The government had the opportunity to get rid of neoliberalism and return to its roots as a working class party. Labour 2022 is not socialist. It is simply a manager for the corporate establishment.
It chose the liberal middle class instead and consigned itself to the dustbin of history.
Can’t put it much clearer than that. And evidence is there via the neo liberal Parliamentary consensus–whereby the State Sector Act, Reserve Bank Act, monetarist transactional methods etc. roll over with each election. Labour has enacted a number of useful reforms that the Natzos would not have…but…when the pirate banks and supermarket duopoly laugh in their and citizens faces and keep raking it in, and a state house mega build remains wanting…
As for the current RB rate hike, unemployed are often viewed by tories as “dirty filthy bennies”, a sub class of despicable losers…yet the RB Governor now says we need to add to their ranks to fight inflation, what the…while at the same time employers say they are labour starved and want more migrant labour. Now sure, jobs and people cannot always be linked, but the employers position says little more than–“cheap labour now please”–just as a number of workers are rediscovering their fight and winning decent wage increases.
The faux separation of, and ‘independent’ status of the Reserve Bank, under the RB Act, is such a travesty and reveals like little else why the NZ neo liberal state has to be booted.
Descending into negative equity is going to be a humbling experience for some holders of thumping great mortgages, and guess what–voting for Baldrick is not going to make it better–the contrary in fact. Retired, middle class, working class and alienated need to find some points of unity and develop public action to combat the coming shit show.
I see that the National Party and Groundswell are crowing about the number of signatures included in their petition which Groundswell describes as a "farming tax" but Stuff.co.nz describes as a "food tax" (Interesting contrast!).
By my rough calculations the petition at just over 102,000 was signed by something like 3% of the electorate – not a particularly impressive result and does not confirm Groundwell's claims that the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders support them.
By the way Groundswell keep sending me unsolicited feeds on Facebook and then getting angry when I respond to them asking questions which they don't want to answer. The solution is simple – if they don't want any criticism then stop sending them to me. The very first question I asked is "why are you calling it a farming tax when it is not a farming tax per se – it is an agricultural carbon emissions tax – which is not the same thing as in if you farm without emitting then you don't pay. I then told them that they were really just a front for the National Party at which point I received some hysterical troll responses.
They get angry unless you tell them what they want to hear.
net zero carbon. You sequester more GHGs than you produce. This means transitioning to regenerative models that build soil, biodiversity and grow forests, as well as reducing the GHG emitting practices and stopping relying on pay to pollute carbon credit schemes.
This is physically possible. The main blocks are economic, political and philosophical. I favour subsidising farms to transition, but farmers have to be on board. We also can't do industrial farming at the scale we currently do, so we need to transition our economy at the same time.
I'm generally in agreement about the large scale dairy farms we have here in Canterbury. However I know many local farmers with small holdings who claim they will go out of business as a result of these new laws
that's tough, and again, I would support the government assisting family farms including small ones, to transition. Continuing to farm without taking climate and ecology into account is not a solution to their problem. Groundswell can't help them. I hope someone sorts that out though, because we don't need small family farms being bought up by corporations either.
I know a guy spent the last 30 years on the family farm on low wages, 10 years of it nursing the parents as well as running the farm , the siblings want their cut now , the farms not big enough to pay the mortgage on the 3 to 4 mill he'd have to borrow to pay them out.
Occasionally parents can structure it to hand it down , but it will usually involve getting bigger, and most likely at some point it will be to dare to hand down,
The family farm is terminal it just might be a long slow death for some.
the problem there is the decisions of the parents. Not being overly critical, lots of people are like this and don't sort this stuff out until it's too late. But there are other options to just selling up and splitting the money.
And if the parents want all the kids to have an equal share and thus are ok with the farm being sold, then they’re ok with it no longer being a family farm. That’s on them.
bearing in mind that my parents' generation were the ones where the farm got left to the oldest boy and the girls were supposed to marry farmers if they wanted a farming life.
I’ve also seen the farmers who inherited a farm but then when they want to retire they want bought out. So yeah, the land prices are a huge problem, but there are other factors here too.
I know a farming family who put the farm into a trust and now the kids and their mum run it and when she dies the kids will run and I guess their kids when they have them.
Not every human activity has or is for a profit motive. Profit per se is not the issue anyway, it is about businesses paying their fair share and including this into their business models.
The banks tell us we must stop buying silly smashed avocadoes – officially! They have come to save us all from inflation by taking every cent we have left. They have come to save us from leaky homes by fire-saling the houses. They have come to stop the silly notion of anyone but the chosen rich accumulating capital by taking it all back.
The RBNZ is also telling you to hold on to your job and enjoy your pay-rise while you can, because it is projecting unemployment starting to rise in 2023, which just so happens to be election year.
Yes, but to those of us who are not schooled in even basic economics such as I it is not clear what that really means. That article doesn’t mention the RBNZ projections of the unemployment rate over the next 3 years and they are dire. It does, however, mention recession three times! The Proletariat will shrink, the Precariat will grow and NACT + NZF will ride in as our economic saviours and apply the razor gangs to government spending, including social welfare. As they always do because they are a one-trick pony with the memory of a goldfish.
We interpret the term 'maximum sustainable employment' (MSE) or full employment to mean the level of employment at which the job market is tight, but not so tight that inflation is rising out of control.
More formally, we define MSE as the highest use of labour resources that can be sustained over time without creating a sustained acceleration in inflation.
What is interesting about the RBNZs position regarding MSE, is that we had increasing inflation before wage growth rates began rising. It's almost as if workers don't have anything to do with setting prices, the actual origin of inflation.
My limited understanding of it is that headline inflation was high to start with, because of Covid and other global issues, and this is starting to feed into core inflation such as the MSE and wage inflation. I guess our economy, like so many others, was and is not resilient enough to weather so many large shocks in rapid succession.
Whatever the source of inflation, it is those least responsible for rising prices who are already bearing the brunt of its effects. It's apparently unreasonable to expect lower margins of those businesses that have enjoyed rising profits despite COVID and other global issues.
It's apparently unreasonable to expect lower margins … [my italics]
What do you mean? How is this apparent [to you]? How do you envision RBNZ and/or Government to control or influence those margins?
Yes, of course, the people at the bottom always suffer most and will always suffer more when things get worse. Rightly or wrongly, this Government does acknowledge this with the CoL adjustment, for example. However, RBNZ sees it as a contributing factor to stubbornly high household spending:
Household spending has stayed elevated, despite high inflation, rising interest rates, falling house prices and uncertainty about the global outlook. Recent spending has been supported by high employment, increasing wages, cost of living payments, and savings built up by households during COVID-19 lockdowns. [my italics]
It is apparent because the call from the RBNZ is for reduced consumer spending, not restricted profit margins. Monetary policy has significant lag and it is not always as effective as hoped.
Seeing that we must consume to live and that inflation in the cost of living (a ghoulish term when examined) has been rising faster than wages, a interventionist government could clamp down on these costs through price controls, rent controls, excess profit tax and other fiscal policies.
The Cost of Living Payment was unwise IMO and not directed properly. A reduction in tax liability for those at bottom would have been a much better move.
Petrol is still 25 cts. off per litre, PT fares are still discounted. The fuel discount also benefits the transporting industry, which unsurprisingly have asked for it to remain.
There are plenty more examples of how Government shoulders some of the burden of rising costs (inflation) for New Zealanders.
Any changes to the tax system can easily backfire and stoke the inflationary fire even further. This is the double-edged sword of given the people more money in the hand which they will spend rather than save and/or pay off debt. Consumer spending needs to come down, not go up.
At least that’s my limited understanding of the tricky situation we’re in.
It is apparent because the call from the RBNZ is for reduced consumer spending, not restricted profit margins
Its called demand destruction,it removes profits by enforcing providers to reduce margins to retain sales.it works efficiently in highly informed markets such as the US,where the prices fall to meet demand.
The RBNZs tool kit is limited and their remit is also, I am not expecting them to achieve something that is not within their capabilities. Monetary policy such that it is.
The government, however, has a commanding parliamentary majority and control of fiscal policy; which can form much more directed and precise set of tools. While they have made plenty of prudent decisions I would also join those calling on the government for a reinstatement of the rent freeze. It seems to me as an abdication of sorts to the RBNZ; rather than institute the needed redistributive laws.
People are relying on the charity, such as food banks, for the bare necessities of life in increasing numbers, but they must some how spend less? If those on the lowest incomes had more spending power they may be able to improve their living conditions, for example, no longer skipping meals, or moving out of the unhealthy rental into something better for them. Targeted tax policy could ensure that, RBNZ policies cannot. Some demand is simply unavoidable. There is also plenty of spending being done by those who do not require philanthropy, more often doling it out. It is the governments role to attempt to solve these inequities, not the RBNZ.
The only one I have seen doing anything like this is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which is an arm of Government and certainly isn't involved in lending you money to buy your home. There is only one RBNZ so you shouldn't be using a plural like "they".
I can only answer some. That may lose rentals – yes! That may lose homes – yes! I base my answers on historical precedent. This is a modern day land grab, as predicted, so blatantly obviously the same old same old.
Measures to counter this would have been to stop corporates jacking the price of everything and RBNZ not leading the charge to fuck all the little guys.
