“Unlock the secret voice
Give in to ancient noise…
The ape regards his tail
He’s stuck on it
Repeats until he fails
Half a goon and half a god
A man’s not made of steel”
Any half decent reporter would then have asked if he supported treating ALL workers fairly, or was he still only interested in increasing the wealth of the rich?
Then: Did you gift the Queen some Meridian shares?
To put it bluntly fender, the Boards and the editorial staff behind these broadcast formats are as cunning as, well, lets just say they are very cunning, never letting a chance go by to bolster their interests with grasps at public opinion: Never lettin’ a Chance Go By oh Lord, never lettin’ a chance go by. (not with those chrome-plated grease nipples and all).
Not only that, but on their online site, Stuff has a pic of the smiling Shonkey above the headline “Honest Broker”. Ridiculous. Sorry – Couldn’t copy it.
New Zealand’s pitch is as the “honest broker” of world diplomacy. “We genuinely are that well-liked small country with an independent foreign policy, an honest broker . . . I reckon there are a lot of countries that like that and there are a lot of countries that fundamentally want to give us our turn.”
The reputation as an independent broker was built on the back of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear position, and also former Labour leader Helen Clark’s refusal to follow our traditional allies into Iraq. The extent to which it could survive a “Syria” under National is yet to be tested.
Our honest broker rep isn’t based on the idea that we reckon ‘the west’ should be able to do end runs around the sec council when we don’t get our way.
Between his love of the TPPA, KDC and skynet, international credibility is yet another area where national is squandering the benefits built up by labour (and opposed at the time by national).
“We’re playing it the old-fashioned way, which is we’re a good, honest broker, [with] sound independent foreign policy and we’re worth voting for,” Key said.
Sound independent foreign policy my arse. Key said that he supported Obama’s drive for military action against Syria.
North .. I did see an online headline about it late yesterday .. but can’t find it now on either herald or stuff search .. wonder if they chose belatedly to not repeat the libel and removed it ? that would be fun !
I did actually email 9-to-noon yesterday. Mainly because I was appalled at the way Hooton shouted Ryan & Williams down and didn’t allow anyone to respond to his repetition of Liar, Liar, liar.
Martyn Bradbury has also posted about the lack of RNZ consistency, in comparison with the lifetime ban he was given for being critical of John Key – at least Bomber didn’t shout anyone else down over it – even though he can be quite loud.
It wouldn’t surprise me if we never hear MH again in that slot.
Wee bit in fairfax’s today in politics briefs. usually on line after about 0900;
Cunliffe not bothered by lobbyist’s jibes
Fresh scrutiny of Labour leader David Cunliffe’s CV came yesterday after lobbyist Matthew Hooton disputed his claims to have worked on the formation of Fonterra.
Mr Cunliffe said that as management consultant for Boston Consulting Group “in the late 1990s” he analysed different merger models for the New Zealand Dairy Board. “Mr Hooton hasn’t bothered to ask me, he’s gone out in public making a claim which is factually incorrect.”
‘Hooton, smear merchant’ is pretty much the takeaway from that.
He can explain why working on the models that led to the formation of Fonterra isn’t working on the formation of Fonterra all day. But he’ll be losing.
Labour leader David Cunliffe says a critic has got it wrong with attacks on his credibility.
Right-wing columnist and PR man Matthew Hooton’s challenged Mr Cunliffe saying he wasn’t involved in the formation of dairy giant Fonterra.
But Mr Cunliffe says when he worked for the Boston Consulting Group in the late 1990s he was assigned to a preparatory case at the New Zealand Dairy Board that analysed different merger models.
“The particular role I played was analysing the impact of the merger on research and development.
“Mr Hooton hasn’t bothered to ask me, he’s gone out in public making a claim which is factually incorrect.”
Are you asking me, Tracey @ 12.04pm? I pretty much said that in my post yesterday. My “comments” here are links to and quotes from some (largely right leaning) pundits, who agree more with Cunliffe.
Here’s a fight to be intensely aware of and support across every town and city and district:
Slippery via Amy Adams easing their path for Monsanto etc under TPPA and Auckland councillors say “NO” ! ( along with other diligent councils round the country.)
This people are SO corrupt to the point of treason.
“Auckland Council and the Government are on a collision course over rules for genetically modified crops after councillors decided to propose stricter rules on GM trials in the region – despite the environment minister warning them not to.
Auckland councillors voted to introduce new standards in the region’s draft planning document which were designed to increase protection for food-producing regions and vineyards and protect local government from the potential costs of a genetically modified organism (GMO) outbreak.”
NB This was front page Herald online late last night, but completely absent this morning wtf ?? and why is it a business story ?? there’s a tell, if ever there was.
This people are SO corrupt to the point of treason.
Depends on the legal documents which define what most of us understand New Zealand to be, and who the agents masquerading as representatives, actually operate on behalf of.
Corrupt, without a doubt, treasonous, perhaps we will never know!
new Otago University study has used 2006 census data to provide the first measure of homelessness, finding that 34,000 people suffer “severe housing deprivation
At many low-decile schools, this could lead to a yearly student turnover of more than 50 per cent as families flitted from house to house.
These children usually did not have a doctor and could spend long periods not attending school as they moved, he said.
Schools where children are failing exams could be taken over by the Government as the Education Minister warns staff need to be held accountable for students’ performance.
So putting commissioners will fix the problem.
bizarre
”Must i get a witness for all this misery, there’s no need to brother, anyone can see”, the Clash,
Heres the Neo-liberal recipe that leads to the results found by the Otago study of the 2006 census,
*1980’s population 3.3 million,
*75,000 State Houses,
*2013 population 4.2 million,
*67,000 State Houses,
*Shortage of State Houses based upon population 30,000,
*Number of homeless from study of 2006 census 34,000,
The number of State Houses peaked at 75,000 in the early 1980’s and has steadily declined by 8000 houses since then while the population has increased by 1,000,000 people in that period,
The % of ‘poor’ people in the economy has remained the same as the % of poor people in the 1980’s economy leading to an increase in the actual numbers of those ‘most in need’…
Crown agency Education New Zealand spent $7.7 million on marketing campaigns in 2012-13, up from $3.5m the year before.
