The Government is desperate to make cuts in primary education, closing down special and residential schools and placing high needs children back into their local schools is the next initiative. These children will be supported by “wrap-around services”, but the question is, who will provide them? http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/wrap-around-services-unraveling.html
Poll out in the Herald on Sunday, the vast majority want to retain assets, so no surprise there. Apparently 60% of us want to buy shares, but there is no indication of how many can actually afford to buy the shares (5%?).
On preferred party polling, more trouble for Johnny Sparkles. The Herald is really, really reluctant to say it, but the tide is turning. Bear in mind, Key Research/HOS is the most optimistically blue tinged of the polling companies.
National: 47.9
Labour: 30.4
Greens: 14.8
No result recorded for NZF, but the commentary suggests their vote was below 5%. Peter Dunne is rightly hammered for his sin of ommision:
” … NZ First, Mana and Act have all taken a big hit. Peter Dunne’s United Future didn’t even register.”
National 47.9% (-8.5%)
Labour 30.4% (+6.2%)
Green 14.8% (+2.2%)
ACT 0.5% (nc)
Maori 1.7% (+1.1%)
United Future 0.0% (-0.3%)
Mana 0.2% (-0.1%)
NZ First 3.2% (-0.4%)
Conservative 0.8% (-0.6%)
National’s result is actually above it’s election % (same for Labour and Greens). Small party poll support tends to drop off between elections and doesn’t firm up until within a week or two of an election, as demonstrated by NZF. Can’t read much into that.
[nothing for His Hairness? A typo, surely. Because that last poll was just before the election and significantly out of line with it, the indication is that the Herald poll significantly over polls National and under polls Labour. So, it’s stupid to compare this result against the election result. With any single poll, you want to look at the trend in that poll, not the absolute numbers vs other measures of support. Eddie]
Trends are semi important for the large parties but there’s a lot of other factors – like how often the polls are taken, and when the last one was.
I doubt Winston Peters will give a hoot about the NZF trend. He targets one month prior to an election, the trend through that period is what’s criticval, the rest don’t matter.
UF have barely registered in most polls for yonks. That means little this far out. As does this:
Projected Seats
– United Future 1
A trend means more if the polls are close together, if they are a long time apart they mean much less.
From what I can see the previous HoS poll was 20.11.11, just prior to the election, where it had National on 56.4 and Labour on 24.2, Greens on 12.6 and NZF on 3.6 – that is nothing like the election result the following week.
Being seven months ago surely it’s hard to deduce any trend. And they only have one other poll listed, 14.10.11 – how reliable is a trend from three unevenly spaced polls where the first two were in totally different circumstances, in the lead up to an election?
100% correct Pete, the trend means more when they are close together. So what do 5 Roy Morgans, two or 3 from the telly and now the HoS all confirming National’s slide and UF’s demise coming together in just 3 months tell you?
“A trend means more if the polls are close together, if they are a long time apart they mean much less.”
Ok, you didn’t get it. The timing of the results is not some “other factor” apart from the trend, it’s part of what makes up the trend. Jeez, learn some fucking english, would you?
“From what I can see the previous HoS poll was 20.11.11, just prior to the election, where it had National on 56.4 and Labour on 24.2, Greens on 12.6 and NZF on 3.6 – that is nothing like the election result the following week. “
Which is exactly why you’re an idiot if you compare the recent poll with the election result and conclude that National’s support has risen. The HoS poll consistently overestimates National’s support.
It’s reasonable to assume, based on all available information over many polls, that National’s support is considerably lower than this poll indicates. Your own observation above supports this view, which is also consistent with the reasonable conclusions drawn from the trends of all other recent polls.
Spot on, eddie. If I recall correctly, one of the HoS polls before the election had National on 65% support, so their record is patchy at best. However, this one is in line with the last 5 Roy Morgans and the 2 or 3 tv polls over the last 3 months. UF’s dismal result in this poll is not a reflection of a mid term drop, it’s actually only 0.6% away from the actual vote cast in November and again, in line with what the other polls are saying about UF. And what they are saying is “oblivion”.
The real question for the next election is how well the maori party go. If they lose even one seat to Labour, it’s all over for Team Key.
I don’t like to sound overly optimistic but from my own crude rithmatic National are at present polling on the 43% mark,
That gambling site run by the Tories themselves has taken an even more pessimistic view of National as a betting option figuring them now at a miserable 41%, (to all extents and purposes gone-burger in 2014),
NZFirst below the 5%, thats got to be included this day for the humor content, even in its darkest days leading up to and at the 2008 election NZFirst held 4% of the vote,
Having said all that I see no need for any of us to become complacent and such figures should just give us all the impetus to provide even more vocal opposition to the Tories and the Slippery shyster from New York we have as Prime Minister,
What an incoming Government will face after the 2014 election is a Government debt stretched out to the point where further large scale borrowing by that Government becomes extremely problematic,
The view from here is that all opposition party’s should be looking further than simply a capital gains tax as an effort to stifle the speculation in housing,
The state of our economy in 2014/2015 is going to be such that a properly targeted Financial Transactions Tax is seen as the best means of producing surplus in the Government books as well as enabling the Government debt to be paid down,
I suggest that for capital expenditure on infrastructure and social housing Government need resort to creating such monies as needed…
On The Nation yesterday Winston Peters said that the Cullen Fund should be used to buy back the assets (when he’s in Government). That’s nonsense from WP.
The fact is the Cullen Fund is likely to buy as many shares as it can get (up to 10%) as soon as they go on the market.
Just another indication from WP of having the pension fund raided for other purposes then what it is meant for (I bet he is not the only one). In 20-30 years time there will be no money and people have to work til they are 70, perhaps even for all their lives (Dickensian). My god this is so mean and in the disguise of a “good cause”. Meanwhile NZ is becoming more and more an underdeveloped nation and all this with the nodding of the population. Pathetic really, but today’s comments on education are very revealing and do point in the direction NZ is moving.
Going back to Dave Kennedy’s comment, any more cuts and the illiteracy of the kids will even more increase. It would be nothing short of catastrophic for NZ. These comments below from an article this morning. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7159927/Writing-on-the-wall-for-illiterate-Kiwis
A 2006 survey found 43 per cent of adults with some sort of literacy issue, and half the population with numeracy difficulties.
The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training says the number of low-skilled jobs will fall by 51 per cent this decade, while highly skilled jobs will increase only 21 per cent.
Last year 31 per cent of students left school without level 2 NCEA, the equivalent of Sixth Form Certificate.
