Who are the worst performers in National’s dismal caucus?
In 1972, National ran a campaign with the slogan “Man for Man, the Strongest Team”. It was a joke way back then; Labour was significantly more talented and energetic than National. Anyone who squirmed throughout Kelvin Davis’s failure to counter the lightweight but aggressive Paul Henry yesterday morning will be well aware that today’s Labour opposition is certainly failing to impress; however, National supporters are the very last people that should be passing comment on this.
I started to compile this list yesterday on Google Groups, in the course of a dispute with a fanatical National Party troll who had sneered at “Labour’s desperation and lack of intellectual rigour”…..
1.) HEKIA PARATA. Poor old Hekia Parata: I know you’re only filibustering when you make a demand to see something which is obvious to anyone who has lived in this country for the last ten years, but a great place to start is her intellectual meltdown in August 2011, when she started burbling thusly: “Well, ahhhh, ummmm, it includes a variety of various variables. We have a suite of variables. Ahhhhh, look….”
2.) CRAIG FOSS. One of the world’s nicest guys, but incompetent. The fact that he was the DEPUTY to the most incompetent National front-bencher, Hekia Parata, hasn’t helped his credibility one iota. Foss will forever be synonymous, sadly for him, with the Novopay débâcle…
3.) LOUISE UPSTON. We presume she is following some neck-strengthening regime at a gymnasium, since she has to be in top form to keep nodding affirmatively during parliamentary Question Time—her only discernible rôle.
4.) TODD McCLAY. What did anyone expect from the son of one of the vilest hypocrites, and criminals, to ever enter parliament? Is his reprobate of an old man out of the Big House yet?
As neoliberalism gradually dismembers the country, it is now the middle class who are feeling the pinch.
The revolution devours its own.
Sadly, by the time they wake up and vote out all the parties who support the Tandian cult, the TPP will will be signed and it’ll be too late.
‘Increasing living costs are giving rise to the “middle-class poor”, an expert says, as a new report shows a large chunk of Canterbury families are under financial stress.’
Say you had an unexpected bill of $5k or where sacked tomorrow how would you be financially in three weeks time. Because I’m similar to your case but there’s not a lot of wriggle room.
Well my hot water cylinder needs replacing but luckily my mortage is up for renewal very shortly so that takes care of that plus I live in christchurch so jobs are easy to come by down here
Seriously anyone having problems in Auckland should come down to Christchurch
yes because relocation is free and there are no social ties keeping people close to sick relatives or even just keeping kids in the same school with their friends /sarc
More like maybe the interweb assurances of tory shills as to where the grass is greener tend to ignore the practicalities involved in jumping the fence. Even assuming that the grass is still greener when you finally get to it.
My nephew’s a builder. He looked at coming down to Christchurch, help with the rebuild etc. After doing the sums it was obvious that he couldn’t afford to as the amount being paid was well below the cost to live.
It wasn’t a case of life being hard but the fact that he would have ended up paying someone else to work for them.
Even this long after the earthquakes I doubt if there’s a lot of any other work to do.
Also, the hot water cylinder is a minor expense – you shouldn’t need to take out a mortgage to replace it.
Which you shouldn’t need to do. Doing so is the action of someone in poverty. But I’m sure that that bank, who will create the money for you, will be happy to get the interest for doing nothing.
“My nephew’s a builder. He looked at coming down to Christchurch, help with the rebuild etc. After doing the sums it was obvious that he couldn’t afford to as the amount being paid was well below the cost to live”
Sounds like he has your negative cant do attitude.
Average rate for a builder in Christchurch $26.77 per hour
I could easily live on that, many people do.
I was in the building industry for 20 years and worked away in Wellington for six months until I could get a local job. There is nothing difficult about it.
Average rate for a builder in Christchurch $26.77 per hour
He says as if that’s a lot of money.
My nephew usually get $35/hour + GST. After expenses (my nephew’s self-employed) that comes down to somewhat less than the minimum wage. $27/hour isn’t worth considering especially with the inflated rents in Christchurch.
It’s not a question of charging – it’s a question of what people are willing to pay. If he tries charging more than that then he doesn’t get hired.
And the most he ever got offered for Christchurch work was sub $25/hour + GST and that was only a couple of months ago so I really have NFI WTF you got $26.77 from.
My father’s mate owns a caryard in CHC and he reckons all these ‘cashed up’ tradies who come in and buy these utes, etc get them repo’d a few weeks later.
Not too sure if they are as cashed up as we thought.
But anyway. from where I am sitting, the earthquake rebuild is the modern equivalent of the gold and land rushes of the mid 19th centuries — a big free for all with a few people getting rich, and the rest of them losing their shirts.
If only we hadn’t of chopped ‘Auntie MOW’.
Anyway, there are a lot of cheap houses ($40-50000 in the likes of Ohura, Taumarunui, Kawerau, and Murupara. No jobs though, but if you bought say, 54 New Road in Taumarunui for 50,000 (which is for sale at the moment), which is a deposit on a house anywhere else, you would only have to pay rates/insurance of a little under $60 per week $25 a week for a broadband package, and a bike to commute (only use a car if it is wet or for emergencies) you would be living the dream — having a poor paying job could work.
Yep. Our head gasket blew on our car. No wiggle room for finding $2.9K. Paying that off for the next 60 weeks.
Then theres’ unexpected vet bills. All our savings went along time ago.
As for losing your job, Mr R is in the position of being compelled to pay income protection insurance. That would last 6 months to cover the mortgage.
No one had income protection insurance years ago. You didn’t need it. Kind of a racquet really, a form of subtle extortion. Will be interested to see what Jane Kelsey has to say about the insurance industry in her new book.
Now days, life is unstable and the future is uncertain. Maybe that’s how they super wealthy like it. Don’t want the ordinary people feeling too comfortable in their lives, that might make them a bit more, you know, equal.
Some one posted this fairfax article a few days ago. Interesting reading and not surprising.
Remember wages have been stagnant for many years for many people, rates and utility bills are going up, insurance costs are up, accommodation is becoming more and more expensive in the cities, petrol has gone up, we had an increase in every individual’s living costs of 2.5% six years ago and there’s no relief in sight.
There’s only so many increases households can absorb, while wages and salaries remain the same.
For us, we are on one good salary, (not mine, I’m unemployed and unwell) but every week is a struggle. That one good salary has been the same for six years and costs keep going up up up. Going for a coffee in the weekend is our social highlight of the week.
There’s no holidays, movies, dinners, day trips, no new clothes and shoes. No one comes for dinner these days as we can’t afford the extra food.
I hate to think how much worse our situation would be if we hadn’t left Auckland nine years ago.
Maybe scratch the surface a bit more and you’ll find that life in NZ is only sweet for those on a very high income, or come from a wealthy family.
