wage to living wage..in one step..(about a 25% increase..)
..and i intend to promote them relentlessly..
..buy their stuff..!
..’when thinking of tofu..buy tonzu..!’..
If you did 5 minutes of checking instead of endless drinking you would know that the stuff story is a propaganda piece by a green party activist. Of course many companies pay workers $18 per hour. Gee some even pay 40. It is called a market. I have no sympathy for anyone on minimum wage. Up skill. The only thing that surprises about the mw is that it is so high.
Did you know that the woman interviewed was a green party activist? It should have been disclosed by the journalist.
On related topic. Just returned from Napier. As usual every up market cafe / bar/ spa was staffed by European travellers because there are no suitable nz workers. I drove past a huge orchard with a sign out front “workers desperately wanted”. So get down there.
Oh it is a miracle. In the last 10 minutes tbe journalist has added the disclosure that Chalmers i s a green party official.
so chalmers doesnt own that business and doesnt pay everyone above minimum wage by some margin. of course the part about how its aspirational and practical and will hurt not help isnt propaganda cos you agree with it.
whooooooooooosh
“On related topic. Just returned from Napier. As usual every up market cafe / bar/ spa was staffed by European travellers because there are no suitable nz workers. I drove past a huge orchard with a sign out front “workers desperately wanted”. So get down there.”
No “suitable” NZ workers who want to do the work while getting paid a pittance in bad conditions. European travellers, also known as backpackers, will do whatever job is going to get money to fund their continued travels – that’s hardly the same as holding a long-term job to pay for food, rent, electricity, petrol, car registration, doctors visits etc.
Similarly for orchard work – it’s hard back-breaking labour with minimal pay.
Your reply is an excellent example of the problem. You seriously think it is oj for healthy unemployed people to take a benefit instead of working in an orchard?!!
Actually, you ignorant twat, a lot of Hawkes Bay people go off benefit to work in the fruit industry during the season. As do folk in the BOP, Otago etc. They work for, surprise, surprise, the minimum wage., so with travel costs factored in, they are little better off financially. The answer to that conundrum is obvious. Lift the minimum wage.
The horticultural and food processing industries rely on dormitories of casual labour, usually brown, returning to income support in their off seasons.
Go jump in the lake srylands, employers are not willing to pay a person a decent days pay for a decent days work, so tough fucking luck.
I have no sympathy whatsoever.
More people should tell employers to jump, and go on a benefit. Bludgers is what these employers are, nothing less. Bludgers.
So your plan seems to be to ship unemployed people from other parts of New Zealand to Napier where they can work in the orchard, because the orchard “desperately wants” workers. For a couple of months.
What are all of these people that you’ve moved to Napier going to to do for the rest of the year?
See, it turns out, these are difficult problems that don’t have quick obvious solutions – because if they did, they already would have been applied.
Orchard work is only ever going to work for a small proportion of the community, simply because it is only available for a small proportion of the entire year.
I reckon if such a sign existed srylands would have stopped, photographed it and posted it here whilst quoting from Bush’s Mission Accomplished speech 😉
last time you ran this crap i posted a job offer which specifically excluded nz residents. of course you ignored that and ran away to a new thread with your old crap.
Sit down and tell us a story srylands. Now when you were very young you used to work on your father’s uncle’s farm/do seasonal work in an orchard picking/ work on the wharves/ work in the meatworks/ prune grapevines / pick and pack tobacco. Those were the days. People knew how to work then and be happy with their lot. blah blah. The great bum sitter with the enormous brain who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing – when it comes to people.
I saw a bit of a film called Snowpiercer with a cocoon of humans in an enclosed ecosystem being managed by a megalomaniac who knew how to manipulate people and who had no respect for them at all. Chilling. And it ended with the system being destroyed and two survivors stepping out into a frozen world, being viewed curiously by a polar bear. Back to nature. People like srylands would lead us to that very tipping point without questioning their own preconceptions.
+1
+1
“Similarly for orchard work – it’s hard back-breaking labour with minimal pay”
Not necessarilyt. I’ve done a lot of orchard work since I was about ten and it wasn’t hard or backbreaking. Sure it was a bit physical but easy enough for anyone with average fitness levels.