This is the real issue because people who fall behind will not be able to build a future for their community. Looking at other comments on this site, they will not be able to research issues like Asset Sales, they will be easier manipulated by social media and advertising. This is also a reason why the “rich” or whoever can afford it (be it with 3 jobs going) send their kids to private schools.
The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training says the number of low-skilled jobs will fall by 51 per cent this decade, while highly skilled jobs will increase only 21 per cent.
Uh, highly skilled jobs are going to China and India. Highly skilled does not have to mean here and highly paid.
This report was about NZ and its education outcome. Sorry, but the number of people not able to string a sentence or able to calculate without any aid (provided the can read!) is rising. To get skilled means literate and able to be trained. How do you propose to change the future if the kids are not held on to the learn the basics? There is a worldwide shift from low or no skill where one can get by illiterate. This will and has changed to demands of better educational outcomes to operate the equipment that is provided and more and more hi tech. Read the article and you will understand what I try to say.
Basic literacy and numeracy are key, yes. But in the context that the future is going back to the past, FW. We will need fitter turners more than we will need semiconductor engineers.
And we need an education which arms children with social and communication skills primarily, not “high tech” skills.
BTW ever see a 50 year old use an iPhone or a Windows PC?
That 50 year old was in primary school in 1970. No computers, no internet. No problem.
Argh yes the “knowledge economy”, going along well isn’t it…NZ is forging ahead, along with the rest of the western nations. We can tell from the swaths of out of work young/graduates, as the economies of the world in real terms, have failed, on the back end of the money men cartels!!
FW – Don’t be fooled into thinking that the “tech” is the saviour os us, it simply is not, and will not be.
In fact the more the tech advances, the more stripped down the hunan being becomes, far from the direction most believe that all the “tech’ is taking us…
I was out of cash and needed some money to get by, so I thought I’d sell my car.
A mate of mine said he’d buy it.
It had a full tank of gas, new tyres and the engine ran ok.
I sold it to him for $100.
He used it as a taxi and made heaps of money.
After a while- having to pay my mate to get around, I realised that I needed a car of my own after all.
My mate said I could have my old car back.
The gas tank was empty, the tyres were worn out and the engine was stuffed.
He said I could buy it back for $200.
So far it’s cost me a lot for repairs and still doesn’t run very well,
but at least I’ve got my car back again.
Pretty good value, eh?!
My Asset Sales Story
I sold a car once, and some other assets, to raise a deposit to buy a house. After a while, as I paid off some of the mortgage and inflation and promotion raised my earning, I was able to buy a better car again.
So explain to me how selling what produces our earnings will give us a promotion and a pay increase.
The car you sold was a cost and the other assets were non income producing.
A more accurate analogy would be to have sold your body to a pimp who then used it to generate their own income. After several years your body was worn out and no use to the pimp and you had to pay lots of money to put it right again. The pimp meanwhile kept his money.
PG if your story bore any resemblance to government policy I don’t see it. National (+ klingon parties) won’t use the proceeds to improve NZ’s asset portfolio, they are just going to juice the budget for a few years and then there will be nothing to show for it.
So, Pete, do you think this government is planning to sell the shares in the power companies and in AirNZ, use the funds to reduce debt, and then buy those shares back when things are considered to be looking a bit better?
Rather than going into government coffers, most of the profits head directly overseas. The government woud have made much more money keeping the asset rather than selling it for a one-off payment. And it’s pretty much the most expensive power company in the consumer electricity market.
Thanks for pointing out what a stupid idea selling any other assets would be, pete. Care to share it with the hair-do?
It’s a perfectly valid analogy, Pete. It points out that Dunne and Key want to sell income generating assets and spend the money on non-income generating assets, or worse still on the general running costs of the country.
I know you’re not very good at analogies though. From the way I’ve seen you try to interpret them before, you’re probably thinking ‘what an idiot, the govt hasn’t said anything about buying petrol…’
As for PG What a limp apology for a comment with an underlying theme that goes like this. “I am so clever that I can manage my affairs so well that I don’t feel hardship because I am so clever and hard working, which is all that is needed in this life to succeed. Every clever boy knows that.”
Why is my comment that I put on at 11.15 a.m. after ropata not up there at 9.1.2 where it has some relevance? Instead I have gone down to 9.2 below felix’s at 6.18p.m. It’s makes the comment irrelevant to be so distant from the origin.
Would someone have time to explain how I can avoid this. You might note that I headed my original comment with ropata’s name so tied it, I thought, to the one I was replying to.
Probably other people have had this same thing occurring. It is annoying and makes commenting on comments a waste of time and discouraging. Is that the intention?
ropata
So this means that I should have replied to PG and then added comment to you at the end of one to PG so I could get in cooee of your comment. This is strategic – I’ll have to make plans for my future forays into the blogosphere.
A report on Radionz yesterday on the state of the Spanish oil industry. It is being ruined by the buying power of supermarkets who use this popular and needed item as a loss leader thus forcing down profits for the growers. Also the fudging of labelling to give the idea of higher quality.
Pure virgin labelling should show Acidity 0.3% but the marketing companies extend this classification by adding more processed oil giving 0.3 to 1% acidity, not virgin oil at all. The price being paid in general isn’t enough to fund the already low-paid work force using traditional gathering by shaking the olive branches to drop the fruit on mats underneath. This method allows the good ripening and flavour of good oil.
Australian supermarkets have used milk as a loss leader and had a price war between them for which apparently they didn’t bear the cost. They recouped losses by reducing the prices that farmers thought they were to receive under contract.
This is not new, the Spanish olive oil industry has been monitored for this reason for quite a while now. Don’t forget, Spaniards or for that matter Mediterranean Countries use Olive oil like we do canola and butter. But now that the new owners, the ones who bailed the country out, are in charge this kind of thing will surface. But don’t get fooled, the practice of “loss leader” marketing is well established and works in NZ too – look at the alcohol sales. All it means is that there is a war of shareholding in the food market on and we are the pawns on both side of the equation. We pay less and have no job, no income. So the price has to be cut to “loss leader” level, etc.
Foreign waka
Mmmm too true. Another thing that happens when these food price wars continue is that quality and good nutrition can be lost in favour of cheaper manufacturing procedures, longer shelf life, and poorer quality ingredients.
Already done, look at the “pink slime” mince issue in the US, just the tip of the iceberg. All these long name ingredients which – I would not be surprised to find this with 90% – are industrial waste. Toothpaste – fluoride is one of them.
