A week is not a very credible period to be complaining over looking for staff. And, for working people, Queenstown is damned inconvenient, with accommodation costs so high it's basically not worth considering. As with most other "labour shortages" it will prove solvable when remuneration sufficiently exceeds cost of living.
You do wonder about these starry-eyed screw-ups though. Never thought to do any labour planning, but expect to fix everything in a week. Mark of what passes for professionalism in NZ – rofl.
A couple of added dynamics in Queenstown are covid and economic effects of.
Hospo workers aren’t that keen on working in an environment where they could contract it and have moved to safer jobs. The other is the economic health of the employer, the bar across the street from us has had more staff than punters during the day for the last few weeks. They can’t do that for long.
Good stable employers don’t seem to be having too much trouble, a barista job went at the Resort College last month and they had plenty of applicants and got a very good appointment in the process
What on earth do immigration think they are doing? I read page one and my jaw dropped. Accounting and clerical vacancies per the main websites are still running at around 60% of pre covid vacancies and there has been an abysmal training record in this area for years. This years grads plus some more training on the job for them would fill the bulk of this. Plus moving jobs outside Auckland instead of trapping them in the noe city. Plus these are female heavy occupations where unemployment has hit hard.
As to aircraft engineers – Air New Zealand laid off some of those. Why not let the market sort out those who can't offer a viable job – isn't this how it is supposed to work. Plus anyone who wants a visa should have to prove that they have provided training to anyone who wants to upskill.
Nelson lawyer John Sandston, who was formerly the New Zealand Law Society’s inaugural youth justice spokesperson and has been a youth advocate for 25 years, said the trend seemed to have “come out of nowhere”. “I can’t think of a case [in the Youth Court] in the past year or two where it hasn’t related to either a gadget such as a phone, or a game, or internet usage.
And it's wise to be wary of adopting any of the technology being pushed at you.
If Robertson wishes to force the RBNZ to do the governments job for them re house price inflation he in return will be forced to explain what alternative negative outcome the government prefers….be careful what you wish for.
Orr should offer to just give Treasury a direct overdraft in future, rather than the effective equivalent of secondary market purchases. Its time, the public trusts the govt to fund itself.
Then he could offer to "reverse" the QE by writing off all the govt debt it now holds.
The Treasury and the Reserve Bank have the following individual responsibilities:
the Treasury is the Government’s lead advisor on macroeconomics (other than on matters relating to the formulating and implementing of monetary policy), wider economic policy and all matters related to fiscal policy.
the Reserve Bank is New Zealand’s central bank. The Bank is the Government’s lead advisor on matters relating to the formulation and implementation of monetary policy, prudential supervision, macro-prudential policy and financial markets.
Must the government heed the Treasury? What sanctions would be on the government for not doing so? Is there no room for government to act independently and not be eviscerated by the usual suspects?
Parliament is sovereign so no need to heed any body, but theoretically Treasury (or other departments) have the expertise that MPs dont necessarily have..however Governments are elected to govern so they have the obligation to make the decisions.
Am unsure who the 'usual suspects' are in your post
…oh, and would add theres no love lost between the RBNZ and Treasury and has been that way as long as I can remember
Well the usual suspects would likely be, the Opposition, possibly business interests like NZ Initiative, the bank economists, the Property owners and renters bodies, and anyone who is having their gravy train pushed to a siding from the main line.
I find it really offensive and insulting that this has become a stoush between Robertson and the Reserve Bank. If this Labour were worth its salt it would immediately curb rampant house price inflation by imposing CGT on all but the family home. Tax the shit out of residential property speculators. It's not about "mum and dad investors' or "getting on the property ladder."
Get back into a huge state house building programme. Couple it with trade training schemes to upskill our own people. Invest in NZ firms which can provide modern spec, flat pack affordable houses.
The cause of poverty in NZ is unaffordable rents, which take up so much of benefits and low wages.
