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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Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
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Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
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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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ0Sb0y_O6s
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.