Open mike 24/04/2010

14 comments on “Open mike 24/04/2010 ”

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1. Jenny 1

   24 April 2010 at 7:08 am

   Good News Everybody,
   Finally a chance for the Labour Party to find some common ground and dialogue with the Maori Party and put an end to the sectarian slanging match.

   Rahui Katen’s bill for the removal of GST from healthy food goes for it’s first reading.

   Supporting Rahui Katene’s bill to remove GST from healthy food would be a good start for the left to win them back from National and ACT who have vowed to vote this bill down.

   http://www.maoriparty.org/index.php?pag=nw&id=986&p=katenes-gst-off-healthy-food-bill-gets-pulled.html

   The vital question is where will Labour stand?

   There are only four possible options

   Which one will Labour choose?

   #1 Will the Labour Party parliamentary opposition collectively decide to abstain?

   #2 Will the Labour Party parliamentary opposition collectively decide to vote with National and ACT?

   #3 Will the Labour Party parliamentary opposition collectively make the decision to support this bill?

   #4 Will the Labour Party parliamentary Caucus do a cowardly cop-out and call for a conscience vote from Labour MPs?
   Sending the message that the Labour Party oppose this bill in practice and would not support it in government.

   In my opinion the most disastrous choice for the Labour Party would be option #4
   Because as weak as option #1 is, and as awful as option #2 is, at least it would be an honest statement of the Labour Party’s position on the sanctity of this regressive tax. But beware, by choosing option #4 the electorate won’t be fooled and will just conclude that they are being patronised.

   I suppose the question for the writers of The Standard is; What in my opinion is the principled option, and should I recommend it, or just keep quiet?

   Hopefully not all of you will give in to the temptation to reach for that lever that lowers the cone of silence.

   [lprent: Please clothe your links. Then I don’t have to rescue them from the spam trap. See here. ]
   • Bill 1.1

     24 April 2010 at 2:28 pm

     Who gets to decide what is and what is not ‘healthy’ food?

     Better to insist that GST will apply to unhealthy food which then puts the onus on industry to prove or convince it’s products are healthy to get them exemptions from gst. I’d guess that smaller manufacturers or food providers would find this a far easier task that corporate food producers. Which is good, as it might level that playing field a little instaed of everything coming down to economy of scale.

     Like the basic idea although the way it has been proposed would make it unworkable.

     heh. just had a look through the list and straight away notice that baked beans (legumes) would be exempt, but flavoured milk wouldn’t. What about baked beans and sausages?

     All bread is ‘healthy’….now, define bread.

     Is this bill intended as a spoiler?
     • lprent_test 1.1.1

       24 April 2010 at 2:31 pm

       On my current diet, I can’t eat bread… *sigh*
2. Lazy Susan 2

   24 April 2010 at 7:30 am

   Super City and the CCO’s, ACC privatisation, death of democracy in Canterbury, $2 billion cut from public services, mining the conservation estate etc. etc.

   It seems that Helen Clark’s fear, expressed during her 2008 concession speech, that “all that we had worked to put in place does not go up in flames on the bonfire that is right wing politics” was well founded.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1XVb0NOP34

   The bonfire is burning furiously and sadly most New Zealanders can’t even smell the smoke.

   But notice the difference in leadership style. Helen Clark drove the Government bus and passionately presented policy she believed would work for the majority of New Zealanders. ShonKey is being driven waving and smiling from the Presidential car with little passion about anything at all. Meanwhile Hide, Bennett, McCully, Brownlee, Joyce, English et al. man the bulldozers.

   There will be an “the Emperor has no clothes” moment. Let’s hope it’s not too late this time.
3. Ianmac 3

   24 April 2010 at 10:28 am

   Lazy Susan: You are right about the Presidential role that Key is taking. Apart from a few set piece speeches, he just appears to smile and wave and leave the dirty work to “his” ministers. And it seems to be working! It does seem ironic that the Nats voted down the Bill last week re Republic for NZ.
   • logie97 3.1

     24 April 2010 at 6:00 pm

     That list above is comprehensive. I cannot imagine any of the decisions made so far could have been passed by Helen Clark’s government without tirades of abusive editorial from the MSM

     Add to that National’s scant regard for parliamentary process – indeed I believe they hold it in contempt – look what has been done under urgency.

     Jon Key believes question time is an irrelevance and avoids it – more important things to do. He actually does not need to be in the house too often – and so is able to distance himself from the pettiness portrayed on “sound bite” television.
4. lprent_test 4

   24 April 2010 at 2:26 pm

   Test updated re-editor Oh that is better. They’ve dumped teh strange popup box

   freaky captcha: able
5. Quoth the Raven 5

   24 April 2010 at 3:03 pm

   What were those enlightened bureaucrats, who heroically hold back those rapacious capitalists, at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission doing at work during the financial meltdown? Spending most of the day looking at pornography apparently.
   • Descendant Of Smith 5.1

     24 April 2010 at 5:14 pm

     Yeah I saw that elsewhere. Being paid over $200,000 to look at porn. It’s the spending 8 hours a day that I thought was most amazing.

     At what point can you have seen enough for the day?

     It certainly reinforces that the salary you are paid means jack shit. No doubt these people had lots of pretty qualifications as well.

     Income (or wealth) does not in any way reflect your value to society.

     .
6. Brett Dale 6

   24 April 2010 at 4:28 pm

   GST should be removed from healthy foods, and basic foods like bread and milk.
   • vto 6.1

     24 April 2010 at 4:37 pm

     GST should be removed from all food. Who are you Brett, the Food Police?

     GST should also be removed from housing (and before anyone says ‘but it doesn’t apply already’, it does. Subdivide land and build a house you find GST applied at every point. Drop it from new land and housing and secondhand land and housing drops proportionately).

     Imagine it – cost of housing would drop overnight by about 12.5%.

     Banks wouldn’t like it. Most capital value lovers wouldn’t like it. Politicians wouldn’t like it becuase any time property values drop they usually get voted out. But it make housing more affordable – or put another way, for the same money you get a better quality home.

     It’ll never happen. Even though alongside food shelter is the most basic of human requirements.
   • vto 6.2

     24 April 2010 at 4:48 pm

     GST already doesn’t apply to residential rent so why should it also not apply to homeowners rather than just tenants?
     • prism 6.2.1

       24 April 2010 at 4:58 pm

       Why not GST on owner-occupied housing. Because owning your own house is not providing a service. Renters get a service from their landlord. Owners get advantage from capital accretion and that is why there should be some capital tax there.
7. prism 7

   24 April 2010 at 4:45 pm

   New acronym qtr tome. COB or contempt of bureaucrat. Must add that to my list that enables me to get an understanding of what is, or not, as the case may be, happening. 4,000 SEC employees apparently thought that keeping integrity checks on bonds or whatever was SEP. Great.

   Perhaps they should hire supermarket checkers. They are used to getting on with a job, doing it right and meeting the customers expectations in a pleasant, timely and effective way! And they would have been less expensive and might have done a better job, couldn’t have done a worse one. Or perhaps we could have trained gorillas. Koko a famous one, understood about 200 words or more and conversed using sign language. Also had understanding of good and bad behaviour. (Ate too many bananas and signed ‘Bad Koko’ at the same time). This could be a revolutionary idea. I wonder who I should present it to?

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