Poor old cow cocky gets stiffed by the supermarket cartels. Expect to see more farm gates sales as some dairy farmers join the growing working poor. Where is Shane Jones when ya need him? Kicked back on a deck chair in some Pacific paradise pondering his return to political life. Meanwhile Clayton Cosgrove gives thought of taking up the fight, then falls back asleep and leaves it up Labour’s big hitter David Shearer…chuckle.
Basically most commentators expected the large stockpiles of WMP in China to be consumed by the end of 2014, as it turns out they still exist. The really worrying thing about this is that it seems that Fonterra really don’t have good visibility/information on China while at the same time basing a big part of NZ’s Dairy growth strategy on this country. Its seems that China’s consumption of WMP is much lower than we (and the dairy industry in USA and EU) have been led to believe. I suspect that the Chinese have NOT been in a rush to put the West right on this, knowing the free market will over-supply leading to China importing well below cost for many years to come. Clever buggers.
My guess is that we wont see prices over $5.50 KG ms for years because it seems that many of the assumptions around Chinese/Asian demand were wrong, it also means that regional NZ is going to go through hard times for many years to come.
I think there is upside in this though, our NZ $ will stay low helping other importers and the tourist industry plus NZ will really re-establish itself as the lowest cost dairy producers on the cost curve. Enviromentally this will also be positive as farmers will have to go back to grass-only-feed, leading to lower nitrate levels leaking off farms and improved waterways etc. So it isn’t all bad.
@Saarbo… agree with you about the possible upside for the environment….however a whole lot of Chinese might start buying bankrupt NZ dairy farms … especially with Chinese ‘tourists’ ( business opportunists) pouring into the country
…and while jonkey nact persuaded Fonterra NOT to export to China when we had the chance ( NZ was exempt from Russia’s ban on dairy imports) …now China is building a giant milk farm to export to Russia
… based on NZ expertise, experience and NZ cow stock….NZ exports cows to China…
( how about that for NZ government stupidity and Chinese duplicity!)
“Prior said that Prime Minister John Key had recently warned Fonterra not to take advantage of the boycott, yet Pepsi and Danone had invested heavily in the Russian dairy sector through two major Russian companies.
“Because the boycott is country-specific, naturally they [multinationals] have an opportunity to switch to sourcing from South American subsidiaries or whatever – we’ve given something for absolutely nothing,” Prior said…
That interesting. I attended a Fonterra presentation recently and a lot of farmers were asking Fonterra why it isn’t supplying Russia. Its a good question. Im not up with the whole geo-political ramifications of sending dairy products to Russia, but can we afford NOT to send product to Russia.
WMP is pretty interesting. When stored in bulk and under good conditions, it has a “expiry date: measured in years, and is usually good for a decade. The frigging stuff is effectively as sterile as concrete after processing.
We also have a stockpile of WMP. Last time I looked at it in the stats department figures, it looked like close to a years supply.
“Tenants are being evicted from their communities all over New Zealand and only a limited amount of private and publicly funded housing is being built in its place’ said Vanessa Cole, researcher for the Tamaki Housing Collective, speaking this week at the Unitary Plan Hearings Panel. Vanessa has recently completed a one year masters thesis on the effects of displacement in the affordable housing sector.”
I agree with Labour on this – STOP the flag change rubbish. I don’t really like our existing flag. My choice is the tino rangatiratanga flag. I will not support an alternative so leave it all alone – I quite like the existing situation.
Maybe if Little Angry hadn’t have waited until he and Labour were under the pump after outing themselves as racists then it might have meant something but as it is it looks like hes trying to find a distraction
For the record I favour a change of flag but I’m not really fussed either way
I think that the point about the flag isn’t so much about changing it or not. It is that the stupid arsehole in charge of it (John Key) appears to have done it on a whim and then *chose* to waste 10’s of millions of taxpayer’s dollars in a process that appears to have been designed to be as wasteful as possible.
I’d have liked to have seen some information at the start about some real basics like if there was any benefits for NZ (something that I still haven’t seen), if there was widespread support for doing it (it appears that there never was), and what we were trying to achieve (ie the measureables that would define success). In other words the responsible approach to any government expenditure of money.
None of those things have at yet been done, and they have apparently already wasted $8.4 million for a process that excites history seeking graphic designers and those carefully selected piglets supping at the taxpayers trough.
Instead we have a two part referendum that looks like some dirtbag’s idea about how to grow support for something that they knew wasn’t ready to go. To me it looks like the actual decision process was John Key jerking off at his desk one day while contemplating his ego.
+100 Maui…Labour is on the up and up…gaining traction and momentum ….heading for a BIG WIN at the next Election
(….although I retain the forlorn hope that maybe this jonkey nact government will be forced to resign before then…. and before they do any more damage to New Zealand.)
lol…well I am feeling good at the moment…jonkey nactional is going down in the polls…and Labour seems to be getting in a few king hits at last that resonate with the public
btw what is all this about the money in the airport bags?…NZ millions of dollars leaving the country for Hong Kong?…know anything about this Pucky?…what would you suggest….seems highly irregular if not illegal !
…ill- gotten gains ?…prostitution?.
…gambling?
…Auckland real estate fees?
…issues of tax avoidance/evasion?
…and whats wrong with bank transactions?
Shearer snapper stunt was one of the funniest things I’ve seen by political leader in the House, and it just keeps on giving. Seeing Shearer pleased as punch holding up those snapper was gold. Everyone apart from himself knew he was about to join them in being fried. Unfortunately the religiously touched Cunliffe couldn’t convert enough to the Labour faith.
Key retorts during question time yesterday “I accept that a whale is a mammal and not a fish. But the last Labour leader that came to Parliament dangling those out like that leader was gone by lunchtime; I reckon he [Little] might be too.”
People, watch out for Auckland Council’s fire sale coming up.
– sea port
– air port 23%
– AECT available August 2073 brought forward ($2.1b)
– film studio in Henderson
– all the old Council chambers
– Community centres not worth the upgrade
– Acceleated land sales as Auckland Development Company seeks fast $$ results off the block
Share brokers already salivating.
This is a full Tory attack, report due November.
Goff needs to come out shortly, it will give him unassailable momentum.
My ethically-minded daughter sent me this link to remind us that along with the ill-considered decision to withdraw the start-up incentive for Kiwisaver, there is another concern about where our funds go.
I guess from your having read the link, PR, as your reference to Assassins shows, that the point about paying attention to the ethical basis of investments passed you by?
Is it not important to you as to how we earn our money and who might be harmed in that pursuit of profit and income?
That last Mary Holm link has a question about a Kiwisaver ethical investment plan, Amanah Kiwisaver, which to summarise does not, amongst other things, invest in money lending, weapons of war, tobacco, gambling, alcohol and pornography. Its ethics brings it within the beliefs of the Christian and Islamic religions; it is Halal.
Amanah Kiwisaver does not invest in banks, which are after all the largest moneylenders in New Zealand.
+100 mac1…this is all pretty concerning…and this one in particular !