"Measures to counter this would have been to stop corporates jacking the price of everything and RBNZ not leading the charge to fuck all the little guys."
Yes. Making the impacts on little guys a political priority would be a start.
First home owners, not speculators, whose house should not be some widget in the enormous games of finance these fools play. I'm pissed off. Why were they (Government, RBNZ) all allowing so much practically free money to be lent out. And everyone BUY BUY BUY! We saw it coming, if we were meant to be paying attention and didn't… we were asleep. Everyone gets overextended and… hey presto, interest goes up, land grab.
They had the gall to tell us on the news last night those with savings are better off. Like it all balances out, this periodic stealing of people's life savings, via draining them trying to pay interest, then mortgagee sales, to further the rich.
I have an arrangement with my Bank that I pay the minimum fortnightly payment. That has not changed in the 4 years I have had the current mortgage. When interests rates were very low during Covid I was paying more principal and less interest. Now that rates are going up, I pay less principal and more interest. My fortnightly payment does not change.
The only thing that changes is the term of the loan. The date of final payment stretches out further and further. This does not bother me in the slightest – I will be long dead by then and the loan will be paid when either I, or my estate sells the property.
I bought my house over 40 years ago. I was paying 6% on the first mortgage and 9% on the second mortgage. I was single then (in the eyes of the State anyway) so I got flatmates in to help with the outgoings. In the bad days of the mid 1980's I had paid off the second mortgage, but was paying something like 17% on the first mortgage. I was lucky because my first mortgage was with Housing NZ because I bought in an area where the Government of the time was attempting to encourage home ownership. Other people were paying over 20% interest.
You do not sound that 'lucky' to me. You bought the property over 40 years ago and still have a mortgage on it? Sounds to me like your bank has done you no favours and has made a lot of money at your expense. You should probably get a good mortgage broker and some sound financial advice.
I have this mortgage now because when I paid off the original amount in 1992, I did not actually discharge the mortgage – just left it sitting there for nearly 3 decades. I borrowed against it again 4 years ago when I retired in order to fund an extensive upgrade of part of the dwelling (which at 90 odd years old was badly needed) and I rent out that part while living in the other part myself.
That sounds very smart but offset mortgages are at floating interest rate or higher and your comment makes no sense; your interest payments will go up too.
Only on the portion not offset – if it's fully offset (which is how I read the comment), no interest is charged. On the other hand, it's not much of a mortgage if it is fully offset – a mortgage in name only perhaps?
Loving the irony of Black Friday sale ads merrily sprinkled between the RBNZ pleading for people not to spend. This is the problem with capitalism, everyone constantly rowing against each other, sending out competing messages.
RBNZ says don't spend but every industry, everywhere, especially retail banking, says umm, no.
Covid relief was supposed to be security in uncertain times. What did middle New Zealand do? Went out and bought investment properties, fucking muppets.
Yes indeed, and various jackals are now gleefully buying property at lower prices. We sold six months back to move, in no rush, and the agent was really offended we held out for a less speculative buyer.
Unemployment will save us says the RB–yet–employers demand urgent imports of migrant labour. Which is really a call for low wages.
It's sad to see crime appearing to be on the increase – violent crime especially.
I did a training session at work recently about safety awareness. One of the questions the speaker asked was would you feel safer working in a bank or a dairy (in relation to the threat of robbery and/or the potential for violence)?
That is because there has been a lot of target hardening in other places. Service stations used to be easy targets, – not any more. Dairies – with their windows covered in advertising and run by family members, are the softest target around at the moment.
I have noticed some diaries starting to increase their security but I think there needs to be some consistency. I can't remember which of the big players owns 4 Square but they should be rolling out something to all their stores (though from what I know they are franchises)
They are part of the Foodstuffs Cooperative along with Pak 'n' Save and New World – technically not a franchise, but certainly looks and acts like one most of the time.
I have no idea what you are doing, but if it's a moderation issue, then moderate. If it's not, then hassling someone new like this is both rude and not great for the site. It also reflects badly on moderation.
No no, Incognito has obviously looked at my email address, matched with a previous account then is using it to needle me. I had no intention of trolling or the like – just wanted to get into some conversation again but, well, I think s/he has made themselves clear.
if it’s a moderation issue, then it needs to be dealt with as moderation not trolling someone.
I’ve had a look at your email and IP address. Email address is fine. IP address is shared with someone else who is currently active on TS. If that’s you using two names, then you cannot do that. Some mods will allow a name change for a good reason, others taking a harder line, but either way you cannot run two names here at the same time.
If there is a different explanation for the same IP address, then please explain. Otherwise, please drop pick one name and stick to it.
The IP address matches someone else's? That's weird.
Without betraying confidence/someone elses details is the person I share an email address with a long time user here? Because it isn't me – I only have one account but am on a large network.
Unfortunately for you, I’ve now looked more closely at the email address and see it’s similar to someone who’s on a permanent ban because of a long history of trolling and causing problems for moderators by trying to skirt bans. I’m putting you on the ban list again. If you think this is a mistake, then reply and your comment will end up in the back end where I will see it.
At some point lprent will do an amnesty on the permanent bans. At which point I suggest that if you want to comment here you pick one name, stick to it, and keep your head down.
I am not sure what sort of training such businesses offer.
they are usually family run and they work 24/7. My family owned such a business when I was growing up. The work is endless.
your comment does hint at a blame the victim approach. Was that what you were meaning or have I misinterpreted you? My apologies if I have. The blame lies with the a…hole who stabbed the worker to death.
Right, and who do you think should provide the training to the bosses? The police? The military?
Who do you think is equipped in NZ currently to ward off some shitheel with a knife? Would you be trained enough?
The last knife attacker is now in a female prison for attacking three people, inclusive his/their ex girlfriend who will have lasting scars in her face. And these victims simply had the audacity to go to a restaurant for a dinner and thought that was safe in NZ.
If you think dudes/ettes outside are shifty, close the door – which we do a lot now a days.
They will have to break the door, and by that time she should be able to get out the back door.
No heroics, no nothing. Just try to get out and not worry about a single thing or a single cent. Money is replacable, a cut up face is for live. IF you can't get away, give them the contents of the till, if they want a coffee to go with that , make that coffee, pack the box of chocolates and wish them a good day. Anything to stay unharmed and alive.
But in fact there is no training that can help you to get a way from someone who just simply has no respect for others, for society or their communities.
What will happen now is that Dairys will arm themselves, will hopefully always have a two people policies – if they don't have for the most part even more CCTV that they already have and if all falters, just shut. Because clearly it onus is on us to keep us alive, the police will come to mop up what is left over if the robbery/raid goes wrong, and of course lay a charge for murder or assault.
If the government is serious about winning the next election, and helping those at risk of being impacted by rising mortgage rates, then the government should change the target inflation range temporarilly to reflect the reality of the economic situation.
Those at risk don't only include mortgage holders. But also likely tenants who may face rent increases to cover increasing mortgage costs incurred by landlords.
If a lot of the inflation is imported, then, that component of inflation will not be affected. So, the only way to bring inflation back within the target band is to basically force NZ into a full-blown recession.
I think the target rate for the next three years should be say 3-5%, which would be much more achievable with a lot less pain.
I was trying to find some data to refute your claim,
But also likely tenants who may face rent increases to cover increasing mortgage costs incurred by landlords.
which I just don't think is true, at least not to the same scale of increase or remotely close to it. I do note you have couched your claim using the words, "likely", and "may".
There's this GA article from 2014. Best line is first in the comments section,
I read a lot about this also on interest, but the most obvious thing is that rents are paid from real money, out of real people income, sweat, work and productivity, that is finite. Houses are paid with fake bank money that don’t exist, so they can be as expensive as many zero you can put on a computer screen. Banks want houses to be more expensive, so they give you more fake money and so on, while we all get poorer. If we started listening a bit less to the Economists (with capital E) and a bit more on our brain cells, we would all be better off.
It is true to the extent that landlords will try to pass on their costs to tenants if they are able to. Of course, market conditions may not allow that. For instance, if there is a glut of houses on the market. So, it isn't given.
Firstly, within a historical context, the inflation rate has been much higher in the past reaching an eye-watering 17% in 1987. So, I am not sure that 3-5% inflation is intolerable for several years, given the extra-ordinary times we have been through, and that the RB did cock things up a bit.
Secondly, adjusting the inflation target range is not without historical precedent. For instance, in 1996 the target range moved from 0-2% to 0-3%.
If we do have a recession, there is no guarantee it will be shallow, and it may cost a lot of jobs. But applying the handbrake a bit slower may allow a lot of jobs to be saved.
Even if the RB crashes the economy, there still won't be price stability. For instance, we import a lot of stuff as part of my company. Prices have gone up at least 30% from most suppliers over the last several years. There is no sign that imported inflation is going to end any time soon.
What will happen though, in a recession, is a lot of people will lose their jobs, and there will be a lot of hardship that could be avoided by taking a more measured approach to bringing down inflation. It is not the fault of voters that the RB way over-stimulated the economy. Yet they are being expected to take the medicine to fix it.
Someone pays one way or another whether target inflation range stays the same or is increased temporarilly to a more realistic level. That is through either slightly higher prices, but lower interest rates. Or higher interest rates, and slightly lower prices.