Shame on the Corrections Department for the conditions they are imposing on prisoners. The prisoners are held at great expense to the taxpayers. They are usually not held for life, but let out eventually back into society – where many continue the schemes their twisted minds obssess about on one part of society, females but not forgetting children animals and old people or foreigners with perceived assets. The so-called Corrections Department doesn’t match its name. It doesn’t attempt to correct just to punish with prisoners locked in for 23 hours a day, with nothing to do. Let’s get it straight, that the Department is the Punishment Department and is an expensive, inefficient and dangerous method of dealing with criminals, dangerous to society. And they should now be allowing Peter Williams Lawyer and rep for the Howard League to talk to the stressed prisoners in the tower.
This is an inhuman, backward way to treat these people. The serially bad should be kept under life control on prison farms where they can work to grow prison food. All should be enabled to learn some skill or project interesting to them (not involving the making of weapons or studying warfare – they already know violence and callousness intimately). The others should go straight into a series of projects with limited time frames, which are not hard to accomplish. These would be chosen to suit their needs and they would pick from such a group.
Learning is hard work and would be a shock to the system for many. By doing something, first based on theoretical or philosophical teaching, then followed by a practical, hands-on thing they would pass the time productively for all, and eventually it would entertain them. Also, the sentence would be suspended when they had achieved a certain number, some being basic school programs they had missed.
Simple sayings, trite or cliche often say it all. The devil makes work for idle hands. Add to that my observation that people are like lettuces, once cut off from good nurturing, they wither. We are just as perishable as lettuces and need care to grow well.
I said that Correction Department doesn’t try to help prisoners, but that is not so, now I think about it. Someone will defend them saying that they do run projects to guide some of their prisoners to better thinking and behaviour. However they then spoil this positive by reducing the remaining humanity in their prisoners until they are full of anger or despair, and then more likely to erupt and strike, injure, kill in prison and out.
This 23 hour lock-up, multiple bunking attitude comes from High Society who wouldn’t demean themselves to commit such coarse criminality, aiming for a higher more complex type. These people are the product of their environment with some nature in the mix. Three ways to improve – one get beside parents with help and respect for the task, two limit addiction suppliers, legalise and tax and control and monitor their businesses, three to encourage prisoners to envisage a different path which would be better for them and society and then give them the help to achieve it.
This 23 hour lock-up, multiple bunking attitude comes from High Society who wouldn’t demean themselves to commit such coarse criminality,
Exactly, and that fits with the way the whole thing was being reported on Radio NZ… ‘They’ll come down when they get sick of it’ as if prisoners are naughty children! ‘They want to see Peter Williams, but we won’t let them’ (because Corrections has its own trained negotiators there… and that seems to be working so well!)
Community Action on Suicide Prevention Education and Research founder Maria Bradshaw […]says the ministry does not disclose the questionnaire’s real purpose to parents, and discourages those conducting the test to tell parents if their child’s scores are borderline or abnormal.
Since 2008 Pharmac figures show a 140 per cent increase in antidepressant prescriptions for 0 to 4-year-olds between 2009 and 2010, and an average 10 per cent increase in mood-stabilising drug prescriptions in the last five years for children aged five and over.
Giving anti-depressants to toddlers is totally wrong IMO – the drugs can be toxic, create dependence and too little is know about the effects on developing brains.
Big pharma may be looking for another market for its wares but that is not a good reason for letting them experiment on NZ’s kids.
The deliberate deception from the ministry and the instruction to those conducting tests to with-hold information from parents is totally unacceptable.
CL – Indeed this issue in fact goes back furher with CASPER playing a key role in keeping it in the public eye.
The use of psychotropic drugs, as it relates to the suicides of young Kiwis is a key issue. Now it looks like they are trying to get the kids hooked up even sooner, and who does this benefit overall – Big Pharma!
Bradshaw, the founder of Casper – Community Action on Suicide Prevention Education and Research – calls the associate minister of health, “Peter Dunne Nothing”, because she says that in the four years he has been responsible for suicide prevention in government “he has done absolutely nothing”.
Giving anti-depressants to toddlers is totally wrong IMO – the drugs can be toxic, create dependence and too little is know about the effects on developing brains.
Drugs should be the last resort IMO. Change of diet is probably the first one and then looking to care, involvement and environment.
Every individual needs a chance to become a person without medical intervention in the form of a psychotropic drug, especially at such young ages. Tests that normalise such interventions are not solving any problems, they are creating them.
I was talking about toddlers, and the “children aged five and over” referred to in the article who are a bit too young to be on the booze – but you have kindly illustrated my point – which was that if your kid ‘fails’ one of these ‘tests’ then next thing you know someone like BernyD is labelling them a future street corner dweller or alcoholic.
The use of psychotropic drugs, as it relates to the suicides of young Kiwis is a key issue. Now it looks like they are trying to get the kids hooked up even sooner, and who does this benefit overall – Big Pharma!</
This is what I mean by applying science.
The Devil is a known commodity, it can be observed, recorded, analysed.
The street corner or bar tender are not.
If everyone in NZ was happy to talk to a professional personality observer, they would find their lives a lot easier to understand.
It may scare them, but at least they’d know why.
And trust me when I say the Devil drug dealer is no psychiatrist all he wants is money.
Furthermore most kids from troubled backgrounds start drinking very young as well.
I include myself in that category, and would’ve appreciated qualified help.
Andrew Little is making a mistake is proposing that the ACC funding model be changed. The ACC has an investment portfolio of about $20b. DO NOT give the Nats a chance to liquidate that: it will only result in tax reduction for the top earners and cost reduction for employers. Andrew Little is taking a short term view, and Shearer will sit on the fence.
The ACC funded model is a Labour Party inter-generational treasure for our children. Like the Hydro Dams, it is wrong cash them in. Pull your head in Andrew Little, show some leadership Shearer.
“But the party’s ACC spokesman, Andrew Little, said it was time for a public debate about funding options, with recent controversy highlighting ACC’s overemphasis on lowering costs rather than meeting claimants’ needs. Under full funding the corporation builds up reserves to cover the current and future costs of existing claims, and is aiming to reach that goal by 2019.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7125792/Premiums-may-drop-in-ACC-rethink
I agree KM that ACC’s reserves should be maintained. Otherwise our young will not only be paying for our future superannuation but also paying for our accidents and our hospital bills …
No matter what the actual costs will have to be met from available resources. What this means in practical terms is an effective slack in the economy that can meet emergency situations. No amount of saving money will change that and, in fact, saving money makes it look like things can be done without diverting from other economic activity. I,e, Christchurch isn’t being rebuilt partially because the saved money isn’t generating a diversion from other economic activity.
Saving money is delusional but, then, our entire financial/economic system is delusional.
It’s not delusional. Each ACC account has its own investment fund and our levies have been topping them up so the income from investments can pay the future cost of existing claims.