….”KiwiSavers are, by default, passive players in the highest levels of global capitalism because KiwiSaver funds are shareholders in some of the biggest names in financial services, including some that have been pinged with some enormous fines and have agreed to pay enormous sums to end lawsuits.
Goldman Sachs is among them. It was described by Rolling Stone magazine in 2009 as “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”
It’s coughed up some staggering fines and settlements for its past actions.
Hes never hidden his wealth, hes never tried to suggest hes something hes not and $14000 for a meal cooked by Blumenthal and three nights accommodation sounds like he wanted to do something special for his wife which he can afford to do
But if you think that running the Keys a rich prick line is going to work now after 7 odd years then by all means do so
He’s running the line “‘I’m not a ridiculously lavish guy’ “, when he quite obviously is.
So he is a liar. And the question becomes “why is he lying about this, now?”
The obvious answer is that National party research has suggested that people don’t like a PM who lives high on the hog when they are struggling. It looks a bit too much like he’s profited off their pain (and given his forex trading and shares in privatised SOEs, it’s probably not far off the truth).
So ke’s pretending to be just a simple multimillionaire with mansions in at least two countries, a vineyard he doesn’t know about because it’s in a trust, $6k suits, $7k dinners (and three nights accommodation, ok), too many shares to remember, yep, not lavish at all /sarc.
It is exceptionally lavish from the perspective of ordinary New Zealanders, though.
And in case you haven’t noticed, this entire thread is in response to a defensive wee puff-piece where tugger pretends he has a simple lifestyle. This isn’t a line “the left” ran. This is a specific line from Key’s own media machine targeted at a general public perception that he’s out of touch.
The thing is that it’s backfired, because it just means that greenstone suits and Hawaiian mansions are not “lavish” in his estimation. I doubt most ordinary NZers (who are just struggling to get by) would agree.
I doubt was NZers would want the leader of NZ to dress shabbily but I’m interested in knowing what is the maximum amount the leader of NZ is allowed to spend on a suit?
But if the emperor chooses to spend more money on greenstone-washed suits than Elvis spent on rhinestones, the emperor would be foolish to pretend to ordinary NZers that an emperor’s lifestyle is anything less than lavish.
I’m quite pleased the Leader of NZ is wearing top-end NZ clothing on the world stage but i get it, anything the left can think of to try to discredit John Key is all good
We’ll see how well that works out for the left (I’m guessing it won’t work as well as the left think)
Oh, as a tory you’re easily impressed by conspicuous and vacuous consumption.
But “the left” didn’t start this debate. The nats thought tugger’s lavish lifestyle was alienating New Zealanders, so generated this puff piece. And the puff-piece has backfired, because now you’re explaining how it’s fine that he has a lavish lifestyle wearing suits with an invisible greenstone wash, when the entire point of the article was him explaining how he didn’t live a lavish lifestyle.
Putin lavish lifestyles into context.
Putin made all his money through hard graft no pun intended.
Key likewise selling Merrill Lynch’s Ponzi schemes insider trading and libor started while Key was at Merrill Lynch.
The
Oh noes, people might actually be forced to look after those around them as they use the resources that belong to those around them. Oh, woe are the capitalists…
The bit you seem to be missing is that you’re preferred option of free-market capitalism isn’t actually providing for the people of Venezuela. When that happens, as it does every time capitalism is tried, then the government needs to step in and take over.
We see the same things happening here in NZ with a quarter of our children going hungry despite the fact that we produce enough food to feed everyone but our political parties are too scared to do anything about it.
Either way it raises the question:
What was the origin of the $10 million in cash that was being flown out of the country and why wasn’t it deposited via a bank in NZ?
Helen Clark wore Jane Daniels – check the prices.
She owned 5 houses.
She enjoyed expensive skiing holidays in Europe and South America and her husband travelled at our expense. Along with their friends Chris Carter and his husband, also at our expense.
Where was the outrage then?
John Key pays for his wife on official trips. He has drastically tightened travel and expenses.
I hate these double standards.
Surely we are bigger than this – attacking people rather than promoting good policy for the benefit of NZ.
Helen Clark is a one percenter and a humanitarian. John Key is a 0.01%’er and a bankster, transferring the wealth of the many to the greedy pockets of the foreign few while ensuring the local elite get their cut.
Perhaps Lynda we should take note of taxpayers not only pay for the cost of holidays in Hawaii, but also the cost of the security detail who travel with John Key. Someone has to pay for helicopter trips to attend meetings and so on. Where would the comparison end?
and she earned it, making sure the ladder was still there for others, supporting society in general and balancing the books at the same time.
Key spends alot of time abroad, taking selfies, making a quick buck from selling hard earned (by previous generations) assets, changing laws to turn us into a low wage economy, avoiding any difficult issues or facts that don’t effect him and his cronies, skimming every last dollar away from society in general for the benefit of his mates in business…….etc.He is tacky and cheap, no class and a very long way from being a statesperson, as Helen was.
“the emperor has no clothes on”
Chris Carter lost his job Helen Clark paid for her own holidays had 4 investment properties that are mortgaged.
Ministerial Travel costs have gone up considerably since the Clark lead soft right wing government left office.
Also the Cost of running govt has gone from $145 million a year for the PMs slush under Labour down from the Bolger Shipley $1billion a year inflation adjusted figures.
Under Key that is back up to $850 million.
ianmac
Fair enough but didn’t they go skiing too? Or did we send Helen off on holiday in Norway without the DPS?
Meetings etc are surely part of the job not holidays.
But you have to love the envious excitement as people write about the mansion in Hawaii. It must be their pinnacle of wealth and ostentation!!
PR shifting the blame.
Robber Barons they were called back in the day.
Now with expert Media manipulation they are made to look like hero when in reality Banksters are playing a real life game of Monopoly denying more and more people by monopolizing more and more to fewer and fewer rich oligarchs.
Deliberately undermine democracy to achieve their goal.
I doubt you have bothered to read Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.
As usual you are commenting from an illiterate and uninformed position.
But that doesn’t stop the usual trolling.
No. Don’t think the detail travelled overseas with Helen, and not even around her when at home, walking to the supermarket let alone having them living onsite as they do with your mate Key.
“But you have to love the envious excitement …” I feel sorry for Key and his need to be “cool”, I would never aspire to have what he has sought Lynda Brown, I cannot imagine a more vacuous life, needing to win and “look” good, at the cost of anyone around him, rather than feel good is a long way from anything I would envy.
The argument that people are “envious” is generally what greedy people say to justify the obscene wealth gap?
Heh. RNZ reports from today’s court proceedings that the latest person to have blogged on Slater’s behalf is his wife. He has had words with her for breaching his keep-quiet agreement, he reckons.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that the median price for a house in Sydney has hit the $1 million (Aus) mark.
House prices in Sydney surged 8.4% in the last quarter.
Low interest rates and increasing numbers of private investors has led to the increase. Young house buyers will be left out of the property ownership market for at least a generation.