One of the understood effects of the OCR tightening is the currency appreciation.There are 2 parts here the appreciation of the US$ as a reserve currency with large reservoirs for liquid assets such as cash,and the differential in the interest rates (with forex risk)
Here with the OCR being largely forecast there has been an appreciation of 10% since the start of oct,against the US$.This in turn reduces the cost of imports along with reducing the freight and insurance component ( freight rates now back to around pre covid)
The question you need to ask your supplier is why the price has not adjusted.
"Increasingly National’s election pitch is simply that they are “not Labour”. But is that really enough during an economic recession? Does National have any policies of substance that might help navigate the current economic crisis? Even if voters punish Labour for mismanaging the economy, there are no signs that they should have confidence that National would do any better."
When a Government takes from more people than it gives too or does not give enough to those who believe they deserve more then a majority is formed for its demise. The major problem is inflation which takes from many and gives to few – so once the incumbent Government is blamed for "letting inflation get out of control" it is on the way to being toast.
The current Gov may have a lot to answer for but in reality the current economic situation has been little influenced by them, this situation has been building since 2008 , and as is noted in the linked piece that will butter no parsnips for the electorate come next year.
Question: Why the first house price spike 2002-2008?
While looking for something else I saw again the there has been constant and severe house price inflation in NZ for 20 years now, briefly interrupted by the GFC. We know about 2010-2018 (Jong Khee), and 2020-2021 (Covid relief).
Why did the 2002-2008 spike occur? Accelerated immigration? Free trade deal with China? Is it just the cost of open tap neoliberal economics?
I suspect it is, which is why I applaud this government's commitment to managing immigration and foreign capital interference in the residential housing market.
it's also because the Retirement Commissioner spent years telling NZ to invest in property. That alongside the narrative that we couldn't afford superannuation any more and people needed to save for their own retirement. It was very anti-socialist/pro neolib.
Yes, i remember that. And the re-zoning of residential properties/zones to mixed which resulted in many nice villas being turned into offices, dental clinics and the likes. These lost residential houses were never replaced.
There was also the share market collapse in 1987 causing the losses of retirement savings of many, so for some, property probably would at least be worth something, unlike shares which can theoretically become worthless.
I also wonder how much impact Rich Dad, Poor Dad had – the book had more to it than "buy underpriced real estate using leverage", but that was probably the main message people took from it. It was published in 1997 and was a big seller, and I could see that message slowly percolating through to NZ after the 1997 Asian financial crisis as the economy first recovered in 1998-9 and then picked up steam under Labour.
I remember a real slump in house prices in 1991. I was overseas for most of 1990 and I remember when I came back giving some serious thought to buying an investment property in early 1991 as there was quite a glut on the market. I did decide not to – which was probably wise.
Those that have shall be given more, and they will have an abundance. But those that do not have, even what they have, will be taken away from them.
Matthew 25:29
The OCR: What you need to know
RNZ Business
12:46 pm on 23 November 2022
…… increasing the OCR, the cost to consumers of borrowing money from their banks also increases, and as consumers find themselves spending more of their take-home pay on servicing their debts, they have less money to spend on other things.
Banks made record profits, there was no pandemic for them. Rents, mortgages still had to be paid even under lock down.
To keep up with paying higher interest rates demanded by the banksters. Adrian Orr says the public will have to cut their spending,
Adrian Orr has also linked higher unemployment to job competition as the answer to 'wage inflation'.
Adrian Orr says unemployment must rise, before inflation, (particularly wage inflation) will be brought under control.
Bigger mortgage payments, less wages, more unemployment, more job competition, this is all sweet music to the banksters and bosses.
Listening to the car radio. Newstalk ZB, a representative of the banking community said; Can't meet your new mortgage interest rate. Talk to us. 'We can help. 'We don't want to see you out of your home.' 'We are here for the long haul'. (And so are you).
Bought at the high end of the housing market?
Feeling squeezed between inadequate wage increases and high interest rates?
Go to your local bank manager and beg for mercy like the desperate wretch you are, He will see what he can do for you. Agree to a mortgage holiday, or longer period of payment, he will let you stay in your home to work longer to pay off your mortgage.
The March of the Greedies;
Adrian Orr admits Reserve Bank is 'deliberately engineering recession'
Tom Pullar-Strecker 10:02, Nov 24 2022
Orr told Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure select committee it was correct that the Reserve Bank was engineering a recession, saying it was deliberately trying to slow spending in the economy.
"….You know, if you just start behaving, ‘1% different’ around inflation expectations and wage growth that makes our job easier."
Reserve Bank manager, Adrian Orr. also says government spending must be cut.
(Y'know, health care, education, welfare all that unnecessary stuff that gets in the way of maximising bankster profits).
…..Adrian Orr's message to think harder about spending – or "cool the jets" – isn't just for the public. He has told the Government to spend sensibly or risk even higher inflation.
No one should expect their investment to be underwritten by taxpayers. You are responsible for your own risk more than banks are.
Hindsight won't be kind to this government wasting billions on non-delivered services. Robertson may think the RB is overreacting, but honestly so did Robertson.
The fed minutes last night said they showed a greater then even chance (likely) of recession,.The IIF models forecast recession,so it is an expected outcome from high inflation and the necessary mechanism to curb animal spirits,through the forced extinction of Zombie companies,that take easy capital and transform it into empty pixels such as the removal in value of 2.2 trillion $ in crypto,or the deleveraging of property values.
We forecast global recession in 2023. Adjusted for base effects – likely around +0.3% next year (green) – global growth will be only +1.3%. That's as weak as 2009, when headline growth was lower (+0.6%), but carryover was -0.7% (yellow). Another "Great Recession." With @econchartpic.twitter.com/HggW1JerAG
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In case you hadn't noticed, FYI, the public OIA request site, has been used to conduct a significant excavation into New Zealand's intelligence agencies, with requests made for assorted policies and procedures. Yesterday in response to one of these requests the GCSB released its policy on New Zealand Purpose and ...
Farming leaders are watching closely whether Damien O’Connor keeps the key portfolios of Agriculture and Trade when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins restructures his Cabinet. O’Connor has been one of the few ministers during Labour’s term in office who has won broad support for what he has done ...
South Islands farmers are whining about another drought, the third in three years. If only we knew what was causing this! If only someone had warned them that they faced a drying climate! But we do know what is causing it: climate change. And they have been warned, repeatedly, for ...
Ok, there’s good news and bad news in this week’s inflation figures, but bad > good. Our inflation rate held steady but hey, at a level below the inflation rate in Australia. The main reason for the so/so result here? A fall in petrol prices of 7.2% offset the really ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet ...
Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet there have been dozens of columns ...
The Clinical Magus: Of particular relevance to New Zealanders struggling to come to terms with the sudden departure of their prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is Jung’s concept of the anima. Much more than what others have called the feminine principle, the anima is what the human male has made out ...
The Select Committee, considering the proposed RNZ-TVNZ merger, has come back with a report conceding many of the criticisms that were made of the original legislation. In what is one of the most comprehensive demolitions of a Bill submitted to a Select Committee, the Economic Development, Science and Innovation ...
Such are the 2020s, the age when no-one, it seems, actually respects the basic underpinnings of democracy. Even in New Zealand. This week, I stumbled across a pair of lengthy and genuinely serious articles, that basically argue that Something is Rotten in the state of New Zealand democracy. One ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hurrah. Today we found something fresh on the Beehive website, Beehive.govt.nz, which claims to be the best place to find Government initiatives, policies and Ministerial information. It wasn’t from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, whose reaction to the latest inflation figures would have been appreciated. So, too, ...
Smiling And Waiving A Golden Opportunity: Chris Hipkins knew that the day at Ratana would be Jacinda’s day – her final opportunity to bask in the unalloyed love and support of her followers. He simply could not afford to be seen to overshadow this last chance for his former boss ...
Extremism Consumes Itself: The plot of “Act of Oblivion” concerns the relentless pursuit of the “regicides” Edward Whalley and William Goffe – two of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant. As with his many other works of historical fiction, Robert Harris’s novel brings to life a period ...
To challenge the Government’s promotion of co-governance, to share power between Maori and public authorities and agencies, is to invite accusations of racism. An example: this article by Martyn Bradbury on The Daily Blog headed Luxon’s race baiting hypocrisy at Ratana. The article was triggered by National leader Christopher Luxon, ...
A very informative video discussion: Are we getting the whole story about Ukraine? | Robert Wright & Ivan Katchanovski Getting objective information on the situation in Ukraine and the cause of this current war is not easy. There is the current censorship and blatant mainstream media bias – which ...
Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever” and a few things stood out. However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Imagine it’s a cold February night and your furnace breaks. You want to replace it with an electric heat pump because you’ve heard that tax credits will help pay for the switch. And you know that heat pumps can reduce ...
In 2005, then-National Party leader based his entire election campaign on racism, with his infamous racist Orewa speech and racist iwi/kiwi billboards. Now, Christopher Luxon seems to want to do it all again: Fresh off using his platform at this week's Rātana celebrations to criticise the government's approach to ...
Inflation is showing little sign of slowing down, posing a problem for freshly minted PM Chris Hipkins. According to that old campaigner Richard Prebble, Hipkins should call a snap election. If he waits till October, he risks being swept away. The dilemma for the new leader is that fighting an election ...