To give you an idea what it’s worth; in 2011 investments returned very high sums because of recovering markets but if we discount it back to the risk-free rate of around 5% ACC investment accounts in 2011 would have paid 34% of the work account costs, 24% of the earners account and 49% of the motor vehicle account. That’s total cash outgoings too, including claims and all expenses. The percentages will get higher each year as surpluses are reinvested. That’s what we stand to lose if they nobble our ACC assets and change to pay as you go.
KM
Perhaps there could be an amendment from full to a part-funding model so that we don’t have to carry all tomorrow’s inflated costs on our shoulders today. Even small annual inflation, which is going to happen in a thriving economy, does mount up and we meet its cost as we go along.
Prism, there might be a valid case to move the target date out a few more years. But to remove that strategic target for short term reasons is as much intergenerational theft as selling the Hydro Dams.
Totally with your point KhandallahMan. I was equally pretty shocked to hear Kevin Hague of the Greens suggest that the Greens would simply liquidate the ACC fund, in order to stop a National government from using the fund to privatize ACC. Pretty odd kind of “salt the wells and burn the villages” kind of logic there.
If ACC’s goal really is to be self-funding, I presume that to mean that they generate a fund large enough that the levies will decrease. That’s a cost off business, and a cost of the injured, and a massive cost off the health system. That’s worth keeping a massive fund for.
Little is also spectacularly dumb if he wants to tamper with it. What Labour should avoid is moving from a simple political target (getting a few politicians fired), to a policy one in which they have no clue what success would look like (let’s reinvent ACC).
Labour have no clear policy on this, and you should not re-write an intergenerational contract on the fly.
It’s pretty obvious what it’s about. If they make ACC pay as you go then they can make the outstanding claims liability (OCL) disappear at the stroke of a pen. Presently it’s protected because of accounting rules, if they nobble any of our ACC cash it goes on the books as a deficit. Change the rules and they can grab the cash, book it as a surplus, and leave us paying extortionate levies for an ACC we’ve already paid for.
Neither the left nor the right political parties can be trusted on this IMO. The right want to sell off ACC so they can loot the kitty & enrich themselves, the left want to loot the kitty so they can spend more. It’s the best scheme of its type in the world and they’re all hell-bent on wrecking it for their own selfish ends.
The ACC is a Treasure! A Taonga. Some idiots from National are dicking around with it. The Nats want to sell it or wreck it. Labour should be very very carful not to undermine the unique value proposition of a properly funded ACC. Other countries are copying the historic Labour model.
Hague and the Greens have no maturity of policy development in this space. Andrew Little needs to engage with more experienced MPs and Party policy makers before shooting from the hip in public.
He deserves a good bollicking at the next caucus meeting.
Just imagine if we had a sovereign investment fund that included the ACC fund, the EQC fund, a public Kiwisaver option, and the NZSuperFund, and the (remaining) state companies. Perhaps in part managed by Kiwibank.
Something even bigger than Temasek or Harvard Pension, roaming the earth owning chunks of massive companies, investing with ethical and long term purpose.
Not just producing milk and cheese, but owning supermarket chains.
Not just converting to wind farms, but buying out the turbine manufacturer.
At every point, aggregating the public resources we have into single common purpose.
And imagine that fund being used to enable policy outcomes; a free health system, a fully resilient set of cities, a more confident NZSuperannuation.
The Greens(!) are the only party that have proposed such a fund, well they at least they promised to look into whether one would be worth investigating 🙂 While National just want to use our mineral wealth to subsidize tax cuts for the rich. Kinda what Thatcher did with North Sea gas…
Epic, and surprisingly uplifting. A great topic for defeatists and catastrophists in that he reaffirms individual human agency and choice, both through his own story and through railing against immoral kinds of government. Loved it.
I’d say that’s a serious concern. Was the release of cyanide gas from the grass an effect of the genetic modification or just a random mutation due to local drought conditions?
And sorghum is a popular feed and could have been GMO. The item about the dead cows said that others have had this trouble from the same Tifton85 type. However it shows up on google as a hybrid grass which happens more through breeding and crossing strains than adding and subtracting genetic material of various sorts.
In my humble opinion, today concludes the end of the first chapter of the Egyptian revolution. I know that other people have it divided into sections in regards to original 18 days, elections, parliament and presidential elections, but I don’t subscribe to that. We went into the revolution with the same thinking that people like me had back in 2005: we must remove Mubarak, stop his son from inheriting us, and get democratic elections. All of us had those goals and not a single vision on what to do afterwards, because the removal of Mubarak was such a pipedream. So, you successfully dethrone a tyrant, and you have neither plan nor vision on what to do afterwards, and no real understanding of the regime itself, then, quite naturally, you fall flat on your face, and we have been doing that for the past 18 months. This has been our story: the removal of a dictator and the repercussions that follow. That’s what’s been happening. This ends today, and the new chapter starts, for better or worse
At one point today when I tried to link to a specific commenter, it kept coming up with a post way back in 2008. Can’t remember the title but someone was… wondering why the Leader of the Opposition, John Key always had a cheesy grin on his face.
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The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
Legislation to enable new water service delivery models that will drive critical investment in infrastructure has passed its first reading in Parliament, marking a significant step towards the delivery of Local Water Done Well, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly say.“Councils and voters ...
New Zealand is one step closer to reaping the benefits of gene technology with the passing of the first reading of the Gene Technology Bill, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins says. "This legislation will end New Zealand's near 30-year ban on gene technology outside the lab and is ...
ByKoroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) says impending bad weather for Port Vila is now the most significant post-quake hazard. A tropical low in the Coral Sea is expected to move into Vanuatu waters, bringing heavy rainfall. Authorities have issued warnings to people ...
Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...
Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...
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Morning. Is this meant to be a politics free Sunday?
didn’t you get the memo?
This is the second ‘weekend social’ this weekend. I got a bit confused for a minute there.
Looks like our open mike and weekend social wires got crossed. Fixed now.
but isn’t today the 24th?
someone should put the cap back on the bottle before things get any worse 🙂
Give that man a 10% pay cut!
My mistake. Too tired last night, brain on autopilot, wires crossed everywhere. All sorted now (I think)…
The Government is desperate to make cuts in primary education, closing down special and residential schools and placing high needs children back into their local schools is the next initiative. These children will be supported by “wrap-around services”, but the question is, who will provide them?
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/wrap-around-services-unraveling.html
This is going to end up just like our mental health services.
And ACC, Millsy, this government is actively avoiding their responsibility to support our most vulnerable.