My three children (two female, one male) all did seasons of orchard work and were very good workers. They financed education and bought cars with what they earned. I know a lot of other people who have managed orchard work and have benefited from it.
So it’s a job for children and teenagers.
Thanks for making my point.
I didn’t say that and it doesn’t prove your point of it being back breaking.
It’s easy enough for teenagers but there are many adults doing it as well, probably mostly adults.
My point was more that it doesn’t pay enough to live on.
Children and teenagers typically don’t need much money to live on.
I’ve known a lot of people who have lived on it. Wages aren’t high (relatively) but are above minimum for good workers, especially as they become experienced, improve productivity and take on responsibilities.
And there’s usually quite a bit of free food involved.
can you answer these questions now that you more time than you originally thought
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21042014/#comment-801587
never has the phrase “comparing apples and oranges” been so apt 🙂
Some orchard work is by the hour
Some is by the bin
Some is casual hours only
Some is done for kin
Some depends on weather
Some is months at a time
Some means moving here and there
Some is just a lie
this nursery rhyme was brought to you by Pete George’s Handy Hints for Happy Homes
(Q: What decade was all this orchard work? I am guessing pre millennium, I am guessing the 1980’s actually)
p.s. Pete, maybe you forgot you have a list of questions from weka to answer, you have also said you were short on time today, so why are you even commenting on other posts? Please go answer weka’s questions
+1 freedom. Not all orchard work is the same (depends on the kind of fruit being grown and how), and as far as I can tell, the people that do well are those that get the more responsible, better paid, more stable hours jobs. That’s not everyone. The people I know that do it alot and are ok either have jobs higher up the chain, or they’ve managed to set their lives up so they have low living costs (usually no rent) and they have other ways of making a living when there is not orchard work. It’s generally not a job if you have a mortgage or kids.
“I am guessing the 1980′s actually”
I get a very strong sense that Pete hasn’t experienced much at all for 20 years or so. He seems utterly unaware of the everyday realities of life in NZ for most people.
He doesn’t think there’s much of a problem with unemployment or underemployment.
He doesn’t think there’s much of a problem with poverty.
He doesn’t even acknowledge a cultural binge-drinking issue ffs. Doesn’t affect most of us, he reckons.
Worst part is, he doesn’t think there’s much point doing anything about it either.
You’re making things up felix. From you that seems more likely to be deliberate lies rather than ignorance. Your ‘argument’ has turned to attempted discrediting with blatant bull. That’s telling.
All your claims (at 6.03 am) about what I think are incorrect nonsense.
You have questions to answer Pete: http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-23042014/#comment-802409
You didn’t deliberately lie to try and bait me did you felix? Once again it didn’t work
I thought you were busy today and that’s why you couldn’t answer weka’ questions.
…perhaps he was too busy asking other questions and for links – in other words busy in the sense of avoiding answering Weka’s (and other’s) questions…
Every time he comes on this site, we must ask him to deal with weka’s questions.
And if he won’t, we should boycott him.
Same policy for all the other RWNJs who come here to divert, distract and denigrate.
Their input ruins this site at times.
+1 Good idea
he is tired. he visited every up market bar cafe spa in napier. before easter he cared e about the poor now he has no sympathy for minimum wage workers who must somehow work enough hours to survive and pay to upskill.
he also knows who all green party activists are which is strange for a mere tax something or other from kapiti coast.
Responding to all those discussing the problems of being employed for seasonal work in orchards, vineyards etc, I suggest you look at the latest list (2014) of employers who are part of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Policy and the spread of employers across the country from Katikati to Otago.
http://www.immigration.govt.nz/employers/employ/LinkAdministration/ToolboxLinks/rse.htm
While I think the policy is excellent for the Pacific Island communities, because it provides regular work, skills training and money for their communities, I think it is wrong that New Zealanders don’t make themselves available for this type of work. Effectively those of you who are saying that it is better to be unemployed that earning the minimum wage to do physical work in the orchards and vineyards are saying you are better than the Pacific Island people who are very happy to do this work. That attitude doesn’t seem respectful to the Pacific Islanders.