Despite the spending, the number of fee-paying international students fell by more than 3 per cent last year, and the number of students applying for a visa for the first time fell by 8.6 per cent.
In March, Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce announced a $40m boost for marketing and promotion of New Zealand as an education destination over the next four years, with hopes of doubling the value of the industry to $5 billion by 2025.
English New Zealand chairman Darren Conway said Education NZ’s focus on marketing was “excessive”, and the money would be better spent on advocating for better policies for the industry.
The Government’s endless denigration of NZ schools/teachers/unions have no doubt caused loss of confidence in potential international students. Clever ploy?
if he had spent that money on the educational institutions themselves, particularly in more staff & resourcing rather than buildings, then that would be better than any marketing campaign.
Too many. The quality of education has suffered immensely since profit became the main motive. Both teaching and research have gone downhill – teaching because anyone who can pay gets in, almost regardless of merit, and then makes demands on the teachers’ time which mean they end up ignoring students who could benefit. Research suffers because teaching for profit becomes the main focus and leaves little time or funding for anything else.
What also happens is that the university administrations insist on passing students who don’t meet any reasonable criteria, seemingly on the basis that they’ve paid, so that degrees at Kiwi institutions become devalued. On a similar basis, they are reluctant to punish cheating. Eventually the degrees are worthless, the rich foreigners stop coming, and Kiwis are left with a gutted educational system.
“What a lovely property you have” the nz prime minister cooed to the queen of england.
“How are things in new zealand ” she asked
” things are going real well. When can I see the bonny baby because i must go to paris and new york. Do you have any cake?”
Meanwhile at home
“These are low-income working families that can only get accommodation in a garage or in a shed. It leads to terrible outcomes for children.”And while homeless people were more likely to be unemployed, the study shows about half were working or studying. About one in five were unable to afford a home, despite working fulltime.Otago University researcher Kate Amore, who headed the study, said New Zealand did not keep a good watch on its homeless and had only recently defined the term. “We identified many severely deprived people who are usually statistically invisible because they are not living in permanent private dwellings,” she said.She estimated that between 12,000 and 21,000 extra affordable homes were needed to accommodate the homeless.”
” a cream scone with the queen and a seat on the un security council will soon solve all that.” The pm smiled and waved at the queen as his car rolled down the long drive at balmoral.
You forgot about the royal visit of Will, Kate and George next year. I thought there were protocols about royal visits in election year, but no doubt this will be ignored like all the other protocols if Johnny boy can get more photo ops.
Question for the environmental law experts and Labour Party:
What is the current legal status of the QEII National Trust? …. Is it safe ?
This national trust under the name of HRH Queen Elizabeth II….was set up 36 years ago to very tightly legally safeguard unique natural, historic and geological spaces, landscapes and features on private land in New Zealand, in perpetuity for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
With over 3,600 covenants now registered, the QEII National Trust is a unique partnership between private landowners, often farmers , and the Crown to preserve special places for conservation.
With the John Key Nact government’s trashing of the Resource Management Act (RMA)…..is the QEII Act also affected? (If so…..what would Her Majesty have to say about this?)
If the QEII National Trust gets in the way of corporate irrigation schemes, fracking, digging oil wells or mining for minerals….. will it be run over by a bulldozer and trashed like the RMA?
1.) What is Labour Party Policy on whether they will keep QEII National Trust legal integrity and inviolability ?…..
2.) Will Labour completely restore Resource Management Act back to what it was ….before Nact trashed it?
3.) Will Labour completely restore democracy to the people of Canterbury to vote for their own ECAN? ( which Nact so shamefully annexed)
Is mccully contradicting his leader. Is this a rift?
Key says New Zealand is doing OK so far – we’ve got about 100 votes and we need about 127.McCully says vote numbers are not talked about. “There’s a huge amount of work to be done; the Australian experience was the final three or four months were critical.”
NO, I am pretty sure if you arent on the same page as a member of your caucus it’s a rift, and a major division within the party which will undermine your effectiveness.
“Hundreds toil on rival bids for nation’s biggest roading job”
It is pleasing that we have two such high quality consortiums bidding for Transmission Gully.
What is novel, and which I am sure will annoy some commentators (“more free money for corporate mates”) is that (according to this AFR article) the Government will reimburse the development costs for the losing bidder, and acquire the intellectual property. It shows the Government is adopting innovative tendering practices to lift value for money.
“The New Zealand government is also reimbursing costs on its first road PPP, the $1 billion Transmission Gully project, a 27-kilometre highway that will connect Wellington to the North Island’s west coast [sic]. Nick Miller, managing director of New Zealand’s Fulton Hogan, a privately owned construction group shortlisted on Transmission Gully, said reimbursing bids would help smaller contractors compete against larger ones.
“It makes playing at the table slightly more palatable when you’re a regional contractor,” Mr Miller said, adding reimbursement helped cover the costs of hiring bankers and other advisors.”
_____________
I think this is an excellent approach. Hopefully it will be the first of many PPP funded large roading and other infrastructure projects in New Zealand. I hope the usual opponents of PPPs (especially on the left) can put aside their animosity and applaud the Government’s innovation.
And no answer then to your “everything can be priced” mantra which underpins all your theories and understandings and musings and postings? People are just a commodity aren’t they.
btw, I saw plastic buckets on sale at mitre 10 last week for just $1.21. Immediately thought of you and surmised that such is evidence that your theories are working…… go the plastic buckets!
SSLands, you need to answer the question i put to you in Open Mike on 22 September, you also need to work a damn sight harder so as to be able to pay for Bill from Dipton and Paula Benefit’s latest piece of (wonderful), social welfare…
I’m pretty sure Srylands isn’t paying for anything this side of the Tasman, bad12, especially not taxes. I suspect his lifestyle is funded from NZ, though.