Poll out in the Herald on Sunday, the vast majority want to retain assets, so no surprise there. Apparently 60% of us want to buy shares, but there is no indication of how many can actually afford to buy the shares (5%?).
On preferred party polling, more trouble for Johnny Sparkles. The Herald is really, really reluctant to say it, but the tide is turning. Bear in mind, Key Research/HOS is the most optimistically blue tinged of the polling companies.
National: 47.9
Labour: 30.4
Greens: 14.8
No result recorded for NZF, but the commentary suggests their vote was below 5%. Peter Dunne is rightly hammered for his sin of ommision:
” … NZ First, Mana and Act have all taken a big hit. Peter Dunne’s United Future didn’t even register.”
National 47.9% (-8.5%)
Labour 30.4% (+6.2%)
Green 14.8% (+2.2%)
ACT 0.5% (nc)
Maori 1.7% (+1.1%)
United Future 0.0% (-0.3%)
Mana 0.2% (-0.1%)
NZ First 3.2% (-0.4%)
Conservative 0.8% (-0.6%)
http://curiablog.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/herald-on-sunday-key-research-poll-june-2012/
National’s result is actually above it’s election % (same for Labour and Greens). Small party poll support tends to drop off between elections and doesn’t firm up until within a week or two of an election, as demonstrated by NZF. Can’t read much into that.
[nothing for His Hairness? A typo, surely. Because that last poll was just before the election and significantly out of line with it, the indication is that the Herald poll significantly over polls National and under polls Labour. So, it’s stupid to compare this result against the election result. With any single poll, you want to look at the trend in that poll, not the absolute numbers vs other measures of support. Eddie]
Trends are semi important for the large parties but there’s a lot of other factors – like how often the polls are taken, and when the last one was.
I doubt Winston Peters will give a hoot about the NZF trend. He targets one month prior to an election, the trend through that period is what’s criticval, the rest don’t matter.
UF have barely registered in most polls for yonks. That means little this far out. As does this:
Projected Seats
– United Future 1
That trend is stable, but meaningless.
Politicly Gelded looks like Dunne is going to have to change his blue rinse to red green rinse!
“UF have barely registered in most polls for yonks. That means little this far out.”
Quite right, Pete. If UF made you leader just before the election then put you on TV with that worm going again I reckon you’d end up our next PM.
Thanks for that decisive analysis, Pete.
UF are a rubbish party with no credibility. PD gets elected in Ohariu largely because of his personal popularity in the electorate.
“Trends are semi important for the large parties but there’s a lot of other factors – like how often the polls are taken, and when the last one was.”
Jeez Pete, what do you think “trend” means in this context if not movement over time?
You’re getting worse and worse at these “waffle over the gaping hole” comments you know.
A trend means more if the polls are close together, if they are a long time apart they mean much less.
From what I can see the previous HoS poll was 20.11.11, just prior to the election, where it had National on 56.4 and Labour on 24.2, Greens on 12.6 and NZF on 3.6 – that is nothing like the election result the following week.
Being seven months ago surely it’s hard to deduce any trend. And they only have one other poll listed, 14.10.11 – how reliable is a trend from three unevenly spaced polls where the first two were in totally different circumstances, in the lead up to an election?
The trend for UF is spectacularly stable though – no matter what the poll, UF is always on fuck-all. And that includes elections.
Sigh. There is so much wrong with this statement, stochastically, but I’m not even going to bother.
100% correct Pete, the trend means more when they are close together. So what do 5 Roy Morgans, two or 3 from the telly and now the HoS all confirming National’s slide and UF’s demise coming together in just 3 months tell you?
“A trend means more if the polls are close together, if they are a long time apart they mean much less.”
Ok, you didn’t get it. The timing of the results is not some “other factor” apart from the trend, it’s part of what makes up the trend. Jeez, learn some fucking english, would you?
“From what I can see the previous HoS poll was 20.11.11, just prior to the election, where it had National on 56.4 and Labour on 24.2, Greens on 12.6 and NZF on 3.6 – that is nothing like the election result the following week. “
Which is exactly why you’re an idiot if you compare the recent poll with the election result and conclude that National’s support has risen. The HoS poll consistently overestimates National’s support.
It’s reasonable to assume, based on all available information over many polls, that National’s support is considerably lower than this poll indicates. Your own observation above supports this view, which is also consistent with the reasonable conclusions drawn from the trends of all other recent polls.
Spot on, eddie. If I recall correctly, one of the HoS polls before the election had National on 65% support, so their record is patchy at best. However, this one is in line with the last 5 Roy Morgans and the 2 or 3 tv polls over the last 3 months. UF’s dismal result in this poll is not a reflection of a mid term drop, it’s actually only 0.6% away from the actual vote cast in November and again, in line with what the other polls are saying about UF. And what they are saying is “oblivion”.
The real question for the next election is how well the maori party go. If they lose even one seat to Labour, it’s all over for Team Key.
I don’t like to sound overly optimistic but from my own crude rithmatic National are at present polling on the 43% mark,
That gambling site run by the Tories themselves has taken an even more pessimistic view of National as a betting option figuring them now at a miserable 41%, (to all extents and purposes gone-burger in 2014),
NZFirst below the 5%, thats got to be included this day for the humor content, even in its darkest days leading up to and at the 2008 election NZFirst held 4% of the vote,
Having said all that I see no need for any of us to become complacent and such figures should just give us all the impetus to provide even more vocal opposition to the Tories and the Slippery shyster from New York we have as Prime Minister,
What an incoming Government will face after the 2014 election is a Government debt stretched out to the point where further large scale borrowing by that Government becomes extremely problematic,
The view from here is that all opposition party’s should be looking further than simply a capital gains tax as an effort to stifle the speculation in housing,
The state of our economy in 2014/2015 is going to be such that a properly targeted Financial Transactions Tax is seen as the best means of producing surplus in the Government books as well as enabling the Government debt to be paid down,
I suggest that for capital expenditure on infrastructure and social housing Government need resort to creating such monies as needed…
“no indication of how many can actually afford to buy the shares ”
Anyone with KiwiSaver can invest
On The Nation yesterday Winston Peters said that the Cullen Fund should be used to buy back the assets (when he’s in Government). That’s nonsense from WP.
The fact is the Cullen Fund is likely to buy as many shares as it can get (up to 10%) as soon as they go on the market.
Just another indication from WP of having the pension fund raided for other purposes then what it is meant for (I bet he is not the only one). In 20-30 years time there will be no money and people have to work til they are 70, perhaps even for all their lives (Dickensian). My god this is so mean and in the disguise of a “good cause”. Meanwhile NZ is becoming more and more an underdeveloped nation and all this with the nodding of the population. Pathetic really, but today’s comments on education are very revealing and do point in the direction NZ is moving.