Also, as taxpayers, we are all contributing to funding both the RSE scheme and the unemployment benefit because New Zealanders wont do this type of work. That doesnt seem fair to me either.
sigh
I talked to a woman in west Auckland who was looking for such work – in desperation. But, she is a single parent, and there weren’t any such jobs going near her home, and that would also enable her to carry out her child care responsibilities.
dont give christine real life contradictions.
That’s a new RWNJ definition of racist, Christine – someone who thinks the minimum wage is too low. Wow.
“I have no sympathy for anyone on minimum wage.”
Everyone knows you are a piece of shit, there’s no need to keep providing evidence on a daily basis.
So why do you continually promote policies that hurt the poor? Plus you are rude.
“So why do you continually promote policies that hurt the poor?”
I’ve never voted National/Act, doubt I ever will.
Isn’t it time you mentioned you don’t know how to feel sympathy for anyone, or what sympathy actually is, or that kids with cancer somehow deserve it?
lol
What is rude is employers who do not pay enough for a person to live on, that is what is rude.
It costs less to pay the minimum wage than to keep a slave.
You live in la la land
for e.g. those foresty workers who work 10 hours a day in shite conditions on $16 an hour! i earn more than that at my comfy desk sitting on my bum with heating & a roof & heaps of coffee. thats plainly not fair, not fair at all.
& orchard work is indeed back breaking work!, i’ve done kiwi fruit, grape vine work & asparagus picking (in my teens, & travelling in my 20s), asparagus was a lot harder because you had to bend down for 6-7 hours a day, only young ppl can do that kind of work. so if you think orchard work is not back breaking then i actually doubt you have done any orchard work at all (unless you are the inevitable slow mo simpleton who just goes gets to do all the gopher type work around the property coz you can’t be trusted to do anything else).
they need to upskill and become a tax something or other from kapiti coast/wellington/australia, cos we need those.
No one wants sympathy from the likes of you, SSLands. I see the person using the login today is not the polite one. My guess is that there are three of you. All your posts are propaganda pieces by an ACT party activist. You should disclose that.
I agree Murray.
Sir Ian McKellen has a deeper understanding of New Zealand than most visiting stars. He talks about playing Gandalf again – and about Helen Clark’s startling confession.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/3751531/Acting-giant-reflects-on-NZ-society
So what did Helen Clark mean? More racist on average than other societies?
What (if anything) did she do about it? Multiculturalism?
I know there’s pay dirt here (people who have studied the right stuff!).
so clark obviously wouldn’t have thought of/spoken of maori as ‘haters and wreckers’..eh..?
..and how about that foreshore and seabed brouhaha..?..eh..?
.and those nine long years of grinding the poors’ noses in their miseries..
..with of course..a very high number of those families living in grinding poverty..are/were maori..
..yeah..she really ‘did a lot’…
..a ‘lot’ of neglect/institutional-racism..
I prefer Queen Victoria owns the foreshore and seabed and (better still) all the land leased from Queen Victoria so Queen Victoria can use the money for her armies, hospitals roads etc (for the benefit of her brown boys and girls and white and banana boys and girls). Queen Victoria rarely rides her steed down the beach (whereas Maori frequently show up). But that’s beside the point.
Evolutionary psychology makes good argument that humans are (by nature) racist in so far as they have an initial preference for people like themselves. Talking up your own group is healthy. Listen to any after game conversation when the local school creamed the visitors.
just so stories.
people not people
In his review article Discovery and Confirmation in Evolutionary Psychology (in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Psychology) Edouard Machery concludes:
“Evolutionary psychology remains a very controversial approach in psychology, maybe because skeptics sometimes have little first-hand knowledge of this field, maybe because the research done by evolutionary psychologists is of uneven quality. However, there is little reason to endorse a principled skepticism toward evolutionary psychology: Although clearly fallible, the discovery heuristics and the strategies of confirmation used by evolutionary psychologists are on a firm grounding.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_evolutionary_psychology
Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3029708/
Tooby or not To Be. ;). Its been a while since I read this. I certainly agree that Mind is adapted and selected for. Handy tool, the computer.
A Zoologist For A Financial Shitstorm And A Wall Street Banker As Our Prime Minister. No Wonder We’re Tanking. My take on the housing bubble denial saga
Mr Joyce / Mr Bubble-and-squeak potato-head.