Oh, and get rid of landbankers, real estate agents, and property developers.
Ie what’s happened to core Labour vision and principles?
As a lifetime Labour voter, I’m struggling to make sense of it all.
Yet a week ago our PM was justifying the independence of the reserve bank and having a go at the opposition for suggesting to give RB direction. How quickly things change especially as the govt has been caught out being totally ineffective. But don't worry after being the government for 3 years they are looking for "I have also sought advice on further demand side measures that can add to the initiatives that we have already taken". Do your 🤬 job you were elected
"But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is concerned about influencing the Reserve Bank, which operates independently of the Government.
"That seems a significant departure for a political party in New Zealand to move away from what has been long-term consensus around the separation between politicians and the Reserve Bank," she said in response to National's suggestions.
"I'd say that is concerning. There's very good reason we have those separations."
So how is our Finance minister writing a letter to the RB with suggestions on changing the remit regarding (un) affordability keeping politicians at arms length ? If we want the reserve bank distant from public pressure what then motivated our Min of Finance ?
"One proposal I am seeking advice from the Reserve Bank on is whether to include stability in house prices as a factor for consideration in the Remit when formulating monetary policy,"
Yes read that and glad that the RB does pay attention – Think how the property market would be otherwise. Its not functioning for the benefit of the country currently and what of the social damage being caused as a unintended consequence of the policies put into place.
Though a frequent customer at a nice cafe, I wonder if the problem getting staff is that there are so many cafes in some places. Some may be struggling to cover costs. Is there a need for a food truck in Wanaka when there are likely to be several cafes already. Is accommodation hard to find there, which would deter some prospective chefs. Especially if the work is irregular.
There may be some places for single staff. But your better cooks do marry, just like folk in other professions. A family home in Queenstown would use up a salary on a par with Adrian Orr.
A coronavirus outbreak in Shanghai has been traced to two cargo handlers who cleaned a container that had just arrived from North America, Chinese health officials have said.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled at Shanghai’s Pudong International airport, one of the world’s busiest transport hubs, amid chaotic scenes caused by a sudden decision to test airport staff on Sunday.
So ad..let's say you are a kiwi working in oz…and a local labour party supporter said that..what would your thoughts/reactions be..?..would you need those words and immediately decamp to the airport..?..or would you dismiss those words as xenophobic/nativist..?
So do you agree with what Nash said about freedom campers? Your tone suggests you do, but you haven't addressed the point of Zoe Hannah's piece, which was a direct response to Nash's remarks. You could get a job in Judith Collins' comms team.
Spaceships owner James Rolleston – who owns a fleet of 600 campervans with 0 toilets onboard, had the best subliminal line on this:
"We have 15 years of operating that business and we've put a huge amount of focus into education about how to camp, where to camp, how to look after the environment. It's actually a complex issue… I think just cubbyholing a business like Spaceship rentals is a bit rough."
James Rolleston gains millions in rent rent by selling 600 "cubbyholes" for over 1200 people to live and work in. He should be treated as a landlord and subject to the same quality standards as a landlord.
He only gets away with being a slumlord by being classed a tourism operator.
In fact James Rolleston has duped tens of thousands of Zoe Hannah's into being willingly oppressed and enjoying the scenery while they shit all over it.
The Zoe Hannah's of this world should be stopped from entering at the border, and get in line for an actual sustainable job that is proven cannot be done by a New Zealander first.
It's good you've made your position clear. It's a shame it's such a fucked up position. Blinkin' heck. Keep that up and Judith Collins will be knocking on your door very soon. The You and Stu Show. Fuck me. Nothing to say to that.
Tens of millions suffering and the tRump gang blocks access to hundreds of billions of unspent relief appropriations.
Cruelty is the point.