Not the same thing. The clue was the word ‘buy’, which was in the question KR/HoS asked.
How does that work in practice?
http://newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/nbpol/292669198-Greens-to-meet-with-ACC-minister-over-12-point-plan
It pains me to say it but those looney greenies arn’t doing a bad job at the moment
Going back to Dave Kennedy’s comment, any more cuts and the illiteracy of the kids will even more increase. It would be nothing short of catastrophic for NZ. These comments below from an article this morning.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/7159927/Writing-on-the-wall-for-illiterate-Kiwis
A 2006 survey found 43 per cent of adults with some sort of literacy issue, and half the population with numeracy difficulties.
The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training says the number of low-skilled jobs will fall by 51 per cent this decade, while highly skilled jobs will increase only 21 per cent.
Last year 31 per cent of students left school without level 2 NCEA, the equivalent of Sixth Form Certificate.
This is the real issue because people who fall behind will not be able to build a future for their community. Looking at other comments on this site, they will not be able to research issues like Asset Sales, they will be easier manipulated by social media and advertising. This is also a reason why the “rich” or whoever can afford it (be it with 3 jobs going) send their kids to private schools.
Uh, highly skilled jobs are going to China and India. Highly skilled does not have to mean here and highly paid.
This report was about NZ and its education outcome. Sorry, but the number of people not able to string a sentence or able to calculate without any aid (provided the can read!) is rising. To get skilled means literate and able to be trained. How do you propose to change the future if the kids are not held on to the learn the basics? There is a worldwide shift from low or no skill where one can get by illiterate. This will and has changed to demands of better educational outcomes to operate the equipment that is provided and more and more hi tech. Read the article and you will understand what I try to say.
Basic literacy and numeracy are key, yes. But in the context that the future is going back to the past, FW. We will need fitter turners more than we will need semiconductor engineers.
And we need an education which arms children with social and communication skills primarily, not “high tech” skills.
BTW ever see a 50 year old use an iPhone or a Windows PC?
That 50 year old was in primary school in 1970. No computers, no internet. No problem.
Argh yes the “knowledge economy”, going along well isn’t it…NZ is forging ahead, along with the rest of the western nations. We can tell from the swaths of out of work young/graduates, as the economies of the world in real terms, have failed, on the back end of the money men cartels!!
FW – Don’t be fooled into thinking that the “tech” is the saviour os us, it simply is not, and will not be.
In fact the more the tech advances, the more stripped down the hunan being becomes, far from the direction most believe that all the “tech’ is taking us…
Back to the future it will have to be!
My Asset Sales Story
My Asset Sales Story
I sold a car once, and some other assets, to raise a deposit to buy a house. After a while, as I paid off some of the mortgage and inflation and promotion raised my earning, I was able to buy a better car again.
True.
So explain to me how selling what produces our earnings will give us a promotion and a pay increase.
The car you sold was a cost and the other assets were non income producing.
A more accurate analogy would be to have sold your body to a pimp who then used it to generate their own income. After several years your body was worn out and no use to the pimp and you had to pay lots of money to put it right again. The pimp meanwhile kept his money.
PG if your story bore any resemblance to government policy I don’t see it. National (+ klingon parties) won’t use the proceeds to improve NZ’s asset portfolio, they are just going to juice the budget for a few years and then there will be nothing to show for it.
Well do the sums Peteg and tell us how this scenario is actually going to happen.
We are not selling the car to buy a house, we are selling the business so we can pay off the credit card and give some money to the farmers.
So, Pete, do you think this government is planning to sell the shares in the power companies and in AirNZ, use the funds to reduce debt, and then buy those shares back when things are considered to be looking a bit better?
Cool story bro. Unfortunately what National and Peter Dunne are about to do is more akin to selling the house to put petrol in the car.
That’s another of many ridiculous comparisons. The best/worst I’ve seen is it’s like selling a kidney to buy a dialysis machine.
Here’s a relevant analogy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_Energy
Very apt indeed.
Rather than going into government coffers, most of the profits head directly overseas. The government woud have made much more money keeping the asset rather than selling it for a one-off payment. And it’s pretty much the most expensive power company in the consumer electricity market.
Thanks for pointing out what a stupid idea selling any other assets would be, pete. Care to share it with the hair-do?
It’s a perfectly valid analogy, Pete. It points out that Dunne and Key want to sell income generating assets and spend the money on non-income generating assets, or worse still on the general running costs of the country.
I know you’re not very good at analogies though. From the way I’ve seen you try to interpret them before, you’re probably thinking ‘what an idiot, the govt hasn’t said anything about buying petrol…’
ropata
A good story – very good analogy.
As for PG What a limp apology for a comment with an underlying theme that goes like this. “I am so clever that I can manage my affairs so well that I don’t feel hardship because I am so clever and hard working, which is all that is needed in this life to succeed. Every clever boy knows that.”
Why is my comment that I put on at 11.15 a.m. after ropata not up there at 9.1.2 where it has some relevance? Instead I have gone down to 9.2 below felix’s at 6.18p.m. It’s makes the comment irrelevant to be so distant from the origin.
Would someone have time to explain how I can avoid this. You might note that I headed my original comment with ropata’s name so tied it, I thought, to the one I was replying to.
Probably other people have had this same thing occurring. It is annoying and makes commenting on comments a waste of time and discouraging. Is that the intention?
Hey I saw your comment (9.2) and appreciated it, but PG got in first (9.1) and everyone replied to him (9.1.x) which shifted yours down lower.
ropata
So this means that I should have replied to PG and then added comment to you at the end of one to PG so I could get in cooee of your comment. This is strategic – I’ll have to make plans for my future forays into the blogosphere.
A report on Radionz yesterday on the state of the Spanish oil industry. It is being ruined by the buying power of supermarkets who use this popular and needed item as a loss leader thus forcing down profits for the growers. Also the fudging of labelling to give the idea of higher quality.
Pure virgin labelling should show Acidity 0.3% but the marketing companies extend this classification by adding more processed oil giving 0.3 to 1% acidity, not virgin oil at all. The price being paid in general isn’t enough to fund the already low-paid work force using traditional gathering by shaking the olive branches to drop the fruit on mats underneath. This method allows the good ripening and flavour of good oil.
Australian supermarkets have used milk as a loss leader and had a price war between them for which apparently they didn’t bear the cost. They recouped losses by reducing the prices that farmers thought they were to receive under contract.