Is that the only policy they’re relying on? It’s hard to decide which would be more stupid: relying on a single policy in this context, or your pretence that’s the only tool in the box.
Or is your pretence merely what passes for a clever ruse on your planet?
Naki Man and the rest of the RWNJs use the Look, it doesn’t work distraction to try and prevent rules that they don’t either from being implemented in the first place or getting rid of them. The reason why they don’t like them is because they work.
The bubble will burst highly geared investors will go bankrupt their banks will take a massive hit or go bankrupt .
It’s only a matter of time speculation is counter productive the market will fail Australia will go first NZ will come later just like 2007/8.
Having no plan to increase supply an immigration policy that has no plan .
Laissez faire it will sort everything by its self imagine if a business was run like that or the all black’s they would not be successful.
Policies such as the govt modernising and building more cheap housing all immigrants moving to areas where housing is in short supply have to build a new house Australia does that.
And an Capital gains tax .
Cut out absetee ownership as well.
When the Crash comes it will cost every one.
I holidayed at Hatfields when I was a kid (70s/80s), & I used to see Muldoon walking to the beach & having a dip, relaxing on the sand, just him sometimes with his wife, everyone just left him alone…those were the days huh.
Well, if you wanted to completely and utterly stop people from using drones then this would do it:
A change in the rules around flying drones will come into effect next week and will prevent drones being flown in public spaces without consent and a safety plan in place.
The change to Rule Part 101, which requires drone users to have consent of people and property owners before flying a drone over them, will keep people safe, General Manager of general aviation for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Steve Moore said.
Yeah, like anybody’s going to give permission and this bit:
Having a conversation with a property owner beforehand is an effective means of risk management because they are likely to have the best knowledge of the risks.
is complete bollocks. The landowner won’t have a clue as to what risks are there.
Oh, wait:
Civil Aviation Rule Part 102 – Unmanned Aircraft Operator Certification will also come into force on August 1 and will enable people who want to operate outside the existing rules for unmanned aircraft to do so if they have in place a plan to manage the safety risks.
“This new rule part gives operators greater freedom while maintaining the highest standards of aviation safety,” Mr Moore said.
Those who cannot get consent from a landowner or individuals can still fly a drone if they get an operating certificate from the CAA under Rule Part 102.
“These changes strike a balance between safety and enabling operations,” he says.
Really, why didn’t they just say that to fly an unmanned aircraft you needed to get a license? And I suspect that the answer to that is because they didn’t want to force people flying remote controlled aircraft to have to get a license.
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New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
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The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Who are the worst performers in National’s dismal caucus?
In 1972, National ran a campaign with the slogan “Man for Man, the Strongest Team”. It was a joke way back then; Labour was significantly more talented and energetic than National. Anyone who squirmed throughout Kelvin Davis’s failure to counter the lightweight but aggressive Paul Henry yesterday morning will be well aware that today’s Labour opposition is certainly failing to impress; however, National supporters are the very last people that should be passing comment on this.
I started to compile this list yesterday on Google Groups, in the course of a dispute with a fanatical National Party troll who had sneered at “Labour’s desperation and lack of intellectual rigour”…..
1.) HEKIA PARATA. Poor old Hekia Parata: I know you’re only filibustering when you make a demand to see something which is obvious to anyone who has lived in this country for the last ten years, but a great place to start is her intellectual meltdown in August 2011, when she started burbling thusly: “Well, ahhhh, ummmm, it includes a variety of various variables. We have a suite of variables. Ahhhhh, look….”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30082011/#comment-369467
2.) CRAIG FOSS. One of the world’s nicest guys, but incompetent. The fact that he was the DEPUTY to the most incompetent National front-bencher, Hekia Parata, hasn’t helped his credibility one iota. Foss will forever be synonymous, sadly for him, with the Novopay débâcle…
http://www.nzei.org.nz/NZEI/Media/Releases/2012/11/Minister_of_Education_needs_to_front_up_over_Novopay_sign-off.aspx#.Va8p8eD7JFQ
3.) LOUISE UPSTON. We presume she is following some neck-strengthening regime at a gymnasium, since she has to be in top form to keep nodding affirmatively during parliamentary Question Time—her only discernible rôle.
4.) TODD McCLAY. What did anyone expect from the son of one of the vilest hypocrites, and criminals, to ever enter parliament? Is his reprobate of an old man out of the Big House yet?
http://blog.labour.org.nz/2010/03/30/todd-mcclay-says-that-beneficiaries-are-more-likely-to-murder-children/
I might add to it in coming days….
Coming up soon….
Maggie Barry, Melissa Lee, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga and Chris Bishop.
The original post was on this site…..
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/nz.general/xWOWyYUzXgs
Sam Lotu-Iiga has to be the worst.that interview with Sean Plunket showed how poor he is.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/I-dont-know-what-happened—Corrections-Minister-wont-answer-questions-over-prisoners-death/tabid/506/articleID/91909/Default.aspx
Just like Doug Graham and Bill Jeffries –
shows that the skills needed to become a Minister bear absolutely no relation to the skills needed to be a Minister
and this is one of the inherent flaws in our democratic system
Chill out or your blood pressure will go through the roof.
yeah, and when the tories sign the TPPA pharmac might not be able to afford to subsidise the pills to keep blood pressure under control…
Nice one McFlock
As neoliberalism gradually dismembers the country, it is now the middle class who are feeling the pinch.
The revolution devours its own.
Sadly, by the time they wake up and vote out all the parties who support the Tandian cult, the TPP will will be signed and it’ll be too late.
‘Increasing living costs are giving rise to the “middle-class poor”, an expert says, as a new report shows a large chunk of Canterbury families are under financial stress.’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/70301032/middleclass-poor-struggling-with-financial-stresses-report
I find this interesting, as someone who makes less than the average or median wage and has a mortgage I’d have to ask what these people are doing?
Say you had an unexpected bill of $5k or where sacked tomorrow how would you be financially in three weeks time. Because I’m similar to your case but there’s not a lot of wriggle room.
Well my hot water cylinder needs replacing but luckily my mortage is up for renewal very shortly so that takes care of that plus I live in christchurch so jobs are easy to come by down here
Seriously anyone having problems in Auckland should come down to Christchurch
yes because relocation is free and there are no social ties keeping people close to sick relatives or even just keeping kids in the same school with their friends /sarc
Jeepers lifes sometimes tough? Who’da thunk it? Ah well better not try to do anything to improve your lot because its a bit hard
More like maybe the interweb assurances of tory shills as to where the grass is greener tend to ignore the practicalities involved in jumping the fence. Even assuming that the grass is still greener when you finally get to it.
My nephew’s a builder. He looked at coming down to Christchurch, help with the rebuild etc. After doing the sums it was obvious that he couldn’t afford to as the amount being paid was well below the cost to live.
