nats have big mouths….obviously to get both feet in.
"National Taieri candidate Liam Kernaghan and Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean are among several National party figures to have posted material online which is claimed to quote Labour leader Jacinda Ardern out of context."
And yet hydrogen is being promoted by the Gov….they must expect we are going to have a massive surplus of energy available in the near future which runs contrary to all the current scientific opinion.
Professor Alistair Woodward from the University of Auckland agrees with Barnett that the resulting traffic logjams showcase gaping vulnerabilities in Auckland's transport infrastructure – but he has different ideas as to how to deal with this.
That includes cutting down car numbers.
“We haven’t thought hard enough about the future. Everything is short term … you know it’s ‘bung on another lane, it’s widen the road, it’s put in a new road’.
“Of course all that does is to boost the amount of traffic. So it’s entirely predictable that if we spend squillions of dollars on a tunnel under the harbour for more roads, that they will full up rapidly as well and we’ll suffer all the environmental and social costs of living in a car-dominated city.”
I read the Link Article…if you dont mind me asking…is that you? Is very good anyway. I have an Interested Layman's uptake of Science…(and a lot of Other) Just being Informed is absolutely essential.
Personally, I'm quite a hydrogen skeptic. The energy losses involved in separating the hydrogen, then using it, is a big downside compared to batteries, pumped hydro, or other energy storage. The hazards and engineering difficulties of bulk use of hydrogen scare the crap out of me – the way hydrogen embrittles many common metals, and basically just pisses through polymer materials while degrading it on the way through is frightening. Then hydrogen has an extremely wide range of concentrations where it's explosive, much higher than any other common gases. If you're using hydrogen in fool cells, you can't add odorant (like is done to natural gas and LPG), so leaks are less easily detectable, and hydrogen flames are invisible to the naked eye.
Nevertheless, there are some positives around hydrogen as a replacement for a few fossil fuel applications.
Hydrogen is sufficiently energy dense that it is feasible for a few applications that batteries simply couldn't store enough energy for – such as medium distance aviation and cross-ocean shipping. IIf my off the top of my memory recollections are roughly correct, in terms of actual useful energy stored including tanks and after conversion to useful mechanical energy, fossil fuels can be up to around 5 kWhr/kg (in a huge marine engine) or 3 kWhr/kg for land transport. Hydrogen maybe 2kWhr/kg for marine, maybe 1.2 kWhr/kg for road transport or aviation. Batteries are at around 0.17 kWhr/kg in production Teslas now, with recent announcements they will go up to a bit over 0.2 kWhr/kg.
Hydrogen may also be a better substitute for fossil fuels for some industrial processes that require very high process heat temperatures – steelmaking gets a mention in the links above, but cement production might be another.
Activists warn Adern – Hydrogen no path to low carbon future
Members of Climate Justice Taranaki and other community groups gathered with white elephants outside today's launch of the National New Energy Development Centre by Prime Minister Jacinda Adern and Energy Minister Megan Woods. The protesters are opposed to the government's support of Hydrogen technology.
“We are repeating bad choices again from the Think Big era of the 80s that had a far reaching economic burden and many environmental impacts,” said Fiona Clark, long-standing Visual activist and Tikorangi Gaslands resident.
"As benign and fashionable a Hydrogen economy may sound, the zealous push for it as the essential route to a just transition is unfounded, both in physics and economic terms," said Climate Justice Taranaki researcher Catherine Cheung.
"The production of Green Hydrogen from water and renewable energy is extremely expensive and inefficient. Its storage and distribution, also costly and energy intensive, are fraught with technical and safety issues."
Forgot to also mention, a widespread hydrogen economy may also be damaging to the ozone layer. It's for sure hydrogen and ozone very happily recombine to make water and oxygen when they get together, the question is whether any escaped hydrogen from ground level would would actually make it to the ozone layer height before oxidising to water along the way. Modelling results seem to vary on how much would actually make it and how significant it would be. But hydrogen leakage from aircraft already most of the way up to the ozone layer would almost certainly be damaging.
They have to look like they are doing something even if there is nothing that can be done.
Unfortunately society as a whole is not yet ready to accept that the ultra high consumption era is coming to an end. Even the greens can't openly say that even though they know it.
Just be sure that airconditioner uses something like R600a (isobutane) with a global warming potential (100 year) around 3, rather than R134a (tetrafluoroethane) that has a global warming potential (100 year) of 1430.
Ah indeed. I maybe should have added that Flicking a Switch (AirCon) won't just make "it" go away….: )
"Air conditioning may not save lives
We expect air conditioning to take the strain, but may not realise just how much strain is involved.
Shade temperatures of 50C mean that direct sunlight can raise the temperature to 60C or 70C.
Bringing that back to a comfortable 22C or even a warm 27C is not always possible and requires a lot of energy — putting serious strain on the electricity grid.
A minor bit of good luck with that is the electrical demand from air-conditioners is moderately well-matched to the output from photovoltaic generation.
"Even with Australia newly emerged as being amongst the world leaders in solar uptake, the study found that as of June 2019 Australia was using less than 5% of the potential capacity for rooftop solar".
“Solar power in New Zealand is on the rise, but operates in an entirely free market with no form of subsidies or intervention from the New Zealand Government.”
Key sold the power companies, so their business model is a major impediment to getting carbon neutral, resilient and affordable electricity.
The next energy minister needs to undo Bradford's reforms and buy back the shares and nationalise the 'lecky'.
(Sorry, I have been watching Still Game, a hilarious Scottish TV series on Netflix.)
Yep, and the Electricity "reforms" that ol' nat Max Bradford set up. To the NZ Public's detriment. And of course not much has changed. Because its a Cash Cow.
Ok, Labours had the Previous 9 Years of nats…but I (and a lot of other voters) are looking for Real Change next. I really hope so….
Thanks for the link Robert. The Jessica Much Mackays of our world don't think Much. Just an entertaining "blood bath" would be her/their idea of good.
Ian Johnstone was yesterday on the Panel describing the tension in the famous eyeball to eyeball debate between Lange and Muldoon and the setting provided for the Leaders. And our current Leaders debate? Woolly questions. Poor layout. Poor moderation.
Good to see several letters in today's Dominion Post critical of Judith Collins' overbearing, aggressive, bullying tactics in the debate. And also that John Campbell had let her get away with it.
On the other hand, no letters supporting her.
Collins' childish remarks yesterday about "heat in the kitchen" further highlighted her nastiness. If anyone has stood up to the heat in the kitchen in the last three years, it is Jacinda, with the tragedies that she has had to deal with. The world has taken note and I hope New Zealand continues to do so.
So Julie tells us the wealth tax is a bottom line for the greens.
Most people in their 50s or 60s who have worked continuously, saved, and paid off the mortgage will have assets worth $1-2 million.
The greens want those people to pay $10,000 to $20,000 wealth tax per year, every year until they die. Never mind the fact that these people may not have much cash in the bank or that they may be retired and are living on a very modest pensions =the greens want your money.
Never mind that this would be a highly expensive administration nightmare for all involved
This is going to cause an unholy shit fight between the greens and labour
The point being that many people that hold 'assets' worth a pretty coin are otherwise cash poor. Point being, many in Auckland.
Another point that is not pointed out often, is that these people can't actually downsize as in this country we don't build small -or even just smaller anymore. So even if a retired couple would want to get out of the million dollar property into some thing smaller they can't for lack of offerings. – and again the chorus of ‘move to the countryside’ does not work for people who have medical needs or whose family is important and who want to live nearby. Again, this too is a problem that is studiously ignored by our betters, namely no jobs, no healthcare, etc.
So if you are on a fixed income, and your property is the ONLY asset you have this tax is neither fair nor feasable. This tax makes as much sense as TOPs tax on 'unproductive goods' like Nana's house in which she lives but does not rent in order to make a profit, Never mind that she can't find anything to rent for herself should she want to rent the good house for a profit. Cheap stupid solutions to big problems.
an unholy shit fight between the greens and labour
Nah. At most, the initial round table will see a robust advocacy from both sides. Then they will shift into negotiations mode.
Since it is not in the interests of either party to alienate any part of the wealthy middle class, the inevitable coalition policy will be a reasonable compromise.
I predict this will take the form of giving the Greens what they want (an effective wealth ceiling, to enable reduction of inequality) and giving Labour what it wants (a big enough solid voter base for re-election).
Yes and the GST increase will only cost about 3 bucks a week.
Good grief, you know its one thing to discuss these matters, its another thing to really believe what these people say and to believe that this will be paid for by the richest, who already don't pay taxes in this country. This is as idiotic as is the Grant Robertson Tax increase for people making 180.000 NZD. They are already on record for not paying tax over 70.000 NZD cause good accountants and various loopholes that neither the Green nor Labour actually propose to close. A bit like that extra 5 days of sick leave…………which thanks to loopholes are not given to a huge number of workers.
Smoke and mirrors, but you get to be seen as doing something.
I'm interested to hear how one structures affairs so assets are not assets in a wealth tax regime. Income is easy because of shareholder salaries (set up companies, pay $70,000 to each shareholder annually and leave the rest of the profit in the company to be taxed at 28%), but actually hiding assets is difficult because they appear somewhere. For example, if I own 10 houses outright worth a total of $5 million, and put the ownership of them into one or more companies, I still own the shares in the companies which are worth at least the net asset values of the companies i.e. $5 million. Trusts are a bit more complicated, but government and IRD have been cracking down on tax planning using trusts for 20 years, so I'm sure that can be sorted adequately.
The European issue has been that people just move themselves and their businesses and assets into other parts of the EU without a wealth tax and without any impact on operations, but that doesn't strike me as immediately available here. A person who moved overseas while leaving their assets here would still be a tax resident here, and a person who moved their assets overseas but stayed here would also still be a tax resident here. Maybe some sectors can operate here without being here at all, but nothing we do taxes them anyway, so they aren't worth considering.
nland Revenue has found only half of wealthy individuals worth more than $50 million each are paying the top personal tax rate, despite Government moves to combat tax avoidance.
There are about 250 New Zealanders with wealth in excess of $50m, deemed "high wealth individuals" by Inland Revenue.
New figures obtained under the Official Information Act show a sample by Inland Revenue of 184 of those individuals, taken between 2009 and 2011, found 49.5 per cent had declared they had earned $70,000 a year or more. The rest declared they earned less. Those who earn more than $70,000 are in the top tax bracket and pay 33 cents tax in the dollar.
from 2014
Figures given to ONE News show many of those worth more than $50 million are only paying tax on around $70,000 dollars of annual income.
When the tax man comes knocking, most of us expect to pay our fair share. But some of us can avoid it .
Even millionaire Gareth Morgan admits he's not paying his.
"Ah no, definitely not. But that's the way the tax regime is," he says.
Inland Revenue monitors 200 New Zealanders worth more than $50 million each. Yet 46.5% of those multi-millionaires earn less than $70,000 a year, meaning they avoid paying the top income tax rate.
New Zealand's super-rich were found liable for an extra $77 million of tax in the last financial year.
The country's most well-off have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in extra tax to Inland Revenue since it set up its high-wealth individual unit in 2003.
Those who come under the scrutiny of this IRD division must have, or be in control of, more than $50 million.
According to IRD's investigation and advice manager Tracey Lloyd, the unit has identified 200 people who met the criteria.
Of these 200 people, 93 declared their personal income in the 2013 financial year as less than $70,000 – the point at which one is required pay the top tax rate of 33 cents in the dollar.
New Zealanders pay 33% tax on every dollar of personal income over $70,000. This means someone paid $700,000 a year pays the same income tax as someone earning ten times less.
The super-rich routinely find ways to avoid even the minimal tax obligations New Zealand expects of them.
“The richest one percent of New Zealanders own 20% of this country’s wealth, and they can obviously afford the best accountants in the business. They take advantage of loopholes to ensure their money is not classed as taxable income, but instead as other currently untaxed forms of wealth and capital,” says Mr Barclay.
“This must change. Most ordinary working people don’t have a choice about paying our tax, it goes out of the pay check automatically. The super-rich should not get to play by a different set of rules to the rest of us.”
this is why i am so cynical when it comes to the beige suits sprouting their wet dreams about 'tax increases on the rich' . It means nothing at all if you can already structure your assets to such an extend that someone like Gareth Morgan is on record for not paying taxes because 'its all legal, and why should i pay taxes if i can avoid them' after all he ain't a wage slave who is taxed well before you and i ever receive our money 🙂
The Greens are definitely making a mistake with this. First they're framing it as a "take it from the rich pricks to give to the poor" and that "it's only going to affect the richest 6%" – it just looks like a mafia-style shakedown that lives up to the worst caricatures of taxation, and they're forgetting about all those that aspire to get to a comfortable financial situation where the Greens would then stick them with the rich prick tax.