And while we’re on the Clash tip:
All over people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Srylands flew in today
They’d send a limousine anyway
Lolz, Te Reo, only if you care to believe the little fantasy that SSLands has trotted out for us here at the Standard,
My intuition says that one is a minor counter of other peoples rich’s for a firm of Wellington tax lawyers,(am i breaching the rules by speculating here,please delete if so),
Simply a minor cog being averagely paid in a boring job pushing the heavy wheel of capitalism which leads ‘it’ to fantasize about being above ‘its’ real position in life,
Ah the Clash, i can honestly say, the band that produced in my head that ‘life changing WTF moment’,
First heard via the old Radio Hauraki, in a Pare Max cell where the screws controlled the volume,which meant the ear-hole pressed against the speaker in the wall,
Listening to them in the late 1970’s was listening to the songs which told of what was to come,(it’s still at the stage of drugs and things, but they are all looking round)…
I don’t think that’s speculation, Bad12, because Srylands once claimed to commute from up the coast to a very specific Terrace address that is home to just the kind of economic non-contributers you mention. My feeling is that it lives over the ditch, based on when it starts posting each day. Usually about breakfast time in the Eastern states. Hardly matters, given Sryland is a fact and credibility free zone. May as well be a bot.
Interesting story about your intro to The Only Band That Matters. That’s got to have a tad more street cred than my listening to late night shows on ZM and Hauraki coming through in glorious scratchy mono via my Dad’s multi band radio connected to a 40 ft mast in the back yard. Once I discovered reggae (via a bloke I’m pretty sure became the Hallelujah Picasso’s Bobbylon – but that’s a whole other story), Marx and the NME, a worldview was formed that has never left me.
Lolz, at the time ‘they’ allowed us record players,(if they had radios we had to pay them to disable them), definitely a quantum leap from old Hendrix and Led Zep records to ‘the Clash’…
was at school with DLT; we from the same ‘hood. Hence my association with the dogs…last night, for example…yet, that’s another story (suffice to say, hearts not as black as they are painted, it’s the Cracks in the finish that are concerning).
I still have all the important vinyl bad12, some from the original purchases; London Calling, Sabbath, Zep, Tull, JD etc (all the original NZ-released JD albums and some eps on vinyl).
Lolz RT, figured from your handle and a couple of previous comments your ‘connection’,
Am of P Town origins so know and am known to those in the hood, and alas, my vinyl never survived the madness,badness,and sadness of the 70,s and 80,s despite a couple of attempts at rebuilding…
plenty of P Town bottom rockers around the Bay, including the next-door-neighbours’ 😎 (it’s a whanau thing). and I learnt in a recent sesh that a Chrome kraut-lid I kept from the bad ol’ days, gifted to a local member, is now a prized possession of the Wgtn Prez… and so the wheel turns.
it’s not that he posts 7am australia time, it’s that he is always ready to go with his version of reality with an article…
either he read it the night before and saved it for us OR he is in NZ, in Wellington, being paid to pretend to be people online. I hope that’s not true though, cos the concept is worse than sad.
Nah, the jobs were cold-calling senile pensioners for sithland’s finance company.
It’s now gone bust and all the depositors’ life savings have disappeared. Sithlands sincerely regrets any hardship experienced by depositors, but as a wealth creator he cannot reimburse them because he is penniless, as his classic cars and australian mansion are actually all owned by a family trust. Besides, reimbursing even a fraction of what the depositors lost would just encourage risky investing and destabilise the economy. It’s for their own good, you know.
Oh, and because the jobs were minimum wage plus a commission to be paid later, all the sales staff are unsecured creditors and fucked.
More corporate welfare spun as innovation….tendering is a cost of business, just so happens that in major civil works only 2-3 companies get all the work in NZ.
You know those great ‘too big to fail ‘ , ‘ scale of economy’ arguments that allow FH / Downer/ Fletchers etc to swallow up their competition with a CommComm rubber stamp.
Spot the opportunity for smaller mates to suck off the taxpayers tit, nice trolling shoutlands.
All roads are PPPs. The Government proposes and the corporations tender for the work. So there is nothing new here.
Buying the IP is also something that has happened for a few years. This is nothing new.
What is new is building a motorway with such a shocking BCR. This road will lose money as well as cannibalise users of the train system and making PT in Wellington more expensive to run.
If you are referring to PPPs for funding then there are many examples in Australia which show that they always perform worse than the proposers suggest.
All roads are PPPs. The Government proposes and the corporations tender for the work. So there is nothing new here.
Buying the IP is also something that has happened for a few years. This is nothing new.
What is new is building a motorway with such a shocking BCR. This road will lose money as well as cannibalise users of the train system and making PT in Wellington more expensive to run.
If you are referring to PPPs for funding then there are many examples in Australia which show that they always perform worse than the proposers suggest.
Transmission Gully? That’s Kapiti way where you pretend to live when you are not pretending to be in Melbourne.
yes, reimbursing bids will mean a small contractor will get the job. Actually it means we are subsidising small businesses so that the govt can give fulton hogan the contract with clean hands.
Wow, SSlands, that’s how they do things in 3rd world banana republics. Even failed capitalists must be rewarded. I thought one of the things they used to justify profits was risk. Will they be building this stupid road on a cost only basis?
What is this farticle supposed to be? Satire? Parody? Lame attempt at humour?
I’m pretty sure that Barry Sopper likes to think he’s a serious journalist but really, he’s just another jonolist like all of them.
I reckon Bazza got totally dark on David Cunliffe after his wife came home and was a little toooooo enthusiastic about the fun they had on their fishing trip together.
Oh that Barry Soper fancies himself something awful !
Going back to the day when the press were still enviously protesting Winnie’s ministerial warrant in Foreign Affairs – Soper tried to derail the joint press conference of Winnie and Senator McCain in Washington.
Winnie took one look at the dishevelled thing barracking tastelessly from across the room and closed the press conference. Just closed it. Bang. Gone. !
Well done Barry !