It wasn’t a case of life being hard but the fact that he would have ended up paying someone else to work for them.
Even this long after the earthquakes I doubt if there’s a lot of any other work to do.
Also, the hot water cylinder is a minor expense – you shouldn’t need to take out a mortgage to replace it.
I’m not taking out a mortgage to replace it, just adding it to the existing mortgage
Which you shouldn’t need to do. Doing so is the action of someone in poverty. But I’m sure that that bank, who will create the money for you, will be happy to get the interest for doing nothing.
Draco
“My nephew’s a builder. He looked at coming down to Christchurch, help with the rebuild etc. After doing the sums it was obvious that he couldn’t afford to as the amount being paid was well below the cost to live”
Sounds like he has your negative cant do attitude.
Average rate for a builder in Christchurch $26.77 per hour
I could easily live on that, many people do.
I was in the building industry for 20 years and worked away in Wellington for six months until I could get a local job. There is nothing difficult about it.
He says as if that’s a lot of money.
My nephew usually get $35/hour + GST. After expenses (my nephew’s self-employed) that comes down to somewhat less than the minimum wage. $27/hour isn’t worth considering especially with the inflated rents in Christchurch.
Draco
$26.77 is the employee wage rate, If he only charges $35/hour +GST he would be far better of on wages.
It’s not a question of charging – it’s a question of what people are willing to pay. If he tries charging more than that then he doesn’t get hired.
And the most he ever got offered for Christchurch work was sub $25/hour + GST and that was only a couple of months ago so I really have NFI WTF you got $26.77 from.
My father’s mate owns a caryard in CHC and he reckons all these ‘cashed up’ tradies who come in and buy these utes, etc get them repo’d a few weeks later.
Not too sure if they are as cashed up as we thought.
But anyway. from where I am sitting, the earthquake rebuild is the modern equivalent of the gold and land rushes of the mid 19th centuries — a big free for all with a few people getting rich, and the rest of them losing their shirts.
If only we hadn’t of chopped ‘Auntie MOW’.
Anyway, there are a lot of cheap houses ($40-50000 in the likes of Ohura, Taumarunui, Kawerau, and Murupara. No jobs though, but if you bought say, 54 New Road in Taumarunui for 50,000 (which is for sale at the moment), which is a deposit on a house anywhere else, you would only have to pay rates/insurance of a little under $60 per week $25 a week for a broadband package, and a bike to commute (only use a car if it is wet or for emergencies) you would be living the dream — having a poor paying job could work.
Yep. Our head gasket blew on our car. No wiggle room for finding $2.9K. Paying that off for the next 60 weeks.
Then theres’ unexpected vet bills. All our savings went along time ago.
As for losing your job, Mr R is in the position of being compelled to pay income protection insurance. That would last 6 months to cover the mortgage.
No one had income protection insurance years ago. You didn’t need it. Kind of a racquet really, a form of subtle extortion. Will be interested to see what Jane Kelsey has to say about the insurance industry in her new book.
Now days, life is unstable and the future is uncertain. Maybe that’s how they super wealthy like it. Don’t want the ordinary people feeling too comfortable in their lives, that might make them a bit more, you know, equal.
Some one posted this fairfax article a few days ago. Interesting reading and not surprising.
Remember wages have been stagnant for many years for many people, rates and utility bills are going up, insurance costs are up, accommodation is becoming more and more expensive in the cities, petrol has gone up, we had an increase in every individual’s living costs of 2.5% six years ago and there’s no relief in sight.
There’s only so many increases households can absorb, while wages and salaries remain the same.
For us, we are on one good salary, (not mine, I’m unemployed and unwell) but every week is a struggle. That one good salary has been the same for six years and costs keep going up up up. Going for a coffee in the weekend is our social highlight of the week.
There’s no holidays, movies, dinners, day trips, no new clothes and shoes. No one comes for dinner these days as we can’t afford the extra food.
I hate to think how much worse our situation would be if we hadn’t left Auckland nine years ago.
Maybe scratch the surface a bit more and you’ll find that life in NZ is only sweet for those on a very high income, or come from a wealthy family.
Milk prices. The international milk price is at a 10 year low but at the supermarket I am still paying the highest prices ever.
How can we get the government to look into the monopoly pricing of our domestic milk.
Poor old cow cocky gets stiffed by the supermarket cartels. Expect to see more farm gates sales as some dairy farmers join the growing working poor. Where is Shane Jones when ya need him? Kicked back on a deck chair in some Pacific paradise pondering his return to political life. Meanwhile Clayton Cosgrove gives thought of taking up the fight, then falls back asleep and leaves it up Labour’s big hitter David Shearer…chuckle.
And the gummint is putting the screws on the raw milk industry
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/278856/raw-milk-rules-%27impossible%27-for-farmers
Something that has recently come out, is China still has huge stocks of Whole Milk Powder,
http://news.forexlive.com/!/bnz-cuts-it-forecast-for-fonterras-dairy-payout-to-nz380kg-20150722
Basically most commentators expected the large stockpiles of WMP in China to be consumed by the end of 2014, as it turns out they still exist. The really worrying thing about this is that it seems that Fonterra really don’t have good visibility/information on China while at the same time basing a big part of NZ’s Dairy growth strategy on this country. Its seems that China’s consumption of WMP is much lower than we (and the dairy industry in USA and EU) have been led to believe. I suspect that the Chinese have NOT been in a rush to put the West right on this, knowing the free market will over-supply leading to China importing well below cost for many years to come. Clever buggers.
My guess is that we wont see prices over $5.50 KG ms for years because it seems that many of the assumptions around Chinese/Asian demand were wrong, it also means that regional NZ is going to go through hard times for many years to come.
I think there is upside in this though, our NZ $ will stay low helping other importers and the tourist industry plus NZ will really re-establish itself as the lowest cost dairy producers on the cost curve. Enviromentally this will also be positive as farmers will have to go back to grass-only-feed, leading to lower nitrate levels leaking off farms and improved waterways etc. So it isn’t all bad.
@Saarbo… agree with you about the possible upside for the environment….however a whole lot of Chinese might start buying bankrupt NZ dairy farms … especially with Chinese ‘tourists’ ( business opportunists) pouring into the country
…and while jonkey nact persuaded Fonterra NOT to export to China when we had the chance ( NZ was exempt from Russia’s ban on dairy imports) …now China is building a giant milk farm to export to Russia
… based on NZ expertise, experience and NZ cow stock….NZ exports cows to China…
http://www.rt.com/business/270463-china-russia-milk-farm/
( how about that for NZ government stupidity and Chinese duplicity!)
“Prior said that Prime Minister John Key had recently warned Fonterra not to take advantage of the boycott, yet Pepsi and Danone had invested heavily in the Russian dairy sector through two major Russian companies.