If they were to put the same die-in-a-ditch commitment to a capital gains tax and frame it as sharing a slice of your success back to maintaining the society that made that success possible, then I'd be fully with them. But the way the proposed wealth tax is structured is so ill-conceived that I don't think those that propose it are fit for office. It's a significant part of why it's very unlikely I'll vote Green this year.
Doesn't work as analogy due to lack of gun-carrying Green enforcers. It's actually an antique socialist policy design. Since that style of taxation did work way back, and got at least one generation of solid support in Aotearoa, it's worth a try.
An irony is that most Green voters live in affluent inner city suburbs – and are 'wealthy' according to the Green's criteria.
Many of these Green supporters will fall within the 6% of the population that the Greens define as wealthy and thus able to pay this tax.
One consequence of the Greens wealth tax, should it come to pass, is that many of those in Wadestown, Grey Lynn, Fendalton et al may decide to switch their vote to Labour. In doing this they avoid the wealth tax but still get a green friendly government.
If such a scenario played out on election day it'll be goodbye Greens. Their position is precarious enough now; this wealth tax policy only makes it worse.
I wouldn't worry Andre – given Labour's proposed timorous shift to a very slightly more progressive income tax regime, the wealth of the "richest 6% group" looks pretty safe from ‘tax grabs‘ in the short-to-medium term.
I'm financially comfortable, so have never felt a need or aspiration to belong to the "richest 6% group"; indeed such an aspiration is beyond my ken and of no interest.
Government revenue from a wealth tax such as that proposed by the Green party might fund programmes that foster wider societal and environmental resilience, so I'm all for it and will Party Vote Green.
If there's an alternative progressive tax change that would generate similar revenue from those that can afford it (as opposed to (say) a GST increase, which generates (some) revenue from those who can least afford it), then I would at least weigh up that alternative – wouldn't stop me voting Green though.
Most people in their 50s or 60s who have worked continuously, saved, and paid off the mortgage will have assets worth $1-2 million. [my italics]
Really? I don’t think so. The policy is designed so that only about 6% of the people pay this tax. That’s not most people by a long shot.
Assuming someone can save $10 of their hourly earnings and that they work 2,000 hours in a year, it would take them 50 years to save $1,000,000. They’ll have to start very young in your world.
… =the greens want your money.
Nope, they want it to go towards the public good (AKA society) and where it is needed the most.
The policy clearly has provisions for asset-rich cash-poor people.
Never mind that this would be a highly expensive administration nightmare for all involved
Nope. Assets are already taken into account for rates, insurance, tax, etc. The policy is simple and straightforward and IRD can easily manage it.
Yeah it's one of those good in theory ideas where the reality is accountants and lawyers do well arranging trusts off shore holdings etc and the actual tax revenue recieved is well below that forecasted.
If they're paying $10,000 in tax a year under the Green policy, they would own a $1 million dollar home outright, have a share portfolio worth $500,000, savings of $300,000, and have a new Tesla and an Audi in the garage.
Gosh, how is little old Mary going to survive on the pension, driving her runabout Tesla to the supermarket to buy budget bread and a weekly lotto ticket in the hope she might extract herself from the extortionate Government tax.
The greens want those people to pay $10,000 to $20,000 wealth tax per year
Nice try. It's 1% for each dollar over $1m. To pay $10k wealth tax, you need another million on top of that. For a couple, you would need a total of $4m to be paying $20k. Cry me a river.
Okay, having read the report, I get your point. It may mean a coalition isn't feasible.
A fracture has been riven into the Greens-Labour Party relationship after the Greens demanded a wealth tax be part of any future coalition government agreement. The Greens' election policies include a plan to make Kiwis with a net-worth greater than $1 million, pay 1 per cent of their wealth to the Government as a tax. Those worth more than $2m would pay out 2 per cent of their wealth as tax.
Yesterday, it was reported that Green MP Julie Anne Genter had told a small business panel discussion the tax policy was a "bottom line" condition that needed to be met for her party to join into a second coalition Government with Labour, assuming next month's election goes both parties' way.
Shaw this morning confirmed Genter’s comment, but told host John Campbell the Green Party “doesn’t do bottom lines”.
“We do priorities and we’ve got six that we’re taking into this election. Julie-Anne did use that language yesterday.
“We don’t use bottom lines because what we want to see is a Labour-led Government with Jacinda Ardern as the Prime Minister and the Green Party back in Parliament and part of that Government.”
Thanks, that's helpful. Those into facts will remain frustrated, of course. Since "Julie-Anne did use that language yesterday", according to James, while implying she was wrong to do so.
So she doesn't know the difference between priorities & bottom lines?? Or is there no actual difference, and Greens make it up as they go along? “We don’t use bottom lines" seems to be James using the term as a precondition of coalition entry, and rejecting such usage.
I think his approach is appropriate. Perhaps Julie-Anne used the term inappropriately, due to a slip of her tongue. Or, as Trump would say, "I mis-spoke."
THIS IS THE REASON TO VOTE FOR YOU YOU FUCKING CLOWN!!!
WHY ARE YOU NOW WALKING AWAY FROM IT?????
Perhaps James will have to educate him about the relation of Green leadership to coalition negotiating.
She did not accidentally "tell the truth", he said.
He could have helpfully explained that accidentally telling the truth is a Labour Party thing.
Shaw says the Greens aren't making the tax a bottom line because "when we get into negotiations we have got to see what the result of the election is. And it's as simple as that".
Too simple for Bomber. And there's yet another point that will bamboozle him:
Whether or not it becomes a bottom line depends on how many people vote for the Greens, Shaw says.
"shit that needs doing gets done" I look at my neighbours and see a sleepout with garage converted to a flat and the backyard soil covered with concrete to replace the garage ("we have plans"), a backyard barren of all but mown grass because it's just "too much trouble" to grow fruit trees and veges, a pile of rubbish and excavated clay where once veges grew because of willful passive aggressive ignorance. No amount of money will change this. Why bother when it's "too much like hard work" and "I get my veges from the supermarket" – like most people.
The devil in the detail lies in the differential between net wealth & modest income, and since retired folk will be concerned about that, the policy has an escape clause:
Unlikely to win the votes of their children! The interesting thing to watch for at the election is what proportion of the 94% of the electorate that the policy benefits will vote Green in support of the policy.
Say the Greens get a substantial vote of above 10% – that will indicate significant policy resonance to ensure the validity of the policy as an effective ploy.
If they don't get that, the wealth tax will become a proven marketing failure…
It's not the taking a slice of the estate that bothers me. At that moment, what was a home has been converted into a mere financial instrument. It's the way that when the first partner dies, the survivor suddenly gets lifted into the net asset bracket where a punitive tax applies at the exact same moment their income drops sharply, and will then be dealing with the psychological effects of an ever-increasing tax debt at a life-stage when debt-free financial independence is increasingly important.
yes but as soon as one of them dies the surviving partner will start paying wealth tax, financial hardship piled on top of grief. – such a wonderful thing for our aged community to look forward to, thanks Greens
yes, I got that wrong, they pay 1% on the amount above $1 million.Say the house is now worth $1.6 million, that means they need to find an additional $6,000.00 per year after tax for the rest of their life – another winner from the kind, sharing hard left.
The thought of having that imposed on my hard working parents really pisses me off.
Indeed, the surviving partner would pay $6k pa in wealth tax to live rent-free, which amounts to $115 per week. That’s not going to break the bank, is it?
The value of the property may go up (likely) or down (unlikely). When it is sold, there is no CGT. That really pisses me off.
When the surviving partner passes away, there is no inheritance tax. That really pisses me off.
How much of one’s wealth is generated through hard work and prudent living and how much is through rising property prices that prices many others out of owning a home and driving them into the rental trap? That really pisses me off.
As long as your hard-working parents are alive, they don’t pay a cent in wealth tax. Enjoy your parents’ company for as long as you can and don’t worry about something that may not happen in a long time, bless them.
Look, your relentless negativity isn't changing my mind about a policy that, while good (in my eyes), isn't likely to come about, especially as James Shaw is already walking back the bottom line quote.
In Auckland, about $3500 pa, which might get rebated down to about $2800 pa if their only income was Super. Then about $1500pa for home insurance, about $600pa for water etc etc.
its not negativity, its realism.
Seriously, how much would rates be on a property like this?
you say; Not on a super payment of $847 per fortnight, winter fuel payments and eligibility for a rates rebate. Quite doable I'd say.
IF we assume this hypothetical scenario and we look at income derived vs outgoings then Rates need to be included. How much would the rates be on a property that raises exponentially due to high land cost for example, but with no actual raise in income.
because this is an issue in many areas where land prices are going up up up and wages and super don't.
or the rates raise because of Council spending 🙂
Terre Nicholson's house in Te Kūiti is meant to be her forever home.
Two years ago she and husband Mike, a pensioner, could not afford to buy what they wanted in Hamilton, where Nicholson's job as an environmental consultant was based.
So they looked around and decided on a 1970s house on a classic Kiwi quarter-acre section (1250m sq), in the small King Country town.
But the couple didn't bank on the soaring rates in the Waitomo District.
"We knew the rates were high but the cost of the house was low. We wanted a place we could basically retire in. This is our forever home."
When they bought the house for $445,000, the rates were around $3000 per year.
"And then they went up. And now they've gone up again."
In two years the rates have spiked by more than $1000 to $4200 per year. That's $350 a month.
So why not answering the questions rather then running away shouting relentless negativity. IS that all you got?
Quote: I'm totally happy with my position and calling your relentless negativity for what it is. Ta.
But if you feel the need to go in to bat for the asset rich amongst us at the expense of the very poorest, you go right ahead. Quote end.
seriously? That is all you got? Your math was wrong, you left out an important part of home owning, Rates. Rates that are currently going up with no end in sight. Ok right. And other then that, you still have not answered a fair and square question.
But maybe its your relentless optimism that makes you just over look such important factors as Rates when you talk about finances and what is feasable on a fixed income or what is not. Its like the national dudes that do math and then discover holes in their math, but its ok.
And last but least the 'asset rich' the developpers, the slum lords etc they won't be paying that tax. They already don't pay tax.
In Wellington about $5500 plus further increases promised. Plus insurance $3600 plus parking coupons for a lot of inner city suburbs $200 plus rubbish collection. So another $6000 or so would just about wipe out a single pension or increase inner city rents something drastic . It would be over $300 a week to live in an owned home.
The surviving partner's assets have just increased by $800,000. There is a plan to tax it.. that can be deferred to sale date. Oh the humanity! Won't someone think of the children's inheritance, so they can take it.. all untaxed.
What happens when one of them dies. Normally then the house is transferred to the spouse. If he/she lives for 15 more years say, wouldn't that be 1% of $500k per year for 15 years = $75k tax …still a lot of money. I don't like it.
Legislate to cap salaries at $40,000 pa. I am paid – like it or not a shitload of money I don't need and would do what I do because I like doing it and am competent. It all assumes people work ONLY FOR THE FUCKING MONEY.
Other than it adds to the administrative costs, the Greens have already said it won't be on the family home, only on investments…. but some people want to clutch their pearls….
Please quote where the document says it won't apply to the family home. I haven't found anything that says the family home is exempt, but did find the following which certainly implies the family home will be taxed if the proposal is implemented:
Some people, particularly retired people, may have a high value home but only modest income. These people will be able to defer payment of the net wealthtax until the home is sold, just as many councils already allow with rates payments.
Perhaps you need to read what you link – Because you are telling Untruths at best, and if you truely are a Greens Supporter then making such untrue statements (Purposely) perhaps is why some cannot trust and vote for the Greens and they are hanging on a survival knife edge.
We’ll tax wealth fairly by introducing a new tax on individuals’ net wealth over $1 million. This means those who have their own wealth worth more than $1 million – not including mortgages and other debt
Treasury advice is relevant here. It would be reasonable to expect that the Greens have not factored in revenue collection feasibility.
Labour's Nash said Finance Minister Grant Robertson had ruled out imposing any wealth tax. "As the Revenue Minister, I have had a look at a wealth tax and I think it is very, very difficult to implement," he said. "It's on unrealised gains, which make it very difficult for people to pay who are asset rich, cashflow poor." https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12366702
Yep, a capital gains tax really is the much better way to collect tax from the income generated by capital. It's part of the reason why most countries actually do tax capital gains, but very few collect any significant wealth taxes.
i suspect the reason is the fact that capital gain on improved business practice is penalised whereas a wealth tax does not….capital gain on a successfully expanded business that provides employment and possibly FX is not the target…pointless property inflation however is.