😆
From the Herald’s online version: ”Prison alone wont deter crims” says break-in victim,
”Gavin” who has been done over 5 times in the past 3 years by burglars gets my vote for Kiwi of the week, for this:
”I’m not sure prison is the ultimate answer, but it could be part of it, they definitely need some sort of decent education, some rehabilitation”,
He thought the bigger issue politicians should be addressing was, ”the separation of wealth between rich and poor, which he believed was one of the key drivers of burglary”
Wise words from a five time victim of burglars which will probably be ignored by the politicians he addresses as they continue the revolving door imprisonment policy, using the blokes taxes to build more of them and in effect re-victimizing Him all over again…
my take is if prisons worked, why is there still crime? & also this thing that some laws are acceptable to break, like opening hours in wanaka over easter. did you also read that thing where the police have had to pay out over $500,000 this year to ppl because of police fuck ups.
some good news..
..kathryn ryan is on leave from nine to noon..
..and lyn freeman has taken her place..
..and what i really like about freeman..is that interviewing with/for her is not a gladitorial-struggle..
..she actually lets people answer the questions she has asked…
..and freeman is about the most skilled around at letting her interview-subjects breath..
..and to let them get to say their piece..
..and so they get to stand or fall on their own merits..
..and thus providing the best experience for the listener..
..whereas ryan is often unlistenable to..
..she has this propensity to sit there..hovering..looking for something to challenge/nitpick on..
..and she just rides over the interview-subject..
..so as the listener you are left with a clutch of half/unanswered questions…
..and yes..if an interview-subject is talking absolute utter shite..pull them up/challenge..
..the skill is clearly knowing when to and when not to do this..
+1
I like Kathryn Ryan…she is fantastic!…i miss her every time she takes a holiday from radio
Lynn Freeman is good …but not as good as Kathryn Ryan!.
….but then again Lyn Freeman is a Vegan is she not?…or at least a Vegetarian…. a wee bit of bias there Philip Ure?
just my personal ‘bias’ for interviews where you come away with the sum total of yr human-knowledge increased..
..with stuff to think about/maybe temper/nuance yr own views
..otherwise…why bother..?..
..everything else is just shades of jerry springer/that english twerp..jeremy someone..
+2
Both None to Noon and Afternoons are much better when a locum is in place – but in particular, Lyn Freeman is great. Nine to Noon probably should have gone to her in the first place
personally I find Lyn Freeman too nicey nice and watered down to be a really great interviewer ( probably becase she doesnt eat meat..let alone go for the jugular or gnaw the bones) …..and I fear she lacks the intellectual range of Ryan…..she doesn’t ask the hard questions…she is better for the arts….i am sure she is a lovely person however
I reckon she’s a closet carnivore (Freeman I mean). I just find the work-life-balanced, regular gal with issssyooos, and her in depth (once was) knowledge of ‘the beltway’ (Ryan) a bit bloody nauseating at times. Plus she’s a total 3rd-wayer with a (no doubt, very balanced) portfolio. But …. different strokes for different folks I guess.
I’m only glad she seems to have negotiated a substantial leave entitlement.
RNZ though – still far better than anything else going
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11241874
You can tell that these were designed by a non-Maori, they are real Pakeha colours.
Not the colours this Pakeha would choose – pretty naff. Interesting how they match the shirts of the 2 guys in the photo.
Wow i didnt notice this thanks for the update
‘bargain-basement prices, a fire-sale, or, a steal’.
Shouldn’t be selling state assets.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11241501
Now this is what will reverse the polls 🙂
do you only get paid to work office hours..?
..this was covered over the easter break..
..but..fill yer boots..!
do you only get paid to work office hours..?
Well I’m not on a benefit so if I don’t work I don’t get paid
this might tickle your fancy, Pre-employment drug testing : 1/100 ‘positives’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11241897
a “deterrent” or, a “smokescreen” of ‘anecdotal’ (read prejudicial) claims from Paula.
More BS from Ms Bennett.
too many of them fucking up their heads on legal-high crap..
..it’s an upside down world..alice…
..and steel yrslves for the legal-high versions of heroin/opiates…eh..?
..coming soon..
..that’ll get them queuing..