2/11 The other line isn't a graph. It’s this image of 6,000 cars at the North Texas Food Bank from @DallasNews. This week, the food bank distributed 600,000 lbs. of food, including 7,280 turkeys—enough for 25,000 people. That’s just one food bank, in one American city. #velshipic.twitter.com/PpdNbt2Aiw
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will put $455 billion in unspent Cares Act funding into an account that his presumed successor, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, will need authorization from Congress to use.
Mnuchin plans to place the money into the agency’s General Fund, a Treasury Department spokesperson said Tuesday. Moving the funds, the bulk of which had gone to support Federal Reserve emergency-lending facilities, will make it virtually impossible for Yellen, if confirmed by the Senate as Treasury secretary, to deploy on her own.
A DOG was lying upon a manger full of hay. An Ox, being hungry, came near, and offered to eat of the hay; but the envious, ill-natured cur, getting up and snarling at him, would not suffer him to touch it, Upon which the Ox, in the bitterness of his heart, said, A curse light on thee, for a malicious wretch, who wilt neither eat hay thyself, nor suffer others to do it.
THE APPLICATION
C. Whittingham (1814)
Envy is the most unnatural and unaccountable of all the passions. There is scarce any other emotion of the mind, however unreasonable, but may have something said in excuse for it; and there are many of these weaknesses of the soul, which, notwithstanding the wrongness and irregularity of them, swell the heart, while they last, with pleasure and gladness. But the envious man has no such apology as this to make; the stronger the passion is, the greater torment he endures, and subjects himself to a continual real pain, bv only wishing ill to others. Revenge is sweet, though cruel and inhuman; and though it sometimes thirsts even for blood, yet may be glutted and satiated. Avarice is something highly monstrous and absurd; yet, as it is a desire after riches, every little acquisition gives it pleasure; and to behold and feel the hoarded treasure, to a covetous man is a constant, uncloying enjoyment. But envy, which is an anxiety arising in our minds, upon our observing accomplishments in others, which we want ourselves, can never receive any true comfort, unless in a deluge, a conflagration, a plague, or some general calamity that should befal mankind: for, as long as there is a creature living, that enjoys its being happily within the envious man’s sphere, it will afford nourishment to his distempered mind: but such nourishment as will make him pine, and fret, and emaciate himself to nothing.
Hi, I just gave my SSN & a license pic to Parler so I could make new friends to help fight the government from having a registry of gun owners.#ParlerHacked
The man who said "I wish I could unsee what I've seen" abt *unconfirmed* Parler hack has spread false/irresponsible info on Twitter before, if I remember right. Take care.
As @MikaelThalen points out, screenshot floating around is from summer, not recent. Wait for verification.
'Social Capital' hasn't been in the talk for a while. I'm just reading Bowling Alone – The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D Putnam. Big well backed with stats, good hypotheses, over 400 pages of good thinking. This updated version published 2000. Hopefully at a library near you – I had to request it.
There are heavy stats on how television has diminished communities and co-operative society. You can't goggle and boggle at the same time – it doesn't give you time to think before the next amazing scene, tragedy, kitten, whale, comes before you. Passivity is the name of the game, unless the game is watching sport!
Have you just come back from some sort of timewarp..?…where the deleterious outcomes from watching television is the moral-panic du jour..?…oh..!..what we'd give for those much simpler times back/again..eh..?
Almost spiteful Phillip Ure. Can you can the negative comments that I notice you specialise in amongst your so many contributions! I am looking for perspectives and solutions to our pressing problems in NZ and I don't need your superior opinions expressed in your sardonic way. They are not at all helpful.
If you leave doors wide open…I'm gonna walk right thru them…and that fretting over tv watching is such a door…you will be relieved to learn that the kids don't really watch much tv anymore….so your initial problem is no more…people now yearn for the times when families watched TV together…now everyone is in their own online world…but 'spiteful'..?..I really don't think so..
Clever, funny skit in the Spinoff about JAs 'carnng' persona. I have to say that I can't bear to listen to any of Jacinda's Facebook stints that appear on my wife's Facebook page these days. They seem so insincere.