Barry’s attempt to look the crusty seasoned news hound in front of the unfailingly polite Senator McCain landed him fair on his arse. I laughed and laughed and laughed.
I thought so too Chris 73. Sue Moroney did very well to bring up the 60,000 dollar question we all want answered – is Paula Bennett going to do something positive to help real people into real jobs? She didn’t answer the question but blathered on about people who break the law. You know… like inferring bennies are all law breakers. That reminds me, didn’t one time bennie, Paula Basher harbour a crim in her house a few years back?
The Minister of Education has threatened schools, that fail children, will be taken over by the government. Sadly the school’s spokesmen have responded with defensive rhetoric.
What about just replying to her with, “You. Go for it Hekia!”
Apparently schools are failing about 20 percent of pupils – “the Tail”. That would seem to cover a heck of a lot of schools.
The government wouldn’t have the manpower or expertise to even half address the problem but what a shambles they would create.
Gotta love that. The free market clearly and firmly rejected the idea of an Atlas Shrugged movie. I suspect the reason it flopped is that the story is complete shit, the writing is terrible, the characters are one-dimensional and all horrible, and the values it espouses repulse most of the population. Anyone referring to it as a magnum opus is misusing the word ‘magnum’, it’s more like a disjointed amphetamine-addled nightmare.
Private school subsidies.
Private schools get state funding per pupil based on a formula that loosely tries to allocate a proportion of the average cost of a pupils education and gives that money to the private school in the mistaken belief that the state saves that amount of money. Of course if they wanted to base the payment on the savings to the state they should use marginal cost. The marginal cost of 1 more pupil to a school is zero so the subsidy should if not be zero then a number approaching zero. Never happen of course, and i have not explained it well enough. But there you are. I think it is average cost vs marginal cost and they are confused. Would love to know if I am right about this.
My second plan is to have Auckland Grammar have 3 or more additional campuses around Auckland. All called Auckland Grammar. The state owns the name, the name has real value and each of them can share the name itself. It is a brilliant plan. The real estate values would be interesting to watch and more campuses can be built. as needed.
What a brilliant idea.
But would the AGS Oldboys network like it?
Would they dip into their corporate pockets to build pavilions bearing their names all over the City.
The govt” We know that you wont know”
When the GCSB is watching you and you wont know when the oil exploration is taking place or they start drilling
FASCISM!!!!!!!!
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Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
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Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
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The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
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 ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
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Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
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Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
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The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
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The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
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Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
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Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
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The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
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The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
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Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Korolev, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, UNSW Sydney The United States and Russia agreed to work on a plan to end the war in Ukraine at high-level talks in Saudi Arabia this week. Ukrainian and European representatives were pointedly ...
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Gilmore Girls, Schitt’s Creek, even The Vampire Diaries – they’re all set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. So what is it like to actually know your neighbours? My favourite television shows are set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. Characters attend town meetings where they debate local ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pascale Lubbe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Ecology, University of Otago Royal spoonbills are among several new species that have crossed the Tasman and naturalised in New Zealand. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA When people arrived on the shores of Aotearoa ...
Stats NZ’s head is stepping down over the agency’s failure to safeguard census data, and more officials may soon be in the firing line, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. An ‘absolutely unacceptable’ failure Stats NZ chief ...
Health NZ is under greater government scrutiny, with the new health minister setting up a unit he says will "drive greater accountability and performance". ...
Manurewa Marae acknowledges should have done better at handling completed census forms, following an inquiry into steps government agencies took to protect data. ...
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Two long-awaited reports into alleged personal data misuse, centred on census collection and Covid-19 vaccination efforts at Manurewa Marae, were released yesterday. Here’s what you need to know.“Very sobering reading” was how public service commissioner Sir Brian Roche described his organisation’s long-awaited report into the alleged misuse of census ...
Backbench MPs reached new levels of patsy questions in an extraordinarily dull question time on Tuesday. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. “MPs ask questions to explore key issues ...
The New Zealand Government says the Cook Islands must share more information about the deals it has signed with China, following the release of an ‘action plan’ in the face of protests in the Pacific nation’s capital.The Cook Islands government has also revealed plans to spend $3 million on a ...
‘
Nothing like a bit of energising music with a message to help get ready for another day at the salt mine.
Then again, maybe some of you are coming off night shift and need something a little more ska-like.
“Lord, I am so tired, how long can this go on?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms79633njIg
(Devo from back in the Jurassic when I was younger)….
Smiles. Excellent, relevant musical medley start to the morning. Thank you.
“Unlock the secret voice
Give in to ancient noise…
The ape regards his tail
He’s stuck on it
Repeats until he fails
Half a goon and half a god
A man’s not made of steel”
-Use Your Freedom of Choice.
Lydon’s calling;
-they “want to stop the economy”
and
-“give more power to the unions” -John Key from the UK on Labour under Cunliffe.
“….give more power to the unions….”
Any half decent reporter would then have asked if he supported treating ALL workers fairly, or was he still only interested in increasing the wealth of the rich?
Then: Did you gift the Queen some Meridian shares?
And: Did she let you buy 49% of Balmoral ?
To put it bluntly fender, the Boards and the editorial staff behind these broadcast formats are as cunning as, well, lets just say they are very cunning, never letting a chance go by to bolster their interests with grasps at public opinion: Never lettin’ a Chance Go By oh Lord, never lettin’ a chance go by. (not with those chrome-plated grease nipples and all).
‘John Key is a dick’ song here
Look forward to ‘John Key is still a dick’ coming soon.
Here!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9200082/Key-in-honest-broker-pitch-to-UN
HONEST???
hahahahahahhaahhaahahahahaha written by Tracey wino Watkins
Not only that, but on their online site, Stuff has a pic of the smiling Shonkey above the headline “Honest Broker”. Ridiculous. Sorry – Couldn’t copy it.
This is nails it though:
New Zealand’s pitch is as the “honest broker” of world diplomacy. “We genuinely are that well-liked small country with an independent foreign policy, an honest broker . . . I reckon there are a lot of countries that like that and there are a lot of countries that fundamentally want to give us our turn.”