Buzz from the Beehive A great deal has happened since January 19. Among other things, a new Prime Minister and deputy have been sworn in and our leaders (past, present and aspiring) have delivered speeches at Ratana. Newshub reported that politicians of all stripes had descended upon Rātana for the ...
It’s a big day for New Zealand; our 41st Prime Minister has taken office and the new, “Chippy” era of politics is underway. Or, on the other hand, the Labour Party continues to govern with an overall majority and much the same leadership team in place. Life goes on and ...
New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet another day has passed without Ministers of the Crown posting something to show they are still working for us on the Beehive website. Nothing new has been posted since January 17. Perhaps the ministers are all engaged in the bemusing annual excursion ...
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated he intends making the tax system “fairer”. That points to the route a government facing an election could take to tilt the odds towards winning in its favour, given Labour’s support in the last months of the Ardern era had been ...
NewsHub has a poll on the cost-of-living crisis, which has an interesting finding: the vast majority of kiwis prefer wage rises to tax cuts: When asked whether income has kept up with the cost of living, 54.8 percent of people surveyed said no and according to 58.6 percent of ...
Labour has begun 2023 with the centre-left bloc behind in the polls and losing ground. That being so, did his colleagues choose Chris Hipkins as the replacement for Jacinda Ardern because they think he has a realistic shot at leading them to victory this year, or because he‘s the best ...
Two Flags, Two Masters? Just as it required a full-scale military effort to destroy the first attempt at Māori self-government in the 1850s and 60s (an effort that divided Maoridom itself into supporters and opponents of the Crown) any second attempt to establish tino rangatiratanga, based on the confiscatory policies ...
The first of Kiwirail’s big network shutdowns to fix the foundations on our tracks is now well underway with the Southern Line closed between Otahuhu and Newmarket. This is following on from the network wide Christmas/New Year shutdown, during which Kiwirail say that nearly 1,300 people working across 69 different ...
This is a re-post from the Citizens' Climate Lobby blogIn last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Congress included about $20 billion earmarked for natural climate solutions. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for deciding how those funds should be allocated to meet the climate ...
You’ve really got to wonder at the introspection, or lack thereof, from much of the mainstream media post Jacinda Ardern stepping down. Some so-called journalists haven’t even taken a breath before once again putting the boot in, which clearly shows their inherent bias and lack of any misgivings about fueling ...
Over the weekend I was interviewed by a media outlet about the threats that Jacinda Ardern and her family have received while she has been PM and what can be expected now that she has resigned. I noted that the level of threat she has been exposed to is unprecedented ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is able to steer ...
The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central towards the ...
Following the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern last week, her replacement, Chis Hipkins, has said: Over the coming week, Cabinet will be making decisions on reining in some programs and projects that aren’t essential right now That messaging is similar to what Jacinda Ardern said late last year and as ...
Much of what will mark the early days of Chris Hipkins’ Prime Ministership would have happened anyway. By December, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister were making it clear the summer break and early days of this year were going to be spent on a reset of government policy. ...
Going to try to get into the blogging thing again (ha!) what with an election coming up and all that. So today I thought I'd start small and simple, by merely tackling the world's (second) richest man.I'm no fan of Elon Musk. You don't want to know why, but I'll ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 15, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 21, 2023. Story of the Week State of the climate: How the world warmed in 2022With a new year underway, most of the climate data for ...
Well, that was a disappointment. As of today, the New Zealand Labour Caucus opted for Chris Hipkins as our new Prime Minister, and I cannot help but let loose a cynical cackle. ...
Get ready for a major political reset once Chris Hipkins is sworn in as Prime Minister this week. Labour’s new leader is likely to push the Government to the right economically, and do his best to jettison the damaging perceptions that Labour has become “too woke” on social issues. Overall, ...
Things have gone sideways… and it’s only the third week of January? It was political earthquake time. For some the Prime Minister made a truly significant announcement. For others – did you have this on your bingo card? – a body double did so (sit tight, you’ll understand later, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Because our hard-working Ministers of the Crown are engaged in Labour Party caucus stuff in Napier, no doubt jockeying to ensure they keep their jobs or get a better one, Point of Order was not surprised to find no fresh news on the Beehive website this ...
By the end of 2019, Jacinda Ardern was a political superstar heading towards an election defeat. She was an icon, internationally beloved, on track to be an ex-prime minister before the age of forty. It was the year of the Christchurch terror attack when Ardern’s response to the atrocity saw ...
People complain about their jobs being meaningless. Does it matter?David Graeber, author of Bullshit Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work and What We Can Do About It, would have smiled at Elon Musk’s sacking half the Twitter workforce. Musk seems to be confirming the main thesis of the book, that ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. ...
Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. So, although Ardern has named an ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
The Government is making an initial contribution of $150,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Tairāwhiti following ex-Tropical Cyclone Hale, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “While Cyclone Hale has caused widespread heavy rain, flooding and high winds across many parts of the North Island, Tairāwhiti ...
Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor has classified this week’s Cyclone Hale that caused significant flood damage across the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne District as a medium-scale adverse event, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “We’re making up to $100,000 available to help coordinate efforts as farmers and growers recover from the heavy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danny C Price, Senior research fellow, Curtin University Midjourney, Author provided Some 540 million years ago, diverse life forms suddenly began to emerge from the muddy ocean floors of planet Earth. This period is known as the Cambrian Explosion, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Davies, Research Associate, Charles Darwin University The world’s largest wild population of water buffalo now roam Australia. As does the largest wild herd of camels. We have millions of feral goats and deer. For these introduced species, Australia is a paradise. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Juliana Segura-Salazar, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Planetary Resources We know the world must move to cleaner energy sources to head off the worst effects of climate change, but the technology required for the transition is very mineral-intensive. So ...
Two new polls put Labour under Chris Hipkins suddenly ahead of Chris Luxon’s National. Toby Manhire assesses some strikingly similar numbers. Come on now. The news in New Zealand is meant to yawn gently out of bed in January. A sprinkling of set-pieces, scene setting and sloganeering, that’s all. But ...
Filmed in rural New Zealand during the Covid-19 pandemic, Pearl was one of the biggest critical darlings of 2022. But, as Stewart Sowman-Lund reports, there are still no plans to release it here. It cost New Zealand taxpayers more than$1.5m. It was filmed entirely on our shores. It raked in ...
Increasingly frequent encounters between humans and sea lions in the Catlins and Clutha coast has conservationists calling for vehicle bans on beaches The world’s rarest species of sea lion is clawing its way back into prominence on Southland beaches - but road traffic on the seashore could send them back into ...
For political nerds and tragics the 2020 election was about as boring as it could get with no race to be seen and an inevitable landslide victory for Labour. Monday night’s polls show 2023 will be a return to MMP - a race down to the wire and the result ...
Carmel Sepuloni's appointment as Deputy Prime Minister has been rightly celebrated, but how will she fare as Chris Hipkins' right-hand woman? She's well-liked in the Labour caucus and seen as a safe pair of hands - but has Carmel Sepuloni got what it takes to be the Deputy Prime Minister? ...
The epic deluge and subsequent flooding across Auckland broke just about every record in the book. Newsroom has pulled the data together to show just how unprecedented this storm was. ...
Guy Somerset is Team Sussex I’m Team Sussex. I came to Harry’s memoir predisposed towards both him and Meghan. I believe them. They seem genuine. A bit flaky perhaps. A bit, yes, woke. But not the criminals they’ve been made out to be. Not the Machiavellian manipulators they’re portrayed as. ...
'When you have the support of many to help carry you and role models who completely smash glass ceilings, how can you not dare to dream?' Auckland University’s first female Pacific Pro Vice-Chancellor Pacific shares what the appointment of Carmel Sepuloni as Deputy Prime Minister means to her.Comment: Nafanua, well-known in ...
Multiple world champion archer Danielle Brown experienced the ultimate highs and lows of sport. Now with the help of two great Kiwi athletes, she's written an award-winning book, Angela Walker reports. Danielle Brown knows what inclusion looks like. It has enabled the archery champion to stand on the sport's highest ...
Dr Eric Crampton argues national and local regulation, including a clause in the Grocery Industry Competition Bill going through Parliament, make it more difficult for other players to enter the supermarket. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Former deputy prime minister John Anderson is one of the six- member committee launched on Monday to spearhead the “no” case in the Voice referendum. The Voice No Case Committee’s “Recognise a Better Way” campaign ...
RNZ Pacific New Caledonia’s pro-independence Union Calédonian has proposed September 24 this year as the date by which an accord be reached with France to complete decolonisation. The party, which wants independence for the territory by 2025, has chosen the date because it will mark the 170th anniversary of New ...
Pacific Media Watch Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat reports today on how Fiji has fared under the draconian Media Industry Development Act that has restricted media freedom over the past decade. There are hopes that state-endorsed media censorship will stop in Fiji following last month’s change in government to the People’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers has rejected as “laughable” criticism he has turned his back on the Hawke-Keating reform era in his blueprint for “values-based capitalism”. In this podcast Chalmers also reveals he spoke with Paul ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne It’s finally been launched. A new cultural policy for Australia. After years (actually decades) of neglect, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today launched a new national ...
Labour’s new leader Chris Hipkins has brought along a significant poll bump, with Labour now ahead in both the 1News Kantar Public and Newshub Reid Research polls. Both major television networks have released the first polls of Hipkins’ premiership tonight. But while both polls now have Labour ahead, both also predict ...