A wealth tax targets that scenario and provides incentive to invest in income ( and therefore employment) generating assets rather than a state subsidised RE market that dosnt produce FA…not to mention that its a ponzi scheme that destabilises the entire banking system
Last night Ianmac posted a quote from Brian Gould about the lighting angles and camera positions in the leaders debate.
it clarified my view that the set up of the debate overwhelmingly favoured National. I also noticed quite frequently when Jacinda was replying the camera went straight on Collins.
i am sure Campbell irrupted Jacinda more cutting her short.
last night I put in a complaint to the media council. It’s pretty easy to do and I would encourage others to do it. I let the standard know how it goes
I'm sure there's a box of wet bus tickets ready for that and any other complaints.
A top down review and clearcut is required at TVNZ/RNZ. Maori TV appears back on track after Maxwell's silver hammer routine national inflicted on them, doing good stuff locally and terrific movies.
However plenty of TVNZ/RNZ output fails the journalism, objectivity and what an old boss called 'intellectual rigour' bar to be broadcast. But hey we don't seem to care anymore, not seeing any party want to address it.
The woman is either an idiot, or a cynical cheat. My house was built in the early 1950s. Not a state house, but looks similar.. There were no airtight windows then.
I shut the windows tight, but in winter I can feel air leaking through. Judith Collins expecting 1930s – 1960s houses to have windows that don't let air through is like expecting a 1950s Morris Minor to have air bags and ASB brakes. (One can seal these old windows with sticky-back foam rubber tapes, if one wants to.)
Next door is a house built in the 1970s. It has the luxury of rubber-sealed alloy windows. But I notice heaps more condensation on the inside of them than I get in my place. I conclude that a certain amount of air circulation may be healthy!
What I suspect is that if Judith and her ilk do get into power (heaven forbid!) she will immediately use the 'leaky windows' argument for selling off (to the already well-off) every state house built before 1970, so that her mates can benefit ever more from rising property values and rents, while the poor who rent them will struggle to pay their rent off even 2 or 3 jobs paid at a miserable minimum rate.
A classic way of creating a hell-hole of a society, so that a profit-gouging, greedy element can have their way.
My parents were the first tenants in a state house built in Mt Roskill (Auckland) in1947 on a quarter acre section. We never had condensation but we did have an open fireplace which was well used in winter. All the houses in the street are still standing, well maintained and sheltering families. The back sections have become infill housing – the newer houses don't look like they'll last 70 years.
During the "debate" Ms Collins said she would like to get rid of all the old state houses. Some parts of Auckland have had hundreds of older state houses removed and replaced by apartments / town houses. Only time will tell how people adjust to living so close to each other. I guess after being crammed in emergency housing (single motel units) anything else will feel like luxury.
Saw a tweet the other day from someone who'd grown up down the road from the farm Collins lived on and surprise surprise, the houses looked like the state houses of the day.
To be fair, the state house design was used for accommodation by most government departments back in the day. Go to any site that either is owned by the government or was in the past, and you will find state housing.
Examples include, the towns built around the hydro dams, and the power stations in Meremere and Huntly, housing at the old mental hospitals, Forestry workers housing, and in Jude’s case, Landcorp’s predessors.
And a lot of them were moved, often several times as projects moved on. They were never quite the same after a few of those. Don't expect the windows to be square.
Come on, Campbell was feeding Jacinda answers. On the hospital question Jacinda was getting it all wrong and going on about insisting on MOH mandated budget cuts. Campbell tried to feed her the simple popular answer with the prompt, will some of that debt need to be written off? But she stuck to her position and eventually Judith got to take up the point that "obviously" some of the hospitals debt would need to be forgiven.
The original problem is the supply of capital to HB's with a certain cost to pay for it year by year. Given the current cost of debt this is windfall profit territory. The cost of capital impacts on their operational budgets and inevitably leads to deficits and over time mounting debt. Debt the government can finance far more cheaply than the boards can. And so on.
Bear with me while I tell a tale of three Rich Pricks, each with a couple mill to do something with. To illustrate how a wealth tax operates very differently to a capital gains tax.
Rick Prick the First is aware of a high value specialised substance collected from wild-growing seaweed, and conceives an aquaculture venture to farm this seaweed. He purchases a block of land fronting onto suitable estuaries in a remote part of the country (hoping to provide future employment in a depressed area), and puts the remainder of his fortune into equipment etc that would be needed to process the seaweed. As it turns out, a couple of seasons of red tide, and other developments in the area affected the water quality so the venture never takes off, and ten years later finally gives up. He recovers about 1.2M from selling the land. Under the wealth tax regime, over those ten years he has paid about $100k for the privilege of losing $800k of wealth, at least partly due to government permitting other environmentally degrading activities making his venture non-viable, and the steady suck of $10k a year wealth tax added too much continual drain on ongoing cashflow. He would not be liable for any capital gains tax.
Rich Prick the Second puts his 2mill into a block of ratty houses in a kinda neglected area, to be an aspiring slumlord. Over the next ten years the government invests a lot in renewing the neighbourhood and improving transport links, so at the end of ten years RP the 2nd sells his shabby house to a developer for basically the skyrocketed land value of 6mill. Because his clever accountants and lawyers have kept the assessed property values rising fairly slowly he's only paid about $120k in assessed wealth tax over those ten years, and trousers a capital gain of $4mill untaxed. If we just did a straight copy of Australia's capital gains tax regime with NZ rates, RP2nd would pay $660k capital gains tax on his windfall that was entirely due to government investment in the area.
Rich Prick the Third spends around 1.5M on a nice-ish house in a bush area, and invest the rest to give a little bit of income to live on. Over the ten years he puts a fair bit into keeping the bush area pest-free and restoring degraded areas. After ten years, there's been a modest capital gain of half a mill in his house (modest because the government hasn't really done anything for the area, but it's close enough to the big smoke to benefit from general increase in demand for housing) and investments when he sells up to go do something else with his life. He would pay about $120k in wealth tax over those ten years (which would soak up all of the investment income at current rates of return), plus income tax on the investment income. Under a capital gains tax, he would pay about $67k for the capital gain the government didn't do much to create apart from just maintaining society, plus the income tax.
As long as people are clear on what it will and won't do.
A capital gains tax won't fix the housing market. As long as there are is less supply than demand, there will be profits available.
A capital gains tax will simply take a slice of the profits to go back into maintaining the society that made those profits possible. That maintenance of a good society might include the state building more housing for those that need it, which would increase the supply and reduce excess demand, thereby reducing potential private profiteering from the capital intensive activity of providing housing.
i don't expect any taxes to fix the housing market. But if we could actually tax wealth at the point of sale it would work in rasing revenue, btw, that would apply to me too if i sell my business i would be taxed, right now i am not.
The housing market will need intervention that currently not one person in Goverment – irrespective of their stripes – even want to contemplate. So they rather add another few hundred thousand people to the Accomodation Benefit and they rather charge beneficiaries 25% of their benefits or low wages to pay for Emergency and Transitional Housing. – which again benefits them and their 'own class'.
and they rather charge beneficiaries 25% of their benefits or low wages to pay for Emergency and Transitional Housing
The same rate at which every other beneficiary or wage earner up to $635 for a single or over $900 for joint incomes pays for state housing, leaving them 75% each week.
State housing is a rental, stable fixed with a landlord – the government who is accountable.
Emergency housing is where ever winz send you, to what ever hovel they don't even care to expect, and it does not even have to be close to the schools your kids go to.
Not even the same. You tried this before and it is still dumb. Seriously try harder, be best or something.
If you're homeless and the government want to take much less than market rates for you to stay in a motel until you get something permanent, given the alternatives of living in your car, a garage or under a bridge, I don't think that's as outrageous as you want it to be.
Though a wealth tax on the very asset rich may make funds available to do it for free 😉
It has been revealed that a Ministry of Social Development initiative to provide emergency housing in fact made the housing crisis worse and lined the pockets of a small group of landlords and real estate agents who were in on the lurk.
The country has been paying for an emergency accommodation scheme put people in motels and hotels at market rates of more than $120 dollars per night for every room rented.
However, from 2018 MSD extended the scheme to include private homes, paying the same motel room rates to landlords for every room in the house they would rent, Newsroom has revealed.
A three bedroom house rented out at a hotel rate of up to $150 per room per night could bring in $3000 per week in areas of the country where the median rate for a similar house was $550.
From March this year, Covid-19 changed things, with motel accommodation freed up and MSD was able to consider moving people from private rentals into motels.
However, once the MSD informed landlords they wouldn't be receiving subsidies after June 30 families started receiving eviction notices and social workers began scrambling to find motels rooms for stressed out families.
Paying a slumlord up to 3000 NZD – motel rates for a week – because the last government and the current government are shit at negotiating fair rates is not the problem that the homeless have created. It is the Governments fault.
taking 25% of what ever a homeless person or family may have to -fund part of the shittily negotiated 3000 NZD motel rates per week – to make a quick buck and look a bit less idiotic, usless and like complete frauds that suck at negotiating is not fair towards the person/family who already has nothing.
But it again shows that the last government and the current guvernment are shit at a. negotiating fair rates for emergency shelters and transitional housing, .b iare totally shit at creating government funded and run emergency shelters, and Labour is no better then was National when they settled homeless people with the debt of that 'housing'. Neither party gives a flying fuck about the poor.
And that wealth tax that James Shaw is running away from now is not gonna be paid for by the asset rich and cash rich of this country but by yourself and people like you.
And James Shaw and Grant Robertson know that. And they are the wealthy people that you would like to tax in the first place, and they have absolutely no reason to increase their cost of living.
Yeah, yeah, and as I wrote the other day, charging for unchecked rooms in a house probably isn't a good policy, but then you know that already if you read the reply.
Still, as far as I'm concerned, charging someone 25% of their wage to be secure in a motel rather than out on the street doesn't seem like the worst thing ever, and certainly far from disgraceful, uncaring or "bullshit"
I am against the wealth tax per se because it is is very poorly targeted. It will also severely discourage some activities that are beneficial to society, that require high capital assets but don't generate high income. Such as bush restoration. I don't see any way to adjust the wealth tax to make it work better in its effects on people's financial decisions and general well-being. Politically, it would be less harmful if it were set at a significantly higher level, say where it hit the 1% who already have to have accountants file do their taxes, not the 6% most of whom don't need accountants.
I strongly support taxing income generated from capital – which is why a support a capital gains tax, and I think things like the PIE tax rates being lower than the income tax rates are a big mistake. I also think we should have estate taxes and gift taxes – the idea that unearned income doesn't get taxed while earned income (which we want to encourage, right?) does get taxed strikes me as wrong way around.
I too think this is very poorly targeted and riddled with problems. As some one said a tax for living in Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown.
Don't forget that if the bulk of inner city properties in the main centres are hit by this tax (why would high rise multi flat student accommodation be exempt?) then it is also going to add a belt to rents – the very people this is supposed to help.
Plus it taxes those whose parents live onshore and hands it out to them plus all those whose parents live offshore in Texas or London or some where else and are not paying the taxes.
And why tax wealth if you won't tax multi million dollar salaries ( and block up the loopholes around tax being paid in companies and trusts)? Grant not lifting the trust rate was a huge no-no.
Also any deferrals (which would have interest) are basically state supplied reverse mortgages which for a single person (largely women) might apply over 30-40 years. Nobody suggests reverse mortgages are a good thing and compound interest could ensure they die a pauper.
What I find scariest is how all the Repugs are cheerfully going along with it all. Four years ago, I would have guessed that out of the nearly 300 Repugs in Congress, there would be at least a dozen or so that had some semblance of spine and principle and would at least attempt to slow down a few of the most egregious violations of laws and norms. But no, there's not a single one with even a hint of backbone. At most, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins occasionally appear to have faint vestiges of overboiled cartilage that slightly distinguish them from the rest of their school of jellyfish.
The Interregnum allots 35 days for the count and its attendant lawsuits to be resolved. On the 36th day, December 8, an important deadline arrives.
At this stage, the actual tabulation of the vote becomes less salient to the outcome. That sounds as though it can’t be right, but it is: The combatants, especially Trump, will now shift their attention to the appointment of presidential electors.
December 8 is known as the “safe harbor” deadline for appointing the 538 men and women who make up the Electoral College. The electors do not meet until six days later, December 14, but each state must appoint them by the safe-harbor date to guarantee that Congress will accept their credentials. The controlling statute says that if “any controversy or contest” remains after that, then Congress will decide which electors, if any, may cast the state’s ballots for president.