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
Dear friends, it’s been a covidious year,A testing time for all of us here—Citizens of an island nationIn a state of managed isolation,A team (someone said) five million strong,Making it up as we went along:Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion,Without any wild excess ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021Editor's Choice7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ...
Scottish doctor Malcolm Kendrick looks at the pandemic and the responses to it 30th December 2020 I have not written much about COVID19 recently. What can be said? In my opinion the world has simply gone bonkers. The best description can be found in Dante’s Inferno, written many hundreds of ...
I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL for your ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
The current number of members of parliament is starting to get too low for the job we expect them to do, argues Alex Braae. As a general rule, with the possible exception of their families, nobody likes backbench MPs. But it’s nevertheless time we accepted that parliament should have more of ...
The experience in the Brazilian city of Manaus reveals how mistaken, and dangerous, the herd-immunity-by-infection theory really is. As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop ...
As New Zealand gears up to fight climate change, experts warn that we need to actually reduce emissions, not just plant trees to offset our greenhouse gases. ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Covid-19 fears accelerated banks’ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...
Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and today’s anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a “torch being passed to a new generation”. Two years later and one day apart, ...
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...
As CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures.As we enter the New Year I ...
The Prada Cup challenger series starts today. Suzanne McFadden goes behind the scenes of the world's only live yachting regatta to see what's in store for the next five weeks. At 6am on race days, Iain Murray wakes up and immediately checks the weather outside his Auckland window. “It’s all ...
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The New Zealand government believes its own negotiations with Rio Tinto will be resolved "fairly quickly" now there is certainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter. ...
Amanda Thompson and her family are attempting to cut back on the meat, so they gave all the vego sausies the local supermarket had to offer a hoon on the barbie. Here are the results.I was a vegetarian once. Even the best of us take a well-meaning wrong turn on ...
The Taxpayers’ Union welcomes the call by Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons for a shift to land value based rates charges. Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "Local government leaders across the country should join in Fitzsimons’s call ...
It’s been described as ‘pointless revenge’, but impeaching the president has a firm moral purpose, argues Michael Blake – setting a limit to what sorts of action a society will accept.A House majority, including 10 Republicans, voted today to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection”. The vote will initiate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Lead Academic Teacher – Politics & Social Science (Swinburne Online), Swinburne University of Technology In a historic vote today, Donald Trump became the only US president to be impeached twice. By a margin of 232–197, the Democrat-controlled US House of ...
Hurrah. The PM is back to posting her announcements on the government’s official website, her deputy is back in the business of self-congratulation, Rio Tinto is back in the business of sucking up cheap electricity to produce aluminium at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. And overseas students (some, anyway) can come ...
The electricity sector, Government and people of Southland are rejoicing after Tiwai Point aluminium smelter owner Rio Tinto announced the major industrial would be open until the end of 2024, Marc Daalder reports Stakeholders in the electricity sector and across Southland are celebrating the extension of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter's ...
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“I have been advertising for chefs and cooks for over a week now on various platforms and I have had zero applications,” Roper said.
A week and her whinefest is in the papers? Entitled much?
Employers have had unrestricted access to migrant visas for so long that they have lost essential skills like hiring.
From real estate agents to pet groomers: These are the jobs that New Zealanders can't or won't do | Stuff.co.nz
i am in Queenstown at this very moment. Every second shop is advertising for staff so what the article says is very real.
A week is not a very credible period to be complaining over looking for staff. And, for working people, Queenstown is damned inconvenient, with accommodation costs so high it's basically not worth considering. As with most other "labour shortages" it will prove solvable when remuneration sufficiently exceeds cost of living.
You do wonder about these starry-eyed screw-ups though. Never thought to do any labour planning, but expect to fix everything in a week. Mark of what passes for professionalism in NZ – rofl.
If they're not getting applications the conditions they're offering are not meeting what the market demands.