It’s a big evening for political tragics, with both the major television networks set to reveal a first glance at the popularity of new prime minister Chris Hipkins. TVNZ and Newshub have announced they will both be airing the poll results at 6pm tonight. It’ll show whether or not there ...
Two political polls tonight have Labour regaining lost ground against National, with leader Chris Hipkins more popular than the opposition's Christopher Luxon. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Obbard, Senior Lecturer in Nuclear Engineering, UNSW Sydney On January 12 a truck pulled out of Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and drove 1,400km south to Perth, arriving on January 16. Nine ...
Schools in Auckland won’t be opening as planned after the events of the weekend, the education ministry has confirmed. They will remain closed until after the Waitangi long weekend. “With the possibility of further weather damage leading to more disruption, the secretary for education has directed that schools, kura, early ...
Aucklanders are being warned to prepare for more heavy rain as the city continues to feel the fallout from Friday’s devastating floods. Mayor Wayne Brown has given a media conference this afternoon where he suggested schools should remain closed tomorrow, and also said Aucklanders could take their storm waste to ...
Schools in Auckland won’t be opening as planned after the events of the weekend, the education ministry has confirmed. They will remain closed until after the Waitangi long weekend. “With the possibility of further weather damage leading to more disruption, the secretary for education has directed that schools, kura, early ...
Aucklanders are being warned to prepare for more heavy rain as the city continues to feel the fallout from Friday’s devastating floods. Mayor Wayne Brown has given a media conference this afternoon where he suggested schools should remain closed tomorrow, and also said Aucklanders could take their storm waste to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John McAloon, Senior Lecturer, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock Everyone with young children experiences parenting challenges. And these are often exacerbated by parental exhaustion, financial or relationship difficulties, and work stress. I’m a clinical child ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Oliver Eklund, PhD Candidate in Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology Unsplash Streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ will soon face regulations to invest in Australian content, as Australian regulations catch up to other world players. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia Indigenous community members outside the Victorian coroners court ahead of the release of a report into the death of Veronica Nelson.Tamati Smith/Getty ImagesAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...
Asia Pacific Report Greenpeace claimed today claimed New Zealand’s extreme rain and flooding crisis in the North Island at the weekend as a “climate disaster”. “As our friends, family and neighbours across Auckland and the North Island have been battered by unprecedented rain and flooding, it’s a visceral reminder that ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) chief executive officer Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s employment status has been terminated, new board chair Ajay Bhal Amrit confirmed today. Amrit said in a statement that chief financial officer Vimlesh Sagar would act in the position until the board could “confidently appoint” a ...
RNZ News A fourth person has been found dead as a result of New Zealand’s catastrophic floods on Friday, which have now spread to other parts of the country. Police said in a statement that Search and Rescue, who had been looking for a person swept away by floodwaters in ...
This year, politicians will stand for the leadership of our country. As young people today, we are accustomed to doomsday climate headlines and “once in 100 year” phenomena. We have heard all the big kōrero, but where is all the meaningful action? ...
Everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand on Census Day, 7 March 2023, will be asked to answer questions about themselves in the census. As a household there will also be questions about where you live, Stats NZ said today. “There will be a lot that is familiar ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Marriott, Professor of Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington GettyImages Aotearoa New Zealand’s new Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, has said we should look at ways to make the tax system fairer. Finance associate minister David Parker made ...
Greenpeace is today calling for the North Island’s extreme rain and flooding event to be named as a climate disaster. "As our friends, family and neighbours across Auckland and the North Island have been battered by unprecedented rain and flooding, ...
In these threatening times, a broad discussion about the role of EQC is imperative, writes Chris Nicoll In Aotearoa we are good at dealing with catastrophes when they occur. We see (otherwise rare) social unity in the minute-by-minute responses. People seem happy to help one another without hope of reward ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flavio Macau, Associate Dean – School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock Potatoes are among Australia’s favourite vegetables. However, we are facing a shortage of processed potatoes, especially of frozen chips. Coles introduced a two-item limit for shoppers ...
The breakout star of Treasure Island: Fans vs Faves is The Spinoff’s own head of podcasting, Jane Yee. Here’s everything you need to know about her show, The Real Pod.What is The Real Pod?A weekly podcast which recaps the biggest reality TV shows screening in New Zealand, The ...
In some alternative universe, Auckland mayor Efeso Collins readily grasped the scale of Friday’s deluge, and quickly made the emergency declaration that enabled central government to immediately throw its resources behind the rescue and remediation effort. ...
The Treasure Island: Fans v Faves co-hosts talk fans, faves and making their new hosting partnership work. When Treasure Island: Fans v Faves premieres tonight and a new group of castaways wash ashore on a Fijian beach in the hopes of winning $50,000 for charity, they’ll be wrangled by a ...
*This story was originally published on RNZ and is republished with permission* Landslips, road closures, homes and businesses flooded and more heavy rain on the way. Here is what you need to know as the severe weather continues. Landslips and homes without water Northern suburbs of Auckland and Titirangi appear ...
Chesdale cheese slices were one of the banes of Charlotte Muru-Lanning’s childhood. Can she learn to love them as an adult?This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. For most of my childhood, Chesdale cheese slices were a mainstay in the fridge. Much to my disappointment. ...
Auckland has a big clean-up job and faces uncertainty with severe weather forecast, but the prime minister would not be drawn on the Auckland mayor's handling of the flood response. ...
Total exports saw a growth of $8.7 billion (14 percent) to $72.2 billion in the year ended December 2022 compared with 2021, Stats NZ said today. Annual imports also rose sharply to $86.7 billion, up $16.1 billion (23 percent). “Price inflation ...
Meet the kiwi in charge of some of the worlds biggest brands across Japan, Australia and Aotearoa. Glen Kyne went from running the commercial team at Mediaworks to fostering brands like CNN and HBO in the blink of an eye. He chats with Duncan about the future of the streaming ...
The report by the Economic Development, Science, and Innovation Committee has suggested essential changes to the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill. Many of these changes are straight out of the Free Speech Union submission on this Bill and we are glad ...
Power Play - Aucklanders did not get the political leadership they deserve as they face the aftermath of Friday night's devastating floods, writes Jane Patterson. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kath Albury, Professor of Media and Communication and Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society, Swinburne University of Technology Shutterstock A 2022 survey by the Australian Institute of Criminology found three in four app users surveyed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Farrelly, Professor and Head of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania Two years after Myanmar’s coup on February 1 2021, the country’s large and growing resistance forces receive almost no attention outside the country. The democratic opposition, fronted by the National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Beckett, Senior Lecturer (Food Science and Human Nutrition), School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle Pexels, CC BY Many of us want (or should I say need?) our morning coffee to give us our “get up and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Victoria’s Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Shutterstock We know everything in our homes gathers dust. What you probably don’t know is whether there are toxic contaminants in your house ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian A Wright, Associate Professor in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University Dan Himbrechts/AAP Swimming in rivers, creeks and lakes can be a fun way to cool off in summer. But contamination in natural waterways can pose a risk to human ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Highfield, Senior Lecturer, Deputy Head of School (ACT and regional NSW), Australian Catholic University Erik Anderson/AAP Around Australia, about 320,000 children are starting school for the first time. As an early childhood researcher, former kindergarten teacher, and parent of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Sonnemann, Principal Advisor Education, Grattan Institute Shutterstock More than four million students around Australia are heading back to school. While this will be a year of achievement and learning growth for many students, others will struggle to keep up. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Tregear, Principal Fellow and Professor of Music, The University of Melbourne This article contains spoilers. Todd Field’s new, multi-Academy Award nominated feature film Tár is generating considerable commentary – and not a little controversy. For some, its storyline allows ...
*This story was originally published on RNZ and is republished with permission* Aucklanders whose homes and businesses were inundated during Friday's deluge have begun cleaning up as the threat of further wild weather lingers. Some of them told First Up how the unprecedented rain event had impacted them. 'It's just ...
Most of them commemorate early Pākehā arrival. Some are based on obsolete provincial borders. One celebrates an A&P show. But most importantly, none of them have any meaning to the vast majority of us, writes historian André Brett. First published in 2021 Last Monday was the Wellington Anniversary Day public ...
In the final part of a series on Labour's leadership transition, Elliot Crossan argues that the idealistic vision Jacinda Ardern espoused of a kind, empathetic and fair society is possible – but not with a less-inspiring new leader. Read part one here, and part two hereOpinion: Jacindamania ended in ...
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You can only do one rent rise a year but the Reserve Bank has ensured it will be very big.
This government has had multiple chances to force greater price competition, but now the the RBNZ has just told Labour: "Too late!".
someone with a lot of money is going to have lots of fun buying up houses penny to the dollar. I wonder if we are going to see investors/hedgefunds/pension funds etc buying up large as they did/do in the US.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/housing-market-investors/
Yes next year there could well be some real property bargains to be had for those lucky enough to be cashed up
The government had the opportunity to get rid of neoliberalism and return to its roots as a working class party. Labour 2022 is not socialist. It is simply a manager for the corporate establishment.
It chose the liberal middle class instead and consigned itself to the dustbin of history.