We are accustomed to choosing electors by popular vote, but nothing in the Constitution says it has to be that way. Article II provides that each state shall appoint electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.” Since the late 19th century, every state has ceded the decision to its voters. Even so, the Supreme Court affirmed in Bush v. Gore that a state “can take back the power to appoint electors.” How and when a state might do so has not been tested for well over a century.
Trump may test this. According to sources in the Republican Party at the state and national levels, the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority. With a justification based on claims of rampant fraud, Trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly. The longer Trump succeeds in keeping the vote count in doubt, the more pressure legislators will feel to act before the safe-harbor deadline expires
Jobs, training. skills, income, sense of worth, companionship, socialisation not loneliness, co-operation – all draw us together. This sounds good for younger people – now something for retirees to do that gives back to society some of what the cohesive society is giving out to them.
Today, coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Week, the Bay of Plenty MP shared more of his experience in a post on social media.
“Sure, it had been a rough couple of days of media criticism, but I was heading home and had finished a couple of great conversations with mentors and supporters. I was looking forward to seeing my wife and kids before a day out in my electorate.
“It started with an intense prickling sensation in my head, followed by what I would describe as ‘waves’ of anxiety.” He said the panic attacks kept coming “with even more ferocity”, and didn't cease “no matter what” he tried. “Stretching, yoga or calming apps on my phone, nothing could stop the waves of anxiety and dread that would start the moment I woke up.
“I could tell it was impacting my performance so I was prescribed sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication if needed to get through the weekdays in Parliament. At least this would get me through to maybe five hours sleep a night, maybe enough to function.”
Good to see him sharing his experience of the physiology. Lotsa folk still deny the mind/body interface. For a conservative to specify how it affected him makes him a valuable role model to help other conservatives get real. Farmers, especially!
Will never forget the Dr that prescribed me sleeping pills to help with severe depression when the girls were 3 and 5yrs old.
Take one at 4pm the Dr said…. fell asleep on the couch at 4.30pm kids couldn't wake me no matter how hard they tried, not good for a single parent. Thankfully Mum turned up out of the blue and helped with the girls while I continued to be zombied out. Never took one again. Useless Dr.
I went to that Dr 13 times asking for help in under 6mths, her solution, sleeping pills. Changed Dr's after that, finally got some real help along with counselling which changed my life.
Glad mental health is coming out in the opening, it's so important to have these conversations and share experiences.
Scientists in Houston on Wednesday released a study of more than 5,000 genetic sequences of the coronavirus that reveals the virus’s continual accumulation of mutations, one of which may have made it more contagious.
The new report, however, did not find that these mutations have made the virus deadlier or changed clinical outcomes. All viruses accumulate genetic mutations, and most are insignificant, scientists say.
A more infectious mutation going from being detected in 70% of global infections to a 99.9 percent prevalence in a particular location sure is hilarious.
Hilarious in the /sarc sense that it takes this long for useful information to get into the public domain. At this rate the importance of Vit D and C will probably hit the media sometime in the New Year.
I'll constrain my comments to this; in the course of this pandemic I've seen a number of issues on which my confidence in the integrity of the medical system has been severely shaken. It looks very much to me that a combination of professional arse covering, gross politicisation of the science, and an industry desire to find a nice profitable solution to COVID have muddied the waters badly. And probably cost not only 100's thousand of lives, but deeply dented the global economy in ways we are yet to discover.
NZ has been served relatively well by it's govt Health System, but elsewhere the entire episode has been a shameful wake up call.
So why has it taken damn nearly six months for the importance of the D614G mutation’s increased infectivity (Martenson talked in terms of a factor of 4) to hit the mainstream media?
Given that 40% of North Americans and 80% of Black Americans are Vit D deficient, and the numbers are typically higher among the elderly, then yes there is a strong case for supplementation. It should have been made mandatory for all care home residents ages ago.
In terms of evidence there is the preliminary Spanish clinical trial referenced here a few weeks back, plus two very large Israeli observational correlation studies, all of which confirm what has been known, as you say since May, that Vit D plays an important role in preventing serious outcomes.
In terms of treatment of hospital cases, the Spanish clinical study found that a derivative of Vit D that is immediately available to the body, gave a strong indication of being an effective tool in the treatment arsenal. Apparently a larger follow up trial is in the pipeline, but hell this is really good news if it’s confirmed.
Vit D supplementation is cheap, safe and could have massively blunted the impact of this pandemic months ago. You have to ask why it wasn't at least trialed on a substantial scale by some govt, somewhere. But no, we all have to wait for an expensive vaccine it seems.
Much more problematic is the recent corona express flight from managed QF in chch to AK.
An update on the case of the man who left MIQ in Christchurch having returned negative tests for COVID-19 and then tested positive in Auckland.
There were 86 people on that flight. 70 have returned negative results, 6 were previously reported positive cases that do not require further testing; 3 are recently reported positive cases, 7 are pending.
Vitamin D and sleep are vital to immunity – esp T cells.
Yup every rest home should blood test and issue supplements in the most effective form. Everyone infected should be blood tested and if Vit D levels are low they get a real big booster.
Maori should test and prescribe to those with low levels. And those over 50 should take it through winter (as they do not get as much off the skin as younger people do in summer).
What you have not heard about yet in MSM – is something in the bmj – British Medical Journal.
Some people seem to have immunity to this coronavirus – and they are people who have never been infected (never had any antibodies).
(PS Swine flu 2009 – those born before 1949 seemed to have immunity to that).
Despite coming in for a silly bit of flak here back in early Feb, Chris Martenson has always been well ahead of the game. Works from the principle: Perfect is the enemy of Good … in a fast-moving Pandemic, don't wait for peer-reviewed perfection … just go with the available emerging data & make a judgement call on the veracity of each … adapt to new info as you go. Consequently, 6 months ahead of WHO / CDC & even a couple of months ahead of the otherwise wonderful John Campbell (except, perhaps, on Vitamin D … I started getting Vit D supplements for both us & my Parents back in mid-Feb on advice from Campbell). Between them, Martenson & Campbell have been required viewing this year.
Yes. Someone in a YT comment thread said that they regarded Martenson as a 'leading indicator' and Campbell as a 'lagging indicator', but when they both started saying the same thing you had to be reasonably confident of the information.
Perfect is the enemy of Good … in a fast-moving Pandemic, don't wait for peer-reviewed perfection … just go with the available emerging data & make a judgement call on the veracity of each … adapt to new info as you go.
Absolutely. In a crisis demanding impractical standards of evidence is fatal; it's a form of 'paralysis by analysis'.
Martenson's recent advice on taking vitamin D supplements to maintain and/or improve one's immune system seem sound, and certainly 99% of nutritionists would agree. It's a beautiful day and the sun is shining – time for a morning walk.
"Importantly, toxicity isn’t common and occurs almost exclusively in people who take long-term, high-dose supplements without monitoring their blood levels. It’s also possible to inadvertently consume too much vitamin D by taking supplements that contain much higher amounts than are listed on the label. In contrast, you cannot reach dangerously high blood levels through diet and sun exposure alone." https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-side-effects#Deficiency-and-toxicity
"This chapter focuses on the current understanding of vitamin D and immunity, with special attention to the elderly. Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency are common among the elderly population. Vitamin D plays an immunoregulatory role in innate and adaptive immunity, and low vitamin D status has been implicated in the etiology of immune disorders, such as infectious diseases as well as some autoimmune disorders. As summarized here, the aging of the immune system is well documented and indicates that both innate and adaptive immunity are impaired with increasing age. Nutritional intervention with vitamin D seems to be a valid approach to delay the deterioration of the immune system with increasing age. Based on promising results in targeting some of the impairments of the immune system in older people, supplementation with vitamin D seems to be one strategy in attempting to increase not only the lifespan but also the health span of this increasing elderly proportion of the global population."
Does Dr Martenson still believe that Covid-19 is an artificial (engineered) virus?
I watched Martenson's arguments on this in detail. In short I agree with him that there are too many unusual aspects to this virus to make the official story that it evolved completely in nature to be a satisfactory answer.
Of course no-one has proof of it being 'engineered' either, that would demand a standard of evidence we're very unlikely to ever get. It remains as far as I'm concerned an open question.
As for all the biotech people insisting it has to have been naturally evolved, you have to keep in mind that if it wasn't, this would be an absolutely catastrophe for their profession. It would be a loss of credibility far worse than Chernobyl was for the nuclear industry, so yes I do think there are some strong motivations at work here.
The same for why various cheap and effective treatments have been downplayed as well, or why the science around HCQ was so crazily politicised … again questionable motivations at work.
Martenson no doubt believed that Covid-19 was an artificial (engineered) virus when he was writing about that hypothesis months ago. I'd like to know if he still believes that, i.e. has he reaffirmed his opinion in the last few weeks?
It would be interesting, for example, to know his view(s) on the 14 Sept. Yan report, just as it would be interesting to understand why some believe that various cheap, if unproven treatments for Covid-19 infections have been “downplayed” as the official global Covid-19 death toll approaches its first million.
I'd like to know if he still believes that, i.e. has he reaffirmed his opinion in the last few weeks?
In the past few weeks Martenson has said that he's going to wind up his COVID coverage and shift his focus back to his main interest which is resilience and thriving in uncertain times. (He's really got a lot more in common with most Greenies than anyone else.) Absent any new information on where COVID came from I doubt he'll have anything to add to what he's said already.
I would guess that his position right now is similar to the one I expressed above.
Thanks RL; while I disagree with Martenson's previously expressed opinion on a hypothetical artificial origin for Covid-19, this January 2019 statement of his certainly rings true to me.
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from 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 public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
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:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Reacting to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s refusal to rule out introducing new taxes at the budget, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Today’s refusal to rule out new taxes suggests the Government is nothing more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne Aila Images/Shutterstock Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they ...
He’s bringing ‘Sophie’ back, yeah. Goodshirt’s ‘Sophie’ music video is one of the most instantly recognisable New Zealand music videos of all time. Featuring a woman listening to the song on headphones while her entire house is burgled behind her, the video won the New Zealand music award for Best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University A year ago, the AUKUS agreement was formally announced between Australian and UK Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden. The agreement mapped out the “optimal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Helwig, Associate Professor, Electro-Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland SmartS/Shutterstock Steam locomotives clattering along railway tracks. Paddle steamers churning down the Murray. Dreadnought battleships powered by steam engines. Many of us think the age of steam has ended. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carrie Leonetti, Associate Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Victims who experience family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand are treated differently, depending on which part of the justice system they turn to for help. But a new member’s bill ...
nats have big mouths….obviously to get both feet in.
"National Taieri candidate Liam Kernaghan and Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean are among several National party figures to have posted material online which is claimed to quote Labour leader Jacinda Ardern out of context."
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/national-out-context-quote
"Hydroelectricity has the highest value at 84:1, compared with wind at 18:1 and solar lower according to whether battery storage costs are included.
For hydrogen the EROI is 1:4 or 1:5. In other words, it’s demonstrably negative."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/why-hydrogen-is-not-a-cure-for-emissions
And yet hydrogen is being promoted by the Gov….they must expect we are going to have a massive surplus of energy available in the near future which runs contrary to all the current scientific opinion.
Maybe they are thinking the post rio tinto Future?…But really NZ has to also get on the Bus (literally) and Light Rail,Coastal Shipping etc etc.
People sitting (ONE person !) in traffic snarl ups…is just stupid.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/426612/auckland-harbour-bridge-traffic-building-to-another-day-of-long-delays
A Voice…
Professor Alistair Woodward from the University of Auckland agrees with Barnett that the resulting traffic logjams showcase gaping vulnerabilities in Auckland's transport infrastructure – but he has different ideas as to how to deal with this.
That includes cutting down car numbers.
“We haven’t thought hard enough about the future. Everything is short term … you know it’s ‘bung on another lane, it’s widen the road, it’s put in a new road’.
“Of course all that does is to boost the amount of traffic. So it’s entirely predictable that if we spend squillions of dollars on a tunnel under the harbour for more roads, that they will full up rapidly as well and we’ll suffer all the environmental and social costs of living in a car-dominated city.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018764925/repairing-auckland-s-iconic-coathanger
and those 'squillions of dollars' wont be again available to fix the mess
I read the Link Article…if you dont mind me asking…is that you? Is very good anyway. I have an Interested Layman's uptake of Science…(and a lot of Other) Just being Informed is absolutely essential.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/solar-and-wind-power-could-ignite-a-hydrogen-energy-comeback/
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Hydrogen_economy
We really need some Forward Thinking…..