This is not new, the Spanish olive oil industry has been monitored for this reason for quite a while now. Don’t forget, Spaniards or for that matter Mediterranean Countries use Olive oil like we do canola and butter. But now that the new owners, the ones who bailed the country out, are in charge this kind of thing will surface. But don’t get fooled, the practice of “loss leader” marketing is well established and works in NZ too – look at the alcohol sales. All it means is that there is a war of shareholding in the food market on and we are the pawns on both side of the equation. We pay less and have no job, no income. So the price has to be cut to “loss leader” level, etc.
Foreign waka
Mmmm too true. Another thing that happens when these food price wars continue is that quality and good nutrition can be lost in favour of cheaper manufacturing procedures, longer shelf life, and poorer quality ingredients.
Already done, look at the “pink slime” mince issue in the US, just the tip of the iceberg. All these long name ingredients which – I would not be surprised to find this with 90% – are industrial waste. Toothpaste – fluoride is one of them.
Shame on the Corrections Department for the conditions they are imposing on prisoners. The prisoners are held at great expense to the taxpayers. They are usually not held for life, but let out eventually back into society – where many continue the schemes their twisted minds obssess about on one part of society, females but not forgetting children animals and old people or foreigners with perceived assets. The so-called Corrections Department doesn’t match its name. It doesn’t attempt to correct just to punish with prisoners locked in for 23 hours a day, with nothing to do. Let’s get it straight, that the Department is the Punishment Department and is an expensive, inefficient and dangerous method of dealing with criminals, dangerous to society. And they should now be allowing Peter Williams Lawyer and rep for the Howard League to talk to the stressed prisoners in the tower.
This is an inhuman, backward way to treat these people. The serially bad should be kept under life control on prison farms where they can work to grow prison food. All should be enabled to learn some skill or project interesting to them (not involving the making of weapons or studying warfare – they already know violence and callousness intimately). The others should go straight into a series of projects with limited time frames, which are not hard to accomplish. These would be chosen to suit their needs and they would pick from such a group.
Learning is hard work and would be a shock to the system for many. By doing something, first based on theoretical or philosophical teaching, then followed by a practical, hands-on thing they would pass the time productively for all, and eventually it would entertain them. Also, the sentence would be suspended when they had achieved a certain number, some being basic school programs they had missed.
Simple sayings, trite or cliche often say it all. The devil makes work for idle hands. Add to that my observation that people are like lettuces, once cut off from good nurturing, they wither. We are just as perishable as lettuces and need care to grow well.
I said that Correction Department doesn’t try to help prisoners, but that is not so, now I think about it. Someone will defend them saying that they do run projects to guide some of their prisoners to better thinking and behaviour. However they then spoil this positive by reducing the remaining humanity in their prisoners until they are full of anger or despair, and then more likely to erupt and strike, injure, kill in prison and out.
This 23 hour lock-up, multiple bunking attitude comes from High Society who wouldn’t demean themselves to commit such coarse criminality, aiming for a higher more complex type. These people are the product of their environment with some nature in the mix. Three ways to improve – one get beside parents with help and respect for the task, two limit addiction suppliers, legalise and tax and control and monitor their businesses, three to encourage prisoners to envisage a different path which would be better for them and society and then give them the help to achieve it.
Yes that’s how I felt Vicky32.
Ministry ‘hides test’s real purpose’
Giving anti-depressants to toddlers is totally wrong IMO – the drugs can be toxic, create dependence and too little is know about the effects on developing brains.
Big pharma may be looking for another market for its wares but that is not a good reason for letting them experiment on NZ’s kids.
The deliberate deception from the ministry and the instruction to those conducting tests to with-hold information from parents is totally unacceptable.
CL – Indeed this issue in fact goes back furher with CASPER playing a key role in keeping it in the public eye.
The use of psychotropic drugs, as it relates to the suicides of young Kiwis is a key issue. Now it looks like they are trying to get the kids hooked up even sooner, and who does this benefit overall – Big Pharma!
Maria Bradshaw has a nickname for Peter Dunne.
Bradshaw, the founder of Casper – Community Action on Suicide Prevention Education and Research – calls the associate minister of health, “Peter Dunne Nothing”, because she says that in the four years he has been responsible for suicide prevention in government “he has done absolutely nothing”.
Many links to articles below
http://www.scoop.co.nz/archive/index.html?t=Mental%20Health
Better than the street corner
Drugs should be the last resort IMO. Change of diet is probably the first one and then looking to care, involvement and environment.
Well said, but a “Professional” to help would be required.
Individual needs vary
Every individual needs a chance to become a person without medical intervention in the form of a psychotropic drug, especially at such young ages. Tests that normalise such interventions are not solving any problems, they are creating them.
I have too agree with you, self medication is the current result, starting with alcohol
I was talking about toddlers, and the “children aged five and over” referred to in the article who are a bit too young to be on the booze – but you have kindly illustrated my point – which was that if your kid ‘fails’ one of these ‘tests’ then next thing you know someone like BernyD is labelling them a future street corner dweller or alcoholic.
It relates to the original post by muzza …
Not sure where you got five year olds from, Just saying we need to make Psycho analysis less of a social evil and more of a science.
Even the ‘professionals’ admit they are supping with the devil
This is what I mean by applying science.
The Devil is a known commodity, it can be observed, recorded, analysed.
The street corner or bar tender are not.
If everyone in NZ was happy to talk to a professional personality observer, they would find their lives a lot easier to understand.
It may scare them, but at least they’d know why.
And trust me when I say the Devil drug dealer is no psychiatrist all he wants is money.
Furthermore most kids from troubled backgrounds start drinking very young as well.
I include myself in that category, and would’ve appreciated qualified help.
Andrew Little is making a mistake is proposing that the ACC funding model be changed. The ACC has an investment portfolio of about $20b. DO NOT give the Nats a chance to liquidate that: it will only result in tax reduction for the top earners and cost reduction for employers. Andrew Little is taking a short term view, and Shearer will sit on the fence.
The ACC funded model is a Labour Party inter-generational treasure for our children. Like the Hydro Dams, it is wrong cash them in. Pull your head in Andrew Little, show some leadership Shearer.
“But the party’s ACC spokesman, Andrew Little, said it was time for a public debate about funding options, with recent controversy highlighting ACC’s overemphasis on lowering costs rather than meeting claimants’ needs.
Under full funding the corporation builds up reserves to cover the current and future costs of existing claims, and is aiming to reach that goal by 2019.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7125792/Premiums-may-drop-in-ACC-rethink
I agree KM that ACC’s reserves should be maintained. Otherwise our young will not only be paying for our future superannuation but also paying for our accidents and our hospital bills …
No matter what the actual costs will have to be met from available resources. What this means in practical terms is an effective slack in the economy that can meet emergency situations. No amount of saving money will change that and, in fact, saving money makes it look like things can be done without diverting from other economic activity. I,e, Christchurch isn’t being rebuilt partially because the saved money isn’t generating a diversion from other economic activity.