Can’t put it much clearer than that. And evidence is there via the neo liberal Parliamentary consensus–whereby the State Sector Act, Reserve Bank Act, monetarist transactional methods etc. roll over with each election. Labour has enacted a number of useful reforms that the Natzos would not have…but…when the pirate banks and supermarket duopoly laugh in their and citizens faces and keep raking it in, and a state house mega build remains wanting…
As for the current RB rate hike, unemployed are often viewed by tories as “dirty filthy bennies”, a sub class of despicable losers…yet the RB Governor now says we need to add to their ranks to fight inflation, what the…while at the same time employers say they are labour starved and want more migrant labour. Now sure, jobs and people cannot always be linked, but the employers position says little more than–“cheap labour now please”–just as a number of workers are rediscovering their fight and winning decent wage increases.
The faux separation of, and ‘independent’ status of the Reserve Bank, under the RB Act, is such a travesty and reveals like little else why the NZ neo liberal state has to be booted.
Descending into negative equity is going to be a humbling experience for some holders of thumping great mortgages, and guess what–voting for Baldrick is not going to make it better–the contrary in fact. Retired, middle class, working class and alienated need to find some points of unity and develop public action to combat the coming shit show.
[corrected typo in user name – Incognito]
Mod note
Thank you.
I see that the National Party and Groundswell are crowing about the number of signatures included in their petition which Groundswell describes as a "farming tax" but Stuff.co.nz describes as a "food tax" (Interesting contrast!).
By my rough calculations the petition at just over 102,000 was signed by something like 3% of the electorate – not a particularly impressive result and does not confirm Groundwell's claims that the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders support them.
By the way Groundswell keep sending me unsolicited feeds on Facebook and then getting angry when I respond to them asking questions which they don't want to answer. The solution is simple – if they don't want any criticism then stop sending them to me. The very first question I asked is "why are you calling it a farming tax when it is not a farming tax per se – it is an agricultural carbon emissions tax – which is not the same thing as in if you farm without emitting then you don't pay. I then told them that they were really just a front for the National Party at which point I received some hysterical troll responses.
They get angry unless you tell them what they want to hear.
I see nothing because you haven’t provided a single link besides a vague reference to Stuff.
stuff.co.nz/national/130485650/groundswell-nz-presents-its-food-tax-petition-at-parliament
Had to be typed out by hand because of my stupid IMAC that refuses to let me copy and paste links on this site, regardless of which browser I use.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/130485650/groundswell-nz-presents-its-food-tax-petition-at-parliament
try copying and pasting into another app first. Text Edit if you have it, then select plain text, then copy and paste to TS.
If that doesn't work, please let us know because it shouldn't be doing that (the TS edit box). Details of what happens would help.
Thanks Mike.
How do you farm without emitting? This seems like an impossibility to me.
Every human activity has some emissions attached to them
net zero carbon. You sequester more GHGs than you produce. This means transitioning to regenerative models that build soil, biodiversity and grow forests, as well as reducing the GHG emitting practices and stopping relying on pay to pollute carbon credit schemes.
This is physically possible. The main blocks are economic, political and philosophical. I favour subsidising farms to transition, but farmers have to be on board. We also can't do industrial farming at the scale we currently do, so we need to transition our economy at the same time.
I'm generally in agreement about the large scale dairy farms we have here in Canterbury. However I know many local farmers with small holdings who claim they will go out of business as a result of these new laws
that's tough, and again, I would support the government assisting family farms including small ones, to transition. Continuing to farm without taking climate and ecology into account is not a solution to their problem. Groundswell can't help them. I hope someone sorts that out though, because we don't need small family farms being bought up by corporations either.
The small family farm is terminal, land prices mean that it's only a matter of time before they are all gone,
can't see how that follows, unless farmers sell their family land on the open market.
I know a guy spent the last 30 years on the family farm on low wages, 10 years of it nursing the parents as well as running the farm , the siblings want their cut now , the farms not big enough to pay the mortgage on the 3 to 4 mill he'd have to borrow to pay them out.
Occasionally parents can structure it to hand it down , but it will usually involve getting bigger, and most likely at some point it will be to dare to hand down,
The family farm is terminal it just might be a long slow death for some.
the problem there is the decisions of the parents. Not being overly critical, lots of people are like this and don't sort this stuff out until it's too late. But there are other options to just selling up and splitting the money.
And if the parents want all the kids to have an equal share and thus are ok with the farm being sold, then they’re ok with it no longer being a family farm. That’s on them.
bearing in mind that my parents' generation were the ones where the farm got left to the oldest boy and the girls were supposed to marry farmers if they wanted a farming life.
I’ve also seen the farmers who inherited a farm but then when they want to retire they want bought out. So yeah, the land prices are a huge problem, but there are other factors here too.
I know a farming family who put the farm into a trust and now the kids and their mum run it and when she dies the kids will run and I guess their kids when they have them.
I just think that people who think money is more important than land are insane, but that does describe most of society 🤷♀️
Not every human activity has or is for a profit motive. Profit per se is not the issue anyway, it is about businesses paying their fair share and including this into their business models.
The banks tell us we must stop buying silly smashed avocadoes – officially! They have come to save us all from inflation by taking every cent we have left. They have come to save us from leaky homes by fire-saling the houses. They have come to stop the silly notion of anyone but the chosen rich accumulating capital by taking it all back.
Questions?
Which “banks” or do you mean the RBNZ?
The RBNZ is also telling you to hold on to your job and enjoy your pay-rise while you can, because it is projecting unemployment starting to rise in 2023, which just so happens to be election year.
so to add to DB's list, "the banks" are also saying, sorry beneficiaries, better luck next time.
The official statement being:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/479336/official-cash-rate-raised-by-75-basis-points-to-4-point-25-percent
Gotta maintain precariousness for workers. How else can we ‘encourage’ them to accept insufficient wage increases and unimproved working conditions.
Yes, but to those of us who are not schooled in even basic economics such as I it is not clear what that really means. That article doesn’t mention the RBNZ projections of the unemployment rate over the next 3 years and they are dire. It does, however, mention recession three times! The Proletariat will shrink, the Precariat will grow and NACT + NZF will ride in as our economic saviours and apply the razor gangs to government spending, including social welfare. As they always do because they are a one-trick pony with the memory of a goldfish.
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/about-monetary-policy/inflation-and-maximum-sustainable-employment
What is interesting about the RBNZs position regarding MSE, is that we had increasing inflation before wage growth rates began rising. It's almost as if workers don't have anything to do with setting prices, the actual origin of inflation.
My limited understanding of it is that headline inflation was high to start with, because of Covid and other global issues, and this is starting to feed into core inflation such as the MSE and wage inflation. I guess our economy, like so many others, was and is not resilient enough to weather so many large shocks in rapid succession.
Whatever the source of inflation, it is those least responsible for rising prices who are already bearing the brunt of its effects. It's apparently unreasonable to expect lower margins of those businesses that have enjoyed rising profits despite COVID and other global issues.
What do you mean? How is this apparent [to you]? How do you envision RBNZ and/or Government to control or influence those margins?
Yes, of course, the people at the bottom always suffer most and will always suffer more when things get worse. Rightly or wrongly, this Government does acknowledge this with the CoL adjustment, for example. However, RBNZ sees it as a contributing factor to stubbornly high household spending:
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/884276dd2ebb4962b325130eef7ae725.ashx
It is apparent because the call from the RBNZ is for reduced consumer spending, not restricted profit margins. Monetary policy has significant lag and it is not always as effective as hoped.
Seeing that we must consume to live and that inflation in the cost of living (a ghoulish term when examined) has been rising faster than wages, a interventionist government could clamp down on these costs through price controls, rent controls, excess profit tax and other fiscal policies.
The Cost of Living Payment was unwise IMO and not directed properly. A reduction in tax liability for those at bottom would have been a much better move.
"It is apparent because the call from the RBNZ is for reduced consumer spending, not restricted profit margins. "
That is a distinction that should be acknowledged.
I’m not aware of RBNZ having anything in their tool kit to adjust or influence profit margins in the private sector.
Yes, price controls are an option and Government is making moves on those. Of course, the rent freeze has ended but the HRC has called for a return.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/472987/human-rights-commission-says-freeze-on-rent-increases-should-return
Petrol is still 25 cts. off per litre, PT fares are still discounted. The fuel discount also benefits the transporting industry, which unsurprisingly have asked for it to remain.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/11/cost-of-living-transporting-nz-calling-for-fuel-tax-cut-to-remain-so-kiwis-can-have-certainty.html
There are plenty more examples of how Government shoulders some of the burden of rising costs (inflation) for New Zealanders.
Any changes to the tax system can easily backfire and stoke the inflationary fire even further. This is the double-edged sword of given the people more money in the hand which they will spend rather than save and/or pay off debt. Consumer spending needs to come down, not go up.
At least that’s my limited understanding of the tricky situation we’re in.
Its called demand destruction,it removes profits by enforcing providers to reduce margins to retain sales.it works efficiently in highly informed markets such as the US,where the prices fall to meet demand.
https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/commodities/lbs
The RBNZs tool kit is limited and their remit is also, I am not expecting them to achieve something that is not within their capabilities. Monetary policy such that it is.
The government, however, has a commanding parliamentary majority and control of fiscal policy; which can form much more directed and precise set of tools. While they have made plenty of prudent decisions I would also join those calling on the government for a reinstatement of the rent freeze. It seems to me as an abdication of sorts to the RBNZ; rather than institute the needed redistributive laws.