Personally, I'm quite a hydrogen skeptic. The energy losses involved in separating the hydrogen, then using it, is a big downside compared to batteries, pumped hydro, or other energy storage. The hazards and engineering difficulties of bulk use of hydrogen scare the crap out of me – the way hydrogen embrittles many common metals, and basically just pisses through polymer materials while degrading it on the way through is frightening. Then hydrogen has an extremely wide range of concentrations where it's explosive, much higher than any other common gases. If you're using hydrogen in fool cells, you can't add odorant (like is done to natural gas and LPG), so leaks are less easily detectable, and hydrogen flames are invisible to the naked eye.
Nevertheless, there are some positives around hydrogen as a replacement for a few fossil fuel applications.
If anyone gets to a feasible photocatalytic hydrogen production means, then the energy loss, or EROI, problem goes away.
Hydrogen is sufficiently energy dense that it is feasible for a few applications that batteries simply couldn't store enough energy for – such as medium distance aviation and cross-ocean shipping. IIf my off the top of my memory recollections are roughly correct, in terms of actual useful energy stored including tanks and after conversion to useful mechanical energy, fossil fuels can be up to around 5 kWhr/kg (in a huge marine engine) or 3 kWhr/kg for land transport. Hydrogen maybe 2kWhr/kg for marine, maybe 1.2 kWhr/kg for road transport or aviation. Batteries are at around 0.17 kWhr/kg in production Teslas now, with recent announcements they will go up to a bit over 0.2 kWhr/kg.
Hydrogen may also be a better substitute for fossil fuels for some industrial processes that require very high process heat temperatures – steelmaking gets a mention in the links above, but cement production might be another.
Hi, that was a well thought through comment. And yes re the sceptic. Definitely not the Energy Panacea…
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Hydrogen_economy#Summary
You're in good company:
Activists warn Adern – Hydrogen no path to low carbon future
Members of Climate Justice Taranaki and other community groups gathered with white elephants outside today's launch of the National New Energy Development Centre by Prime Minister Jacinda Adern and Energy Minister Megan Woods. The protesters are opposed to the government's support of Hydrogen technology.
“We are repeating bad choices again from the Think Big era of the 80s that had a far reaching economic burden and many environmental impacts,” said Fiona Clark, long-standing Visual activist and Tikorangi Gaslands resident.
"As benign and fashionable a Hydrogen economy may sound, the zealous push for it as the essential route to a just transition is unfounded, both in physics and economic terms," said Climate Justice Taranaki researcher Catherine Cheung.
"The production of Green Hydrogen from water and renewable energy is extremely expensive and inefficient. Its storage and distribution, also costly and energy intensive, are fraught with technical and safety issues."
From Climate Justice Taranaki per Mike Joy
Linky: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2007/S00296/activists-warn-adern-hydrogen-no-path-to-low-carbon-future.htm
Forgot to also mention, a widespread hydrogen economy may also be damaging to the ozone layer. It's for sure hydrogen and ozone very happily recombine to make water and oxygen when they get together, the question is whether any escaped hydrogen from ground level would would actually make it to the ozone layer height before oxidising to water along the way. Modelling results seem to vary on how much would actually make it and how significant it would be. But hydrogen leakage from aircraft already most of the way up to the ozone layer would almost certainly be damaging.
They have to look like they are doing something even if there is nothing that can be done.
Unfortunately society as a whole is not yet ready to accept that the ultra high consumption era is coming to an end. Even the greens can't openly say that even though they know it.
You may be right but sooner or later it will be impossible for even the biggest sceptic to ignore and then there will be recriminations….or worse.
Worse
Cities in peril….
Turn the Air Conditioner on
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-06/50-degree-days-what-would-sydney-and-melbourne-look-like/9024914
Ms Miller said city planners needed to begin designing cities that took advantage of wind, green spaces and shade whilst still being cost-effective.
"We need to think of ourselves as part of the ecology of a city, and that a city is not just a bunch of buildings and roads," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-04/sydney-melbourne-urged-to-prepare-for-50c-days-by-end-of-century/9012640
Just be sure that airconditioner uses something like R600a (isobutane) with a global warming potential (100 year) around 3, rather than R134a (tetrafluoroethane) that has a global warming potential (100 year) of 1430.
Ah indeed. I maybe should have added that Flicking a Switch (AirCon) won't just make "it" go away….: )
"Air conditioning may not save lives
We expect air conditioning to take the strain, but may not realise just how much strain is involved.
Shade temperatures of 50C mean that direct sunlight can raise the temperature to 60C or 70C.
Bringing that back to a comfortable 22C or even a warm 27C is not always possible and requires a lot of energy — putting serious strain on the electricity grid.
Electricity transmission systems are inherently vulnerable to extreme heat.
This means they can potentially fail simply due to the weather, let alone the increased demand on the grid from power consumers."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-06/50-degree-days-what-would-sydney-and-melbourne-look-like/9024914
Probably where I’m at with the We Need Forward Thinking.
As in Now.
And listen to…and act on Scientists concerns….
https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/
So many other warnings/sites from the people who actually Know what the F is happening…
A minor bit of good luck with that is the electrical demand from air-conditioners is moderately well-matched to the output from photovoltaic generation.
And you gotta wonder at this…
"Even with Australia newly emerged as being amongst the world leaders in solar uptake, the study found that as of June 2019 Australia was using less than 5% of the potential capacity for rooftop solar".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Australia#Roof_top_solar_potential
Edit…just to get away from the Neighbours …
NZ
“Solar power in New Zealand is on the rise, but operates in an entirely free market with no form of subsidies or intervention from the New Zealand Government.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_New_Zealand
Wha?
In regards to the NZ solar market…
Key sold the power companies, so their business model is a major impediment to getting carbon neutral, resilient and affordable electricity.
The next energy minister needs to undo Bradford's reforms and buy back the shares and nationalise the 'lecky'.
(Sorry, I have been watching Still Game, a hilarious Scottish TV series on Netflix.)
Yep, and the Electricity "reforms" that ol' nat Max Bradford set up. To the NZ Public's detriment. And of course not much has changed. Because its a Cash Cow.
Ok, Labours had the Previous 9 Years of nats…but I (and a lot of other voters) are looking for Real Change next. I really hope so….
A good report from Chris Trotter on the debate.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/09/going-high-going-low-assessment-of.html
he remade a good point but it was not a 'debate'
True. We don't have "debates" if we ever did. We just have arguments.
posturing, we have meaningless posturing.
Thanks for the link Robert. The Jessica Much Mackays of our world don't think Much. Just an entertaining "blood bath" would be her/their idea of good.
Ian Johnstone was yesterday on the Panel describing the tension in the famous eyeball to eyeball debate between Lange and Muldoon and the setting provided for the Leaders. And our current Leaders debate? Woolly questions. Poor layout. Poor moderation.
Good to see several letters in today's Dominion Post critical of Judith Collins' overbearing, aggressive, bullying tactics in the debate. And also that John Campbell had let her get away with it.
On the other hand, no letters supporting her.
Collins' childish remarks yesterday about "heat in the kitchen" further highlighted her nastiness. If anyone has stood up to the heat in the kitchen in the last three years, it is Jacinda, with the tragedies that she has had to deal with. The world has taken note and I hope New Zealand continues to do so.
You should say that the Dominion Post did not publish any letters supporting her.
So Julie tells us the wealth tax is a bottom line for the greens.
Most people in their 50s or 60s who have worked continuously, saved, and paid off the mortgage will have assets worth $1-2 million.
The greens want those people to pay $10,000 to $20,000 wealth tax per year, every year until they die. Never mind the fact that these people may not have much cash in the bank or that they may be retired and are living on a very modest pensions =the greens want your money.
Never mind that this would be a highly expensive administration nightmare for all involved
This is going to cause an unholy shit fight between the greens and labour
Never mind that, Wilkinson, how will the clutching pearls hold up is the real issue
who is Wilkinson, have you had your coffee yet?
If you're not the knob who posts at yawnz, I apologise for the false attribution, and yeah, way too much since 5am.
He has a point.
The point being that many people that hold 'assets' worth a pretty coin are otherwise cash poor. Point being, many in Auckland.
Another point that is not pointed out often, is that these people can't actually downsize as in this country we don't build small -or even just smaller anymore. So even if a retired couple would want to get out of the million dollar property into some thing smaller they can't for lack of offerings. – and again the chorus of ‘move to the countryside’ does not work for people who have medical needs or whose family is important and who want to live nearby. Again, this too is a problem that is studiously ignored by our betters, namely no jobs, no healthcare, etc.
So if you are on a fixed income, and your property is the ONLY asset you have this tax is neither fair nor feasable. This tax makes as much sense as TOPs tax on 'unproductive goods' like Nana's house in which she lives but does not rent in order to make a profit, Never mind that she can't find anything to rent for herself should she want to rent the good house for a profit. Cheap stupid solutions to big problems.
an unholy shit fight between the greens and labour
Nah. At most, the initial round table will see a robust advocacy from both sides. Then they will shift into negotiations mode.
Since it is not in the interests of either party to alienate any part of the wealthy middle class, the inevitable coalition policy will be a reasonable compromise.
I predict this will take the form of giving the Greens what they want (an effective wealth ceiling, to enable reduction of inequality) and giving Labour what it wants (a big enough solid voter base for re-election).
At least you could do is provide a link… https://www.greens.org.nz/poverty_action_plan …
sigh…
Site links to screen readable pdf giving details of the policy and examples of how the Wealth Tax will apply in various circumstances.
Yes and the GST increase will only cost about 3 bucks a week.
Good grief, you know its one thing to discuss these matters, its another thing to really believe what these people say and to believe that this will be paid for by the richest, who already don't pay taxes in this country. This is as idiotic as is the Grant Robertson Tax increase for people making 180.000 NZD. They are already on record for not paying tax over 70.000 NZD cause good accountants and various loopholes that neither the Green nor Labour actually propose to close. A bit like that extra 5 days of sick leave…………which thanks to loopholes are not given to a huge number of workers.
Smoke and mirrors, but you get to be seen as doing something.
I'm interested to hear how one structures affairs so assets are not assets in a wealth tax regime. Income is easy because of shareholder salaries (set up companies, pay $70,000 to each shareholder annually and leave the rest of the profit in the company to be taxed at 28%), but actually hiding assets is difficult because they appear somewhere. For example, if I own 10 houses outright worth a total of $5 million, and put the ownership of them into one or more companies, I still own the shares in the companies which are worth at least the net asset values of the companies i.e. $5 million. Trusts are a bit more complicated, but government and IRD have been cracking down on tax planning using trusts for 20 years, so I'm sure that can be sorted adequately.
The European issue has been that people just move themselves and their businesses and assets into other parts of the EU without a wealth tax and without any impact on operations, but that doesn't strike me as immediately available here. A person who moved overseas while leaving their assets here would still be a tax resident here, and a person who moved their assets overseas but stayed here would also still be a tax resident here. Maybe some sectors can operate here without being here at all, but nothing we do taxes them anyway, so they aren't worth considering.
talk to an accountant.
from 2012
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/latest-edition/7549236/Half-NZs-super-rich-dodge-tax
from 2014
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/business/only-half-of-nz-s-most-wealthy-paying-top-tax-rate-6200604
from 2015
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11392100
from 2020
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2008/S00032/new-zealands-wealthiest-people-can-afford-to-pay-more-tax.htm
this is why i am so cynical when it comes to the beige suits sprouting their wet dreams about 'tax increases on the rich' . It means nothing at all if you can already structure your assets to such an extend that someone like Gareth Morgan is on record for not paying taxes because 'its all legal, and why should i pay taxes if i can avoid them' after all he ain't a wage slave who is taxed well before you and i ever receive our money 🙂
I asked about avoiding wealth tax, not income tax – the shareholder salary regime makes it easy to avoid income tax.
The Greens are definitely making a mistake with this. First they're framing it as a "take it from the rich pricks to give to the poor" and that "it's only going to affect the richest 6%" – it just looks like a mafia-style shakedown that lives up to the worst caricatures of taxation, and they're forgetting about all those that aspire to get to a comfortable financial situation where the Greens would then stick them with the rich prick tax.
If they were to put the same die-in-a-ditch commitment to a capital gains tax and frame it as sharing a slice of your success back to maintaining the society that made that success possible, then I'd be fully with them. But the way the proposed wealth tax is structured is so ill-conceived that I don't think those that propose it are fit for office. It's a significant part of why it's very unlikely I'll vote Green this year.
a mafia-style shakedown
Doesn't work as analogy due to lack of gun-carrying Green enforcers. It's actually an antique socialist policy design. Since that style of taxation did work way back, and got at least one generation of solid support in Aotearoa, it's worth a try.