“Because the boycott is country-specific, naturally they [multinationals] have an opportunity to switch to sourcing from South American subsidiaries or whatever – we’ve given something for absolutely nothing,” Prior said…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/63925190/russian-trade-threat-ongoing
correction to 3.2.1.. …Jonkey Nact persuaded Fonterra NOT to export to RUSSIA when we had the chance
That interesting. I attended a Fonterra presentation recently and a lot of farmers were asking Fonterra why it isn’t supplying Russia. Its a good question. Im not up with the whole geo-political ramifications of sending dairy products to Russia, but can we afford NOT to send product to Russia.
I would say we can NOT afford to ignore any potential trading partner for dairy
…especially if it means the difference between dairy farmers going to the wall
….NZ farmers being forced off their land
… and New Zealand farm land being bought up by foreigners
“Something that has recently come out, is China still has huge stocks of Whole Milk Powder”
I agree with your post, but that stock pile of over priced WMP cant be to far away from its expiry date.
WMP is pretty interesting. When stored in bulk and under good conditions, it has a “expiry date: measured in years, and is usually good for a decade. The frigging stuff is effectively as sterile as concrete after processing.
We also have a stockpile of WMP. Last time I looked at it in the stats department figures, it looked like close to a years supply.
The news just keep getting worse, Ive heard rumours of large stocks of WMP in NZ warehouses, sounds like they are fact.
Tony Blair. Right of John Key. Discuss.
you discuss
“Tony Blair. Right of John Key. Discuss.”
Who gives a fucking shit, they are both aresholes, and one is a war criminal.
which one?
A case could be made for both, if the SAS were sending prisoners to be tortured with the knowledge of the government.
“Tenants are being evicted from their communities all over New Zealand and only a limited amount of private and publicly funded housing is being built in its place’ said Vanessa Cole, researcher for the Tamaki Housing Collective, speaking this week at the Unitary Plan Hearings Panel. Vanessa has recently completed a one year masters thesis on the effects of displacement in the affordable housing sector.”
https://www.facebook.com/allaboutAKL/videos/1097677906912631/?fref=nf
I agree with Labour on this – STOP the flag change rubbish. I don’t really like our existing flag. My choice is the tino rangatiratanga flag. I will not support an alternative so leave it all alone – I quite like the existing situation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=152626
had to lol with the new reporter on Little’s left
Headline should have read:
Labour wants a diversion as their racially-motivated attack didn’t work as well as expected
nah – just the constantly changing world spinning through space mate
Labour couldn’t pick two better issues where National are vulnerable and defenceless on in my mind.
Maybe if Little Angry hadn’t have waited until he and Labour were under the pump after outing themselves as racists then it might have meant something but as it is it looks like hes trying to find a distraction
For the record I favour a change of flag but I’m not really fussed either way
I think that the point about the flag isn’t so much about changing it or not. It is that the stupid arsehole in charge of it (John Key) appears to have done it on a whim and then *chose* to waste 10’s of millions of taxpayer’s dollars in a process that appears to have been designed to be as wasteful as possible.
I’d have liked to have seen some information at the start about some real basics like if there was any benefits for NZ (something that I still haven’t seen), if there was widespread support for doing it (it appears that there never was), and what we were trying to achieve (ie the measureables that would define success). In other words the responsible approach to any government expenditure of money.
None of those things have at yet been done, and they have apparently already wasted $8.4 million for a process that excites history seeking graphic designers and those carefully selected piglets supping at the taxpayers trough.
Instead we have a two part referendum that looks like some dirtbag’s idea about how to grow support for something that they knew wasn’t ready to go. To me it looks like the actual decision process was John Key jerking off at his desk one day while contemplating his ego.
How about John Key using half of his huge fortune to fund the flag change since it his vanity project. $26million wouldn’t even dent his bank account.
I am sure that if it was his own money then the project would have looked quite different…
lol
+100 Maui…Labour is on the up and up…gaining traction and momentum ….heading for a BIG WIN at the next Election
(….although I retain the forlorn hope that maybe this jonkey nact government will be forced to resign before then…. and before they do any more damage to New Zealand.)
I’m almost going to feel bad for you at the next election…almost 🙂
lol…well I am feeling good at the moment…jonkey nactional is going down in the polls…and Labour seems to be getting in a few king hits at last that resonate with the public
btw what is all this about the money in the airport bags?…NZ millions of dollars leaving the country for Hong Kong?…know anything about this Pucky?…what would you suggest….seems highly irregular if not illegal !
…ill- gotten gains ?…prostitution?.
…gambling?
…Auckland real estate fees?
…issues of tax avoidance/evasion?
…and whats wrong with bank transactions?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11485635
Shearer snapper stunt was one of the funniest things I’ve seen by political leader in the House, and it just keeps on giving. Seeing Shearer pleased as punch holding up those snapper was gold. Everyone apart from himself knew he was about to join them in being fried. Unfortunately the religiously touched Cunliffe couldn’t convert enough to the Labour faith.
Key retorts during question time yesterday “I accept that a whale is a mammal and not a fish. But the last Labour leader that came to Parliament dangling those out like that leader was gone by lunchtime; I reckon he [Little] might be too.”
The P.M. is good at leg pulling isn’t he…actually an expert at…pulling!Blame Fran Mold for the snapper ,hopelessly out of her depth .
People, watch out for Auckland Council’s fire sale coming up.
– sea port
– air port 23%
– AECT available August 2073 brought forward ($2.1b)
– film studio in Henderson
– all the old Council chambers
– Community centres not worth the upgrade
– Acceleated land sales as Auckland Development Company seeks fast $$ results off the block
Share brokers already salivating.
This is a full Tory attack, report due November.
Goff needs to come out shortly, it will give him unassailable momentum.
My ethically-minded daughter sent me this link to remind us that along with the ill-considered decision to withdraw the start-up incentive for Kiwisaver, there is another concern about where our funds go.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/70402581/revealed-where-your-kiwisaver-cash-ends-up
I don’t believe that Bill English had ethical concerns high on his list, though.
I’d rather they invested in Bethesda, never got into assassins creed but Fallout oh hell yeah!
I guess from your having read the link, PR, as your reference to Assassins shows, that the point about paying attention to the ethical basis of investments passed you by?
Is it not important to you as to how we earn our money and who might be harmed in that pursuit of profit and income?
Its not up to me where other people invest their money, if they’re worried they can start here:
https://www.sorted.org.nz/a-z-guides/kiwisaver-schemes-and-funds
and can check this out:
http://www.maryholm.com/heraldholm.php?article=772
That last Mary Holm link has a question about a Kiwisaver ethical investment plan, Amanah Kiwisaver, which to summarise does not, amongst other things, invest in money lending, weapons of war, tobacco, gambling, alcohol and pornography. Its ethics brings it within the beliefs of the Christian and Islamic religions; it is Halal.
Amanah Kiwisaver does not invest in banks, which are after all the largest moneylenders in New Zealand.
For more information go to http://www.amanahnz.com
That was a very informative link, puckish rogue. Thank you.