..and we come back to that irrefutable fact:..
..that cannabis is the safest of all intoxicants..(not to mention the multiple curing-properties researchers/people are finding..)
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/meet-teen-who-beat-terminal-brain-cancer-cannabis
As a politically-independent anti-corruption campaigner, who is not aligned to ANY political party I fully support this Green Party initiative, and look forward to ALL parties who genuinely support ‘transparency’ and ‘accountability’ doing the same.
Greens push for disclosure policy to reveal MP’s ‘private interests’ (3:45)
http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/greens-push-disclosure-policy-reveal-mp-s-private-interests-video-5937690
What’s the problem with this long-overdue increase in transparency NZ Prime Minister?
“Nothing to hide – nothing to fear?”
http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/green-s-disclosure-regime-ridiculous-pm-video-5937797
Green’s disclosure regime ‘ridiculous’ – PM (5:15)
Just as NZ Prime Minister John Key exhibited wilful blindness in his continued support for dodgy John Banks, his defence of the indefensible Minister for Corruption (sorry – ‘Justice’) Judith Collins will not endear him to the voting public – in my considered opinion.
There is a LOT more to come on this story ……
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ANTI-CORRUPTION-WHITE-COLLAR-CRIME-CORPORATE-WELFARE-ACTION-PLAN-Ak-Mayoral-campaign-19-July-2013-2.pdf
+100…Go Girl!
You are wrong in saying they are asking for more transparency from all MP’s, they are only proposing more transparency from ministers.
Not saying that there’s anything wrong with that, but i would respect it a lot more if it came from them when they were actually in power because this reeks of an empty pre-election talking point with little actual relevance.
How about dodgy Penny not very Bright bludging from the Auckland rate payers.
Russia slashes North Korean debt by 90%
http://time.com/69790/russia-agrees-deal-to-slash-north-korean-debt-by-90/?
Isis and Iraq
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/foreign-suicide-bombers-kill-thousands-and-bring-iraq-to-the-brink-of-civil-war-9272391.html
Airline safety.
Is it a fact that in its bid to improve its bottom line, Air New Zealand decided to move some of its aircraft maintenance offshore?
Major engine overhauls have been done in china awhile now, a local engineer would accompany and oversee some years back not sure about today.
AirNZ is a budget airline in everything except its airfares.
Yes. The news of it came out some years ago. IIRC, there was something about it a few months back as well but can’t find anything.
Just a thought.When do we get to see Winston interviewed by Gower? or have I missed it?
Yes, last month:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Winston-Peters-Asset-buy-back-a-priority/tabid/1348/articleID/336025/Default.aspx
ER
Yea Thanks .I missed it. Winston not quite as eloquent as before but still able to mock the Gowers of this world (Paddy.. let me answer from my experience, rather than your inexperience -love it). And his response to entrapment ‘questions’ like…. ” What you’re saying is…..”.when that’s not what they’re saying at all.
I don’t vote for Winston but he’s good and I hope he’s part of the Labour coalition.
Cheers.
Winston is clear in terms of protecting the retirement age @ 3’50” – 4’23”
Question: “.. if Labour tries to change the retirement age, you’d go to the cross benches again”
Winston: “… I think they can be persuaded if that was the issue , I think they can be persuaded that that fatally cost them the election ..”
…
Winston: “… what’s a priority in the context that there is no fiscal reason when it is near 4.3 per cent of GDP to be panicking as Jenny Shipley and Financial Services Council are trying to get (?you) to do so, they can get to control the industry and take out (?biddings) and favours …”
[feel free to improve on the above transcript]
And at the Herald. Joyce changing university boards to be dominated by businessmen. Universities as free trainers for corporates funded by the kids borrowing.
So now we are going to have our young people borrowing money to fund their studies to save companies having to invest in training them.
How about a market solution from the corporates, they can provide paid internships to give work experience and fund the study costs of graduates in the disciplines they are short of and they need to be doing this before they can scream skill shortages.
Joyce telling universities what to teach
I find myself in vague agreement with the Herald
thanks, Herald just disappeared on me. Great summary, right there.