An irony is that most Green voters live in affluent inner city suburbs – and are 'wealthy' according to the Green's criteria.
Many of these Green supporters will fall within the 6% of the population that the Greens define as wealthy and thus able to pay this tax.
One consequence of the Greens wealth tax, should it come to pass, is that many of those in Wadestown, Grey Lynn, Fendalton et al may decide to switch their vote to Labour. In doing this they avoid the wealth tax but still get a green friendly government.
If such a scenario played out on election day it'll be goodbye Greens. Their position is precarious enough now; this wealth tax policy only makes it worse.
Great strategic thinking Greens.
I wouldn't worry Andre – given Labour's proposed timorous shift to a very slightly more progressive income tax regime, the wealth of the "richest 6% group" looks pretty safe from ‘tax grabs‘ in the short-to-medium term.
I'm financially comfortable, so have never felt a need or aspiration to belong to the "richest 6% group"; indeed such an aspiration is beyond my ken and of no interest.
Government revenue from a wealth tax such as that proposed by the Green party might fund programmes that foster wider societal and environmental resilience, so I'm all for it and will Party Vote Green.
If there's an alternative progressive tax change that would generate similar revenue from those that can afford it (as opposed to (say) a GST increase, which generates (some) revenue from those who can least afford it), then I would at least weigh up that alternative – wouldn't stop me voting Green though.
Really? I don’t think so. The policy is designed so that only about 6% of the people pay this tax. That’s not most people by a long shot.
Assuming someone can save $10 of their hourly earnings and that they work 2,000 hours in a year, it would take them 50 years to save $1,000,000. They’ll have to start very young in your world.
Nope, they want it to go towards the public good (AKA society) and where it is needed the most.
The policy clearly has provisions for asset-rich cash-poor people.
Nope. Assets are already taken into account for rates, insurance, tax, etc. The policy is simple and straightforward and IRD can easily manage it.
https://media.ird.govt.nz/articles/taxpayers-get-a-smarter-and-fairer-system/
It sounds like you have no idea what you are talking about and just fear mongering. Maybe you should talk to your accountant before 17 Oct.
Whith all due respect Incognito, are these the same 6% who already don't pay taxes and are on record for not paying taxes?
Yeah it's one of those good in theory ideas where the reality is accountants and lawyers do well arranging trusts off shore holdings etc and the actual tax revenue recieved is well below that forecasted.
Incognito-thank you for injecting some sense and facts into the Green's Wealth Tax debate.
This is a truly transformational policy that would, if implemented, genuinely shift wealth from the top 6% to those in poverty.
People complaining about the WT in TS appear to be either:
1. Neo-liberals happy with the continuation of the current unfair world order.
2. Self-interested people worried that they will have to pay the tax themselves.
If they're paying $10,000 in tax a year under the Green policy, they would own a $1 million dollar home outright, have a share portfolio worth $500,000, savings of $300,000, and have a new Tesla and an Audi in the garage.
Gosh, how is little old Mary going to survive on the pension, driving her runabout Tesla to the supermarket to buy budget bread and a weekly lotto ticket in the hope she might extract herself from the extortionate Government tax.
https://www.greens.org.nz/poverty_action_plan
Nice try. It's 1% for each dollar over $1m. To pay $10k wealth tax, you need another million on top of that. For a couple, you would need a total of $4m to be paying $20k. Cry me a river.
Yes better they capture it as death duties again 1
Will the family home be exempt? Surely only the "investment" properties will be taxed?
family home is not exempt, the greens want your money
Okay, having read the report, I get your point. It may mean a coalition isn't feasible.
Update from a Greens party leader on that: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/greens-james-shaw-says-wealth-tax-priority-but-not-bottom-line-labour-coalition
Thanks, that's helpful. Those into facts will remain frustrated, of course. Since "Julie-Anne did use that language yesterday", according to James, while implying she was wrong to do so.
So she doesn't know the difference between priorities & bottom lines?? Or is there no actual difference, and Greens make it up as they go along? “We don’t use bottom lines" seems to be James using the term as a precondition of coalition entry, and rejecting such usage.
I think his approach is appropriate. Perhaps Julie-Anne used the term inappropriately, due to a slip of her tongue. Or, as Trump would say, "I mis-spoke."
I was right on that last point:
Got Bomber excited again:
Perhaps James will have to educate him about the relation of Green leadership to coalition negotiating.
He could have helpfully explained that accidentally telling the truth is a Labour Party thing.
Too simple for Bomber. And there's yet another point that will bamboozle him:
I have no idea what she was thinking using that phrase. Uncharacteristically dim.
the greens want your money
Course they do, silly. How do you think that shit that needs doing gets done?
You'll be pleased to hear that at least one 'fringe' party NZ Outdoors Party member agrees with you.
Reacted with some emphasis when I suggested raising taxes by 1.5% across the board to fund health and disability equity.
does the term "Political Suicide" mean anything to you Rosemary?
yeah, so lets tax the one bit of wealth people in this country can aspire to hold, a property.
"shit that needs doing gets done" I look at my neighbours and see a sleepout with garage converted to a flat and the backyard soil covered with concrete to replace the garage ("we have plans"), a backyard barren of all but mown grass because it's just "too much trouble" to grow fruit trees and veges, a pile of rubbish and excavated clay where once veges grew because of willful passive aggressive ignorance. No amount of money will change this. Why bother when it's "too much like hard work" and "I get my veges from the supermarket" – like most people.
Alan…in order to transfer it to those in poverty.
FIFY
The devil in the detail lies in the differential between net wealth & modest income, and since retired folk will be concerned about that, the policy has an escape clause:
so if there house is worth $1.5 million and they live for 25 more years, the government will take $375,000 when they die, that is really a vote winner
[Read the policy before you comment on it. It might help inform you.
A retired couple living in in house worth $1.5 million don’t pay a cent in wealth tax under this policy – Incognito]
Unlikely to win the votes of their children! The interesting thing to watch for at the election is what proportion of the 94% of the electorate that the policy benefits will vote Green in support of the policy.
Say the Greens get a substantial vote of above 10% – that will indicate significant policy resonance to ensure the validity of the policy as an effective ploy.
If they don't get that, the wealth tax will become a proven marketing failure…
It's not the taking a slice of the estate that bothers me. At that moment, what was a home has been converted into a mere financial instrument. It's the way that when the first partner dies, the survivor suddenly gets lifted into the net asset bracket where a punitive tax applies at the exact same moment their income drops sharply, and will then be dealing with the psychological effects of an ever-increasing tax debt at a life-stage when debt-free financial independence is increasingly important.
agreed, well stated.
See my Moderation note @ 8:55 AM.
yes but as soon as one of them dies the surviving partner will start paying wealth tax, financial hardship piled on top of grief. – such a wonderful thing for our aged community to look forward to, thanks Greens
How much does the surviving partner have to pay?
yes, I got that wrong, they pay 1% on the amount above $1 million.Say the house is now worth $1.6 million, that means they need to find an additional $6,000.00 per year after tax for the rest of their life – another winner from the kind, sharing hard left.
The thought of having that imposed on my hard working parents really pisses me off.
Indeed, the surviving partner would pay $6k pa in wealth tax to live rent-free, which amounts to $115 per week. That’s not going to break the bank, is it?
The value of the property may go up (likely) or down (unlikely). When it is sold, there is no CGT. That really pisses me off.
When the surviving partner passes away, there is no inheritance tax. That really pisses me off.
How much of one’s wealth is generated through hard work and prudent living and how much is through rising property prices that prices many others out of owning a home and driving them into the rental trap? That really pisses me off.
As long as your hard-working parents are alive, they don’t pay a cent in wealth tax. Enjoy your parents’ company for as long as you can and don’t worry about something that may not happen in a long time, bless them.
Not on a super payment of $847 per fortnight, winter fuel payments and eligibility for a rates rebate. Quite doable I'd say.
how much would rates be on a property like this?
Look, your relentless negativity isn't changing my mind about a policy that, while good (in my eyes), isn't likely to come about, especially as James Shaw is already walking back the bottom line quote.
In Auckland, about $3500 pa, which might get rebated down to about $2800 pa if their only income was Super. Then about $1500pa for home insurance, about $600pa for water etc etc.
its not negativity, its realism.
Seriously, how much would rates be on a property like this?
IF we assume this hypothetical scenario and we look at income derived vs outgoings then Rates need to be included. How much would the rates be on a property that raises exponentially due to high land cost for example, but with no actual raise in income.
because this is an issue in many areas where land prices are going up up up and wages and super don't.
or the rates raise because of Council spending 🙂
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12363476
So why not answering the questions rather then running away shouting relentless negativity. IS that all you got?
Andre…
24 September 2020 at 11:41 am
thanks for that.
I'm totally happy with my position and for calling your relentless negativity for what it is, ta. It’s a logical deduction.
But if you feel the need to go in to bat for the very asset rich amongst us at the expense of the very poorest, you go right ahead.
The Al1en…
24 September 2020 at 11:49 am
Quote: I'm totally happy with my position and calling your relentless negativity for what it is. Ta.
But if you feel the need to go in to bat for the asset rich amongst us at the expense of the very poorest, you go right ahead. Quote end.
seriously? That is all you got? Your math was wrong, you left out an important part of home owning, Rates. Rates that are currently going up with no end in sight. Ok right. And other then that, you still have not answered a fair and square question.
But maybe its your relentless optimism that makes you just over look such important factors as Rates when you talk about finances and what is feasable on a fixed income or what is not. Its like the national dudes that do math and then discover holes in their math, but its ok.
And last but least the 'asset rich' the developpers, the slum lords etc they won't be paying that tax. They already don't pay tax.
I don't buy the concern for the poor when you moan about paying minimum wages to your employees.
Sabine, people can already defer rates until their home is sold. Nothing special needed.
In Wellington about $5500 plus further increases promised. Plus insurance $3600 plus parking coupons for a lot of inner city suburbs $200 plus rubbish collection. So another $6000 or so would just about wipe out a single pension or increase inner city rents something drastic . It would be over $300 a week to live in an owned home.
The surviving partner's assets have just increased by $800,000. There is a plan to tax it.. that can be deferred to sale date. Oh the humanity! Won't someone think of the children's inheritance, so they can take it.. all untaxed.
so this tax can be deferred to the point of sale, but we can’t have a Capitals Gains Tax? That sounds like sound logic.
It reflects on people resisting a CGT, yes.
Yeah Greens seem to be doing their bit, you'll have to ask Labour why we don't have one.
NZF
Trouble is most people wont read the policy so will be very easy to scaremonger
Ignorance is no excuse. It is ok to be wrong but it is not ok to be wilfully ignorant.
What happens when one of them dies. Normally then the house is transferred to the spouse. If he/she lives for 15 more years say, wouldn't that be 1% of $500k per year for 15 years = $75k tax …still a lot of money. I don't like it.
Legislate to cap salaries at $40,000 pa. I am paid – like it or not a shitload of money I don't need and would do what I do because I like doing it and am competent. It all assumes people work ONLY FOR THE FUCKING MONEY.
Other than it adds to the administrative costs, the Greens have already said it won't be on the family home, only on investments…. but some people want to clutch their pearls….
are you sure about that?
Yes
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/beachheroes/pages/12689/attachments/original/1594876918/Poverty_Action_Plan_policy_document_screen-readable.pdf?1594876918
Please quote where the document says it won't apply to the family home. I haven't found anything that says the family home is exempt, but did find the following which certainly implies the family home will be taxed if the proposal is implemented:
Perhaps you need to read what you link – Because you are telling Untruths at best, and if you truely are a Greens Supporter then making such untrue statements (Purposely) perhaps is why some cannot trust and vote for the Greens and they are hanging on a survival knife edge.
We’ll tax wealth fairly by introducing a new tax on individuals’ net wealth over $1 million. This means those who have their own wealth worth more than $1 million – not including mortgages and other debt
https://www.greens.org.nz/progressive_tax_reform
I think wealth tax includes the family home. Any CGT talk (at the moment) does not include the family home.
Treasury advice is relevant here. It would be reasonable to expect that the Greens have not factored in revenue collection feasibility.
Not at all…a lien on assets to be collected on disposal….a system local bodies have used for years with regard to that land tax called 'rates'
Nash's quote sounds a great justification for a capital gains tax
Yep, a capital gains tax really is the much better way to collect tax from the income generated by capital. It's part of the reason why most countries actually do tax capital gains, but very few collect any significant wealth taxes.