Funny that.
A couple of added dynamics in Queenstown are covid and economic effects of.
Hospo workers aren’t that keen on working in an environment where they could contract it and have moved to safer jobs. The other is the economic health of the employer, the bar across the street from us has had more staff than punters during the day for the last few weeks. They can’t do that for long.
Good stable employers don’t seem to be having too much trouble, a barista job went at the Resort College last month and they had plenty of applicants and got a very good appointment in the process
Ms Roper is wanting cooks for a food truck.
Full time work?
Hours of work? Split shifts?
Pay rate?
Will Ms Roper be investing in her staff by upskilling, cross training, or help formalizing experience with courses?
It is what is not said in these articles that is most interesting.
What on earth do immigration think they are doing? I read page one and my jaw dropped. Accounting and clerical vacancies per the main websites are still running at around 60% of pre covid vacancies and there has been an abysmal training record in this area for years. This years grads plus some more training on the job for them would fill the bulk of this. Plus moving jobs outside Auckland instead of trapping them in the noe city. Plus these are female heavy occupations where unemployment has hit hard.
As to aircraft engineers – Air New Zealand laid off some of those. Why not let the market sort out those who can't offer a viable job – isn't this how it is supposed to work. Plus anyone who wants a visa should have to prove that they have provided training to anyone who wants to upskill.
When a person has a work visa do they need to have that visa tied to just the one job and for a specific period of time?
How long does the average worker last if not tied to the above?
There has been a few more of these landlord / tenant stories lately.
Auckland tenant's sons got angry, put 41 holes in walls and doors of rental | Stuff.co.nz
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/123416587/device-addiction-leading-to-increase-in-youth-violence-against-parents
Addiction to electronic devices appears to be fuelling an increase in serious violence caused by young people within the family home.
Triggered by disputes over devices, when parents put their foot down to limit access to the internet the reaction can be extreme – leading to property damage, serious assaults and threats to kill.
Nelson lawyer John Sandston, who was formerly the New Zealand Law Society’s inaugural youth justice spokesperson and has been a youth advocate for 25 years, said the trend seemed to have “come out of nowhere”.
“I can’t think of a case [in the Youth Court] in the past year or two where it hasn’t related to either a gadget such as a phone, or a game, or internet usage.
And it's wise to be wary of adopting any of the technology being pushed at you.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44765830
A recent report by the New York Times detailed examples of "technology-facilitated abuse".
This involves devices being activated remotely in order to cause fear or confusion – such as remotely altering the temperature or locking doors.
In my post a few days ago I set out the buildup of political judgement against the Reserve Bank putting $28billion of untagged debt into our banks.
Minister Robertson publically releasing his letter to the Reserve Bank yesterday is a hot political move.
The Reserve Bank was scheduled to hold its big media conference today. That makes this battle fully live.
Orr will be forced to explain what he is going to do about rising house prices as requested by the Minister of Finance.
Orr can continue to defend or demonstrate really clearly the positive effects of his policies.
Tail, meet Dog.
If Robertson wishes to force the RBNZ to do the governments job for them re house price inflation he in return will be forced to explain what alternative negative outcome the government prefers….be careful what you wish for.
Agree.
Feels like a bad ball offload.
exactly, do your job Grant and then let Orr do his. This govt needs to grow a pair and rip a few pages up.
A battle of egos? A battle for power? A PR battle, which pundits and MSM will love? I wonder on whose side the Opposition is …
It is telling the opposition are supporting Robertson.
If we wish the RBNZ to become politicians (and write policy) then perhaps we should add the role of RBNZ Governor to the voting ballot.
Supporting Robertson? They're saying hes doing what they told him to do !
Indeed they are….is that not support?
As close as an opposition party can get i spose
Orr should offer to just give Treasury a direct overdraft in future, rather than the effective equivalent of secondary market purchases. Its time, the public trusts the govt to fund itself.