The reputation as an independent broker was built on the back of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear position, and also former Labour leader Helen Clark’s refusal to follow our traditional allies into Iraq. The extent to which it could survive a “Syria” under National is yet to be tested.
Our honest broker rep isn’t based on the idea that we reckon ‘the west’ should be able to do end runs around the sec council when we don’t get our way.
Between his love of the TPPA, KDC and skynet, international credibility is yet another area where national is squandering the benefits built up by labour (and opposed at the time by national).
Honest broker for Warner Brothers etc etc etc etc.
‘honest broker’ – sounds like an oxymoron!
Sound independent foreign policy my arse. Key said that he supported Obama’s drive for military action against Syria.
That’s one point I’ll agree with. We’re not all that independent anyway and with National in charge we’re getting less so.
Wino?
Is she a booze hound? I’d never heard that.
Nil media take-up of Shouty Hooton’s meltdown on Nine to Noon yesterday ?
Felix is right then – everyone (except RNZ) thinks Shouty’s an arrogant dickhead who let the side down ?
http://thestandard.org.nz/hooton-please-apologise/#comment-700588
North .. I did see an online headline about it late yesterday .. but can’t find it now on either herald or stuff search .. wonder if they chose belatedly to not repeat the libel and removed it ? that would be fun !
Vance’s article is still there.
Funny that she labels Hooton a “Lobbyist”. Why then is RNZ using him as a commentator to debate political issues from the right?
‘aye!’ to the ‘why?’…
phillip ure..
hi karol .. i thought it was another headline away from vance .. but may be wrong.
Solution. Lobby RNZ to get rid of him?
I did actually email 9-to-noon yesterday. Mainly because I was appalled at the way Hooton shouted Ryan & Williams down and didn’t allow anyone to respond to his repetition of Liar, Liar, liar.
Martyn Bradbury has also posted about the lack of RNZ consistency, in comparison with the lifetime ban he was given for being critical of John Key – at least Bomber didn’t shout anyone else down over it – even though he can be quite loud.
It wouldn’t surprise me if we never hear MH again in that slot.
Wee bit in fairfax’s today in politics briefs. usually on line after about 0900;
Cunliffe not bothered by lobbyist’s jibes
Fresh scrutiny of Labour leader David Cunliffe’s CV came yesterday after lobbyist Matthew Hooton disputed his claims to have worked on the formation of Fonterra.
Mr Cunliffe said that as management consultant for Boston Consulting Group “in the late 1990s” he analysed different merger models for the New Zealand Dairy Board. “Mr Hooton hasn’t bothered to ask me, he’s gone out in public making a claim which is factually incorrect.”
‘Hooton, smear merchant’ is pretty much the takeaway from that.
He can explain why working on the models that led to the formation of Fonterra isn’t working on the formation of Fonterra all day. But he’ll be losing.
the headline should be..
“hooten gets attack of the vapors..live on national radio.”
(with the sub-heading:..)
“…show-compere has to administer smelling-salts..gets hooten ‘to have a wee lie-down’..in the studio..”
..phillip ure..
and a solution for rnz..
..would be to give hoot the boot..
..keep mike williams to continue speaking/aplogising for the right..
.and get someone else to speak for the left..
..problem solved..!
..phillip ure..
Stuff’s today in politics.
Farming Show, attacks on Cunliffe all wrong.
And on Twitter both Fran O’Sullivan and Duncan Garner give it to Cunliffe over Hooton:
FO’Sullivan’s Twitter:
https://twitter.com/FranOSullivan/status/382090819114516480
Garner 13 hrs ago:
https://twitter.com/Garner_Live/status/382083926497325057
and
https://twitter.com/Garner_Live/status/382085165553442816
so, are you saying Shooten Up was factually wrong?
Are you asking me, Tracey @ 12.04pm? I pretty much said that in my post yesterday. My “comments” here are links to and quotes from some (largely right leaning) pundits, who agree more with Cunliffe.
Here’s a fight to be intensely aware of and support across every town and city and district:
Slippery via Amy Adams easing their path for Monsanto etc under TPPA and Auckland councillors say “NO” ! ( along with other diligent councils round the country.)
This people are SO corrupt to the point of treason.
“Auckland Council and the Government are on a collision course over rules for genetically modified crops after councillors decided to propose stricter rules on GM trials in the region – despite the environment minister warning them not to.
Auckland councillors voted to introduce new standards in the region’s draft planning document which were designed to increase protection for food-producing regions and vineyards and protect local government from the potential costs of a genetically modified organism (GMO) outbreak.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11128918
NB This was front page Herald online late last night, but completely absent this morning wtf ?? and why is it a business story ?? there’s a tell, if ever there was.
Depends on the legal documents which define what most of us understand New Zealand to be, and who the agents masquerading as representatives, actually operate on behalf of.
Corrupt, without a doubt, treasonous, perhaps we will never know!
Wellington Rape Crisis urges as many people as possible to make submissions to SCI on funding of sexual abuse services.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1309/S00253/people-urged-to-submit-to-select-committee-inquiry.htm
– there are shortages of services throughout NZ, with wait lists in major centers
– treatment is most effective when delivered soon after the event
Here are two articles from Stuff and herald today
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9200104/Being-homeless-hits-children-hard
new Otago University study has used 2006 census data to provide the first measure of homelessness, finding that 34,000 people suffer “severe housing deprivation
At many low-decile schools, this could lead to a yearly student turnover of more than 50 per cent as families flitted from house to house.
These children usually did not have a doctor and could spend long periods not attending school as they moved, he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11128998
Schools where children are failing exams could be taken over by the Government as the Education Minister warns staff need to be held accountable for students’ performance.