Listening to Williams and Holton this morning and the subject of Cunliffe not fronting up to Campbell live was brought up. Well on seeing the little bit that I could stomach of the key family at home(snigger) item I wouldn’t of turned up either. It is documented knowledge, stated by key himself that he hardly ever goes to that derelict looking place he call a bach. So why would he choose to use it as the destination for the interview. Campbell made a right toady of himself with the gushy bit about Obama la la la la.etc. That’s when I turned off, so possibly it got better. ?? or not. So key is being his usual devious self but Cunliffe would be expected to have his interview or whatever you might call it at his actual home because people might think he is trying to hide his wealth and he’ll get caned by the media again. I don’t see the problem with Cunliffe delaying his ‘at home’. He had genuine reasons which have been reported, Campbell made to much of it, and he looks like he was played by key. Don,t think much of him at the moment.
+100 ffloyd….Cunliffe should take control of his media appearances not the other way around( if he doesn’t want to be interviewed in his home for family privacy reasons then good on him!)
….lets hope Campbell gets back into the real hard question journalism of which he is capable
….not the frothy ‘Women’s Weekly’ and ‘House and Garden ‘ variety
…this is what is wrong with the msm at the moment ….concentration on trivia rather than the Hard questions
…hard questions involving
affordable housing for young New Zealanders
education
corruption
the issues Xtasy brings up ie support for those most in need …(in fact I suggest John Campbell does an in interview with Xtasy…this is the real side of NZ….not John Key’s mansions…sick making)
he is doing ok on the legal-highs question..
..and he seems to be coming around to a gupta-moment..
..and he may well start arguing soon for decriminalisation/regulation/taxation of cannabis..
..’cos of course..you do know that legal cannabis would see the legal-high problem disappear in a puff of bong-smoke..eh..?
..how much further will we let dunne lead us down this dead-end alley..
..where we have police/health-professionals..all screaming to do something..!
..the ‘something’ is the decriminalisation/regulation/taxation of cannabis..
..anything else is just pg-fretting/auto-eroticism..
..and this will just get worse and worse..
..how bad will it have to get..?
..(and dunnes’ most recent answer on the cannabis question..was to say..
“..two wrongs don’t make a right’..
..could he be more of a simplistic-fool..?
..plus he is deeply fucken corrupt..
..he has been bought/owned by the tobacco/booze-pushers since forever..
..and guess what..?..guess which drug-pushers don’t want pot legalised..?
..yep..!..the booze industry..
..the man is a pox on the land..
..that his son earns from/works for this new bunch of poisonous/legal-muck pushers..
..is kinda beyond irony..
Listened to a bit of Williams/Hooton until I got tired of Hooton’s Foxdistortion-monologues. Admit to being disappointed in Williams, a man that I once admired. No fire left?
re williams..he sold out..a long time ago..
..he is now a full-time neo-lib apologists..
..and one of my favourite williams’ recent quotes..
..was his sneering at the activists returning to labour…as all the mad people having come back to labour..
..(these he is sneering at are those who left labour because of labour losing its’ way up that neo-lib dead-end road..that tells you’ll you need to know about williams..
..he is a rightwing trout..)
i agree, that home piece was appalling but nearly all the media pundits all gave it glowing reviews! dunne & peters both garnered a little respect from me by them declining. keys one was all about him being ‘normal’ & how awesome he is at talking to children! & playing with some little girls pony tail which was a bit creepy imo. if campbell didnt know he was being used by a master manipulator (key) then hes a tool.
Shonkey is a highly staged media event full stop. He knows it’s his medium to play like that guitar he refers to but that was a private conversation apparently.
Absolutely no unscripted questions allowed and the best spin available from your mates like Hooton, O’Shillivan etc when you go off the ranch and put your foot in it by doing crazy stuff like inviting the opposition to a debate.
Bet the backers and minders told John Phillip to STFU and stick to the smile and wave, leave the messaging to us. The only debate he’ll do is one where sympathisers like Hoskins can protect him from himself.
Campbell is lightweight with the occasional burst of enthusiasm but it’s sugar rush jonolism, once the high’s gone they go looking for another.
RNZ Midday Report. CTU to take legal action over deaths of two of the 32 forestry staff killed since 2008.