Then he could offer to "reverse" the QE by writing off all the govt debt it now holds.
Is there a difference between Treasury and the Reserve Bank and if so what is it?
They are obviously the same organisation with two totally different names to confuse the natives.
The Treasury and the Reserve Bank have the following individual responsibilities:
https://www.treasury.govt.nz/about-treasury/our-work/key-relationships/relationship-reserve-bank-new-zealand
Thanks for the info.
Must the government heed the Treasury? What sanctions would be on the government for not doing so? Is there no room for government to act independently and not be eviscerated by the usual suspects?
Parliament is sovereign so no need to heed any body, but theoretically Treasury (or other departments) have the expertise that MPs dont necessarily have..however Governments are elected to govern so they have the obligation to make the decisions.
Am unsure who the 'usual suspects' are in your post
…oh, and would add theres no love lost between the RBNZ and Treasury and has been that way as long as I can remember
Well the usual suspects would likely be, the Opposition, possibly business interests like NZ Initiative, the bank economists, the Property owners and renters bodies, and anyone who is having their gravy train pushed to a siding from the main line.
Ah , those suspects….thats quite a lot of voters
State o play: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/431372/reserve-bank-governor-adrian-orr-defends-approach-tackling-inflation-amid-runaway-house-prices
Reading between the lines: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/25-11-2020/grant-robertson-v-adrian-orr-those-letters-decoded/
I find it really offensive and insulting that this has become a stoush between Robertson and the Reserve Bank. If this Labour were worth its salt it would immediately curb rampant house price inflation by imposing CGT on all but the family home. Tax the shit out of residential property speculators. It's not about "mum and dad investors' or "getting on the property ladder."
Get back into a huge state house building programme. Couple it with trade training schemes to upskill our own people. Invest in NZ firms which can provide modern spec, flat pack affordable houses.
The cause of poverty in NZ is unaffordable rents, which take up so much of benefits and low wages.
Oh, and get rid of landbankers, real estate agents, and property developers.
Ie what’s happened to core Labour vision and principles?
As a lifetime Labour voter, I’m struggling to make sense of it all.
Yet a week ago our PM was justifying the independence of the reserve bank and having a go at the opposition for suggesting to give RB direction. How quickly things change especially as the govt has been caught out being totally ineffective. But don't worry after being the government for 3 years they are looking for "I have also sought advice on further demand side measures that can add to the initiatives that we have already taken". Do your 🤬 job you were elected
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-review-housing-settings
"But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is concerned about influencing the Reserve Bank, which operates independently of the Government.
"That seems a significant departure for a political party in New Zealand to move away from what has been long-term consensus around the separation between politicians and the Reserve Bank," she said in response to National's suggestions.
"I'd say that is concerning. There's very good reason we have those separations."
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/11/national-s-call-to-ask-reserve-bank-hard-questions-on-rising-house-prices-concerns-jacinda-ardern.html
"There's very good reason we have those separations".
Someone should ask her, at a Press Conference preferably, to tell us what those reasons are. The stuttering and waffling would be a marvel to behold.
I don't believe she has the slightest idea what the reasons, if any, are.
to keep politicians (who are susceptible to public pressure) away from the levers
So how is our Finance minister writing a letter to the RB with suggestions on changing the remit regarding (un) affordability keeping politicians at arms length ? If we want the reserve bank distant from public pressure what then motivated our Min of Finance ?
"One proposal I am seeking advice from the Reserve Bank on is whether to include stability in house prices as a factor for consideration in the Remit when formulating monetary policy,"
the 'note' written to the RBNZ Governor was explicit in noting the Act was not going to be changed….it was Robertson playing politics (badly)
Sadly this gov has squandered the previous 3 years in power and are now intent on wasting the opportunity that Orr has been telling them to seize
Did you notice the reply he got from the RBNZ?