Saving money is delusional but, then, our entire financial/economic system is delusional.
It’s not delusional. Each ACC account has its own investment fund and our levies have been topping them up so the income from investments can pay the future cost of existing claims.
To give you an idea what it’s worth; in 2011 investments returned very high sums because of recovering markets but if we discount it back to the risk-free rate of around 5% ACC investment accounts in 2011 would have paid 34% of the work account costs, 24% of the earners account and 49% of the motor vehicle account. That’s total cash outgoings too, including claims and all expenses. The percentages will get higher each year as surpluses are reinvested. That’s what we stand to lose if they nobble our ACC assets and change to pay as you go.
And you missed the point.
KM
Perhaps there could be an amendment from full to a part-funding model so that we don’t have to carry all tomorrow’s inflated costs on our shoulders today. Even small annual inflation, which is going to happen in a thriving economy, does mount up and we meet its cost as we go along.
Prism, there might be a valid case to move the target date out a few more years. But to remove that strategic target for short term reasons is as much intergenerational theft as selling the Hydro Dams.
Totally with your point KhandallahMan. I was equally pretty shocked to hear Kevin Hague of the Greens suggest that the Greens would simply liquidate the ACC fund, in order to stop a National government from using the fund to privatize ACC. Pretty odd kind of “salt the wells and burn the villages” kind of logic there.
If ACC’s goal really is to be self-funding, I presume that to mean that they generate a fund large enough that the levies will decrease. That’s a cost off business, and a cost of the injured, and a massive cost off the health system. That’s worth keeping a massive fund for.
Little is also spectacularly dumb if he wants to tamper with it. What Labour should avoid is moving from a simple political target (getting a few politicians fired), to a policy one in which they have no clue what success would look like (let’s reinvent ACC).
Labour have no clear policy on this, and you should not re-write an intergenerational contract on the fly.
It’s pretty obvious what it’s about. If they make ACC pay as you go then they can make the outstanding claims liability (OCL) disappear at the stroke of a pen. Presently it’s protected because of accounting rules, if they nobble any of our ACC cash it goes on the books as a deficit. Change the rules and they can grab the cash, book it as a surplus, and leave us paying extortionate levies for an ACC we’ve already paid for.
Neither the left nor the right political parties can be trusted on this IMO. The right want to sell off ACC so they can loot the kitty & enrich themselves, the left want to loot the kitty so they can spend more. It’s the best scheme of its type in the world and they’re all hell-bent on wrecking it for their own selfish ends.
Noisy scandals, Pullar, Privacy, who said what when, etc and blah blah are distractions. The ACC became under attach when Nick Smith appointed the new Board after National won the 2008 election.
http://www.acc.co.nz/about-acc/overview-of-acc/key-people/ABA00006
The ACC is a Treasure! A Taonga. Some idiots from National are dicking around with it. The Nats want to sell it or wreck it. Labour should be very very carful not to undermine the unique value proposition of a properly funded ACC. Other countries are copying the historic Labour model.
Hague and the Greens have no maturity of policy development in this space. Andrew Little needs to engage with more experienced MPs and Party policy makers before shooting from the hip in public.
He deserves a good bollicking at the next caucus meeting.
Just imagine if we had a sovereign investment fund that included the ACC fund, the EQC fund, a public Kiwisaver option, and the NZSuperFund, and the (remaining) state companies. Perhaps in part managed by Kiwibank.
Something even bigger than Temasek or Harvard Pension, roaming the earth owning chunks of massive companies, investing with ethical and long term purpose.
Not just producing milk and cheese, but owning supermarket chains.
Not just converting to wind farms, but buying out the turbine manufacturer.
At every point, aggregating the public resources we have into single common purpose.
And imagine that fund being used to enable policy outcomes; a free health system, a fully resilient set of cities, a more confident NZSuperannuation.
Call it Kiwifund.
Khandalla, that’s where Labour should be headed.
Now that is something I would support.
The Greens(!) are the only party that have proposed such a fund, well they at least they promised to look into whether one would be worth investigating 🙂 While National just want to use our mineral wealth to subsidize tax cuts for the rich. Kinda what Thatcher did with North Sea gas…
Or in any other as far as I can see!
Dr Michael Burry UCLA Commencement Speech
An outstanding critique of the political, economic and financial situation the world finds itself in.
From one of the world’s top 0.1%.
Epic, and surprisingly uplifting. A great topic for defeatists and catastrophists in that he reaffirms individual human agency and choice, both through his own story and through railing against immoral kinds of government. Loved it.
What to make of this?.
http://www.foodrenegade.com/mutated-gmo-grass-makes-cyanide-kills-cattle-2/
I’d say that’s a serious concern. Was the release of cyanide gas from the grass an effect of the genetic modification or just a random mutation due to local drought conditions?
Came across this and it seems that cyanide poisoning is a drought related feeding problem.
Prussic acid or cyanide poisoning can also be a problem when grazing drought-stunted plants such as sorghum, sorghum hybrids and sudan grass.
And sorghum is a popular feed and could have been GMO. The item about the dead cows said that others have had this trouble from the same Tifton85 type. However it shows up on google as a hybrid grass which happens more through breeding and crossing strains than adding and subtracting genetic material of various sorts.
Sandmonkey (Mahmoud Salem) on the Egyptian elections.
In my humble opinion, today concludes the end of the first chapter of the Egyptian revolution. I know that other people have it divided into sections in regards to original 18 days, elections, parliament and presidential elections, but I don’t subscribe to that. We went into the revolution with the same thinking that people like me had back in 2005: we must remove Mubarak, stop his son from inheriting us, and get democratic elections. All of us had those goals and not a single vision on what to do afterwards, because the removal of Mubarak was such a pipedream. So, you successfully dethrone a tyrant, and you have neither plan nor vision on what to do afterwards, and no real understanding of the regime itself, then, quite naturally, you fall flat on your face, and we have been doing that for the past 18 months. This has been our story: the removal of a dictator and the repercussions that follow. That’s what’s been happening. This ends today, and the new chapter starts, for better or worse
Some choice that was..
A member of the establishment, or some crackpot mullah.
Anyone else having trouble loading thestandard today?
At one point today when I tried to link to a specific commenter, it kept coming up with a post way back in 2008. Can’t remember the title but someone was… wondering why the Leader of the Opposition, John Key always had a cheesy grin on his face.