People are relying on the charity, such as food banks, for the bare necessities of life in increasing numbers, but they must some how spend less? If those on the lowest incomes had more spending power they may be able to improve their living conditions, for example, no longer skipping meals, or moving out of the unhealthy rental into something better for them. Targeted tax policy could ensure that, RBNZ policies cannot. Some demand is simply unavoidable. There is also plenty of spending being done by those who do not require philanthropy, more often doling it out. It is the governments role to attempt to solve these inequities, not the RBNZ.
Which "Banks" (plural) are these?
The only one I have seen doing anything like this is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which is an arm of Government and certainly isn't involved in lending you money to buy your home. There is only one RBNZ so you shouldn't be using a plural like "they".
We all know the 'official' banks follow the lead of RBNZ. It's dishonest to pretend otherwise.
Those are commercial banks and have completely different ‘mandates’ and accountability compared to RBNZ.
Kiwibank is owned by us. Do you think they blindly follow that lead as well?
If they do then Grant has to reprogramme their reason for being.
What is the plan for those currently struggling financially who face rising cost of lving increases?
For those that may lose their rentals?
For those that may lose their homes?
Any chance of measures to counter this stress and disruption?
Is that enough questions, for now?
I can only answer some. That may lose rentals – yes! That may lose homes – yes! I base my answers on historical precedent. This is a modern day land grab, as predicted, so blatantly obviously the same old same old.
Measures to counter this would have been to stop corporates jacking the price of everything and RBNZ not leading the charge to fuck all the little guys.
"Measures to counter this would have been to stop corporates jacking the price of everything and RBNZ not leading the charge to fuck all the little guys."
Yes. Making the impacts on little guys a political priority would be a start.
Little guys, and maybe I meant middle guys.
First home owners, not speculators, whose house should not be some widget in the enormous games of finance these fools play. I'm pissed off. Why were they (Government, RBNZ) all allowing so much practically free money to be lent out. And everyone BUY BUY BUY! We saw it coming, if we were meant to be paying attention and didn't… we were asleep. Everyone gets overextended and… hey presto, interest goes up, land grab.
They had the gall to tell us on the news last night those with savings are better off. Like it all balances out, this periodic stealing of people's life savings, via draining them trying to pay interest, then mortgagee sales, to further the rich.
I have an arrangement with my Bank that I pay the minimum fortnightly payment. That has not changed in the 4 years I have had the current mortgage. When interests rates were very low during Covid I was paying more principal and less interest. Now that rates are going up, I pay less principal and more interest. My fortnightly payment does not change.
The only thing that changes is the term of the loan. The date of final payment stretches out further and further. This does not bother me in the slightest – I will be long dead by then and the loan will be paid when either I, or my estate sells the property.
I bought my house over 40 years ago. I was paying 6% on the first mortgage and 9% on the second mortgage. I was single then (in the eyes of the State anyway) so I got flatmates in to help with the outgoings. In the bad days of the mid 1980's I had paid off the second mortgage, but was paying something like 17% on the first mortgage. I was lucky because my first mortgage was with Housing NZ because I bought in an area where the Government of the time was attempting to encourage home ownership. Other people were paying over 20% interest.
I was also lucky because I always had work.
You do not sound that 'lucky' to me. You bought the property over 40 years ago and still have a mortgage on it? Sounds to me like your bank has done you no favours and has made a lot of money at your expense. You should probably get a good mortgage broker and some sound financial advice.
I have this mortgage now because when I paid off the original amount in 1992, I did not actually discharge the mortgage – just left it sitting there for nearly 3 decades. I borrowed against it again 4 years ago when I retired in order to fund an extensive upgrade of part of the dwelling (which at 90 odd years old was badly needed) and I rent out that part while living in the other part myself.
That makes more sense. So was re-paid back in 1992. This is a new mortgage / draw down.
Listen to yourself and take you own advice: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-05-10-2022/#comment-1913857.
Yes I will speak to myself. As its an offset mortgage and is completely offset the rate increasing wont affect me.
That sounds very smart but offset mortgages are at floating interest rate or higher and your comment makes no sense; your interest payments will go up too.
Only on the portion not offset – if it's fully offset (which is how I read the comment), no interest is charged. On the other hand, it's not much of a mortgage if it is fully offset – a mortgage in name only perhaps?
Loving the irony of Black Friday sale ads merrily sprinkled between the RBNZ pleading for people not to spend. This is the problem with capitalism, everyone constantly rowing against each other, sending out competing messages.
RBNZ says don't spend but every industry, everywhere, especially retail banking, says umm, no.
Covid relief was supposed to be security in uncertain times. What did middle New Zealand do? Went out and bought investment properties, fucking muppets.
Yes indeed, and various jackals are now gleefully buying property at lower prices. We sold six months back to move, in no rush, and the agent was really offended we held out for a less speculative buyer.
Unemployment will save us says the RB–yet–employers demand urgent imports of migrant labour. Which is really a call for low wages.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/sandringham-homicide-the-worst-has-happened-manhunt-under-way-as-community-left-shocked/DMOJJJWROZA3PA7RTK4SLNVHXU/
heartbreaking. Young guy in his 20s – 30s recently married. Stabbed while at work.
An absolute tragedy. My condolences to friends and family in this community, including the owners who were away on holiday.
It's sad to see crime appearing to be on the increase – violent crime especially.
I did a training session at work recently about safety awareness. One of the questions the speaker asked was would you feel safer working in a bank or a dairy (in relation to the threat of robbery and/or the potential for violence)?
Everyone said dairy
They said safer in a dairy?
Don't they read the new? Did the session allow for determining why they felt that way?
Sorry – meant that they felt less safe in the dairy. My typing error
A sad state of affairs. Being a dairy owner is a dangerous profession these days
All good.
That makes more sense.
That is because there has been a lot of target hardening in other places. Service stations used to be easy targets, – not any more. Dairies – with their windows covered in advertising and run by family members, are the softest target around at the moment.
This is a good point. As other retail businesses improve their security and minimise risk, criminals will look for easier targets.
When you get burgled the police come around and talk about steps you can take to make your house/car a less attractive target.
I have noticed some diaries starting to increase their security but I think there needs to be some consistency. I can't remember which of the big players owns 4 Square but they should be rolling out something to all their stores (though from what I know they are franchises)
They are part of the Foodstuffs Cooperative along with Pak 'n' Save and New World – technically not a franchise, but certainly looks and acts like one most of the time.
I think you meant occupation.
Well, whatever – you know what I meant
Yeah, you mean you are sloppy with words & meanings.
No – I just wasn't really thinking about it too deeply
Yes, that was obvious, as was your annoying typo earlier on 🙁
I'm sorry – is there some kind of problem?
Yes, there is, a major one in fact.
I’m more than happy to share it with you. Don’t you want to hear it? Don’t be shy, you normally aren’t, just say the word 😉
Oh right I get it.
Ban me then if its a problem for you.
no, there is no problem. My suggestion is walk away from this convo and just focus on other ones that appeal 👍
I’m afraid that won’t work, this time.
I have no idea what you are doing, but if it's a moderation issue, then moderate. If it's not, then hassling someone new like this is both rude and not great for the site. It also reflects badly on moderation.
No no, Incognito has obviously looked at my email address, matched with a previous account then is using it to needle me. I had no intention of trolling or the like – just wanted to get into some conversation again but, well, I think s/he has made themselves clear.
if it’s a moderation issue, then it needs to be dealt with as moderation not trolling someone.
I’ve had a look at your email and IP address. Email address is fine. IP address is shared with someone else who is currently active on TS. If that’s you using two names, then you cannot do that. Some mods will allow a name change for a good reason, others taking a harder line, but either way you cannot run two names here at the same time.
If there is a different explanation for the same IP address, then please explain. Otherwise, please drop pick one name and stick to it.
Making a note in the back end.
The IP address matches someone else's? That's weird.
Without betraying confidence/someone elses details is the person I share an email address with a long time user here? Because it isn't me – I only have one account but am on a large network.
Unfortunately for you, I’ve now looked more closely at the email address and see it’s similar to someone who’s on a permanent ban because of a long history of trolling and causing problems for moderators by trying to skirt bans. I’m putting you on the ban list again. If you think this is a mistake, then reply and your comment will end up in the back end where I will see it.
At some point lprent will do an amnesty on the permanent bans. At which point I suggest that if you want to comment here you pick one name, stick to it, and keep your head down.
Oh right – sorry it's been so long I had forgotten I was banned. I knew my email would be picked up but hadn't remembered the ban.
That's OK, no amnesty required nor asked for. I'll just do something else with my time.
Enjoy yourself 🙂
Have to wonder what sort of training this guy had to deal with such a dangerous situation.
I am not sure what sort of training such businesses offer.
they are usually family run and they work 24/7. My family owned such a business when I was growing up. The work is endless.
your comment does hint at a blame the victim approach. Was that what you were meaning or have I misinterpreted you? My apologies if I have. The blame lies with the a…hole who stabbed the worker to death.
No doubt about where the blame lies but, family owned business or not, employers must provide proper training for staff.
Not saying they didn't but these incidents are more likely not to end in tragedy if the retail worker doesn't resist.