In response to the query asking whether they could include house prices in their work the response was very simple. It was "We already do so"
Yes read that and glad that the RB does pay attention – Think how the property market would be otherwise. Its not functioning for the benefit of the country currently and what of the social damage being caused as a unintended consequence of the policies put into place.
Totally agree. I have no problem with speculators but they should pay tax on capital gains in the same way we pay tax on our salaries.
Is it still possible to BDM Sodastream now that SnoopDogg is their brand ambassador?
Pressing issues of our time..
Though a frequent customer at a nice cafe, I wonder if the problem getting staff is that there are so many cafes in some places. Some may be struggling to cover costs. Is there a need for a food truck in Wanaka when there are likely to be several cafes already. Is accommodation hard to find there, which would deter some prospective chefs. Especially if the work is irregular.
There may be some places for single staff. But your better cooks do marry, just like folk in other professions. A family home in Queenstown would use up a salary on a par with Adrian Orr.
The tRump bot.
A coronavirus outbreak in Shanghai has been traced to two cargo handlers who cleaned a container that had just arrived from North America, Chinese health officials have said.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled at Shanghai’s Pudong International airport, one of the world’s busiest transport hubs, amid chaotic scenes caused by a sudden decision to test airport staff on Sunday.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/23/shanghai-covid-outbreak-traced-to-cargo-from-north-america
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/300166361/we-know-were-privileged-to-be-here-but-were-also-all-youve-got-right-now
An accurate response to the shit that poured from Nash's mouth the other day.
They are welcome to apply for citizenship like anyone else.
The skill criteria of what we need are published for all to see.
With growing unemployment of our own people, we should hire our own people for our own stuff.
So ad..let's say you are a kiwi working in oz…and a local labour party supporter said that..what would your thoughts/reactions be..?..would you need those words and immediately decamp to the airport..?..or would you dismiss those words as xenophobic/nativist..?
So do you agree with what Nash said about freedom campers? Your tone suggests you do, but you haven't addressed the point of Zoe Hannah's piece, which was a direct response to Nash's remarks. You could get a job in Judith Collins' comms team.
Spaceships owner James Rolleston – who owns a fleet of 600 campervans with 0 toilets onboard, had the best subliminal line on this:
"We have 15 years of operating that business and we've put a huge amount of focus into education about how to camp, where to camp, how to look after the environment. It's actually a complex issue… I think just cubbyholing a business like Spaceship rentals is a bit rough."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430923/tourism-providers-split-over-minister-s-freedom-camper-rhetoric
James Rolleston gains millions in rent rent by selling 600 "cubbyholes" for over 1200 people to live and work in. He should be treated as a landlord and subject to the same quality standards as a landlord.
He only gets away with being a slumlord by being classed a tourism operator.
In fact James Rolleston has duped tens of thousands of Zoe Hannah's into being willingly oppressed and enjoying the scenery while they shit all over it.
The Zoe Hannah's of this world should be stopped from entering at the border, and get in line for an actual sustainable job that is proven cannot be done by a New Zealander first.
'New zealand(er) first' ..there..!…fixed that for you…
I'm sure I saw you as an extra in The Grapes of Wrath
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOuAZLA_jWQ
It's good you've made your position clear. It's a shame it's such a fucked up position. Blinkin' heck. Keep that up and Judith Collins will be knocking on your door very soon. The You and Stu Show. Fuck me. Nothing to say to that.
Bob's not dead.
https://popculture.com/music/news/bob-dylan-is-not-dead-despite-msnbc-on-air-report/
Last time he toured here his performance was so bad that he may as well have been dead.
Tens of millions suffering and the tRump gang blocks access to hundreds of billions of unspent relief appropriations.
Cruelty is the point.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will put $455 billion in unspent Cares Act funding into an account that his presumed successor, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, will need authorization from Congress to use.