I suspect that the only reason why the Greens went with a wealth tax is because almost everybody is against a CGT.
i suspect the reason is the fact that capital gain on improved business practice is penalised whereas a wealth tax does not….capital gain on a successfully expanded business that provides employment and possibly FX is not the target…pointless property inflation however is.
A wealth tax targets that scenario and provides incentive to invest in income ( and therefore employment) generating assets rather than a state subsidised RE market that dosnt produce FA…not to mention that its a ponzi scheme that destabilises the entire banking system
Last night Ianmac posted a quote from Brian Gould about the lighting angles and camera positions in the leaders debate.
it clarified my view that the set up of the debate overwhelmingly favoured National. I also noticed quite frequently when Jacinda was replying the camera went straight on Collins.
i am sure Campbell irrupted Jacinda more cutting her short.
last night I put in a complaint to the media council. It’s pretty easy to do and I would encourage others to do it. I let the standard know how it goes
I'm sure there's a box of wet bus tickets ready for that and any other complaints.
A top down review and clearcut is required at TVNZ/RNZ. Maori TV appears back on track after Maxwell's silver hammer routine national inflicted on them, doing good stuff locally and terrific movies.
However plenty of TVNZ/RNZ output fails the journalism, objectivity and what an old boss called 'intellectual rigour' bar to be broadcast. But hey we don't seem to care anymore, not seeing any party want to address it.
Yes sure it will be a wet bus ticket. but it will cause theme time and nothing like letting people know they are not pulling the wool over your eyes.
Most effort probably goes into the lame judgements they pronounce to look all considered and tough which accompany the bus ticket.
Grammerly probably gets a workout after some copy/paste reasoning.
Speaking of the debate somethings been bothering me. Did judith say she was brought up on a farm in a state house whose windows didn't shut properly?
Because I've never heard of a state house on a farm.
I need to go back and re-watch it just to clarify.
Not sure Cinny. I seem to recall she said State houses weren't well built and cited the windows not shutting properly example.
State houses are solid as unlike leaky homes built as a result of deregulation
The woman is either an idiot, or a cynical cheat. My house was built in the early 1950s. Not a state house, but looks similar.. There were no airtight windows then.
I shut the windows tight, but in winter I can feel air leaking through. Judith Collins expecting 1930s – 1960s houses to have windows that don't let air through is like expecting a 1950s Morris Minor to have air bags and ASB brakes. (One can seal these old windows with sticky-back foam rubber tapes, if one wants to.)
Next door is a house built in the 1970s. It has the luxury of rubber-sealed alloy windows. But I notice heaps more condensation on the inside of them than I get in my place. I conclude that a certain amount of air circulation may be healthy!
What I suspect is that if Judith and her ilk do get into power (heaven forbid!) she will immediately use the 'leaky windows' argument for selling off (to the already well-off) every state house built before 1970, so that her mates can benefit ever more from rising property values and rents, while the poor who rent them will struggle to pay their rent off even 2 or 3 jobs paid at a miserable minimum rate.
A classic way of creating a hell-hole of a society, so that a profit-gouging, greedy element can have their way.
My parents were the first tenants in a state house built in Mt Roskill (Auckland) in1947 on a quarter acre section. We never had condensation but we did have an open fireplace which was well used in winter. All the houses in the street are still standing, well maintained and sheltering families. The back sections have become infill housing – the newer houses don't look like they'll last 70 years.
During the "debate" Ms Collins said she would like to get rid of all the old state houses. Some parts of Auckland have had hundreds of older state houses removed and replaced by apartments / town houses. Only time will tell how people adjust to living so close to each other. I guess after being crammed in emergency housing (single motel units) anything else will feel like luxury.
Saw a tweet the other day from someone who'd grown up down the road from the farm Collins lived on and surprise surprise, the houses looked like the state houses of the day.
To be fair, the state house design was used for accommodation by most government departments back in the day. Go to any site that either is owned by the government or was in the past, and you will find state housing.
Examples include, the towns built around the hydro dams, and the power stations in Meremere and Huntly, housing at the old mental hospitals, Forestry workers housing, and in Jude’s case, Landcorp’s predessors.
And a lot of them were moved, often several times as projects moved on. They were never quite the same after a few of those. Don't expect the windows to be square.
Thanks everyone.
Fair point Millsy.
Not negating what you have raised..in the interests of fairness, the logo on the floor of the studio featured a circle with a red tick.
I could hear Judith fans howling about unfair, obvious bias and Jacindamania.
Come on, Campbell was feeding Jacinda answers. On the hospital question Jacinda was getting it all wrong and going on about insisting on MOH mandated budget cuts. Campbell tried to feed her the simple popular answer with the prompt, will some of that debt need to be written off? But she stuck to her position and eventually Judith got to take up the point that "obviously" some of the hospitals debt would need to be forgiven.
The original problem is the supply of capital to HB's with a certain cost to pay for it year by year. Given the current cost of debt this is windfall profit territory. The cost of capital impacts on their operational budgets and inevitably leads to deficits and over time mounting debt. Debt the government can finance far more cheaply than the boards can. And so on.
Sure. Question is why is the correct answer so obvious that Collins can mouth it while the Labour leader PM has to avoid answering the question.
Bear with me while I tell a tale of three Rich Pricks, each with a couple mill to do something with. To illustrate how a wealth tax operates very differently to a capital gains tax.
Rick Prick the First is aware of a high value specialised substance collected from wild-growing seaweed, and conceives an aquaculture venture to farm this seaweed. He purchases a block of land fronting onto suitable estuaries in a remote part of the country (hoping to provide future employment in a depressed area), and puts the remainder of his fortune into equipment etc that would be needed to process the seaweed. As it turns out, a couple of seasons of red tide, and other developments in the area affected the water quality so the venture never takes off, and ten years later finally gives up. He recovers about 1.2M from selling the land. Under the wealth tax regime, over those ten years he has paid about $100k for the privilege of losing $800k of wealth, at least partly due to government permitting other environmentally degrading activities making his venture non-viable, and the steady suck of $10k a year wealth tax added too much continual drain on ongoing cashflow. He would not be liable for any capital gains tax.
Rich Prick the Second puts his 2mill into a block of ratty houses in a kinda neglected area, to be an aspiring slumlord. Over the next ten years the government invests a lot in renewing the neighbourhood and improving transport links, so at the end of ten years RP the 2nd sells his shabby house to a developer for basically the skyrocketed land value of 6mill. Because his clever accountants and lawyers have kept the assessed property values rising fairly slowly he's only paid about $120k in assessed wealth tax over those ten years, and trousers a capital gain of $4mill untaxed. If we just did a straight copy of Australia's capital gains tax regime with NZ rates, RP2nd would pay $660k capital gains tax on his windfall that was entirely due to government investment in the area.
Rich Prick the Third spends around 1.5M on a nice-ish house in a bush area, and invest the rest to give a little bit of income to live on. Over the ten years he puts a fair bit into keeping the bush area pest-free and restoring degraded areas. After ten years, there's been a modest capital gain of half a mill in his house (modest because the government hasn't really done anything for the area, but it's close enough to the big smoke to benefit from general increase in demand for housing) and investments when he sells up to go do something else with his life. He would pay about $120k in wealth tax over those ten years (which would soak up all of the investment income at current rates of return), plus income tax on the investment income. Under a capital gains tax, he would pay about $67k for the capital gain the government didn't do much to create apart from just maintaining society, plus the income tax.
Andre-are you against a Wealth Tax per se or do you see adjustments as being possible to the Greens' WT that will, in your opinion, make it workable?
i think he is saying that a Capital Gains tax would be the answer.
i think a Capital Gains tax would be the answer.
As long as people are clear on what it will and won't do.
A capital gains tax won't fix the housing market. As long as there are is less supply than demand, there will be profits available.
A capital gains tax will simply take a slice of the profits to go back into maintaining the society that made those profits possible. That maintenance of a good society might include the state building more housing for those that need it, which would increase the supply and reduce excess demand, thereby reducing potential private profiteering from the capital intensive activity of providing housing.
i don't expect any taxes to fix the housing market. But if we could actually tax wealth at the point of sale it would work in rasing revenue, btw, that would apply to me too if i sell my business i would be taxed, right now i am not.
The housing market will need intervention that currently not one person in Goverment – irrespective of their stripes – even want to contemplate. So they rather add another few hundred thousand people to the Accomodation Benefit and they rather charge beneficiaries 25% of their benefits or low wages to pay for Emergency and Transitional Housing. – which again benefits them and their 'own class'.
The same rate at which every other beneficiary or wage earner up to $635 for a single or over $900 for joint incomes pays for state housing, leaving them 75% each week.
State housing is a rental, stable fixed with a landlord – the government who is accountable.
Emergency housing is where ever winz send you, to what ever hovel they don't even care to expect, and it does not even have to be close to the schools your kids go to.
Not even the same. You tried this before and it is still dumb. Seriously try harder, be best or something.
If you're homeless and the government want to take much less than market rates for you to stay in a motel until you get something permanent, given the alternatives of living in your car, a garage or under a bridge, I don't think that's as outrageous as you want it to be.
Though a wealth tax on the very asset rich may make funds available to do it for free 😉
this is from Auguat:
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-mcivor-mornings/audio/dileepa-fonseka-and-karen-hocking-on-landlords-getting-3k-a-week-for-emergency-housing/
Paying a slumlord up to 3000 NZD – motel rates for a week – because the last government and the current government are shit at negotiating fair rates is not the problem that the homeless have created. It is the Governments fault.
taking 25% of what ever a homeless person or family may have to -fund part of the shittily negotiated 3000 NZD motel rates per week – to make a quick buck and look a bit less idiotic, usless and like complete frauds that suck at negotiating is not fair towards the person/family who already has nothing.
But it again shows that the last government and the current guvernment are shit at a. negotiating fair rates for emergency shelters and transitional housing, .b iare totally shit at creating government funded and run emergency shelters, and Labour is no better then was National when they settled homeless people with the debt of that 'housing'. Neither party gives a flying fuck about the poor.
And that wealth tax that James Shaw is running away from now is not gonna be paid for by the asset rich and cash rich of this country but by yourself and people like you.
And James Shaw and Grant Robertson know that. And they are the wealthy people that you would like to tax in the first place, and they have absolutely no reason to increase their cost of living.
Yeah, yeah, and as I wrote the other day, charging for unchecked rooms in a house probably isn't a good policy, but then you know that already if you read the reply.
Still, as far as I'm concerned, charging someone 25% of their wage to be secure in a motel rather than out on the street doesn't seem like the worst thing ever, and certainly far from disgraceful, uncaring or "bullshit"
I am against the wealth tax per se because it is is very poorly targeted. It will also severely discourage some activities that are beneficial to society, that require high capital assets but don't generate high income. Such as bush restoration. I don't see any way to adjust the wealth tax to make it work better in its effects on people's financial decisions and general well-being. Politically, it would be less harmful if it were set at a significantly higher level, say where it hit the 1% who already have to have accountants file do their taxes, not the 6% most of whom don't need accountants.
I strongly support taxing income generated from capital – which is why a support a capital gains tax, and I think things like the PIE tax rates being lower than the income tax rates are a big mistake. I also think we should have estate taxes and gift taxes – the idea that unearned income doesn't get taxed while earned income (which we want to encourage, right?) does get taxed strikes me as wrong way around.
+1
I too think this is very poorly targeted and riddled with problems. As some one said a tax for living in Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown.
Don't forget that if the bulk of inner city properties in the main centres are hit by this tax (why would high rise multi flat student accommodation be exempt?) then it is also going to add a belt to rents – the very people this is supposed to help.
Plus it taxes those whose parents live onshore and hands it out to them plus all those whose parents live offshore in Texas or London or some where else and are not paying the taxes.
And why tax wealth if you won't tax multi million dollar salaries ( and block up the loopholes around tax being paid in companies and trusts)? Grant not lifting the trust rate was a huge no-no.
Also any deferrals (which would have interest) are basically state supplied reverse mortgages which for a single person (largely women) might apply over 30-40 years. Nobody suggests reverse mortgages are a good thing and compound interest could ensure they die a pauper.
Your logical fallacy is: Appeal to emotion.
I don't know anything about Lawrence Yule.
Is he special or just typical National scum?
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/national-mp-lawrence-yules-ad-under-investigation-after-complaints-its-misleading
Is it open slather? Can any politician say they're going to do something and then imply they've achieved, delivered it?
Lawrence looks to be an exceptional national candidate, insulting the voters IQ with that claim. Top work and who closed the last Hospital they had ?
He was Mayor of Hastings and presided over the Hastings District Council during the
campylobacter fiasco of 2016.
He's special, for sure. Not many mayors have had blood on their hands.