The television news showed Worksafe climbing all over crews, with RNZ reporting 25 crews instructed to stop immediately; entrenched “non-compliance concerns”.
meanwhile Jones states he “wouldn’t call Gardiner a friend…”. hmm, must just be an uninterested admirer of his posture then…
A worker at the coal-face of addictions claims the impact and extent of synthentic cannabis abuse is greater than that of metamphetamine; children as young as nine…deep sigh…
The Queensland Fruit-fly makes fruit and vegetables inedible! Cabbage Fight! (ducks).
“Our lives end the day we become silent about things that matter”. Martin Luther King.
for greywarbler – I visited a church recently rolling in a non-canonical gospel for ‘spiritual’ success. Across two services on the same Sunday, much the same congregation were persuasively asked four times for money- eftpos at the rear of the hall, IOU’s accepted. 😎
Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11241616
The plug may yet be pulled.
This from the article is interesting: ”The complex plan change, setting tougher nutrient leaching limits in the catchment and requiring farmers to implement individual enviromental management plans, raised fears at the Council that farming in the area would become uneconomic”,
Whoever is raising such fears deserves the dunce award, scientific soil mapping, paddock by paddock in places where soils are apt to change types frequently has been shown to boost production,
Along with such boosted production comes less use of both water and nutrients as soil mapping also identifies the optimum time for the use of water and nutrients on the proposed crops, SO, with intensive soil mapping we can tell exactly what can be grown where while producing NO off farm leaching of water or nutrients and NO leaching of the same into the water table,
Instead of just dumping water and nutrient on paddocks and crops because that is the way its always been done soil mapping will be the next revolution in farm management and i am pleased to see this irrigation scheme has attached to it individual management plans that will likely mean the farmers have to soil map all their farms,
Now all we need is the body with the resources and the will to rigidly Police such management plans and i don’t think that this can be simply left in the hands of Regional Councils…
Bernard Hickey Shows Himself The Ignoramus I Always Thought He Was And Here Is Why:
In an article today Bernard Hickey actually made an attempt to counter Jesse Colombo’s 12 point list as to why we were not heading for an economic bubble bust of epic proportions and in doing so showed once again how NZ economists really haven’t got a clue about what is going on globally and I will show this by taking his talking points and show them for the misleading uniformed trash they are.
NZ has a floating exchange rate and flexible interest rates
There are plenty of candidates to generate a shock to New Zealand’s economy that could cause our house prices to start falling. The IMF warned in March that a sharp slowdown in China could do the trick.
In this point he is arguing that the IMF predicted the same possible down turn but they mitigated the prediction by stating:
Hickey says: However, the IMF rightly points out in the very next sentence that New Zealand has some automatic stabilisers (SIC) to deal with just such a shock.
The authorities have monetary and fiscal policy space to respond to shocks. The RBNZ has scope to adapt monetary conditions to help buffer against a downside scenario, and the free-floating New Zealand dollar provides an additional cushion against terms of trade and other external shocks. New Zealand’s modest public debt gives the authorities scope to delay their planned deficit reduction path in the event of a sharp deterioration in the economic outlook.
My response: First of all Hickey is not denying the possibility of a down turn and that is wise. What he argues is that in order to delay a planned deficit reduction path (read austerity for the 99% but more for the 1% like in Greece, Ukraine, to name a few) there is space to borrow more.
This is not a sensible response to the risk of a global cascading financial down turn. This is just more of the global bankster kicking the can down to road fraud. And while it may postpone the inevitable collapse of an unsustainable collapse of the fiat currency system which at the moment has to print money by the trillion to keep going.
What is equally misguiding is his notion that we can cut the interest rates which unlike the rest of the Western world are being raised making it more difficult for people to pay their mortgages.
So far it hasn’t materialized in higher interest on bank savings for example.
The real reason why interest rates in the US, UK and other Western countries are next to zero is that they are so for the rich. Those of us who have to buy a kitchen appliance on a credit card or GE pay 20% – 30%. The interest is not a tool which is used for the betterment of New Zealanders but to make a whole sale wealth transfer of the 99% to the 1% possible by preventing deflation and encouraging inflation. The only people suffering under this are those on fixed incomes. The rich, the bankers and others close to the reserve banks lending spigot sea their incomes rise with the money creation level. A very comfortable lace to be to be sure but the rest of us will find it harder and harder to make ends meet and that includes the mortgages that keep the bubble going.