So putting commissioners will fix the problem.
bizarre
”Must i get a witness for all this misery, there’s no need to brother, anyone can see”, the Clash,
Heres the Neo-liberal recipe that leads to the results found by the Otago study of the 2006 census,
*1980’s population 3.3 million,
*75,000 State Houses,
*2013 population 4.2 million,
*67,000 State Houses,
*Shortage of State Houses based upon population 30,000,
*Number of homeless from study of 2006 census 34,000,
The number of State Houses peaked at 75,000 in the early 1980’s and has steadily declined by 8000 houses since then while the population has increased by 1,000,000 people in that period,
The % of ‘poor’ people in the economy has remained the same as the % of poor people in the 1980’s economy leading to an increase in the actual numbers of those ‘most in need’…
Excellent opening line; tend to networks and they grow like passion-vines.
Joyce fail on spending to attract overseas students.
Go for it, Chippy!
does anyone know the specific name for that..?
..that making of a nickname by extracting/combining letters from the nicknamees’ actual name..?
..as in ‘chippy’ hipkins..’jonkey’ etc etc..
phillip ure..
phillip … humbly, I suggest it could be an ‘acromonium’ until something better turns up ! 🙂
then of course there are those nicknames that have no connection at all with the name..
..as in :..bill ‘visitor from dipton’ english..
..does that sub-genre have its’ own moniker..?
..phillip ure..
make one up as I did with the first one !! maybe a microacromonium ?
(this is more fun than the race right now !)
The Government’s endless denigration of NZ schools/teachers/unions have no doubt caused loss of confidence in potential international students. Clever ploy?
if he had spent that money on the educational institutions themselves, particularly in more staff & resourcing rather than buildings, then that would be better than any marketing campaign.
here’s the question, how many additional students have they got as a direct result of this money?
Too many. The quality of education has suffered immensely since profit became the main motive. Both teaching and research have gone downhill – teaching because anyone who can pay gets in, almost regardless of merit, and then makes demands on the teachers’ time which mean they end up ignoring students who could benefit. Research suffers because teaching for profit becomes the main focus and leaves little time or funding for anything else.
What also happens is that the university administrations insist on passing students who don’t meet any reasonable criteria, seemingly on the basis that they’ve paid, so that degrees at Kiwi institutions become devalued. On a similar basis, they are reluctant to punish cheating. Eventually the degrees are worthless, the rich foreigners stop coming, and Kiwis are left with a gutted educational system.
Updated version of the board game Monopoly, sub name, Empire!
The game is dominated by representing major corporate brands Empire, which is telling!
Will people see through it, or are the kids simply, too indoctrinated!
Dv… beat me to it
“What a lovely property you have” the nz prime minister cooed to the queen of england.
“How are things in new zealand ” she asked
” things are going real well. When can I see the bonny baby because i must go to paris and new york. Do you have any cake?”
Meanwhile at home
“These are low-income working families that can only get accommodation in a garage or in a shed. It leads to terrible outcomes for children.”And while homeless people were more likely to be unemployed, the study shows about half were working or studying. About one in five were unable to afford a home, despite working fulltime.Otago University researcher Kate Amore, who headed the study, said New Zealand did not keep a good watch on its homeless and had only recently defined the term. “We identified many severely deprived people who are usually statistically invisible because they are not living in permanent private dwellings,” she said.She estimated that between 12,000 and 21,000 extra affordable homes were needed to accommodate the homeless.”
” a cream scone with the queen and a seat on the un security council will soon solve all that.” The pm smiled and waved at the queen as his car rolled down the long drive at balmoral.
You forgot about the royal visit of Will, Kate and George next year. I thought there were protocols about royal visits in election year, but no doubt this will be ignored like all the other protocols if Johnny boy can get more photo ops.
Dont forget this is the UN Security Council the US thinks is so weak it was going to bomb without it…
Key is ensuring if Nats lose in 2014 he will be given a knighthood directly by the Queen.
I still cant believe he gave a greatest living New Zealander to Philip.
You really sure you can’t believe that Tracey? 😉 Unfortunately I can…
Well I dont think she should knight him if he trashes the QEII National Trust
…I will have to have a word with Charles
Question for the environmental law experts and Labour Party:
What is the current legal status of the QEII National Trust? …. Is it safe ?
This national trust under the name of HRH Queen Elizabeth II….was set up 36 years ago to very tightly legally safeguard unique natural, historic and geological spaces, landscapes and features on private land in New Zealand, in perpetuity for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
With over 3,600 covenants now registered, the QEII National Trust is a unique partnership between private landowners, often farmers , and the Crown to preserve special places for conservation.
With the John Key Nact government’s trashing of the Resource Management Act (RMA)…..is the QEII Act also affected? (If so…..what would Her Majesty have to say about this?)
If the QEII National Trust gets in the way of corporate irrigation schemes, fracking, digging oil wells or mining for minerals….. will it be run over by a bulldozer and trashed like the RMA?
1.) What is Labour Party Policy on whether they will keep QEII National Trust legal integrity and inviolability ?…..
2.) Will Labour completely restore Resource Management Act back to what it was ….before Nact trashed it?
3.) Will Labour completely restore democracy to the people of Canterbury to vote for their own ECAN? ( which Nact so shamefully annexed)
+100% thank you.
Is mccully contradicting his leader. Is this a rift?
Key says New Zealand is doing OK so far – we’ve got about 100 votes and we need about 127.McCully says vote numbers are not talked about. “There’s a huge amount of work to be done; the Australian experience was the final three or four months were critical.”
Not a rift, just a pointy haired boss in the top slot.
NO, I am pretty sure if you arent on the same page as a member of your caucus it’s a rift, and a major division within the party which will undermine your effectiveness.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11128933
“Hundreds toil on rival bids for nation’s biggest roading job”
It is pleasing that we have two such high quality consortiums bidding for Transmission Gully.
What is novel, and which I am sure will annoy some commentators (“more free money for corporate mates”) is that (according to this AFR article) the Government will reimburse the development costs for the losing bidder, and acquire the intellectual property. It shows the Government is adopting innovative tendering practices to lift value for money.
http://www.afr.com/p/australia2-0/new_bidding_model_draws_contractors_JloNUfPyhiBqrY8nUo3lbP
“The New Zealand government is also reimbursing costs on its first road PPP, the $1 billion Transmission Gully project, a 27-kilometre highway that will connect Wellington to the North Island’s west coast [sic]. Nick Miller, managing director of New Zealand’s Fulton Hogan, a privately owned construction group shortlisted on Transmission Gully, said reimbursing bids would help smaller contractors compete against larger ones.