Blinglish couldn’t possibly have ethics on his list at all as he doesn’t have any.
+100 mac1…this is all pretty concerning…and this one in particular !
….”KiwiSavers are, by default, passive players in the highest levels of global capitalism because KiwiSaver funds are shareholders in some of the biggest names in financial services, including some that have been pinged with some enormous fines and have agreed to pay enormous sums to end lawsuits.
Goldman Sachs is among them. It was described by Rolling Stone magazine in 2009 as “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”
It’s coughed up some staggering fines and settlements for its past actions.
It is also a staple of KiwiSaver portfolios…..
It’s the end of the week we are no doubt all stressed out, tomorrow is POETS day so lets have a bit of light relief.
Came from the Nutters Club
Honesty.
Team member interviewing a job applicant for a job.
Team member, Tell me your greatess weakness?
Job applicant. My honesty
Team member, I don’t think honesty is a weakness
Job Applicant, I don’t give a shit what you think.
Well I laughed.
So apparently the focus groups have decided that tugger key is looking a bit like a rich prick.
The response is that the guy who spent $14,000 on dinner for two whines that he doesn’t have a “lavish” lifestyle, even in his Hawaii mansion.
So is it that he can afford to do it or that he did it that offends you so much?
It’s more that he then tries to pretend that it’s normal, and not at all lavish.
While a quarter of kids live in poverty.
Hes never hidden his wealth, hes never tried to suggest hes something hes not and $14000 for a meal cooked by Blumenthal and three nights accommodation sounds like he wanted to do something special for his wife which he can afford to do
But if you think that running the Keys a rich prick line is going to work now after 7 odd years then by all means do so
No, you’re avoiding the point (quelle surprise).
He’s running the line “‘I’m not a ridiculously lavish guy’ “, when he quite obviously is.
So he is a liar. And the question becomes “why is he lying about this, now?”
The obvious answer is that National party research has suggested that people don’t like a PM who lives high on the hog when they are struggling. It looks a bit too much like he’s profited off their pain (and given his forex trading and shares in privatised SOEs, it’s probably not far off the truth).
So ke’s pretending to be just a simple multimillionaire with mansions in at least two countries, a vineyard he doesn’t know about because it’s in a trust, $6k suits, $7k dinners (and three nights accommodation, ok), too many shares to remember, yep, not lavish at all /sarc.
I don’t think he is a ridiculously lavish guy, hes done well but I know “ordinary” kiwis that have holidays in Hawaii, that wear nice suits
Keys a success and you’re suffering from the tall poppy syndrome
Know any “ordinary Kiwis” who own a mansion in Hawaii? Because, that sounds kind of “lavish” to me.
Every year, when they own the mansion? Or an occasional stay in a hotel as a special trip?
“Nice” suits? Or $6k suits pretentiously washed in greenstone?
You have no fucking idea what “ordinary” is. Tugger’s a liar and you’re his shameless toadying lickspittle.
Bollix, its not lavish when you’re worth, conservativly, 50 million plus
This is the same “rich prick” “one percent” line the left have run since 2008 and look how well its done
It is exceptionally lavish from the perspective of ordinary New Zealanders, though.
And in case you haven’t noticed, this entire thread is in response to a defensive wee puff-piece where tugger pretends he has a simple lifestyle. This isn’t a line “the left” ran. This is a specific line from Key’s own media machine targeted at a general public perception that he’s out of touch.
The thing is that it’s backfired, because it just means that greenstone suits and Hawaiian mansions are not “lavish” in his estimation. I doubt most ordinary NZers (who are just struggling to get by) would agree.
I doubt was NZers would want the leader of NZ to dress shabbily but I’m interested in knowing what is the maximum amount the leader of NZ is allowed to spend on a suit?
“Allowed”? As much as they want.
But if the emperor chooses to spend more money on greenstone-washed suits than Elvis spent on rhinestones, the emperor would be foolish to pretend to ordinary NZers that an emperor’s lifestyle is anything less than lavish.
I’m quite pleased the Leader of NZ is wearing top-end NZ clothing on the world stage but i get it, anything the left can think of to try to discredit John Key is all good
We’ll see how well that works out for the left (I’m guessing it won’t work as well as the left think)
Oh, as a tory you’re easily impressed by conspicuous and vacuous consumption.
But “the left” didn’t start this debate. The nats thought tugger’s lavish lifestyle was alienating New Zealanders, so generated this puff piece. And the puff-piece has backfired, because now you’re explaining how it’s fine that he has a lavish lifestyle wearing suits with an invisible greenstone wash, when the entire point of the article was him explaining how he didn’t live a lavish lifestyle.
Methinks you both protest too much.
This could be the perfect time for the PM to finally clarify how much of his salary he donates to charity ! 😉
Putin lavish lifestyles into context.
Putin made all his money through hard graft no pun intended.
Key likewise selling Merrill Lynch’s Ponzi schemes insider trading and libor started while Key was at Merrill Lynch.
The
Oh poor, poor PR. Your cupidity is showing. Your high priest of money worship, really does like a smug, amoral, elitist.
You know the PM is out of touch – because most of us are struggling to even have a holiday, let alone, own, then fly to a second mansion in Hawaii.
The Venezuelan government acting like true leftists and forcing farmers to sell their produce to the State. Expect to see more shortages.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/11754156/Venezuelan-farmers-ordered-to-hand-over-produce-to-state.html
Serves the farmers right for being rich pricks
Oh noes, people might actually be forced to look after those around them as they use the resources that belong to those around them. Oh, woe are the capitalists…
Damn straight! Nothing says fair like the farmers bailing out the politicians
The farmers never seem to do that. Always seems to be the farmers taking the rest of the country for a ride.
Yup nothing to do with Venezulas socialist policies at all
No doubt the US would be very pleased to see the Venezuelan government fall and will be supporting and funding all possible activities in that regard.
The bit you seem to be missing is that you’re preferred option of free-market capitalism isn’t actually providing for the people of Venezuela. When that happens, as it does every time capitalism is tried, then the government needs to step in and take over.
We see the same things happening here in NZ with a quarter of our children going hungry despite the fact that we produce enough food to feed everyone but our political parties are too scared to do anything about it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/70481138/over-1-million-lost-at-hong-kong-airport-after-flight-from-auckland
“A bag containing more than $1 million in Chinese currency was lost at Hong Kong International Airport ” (bold mine)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11485635
“Cathay Pacific Airlines has lost a bag containing $1 million in New Zealand bills at Hong Kong airport.” (bold mine)
Is it any wonder people get confused?
Either way it raises the question:
What was the origin of the $10 million in cash that was being flown out of the country and why wasn’t it deposited via a bank in NZ?
+100 freedom…questions to be answered here!!!
If you have the time. I would recommend this video. The wonderful Chris Hedges talking about the background of his new book.
So pleased that Hedges was finally ordained!!!