Election 2020: National promises farmers return of foreign workers and a rollback of regulations on water and climate
From the party that gave farmers mycoplasma bovis.
Yeah. Good choice.
'Murica, where only white people matter.
https://twitter.com/dctello/status/1308843541293084674
https://twitter.com/i/lists/1286700268122300416
..or, it seems, the ballot box..
https://twitter.com/dandrezner/status/1308898742498660352
What I find scariest is how all the Repugs are cheerfully going along with it all. Four years ago, I would have guessed that out of the nearly 300 Repugs in Congress, there would be at least a dozen or so that had some semblance of spine and principle and would at least attempt to slow down a few of the most egregious violations of laws and norms. But no, there's not a single one with even a hint of backbone. At most, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins occasionally appear to have faint vestiges of overboiled cartilage that slightly distinguish them from the rest of their school of jellyfish.
Spineless fuckers will abet the coup.
The Interregnum allots 35 days for the count and its attendant lawsuits to be resolved. On the 36th day, December 8, an important deadline arrives.
At this stage, the actual tabulation of the vote becomes less salient to the outcome. That sounds as though it can’t be right, but it is: The combatants, especially Trump, will now shift their attention to the appointment of presidential electors.
December 8 is known as the “safe harbor” deadline for appointing the 538 men and women who make up the Electoral College. The electors do not meet until six days later, December 14, but each state must appoint them by the safe-harbor date to guarantee that Congress will accept their credentials. The controlling statute says that if “any controversy or contest” remains after that, then Congress will decide which electors, if any, may cast the state’s ballots for president.
We are accustomed to choosing electors by popular vote, but nothing in the Constitution says it has to be that way. Article II provides that each state shall appoint electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.” Since the late 19th century, every state has ceded the decision to its voters. Even so, the Supreme Court affirmed in Bush v. Gore that a state “can take back the power to appoint electors.” How and when a state might do so has not been tested for well over a century.
Trump may test this. According to sources in the Republican Party at the state and national levels, the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority. With a justification based on claims of rampant fraud, Trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly. The longer Trump succeeds in keeping the vote count in doubt, the more pressure legislators will feel to act before the safe-harbor deadline expires
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/
Or not.
https://twitter.com/ripeka/status/1308989328304025600
Jobs, training. skills, income, sense of worth, companionship, socialisation not loneliness, co-operation – all draw us together. This sounds good for younger people – now something for retirees to do that gives back to society some of what the cohesive society is giving out to them.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018765237/new-project-jobs-for-ex-prisoners-and-improved-water-quality
Nature enter me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB2EiHOB0Mw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fourmyula
So "on May 27, less than a week of being in leadership, Muller had a panic attack for the first time in his life. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/had-step-away-fire-todd-muller-intense-panic-attacks-mental-health-struggle-national-leader.html
Good to see him sharing his experience of the physiology. Lotsa folk still deny the mind/body interface. For a conservative to specify how it affected him makes him a valuable role model to help other conservatives get real. Farmers, especially!
Will never forget the Dr that prescribed me sleeping pills to help with severe depression when the girls were 3 and 5yrs old.
Take one at 4pm the Dr said…. fell asleep on the couch at 4.30pm kids couldn't wake me no matter how hard they tried, not good for a single parent. Thankfully Mum turned up out of the blue and helped with the girls while I continued to be zombied out. Never took one again. Useless Dr.
I went to that Dr 13 times asking for help in under 6mths, her solution, sleeping pills. Changed Dr's after that, finally got some real help along with counselling which changed my life.
Glad mental health is coming out in the opening, it's so important to have these conversations and share experiences.
Reminds me the Stones had a hit song about that when I was 16: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Little_Helper
I wondered if he really wanted to be National leader in the first place, maybe he was badgered into it.
We shouldn't discount a guilty conscience. Todd Mk 3 being a man of god and all.
It's 2020. Of course it'll become deadlier.
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1308836808722182150
Scientists in Houston on Wednesday released a study of more than 5,000 genetic sequences of the coronavirus that reveals the virus’s continual accumulation of mutations, one of which may have made it more contagious.
The new report, however, did not find that these mutations have made the virus deadlier or changed clinical outcomes. All viruses accumulate genetic mutations, and most are insignificant, scientists say.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/23/houston-coronavirus-mutations/?arc404=true
Perhaps it's something in the water there. They should do a study on how Flint residents are getting on.
We in the USA have the biggest mutations! Fact!
Hilarious. Chris Martenson reported on the D614G mutation months ago … sometime back in June .
A more infectious mutation going from being detected in 70% of global infections to a 99.9 percent prevalence in a particular location sure is hilarious.
/
Hilarious in the /sarc sense that it takes this long for useful information to get into the public domain. At this rate the importance of Vit D and C will probably hit the media sometime in the New Year.
I'll constrain my comments to this; in the course of this pandemic I've seen a number of issues on which my confidence in the integrity of the medical system has been severely shaken. It looks very much to me that a combination of professional arse covering, gross politicisation of the science, and an industry desire to find a nice profitable solution to COVID have muddied the waters badly. And probably cost not only 100's thousand of lives, but deeply dented the global economy in ways we are yet to discover.
NZ has been served relatively well by it's govt Health System, but elsewhere the entire episode has been a shameful wake up call.
A quick google turns up actually authoritative sources discussing the D614G mutation back at least as far as May.
https://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2020/Covid19-expert-commentary-D614G-mutation-of-SARS-CoV-2
edit: similarly back in May for the correlation between vitamin d deficiency and worse covid outcomes.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200507121353.htm
But I haven’t seen anything that suggests taking vitamin d if you’re not deficient has any benefit.
So why has it taken damn nearly six months for the importance of the D614G mutation’s increased infectivity (Martenson talked in terms of a factor of 4) to hit the mainstream media?
Given that 40% of North Americans and 80% of Black Americans are Vit D deficient, and the numbers are typically higher among the elderly, then yes there is a strong case for supplementation. It should have been made mandatory for all care home residents ages ago.
In terms of evidence there is the preliminary Spanish clinical trial referenced here a few weeks back, plus two very large Israeli observational correlation studies, all of which confirm what has been known, as you say since May, that Vit D plays an important role in preventing serious outcomes.
In terms of treatment of hospital cases, the Spanish clinical study found that a derivative of Vit D that is immediately available to the body, gave a strong indication of being an effective tool in the treatment arsenal. Apparently a larger follow up trial is in the pipeline, but hell this is really good news if it’s confirmed.
Vit D supplementation is cheap, safe and could have massively blunted the impact of this pandemic months ago. You have to ask why it wasn't at least trialed on a substantial scale by some govt, somewhere. But no, we all have to wait for an expensive vaccine it seems.
Much more problematic is the recent corona express flight from managed QF in chch to AK.
An update on the case of the man who left MIQ in Christchurch having returned negative tests for COVID-19 and then tested positive in Auckland.
There were 86 people on that flight. 70 have returned negative results, 6 were previously reported positive cases that do not require further testing; 3 are recently reported positive cases, 7 are pending.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300115026/live-daily-covid19-update
https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1307006368138833920
Without gainsaying all of this above, can you also tell us about the false positive rate for the PCR testing, and the impact this has on case rates?
As all positive tests also have genomic sequencing,you need to be a bit more expansive on the question.(are you suggesting cross contamination / etc)
Much worse the tourism to Taupo by those infected. This is potentially the beginning of the end of our return to level 1 this year.
Cheap. There you go. Who's getting rich off that?
Vitamin D and sleep are vital to immunity – esp T cells.
Yup every rest home should blood test and issue supplements in the most effective form. Everyone infected should be blood tested and if Vit D levels are low they get a real big booster.
Every primary care service to
Maori should test and prescribe to those with low levels. And those over 50 should take it through winter (as they do not get as much off the skin as younger people do in summer).
What you have not heard about yet in MSM – is something in the bmj – British Medical Journal.
Some people seem to have immunity to this coronavirus – and they are people who have never been infected (never had any antibodies).
(PS Swine flu 2009 – those born before 1949 seemed to have immunity to that).
14/6/20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZoBb-ngk5k&feature=youtu.be&t=240
Despite coming in for a silly bit of flak here back in early Feb, Chris Martenson has always been well ahead of the game. Works from the principle: Perfect is the enemy of Good … in a fast-moving Pandemic, don't wait for peer-reviewed perfection … just go with the available emerging data & make a judgement call on the veracity of each … adapt to new info as you go. Consequently, 6 months ahead of WHO / CDC & even a couple of months ahead of the otherwise wonderful John Campbell (except, perhaps, on Vitamin D … I started getting Vit D supplements for both us & my Parents back in mid-Feb on advice from Campbell). Between them, Martenson & Campbell have been required viewing this year.
Yes. Someone in a YT comment thread said that they regarded Martenson as a 'leading indicator' and Campbell as a 'lagging indicator', but when they both started saying the same thing you had to be reasonably confident of the information.
Perfect is the enemy of Good … in a fast-moving Pandemic, don't wait for peer-reviewed perfection … just go with the available emerging data & make a judgement call on the veracity of each … adapt to new info as you go.
Absolutely. In a crisis demanding impractical standards of evidence is fatal; it's a form of 'paralysis by analysis'.
Does Dr Martenson still believe that Covid-19 is an artificial (engineered) virus?
Martenson's recent advice on taking vitamin D supplements to maintain and/or improve one's immune system seem sound, and certainly 99% of nutritionists would agree. It's a beautiful day and the sun is shining – time for a morning walk.
Chapter 24 – Vitamin D and Immunity (in Foods and Dietary Supplements in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease in Older Adults , published 2015)
"This chapter focuses on the current understanding of vitamin D and immunity, with special attention to the elderly. Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency are common among the elderly population. Vitamin D plays an immunoregulatory role in innate and adaptive immunity, and low vitamin D status has been implicated in the etiology of immune disorders, such as infectious diseases as well as some autoimmune disorders. As summarized here, the aging of the immune system is well documented and indicates that both innate and adaptive immunity are impaired with increasing age. Nutritional intervention with vitamin D seems to be a valid approach to delay the deterioration of the immune system with increasing age. Based on promising results in targeting some of the impairments of the immune system in older people, supplementation with vitamin D seems to be one strategy in attempting to increase not only the lifespan but also the health span of this increasing elderly proportion of the global population."
Does Dr Martenson still believe that Covid-19 is an artificial (engineered) virus?
I watched Martenson's arguments on this in detail. In short I agree with him that there are too many unusual aspects to this virus to make the official story that it evolved completely in nature to be a satisfactory answer.
Of course no-one has proof of it being 'engineered' either, that would demand a standard of evidence we're very unlikely to ever get. It remains as far as I'm concerned an open question.
As for all the biotech people insisting it has to have been naturally evolved, you have to keep in mind that if it wasn't, this would be an absolutely catastrophe for their profession. It would be a loss of credibility far worse than Chernobyl was for the nuclear industry, so yes I do think there are some strong motivations at work here.
The same for why various cheap and effective treatments have been downplayed as well, or why the science around HCQ was so crazily politicised … again questionable motivations at work.
Martenson no doubt believed that Covid-19 was an artificial (engineered) virus when he was writing about that hypothesis months ago. I'd like to know if he still believes that, i.e. has he reaffirmed his opinion in the last few weeks?
It would be interesting, for example, to know his view(s) on the 14 Sept. Yan report, just as it would be interesting to understand why some believe that various cheap, if unproven treatments for Covid-19 infections have been “downplayed” as the official global Covid-19 death toll approaches its first million.
I'd like to know if he still believes that, i.e. has he reaffirmed his opinion in the last few weeks?
In the past few weeks Martenson has said that he's going to wind up his COVID coverage and shift his focus back to his main interest which is resilience and thriving in uncertain times. (He's really got a lot more in common with most Greenies than anyone else.) Absent any new information on where COVID came from I doubt he'll have anything to add to what he's said already.
I would guess that his position right now is similar to the one I expressed above.
Thanks RL; while I disagree with Martenson's previously expressed opinion on a hypothetical artificial origin for Covid-19, this January 2019 statement of his certainly rings true to me.
Aunt Lydia's on her way.
https://twitter.com/Jackasaurus3/status/1308869282764333056
President Pussygrabber would sign that law so fast the Sharpie would start smoking. Especially if it named him the Chief Inspector.
Breaking story on RNZ 4:00 news!!!
Judith Collins is upset the All Blacks may be in isolation at Christmas.
THE WORLD IS ENDING !! Jesus wept.
I take it that the Wabbalies play the game and bugger off home. Sanzaar ceo sounds like a bit of a prick.
Oz Rubgy is bankrupt….should pull the pin and watch them drown