“It makes playing at the table slightly more palatable when you’re a regional contractor,” Mr Miller said, adding reimbursement helped cover the costs of hiring bankers and other advisors.”
_____________
I think this is an excellent approach. Hopefully it will be the first of many PPP funded large roading and other infrastructure projects in New Zealand. I hope the usual opponents of PPPs (especially on the left) can put aside their animosity and applaud the Government’s innovation.
Shocked you don’t point out the moral hazards there srylands.
Or do they only apply when it’s a policy about feeding hungry kids?
Dreamer.
People make only a very small proportion of their life’s decisions on the basis of cost.
You need to change your thinking model to one reflecting reality.
You need to get a job.
Oh right, good one. You got that wrong too.
And no answer then to your “everything can be priced” mantra which underpins all your theories and understandings and musings and postings? People are just a commodity aren’t they.
btw, I saw plastic buckets on sale at mitre 10 last week for just $1.21. Immediately thought of you and surmised that such is evidence that your theories are working…… go the plastic buckets!
SSLands, you need to answer the question i put to you in Open Mike on 22 September, you also need to work a damn sight harder so as to be able to pay for Bill from Dipton and Paula Benefit’s latest piece of (wonderful), social welfare…
she is a full blown troll bad12
I’m pretty sure Srylands isn’t paying for anything this side of the Tasman, bad12, especially not taxes. I suspect his lifestyle is funded from NZ, though.
And while we’re on the Clash tip:
All over people changing their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Srylands flew in today
They’d send a limousine anyway
‘She said, “Balls to you Big Daddy” – she ain’t never coming Back!
Lolz, that just provoked me to have another listen to Police and Thieves, ‘Jenny ses it’s a revelation’, Genesis + Revelations…
very Knowledgeable. Is, The Future Unwritten ?
Lolz, Te Reo, only if you care to believe the little fantasy that SSLands has trotted out for us here at the Standard,
My intuition says that one is a minor counter of other peoples rich’s for a firm of Wellington tax lawyers,(am i breaching the rules by speculating here,please delete if so),
Simply a minor cog being averagely paid in a boring job pushing the heavy wheel of capitalism which leads ‘it’ to fantasize about being above ‘its’ real position in life,
Ah the Clash, i can honestly say, the band that produced in my head that ‘life changing WTF moment’,
First heard via the old Radio Hauraki, in a Pare Max cell where the screws controlled the volume,which meant the ear-hole pressed against the speaker in the wall,
Listening to them in the late 1970’s was listening to the songs which told of what was to come,(it’s still at the stage of drugs and things, but they are all looking round)…
I don’t think that’s speculation, Bad12, because Srylands once claimed to commute from up the coast to a very specific Terrace address that is home to just the kind of economic non-contributers you mention. My feeling is that it lives over the ditch, based on when it starts posting each day. Usually about breakfast time in the Eastern states. Hardly matters, given Sryland is a fact and credibility free zone. May as well be a bot.
Interesting story about your intro to The Only Band That Matters. That’s got to have a tad more street cred than my listening to late night shows on ZM and Hauraki coming through in glorious scratchy mono via my Dad’s multi band radio connected to a 40 ft mast in the back yard. Once I discovered reggae (via a bloke I’m pretty sure became the Hallelujah Picasso’s Bobbylon – but that’s a whole other story), Marx and the NME, a worldview was formed that has never left me.
When the two sevens clash, it dread!
Lolz, at the time ‘they’ allowed us record players,(if they had radios we had to pay them to disable them), definitely a quantum leap from old Hendrix and Led Zep records to ‘the Clash’…
was at school with DLT; we from the same ‘hood. Hence my association with the dogs…last night, for example…yet, that’s another story (suffice to say, hearts not as black as they are painted, it’s the Cracks in the finish that are concerning).
I still have all the important vinyl bad12, some from the original purchases; London Calling, Sabbath, Zep, Tull, JD etc (all the original NZ-released JD albums and some eps on vinyl).
Lolz RT, figured from your handle and a couple of previous comments your ‘connection’,
Am of P Town origins so know and am known to those in the hood, and alas, my vinyl never survived the madness,badness,and sadness of the 70,s and 80,s despite a couple of attempts at rebuilding…
plenty of P Town bottom rockers around the Bay, including the next-door-neighbours’ 😎 (it’s a whanau thing). and I learnt in a recent sesh that a Chrome kraut-lid I kept from the bad ol’ days, gifted to a local member, is now a prized possession of the Wgtn Prez… and so the wheel turns.
it’s not that he posts 7am australia time, it’s that he is always ready to go with his version of reality with an article…
either he read it the night before and saved it for us OR he is in NZ, in Wellington, being paid to pretend to be people online. I hope that’s not true though, cos the concept is worse than sad.
Don’t know what part of the country you’re in TRP, but there’s an HPs reunion gig at the King’s Arms on Labour weekend.
I’d Love to see the Banshee Reel.
“You need to get a job”
Maybe vto could apply for one of those pretend jobs you made up a few weeks ago.
They must be paying about a million bucks an hour by now.
Nah, the jobs were cold-calling senile pensioners for sithland’s finance company.
It’s now gone bust and all the depositors’ life savings have disappeared. Sithlands sincerely regrets any hardship experienced by depositors, but as a wealth creator he cannot reimburse them because he is penniless, as his classic cars and australian mansion are actually all owned by a family trust. Besides, reimbursing even a fraction of what the depositors lost would just encourage risky investing and destabilise the economy. It’s for their own good, you know.
Oh, and because the jobs were minimum wage plus a commission to be paid later, all the sales staff are unsecured creditors and fucked.
touche
More corporate welfare spun as innovation….tendering is a cost of business, just so happens that in major civil works only 2-3 companies get all the work in NZ.