Also could be that he didn't resist and the perpetrator attacked him anyway.
Right, and who do you think should provide the training to the bosses? The police? The military?
Who do you think is equipped in NZ currently to ward off some shitheel with a knife? Would you be trained enough?
The last knife attacker is now in a female prison for attacking three people, inclusive his/their ex girlfriend who will have lasting scars in her face. And these victims simply had the audacity to go to a restaurant for a dinner and thought that was safe in NZ.
My shop girls training is simply.
If you think dudes/ettes outside are shifty, close the door – which we do a lot now a days.
They will have to break the door, and by that time she should be able to get out the back door.
No heroics, no nothing. Just try to get out and not worry about a single thing or a single cent. Money is replacable, a cut up face is for live. IF you can't get away, give them the contents of the till, if they want a coffee to go with that , make that coffee, pack the box of chocolates and wish them a good day. Anything to stay unharmed and alive.
But in fact there is no training that can help you to get a way from someone who just simply has no respect for others, for society or their communities.
What will happen now is that Dairys will arm themselves, will hopefully always have a two people policies – if they don't have for the most part even more CCTV that they already have and if all falters, just shut. Because clearly it onus is on us to keep us alive, the police will come to mop up what is left over if the robbery/raid goes wrong, and of course lay a charge for murder or assault.
If the government is serious about winning the next election, and helping those at risk of being impacted by rising mortgage rates, then the government should change the target inflation range temporarilly to reflect the reality of the economic situation.
Those at risk don't only include mortgage holders. But also likely tenants who may face rent increases to cover increasing mortgage costs incurred by landlords.
If a lot of the inflation is imported, then, that component of inflation will not be affected. So, the only way to bring inflation back within the target band is to basically force NZ into a full-blown recession.
I think the target rate for the next three years should be say 3-5%, which would be much more achievable with a lot less pain.
I was trying to find some data to refute your claim,
which I just don't think is true, at least not to the same scale of increase or remotely close to it. I do note you have couched your claim using the words, "likely", and "may".
There's this GA article from 2014. Best line is first in the comments section,
It is true to the extent that landlords will try to pass on their costs to tenants if they are able to. Of course, market conditions may not allow that. For instance, if there is a glut of houses on the market. So, it isn't given.
Lovely thought, but please explain how you’d ensure employment and price stability at those inflated rates.
Firstly, within a historical context, the inflation rate has been much higher in the past reaching an eye-watering 17% in 1987. So, I am not sure that 3-5% inflation is intolerable for several years, given the extra-ordinary times we have been through, and that the RB did cock things up a bit.
Secondly, adjusting the inflation target range is not without historical precedent. For instance, in 1996 the target range moved from 0-2% to 0-3%.
If we do have a recession, there is no guarantee it will be shallow, and it may cost a lot of jobs. But applying the handbrake a bit slower may allow a lot of jobs to be saved.
You didn’t answer the question, just beating around the bush.
Even if the RB crashes the economy, there still won't be price stability. For instance, we import a lot of stuff as part of my company. Prices have gone up at least 30% from most suppliers over the last several years. There is no sign that imported inflation is going to end any time soon.
What will happen though, in a recession, is a lot of people will lose their jobs, and there will be a lot of hardship that could be avoided by taking a more measured approach to bringing down inflation. It is not the fault of voters that the RB way over-stimulated the economy. Yet they are being expected to take the medicine to fix it.
Someone pays one way or another whether target inflation range stays the same or is increased temporarilly to a more realistic level. That is through either slightly higher prices, but lower interest rates. Or higher interest rates, and slightly lower prices.
One of the understood effects of the OCR tightening is the currency appreciation.There are 2 parts here the appreciation of the US$ as a reserve currency with large reservoirs for liquid assets such as cash,and the differential in the interest rates (with forex risk)
Here with the OCR being largely forecast there has been an appreciation of 10% since the start of oct,against the US$.This in turn reduces the cost of imports along with reducing the freight and insurance component ( freight rates now back to around pre covid)
The question you need to ask your supplier is why the price has not adjusted.
"Increasingly National’s election pitch is simply that they are “not Labour”. But is that really enough during an economic recession? Does National have any policies of substance that might help navigate the current economic crisis? Even if voters punish Labour for mismanaging the economy, there are no signs that they should have confidence that National would do any better."
https://democracyproject.nz/2022/11/24/bryce-edwards-politicians-and-the-reserve-bank-are-being-blamed-for-an-escalating-economic-crisis/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bryce-edwards-politicians-and-the-reserve-bank-are-being-blamed-for-an-escalating-economic-crisis
History would suggest not being the incumbent will be sufficient
When a Government takes from more people than it gives too or does not give enough to those who believe they deserve more then a majority is formed for its demise. The major problem is inflation which takes from many and gives to few – so once the incumbent Government is blamed for "letting inflation get out of control" it is on the way to being toast.
The current Gov may have a lot to answer for but in reality the current economic situation has been little influenced by them, this situation has been building since 2008 , and as is noted in the linked piece that will butter no parsnips for the electorate come next year.
Question: Why the first house price spike 2002-2008?
While looking for something else I saw again the there has been constant and severe house price inflation in NZ for 20 years now, briefly interrupted by the GFC. We know about 2010-2018 (Jong Khee), and 2020-2021 (Covid relief).
Why did the 2002-2008 spike occur? Accelerated immigration? Free trade deal with China? Is it just the cost of open tap neoliberal economics?
I suspect it is, which is why I applaud this government's commitment to managing immigration and foreign capital interference in the residential housing market.
it's also because the Retirement Commissioner spent years telling NZ to invest in property. That alongside the narrative that we couldn't afford superannuation any more and people needed to save for their own retirement. It was very anti-socialist/pro neolib.
Yes, i remember that. And the re-zoning of residential properties/zones to mixed which resulted in many nice villas being turned into offices, dental clinics and the likes. These lost residential houses were never replaced.
There was also the share market collapse in 1987 causing the losses of retirement savings of many, so for some, property probably would at least be worth something, unlike shares which can theoretically become worthless.
I also wonder how much impact Rich Dad, Poor Dad had – the book had more to it than "buy underpriced real estate using leverage", but that was probably the main message people took from it. It was published in 1997 and was a big seller, and I could see that message slowly percolating through to NZ after the 1997 Asian financial crisis as the economy first recovered in 1998-9 and then picked up steam under Labour.
Would you like to produce some evidence to support your last sentence?
I remember a real slump in house prices in 1991. I was overseas for most of 1990 and I remember when I came back giving some serious thought to buying an investment property in early 1991 as there was quite a glut on the market. I did decide not to – which was probably wise.
Can we please get rid of these repulsive commercial American holidays like black friday and thanksgiving? They are not New Zealand.
+1
wait, are people in NZ doing Thanksgiving? (who aren't American)
The big trashy retailers certainly are , and it's repulsive. Likewise Halloween has become a commercial spendfest.
I haven't seen any NZ retailers (not even Costco) advertising Thanksgiving.
OTOH – they're all going full out on Black Friday – and actually some (PB Tech) have been doing Black Friday sales for a month.
The only people in NZ I know who are doing Thanksgiving are transplanted Americans.
The funny thing is that Halloween derives from Hallowed Evening which presumably is the holy evening before All Saints Day on Nov 1st.
the great us-americanisation continues unabated……
Agree. What happened to Black Friday being any Friday that fell on the 13th of the month?
'
Engineering a Recession
Those that have shall be given more, and they will have an abundance. But those that do not have, even what they have, will be taken away from them.
Matthew 25:29
Banks made record profits, there was no pandemic for them. Rents, mortgages still had to be paid even under lock down.
To keep up with paying higher interest rates demanded by the banksters. Adrian Orr says the public will have to cut their spending,
Adrian Orr has also linked higher unemployment to job competition as the answer to 'wage inflation'.
Adrian Orr says unemployment must rise, before inflation, (particularly wage inflation) will be brought under control.
Bigger mortgage payments, less wages, more unemployment, more job competition, this is all sweet music to the banksters and bosses.
Listening to the car radio. Newstalk ZB, a representative of the banking community said; Can't meet your new mortgage interest rate. Talk to us. 'We can help. 'We don't want to see you out of your home.' 'We are here for the long haul'. (And so are you).
Bought at the high end of the housing market?
Feeling squeezed between inadequate wage increases and high interest rates?
Go to your local bank manager and beg for mercy like the desperate wretch you are, He will see what he can do for you. Agree to a mortgage holiday, or longer period of payment, he will let you stay in your home to work longer to pay off your mortgage.
The March of the Greedies;
Reserve Bank manager, Adrian Orr. also says government spending must be cut.
(Y'know, health care, education, welfare all that unnecessary stuff that gets in the way of maximising bankster profits).
No one should expect their investment to be underwritten by taxpayers. You are responsible for your own risk more than banks are.
Hindsight won't be kind to this government wasting billions on non-delivered services. Robertson may think the RB is overreacting, but honestly so did Robertson.
The fed minutes last night said they showed a greater then even chance (likely) of recession,.The IIF models forecast recession,so it is an expected outcome from high inflation and the necessary mechanism to curb animal spirits,through the forced extinction of Zombie companies,that take easy capital and transform it into empty pixels such as the removal in value of 2.2 trillion $ in crypto,or the deleveraging of property values.