Our Government has room to borrow to cushion the blow
Jesse diplayed (SIC) an alarming chart showing a tripling in the Government’s overseas debt in nominal terms between 1993 and 2012. Unfortunately, that didn’t show the net and real value of that debt in relation to our economy, which is the most important thing.
New Zealand’s net government debt has risen from less than 10% of GDP to under 30%. US Government debt is over 100% of GDP, Britain’s public debt is over 70% and Ireland’s debt to GDP ratio is over 120% of GDP.
As the current government proved from 2008 to 2012 when it kept…
Read more
Bye bye, Tariana.
It was nice getting to know you …
At first, this seems just a very dull article about golf, a sport I don’t much appreciate. But scratch the surface, ignore the headline and you’ll find hidden within details that show that NZ’s middle classes are now being impacted by the depression and austerity policies of the government.
One quote in particular show the new unequal New Zealand. A NZ where wealthy foreigners buy up our land, the rich 1% of NZers travel round the world to play their favourite golf courses and the rest of NZ go backwards.
Mr Stuart said many British clubs were closing and the same changes were affecting the sport in this country.
“The dynamics are interesting because at the top end, there’s no problem, with people who want to go around the world and play golf. It’s in the middle that we’re all fighting for members,” he said.
2 other interesting points…the Nat M.P. involved and the US and Chinese money taking over our country.
If only the NZ Herald knew how to frame a story and write a headline.
They have missed the real story here.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11241885
Labour MP Shane Jones to step down
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11242350
Jones quits…..good riddance, fair weather friends are not what Labour needs. My initial reaction to the excuse that he could never become leader due to the new way of electing a leader was soft cock. Did he ever realise he would have to earn it? Now off to work for National, theres loyalty, not!
“He has been in talks with Foreign Minister Murray McCully for some time about a possible role in an international fisheries management role and expected that to go through.”
Ennui +1000
Well, well,well. Shane Jones has gone!!!! Kelvin Davies? stepping in. Immediate. Got to be a good thing. Maybe settle things a little bit.
TV3 saying tonight Jones is to resign from the Parliament, now that’s what i call a good idea…
Lolz a game of snap going on here…
Just seen a photo of key in my fish and chip wrapping newspaper and his hair looks ginger. Does he dye his hair or wear a rug?? Just wondering.
lol..he is getting balder….so maybe he is wearing a ginger cat skin?
I was just wondering, how come Pete George’s ban was lifted?
[lprent: He got banned in August 2012 for (yet again) trying to tell us how we should run our site – something that we give fair warning about being dangerous to do in the policy.
We lifted all outstanding bans in a well publicised amnesty in March 2013. This gets done periodically because most humans do have this facility to be able to learn from experience, so we give them a chance to rejoin the noisy and robust arguments going on here.
His absence after that was purely voluntary.
He has been mostly been following the policy guidelines he started commenting again a month or so ago. Despite all of the moaning about his comments, he hasn’t really overstepped the bounds since. ]
There was an amnesty for all bans a while back.
Ummm. Must look at a amnesty again. It really has to be soon so we can eliminate the ones who are too dumb to read the policy before full-blown election season arrives. Or after the election.
There are a few still serving out long bans and about ten or twelve previous regulars who picked up permanent bans since March last year. Most bans of the latter were banned for trying diversion trolling at the top comments in posts. Haven’t really had to do any of those that I can remember since early this year.
That is a very dangerous sport that as who knows when we have time to bump their preferred posts to OpenMike. If we’re short of time, then we stop warning and start banning to reduce the workload. We find this kind of semi-random sentencing risk helps to ensure people are very cautious about their exposures to the edges of the policy.
Then there are a pile of simple trolls who got booted off the site after a couple of comments for being stupid trolls (we rather like playing with the smarter ones). We’d have to cull the ones who haven’t picked up the capabilities to survive here out again. Saw quite a few “first-timers” come through today who didn’t manage to write anything intelligent for any viewpoint in several comments and didn’t make it past first moderation.
He’s like a weed choking the oxygen out of a waterway.