You know those great ‘too big to fail ‘ , ‘ scale of economy’ arguments that allow FH / Downer/ Fletchers etc to swallow up their competition with a CommComm rubber stamp.
Spot the opportunity for smaller mates to suck off the taxpayers tit, nice trolling shoutlands.
All roads are PPPs. The Government proposes and the corporations tender for the work. So there is nothing new here.
Buying the IP is also something that has happened for a few years. This is nothing new.
What is new is building a motorway with such a shocking BCR. This road will lose money as well as cannibalise users of the train system and making PT in Wellington more expensive to run.
If you are referring to PPPs for funding then there are many examples in Australia which show that they always perform worse than the proposers suggest.
All roads are PPPs. The Government proposes and the corporations tender for the work. So there is nothing new here.
Buying the IP is also something that has happened for a few years. This is nothing new.
What is new is building a motorway with such a shocking BCR. This road will lose money as well as cannibalise users of the train system and making PT in Wellington more expensive to run.
If you are referring to PPPs for funding then there are many examples in Australia which show that they always perform worse than the proposers suggest.
Transmission Gully? That’s Kapiti way where you pretend to live when you are not pretending to be in Melbourne.
yes, reimbursing bids will mean a small contractor will get the job. Actually it means we are subsidising small businesses so that the govt can give fulton hogan the contract with clean hands.
Wow, SSlands, that’s how they do things in 3rd world banana republics. Even failed capitalists must be rewarded. I thought one of the things they used to justify profits was risk. Will they be building this stupid road on a cost only basis?
Take some Kingston Advice, “In these days, We have slavery under government…
Be, hunted down, like a scarcity”. 😎
Housing Estate Plans, and Pavlovian Nimbys
Auckland Public Transport Patronage Down 3.3%
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11128992
and, Todays IPCC weather forecast (geo-engineering gets a plug muzza).
What is this farticle supposed to be? Satire? Parody? Lame attempt at humour?
I’m pretty sure that Barry Sopper likes to think he’s a serious journalist but really, he’s just another jonolist like all of them.
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/opinion/political-report-24sept-2013
I reckon Bazza got totally dark on David Cunliffe after his wife came home and was a little toooooo enthusiastic about the fun they had on their fishing trip together.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11120653
It’s hard to take someone seriously when they write the words ” the ginga Chris Hipkins”.
Yep!
how much do these “journos” get paid? It seems gone are the days where they do anything bu choose a side a champion it.
How many political journos bet at ipredict? and in the case of the labour leadership, lost?
I note they still mock that Cunliffe wrote poetry. The same folks who probably believe women are now equal and there is no glass ceiling.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9201795/Prisoner-deaths-investigated
More evidence Tolley is a disgrace
Oh that Barry Soper fancies himself something awful !
Going back to the day when the press were still enviously protesting Winnie’s ministerial warrant in Foreign Affairs – Soper tried to derail the joint press conference of Winnie and Senator McCain in Washington.
Winnie took one look at the dishevelled thing barracking tastelessly from across the room and closed the press conference. Just closed it. Bang. Gone. !
Well done Barry !
Barry’s attempt to look the crusty seasoned news hound in front of the unfailingly polite Senator McCain landed him fair on his arse. I laughed and laughed and laughed.
http://inthehouse.co.nz/node/21179
Wow just…wow
Good on ya!
I thought so too Chris 73. Sue Moroney did very well to bring up the 60,000 dollar question we all want answered – is Paula Bennett going to do something positive to help real people into real jobs? She didn’t answer the question but blathered on about people who break the law. You know… like inferring bennies are all law breakers. That reminds me, didn’t one time bennie, Paula Basher harbour a crim in her house a few years back?
The Minister of Education has threatened schools, that fail children, will be taken over by the government. Sadly the school’s spokesmen have responded with defensive rhetoric.
What about just replying to her with, “You. Go for it Hekia!”
Apparently schools are failing about 20 percent of pupils – “the Tail”. That would seem to cover a heck of a lot of schools.
The government wouldn’t have the manpower or expertise to even half address the problem but what a shambles they would create.
20% of school children are in the lower quintile. And that’s just not good enough.
Yep. Always have been. And of course it is the schools’ fault…
The first Atlas Shrugged flopped so the producers are looking for a handout for the sequel.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atlasshrugged/atlas-shrugged-movie-who-is-john-galt
Gotta love that. The free market clearly and firmly rejected the idea of an Atlas Shrugged movie. I suspect the reason it flopped is that the story is complete shit, the writing is terrible, the characters are one-dimensional and all horrible, and the values it espouses repulse most of the population. Anyone referring to it as a magnum opus is misusing the word ‘magnum’, it’s more like a disjointed amphetamine-addled nightmare.
Private school subsidies.
Private schools get state funding per pupil based on a formula that loosely tries to allocate a proportion of the average cost of a pupils education and gives that money to the private school in the mistaken belief that the state saves that amount of money. Of course if they wanted to base the payment on the savings to the state they should use marginal cost. The marginal cost of 1 more pupil to a school is zero so the subsidy should if not be zero then a number approaching zero. Never happen of course, and i have not explained it well enough. But there you are. I think it is average cost vs marginal cost and they are confused. Would love to know if I am right about this.
My second plan is to have Auckland Grammar have 3 or more additional campuses around Auckland. All called Auckland Grammar. The state owns the name, the name has real value and each of them can share the name itself. It is a brilliant plan. The real estate values would be interesting to watch and more campuses can be built. as needed.
What a brilliant idea.
But would the AGS Oldboys network like it?
Would they dip into their corporate pockets to build pavilions bearing their names all over the City.
Robert Reich on The Daily Show: Huge Lie That Is Repeated by Those Doing Extremely Well in Our Country.
The govt” We know that you wont know”
When the GCSB is watching you and you wont know when the oil exploration is taking place or they start drilling
FASCISM!!!!!!!!