Awesome pics of Awesome Nature
Always wanted get close and personal to an active volcano. Maybe the mighty photos will have to do.
Helen Clark wore Jane Daniels – check the prices.
She owned 5 houses.
She enjoyed expensive skiing holidays in Europe and South America and her husband travelled at our expense. Along with their friends Chris Carter and his husband, also at our expense.
Where was the outrage then?
John Key pays for his wife on official trips. He has drastically tightened travel and expenses.
I hate these double standards.
Surely we are bigger than this – attacking people rather than promoting good policy for the benefit of NZ.
Helen Clark is a one percenter and a humanitarian. John Key is a 0.01%’er and a bankster, transferring the wealth of the many to the greedy pockets of the foreign few while ensuring the local elite get their cut.
Huge difference.
Even you should be able to figure it out.
Perhaps Lynda we should take note of taxpayers not only pay for the cost of holidays in Hawaii, but also the cost of the security detail who travel with John Key. Someone has to pay for helicopter trips to attend meetings and so on. Where would the comparison end?
and she earned it, making sure the ladder was still there for others, supporting society in general and balancing the books at the same time.
Key spends alot of time abroad, taking selfies, making a quick buck from selling hard earned (by previous generations) assets, changing laws to turn us into a low wage economy, avoiding any difficult issues or facts that don’t effect him and his cronies, skimming every last dollar away from society in general for the benefit of his mates in business…….etc.He is tacky and cheap, no class and a very long way from being a statesperson, as Helen was.
“the emperor has no clothes on”
+100 whateva next?
Chris Carter lost his job Helen Clark paid for her own holidays had 4 investment properties that are mortgaged.
Ministerial Travel costs have gone up considerably since the Clark lead soft right wing government left office.
Also the Cost of running govt has gone from $145 million a year for the PMs slush under Labour down from the Bolger Shipley $1billion a year inflation adjusted figures.
Under Key that is back up to $850 million.
Guess I am just not one-eyed enough.
I’mma going to help you out…John Key = bad/evil (depending on the news story of the day) and thats all you need to know
The blind leading the blinderer…
There’s being fair minded, and there is lacking judgement in character. You’re the latter.
ianmac
Fair enough but didn’t they go skiing too? Or did we send Helen off on holiday in Norway without the DPS?
Meetings etc are surely part of the job not holidays.
But you have to love the envious excitement as people write about the mansion in Hawaii. It must be their pinnacle of wealth and ostentation!!
Key is a member of the trans-national bankster cartel. That is the basic problem.
Dont forget hes a neoliberal as well, just so we can get all the buzzwords in
each of these words has deep meanings and implications for the future of this nation and its people, if you care that is.
PR shifting the blame.
Robber Barons they were called back in the day.
Now with expert Media manipulation they are made to look like hero when in reality Banksters are playing a real life game of Monopoly denying more and more people by monopolizing more and more to fewer and fewer rich oligarchs.
Deliberately undermine democracy to achieve their goal.
+1
I doubt you have bothered to read Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.
As usual you are commenting from an illiterate and uninformed position.
But that doesn’t stop the usual trolling.
Troll
[Do try and put some thought and effort into your responses, Realblue. Otherwise you look like, well, a troll. TRP]
No. Don’t think the detail travelled overseas with Helen, and not even around her when at home, walking to the supermarket let alone having them living onsite as they do with your mate Key.
“But you have to love the envious excitement …” I feel sorry for Key and his need to be “cool”, I would never aspire to have what he has sought Lynda Brown, I cannot imagine a more vacuous life, needing to win and “look” good, at the cost of anyone around him, rather than feel good is a long way from anything I would envy.
The argument that people are “envious” is generally what greedy people say to justify the obscene wealth gap?
Oh dear. A certain problematic bloggeur appears to have burned through all the cash he was collecting to pay for lawyers: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/279495/slater-accused-of-contempt-of-court
Heh. RNZ reports from today’s court proceedings that the latest person to have blogged on Slater’s behalf is his wife. He has had words with her for breaching his keep-quiet agreement, he reckons.
A new affliction spreading across China – might be contagious too. http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/turmoil-in-chinas-stock-markets-takes-a-psychic-toll/
The Sydney Morning Herald reported today that the median price for a house in Sydney has hit the $1 million (Aus) mark.
House prices in Sydney surged 8.4% in the last quarter.
Low interest rates and increasing numbers of private investors has led to the increase. Young house buyers will be left out of the property ownership market for at least a generation.
yep capital gains tax not working very well when the average house price is $1mill
Is that the only policy they’re relying on? It’s hard to decide which would be more stupid: relying on a single policy in this context, or your pretence that’s the only tool in the box.
Or is your pretence merely what passes for a clever ruse on your planet?
Naki Man and the rest of the RWNJs use the Look, it doesn’t work distraction to try and prevent rules that they don’t either from being implemented in the first place or getting rid of them. The reason why they don’t like them is because they work.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/currencies/we-aint-seen-nothing-yet-chinese-foreign-investment-in-australian-property-tipped-to-surge-20150721-gigfaz
Meanwhile in the lucky country where the bullshit is not so easy to hide.
http://news.domain.com.au/domain/real-estate-news/china-doubles-down-on-australian-real-estate-20150715-gicgju.html
The bubble will burst highly geared investors will go bankrupt their banks will take a massive hit or go bankrupt .
It’s only a matter of time speculation is counter productive the market will fail Australia will go first NZ will come later just like 2007/8.
Having no plan to increase supply an immigration policy that has no plan .
Laissez faire it will sort everything by its self imagine if a business was run like that or the all black’s they would not be successful.
Policies such as the govt modernising and building more cheap housing all immigrants moving to areas where housing is in short supply have to build a new house Australia does that.
And an Capital gains tax .
Cut out absetee ownership as well.
When the Crash comes it will cost every one.
Greed is good, eh, naki man?
Unbelievable….
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/problem-gambling-foundation-wont-have-funding-cut-2015072317#axzz3gh3bGPQK
This is good news. Go the problem gambling foundation
ankerawshark +100 ….very great news!….and they had a very effective lawyer, in Mai Chen
http://pgfnz.org.nz/news/problem-gambling-foundation-judicial-review/
Muldoon and family used to holiday up at his bach at Hatfields Beach. Not too sure whay Lange did but doubt if it was extravagant.
Those were the days.
I holidayed at Hatfields when I was a kid (70s/80s), & I used to see Muldoon walking to the beach & having a dip, relaxing on the sand, just him sometimes with his wife, everyone just left him alone…those were the days huh.
Well, if you wanted to completely and utterly stop people from using drones then this would do it:
Yeah, like anybody’s going to give permission and this bit:
is complete bollocks. The landowner won’t have a clue as to what risks are there.
Oh, wait:
Really, why didn’t they just say that to fly an unmanned aircraft you needed to get a license? And I suspect that the answer to that is because they didn’t want to force people flying remote controlled aircraft to have to get a license.