Mnuchin plans to place the money into the agency’s General Fund, a Treasury Department spokesperson said Tuesday. Moving the funds, the bulk of which had gone to support Federal Reserve emergency-lending facilities, will make it virtually impossible for Yellen, if confirmed by the Senate as Treasury secretary, to deploy on her own.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-24/mnuchin-to-put-455-billion-in-funds-out-of-yellen-s-easy-reach
THE FABLE
A DOG was lying upon a manger full of hay. An Ox, being hungry, came near, and offered to eat of the hay; but the envious, ill-natured cur, getting up and snarling at him, would not suffer him to touch it, Upon which the Ox, in the bitterness of his heart, said, A curse light on thee, for a malicious wretch, who wilt neither eat hay thyself, nor suffer others to do it.
THE APPLICATION
C. Whittingham (1814)
Envy is the most unnatural and unaccountable of all the passions. There is scarce any other emotion of the mind, however unreasonable, but may have something said in excuse for it; and there are many of these weaknesses of the soul, which, notwithstanding the wrongness and irregularity of them, swell the heart, while they last, with pleasure and gladness. But the envious man has no such apology as this to make; the stronger the passion is, the greater torment he endures, and subjects himself to a continual real pain, bv only wishing ill to others. Revenge is sweet, though cruel and inhuman; and though it sometimes thirsts even for blood, yet may be glutted and satiated. Avarice is something highly monstrous and absurd; yet, as it is a desire after riches, every little acquisition gives it pleasure; and to behold and feel the hoarded treasure, to a covetous man is a constant, uncloying enjoyment. But envy, which is an anxiety arising in our minds, upon our observing accomplishments in others, which we want ourselves, can never receive any true comfort, unless in a deluge, a conflagration, a plague, or some general calamity that should befal mankind: for, as long as there is a creature living, that enjoys its being happily within the envious man’s sphere, it will afford nourishment to his distempered mind: but such nourishment as will make him pine, and fret, and emaciate himself to nothing.
https://fablesofaesop.com/the-dog-in-the-manger.html
Fable: the new zealand labour party..
application: smear/cake it with neoliberal-incrementalism..
Something I saw last year and worth repeating this year.
Sorry can't locate the source.
"Black Friday Discounts Save 100% Stay at Home"
Lol
Too funny.
Possibly not troo funny.
Who knows. I hope it's incompetence.
TBF, if it turns out the app required identity details and despite years of being told to beware, users handed them over….
'Social Capital' hasn't been in the talk for a while. I'm just reading Bowling Alone – The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D Putnam. Big well backed with stats, good hypotheses, over 400 pages of good thinking. This updated version published 2000. Hopefully at a library near you – I had to request it.
There are heavy stats on how television has diminished communities and co-operative society. You can't goggle and boggle at the same time – it doesn't give you time to think before the next amazing scene, tragedy, kitten, whale, comes before you. Passivity is the name of the game, unless the game is watching sport!
Have you just come back from some sort of timewarp..?…where the deleterious outcomes from watching television is the moral-panic du jour..?…oh..!..what we'd give for those much simpler times back/again..eh..?
Almost spiteful Phillip Ure. Can you can the negative comments that I notice you specialise in amongst your so many contributions! I am looking for perspectives and solutions to our pressing problems in NZ and I don't need your superior opinions expressed in your sardonic way. They are not at all helpful.
If you leave doors wide open…I'm gonna walk right thru them…and that fretting over tv watching is such a door…you will be relieved to learn that the kids don't really watch much tv anymore….so your initial problem is no more…people now yearn for the times when families watched TV together…now everyone is in their own online world…but 'spiteful'..?..I really don't think so..
It's a good read. Tends to debunk the melting pot story too.
Clever, funny skit in the Spinoff about JAs 'carnng' persona. I have to say that I can't bear to listen to any of Jacinda's Facebook stints that appear on my wife's Facebook page these days. They seem so insincere.
That is very good…the last paragraph especially so…
Superb Koff…. thanks for that. It is only funny because it is (largely) true.